 This episode is dedicated to the men and women of our armed forces and first responders. Whether you are currently serving or have served in the past, you are appreciated. It is because of your courage and sacrifice that we enjoy the freedoms and liberties we hold dear. And I for one, appreciate every single one of you for protecting what many of us take for granted. So thank you. Welcome, Weirdos. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained. Coming Up This Hour In Stephen King's pet cemetery, beloved family pets could come back from the dead. In Washington, there is a hole that some say bring animals back to life for real. In the middle of the Brompton Cemetery grounds, shrouded by trees stands a mausoleum. And what some believe is a time machine. The mothman is apparently no longer bound to Point Pleasant, West Virginia. In fact, in 2017, he appeared in Chicago 55 times. But first, Elva Hester was dead. But that didn't stop her ghost from solving her murder. 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 in with you. Recommending Weird Darkness to others helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show. And while you're listening, be sure to follow Weird Darkness on Facebook and Twitter, and visit WeirdDarkness.com to find the daily Weird Darkness podcast, watch streaming B horror movies and horror hosts 24-7 for free. Listen to free audiobooks that I've narrated. Send me your own true story of something paranormal that's happened to you or someone you know and more. You can find it all at WeirdDarkness.com. Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness. One January afternoon in 1897, Erasmus, or Edward Shoe, a blacksmith, sent his neighbor's young boy to see if Elva Shoe's wife of three months needed anything from the market. When the neighbor boy walked through the front door of the shoe's rural Greenbrier County, West Virginia log house, he found Elva's lifeless body at the foot of the stairs. The boy stood for a moment, looking at the woman, not knowing what to make of the scene. Her body was stretched out straight with her legs together. One arm was at her side and the other rested across her chest. Her head was tilted to one side. At first, he thought the woman was simply asleep on the floor. He stepped toward her quietly calling Mrs. Shoe. When she didn't respond, he panicked and bolted from the house. He told his mother what he had found, and she summoned the local doctor and coroner, George W. Knapp. Knapp didn't get to the shoe's house for almost an hour. By the time he arrived, Shoe had already gotten home, carried his wife's body up to the bedroom, washed and dressed her, and laid her out on the bed. He'd prepared her body for burial in a high-necked dress with a stiff collar and placed a veil over her face. Knapp went about examining the body, Shoe cradling his wife's head and crying the whole time. When Knapp attempted to examine Elva's neck and head, Shoe became agitated. Knapp didn't want to provoke him any further, so he left. He found nothing amiss with the body parts he'd examined, and had also been treating Elva for a few weeks prior, so he listed the cause of death as everlasting faint, and then changed it to complications from pregnancy. Elva's body was taken to her childhood home of Little Sule Mountain and buried, but not before a bizarre funeral where her widower acted erratically. He paced by the casket, fiddling with Elva's head and neck. In addition to the collar and the veil, he covered her head and neck with a scarf. It didn't match her burial dress, but Shoe insisted that it was her favorite and that she would have wanted to be buried in it. He also propped her head up, first with a pillow and then a rolled-up cloth. It was certainly strange, but most guests likely chalked it up to the grieving process. Shoe was generally liked and regarded without suspicion by everyone in town. Everyone that is except Mary Jane Heaster, Elva's mother. She had never liked Shoe, and even without evidence she was convinced that he had murdered her daughter. If only Elva could tell her what happened, she thought. She decided to pray for Elva to somehow come back from the dead and reveal the truth about her death. She prayed every evening for weeks until finally her prayer was answered. Heaster claimed her daughter appeared to her in a dream four nights in a row to tell her story. Supposedly the spirit appeared first as a bright light, gradually taking a human form and filling the room with a chill. Elva's ghost confessed to her mother that Shoe cruelly abused her and one night attacked her in a rage when she thought that she hadn't made any meat for his dinner. He had broken her neck, the ghost said, as it turned its head completely around. Then the ghost turned and walked away, disappearing into the night while staring back at her mother. Heaster went to the local prosecutor, John Preston, and spent the afternoon at his office trying to get him to reopen the case. Whether Preston believed her story about the ghost we don't know, but Heaster was persistent and convincing enough that he began asking questions around town. Shoe's neighbors and friends told Preston about the man's strange behavior at the funeral and Dr. Knapp admitted that his examination had been incomplete. It was enough for Preston to justify an order for a complete autopsy and a few days later the body was exhumed despite shoe subjections. Knapp and two other doctors laid the body out in the town's one-room schoolhouse to give it a thorough examination. A local newspaper, The Pocahontas Times, later reported that on the throat were the marks of fingers indicating that she had been choken, that the neck was dislocated between the first and second vertebra. The ligaments were torn and ruptured. The windpipe had been crushed at a point in the front of the neck. It was clear Elva's death was not natural, but there was no evidence pointing to the killer and no witnesses. Shoe's strange behavior since Elva's death stuck in Preston's mind and cast some suspicion on him. At the same time, Elva's mother had described exactly how her daughter was killed before the autopsy was performed. Maybe she had done it and the ghost story was an elaborate plot to frame Shoe. Preston continued to investigate and began looking into Shoe's past. He learned that Shoe had been married twice before. The first ended in divorce while Shoe was in prison for stealing a horse. That wife later told police that Shoe was extremely violent and beat her frequently while they were married. His second marriage ended after just eight months with the mysterious death of his wife. In between these marriages, Shoe boasted in prison that he planned to marry seven women in his lifetime. The previous wife's mysterious death and Shoe's history of abuse were circumstantial but enough for Preston to bring him to trial. Mary Jane Heaster was the prosecution's star witness, but Preston wanted to avoid the issue of her ghostly sightings since Elva's story as relayed by her mother might be objected to as hearsay by the defense. Perhaps hoping to prove her unreliable, Shoe's lawyer questioned Heaster extensively about the ghost's visits on cross-examination. The tactic backfired, with Heaster refusing to waver in her account despite intense badgering by the lawyer. Many people in the community, if not the jury, seemed to believe Heaster's story and Shoe did himself no favors taking the stand in his own defense, rambling and appealing to the jury to look into his face and then say if he was guilty. The Greenbrier Independent reported that his testimony, manner and so forth, made an unfavorable impression on the spectators. The jury deliberated for just an hour and 10 minutes before returning a guilty verdict. Shoe was sentenced to life in prison but died soon after as epidemics of measles and pneumonia tore through the prison in the spring of 1900. Mrs. Heaster lived until 1916 and never recanted her story about Elva's ghost. Maybe her story swayed the jury and won the case. Maybe it didn't. Maybe her daughter spoke to her from beyond the grave. Maybe the ghost was all in Heaster's head or maybe it was a strategic lie. But no matter who saw or believed what, without the ghost story, Heaster may have never gone to Preston and Shoe might not have gone to trial. A historical marker in Greenbrier County commemorates Elva's death and the unusual court case that followed, noting that this was the only known case in which testimony from a ghost helped convict a murderer. Have you ever heard the story about Mel's whole? If not, you are in for a strange ride when Weird Darkness returns. I'm Darren Marlar. Welcome back to Weird Darkness. Do you like horror movies and horror hosts? Well, then you're going to want to check out the Monster Channel. It has the horror hosts, the B horror movies, retro TV commercials, and a whole lot more. And you can watch it anytime, absolutely free 24-7-365 on the Weirdo Watch Party page at WeirdDarkness.com. It's also where we have our monthly Weirdo Watch Party. You can go there and find out when that's going to be. The Weirdo Watch Party page at WeirdDarkness.com. So many weird things happen in the Pacific Northwest that, comparatively, a mysterious hole in the ground seems pretty innocuous. At first. Next to numerous bigfoot sightings and miles of giant mushrooms, the phenomenon of Mel's hole seems pretty straightforward, until you realize that it also happens to be a bottomless pit that brings animals back from the dead. Mel's hole is one of the most mysterious places in the state of Washington. The mystery of Mel's hole all started with an interview on Coast to Coast AM Radio when a caller, identifying himself as Mel Waters, claimed that he found a real-life bottomless pit on his property. As you can imagine, things only got creepier from there. Pet cemetery creepy. Today, this supernatural phenomenon in Washington, like so many others, straddles the line between being famous and elusive. Curious? Unnerved both? If supernatural entertainment intrigues you, keep listening for more facts about Mel's hole, its rise to notoriety, and the bizarre secrets said to hide somewhere in its bottomless depths. Though Mel Waters, if he ever existed at all, is credited with having brought attention to the pit, the legend itself began long before he came around. Local residents, authorities, and Indigenous tribes knew of the hole for decades before Waters ever bought the property. As the story goes, the pit was about 9 feet in diameter, with walls constructed out of hand-placed bricks stretching 15 feet down before transitioning into dirt and darkness. Now unpopularly as the Devil's Hole, the locals all agreed that there was something rather unsettling about the hole's existence, but no one cared, nor wanted, to think too hard about what that something might be. Manistash Ridge residents instead used the hole as a garbage dump and decided not to question the eerie fact that the pit never appeared to fill up. According to Waters' interview with coast-to-coast AM host Art Bell, once Waters realized that the hole wasn't showing any signs of filling up, he decided to test it. His plan was to bring thousands of feet of fishing line and a sturdy fishing rod out to the hole, add weight to the fishing line, and then measure how far down it went before hitting the bottom. By the end of his test, Waters got more than he bargained for. The hole had no bottom, and if a bottom does exist, it's deep enough that the weighted line failed to go slack after 80,000 feet. Neither Waters nor anyone else has ever confirmed reaching the bottom. People who have been brave enough to approach the pit all noticed something peculiar about the area's wildlife, or more aptly, the lack thereof. Animals obviously hated the hole and would do their best to stay as far away from it as possible. Waters even reported that his own dogs refused to approach the hole. When he tried to bring them closer to it, they dug their pause into the ground in protest. Other visitors even took note of the fact that birds avoided flying directly over it, and no other small animals ever appeared near it. According to various reports, the only sign of wildlife were piles of bones strewn around the mouth of the pit. After Waters allegedly lowered 80,000 feet of fishing line into the hole on his property to try and locate the bottom, he suspected that there might be something more sinister about the hole than its infinite depth. Waters began performing a variety of other tests at an attempt to better understand this seemingly endless pit. When he yelled directly into the pit, he heard silence instead of an echo, and if he brought a handheld radio near the hole, it would play music that sounded decades out of date. Further tests were conducted at a location known as the Second Devil's Hole, a pit in Nevada believed to have properties identical to those of the Washington Hole. When a bucket of ice was lowered about 1,500 feet down into the hole, the ice had changed by the time it was brought back up. It felt inexplicably warm, seemed to dry out the air near it, and even became flammable. Mel Waters' interview with Art Bell on Coast to Coast AM brought the hole into public consciousness, and one of the stories he told during the call was absolutely chilling. According to Mel, locals have used the hole to get rid of anything from old equipment to dead cattle, but apparently throwing something down the hole didn't guarantee that it would stay there. During the interview, Mel claimed that when one of the neighbor's dogs passed away, his neighbor brought the dog to the hole to get rid of it. The neighbor then allegedly told Mel that after he'd done so, he later saw his dog running in the forest, alive and well, and still wearing the collar that had been around its neck when its body had been brought to the hole. One of the most skin-crawling stories about Mel's hole details the fate of a sheep that Mel Waters claims to have lowered into the pit as one of the many experiments he conducted. The sheep, like Mel's dogs and other local animals, was absolutely terrified of the pit and Mel had to tranquilize it in order to get it close enough to the mouth of the hole. Curious after hearing about the strange fate of a bucket of ice that apparently became warm and flammable after being lowered into a similar hole, Mel decided to do the same thing with the sheep. What happened with that sheep, though, was even stranger. We'll find out what happens when Weird Darkness returns. Welcome back to Weird Darkness. I'm Darren Marlar. And if you like what you're hearing on the show and you want even more, well, you can listen to my free audiobooks that I've narrated at WeirdDarkness.com. I've got free audiobooks there by Stephen King, HP Lovecraft, Charles Dickens, Robert Heinlein and more. And you can listen to all of those free audiobooks that I've narrated on the audiobooks page at WeirdDarkness.com. We were talking about Mel's hole and how he was really curious about the strange fate of a bucket of ice that apparently became warm and flammable after being lowered into a similar hole. Well, Mel decided he wanted to try the same thing with a living sheep. And what happened to that sheep was even stranger. When Mel hoisted the sheep back up out of the hole, it was dead and it appeared to have been cooked from the inside. Even stranger was that something appeared to be moving inside it. And when it was cut open, Mel saw something that he described as resembling a fetal seal with human eyes staring back at him. He immediately threw the creature back into the hole. When he told the story to curious neighbors, some said that they too had seen a similar creature around the hole before. Whatever it is, it may be the only thing that can get in and out of Mel's hole. Mel Waters' property in Washington is home to the original pit that spawned the legend, but it is not the only one. Another hole is said to exist in Nevada that displays properties very similar to those attributed to the original Mel's hole. According to Mel, he has visited the second hole as well, and it is every bit as bizarre and fascinating as the one found on his property. Birds of an unidentifiable species have been seen circling the Nevada pit, and when Mel attempted to shoot one down for study, he found that the bullets seemed to ricochet right off of them. If bulletproof birds are any indication, the Nevada hole is likely hiding just as many supernatural secrets as Mel's. The alleged interaction between Mel Waters and the U.S. government, if true, means that Mel's hole is more important than even Mel himself realized. According to Mel's story, government agents attempted to prevent him from entering his own property, claiming that a plane had crashed there. When he refused to believe their story, they abruptly switched tactics and offered to lease his land from him for $250,000 on one condition. If he accepted, he would have to leave the country. Mel, being in dire straits at the time, accepted. He then moved to Australia and didn't return for several years. When he did, government agents insisted that they had bought his land. Locals then informed Mel that the area around the pit had been guarded by black vans and helicopters since he left. After Mel Waters' first interview on coast-to-coast AM, no one had any reason to question his identity. Then his story started to strike a chord. Coast-to-coast listeners were enthralled by stories of the pit, so Mel decided to give a second interview. But paradoxically, the more Mel stepped into the spotlight, the more interesting he and his story seemed to become. He'd been featured on coast-to-coast AM several times before followers of the story began to search local records for his name in hopes of determining the exact location of the hole. And they found nothing. No property transfers had been conducted in the area during the time that Mel claimed to have sold the land to the government, and no one named Mel Waters had voted, paid taxes, or even lived there. Whether Mel was a hoax or a pseudonym, Mel Waters was ultimately consumed by the mystery of the hole himself. Among the coast-to-coast AM listeners who took an interest in the story of Mel's hole was a geologist named Jack Powell. After hearing Mel describe the characteristics of the pit on the radio, Powell thought he recognized the hole as being an abandoned mine shaft that he was familiar with from his childhood. But when Mel revealed that he had lowered at least 80,000 feet of fishing line into the hole in order to test its depth, Powell realized that the story was much stranger than he had thought. A hole that deep would not be physically possible. Based on Powell's geological expertise, this can only mean that Mel Waters designed a spectacular hoax, or that among the many mysteries presented by Mel's hole is a localized geographical anomaly. Anyone who is level-headed is going to have a tough time believing that there is a huge half-man half-moth creature going around terrorizing a small town in Chicago. However, according to many people, this is exactly what happened during 2017 when there were 55 sightings of the creature. It seems that the moth man started appearing to residents of a small town in 1966 to warn about an upcoming catastrophe relating to the collapse of a bridge in the town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia. The story about this strange creature was told by John Keele in the novel with the title of The Moth Man Prophecies and that was then made into a movie starring Richard Geer. Now, the moth man creature has started to turn up in Chicago and there have been numerous reports of the creature. A 40-in researcher, Lon Strickler, has compiled the sightings on his website and he also wrote a book by the name of The Moth Man Dynasty. The book takes a look at all of the sightings of the moth man ever since the latter half of the 1970s. The new sightings of the moth man started in February of 2017 and since that time, Strickler has spent many hours interviewing witnesses who have claimed to have seen the moth man and documented their stories. John Amitrano is one of the people who claimed that he saw the moth man. Amitrano said that he was working late one night in a hangout in Chicago that was popular and he then went outside and saw something that he found difficult to explain. He said that he had seen a plane flying in the sky but there was something moving underneath it very awkwardly. He said that it took on the appearance of what pterodactyls look like in illustrations with a head that was slender in wings. He said that he did not think it was a bat or bird as it did not have feathers or fur and did not fly like a bat or bird or anything he could think of. He said that the creature had legs that were muscular, a human-like shape and the creature flew in a motion that was strange, swooping down and then undulating up and then back down. The sightings by Amitrano is just one of the 55 sightings that have taken the place of the moth man in the Chicago region during 2017. Many of the reports have been the moth man flying in the sky. However, there have been accounts by some people of the creature landing on the tops of vehicles and swooping down out of the sky onto people. Stickler said the group sightings of the moth man are historical in cryptozoology terms. He went on to say for one it is happening in a region that is urban and there have been so many sightings all at once. Strickler said that he uses the West Virginia moth man sightings from the 1960s as a reference point and he went on to say that he does not think that the creature in Chicago is warning residents of an impending disaster. He went on to say that the beings are not as aggressive as the one that was appearing in Point Pleasant. He went on to say that he thought overall there had only been one creature in the Point Pleasant region seen during the period. Psychologist Dr. David A. Gallo from the University of Chicago has undertaken research into memory and more so with how people actively reconstruct the past, sometimes inaccurately and he does not think that the sightings are what Strickler is making them out to be. He went on to say that it was a selective sample and when people choose to report the sightings, the basis of data on which the paranormal researchers collect is self-report. This means that Strickler is not sampling random people to ask if they have seen the moth man, he is only counting those who came forward and reported having seen the creature. Gallo went on to say that he does not deny that the people who claim to have seen the moth man have seen something that they cannot explain. He said that there is a phenomenon where people have witnessed something and he went on to say that if there are gaps or holes in that experience, the mind is often not able to fill in the gaps. Gallo pointed out that if something had been suggested to them as being a scenario that is plausible like there being a moth man, the person might fill the gaps with that scenario. For now, the moth man remains something of a mystery. Perhaps people did see a strange moth-like creature as big as a man, or perhaps their minds just told them they did. When Weird Darkness returns, it is the strange tale of a cemetery that happens to contain a time machine. Swinging open the front gate of Brompton Cemetery is a bit like cracking the spine of a book detailing London history. Famous suffragist Emeline Pankhurst rests here. Beatrix Potter strolled its 39 acres and plucked names from tombstones to use in her work, including descendants Peter Rabbit and Mr. Nutkins. More than 35,000 monuments in all are present, rich and poor, known and obscure. In the middle of the grounds and shrouded by trees stands a mausoleum, and imposing 20 feet tall with a pyramid peak, it is made from granite with a heavy bronze door secured by a keyhole. Decorative accents line the front, furthering the air of mystery. The door's margin displays a rectangular band of Egyptian hieroglyphs. Erected in the early 1850s, it was intended as the final resting place of a woman named Hannah Courtois and two of her three daughters, Mary and Elizabeth. Courtois' tomb would be remarkable for its imposing stature and cryptic veneer alone. It is the largest most elaborate construction in Brompton Cemetery. But there is more to the story. For the many visitors who make moonlit visits to the cemetery and for a small band of Londoners, the tomb's missing key and resulting lack of access has led to speculation that something strange is going on inside, that it is secretly a time machine. It's a fantastic notion, but one that London musician and Courtois historian Stephen Coates is quick to dismiss. It's not a time machine, he tells Mental Floss, it's a teleportation chamber. In order to try and digest the bizarre urban legend that has been constructed around Courtois' tomb, it helps to understand the highly controversial life of the woman who ordered its construction. Born around 1784, sources differ on that, Hannah Peters fled an abusive father at a young age and found work as a housekeeper and as a tavern employee. In 1800, a friend introduced her to John Courtois, a 70-year-old former wigmaker in poor health who had made a fortune in the lending business. Peters was shortly in his employ as a housekeeper. Within the year, she had given birth to the first of three daughters. She claimed they were Courtois, although some eyes were raised in suspicion that the friend who made the introduction, Francis Grosso, might have been the real father. Courtois' illness is also ill-defined in historical accounts, although it was said to follow a violent run-in with a prostitute in 1795 that left Courtois, who had been slashed at with a knife, reserved and antisocial. He apparently warmed to Peters, who took his name and exerted considerable influence over many of his decisions. Courtois' 1810 will, which left the bulk of his fortune to an ex-wife named Mary and Woolly and their five children, was revised in 1814, so Hannah received the majority share. When Courtois died in 1818, the contents of the will were disputed, both by Woolly and Courtois' French relatives. They argued that dementia had overtaken Courtois' better senses. The legal arguments dragged on through 1827, at which point Hannah and her daughters had received most of Courtois' money. According to the account presented in author David Godson's 2014 book, Courtois' Complaint largely based on diaries kept by Courtois' housekeeper Maureen Sayers, Hannah's urge to distract herself from the often unpleasant Courtois led to developing a friendship that would prove essential to her later mythology. Like many Victorians of the era, Hannah was intrigued by Egyptian iconography, particularly hieroglyphics. She believed Egyptians had a deep understanding of astrology and their place in the universe, and she invited Egyptologist Joseph Bonomy over for regular visits. Bonomy and Hannah would spend hours discussing Egyptian lore, with Hannah hoping to one day fund Bonomy's expeditions to Egypt so he could study their work. The two would also arrange for a 175-foot-tall monument dedicated to the Duke of Wellington to be constructed and insisted that the sculpture resemble an Egyptian obelisk. When Hannah died in 1849, her remains were set to be placed in an expensive, elaborate mausoleum in Brompton that paid tribute to her interests. Bonomy arranged for the tomb to feature Egyptian characters and a pyramidal top. Later, Mary and Elizabeth, who shied from marriage because they didn't want men chasing after their wealth, joined her. Susanna, who did marry, was buried elsewhere. When Bonomy died in 1878, he arranged for a depiction of Cordoba's tomb to appear on his own modest headstone. Whether Bonomy intended it or not, an illustration of Anubis, the Egyptian god of the dead, appears to be looking in the direction of his friend's final resting place. Things appeared to remain status quo at Brompton for the next 100 years or so. Then, around 1980, the key to the tomb was lost following a visit by Hannah's relatives, and that is when things took a turn for the weird. Intending to peak the interest of readers during Halloween, Associated Press reporter Helen Smith wrote a story in October 1998 that may have been the first mainstream article to raise the theory that Cordoba's tomb might actually be a time machine. Smith described the monument as a strange, imposing structure containing three spinsters, about whom almost nothing is known, and cited an unheralded author named Howard Webster as perpetuator of the story. Webster claimed his research had excavated a connection between Bonomy and Samuel Alfred Warner, a maverick Victorian genius and fraudster, said to have attempted to interest the British armed forces in several advanced weapons, two advanced in fact to actually exist. Webster speculated that Warner's inventive abilities may have led him to consort with Bonomy, who supposedly had knowledge of the Egyptian theories of time travel. Together, the two convinced the wealthy trusting Hannah to finance their secret project, with Bonomy providing ancient wisdom and Warner adding his breakthrough scientific resources. By placing their device in a cemetery, Warner could guarantee the structure was unlikely to be disturbed over decades or centuries, allowing him to return to London after traveling through time again and again. The lack of a key was crucial to Webster's tale. Since it had been lost and no one had been inside for years, it could be argued that perhaps Warner was busying himself in a manner similar to an occupant of the TARDIS, bouncing from era to era. Thanks for listening! Unfortunately, I didn't plan things very well, and I have run out of time to share the rest of this story about London's time-traveling tomb, but not to worry because you can hear the rest of the story immediately after tonight's show absolutely free in the Weird Darkness podcast. I post the radio show version of the podcast every week, so if you missed any part of tonight's show, if you'd like to hear it again or share it with somebody, or if you just want to hear the rest of this story, I will include it in the Sudden Death Overtime section of the podcast, which I will be posting immediately after tonight's show. And you can subscribe to Weird Darkness wherever you listen to podcasts. Just do a search for Weird Darkness. You can follow the show on Facebook and Twitter at Weird Darkness, and please tell others about the show who love the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters, or unsolved mysteries like you do. Doing that helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show. And if you'd like to be a part of Weird Darkness, well, you can call into the dark line toll-free and tell your own true paranormal story, or a story that's happened to somebody you know. That number is 1-877-277-5944. Again, the toll-free number is 1-877-277-5944. And you can email me anytime at darren at WeirdDarkness.com. Darren is D-A-R-R-E-N. The ghost who helped solve her own murder was written by Matt Soniac for MentalFloss.com. Mel's Hole is a supernatural infinite pit that revives animals from the dead and remains a mystery, was written by Maggie Klendenin for Ranker.com's graveyard shift. 55 Mothman sightings in Chicago was posted at Disclose.tv. And The Legend of London's Time Traveling Tomb was written by Jake Rosen for MentalFloss.com. 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. Proverbs 14 verse 30, A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones. And a final thought, fall in love with who you are becoming. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness. Hey Weirdos, keep listening. Hour 2 of the Weird Darkness radio show is coming up. Mysterious phone calls from the dead make for excellent horror movie plots. But this eerie phenomenon also happens in real life. Many stories of unexplained phone calls show that they're not just a result of grief-stricken imaginings. Although people try to explain these odd occurrences by blaming malfunctioning cell phone technology, reports of phantom phone calls go back to at least 1967. Charles E. Peck's MetroLink death is one of the most prominent and creepy stories about phone calls from dead people. Peck was killed instantly in a horrible 2008 MetroLink commercial train accident. But before anyone knew he was dead, his family members received 35 calls from his phone for several hours following the disaster. Whether it was due to phone damage or the train rider reaching out from beyond, we may never know. But it's nice to believe that even those who have passed are only a phone call away. 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 this hour, an 11-year-old boy experiences the extraterrestrial in his own backyard. Floating white mist, pink orbs, ghosts and more, and they all reside in Fiddletown, California. A museum has hung a chair from the ceiling specifically to keep people from sitting in it. Not because they're afraid it'll break, but because they're afraid the chair will kill you. But first, Charles E. Peck was killed instantly in a horrible 2008 Metro Link commercial train accident. But before anyone knew he was dead, his family members received 35 calls from his phone for several hours following the disaster. 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 in with you. Recommending Weird Darkness to others helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show. And while you're listening, be sure to follow Weird Darkness on Facebook and Twitter and visit WeirdDarkness.com to find the daily Weird Darkness podcast, watch streaming B horror movies and horror hosts 24-7 for free. Listen to free audiobooks that I've narrated. Send me your own true story of something paranormal that's happened to you or someone you know and more. You can find it all at WeirdDarkness.com. Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness. Although rescue teams were excited because the phone calls might mean that Charles Peck was still alive, that wasn't the case. They discovered Peck's body in the train wreckage an hour after the last phone call was placed. Peck's fiance, Andrea Katz, recalled, rescuers were so excited. They had this incredible adrenaline rush and thought that they could possibly find another survivor. We gave them a description and they spent the next couple of hours looking for him. They did end up finding him and they said that he died immediately on impact and there was no way he could have been calling us. The coroner was unable to find signs that Peck had survived for any amount of time after the crash, confirming the calls were not made while he was still alive. Andrea Katz heard about the crash on the radio as she was driving to pick up Peck from the train station and was relieved when she received a call from his phone. Other friends and family members of Katz were in the same position. After the crash, Peck's phone placed calls to his son, sister, brother, and stepmother. In all, about 35 calls were made during the 11 hours that followed the deadly accident. The final call from Peck's phone came at 3.28 am, about one hour before his body was found. At first, Peck's loved ones were excited when they saw his name pop up on their phone screens. As the calls continued, they had hoped that he was still alive. Unfortunately, they were unable to actually talk to him. All they heard when they answered his calls was static. When they tried calling him back, Peck's phone went straight to voicemail. Andrea Katz used the opportunity to communicate with her fiancee and to let him know she was with him no matter what. We were yelling in the phone, hang in there baby, we're going to get you out, you're going to be okay, she remembers. Other people who claimed to have received phone calls from the dead also report hearing static or a voice that seemed very faint and far away. Before rescue workers discovered Charles Peck's body in the wreckage, they had no reason not to believe the call's place to his family meant he was still alive. As it became clear they probably weren't going to find any survivors in the crash, their rescue efforts turned into a mission to recover bodies. But when yet another call came from Peck's phone, they decided to trace it to find his location. Rescuers returned to searching the first car hoping to find him alive and possibly trapped under some rubble. Unfortunately, they discovered his body and knew that he died on impact. Police never revealed if Peck's phone was ever found. Charles Peck was a passenger on a Metro Link commuter train traveling through the San Fernando Valley in California on September 12, 2008. It collided head first with a Union Pacific freight train at 83 miles per hour and the conductor failed to stop at a red light. The impact was devastating and of the 225 people aboard the Metro Link, at least 25 died and more than 100 were injured. The engineer sitting at the front of the train was killed instantly as well. The freight train was carrying only three crew members but it was demolished in the accident. The disaster later became known as the Chatsworth train crash and is still considered the worst commuter train accident in the history of California. Investigators believe the conductor of the Metro Link train was responsible for the crash after he failed to stop at a red light. The commuter train was running on the same track as the freight train and was directly in its path. It is likely that the conductor was distracted by his phone and was too busy texting to notice his mistake. After the disaster, two teams came forward and admitted they were communicating with the conductor immediately before the crash. They were interested in his job and were texting him questions about his work. The last text sent from the conductor's phone happened 22 seconds before the impact. 49-year-old Charles Peck worked in customer service for Delta Airlines. He was considering leaving his job at Salt Lake City International Airport for a job at Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles to be closer to his fiancée, Andrea Katz. Although they were ready to get married, the fact that they didn't live in the same state was an issue for the couple. On his way back from the interview, the disaster occurred. Katz was on her way to pick him up from the train station when she heard news of the accident on the radio. Peck had three children from a previous marriage, one of whom was on his afterlife phone call list. Anyone who has ever butt-dialed a number knows it's possible to make a phone call accidentally. Perhaps an object was sitting on top of Peck's phone, causing it to make random calls. The phone was most likely severely damaged during the disaster, so it may have malfunctioned. Peck's broken phone may have called his speed dial list. When this story was posted on Reddit, several users shared their own creepy stories of malfunctioning phones and posted eerie phone activity stories from online forums. The possibility that Peck's phone suffered some other technical issue should not be overlooked. Although rescue workers were able to locate Charles Peck's body successfully, his phone was never discovered. It's possible that it was completely destroyed in the disaster or damaged to the point of malfunctioning, but why it made calls to several of the people Peck was closest to, we may never know. Perhaps he was reaching out to tell his loved ones not to worry. Maybe he took it with him into the afterlife like ghosts who are seen in the clothes they were wearing when they died. Since the rescue team was able to trace the calls to locate his body, maybe Peck was simply leading them to it. No one will ever know for sure, so this story may forever remain a mystery. Intrigued by the many stories of people receiving phone calls from the dead, psychic investigators D. Scott Rogo and Raymond Bayless did research and published a book about their findings in 1979. By presenting several cases with documented evidence, the two men discovered there were at least three categories of phantom calls. Their research included those who received phone calls from people they didn't know died, people who called and spoke with others who had already died, or in a few rare cases, a deceased person reached out to them through another person who was living. Apparently dead people making phone calls is not uncommon. It's also interesting to note this study took place before many people owned cell phones, so many modern technical malfunctions can be ruled out. While some people have reported seeing the name or number of a dead acquaintance appear on their caller ID, others claim to have spoken to someone they later discover passed away before the call was made. Crystal S. shared, I was at my mom's house and I was calling a friend who lived nearby. She was at her cousin's house so I looked up the number in the phone book. It was the only Owens in the phone book so I knew it was my friend's cousin's number. I called and it didn't even ring but an old lady answered. She said, Hello, I asked is Amelia there. Amelia is my friend Jessica's cousin. The old lady said, No dear, Amelia isn't here. I should be expecting her any minute now. So I thought nothing of it and hung up. I told Jessica about it and she said, Amelia's grandma is dead. And we were there all day long. We were sitting right by the phone. It never rang all day. Mary B remembers, I made a sales call to Pennsylvania. It started just like any other call. Yes, I need to speak to Mr. or Mrs. B, the woman identified herself as Mrs. B, and I continued on with the normal sales call. She seemed very interested and asked a lot of questions but when I came to the decision making part she quickly stopped me insisting that I had to talk to her husband. Her objections were the same every time that I attempted to close. She also quickly pointed out that since his retirement he spent a great deal of time fishing and was not easy to get in touch with and it would be best to try early in the morning before he left for his favorite hobby. On the callback the husband did answer the phone. I introduced myself in the normal fashion and explained that I had been talking to his wife the previous day and she had suggested that I speak to him. You can imagine the shock and horror when he stated to me distraught, lady, I don't know who you are talking to but my wife died and I'm not in any mood to speak to anyone. And with that he quickly hung up the phone. People who have passed on aren't limited to phone calls or hauntings in the modern age. They often use email and social media sites such as Facebook to contact their loved ones. For instance, Jack Fries died unexpectedly from a heart arrhythmia only to contact his friends through email six months later. Fries' friends reported emails sent from his account that included details from some of their last conversations. One friend tried replying but never received a response. People sometimes claim their dead friends have liked their posts on Facebook or sent them messages like the ones a girl named Emily allegedly sent to her boyfriend two years after her death. Up next on Weird Darkness, it's the story of a strange UFO encounter in Gulfport, Mississippi. Coming up, this is my first time submitting something like this let alone telling this story. There are only a few people that have heard this story mostly due to me being afraid of being thought of as crazy or people not believing that this story is true. In the early 90s, when I was about 11 years old, I lived in Gulfport, Mississippi. On one particular night, my parents and I were returning home, roughly 6pm from having dinner at one of the recently developed casinos. Once home, mom and dad headed inside while I decided to play outside a bit. As I was pointlessly hitting a tree with a stick, as most boys do, I heard a humming sound behind me. I turned around to see where the sound was coming from and I noticed something in the sky. As I focused my eyes in the dark, I froze in terror. As I realized it was some sort of aircraft hovering maybe 50 feet directly over my house, it was oval in shape with lights that mimicked chasing lights, the type you get for a Christmas tree that started on each end of the oval, then met on either side in the middle and then back again. The ship's underside was shiny black but that only reflected light, not images. It was completely still in the sky like it was observing me. I didn't know what to do. If I ran away, it was sure to catch up with me and the other option was I would have to run toward the ship to get to my house, which was the closest shelter. Adrenaline kicked in and I ran toward the house as fast as I could, all the while keeping an eye on the ship. I burst in the door, turned around and locked it. I looked around and my parents were both watching TV. Eyes glued to it. They didn't even raise their gaze when I came in. This was not like them at all. I frantically explained to them the situation outside but still, neither of them lifted their gaze from the TV, just brushing it off as it was probably an airplane or something. This was very odd behavior from my parents. It was like they were hypnotized or something. My parents were very attentive, loving people and normally in any other situation, especially if they saw I was visually distressed, they would be concerned about my well-being and help me. Ten minutes later, I was able to convince my father to step outside but of course it was long gone by then. Years later, in 2006, I was having a casual conversation with the father of my then girlfriend about science fiction and he mentioned that he witnessed a UFO once when he was young and ever since he was obsessed with stories of encounters. So this gave me an opportunity to share my story. At the end of my story, he mentioned that there were many similar UFO sightings in the South in the early 90s of the same type of craft that I witnessed. Has anyone heard or experienced something similar to this? Welcome back to Weird Darkness. I'm Darren Merler. Have you signed up for the Weird Darkness email newsletter? It'll keep you up to date on what's happening with the podcast when our next Weirdo Watch Party is going to take place. You can see when the next sale in the Weird Darkness store is scheduled and more. You can sign up for the Weird Darkness email newsletter for free at WeirdDarkness.com. Coming up, a museum has hung a chair from the ceiling, specifically to keep people from sitting in it. Not because they're afraid it'll break but because they're afraid that the chair might kill you. That's coming up in a few minutes, but first, floating white mist, pink orbs, ghosts, and more. And they all reside in Fiddletown, California. Something draws me and my wife Deanna Jackson Stinson to Fiddletown. We received all kinds of reports of haunted activity at Fiddletown, but you're probably wondering where is Fiddletown? Fiddletown is about 45 minutes away from Sacramento, close to the town of Jackson, California. Fiddletown was settled in 1849 by Missourians who came to California because of the California Gold Rush. Fiddletown had its share of mining camps and trading centers. In the 1860 census, the Chinese community in Fiddletown was up to 2000. Fiddletown got its name because of Dry Creek. Dry Creek would run dry in the summer months, and the miners basically didn't work in the summertime because they had no water from Dry Creek. People say they just fiddled around. Henceforth was born the town's name. A local citizen was embarrassed by the name and lobbied to have the name changed to Oletta, the name of his daughter in 1878. The residents didn't have it and changed the name back to Fiddletown. Fiddletown has one notable resident. His name is Leon Whitey Thompson. Whitey was a former inmate at Alcatraz and an author. Nice place to stop at is the Chu Key Store Museum, state-registered landmark number 35. This museum was once a herb store during the Gold Rush. It's now a museum. The store was built by Yi Feng Chang. He received his 15 minutes of fame for saving the life of then-governor Leland Stanford's wife from pulmonary disorder. Mr. Chang saved her with his herbs. Now that you've got the history of Fiddletown, let's talk about the paranormal activity that happens in this historic town. Whitney Collins of Jackson, California says that while walking through the town with her husband, she came upon a floating white mist. The floating white mist followed them for about 300 yards. If they turned a corner, the mist would turn a corner. The fort vanished and actually tapped Whitney on her shoulder. Other visitors have seen pinkish type of orbs going in and out of bushes. Matt Tyler of Copperopolis says that his grandmother once told him they are pinkies. Matt's grandmother says that the pinkies, a type of fairy, was brought to Missouri and finally to Fiddletown by August Templar, a miner. August captured the pinkies in Ireland and it is said if you capture a pinkie, it will bring you good luck. August was able to gain a considerable amount of wealth by mining gold. After he hid an amount that he felt comfortable with, he then retreated back to Missouri. Some residents have made claim that they've seen the ghost of Leon Whitey Thompson walking around in the open fields. Whitey looks like he is looking for something in the fields and at times looks frustrated. While watching Whitey, he will dissipate into nothingness. Meg Matista claims that during fall people will claim that they see a large black dog. It looks similar to a Rottweiler. A big black dog will bark and sometimes howl. Meg, while visiting, says that on one particular night she was scared to death because this big black dog was viciously chasing her son. When her son fell down and he thought the dog was going to be on top of him, he looked up and there was no dog around. Some residents claim that they hear muffled, disembodied voices around the Chew Key Store Museum. Some other residents claim that they had their hair pulled and even been touched at the Chew Key Store Museum. One resident said that while walking around the building, an entity pushed him. He could feel the entity's hands on his chest. As he continued to walk, it pushed him again, but this time he felt one hand on his shoulder pushing. The third and final push was a hand to the face. He thinks he may have provoked a spirit because he was complaining to his wife about driving to Fiddletown and that he was not impressed by the Chew Key Store Museum. He feels he may have insulted the ghost that hangs out at the museum. He even says it could have been the ghost of Yi Feng Cheng. The hunter, who does not want to be identified, claims that while hunting squirrels near North Fork Dry Creek near Viddletown, he came across what he thought was a white mist. He just got done cursing a bit because he missed his shot on two squirrels. The white mist approached him and then disappeared. After the white mist disappeared, he was attacked by flies. Flies started landing on his arms, neck, face and head. He got so bad, he ran away from the area and jumped into his truck. The flies came through an open window and some of the flies remained in his truck as he drove away. With all the reports of haunted activity in Fiddletown, my wife and I will be investigating Fiddletown and interviewing some of the residents, and we'll see for ourselves what is truly going on in Fiddletown, California. If you visit the small jewel of a museum in Thursk, you'll see the rather strange sight of an oak chair hung from the ceiling in one of the display areas. The chair was suspended at the explicit request of its owner to prevent anyone from ever sitting on it, including maintenance and cleaners. The museum has never broken its promise in over 30 years despite numerous requests and even the threat of legal action. Local legend has it that the chair belonged to Thomas Busby, a thug, thief and drunkard who lived in North Yorkshire in the latter part of the 1600s. Busby married Elizabeth, the daughter of a small-time petty crook, Daniel Awadi, who lived near the village of Kirby Whisk. Awadi had purchased a farm after moving to the area from Leeds. His house, which he called Dannity Hall, was ideal for Awadi, enabling him to continue with his illegal coining activities and relative seclusion. It was even reported that Awadi had built within the house a hidden chamber which was connected to the cellar via a secret passageway. Busby, who was also the original owner of an inn near Sandhutton and just three miles from Dannity Hall, became Awadi's partner in crime. The details of what happened that fetal last day of Awadi's life are vague. Awadi and Busby may have argued earlier that day, but over what is not known? It could have been something to do with Elizabeth, the coining business or almost anything else. The relationship was known to be far from harmonious, with Busby often in a foul mood with Awadi for some reason or another. What is clear is that later that day, a drunken and volatile Busby returned to his inn only to find Awadi waiting for him, threatening to take Elizabeth home with him. Busby's mood only blackened when he saw Awadi sitting in his favorite chair. Whatever their second argument of the day was over, Busby forcibly removed Awadi from the chair and threw him out. That night, Busby, still seething, grabbed a hammer, stormed over to Dannity Hall and bludgeoned Awadi to death. Busby then tried to hide his handiwork in the woods. Concern over Awadi's sudden disappearance led to a local search of the area being made. On finding the body, Busby was arrested at the inn and charged with murder. In the summer of 1702, Busby was tried and sentenced to death for murder. His punishment was to be jibbeted. In other words, hung from a jibbet, his body dipped in tar and his remains displayed on a stoop or post attached to the jibbet in full view of his inn. The inn was soon after renamed the Busby Stoop Inn, a name which it retained until it closed in 2012. It is here that the story veers away from historical certainty and moves into the realms of local folklore. One version recounts how Busby was granted his last wish, which was to have a final drink at his own inn and sit in his favorite chair. On leaving the inn to make his final journey to the execution site, Busby cursed the chair, declaring that death would come shortly to anyone who sat in it. Another version tells how Busby drunkenly shouted out the curse whilst being taken to the jibbet to be hung. Whichever way you look at it, Busby was determined that even from beyond the grave, he would never allow anyone to enjoy sitting in his beloved chair. Busby's spirit was believed to have haunted his old pub as well as the area where he was jibbeted, but it is his precious chair, the focus of his curse, which became irrevocably linked to his revengeful spirit. According to local legend, this seemingly innocuous piece of furniture has been responsible for more deaths than most serial killers. One estimate puts the number of its victims at over 60. The first reported death, alleged to be associated with the death chair, is that of a chimney sweep who, along with a friend, sat in the chair whilst having a drink one evening in 1894. The sweep never made it home that night, being completely inebriated, he laid down on the road to sleep. The next morning, his body was found hanging from the post next to the jibbet. His death was ruled as a suicide, but in 1914, the friend with whom the chimney sweep had spent his last hours with admitted on his deathbed to having robbed and murdered his friend. During the Second World War, the pub became a popular drinking spot with RCAF airmen. The airmen would go at each other to sit in the chair. Those that took up the challenge never returned from their missions. In 1968, a couple of years before Tony Urshaw took over the running of the pub, he overheard two airmen dare each other to sit in the chair. They both did. Returning to the airfield, their car left the road and crashed into a tree. They both died on the way to the hospital. Through the early 1970s, the chair seemed to claim a number of victims, including a cleaning lady who was diagnosed with a brain tumor after knocking into the chair, a number of cyclists and motorcyclists who suffered fatal road accidents, a hitchhiker who was run over after having spent two nights at the pub, and a local man who died of a heart attack shortly after sitting in the condemned chair. A group of builders having a drink at the pub cajoled the youngest of their group into sitting on the chair. Back at the site, the man fell through the roof of the building and landed on the concrete ground below. This death proved to be the final straw for Urshaw and he banished the chair to the cellar. A deliveryman from the brewery was in the cellar one day when he decided to try out the chair. He commented to Urshaw that it was far too comfortable to be left down there. He was killed shortly afterwards when his van went off the road. Soon after, Urshaw must have decided that the chair, despite being a profitable tourist attraction, was too dangerous to keep any longer. In 1978, Urshaw donated it to the Thurst Museum. There are so many questions that have been left unanswered and probably are unanswerable. Did Busby really commit murder over a chair? Could any person truly hold such deep affection for a carved piece of wood? Is Busby's revengeful and jealous spirit still attacking anyone who dares sit in his seat? Or was the murder over something far more important, something which we will never know about? Is the chair really haunted? Or was it a money-making gimmick? Is the chair just really an extremely unlucky piece of furniture? Is this chair really the same chair that Busby fought over? Many people believe the deaths were just an unlucky coincidence. Another explanation could be simply that the majority of those brave enough to defy the curse were just risk-takers prepared to push their luck. It is interesting how many of the deaths happened on roads and thousands of men of Bomber Command never returned from sorties and were simply unlucky. On one hand, it would be intriguing to test the chair, to see if the legend about this unusual haunting is really true. But on the other hand, sometimes it is better not to know. Weird Darkness continues in just a moment. Looks like we might have just enough time to get in a call from the dark line. This is Jacob from Morgan. Many years I spent carpet cleaning, going to people's houses. Also, many vacant houses and different businesses have been in a lot of places where there is lights going on and off, doors closing. I even found one house that looked like somebody had just left a vacant house just before I got there. The shower was used, loaf of bread was on the table, cold drink here was on which is strange because it was August. It seemed like somebody just walked out right before I got there. But anyways, I used to clean this hotel every week. I used to go there. I heard stories about one of the rooms there that a toddler had died. One of the parents rolled over on them in their sleep, suffocated them. Ever since then they always had different things that happened in that room. You know, people would end up there. They didn't know how they got into that room. They're not on the registry. One day I was there. I guess somebody from the hotel got asked to just look up the number for the police station. That person looked it up. The next thing, you know, they didn't remember calling but there's six cop cars coming there with their lights on and they don't know how they got a call. But they said somebody was in there with a knife threatening to kill themselves. They get there and the cops are going, what's going on? You know, the people don't even have a knife. They're sitting there smoking marijuana. But I mean, that's legal in the space. So they're like, what are we supposed to do? Then another time I was there and I asked one of the maids, hey, have you ever had any experiences in this room? And she goes, oh no. She goes, I don't mess with that stuff. She goes, if I come across that, I'm gone. And so we were just casually talking whatever, you know, and then as I was standing there, I says, hey, is there anybody in here with you? She goes, no, why? I go, the light in the bathroom keeps going on and off behind you. That was the last day I seen her. I felt bad for that. But it is what it is. And then the next week I went up to the next maid and I was like, hey, have you had any issues with this room? And she's like, oh no, never had any problems here. But I'll let you know if I come across anything. Okay. So I went on about my business and went upstairs and as I'm walking down the stairs with the equipment and she came up to me and she goes, you know how I told you nothing happened there? Yeah, she goes, well, I went to go turn off the TV as I was working in there and it wouldn't turn off. So I unplugged it and it stayed on. It stayed on as long as I was in the room. And so I ran out and slammed the door. She goes, I'm not going to that room again. And I felt bad for her bringing that to her attention. But that place, one person gasped themselves, another person hung themselves, another person shot themselves in different rooms and weird things have always gone on there. And you hear stories from the employees. And you know, that's just the stuff I encountered for 12 years going to different places and by myself. And I'm in there having things, you know, I had a ghost talk to me one time and asked me questions. I had to be in there by myself. And that's the thing though is when you're in there working, nobody else is around, but you got to continue on. Yeah, many stories, but that's kind of everything in a nutshell. I enjoy your podcast. Have a good day. Thanks for listening. If you missed any part of tonight's show or if you'd like to hear it again, you can subscribe to the podcast, where you'll hear not only tonight's radio show, but also any extra sudden death overtime content I prepared that I didn't have time to fit in because I went over time. And if you're one of my patrons, you get a commercial free copy of tonight's show immediately after it's over. You can become a patron and or subscribe to the podcast at WeirdDarkness.com or just search for Weird Darkness wherever you listen to podcasts. You can follow the show on Facebook and Twitter at Weird Darkness. And please tell others about the show who love the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters or unsolved mysteries like you do. Doing that helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show. If you'd like to be a part of the show, you can call into the dark line toll-free to tell your own true paranormal story or a story that's happened to you or someone you know, just like what you heard just a moment ago. That phone number is toll-free 877-277-5944. Again, 1-877-277-5944. You can also email me anytime at Darren at WeirdDarkness.com. Darren is D-A-R-R-E-N. UFO in my front yard was written by Weirdo family member Blake Lacy, so thanks for listening, Blake. Haunted Fiddletown is by paranormal investigator and Weirdo family member Paul Dale Roberts. This man kept calling his loved ones, even though he'd been dead for hours, was written by Aaron McCann for Graveyard Shift at Ranker.com and the deathly stoop chair of Thomas Busby was posted at the Haunted Palace blog. 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. Hebrews 13, verse 5, keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have because God has said, never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. And a final thought, people don't always say, I love you. Sometimes it sounds more like, be safe, did you eat? I made you this. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness. Don't go anywhere, Weirdos, because sudden death over time is up next. Since it had been lost and no one had been inside for years, it could be argued that perhaps Warner was busying himself in a manner similar to an occupant of the TARDIS, bouncing from era to era, while Hannah and her family were either entombed or buried someplace else entirely. Webster also claimed that the plans for the tomb were missing, which was rarely the case with other monuments in Brompton. The story bubbled to the surface periodically over the years. In 2003, an album cover by musician Drew Mulholland depicted the tomb and its eerie structure, which led to some renewed interest. In 2011, Coates, a musician with a band named The Real Tuesday Weld, came across mention of the theory and was intrigued. He wrote a post on his blog positing that the corduroy tomb was not a means of time travel but that Warner had the technology to teleport torpedoes and that he later adopted that framework to develop a series of teleportation chambers in and around the Magnificent Seven, a group of London's historic private cemeteries. It was a way to move around the city, Coates says. Warner and Bonomy worked together on ancient Egyptian occult theory and science. I posted that on my blog and it started to take on a life of its own. Coates' premise is a proper study in how an urban legend can proliferate. With the key still missing, it was impossible to disprove the teleportation idea with any real precision and the mythology allowed for a great deal of speculation. Was Warner, who died in 1848, killed because he knew too much about revolutionary technology? Why did the tomb take four years to complete following Hannah's death, which meant she didn't actually enter it until 1853? Was Hannah duped by the two to fund what she might have believed would be a pioneering mode of travel? It became, Coates says, one of the myths of the city. In 2015, The Independent ran a feature describing his belief contrasting it with the activities of Hannah Cordoy descendant Ray Godson, who simply wanted access to the tomb to pay his respects to his great-great-grandmother. The feature came just as Coates was busy organizing visitor groups that could come with the cemetery's permission hear the legend of Cordoy Bonomy and Warner while standing near the tomb in the middle of the night. I fell in love with the idea. Vanessa Wolfe, a professional storyteller based in London who hosts the gatherings, tells Mental Floss, I must credit Stephen Coates. I contacted him after hearing about the myth and told him I really wanted to tell the story. He said to go for it. Wolfe hosted the first event in 2015 and has done several more since. The first time we were absolutely overwhelmed with bookings, she says. In the story presentation, Wolfe tells of a barking mad inventor named Warner who connects with Bonomy and hatches an idea for a teleportation network. Hannah, she relates, had an interest in the occult and unexplained phenomena. There's a huge interest in the story in London, she says. I think people are just interested in the fabric of places where they live. This is a story rooted in the secret, in the occult, but no one is quite sure what actually happened. It can be difficult to corner Coates for a precise answer on whether he believes his fanciful hypothesis about the resting place of Hannah Cordaway. When initially contacted for an interview, he agreed while mentioning that he came up with the whole teleportation system idea as the background to a short story. In conversation, he presented the teleportation springboard as a way for people to make up their own mind about what the tomb might contain. A brother too later, he expresses doubt that Hannah's daughters might still be entombed there, before wondering whether the mausoleum might be home to a secret subterranean chamber. It's all alternative theory based on historical fact, he says. Reached by telephone, it's hard not to imagine a slight expression of amusement crossing his face. Performance art or not, the attention has increased awareness over the cemetery's attempts to secure funds for a site-wide renovation. Corday's tomb was partially spruced up in 2009 following aging, cross-coated chunks of granite sloughing off the side with costs partially covered by a family trust. When asked to comment on whether the midnight vigils and site seers have been disruptive, Brompton officials refer questions right back to Coates, who appears to have become their unofficial spokesman on all things involving molecular disruption and Egyptian time hopping. It's not something they promote themselves, Coates says. They're very welcoming of people who come if they're showing respect. The conservation efforts have been going on for years and the events help that. At the last Coates arranged show, tickets went for $8-10 with a quarter of the proceeds donated to the cemetery's rebuilding efforts. How many people will visit once a key is made, that's another question. Both Coates and a Brompton cemetery historian named Arthur Tate say that efforts are currently underway to fabricate a replacement that would allow Hanna's relatives access to the tomb. After an initial flush of curiosity, wouldn't the presumably ordinary interior dampen interest? Opening it may not establish it's not a time machine, Coates hedges, it may just deepen the mystery. For Wolf, who still has regular engagements hosting visitors near the tomb, seeing a key may be a letdown. It's much nicer in a way, not having it, she says. It's really all in the minds of the audience. It's a slab of rock. The real magic is in their minds. Usually, while Wolf normally gets very positive notices from those attending her performances, one reviewer on Instagram does stick out. It said something like, Oh, I was really excited, but then I got really disappointed. She didn't even open it. Coming up May 19th through the 21st, it is my biggest horror convention of the year. It's Spooky Empire in Orlando, Florida. This is an event you'll want to travel to no matter where you live in North America. Vendors, costume and cosplay contests, artists of creepy constructions, a tattoo festival with daily awards for the best tattoos, but most of all, non-stop Q&A sessions and autograph signings, with numerous horror celebrities from your favorite movies and TV shows all three days, including Danny Lloyd, who played the young Danny Torrance and The Shining, butch Patrick, who was Eddie Munster from The Munsters, Paul Wiley in the cast from The Terrifier films, Alyssa Sutherland from The New Evil Dead Rise, Lynn Shea from Insidious and Nightmare on Elm Street, Heather Monorazo from Scream, and many, many more. They're even having me interview and conduct the Q&A for the Godzilla King and the Munsters panel. Plus, in her only US appearance all year from Stranger Things, Millie Bobby Brown is there on Saturday. And immediately after Millie's time on stage, I'll be on that same stage talking about podcasting, how I create character voices, and I'll also be reading Edgar Allan Poe's Telltale Heart Live in front of the crowd, along with my own Q&A afterwards. It's spooky empire in Orlando, Florida, May 19th, 20th, and 21st. Get the details on the Roadtrip page at WeirdDarkness.com. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash Roadtrip. 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 slash listen.