 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... Holiday traditions are unique in that many people celebrate the same way, while other people celebrate it completely different ways. Depending on where you live, someone there is celebrating Christmas, but the way it's celebrated can be dramatically different depending on your society. And some of those traditions, even for such a joyous and wonderful season, might scare the dickens out of you. A Christmas party turns tragic when a young bride suggests a game of hide and seek, then disappears for fifty years. When you hear someone mention the headless horseman, it's almost impossible not to think of the New England story of the legend of Sleepy Hollow, a classic Halloween tale if there ever was one. But then there is the Christmas tale of another headless horseman as well. This one in Old England and he makes an appearance each Christmas at Wycollar Hall. A husband invites his wife into the room and asks her to close her eyes for a Christmas surprise. The surprise is that she will never open her eyes ever again. A mother is terrified when her daughter tells of a young girl who wants to play with her, but she also appears to be dead. A redditor tells a frightening story that took place one Christmas while visiting his grandmother's home. But first, to disguise oneself as the ever-generous Kris Kringle, only to take life away from the innocent is simply unforgivable. Still, somehow, murders committed by people dressed up as Santa just keep happening. We'll begin there. 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Ever since Santa Claus became the universal symbol for Christmas, many have chosen to exploit his joyous image, often turning the beloved figure into something rather sinister. After all, there is something inherently creepy about a man who sneaks into homes under the cover of darkness. The scary movies and urban legends involving a vicious Santa Claus are nothing compared to the real-life horrors spawned by these Santa-inspired murders. Only requiring access to a red-and-white suit and a willingness to commit atrocities, these Santa crimes represent a special kind of deranged behavior. On Christmas Eve in 2008, in the small city of Covina, a suburb of Los Angeles, California, a man knocked on the front door of his former in-laws' home. He was nearing midnight, and approximately 25 people were inside the house attending a festive Christmas party. When the door was opened, 45-year-old Bruce Pardo was standing in front of the home carrying a gift-wrapped package in one hand and a semi-automatic handgun in the other. He was dressed from head to toe in a Santa Claus suit, which concealed three additional handguns. Having just finalized his divorce the week before, it is believed that Pardo went to the party where he knew his ex-wife and her family would be celebrating with the intention of taking revenge. As soon as 8-year-old Leticia, Pardo's ex-wife's sister, answered the door, Pardo held up his gun and shot the young girl. Partygoers immediately tried to flee, at which point Pardo began firing randomly into the crowded home. It was only after completing the shootings that Pardo unwrapped the package he was holding and revealed a homemade flamethrower, promptly burning the house to the ground. Afterward, Pardo killed himself with a single gunshot to the head. Dental records were later used to identify the victim's remains and it was revealed that nine people were murdered by Pardo that night, including his ex-wife and her parents. On New Year's Eve 2017, a man dressed in a Santa Claus costume showed up outside of a packed nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey. At around 1.45 am, the man suddenly pulled out a long-barreled gun and murdered a policeman and a civilian outside of the club and then he made his way inside. While inside, among hundreds of people partying their way into the New Year at the Rhine Nightclub, the man with the Santa hat opened fire on anyone unlucky enough to be within his range. Described as a terror attack for which ISIS later claimed responsibility, Abu Mohamed Horasani ended up killing 39 people and wounding 69 others while dressed as Santa Claus that night. After nearly two weeks of searching, police finally located Horasani at his friend's apartment where they discovered more firearms, ammunition, drones, and $200,000. In 2012, in the city of Jaffa, Israel, two men wearing a set of Santa Claus masks and beards ended up committing a heinous crime during what would have been a beautiful Christmas procession. Allegedly, the motive involved a property dispute between the Abu Mana family and the Jaffa Orthodox Church Association which owned the land that the family's home was located on. During the parade, two men named Fouad Abu Mana and Tufiq Dalo donned Santa Claus disguises and proceeded to stalk the leader of the Church Association, Gabriel Caitis. Concealing knives beneath their clothes, the two men took turns wearing the Santa Claus costume and followed Caitis back to his car. It was in the parking lot that Mana then stabbed Caitis twice in the back, severing a major artery and puncturing his lung in the process. Then the two men fled the scene and left him to die. Caught on security cameras as they left the scene on foot, Mana and Elu were eventually charged with murder and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. In a Dallas suburb on Christmas Day in 2011, 56-year-old Aziz Yandan Panawas put on a Santa suit and made his way to the apartment of his estranged wife and two teenage children. Three other relatives also happened to be visiting the apartment to celebrate the holiday with the family. Text messages sent from Yazdpano's 22-year-old niece on the day eerily mark his arrival at the home. We just got here and my uncle is here too, dressed as Santa, awesome. Fifteen minutes after Aziz arrived, another text was sent saying, now he wants to be all fatherly and win Father of the Year. Then just 20 minutes later, Aziz called 911 himself and shouts for help could be heard in the background while he calmly spoke into the phone. I am shooting people. When the police arrived three minutes later they found everyone in the apartment dead, still gathered around the Christmas tree where they had been opening presents before Yazdpano was pulled out the gun and ended their lives. Despite Halloween being a few months early to see the likes of Santa Claus, on October 31st, 2017, a man dressed as Santa Claus in Austin, Texas was told by guests at his own party that he needed to go to bed. According to witnesses, the Santa Claus impersonating host Randall Gaston Jones was highly intoxicated at the Halloween party, but it continued on until 6am the next morning. After being told to calm down and call it a night by his friends, Jones went into his bedroom and suddenly returned with a gun. It was then that he fired a shot into the floor sending most of his guests scattering. Michael McCloskey, the guest who chose to confront Jones, ended up being shot several times while three other party goers were also showered with bullets in the process. When police were finally called to Jones' house, they found the victims covered in blood. Tragically, McCloskey died if his gun shot wounds, and Jones was promptly taken into custody. In a scene that seems like it's right out of a Western film, an ex-convict by the name of Marshall Ratliff put on a Santa suit, entered a bank in the small Texas town of Cisco, and robbed the place. On December 23, 1927, Ratliff and some of his ex-confriends held up the bank at gunpoint and left with more than $12,000 in cash, a huge sum at the time, and around $150,000 in other items. After shooting up the bank and leaving over 200 bullet holes scattered across the walls, Ratliff, dressed in the big man's red and white suit, took two female hostages and proceeded to lead the police on an epic chase that one witness described as surpassing anything in which Billy the Kid or the James boys had ever figured. When the chase was over and Ratliff was captured, Ratliff ended up pleading insanity, but the citizens of Texas were having none of it as they broke Ratliff out of jail and lynched him for his crimes. In the end, the botched robbery ended up costing six people their lives, including three of the robbers. As far as motive is concerned, most Santa Claus-themed murders are relatively clear-cut, but in late November of 2005, a man in London, England, donned a Santa Claus disguise and murdered another man, 25-year-old Seconder Shaheen, and police never figured out why. Leaving behind only the Santa hat and beard that he entered the apartment wearing, the Santa Claus killer stabbed his victim to death and fled the scene. Though a neighbor heard shouting that sounded like someone had woken up from a nightmare and attempted to chase the attacker, he was unable to catch him. Upon returning to the apartment, the neighbor saw Shaheen collapse in the hallway, and that is where police found him, bleeding from several stab wounds. Shaheen was taken to the hospital, but he was unable to describe his attacker before he died, and to this day, the killer has never been found. Bruce MacArthur was known to family and friends as a wholesome grandfather, diligent landscaper, and cheerful mall Santa Claus. However, when the truth came out that this secret Santa was actually a gruesome serial killer, loved ones were horrified. Between the years of 2010 and 2017, MacArthur prayed on the LGBTQ-plus community living in Toronto's Gay Village. Over the years, he managed to lure eight men to his home, slowly torturing them, killing them, and then performing lewd acts to their dead bodies. From there, he dismembered the victims and buried the remains in various potted plants at the homes he landscaped to cover up his crimes. When police were eventually tipped off that he could be a suspect, they went to pick him up and found a man tied to his bed. After further exploration, the police found a hard drive containing a folder for each of his victims, including a ninth for the man saved just in time. These folders contained photos of the men, dead and alive, with many of their corpses posed in explicit fashions. This St. Nick, that was a truly sadistic necrophiliac, was sentenced to life in prison. However, the lives of his victims and their loved ones remain forever changed. Up next, holiday traditions are unique in that many people celebrate the same way, while other people celebrate it completely different ways. Depending on where you live, someone there is celebrating Christmas, but the way it is celebrated can be dramatically different depending on your society or your family, and some of those traditions, even for such a joyous and wonderful season, might scare the dickens out of you. A Christmas party turns tragic when a young bride suggests a game of hide and seek, then disappears for 50 years. But first, when you hear someone mention the Headless Horseman, it's almost impossible not to think of the New England story of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a classic Halloween tale if there ever was one. But then there is the Christmas tale of another Headless Horseman, this one in Old England, and he makes an appearance each Christmas at Wycaller Hall. That story is up next when Weird Darkness returns. Wycaller Hall is said to be the scene for the regular twilight re-enactment of a real-life tragedy. Every Christmas, a headless cavalier known as the spectral headless horseman of Wycaller Hall in 17th century costume gallops wildly up the road to the hall. He dismounts and enters, making his way with echoing footfall up the stairs. Fearful screams are heard, the tragedy is re-enacted, and the horseman reappears to gallop frantically away over hill and dale as if the devil were at his heels. It is believed to be a re-enactment of a murder which took place at the hall during the 17th century, when a cunliffe killed his wife, but not before she correctly prophesied the downfall of the family. The horseman ghost is usually identified as Simon Cunliffe. This ruined mansion was the seat of the Cunliffe Stabilington, a family which became extinct in 1819 in fulfillment of a curse laid upon it by the murdered wife of one of its members. There are several versions why the horseman killed his wife. Those in the know tell of how the master of the hall, known as Cunliffe, returned home in a rage one evening having heard that his wife was having an affair with another man. Showing no mercy, he murdered her and fled from the scene on horseback. Apparently, during ghostly re-enactments, blood-curdling screams can be heard echoing around the village. There was a crack of a whip and the sound of a horse galloping off into the hillside. Some have even seen the ghostly specter. The following accounts of one of the hall's ghost stories was published in 1873 in John Harland and T.T. Wilkinson's Lancashire legends. Wycaller Hall, near Colna, was long the seat of the Cunliffe's of Billington. They were noted persons in their day and the names of successive members of the family are attached to documents relating to the property of the Abbotts of Whaley. But evil days came and their ancestral estates passed out of their hands. In the days of the Commonwealth, their loyalty cost them dear and ultimately they retired to Wycaller with a remnant only of their once extensive estates. About 1819, the last of the family passed away and the hall is now a mass of ruins. Little but the antique fireplace remains in Tyre and even the room alluded to in the following legend cannot now be identified. Tradition says that once every year a specter horseman visits Wycaller Hall. He is attired in the costume of the early Stuart period and the trappings of his horse are of a most uncouth description. On the evening of his visit the weather is always wild and tempestuous. There is no moon to light the lonely roads and the residents of the district do not venture out of their cottages. When the wind howls, the loudest the horseman can be heard dashing up the road at full speed and after crossing the narrow bridge he suddenly stops at the door of the hall. The rider then dismounts and makes his way up the broad oaken stairs into one of the rooms of the house. Dreadful screams as from a woman are then heard which soon subside into groans. The horseman then makes his appearance at the door at once mounts his steed and gallops off the road he came. His body can be seen through by those who made chance to be present. His horse appears to be wild with rage and its nostrils stream with fire. The tradition is that one of the cunlifts murdered his wife in that room and that the specter horseman is the ghost of the murderer who was doomed to pay an annual visit to the home of his victim. She is said to have predicted the extinction of the family which has literally been fulfilled. In another version the death of his wife concerns a fox hunt. The fox fled into the hall up the stairs followed by the mounted Simon cunliffe and his pack of hounds. His wife was terrified with the situation she suddenly found herself in and started to scream and protest. Seeing his wife acting in as far as he was concerned a cowardly fashion angered cunliffe and he raised his riding crop in preparation to strike her. This was the final straw and his wife suddenly died a fright. The ghost of Lady cunliffe is also thought to have been seen described as wearing a black silk dress. She was apparently seen several times and is said to have foretold the fall of the cunliffe family and she has not been seen since they left Wycaller Hall. Every family has a few oddball traditions for the holidays, endless showings of a Christmas story for instance, but for the most part none of them compare to some of the weird and often very scary holiday traditions that have been terrifying people from around the world for centuries. Krampus. Yes, I know we hear a lot about Krampus but it is a scary thing. In parts of Europe, St. Nicholas doesn't work alone. Sure, you still get gifts if you've been a good kid all year. If you haven't though, a horrible demon named Krampus kicks in your door, forces you into a sack and carries you back to his lair. And this isn't all in fun. This guy is seriously the stuff of nightmares. So what says happy holiday is better than a hideous demon to put the fear into the free spirited kids? The Yule Cat. Nothing says Merry Christmas like being devoured by a giant feral cat. If you don't work hard enough during the winter in Iceland, you will be devoured by a giant murderous cat who stalks the mountains. Legend has it that the story was created by farmers who wanted to scare their workers into harvesting all the wool before Christmas. The resulting clothing you see was supposed to protect them from the Yule Cat's attack. The Yule Cat was owned by a mountain giant who loved to eat children Merry Christmas and had a religion of children known as the Yule Lads. These Santa-like children came down from the mountain on each of the 13 days before Christmas to play pranks, steal food and leave things for the kids. Presence for the good kids and rotten potatoes for the bad. The Greela. I have to tell you, Iceland does not seem like a fun place to visit during the holiday season. This giantess was able to sense the bad behavior of children all year round. She kept a record of who was good and who was bad and on Christmas Eve, she visited the bad children's homes and well, eat them. Her favorite thing was to make a stew from naughty children's parts. Yeah, a fun fact is that legend has it that she was also the mother of the Yule Lads, those prank-playing scamps who loved to torment the people of Iceland during the holidays. Belznickel. The origins of this very unhappy Christmas tradition goes back to the early 1800s, even though most of us learned about it from the office. Thanks, Dwight. Belznickel was a cranky old man who wandered about during the holidays to deliver cakes, candies and nuts to good children. What about the bad? He also carried a large whip with him and well, you get the idea. Perchda. This sneaky spirit might appear as either a beautiful woman or an old crone. She visited homes during the twelve days of Christmas and tormented them with repeated renditions of a horrible Christmas song. Okay, not really. She really showed up to see if the children had been bad or good throughout the year. If they had been good, they received a silver coin. If not, then she slit their bellies open with a knife, removed their intestines and filled their bodies with straw and rocks. Thanks, parents, for this wonderful image for the kids to be terrified of. Necht Ruprecht. Here's one we can thank the church for. Necht Ruprecht was another companion of St. Nicholas, who really needed to hang out with a better class of people, am I right? He would travel from house to house with St. Nick and ask the children to pray with him. If they did, he would give them treats and presents, but if they refused to pray with him, they only received coal and stocks. If they refused to even try to pray, well, that's when things got ugly. He would beat them with a stick that he carried around with them, and when he left, he would leave a stick with their parents so that the children could be beaten every day for the rest of the year. You better believe that Necht Ruprecht was not turned down for prayer time the following Christmas. Hans Trapp. Iceland is apparently a grim place to be for the holidays, but after Krampus, I'd say that Germany might not be a lot better. Hans Trapp was based on an actual historical figure, a German knight with a notorious reputation as a robber baron and satan worshipper. Sorry, there's no happy ending to this one. After he died, he became a menacing spirit that haunted the forest and abducted children. At Christmas, German parents used Hans Trapp as the holiday boogeyman so that they could keep their children in line. Kilikant Zarros. And I think we've saved the worst for last. The Kilikant Zarros, Greek demons who only appeared during the twelve days of Christmas, taken a break from their usual job, which was trying to bring about the end of the world. Nothing says Merry Christmas like the apocalypse. You see, throughout the entire year, these creepy critters live below the surface of the earth and spend each day sawing at the World Tree, a giant tree that connects our world with the heavens. Luckily though, just as the Kilikant Zarros are just about to finish cutting through the trunk of the tree, Christmas dawns and the tree is restored. Since the demons have to start all over again after Christmas, they climb to the surface during the holidays to commit mischief, murder, and mayhem before returning to work, bringing about the end of the world. Fortunately, the Greeks had ways to protect themselves from these holiday monsters. One method was to toss a pair of old, smelly shoes into a burning fire. The smell of old sweat and burning leather was said to repel the creatures and remind them of home, you know, since the underworld smells so bad. Another monster repellent was to leave a colander sitting on the doorstep outside of a house. The demons would become so obsessed with counting all the holes in the colander they would forget that they had come to the house to commit murder. The bad news was that if a Greek had a child that was born during the 12 days of Christmas, he or she might be at risk of turning into a Kilikant Zarros. To protect the child, they had to be bound up in a wrap made from straw and garlic and their toenails had to be blackened by fire. I have no idea as to why on either of those. I guess the point of this recounting of scary traditions is to say that we should be glad that we only have to deal with Santa's naughty list and that creepy elf on a shelf in these modern times. The holiday traditions of our ancestors certainly make the holidays seem not so merry at all. The United Kingdom has a long and rich tradition of Christmas ghost stories, from moralistic Victorian novellas to the terror-filled TV specials of today, the festive season just isn't right without a tale or two about the undead. However, as much as we love Christmas ghosts, some festive hauntings don't spring from the pages of a book. Bramshill House in Hampshire is home to one of the UK's most renowned festive spooks. In truth, it is frequently cited as having 14 separate ghosts, making it one of the country's most haunted houses. However, for Christmas sake, we'll just be focusing on one of them. In the early 17th century, a young girl reportedly named Anne Cope was due to be married at the house on Christmas Day. After her and her new husband took their vows and celebrated their new nuptials, it was time for Anne as a new bride to be escorted to the marital bed. However, before heading to the bed chamber, the young bride suggested that she and her guests play a short game of hide-and-seek. Anne asked for a five-minute head start before her guests began the search in a way she went. After her head start, the wedding guests began their hunt. They searched the house from top to bottom and found no sign of the young bride. At first, the guests assumed it to be a trick, as Anne was in high spirits. However, as time passed, concern began to grow for the young girl. Her new husband was distraught when Anne wasn't found, and rumors circulated that she fled, rather than spend her life with Lord Hugh Bethel. Through his grief, he spent decades searching for his lost bride. Fifty years after Anne's disappearance, the aging Lord was in the attic of his mansion, still searching for clues. As he was knocking on some oak paneling, a hidden and previously unknown secret door suddenly opened. Inside was an elaborately carved wooden chest. Inside the chest, the skeletal remains of his long-dead bride, still in her wedding dress, holding her bouquet. Inside the lid of the chest were criss-crossing scratches, a sign of the bride's futile attempts to escape. There had been accounts of a ghostly white lady repeatedly passing through the Florida lease room. Reportedly, Michael I of Romania asked to be moved to another room during a stay there in order to not be disturbed by the young woman in white who passed through his bedroom every night. The bride supposedly announces her spectral arrival with her favorite scent, Lily of the Valley. Should you visit Brams Hill House today, you might find an eerie wooden chest on display in the entrance. However, in the tried and tested tradition of ruining Christmas, the tale of the ghostly bride does have a few potholes. Some believe the bride not to be that of Anne Cope at all, but of Genevry Orsini, who was married in 1727. Rather than a hiding and dying in a house, her ghost in the chest were brought to Brams Hill from Italy. The name of the ghostly bride changes frequently between accounts in one breath and in another, January. In one book it is an English bride, in another an imported Italian bride. However, Sir William Henry Cope wrote in his 1883 work, Brams Hill, Its History and Architecture, that the chest on display in the house was a facsimile of the original. He also added that the original had been large enough to fit a woman of comely proportions, but was removed by Sir Denzel Cope's widow in 1812. Throughout the 19th century, songs, poems and etchings were made of the gruesome tale, with the first emerging in 1809 under the title The Melancholy Occurrence. After this, several other poems and songs were written, the most popular being the 1830s work, Theem Salto Ball by Sir Henry Bishop. The fascinating blog Seeks Ghosts recounts the importance of Bishop's work, saying that by 1859 the song in England was so beloved, it was shared in most households at Christmastime. Many knew the heart-wrenching lyrics by heart. The same story was retold by Susan E. Wallace in 1887 as The Old Oak Chest, and by Henry James as A Romance of Certain Old Clothes in 1868. The Old Tale also made it onto the silver screen in 1904, when Percy Stowe made the short film The Mistletoe Bow. Since then, the story has reappeared in several incarnations, and with a conclusion as grisly as a bride in a box, I imagine the young specter to have many years left. English? Italian? Fact? Fiction? Hey, what's a historical ghost story without a few inaccuracies? The story is darkly but beautifully told in a poem by Thomas Hain Bailey. Here's an excerpt. At length, an old oak chest that had long-lain hid was found in the castle they raised the lid, and a skeleton form lay moldering there, and the bridal wreath of that lady fair. Oh, sad was her fate in sportive jest, she hid from her lord in the Old Oak Chest. It closed with a spring and dreadful doom. The bride lay clasped in her living tomb. When Weird Darkness returns, a husband invites his wife into the room and asks her to close her eyes for a Christmas surprise. The surprise is that she will never open her eyes ever again. A mother is terrified when her daughter tells of a young girl who wants to play with her, but she also appears to be dead. Plus, a redditor tells a frightening story that took place one Christmas while visiting his grandmother's home. These stories are up next. Carol Neal lived on the west side of Rockford, Illinois during the 1970s. One night she was startled out of a deep sleep by the screams of one of her daughters. She ran to the bedroom and tried to settle the two-year-old down. The young mother felt helpless as she held her small child as the girl shared the story of a little girl with yellow hair that visited her. Carol felt her own fear grow. The little girl wanted to play, but Carol's daughter was frightened of her. The young daughter mentioned that her visitor came through the floor from the attic. She also mentioned that the little girl had white skin and was very cold to the touch. Carol finally got her child back to sleep, but she herself was afraid to close her own eyes that night. Carol's daughter was the first to see the little girl ghost, but it wasn't long before the others in the family saw her as well. Carol's husband was sleeping on the couch when he was awakened by the feel of a small hand on his arm. The cold touch awakened him. At first, he thought the little girl standing next to him was his own daughter, but then he noticed that something wasn't quite right about the girl. She was completely naked, and the little hand that she laid on his arm was ice cold. The little girl giggled and ran away from him. It scared the heck out of me, he stated later. These sightings carried on for years. The family noticed a pattern to the sightings. The sightings usually came when the family was experiencing some tragedy. After one sighting, the family dog was hit by a car. After another, a family member was attacked by a stranger. The family began to look at these experiences as warnings. Carol decided to talk to her neighbors to see if anyone could remember who had lived in the house before and if they had had a child. The neighbors told her that a young girl lived in the house in the early 1960s. They also told Carol that the child had drowned in the bathtub. The true story was much more tragic. In 1961, a young family lived in the home. On December 22, 1961, the parents of the little girl, we'll call her Ginny, left her in the care of her uncle while they went Christmas shopping. The uncle had been instructed to give little Ginny a bath before putting her to bed. He filled the tub and stepped out of the room to grab a clean towel. Unfortunately, he had not checked the temperature of the water. Ginny fell into the scalding water and was horribly burned over 80% of her body. She died the next day. The heartbroken family buried her in Willwood Burial Park the day after Christmas. Maybe the fact that a cruel accident caused her death made the little girl want to help the family that stayed in her old home. Whatever the reason, Carol's feeling of dread changed over the years. She began to take comfort in the fact that little Ginny seemed to be looking out for her family. Christmas was Nancy Spangler's favorite holiday. So a few days before December 25, Bob, her husband of 23 years, asked her to come down to the basement of their Littleton, Colorado home for a surprise. Surprise! It's almost Christmas. Come here. Sit quietly. Close your eyes, her husband said, he told her. Then he pulled out a loaded revolver and shot her in the head. That was in 1978. More than two decades later, Spangler explained to police that he killed his wife because it would be the easiest way for him to be with his new girlfriend, Sharon Cooper. Having made the decision, I simply followed through with it, he said. But he didn't stop there. After killing his wife, he went upstairs and turned the gun on the couple's two sleeping children, first 15-year-old Susan, shot her in the heart, I believe, he told police, and 17-year-old David. Susan died in her bed, but David struggled after his father wounded him with his first shot. I wound up smothering him, Spangler told police. Spangler made his confession in 2000 to investigators in Grand Junction, Colorado who were interviewing him at the request of the family of his third wife, Donna, who had also died in 1993 when she fell 200 feet while hiking with Spangler in the Grand Canyon. In his confession, which was videotaped, Spangler also admitted killing Donna, saying that he pushed her off the cliff on the spur of the moment because he was unhappy with their marriage. I had to be thinking, you know, either now or never, he said. Spangler got away with the 1978 killings because police thought that they were a suicide and double homicide. In the Spangler's home they found a typewritten note reading, we always argued about who would have the kids, I will, and it was signed with the letter N. The N was in Nancy Spangler's handwriting, and despite evidence suggesting otherwise, police concluded that she had killed the two children, then turned the gun on herself. After a second marriage ended in divorce, Spangler married Donna Sundling in 1990. The couple lived in Durango, Colorado, but after her death at the Grand Canyon, Spangler sold their house and moved to Grand Junction. It was there that the Arapaho County Sheriff's Office caught up with him. At the request of Donna's family, investigator Paul Goodman started looking into the 1978 killings. Although he found that there was a lot of evidence suggesting that Spangler was the killer, not his wife, he did not have enough to proceed without a confession. Then in 2000, Goodman heard that Spangler had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and wondered if he might be ready to confess. Investigators visited his home and he came clean, confessing his guilt and describing the killings, all four of them in detail. He said that he had tricked his first wife into signing a blank piece of paper, then typed up the purported suicide note himself. He showed no remorse, saying, I'm different, I think I'm interesting. He said he agreed to confess because he wanted FBI profilers to explain to him why he was so good at killing. Spangler agreed to plead guilty to first-degree murder for killing Donna and the Grand Canyon. As part of the deal, he also admitted killing his first wife Nancy and their children years earlier. In March 2001, more than 22 years after the first killings, he was sentenced to life in prison. Only five months later, August 5, 2001, his cancer caught up to him and he died behind bars. I love visiting my grandma. She always makes the food that I like and enlarge quantities and spoils me. With a hustle and bustle of college life, it's nice to go back to my childhood and allow myself to be spoiled for a few hours every few weeks. Even though she has six grandchildren, she made it clear that I am her absolute favorite. She'd often have the whole family around for dinner and after they left, she'd bring out the good stuff she made just for me. We usually have a big Christmas dinner together with the whole family. However, as the years go by and the younger ones start growing up, fewer and fewer people show up. Last year, everyone already made plans forgetting about poor grandma. I don't blame them, but they often forget how these visits mean a lot to her, especially ever since grandpa died. That's why when I talked on the phone with her and she asked me if I had any plans, I lied to her and told her no, I didn't. She immediately jumped at the opportunity to politely invite me, going so far as to offer me to sleep over at her place. She said there's one room which has not been used in years and I could stay in there. I immediately said yes and agreed to stay over, realizing how happy that would make her. I canceled the plans I made with my friends, telling them something else came up. Although they were bummed about it a little, their drinking party would not stop because of me. That was the last Christmas that I would ever spend with my grandma. On Christmas Eve, I arrived to my grandma's place and she greeted me like she always does with a tight hug and lots of kisses. I barely even stepped inside when she started offering me food. She had already made what could only be described as an all-you-can-eat buffet. We dug in and once we were done, she showed me where I could sleep for the night. It was a cozy little bedroom which apparently used to be my mom's room when she was little. Grandma told me not to leave my room during Christmas night in order to avoid disrupting Santa in his work. She said if I really needed to use the bathroom I could, but to be extremely quiet and not to go downstairs. On the nightstand, she actually left a list of things that I should do before I go to bed to ensure that I would get a good present from Santa. I decided to play along and abide by the rules. I told her that I'd read it before bed and do everything necessary and she seemed content with that. She wished me good night and left the room. I was pretty tired from the trip there and the enormous dinner that I've eaten so I lay down on the bed and involuntarily fell asleep within minutes. I woke a few hours later. I glanced at my watch and realized it was 3.01 am. I got up to grab a glass of water downstairs from the kitchen and groggily walked through the dark, trying to avoid any loud noise or turning on the lights, not to wake Grandma. I went downstairs and turned on the kitchen light gulping down a glass of water. I glanced toward the living room at the Christmas tree and something caught my attention under the glow of the decoration lights. There was a small plate with the tiny paper that said 4 Santa. I reckoned it was cookies and milk, but when I got closer I realized the plate was empty. The red liquid was in it and right next to the plate was a small bucket. Obviously, I found this weird but figured Grandma must have forgotten to put it away or something. I turned off the kitchen lights and returned to my room, just then remembering the list my Grandma gave me. I grabbed it off my nightstand and started reading. Dear James, thank you for visiting me for Christmas. You made your Grandma really happy. Now, Christmas is a little different in this house than what you're probably used to, so it's very important that you follow these rules on the list. 1. Make sure to close your windows and ensure they are closed properly. These old windows don't work properly sometimes, so if you feel like cold air is coming in, let me know. 2. Don't put any wood in the fireplace after 9pm. Santa will be really angry if it's scalding in the chimney or if there is still smoke. 3. You didn't forget about milk and cookies, did you? I stopped reading and chuggled at the list. Grandma clearly wanted me to follow the basic rules for Santa like when I was a kid. But again, I decided to oblige. I continued reading the list. In this household, we don't use milk and cookies. We use raw meat and blood. I already left a bucket by the Christmas tree and there is a raw piece of chicken I put on the plate. Santa sure loves his diet. 4. If you are woken up by the sound of scratching or knocking on your window, ignore it. Your room is on the second floor. There is no way to reach up to it. In fact, it is best not to look there, but if you see someone beckoning you, pretend they are not there. They may try to open the window from the outside. This is why it is so important to keep your windows closed. 5. You may hear growling coming from the kitchen. It is okay because Santa never comes upstairs and since I already left a chicken for him, that should satisfy him. 6. By this point I was sure Grandma was just messing with me. That was until I heard the sound of three gentle knocks on the window behind me. I froze in place, staring at the list but practically staring through it. Three more gentle knocks ensued but I did my best not to give away that I heard them. Once again there were three more knocks and then the sound of scratching started. First gently and then louder as if a rat was trying to bite through the wall. It lasted for around a minute until it completely stopped. Only when it did did I gather enough courage to slightly shift my position. That was a mistake though because when I looked down to the floor at the light which was cast in from the window, I saw the unmistakable shadow in the form of a humanoid silhouette stretched across. I couldn't tell for sure but it looked like whoever was there held both his hands on the window and stared directly towards me. I decided the best thing to do is to continue reading the list to try and distract myself. 6. If someone walks into your room while you're sleeping and you happen to wake up, pretend that you're still asleep. In the worst case scenario, the person will sit on the edge of your bed and observe you. So do your best not to let them know you're awake. If you feel their breath on your neck and it gets progressively closer, it means they realized you're awake. 7. You may hear me calling you from downstairs. Don't listen to it, I will under no circumstances go downstairs during the night. 8. Last and most important rule, if you get up to go to the bathroom, never, ever, ever turn on any lights in the house. He has trouble noticing you in the dark, but if you turn on the lights, he'll be able to follow you wherever you go and then not even locking your door will help. Follow these simple rules and in the morning we can open your Christmas presents. Love, Grandma. 9. The scratching and knocking had already stopped by the time I was done reading and the shadow from the window was gone. I got into bed and covered myself over my head shivering, not from the cold. Sometime during the night I heard my door open but did my best to ignore the footsteps and low growling noise. Either passed out or fell asleep sometime later, but all I know is I woke up to the sound coming downstairs from the kitchen. I shot up, looking around the room and at my window, rubbing my temples and thinking about the nightmare I had had. I left my room and immediately heard my grandma's voice calling me from downstairs to come open the presents. I told her I'm coming, when I suddenly felt a grip on my wrist. I turned around and saw my grandma there, staring at me wide eyed. She leaned in and whispered in my ear with a trembling voice, you turned on the lights, didn't you? 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 Weirdo's Facebook group on the Contact social page at WeirdDarkness.com. 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 I do have my doubts about that last one. Regardless, though, you can find source links or links to the authors in the show notes. Real Stories of Slaying Santas was written by Jake Black for Rancor.com's unspeakable times and by Katie Fletcher for Thought Catalog. The headless horseman of White Collar Hall is from Animalien. Terrifying holiday traditions was written by Troy Taylor. The Brams Hill Bride is from Burialsandbeyond.com. Ghostly Warnings was written by Kathy Kressel for HauntedRockford.com. A killer who thinks he's interesting is from ABC News. And the fictional story, I'll Never Visit Grandma for Christmas Again, is from Redditor Rick and Dick and Delkin123, posted at Bugged Space. 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. Psalm 34 verse 10. The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. And a final thought from Neil A. Maxwell. Each of us is an innkeeper who decides if there is room for Jesus. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness. What is it like to be a murderer to commit the crime to have the police examining every scene you've been to for clues in order to track you down? And what if other psychopathic murderers were also out to get you? For the true crime enthusiast, killers, the card game is full of mystery, intrigue, and dark humor. Two to five players draw cards to reveal the victims and scenarios, with each kill bringing you closer to winning. But watch out, for the police are also in the game, following up on every clue to stop your murder spree. Roll the dice to determine if you leave evidence at the scene or if you avoid the police. Use your cards to mess with other players and emerge victorious or end up as a victim yourself. The back of the killer card deck also allows you to experience the cold facts, unique history, and horror all fans of true crime love. The dark trivia will make your party both exciting and disturbingly entertaining for dark game night. Numerous expansion packs make this role-playing game even more delightfully deadly by adding more scenarios, more law enforcement, more victims, and expand up to 10 players at once. Part RPG, part collectible, all card game. For ages 18 and up, gameplay includes sensitive topics. Killers the card game, available now at WeirdDarkness.com slash card game. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash card game. Click the notification bell so you don't miss future videos. I post videos 7 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.