 This episode is dedicated to the men and women of our armed forces and first responders. Whether you are currently serving or have served in the past, you are appreciated. It is because of your courage and sacrifice that we enjoy the freedoms and liberties we hold dear. And I for one, appreciate every single one of you for protecting what many of us take for granted. So thank you. People like Donald Henry Gaskins are the reason why we are urged to never accept a ride from a stranger. Gaskins, also known as Pee Wee, was a prolific serial killer based in South Carolina who was convicted of killing eight people from the 1950s to the 1970s, though the actual number of his victims is still unknown. Known also as the Hitchhiker Killer, the meanest man in America and the redneck Charles Manson, Gaskins was a truly terrifying individual, although those who knew him believed that he was deeply disturbed but harmless. Nobody could ever have imagined the extent of the atrocities he committed. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Welcome, Weirdos. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness Radio where every week you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved, and unexplained. Coming up this hour... Swap lands and marshes are dangerous places with venomous snakes, crocodiles with razor-sharp teeth, and the uncertain bottom, not knowing how deep the water is. But there's another reason to avoid the marshes and swamps, as they contain evil spirits and demons. Those who venture down one particularly eerie New Jersey roadway report restless spirits, a haunted lake, and glowing orbs of light. Did an extraterrestrial invasion take place in Bowling Green, Kentucky? One woman insists it did. But first, always mocked for his size, Don Gaskins was intent on getting the last laugh, and hitchhikers were his preferred victims. We begin with that story. If you're new here, welcome to the show. If you're already a member of this Weirdo family, please take a moment and invite someone else to listen in with you, recommending Weird Darkness Radio to others helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show. And while you're listening, be sure to follow Weird Darkness on Facebook and Twitter and visit WeirdDarkness.com to find the daily Weird Darkness podcast. Watch streaming B horror movies and horror hosts 24-7 for free. Listen to free audiobooks I've narrated. To send me your own true story of something paranormal that's happened to you or someone you know and more, you can find it all at WeirdDarkness.com. Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness. In 1933, Donald Henry Gaskins was born in the backwoods of South Carolina. Information on his background is muddled, but it is known that his mother, Eula Parrot, had a string of bad romances and a number of illegitimate children. Peewee, as he was called, was the youngest and the smallest. Eventually, Gaskins' mother married and her husband abused Gaskins and Eula's four other children. Gaskins was consistently small for his age and would only ever reach five feet four inches in height. He was picked on by kids at school and he did not hesitate to fight back. He dropped out of school at the age of eleven. His crime spree would begin shortly thereafter. Gaskins began working in a car garage where he apparently showed a great deal of mechanical promise. Unfortunately, this promise would soon be cast aside in favor of a life of crime with two other boys that worked with Gaskins. Gaskins and his two friends, Marsh and Danny, referred to themselves as the Troubled Trio. Despite their young age, the three began picking up sex workers, robbing homes and raping young boys. The Troubled Trio avoided being caught by threatening their young victims with death if they told anyone about being raped. The trio disbanded after the police caught them raping Marsh's younger sister. During their first court appearance, Gaskins apparently learned his legal name, Donald, for the first time, having always been called Pee Wee up to that point. Marsh and Danny left town soon after their trial but losing his law-breaking companions didn't stop Gaskins. He continued burglarizing homes and menacing others. During one of Gaskins' burglaries, a thirteen-year-old girl who lived at the targeted home interrupted him, yielding an axe to get him out. He was able to tear the axe from her hands and he soon turned it on her. The girl survived her injuries and her account of what transpired led to a conviction of assault with a deadly weapon for Gaskins. Because Gaskins was still a minor when he committed the deadly weapon assault, he was sent to a reform school. He was sexually assaulted throughout his time there by older boys. At one point, Gaskins escaped the school, got married to a fellow teen, then voluntarily returned to finish his sentence at the school. Released for good at the age of eighteen, Gaskins, undeterred, continued his lawless lifestyle. Gaskins started working at a tobacco plantation and soon became involved in a ploy to burn barns to help owners commit insurance fraud. When his boss' daughter confronted Gaskins, he split the girl's skull with a hammer and was arrested for attempted murder. While in prison, Gaskins was sexually abused again like he had been at reform school. This time, Gaskins was willing to commit murder to escape the abuse, though. His first known murder victim was Hazel Brazel, one of the most feared men in the prison. After Brazel's death, the other prisoners feared Gaskins. He reportedly became an owner of other prisoners, rather than the one being owned. If you think Gaskins was a holy terror in prison, just wait until you hear what he did out of prison. Coming up on Weird Darkness, you shut yourself in. The lights are out and you are listening to Weird Darkness, but suddenly you get that feeling you're not alone. You don't know what might be under the bed or in the closet or in the attic or in the room with you. You don't dare try to sleep now. You're too scared to. If you doze off, you might be vulnerable to the creatures who haunt your dreams. That's just one more reason to have Weird Dark Roast coffee in the cupboard, because you just never know when you might need it. Weird Dark Roast coffee contains deep notes of cocoa, caramel and a touch of sinister sweetness. Each bag is fresh roasted to order by Evansville Coffee and delivery is free for your first order. Just use the promo code Weird, you can find a link to it at WeirdDarkness.com. Grab a bag before something else grabs you from the dark. I'm Darren Marlar, welcome back to Weird Darkness. Have you seen the Monster Channel? It has horror hosts, B horror movies, retro television commercials and a whole lot more. You can watch it any time, absolutely free 24-7-365 on the Weirdo Watch Party page at WeirdDarkness.com. We were talking about Donald Henry Gaskins and we learned about how he was sexually abused while in prison, just like he had been in reform school, but this time he was willing to murder and escape abuse. He murdered in prison but eventually he got out and continued to be a monster. Gaskins was released and began working as a driver for a traveling minister. For a while this managed to keep him out of jail. Then Gaskins married a 17-year-old. Not long after they were married, she reported him to the police for rape. He was sent back to prison once more and paroled after six years. After this release, Gaskins developed what would become known as his signature crime. He picked up a young female hitchhiker in North Carolina who he propositioned for sex. When she told him no, Gaskins decided that he would take what he wanted. He beat her until she lost consciousness, then raped and sodomized her. He tied weights to her unconscious body and dropped her into the swamp to die. According to Gaskins himself, this first murder of a civilian temporarily satisfied the violent urges he had been feeling his entire life. He would torture his chosen victims, sometimes for days, and mutilate their bodies. In some instances, Gaskins cannibalized those he tortured while they were still alive. He would even make these victims eat part of their own flesh before he killed them. Gaskins generally chose his victims by driving along the highway, asking if solo travelers needed rides somewhere. He preferred female victims, but would kidnap males if he had to. But his murders were not restricted to solely strangers. In 1970, he murdered his own 15-year-old niece, Janice Kirby, and her friend after telling them he would drive them home from the bar. Instead, he drove them to a vacant house, where he raped, beat and drowned them both. Soon after, it is believed that he killed 20-year-old Martha Dicks, who had a crush on Gaskins and would often hang out with him while he worked at a car repair shop. The young woman was last seen at a nightclub with a man who may have been Gaskins. Her body was never found. Gaskins bought a hearse in 1973, telling people that he needed it to move dead bodies around. Although his neighbors regarded him as mentally unstable, everyone assumed the strange man was simply trying out a macabre joke. The victim of one of Gaskins' most gruesome murders was someone he had seemed to count as a friend. Doreen Dempsey was 23 years old in 1973 when she asked Gaskins for a ride to the bus station. She wanted to get out of town. Doreen had a two-year-old daughter and was eight months pregnant with her second child. Instead of driving her to the bus, though, Gaskins took Dempsey and her daughter out to the woods where he raped and killed them both. By 1975, Gaskins' crimes were starting to catch up with him and his days of freedom were becoming numbered. The fact that he didn't have any accomplices had helped him elude the police for years. So when Gaskins asked another ex-con Walter Neely to help him repaint a victim's car, he thought he was simply finding another way to make a living from his dastardly ways. Instead, he was setting himself on a path towards justice. Self-assured in his ability to evade the law, Gaskins had even started to contract out his killing services. Gaskins was hired to kill a farmer later in 1975. The farmer's ex-girlfriend wanted him dead and two middlemen facilitated the deal. More and more people were learning of Gaskins' murderous ways. The ex and her new boyfriend, after finding out just who had killed the farmer, tried to blackmail Gaskins for $5,000. Instead, Gaskins killed them both during a meeting set up to pay the bribe. Shortly thereafter, he killed a 13-year-old girl, Kim Galkins, who had rejected his sexual advances. When Gaskins' body shop was robbed, he killed the two men responsible and once again enlisted the help of Walter Neely to dispose of the bodies. While at the burial location, Gaskins showed Neely the spots of the other graves of his victims. Meanwhile, the police had independently linked Gaskins to the murder of Galkins. They eventually found some of the young girl's clothes in Gaskins' home. He was arrested and Walter Neely cracked under pressure from the police during an interrogation. He told them where all of Gaskins' victims were buried. The redneck Charles Manson was finally caught. After the police found eight bodies in Gaskins' makeshift gravesite, he was charged with murder. He was found guilty of the murder of one of his blackmail victims, Dennis Bellamy, and he subsequently admitted to killing seven others. He was sentenced to death. It is widely believed that Gaskins killed far more than eight people. He at one point bragged about the number being over 100, which would have made him South Carolina's most prolific serial killer. After the death penalty sentencing was changed by a Supreme Court case, Gaskins' death sentence was mitigated to life imprisonment. However, two years later, South Carolina legalized the death penalty once again. If Gaskins had committed no further crimes, he would have simply remained in jail until his natural final day. However, in 1982, Gaskins killed another prisoner, Rudolph Tyner, by blowing him up. Tyner was in prison for killing two people. A son of one of the victims frustrated that Tyner would remain on death row possibly for years, paid Gaskins to expedite Tyner's death sentence. Gaskins constructed a bomb and snuck it through to Tyner's cell. After Gaskins was convicted, he was sentenced to death for the second and final time. Gaskins spent his final months telling writer Wilton Earle stories about his life which were eventually turned into a memoir called Final Truth. In the memoir, he alleges that he killed dozens more, but none of the claims could be substantiated. Before he was electrocuted, Gaskins cut his wrists with razor blades that he had previously swallowed. Some believe it was an attempt to derail the day of his execution. Others thought he was trying to end his life on his own terms. We may never know the true extent of Douglas Henry P. W. Gaskins, the hitchhiker killer, but his gruesome murders mark him as one of history's most dangerous serial killers. In our ancestors' consciousness, shaped by legends and myths, marshes and other wetlands were considered to be elusive and unpredictable places of evil and dark forces. People believed that the depths of the marshes, enveloped in mist and brightened only by moonlight, were places inhabited by evil spirits, waiting for hunters and travelers to lure them into a marsh, causing troubles and even death. One such spirit is master of the marshes, Balotnik, usually depicted as a man or as an elderly man who is covered with dirt, algae, and fish scales. In some legends, he is said to have long arms and a tail. He would appear to people as a bellied naked man with frog's arms, bug eyes, large mouth, and long beard. Sometimes he pretended to be an old man, but he could also alter his appearance to be a stepping stone in a marsh or shallow water that could help to cross the dangerous area. If you step on such a stone, that is, Balotnik, he slips away under your feet and you fall into the thick waters of the marshes up to your neck. You are doomed. Balotnik likes to attract people to their death and he makes it easy because marshes are very deceptive. In one moment they appear safe and suddenly they become deadly traps. It is Balotnik, master of marshes, that creates these traps for all living creatures. The marshes are mostly deadly in the evening and at night, and it is said that spirits of the marshes are most active in this time of day. Balotnik does not like any loud sounds, so it is wise to be very quiet when passing through the marshes. Balotnik's spirit is not alone in the marshes. He does have a companion, which we will learn about next on Weird Darkness. If you or someone you know is struggling with depression, dark thoughts, or addiction, please visit the Hope in the Darkness page at WeirdDarkness.com. There, I have gathered numerous resources to find hope and solutions. For those suffering from thoughts of suicide or self-harm, there is the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, as well as the Crisis Text Line. Both have trained counselors at all hours to help those in need, and the page even includes text numbers for those in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, and Ireland. Those struggling with depression can get help through the Seven Cups website and app, and there is information for anyone to read more about what depression truly is and how to identify it through our friends at ifred.org. There are resources for those who battle addictions, be it drugs, alcohol, or self-destructive behavior, along with help for those related to addicts. The page has links to help you find a therapist or counselor, to find help for those who have a family member with Alzheimer's or dementia, help for those in a crisis pregnancy, and more. These resources are always there when you or someone you love needs them on the Hope in the Darkness page at WeirdDarkness.com. Welcome back to Weird Darkness, I'm Darren Marlar, and if you like Weird Darkness and you'd like to hear even more, you can check out the free audiobooks I've narrated at WeirdDarkness.com. I've got free audiobooks there by Stephen King, HP Lovecraft, Charles Dickens, Robert Heinlein, and more. You can listen to all of the free audiobooks I've narrated on the audiobooks page at WeirdDarkness.com. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash audiobooks. We've been talking about swamp demons, and one in particular, Blutnik. But he's not alone in the swamp. Blutnik's companion is his wife, Blutnitsa, who changes her appearance depending on the circumstances. As a beautiful watermaiden, she has the ability to attract people passing by to go into the marshes. Pretending to be lost, she uses her beauty and her trickery. By crying, she asks to be let out of the forest. She lures a person into the marsh. She is considered to be the most beautiful maiden of all Slavic mythology and is almost impossible to distinguish Blutnitsa from a real beautiful maiden. The only perceptible difference is that Blutnitsa always sits with legs and feet hidden beneath her, trying to hide her frog-like feet. Among other evil spirits that rule the realm of marshes is Ziozona or Mamuna, a female swamp demon in Slavic mythology. This creature believed to be malevolent and dangerous, used to take form of an ugly old woman with a hairy body. On her head, she wore a red hat with a fern twig attached to it. Ziozona was said to kidnap human babies just after they were born and replace them with her own children, changelings with disproportionate bodies and certain disabilities, large or very small heads, a huge abdomen, a hairy body or long claws. Ancient Slavs believed that in order to protect a child against being kidnapped by this demon, a mother had to tie a red ribbon around the baby's hand. This custom is still preserved in some regions of Poland, for example, or put a red hat on the baby's head and shield its face from the light of the moon. In case Ziozona managed to kidnap a baby away, the mother who lost her child had to take the changeling to a midden, whip it with a birch twig and pour over it water from an eggshell, shouting, take yours, give mine back. At which point, Ziozona normally felt sorry for her offspring and took it away, returning the one she stole. New Jersey's Shades of Death Road attracts thrill seekers and restless youths, their backpacks stocked with cameras, spray paint and beer. At night, they swear they see ghostly figures gliding through the forest, spooking each other on yet another Saturday night in suburbia. Many residents, however, are weary of these legend trippers and ghost hunters. After one too many visitors attempted to rip down the Shades of Death road sign as a souvenir, locals responded by greasing the pole to make it harder to steal. Regardless of whose side you're on, there's no denying the allure of the haunted history attached to this seven-mile stretch that begins at County Route 611 in Liberty Township and winds through low-lying flatlands to its northern point at Longbridge Road. The exact origins of Shades of Death Road remains a mystery and whether the ominous moniker inspired its ghostly legends or vice versa is a source of debate. Some believe the stretch was originally called Shade Road. The southern point adjoins a forest and the lush trees provide bountiful shade on hot summer days. Unfortunately, this was an inviting location for the highwaymen of the past. Rumor has it they lurked in the shadows of the trees and then left out and cut the throats of unsuspecting travelers, stealing the clothes and valuables right off their victims' backs. Not all of the outlaws got away with their crimes. Townspeople would hunt down these men and lynch them from the boughs of the trees beneath which they once hid. The bodies served as a grisly warning for any other would-be thieves. During the 1920s and 30s, three brutal murders supposedly took place along the road. The first involved a heated argument or robbery over gold coins. The culprits crushed the victim's skull with a tire jack and took the valuables. The second slaying involved a wife who beheaded her husband and then curiously buried the head and body on separate sides of the road. Finally, there's the case of Bill Cummins, a local who was reportedly shot and buried not far from the road. His murder has never been solved. Such tales haunt the area's landmarks as well. Nestled in the state forest surrounding shades of death road is Ghost Lake. It was the handiwork of William Krause Jr. and Leon G. Hull, two businessmen from the 20th century who dammed a nearby creek to create an attractive body of water between their newly built homes. While the damming did work, their satisfaction soon turned it to fear, once the pair noticed eerie fog formations gliding across the surface on cool mornings, hence the lake's name, Ghost Lake. Visitors today report ghostly sightings along its shore an abandoned cabin in the woods and a sky that appears in perpetual twilight regardless of the hour of the day. Adding to this eerie setting is a small cave known as the Fairy Hole, located just to the right of Ghost Lake. Lennep Indians used the hollow many years ago and an archaeological survey from 1918 unearthed pottery shards and arrowheads. Archaeologists believe the Lennep used the cave as a resting spot, yet its proximity to known burials makes it a sacred sight. Due north of Ghost Lake and just off shades of death road is Lennep Lane, a dead-end dirt track with a ghostly reputation. Travelers who venture down this lane report heavy fog, unusually chilly air, and an abandoned wooden structure that looks like an old stable. Those who approach say an orb of bright white light appears to chase them back to shades of death road. If the orb turns red, those who make eye contact are doomed to die. Clearly, shades of death road is full of otherworldly destinations. Just be careful not to overstep your bounds. You may upset the locals more than the alleged apparitions. The story goes like this. On a hot summer night in August 1955, a farming family in the Christian county town of Kelly experienced an invasion from grey little men. A shootout ensued, as well as a brief investigation by a couple dozen police officers, soldiers and reporters, but they found no fur, no blood, no guts, and no bodies. Just ammunition shells and holes in the woodwork. That's the short version. On Tuesday, July 23, 2019, at the Warren County Public Library's Bob Kirby Branch, Geraldine Sutton-Stiff, the daughter of one of the event's supposed witnesses, narrated the longer story as if she was opening the inciting incident of a science fiction novel. Our hound dog, flying by tail-tucked-ears-tucked, came running under the porch, said Stiff, who spoke with a rural Kentucky accent and appeared in bell bottoms and a black choker with a green alien pendant. Then young family members saw a silver object, with a rainbow floating behind it. Before long, little grey men then started appearing at the house, and a couple family members began firing rifles. These were country boys, they could shoot a squirrel running through the tree, Stiff said. At one point, Stiff's grandmother questioned whether the little men were actually dangerous. My grandmother was a very kind-hearted person she probably would have invited Bigfoot in if he needed help, Stiff said. Then there was quiet, and the family fled in their trucks to the Hopkinsville Police Department. Soon after, a caravan of vehicles drove to the Little Bitsy Kelly. There were soldiers, officers and reporters, Stiff said. And subsequently, people flooded the town of Kelly and started camping in the family's yard. The family moved within two weeks of the incident to escape the circus, but they never found peace of mind about the situation. Everyone was making fun of the situation, Stiff said. They chalked it up to uneducated hillbillies. They're going to hide that stuff, that's just how it is. I was eight years old when I was told the story, and it scared the Bejesus out of me. Until the day my dad died, I think that fear stayed in his mind. Over the years, folks told Stiff they wished the events happened to them. Stiff rejects the notion, no, you wouldn't. You'd pee your pants and run away, or you would get your shotgun out, she says. Throughout the presentation, Stiff reiterated numerous times that it is an amazing story. That's why she helped launch the annual Kelly Little Green Mendes Festival. It provided insight for a fictional film based on the event called The Invasion of Kelly. We don't know everything out here, we need to have some fun out here, she said. After the discussion, some people gathered outside the library to discuss weird tales that they had heard or experienced. Craig Kemp of Bowling Green attended with his grandparents who live in Hopkinsville. It's wild to believe, Kemp said, expressing that he was of mixed mind about the story's credibility. Bob Dean, a self-described fan of the X-Files television show and resident of Bowling Green, thought the presentation was decent. I think stuff like that can happen, he said. I think it'd be presumptuous for us to assume there aren't any beings on other planets. Marjorie Miller of Scottsville had never heard of the Kelly incident, but she regularly attends events at the library. I thought it was very interesting, she said. I was surprised I'd never heard about it. It's believable. Joseph Perkins of Bowling Green was also unaware of the tale, but he was a little more skeptical. They've never found a bigfoot, Perkins said, but he bought the film and he might even visit the farm in Kelly. When Weird Darkness returns, if the dream world feels just as real as the waking one, how can we know for sure we're not currently living in a dream? Are you a member of the Darkness Syndicate? The Darkness Syndicate is a private membership where you receive commercial-free episodes of the Weird Darkness podcast and radio show. Behind the scenes, video updates about future projects and events I'm working on. You can share your own opinions on ideas to help me decide upon Weird Darkness contests, events and merchandise. You can download word search puzzles based on episodes of the podcast. You can hear audiobooks I'm narrating before even the publishers or authors get to hear them. You can also hear auditions I've submitted for other voiceover projects and get updates on the progress of those I've been cast in, such as my voice acting roles as Wolverine and J. Jonah Jameson in a couple of Marvel fan series or as Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, in a DC fan project. You get all of these benefits and more, starting at only $5 per month. Join the Darkness Syndicate at WeirdDarkness.com slash Syndicate. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash Syndicate. One of the strange things about dreams is that most of the time we aren't aware that we're dreaming. Typically, our memory and our reflective ability are substantially limited within our dreams, causing us not to notice incongruencies within the dream and to take for granted that what we're experiencing is real. It simply doesn't occur to us to consider whether it might not be true. Perhaps even more strangely, even when we do, on occasion become aware that we're dreaming. And according to various surveys carried out around the world, anywhere from 26 to 92% of people have had at least one lucid dream. The sensory experiences of the dream can remain just as convincingly real. I remember in one of my own dreams, realizing that it was a dream and then marveling at how solid and real the cell phone in my hand still felt. The ability of the dream world to appear real has led many thinkers, philosopher Descartes being the most prominent western example, to wonder whether the world we experience while awake might itself be a dream. If the dream world feels just as real as the waking one, at least while we are in it, how can we know for sure that we're not currently living in a dream? A dream from which we may one day wake up. One way that philosophers have tried to dispel such worries is by appealing to differences between the dream world and the waking one. For instance, our waking world has a coherence that the dream world often lacks. You may recall that in the feature film Inception, the characters learn to recognize that they are dreaming by asking themselves how they came to be in a certain situation, then realizing that they can't remember because the dream just dropped them there. But does the coherence of our waking world guarantee that it's real? I believe the coherence of our waking world does give us evidence that it's not merely a figment of our imagination. Specifically, it gives us evidence that, when we're awake, something is causing our experience that is independent of the experience itself. For instance, the relative permanence of the objects and environments we experience in waking life would appear to be best explained by there being something real and enduring that our experiences are reflecting. However, the relative permanence of the objects and environments we encounter in the waking world is no guarantee that the waking world is as real as it gets. After all, a high degree of permanence is also found in the worlds of video games in which the environments and objects that one interacts with are merely the creations of computer code. So while perceived permanence does seem to point to there being something objective or enduring out there, the true nature of whatever is out there might resemble our experience of it as little as computer code resembles the images we see when we play a video game. In fact, physics teaches us that the objects we experience as being solid are actually made up almost entirely of empty space, and the results of quantum mechanical experiments indicate that, under certain conditions, the building blocks of matter do not behave as discrete particles at all, but rather as waves of probability. If we nevertheless experience the world as full of enduring, solid objects, this is due to the usual way that our senses interact with it, and to the way these interactions are represented in consciousness. This means that there is, in fact, an important sense in which all of us do live constantly within a dream, that is, within a world created by our own minds. It is just that when we are awake, our minds can form our dreaming to a reliable set of patterns, which we assume to be determined by a reality that exists independently of our experience of it, though we have no way of knowing that reality except through the complex way in which it affects our dream. But might there be an even deeper sense in which our waking life is a dream? Just as we often wake from sleep to realize that what we were experiencing in the sleep state was not nearly as coherent and real as what we experience when awake, could there possibly come a day when we will emerge from the dream of waking reality to experience a world that is even more coherent and vividly real, a state in which we experience levels of knowledge, memory, and other cognitive functions that vastly surpass those we experience in our current lives? Will we someday wake up even more? In fact, a rather startling number of people report having already experienced something like this. They report having had experiences that appeared to them as even more real than those they have in their normal waking state of mind. For example, realer than real is a description often used by those who have had near-death experiences, those who have used psychedelic drugs such as DMT, and those who by various other means have experienced non-ordinary states of consciousness. Many near-death experiencers also report enhanced cognitive function and a sudden increase in knowledge. This perception of enhanced cognitive function and increased knowledge is often dismissed as an illusion by those who are unfamiliar with the scientific literature on near-death experiences. But careful investigation has shown that concrete, verifiable information has been obtained in these states that was not available to the experiencer by way of their five senses. The experience of those who have tasted non-ordinary states of consciousness raises the possibility that the age-old question of whether life is but a dream is more than the idle worry of a few philosophers comfortably ensconced in their armchairs by the fire. The answer to this question could very well have major empirical consequences, including startling implications for the types of experiences that are available to the human mind. We have every reason to stay alert to this possibility as we continue to investigate the true nature of the world that we take ourselves to be awake and living in. a small army and they can kill with a single look into your eyes. But where are the spirit ranks? The Night Marchers. You can subscribe to the podcast at WeirdDarkness.com slash listen or search for Weird Darkness wherever you listen to podcasts. You can follow the show on Facebook and Twitter at Weird Darkness and please tell others about Weird Darkness who love the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters, or unsolved mysteries like you do. Doing that helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show. And if you'd like to be a part of the show, well, you can send in your own paranormal experiences by clicking on Tell Your Story at WeirdDarkness.com. All stories in Weird Darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise and you can find links to the stories or the authors in the show notes which I will upload to the Weird Darkness website immediately after tonight's show is ended. The Pee Wee Killer was written by Shannon Raphael. Shades of Death Road by Jamie Bogart. Swamp Demons is by A. Sutherland. Aliens in Kentucky was written by Caroline Eggers and His Life a Dream is by Sharon Hewitt-Rollett, PhD. Weird Darkness is a registered trademark. Copyright, Weird Darkness. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. First John 4, verse 20, if anyone says I love God yet hates his brother, he is a liar, or anyone who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And a final thought from Sumit Gautam, having good days is a decision that we make every day before we even walk out the door. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness. Hey Weirdos, keep listening. Hour 2 of the Weird Darkness radio show is coming up. In 2019, six teenagers tried to rob a Chicago home and it ended with one dead shot by the homeowner. A Minnesota man is confronted by burglars at his home in 2012 and ends up being charged with murder for killing the intruders. In 2023, a man was killed after he broke into a home and the homeowner is charged with murder. As a listener to Weird Darkness, you know how bad things can go in a crime. And even when defending yourself against the criminals, sometimes you are the one facing legal problems. That's why you never let the criminals get access to your home to begin with. Home security is no longer recommended. It is essential. And with ADT, it's no longer for the elite. It's for everyone. Right now, you can get a free home security system from ADT to keep burglars from entering your home in the first place. Just visit WeirdDarkness.com slash ADT. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash ADT. ADT is the biggest and most trusted name in home security and has been since 1874. And they are still equipping people like you and me with the newest and best home security technology with 24x7 monitoring and 24x7 customer service. Whether your home is basic or ultra smart, ADT is the best option for your home security. And again, you can get a free custom-built home security system with the latest technology by visiting WeirdDarkness.com slash ADT. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash ADT. This episode is dedicated to the men and women of our armed forces and first responders. Whether you are currently serving or have served in the past, you are appreciated. It is because of your courage and sacrifice that we enjoy the freedoms and liberties we hold dear. And I, for one, appreciate every single one of you for protecting what many of us take for granted. So, thank you. There may be no greater unanswered question in the universe than the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Do aliens exist? If so, where are they? How many are there? Do extraterrestrial civilizations exist? There are no easy answers to those questions. It is the biggest question in the universe and scientists are no closer to answering it. Do aliens exist? Or are we humans totally alone in the universe? Stargazers have spent much of the past century trying to solve this conundrum and have made several unexplained observations along the way. Once these puzzles are solved, we may finally prove that aliens do exist. Or we may get one step closer to discovering that humanity is the only life form in the universe. Of course, we won't know whether extraterrestrials are real until they get in touch with us. While many people believe that has already happened, with more than one type of extraterrestrial visiting our planet and making themselves known. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Welcome, weirdos. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness Radio, where every week you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained. Coming up this hour... The Warren Commission concluded in 1964 that the same magic bullet that struck President Kennedy then also proceeded to slice through multiple layers of skin, bone, clothing and muscle tissue, taking a strange and unbelievable zigzag pattern, lending credence to the single-shooter theory. But many thought the idea was ludicrous. Now, it appears the magic bullet theory may not be as crazy as it sounds. Reports have been coming in for centuries, even through modern times of a creature in the Congo that, by all descriptions, looks to be a living de Podicus or Brochiosaurus. They call it Mocheli Mbembe. But first, when it comes to close encounters of the third kind, we immediately think of the tiny gray aliens made famous in film and television. But there are more species than just the grays. Many more. We begin there. If you're new here, welcome to the show. And if you're already a member of this Weirdo family, please take a moment and invite someone else to listen in with you. Recommending Weird Darkness radio to others helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show. And while you're listening, be sure to follow Weird Darkness on Facebook and Twitter and visit WeirdDarkness.com to find the daily Weird Darkness podcast. Watch streaming B horror movies and horror hosts 24-7 for free. Listen to free audiobooks I've narrated to send me your own true story of something paranormal that has happened to you or someone you know and more. You can find it all at WeirdDarkness.com. Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights and come with me into the Weird Darkness. Some say an alien civilization existed before mankind was born on planet Earth. Others say aliens from another planet came to Earth and helped mankind to be born. They believe those aliens come to Earth from time to time, keeping track on us humans and how we're progressing, looming over us like gods. Here are some unknown to most of us alien races that have been in contact with Earth, at least according to those who believe in extraterrestrial visitations. We'll start with the most obvious and well-known of the aliens, the grays. The grays supposedly come from a star system known as Zeti reticuli, which is a star system located somewhere in the southern celestial hemisphere and are thought to be one of the alien races in contact with Earth. At a little over 40 light years away, they're practically our closest neighbors, the type of neighbors that you conveniently forget to invite over for a dinner party. If we had to pick out one particular race in the cosmos and call them the bad guys, it would definitely be these guys. Tall and humanoid with a long head and distinctive gray features, they are the most commonly depicted alien lifeform in our media and they are also the beings that are most commonly described by alien abductees who've been returned back to Earth. The grays have the greatest tendency to be involved in abductions because they like to stockpile humans. They think of Earth the way that you would a chicken farm, just brimming with genetic material that they can't wait to get their hands on. They come to Earth to pick up a juicy selection, then take it home to do cosmos only knows what. On the off chance that they're not happy with their selection, they bring it back and choose another. The Sasani Hybrids are particularly common across the cosmos and are believed to be of an alien race in contact with Earth. Some even believe that we humans are genetic hybrids ourselves, but that's a discussion for another time. The Sasani aliens are a hybrid that was developed from reptilians and gray humans. We'll look at the reptilians in just a moment. Their development was found to be necessary after the grays mutated themselves through experimentation to a point where they could no longer reproduce using conventional means, that is, alien sex, and were only able to spawn new generations by cloning themselves. Cloning is well and good if you want to create new beings however it gives no genetic variation over successive generations which could lead to problems. So they came to Earth and convinced a few people to share our genetic information with them. From this genetic crossover, the universe was blessed with an entirely new type of being, the Sasani, who in a way are like our interstellar cousins. They were then given their own planet and allowed to roam free and evolve into the best beings that they can be. The Sasani have a stronger connection with their higher selves and are believed to be where humans will one day be, although they are millennia ahead of us, and are one of up to 15 alien races that are actively engaged in humanity's conscious awakening. When Weird Darkness returns, we'll look at a few more strange extraterrestrial races. If you'd like to stay up to date on everything Weird Darkness and also maybe win some cool prizes at the same time, you can sign up for the email newsletter. It's free and every month I draw one name at random to win a cool, creepy prize. You can sign up for the Weird Darkness newsletter for free at WeirdDarkness.com. Hey Weirdos, how would you like to receive a box full of scary stuff in the mail, full of fear-inducing objects like creepy collectibles, true crime-themed accessories, frightening flair, blood-curdling books, terrifying trinkets, eerie e-downloads, and more? Absolutely free. Every other month I'm filming an unboxing video of the newest creepy crate that I get in the mail, and then I'm boxing it all back up and giving it away by random drawing to someone subscribed to the Weird Darkness email newsletter. And before I close up the box for good, I might toss in a couple of Weird Darkness goodies as well for good measure. You can keep the creepy crate for yourself or give it away to a weirdo friend or family member. To watch my latest creepy crate unboxing video and to register to win a creepy crate of your own for free, visit WeirdDarkness.com slash creepy crate. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash creepy crate. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness Radio. We continue now looking at strange alien races other than the greys that we are typically used to seeing. The Arcturians Of all the species known believed to inhabit the Milky Way, the Arcturians are the most ancient and the wisest. They are said to be one of the alien races in contact with Earth. If Yoda came from any one of the alien species on our list, it would probably have been this one. There's was the first system to be given the gift of life in our galaxy, and all the other species, ours included, may have descended from them. They've mutated and evolved over their time and they now exist in many forms. The main race of Arcturians stand to about 5 feet tall with green skin and large eyes that can see right through you. Just like most nerds, this race's development of their minds rather than their bodies make them small in stature, so you could probably take one of them on in a fist fight, but their advanced intelligence means that if any alien species out there knows how to use the force from Star Wars, these guys would be it. Thankfully, they do have a reputation for being the most kind and loving beings in our galaxy, so if you do manage to tick one off, then you must really be a douchebag of galactic proportions. The Nordics The Nordics look like Norse gods, blonde with brilliant blue eyes and the bodies of six-foot-tall, finely-toned athletes. You can see where the Scandinavians got their inspiration for Thor from. The Greys got a lot of attention when it comes to alien sightings, but the Nordics are a species that come into contact with humans almost as much as the Greys. However, they are more interested in the well-being of the human race than the Greys are. Even though some eyewitness reports claim to have seen Nordics in the same alien craft as Greys, a possible explanation for this is that the Greys were slaves or servants to the Nordics, as a Greys lack of empathy makes it an ideal butler. The Pleiadians The Pleiadians come from a bright star cluster known as the Pleiades and are one of the beings in the Milky Way that closely resemble humans. They are thought to be one of the alien races in contact with Earth, therefore you could be sitting in a room with one right now and not even know it. A major difference between us and them is that they are particularly sensitive to the psychic energies that are constantly streaming across the universe. This means that the best way of reaching out to one of them would be by concentrating or sending out psychic messages. Put simply, if you really want to meet up with Pleiadians for a cup of tea or a few brews, just sit down and meditate on it. Whether they choose to show up or not depends on how much they are feeling your psychic energy, so sending messages like get your interstellar butts over here, well, that's not likely going to work out well for you. The Yael There has been a lot of talk about which race will be the first to officially disclose their presence to Earthlings. The one that alien experts, assuming you can call them experts, all seem to agree on is the Yael. This is one of the alien races in contact with Earth and is known to be kind and loving and they have been touted as the best beings to make first contact with us due to their advanced and harmonious relationship with technology, something that we here on Earth are having a little trouble balancing out. Whenever a new invention comes about, we weaponize it first and then feed the hungry second. The Yael know that we're not the friendliest beings out there, so they're taking their time to make themselves known by easing their way in our psyches with friendly UFO sightings, such as the March 1997 sighting known as the Phoenix lights that they claim responsibility for. During that event, they gave thousands of people across the state of Arizona in North America a spectacular light show and there's even video for anybody who missed it. The Anunnaki If human beings were able to successfully colonize another planet, what would be the first thing we'd do? We'd pillage it for resources, of course, which is exactly what the Anunnaki did when they arrived on Earth. They came from Planet X, also known as Nibiru, an almost mythical planet that some scientists believe rotate around our sun on a very wide elliptical orbit that takes it far out into the expanses of space before coming back in for a close shave with our sun. This crazy elliptical orbit is what makes its presence so hard to prove. However, the presence of the Anunnaki has been noted down in texts that date back to Mesopotamian cultures. They're believed to be one of the alien races in contact with Earth. Anyway, on Nibiru's last brush with the planets of the inner solar system, it crashed into another rock and the resulting collision created a planet that we now call Earth. While their planet was here, a few of the Anunnaki hopped off of their world and onto ours in search of a yellow element that they covet, called gold. You ever wondered why gold is so valuable? Yeah, it's shiny, but it doesn't do anything useful like heal the sick or produce energy, so why do we as a species desire it so much? We desire it because the Anunnaki desire it, and while they were here, they enlisted us as their workforce to mine it for them. That's right, our entire existence is based on working our socks off every day so that our alien overlords could have their fix of gold and other precious metals. Isn't that grand? The Alpha Draconians The Anunnaki was one of the alien races in contact with Earth, but were not the first race involved in the racket of mining minerals on our little blue planet. Before them were the Alpha Draconians. Standing up to 22 feet tall, these badass beings are made up of pure muscle and resemble dinosaurs or dragons. As you can imagine, they were very unhappy when the Anunnaki showed up and took over. However, they are still active on our planet, with puppets placed in the high echelons of government as they bide their time in an attempt to take over once again. The Reptilians Before the Anunnaki stopped by and genetically engineered a bipedal workforce to dig up dirt for them, there was a race of intelligent beings who lived here and is thought to be one of the alien races in contact with Earth. We know them as the Reptilians. Scaly and standing to about the size of a human being, they were driven underground by the Anunnaki, where they are said to still reside today in a network of complex underground tunnels. Those that are open-minded and curious might be able to find these tunnels and pop in for a visit. However, considering that we are the reason that they can't come up for a breath of fresh air, it's likely that they'll skin you alive and leave your skeleton on a stick hanging outside the entrance as a warning to any other scaleless punks who decide to invade their territory. You've been warned. The Namos Some alien species choose to interact with certain tribes on Earth that they just happened to get along with better. The Scandinavians had the Nordics and the Dogons. A tribe indigenous to Mali in Northern Africa had the Namos, who hailed from the brightest star in our night sky, Sirius. And then there's the Dogons. The Dogons knew centuries before modern science caught up that Sirius is actually made up of three stars, and they even knew how long it took for Sirius B to go around Sirius A. Considering that they were millennia away from inventing devices powerful enough to see Sirius close up, it makes sense that they had visitors from that section of the galaxy who told them about it. I do have one last alien species to share with you. They're called the Cate, and they're supposedly from Sirius A. And the reason I know this is because I've been accused of being one of those aliens. Not kidding. A few years ago, when I was still performing stand-up comedy, I did an interview with somebody and they asked me what I thought about being accused of being an extraterrestrial living on Earth. Well, if you want to know more about that, read it for yourself, or watch the video that I created upon learning of this accusation, I'll place a link to it in the show notes of this episode, which will be posted to the Weird Darkness website tonight after the show is over. Weird Darkness returns in just a moment. Paranormal experiences, encountering extraterrestrials, extraordinary states of consciousness, spiritual phenomenon, encounters with non-human entities that can't be explained by science. These stories of what people have come across are ubiquitous here on Weird Darkness. And often, those who've had these encounters choose to stay quiet and not even tell close friends or family out of fear of ridicule, and they suffer silently, trying to deal with the internal horror of what they've experienced. If I'm describing you or someone you know, there is now a place you can turn to for professional counseling from experts who unlike others in their field, are open to the paranormal, supernatural and extraterrestrial experiences of others, and they're not there to explain away your experience but to help you recover from it and move forward with living. I'm referring to the Opus Network. If you want to reach out for help or learn more, look for the Opus Network towards the bottom of the Hope in the Darkness page at WeirdDarkness.com. Welcome back to Weird Darkness, I'm Darren Marlar. Unfortunately, it looks like I'm not going to have enough time to talk about McKellie Mbembe, the name given to a creature believed to inhabit the upper reaches of the Congo River Basin, which, well, looks like a dinosaur. But I will share that in the Sudden Death Overtime content of tonight's show in the podcast, which you can get once the show is over. Just look for Weird Darkness wherever you listen to podcasts. I do have time, though, to talk about that magic bullet that killed JFK. On November 22, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald fired off a shot with enormous repercussions. The bullets that left his bolt-action Carcano M91-38 rifle from a sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository in downtown Dallas killed the President of the United States. And, depending on who you ask, one of those bullets defied the laws of physics as we know them. On Oswald's first or second shot, a 6.5-millimeter bullet hit President John F. Kennedy in the back, to the right of his spine, and then left his body through the front of his neck. It exited below his Adam's apple, hit the neck dinot, and continued into Texas Governor John Connolly's back and shattered his fifth right rib bone. After exiting Connolly's chest, the bullet entered the governor's right wrist, breaking yet another bone before exiting and burrowing into his left thigh. Oswald's third shot was the clincher, hitting Kennedy's square in the skull and changing the course of history forever. One of the shots, either the first or the second, missed. At least, that's what the official government-sanctioned Warren Commission concluded in its September 1964 report. With a growing distrust in the government during the mid-to-late 1960s and a flurry of books suggesting there was an internal conspiracy at play to kill the President, the single-bullet or magic bullet theory garnered as many detractors as genuine believers. The Warren report was upheld in 1979, though the single-bullet theory, which some call the magic bullet theory, remains one of the most hotly-contested claims the government has ever made. The theory was central to bolster the government's assertion that there was only one shooter, and that that shooter was Lee Harvey Oswald, since Oswald's rifle wasn't fast enough to shoot multiple bullets in the timeframe when both Kennedy and Connolly suffered their initial injuries. Let's take a look at what the official narrative specifically proposed, and outline some of the most pertinent facts that either support or refute its most important point, that one bullet injured both President Kennedy and Governor Connolly. Critics of the single-bullet theory have dubbed it the magic bullet theory, mostly because of decades-old misconceptions surrounding the relative placement of Kennedy's and Connolly's bodies in their shared open-air limousine. After a quick Google search, you'll find all sorts of squiggly-lined drawings and diagrams showing the bullet's supposedly physics-defying path from Kennedy's mid-back up to his Adam's apple over to Connolly's back up to his wrist and straight down and over to Connolly's left thigh. This interpretation is not limited to the depths of the internet, though. In Oliver Stone's 1991 film JFK, for example, a New Orleans district attorney played by Kevin Costner, reenacts the shooting in front of a wrapped jury. With a squiggly-lined diagram behind him, he describes Exhibit 399 or CE 399, the magic bullet's official name, turning right, then left, right, then left before making a dramatic U-turn in order to hit all of Kennedy's and Connolly's points of injury. The blockbuster film was nominated for eight Oscars and reignited the magic bullet debate for a new generation. So now a single bullet remains. A single bullet now has to account for the remaining seven wounds in Kennedy and Connolly. But rather than admit to a conspiracy or investigate further, the Warren Commission chose to endorse the theory put forth by an ambitious junior counselor, Arlen Specter, one of the grossest lies ever forced on the American people. We've come to know it as the magic bullet theory. The magic bullet enters the president's back, headed downward at an angle of 17 degrees. It then moves upwards in order to leave Kennedy's body from the front of his neck, wound number two, where it waits 1.6 seconds, presumably in midair, where it turns right, then left, right, then left and continues in the Connolly's body at the rear of his right armpit, wound number three. The bullet then heads downward at an angle of 27 degrees, shattering Connolly's fifth rib and exiting from the right side of his chest, wound number four. The bullet then turns right and re-enters Connolly's body at his right wrist, wound number five. Shattering the radius bone, the bullet then exits Connolly's wrist, wound number six, makes a dramatic U-turn and buries itself in the Connolly's left thigh, wound number seven, from which it later falls out and is found in almost pristine condition on a stretch in a cord or parkland hospital, a some bullet. Anyone who's been in combat will tell you never in the history of gunfire has there been a bullet this ridiculous. Yet the government says it can prove it with some fancy physics in a nuclear laboratory. Of course they can't. Theoretical physics can prove that an elephant can hang from a cliff with his tail tied to a daisy, but use your eyes or common sense. The army wound ballistics experts at Edward Arsenal found some comparison bullets. Not one of them looked anything like this. Take a look at CE 856, an identical bullet five through the wrist of a human cadaver, just one of the bones smashed by the magic bullet. Seven wounds gentlemen, tough skin, dense bones. This single bullet explanation is the foundation of the Warren Commission's claim of a lone assassin. But CE 399's supposed twists and turns, as actor Kevin Costner points out here, they're based on a gross misconception of how Kennedy and Connolly were situated in their limousine. In the JFK courtroom scene, the men standing in for the president and the governor are seated in chairs that are the same height, one directly in front of the other. Given that layout and the placement of the two men's injuries, it seems like the bullet would have had to defy gravity to hit all the right marks, but that's not how the limousine seats were laid out. In reality, Connolly's seat was lower and further to the left, and based on photographic and video evidence, we know the president was seated all the way to the right of his back seat, his arm resting on the frame of the car. And so the bullet didn't have to turn right and left over and over again. In fact, if you place Kennedy's and Connolly's bodies correctly, their injuries form a practically straight line. What's more, magic bullet theorists point to the fact that the place where the bullet entered through Kennedy's jacket was supposedly lower than the exit wound on his neck. There's no way a bullet shot from a gun pointing downward would suddenly shoot up while in the president's body. But that point is also based on faulty evidence. Photographs from the moments before the shooting show that Kennedy's jacket was bounced up at his neck, and so the entry point on his coat is in fact lower than where the bullet actually entered his back. Thus, the up and down left to right seesawing that the magic bullet supposedly had to pull off in order to make all of Kennedy's and Connolly's injuries didn't happen at all. In fact, it's possible that CE399 traveled in a virtually straight line, from Kennedy's back all the way to Connolly's thigh. The investigation into Kennedy's death and the single bullet theory didn't conclude with the Warren Commission. The theory would be tested again and again, both by the government and by independent forensics enthusiasts over the following decades. Among these tests was a confidential March 1965 report issued by ballistics experts at the U.S. Army's Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland. Using the same type of rifle and bullets that killed Kennedy, the scientists tested the theory on a slew of gelatin blocks, human skulls, and goat skins to recreate the effects of body parts on a bullet's velocity and trajectory. While their tests confirmed that the bullet that wounded the president had enough remaining velocity to account for all of the governor's wounds, they found it more difficult to draw a firm conclusion on whether the two men were actually injured by the same bullet. According to their tests, Governor Connolly's back and chest wound could have been produced by either the shot that hit President Kennedy in the neck or by a separate shot. If it was a separate shot, the report concluded, then the bullet that hit the president in the neck must be accounted for. They recommend that a very careful reenactment of the assassination be done to see whether it was possible that the bullet that struck Kennedy in the back could have missed the car and its occupants completely. It is not clear whether such a reenactment was ever performed, though the House Select Committee on Assassinations confirmed the single bullet theory in a 1979 report. Still, the committee itself muddied the waters when it concluded in that same report that four, not three, bullets were fired and that one of those bullets came not from the Texas schoolbook depository but from the so-called grassy knoll, an open part of Dealey Plaza, the president's motorcade drove through when he was shot and killed. The committee based its conclusion on an audio recording from a Dallas police officer. An acoustical analysis of the tape identified four gunshots, with the echo pattern indicating that one of those shots came from the direction of the grassy knoll. The National Academy of Sciences performed its own analysis of the tape after the committee issued its report and found that the House's audio analysis was riddled with flaws. There was no evidence of a fourth gunshot or a second shooter, but the damage to public perceptions had already been done. President Kennedy was pronounced dead at Parkland Memorial Hospital at 1 p.m. that day. Lee Harvey Oswald was found and arrested less than an hour later. Oswald told reporters that he didn't shoot anybody. He famously called himself a patsy two days before nightclub owner and police informant Jack Ruby murdered him on live television, silencing him for good. While Ruby himself claimed he was acting out of vengeance for the Kennedy family and that killing Oswald had nothing to do with a broader conspiracy involving shadowy players within the government, that secondary incident left many suspicious and dubious to this day. With the alleged lone gunman dead, the possibility of having him divulge any information contradicting the single bullet theory was now gone as well. There was hardly widespread acceptance of the Warren reports findings, not even within the federal government. In 2013, it was revealed that President Kennedy's own brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, considered the Warren report a shoddy piece of craftsmanship. Half of the Warren commission was skeptical of the single bullet theory. According to journalist Philip Shannon, who wrote a book about the Kennedy assassination, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., a friend of the Kennedys, said Robert Kennedy was convinced the Warren commission's lone gunman story was false. Schlesinger said that in December 1963, Robert Kennedy told him that he feared Oswald was merely part of a larger plot, whether organized by Castro or by gangsters. He added that two years after the Warren report was published, Robert Kennedy remained convinced that there was a conspiracy and wondered out loud how could he continue to avoid comment on the report. It is evident that he believes it was a poor job. Debate around the magic bullet theory has substantially shifted in recent years thanks to the advent of modern 3D simulation technology. About 50 years to the day after Kennedy's assassination, one father and son forensics team used these technological advances to put the single bullet theory to a more rigorous test, assessing the trajectory of Oswald's bullet more precisely than ever before. We can envision crime scenes more thoroughly, more completely than we ever had the capability to do, said Michael Hague in an interview with CBS. So we walk away from the crime scene with more information and we can then examine the crime scene over and over later on on a computer. What the duo found, according to Luke Hague, was that the one bullet could easily have gone through two people, if you understand how this particular unusual bullet behaves and what it does after it leaves Kennedy's body. People didn't understand then and don't understand now, he said. It will go through a lot of material and then when it comes out it starts tumbling, and that's how it hit Connolly. It's like a badly thrown football. It normally flies true and straight. When this bullet emerged from Kennedy or any ballistic medium, it's now yawning and tumbling. The entry wound in Connolly is very important because it's the consequence of a yawed bullet, so it had to be a destabilized bullet from somewhere. This informed re-evaluation has of course been starkly different than Prosecutor Arlen Specter's presentation of the bullet's trajectory in court decades earlier. Using a mere rod and two adult males in a replica of the Lincoln Limousine, it was simply too primitive for doubts to persist in comparison to Luke and Michael Hague's work. When asked if he thought one bullet could do the damage witnessed in Dallas that day in 1963, Michael Hague said, as far as the neck wounds to the President and the wounds to John Connolly, absolutely. He added that the argument of Oswald simply not being a good enough shooter to pull it off was yet another unfounded misdirection. According to Luke Hague, Oswald's rifle wasn't as inaccurate as so many detractors claim. If the bore in the rifle is good, it's a good shooter, and it was a good shooter, he said. Unfortunately for President Kennedy. The question about multiple shots, the behavior of the bullet that goes through Kennedy and becomes the single bullet theory became controversial because, again, people didn't evaluate it, they didn't understand it, and they hadn't looked at it then and few have looked at it now. John McAdams, a political science professor at Marquette University in Wisconsin and an expert on the Kennedy assassination would likely agree with the Hague's. Thomas Canning was a NASA scientist who studied the single bullet trajectory for the House Select Committee on Assassinations he wrote on his website, referring to the theory being upheld by a congressional committee in 1979. The result was an alignment that showed the bullet leaving Kennedy's throat to strike Connolly in the back near the shoulder, which is where Connolly was actually struck. McAdams also studied a computer recreation of the bullet's trajectory from the 1990s. Failure analysis associates in work done for a 1992 mock trial of Lee Harvey Oswald for the American Bar Association used 3D computer animation and modeling techniques to research the bullet trajectory, and concluded that the single bullet trajectory works. We want to thank there's more to it than a lone loser deranged Marxist who hated this country and took an opportunity, said Luke Hague. There's got to be more to it than that. Vincent Bugliosi, the famous prosecutor, has a wonderful statement, a peasant cannot strike down a king. Weird Darkness continues in just a moment, and again, in tonight's sudden death overtime content, reports have been coming in for centuries, even through modern times of a creature in the Congo that, by all descriptions, looks to be a living deploticus or rockiosaurus. They call it Mochelli Mbembe. I don't have time to share it tonight, but it is going to be in the Sudden Death Overtime content in tonight's podcast episode, which you'll be able to get once the show is over. If you're looking for Weird Darkness merchandise, you can find t-shirts, buttons, hoodies, office supplies, clothes for your kids, stickers, magnets, coffee mugs, and more with all your favorite Weird Darkness designs. You can find something for you or the Weirdo in your life by clicking on Store at WeirdDarkness.com. Are you a business owner or marketing manager? How would you like to share your product or service with our Weirdo family of listeners? Whether your business is worldwide, nationwide, or local, I would love to tell people about what you have to offer. To get your business heard in Weird Darkness, or just get information about advertising in the podcast, visit WeirdDarkness.com slash Advertise. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash Advertise. Thanks for listening! If you missed any part of tonight's show or if you'd like to hear it again, you can subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcast app at WeirdDarkness.com slash Listen. Not only will you hear a copy of tonight's show, you'll also hear the sudden death overtime content I place only in the podcast, which tonight includes the story McKellie Mbembe. You can subscribe to the podcast at WeirdDarkness.com slash Listen, or search for Weird Darkness wherever you listen to podcasts. You can follow the show on Facebook and Twitter at Weird Darkness, and please tell others about Weird Darkness radio who love the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters, or unsolved mysteries like you do. Doing that helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show. If you'd like to be a part of the show, you can send in your own paranormal experiences by clicking on Tell Your Story at WeirdDarkness.com. You can also email me anytime at Darren at WeirdDarkness.com. Darren is D-A-R-R-E-N. 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, which I'll upload to the Weird Darkness website immediately after tonight's show is ended. Alien races that have contacted Earth is by Adriana John from WonderList, and the truth behind the magic bullet theory is by Marco McGaratoff from All That's Interesting. Weird Darkness is a registered trademark. Copyright Weird Darkness. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. Ephesians 4, verses 31 and 32. Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. And a final thought. Being strong is not about giving in to impulse. It's about weighing up risks and being brave, doing things you don't want to do with conviction, total commitment to achieving the goal. Rona Howsell, I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness. When darkness falls, they rise from their burial places and the ocean. They start to march in large groups, and they move until just before sunrise. If you have the misfortune of encountering them, never look into their eyes because they can kill any mortal with only a glance. They are known as night marchers or spirit ranks in ancient Hawaiian legends, and their stories have been passed down for generations. The night marchers are believed to be deadly ghosts of Hawaiian warriors. There are many interesting aspects about the night marchers who on some occasions can also appear during the day. This happens when they are coming to escort a dying relative to the spirit world. In those cases, however, they enter the realm of our existence when it's dark. Being ghosts, they leave no visible physical evidence of their visit. They move, often suspended, through the air, and their feet don't touch the ground or the water. They simply float. Stories of ghosts and spirits are often encountered in Hawaiian mythology. A ghost, a Lapu, can be human or non-human, but their existence testifies to people's beliefs in life after death. The Hawaiian said, the Lapu ghosts were not supposed to watch over the welfare of the persons they met. They never went into the heavens to become black clouds, bringing rain for the benefit of their households. They did not go out after winds to blow with destructive force against their enemies. This was the earnest work of the ancestor ghosts and was not done by the Lapu ghosts. Another name for ghosts was Wailua, which referred especially to the spirit leaving the body and supposedly being seen by someone. The Wailua spirit could be driven back into the body by other ghosts, or persuaded to come back through offerings or incantations given by living friends so that a dead person could become alive again. It was firmly believed that a person could endure many deaths and that if anyone lost consciousness, he was dead, and that is when the Lapu would come at night. Their ghost drums and sacred chants would be heard and their misty forms seen as they hovered above the ruins of the old temples. All Hawaiians believe in the power of spirits to return to the scenes they knew on earth in the form in which they appeared while they were alive. Especially, this is true of the processions of gods and spirits who come on certain sacred nights to visit the sacred places or welcome a dying relative and conduct him to the Awomakua world. Many people say they have seen or heard the chanting voices of the night marchers who were always dressed as ancient chiefs or gods. It is possible to witness the march of these deadly ghost warriors on sacred nights of Kulono, Kane, or Kinaloa. Some of these horrible and frightening beings are deceased Koa warriors. It also happens that Hawaiian gods are present in some marches. If the procession is one of gods, the marchers move five abreasts with five torches burning red between the ranks, and without music save that of the voice raised in chant. Processions of chiefs are accompanied by Awomakua and march in silence or to the accompaniment of a drum, nose flute, and chanting. Legends tell encountering the night marchers can have deadly consequences, but it is possible to survive the anger of these fierce ancient warriors. If a mortal catches a glimpse of one of the night marchers, he or she should hide indoors as quickly as possible. By removing all clothing and lying motionless on the floor with your face down, a person shows proper respect, fear, and deference to the night marchers. This behavior will spare the life of the mortal because in Hawaiian traditions, one may never look at a king's or chief's face. Building defenses against night marchers is a waste of time because they can pass through any barrier. The only thing that night marchers stay away from are Hawaiian tea plants. Mocheli Mbembe is the name given to a creature believed to inhabit the upper reaches of the Congo River Basin, that is, the Congo, Zambia, and Cameroon, as well as in the Lake Tele in the Republic of Congo and its surrounding regions. The name originates from the Lingala language, and it is commonly translated to mean one who stops the flow of rivers, said to be a reference to the creature's supposed preference for nestling in the bends of rivers. Mocheli Mbembe is also said to be the word for rainbow, as well as mystery, according to Paul Olin, a missionary who has spent more than a decade living with the Bayaka pygmies of Congo and the Central African Republic. Over the years, numerous physical descriptions of the Mocheli Mbembe have been provided. The various accounts generally agree that the creature is enormous in size and has a long neck with a small head, as well as a long tail. In some accounts, the Mocheli Mbembe is also said to be an herbivore that lives in caves by the river, where it could find its favorite food, a certain type of liana. Despite its vegetarian diet, though, it is thought that the Mocheli Mbembe would act aggressively if approached by people. In one account, it is said that the beast has a single horn, perhaps like a rhinoceros, with which it would kill elephants. There are also claims that the Mocheli Mbembe is a spiritual rather than a physical being. The first report of the Mocheli Mbembe by Westerners dates back to 1776, and it is attributed to a French missionary in the Nacanga River region by the name of Liévin Bonaventure-Proyart. The missionary reported that he had seen enormous footprints, about a meter or 3.28 feet in diameter, with claw prints of some type of animal in that region. The creature that left these footprints, however, was not sighted. No further reports about the Mocheli Mbembe were made until the early part of the 20th century. In 1909, an explorer by the name of Lieutenant Paul Gratz wrote about a creature similar to the Mocheli Mbembe known as the Nacanga. This creature is found in the legends of the natives living in present-day Zambia, and it is rumored to inhabit the Lake Bangulu region. Gratz's report is important, because it is the first account that describes the animal as dinosaur-like. Since then, it has been commonly accepted that the Mocheli Mbembe is some kind of dinosaur. Around the same time, Carl Hagenbeck, a renowned German big-game hunter, claimed that he had heard about the beast as well. In his autobiography, Beasts and Men, Hagenbeck wrote that he was told about a huge monster, half-elephant, half-dragon, that was living in the depths of the Great Swamps in the interior of Rhodesia, an unrecognized state that once occupied the territory which we know today as Mbembe. Hagenbeck also wrote that, quote, I am almost convinced that some such reptile must be still in existence. At great expense, therefore, I sent out an expedition to find the monster, but unfortunately, they were compelled to return home without having proved anything, either one way or the other. Hagenbeck may have been the first Westerner to have led an expedition to find Mocheli Mbembe, but he would certainly not be the last. As recently as 2011, over 50 expeditions had been carried out to find the creature. Apart from alleged footprints, fuzzy photographic images, and a deluge of eyewitness reports, including one in which a missionary claims to have been acquainted with some pygmies who killed a Mocheli Mbembe during the 1960s, there is a lack of indisputable evidence to prove the existence of the creature. In addition to the absence of hard evidence, the existence of the Mocheli Mbembe is doubted based on several factors. For example, it has been argued that if the Mocheli Mbembe is a prehistoric dinosaur, as many claim, then it is highly unlikely for it to be just one animal or a few individuals. If the Mocheli Mbembe had survived unchanged in the Congo River basin for the last 65 some million years, then there must be a sizable population of them. Enough physical evidence, such as skeletal remains or feces, would have been left behind by the creatures and should have been found by now. But we made the same argument about something that we thought was similar to Bigfoot, Big, Harry, sometimes bipedal, which we later found to be the Great Apes. Another argument against the existence of Mocheli Mbembe draws from the experience of zoologists who search for species believed to have gone extinct in recent history. If one intends to rediscover a presumably extinct animal, one would need to conduct multiple searches. It has been found that if such a creature still exists, it would usually turn up after three to six searches were conducted, after which the probability of its existence decreases. Given that over 50 expeditions have been conducted, the likelihood that the Mocheli Mbembe exists at all seems to be pretty slim. Nevertheless, there are those who have not given up and who fervently believe that the Mocheli Mbembe will one day be found. The most prominent of these are the creationists who hold the view that the Mocheli Mbembe, if found, would provide hard evidence for the literal interpretation of the Biblical account of creation. They also believe the existence of such a creature would serve to discredit the claims of evolutionists as the Mocheli Mbembe would be proof that dinosaurs reproduced after their kind, not evolving from or into other life forms. Considering what's at stake, it's likely that the hunt for the elusive Mocheli Mbembe will continue for some time to come. When Salem Roanoke took a job near his family's new home as a hired hand in the Texas Hill Country, he anticipated learning the rancher's trade, but a series of strange events, shocking murders, and unholy revelations divert him down another path. This terrifying trajectory puts him directly into the middle of a struggle between monsters, magic, and men. Armed and backed by a militia of ranchers, Salem attempts to combat the creeping tide of evil that threatens to engulf his new home and destroy the people most important to him. Will Salem manage to save his home or have his actions condemn everyone he hopes to save? The Witch Trials, a summer of wolves and season of the witch by SR Roanoke. Available in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions, look for The Witch Trials by SR Roanoke on Amazon or find it on the audiobooks page at WeirdDarkness.com. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash audiobooks. 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