 Welcome to Paranormality Magazine. Each week, Paranormality Magazine explores all 40 subjects from phantoms to UFOs and every cryptid creature in between. Each week, you are treated to a collection of well-researched and investigated stories, interviews and reports on cutting-edge paranormal projects and topics they know you crave. And here in the podcast, I share stories from the magazine to give you just a taste of what you receive in every issue. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Paranormality Magazine. What would your favorite horror tour be? The Stanley Hotel perhaps? Maybe the Alamo? Or perhaps some of the many haunted locations in and around Hollywood? But some, especially true crime aficionados, would be hard-pressed to find something more enticing than touring Whitechapel, the home of Jack the Ripper. But Elaine Kelly from Paranormality Magazine did just that and she told us about it in her article Tracing the Dark Secrets of Whitechapel. Spectre Detectors is a group of paranormal investigators based in County Durham, England and on September 18, 2018 we traveled to London to investigate the Whitechapel murders. I had arranged for us to be taken to the murder scenes by Ripper expert Russell Edwards. Russell has a book published about the murders titled Naming Jack the Ripper and is the owner of a shawl believed to belong to the murderer thought to be Aaron Kosminski. Kosminski was a Polish barber and hairdresser and was a suspect in the Ripper case. We started our tour with Russell and the area where we stood was where the destitute went and was a very violent area. When regular people came it was for three things, alcohol, drugs and sex. No one drank the water because of disease, they drank ale instead and people brewed and sold gin from their homes. Drugs back then were laudanum which was an alcoholic herbal mixture containing 10% opium then there was opium and arsenic. Wives were being hanged accused of murdering their husbands when in fact they just overdosed. In the old days prostitutes were called unfortunates. Unfortunate meant you lived a day-to-day existence. You got up and if you couldn't get matches or flowers to sell or anything you could find you had to sell your body because you had to get yourself a bed in a DOS house. The DOS houses had tons of beds crammed into one room and you were sleeping with all and sundry. It really was just somewhere to put your head down for the night. As we were making our way to the next site we caught some EVPs on the voice recorder. A man said to help him and a lady said, Look, Mary. The five murder victims' names were Polly Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Kelly. The four Polly Nichols was murdered, someone called Martha Tabrum was also killed. Russell walked us down the streets where the DOS houses were trying to give us an insight into what it was like in 1888. One of the former DOS houses was split in half, number 11 and 11 and a half with two doorways. This is the type of dwelling where you would find an unfortunate prostitute. You would get your four penny scene too and this area was a hive of activity. Families sometimes used to rent a room and would share the room with all and sundry. The beds were called pits and they used to stink. At this point, about two minutes from where the second murder victim was found, we caught on EVP saying, Help him and Mary. We continued to the second murder scene located at 29 Hanbury Street where a lady used to sell rotting horse flesh for cat meat from her living room. We are told that 16 people lived there. On the 8th of September, 1888, at 5.45 am, the victim was found, exactly 130 years to the date of our visit and her name was Annie Chapman. He had cut her from the ribcage down past her pubic area and had laid a flap of skin to the side of the body. He then pulled out her intestines and threw them over her shoulder. Her uterus was missing and he had also tried to cut her head off. It would have been dark at 5.45 am and the murderer will have stood exactly where we stood. He would have been covered in blood and somehow he just vanished into thin air. This really caused an alarm as the first victim had been murdered just a week before and three weeks before that Martha was stabbed 39 times. This led to a public outcry forcing police to have double shifts. Russell then showed us where the ripper lived and we visited the scenes of the third and fourth victims. We stopped at the site of the frying pan pub where Mary Ann Nichols, the first victim, was drinking on the last day that she was alive. Mary Ann, or Polly as she was known, lived on Front Street. We continued with Russell to another site. We felt that someone had been attacked there and suffered real pain in the genital area. Russell told us about a victim called Emma Elizabeth Smith. She was followed by three teenagers. They beat her to the ground and shoved a stick between her legs so badly that they ruptured her perineum. It is believed that they may have done it to take her livelihood away because she wouldn't pay protection money. Emma died of peritonitis the next day. Emma wasn't one of the ripper victims but she was still a victim nevertheless. Life around the east end of London for an unfortunate was extremely dangerous. We came back to the story about Martha. Martha Tambram was on a pub crawl. It was a bank holiday and it was raining. At about 11.30pm she, along with another unfortunate named Perley Pohl met two soldiers but decided to split up to do their business. Perley Pohl took hers for a four-penny knee trembler and Martha took hers to a building archway. Later, when another resident was on his way to work, he found Martha's body on the first stairwell covered in blood. She was stabbed 38 times with a pen knife and once with a blade, a total of 39 times, mainly in her private area. Poor Martha is buried in an unmarked grave. We carried on walking in Martha's footsteps. We made our way through a park where I caught an EVP saying, you're joking. Dean also saw a dark shadow figure wearing glasses, very slim, tall and wearing some type of wide brimmed hat and he appeared to be medically trained. He also connected with a man who seemed to have mother issues as if his mother was a prostitute in his eyes and he looked at her like she was dirty. I started to feel sick and had stomach pain and so did Shana. I also felt a burning feeling in my throat and Lorraine felt like she had something stuffed into her mouth. Next, we entered the road where Aaron lived. His brother Wolfe lived nearby and there was an old synagogue at the end of the road. When the protection was at its height, Aaron lived right in the center of it. From there, we went to the murder scene of Mary Kelly. Mary was the only victim that was murdered away from the streets. He could take his time with this one. Mary had her heart ripped out and Hannah felt that there was a child there who witnessed the murder. Hannah felt that Mary was pregnant. It was believed that she was pregnant and he took her baby. Russell was once again with the information that the mediums were picking up as some of this isn't common knowledge and we didn't know which scenes we were going to in which order so it would be impossible to cheat. We did a portal session here. The voices coming from it seemed to be female. Were we talking to the victims? They told us that the ripper was mentally ill but that he was also abused as a child. The lady told us she was Annie. Could it be Annie Chapman? Dean became aware of something and started panicking. He ran away and left something behind as someone was coming. He got up fast and was worried about his face. There was something wrong with his chest, like pneumonia. He found the energy to run but left something behind. Next was the sight of the third victim, Elizabeth Stride. Shayna felt the ripper hiding in the shadows. He wore a mask like a highway man. Russell said it was the scarf. I started to get severe pain in my left ear. Russell said he had chopped the left ear off. Elizabeth's body had been where the drain was, her face facing the wall. I was doing some spirit photography and when I looked I had caught a dark figure stood behind Russell which was amazing but what was even more amazing was that I had caught a photo of a figure laid in the exact spot where Elizabeth was murdered. The lady in the photo was in exactly the same position as the body was found. Anna told the group that she could see him lurking around the corner. He was hiding behind the wall. Shayna felt that one of the ladies had been raped and had ended up pregnant by him. We decided to do another portal session here. I asked if Mary Kelly was pregnant and the portal said cutting me across my stomach and it got took. Was Mary Kelly pregnant and was the baby taken? She also said that she knew the murderer. A man also spoke through the portal and said Kosminski. I asked if it was his DN on the shawl and he responded with All Over It and McHale-Mas. McHale-Mas was significant as there were McHale-Mas daisies on the shawl. I asked how many of the ladies were with us and the portal said five. The portal then screamed just around the corner. Is this where he hid? I asked Russell what this victim was called and he replied Elizabeth Stride, Long Liz. The portal said Elizabeth Stride and Swedish. Elizabeth Stride was in fact from Sweden. We headed towards the fourth murder victim. Hannah felt that Mary Kelly already knew the murderer as did Catherine Edo's. Russell agreed that he thought the girls knew him. He also wondered if the ripper was impotent because he was schizophrenic as from a professional point of view schizophrenics can have a tendency to masturbate excessively and Aaron was prone to self abuse. He ate half of the kidney of one of the victims and sent the other half to the police addressed to George Lusk. The letter said that he had eaten half of the kidney fried with bacon. We did another portal session. This time the ladies talked about abortion and a man was laughing as he said Jack and talked about cutting. The portal also said Aaron Ripper Kosminski. So the man that committed the five murders was called Aaron Kosminski and just after the murder of Mary Kelly he totally lost his mind. He tried to murder his sister and his brothers had finally had enough so they handed him over to the police. He was taken to a police seaside home in Hove which still stands and is called Clarendon Villas. He was identified by Israel Sharts and he gave an unhesitating identification that this was the man that attacked Elizabeth Stride on the night that she was murdered. Unfortunately under Jewish law if you don't report the incident to the police you are as good as the perpetrator so he couldn't testify. This immediately certified him. Everybody was watching for the Ripper as there was a lot of anti-Semitism back then. The police quietly put him in a workhouse and watched him so that he couldn't commit another murder. This was in 1889 and in 1891 they put him in the Lebsden Asylum where he died of gangrene at the age of 54 on the 24th of March 1919. And just like that, at the end of the day we had covered every area that these poor ladies had risked their lives working in so that they could have a bed for the night. People were down alleys sleeping rough and injecting drugs. People were begging for money to buy drink and drugs. It was a totally different place in the dark. As we were walking those same streets at night we became aware that not much has changed and the area is still the same as it was back then. The stories of haunted houses are always the same, aren't they? Bleeding apparitions, disembodied footsteps, out of place voices, witnesses remembering a sort of moving picture that vanishes when approached. Time and time again we hear the story of a phenomenon that seems random in nature. An apparition seemingly unaware of the living going about its business, walking through walls, slipping in and out of reality with no contact or intelligent behavior toward the startled witness. Perhaps you or someone you know has been such a witness. Perhaps you were more intrigued than terrified. You're lying to questioning the phenomenon more along the lines of how is this happening than why is this happening. You've just experienced what is called the Stone Tape Theory. In Paranormality magazine's Gersty Beth has the story. British director Nigel Neal was certainly not the first person to speculate on the science behind the manifestation of ghosts. But he did suggest that these concentrated patches of the haunting in his 1972 British horror-drama film, The Stone Tape, were nothing more than ideas imprinting on the environment. In essence, there is no actual ghost in the room, i.e. the dead trying to talk, but the space itself holds an image, a trace of what happened, and people act as recorders, amplifiers. Thus, Stone Tape Theory was born. To further understand and appreciate the significance of Stone Tape Theory, we must take a multi-dimensional approach to dissect this complex phenomenon, starting with the very basic nature of reality as we know it, the atom. According to world-renowned psychophysiologist and biomedical engineer Dr. Barry Taff, our bodies are nothing more than a collection of organized groups of atoms that are themselves composed of even more highly-ordered cloister subprotons, neutrons and electrons. Acknowledging the world as an arrangement of molecules or atoms or intra-atomic particles of which our entire physical reality is the foundation for understanding Stone Tape Theory. We already know that we are made of microscopic clusters of stuff. Advances in technology have allowed scientists to realize that atomic particles may not be particles altogether, but waves of reverberating and overlapping energies. As we will see throughout this article, the implications of a reality of overlapping energies have a profound effect on how we continue to understand not only the flesh and blood world, but also how we should hypothesize the supernatural world. Everything we know of is made of energy, our laptop, our brain, our mom's tuna casserole. Energy and matter have always been in constant motion, and we know from the first law of thermodynamics that energy cannot be created or destroyed, but it can be changed from one form to another. So, if matter is nothing more than empty space with energy running through it and that energy is never destroyed, can an energetic imprint be left behind after the physical stuff is no longer physically there? Does an environment keep memories and influences from its previous lives? With that notion in mind, we further dig into the depths of Stone Tape Theory, hereafter designated as STT. While there is limited evidence to scientifically prove emotion can directly create electricity, paranormal researchers speculate emotions may impact the environment on a quantum level we have yet to fully understand. Author and filmmaker Mike Ricksecker discussed the heart's magnetic field, toroidal energy, in his 2020 book, A Walk in the Shadows, the Complete Guide to Shadow People. Research conducted by the Hartmath Institute proved that the heart's magnetic field is not only the strongest rhythmic field produced by the human body, but it can also extend around our body for several feet, as indicated by researchers' magnetometers. These same rhythmic patterns also can transmit emotional information via the electromagnetic field into the environment, which can be detected by others. Furthermore, experiments with DNA molecules by Russian quantum geneticist Dr. Peter Garyev in the late 1980s proposed that DNA acted like a sponge, pulling in photos from an unknown source and only releasing them when the DNA was destroyed. When DNA was stored in a quartz container and blasted with lasers, liquid nitrogen and microwaves, the strand was obliterated, but an energetic duplicate remained in the container for up to 30 days, spiraling along like a disembodied spirit. The implications of a heart rhythm synchronization between people and the environment and the possibility that DNA produces a duplicate light version of itself are nothing short of astounding. It certainly lends credibility to the notion that when we transition from our physical body to our soul, i.e., die, that energy could still exist, just not in the form of our personality or something we can be or use. For decades, sound engineers have manipulated magnetized particles of energy, imprinting them on plastic tape coated with iron oxide powder. This ability to convert an electronic signal into a magnetic charge and vice versa is the very basis for how cassette tape works. The stronger the electronic signal being fed into the recorder, the more magnetized the particles become and the quality of the recording is enhanced. It seems as though certain geolocations act as storage batteries or tape recorders recording emotionally charged occurrences and then playing them back under certain conditions. The circumstances surrounding why a place will discharge an event are inconsistent and some researchers think this residual activity can be triggered on command. For example, playing period music may trigger an apparition of a dancing couple while tearing down walls or uprooting flooring may stir up energies or memories that were imprinted in its structure. It's speculated that certain elements, in particular quartz crystals, limestone, iron oxide and magnetite deposits are able to capture the emotional energy that is released during, for example, a violent death. Quartz has been consistently scientifically proven to absorb and amplify circuitry like the microprocessors in your watch or cell phone. Perhaps such an element shaped by the interplay of atomic and electrical forces creates a primitive recording mechanism, a variation of a digital crystal containing imprints of extreme emotional terror. Studies in geographic information systems at the University of Minnesota, WANONA hypothesize that geological and hydrological attributes of an environment could facilitate the manifestation of paranormal activity. Weather patterns, too, were speculated to influence the storage and retrieval of place memory. Interestingly, their 2014 study indicated that haunted locations were 53% more likely to be within suitable proximity to faults and that limestone had the highest positive correlation with the haunted location, suggesting some validity to what paranormal researchers have speculated for decades. By this point, it doesn't seem so far-fetched that the iron atomic particles making up a slab of stone could have the same effect as a primitive tape recorder, essentially recording an electrically charged event and then playing it back under the right conditions. Iron is the best metal we have for creating natural occurring magnetic fields, writes author and researcher of consciousness, David Wilcock. The stone particles inherent in the architecture of a building could cause a haunting because the iron in stone acts like a sort of magnetic tape and the energy of that environment acts like a kind of energy reservoir that can be stored and later accessed by the human brain. It's worth noting that not all residual hauntings are tragic in nature. STT can also account for the most mundane of hauntings. Dr. Barry Taff labels a bioholographic animation which operates on an audiovisual playback mechanism, creating a holographic display of previously recorded information. Apparitions merely repeat patterns of past repetitive behavior, walking down hallways, opening doors, whistling in the bathroom, and pose a little threat to those who encounter them, albeit initial fright or annoyance. But how do we account for individuals who are sensitive to interpreting this energy and others who are not? If you've ever traveled to an old castle or even walked into a room where an argument had occurred and noticed that something didn't feel right, that the energy of the room was heavy, it just felt off, you are likely considered sensitive in the paranormal community. Indeed, some environments seem to be charged with the energy of human consciousness and can infect certain individuals who are sensitive to such energy. Such people, writes Dr. Barry Taff, activate and facilitate a three-dimensional reconstruction and projection of what came before. In other words, certain sensitive people can pick up on the history of the environment. The environment isn't necessarily projecting anything but a sensitive person tunes in and experiences the building's memories. Stone-tape theory could potentially be debunked through research conducted by science journalist Mary Roach, among others, who has recreated the feelings of a sensed presence in a laboratory. Geometric energies can be detected by a simple EMF meter which spikes when the person holding it claims to be standing in an area which felt haunted but was really being artificially manipulated. There is a correlation between geomagnetic activity and mild hallucinations. It could be that people are physically affected by EMP fields and then applying their own cultural overlay – ghost – to explain the experience. She writes in her New York Times bestseller Spook, Science Tackles the Afterlife. The presence of infrasound can also mimic the effects of being in the presence of a so-called spirit. Infrasound can produce physiological reactions in test subjects of feeling cold, nauseated, agitated, or even triggering a fight or flight response. In other words, the energy given off by the geology of the environment itself can generate visceral reactions in those who are sensitive to it. No ghosts required. Continued experiments in molecular biology, quantum physics, meteorology, and parapsychology can help lend further credibility to those who claim to have experienced unexplained phenomena. Additionally, we must further explore the abilities of our own bodies and learn how we interpret, perceive, and experience the phenomenon. We cannot deny that our blood contains iron, our nervous system creates electricity, our cells contain water, a conductor, and our hearts create magnetic waves. We are made up of the same stuff as the phenomenon, we just don't yet have the technology to understand its operational properties. Perhaps we need to rethink our classification of haunted houses as not truly haunted at all, but an environmental recording of images, sounds, and emotional outbursts of occupants passed. Stone-tape theory suggests we are not a body with a soul, but a soul with a body. We may not yet understand the why of the phenomenon, but technological developments of the last century have certainly put us closer to comprehending the how. If our atomic structure is, in essence, made up of photons and atoms which appear simultaneously as particles and waves, this further implies that the human body can exist in a parallel reality as an unconscious, energetic duplicate. Under the right conditions, we can not only project our energies into the environment, but the environment in and of itself can support these electromagnetic waves and play back our occurrence at random under certain atmospheric conditions or in the presence of an intuitive person, or not at all. The truth of the matter is the walls do talk. We've only just begun to understand their language. Want more Paranormality? Subscribe to Paranormality Magazine, and each month get it delivered digitally or via mail in our print version. Paranormality Magazine is a collaborative endeavor featuring works from people like you who have a passion for all things mysterious and unexplained. Our goal is the pursuit of knowledge, gathering captivating stories from our own team of writers, researchers, and investigators, as well as from writers such as yourself. Each monthly issue also includes a list of paranormal, horror, UFO, and cryptozoology events around the country, incredible paranormal-themed artwork, articles and writing sent in from our readers, suggested books and podcasts to consume, and more. Visit ParanormalityMag.com and subscribe today for as little as $3.99 a month. That's ParanormalityMag.com ParanormalityMag.com It wasn't until recently that I even heard of the cryptid Ahool. Well, in case you're not familiar with what it is, it's a winged cryptid, some portray it like a giant bat, others claim it's a flying primate. Personally, I think it looks like a werewolf with bat wings. Well, Gary Brand from Paranormality Magazine, he decided to write up an article about it, and maybe we can learn a little bit more. We all want to live up to the legacy of our parents. Society expects that we'll get at least as far as them in terms of achievements as they did or better yet, exceed those. Dr. Ernest Bartels was doing just that, but in an unexpected way. He was making his way through the jungles of 1925's Java Island, located in Indonesia, in search of the next great discovery. He had a great deal to live up to, being the son of noted ornithologist M.E.G. Bartels, who made a reputation for himself within the science world, having identified many previously unknown bird species. As for the young naturalist, Dr. Bartels had traded being in the classroom for the wilderness, and Java certainly had plenty of that. The island Java was the 13th largest island in the world, formed from the results of past volcanic activity. It was also the most populated island in the world, with 124 million people. Overpopulation was, unfortunately, beginning to have its effect on this Indonesian island. The rainforests that were once all-encompassing were beginning to dwindle. This was pushing extinction for much of the wildlife, which included 23 mammal species, over 200 bird species, and 500 forms of plant life. These figures do not include species at the time still undocumented. Dr. Bartels was in a race against time to fully study the animals of the region before they disappeared forever. Part of this research would also lead to his own hopeful wildlife discoveries and a place in the history books alongside his father. So, teamed with local guides and a notebook, he made his way through the most remote parts of the island. One of the many trails within his trek was with one of his most trusted guides from the local village, where together they ventured to a waterfall on the slopes of Salek Mountains. It promised to provide everything that he had been hoping for. The journey had been exhausting, but the view of the cascading waterfall crashing into a pool of water below was spectacular. At the site, the naturalist retrieved his book from his pack to take notes on the flora and fauna present around him. He was so focused on his work that he failed to notice the sound at first. It was a howling noise that started off low but gradually increased with intensity. The village guides heard it immediately and began looking around nervously for the source of the sound somewhere within the trees above them. Ahoo! came ringing from above them. It was so loud and clear that it completely drowned out the sounds of rushing water from the waterfall. Suddenly, a large, winged creature leaped down from among the highest branches of the rainforest canopy to come plummeting toward the ground below. At the last possible second, it unfolded two enormous wings from its body to divert its crash and launch itself into the air. They were 12 feet wide and enabled the creature to soar directly over Dr. Bartel's head before it followed the waterfall's course over the rocks and disappeared. The entire experience only lasted for a moment before Dr. Bartel's lost sight of it. The shock left him too stunned to respond, but he could still hear its call as it flew away. He was in utter surprise and set to inquire with the villagers as to what the creature was. It was unlike anything he had seen before, and he was obsessed with learning all he could about it. The villagers were very informed about the creature they called the Ahool, named after its call along Ahool. The creature was bat-like, described as the size of a one-year-old child with a gigantic wingspan of 12 feet. This is twice the wingspan of the largest known bat in the world, the common flying fox. Its dark gray fur was noticeably short. It possessed large, black eyes, flattened forearms that supported its leathery red-skinned wings, and a monkey-like head with a flat-ish, humanoid face comprised with protruding fangs. Villagers usually encountered its squatting on the forest floor, at which time the Ahool's wings were closed, pressed against the creature's body with its feet appearing two-point backwards. The villagers reported that the Ahool was a nocturnal creature. The creature's days were spent concealed in caves located behind or beneath waterfalls. Its knights were spent skimming across rivers in search of large fish using the claws on their abnormal feet to capture and devour their prey. Java Island contains numerous volcanoes and some amazing cave systems. These unexplored resources would be the perfect home for a creature or a whole family of giant bats such as the Ahool. As the creature appeared to be very territorial, it never traveled far from these caves or the rivers surrounding them. Dr. Bartels spent the next two years continuing his research and exploration. The Ahool became his quest and opportunity for recognition in the field of natural science. He made great progress while traversing every aspect of the island in hopes of documenting his discoveries. He was able to find a vast collection of Java's animal species to catalog. However, the Ahool continued to remain elusive, despite the tales of encounters from the villagers. He was beginning to believe that his encounter was set to become a once-in-a-lifetime experience. He was 1927 when he had taken up residence in a village close to the Yijin Coal River in Western Java. The house was not fancy, but he had formed a close connection to the people and the land during his expedition. One of his favorite pastimes occurred during the late hours when he would relax in the darkness and listen to the sounds of the nearby jungle. After his years studying the wildlife, it was a simple, personal game for him to match the animal to the night calls that he would hear from time to time. One night, around nearly 11.30 p.m., he heard a vastly different sound, just as he was about to drift off to sleep. It was a flapping sound heard above him. It was obvious to the naturalist expert that it was exceptionally large, but unlike anything that he had identified before. Suddenly, there was a heavy thud caused by the landing of the creature, which was immediately followed by the clear cry of the distinctive Ahool. Dr. Bartels was in disbelief. After searching for so long, the creature found him. He was on his feet immediately and grabbed the flashlight he kept close by. As he burst open the front door and ran out of his hut, the creature had already taken off. He raced off in almost complete darkness toward the direction the sound was coming from. The naturalist stopped on the path to catch his breath while constantly monitoring the skies for the winged creature. At first, there was nothing but stillness and darkness. Less than 20 seconds later, he heard it again, a final Ahool which floated back toward him from a considerable distance downstream. Any attempt to follow the Ahool along dark waters of the river was impossible. Dr. Bartels had been so close to catching sight of the creature again, but it was gone. As he would recall many years later, he had focused on the sound not because he did not know what produced it, but rather because he did, the Ahool. This was the last experience Dr. Bartels would have with the Ahool, as he eventually ended his research in Java to return to academia, where he published his research. At the time, Bartels had suggested that the creature was not a bat but some type of bird, specifically an exceptionally large owl, but his theory did not set well with his peers. Instead, he was greeted with enthusiastic denials by his friends who assured him plainly that the evidence he presented was that of a bat regardless of the size. Dr. Bartels' accounts of the Ahool made the rounds of academics and eventually they were passed on to cryptozoologist Ivan T. Sanderson by Bernard Huvelmans. Sanderson took a special interest in the Ahool because he too had met with such a creature, but not in Java. His encounter took place in the Asombo Mountains of Cameroon, located in western Africa. The cryptozoologist thought that the Ahool could be an Asian form of the giant bat-like creature he witnessed in Africa, known by the African natives as the Kongamado. Research regarding the Ahool continued long after Dr. Bartels and Sanderson's investigations. Some researchers have suggested that the creature may be a surviving population of pterosaur, a flying reptile thought to have gone extinct around the time of the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago. The description of the Ahool does match what science currently knows about the pterosaur species, including large forearms supporting leathery wings. Many investigators seem to agree, however, that the Ahool is more likely a form of unknown giant bat, looking to the creature's reported facial features as evidence against the flying reptile theory. A third, less popular theory, also based on the reported facial features of the Ahool, is that this beast may be the world's first reported case of a flying primate. As the population of Java continues to grow and the rainforest dwindles, the territorial creature could be rediscovered at any time or disappear due to deforestation, the latter of which would be a tragedy to the natural world and science everywhere. Well, Fortian folks, if you are looking to visit Colorado in the near future and are looking for some strange urban legends to experience, here are three from Paranormality Magazine that you might want to check out. Route 666 The infamous road formerly known as Route 666 dubbed the Devil's Highway cuts through Colorado. In an attempt to alleviate the fear associated with the demonic connotations of the number, the road was renumbered as Route 491 in 2003. However, the change in numbers did not eradicate the eerie phenomena that continues to occur on this haunted thoroughfare. During its time as Route 666, this particular stretch of highway had an unusually high rate of accidents. Numerous individuals driving along the Devil's Highway have recounted unsettling experiences such as being trailed by a black phantom sedan that dangerously tailgates them regardless of their speed. Bewilderingly, when they pull over, they discover that there is no car following them. Accounts also abound of a pack of hellhounds that terrorize unsuspecting travelers. These creatures inexplicably managed to keep pace with the vehicle regardless of the speed or reckless maneuvers of the driver. Many believe that these hellhounds are responsible for shredding tires and causing horrendous wrecks. Some even claim that these beasts have the ability to leap into windows and viciously attack people. The Vampire's Grave. In the realm of European folklore, captivating narratives about vampires have, well, captivated generations. However, an intriguing twist of fate unfolds in a small town nestled within the heart of Colorado. Enter Theodore Glova, an immigrant hailing from Transylvania who embarked on a new life as a coal miner in this unfamiliar land. As the legends go, Theodore was an enigmatic figure, towering in height with a pallid complexion, plaid in a somber coat and sporting elongated fingernails. Tragically, in the fateful year of 1918, he succumbed to the flu, finding his eternal rest in the serene grounds of Lafayette Municipal Cemetery. Yet, whispers persist that Theodore's spectral presence lingers under the moonlit skies, haunting those who chance upon his grave. According to some tales, an extraordinary tree now stands as a sentinel. Its roots said to have entwined with the stake that once pierced Theodore's heart, effectively warding off his undead existence. And then there are the Gates of Hell. This is a local legend surrounding Riverdale Road in Thornton, Colorado, often referred to as the Gates of Hell. According to rumors, this particular stretch of road is said to lead to a sinister place associated with satanic worship and even human sacrifices. Supposedly, at the end of this road, you can find rusted iron gates that serve as an entrance to an infernal realm, accompanied by the remains of a charred mansion believed to be a direct path to Hell. The mansion itself has a historical background dating back to the time of the Gold Rush when it was constructed by a man named David Wolpert. Throughout the years, the mansion has undergone various transformations, serving as a brothel, a cowboy saloon, and even a hippie commune before meeting its demise at a devastating fire in 1975. Local suspicions suggest that a troubled individual residing in the mansion tragically ended the lives of his family before setting the home ablaze. These macabre events have contributed to the belief that the mansion's grounds hold portals to the underworld. Thanks for listening to Paranormality Magazine. Get more information about the magazine and subscribe to our monthly publication at ParanormalityMag.com or click the link in the show description. And if you're a researcher or investigator, send us your stories. We might feature you in our next issue. If you have a paranormal podcast, you can add it to our website so our readers can find your show. And artists, if you'd like your work to be featured in our magazine or on our back cover, contact us. Again, our website is ParanormalityMag.com. I'm Darren Marlar and I'll have more paranormal for you next time from Paranormality Magazine.