 Hey, Weirdos! If you played Identify the Imposter on my Patreon page for tonight's show, the story title that was a hoax and is not one of the stories tonight is The Wedding Day Specter. Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and is intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised. Every town has an urban legend, the abandoned house at the end of the street that's haunted, the ghost girl seen on the side of a certain back road, unexplained lights over your town's lake. For residents of Port St. Lucie, Florida, there are numerous urban legends, but what is strange is that despite the dozens of different stories, they all revolve around a single oak tree and a neighborhood park, a tree they call the Devil Tree. And while most urban legends can be dismissed as fanciful tales of would-be horror writers wanting to scare their friends, this one begins with the reality of a true monster in human form. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Welcome, Weirdos. This is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained. Coming up in this episode Many ghost stories are frightening but leave the person encountering them shaken, but no more worse for wear. There's a light touch on the shoulder, the moving of an object, a whisper in the ear or a cold chill for the more intense cases. But then there are those hauntings that leave the person hysterical or physically hurt or even dead. We'll look at some of the most violent ghosts and hauntings of all time. Dixon, Illinois needed a bridge. Minister L.E. Truesdell was an expert bridge builder, but people had doubts as to whether what he was being asked to do could be accomplished. The naysayers were ignored and tragedy arrived. The witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts were horrid, the trials in Europe even more so. Now, imagine being a soldier, tried as a witch because you returned with supernatural knowledge imparted to you after you were abducted by extraterrestrials. It sounds like the makings of a terrible novel and an even worse movie, but it's the true story of Major Thomas Weir. He's believed to have killed over 50 women inside his soundproof torture trailer, which he called his toy box. We'll look at the case of serial killer David Parker Ray. Our criminal justice system tries to be the most fair in the world, considering the accused innocent until proven guilty. And while our system is not perfect, for the most part it does its job well, but because it is not perfect, once in a while a murderer walks. Or even worse, an innocent defendant goes to prison. And in some cases, that innocent person is convicted and imprisoned based on one thing. They confessed to the crime that they didn't commit. Why would someone do that? But first, Fort St. Lucie, Florida is full of disturbing urban legends. Some true, many false as urban legends go. But somehow, most all of these terrifying stories tie back to a single oak tree in a neighborhood park and Florida's first serial killer. If you're new here, welcome to the show. While you're listening, be sure to check out WeirdDarkness.com for a merchandise, my newsletter, to enter contests, to connect with me on social media. Plus, you can visit the Hope in the Darkness page if you're struggling with depression or dark thoughts. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness. Found in Port St. Lucie, the Devil Tree is a big oak in a county park on Canal C-24. A mighty oak, an ordinary tree, nothing to write home about, except the fact that thing might as well growl and snatch up little old ladies and unsuspecting kids and gobble them up like a throwback from a grim fairy tale. The Devil Tree has an evil, macabre, and incredibly blood-soaked reputation, one that is entwined with Florida history and its amazing capacity to attract the worst of the worst humanity has to offer. And it all began with Florida's first serial killer. The story of the Devil Tree begins on January 8, 1971, way before Hammock Park where the mighty oak now stands was created. The tale begins in a most bloody and shocking manner when a serial killer sexually attacks and mutilates two teenage girls. The monster, having his fill with the two girls, hangs them from the oak tree. He then buries the two victims in a shallow grave underneath the tree, only to return numerous times later to have his way with the decomposing bodies. The man's name, Gerard John Schaefer. The homicidal Broward County, Florida ex-policeman, though convicted in 1973 of only two mutilation murders, is believed to be responsible for at least 30 more killings, a sadistic sex beast by nature, Schaefer would lure young women off the roads with the help of his badge to rape, torture, mutilate, and murder. To say Schaefer was a tormented soul would be an oversimplification. The man was a monster, the sort whose very presence makes anti-death sentence zealots rethink their stance. Schaefer began experimenting with bondage and sadomasochism at around age 12. The man would inform his state psychiatrist that he loved to tie himself up to trees and get sexually excited by the lack of freedom. Schaefer would hurt and pleasure himself thinking about assaulting women from a very early age. Schaefer's earliest childhood memories were that he desired to be a lady, mainly because his sis was favored by his alcoholic, verbally abusive father. By the age of 14, Schaefer had a sweetheart named Cindy. The relationship was sordid and strange. He would make her take part in role-play fantasies, fantasies that revolved around raping scenarios. In 1966, the man tried to enter the priesthood. He was rejected because he lacked faith. By now, Gerard Schaefer was a ticking time bomb. That same year, enraged, faithless, and going down a black hole, the bomb exploded. By now, Gerard had graduated to animal cruelty. Gerard was so angry that he just quit the Catholic religion and allowed his inner demons to run amok in his cerebellum. The bomb went kaboom and Gerard decided to start his true calling. He became a serial killer. Everything came to a head on that fateful year. On October 2, 1966, Nancy Liker, age 20, and Pamela Nader, age 21, were having fun with their boyfriends in Alexander Springs Park in the Ocala National Forest. While the boys dove and played in the lake, the girls went out for a stroll. Their bodies turned up, molested, and choked, a couple of hours after their boyfriends called in the cops and a manhunt ensued. They were Gerard's first victims and he'd gotten away with the deed and no one even looked at him funny. He wasn't even a suspect. Schaefer turned to law enforcement as a profession, graduating as a patrolman at the end of 1971 at age 25. Schaefer was convicted of only two murders, we'll get to those, but investigators would later uncover a slew of possible victims and missing person reports that were most likely part of Gerard's handiwork. In prison, Gerard boasted of killing more than 30 girls and women. The man who became a sheriff's deputy in Martin County, Florida would prowl the streets and byways of the state using his badge to attract his victims. He was a charming and oftentimes gregarious person and his demeanor worked for his advantage. On July 21, 1972, Schaefer plucked up from the streets two teenage girls named Nancy Trotter and Paula Sue Wells. Both were hitchhiking. The next day, he kidnapped them, took them to a remote woodland and tied them to trees where he threatened to kill them or sell them into prostitution. He was about to get rid of the girls when his radio screeched and he was called away to a police emergency. He left both girls tied up and promised to return. Miraculously, they managed to wiggle out of their bonds. That call saved their lives. The girls, who were ages 17 and 18, escaped their ropes and ran to the nearest police station. Ironically, they're kidnappers own station. When Schaefer returned to the groves and discovered that his would-be victims had vanished, he called his station and insisted that he had done something foolish. He went on a long-winded explanation, telling the sheriff that he'd simply pretended to kidnap the two girls in order to scare them silly. Schaefer's boss didn't buy it. Gerard was stripped of his badge and slapped with a battery of charges. Somehow in spite of everything, Schaefer managed to post his bail and was released from prison. Two months later, on September 27, 1972, Schaefer abducted, tortured and butchered Susan Place age 17 and Georgia Jessup 16. He buried their corpses right underneath the now-famous Devil Tree in Oak Hemic Park in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Months later, after Schaefer had beaten the rap for kidnapping Nancy and Paula, a couple of hikers came upon the decomposing and mutilated remains of Place and Jessup. The autopsy revealed that both girls had been tied to a tree at some point and further investigation turned up documented eyewitness accounts that the girls were known hitchhikers. There were too many similarities. A warrant was issued for Schaefer's house. In Schaefer's Boudoir, the police recovered violent stories he had written that were full of accounts of the torture, rape and murder of women whom he routinely referred to in disgusting and evil terms we won't mention here. A diary of all his victims. Even more damningly, the experts found personal possessions such as jewelry, diaries and in one case, teeth from at least eight young women and girls who had gone missing in recent years. Schaefer was charged with the deaths of Place and Jessup. In October 1973, he was pronounced guilty and given two life sentences. Girls soon declared that he was linked to around 30 missing women and girls. How many women were tied and killed on the devil tree is still up for debate. Nonetheless, many believe that the devil's tree is permeated with the darkness that Gerard John Schaefer freed into the world. It is a skin-crawling locale full of nasty things and supernatural events. Satanists heard about the killings and chose the devil's tree as a new sacrificial site and meeting place. More than four women and counting have been found in the nearby area, many showing signs of having been tied or chained to a tree and violently abused. There are countless reports of hikers hearing odd sounds and singing through the pines and oaks. Hooded figures are known to prowl the area. Sightings of these strange hooded figures have only swelled during the years. The trails have become ominous and in many cases vegetation has even ceased to grow in certain patches. Authorities have made various arrests in the area, particularly of Ku Klux Klan members and other white supremacist groups. The area is filled with ghost sightings. Many believe that the spirits of the victims of Gerard haunt the forest. Visitors who have taken a piece of the tree, say a branch or bark, oftentimes come to some sort of misfortune immediately afterward. It has been described that the screams of young women can sometimes be heard emanating from the nearby bathrooms. On December 3, 1995, Schaefer was found knifed to death in his cell. Fellow inmate Vincent Rivera was sentenced in 1999 of stabbing Schaefer and had 53 years and 10 months added to the life-plus-20-years sentence he was already serving for double murder. Gerard John Schaefer was quoted as saying, I am probably at least one of the top serial killers of this century. I am certainly one of the most interesting and maybe the most articulate and introspective. I am no doubt the most skillful killer. I killed women in all ways from shooting, strangling, stabbing and beheading to odd ways such as drowning, smothering and crucifixion. Coming up, many ghost stories are frightening. Believe the person encountering them shaken, no more or worse for wear. Perhaps a light touch on the shoulder, the moving of an object, a whisper in the ear or a cold chill for the more intense cases, but then there are those hauntings that leave the person hysterical or physically hurt or even dead. We will look at some of the most violent ghosts and hauntings of all time when Weird Darkness returns. 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 have 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. Most ghosts are seemingly passive or even benevolent, appearing to scare people only by accident, never by intent. Ghosts that are violent, also known as poltergeists, however, are in a class by themselves. Stories suggest that some of these malevolent spirits have actually killed people. The most famous cases of violent hauntings have inspired multiple books and movie adaptations. Most people think of hauntings as something ghosts do, but the entity haunting 50 Berkeley Square in London, England has paranormal enthusiasts and experts a bit baffled. By all accounts, it seems to be something otherworldly but precisely what is still up for debate. The earliest verified accounts of the horror date from the 1840s when 20-year-old Sir Robert Warboys took a dare to spend the night in the supposedly haunted upstairs bedroom of a house surrounded by scary rumors for years. He went in with a gun and a candle and a bell system for alerting the landlord just in case. He never came out alive. Just an hour after he entered the bedroom, the landlord heard the bell ringing frantically, followed by a gunshot. When he got to Warboys' room on the second floor, he found the young man dead with a look of horror on his face and a bullet hole in the wall opposite the body. It seemed he had perished because of fright, but due to what, no one could ever figure out. After a series of residents, many with stories of hauntings, the homes left to sit vacant. A second better documented incident occurred a few decades later in 1887. This time two sailors, Edward Blundon and Robert Martin, found themselves without a place to stay on Christmas Eve and decided to stay in the empty house on Berkeley Street. Martin fell asleep but was awakened in the night by the sound of Blundon fighting something. Martin awoke to a scene that caused him to flee the building in terror. Blundon was being strangled by a brown, formless shape that had tendrils, one of which he was using to strangle Blundon. The tentacle-like appendages have led some to suspect the entity is not a ghost but a semi-aquatic predatory cryptid phenomenon that surfaces from the London sewer system. Martin ran from the house and returned with a police officer, only to find that Blundon had been thrown from the second story of the house and crushed on the street below. In another version of the story, Blundon's mangled body was found in the basement at the foot of the stairs. The house is still there today, complete with an antiquarian bookshop on the first floor. By police order, no employees or customers of the store are allowed to explore the building's upper floors, though they do report strange noises from that part of the house. It's probably for the best, since the creature, or whatever it is that lives upstairs, has reportedly claimed at least two lives so far. If you've seen The Conjuring 2, this story may sound familiar. Loosely based upon the Enfield haunting, the movie embellished some of the details for dramatic effect. Nonetheless, the Enfield haunting remains one of the most widely debated and, if true, most violent episodes of ghost activity in the 20th century. The trouble started on the night of August 30, 1977, when two of the Hodgson children witnessed a wardrobe inexplicably sliding across the floor and loud banging noises. After alerting their mother Peggy, she called the police. Once there, the police reportedly witnessed a chair sliding across the room by itself. All were left to conclude that some invisible force was at work in the house. Before long, the Hodgson family's youngest daughter Janet became the focus of paranormal activity in the house. It seems she became possessed by the ghost of the house's previous resident, Bill Wilkins, who died of a brain hemorrhage in the home before the Hodgson's moved in. Janet was levitated by the alleged spirit and he also spoke through her in a creepy male voice, sharing details of his passing. Objects flew through the air, family members and visitors were physically assaulted and matches were spontaneously lit by the restless spirit. Some people dismissed the case as an elaborate hoax, but several eyewitnesses came forward with stories to corroborate their claims. One of them was a policewoman who signed an affidavit, attesting that she had seen a chair levitate and move on its own in the house. The alarming activities eventually subsided. Family members said they continued to feel a presence, but active hauntings stopped. A subsequent family to live in the house reported hearing voices and feeling a presence, but nothing as extreme as those reported by the Hodgson family. The public and countless experts continued to debate whether the haunting the Hodgson family reported was a hoax or real. The surviving Hodgson children continued to maintain that the events truly happened. Marie Jose Ferreira was just 11 years old when she became the target of a malicious poltergeist and she did not survive the ordeal. It happened in Gebota Capol, Brazil in 1965. The angry spirit manifested stones and bricks out of nowhere and targeted little Maria with various physical assaults, including scratches, slaps and bites, leaving her constantly battered and bruised. A visit by an exorcist did little to help. In fact, it seems to have provoked the spirit even further to the point where it was setting Maria on fire in public places in full view of many witnesses unconnected to the case. A visit to a spirit medium revealed the source of the poltergeist's animosity. Maria had apparently been a witch in a previous life and was now being tormented by the spirits of people her previous incarnation had sent to their deaths with black magic. The medium beseeched the spirits to leave the innocent girl alone, but to no avail. Maria returned home and continued to be tormented until she took her own life with pesticides. After her passing, the manifestations stopped in the Ferreira home. The legend of the bell witch has been described as America's greatest ghost story and some versions of the tale even involved a future U.S. president. That last bit is likely an embellishment, but some claims about the story have been documented. In the early 1800s, the bell family settled in what would one day be Adams, Tennessee, near the Red River. John Bell and his wife Lucy had three children. Elizabeth or Betsy was born in 1806, Richard in 1811, and Joel in 1813. Beginning in 1817, John and daughter Betsy became the targets of violent attacks by an invisible entity that eventually spoke to them. Kate, as the spirit came to be called, would slap, bite, scratch, and otherwise assault everyone in the family from time to time, but seemed to hold special animosity towards Betsy and John. Before long, the spirits' manifestations became accompanied by curses, one of which supposedly slayed John Bell in 1820. The bell witch legend was so famous in its own time that the family's quest for help is said to have reached the ears of future president Andrew Jackson, who came to visit the home with his men, armed with silver bullets to protect themselves. But like all others who tried to help the Bells, they were driven away by the vengeful spirit. Eventually, Kate gave up her vendetta against the Bells and is said to have retreated to a cave on their old property, where hauntings and bizarre occurrences continue to be reported to this day. It's one of the creepiest, unsolved mysteries in Los Angeles history, but the death of Alisa Lamb at the Cecil Hotel wasn't the first time this building had been associated with strange passings. Indeed, the hotel has a long history of murder and the macabre, which is one reason it became the inspiration for American horror story Hotel. Alisa Lamb's case is exceedingly hair-raising, even to skeptics. Security camera footage shows she spent almost four minutes in an elevator, alternately talking to and trying to hide from someone who is not visible. All the while, the elevator doors don't close, staying open much longer than they are designed to. She then leaves the elevator, never to be seen alive again. She was reported missing and eventually her body was discovered in the hotel's rooftop water tanks after hotel residents complained about the water's taste and color. There's no plausible way Alisa could have gained easy access to the water tanks, and despite the fact that the coroner ruled her death and accident, it sparked numerous conspiracy theories, one of them being that she was either possessed by or trying to evade one of the spirits who haunts the Cecil. Alisa's passing is only the latest in a long series of strange deaths and macabre incidents at the Cecil. Almost from the beginning of the building's history, it has attracted violence and tragedy. In recent times, the Cecil Hotel was the home of two serial killers, Richard Ramirez, the night stalker, and later his admirer and copycat, Jack Unterweger. It's also said that the Cecil Hotel is the last place Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia, was seen alive. The South Shields poltergeist is a recent case of spiritual harassment and assault where the entity seemed to have a fetish for toys. Specifically, the toys belonging to a three-year-old boy, which the spirit used to terrorize the boy's parents. In December 2005, Mark and Marianne, not their real names, a couple living with their young son Robert in South Shields, England, began to notice strange things happening in their house. Furniture moved by itself. Doors opened and closed of their own accord. Chairs would be found stacked in bizarre configurations. Then, the entity reportedly became violent. One evening, while Marianne and Mark were in bed together, Marianne got hit in the back of the head with one of her son's toys. Mark was Poseidon and it appeared as if no one else was in the room. The couple was then pummeled with toys being thrown at them seemingly out of nowhere. As they tried to shield themselves with their covers, they found themselves in a tug of war with an invisible entity that tried to steal their blanket. The encounter ended when Mark felt a searing pain on his back and 13 red scratches appeared on his skin. That's when the poltergeist's toy fetish fully manifested. It left a rocking horse dangling from a ceiling fan. Mark and Marianne found a stuffed rabbit sitting in a toy chair at the top of their stairs with a box cutter in its lap. Malicious messages began to appear on their son's doodle board and even their cell phones, always from untraceable sources, saying things like, go die or you're dead. Sometimes young Robert would go missing for long periods of time only to be discovered hiding in strange parts of the house like closets and cupboards. Paranormal investigators were called in who claimed to witness several incidents themselves and even to have seen the entity manifest. They described it as a midnight black three-dimensional silhouette that radiated sheer evil. And then, as abruptly as it had begun, the haunting stopped. Though Marianne says she will never be the same and remains traumatized, reportedly no additional paranormal activity has occurred at their home. Yorkshire, England 1966 The Pritchard family wasn't expecting trouble, and at first the haunting seemed fairly innocuous. Strange noises now and then, the occasional chair moved around, etc. But sometime around August of that year, the entity at work in their home at 30 East Drive on the Sheckerfields estate decided to ramp up the horror. Like many poltergeists, the thing focused a great deal of attention on children. In this case, the Pritchard's daughter, Diane, she was thrown from her bed and at one point dragged up the stairs by her neck, leaving welts and bruises in the form of a handprint. The entity began to manifest itself visually in the form of a dark-robed figure that hovered at the feet of family members' beds. And then, like many poltergeist cases before it, the haunting stopped abruptly, never to resume. Years after the events, a paranormal investigator discovered the Pritchard's house stood near the former grounds of a medieval rectory and across the street from an old gallows where many people had been sent to their demise over the centuries. Among those hanged there in the past was a cleniac monk who'd been convicted of raping and murdering a young girl not much older than Diane had been at the time of the haunting. Based on this information and the entity's description, it was concluded that the haunting of the Pritchard's was carried out by this monk's angry ghost who lost interest in Diane after she became too old for his sick desires. The black monk now had a moniker and went down in the record books as one of Europe's most violent hauntings. The haunting of Esther Cox is one of the most famous haunting accounts in all of Ghost Lore. It centered around Cox and her home in Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada, beginning in 1878. It seems to have been triggered by Esther experiencing a violent attack and near sexual assault by a male friend. The attack, understandably, left Cox in great emotional distress and there may have been a connection between that and the events that followed. There was a knocking and banging throughout the night and Esther's body began to swell as she alternated between high fevers and periods of very low body temperature. Then objects in the house began to fly around. The doctor who was called in to help Cox witnessed her bed clothes being moved, heard scratching noises from an undetermined source, and saw the words Esther Cox, you are mine to kill, appear on the wall at the head of her bed. Esther tried moving to other houses, but whatever hurtful entities haunted her followed along. Among their tactics were the setting of small fires, one of which burned down Cox's host's farmhouse and resulted in her serving jail time for arson. It would have been easy to chalk this all up to mischief on her part, however multiple credible witnesses saw several of the events happen while Esther was under close observation. Eventually attempts to communicate with the spirit through seances and spirit wrapping revealed that there were at least five different ghosts following Cox around for unknown reasons. The phenomena combed down after Esther's jail sentence in 1879 and eventually ceased altogether. Esther Cox went on to marry twice and have sons from each marriage. Whatever plagued her seemed satisfied with the damage it had already done. And finally the ghosts of Greyfriars Cemetery. Lord Advocate Sir George McKenzie, known to his victims as Bloody McKenzie, was a vicious war criminal and torturer in the service of King Charles II. He imprisoned and tormented thousands of dissident Presbyterians in Scotland during the King's attempts to unify the country under one state religion. He carried out his grisly work at Greyfriars Kirkyard, a small cemetery of the Greyfriars Kirk Parish owned by the Church of Scotland. Hundreds of his victims were buried there and ironically, so was McKenzie himself when he passed in 1691. There he remained interred until the 20th century. However, one night in 1998, a homeless man seeking shelter disturbed McKenzie's mausoleum and unleashed one of Great Britain's most well-known poltergeists. The homeless man himself fell through a hole in the floor of McKenzie's tomb into a forgotten chamber that housed the remains of plague victims. This sent him screaming into the night, never to be heard from again. The next day, a woman looking through the iron gates of the cemetery was blasted back off its steps by a cold force. Shortly thereafter, another woman was found unconscious near the tomb with bruising on her neck indicating someone or something had tried to strangle her. Since then, there have been nearly 500 reports of ghostly attacks near McKenzie's tomb, including burns, scratches, unexplained bruises, broken fingers, punches, kicks, pulled hair, strange smells and sounds, and wall and floor knocks many seen by multiple witnesses. Some people even claimed the ghost had followed them back home or to a hotel to continue its torments. The only person who ever tried to exercise the restless spirit, or spirits from the cemetery, failed and was reportedly found dead a few days later. To this day, the ghost, presumed to be that of Bloody McKenzie himself, reigns supreme in the area and shows no signs of leaving or refraining from hurting others. When Weird Darkness returns, he is believed to have killed over 50 women inside his soundproof torture trailer, which he called his toy box. We will look at the case of serial killer David Parker Ray. But first, imagine being a 1600s soldier tried as a witch because you returned with supernatural knowledge imparted to you after you were abducted by extraterrestrials. It's the true story of Major Thomas Weir. 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. If we accept that alien abductions are real, then given the wealth of reports throughout recorded history of strange objects in the sky and equally strange creatures roaming the earth, then it is highly likely that alien abductions have also occurred for centuries. And while in our contemporary era the reactions to such revelations can be anywhere from mocking and ridicule on the one hand to being the subject of a serious investigation to your claims on the other, hundreds of years ago such claims would almost certainly draw accusations of Satanism, devil worship and witchcraft. And what's more, it would appear they often did. While there are several cases that could perhaps be examined and interpreted in such a way, one of the most intriguing occurred in Scotland toward the end of the 17th century. It features the apparent confessions of a respected former military officer of the Scottish army who, along with his sister, seemingly sealed their own fate with claims of strange creatures, fiery coaches and bizarre walking sticks. If the following account is one of misunderstood alien abduction, possibly even by those claiming to have experienced these strange incidents, then it should alert us to the fact that this can't have been the only such account of the times. It is perhaps the case that many other similar accounts can be found elsewhere in other official records of the past. The account we will examine here comes to us from the writing of Charles McKay in his 1841 publication Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. We have, of course, put our own speculation around the account. The case we will examine here is that Major Thomas Weir, a one-time respected Scottish soldier and commander of the Edinburgh Town Guard who, upon his sickbed in early 1670, apparently confessed to the Lord Provost some obscure and bizarre activities, not least an apparent practicing interest in the occult. What's more, these activities involve his sister, Jean Weir. Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of these confessions came when Jean herself appeared to break down and tell of a lifetime of strange occurrences. Most interesting to us here as far as UFOs go is how a mysterious stranger arrived seemingly out of nowhere in a fiery coach to take her brother away. During this bizarre journey, said to have occurred in 1648, this strange entity would impart supernatural intelligence, mainly in relation to a battle taking place at Worcester that very day, a battle the Scots lost. We should perhaps pause here to examine the wording of quote, fiery coach, unquote. Anyone with an interest in the ancient astronaut theory will be familiar with terms such as fiery chariots or chariots of fire and how many perceive these descriptions to be of a nuts and bolts metallic futuristic craft. Might this be the case here? If we assume Jean Weir was being truthful of the account that the fiery coach was a craft that we today would call a UFO. And even stranger, the fact that her brother was taken away during this sudden appearance also has all the hallmarks of an alien abduction encounter. However, it would appear that whatever the truth of the matter, this incident seemingly set off a chain of events that would eventually lead to the confession of the Weirs to activities that would result in nothing less than their execution. While the confession was not taken seriously at first, in part due to the noble standing Weir enjoyed, but also due to the suspicion he was suffering senility following the bizarre confessions of Jean both were arrested and tried for witchcraft. They were ultimately found guilty, although it is perhaps worth taking note and certainly an indicator of the hypocritical times, while his sister was found guilty of witchcraft, he was found guilty on the lesser charges of incest and bestiality. While awaiting execution in different locations, however, further details would come out. These would revolve around, as the charges suggest, incest with his sister and consorting with strange creatures, one of whom was the devil himself, who would often disguise himself as an old woman. This description is also of interest to us here. Was the old woman the same demonic hag experienced by many who suffer from sleep paralysis, a condition often associated with cases of alien abduction, rightly or wrongly? Or might it be that the old woman was actually something we might recognize as a gray alien today? Might an old woman have been the best way Weir could describe it, especially if he suspected occultism to be at the heart of these strange sightings? What's more, a walking stick which Weir would carry with him, which had a strange carved head as its topping, was regarded as an item of distrust and wickedness, so much so that many townsfolk would later spread the rumors of seeing the walking stick moving of its own accord in front of the major. While it is again speculation on our part here, might it be that this walking stick, if it did have some kind of strange power, was not magic, but a technical device? It's also interesting to examine the final moments and words of Major Weir himself. As he was taken to the location of his execution, he was urged to repent of his sins and beg God for forgiveness. However, both he, as would his sister the following day, would refuse to repent. Major Thomas' apparent last words were that he had, lived as a beast and must die as a beast. This is perhaps an interesting development. If we believe that the Weirs were so guilt ridden and so fearful of what might await them in the afterlife, then repentance would have been the first thing they would have done, regardless if it would do little to avert their brutal fate. While Major Weir was garreted and then burnt to the stake, his sister Jean was hanged the following day before also being burnt to the stake. A final twist in the whole macabre there was that the stick with the carved head was thrown into the flames after Weir. Witnesses would state that it appeared to turn strangely in the flames. In the years that followed, Weir's one-time home had claims of being haunted and of general strange activity. In fact, so convinced were most of these bizarre and other worldly happenings in the property that it would remain virtually abandoned for over a century. It was eventually purchased in 1780 by a former soldier, William Petulio. However, he and his wife would flee the property after one evening after experiencing strange activity in their bedroom with the sudden appearance of a bizarre calf heading toward them. The house would then remain empty for another half a century before being demolished in 1830. Just what did happen during the lifetime of Major Thomas Weir and his sister Jean will remain a mystery. Was it merely a case of the Weir's falling foul of the moral expectations of the times and the brutal justice of the church whose own influence over the justice system at the time while diminishing was still strong? Or is this a case of repeated alien abductions over several decades? Abductions that might very well have disturbed both of their minds to the degree where they would attempt to make a reason of the happenings using the logic of the times. What should we make of both of the Weir's refusal to repent? Had they simply lost their faith in God? Had they come to accept and understand the true nature of the strange visitations? Or might they have genuinely believed the strange happenings to be the work of the devil? Was the interest in the occult also genuine for which the siblings expressed no regret? There was little doubt if we or others were to search through the records and writings of the centuries that we would find other such cases that could very well be those of alien visitation. Perhaps the whole subject of witchcraft, at least as it was perceived in the past and connections to UFO sightings and alien abduction is worthy of our time a little more in depth in the future. If we accept the reasoned chance that different aspects of the paranormal likely share the same truth, then it would make sense that such fields of interest as the occult and witchcraft would also share those truths. On March 19, 1999, 22-year-old Cynthia Vigil was hooking in a parking lot in Albuquerque, New Mexico when a man claiming to be an undercover cop told her she was under arrest for solicitation of sex work and put her in the back of his car. That man was David Parker Ray and he brought Vigil to his nearby soundproof trailer which he called his toy box. Then he chained her to a table in the trailer. Over the next three days he raped and tortured Vigil with help from his girlfriend and accomplice Cindy Hendry. Ray and Hendry used whips, medical and sexual instruments and electric shocks to torment Vigil. Just before her torture Ray would play a cassette tape with a recording detailing what she would be forced to endure. On the cassette Ray explained that she was to refer to him only as master and the woman with him as mistress and never to speak unless spoken to first. He then went on to explain exactly how he would rape and abuse her. The way he talked, I didn't feel like this was his first time, Vigil said in a later interview. It was like he knew what he was doing. He told me I was never going to see my family again. He told me he would kill me like the others. On the third day while Ray was at work, Hendry accidentally left the keys to Vigil's restraints on a table near where Vigil was chained up. Seizing the opportunity, Vigil lunged for the keys and freed her hands. Hendry attempted to stop her escape but Vigil was able to stab her with an ice pick. She ran out of the trailer naked wearing only a slave collar and padlocked chains. In desperation, she knocked on the door of a nearby mobile home. The homeowner brought Vigil inside and called the police who promptly arrested both Ray and Hendry and learned of their many sickening crimes. David Parker Ray was born in Belen, New Mexico in 1939. Little is known about his childhood outside the fact that he was mainly raised by his grandfather. He also regularly saw his father, who often beat him. As a young boy, Ray was bullied by his peers for his shyness around girls. These insecurities eventually drove Ray to drink and abuse drugs. He served in the U.S. Army and later received an honorable discharge. Ray was married and divorced four times and he eventually found work as a mechanic with New Mexico State Parks. To this day, it is unclear exactly when Ray began his crime spree but it is believed that it started at some point during the mid-1950s and it only came to light after the escape of Vigil. After arresting David Parker Ray for the abduction of Vigil, the police quickly obtained a warrant to search his home and trailer. What the authorities found inside the trailer shocked and disturbed them. Ray's toy box contained a gynecologist-type table in the middle with a mirror mounted to the ceiling so that his victims could see the horrors delivered upon them. Littering the floor were whips, chains, pulleys, straps, clamps, leg spreader bars, surgical blades, saws and numerous sex toys. Authorities also found a wooden contraption which was apparently used to immobilize Ray's victims while he and his friends raped them. Chilling diagrams on the walls showed different methods for inflicting pain. But of all the disturbing discoveries found in the toy box killer's trailer, perhaps the most horrifying one was a videotape from 1996 which showed a terrified woman being raped and tortured by Ray and his girlfriend. Amidst the publicity of the arrest of David Parker Ray after his abduction of Cynthia Vigil, another woman came forward with a similar story. Angelica Montano was an acquaintance of Ray's who, after visiting his house to borrow cake mix, had been drugged, raped and tortured by Ray. Montano was then left by a highway out in the desert. Luckily she was found there alive by the police but there had been no follow-up on her case. Ray often drugged his victims while tormenting them using substances like sodium pentothal and phenyl barbitol so that they could not properly remember what happened to them if they survived their torture. But now, since both Vigil and Montano were willing to testify to raise crimes, the case against the toy box killer grew stronger. Police were able to press Ray's girlfriend and accomplice Cindy Hendy who quickly folded and began telling authorities what she knew about the abductions. Her testimony led the police to discover that Ray had been helped by multiple people during the kidnappings and rapes. Ray's accomplices included his own daughter Glenda Jesse Ray and his friend Dennis Roy Yancey and at least some of these vicious attacks ended in murder. Yancey later admitted to participating in the brutal murder of Marie Parker, a woman who had been abducted, drugged and tortured for days by Ray and his daughter before Yancey strangled her to death in 1997. Despite this horrific story and its chilling implications for David Parker Ray's other unknown victims, at least one more woman survived the toy box killer's torture chamber. Surprisingly, it was the same victim who was seen being raped and tortured in the 1996 videotape found in Ray's trailer. After some details were released to the public about the woman in the video, she was identified by her ex-mother-in-law as Kelly Garrett. Garrett was a former friend of David Parker Ray's daughter and accomplice Jesse. On July 24, 1996, Garrett had gotten into a fight with her then husband and decided to spend the night playing pool at a local saloon with Jesse to cool down. But unbeknownst to Garrett, Jesse roofied her beer. At some point afterward, Jesse and her father placed a dog collar and leash on Garrett and brought her to the toy box killer's trailer. There, David Parker Ray raped and tortured her for two days. Then Ray slid her throat and dumped her on the side of the road, leaving her for dead. Garrett miraculously survived the brutal attack, but neither her husband nor the police believed her story. In fact, her husband, believing that she had cheated on him that night, filed for divorce that same year. Due to the effects of the drugs, Garrett had limited recollection of the events over those two days, but remembered being raped by the toy box killer. David Parker Ray's crime spree is believed to have spanned from the mid-1950s to the late 1990s. He was likely able to get away with it for so long because he targeted many women who were of low socioeconomic status. In addition, the fact that he drugged his victims made it far less likely for the few survivors to remember exactly what had happened to them. Chillingly, much about Ray's crimes remains unknown, including how many victims he may have killed. Though he was never formally convicted of murder, it has been estimated that he killed over 50 women. While police were investigating the toy box killer's trailer, they uncovered evidence of numerous murders, including diaries written by Ray which detailed the brutal deaths of several women. Authorities also uncovered hundreds of pieces of jewelry, clothes, and other personal effects according to the FBI. These items were believed to have belonged to Ray's victims. That, plus the effort that David Parker Ray put into his toy box, points to a horrifically large number of potential murder victims. But despite all the evidence, the authorities were unable to create additional cases. And although both Hendy and Yancey identified areas they believed Ray disposed of bodies, police found no human remains in any of these locations. But while we may never know exactly how many people Ray murdered, his confirmed crimes against his surviving victims, Vigil, Montano, and Garrett, were fortunately enough to put him away for life. The toy box killer was ultimately sentenced to 224 years in prison. As for Jesse Ray, she received a sentence of nine years. Cindy Hendy was given 36 years in prison. Both were released early and they walk free today. David Parker Ray died of a heart attack on May 28, 2002, not long after his life sentence began. He was 62 years old at the time of his death. Though several years have passed since then, authorities are still working to connect the toy box killer to his many suspected murder victims. We're still getting good leads, FBI spokesman Frank Fisher said in an interview with the Albuquerque Journal in 2011. As long as we're getting those leads, and as long as the exposure in the press keeps generating interest in the case, we're going to keep investigating this. Coming up, Dixon, Illinois needed a bridge. Mr. L.E. Truesdell was an expert bridge builder, but people had doubts as to whether what he was being asked to do could be accomplished. And they say errors were ignored and tragedy arrived. Plus, our criminal justice system tries to be the most fair in the world, considering the accused innocent until proven guilty. And while our system is not perfect, for the most part it does its job well. But because it is not perfect, once in a while a murderer walks, or even worse, an innocent defendant goes to prison. And in some cases, that innocent person is convicted and imprisoned based on one thing. They confessed to a crime they didn't commit. Why would someone do that? These stories when Weird Darkness returns. The town is standard. A small mid-western town where nothing ever happens. Quiet, peaceful, and tucked away among the cornfields and away from the dangers of the outside world. Unfortunately, there was nothing normal about standard. There has been an evil that has been awakened, and now the residents are slowly going crazy. Men for no reason are coming home and murdering their families, and dark forms are appearing in people's mirrors. The evil is spreading, and now it is up to ex-Chicago cop Roboletto to find it. Time is running out, and the neighbors are becoming quiet shadows as they watch him. He doesn't have long before it will start to get into his mind, and then he himself would be making that deadly trip home. Inside the Mirrors by Jason R. Davis, narrated by Weird Darkness host Darren Marlar. Hear a free sample or purchase the title on the audiobooks page at WeirdDarkness.com. Dixon, Illinois has always been an important city because it has been a crossing point for the Iraq River for centuries. The first white settler in the area was a man of French descent named Oji that built a cabin along the riverbank in 1828. One of Oji's major contributions was continuing a ferry that had been operated by the Native Americans that lived in the area for years. Oji sold his land to John Dixon, who became the town's namesake. The first bridge to cross the Rock River at this point was built around 1846. Between 1846 and 1868, there were eight bridges built to cross the river at Dixon. These only lasted a few years each because of the periods of high water and flooding which brought large amounts of debris down the river. This debris smashed into the bridges, causing them to break apart quickly. Eventually, city officials decided to look for bridges designed with better materials that would outlast the wooden bridges. The proposal required a bridge that was 660 feet long. It would be quite an engineering marvel for that period. City authorities looked at many different plans before finally deciding on a bridge made from iron that was designed by L.E. Truesdell from Massachusetts. Truesdell designed other bridges in Illinois, but none of his previous projects were as long as the Dixon bridge required. Not all the people involved were convinced that Truesdell's design was the best, but their doubts were silenced by the majority. The bridge was built for a cost of $83,000. It opened to great fanfare January 21, 1869 with music and a parade to highlight the accomplishment. Large loads were carried across the bridge to show the sturdiness of the design. Four years later, on May 4, 1873, all seemed well with the bridge. Reverend J.H. Pratt from the Baptist Church had scheduled a special event for the Baptist Church for that day. Pratt had been reverend for the church for about nine years by 1873. This year, his flock had brought in six new candidates to the church, and the reverend wanted to highlight the success with a special occasion. He scheduled a mass baptism that would involve full immersion in the river. People gathered all along the banks and onto the bridge for a chance to watch the ceremony. There were even families and carriages that stopped on the bridge. One of the excited onlookers was 18-year-old Clara Stagpole. Clara had a busy schedule that day, but she brought her little sister Rosa to see the baptism. This was to be Clara's last day in Dixon. She was moving to Chicago, where she was scheduled to begin work as a teacher. It would be an understatement to say that Clara was excited. Her little sister Rosa was only 10 years old in 1873. Both girls were well known within their community. Another family that joined the crowd was part of the Dana family. Many Dana was seven years old and attended with her mother's sister Agnes Nixon. Agnes was 17 years old and staying with the Dana family. Most of the candidates that were being baptized that day were young women who had moved to the area to work in the factories. Their families came to take part in the event and were proudly watching the festivities. Later it was estimated that at least 200 people lined the bridge for the event. The first two baptisms went as expected. When the third woman stepped into the water and the choir began to sing once again, another sound rose. As the voices of the choir swelled, a horrible shrieking noise rose above the music. At first, the crowd stood stunned, confused by the sound that rose above all others. Then, as the realization of what was actually happening rushed over them, the folks on the bridge began to move. The massive people turned almost as one and made toward the closest bank, but they moved too late, and only a handful on each end of the bridge escaped. The iron stresses, which had seemed so decorative only minutes before, became like giant metal jaws as they closed down over the helpless people standing on the bridge. The jaws ripped flesh before it fell, dragging the victims into the water below. Over 175 people were dumped into the river. Almost as soon as the shrieking of the bridge stopped, it was replaced by a sound even more terrible than the one before. Screams from family members filled the air as people began to realize what had just taken place. The screams were soon joined by the wails of the wounded. Grown men were screaming for their children and wives. Women that were there to witness their co-workers or friends welcomed into the house of God fainted at the sight of the mangled bodies piled under the wreckage. Some witnesses were struck by the fact that one moment the day was bright and shining as if the heavenly gates were thrown open to celebrate this joyous occasion. In the next moment it was as if the angel of death himself had spread his dark wings over everyone and everything. Help began to arrive almost immediately. Men jumped in to save the survivors. Many victims were pulled up on the bank to safety. The injured were grabbed by others who carried them to the nearest houses to set up makeshift hospitals. Wooden planks from the bridge were used to pull both living and dead victims from the water. One man mentioned in the newspapers of the day was William Daly, who saved at least 16 people single-handedly with a plank from the broken bridge. The house's closest to the river were quickly filled with the injured, the dying and the dead. Family members staggered from house to house, looking for their loved ones. Heart-breaking scenes took place of family members reunited after hours of searching, after thinking all hope was lost, only to find their loved ones alive. And the other scenes, even more heart-wrenching, of people searching through the crowds of survivors, only to find their family members laid out on the bank in makeshift morgues. Special machines arrived to help lift the wreckage so that they could search for the missing bodies with long lines containing grappling hooks at the end. After 11 days, the last of the missing was found. One body, that of 17-year-old Lizzie McKay, was found by the dam in Sterling over 14 miles downstream of the accident. Many Dana and her aunt Agnes and the stackpole sisters were in the mass of dead and dying caught in the river. Little Minnie was pulled out alive, but died shortly afterwards. Her aunt Agnes was found trapped in the metal work of the bridge. The men who were recovering the bodies were heartbroken at the sight of the victims, especially the young children like Rosa and Minnie. These men would talk of seeing the faces of the victims in their nightmares even years later. It's no surprise that there was a lot of finger pointing after this disaster. One surprise though was the people who blamed the Baptist Church for the accident. The emotions against the Baptists rose so high that the newspaper felt the need to comment. Quote, there are some people in this town, those in the habit of censuring Christians whenever they have an opportunity, who consider the Baptists, especially the Reverend J.H. Pratt, the minister who was immersing the converts responsible for the accident. This is unfair. Quote, Reverend Pratt must have been devastated by the tragedy. He left the church in Dixon by the end of the year and moved away. He was brought back to Dixon 10 years later to be buried in Oakwood Cemetery. In fact, he is buried near Clara and Rosa Stackpole. The news of this accident spread quickly. The Dixon's son reported that it had spread around the world by the next day. Some of the headlines in the different papers told the tale Baptism of Death, Dixon Horror, The Great Bridge Murder. This accident shut the town down for days. Businesses and schools stayed closed as folks mourned their dead. In the end, 46 people lost their lives. 37 of those that died were females while 9 were male. The focus in town was the cleanup and the churches were the busiest places in town as funerals were held for the victims. A coroner's jury was gathered the next day, but the emotions were so high on both sides that it was hard to determine where the true issue of blame should rest. Some blamed the city council, while others felt that the city authorities had been tricked by Truesdale. The Dixon's son reported on May 7, Quote, Give no ear to those men who accused their neighbors of murder, as stated in the Chicago Times. Many good men believed the Truesdale Bridge to be a perfect structure and were as honest in their belief as those who were of contrary opinion. Scientific men and bridge builders knew the faults of the miserable structure and the rotten iron of which it was built was well known to the rotten contractors. Truesdale never built another bridge. He opened a silver mine back east. It eventually failed. Truesdale died in 1890 and was buried in Massachusetts. There are two different plaques on the river walk to honor those killed. Many articles have been written about this terrible event and they all contained many tales of heroic deeds inducted by ordinary men that would later say they only did what anybody else would have done. Though this tragedy took place so long ago, the courage and compassion demonstrated by those heroes, the survivors and the family members of those lost, is awe-inspiring. It seems mind-boggling that anyone would confess to a crime if they haven't actually done anything wrong. So who are these innocent people who confess to crimes and why do people confess to crimes they didn't commit? Arrested individuals make false confessions for a variety of reasons, though unfair circumstances and abuse figure in many cases. If you're vulnerable and being treated inhumanely while being questioned, there's a good chance you'll say anything just to have it all be over. But that's the problem, it's not over. False confessions often lead to years in prison and even the execution of guiltless parties. So why do innocent people confess to crimes? Usually because they're forced to, because they feel like they have no other choice. But once that admission of guilt is out there, it's hard to take it back. One of the biggest arguments against torture, besides the fact that it's inhumane, is that the information and confessions received during torture are often unreliable or untrue. For example, Mohammed Ramadan, a police officer at Bahrain International Airport, was arrested in 2014 under suspicion of attacking other officers. He was innocent, but was tortured until he made a false confession. The torturers even admitted that they knew he was innocent, but they were angry with him for attending pro-democracy rallies. Ramadan was convicted and was sentenced to be executed. Sometimes an innocent individual can become so convinced of their own guilt that they actually believe they committed a crime. Peter Riley discovered this first hand when he found his mother dead in their home in 1973. He was brought in by the police who told him he had failed a lie detector test. He hadn't. Between that lie and hours of questioning, investigators essentially bullied him into believing that he had killed his mother. He even wrote a confession, saying, I remember slashing once at my mother's throat with a straight razor I used for model airplanes. Riley was eventually exonerated, but only after he spent time in prison for a crime he didn't commit. Sometimes confessing is presented by the authorities as the easy way out. Stefan Kisco was accused of the brutal murder of a young girl, Leslie Mosead, in 1975. He was told there were two options. If he confessed, he would be eligible for parole. If he didn't, then he would spend the rest of his life behind bars. So he confessed, knowing that his confession was false. Kisco assumed that the police would look into his story, find out it wasn't true, and let him go. They didn't. Despite recanting as soon as he was given a lawyer, Kisco spent 16 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. In 1934, three black farmers, Arthur Ellington, Ed Brown, and Henry Shields were accused of murdering white planter Raymond Stewart. They'd confessed to police, but only after an extremely violent interrogation that included brutal whippings. They were convicted and sentenced to be hanged, but appealed. In the resulting landmark case Brown v. Mississippi, the Supreme Court ruled that confessions obtained through violence undermined the right to due process. The men's sentences were reversed, though they ended up serving time for manslaughter. After 14 to 30 hours of interrogation, you'd probably confess too, and that's exactly what happened to Central Park 5, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salam, and Carrie Wise confessed to the rape of a female jogger in Central Park in 1989. They later recanted their stories, saying that they had only confessed because they were worn down and forced to by the police. In fact, a serial rapist was later found guilty of the crime with the help of DNA. The wrongfully imprisoned men received $41 million as a settlement because of their treatment. Plea bargains can tempt false confessions. In 1990, Michael Phillips was misidentified in a photo lineup for the rape of a 16-year-old girl, but because he was black and the victim was white, he worried that a jury wouldn't believe his innocence. Rather than risk a longer sentence, he pleaded guilty and received 12 years in prison. Phillips ended up serving 24. He was finally exonerated when another man's semen was matched to the rape kit in 2014. Some cases really catch the public eye, and that makes them magnets for false confessions. Maybe people want to become famous for being associated with the crime, or perhaps they're just obsessed. Whatever the reason, crimes like the infamous Black Dahlia murder in 1947 led to multiple false confessions. One of the men who confessed, Daniel S. Voorhees, insisted he was guilty of the murder, but his story fell flat when he couldn't pick the victim, Elizabeth Short, out of a lineup of photographs. Children are sometimes put in incredibly tense situations, and they don't always understand the consequences. When 16-year-old Felix was brought in for the 2005 shooting of Antonio Ramirez and questioned without a lawyer, he slowly went along with the interrogators. He picked up pieces of what they said had happened and used them in his confession, even claiming to have left the gun at his grandfather's, though he didn't have a living grandfather. Studies have shown that children are more likely to give false confessions than adults. They are also more likely to think that going along with the interrogators will lead to them getting released, while maintaining innocence and disagreeing will lead to them getting jailed. Some people will go much further to protect their loved ones than they will to protect themselves. The show trials conducted in the USSR under Stalin included many false confessions. Some were obtained through violence, but others involved threats against the families of those involved. Authorities would say that they were just as guilty as the accused individuals and could also be executed. Many people confessed to save their families from that fate. Floyd Brown spent 14 years paying for a murder he didn't commit. Why? In part because of a lengthy confession he supposedly had written detailing how he had killed an 80-year-old woman in 1993, but his lawyers maintained that he has the mental capacity of a seven-year-old and was only able to speak in two or three word phrases. He was put in a mental hospital to await trial, but was left in purgatory for over a decade before he was released. The mentally handicapped have been shown to be very vulnerable to producing false confessions. False confessions are more likely to happen when someone is drunk or under the influence of drugs, but in many cases being drunk alone won't get you off the hook or get the confession thrown out. Thanks for listening. If you like the show, please share it with someone you know who loves the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters or unsolved mysteries like you do. You can email me anytime with your questions or comments at darren at weirddarkness.com. Darren is D-A-R-R-E-N. Weirddarkness.com is also where you can find all of my social media, listen to free audiobooks I have narrated, visit the store for Weird Darkness t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, phone cases and more merchandise, sign up for monthly contests, find other podcasts that I host like retro radio, old time radio in the dark, micro terrors, scary stories for kids, The Church of the Undead and more. Weirddarkness.com is also where you can find the Hope in the Darkness page if you or someone you know is struggling with depression or dark thoughts. Also on the website, if you have a true paranormal or creepy tale to tell, you can click on tell your story. You can find all of that and more at Weirddarkness.com. 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. History's Most Violent Ghosts was written by Robert F. Mason or Ranker. The true story of the Alien Abduction Witch Trial is by Marcus Louth for UFO Insight. The Devil Tree Hauntings was posted at MiamiHaunts.com. Evils of the Toy Box Killer is by Jacqueline Anglis for All That's Interesting. The Trusdell Bridge Disaster was written by Kathy Kressel for hauntedrockford.com. And Why Do Innocent People Confess was written by Leah Rose Emery for Ranker. Weirddarkness is a registered trademark. Copyright, Weirddarkness. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. Proverbs 12 verse 8, A person is praised according to their prudence, and one with a warped mind is despised. And a final thought. All love grows when it is nurtured and dries up when it's not. That's because love is not only a noun, it's also a verb. It requires action. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness. Copycat, Jack Unterweger. Where the entity seems to have a fetish for boys. For boys. Specifically, oh, toys, not boys. Here's a bit of a difference. Mainly, in relation to a battle taking place at Worcester, that... Yeah, Worcester. Worcester sure, so Worcester. It's an infamous word. Mainly, in relation to a battle, that Ray's toy box contained a gynecologist type table. In the middle, Ray's toy box contained a gynecologist. Police were able to press Ray's girlfriend and accomplish Cindy Hent. Weirdos, our August Weirdo Watch Party is Saturday, August 5th, with a movie presented by a perfectly named horror host show, The Weirdness Really Bad Movie with Dave Binkley. Dave will be presenting 1962's Dreck of a film, The Magic Sword starring Basil Rathbone, and trust me, Rathbone is the only good part about this movie. The Son of a Sorceress, armed with weapons and armor, assisted by six magically summoned knights, embarks on a quest to save a princess from a vengeful wizard. That's right, it's not just an awful movie, it's an awful historically incorrect period piece movie. You got a two-headed fire-breathing dragon, cursed shrunken people, a giant ogre that looks like a guy in a werewolf costume, a wicked and ugly witch, you'll see the cone heads from Saturday Night Live. Well, they look that way, at least. You've got dated special effects, terrible acting, and costumes that look like they were ripped right out of a Monty Python skit. The Weirdo Watch Party is always free to watch online with all of us, so grab your popcorn, candy and soda, and jump into the fun, and even get involved in a live chat as we watch the movie. It's The Magic Sword, presented by The Weirdness Really Bad Movie Show, Saturday August 5th, starting at 10pm Eastern, 9pm Central, 8pm Mountain, 7pm Pacific. See a trailer for the film, and invite your friends to watch along with you on the Weirdo Watch Party page at WeirdDarkness.com. It will see you on Saturday August 5th, for The Weirdo Watch Party. Bonus points if you're wearing your Renaissance festival costume while watching. 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. Hey Weirdos, be sure to click the like button, and subscribe to this channel, and click the notification bell so you don't miss future videos. I post videos seven days a week, and while you're at it, spread the darkness by sharing this video with someone you know who loves all things strange and macabre. If you want to listen to the podcast, you can find it at WeirdDarkness.com slash listen.