 This episode is dedicated to the men and women of our armed forces and first responders. Whether you are currently serving or have served in the past, you are appreciated. It is because of your courage and sacrifice that we enjoy the freedoms and liberties we hold dear. And I, for one, appreciate every single one of you for protecting what many of us take for granted. So thank you. In the Warner Bros film, Orphan, Peter Sarsgard and Vera Farmiga star as a couple who adopt a nine-year-old girl after losing their own baby. Then, slowly discover their new daughter is not nearly as innocent as she claims to be. Deciding to adopt a girl at the local orphanage, the couple are immediately drawn to a beautiful little girl by the name of Esther. But innocent-looking Esther is not what she appears to be. The wife desperately tries to get her husband and others to see past Esther's sweet facade. Now, as her warnings go unheeded, it may be too late for everyone. The 2009 film was a controversial one. It terrified not just moviegoers, but also adoption agencies and even the U.S. federal government. But it was just a movie, until 10 years later, when it wasn't. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Welcome, Weirdos. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness Radio, where every week you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained. Coming up this hour, the movie orphan was fictional horror. But 10 years after that, it would happen for real in Lafayette, Indiana. Or would it? There are still questions about how old Natalia Grace really is. If you're new here, welcome to the show. And if you're already a member of this Weirdo family, please take a moment and invite someone else to listen in. Recommending Weird Darkness to others helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show. And while you're listening, be sure to visit WeirdDarkness.com and click on Contact Social to follow Weird Darkness on social media. And also on the website, you can find the Daily Weird Darkness podcast, which comes out seven days per week. You can enter monthly contests, find Weird Darkness merchandise and more. You can even send in your own true story of something paranormal that's happened to you or someone you know. You can find it all at WeirdDarkness.com. Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness. The first letter seemed harmless enough, possibly even just the result of a mistaken delivery. The second one drew concern, and paired with the unexplained visions of something darkly unsettling, Sam Morris finally caves. The everyman safe world he lives in is about to take a drastic and dark turn. He quickly falls into a world of insanity, the morbid and the macabre. He's drawn into a darkness that is just as deadly as it is mysterious. A darkness that dwells in a house that could only be conjured up by a mad brain. It is a house that calls you, a house that haunts you with its ghosts. They'll scratch and claw through your fragile hide, bringing madness bubbling to the surface. Come see the ghosts for yourself if you dare. Weird Darkness Publishing Presents Of A Mad Brain by Scott Donnelly Now available on paperback, ebook, and audiobook versions through Amazon and WeirdDarkness.com In 2009, senators and congressmen joined adoption groups in protesting a horror film called Orphan, fearing it would lead to hatred of orphans and a drop in adoptions. They expressed concern over the title character who is, or rather appears to be, a homicidal orphan. They sent a letter of protest to the film's distributor, Warner Brothers, co-signed by leaders of nearly a dozen adoption and child welfare groups. Some elected officials, three senators and three members of Congress also joined in the chorus of outrage, worried about the damage the film would do to American society. The Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute issued a statement that the film will have the unintended effect of skewing public opinion against children awaiting families both in the United States and abroad. It may impede recruitment efforts by feeding into the unconscious fears of potential foster and adoptive families that orphaned children are psychotic. Dr. Jane Aronson, a pediatrician and CEO of the Worldwide Orphans Foundation, encouraged a boycott of the film and stated in an interview with NPR that the concept of featuring a movie that uses the word orphan and the concept of the orphan as someone who is evil and demonic just simply perpetuates the stereotypes of what people think of the stranger, its xenophobia in its worst form. In a nutshell, the protesters were mostly concerned that couples considering adoption who saw the film would choose to remain childless out of fear that the child they adopt might someday try to kill them. This seemed like a bizarre claim at the time. Most theatergoers are able to distinguish fiction from reality and are unlikely to choose not to adopt a child simply because of something they saw in a movie. Furthermore, orphan is not the first horror film of its type and if fictional films about evil orphans actually caused the American public to shun adoptions or fear orphans, such an effect would surely have been noticed by now. Neither Dr. Aronson nor any adoption groups offered any evidence of this trend. Despite the letters of protest and threats of boycotts, orphan was released July 24, 2009. Were the concerns real or was it all a publicity stunt, a spectacle of manufactured outrage to attract attention and get votes protecting the children? A contact had several adoption organizations and none were aware of any decline in adoptions since the film's release. Adoption expert Marty Caldwell of Lifetime Adoption Center in Penn Valley, California said that adoptions were up in the first year after the film's release, saying the inquiries by women who are interested in placing a child for adoption at our facility, Lifetime Adoption Center has increased. It seems that all the concern and fear was unfounded. Orphan came and went, leaving the adoption industry apparently unharmed. The real damage may have been to the reputations of the adoption agencies, elected officials, and experts who so badly misjudged the American public. But then, 10 years later, the movie Orphan became real as an unsuspecting Christian couple adopted an adorable little girl only to discover that she was an adult sociopath masquerading as a child. As far-fetched as it sounds, this is the astonishing real-life defense put forward by a mom of three accused of felony neglect for abandoning her adopted daughter. Christine Barnett, 45, and ex-husband Michael Barnett, 43, are alleged to have dumped Ukrainian-born Natalie Grace at an apartment in Lafayette, Indiana in 2013, before moving to Canada one month later and breaking off contact. Police say the girl was left to fend for herself for three years, despite having a rare form of dwarfism that means she's three feet tall and has problems walking. But in an exclusive interview with Daily Mail TV at an undisclosed location, Christine insists there is a major flaw in their case. Natalie was not a nine-year-old, as charging documents claimed, she was actually 22 years old. Barnett claims the true victims are her and her family who were terrorized for years by the mysterious imposter who threatened to stab them in their sleep, pushed her towards an electric fence, and poured bleach in her coffee. The movie, orphan, is exactly what happened in real life. She'd make statements and draw pictures saying she wanted to kill family members, roll them up in a blanket and put them in the backyard, she told Daily Mail TV. She was standing over people in the middle of the night. You couldn't go to sleep. We had to hide all the sharp objects. I saw her putting chemicals, bleach, windex, something like that in my coffee and I asked her, what are you doing? She said, I'm trying to poison you. The media is painting me to be a child abuser, but there is no child here, said Barnett. Natalia was a woman. She had periods, she had adult teeth. She never grew a single inch, which would happen even with a child with dwarfism. The doctors all confirmed she was suffering a severe psychological illness only diagnosed in adults. She was jumping out of moving cars. She was smearing blood on mirrors. She was doing things you could never imagine a little child doing. Before criminal charges were leveled at them, Barnett and ex-husband Michael were hailed as exemplary parents who raised child genius Jake Barnett. Diagnosed with autism at age two, Jake nonetheless had his first academic paper published at 12 and by 15 was studying at a prestigious physics institute. His story was featured in a 2012 episode of CBS 60 Minutes, but it was the shy girl who sat to his left at the family dinner table that one day would prompt altogether more sinister headlines. The Barnets, experienced foster parents who ran a children's daycare from their Westfield, Indiana home, collected the curly-haired youngster from Florida in May of 2010. When living with the Barnets, Natalia's adoption was completed in November that year. In a frank and tearful interview with Daily Mail TV, Christine Barnett insisted she treated the new addition to her family as if she were her biological child. She had no hesitation in accepting Natalia despite learning she had a bone growth disorder which causes short stature, skeletal abnormalities and problems with vision. I always wanted to have a larger family and I had very severe complications in my pregnancies and was unable to have more children, Barnett explained. I also at that time had a very privileged life. I felt that if I had the ability to help another person in the world, then I wanted to do it. Given just 24 hours to complete an emergency adoption, the couple raised to an adoption center in Florida to sign the paperwork and meet their six-year-old daughter. They gleaned precious few details of her background. Natalia had been in the U.S. for two years, had a Ukrainian birth certificate reading September 4, 2003 and needed a home immediately because her previous adoptive parents suddenly gave her up for undisclosed reasons. Out of compassion for their situation, I didn't want to press them for information on what had gone wrong, the mom said. Natalia was extremely nervous. You could see she was going to need a lot of support and care. We did notice immediately in the parking lot that she couldn't walk. There was nothing in the paperwork stating that. Over the next few days, the couple showered Natalia with attention, taking her to Disney World, enjoying ice cream, treats and playful pillow fights with her three brothers to slowly bring her out of her shell. When they took Natalia to a beach for the first time, she did something that would leave the couple speechless. The boys rushed into the water and Natalia wanted to be carried into the ocean. Michael and myself were physically exhausted, so we asked her to wait just a few minutes, she said. With that, she got up and ran into the ocean. I remember looking at Mike and thinking, what's going on? She couldn't walk a second ago and now she just got up and ran. Barnett grew more alarmed when she saw the little girl naked for the first time. I was giving her a bath and I noticed that she had full pubic hair. I was so shocked. I had just been told she was a six-year-old and it was very apparent she wasn't, she added. There were further clues to an apparent deception. Natalia shunned dolls and toys, sought the company of teenage girls, and appeared to use sophisticated vocabulary way beyond somewhat her age. She didn't have any trace of a foreign accent, and when the family asked a Ukrainian friend to speak in their native language, Natalia couldn't understand or describe her homeland. At the time, I ran a little school and I remember she said to me, these children are exhausting, I don't know how you do it, Barnett went on. I was like, you're supposed to be a child yourself. It was like something another mom would say as she dropped her kids off. It's very hard to decipher how old Natalia actually is, because she does have a unique look, but at the time, her mother started to believe that she was probably a teenager, not a six-year-old. But I didn't have any regrets, she said. This was what I wanted to do, I felt overwhelming love for her. Barnett says she soon began finding bloody clothing in the trash, suggesting Natalia was having her period and trying to conceal the evidence. She sought out the help of her family physician who ordered bone density tests to establish Natalia's age. When the results suggested the little girl was indeed at least 14 years or older, Barnett says she switched the princess outfits and pink dresses for more appropriate clothes. But as questions swirled around her age and true identity, Natalia's behavior began to deteriorate. Barnett recalls watching a guest on a baby monitor as Natalia attacked a baby boy when she was out of the room. When they attended therapy together, Natalia scoffed at the childish bonding exercises. By 2011, Barnett says that Natalia was smearing bodily fluid on walls, making death threats and hearing voices as her mental health broke down. Natalia would spend the next year or so being treated for various psychiatric disorders, spending days to weeks at a time at St. Vincent Indianapolis Stress Center. When Barnett claims she tried to drag her on to an electric fence during a 2012 birthday outing, Natalia was placed long-term at a state-run psychiatric unit because she allegedly posed a risk to others. It was during treatment that Barnett insists that Natalia confess to being far older than she appeared. Mrs. Barnett presented Daily Mail TV with a trove of paperwork, which appears to confirm her version of events and that healthcare professionals shared her grave concerns. One clinical therapist in January of 2012 said Natalia claimed to them that she was 18. Then, at LaRue Carter Hospital in Indianapolis in June 2012, staff said she had described how she had tried to kill family members and had no remorse about it, with Natalia going as far as to describe it as fun to staff. Most revealing of all is perhaps a letter from the Barnett's primary care physician, Andrew McLaren MD, dated March 2012 in which he says Natalia's 2003 birth date was clearly inaccurate and that Natalia had made a career out of pretending to be a young child. She said Natalia fooled him, her parents and other physicians. It was also in 2012 that police first began asking questions, although correspondence reviewed by Daily Mail TV suggests they were trying to establish whether an immigration fraud took place before the Barnetts had any involvement with Natalia. Detective Scott Klaus of the Westfield City Police Department told them via email that he had referred the case to the FBI and ICE because he suspected there was false age reporting prior to Natalia leaving Ukraine. Klaus died of cancer a few years ago, but Captain James Lilly, a former colleague, told Daily Mail TV that while he vaguely remembered the case, he did not thank the FBI pursued it any further. In June of 2012, the Barnetts successfully applied to Marion County Superior Court in Indianapolis, Indiana to have Natalia's age corrected so she could receive the appropriate psychiatric treatment as an adult. In documents seen by Daily Mail TV, Judge Gerald S. Zor accepted the couple's allegations as true and revised Natalia's date of birth to September 4, 1989, changing her age from 8 to 22. At this stage, Barnett points out Natalia was considered an adult by the State of Indiana and was legally responsible for herself. Even so, Barnett says she and her husband rented an apartment for Natalia when she was discharged from secure psychiatric care in August of 2012 and placed under the supervision of state health care provider Aspire, Indiana. They further helped her get a social security number, apply for benefits, food stamps, and an ID. Unfortunately, that wasn't going to be near enough and Natalia would start causing some issues up next. Are you a member of the Darkness Syndicate? The Darkness Syndicate is a private membership where you receive commercial-free episodes of the Weird Darkness podcast and radio show. Behind the scenes, video updates about future projects and events I'm working on. You can share your own opinions on ideas to help me decide upon Weird Darkness contests and events. You can hear audiobooks I'm narrating before even the publishers or authors get to hear them. You also receive bonus audio of other projects I'm working on outside of Weird Darkness. You get all of these benefits and more, starting at only $5 per month. Join the Weird Darkness Syndicate at WeirdDarkness.com slash syndicate. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash syndicate. Welcome back to Weird Darkness. I'm Darren Marlar. You can get more Weird Darkness seven days a week through the Weird Darkness podcast, which you can find wherever you listen to podcasts or visit WeirdDarkness.com slash listen and you can find a list of all the apps where you can listen to the show. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash listen. So, the Barnets rented an apartment for Natalia. She was discharged from that secure psychiatric care and was placed under supervision of a state healthcare provider. The Barnets helped her get a social security number, apply for benefits, food stamps and NID, but apparently that wasn't going to be enough to get rid of her. When Natalia caused problems at the property and was evicted, they stepped in again to prevent her from being homeless, renting a new apartment for her in Lafayette, Tippecanoe County. Barnets said she was communicating daily with Natalia and even came up with a plan for her to enroll in college to get her high school diploma and study cosmetology. I said I've been taking care of you here as an adult. I'll do one more year of financial aid, the exact same thing I'm doing for all of my children," she said. I co-signed the lease and paid for the rent up front for a year. I did everything you'd do when you send your child off to college. I helped her with groceries and bought furniture at Target for her. I was optimistic. She had a concrete plan for her life. She had food stamps. She had social security income for the rest of her things. She had demonstrated she was able to live. By 2013, Barnet had published a memoir about Jacob, now age 21, entitled The Spark, a mother's story of nurturing genius and autism. That same year, they moved to Canada so Jacob could attend the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, leaving Natalia behind at her rented apartment. By then, however, Barnet says Natalia had vanished and stopped returning her calls. Barnet told Daily Mail TV she feared Natalia had stopped taking her medication and was probably posing as a child again for another unsuspecting family. I found a little pink dress in her closet and a little pink bicycle parked beside her house, she said. I would have forced her back into treatment, but I couldn't do that any longer because she was an adult. She discontinued communication with me. What I did get was a letter in the mail stating that she had changed Michael from the beneficiary of her social security income to someone else. The last time we spoke on the phone, she told me she was cooking spaghetti for her new family. I did not abandon anyone. I went to Canada to further my son's education. These accusations are absolutely devastating. The typical new County Sheriff's Department, meanwhile, presents a very different version of events. A September 11th affidavit of probable cause obtained by Daily Mail TV states that an expert at the Peyton Manning Children's Hospital named Dr. Riggs carried out bone density tests of Natalia in June of 2010. It concluded she was aged approximately eight years old. A further skeletal test carried out two years later at the same facility concluded she was around 11 years old. The affidavit reveals that it was Natalia herself who told police in 2014 that she had been left alone when her adoptive parents moved to Canada, with cops concluding she was a reliable and credible witness. It does not explain, however, why detectives waited five years until the year 2019 to put the allegations to Michael Barnett, who had divorced Christine in 2014, remarried and had settled back in Indiana. The document says that when an officer spoke with Michael on September 5th of 2019, he admitted he knew all along that Natalia was a minor child when she was allegedly abandoned. Furthermore, the affidavit states Michael Barnett admitted Christine Barnett told Natalia to tell others Natalia looks young but was actually 22. However, his Indianapolis-based attorney, Terrence Kennard, denied that his client made any such admission of guilt. The police affidavit is not true. Michael never said he knew Natalia was a child, he told Daily Mail TV. Police knocked on Michael's door and he spoke to them for three hours without an attorney present. The statements he gave were clearly taken out of context. My client and I have absolutely no idea why the district attorney has chosen to level these accusations against my client and Christine. The affidavit has been very selective in the medical reports it has chosen to cite. As for Natalia, neither the Barnetts, their attorneys nor seemingly anyone else involved with this baffling case appears to know where she is. And despite the possibility she is now 30 years old, Natalia's full court records will remain sealed until a court decides otherwise because adoption cases are treated as confidential. She last saw her adoptive father when the final chapter in their painful, confusing relationship played out at a typical new circuit court in 2016. There, a couple named Antoine and Cynthia Manns unexpectedly applied to become Natalia's guardians which meant proving she was a minor and restoring her original birth date. The Barnetts filed an objection, claiming Natalia was an adult. Records are not publicly available, but it has been established that a judge ordered a fresh hearing to establish Natalia's age, with Michael Barnett and a number of experts giving evidence. Natalia was living on her own and a couple wanted to become her guardians. Thinking she was still a child, the couple tried to overturn the 2012 result, explained Michael's attorney, Canard. This time, the hearing was even more in-depth, he said. Not only did the judge look at medical reports and other documents, but witnesses gained before the court to explain why they were certain Natalia had been 22. The judge upheld the original results and the couple dropped the guardianship petition. The most disturbing thing about this is Michael has told me the police investigator who is heading the latest allegations against them was actually present. Daily Mail TV asked the typical new county prosecutor's office in Lafayette for a comment. Chief Deputy Prosecutor Jason J. Biss responded, Pursuant to Rule 3.6 and Rule 3.8 of the Indiana Rules of Professional Conduct, a prosecutor is prohibited from making extrajudicial or out-of-court statements, including public comments which would have a prejudicial impact on a case and or defendant. I would defer you to the contents of the public court record, namely the filed probable cause affidavit. With Christine and Michael Barnett both vociferously proclaiming their innocence, it's a question that will likely not go away. I've been cooperative the whole time. I've been truthful with people the whole time, said Christine, choking back tears. I'm being charged by the state of Indiana for crimes against a child when the state of Indiana has determined multiple times that Natalia was an adult. Christine is actually asked for her location to remain confidential over threats that her family has been receiving. From day one, this was a mission of love, she continued, but when you bring a child into your home, you expect them to be a child. To be accused of this is unconscionable to me, it's just horrifying. Christine Barnett surrendered to authorities on Thursday, September 19, 2019 and was released after posting a $5,500 bond. Ex-husband Michael surrendered to a typical New County jail in Lafayette on September 18 and was immediately released after having his mugshot taken and posting $5,000 bail. Is Natalie Grace's story a case of fraud, a sociopathic adult mimicking a child, or is it parental abandonment on the part of the Barnetts? More than 10 years later, this bizarre story is still unfolding. When Weird Darkness returns, there are strong women, there are formidable ladies, there are tough cookies, there are female baddies, and then there is stagecoach Mary Fields, who was surely in a class all her own. Coffee. It's a necessity. Most of us can't be bothered to even be civil to our families until we've had our first cup of Joe. I can drink coffee all day and often do, and now I've chosen an exclusive coffee just for the task, Weird Dark Roast Coffee. I love chocolate, I mean who doesn't, so I specifically asked for a blend with at least a hint of cocoa, and Evansville Coffee, who roasts each bag to order, knocked it out of the park when they sent me a bag to taste test for approval. Weird Dark Roast Coffee has deep notes of cocoa, caramel and a touch of sinister sweetness that makes it great hot or cold. Personally, I like to put a little milk in it when I'm drinking it hot, but it is amazing black and poured over ice. But now you can drink it too, and the only place you can find Weird Dark Roast Coffee is at WeirdDarkness.com. If you're looking for Weird Darkness merchandise, you can find t-shirts, buttons, hoodies, office supplies, clothes for your kids, stickers, magnets, coffee mugs and more with all your favorite Weird Darkness designs. You can find something for you or the weirdo in your life by clicking on store at WeirdDarkness.com. Welcome back to Weird Darkness, I'm Darren Marlar. As is the case with so many larger-than-life figures, much of Maryfield's life history is murky and a good part of the rest shrouded in the fog of mythology. But there is enough reliable information to guarantee her an honored place in the episodes of Weird Darkness. Fields was born into slavery, possibly in Tennessee, sometime around 1832. She first appears in the historical record as a slave in the West Virginia household of a family named Warner. When she was freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, she made one vow that no one would dominate her again. As she was over six feet tall, weighed around 200 pounds and could pick up a quarter of beef like a potato, the Ys were happy to oblige her. The newly freed Fields took to the road. She traveled up the Mississippi River, working on the river boats and acting as a servant for families who lived along the river. By 1870, she was again working for the Warners, this time as a paid domestic servant. When one of the Warner daughters became a nun, Fields accompanied her to the Ursuline convent of the Sacred Heart in Toledo, Ohio. Mary became the convent's groundskeeper. It made for an odd mix. It said that when one of the nuns asked if she had a good journey, Fields replied, I'm ready for a good cigar and a drink. Mary's proud nature, fiery temper and difficult personality brought an unaccustomed volatility to the hitherto peaceful convent. Especially when you messed with her gardens. Mary was a passionate and skilled gardener, and when anyone interfered with her landscaping, prayers were needed. God help anyone who walked on the lawn after Mary had cut it, one nun later recollected. In 1884, the convent's head, Mother Amadeus, was sent to St. Peter's Mission in Montana Territory in order to establish a school for Native American girls. When Mother Amadeus came down with pneumonia a short time later, Fields, along with several nuns, went to St. Peter's to help keep the mission going. After Mother Amadeus' recovery, Fields decided that the wild, wild west was much more her style than the state atmosphere of Toledo. She stayed on at the mission as a general caretaker, raising vegetables, tending chickens, hunting game birds, doing laundry and repairing buildings. She had free room and board at the mission, but refused to accept a salary. Fields wanted to have her independence, and remaining a non-contracted worker enabled her to come and go as she pleased. In the words of Fields biographer D. Garso Hagan, the former slave relished the pungency of freedom. The locals didn't know what to make of Mary Fields. An Amazon-sized black woman who drank, smoked, swore, was as strong as any male, hauled freight and readily raised hell with anyone who crossed her was a whole new experience for them. The Native Americans dubbed her White Crow as she was someone who acts like a white woman but has black skin. A white schoolgirl wrote an essay about her, noting more bluntly, she drinks whiskey and she swears, and she is a Republican which makes her a low-fowl creature. One day, in 1892, she had a row with John Mosney, one of the mission's male hired hands. It surmised that he objected to taking orders from a black woman, or maybe he walked on her lawn. The quarrel culminated with the pair pointing rifles at each other. After that episode, the bishop decided Fields was too, well, vivid a personality for their cloistered society, and he ordered that she be banned from the mission. He probably felt she was just too much for God. As overbearing and troublesome as Fields could be, the nuns at St. Peter's had become attached to her though and felt that the eviction was horribly unfair. Fields, too, had hoped to stay at the mission for the rest of her days. However, orders from up top were orders from up top, leaving them with no choice but to obey. Fields moved to the nearby town of Cascade, where, with the help of Mother Amadeus, she opened a small restaurant. As cantankerous as she could be, Fields was also open-handed, generous and unconcerned about money, which guaranteed her failure as a businesswoman. She readily served meals to everyone who dropped in, blissfully unconcerned about whether or not they could pay for the food. You'll not be surprised then that the eatery folded in less than a year. She went on to do a series of odd jobs after that, becoming locally famous for her fondness for whiskey and her arrestability. A town's newspaper claimed, with a distinct air of pride, that Fields had broken more noses than any other person in Montana. When one man was crude, not to say suicidal enough to hurl a racial slur in her direction, Mary sent him to the hospital with a broken head. In 1896, she applied for a job as a mail carrier. Local postal employees were dubious about hiring a woman in her 60s until, much to their astonishment, they saw that she could hitch a team of horses faster than any man. She was only the second woman and the first black woman to work for the postal service. In 19th century Montana, delivering the mail was not a job for the weak and timid. On her route, Fields had to face primitive or non-existent roads, often harsh weather and the occasional highway man. None of this phased Fields in the least. If her stagecoach broke down, she fixed it. If the winter snows grew too heavy for the horses, she would put on snowshoes, toss the sacks of mail over her mighty shoulders and deliver them on foot. If anyone tried to rob her, she shot them. According to one story, she once took on a pack of wolves and won. She never missed a day. Before long, her stellar record earned her the affectionate nickname of Stagecoach Mary. Our intrepid heroine, Cascade's only black resident, became a near folkloric figure in the area. Despite the inevitable racial prejudice she often encountered, to many people she was a source of local pride, or in the words of the town's newspaper, a sort of landmark. Another thing that set Fields apart is that after leaving St. Peter's, she no longer sought the company of women, white or black. She ignored the black community institutions being formed in Montana, and there is no evidence she participated in any white churches or civic groups. Instead, her main socializing was with white men in their standard pursuits, sports events, billiard halls and saloons. Her anomalous role in Cascade's society only intensified her already colorful reputation, giving her a curious license enjoyed by neither black men or white women. Fields retired from her route in 1903, at the age of approximately 71. She occupied herself with babysitting, operating a laundry service, gardening, watching baseball games, she loved the sport, and of course, whisky. Mary stayed Mary to the end. According to one report, when a customer failed to pay his laundry bill, she broke his nose. She'd give flowers from her garden to the home baseball team, and give the umpire hell when he called against them. Stagecoach Mary died of heart disease in 1914. Her funeral, held appropriately enough at the town theater, was one of the largest the area had ever seen. Did you know the six pirates were all hanged on the same day in Boston back in 1717? The whole thing revolves around the Wyda. That was the pirate ship captained by a fellow named Black Bellamy. He and his crew of around 110 were transporting stolen cargo of 20,000 pounds of gold, which is, you know, a lot. Anyway, legend has it that Black B had it for a woman named Maria Hallett of Cape Cod. He was supposedly stopping by to get his doubloons polished when a fierce storm rose up and sank the ship. Black Bellamy, along with over 100 of his pirates, were swept into the ocean and drowned. The bodies were found by the old timey residents along with seven survivors, and the survivors were arrested and sent to Boston for trial. Things never really got any better for them from there. Only one of them was found innocent and released. The other six were sentenced to hang from the old hanging tree on Boston Common. It wasn't all bad though. The six pirates were treated to a few rounds of comforting from none other than Cotton Mather. In fact, he walked with the condemned men from Boston Jail to the Great Elm and talked the entire way. I wonder if he told them about that which problem he had from a few years before. Thanks for listening. If you missed any part of tonight's show or if you'd like to hear it again, you can subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcast app at WeirdDarkness.com. Not only will you hear a copy of tonight's show, you'll also receive daily episodes of the Weird Darkness podcast at WeirdDarkness.com slash listen, or search for Weird Darkness wherever you listen to podcasts. You can follow Weird Darkness on social media by visiting the Contact social page on the website. And please, tell others about Weird Darkness who love the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters, or unsolved mysteries like you do. Doing that helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show. And if you'd like to be a part of the show, you can send in your own paranormal experiences by clicking on Tell Your Story at WeirdDarkness.com. You can also email me anytime at darren at WeirdDarkness.com. All stories in Weird Darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise, and you can find links to the stories of the authors in the show notes, which I'll be uploading to the Weird Darkness website immediately after tonight's show has ended. Orphan Horror was written by Ben Radford for Seeker and from Ben Ashford for MSN. Stagecoach Mary is from Strange Company, and The Sixth Sailor Hanging is by Ed Sweeney for Slightly Odd Fitchburg. Weird Darkness is a registered trademark. Copyright Weird Darkness. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. John 1, verse 12, To all who received him, to those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. And a final thought, sometimes it's not enough to do our best. We must do what is required. Winston Churchill. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness. Hey Weirdos, keep listening. Hour 2 of the Weird Darkness radio show is coming up. I'm a man of habits. Okay, truth be told, my bride says I'm boring. I like the same stuff, and that's what I stick with. And that includes what I eat. Even for breakfast, I used to opt for a leftover pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers. Did I mention pizza? Anyway, now that I'm trying to lose weight and cut back on the carbs, I've had to make changes for breakfast. Now, instead of a big, heavy breakfast, I just grabbed one of my built-fars, the best tasting protein bar on the planet. Built-fars satisfy my hunger with up to 19 grams of protein, and also satisfy my sugar craving, despite being less than 3 grams of sugar. And at only about 150 calories per bar, if I'm really hungry in the morning, I can grab two of them and still feel good about it. Try replacing your dessert or even a meal like breakfast with a built bar. You won't even know it's not really a candy bar. Visit WeirdDarkness.com slash Built and build a box of your own. Use the promo code WeirdDarkness at checkout and get 10% off your entire purchase. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash Built promo code WeirdDarkness. Road dogs, billy big rigs, big strappers, flatbed cowboys, freight shakers, trucklets, 18-wheelers, deadheads, yard dogs, you got your ears on? Whatever you call yourselves or whatever call sign or moniker is thrust upon you. This episode's dedicated to all you truckers driving the boulevard, keeping our bellies full, shelves stocked, septics cleaned, and brains entertained with what you're hauling. In the eyes of this ratchet jaw, and I'm honored to have you listening. Maybe once in a while grab your CB, head to Sesame Street and tell other drivers how to join this weirdo convoy. Appreciate it. May your brake checks be with you, your shutter trouble be absent, and your bare bites non-existent. Keep it cool on the stool. This is Spooky Santa and I'm 10 and on the side. One of the greatest religious movements of the 19th century began in the bedroom of two young girls living in a farmhouse in Hidesville, New York. On a late March day in 1848, Margareta Maggie Foxx, 14, and Kate, her 11-year-old sister, waylaid a neighbor, eager to share an odd and frightening phenomenon. Every night, around bedtime, they heard a series of wraps on the walls and furniture, wraps that seemed to manifest with a peculiar otherworldly intelligence. The neighbor, skeptical, came to see for herself, joining the girls in the small chamber they shared with their parents. While Maggie and Kate huddled together on their bed, their mother Margaret began the demonstration. Now, count five, she ordered, and the room shook with the sound of five heavy thuds. Count fifteen, she commanded, and the mysterious presence obeyed. Next, she asked it to tell the neighbor's age. 33 distinct wraps followed. If you are an injured spirit, she continued, manifested by three wraps. And it did. Welcome, Weirdos. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness Radio, where every week you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved, and unexplained. Coming up this hour, Harry Houdini may have been one of the world's greatest magicians, but he was also the biggest debunker of magic when it came to the supernatural. But first, their séances with the departed launched a mass religious movement, and then one of them confessed that it was common delusion. We'll look at the rise of spiritualism and the two sisters that started it all. If you're new here, welcome to the show. If you're already a member of this Weirdo family, please take a moment and invite someone else to listen in with you. Recommending Weird Darkness to others helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show. And while you're listening, be sure to visit WeirdDarkness.com and click on Contact Social to follow Weird Darkness on social media. And also on the website, you can find the daily Weird Darkness podcast, which comes out seven days per week. You can enter monthly contests, find Weird Darkness merchandise and more. You can even send in your own true story of something paranormal that's happened to you or someone you know. You can find it all at WeirdDarkness.com. Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness. Margaret Fox did not seem to consider the date, March 31st, April Fool's Eve, and the possibility that her daughters were frightened not by an unseen presence, but by the unexpected success of their prank. The Fox family deserted the house and sent Maggie and Kate to live with their older sister, Leah Fox Fish, in Rochester. The story may have died there, were it not for the fact that Rochester was a hotbed for reform and religious activity, the same vicinity the Finger Lakes region of New York State, which gave birth to Mormonism and Millerism, the precursor of Seventh Day Adventists. Community leaders Isaac and Amy Post were intrigued by the Fox sisters story, and by the subsequent rumor that the spirit likely belonged to a peddler who had been murdered in the farmhouse five years before hair. A group of Rochester residents examined the seller of the Fox's home, uncovering strands of hair and what appeared to be bone fragments. The Posts invited the girls to a gathering at their home, anxious to see if they could communicate with spirits in another locale. I suppose I went with as much unbelief as Thomas felt when he was introduced to Jesus after he had ascended, Isaac Post wrote, but he was swayed by very distinct thumps under the floor and several apparent answers. He was further convinced when Leah Fox also proved to be a medium, communicating with the Posts' recently deceased daughter. The Posts rented the largest hall in Rochester and 400 people came to hear the mysterious noises. Afterward, Amy Post accompanied the sisters to a private chamber where they disrobed and were examined by a committee of skeptics who found no evidence of a hoax. The idea that one could communicate with spirits was hardly new. The Bible contains hundreds of reverences of angels administering to man, but the movement known as modern spiritualism sprang from several distinct revolutionary philosophies and characters. The ideas and practices of Franz Anton Mesmer, an 18th century Australian healer, had spread to the United States and by the 1840s held the country in thrall. Mesmer proposed that everything in the universe including the human body was governed by a magnetic fluid that could become imbalanced causing illness. By waving his hands over a patient's body, he induced a mesmerized hypnotic state that allowed him to manipulate the magnetic force and restore health. Amateur mesmerists became a popular attraction at parties and in parlors, a few proving skillful enough to attract paying customers, some who awakened from a mesmeric trance claimed to have experienced visions of spirits from another dimension. At the same time, the ideas of Immanuel Swedenborg, an 18th century Swedish philosopher and mystic, also surged in popularity. Swedenborg described an afterlife consisting of three heavens, three hells and an interim destination, the world of the spirits, where everyone went immediately upon dying and was more or less similar to what they were accustomed to on earth. Self-love drove one toward the varying degrees of hell, love for others elevated one to the heavens. The Lord casts no one into hell, he wrote, but those who are there have deliberately cast themselves into it and keep themselves there. He claimed to have seen and talked with spirits on all of the planes. 75 years later, the 19th century American seer Andrew Jackson Davis, who would become known as the John the Baptist of modern spiritualism, combined these two ideologies, claiming that Swedenborg's spirit spoke to him during a series of mesmeric trances. Davis recorded the content of these messages and in 1847 published them in a voluminous tome titled The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations and a Voice to Mankind. It is a truth, he asserted, predicting the rise of spiritualism, that spirits commune with one another while one is in the body and the other in the higher spheres. All the world will hail with delight the ushering in of that era when the interiors of men will be opened and the spiritual communication will be established. Davis believed his prediction materialized just a year later, on the very day the Fox sisters first channeled spirits in their bedroom. About daylight this morning, he confided in his diary, a warm breathing passed over my face and I heard a voice tender and strong saying, Brother, the good work has begun. Behold, a living demonstration is born. When Rochester heard about this incident, he invited the Fox sisters to his home in New York City to witness their medium capabilities for himself. Spiritualism was about to explode. We'll continue with our story in just a moment. Paranormal experiences, encountering extraterrestrials, extraordinary states of consciousness, spiritual phenomenon, encounters with non-human entities that can't be explained by science. These stories of what people have come across are ubiquitous here on Weird Darkness and often those who've had these encounters choose to stay quiet and not even tell close friends or family out of fear and they suffer silently trying to deal with the internal horror of what they've experienced. If I'm describing you or someone you know, there is now a place you can turn to for professional counseling from experts who, unlike others in their field, are open to the paranormal, supernatural and extraterrestrial experiences of others and they're not there to explain away your experience but to help you recover from it and move forward with living. I'm referring to the Opus Network. If you want to reach out for help or learn more, look for the Opus Network towards the bottom of the Hope in the Darkness page at WeirdDarkness.com. Welcome back to Weird Darkness. I'm Darren Marlar. You can get more Weird Darkness seven days a week through the Weird Darkness podcast, which you can find wherever you listen to podcasts. Or visit WeirdDarkness.com slash listen and find a list of all the apps where you can listen to the show at WeirdDarkness.com slash listen. As we were talking about earlier, Andrew Jackson Davis had just predicted the future of spiritualism and then he heard about the Fox sisters and thought that his prediction was about to come true. Upon hearing of the Rochester incident, Davis invited the Fox sisters to his home in New York City to witness their medium capabilities for himself. An editorial in the Scientific American scoffed at their arrival calling the girls the spiritual knockers from Rochester. They conducted their sessions in the hotel's parlor, inviting as many as 30 attendees to gather around a large table at the hours of 10am, 5pm and 8pm, taking on occasional private meetings in between. Admission was $1 and visitors included preeminent members of New York Society. Leah stayed in New York, entertaining callers in a seance room, while Kate and Maggie took the show to other cities. Among them Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, St. Louis, Washington DC and Philadelphia where one visitor, explorer Elisha Kent Kane succumbed to Maggie's charms even as he deemed her a fraud, although he couldn't prove how the sounds were made. He actually courted Maggie 13 years as junior and encouraged her to give up her life of dreary sameness and suspected deceit. She acquiesced, retiring to attend school at Kane's behest and expense and married him shortly before his untimely death in 1857. In morning she began drinking heavily and vowed to keep her promise to Kane to wholly and forever abandon spiritualism. Kate, meanwhile, married a devout spiritualist and continued to develop her medium powers, translating spirit messages in astonishing and unprecedented ways, communicating two messages simultaneously, writing one while speaking the other, transcribing messages in reverse script, utilizing blank cards upon which words seem to spontaneously appear. During sessions with a wealthy banker, Charles Livamore, she summoned both the man's deceased wife and the ghost of Benjamin Franklin, who announced his identity by writing his name on a card. Her business boomed during and after the Civil War, as increasing numbers of the bereaved found solace in spiritualism. Prominent spiritualist Emma Hardinge wrote that the war added two million new believers to the movement and by the 1880s there was an estimated eight million spiritualists in the United States and Europe. These new practitioners, seduced by the flamboyance of the Gilded Age, experienced miracles like Kate's summoning of full-fledged apparitions at every seance. It was worrying both to the movement and to Kate herself, and she too began to drink. On October 21, 1888, the New York world published an interview with Maggie Fox in anticipation of her appearance that evening at the New York Academy of Music, where she would publicly denounce spiritualism. She was paid $1,500 for the exclusive. Her main motivation, however, was rage at her sister Leah and other leading spiritualists who had publicly chastised Kate for her drinking and accused her of being unable to care for her two young children. Kate planned to be in the audience when Maggie gave her speech, lending her tacit support. My sister Katie and myself were very young children when this horrible deception began, Maggie said. At night when we went to bed, we used to tie an apple on a string and move the string up and down, causing the apple to bump on the floor, or we would drop the apple on the floor, making a strange noise every time it would rebound. The sisters graduated from apple dropping to manipulating their knuckles, joints and toes to make rapping sounds. A great many people when they hear the rapping imagine at once that these spirits are touching them, she explained. It's a very common delusion. Some very wealthy people came to see me some years ago when I lived in 42nd Street and I did some wrappings for them. I made the spirit rap on the chair and one of the ladies cried out, I feel the spirit tapping me on the shoulder. Of course that was pure imagination. She offered a demonstration, removing her shoe and placing her right foot upon a wooden stool. The room fell silent and still she was rewarded with a number of short little raps. There stood a black-robed, sharp-faced widow the New York Herald reported, working her big toe and solemnly declaring that it was in this way she created the excitement that has driven so many persons to suicide or insanity. One moment it was ludicrous, the next it was weird. Maggie insisted that her sister Leah knew that the wrappings were fake all along and greedily exploited her younger sisters. Before exiting the stage, she thanked God that she was able to expose spiritualism. The mainstream press called the incident a death blow to the movement and spiritualists quickly took signs. Shortly after Maggie's confession, the spirit of Samuel B. Britten, former publisher of the spiritual telegraph, appeared during a seance to offer a sympathetic opinion. Although Maggie was an authentic medium, he acknowledged the band of spirits attending during the early part of her career has been usurped by other unseen intelligences who are not scrupulous in their dealings with humanity. Other living spiritualists charged that Maggie's change of heart was wholly mercenary, since she had failed to make a living as a medium she sought to profit by becoming one of spiritualism's fiercest critics. Whatever her motive, Maggie recanted her confession one year later, insisting that her spirit guides had beseeched her to do so. Her reversal prompted more disgust from devoted spiritualists, many of whom failed to recognize her at a subsequent debate at the Manhattan Liberal Club. There, under the pseudonym Mrs. Spencer, Maggie revealed several tricks of the profession, including the way mediums wrote messages on blank slates by using their teeth or feet. She never reconciled with Sister Leah who died in 1890. Kate died two years later while on a drinking spree. Maggie passed away eight months later, in March 1893. That year spiritualists formed the National Spiritualist Association, which today is known as the National Spiritualist Association of Churches. In 1904, school children playing in the sister's childhood home in Hidesville, known locally as the Spook House, discovered the majority of a skeleton between the earth and crumbling cedar walls. A doctor was consulted who estimated that the bones were about 50 years old, giving credence to the sister's tale of spiritual messages from a murdered peddler. But not everyone was convinced. The New York Times reported that the bones had created a stir amusingly disproportioned to any necessary significance of the discovery and suggested that the sisters had merely been clever enough to exploit a local mystery. Even if the bones were that of the murdered peddler, the Times concluded, there will still remain that dreadful confession about the clicking joints, which reduces the whole case to a farce. Five years later, another doctor examined the skeleton and determined that it was made up of only a few ribs with odds and ends of bones and among them a superabundance of some and a deficiency of others. Among them also were chicken bones. He also reported a rumor that a man living near the Spook House had planted the bones as a practical joke, but was much too ashamed to come clean. Weird Darkness is now partnering with Paranormality Magazine. Paranormality Magazine is based out of love for the strange, unexplained and paranormal, as well as a fascination with the people and creators that make the Paranormal community what it is. Exploring all 40 subjects, from phantoms to UFOs and every cryptid creature in between, their global team collects stories, conducts interviews and reports on cutting-edge paranormal projects. They also consider contributions from outside writers, researchers, and artists. Visit WeirdDarkness.com-magazine to learn more or subscribe to Paranormality Magazine. That's WeirdDarkness.com-magazine and you can get 10% off your subscription if you use the promo code Weird. That's WeirdDarkness.com-magazine-promocode-weird. WeirdDarkness.com-magazine-promocode-weird. Harry Houdini, the world's greatest escape artist, may have been known for his unbelievable escapes from cages and underwater tanks, but these aren't his only claim to fame. The illusionist, a skilled and perceptive individual, was also hell-bent on exposing the fraudulent mediums and psychics that gained popularity during the surge of spiritualism in the 1920s. Houdini did whatever it took to prove that people were being conned by these alleged mediums, going as far as to tarnish his friendship with acclaimed author and spiritualist enthusiast Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Houdini outed Marguerite Crandon, Nino Pecoraro, and hundreds of other self-proclaimed psychics who were simply great sleight-of-hand performers. Houdini was skeptical of the growing spiritualist movement, but tragedy allegedly made him take a second look at the validity of seances and mediums. On July 17, 1913, Houdini's mother Cecilia Steiner Weiss passed after suffering a stroke. Houdini was close to his mother and was even quoted as writing, if God in his greatness ever sent an angel on earth in human form, it was my mother. Houdini struggled for months after his mother's passing. Writing to his brother Theo, I can write all right when I keep away from that heart-rendering subject, so we'll try and avoid it, if possible. But I have to write to my brother once in a while about her whom we miss and for her with whom I feel as if my heart of hearts went with her. Many believe his intense heartache is the reason he started dabbling in spiritualism and eventually started to debunk it out of frustration. But Houdini historians often note the illusionist actually attended his first seance as a child when he tried to contact his recently deceased half-brother, Herman. Even at an early age, Houdini suspected that seances and mediums were hogwash. From January 1918 to December 1920, the H1N1 virus, known then as the Spanish flu, ravaged the world. Nearly a third of the world population or 500 million people contracted the virus, and 3-5% of the world's population perished. Combined with the casualties of conflict, many people were searching for answers as to what happened to their loved ones after they left this mortal coil. Spiritualism was everywhere, from a neighbor's living room to the cinema. The popularity of the movement clashed with empirical science which was also experiencing a resurgence. Houdini was friends with author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of Sherlock Holmes. Like Houdini, Conan Doyle also had an interest in spiritualism, but it wasn't one of contempt like the illusionists. After Conan Doyle's son Kingsley perished from the flu pandemic, the author became a fervent supporter of the movement. He had already fostered a growing interest in the subject before his son's demise, studying ghosts, fairies and other supernatural entities for decades. Kingsley's passing acted as a catalyst, and Conan Doyle continued studying the occult with zeal, and even Conan Doyle's second wife, Jean, claimed to be an automatic writer and medium of sorts. They claimed to communicate with an entity named Phineas, who would regularly warn them of impending disaster. Houdini's ability to escape bound chains and make things as large as an elephant disappear won him fans with some, like Conan Doyle, believing the illusionist had innate psychic abilities, which Houdini always refuted. Houdini knew how to perform sleight of hand and create realistic illusions, which is how he easily debunked many mediums, who often cited shaking tables and wobbling chairs as empirical evidence of the afterlife. Houdini once told a reporter, whenever any of these alleged spiritual mediums tell you that they have supernatural aid, he may safely set them down as frauds. In order to thwart these pseudo-psychics and mediums, Houdini employed a number of secret employees. By the time spiritualism hit its heyday in the 1920s, Houdini had been to hundreds of seances, and he couldn't cover all the ground. He hired a few people he deemed his own secret service to unveil the con artists he believed were taking advantage of desperate people. One member of a secret service, Rose Macenburg, a private investigator in Houdini's employment, said she attended over 300 seances in the two years she worked for the magician. In one instance, an alleged psychic tried to charge Macenburg $25 for his services. He also claimed that taking off her clothes would help her communicate with the other side better. She declined, and after she told Houdini he humiliated the man at one of his own shows. A devout spiritualist who also emulated all that was rational with his character, Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle proposed a contest to detect whether or not mediums were the real deal. The magazine Scientific American ran a contest that offered a hefty $2,500 prize to any psychic or medium who could empirically prove they possessed the supernatural gift. Scientific American enlisted a crew of highly revered minds in the scientific community, including an engineer physicist from MIT, two researchers who dedicated their lives to studying the paranormal, and the one and only Houdini. The magazine counted on these experts to deduce whether or not psychics possessed a sort of undiscovered force that granted them powers. Naturally, many so-called psychics and mediums were eager to prove to Scientific American that they were legitimate and collect the reward of $2,500 for being so. But Houdini and the rest of the panel were able to easily discredit any supposed medium, largely in thanks to Houdini's experience as an illusionist. The magician told the Los Angeles Times it takes a flim-flammer to catch a flim-flammer, and he caught a slew of flim-flammers. He proved that 19-year-old Joaquin Maria Argamasilla, who claimed he could see through metals like gold and silver, was a fraud in a very public manner. He called the Spaniard with X-ray vision out and promised to replicate his so-called power at the Pennsylvania Hotel. Houdini proved that all Argamasilla was doing was taking a peek in the box and then saying what was in it, but was doing so in a manner so discreet that many audiences could not tell. Houdini continued to out would-be mediums, like Nino Pecoraro, a boy medium who had fooled the rest of the panel twice before. On the third time when Houdini was present, he was unable to replicate his psychic abilities. Houdini, along with the help of the rest of the committee from Scientific American, were able to discredit most psychics or mediums with relative ease. But that all changed around 1924 when Mina Crandon, also known as Marjorie the Medium, took the spiritualist world by storm. The medium was the first to produce conclusive psychic manifestations to prove her psychic prowess, like ectoplasm. She also often sported semi-transparent clothes to prove she wasn't hiding anything or performing trickery, although the outfits may have been distracting to her male judges enough to make them believe her. Houdini and the other judges attended two seances of hers in Boston in July of 1924. He claimed that he saw her escape constraints and ring a bell meant for a spiritual entity to use to signify its presence with her foot. Everyone except Houdini remained convinced. Marjorie the Medium continued to gain massive popularity, much to Houdini's chagrin. In order to definitively prove that she wasn't an actual medium, Houdini resorted to bizarre and, at times, reputation-ruining tactics. In order to prevent Marjorie from using her legs in any way during the seance, Houdini placed her in a boxed contraption during the event. The bell still rang, even though she was boxed in, but it appeared that the lid of the box had been forced open. Houdini knew Marjorie forced her way through, but the other judges weren't so convinced. He also wrote the article, Marjorie the Medium Exposed, even though his Scientific American colleagues weren't on board with his claims. He called out one of the magazine's writers for even entertaining the idea of awarding Marjorie the prize money. He even went as far as to say that he would give up a thousand dollars if he was not able to prove that she was a fraud. If you give this award to a medium, without the strictest examination, every fraudulent medium in the world will take advantage of it, he said. I will forfeit a thousand dollars if I do not detect her if she resorts to trickery. Of course, if she is genuine, there is nothing to expose, but if the Scientific American, by any accident, should declare her genuine and she was eventually detected in fraud, we would be the laughing stock of the world and, in the meantime, hundreds of fraudulent mediums would have taken advantage of the error. Houdini had proved his point and Marjorie was revealed to be yet another fraud. Once Houdini had outed Marjorie as another trickster, it had a profound impact on his friendship with Arthur Conan Doyle. Conan Doyle had proudly touted Marjorie as the real deal and after Houdini's tirade against her, they had a rather public falling out. Conan Doyle wrote a piece for the January 26, 1925 issue of the Boston Herald, saying, It is that of Houdini, the eminent conjurer. Houdini was first present at two sittings, a long series of phenomena occurred. Houdini passed them at the time, raised no objection and signed the accounts as being correct. Nonetheless, though, he could say nothing before the Crandons. He wrote the people at a distance who had no means of checking his statement to say the program was fraudulent. The Sherlock Holmes author was upset that Houdini didn't suggest that Marjorie was a fraud during the seances, but rather later from afar. Their relationship never quite recovered. As a final test to see whether or not spiritualism was real, Houdini gave his wife Bess a secret code if he were to perish before her. The idea was that Houdini would use the secret code to contact Bess, proving that an afterlife did exist and that there was a way to communicate with those in it. He passed 20 years before his wife on October 31, 1926. The code was allegedly supposed to translate into Roosevelt, believe. But Bess never heard the phrase, even though others claimed they did. She allegedly burned a candle for her late husband for 10 years before she finally gave up, saying, 10 years was long enough to wait for any man. Modern-day illusionists such as Penn and Teller often cite Houdini as an inspiration, especially when it comes to debunking supernatural claims. The famous duo had a series called Bullshit on Showtime from 2003 until 2010, which followed the duo as they discredited so-called psychics and mediums across the globe. Late sleight-of-hand performer Ricky J. also exposed fraud and trickery, like that of Carnival Tricks. He was called one of the best sleight-of-hand performers, and like Houdini, his expertise in illusion also made him very capable of sniffing out other forms of trickery. Up next on Weird Darkness, dozens of creepy stories and urban legends have sprouted up along America's most legendary highway. We'll look at some of the horrifying things people have experienced on Route 66. 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. Spanning a massive 2,451 miles across the United States, it's not surprising that dozens of creepy stories and urban legends have sprouted up along America's most legendary highway. Some are disgusting, some are creepy, and some you don't want to think about again while you're alone in your room. There are numerous creepy stories and legends based around Route 66. Route 66 is a long stretch of highway, meaning you can't drive at all without making a few stops. But if you must stop, avoid the Hotel Montevista. According to Haunted Route 66, Ghosts of America's Legendary Highway, reports from that hotel indicate restless spirits like to roam the halls, especially avoid the second floor which is supposedly haunted by so many spirits hotel management can't put pets on that floor or they freak out. The scariest place might be the basement, where reports of a baby crying over and over again have been made quite a few times. In Missouri, there is a stretch of road that's officially called Lawler Ford Road. The people around the area have just come to call it Zombie Road. The road was paved at some point but now has become almost impossible to pass using an automobile. A lot of stories have come from Zombie Road, whether it be the Ghost of a Man hit by a train in the 1970s or the mysterious old woman who screams at people from a house at the end of the road. But what built up Zombie Road the most was the death of Della Hamilton McCullough way back in 1876 when she was hit by a railroad car. Reports of phantom glows with bluish white light and a translucent figure wandering around have been said to be McCullough still haunting the place where she died. Route 666, no surprise, is the sixth branch of Route 66 and its long stretch of road has been responsible for countless ghost stories and encounters. The scariest might come from Linda Dunning who wrote about an incident with her husband. Apparently the man was driving down Route 666 late at night and in the distance saw a burning truck flying toward him with no signs of stopping. He pulled off quickly to the side of the road and walked into the desert about 20 feet from his car in order to let the flaming truck pass. After it raced by him he got back in his car and continued on like a smart person. One of the many tourist attractions along Route 66, the Meramec Caverns get close to 150,000 visitors a year not counting all the ghosts. Some of the more frequent sightings include a Native American woman who likes to stand in a distant pool of water, a woman in a formal dress most likely from one of the many gallows older generations through in the caverns, and a mysterious man in black who many speculate might be the infamous Jesse James himself. At the Peace Church Cemetery in Joplin, Missouri, an unmarked grave apart from everyone else holds the remains of one of the most notorious spree killers of the 1950s. Billy Cook Jr. had a rough childhood. Abused by the system one day he snapped and went on a desperate run to Oklahoma City killing several people before getting arrested and executed. His body was transported back to his hometown but the cemetery only agreed to bury him if it was an unmarked grave. Reports tell of strange lantern lights around his grave and sometimes, if you are unlucky enough, you might see Billy standing at the tree line, eyes filled with hate. It is always a good choice to honor your dead. In the Oak Hill Cemetery in Kansas, a state route 66 passes through for only 13 miles, a man did not give his wife a proper funeral, burying her in the cheapest coffin possible and not spending anything for the service. A few days after his wife was buried, the gravestone cracked. The widower replaced the gravestone but it cracked again. He replaced it a few more times each time ending with a cracked gravestone. It forced the man to move away from the town. Now there was his first good idea. The Coleman Theater in Miami, Oklahoma was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. Once a thriving place for people to watch movies, now people can arrange tours of the restored old theater but they might get a little more than they bargained for. According to local legend, the theater was built on a mortuary and underneath the main seating area is a crematorium. Visitors have reported extreme heat coming from that room, accompanied by unknown whistling sounds. You'll also receive daily episodes of the Weird Darkness podcast. And in tonight's podcast we have the Sudden Death Overtime. The story is the haunting of Jerome Arizona. It was one of the wildest and wickedest of all Wild West towns and now it's one of the most haunted. Jerome Arizona is considered the most haunted town in the state of Arizona, possibly in all of the United States. And you can hear that in tonight's Sudden Death Overtime content in the podcast. You can follow Weird Darkness on social media by visiting the Contact Social page on the website. And please, tell others about Weird Darkness who love the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters or unsolved mysteries like you do. Doing that helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show. And if you'd like to be a part of the show, you can send in your own paranormal experiences by clicking on Tell Your Story at WeirdDarkness.com. You can also email me anytime at Darren at WeirdDarkness.com. Darren is D-A-R-R-E-N. All stories in Weird Darkness are purported to be true, unless stated otherwise. And you can find links to the stories or the authors in the show notes, which I'll upload to the Weird Darkness website immediately after tonight's show has ended. The Fox Sisters was written by Karen Abbott for Smithsonian Magazine. Houdini vs. Spiritualism is by Maggie Clancy for Graveyard Shift. The Horrors of Route 66 is by Jacobi Bancroft for Ranker. Weird Darkness is a registered trademark. Copyright, Weird Darkness. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. 1 Corinthians 16 verse 14. Do everything in love. And a final thought. A mistake that makes you humble is much better than an achievement that makes you arrogant. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness. Don't go anywhere, weirdos, because sudden death over time is up next. Loneliness can be a real burden, and while you can always log on to social media or watch TV, sometimes you just want someone near you. What if you could be in your living room sitting right next to Michael Myers or sleeping in your bedroom with Freddy Krueger? Maybe watch a horrible B movie with Alvira right there next to you. Have dinner with Hannibal Lecter. Do some quilting or sewing with Pinhead watching over you the whole time. Maybe wash and groom your dog in the presence of the Wolfman. Bobbletopia is the place to get your favorite horror characters as bobbleheads, and their Nika line of hyper-realistic horror action figures is incredible like King Kong, the alien Xenomorph, Pennywise, Frankenstein's Monster, and more. And most every item is under 40 bucks. No need to be lonely any longer. Visit bobbletopia.com slash Weird Darkness and get 10% off your first order by using the promo code WeirdDarkness. That's bobbletopia.com slash Weird Darkness. See, you're feeling less lonely already. The town of Jerome, Arizona sits between Flagstaff and Prescott in the Black Hills of Yavapai County, and its strange history draws visitors year after year. Founded in 1876, Jerome was a mining town that quickly flourished when copper, gold, and silver were all found in the area. The town boasted a number of successful restaurants, gambling halls and saloons, as well as an active red light district. In its heyday, Jerome had 15,000 residents, but by the 1950s, less than 200 people called Jerome home. Living residents, anyway. Jerome is said to be the most haunted town in the state of Arizona, perhaps even the United States. Things to do in Jerome include visiting a hospital-turned-hotel, where patients and staff still roam the halls. You can also visit the many saloons and bordellos that saw high levels of mischief and mayhem. There's even a phantom cat who's always happy to spend the night with visitors in its former home. The history of Jerome, Arizona is complicated and a little murky, but these are some of the best-known stories of hauntings and paranormal phenomena that the city has to offer. Long before it became a paranormal tourist destination, the Jerome Grand Hotel was the United Verde Hospital. From 1927 to 1950, it's estimated that nearly 9,000 people expired there, often during surgery. When the hotel opened its doors in 1996, guests immediately began to report paranormal activity, including disembodied voices and a phantom gurney in the hallway. The hotel staff has embraced the intense hauntings and keeps a 300-page notebook in the lobby for guests to write their experiences in. They have to replace the notebook every year. The third floor of the hotel is said to be the most haunted, since it's where the old operating room is located. The most haunted room is thought to be number 32, where two people took their own lives. Guests often report seeing orbs and shadowy figures and are encouraged to ride the original Otis elevator with the ghost of Claude Harvey, a maintenance man who met his end there in 1935. Some guests report hearing a squeaky gurney on a linoleum floor outside their door, even though all the hallways are now carpeted. Staff have reported receiving phone calls at the front desk from unoccupied rooms as well. One of the harsh realities of living in Jerome was the constant danger experienced by women. Sammy Dean was a Texan woman who grew up poor and worked in both a clothing factory and dry goods store at the turn of the 20th century. All records on Dean's adult life are spotty. She eventually ended up working at one of the more upscale bordellos in Jerome. Dean did well for herself living in Jerome, she owned her own car, had an extravagant collection of jewelry and was popular with clients in the Red Light District. She met a tragic demise in her own home though on the evening of July 10, 1930, according to reports. The scene looked like a robbery gone wrong since both Dean's sidearm and large stash of cash were missing and the place had been ransacked. However, all of her expensive jewelry was left untouched. Rumors floated around Jerome that the mayor's son was the culprit after Dean refused to marry him, but the case remains unsolved to this day. Today the ghost of Sammy Dean is said to roam the alleys of the old Red Light District and some people think her spirit is still in search of the one who did her wrong. The population of Jerome steadily grew throughout the late 1800s and it was mostly composed of male miners. A common estimate is that the population of the town was 78% male. The gender discrepancy in Jerome led to the building of a number of saloons, gambling halls and bordellos which contributed to high levels of hostility and aggression. There was even a section of Jerome nicknamed Husband's Alley containing a number of brothels and bordellos with varying levels of respectability. While you could get rich from mining in Jerome, there was an increasingly high chance of also getting robbed or worse. Jerome's unsavory reputation spread across the country. In 1903, the New York Sun ran an article declaring Jerome the wickedest city in the West. When Jerome saw three catastrophic fires in an 18-month period, some thought it was some sort of divine punishment for the sinful nature of the city, but Jerome rebuilt itself every time. With its predominantly male population, bordellos were one of the main ways miners could relax after a day of hard labor in Jerome. The most successful bordello in town was Jenny's Place, which was run by Jenny Bodders, a Belgian immigrant who, while not the first madam in Jerome, was definitely the most successful. Jenny's life was cut short by a client in 1905, and some say she never left her bordello again. Now called the mile high in, the site is home to countless reports of paranormal phenomena of all types, including multiple sightings of Jenny herself. The housekeeping staff seems to be Jenny's prime target. Perhaps the former madam wants to make sure everything is done to her liking. When it's not, the ghost has been known to throw objects across the room to get the staff's attention. The mile high in hosts a number of spirits, including its former owner and a male apparition who enjoys poking and pushing unsuspecting guests. Perhaps the strangest case of ghostly activity is the inn's ghost cat, who said to have belonged to the original owner, Jenny Bodders. Guests have reported seeing paw prints and indentations on their beds, even though there are no living animals in the building. One guest heard scratching at the door to their room, but saw no cat when they opened the door. This phantom cat is supposed to look so real, guests have even tried picking it up, only to have the cat shockingly vanish in their arms. Consider that your warning if you visit the mile high in and see a cat who looks like it just wants a scratch. Originally referred to as Connor's Corner, the Connor Hotel opened as a luxury hotel in 1897, only to burn to the ground a year later. It would be rebuilt and then damaged two more times by fire, yet the alleged hauntings at the Connor seem unrelated to this unfortunate series of events. While supernatural activity has been reported throughout the hotel, room number one is considered to be the most haunted and it is rarely booked by guests. One man was kept awake most of the night by the disembodied sound of women's laughter and whispering inside his seemingly empty room. Objects have been known to move on their own, and the doors of the room's armoire will sometimes open and close, perhaps with the assistance of a phantom hand. A woman in a red dress has also been seen in the room, as well as the apparition of the hotel's original owner, David Connor. Connor is usually spotted staring out the window, only to vanish before the witness's eyes. If you miss him there, Connor is often seen at his other favorite spot, the Hotel Bar. As if Jerome wasn't bizarre enough with its above-ground hauntings, there are also 88 miles of sprawling tunnels that sneak beneath the town where men mined for their fortunes. With so many men working deep below ground in hazardous conditions, it's no surprise that restless spirits still wander the tunnels they labored in over a century ago. The most infamous ghost story from the mines is that of headless Charlie, whose head was apparently relieved of his body in a freak mining incident and never found. Shortly after Charlie's horrific passing, miners started finding large footprints similar to Charlie's throughout the mines. There have also been multiple reports of screams and moaning coming from the abandoned mines. The mines are closed to the public, but local lore has it that Charlie still walks the tunnels in an eternal search for his head. Fun fact, there was a Jerome-based band called Headless Charlie, named in homage to the phantom miner. The now-historic Jerome Valley Cemetery opened in March 1917 on 40 acres of rolling fields. While 40 acres seems like more than enough room considering the town's population, space quickly became tight during the influenza outbreak of 1918. Records show 51 people were buried in a single month during the height of the flu outbreak. Burials declined after 1919 and the last grave was dug in 1975. There could be more than 700 people buried in Jerome Valley today, but grave markers have been stolen over the years and most of the burial records were destroyed in the 1950s. There have been many alleged sightings of spirits walking through the cemetery, ghost lights and wraiths that make themselves known after the sun sets on Jerome. The dangerous nature of mining work made the hospital in Jerome essential, but medical treatment and surgery were still coming out of the dark ages in post-Civil War America. Amputations were commonly practiced for injured miners and patients more often than not never left the hospital. The influenza outbreak of 1918 also proved too much for the small hospital to manage and staff were forced to burn unclaimed patients in the incinerator, according to local lore. It has also been said that the smelters used by the mines also saw a burning or two. Visitors to Jerome have reported apparitions staring out the windows of the now abandoned hospital and it is a popular stop on local ghost tours. Originally built as housing for local mine managers, Ghost City Inn has also served as a restaurant, spiritual retreat, private residence and even a funeral home during its long history in Jerome. A male and female spirit have both been seen by multiple guests in or near the Verda View and Cleopatra Hill rooms respectively. Though their identities are unknown, there has also been reported poltergeist activity, such as disembodied voices heard in seemingly empty rooms and doors slamming of their own accord. The current owners note on their website that the inn takes its name from Jerome's own nickname of Ghost City. As to whether Ghost City Inn is truly haunted, the owners say it may be, but it is ultimately up to the guests to decide for themselves if anything goes bump in the night. While its official name is Lawrence Memorial Hall, Jerome's Community Center is commonly referred to as Spook Hall by locals who embrace the abundance of paranormal activity in the town. While no one is known to have expired at Spook Hall, it is said still to be haunted by the ghost of a young woman in 19th century attire. Ordello workers allegedly used the site now occupied by Spook Hall to entertain their customers. One such woman made a grisly fate, and her spirit is now bound to the land. Her ghost has been seen through Spook Hall over the years, and she has a reputation for knocking things over to make her presence known. When the mines finally closed for good in the early 1950s, Jerome's population dwindled to somewhere between 50 and 200 people. The residents left behind only stayed because they couldn't afford to move anywhere else. There was even talk of demolishing the entire town because no one could figure out how to revive it. Yet Jerome has always proved to be remarkably resilient. It did burn down three times and bounce back after all. In 1967, the town became a national historic landmark, and by the late 1970s, an active artist community had moved into the town and set up a historical society. Jerome began marketing itself as Ghost City and the original Ghost Town. Jerome has thrived ever since, and the number of living residents is now somewhere around 500. Of course, we know there are still a countless number of not-so-alive residents still lurking around. The only thing more spooky than Halloween in October is Spooky Empire. Join me October 27th through the 29th in Orlando, Florida to meet horror celebrities like a nightmare on Elm Street's Freddy Krueger Robert England and co-star Heather Langingham. Hellraiser's Doug Pinhead Bradley will be there with other cast from the film, Candyman's Tony Todd, an American werewolf in London's David Noughton, the Crypt Keeper John Kassier, Rose McGowan from Charmed in Death Proof, Kane Hodder from the Friday the 13th films, Harry Hamlin from Clash of the Titans, and so many more including Cassandra Peterson, better known as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Get autographs, take photos, and hear Q&A sessions with your favorite horror celebs. They've even asked to me to moderate a few celebrity Q&As too. You'll also find horror-themed workshops like making movie props and makeup, horror writing, and more. Get all the details, see a full list of the celebrities, and grab your tickets at spookyempire.com. That's spookyempire.com, and I hope to see you there October 27th through the 29th in Orlando, Florida.