 Ads heard during the podcast that are not in my voice are placed by third party agencies outside of my control and should not imply an endorsement by Weird Darkness or myself. Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and is intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised. Welcome Weirdos, I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained. Coming up in this episode... Her gravestone, decorated with a cross and flowers reads, Geraldine S. Mullins, beloved wife and best friend. It could also be added, a victim of a crime that will likely never be solved. It was on November 15th, 1966 that Point Pleasant West Virginia had its first experience with what later became known as the Mothman. Many believe it was either the cause of a horrific bridge collapse or perhaps a harbinger of the doom that was soon to come. The mystery remains to this day, as do some of the eerie happenings in the area. Most everyone is familiar with the King James Bible, but did you know that King James also wrote a book on demonology during the witch hunts and trials? And 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson was found dead in his high school's gym, but the circumstances of his death have brought more questions than answers. Was Kendrick's death a tragic accident or cold-blooded murder? If you're new here, welcome to the show, and if you're already a member of this Weirdo family, please take a moment and invite someone else to listen. Recommending Weird Darkness to others helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show. And while you're listening, be sure to check out WeirdDarkness.com where you can find the show on Facebook and Twitter, and you can also join the Weird Darkness Weirdo's Facebook group. Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness. On the night of November 15, 1966, two young married couples had a very strange encounter as they drove past an abandoned TNT plant near Point Pleasant, West Virginia. The couples spotted two large eyes that were attached to something that was shaped like a man but bigger, maybe six or seven feet tall, and that had big wings folded against its back. When the creature moved toward the plant door, the couples panicked and spat away. Moments later, they saw the same creature on a hillside near the road. It spread its wings and rose into the air, following along with their car, which by now was traveling at over 100 miles per hour. That bird kept right up with us, said one of the members of the group. They told Deputy Sheriff Millard Hallstead that it followed them down Highway 62 and right to the Point Pleasant city limits, and they would not be the only ones to report the creature that night. Another group of four witnesses claimed to see the bird three different times. Another sighting had even more bizarre results. At about 10.30 p.m. on that same evening, Newell Partridge, a local building contractor who lived in Salem about 90 miles from Point Pleasant, was watching television when the screen suddenly went dark. He stated that a weird pattern filled the screen, and then he heard a loud, whining sound from outside. Partridge's dog Bandit began to howl out on the front porch, and Newell went out to see what was going on. When he walked outside, he saw his dog Bandit facing the hay barn about 150 yards from the house. Puzzled, Partridge turned a flashlight in that direction and spotted two red circles that looked like eyes or bicycle reflectors. Bandit, an experienced hunting dog and protective of his territory, shot off across the yard in pursuit of those glowing eyes. Partridge called for him to stop, but the animal paid no attention. His owner turned and went back into the house for his gun, but then was too scared to go back outside again. He slept that night with his gun propped up next to the bed. The next morning he realized Bandit had disappeared. The dog had still not shown up two days later when Partridge read in the newspaper about the sightings in Point Pleasant that same night. One statement he read in the newspaper chilled him to the bone. Roger Scarbury, one member of a group who spotted the strange bird at the TNT plant, said that as they entered the city limits of Point Pleasant, they saw the body of a large dog lying on the side of the road. A few minutes later, on the way back out of town, the dog was gone. They even stopped to look for the body, knowing they had just passed it a few minutes before. Newell Partridge immediately thought of his dog Bandit, who was never seen again. The next day, November 16, a press conference was held in the county courthouse and the couples from the TNT plant sighting repeated their story. Deputy Halstead, who had known the couples all their lives, took them very seriously. They've never been in any trouble, he told investigators, and had no reason to doubt their stories. Many of the reporters who were present for the weird recounting felt the same way. The news of the strange sightings spread around the world. The press dubbed the odd flying creature Mothman after a character from the popular Batman television series of the day. The remote and abandoned TNT plant became the lair of the Mothman in the months ahead, and it could not have picked a better place to hide in. The area was made up of several hundred acres of woods and large concrete domes where high explosives were stored during World War II. A network of tunnels honeycombed the area and made it possible for the creature to apparently move around without being seen. In addition to this man-made labyrinth, the area was also comprised of the Meclintic Wildlife Station, a heavily forested animal preserve filled with woods, artificial ponds, and steep ridges and hills. Much of the property was almost inaccessible, and without a doubt, Mothman could have hidden for weeks or months and remained totally unseen. The only people who ever wandered there were hunters and fishermen and the local teenagers who used the rutted dirt roads of the preserve as lovers' lanes. Very few homes could be found in the region, but one dwelling belonged to the Ralph Thomas family. On November 16th, they spotted a funny red light in the sky that moved and hovered above the TNT plant. It wasn't an airplane, Mrs. Marcella Bennett, a friend of the Thomas family, said, but we couldn't figure out what it was. Mrs. Bennett drove to the Thomas house a few minutes later and got out of the car with her baby. Suddenly, a figure stirred near the automobile. It seemed as though it had been lying down, she later recalled. It rose up slowly from the ground, a big gray thing, bigger than a man with terrible glowing eyes. Mrs. Bennett was so horrified that she dropped her little girl. She quickly recovered, picked up her child, and ran to the house. The family locked everyone inside, but hysteria gripped them as the creature shuffled onto the porch and peered into the windows. The police were summoned, but the Mothman had vanished by the time the authorities had arrived. Mrs. Bennett would not recover from the incident for months and was in fact so distraught that she sought medical attention to deal with her anxieties. She was tormented by frightening dreams and later told investigators she believed the creature had visited her own home as well. She said that she had often heard a keening sound like a woman screaming near her isolated home on the edge of Point Pleasant. Many would come to believe that the sightings of Mothman, as well as UFO sightings, and encounters with men in black in the area which occurred over the course of the months that followed, were all related. For over a year, strange happenings continued in the area. Researchers, investigators, and monster hunters descended on the area and it was said that at least 100 people personally witnessed the creature between November 1966 and November 1967. According to their reports, the creature stood between 5 and 7 feet tall, was wider than a man and shoveled on human-like legs. Its eyes were set near the top of the shoulders and had bat-like wings that glided rather than flapped when it flew. Strangely, though, it was able to ascend straight up like a helicopter. Witnesses also described its murky skin as being either gray or brown and it emitted a humming sound when it flew. The Mothman was apparently incapable of speech and gave off a screeching sound. Witnesses Bennett stated that it sounded like a woman screaming. The Mothman was probably last seen in late November 1967, but the story of weird happenings and Point Pleasant had not yet ended. At around 5 p.m. on December 15, 1967, the 700-foot Silver Bridge linking Point Pleasant to Ohio suddenly collapsed while filled with rush-hour traffic. Dozens of vehicles plunged into the dark waters of the Ohio River and 46 people were killed. The collapse of the Silver Bridge made headlines all over the country. The local citizens were stunned with horror and disbelief and for many, the tragedy is still being felt even today. There were many people, perhaps most people in the area, who believed that the Mothman sightings, the bizarre events and the reports of strange lights were somehow connected to the collapse of the bridge. Some saw the earlier events as a warning or premonition of the deadly accident to come. Others believed that the Mothman was directly responsible for the horror. A few even insist the creature was seen near the bridge just minutes before the collapse occurred. So who or what was the Mothman and what was behind the strange events in Point Pleasant? Whatever the creature may have been, it seems clear that Mothman was no hoax. There were simply too many credible witnesses who saw something. But what he was and why the region was and still is plagued by strange anomalies remains a mystery. When Weird Darkness returns, 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson was found dead in his high school's gym. But the circumstances of his death have brought more questions than answers. Was Kendrick's death a tragic accident or cold-blooded murder? That story is up next. Yep, I guess so. Mistress Malicious and her Mistress Peace Theater will keep us entertained throughout the film as we watch this caveman teenager with great hair go into the jungle to fight prehistoric monsters like, um, dogs and an armadillo. Whatever, they're prehistoric creatures. Far more terrible than any you've seen. Our Weirdo Watch Party is always free to watch online, so grab your popcorn, candy and soda and jump into the fun and even get involved in the live chat as we watch the movie. Plus, during this Weirdo Watch Party, I'll be giving away a creepy crate to one lucky winner full of scary surprises like horror collectibles, true crime-themed accessories, books, terrifying trinkets and more, with some weird darkness swag added in. You won't know what's in the creepy crate until you open it. Strengthening his courage, his daring, his dreams. And I'll be giving instructions on how to win the creepy crate inside the chat during the movie, so you have to tune in to win. It's Teenage Caveman, Saturday, April 13th, hosted by Mistress Peace Theater. See the awe-inspiring beast in a Teenage Caveman's world. The show begins at 10 p.m. Eastern, 9 p.m. Central, 8 p.m. Mountain and 7 p.m. Pacific. You can watch a trailer for the film and watch horror hosts and schlocky bee movies anytime, day or night on the Monster Channel page at WeirdDarkness.com. Hope to see you on Saturday, April 13th. Imagine this, you're 17 and in high school. As a three-sport athlete, you have aspirations of playing professional football. One day, you decide to stay after school, watch the evening's basketball game. Your parents know where you are. You told them that you'd be home after the game. But you don't go home. In fact, you would never go home ever again. Instead, you would spend your last days in the high school gym. That was the case for Kendrick Johnson on January 10th, 2013. Kendrick Johnson was born October 10th, 1995 in Valdosta, Georgia. He was described as an incredibly loving son. His father described him as being the son everyone wished they could have. He was well-mannered and very respectable and well loved by all. After winter break, Kendrick returned to school like all the other kids. On that second day back, January 10th, 2013, he told his parents he was going to attend a basketball game at the school. He was a good kid, always kept in touch with his parents, never made them worry about where he was or what he was doing, so when he didn't return home that night, his parents knew something was wrong. At around 10pm, his mother Jackie drove down to the school to see if he was still there. After searching for her son for approximately two and a half hours, she knew it was time to go to the police. She filed a missing persons report at around 12.30am on the 11th, but her son was not immediately located. In fact, he wouldn't be found until later that day. The school, Lones High School in Valdosta, Georgia had two gyms. In the old gymnasium, a group of students were preparing for class. In the corner of the gym was a set of wrestling mats, rolled up, standing vertical like they always were. Kids being kids began to play and screw around, climbing up on the top. Then something caught the eye of one of the students. They saw what appeared to be a pair of legs sticking straight up and out of the center of the mat. The student called the coach over and he saw the legs too. The mats were tall though measuring six feet tall by three feet wide and he wouldn't be able to pull the person out, so he laid the mat down and carefully unrolled it. Inside was the deceased body of Kendrick Johnson. The authorities were called immediately as the coach ushered all the students out of the gym. The school was locked down and coincidentally Kendrick's mother Jackie just so happened to be there. She was printing missing person's flyers. Kendrick's face was swollen and unrecognizable. His face appeared as though it had been smashed in. His arms were held stiff straight to his sides. He was wearing a t-shirt and blue jeans but not shoes. He was however found with two pairs of shoes. The first pair was split with one shoe under his head, the other outside the mat. The other pair was tucked underneath his legs. Trying to understand what had happened and why he was in the mat face down three students had an idea. They told investigators it was common for students to store their shoes either behind or under the rolled up mats. Another student told police that he shared a pair of Adidas shoes with Kendrick and that after gym class Kendrick would always go to the mats, jump up and toss the shoes inside the middle of the hole. So it made sense that that was what had happened. After all, Kendrick wasn't wearing any shoes when he was found. Based on that information, authorities hypothesized that Kendrick had fallen into the mat while looking for a shoe and was unable to get out. His official cause of death was from positional asphyxia and the case was ruled an accidental death by the Lones County investigators. Lieutenant Stride Jones who headed up the investigation stated, we never had credible information that indicated this was anything other than an accident. Kendrick's family, however, did not agree, especially when you ask why? Why was he faced down in the mat? If he was trying to reach in to grab a shoe wouldn't his arms have been outstretched instead of plastered to his sides? How did a second pair of shoes get tucked in under his legs? What's more, Kendrick's shoulder width measured 19 inches. The opening in the mats when rolled up all measured 14 inches. How could he have fallen into a hole that he couldn't even fit into? It didn't add up. To illustrate this, Kendrick's father tried it himself. He laid a mat horizontal on the ground, rolled up with that 14 inch opening. He couldn't get in any further than his head. The facts did not line up with the authority's conclusion. The only logical explanation was that Kendrick had been killed then rolled up inside the mat before it was pushed into that upright position. Adding to the mystery, the school had security cameras in the gym that could solve the mystery. CNN gained access to the security footage taken the day Kendrick died, but that only served to create more questions. There were four cameras in the gym. The cameras facing the mats were unfocused and skipped around. All that could be seen in the footage was Kendrick walking into the gym at approximately 109 pm. Another student entered the gym around the same time he did, but it did not appear that they were together. Three minutes later, a group of students walked through the gym, showing no indication that anything strange was going on. The footage never showed Kendrick leaving and he never turned up for his following classes. That seems innocent enough until you consider that an entire hour of video footage was outright missing. CNN hired a professional video surveillance team. They noticed that the files that they had been given were not the original files and that they had been altered in numerous ways. Some of the video files couldn't even be viewed. All four cameras had the same chunk of time missing. So what happened? Footage after the missing hour never showed Kendrick again, so the most vital information, the video that would answer the question, what happened, just happened to be missing. Was that a coincidence? His family didn't think so. Even though their son had already been laid to rest, they hired an independent autopsy. Kendrick's body was exhumed and on June 15, 2013, William R. Anderson with Forensic Dimensions and Heathrow, Florida conducted the autopsy. The first thing he discovered is that all of Kendrick's organs had been removed and his body was stuffed with newspaper. This was not all that unusual if, for some reason, the organs couldn't be returned or had been donated, except that wasn't the case. His parents had no idea their son's organs had not been returned to his body. They contacted the funeral home to find out why their son's organs were missing, and they were informed that the funeral home had received him that way. According to the coroner, the organs were destroyed through natural process and discarded by the prosecutor before the body was sent to Valdosta. In lieu of his organs, the funeral home had to stuff him with newspaper. Kendrick's family filed a complaint with the regulatory body against the funeral home operator. An investigation ensued and the Georgia Secretary of State's office found the funeral home did not follow best practice and that other material was more acceptable than newspaper. Nevertheless, the investigation cleared the funeral home of any wrongdoing. Kendrick's family filed a civil lawsuit against the funeral home seeking monetary damages. Anderson went forward with the autopsy and what he discovered was traces of blunt force trauma to Kendrick's right neck and soft tissues. Based on his findings, he suggested the death was not accidental. On October 13, 2013, the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia announced that his office would open a formal review into Kendrick Johnson's death. The family moved forward and filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Lones High School, the Board of Education, the Superintendent, and the School Principal. The suit alleged that Kendrick was violently assaulted, severely injured, suffered great physical pain and mental anguish and subjected to insult and loss of life. The lawsuit alleged that the defendants were negligent and violated Kendrick's constitutional right to equal protection based on race. It alleged that defendants ignored reports that Kendrick had been repeatedly attacked and harassed by a white student. It alleged that Johnson was attacked on a bus trip 14 months prior to his death. The lawsuit further alleged that another student had a history of provoking and attacking Kendrick at school, stating that the provocations took place in the presence of the coaching staff and employees after his mother complained about previous attacks. The suit also alleged that school officials failed to properly monitor the activities of students throughout all areas of the campus and to maintain a properly functioning video surveillance system. The students were Brandon Bell and his younger brother Brian Bell. Adding to the intrigue, their father Randy Bell was an FBI agent. The boys claimed and have maintained their innocence. They have claimed that they were friends with Kendrick that they genuinely liked him. Other rumors were circulating that Kendrick and Brandon were feuding over a similar love interest. In November 2015, the Department of Justice filed a motion in the civil case to intervene and stay the case. The U.S. Attorney said allowing evidence discovery in the civil suit to continue would have a chilling effect on the federal investigation, which had expanded into investigating possible obstruction and grand jury witness tampering. After the Justice Department's motion was denied, Kendrick's parents dismissed the wrongful death lawsuit, saying that they hoped to refile it after the conclusion of the federal investigation. They were subsequently sued for more than $850,000 in attorney fees and $1 million in defamation damages. In August 2014, $5 million lawsuit was filed against Ebony Magazine after the magazine published a series of articles naming Brandon and Brian Bell as possible suspects in Kendrick's death. The magazine used pseudonyms but was otherwise accurate in their descriptions of the boys, including the fact that their father was an FBI agent. The article used as a source an anonymous email to the Sheriff's office. In their lawsuit, the Bells assert that their sons were not involved in the death or not considered suspects and have been harassed as a result of the publication. In January 2015, Kendrick's family filed a $100 million lawsuit against Randy Bell. In the lawsuit, they claimed that Randy had instructed his boys to murder Kendrick. This lawsuit was later dropped and Georgia Judge Richard Porter ordered the family and their attorney to pay more than $292,000 in legal fees to the defendants, accusing them of fabricating evidence to support their claims. Kendrick's family filed a legal action to open a coroner's inquest into his death. When the judge in that case delayed a decision pending the outcome of the U.S. Attorney's Review, the family demanded that the governor of Georgia immediately authorized the inquiry instead. The family, together with the NAACP and other civil rights activists, then held a rally at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta. The governor's office released a statement indicating that they would await the report of the U.S. Attorney. On June 20, 2016, the Office of the U.S. Attorney announced that no criminal charges would be filed. After extensive investigation into this tragic event, federal investigators determined that there is insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that someone or some group of people willfully violated Kendrick Johnson's civil rights or committed any other prosecutable federal crime. On June 22, 2018, Kendrick Johnson's family requested his body be exhumed for a second time for a third autopsy. This one corroborated the findings in the second autopsy, in addition to adding additional findings. One of these additional findings indicates that there was blunt force trauma found on the right chest. The blunt force trauma to the chest is the information the family was looking for. A few months prior to the exhumation and third autopsy, on February 9, 2018, a witness gave testimony stating that an acquaintance confessed that another person killed Kendrick. An excerpt from the affidavit states, the person struck Kendrick Johnson in the neck with a 45-pound weight or dumbbell. It adds that an agent in some way facilitated the editing of the high school's surveillance video by corrupting or deleting some one hour 25 minutes of the original recording. In March, Kendrick's family was contacted by someone claiming to have a recorded confession. The transcript of the recording reads as follows, They are going to catch me anyway. I should have never done this. I was young and stupid. Kendrick didn't deserve this, man. They're going to catch me anyways. The perpetrator claimed to be a second cousin of the boy who confessed until Kendrick's family. He was at a birthday party with family members when one of the boys confessed to having played a part in what led to Kendrick's death. The confessor was reported to be Brian Bell. The person who created the tape contacted Kendrick's mother and the Johnson family paid a thousand dollars for the recording. They handed it over to Lones County Sheriff's Office to authenticate. Now, when Sheriff Ashley Polk got a hold of the recording, it didn't take long for her to identify the confessor. She had heard the voice before, the voice of a person who had been in jail multiple times for giving false confessions. This is a terrible hoax. This woman lost a child, Sheriff Polk said. I can't believe someone would even do this for any amount of money. Further disproving their claims, their office found no evidence that the Bell kids even had a second cousin. While creating and sharing the fake audio recording could fall under the heading of cyberstalking by causing emotional distress to a person using a cellular device, the perpetrator is currently only facing misdemeanor charges. There's the $1,000 and under Georgia law it's a misdemeanor, but there are federal statutes we're looking at, Polk said. The family continues to believe their son's death was homicide. An attorney has said they believe the investigation was closed under suspicious circumstances fueled by pressure of retired FBI agents. Furthermore, Kendrick's parents were persuaded to meet with two U.S. attorney's offices and the Department of Justice without legal representation, the attorney said. In May 2019, Kendrick's family refiled a lawsuit contending their son's clothes and organs, including his brain, were disposed of to interfere with the investigation into the teen's death. According to their attorney, after the first autopsy that took place in the GBI lab, the organs were placed in a bag and placed back into Johnson's body when it left the lab. He said more people finding their loved ones dead with their organs missing is a human rights issue. In the wake of the George Floyd and Breonna Taylor killings, Marcus Coleman, a community activist who served at the Johnson's spokesperson for the past few years, pushed for the case to be reopened. As I engaged in community activities myself, here and across the country, it just never sat well with me the way that Kendrick Johnson's case was closed, Coleman said, and the uprising, as I like to call it, this summer just gave me the energy to pursue reopening this case. Initially, Coleman sought the release of the 2015 grand jury proceedings, after Kentucky's Attorney General did so in Breonna Taylor's case. That led him first to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Georgia, which he learned had recused itself from the case, then to that of the Northern District of Ohio where it had been transferred. In November 2020, he and Kendrick's parents met with the then U.S. Attorney in Cleveland and asked to have the case reopened. He said the process appeared to be underway, albeit slowed by the holiday season and the pandemic. But they did get their wish. On March 10, 2021, the case of Kendrick Johnson was officially reopened. The Sheriff's Office received what Polk described as 17 filing cabinet boxes of evidence, including documents and hard drives. Coleman said that he and Kendrick's family felt the number of boxes was symbolic as it matched the years of Johnson's short life. When the news came down, I can say that in one breath they're grateful, they're thankful for the reopening, Coleman said, but in that same breath, cautiously optimistic probably would be the most accurate label. And I mean it's just rightfully so considering all the letdowns they've had over the years. Sheriff Polk does not consider the case to be a homicide. She also said that the Bell Boys, Brian and Brandon are not suspects. I'm not accusing anybody of anything, but I want to start fresh with it and look at it all the way through, Polk told Atlanta NBC affiliate WXIA. I think the community deserves it. Sheriff Ashley Polk will be personally leading the reopened investigation along with some officials who had worked on the case the first time, as well as some new faces. They'll be re-interviewing people and talking to new people. As for the 17 boxes of documents, her office already had access to the materials from the state's earlier investigation. Polk noted that she was born and raised in Valdosta and has known the Johnson family for decades, but emphasized her office is not starting out with it's a murder, it's an accident. We're starting out with this as a case that we have to look at. The investigation will take at least six months. This is the first time anybody's had everybody's evidence in one place, so I'm planning to go through every bit of it, Polk said. If we find a contradiction, we're going to resolve any contradiction or try to. When Weird Darkness returns, her gravestone decorated with a cross and flowers reads Geraldine S. Mullins, beloved wife and best friend. It can also be added a victim of a crime that will likely never be solved. That story is up next. Sometimes you feel a bit nutty, especially if you're a weirdo. If that feeling transfers to your taste buds as well, I've got some great news for you. Weird dark roast nutty mummy coffee. Wrap your taste buds around this medium dark roast blend with shrouds of almond, honey, and chocolate. Each bag of nutty mummy is exclusive to Weird Darkness and is roasted to order, then bandaged, I mean bagged, specifically for you to ensure a maximum freshness for you, your mummy, and anyone else you share it with. Entomb your old coffee and bring your taste buds back from the dead with Weird Dark Roast nutty mummy at WeirdDarkness.com slash coffee. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash coffee. On November 15, 1978, Geraldine Mullins, a 28-year-old Oakdale, Minnesota woman, disappeared after having dinner with her husband and three business associates at a Chichi's Mexican restaurant in nearby Richfield. Her body wasn't found until more than seven months later, abandoned in a swamp. What happened to Geraldine that night? Who killed her? Those mysteries remain unsolved more than four decades later. On the night she vanished, Geraldine was meeting her husband, Ron, at Chichi's, with some of his friends from work. The couple had just got married on September 1 and had moved to Oakdale just a few weeks before. They'd met several years earlier when both worked for a continental telephone company in Sycamore, Illinois, their hometown. Each had been married once before, and Ron had two children from his previous marriage. Geraldine had found only temporary work since their wedding. She was a secretary at Family Service of Greater St. Paul and worked downtown. She'd been there about a month and hoped to stay on longer. Her employers had only good things to say about her. She left work at 5 p.m. and drove to the Howard Johnson's restaurant and motor lodge in Woodbury. Ron, who was a division plant manager for continental telephone, worked nearby, and the couple joined his colleagues at the hotel bar for drinks. Around 7.30 they decided to go over to Cheeches with three others, Patrick Melbourne, Maureen Murphy, and Ruben Bland. Ron drove his company car over to the restaurant, and so Geraldine left her locked car, a 1975 yellow Chevrolet Monte Carlo with Illinois plates, in the parking lot at Howard Johnson's. After arriving at Cheeches, they found that they would have to wait for a table, so they went on to the bar and ordered margaritas. After a short wait, the five of them were directed to a table in the restaurant. At some point after dinner, around 9 p.m. Geraldine left the table, leaving her purse and her pantsuit jacket behind. She didn't come back. After about 15 minutes, Ron asked Maureen Murphy to go and check on her. She quickly came back to the table to tell him that Geraldine was not in the bathroom. And that's when things get weird. According to Patrick Melbourne, he didn't know anybody was looking for Geraldine. He saw her outside, he gone to the bathroom and then went out to check the weather. He said he saw Geraldine and tried to talk her into coming back inside the restaurant because it was cold and getting awfully windy, he told police. She stated the air was fresh outside and she wanted to remain outside. Melbourne said that he suggested she wait in her husband's car until the others came out. They walked across the parking lot, but Ron's car was locked. He suggested that she sit in his car instead. Ron told investigators that when he came out of the restaurant, he found his wife in Melbourne's arms in the front seat of the car. Ron went to get his car and drove to the front entrance of Cheeches to pick up Reuben and Maureen who got into the back seat. Ron said that Melbourne and Geraldine approached his car, but that he drove off before she could get into the front passenger seat. I didn't want a confrontation there, Ron Mullins told police. I guess I was just upset by what had happened, what happened. I acted impulsively. Maureen had been given Geraldine's purse and jacket by a server, told detectives that she was concerned about the incident and started to say something, but Reuben cut her off. He didn't think they should get involved in their boss's personal business. Melbourne said that he drove Geraldine back to the Howard Johnson's, 22 miles away, and left her there. He said that he offered her assistance, but she declined. A police report put it more succinctly. Sad he didn't know what direction she took off, he just dropped her off and took off. Geraldine never came home. Ron said later that he was dumb founded. She had no purse, no money. He called several people trying to find her and then fell asleep waiting, assuming she would eventually come home. She didn't. After he called the police to report her missing, her car was found in the Howard Johnson's parking lot. It had not been moved. After the young woman's disappearance, her story filled newspapers in the region. Flyers with her photo on them detailed her appearance. He's alive. Five foot three, 120 pounds, Auburn hair, and a $2,500 reward was offered. Detectives received dozens of tips. One man claimed that he dropped off a hitchhiker matching Geraldine's description at a truck stop in Valdosta, Georgia. A woman from Montana said that she'd seen her dancing in a bar in Anchorage, Alaska. Another caller said she was living in a trailer court and working in a restaurant in Prairie Grove, Arkansas. Investigators ran down every lead no matter how far fetched. They checked with authorities in Las Vegas, Florida, Colorado, California, everywhere she was reported. Every lead turned out to be a bust. Geraldine's decomposed body was finally found on June 30, 1979, when owners who lived in the 7,500 block of 10th Street North in Lake Elmo noticed a strong odor coming from a nearby swampy area. Her body, once at the bottom of a small lake, had surfaced about 20 feet from shore. The body was in such terrible condition that she had to be identified through dental records and the jewelry she wore. The keys to where Monte Carlo were still in the pocket of her coat. Even after two autopsies, no cause of death could be determined. Results did show that her left pinky finger was broken and that she had eaten within two hours of her death. In other words, she had been killed within an hour of leaving the restaurant that night. The police did have a suspect in the disappearance that it turned into a probable murder, Patrick Melbourne. It turned out that he had a fairly extensive criminal history which included allegations of sexual assault against women. In 1969, he had been a suspect in a rape case in Tampa, but he was never charged because his victim could not positively identify him. In 1970, he was convicted of breaking into an 18-year-old woman's house in Mansfield, Ohio and beating her with a heavy blunt object. He had been tried and acquitted on charges of aggravated battery and unlawful restraint in Illinois in 1977. In 1976, he was arrested after hitting a waitress in the back of the head with a ketchup bottle at a Longhorn Steakhouse in Darien, Illinois. His crimes continued after Jarellen's body was found. In 1980, he was convicted of child abuse and sentenced to 90 days in jail with 60 days suspended. He was sentenced to 1983 to a year in the Dakota County Jail and 10 years' probation for second-degree criminal sexual assault. That incident involved a 10-year-old girl. But there was no proof that he had done anything to Jarellen. The police couldn't file charges against him. They had no evidence, only suspicions. But Ron Mullins did file a wrongful death civil suit against him in 1989. The $100,000 suit alleged that Melbourne caused Jarellen's death by an intentional act constituting murder. After a four-day trial, the jury concluded that she had been murdered but ruled that Ron had failed to provide sufficient evidence to find Melbourne civilly liable for her death. According to private investigator John Sperry, who investigated Melbourne, Melbourne had a torrid reputation, none of which we knew. We had a number of women who came forward after she disappeared and talked to us about difficult situations that they had had with him. He added that Jarellen's body was found at a location where Melbourne had allegedly taken other women after picking them up in bars. Mullins said that when he learned that Melbourne had died in 2015, his first thought was, God finally got him. The Melbourne's death has not closed the case. The Washington County Sheriff's Office still works the files periodically with its cold case unit. According to Sergeant Mike Benson, as long as we have living relatives of hers who are interested in seeing closure, we're of course going to keep looking. But a case this old, we're going to need to rely on someone from the public to come forward and give us that next tip. The biggest problem investigators believe is that they were never able to determine the cause of Jarellen's death. If they'd had one, they might have been able to take the case to a grand jury and charge someone. But without that and with the body being missing so long and being so decomposed, there was just no way to pursue it. That was also the reason why the civil case failed. However, Ron Mullens, John Sperry, and the investigators from the Sheriff's Department always believed Melbourne was guilty, no matter what Melbourne himself claimed. In a 1989 interview, he had maintained his innocence and said only his family's religious convictions had kept them together through the decade-long ordeal of accusations. If it wasn't for our faith, he said, we would have been in an insane asylum long ago. Jarellen Mullens is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in her hometown of Sycamore, Illinois. A gravestone decorated with a cross and flowers reads, Jarellen S. Mullens, beloved wife and best friend. Coming up, most everyone's familiar with the King James Bible, but did you know that King James also wrote a book on demonology during the witch hunts and trials? That story is up next when Weird Darkness Returns. Your Haunted Lives, True Tales of the Paranormal by G. Michael Vasey, a collection of creepy, often downright chilling, true experiences of the paranormal submitted by visitors to the My Haunted Life 2 website. The tales have been carefully selected and edited and range from apparitions to hauntings to demons through to the downright bizarre. This terrific collection of true stories of the paranormal will keep you looking over your shoulder. Your Haunted Lives, True Tales of the Paranormal by G. Michael Vasey, narrated by Darren Marlar. Here are free sample on the audiobooks page at WeirdDarkness.com. After a tumultuous trip to Denmark to retrieve his bride following a proxy marriage in 1589, King James VI allegedly became obsessed with demons, witches, and the devil. At the time witch hunting was common in Scandinavia and James reportedly attributed many of the problems he faced on his trip to demons. In order to further explore the horrors of the underworld he retreated to Scotland where he wrote what he believed to be a discourse on the science of demons. The book, Demonology, debuted in 1597. On top of being the only book of its kind published by a member of the monarchy, it spurred the witch hunts that impacted Europe and the American colonies in the 17th century. In Demonology, King James breaks down exactly how to spawn a demon and explains how they possess someone. However, his book doesn't simply deal with demons. He also dives into the existence of fairies, witches, and werewolves all with the same mannered scientific prose. James' writings are at times far-fetched and while most of his thoughts on the supernatural are now considered archaic, much of what he put to paper in his dissertation formed the basis for modern conceptions of demons. James' text sometimes describes demons in ways that seem straight out of the movies like The Exorcist. According to Demonology, demons will often take over bodies and force their way into houses. As creepy as that sounds, his text is even more terrifying. James writes, For if they have assumed a dead body, wherein they lodge themselves, they can easily enough open without dinny any door or window and enter in their at. Furthermore, he claims demon can take over a form that once belonged to an upstanding member of the community and in doing so instill anxiety in the populace. According to the king, one of the major tell-tale signs of possession is when someone is incredibly strong. I account the one of them to be the incredible strength of the possessed creature which will far exceed the strength of six of the widest and waddest of the other men that are not so troubled. James described possessed individuals as having impenetrable skin as well. As such an iron hardness of his sinnows so stiffly bended out that it were not possible to prick out as it were the skin of any other person so far. In demonology, James describes the way demons use the bodies of a person's perished loved ones to prey on them. James specifically posits that demons are able to take over the bodies of the genuinely pious because the soul is clean and the body is dirty. He writes the demons inhabit the form of friends, family members, or famous people in order to speak to people and trick them into doing the bidding of the devil. Scholars assert James' reasoning for this is a way to explain why people claimed to see friends and family members they knew had passed. Modern Christians are divided on whether or not speaking in tongues constitutes demonic possession, but James was less concerned with languages from the beyond and more with people speaking a language other than English. According to the King one of the main ways to tell if someone is a demon is the speaking of sundry languages that the possessed never could have learned on their own. This belief likely comes from the fact that people in the 16th century were typically isolated and often illiterate even in their native language. A person had to be incredibly well educated to speak a second language. While creatures like fairies were considered mere illusions by James, he acknowledged the existence of werewolves. In his text, he writes about likeanthropes as being spirits or people undergoing bouts of mania rather than being the cursed creatures we think of in a modern context. James notes the ancient Greeks believed in the creatures but rather than discussing their theories he gives a personal explanation of their existence. James writes that the Greeks consider these creatures to be men-wolves, but he concludes if any such thing hath been I take it to a preceded but of natural superabundance of melancholy which as we read that it hath made some think themselves pitchers and some horses and some one kind of beast or other. Although James believed in the existence of demons and witches when it came to fantastic creatures like fairies he was much more skeptical. Throughout the text of demonology, James dismisses the ideas of supernatural beings including fairies as local myths. The only time James seems to seriously consider the existence of fairies is when he suggests that sighting of these folkloric creatures are illusions created by the devil. James writes the devil eluded the senses of sundry simple creatures in making them believe that they saw and heard such things as were nothing so indeed. Why are witches in Christian lore predominantly female? According to James it's because women are more malleable than men and therefore more easily tricked by the devil. Demonology puts the ratio of female to male witches at 20 to 1 and this figure went on to form the basis for the witch hunts that took place in the 16th and 17th centuries. Gee, thanks James. James explains why there's an abundance of female witches in the second book of his text. That sex is freer than man is so it is easier to be entrapped in these gross snares of the devil as was our well-approved to be true by the serpents deceiving of Eve at the beginning which makes him the homelier with that sex-sensein. Rather than refer to somebody as being possessed or as a body inhabited by a demon James takes on a clinical view and refers to them as patients. It's likely James stated this in demonology because he was trying to reclaim power from the new reformed church. At the time the church said that they were the only people who could dispel demons and take care of a possessed person so by making a demonic intrusion seem more medical James was essentially removing the church from the equation. In demonology James is quick to state that while he definitely believes in demons he doesn't think that they are hiding in every shadow waiting to snatch the first godless person they find. In fact he believes this very idea as a trick being perpetrated by the devil and upheld by the Catholic Church. James writes all devils must be liars but so they abuse the simplicity of these wretches that become their scholars that they make them believe that at the fall of Lucifer some sprites fell in the air some in the fire some in the water some in the land in which elements they still remain whereupon they build that such as fell in the fire or in the air are sure than they who fell in the water or in the land which is all but mere traitors and forged by the author of all deceit. In other words James claims the devil wants to mislead you into thinking a multitude of demons fell from heaven with him when in fact it was a simple few. According to James there's no visit from an exorcist that can help you. The pope cannot come to your rescue and you'll never be able to fight off your demons physically. The only thing that can save you from possession by a demon is to pray and fast. More to this point James wants to make sure people know that the kit just performs some kind of mystical right to fend off a similarly mystical creature. James impresses upon its readers that anyone specifically the Catholic Church who claims to offer respite from the devil via sacrament or custom is merely selling you a bill of goods. The king specifies that God is the only thing that can save you. It's not out of line to wonder where James got his information about demons. After all it's not as if there were tons of manuscripts about demonology. In fact the only major book preceding James publication was the Malleus Maleficarum which spread across Europe thanks to the newly invented printing press. Scholars believe James did most of his research using the Bible. It's believed that because the post reformation church in Scotland was mostly Calvinist holding the belief that only the Bible contained the truth about God the king wouldn't have been using anything but that book as a reference. Demonology didn't just influence the witch hunts of the time. It also likely played an important role in shaping one of the Western world's most important pieces of literature Macbeth. In the Scottish play William Shakespeare creates a trio of weird sisters a group of witches who use their knowledge of the future to propel Macbeth down a path of ruin. Scholars debate whether Shakespeare used James's text to create the characters as a nod towards the king's work to please the most powerful man in England or as a satirical commentary. In demonology James writes that witches can raise storms and tempests in the air either upon sea or land and Shakespeare directly acknowledges this in the witches dialogue. Early in the play after a sailor's wife refuses to hand over some chestnuts the first witch states and the very ports they blow all the quarters that they know eye the shipman's card I will dream him dry as hay. James notes that most demons can be found in Scandinavia specifically incubi and succubi. James writes the demons lived in Finland and Norway because that's where the devil finds greatest ignorance and barbarity there assails he grossliest. At the time of James's reign in England Scandinavia was seen as a haven for witches the region was undertaking its own witch hunts. While the grim investigations and trials have been over now for centuries witchcraft has proved resilient in Scandinavia it's currently believed hundreds of Danes are practicing witches still today. Thanks for listening If you like the show please share it with someone you know who loves the paranormal or strange stories true crime monsters or unsolved mysteries like you do you can email me anytime with your questions or comments at Darren at WeirdDarkness.com Darren is D-A-R-R-E-N and you can find the show on Facebook and Twitter including the show's Weirdos Facebook group on the contact social page at WeirdDarkness.com Also on the website if you have a true paranormal or creepy tale to tell click on tell your story All stories in Weird Darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise and you can find source links or links to the authors in the show notes The mysterious death of Kendrick Johnson is from the scare chamber The King James book of demonology is by Jacob Shelton for a graveyard shift and Mothman Attacks and the unsolved mystery of Gerald and Mullins were both written by Troy Taylor Again you can buy a link to these stories in the show notes Weird Darkness is a production and trademark of Marlar House Productions and now that we're coming out of the dark I'll leave you with a little light Romans 12 verse 12 Be joyful in hope Patient in affliction Faithful in prayer And a final thought from H. G. Wells If you fell down yesterday stand up today I'm Darren Marlar Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness 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