 Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and is intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised. Welcome Weirdos, I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained. Coming up in this episode Weirdo family member Mona Thompson tells about the scary experience she had in a house on a hill. If you are planning to visit the beautiful Banff Hotel in the Canadian Rockies, you might discover that the rumor is true. It is very much haunted. Does the ghost of a shoemaker continue to reside in Winston-Salem, North Carolina? But first, when Roland T. Owen signed in to run a room at the hotel president in Kansas City on the afternoon of January 2, 1935, it began a chain of strange and bizarre events and behavior that baffle mystery and crime enthusiasts even today. We begin with that story. While listening, be sure to check out the Weird Darkness website. At WeirdDarkness.com you can sign up for the newsletter to win monthly prizes, find paranormal and horror audiobooks I've narrated, watch old horror movies for free, listen to my other podcast, The Church of the Undead. Plus, you can visit the Hope in the Darkness page if you are 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. In Kansas City, Missouri, on the afternoon of January 2, 1935, a man walked into the hotel president and asked for a room several floors up. He carried no luggage. He signed the register as Roland T. Owen of Los Angeles and paid for one day's stay. He was described as a tall, husky young man with a cauliflower ear and a large scar on the side of his head. He was given room 1046. On the way to his room, Owen told the bellboy Randolph-Propst that he had originally thought to check in to the Mulebach Hotel but was put off by the high price of $5 a night. When they reached 1046, Owen took a comb, brush, and toothpaste out of his coat pocket and placed them in the bathroom. Then the pair went back out in the hall where the bellboy locked the door. He gave Owen the key after which the new guests left the hotel and the bellboy returned to his usual duties. Later that day, a maid went to clean 1046. Owen was inside the room. He allowed her in, telling her to leave the door unlocked as he was shortly expecting a friend. She noticed that the shades were tightly drawn with only one small lamp to provide illumination. She later told police that Owen seemed nervous, even afraid. While she cleaned up, Owen put on his coat and left, reminding the maid not to lock the door. Around 4pm, the maid returned to 1046 with fresh towels. The door was still unlocked and the room still eerily dim. Now Owen was lying on the bed, fully dressed. She saw a note on the desk that read, Don, I will be back in 15 minutes. Wait. The next we know of Owen's movements came at about 1030 the next morning, when the maid came to clean his room. She unlocked the door with a pass key, something she could only do if the door had been locked from the outside. When she entered, she was a bit unnerved to see Owen sitting silently in a chair, staring into the darkness. This awkward moment was broken by the ringing of the phone. Owen answered it. After listening for a moment, he said, No, Don, I don't want to eat. I am not hungry. I just had breakfast. Then he hung up. For some reason, he began interrogating the maid about the president hotel and her duties there. He repeated his complaint about the high rates at the mulebok. The maid finished tidying the room, took the used towels and left, no doubt happy to leave this strange guest. That afternoon, she again went to 1046 with clean towels. Outside the door, she heard two men talking. She knocked and explained why she was there. An unfamiliar voice responded, gruffly, that they didn't need any towels. The maid shrugged to herself and left. Later that day, a Jean Owen, no relation to Roland, registered at the president and was given room 1048. She did not have a peaceful night. She was continually bothered by the loud sounds of several male and female voices arguing violently in the adjoining room. Mrs. Owen later heard a scuffling and a gasping sound which at the time she assumed was snoring. She debated calling the desk clerk but unfortunately decided against it. Charles Blocker, the graveyard shift elevator operator at the hotel, also noticed unusual activity that night. There was what he assumed was a particularly noisy party in room 1055. Sometime after midnight, he took a woman to the 10th floor. She was looking for room 1026. He had seen her around the president numerous times. She was, as he put it discreetly, a woman who frequents the hotel with different men in different rooms. A few minutes later, he was signaled to return to the 10th floor. The woman was concerned because the man who had arranged to meet her there was nowhere to be found. Being unable to help her, Blocker went back downstairs. About half an hour later, the woman summoned him again to take her down to the lobby. About an hour later, she returned to the elevator with a man. Blocker took them to the 9th floor. Around 4 a.m., the woman left the hotel, followed about 15 minutes later by the man. The couple was never identified and it's unknown what, if anything, they had to do with Owen or the room 1046. At about 11 p.m. that same night, a city worker named Robert Lane was driving on a downtown street when he saw a man running down the sidewalk. He was puzzled to see that on this winter night, the stranger was wearing only pants and an undershirt. The man waved Lane down thinking he was a taxi driver. When he saw his mistake, he apologized and asked if Lane could take him someplace where he could get a cab. Lane agreed, commenting, You look as if you've been in it bad. The man nodded and growled, I'll kill that expletive, discreetly deleted in newspaper reports tomorrow. Lane noticed his passenger had a wound on his arm. When they reached their destination, the man thanked Lane, then exited the car and hailed a cab. Lane drove off having no idea that he had just played a minor role in one of his city's weirdest murder mysteries. Around 7 a.m. the next morning, the president's telephone operator noticed that the phone in room 1046 was off the hook. After three hours had passed without anyone placing the phone in his cradle, she sent Randolph Propst to tell whoever was there to hang up. The bellboy found the door locked with a don't disturb sign out. When he knocked, after a moment he heard a voice tell him to come in. When he tried the door, he found it was still locked. He knocked again, only to have the voice tell him to turn on the lights. After a couple more minutes of fruitless knocking, Propst finally yelled, Put the phone back on the hook! and left, shaking his head at what he assumed was their crazy drunken guest. An hour and a half later, the operator saw the phone was still on hook. She sent another bellboy, Harold Pike, up to deal with the problem. Pike found 1046 still locked. He used a pass key to open the door, showing that it had again been locked from the outside. In the dimness, he was able to make out that Owen was lying on the bed naked. The telephone stand had been knocked down and the phone was on the ground. The bellboy put the stand upright and replaced the phone. Like Propst, he assumed their guest was merely drunk. He left without bothering to check Owen's condition more closely. Shortly before 11 am, another telephone operator noticed that the phone in 1046 was, again, off the hook. Once again, Propst was sent up to the room. He found the don't disturb sign still on the door. After his knocks got no response, he opened the door with his pass key and walked inside. The bellboy found something far worse than mere intoxication. Owen, still naked, was crouched on the floor, holding his bloody head in his hands. When Propst turned on the light, he saw more blood on the walls and in the bathroom. The frightened bellboy rushed out and told the assistant manager who summoned the police. The officers found that about six or seven hours earlier, someone had done dreadful things to Roland Owen. He had been tied up and repeatedly stabbed. His skull was fractured from several savage blows. His neck was bruised, suggesting he'd been strangled. Blood was everywhere. This small hotel room had been turned into a torture chamber. When questioned about what had happened, the semi-conscious Owen only muttered, I fell against the bathtub. A search of the room found more strangeness. There was not a single stitch of clothing anywhere in 1046. The room's standard soap, shampoo and towels were also gone. All they found was a label from a necktie, an unsmoked cigarette, four bloody fingerprints on a lampshade, and a hairpin. There was also no sign of the cords which must have been used to bind Owen or the weapon that stabbed him. A hotel employee reported that several hours before Owen was found, he had seen a man and a woman leave the president hurriedly. There was no doubt that in the words of one of the detectives, someone else is mixed up in this. While Owen was being rushed to the hospital, he fell into a coma. He died later that night. Meanwhile, investigators were quickly realizing that this was no ordinary murder. Los Angeles police found no record of any Roland T. Owen, which led to the assumption that the victim had checked in using a pseudonym. An anonymous woman phoned police the night of Owen's death, saying that she thought the dead man lived in Clinton, Missouri. Owen's body was taken to a funeral home, where he was publicly displayed in the hope that someone could recognize him. Among the visitors was Robert Lane, who identified him as the peculiar man he had seen on the night of January 3rd. Several bartenders testified seeing a man matching Owen's description in the company of two women. Police also discovered that the night before Owen registered at the president's hotel, a man matching his description had briefly stayed at the mulebok, giving his name as Eugene K. Scott of Los Angeles. Unsurprisingly, no trace of anyone by that name could be found either. Earlier, Owen or Scott had stayed at yet another Kansas City hotel, the St. Regis, in the company of a man who was never identified. They were having no more luck with tracing the man named Don that Owen had talked to during his stay at the president. Was he the man who was there with the prostitute? Was he the strange voice who had told the maid not to bother bringing in fresh towels? Was Don the man Owen had told Lane he wanted to kill? Was Don the man who had been at the St. Regis with him? All excellent questions which were fated never to be answered. Nine days after Owen died, a wrestling promoter named Tony Bernardi identified the dead man as someone who had visited him several weeks earlier to sign up for wrestling matches. Bernardi said the man gave his name as Cecil Werner. While all of this established that Roland Owen was a very peculiar man, none of it was the slightest help in discovering his real identity, let alone the name of his killer. The woman's hairpin found in his room, plus the angry male and female voices Gene Owen had heard, led to talk that the murder stemmed from a love triangle, but that theory remained mere speculation. Police were becoming resigned to writing off his death as one of the unsolved mysteries, and by the beginning of March, preparations were made to bury the John Doe in an unmarked grave. However, before Owen could be brought to the city's potters field, the head of the funeral home in charge of the body received an anonymous phone call. The man asked that the burial be delayed until money could be sent to cover the costs of a decent internment. The caller claimed that Roland T. Owen was the dead man's real name, and that Owen had been engaged to the caller's sister. The funeral director said that the mysterious benefactor told him that Owen just got into a jam. He added that the police are on the wrong track. Shortly afterward, the cash arrived via special delivery mail, again, anonymously, and Owen was finally buried in Memorial Park Cemetery. No one attended the funeral other than a handful of detectives. More money was sent with equal mysteriousness to a local florist to pay for a bouquet of roses for the grave. It was accompanied by a card to be placed with the flowers. It read, Love Forever, signed Louise. The Owen case drifted into obscurity until late 1936 when a woman named Eleanor Ogletree learned of an account of the murder given in the magazine American Weekly. She thought the description given of Owen matched that of her missing brother, Artemis. The Ogletrees had not seen him since he left his home in Birmingham, Alabama, in April 1934 to go out and see the country. The last his mother Ruby had heard from him were three brief typewritten letters. The first of these notes arrived in the spring of 1935, several months after Owen died. Mrs. Ogletree later said she was suspicious of these letters from the start as her son did not know how to type. The last letter said he was sailing for Europe. Several months after the last letter she received a phone call from a man calling himself Jordan. Jordan said that Artemis had saved his life in Egypt and that her son had married a wealthy Cairo woman. When Mrs. Ogletree was shown a photo of Owen she immediately recognized the dead man as her missing son. He was only 17 when he died. The dead man had finally been identified. Justice for his brutal death, however, remained hopelessly elusive. This is one of those irritating, unsolved murders that is nothing but a bunch of questions left in a hopelessly tangled mess. Why was Artemis Ogletree using multiple false names? What was he doing in Kansas City? Who killed him and why? Who was Louise? Who was Jordan? Who sent the money to pay for Ogletree's funeral? Who really wrote those letters to Ruby Ogletree? What in God's name happened in Room 1046? It is almost certain we will never know. The investigation into Ogletree's death was briefly reopened in 1937 after detectives noted similarities between his murder and the slaying of a young man in New York, but this also went nowhere. The cases remained in cold obscurity ever since, except for one strange incident about 10 years ago. This post-script to the story was related in 2012 by John Horner, a librarian in the Kansas City Public Library who has done extensive research into the Ogletree mystery. One day in 2003 or 2004, someone from out-of-state phoned the library to ask about the case. This caller, who did not give his or her name, said that they had recently gone through the belongings of someone who had recently died. Among these belongings was a box containing old newspaper clippings about the murder. This caller mentioned that this box also contained something which had been mentioned in the newspaper reports. Horner's caller would not say what this something was. It seems only fitting that a case so mysterious throughout should have an equally baffling last act. Coming up next on Weird Darkness, weirdo family member Mona Thompson tells about the scary experience she had in a house on a hill. But first, if you are planning a visit to the beautiful Banff Hotel in the Canadian Rockies, you might discover that the rumor is true. It very much is haunted. That story is up next. In the Find Bigfoot calendar by Timothy Wayne Williams. Each month you'll be captivated by an original Timothy Wayne Williams painting. Beautiful and captivating. But within each painting hides a monster. Bigfoot is hiding somewhere in each painting. Search for Bigfoot and invite others to do so as well with the new Find Bigfoot calendar available now at WeirdDarkness.com slash Bigfoot. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash Bigfoot. If you're planning a visit to the astounding Canadian Rockies, see if you can make your way to the town of Banff. The village is nestled in a U-shaped valley carved by an ancient glacier and is surrounded by a magnificent array of mountains. The town of Banff sits on the edge of Banff National Park. Canadian's first national park established in 1885 and was developed after miners discovered natural hot springs in the area. On the outskirts of the diminutive metropolis is the Fairmonts Banff Springs Hotel. This impressive inn also dubbed the Castle of the Rockies is well known to Canadians as one of the most haunted places in their country. The hotel is noted for several different purported hauntings. First, a little about the hotel. It was William Cornelius Van Horn that turned the phrase, since we can't export the scenery, we will have to import the tourists. The hotel was the brainchild of Van Horn, appointed general manager of the Canadian Pacific Railway. He wanted folks to see the beautiful Canadian Rockies while at the same time profiting his railway and resort. The original Banff Springs Hotel constructed of wood was designed by Bruce Price and opened in 1888. The original facility burned down in 1926 and was rebuilt in 1928. The present buildings were constructed in an amalgam of styles but is considered to be Canadian Chateauesque with elements of Scottish baronial architecture and the arts and crafts movement. Many Americans probably are more familiar with other notable railway hotel Hotel Frontenac in Quebec also built in this distinctive Canadian architectural style. Chateauesque features on the building include its steep pitched roofs, pointed dormers and corner turrets. The 764-room facility sitting about 4,600 feet above sea level is clad in rundle limestone and many renovations have been done to the buildings over the years. Currently, the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel is owned and operated by Ecor Hotels since 2016 as one of a chain of luxury accommodations under the name Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, FH&R. FH&R was formed in 2001 as a result of a merger between Fairmont Hotels and Canadian Pacific Hotels. In 1988, the hotel became a national historic site of Canada and is now considered to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Such notables as Queen Elizabeth II, King George VI, Helen Keller, Marilyn Monroe and others have all stayed at this property. But enough of the boring history for now, let's get to the good stuff and the reason why you listen to this podcast. There are several recurring paranormal events generally associated with the Banff Hotel. Our first tale deals with a so-called secret room. Upon constructing the pre-fire building, a room inadvertently was built without any windows or doors and subsequently was sealed up. No adverse events occurred in this space, but visitors report hearing unexplained noises and paranormal activity in the immediate area. When the original wood building burned down due to the fire, this mysterious room was discovered, according to Haunted Places to Go in 2018. There are no apparent reasons for the inexplicable apparitions and activity. However, some research indicates that this room when rebuilt has been combined with another to create a large suite. Another recurring tale from the hotel is that of Sam Macaulay, the friendly, obliging ghost. To say Sam loved working at the hotel would be an understatement. Retiring from his job on numerous occasions, he was always drawn back to the role that he enjoyed so much. At one point, the aging Sam informed his friends and colleagues that when he died, he would return to haunt the Banff Springs Hotel. It seems that Sam was true to his word as he has been witnessed all over the hotel, but particularly on the ninth floor. Sam died in 1976. Ever since, incidents involving mysterious phantom lights, elevator doors opening and closing at random, and guests being helped by an elderly Scottish bellman in an antiquated uniform have been attributed to Sam's ghost. This good-natured specter is one of much more recent times. Many reported paranormal activities usually have been associated with events usually tragic from the more distant past. The next legend is one of those. This is a story of sadness taking place sometime during the early 1930s at a young couple's nuptial. The tale is so iconic that Canada issued a postage stamp as part of the Haunted Canada Stamp Series and a collector coin in its remembrance. The story typically goes as follows. A young bride was either ascending or descending a staircase to meet her new spouse for their first dance as a couple. In one version, the bride tripped on her train, sending her tumbling down the staircase, breaking her neck. In another version, the poor bride's dress catches fire from candles that are lining the staircase and she subsequently falls to her death during the ensuing commotion. Over the years, various hotel patrons and staff have reported seeing a phantasmal bride dancing alone in the cascade ballroom or ascending the marble staircase on which the tragic event is rumored to have taken place. Others have heard strange noises emanating from the bridal suite when the room was not in use. Still, others have felt the woman's presence in the bathroom at the top of the stairs where she is said to watch people. Those who descend the stairs she died on can sometimes feel a chill breeze even when there is no draft. In addition to this, she has been seen in other areas of the hotel, still wearing her beautiful white wedding dress that she died in. No written records have been able to document or confirm this supposed tragedy. The spirit of the mother and particularly that of a young girl, her spectral daughter, still seem to linger in the vicinity of one of the inn's rooms. Guests who stayed in the room after the subsequent investigation and cleanup reported being awoken in the night by violent shrieks and chambermaids who routinely cleaned the room would report finding bloody fingerprints on the bathroom mirror that could not be washed off. In response to the disturbing reports, hotel management sealed off the room. Since the room has been sealed, an impression of a small child sometimes appears on the wall where the door should be. The image has been successfully photographed by some guests. Some other alleged hotel specters include a ghostly bartender who encourages inebriated patrons to go to bed and a headless man who, despite his obvious handicap, somehow manages to play the bagpipes. Paranormal events such as floating orbs, noises, and ghostly images have been recorded by visitors, but I could not find any evidence of paranormal researchers documenting and corroborating these stories. Staff at the hotel routinely decline to discuss the paranormal activities supposedly taking place at the resort. However, more recently, the hotel has embraced these occurrences and now offer regular guided ghost tours with a haunted Halloween ball occurring every fall. In 1986, I was visiting my mother, my older sister, and my new stepfather in Cicero, Indiana. It was in the country with nothing but cornfields for miles with one small town that contained a gas station, Dairy Queen, small grocery store and video store. I lived in San Antonio, Texas with my father, so this being out in the country like this was new to me. This would be the first and only time I visited at that home. The home in Cicero was big and on a lot of acres. There was a lot of room to roam. We had horses and a man-made pond. One morning I remember being in the kitchen and my sister and I overheard my mother and stepfather talking about a house on a hill that was haunted and bad things would happen to anyone who went on the property. Apparently, something happened to someone in town that went there. They were told never to go there, so it's not like they weren't warned, my stepfather said, referring to whoever they were talking about. It was maybe a week later and my sister and I were driving into town to get something from the store when my sister pulled on to that property with the house. I told my sister that I didn't think we should be there and she said we had nothing to worry about. It was just a house. It was a two-story brick home that had been neglected for a very long time. There was not really a driveway, just an open area at a park. We got out of the car and went around the house. Nothing seemed scary or weird, just a rundown house with a few broken windows. I remember thinking if someone fixed this house up it would be really nice. I walked behind the house and there really wasn't a backyard but rather a steep drop-off that led into a wood area. I looked further out and that's when I saw a man with dark hair just standing there, looking at us. The man was wearing what looked like a fluorescent vest like you see road workers wear. I really didn't think anything about it, being from Texas it was not uncommon to see hunters wear the same type of gear so that they're not shot by other hunters. I know it sounds crazy but it happens. The man turned around and went back into the wooded area. By this time my sister and I had seen everything we wanted to see and left. That night everything was normal until we went to bed. My sister and I each had our own rooms located on the second floor. Both of our bedroom windows were off the front of the home which faced west. We slept with our windows open because the house wasn't air conditioned. It was around 2 am and my sister comes into my room visibly shaking. She woke me up and said come here look at this. From the hallway if you were facing both our bedrooms if you leaned to the left you could see into my sister's room with the window being right in front. If you leaned right you could see into my room with my window right in front. When I looked into my sister's room her curtains were going crazy like a windstorm was outside. But when you looked into my room the curtains laid flat no movement at all. My sister proceeds to tell me when she woke up there was a Native American Indian man at the foot of her bed. He didn't do anything he just stared at me she said after she had said the curtains immediately went flat no wind. My sister and I were so scared she slept in my bed that night. To this day we still talk about that weird incident and still don't have any clue what or why that happened. But in the back of my mind I know it had something to do with us going to that house on the hill. Coming up next, does the ghost of a shoemaker continue to reside in Winston Salem North Carolina? I'll relate the rumors to you when Weird Darkness returns. Central Massachusetts is a land of oddities and apparitions. Stories of the strange and paranormal have been passed down from generation to generation and only the local populace has any idea of just how vast and deep their superstitions run. The world around you is much more than you can touch, taste, smell, see, and hear. Some of the stories are funny, some are sad, but all of them give you a taste of what it's like to be from the oddest part of the United States. You can't have a region of the country that has been settled for centuries without getting a few odd tales out of it. Open up a whole new world of fact and fiction that'll leave you with a deep appreciation for the strange and bizarre ghosts and heroes await. And the only thing they need to live on is you, slightly odd Fitchburg, by Ed Sweeney. Now available on Kindle, paperback, and audiobook versions on the audiobooks page at WeirdDarkness.com. Smells of burning hardwood fill the streets at Old Salem and Winston Salem as three shy but bold pheasants wiggle haltingly across the road down from the single brother's house one July Friday morning. Completely unaware, humans think there is a ghost living in a cellar there. Jennifer Bean Bauer, associate curator of photographic collections at Old Salem, is quite familiar with this specter. The Little Red Man ghost story is very popular and we now actually have a ghost tour in October in which visitors can tour the single brother's house, the place of the accident, and sightings at night. It's really a lot of fun, she said, to make a long story short when the single brother's house cellar was being excavated, the top part of the ground caved in on several of the workers. One man was completely covered by the dirt and later died. His name was Andreas Kremser. He was described as being a short little man and legend has it that he was wearing a red jacket at the time of his death. That stopped the end of the story though. Shortly after his death, ghostly happenings began to occur in the single brother's house and sightings of a little red man moving along the hallway were reported. Near Old Salem downtown yellowing newspapers are stacked as researchers scour the North Carolina room at the Winston-Salem Forsythe County Library. Reba Jones smiles behind the desk. It's very quiet. She was a tour guide at Old Salem, a native of Winston-Salem. The past president of the Forsythe County Genealogical Society formed in 1982, she is adept at sharing the history of the area and enjoys doing so. I had to oversee everything that was going on in the society. Before you become president, you have to be president-elect and you get up all the programs for a whole year for every year. As the president, you kind of oversee everything that's going on. From 1981 to 1989, she was a tour guide at Old Salem. When I'd have a tour with the school children, they would ask me about the little red man in the single brother's house. I would ask them if they believed in ghosts and if they said yes, I would say yes, that story is true. If they said no, then I said no, it's not true. You have to believe in ghosts. Do you believe in ghosts? Have you ever thought you noticed something in the middle of the night that looked out of the ordinary? Maybe there was a silhouette at your window in the darkness outside your room on a dark and stormy night. Some people don't mind walking in a graveyard at midnight or thereafter. Some people are superstitious. If you're frightened by unexplained events, then maybe you should cease listening from this point because some of what follows has never been reported until this thorough investigation. It's a fascinating story and it's one we like to tell because it's a story of something that did happen there that they could see the little red man after he had passed away there. They could see the little red man. If you've read the story, it says that they thought they saw a little red man down there. That's the reason, that man's ghost who got killed down there. Does she believe in ghosts? Yes and no, she said. Yes and no. Stories like this can be positive for tourism, she admitted. I think it does. When they come to Old Salem, if they've heard it before, they want to hear about it, she said. Admitting that the history of Old Salem is interesting, it's very, very interesting. You can never learn everything from Old Salem. George Washington visited Old Salem. Ghosts of Old Salem and other tales compiled by Richard W. Starbucks is a good reference. The Moravian Archives of Winston-Salem, North Carolina and the Forsyth County Library is also a good start. An archive produced by Adelaide L. Fries, who spent 40 years as an archivist at the Moravian Church and Chief Historian. Everywhere one goes, you hear a story about Kremser. One Davidson County man said he was playing Kremser for a Halloween event in the cellar at Old Salem, donning a red hat and between tours he was alone and heard the tapping. In Ghosts of Old Salem and other tales, the Richard Starbucks from the Moravian Archives at the Forsyth County Library, it's reported that in the Advent season, a candle tea is held annually in the house, and some folks have been scared because of unexplained noises. Kremser was buried in God's acre at Old Salem. He was born March 7th, 1753, in Nottingham, Pennsylvania, brought up in the home until age 3. He lived in Bethlehem and Nazareth. In October 1766, he moved to North Carolina where he was a shoemaker in Bethabara. You'll learn this and much more in the mass of very interesting papers, records of the Moravians in North Carolina, compiled and edited by Adelaide L. Fries, Chief Historian and Archivist for 40 years for the Moravian Church of America's South Province. There's Volume 5, 1784-1792, which is interesting, part of the records of the North Carolina Historical Commission. Starbucks was a assistant archivist and assistant. The record books by Fry are under lock and key for fear of theft, and they cannot leave the North Carolina Room. One footnote read, the tragic death of Andreas Kremser gave rise to the tradition of the little red man of the brother's house, though in fact it offers no foundation for a ghost story. In February 6th, 1772, he moved to Salem. Just before going to the excavation March 25th, 1786, he went to the festival services of his choir and congregation, and he was quiet all day. The next day was the day of the excavation. About half past 11, he was warned by a brother who saw him kneeling while working according to the history books. According to Fry's account, March 25th, during the night the single brethren had an unusual and sorrowful experience. Some days ago, they began digging the cellar for the addition to their house, and several brethren were working there in the evenings without charge, and they were doing it this evening after service. The brethren were using a method which expedited the digging and which had worked well so far, that is, they had undermined a part of the bank and then break it off from above the ridges. Several brethren had noticed that on the side where they were working now, the soil was sandy and loose, and they doubted the advisability of using the above mentioned method, indeed, warned earnestly against it. Few of the brethren who were working there could see the danger, but most of them took every care, especially when the warning was repeated. When a rather long section had been undermined, the brother who had been stationed above on guard noticed that it was breaking of its own weight and quickly gave the alarm. This was around midnight. Kremser was a small man, and he was wearing a red cap when the bank caved in on him. And most of the brethren below were able to avoid the falling earth. To their horror, however, they saw that two brethren had been covered. Andreas Kremser, completely, and Joseph Dixon to his armpits. All the brethren hurried to the scene, including those who had already gone to bed, and in a few minutes they had dug out both of the brethren. Brother Dixon had not been injured, and after being bled, he recovered entirely in a few hours. Kremser had been buried alive. He allegedly spoke, complaining of pain. His left leg was broken, according to the records. Dr. Lewis was there and opened a vein in his arm, but a little blood flowed, and there were soon signs of his approaching departure. There were many tears. Brother Kremser, however, of whose recovery there was hope at first, became weaker and weaker. At about two o'clock in the morning, he passed away very quietly, having received the blessing of the congregation and of his choir, given with deep emotion and yet in faith. A thousand thanks were given to our dear Lord for the escape of so many brethren for who the danger was almost as great. Sunday, March 26. The Litany, the homecoming of Brother Andreas Kremser, was mentioned in the usual manner. March 27. At one o'clock there was the funeral of our beloved Brother Andreas Kremser. Brother Kohler pointed out that our Savior allows nothing to happen to his children, except what is best for them and what will promote the object of our faith, that is, the salvation of our souls. This must be our point of view in our faith, because in our ignorance of his wise designs, we do not understand something unusual and affecting the fate and unusual departure of our Brother Kremser. It makes us very sad, but without doubt, it was best for him for his heart was so that he was ready to enter into eternal salvation. The index of the books note other facts about his life. Kremser's bills were paid, and the remainder was to be sent to his mother in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He swept the most important chimneys, the record showed, because one family had the measles. On one March 4, he left the shoe shop and worked in the Single Brother's Kitchen, one page noted. November 16. To bring the chimney sweeping into better order, Brother Kremser shall be told to divide the list, sweeping part each month and sweeping certain chimneys every month. One brother said that Kremser had not been able to climb his chimney, however, but other larger men had been able to do so. Kremser reportedly said that the chimneys ought to be made larger. Once Kremser took a stack of diaries and letters of May, June, and July to Bethlehem, and they were entrusted to a man returning to Pennsylvania, the record showed. Although Kremser's spirit had passed on from this world, his antics had stayed behind. Afterward, an unusual sound was heard at night, like a tap, tap, tapping of a shoemaker's hammer, and they would say, there is Kremser. People would hear light steps in the hallway, according to the history books. Sometimes, people would catch a glimpse of a little fellow in a red cap going past a door. Little Betsy went sometimes to visit her aging grandmother in this building when times brought change and females to the building. The girl had just learned to talk since a serious illness had left her death. She knew nothing of ghosts. One day, she came to her grandmother with excitement. Betsy saw a little man out there, according to the records, adding the man beckoned her with his finger as a child signals another to play. Years passed, and a substantial citizen was shown the cellar, and the little red man appeared as they tried to catch him with no success while the phantom grinned at them from the doorway. The citizen was not addicted to alcohol, the documents added. Finally, a visiting minister held an exorcism with the command, little red man go to rest, and he has not been seen since. There are no such thing as ghosts. There are no such things as ghosts. Fear of death and the unknown strikes fear into mortal beings, so therefore we are frightened of the unexplained. But why do skeletons and tombstones give us the creeps? The prayer, said at Kremsen's funeral, enlightens us to our immortal journey's end. Remember, there are no such things as ghosts. Thanks for listening. If you like the podcast, please tell someone about it. Recommend Weird Darkness to your friends, family and co-workers who love the paranormal, horror stories or a true crime like you do. Every time you share the podcast with someone new, it helps spread the word about the show, and a growing audience makes it possible for me to keep doing the podcast. Plus, telling others about Weird Darkness also helps get the word out about resources that are available for those who suffer from depression, so please share the podcast with someone today. Do you have a dark tale to tell of your own? Fact or fiction, click on Tell Your Story on the website and I might use it in a future episode. 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. Room 873 at the Banff Hotel was written by Joseph D. Kubal for Spook Things Online. The House on the Hill was written by Weirdo family member Mona Thompson. The horror in Room 1046 is by Undyne for Strange Company. And The Little Red Man of Old Salem is by Tim Bullard for the Camel City Dispatch. Weird Darkness theme by Alibi Music. And now that we are coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. Jonah 2 verse 2. In my distress, I called to the Lord and He answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead, I called for help and you listened to my cry. And a final thought. The truly rich are those who enjoy what they have. A Yiddish proverb. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness. But enough history for now. Let's get to meat. But enough history for now. Let's get to the meat of our story and the reason why you visit. Once Kremser took a stack of diaries and letters of May, June, and July to Beth- Once Kremser took a sta- A past president of the Forsythe County Genie- A past president of the Forsythe- A past president of the Forsythe County Genie- Geni-logical. A past president of the Forsythe County Genie- Geni-log- Hi, Dream of Genie, who can actually pronounce words. 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 Hey Weirdos, be sure to click the like button and subscribe to this channel, and click the notification bell so you don't miss future videos. I post videos seven days a week, and while you're at it, spread the darkness by sharing this video with someone you know who loves all things strange and macabre. If you want to listen to the podcast, you can find it at WeirdDarkness.com.