 Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and is intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised. For most people to believe in the supernatural, they need to live through a convincing ghost story. Plenty of people experience supernatural phenomena and become believers in the paranormal, and their tales might even make a believer of you. Believers and undead spirits share all sorts of real ghost stories that might convince people that the supernatural is real. Though most specter and poltergeist experiences tend to land somewhere between unsettling and utterly terrifying, a few people have ghost stories of benign spirits. It appears even the intentions of spirits, much like the entities themselves, remain outside the realm of human understanding. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Welcome, Weirdos! 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... It could be everyone's ultimate fear. Not death, but being buried before death. Buried alive. It's not just a trope of horror cinema and novels. It has truly happened on a few occasions and we'll hear stories from a few people who were buried alive but survived to tell the tale. The circumstances of wrestling coach John DuPont's bizarre crimes were portrayed in the critically acclaimed true crime drama film, Foxcatcher. Steve Carell was lauded for his performance as John DuPont and the film was nominated for five Academy Awards. But how true is the film compared to the actual events? A Weirdo family member relays a terrifying story of what is described as El Nahual in Mexico, a shapeshifter that her dad barely escaped from. But first, Reddit users share their own personal tales of how they became believers in ghosts and the paranormal. We'll begin with those stories. If you're new here, welcome to the show. While you're listening, be sure to check out WeirdDarkness.com for merchandise, my newsletter, to enter contests, to connect with me on social media. Plus, you can visit the Hope in the Darkness page if you're struggling with depression or dark thoughts. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com. Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness. Not me, but my mom had one. She's been a believer ever since. My grandpa passed away on Christmas, his favorite holiday, and after dealing with the shock, we started to figure out what to do with his things. He was a hardcore hoarder and had barns filled with crap that nobody had gone in for probably 15 years. So one night my mom is sleeping and dreams that she woke up to a knock at our back door. She goes out and sees my grandpa standing there. Shocked, she yells at him that it's 2.30 in the morning. He tells her that he loves her and that she needs to tell my grandma where the money is because, quote, you always got to tell Memo where the money is, she worries, unquote. My mom stands there in her dream confused and asks what he's talking about. He goes on to say that it's in the barn, under all this crap on the left hand side. My mom then wakes up, thinks it's really strange, but goes and looks in the barn anyway. And there it is, right where grandpa's that it was. Dozens of coffee cans filled with quarters and dollar bills. So weird. I like to think he was looking out for my grandma. My friends aunt and uncle live in a 100-plus-year-old house in a little German neighborhood in our city. They have always sworn that they have an elderly female ghost living in their home. But most of the family has never seen her, so they kind of half believed them. But never completely. Until last summer. They were having their kitchen remodeled and had some guys doing the floors. While I'm hanging with my friend, she gets a call from her aunt. Her aunt, who's at work, asks my friend if she can go over to the house and check on them because the guy's called and said something happened in the house and they will not go back in. My friend lives close and says, sure, she'll go over and check on them. So I go with her because it sounds odd or interesting. We go over there and these two redneck guys, one older and one young guy, are sitting on the front porch, both smoking cigarettes and looking a little shaky. My friend walks up, introduces herself and asks them what's up. And the old guy nervously says that they were in the kitchen ripping up the floor and it got freezing cold. Middle of the summer, mind you, and they both looked up to see this old woman standing in the kitchen, staring at them, very disapprovingly. They say she was kind of see-through and didn't have the bottom half of her legs. That's when they freaked out and ran out of the house. They tell my friend they will not go back in unless somebody from the family is with them. The description they gave of the woman was exactly the way her aunt and uncle had always described the ghost. Crazy. Significant other and I own an old farm for retirement. It's three miles off the blacktop down a winding tree-lined dirt road. After rounding a curve, you cross a small creek and there, just above the floodline, sits the tiny house, barn and outbuildings. The house was built before 1900 and the original owners raised 11 children there without running water or electricity. There is a spring out back. The family owned the property up until the 1970s. I was staying there alone shortly after we purchased the place because my mother, who lived nearby, was fresh out of the hospital and I was helping her get back on her feet. One afternoon I rushed into the house to get something before running back to mom's. I was in a terrific hurry and not thinking about anything but the task at hand. I rounded a corner into the bedroom and was hit with a feeling of a presence. I instantly knew someone or something wanted my attention. My heart pounded in my ears. I finally said, whoever you are, as long as you aren't evil, please show me what you have to tell me, but don't scare me. I gotta stay here alone. I'll try to help you if I can. The image of the back porch step came to mind. I noticed it right after we closed on the property. It was a plain square stone with beveled edges, identical to the turn of the century headstones in the lonesome graveyard a mile down the road. Fast forward one week. The previous owner stopped by. Before he could sit down, I blurred it out. Is that a tombstone by the back porch? The color drained from the previous owner's face and he collapsed onto the chair, responding, well, I don't know the exact spot, but there is a baby buried in the backyard. Seemed the youngest child of the original family, the 12th, died at birth or shortly after, and as was the tradition in the rural south, the child was placed close to the home. The tombstone had always been there. Nothing carved on it just flat. And the then owner decided it would make a great step and built a second door for the tiny back porch. He swore to me he had never moved it. We removed the second door and are making plans to have the family's name and dates that lived here carved on the stone so that when we leave no one makes this mistake again. Next to it, I planted daffodils to come up every year. The lights coming on and off in the house and at the same time in my truck parked outside had stopped and I no longer feel that presence that I believe was the baby's mother. She died in a nursing home many miles away and I fear she worried about her baby's unmarked grave. I moved into a place where the family next door and the last tenant of my apartment both died in their homes. One night I was in bed and looking at my phone. It suddenly got really cold like walk-in freezer cold. I thought that was weird for a hot summer night with a subpar air conditioner but I just pulled on some covers and kept reading. My phone then died. All right, that's weird I thought. I went to check my computer and shortly after browsing there it died too. What the hell? So I was sitting there suddenly aware that I didn't feel alone anymore. With covers pulled up to my eyeballs and no phone I was just looking around my room waiting for something to happen. The light turned on. Nope, I frantically fumbled from my phone and grabbed a bat under my bed because I was going to beat the ghost up I guess. I eventually calmed down enough to remember that people who believe in ghosts say that you can ask them to leave. I wore the shot I thought. Hey, so I work really early in the morning and I need to sleep and you're scaring me and I'd prefer it if you left. Sorry, no hard feelings. No more than five seconds later the light went off. I slept in the living room with my dog that night. When I was around 12 my family and I moved into a new house. Money was tight so we were renting it. It was a fairly nice place and newly built so I liked the sound of it. We arrived to start unpacking. I step inside to check the place out but it just seems off. I tell my mom and she tells me it's because it's a fairly new place and to get over it. So I do. On the first night I'm sitting in what was supposed to be the dining room playing games on my DS. I heard my little brother who's around six say, hey guys when I look over I see all of the cupboards are open. Now none of us could have reached the ones on top because they were way too high. My dad was the tallest at the time and he was five foot six. Somehow my sister manages to convince everyone that I'm playing a prank but I'm freaking out. But I somehow managed to convince myself it was just my sister trying to get me into trouble. After a few days we all begin to notice other weird things like shadows moving past windows and our puppy barking at one specific corner of the house. The shed in the backyard is a no go zone for everyone even our puppy hates it. One Saturday morning we wake up early while our mom is taking our dad to work. He didn't drive. He got into an accident when he was 18 and refused to ever drive after that. My sister and I are watching cartoons. Our little brother screams and runs to us crying saying that he saw a witch. We hide in our rooms and tell mom when she gets back. She asks my brother what he saw and he describes a black shadowy figure even though it was broad daylight. She obviously thinks that it was his imagination just a kid and she dismisses it. I'm scared to death by all these weird things and I asked my sister if I can sleep by her that night. She was doing karate so I felt safe by her and she agrees. But that night I wake up early. I look into the corner of the room and there it is just standing and staring. It scares the hell out of me and I run to my dad and he lets me sleep by him and my mom. After three months we move out. Just a few months ago mom and I got to talking about that house and she told me that she thinks it was haunted. I asked her why and she said something that scared her. She said I saw a black shadow in the corner of your room when you were a kid. It was just staring at you. I used to hide crosses in your room thinking it would scare it off. After doing some research mom found out that the owner's husband had died in that house. I was about 9 or 10. My father had just died a few months prior. My mom had left to go to work and I was home with my older sisters. I was feeling particularly happy that day and raced around the house laughing and playing. All of a sudden I heard my mom call my name so I went looking for her. When I got to one side of the house I heard her voice on the opposite end of the house so I ran back. This went on for a few minutes until I remembered seeing her leave for work. Suddenly the voice that was calling me became very nasty and creepy sounding. It still resembled my mom's voice but it was different like two people saying my name simultaneously. Then the voice sounded like it was in one of the back bedrooms so I ran to it and looked around. Then it called me again but this time it was coming from the closet. As I stood in front of the closet I again remembered seeing my mom leave and I started to get scared. That was when the voice stopped sounding like my mom and sounded downright evil. I don't know why I thought about opening the closet door but I had to see if my mom was in there or not. Right when I was reaching for the door another voice told me to leave the door alone and go back to the living room. I took off running and crying and told my sisters what just happened. They told my mom and a few days later a woman and a man came and put something under our house and around the doorways and told me to never answer or listen for that voice again. This past summer my grandmother suddenly passed away from a stroke. The day after I was sitting in my living room with my mother when the TV suddenly turned on and started blaring Japanese music on YouTube. She was Japanese. We checked the source and it turned out that it was the laptop connected to the television. It was turned off. We were all freaked out so we checked all of our YouTube account histories and nothing came up. A few days later my brother was looking for videos of her to play at the funeral and he found a video of her looking back and waving. The date stamp on the video was the exact date and time as when she passed away just a few years earlier. After the funeral all of my house's appliances started breaking down. Fire alarm, washer, fridge, microwave all within a few days. We got everything fixed up except the microwave which had to be taken to a specific factory for repairs. When my dad drove out there he realized that the factory was right beside my grandmother's grave. Around the same time my mom who always drove my grandmother around started noticing that her car's seat belt alarm, the one that goes off when you sit on the passenger seat without a seat belt, started going off even though my mom was driving alone. I have never been a believer in ghosts before but it oddly gives me a sense of comfort knowing my grandmother could still be with me. As a child I always had bizarre dreams where I had a friend named Michael. He was a young boy a few years older than me and we always played games and had fun. When I told my parents they didn't seem to care too much until I described Michael. Unbeknownst to me he had the same name and appearance as my uncle who died in a boating accident as a child. His death devastated my grandparents and so my family never displayed photos of him and that freaked my mom out. How did I know what he looked like or acted like if I had never met him or even seen a picture of him? After a couple of weeks my family decided to light some candles and prayed in an attempt to exercise him. When I went to bed that night I had a dream where a very serious Michael offered me some candy. It looked like a red jawbreaker. He kept insisting over and over that I eat a piece of the candy. Well seeing him so serious scared me after he had always been so happy and playful so I declined his offers. The last thing I remember before waking up was seeing how sad he was and that was the last time I saw Michael in my dreams. When I told my mom she looked relieved and told me that that was him trying to take over your body. Well no one has talked about it in about 15 years so I would have to ask my mom about the story again. I was probably 7 or 8 and my parents were throwing a big summer party for my dad's birthday. All the adults were on the deck or inside so as kids, maybe 8 or so of us between the ages of 5 and 12, decided to play Ghost in the Graveyard. Our yard was narrow but very long with a lot of grass on the left and a raised deck that spanned the whole right side of the yard. For a short kid you could easily crouch under and walk around the deck so it made for some awesome hiding spots. I was at the very back of the yard and hiding next to the shed in the pitch dark. I had a little flashlight but this was my yard so I knew every inch of it and was comfortable even in the dark. I could hear the other kids on the side of the yard that was all grass but from where I was I was looking directly at the underside of the deck that went around our above ground pool. I heard a noise and looked over to see if anybody was coming from under the deck and I remember suddenly freezing in place. From under the deck this thing came forward. It was all black. Just this dense black shadow, the size of a huge man, definitely not a kid and there was no way an adult could have crawled the whole length of the deck to the back of the yard with so little noise. It looked like it was made of smoke and it moved weirdly like it was unfolding. I was terrified. All I could do was stare and hear my blood pounding in my ears. I stood up all the way and it looked massive. The only way I could describe it was like a silhouette of the Hulk. I swear it stood for a moment and then walked through the chain link fence into my neighbor's yard and then blended into the trees. I started crying, ran for it, found my best friend Adam and just wailed. He was so confused and just brought me inside to my mom. I was so scared to go outside for a few months after that and I never went back under the deck again. We moved from that house when I was 11, I'm 28 now, but I can still clearly see that thing in my mind. I've seen other things a few times since, but that was the first time and that was the scariest. I work in a house built in the 18th century, owned by a signer of the Declaration of Independence in fact, and I've had plenty of encounters there. Just yesterday as I was walking up to the second floor to turn out lights, I heard someone sigh really loud and could feel the breath on my shoulder. I've heard conversations occurring and footsteps while I've been the only one in the house, doors that are completely shut will open by themselves. Thankfully, everything that I've experienced has been benign, but it's still weird. I've always believed, but living in my first one-bedroom apartment confirmed there is paranormal stuff in this world that defies explanation. This is one of many events that took place there. My boyfriend, now husband, was sleeping beside me. My bare feet were sticking out of the blankets and something had a hold of my right foot just under my big toe, not painfully just gently holding on. I did not look down, I pulled the covers over my head, freaked me all the hell out and lasted a good five minutes before whatever it was let go. I didn't say anything to my boyfriend. Two nights later, it happened again. This time I was dead asleep and the feeling woke me up. Again, I freaked out, but I looked down to my feet and nothing was there. It was still gripping my foot though, so I whispered, hey, let go of that please. A few seconds later, it let go. The next day, I told my boyfriend who kind of laughed it off. He said if it grabs my foot again, wake him up. So a week later, when it got holding my foot again, I woke him up. He looked down and shrugged because he didn't see anything, but I could tell that he was bugged out a little. A few days later, he woke me up in the middle of the night, shaking like a leaf. He whispered, honey, it's got my foot. Someone allegedly killed themselves in our parking lot at work. Ever since they did some major reconstruction around five years ago, plenty of employees have told stories about odd or weird things happening to them. We also believe that the ghost only really messes with or picks on the girls and the men who allegedly killed himself in the parking lot did so because of a woman, and he seems to really enjoy picking on me. Very few of the guys believe any of it because only one or two of the guys have experienced anything. Personally, I've had things fall right in front of me when they were hanging up and that are heavy or difficult to move in the first place. We constantly hear footsteps and knocking, and sometimes when we're cleaning our cleaning supplies get knocked over or broken when we're not even near them. One night, I finally proved it to my manager. As I closed, the door behind me kept popping open. It was terrifying and my manager who had a background in construction couldn't find anything wrong with the hinges or closures. Furthermore, when you would touch the door, it felt like somebody was pushing back. Little kids have come out asking about the man who was in there with them while they played or asked me to tell the man to stop pushing them around. A little girl insisted you could see the man standing on the ramp, but no one was there that I could see. My best friend at work and I finally decided to go into the room with the most activity. When it was dark, we worked in black lights and turned off all the extra noises and things that could interfere. We recorded audio and in the first one we silently walked through the room while recording and heard nothing. When you play it back, in the first three seconds, it sounds like someone whispers, the camera. In another recording, my co-worker asked if somebody was in there to make a knocking noise. It was dead silent for almost 30 seconds and then a clear knock came through one of the walls. For the last recording we did, my co-worker and I stayed together and left her phone upstairs recording while we went downstairs with my phone. She asked if it was the ghost of the man who killed himself and there were loud noises from one side of the room and we hauled ass, leaving her phone in the empty room recording. We left it there. Twenty minutes later we retrieved it. We listened back to it and there were noises like footsteps, feet shuffling, knocking and at one point it even sounds like something falling all during the time when nobody had been in the room. My father's dad committed suicide in 1988. I never got to know my grandpa since I was born years later. There was a dream I had that I'll never forget though. Me and my grandfather were hanging out, getting to know one another, talking, laughing and I was so happy to see him. I woke up in tears and feeling like I was missing something and the weird part is I look just like him even down to the fact that we are both or were both left handed. My whole life I have been longing for him in that relationship because I feel like I embody him in some way and I feel like I'm living the life he wanted but never had. I felt like he's the best friend that I never got to know and I love him even though we never met in real life. I feel him in me though and from what my dad has told me about him which wasn't a lot he could have been somebody I would relate to the most out of my entire small family. When I was younger I had an invisible friend that my family and people knew about and I called him Tom. For some reason between the ages of six and ten I could just imagine what future events might be like for people I knew, my mom, dad, siblings. Pretty soon I could tell people exactly where they would be standing at the same time the next day. All of this occurred while I played with my friend Tom who was always smarter and a step or two ahead of me. It's hard to explain. Looking back on those years now though I know that there was something unnatural about what was happening. My downstairs neighbor passed away a year or two ago. Freaky detail is that he and my goldfish had the same name. Kor, a classic Dutch name. The morning I woke up to find Kor the fish floating belly up was the same day my neighbor Kor passed away. Kor had this decorative long sword on his wall. After his passing his wife moved out and put the sword in the trash so I took it out and hung it on my wall. From then onward doors have been opening or closing and I hear footsteps at night and I always say thanks Kor if I opened door was closed which always freaked out my friends and family. Anyway weirdest thing is that Kor liked to turn on the tap in the bathroom sink. Really annoying because I would hear the water have to get up turn the water off and then go back to sleep. One night it happened twice. The second time I had to get out of bed I was kind of pissed at Kor and while walking to the bathroom I said damn it Kor I'm cool with you messing with the doors but this water crap is really annoying. Please cut it out or I'm going to have to start charging your rent. Me talking in the middle of the night I woke up my stoner roommate who asked what was up. I told him about Kor the bro ghost or broast as I called him and he just looked at me and said that when he smoked weed and goes to sleep stoned he sleep walks a lot and is probably the one leaving the tap open and getting a glass of water in the night. When I was about six or seven I had to go to the bathroom in the middle of class. I went to a really old elementary school and the bathrooms were in the corner of the basement which was terrifying already as a small child. I walked into the bathroom and the first stall wouldn't open. I peeked under and there weren't any feet so I knew nobody was in there. I went in to want a few stalls down, went to the bathroom and left the stall to wash my hands. When I was washing my hands I heard the first stall door rattling behind me. I looked up in the mirror and there was a really pale girl behind me. She was probably nine or ten all in white and she said softly help me. I turned around instantly but no one was there. I went over to the stall door and tried to push it open. It opened easily and a bracelet fell to the floor. I ran out of that bathroom and never went back in again. Multiple reports of an elderly female around the house. Serious skeptics were turned into believers. One night we began discussing it around the kitchen table. My grandfather, who had been drinking all night, had a tumbler of vodka in front of him with some ice cubes in it. He's not filled it or taken a drink for a few minutes. When we begin speaking of Francis the Ghost, he proclaims it all to be a bunch of bull. Loudly, there's no ghost named Francis here. He didn't quite yell, just set it with conviction. His glass shattered, not broke, not cracked, shattered as if it had been slammed down on something. That was the last weird occurrence and no sighting since then. I'm convinced Francis was unaware of her purgatory-like state and his yell in her presence shook her from that fog and she was able to move on. For as long as I can remember, I've had hypnagogic hallucinations. That being said, I can distinctly tell where they end and reality begins. So, I've never truly been frightened or disturbed by them as I know they are merely hallucinations. A few years ago, my sister and I were spending the weekend at my uncle's house in Idaho. While my sister slept in the living room, I slept in the guest bedroom. I woke up with my eyes still closed and I opened them looking up at the ceiling. I looked towards the door beyond my feet and I saw a man in his 60s with long gray hair and a bushy beard dressed in plaid, overalls and a straw cowboy hat. He simply stood there with a hand on the door handle, staring at me sideways, wide-eyed with a tight-lipped grin. Terrified like never before, I closed my eyes and hollered for my sister at the top of my lungs. After a few seconds, I opened my eyes and the man was gone. I know when I have hypnagogic hallucinations and this was nothing of the sort. I was 12 and woke up in the middle of the night. My door, which was usually closed at night, was wide open and I could feel somebody glaring at me. I looked up to see a tall man right outside my room, looking in towards me. He seemed really angry and would just keep staring. Although my dad was short, I just assumed it was him because he was the only other male in our house. I called out and asked him what was wrong, but there was no response. It only took me a while to notice that something was seriously wrong and I got so scared I hit under the covers, praying that the figure would go away. I was crying and shaking under my blankets when I started to feel as if he wasn't looking at me anymore. I looked out from my covers and he was right in my face. Just kidding, the figure was nowhere to be found. So I ran out of bed, locked the door and shoved my chair under the handle. I guess I fell asleep somehow after that terrifying incident because I woke up to my mom pounding on my door screaming for me to let her in. I was scolded for locking the door like that. Just to check, I asked my dad why he was staring at me in the middle of the night. He had no idea what I was talking about. So I tried to chalk it up as either my dad's sleepwalking, which he had never done in his life, or I was dreaming and somehow locked the door and shoved the chair up in my sleep, or someone else came into our house but didn't steal anything. Yet something just told me that it wasn't any of the above and I had an encounter with a ghost. I walked past my bedroom door once and the thing slammed shut. No air conditioning was on and the doors and windows were closed so it wasn't wind. I've walked past it plenty of times and my movement never closed it. I was only wearing socks so I'm pretty sure I'd know if I accidentally kicked it. Plus it closed from the inside. Up next, true stories of people being buried alive and living to tell about it. The truth behind the movie The Foxcatcher and a story from a Weirdo family member. All of this and more when Weird Darkness returns. Hey Weirdos, how would you like to receive a box full of scary stuff in the mail full of fear inducing objects like creepy collectibles, true crime themed accessories, frightening flair, blood curdling books, terrifying trinkets, eerie e-downloads and more, absolutely free. Every other month I'm filming an unboxing video of the newest creepy crate that I get in the mail, then I'm boxing it all back up and giving it away by random drawing to someone subscribed to the Weird Darkness email newsletter. And before I close up the box for good, I might toss in a couple of Weird Darkness goodies as well for good measure. You can keep the creepy crate for yourself or give it away to a Weirdo friend or family member. To watch my latest creepy crate unboxing video and to register to win a creepy crate of your own for free, visit WeirdDarkness.com slash creepy crate. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash creepy crate. Fair warning, even if you're not claustrophobic or taphophobic, what follows might have you squirming. Mistaken for dead, many people have been entombed prematurely only to awaken to a horrifying reality. There are many tales of people being accidentally buried alive who are discovered all too late. But fortunately, a few did survive the horrifying ordeal and can now tell us their experience of how they made it through and found themselves back in the world of the living. Although in some cases, just barely. 19-year-old Angelo Hayes was believed to have died in a motorcycle accident in 1937 in France. Hayes was thrown from his bike into a brick wall, head first. After a suspicious insurance agent came to inquire about the policy Hayes' father had taken out on his son, the teenager was exhumed two days after his burial. He was still alive, having slipped into a coma. As his body required less oxygen in this state, Hayes managed to survive the ordeal. After rehabilitation, Hayes lived to tell the tale of his live burial. He became a celebrity throughout France and also invented a security coffin complete with a radio transmitter, food locker, library and chemical toilet, just in case anyone found themselves in his same predicament. In 2015, Natalia Pasternak and a friend were walking in the woods of Siberia when they were attacked by a bear. She and her friend fought back but the huge bear got the best of Pasternak, mauling her and knocking her unconscious. Her friend went for help and flagged down police. The bear, thinking she was dead, buried Pasternak with leaves and dirt. He apparently planned on eating her later. The bear was killed and Pasternak went through a long recovery. The attack gave her a new lease on life. She captioned a picture on social media, How Beautiful Life Is. British magician Anthony Britten was hoping to pull off an amazing feat like the great Harry Houdini, but instead nearly died after being buried alive. Britten wore handcuffs and was buried under loose dirt with the intent of freeing himself from the six-foot grave. Although he spent 14 months preparing for the stunt, Britten wasn't prepared for the actual weight of the dirt, nor the fact that his arm would become trapped. As the time ticked by, his crew became alarmed and quickly unearthed the magician. I almost died, he said. I was just seconds away from death. It was scary. The pressure of the soil was crushing around me. Even when I found an air pocket, when I exhaled, the soil around me was crushing me even more. I could feel myself losing consciousness and there was nothing I could do about it. I was pretty much dying, Britten said. A woman was visiting the family plot in 2013 in a small town in Brazil when she saw a man clawing his way out of a grave. His head and hands were free, but he was struggling to pull himself out. The woman brought rescue workers to free the man who turned out to be an employee at City Hall. The man has no memory of being buried alive, though authorities said he was badly beaten before being buried. The theory is that the man's attackers, believing him to be dead, buried him in the cemetery to expose of his body. In 1968, Mike Meany set out to break the world record for entombment 45 days set by American Digger O'Dell. Meany allowed himself to be buried in a coffin with holes for air, access to food and water, and a telephone. The barman talked to boxer Joe Lewis while he was underground. After 61 days, Meany emerged weakened but in good health otherwise, sporting sunglasses as the coffin lid was pulled away. There were many sick and dying among the Irish during the potato famine of 1845 to 1852. Tom Garen was mistaken for dead and was buried in a mass grave. There are varying reports of what actually happened to Garen, but one account states that when the Gravedigger hit his legs with a spade, the boy cried out in pain. Although the boy survived, he was handicapped for life. Garen struggled financially as an adult but was a cheerful person and somewhat of a poet. He even wrote a poem to the Irish government asking for new shoes. A young woman, Philomila Genetri was taken ill with cholera in 1867. She was believed to have died, was given her last rites, and buried six hours later. As the Gravediggers were finishing up, they heard faint knocking from inside. They quickly dug her up and could see that Genetri was still alive. She stayed alive for a day but then passed away either due to her illness or the damage caused by being buried alive. Her ordeal inspired the poem The Ceiling by A Long, written in March 2016. The view swallows me whole. From down here it's cold. I look up into the light, outlining my hands with darkness as I reach past my station and my level and my class and my knowing into tomorrow, pushing a little further. The sticky bits of yesterday's dreams clung to my skin, broken stems of possibilities, scrape and bleed past more dusty realities, ineffable, straining my arms until they were sore, further still. To an outsider, John DuPont looked like he had it all. An heir to the DuPont Chemical and Automotive Fortune, DuPont was a multi-millionaire who busied himself by supporting his greatest passion, wrestling. DuPont poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the sport, donating to universities and even building a wrestling facility named Foxcatcher on his estate where he coached Olympic hopefuls. The sports enthusiast had a life that most would envy, money to burn, a gorgeous home, and fervent admiration from people who appreciated his generosity. But on January 26, 1996, DuPont shocked the world when he murdered his friend and fellow wrestling coach Dave Schultz in cold blood. At the time of his death, Dave Schultz had been living on the DuPont estate for about seven years. DuPont had offered Dave an obscene amount of money and a place to live rent-free if he would help coach Team Foxcatcher, the wrestlers that trained a DuPont's private facility. Dave and younger brother Mark were the only American brothers to win gold medals at both the World Championships and the Olympics, bringing a certain amount of prestige to DuPont's team. DuPont and Mark can also work together, but they went their separate ways in 1988. Mark later claimed that he left because DuPont was unstable and controlling, but Dave couldn't pass up such a lucrative offer, even if it was for a job that had so annoyed his younger brother. It was a decision that would ultimately bring about his untimely death and haunt his family for years to come. Though DuPont initially bought the elder Schultz's allegiance, the two actually became friends, making Dave's later murder all the more shocking. On January 26, 1996, DuPont drove up to Dave's house and parked in his driveway. With no idea of the fate that was in store for him, Dave approached the vehicle. DuPont said, you have a problem with me? And that he pulled a gun out and shot Dave three times at point blank range. Dave's wife and DuPont security guard were present and witnessed the crime, although there was nothing to be done to save Dave. Dave died in his wife's arms at the scene at the age of 36. He left behind two children. John DuPont fled back to his mansion where he barricaded himself in the home's bomb shelter for two days. The estate was quickly surrounded by hundreds of police officers and SWAT team members. DuPont refused to leave, despite several back-and-forth phone calls with authorities who tried to persuade him to give himself up. Finally, the standoff ended when police had the idea to turn John's heating system off. Bothered by the cold, DuPont left the house to attempt to fix the boiler and was quickly captured by police. Why would DuPont kill a friend for no apparent reason in front of several witnesses? Authorities have never discovered a motive for DuPont's heinous act, making this crime truly mind-boggling. Many of the people in his life expressed shock at this sudden plunge into violence, including Joy Hanson-Loytener, a triathlete who was close to DuPont. He had helped her get through a difficult period in her life and her fiance had even asked DuPont, rather than Loytener's father, for permission to pop the question. With my family and friends, John gave me a new lease on life. He gave more than money. He gave himself emotionally. There is no way John in his right mind would have killed Dave. In fact, the general consensus is that DuPont was not in his right mind and was likely suffering from mental health issues that were never treated. Though his initial insanity defense was thrown out, in DuPont's 1997 trial, the jury found the killer guilty but mentally ill, sentencing him to 13-30 years of incarceration. Hindsight is 2020. Though no one suspected DuPont would be capable of murder, he did display erratic behavior for years before Dave Schultz's murder. In fact, his lavish donations may have even prompted people to turn a blind eye to his deteriorating mental health for fear that he would withdraw financial support. Glenn Goodman, a former wrestler at Foxcatcher, discussed his guilt over the matter and even went so far as to say, I feel the whole wrestling community has prostituted ourselves. In the weeks and months leading up to the murder that he committed, DuPont had placed infrared cameras in his house to detect ghosts and smoke of fears that the walls were moving, that Nazis were out to get him, and that he would travel back in time through the clock on his treadmill. Signs of DuPont's instability may have gone back even farther. In 1983, he was married for just a few short months. In that time, his wife alleged that on different occasions, he had expressed paranoia that she would be kidnapped, pointed a gun at her head, accused her of being a Russian spy, and tried to shove her in the fireplace. The circumstances of John DuPont's bizarre crime were portrayed in the critically acclaimed true crime drama, Foxcatcher. The films starring Steve Carell, Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo, they were all lauded for their performances as John, Mark and Dave respectively. Directed by Bennett Miller, who also earned accolades for directing Capote and Moneyball, the film was nominated for five Oscars. While the movie is true to life in most ways, it does occasionally depart from real-life events. At one point, Mark Schultz slammed the film when he realized that some scenes could be interpreted as suggestions of a sexual relationship between him and DuPont, which he declared was utter fiction. However, he later recanted his criticism, calling Foxcatcher a miracle. In 2010, DuPont died in prison at the age of 72. He had been incarcerated for nearly 14 years. Though Dave's murderer was now dead, the Schultz family didn't exactly rejoice. Philip Schultz, Dave's father said, John DuPont died for me the day he took my son's life, so the fact that he's officially gone is almost a moot point. I did forgive the man for what he did. I never forgave the act. Committed to his passion until the day he died, John DuPont was buried in his team Foxcatcher, wrestling singlet. This is actually a story my dad told me. It happened to him when he was a kid. My dad lived in a small town in Mexico. He was nine years old at the time, and because my grandfather was up here in Arizona, he had to get a job to help put food on the table. The year was 1957. He was walking back home. The distance from the market he helped at and his house were approximately about three miles. He had to walk through an avocado grove and then cross a dirt road to get to his house. It was late fall, and it got dark pretty early, so he was heading home around 8pm and it was already very dark. As he made his way through the grove, he started feeling pretty uneasy. It was like someone was watching him. He felt a bit better when he came to the halfway point of the avocado grove. It was marked with a post that was lit up with a light bulb. It was a dim light, but a light nonetheless. Once he walked past it, though, that feeling returned. He started whistling to get his mind off the fact that he was scared. A few minutes passed, and he felt like something rubbed up on his leg. There was just enough light for him to be able to see it was a medium-sized dog. At least that is what he thought it was. When he came to the side of the dirt road, a car happened to be driving past. He looked down when what he thought was a dog this whole time led out a blood-curdling screech and what he saw terrified him. This thing stood up on two legs. It was covered in black hair and it had red eyes. My dad said he ran as fast as his skinny little legs could carry him. He told his mother all about it. About a week after he experienced that, the local authorities were called to investigate the whereabouts of the avocado grove's owner's daughter. Her body was found right where my dad said he walked past the light post. She was clutching a rosary, and they determined she had died of a fright-induced heart attack. Apparently, this thing sounds like what the Indigenous people of Mexico called El Nahual. It is a dark entity, a shapeshifter that usually appears in the form of a dog. 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. WeirdDarkness.com is also where you can find all of my social media, listen to free audiobooks I've narrated, visit the store for Weird Darkness t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, phone cases and more merchandise. Sign up for monthly contests, find other podcasts that I host like Retro Radio, Old Time Radio in the Dark, Micro Terrorist, Scary Stories for Kids, The Church of the Undead and more. WeirdDarkness.com is also where you can find the Hope in the Darkness page if you or someone you know is struggling with depression or dark thoughts. Also on the website, if you have a true paranormal or creepy tale to tell, you can click on Tell Your Story. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com. 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. How I Came to Believe was written by Mick Jacobs. I Was Buried Alive was written by Lisa Wall. The real story behind the movie Foxcatcher was written by Mackenzie Stewart, and Elle Newall in The Avocado Grove was submitted anonymously by a Weirdo family member. Weird Darkness is a production and trademark of Marlar House Productions' copyright Weird Darkness. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Mark 836. And a final thought, don't worry about failures. Worry about the chances you miss when you don't even try. Jack Canfield. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness. Our July Weirdo Watch Party is Friday, July 14th with a movie presented by Graveyard Cinema with Mad Marty and Horrible Henry as they present the 1942 creeper The Corpse Vanishes, starring horror legend Bella Legosi. In the film, Legosi plays a scientist who, aided by an old hag and her two sons, kills virginal brides, steals their bodies, and extracts fluid to inject into his ancient wife in order to keep her alive and young. Gee, almost like a vampire, Bella. Nice typecasting. From the movie poster says, kidnapped brides are the victims of his terror. Prepare to shudder when you see the strange practices of this doctor who sacrificed beautiful women for the sake of a mad love. The Weirdo Watch Party is always free to watch online with everybody, so grab your popcorn, candy, and soda and jump into the fun and even get involved in a live chat as we watch the movie. It's The Corpse Vanishes, starring Bella Legosi Friday, July 14th. The movie starts at 5.30 p.m. Pacific, 6.30 p.m. Mountain, 7.30 p.m. Central, 8.30 p.m. Eastern. See a trailer for the film and invite your friends to watch along with you on the Weirdo Watch Party page at WeirdDarkness.com and we'll see you on Friday, July 14th or The Corpse Vanishes. When Salem Roanoke took a job near his family's new home as a hired hand in the Texas Hill Country, he anticipated learning the rancher's trade, but a series of strange events, shocking murders, and unholy revelations divert him down another path. This terrifying trajectory puts him directly into the middle of a struggle between monsters, magic, and men. Armed and backed by a militia of ranchers, Salem attempts to combat the creeping tide of evil that threatens to engulf his new home and destroy the people most important to him. Will Salem manage to save his home or have his actions condemn everyone he hopes to save? The Witch Trials, a summer of wolves and season of the witch by SR Roanoke, available in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. Look for The Witch Trials by SR Roanoke on Amazon or find it on the audiobooks page at WeirdDarkness.com. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash audiobooks.