 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, we'll look at some of the history of Santa and his cohorts and how they've all not been as jolly as we know them now. I'll tell you an Icelandic Christmas story that is so creepy the government was forced to censor it. But first, Christmas parties are a time for joy, laughs and family, a time to be shared with the ones you love. But sometimes, the ones who love us have a different, more sinister plan. That was the case of Bruce Jeffery Pardo, the killer Santa. 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 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 check out WeirdDarkness.com where you can send in your own personal paranormal stories. Watch horror hosts present old, scary movies 24-7. Shop for Weird Darkness and Weirdo merchandise. Listen to free audiobooks that I've narrated. Sign up for the newsletter to win free stuff I give away every month and more. And on the social contact page, you can find a 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. Bruce Jeffery Pardo grew up in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, California. He graduated from John H. Polytechnic High School and went on to study computer science at California State Northridge. A bright man, he graduated and secured himself a job as a software engineer for Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Bruce wasn't the model employee, spending time hacking the company's systems to access private personnel information, including but not limited to compensation, tax information, etc. He also had very poor attendance. Despite all of this, by 1988, at the age of 24, he found himself engaged to Delia, a fellow employee. Bruce still lived with his mother and wasn't in the best financial shape, so Delia agreed to pay for a wedding reception at the country club as well as a honeymoon into Haiti. Everything was set up and both Delia and Bruce's mother were excited. The big day arrived on June 17, 1989. Delia waited at the church in nervous anticipation, but Bruce never showed up. She later discovered that he had withdrawn $3,000 from their joint bank account and took a trip of his own to Palm Springs, Florida. Delia called off their engagement and things went back to how they used to be. It wasn't until 2001 that Bruce found himself in another difficult situation. He was living with his new girlfriend, Eleanor, and their 13-month-old son, Matthew, in Woodland Hills, California. It was the most stable relationship Bruce had ever had, and things were going really well. That is, until the day Eleanor went out, leaving Bruce home alone with the baby. Bruce turned on the television and got sucked in. He wasn't paying careful attention to Matthew and the boy fell into the backyard pool. When Eleanor returned home, she found Bruce holding their son nearly hysterical. Matthew was rushed to the hospital and after just one week of intense medical attention, the doctors informed them that their son would never fully recover. In fact, Matthew had sustained brain damage and was now a paraplegic. As Bruce did when things got hard, he left, never to see his son again, despite his mother's continued interest in and support of the child. In 2004, a co-worker of Bruce's introduced him to his sister-in-law, Sylvia. Sylvia was a 40-year-old mother of three and they hit it off right from the start. January 29, 2006, the couple was married. Bruce purchased a three-bedroom, $452,000 home in Montrose. The happy family attended church together regularly. Bruce even volunteered as an usher. But things are not always as they seem. The relationship was suffering under financial stress and then Bruce's mother Nancy decided she had to say something. She was quite fond of Sylvia and knew her son had his troubles. She told Sylvia about her son's past relationships, including that with Eleanor and their son Matthew. Sylvia was shocked by this revelation, having not known anything about Matthew and further angered by Bruce's dishonesty and his lack of responsibility. Then it was discovered that although Bruce had not seen his son since that day in the hospital, he was still continuing to claim him on his taxes as a dependent. Sylvia filed for divorce in April 2008 and Bruce spiraled into depression. In June, he purchased his first gun, a 9mm handgun. On June 18, in divorce court, he was ordered to pay $1,785 per month in spousal support. He wrote his first check, which bounced, and then he stopped payment on the second, making no further attempts to pay. On July 31, he was fired from his job for billing fraudulent hours. He applied for unemployment but was denied as workers who are fired are deemed ineligible. On August 8, Bruce purchased another 9mm handgun, followed by another purchase on September 8. He then contacted one of his neighbors, Jerry, who happened to be the proprietor of Jerry's costumes. He requested a custom-sized Santa suit with a little extra room for comfort, as he was 6'4 and 270 pounds making a standard suit too small. He told her that it was for a children's party, and he paid a $200 deposit with a promise to pick up and pay the rest in November. Then on October 11, he purchased his fourth handgun. He received a call from an old high school friend, Steve Irwin, who asked him over to his home in Iowa to celebrate his 45th birthday. Bruce accepted, and while he was there, confided in Steve. He was embarrassed that his personal life was open and on display in court where everyone could see his finances and now knew of his firing. Even more so, he was upset that he and his mother hardly spoke and during the divorce proceedings, she chose to sit with Sylvia's family, not providing support to her own son. November came, and Bruce returned to Jerry's costumes and paid the outstanding fee for his costume, and even left her a $20 tip. On the 13th, he purchased yet another handgun, now totaling five. He had also acquired a DeWalt compressor, a 50-foot hose, and a tank of high-octane fuel. Just one week before Christmas, on December 18, 2008, Bruce's divorce from Sylvia was final. He agreed to let her keep her diamond engagement ring and agreed to pay her $10,000. The next day, he went to a Montrose travel agency where he booked a ticket to Iowa where he would visit his friend Steve. He paid $650 for a round-trip flight that would depart at 12.20 am on Christmas Day and return two weeks later. He rented a Dodge caliber from Budget, then rented a Silver RAV4 from Renarec. He loaded up the RAV4 with maps of the Southwestern United States as well as water, food, clothing, a tank of gas, a laptop, and desktop computer. Early evening on Christmas Eve, he stopped to chat with a neighbor saying he was heading out to a Christmas party. He had been signed up to serve as an usher for midnight mass at the church he attended, but didn't show up. Instead, at approximately 11.30 pm, dressed in his Santa suit, Bruce knocked on the door of his former in-laws' house where he knew his ex-wife would be. The door was answered by 8-year-old Letitia Yuzupulski, Sylvia's niece. Excited to see Santa Claus, she rushed toward him. Bruce didn't hesitate. He fired, hitting her in the face. He went on to shoot indiscriminately at the frightened party guests. When he felt he was done shooting, he unwrapped the gift he had brought with him. It was a homemade flamethrower. He began to spray racing fuel around the home, intent on lighting it with a flare. Unfortunately for Bruce, the flames from two separate fireplaces triggered an explosion. Bruce fled the house, dropping a pair of fake glasses and his Santa hat in the yard. He jumped into the Dodge Caliber rental car and drove 30 miles to Silmar, parking about a block away from his brother's home. He carefully peeled his shredded Santa suit off his body as it had melted into his skin from the explosion, causing third-degree burns. He used his suit to set up a booby trap. If the suit was moved, a tripwire would ignite a flash fire, exploding 200 rounds of ammunition. Bruce's brother returned home around 3.10 a.m. and found him sprawled on the living room couch with two handguns by his side. He was dead, having shot himself in the mouth. Back at the house, the fire soared 40 to 50 feet and took 80 firefighters an hour and a half to extinguish. Nine people were dead and three others wounded. Due to the intensity of the fire, victims could only be identified with dental and medical records. Sylvia Ortega Pardo, Bruce's ex-wife, died from a gunshot wound. Alicia Sotomayor Ortega, Sylvia's mother, died from a gunshot wound to the abdomen. Joseph S. Ortega, Sylvia's father, died from multiple gunshot wounds. Charles Ortega, Sylvia's brother, died from a combination of smoke inhalation and gunshot wounds. Sherri Lynn Ortega, Charles' wife, died from a combination of smoke inhalation and gunshot wounds. James Ortega, Sylvia's brother, died from a combination of smoke inhalation and gunshot wounds. Teresa Ortega, James' wife, died from a combination of smoke inhalation and gunshot wounds. Alicia Ortega Ortiz, Sylvia's sister, died from a combination of smoke inhalation and gunshot wounds. Michael Andre Ortiz, Alicia's son, died in the fire. Sylvia's eight-year-old niece, who had answered the door to start it all, who had been shot in the face, suffered severe but non-life-threatening injuries. A 16-year-old girl was shot and wounded in the back, and a 20-year-old woman suffered a broken ankle, jumping from a second floor window. It has been established by a lot of my Yule season episodes over the years, and the holiday season was not always merry and bright. There are a lot of frightening aspects to the Christmas slash winter solstice season that date back to the days of the pagans who started most traditions that we still honor today. Many would say that Santa's origin story began with the Norse god Odin and his wild ride through the winter skies to bring presents to the Vikings, but others would say that it began with St. Nicholas, a Catholic saint who was known for his generosity. But even this Santa origin story has some scary and gruesome elements to it. In European countries, St. Nicholas arrived bringing good cheer and a demon named Krampus on December 6th. He was the gift-bringer who rewarded good children with stockings filled with toys and treats. Krampus doled out the punishments for the children who had been bad. But St. Nicholas was no mythical figure. He was a real person who became a symbol of the holidays. He was known to have lived in the 4th century in what is now Turkey and served as a monk, then a bishop, and then an archbishop during his religious career. Beyond these few facts, little is known about his life. Most of what is left is legend. Signs of his holiness allegedly began at birth when he immediately stood up to praise God and later refused his mother's milk on fast days. He went on to become the world's most popular non-biblical saint and more than 2,000 churches dedicated to him in France and Germany and 400 in England. Artists portrayed him more than any other saint except for the Virgin Mary herself. He is the patron saint of many things, including bankers, pawnbrokers, butchers, sailors, orphans and royalty, as well as pirates, prostitutes and thieves. According to stories, Nicholas was very wealthy from an inheritance, but he secretly gave away his money to charity. One legend told about him is said to be the source for hanging up stockings and giving gifts at Christmas time. A desperate father lost all his wealth and was unable to provide dowries for his three daughters. This meant that the girls would likely live a life of slavery and prostitution. Hearing of the predicament, Nicholas tossed a bag of gold through the family's window each night to make sure the daughters had their dowries. Instead of landing on the fireplace hearth, though, the gold fell into stockings that were hung there to dry. Besides just being generous, Nicholas was also said to have miraculous powers as often recalled in one dark tale. There was a butcher who was making a living by luring children into his home to murder them, cut them up and sell them in barrels as food during a time of great famine. Yeah, that's part of the Santa Claus legend. When an angel told Saint Nicholas of these atrocities, the bishop went to the butcher's home just in time to restore life to the three boys before they could be eaten. I can't connect that story to anything we celebrate about the holidays now, thank goodness, because having your Christmas hand get up and walk away would likely ruin your holiday traditions, but well, here we are. Saint Nicholas is said to have died on December 6th, which became a day in his honor, filled with celebration and gift-giving. His body was interred inside of a stone tomb in the church where he served, but that is not the end of the story. In 1071, the church was damaged during an attack from Muslim invaders. Fearful that harm may come to Saint Nicholas's remains, Italian sailors broke open his sarcophagus and stole his bones away to Bari where they believed they would be safe. The stolen bones were interred in a crypt in the Basilica di San Nicola by Pope Urban II and were undisturbed for almost 900 years until 1953 when they were removed for safekeeping while the church underwent restoration. Once the bones were out, though, words spread that a mysterious, sweet-smelling, oily liquid was oozing from Saint Nicholas's bones, a liquid with healing properties. Even today, the small amount of liquid is mixed with holy water and sold to pilgrims as a cure-all. Somehow, over the centuries, Saint Nicholas's bones have spread around the globe. There are dozens of churches around the world claiming to possess teeth and other bone fragments of Saint Nicholas. They can be found in Belgium, Italy, Turkey, France, and were also at the Saint Nicholas Orthodox Church in New York, which was destroyed on September 11. One of the most famous relics can be found at the St. Martha of Bethany Church and Shrine of All Saints in the town of Morton Grove, Illinois. They actually have bones and relics from nearly 3,000 saints, including Saint Nicholas. His pelvic bone was bought on eBay from an order of nuns in France, but locals swear it is authentic. I guess you can judge that for yourself. Unfortunately, our modern Christmas traditions are lacking in stories of cannibalism and prostitutes, but we still have the story of the man who would eventually be turned into Santa. It took the Protestant Reformation to replace Saint Nicholas as the Christmas bringer of gifts. Gift-giving day was moved from December 6 to December 25, which had been chosen for Christ's birthdate by the Church, which wanted to remove all of the pagan connections to winter celebrations. And that brings us to Santa Claus, who was still called Saint Nicholas at first, a jolly fat man with the long white beard, red suit, and cap trimmed in fur, boots, and a big sack of toys slung over his shoulder. He arrives every Christmas eve from the North Pole in a sleigh pulled by reindeer, dropping down chimneys to bring gifts to children. But it wasn't always this way. Our ancestors in the 19th century hadn't really made up their minds about what Santa was supposed to look like. He was just being invented in America and every artist and newspaper writer seemed to have his own ideas of what he looked like and how he made his holiday rounds. The first written description of the American Saint Nicholas was by Washington Irving, author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in 1809. With the Dutch-owned Old New York, Saint Nicholas showed up on Christmas afternoon in a horse-drawn wagon, traveling over the roofs of houses and pulling presents from his pockets and dropping them down chimneys of the homes of people he liked. The formal name for Saint Nicholas, Saint Nicholas, was later slurred by American children into Sinterklaas and then Santa Claus. A very rare small book the children's friend published in 1821 by an unknown author is the first American book about Christmas. In it, a fur-wearing Santa Claus, all one word, is pictured on rooftops in a sleigh drawn by a single reindeer. In just twelve years his name had changed and now he had a sleigh, reindeer and a fur suit. There is no known record as to how all of that happened. And then came the 1822 poem, a visit from Saint Nicholas by American poet Clement Moore. In it, Saint Nicholas is now described as chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf and dressed in fur as from his head to his foot. He also has a white beard, smokes a pipe, has a bundle of toys on his back and a tiny sleigh pulled by eight miniature reindeer, each of whom now has a name. In the years that followed, Santa Claus was literally invented by writers and artists across the country. His attributes, like keeping bad children in line with threats of lumps of coal instead of gifts, were imported by the Germans and mixed into the legend. Even so, depictions of Santa varied widely across America for the next few decades. Every artist tried his hand and some were pretty odd and downright scary. Luckily for the children, most of them were in black and white because color printing was just too expensive in those days. But that would soon change and in the late 1800s, Santa gained a new life thanks to artist Thomas Nast, who created the image that we all know and love. A fat, jolly, elderly man with a kindly bearded face, a belt around his ample middle and dressed in a fur suit and cap. As full color lithography came into being, Santa's suit, which had been described in a number of colors, became bright red, a color which continues today. Thomas Nast had, thankfully, saved Santa Claus for American children. With a little help from Coca-Cola, starting in the 1930s, when the soft drink began advertising in color in popular magazines of the era, the first ad appeared in 1930 when a department store Santa was painted in a crowd drinking a bottle of Coke. The ad featured the world's largest soda fountain which was located in the famous bar department in St. Louis. From that time until 1964, Coca-Cola advertising showed Santa delivering toys, pausing to read a letter and enjoy a Coke, visiting with the children who stayed up to greet him and raiding the refrigerators at a number of homes. The original oil paintings were turned into ads in magazines and in store displays and on billboards, posters, calendars and more. Whether we realize it or not, the Coca-Cola paintings have influenced our modern Santa more than anything else. But Santa is far from the only figure that has become a symbol of the holiday season as we will see in just a few moments. He just happens to be the only one that is no longer terrifying. When Weird Darkness returns, an Icelandic Christmas story that is so creepy that the government was forced to censor it. Up next. Given that it was a rough habitat to settle, it's unsurprising that Iceland's folklore isn't exactly warm and fuzzy. In fact, their first stories are almost as horrific as the brothers' grim fairy tales. Even Icelandic children were not sheltered from the rougher aspects of life. During the Christmas season, for example, the youngest children were told creepy tales of the yule lads. Accompanied by their mother Gryla and the demonic yule cat, the yule lads prowled during the Christmas season. Children unlucky enough to be kidnapped by them were cooked alive and eaten. The yule lads had many iterations over the years and were eventually immortalized in a poem that is still memorized in Icelandic schools. However, the original story of these scary Christmas creatures was so terrible that it was eventually banned altogether. After hearing the tale of these morbid elfin lads, any childhood fears you had of Santa Claus will seem pretty silly. According to the legend, the yule lads would visit children at night in the thirteen days leading up to Christmas. The purpose of these visits was always malevolent. There were thirteen individual yule lads with unique names and personalities. Each one performed a wicked task related to their specific persona, and they often stole food and resources that were important to survival. Stegestar, Kiljaguar, and Stufar were all said to steal milk and farm animals, and I am sure I am butchering these names, please forgive me. Eskazglikdjur allegedly licked up leftover food from pots. Jugnokrykjur took sausages and Ketkroker held a hook that he used to steal meat. Horoskeller would come and slam doors at night for the sole purpose of scaring sleeping children. Kirtnastnikur supposedly followed children to steal their candles and lanterns, leaving them alone in the dark. The yule lads were said to be parented by two monsters named Gryla and Lopalawoi. While both monsters were unpleasant, the mother figure of Gryla was particularly menacing. Dating back to pagan times, the legendary Gryla was a troll with hooves for feet and thirteen tails. She lived in the mountains and would periodically come down into the towns to hunt for bad children. Supposedly bad things happened to the children unlucky enough to encounter Gryla. They were placed in a sack and dragged back to a hillside dwelling. The kiddos were then boiled alive and eaten in a stew. This is a considerably more morbid punishment than getting coal in your stocking from Santa and his elves. As if the stories of the ogre parents weren't terrifying enough, Gryla and Lopalawoi also had a pet cat that's even scarier than the yule lads. The cat did not discriminate between good and bad children. Regardless of behavior, the cat would stalk and eat whomever because it could only feed on people. Children who received a new item of clothing were said to be immune from the yule cat, so perhaps it was created to make children grateful for receiving sweaters as gifts. What exactly were the yule lads and where did they come from? Origin stories vary. Some stories said that freakish creatures were from another dimension that existed side by side with our own. They were essentially invisible until the holidays. Other stories claimed that the boys were children of Eve that she hid from God. The lads were banished to another world after God discovered them. Some other sources reported that the yule lads were fallen angels. Whatever the origin story, the yule lads were certainly never described as benevolent entities. In addition to being menacing, the yule lads were described as physically terrifying. They were always portrayed as ugly and hag-like in drawings. Some had unique physical characteristics that allowed them to commit mischief. One had an abnormally large nose used to sniff out food. Another was incredibly thin, so he is able to slip through cracks and crevices in homes to steal food. Yule lads, while no longer as frightening as they once were, do still remain part of Iceland's culture. In fact, there is an elf school in Iceland where scholars can study the history and mythology of the yule lads and other elven creatures. Some people in Iceland legitimately believe in the freakish lads and in other elves from hidden worlds. People have come forward claiming to have interacted with elven beings and, according to Iceland's elf school, roughly 54% of Icelanders believe in elves. Before the tales of the yule lads were written down, they were shared via word of mouth. Stories varied greatly, and there was a time when there were 82 different yule lads. In 1932, the poet, Johans Erkutlum, wrote a poem describing only 13 of them. With time the poem became so popular that 13 became the generally accepted number. The poem is still recited around Christmas time in some Icelandic schools. In modern Iceland it is laughable to think that the yule lads could ever be worthy of outright banning. Children now leave shoes out for the yule lads. Good children receive toys and candy from them while bad children receive a raw potato. Somehow the yule lads went from demonic child-eating monsters to entities that, at their absolute worst, put a root vegetable in your shoe. How did that transformation happen? At the beginning of the 20th century, Santa Claus became more prevalent worldwide. As the more benevolent figure became popular in Iceland, the yule lads morphed to become a little less frightening. They were mischievous and their antics were toned down to make for a lighter and cheerier holiday narrative. Why did people start telling such horrific stories to children to begin with, though? Life was a difficult territory to settle, given its rugged and cold conditions. Life was hard for the early settlers. The yule lads' legend may have been made terrifying to breed bravery and resilience in children so that they could grow up successfully in the difficult habitat. In modern times the yule lads have been toned down considerably. They are still sad to visit children in the 13 days leading up to Christmas, however their old ways have been converted to be more child-friendly. Lads that would steal milk, for example, now politely request that children leave a glass of milk out for them. The misdeeds they commit are mostly in good fun. They may lick spoons as a joke instead of malevolently stealing resources from families in need. Stories of the yule lads in the beginning though were pretty terrifying for young children. After all, who would want to live in fear of tiny monsters coming to take you to their ogre mother to be cooked in a stew? In 1746, parents in Iceland were officially banned from telling their kids stories about the yule lads. I guess if you're in Iceland and listening to Weird Darkness right now, you might have just broken some local ordinance or something. Oh well. Merry Christmas. Also on the website, you can find free audiobooks that I've narrated. Watch old horror movies with horror hosts at all times of the day for free. Sign up for the newsletter to win free prizes. Grab your Weird Darkness and Weirdo merchandise. Plus, if you have a true paranormal or creepy tale to tell, you can 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. And you thought you knew about Santa was written by Troy Taylor. Bruce Jeffery Pardo, the killer Santa, is from the Scare Chamber. And the Icelandic Yule Brothers is by Eris Wisty for Rankers Weird History. Again, you can find links to all of these stories in the show notes. 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. First Samuel 12, verse 24, but be sure to fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. Consider what great things he has done for you. And a final thought, your relationship with yourself sets the tone for every other relationship you have, so concentrate on making that relationship healthy first. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness.