 Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and is intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised. The telling of scary stories around the campfire is a tradition that is likely nearly as old as mankind itself. While tales of ghosts, goblins, and murderous psychopaths can rattle the cage of nearly anyone, what better subject for a campfire story could there be than a cannibalistic and murderous Sasquatch. The story of a haunted house might be creepy, but unless you're actually staying in the house in question, it's easily and quickly forgotten once the marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers appear at the fire. Teals of a creature, a creature many people regard as being real, stalking the very woods in which you've pitched your tent, however, are not always so easy to put aside. One such terrifying tale is the story of a war against Sasquatch that allegedly took place in eastern Oklahoma during the mid-1850s. The story of the Laflora County Bigfoot War. 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, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved, and unexplained. Coming up in this episode... The body of 25-year-old Jason Chase was found several weeks after he had gone missing, but the cause of his death was a mystery to everyone for almost 20 years. If you could afford it, would you pay to be able to live forever? Some of the ultra-rich are trying to do just that. Soon after moving into their quaint Massachusetts country home in 1981, Louis and Dale Paceto encountered a force of pure evil that almost destroyed them and their family. On August 29, 1890, a boy only 16 years old named Otto Luth was hanged at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus. He had been tried and convicted of the murder of Maggie Thompson, age 9, a murder for which the boy had shown no remorse. It is a sad and tragic story, but also one of utter horror. But first, did you hear about the time Bigfoot and humans went to war against each other? It supposedly did happen in real life, and I'll tell you the story about the LaFloor County Bigfoot War. We'll begin with that story. While listening, be sure to check out the Weird Darkness website. At WeirdDarkness.com you can sign up for the newsletter to win monthly prizes. Find paranormal and horror audiobooks I've narrated. Watch old horror movies for free. Listen to my other podcast, The Church of the Undead. 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. It is said that in or around 1855, a band of Choctaws in what is now LaFloor County, Oklahoma, and farmers in what is now Arkansas were experiencing some terrifying events. It all began in a rather benign way with the theft of vegetables, a few head of livestock, and other foodstuff by stealthy bandits in the night. The thieves were cagey, quiet, and never seen. They were also smart, as somehow they never ventured into Choctaw encampments on nights when a watchman was in place. Neither did the bandits ever fall into the traps set for them by farmers outside of Indian Territory. Those charged with finding and capturing these marauders began to develop a begrudging respect for the wiliness of their adversaries as time went by and the petty thefts continued. While the thefts were annoying and did cause some hardships, neither the Choctaw or the neighboring Anglo-farmers were afraid of the food bandits. However, things changed once women and children began to go missing. Spurred by reports of these kidnappings, a group of 30 Choctaw cavalrymen was organized to hunt down the abductors. The group was led by Joshua LaFloor, a man of mixed Choctaw and French blood who was deeply respected by his fellow tribesmen. Also joining the search party was a Choctaw warrior named Hamas Tubby and his six sons. The Tubbies were huge men, all approaching 7 feet in height and weighing in at more than 300 pounds each, and were regarded as fierce warriors and expert horsemen. The Tubbies were so effective in mounted warfare that despite their massive size they became known as the Light Horsemen. The contingent of searchers armed to the teeth sat out into the region known today as the McCurton County Wilderness Area to search for the kidnappers. After riding all day, the searchers finally arrived in the area where they believed the bandits to be hiding. LaFloor brought his troops to a halt, stood up in his stirrups and surveyed the area with a spyglass. It is unclear exactly what LaFloor saw but whatever it was, he ordered his men to charge toward a stand of pines roughly 500 yards distant. LaFloor and the Tubby men led the attack. As the troops closed the distance between themselves in the stand of pines where the kidnappers were thought to be hiding, they were assaulted by a tremendous stench, the unmistakable odor of decay and decomposition. The horses of most of the men began to buck and rear, tossing their riders. Only the mounts of LaFloor and the Tubby men were disciplined enough to remain composed, allowing the eight men to continue through the pines. As the men cleared the small wooded patch, they came upon a large earthen mound. Scattered across the mound were the bodies of children and women in various stages of decomposition. LaFloor and the Tubby's caught a glimpse of a number of the murderers fleeing into the treeline on the opposite side of the mound. Only three of the killers stood their ground to meet the charge of the light horsemen. It was at this time that the cavalrymen realized they were not going up against any human foe. Rather, standing before them, snarling and beating their chests were three huge, hair-covered creatures. Despite what must have been a shocking sight to him, LaFloor drew his pistol and saber, spurred his mount, and charged. As LaFloor approached the nearest ape, it took a mighty swipe and struck his horse in the head, killing it instantly. LaFloor managed to roll off the falling horse, quickly jumped to his feet, and fired multiple shots into the chest of the creature. Once his pistol was empty, LaFloor attacked the ape with his saber, opening up gaping wounds on the animal which roared in rage and pain. LaFloor's assault on the creature was so quick and the shock of seeing hair-covered monsters so great that the Tubby men hesitated, completely stupefied before entering the fray. This delay allowed one of the other two apes to get behind LaFloor, who was intensely focused on the ape he had engaged. The second beast grabbed LaFloor's head with two huge hands and ripped it from his shoulders. The horrible sight jolted the Tubby warriors into action and they opened fire on the three Sasquatches with 50 caliber sharps buffalo rifles. Two of the beasts were killed instantly, dropping in their tracks. The third creature was wounded but turned and fled before the lethal shot could be fired. Robert Tubby, only 18 years old but already 6 foot 11 inches and well over 300 pounds, spurred his horse, ran down the injured ape and dispatched him with his hunting knife. As the rest of the troop, after gathering their panicked horses, joined them, the light horsemen surveyed the area. The bodies of dead women and children, most partially devoured, littered the area. The smell of decay, along with the terrible odor of the beast's feces caused many of the men to vomit. After composing themselves, the men gathered the remains of the unfortunate women and children and buried them. They also buried their leader, Joshua LaFloor. As for the three ape-like monsters, their bodies were placed upon a huge bonfire and burned. Their hellish task complete, the Choctaw warriors returned to Tuscahoma, where it is said that even the mighty Tubby men were plagued by terrible nightmares for years afterward. Some story, is it not? But is any of the story true? While I could not find much, it does appear the Tubbies existed. So, too, did a man named Joshua LaFloor. What I could not find was any mention, at least in any official documents, that LaFloor died in battle. For that matter, I have been unable to find any information leading me to believe that the LaFloor County Bigfoot War took place anywhere outside of the realm of folklore. Having said that, is it possible that the LaFloor County incident was actually based on a real event that took place in a different location? According to a Bigfoot researcher named Jim King, the answer might be yes. King believes the LaFloor County story is based on an event that took place much farther west in Kayawa territory, an event related to him by an Indian elder. According to the story, Kayawa women were placed in a special teepee or tent on the edge of camp when they started their menstrual cycle. The women stayed there being tended to only by older women until their cycle was complete. The elder told King that women were considered unclean during their cycles and Kayawa warriors were not only forbidden any physical contact with the females during this time, they were not even to look upon them. This seems harsh, but it is not too different than the way many cultures treated menstruating women in the past. The elder said that once, long ago, there had been trouble with ape-like creatures who were attracted by the scent and pheromones emanating from the tent where the menstruating women were housed. Since the tent was on the edge of the encampment, it proved to be an easy target for the renegade apes who are said to have entered and carried off women on several occasions. To make a long story short, the Kayawa leadership decided this was unacceptable and put together a group of warriors to hunt down the kidnappers. The searchers did manage to track an ape back to its lair and killed not only it, but an entire family unit. Could the LaFleur County story have its roots in the tale told to Jim King by the Kayawa elder? Is there any truth at all, even the smallest of grains in either tale? I have heard many put their faith in the LaFleur County version simply due to the name of the unfortunate Joshua LaFleur. They wouldn't have named the county after him if it wasn't true and other similar statements about it. I however have not been able to find anything saying LaFleur County was named after Joshua LaFleur. According to the Oklahoma Historical Society's website, the name honors the prominent LaFleur family of the Choctaw Nation. Could Joshua LaFleur have been one of the prominent LaFleur family? It is certainly possible, but there does not seem to be any documentation singling out Joshua or his actions as the reason for the naming of the county. The story of the LaFleur County Bigfoot War, even if totally fictional, does seem to point to the fact that enormous, half-covered, ape-like animals have been thought to reside in the region for a very long time, a time long before the Patterson-Gimlin film brought Bigfoot into America's consciousness. And this to the beliefs of many other Native American tribes from across the North American continent who have long told stories of these creatures snatching women and children, and the anecdotal evidence stack grows taller. Truth be told, the idea of child or woman snatching Sasquatches continues to thrill, terrify, and enthrall us to this very day. One needs to look no farther than the success of David Paulide's missing 411 books to confirm this. It may very well be the tale of the LaFleur County Bigfoot War was inspired by actual, less dramatic events, think the seizure of Honabaya, the ape-canyon incident, etc. Over the years, such a story would be embellished and grow to mythic proportions. It is all but inevitable as a good, scary story is irresistible. Do not be too hard on those who might have added to the original facts. After all, we all know the most frightening types of campfire stories will always have one thing in common. They could really happen. Coming up, the body of 25-year-old Jason Chase was found several weeks after he had gone missing, but the cause of his death was a mystery to everyone for almost 20 years. And, soon after moving into their quaint Massachusetts country home in 1981, Louis and Dale Pecetto encountered a force of pure evil that almost destroyed them and their family. Those stories and others are still to come when Weird Darkness returns. 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. An 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 oracle. 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. 25-year-old Jason Chase went missing on December 13, 2002. He was a 25-year-old sheep shumer who'd been staying in the Gisborne region of New Zealand, on the east coast of the North Island. His body was found several weeks later, but the cause of his premature death baffled the authorities for nearly two decades. Recently, an unusual cause of death has been postulated and a reminder that plants can be as deadly as weather, terrain and animals in the great outdoors. On December 13, 2002, Jason Chase left Gisborne and was headed back home to Daneverk to his family for Christmas. But he never arrived. He was fit and healthy with no known illnesses. He was wearing a short-sleeved multi-colored rugby shirt with a bright red back displayed to the sky. His pale shorts were either cream-colored or were a very faded khaki. At first, Jason's disappearance went unnoticed by friends and family as there wasn't a specific date for his arrival. Then, an abandoned car was reported in the Tamaki Reserve just out of Daneverk at the base of the Ruhini Range. It was confirmed to be Jason's car. It was reported that he knew the area fairly well, but it was out of character for him to go missing or go for an extended overnight camp. He'd been somewhat depressed, but there was nothing to suggest he was suicidal. The Ruhini Range area was beautiful, but a wild place to hike. If you get lost, it's a very hard place in which to be found with punishing terrain of very steep mountain sides, clad in dense native bush with intervening rock-shrun gullies. These gullies carry torrents of water in the wet season, but they were dry and hard and irregular in December time. Periodically slips, scar the steep slides of the ranges, disgorging yet more rocks into the gullies, and even in summer there is some snow. The Palmerston North Rescue Helicopter flew several missions to try and locate Jason, but all efforts were in vain and the search was officially suspended just before Christmas. Hundreds of volunteers rallied and continued their private search after the official search was terminated. It was no sign that Jason had even entered the area. If it weren't for the presence of his car, there would have been no reason to suppose he was there at all. Around the middle of the afternoon on Friday, January 3rd, Jason's remains were found. He was lying on his left side with his legs stretched out and his feet bare, no shoes or socks. If he hadn't been on a rocky riverbed, you'd have thought he just laid down there for a comfortable snooze. There were no signs of his footwear in the vicinity of the body. It was as if he had settled down here for the last time, making himself as comfortable as he could and then died. There was no sign of injury, blood or bones fractured. Police quickly decided there were no signs of foul play as there were no signs of a struggle or animal attack. His death baffled authorities as the body lacked any serious injury or malnourishment, and the cause of death was eventually determined to be of obscure natural causes. Jason appeared to be well hydrated and fed. He even had food in his stomach and urine in his bladder. But where had Jason been all that time since mid-December? He didn't look as though he'd been lost and stumbling around, trying to find his way out. His clothes were tidy and not weather-beaten. He must have been under shelter most of the time. His feet were bare, but they were totally uninjured, so he must have been wearing shoes. Where were they? However, the autopsy report undertaken by pathologist Sinrick Temple Camp showed there were two shallow stress ulcers in his duodenum that hadn't been there long, maybe a few hours. These ulcers develop very quickly and they point to a time of significant stress just before death, but they don't tell you what the stress was. So what was that final stress caused by? Was it just simple exposure? Heat stroke? Seeing something that terrified him? Encountering someone or something that scared him to death? The toxicology report showed that blood, urine and stomach contents were all negative for all drugs, medications and a range of common poisons. Time of death was somewhere around four to six days prior to when Jason was found, around the 30th of December. That was long after the official search had been called off, and it meant he'd been alive during the search and rescue operation which had failed to find him. Temple Camp told Jason's story to a retired surgical colleague and friend, John Coutts. In the Ruwanis, you say? In the foothills? That rings a bell, he said. John went to his attic, stuffed full of surgical notes, papers and memorabilia collected from a lifetime of medicine in the Manawatu. John said it happened back in 1961. It was over Daneverk, way in the Ruwanis, pretty much where your chap was found. That's what reminded me. Two young men, 18 and 21 years old, went up there shooting. It was the same time of year too, Boxing Day in fact, and pretty warm so they were lightly clad. They left coming down until quite late and it was early evening when they did. They couldn't see quite clearly where they were going, as it was getting dark, and they pushed through quite dense bush. They ran into a bank of tree nettles called Ertika ferox, which means fierce itch. It's a native found on the fringes of the bush. They grow to two meters and their leaves are covered with rigid stinging hairs, each about six millimeters long. There are patches of them clumped in small localities over several parts of the ranges. Anyway, these blokes were wearing shorts just like your man Jason. They said they had run into a lot of stinging nettle and it felt like a million needle pricks. Less than an hour later, one of the lads developed a gut ache and couldn't go on. He just lay down and soon became paralyzed. He said he had trouble breathing and shortly afterward he became blind too. His friend managed to get help and they got him out and to the hospital. He died five hours later. His mate developed similar symptoms but not quite as severe and he eventually recovered. They are known to kill animals too. Horses are particularly prone and can die quite quickly. They usually have fits and become paralyzed. It does something to the nervous system. There was a group of trampers back then who got stung and they had serious incoordination for three days. Ertika ferox, commonly known as tree nettle or Aragawanga in Mayawari, is a nettle that is endemic to New Zealand. It is sometimes known as terra awanga or terra awanga awanga or aca awaka. It is largely a woody shrub and has woody stems and unusually large stinging spines that can result in a painful sting that lasts several days. The shrub can grow to a height of 3 meters or 9.8 feet with the base of the stem reaching 12 centimeters or 4.7 inches in thickness. The pale green leaves are very thin like a membrane. The surface of the leaf, stems and stalks are covered in stiff stinging hairs that grow up to 6 meters or 0.24 inches long. This nettle is winter desidus in cold climates, evergreen in mild climates and can lose its leaves and drought conditions if it is growing in shallow soils. It may well leave no sign on the skin and its poison, called trifidin, is exotic and not well known and named after the triphids, moving plants that stung people to death and then eat them from John Windham's famous sci-fi book, The Day of the Triphids. The tox report wouldn't have found trifidin because they didn't know to test for it and death can be very rapid. Was it a tree nettle that killed Jason? His body was found in a nettle-covered gully and difficult to get through. Cynric Temple Camp certainly seems to think he succumbed to trifidin poisoning. But there are some puzzling aspects. One, Jason was found on January 3rd and went missing December 13th. What happened in that three-week period? He had food in his stomach and was well nourished. There were no signs of torn clothing or that he had been sleeping rough. Did he leave and re-enter the area where he was found? Two, where are Jason's boots and why were his feet showing no signs of damage? Three, why did the search and rescue crews miss him when he was in an area clearly visible from the air? Respect the plants around you for sure when hiking wherever you are, but especially when it comes to hiking in New Zealand. For some, exorcisms are best left to the big screen. 90 minutes of fear, holy spirits and demonic encounters, then the lights come up and life returns to normal. For the Paceto family, however, possession was anything but make-believe. During the year of 1981, their home in Lee, Massachusetts was besieged by paranormal activity that surged through every room. Louis and Dale Paceto, an average, hard-working American couple, along with their two children, endured a range of other worldly occurrences that nearly destroyed them. The devout Catholic clan lived peacefully in the house that had been in their family for decades. It wasn't until two years after moving in that the hauntings commenced. On March 19, Mrs. Paceto began receiving nightly visits from a white image that took the shape of a non-threatening young boy who spoke in a kind voice. While the apparition was gentle, the Pacetos felt they should rid their home of the supernatural entity. When a priest eventually came to perform a blessing ritual, Mr. and Mrs. Paceto believed their troubles were over. Unfortunately, the demonic activity had only just begun. In place of the sweet spectral boy grew an unearthly creature, hunchbacked and dressed in black robes that loomed over the Pacetos in the night. It growled and snarled nasty things, vulgar things Mrs. Paceto is recorded saying. It called itself the Minister of God. Beyond the verbal attacks, the apparition soon unleashed its physical wrath on Mrs. Paceto. She suffered claw marks on her back, stomach, breasts, and face after being dragged around the bedroom. Mr. Paceto watched in terror as his bed levitated with Mrs. Paceto on it, vibrating while hovering above his bed. The malevolent force attacked the house as well. Refrigerators were ripped from walls, metal bookcases toppled to the floor, and in one instance, a crucifix was yanked from the hand of their 14-year-old son. Such terrors occurred day after day and night after night with no end. The Pacetos reached out to medical professionals for help, but they rejected their experiences, calling them nonsensical and fabricated. So Mr. and Mrs. Paceto turned to professionals of a different nature. Ed and Lorraine Warren, self-proclaimed demonologists, were called upon to fight the horror taking over their home. As the founders of the New England Society for Psychic Research in 1952, Mr. and Mrs. Warren devoted much of their life to the supernatural. Their experiences in the field served as inspiration for the 1979 film The Amityville Horror and The Conjuring. When the Warrens visited the Pacetos, they instantly detected the classic signs of paranormal activity pulsing through the home. In a description eerily similar to the film Poltergeist, which came out the following summer, Mrs. Warren saw half-dollar-sized ghost lights moving around the room until they combined to create a towering shadowy figure. The room suddenly went cold, according to the Warrens, and a force clawed Mrs. Paceto, who then fled with her family. At this point, the Warrens deemed the home demonically active enough to conduct an exorcism. A priest was brought in to perform the ritual. Mrs. Warren claimed the floor began to vibrate soon after the exorcism commenced. The basement then filled with smoke. When the ritual was complete, the Warrens deemed the home clear of its evil. The Paceto family moved back in and reported no further activity. In 2004, the family finally moved on, leaving their Lee, Massachusetts home and its haunted past for good. When Weird Darkness returns, there are people in life that you just would rather not deal with. Wouldn't it be great if you could just put them on ice and let some other future generation deal with that person? Well, aside from the morally unacceptable actions you'd have to take to make that happen, the technology for doing so might not be too far away. Some of the ultra-wealthy are making plans to be brought back to life later or to live for a very long time or even to be immortal. Plus, on August 29, 1890, a 16-year-old boy named Otto Luth was hanged at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus. The boy had been tried and convicted of the murder of Maggie Thompson, aged 19, a murder for which the boy had shown no remorse. It is a sad and tragic story, but also one of utter horror. 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 Bilt bars, the best-tasting protein bar on the planet. Bilt bars 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 Bilt bar. You won't even know it's not really a candy bar. Visit WeirdDarkness.com slash Bilt 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 Bilt promo code WeirdDarkness. Over the years, the gap between the super rich and the rest of us has grown wider than ever. But the difference between ordinary people and billionaires might be more than just money. Some high net worth individuals have been looking into extending their lives far beyond the 70 or 80 years most of us common peasants might hope for. Peter Thiel, for example, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal, has invested in a number of medical research startups, looking at extending life expectancy through his breakout labs fund. One of the company's longevity obsession supporters that Leo has bankrolled is Ambrosia. Ambrosia is one of three outfits looking at experimental vampire blood transfusions that put the blood of young people into the veins of oldies. According to commercial financial experts ABC Finance, the cost of the trials currently ranges from 6,000 to about 215,000 pounds. The technique has worked well in mice, although as yet there are no positive results from human trials. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a statement warning that the process has no proven clinical benefits and could be potentially harmful. If warm blood can't make you immortal, what about freezing it instead? The idea of chilling a body to postpone death until a future society has the technology to repair any injury or illness. For years, the story circulated that Disney founder Walt Disney had been frozen shortly before his death from lung cancer in December of 1966. There is no evidence that there is any truth in the rumor, but research into cryonics has been progressing since the early 60s. The first living subject was frozen in 1967. No one has yet been revived after cryonic freezing, but several people have been frozen or had their heads removed and frozen over the years. Thiel is PayPal colleague Luke Nosick and U.S. talk show host Larry King are all known to have signed up for freezing at the point of their deaths. Based on figures from the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, one of the leading cryonics providers, it would set you back 152,000 pounds to have your entire body frozen and preserved, or a more affordable 61,000 pounds if you just want your head put on ice. There is also the option to take a beloved companion with you into your future. One cryonics provider also offers a range of options for pets. 4,000 pounds for cats or dogs and even 760 pounds for a pet bird. But if cryonics and vampire transfusions are limited by the capabilities of the human body, why not get rid of the human body altogether? The idea of recording a human personality into a computer and somehow turning that recording into a sentient living being has been the stuff of science fiction for decades, but it's edging ever closer to science fact. Elon Musk's Neuralink device promises to monitor and record the entire output of a human brain. Two companies, Netcom and Terrison Movement Foundation, are working on turning these recordings into fully functional personalities. It's early days though, the process is described as 100% fatal, and we are a long way from turning ourselves into living computers. Still, Sam Altman, the dot-com billionaire who partnered with Musk to found artificial intelligence research company OpenAI is reportedly one of the 25 people who have paid Netcom a 7,600-pound deposit to have their thoughts uploaded into a mainframe. All these advances in biotechnology and robotics will remain expensive for a long time to come, so only the super-rich can afford them. American futurologist Paul Saffo predicts that the multi-billionaire class could even involve into a separate species entirely. I sometimes wonder if the very rich could live, on average, 20 years longer than the poor, he says. That's 20 more years of earning and saving. Think about wealth and power and the advantages that you pass on to your children. Access to the finest foods and exercise equipment money can buy will definitely make anyone live a little longer, but one of these bizarre ideas could just make a few eccentric billionaires effectively immortal. On August 29, 1890, a 16-year-old boy named Otto Loof was hanged at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus. He had been tried and convicted of the murder of Maggie Thompson, age nine, a murder for which he had shown no remorse. The story of Maggie Thompson is one of true American horror and one that will chill anyone to the bone. Even in the era that we think of as the good old days, children were never truly safe. Monsters walked among us, even them. In this case, though, the monster in question was not an adult that preyed on a child. It was what the newspapers would soon call the murderer in short breaches. Maggie Thompson fell victim to the depravity of another child. Little Maggie was the daughter of Jacob and Clara Thompson, who lived on the edge of Cleveland. She walked to the Tremont School each day, only four blocks from home, but she never returned on the afternoon of May 9, 1889. Many of the details of Maggie's last day are part of the record. She arrived at Tremont Street School and began her day promptly at 8.30 am. She left the school at 11.15 am, dismissed by her teacher, Miss Cottrell, so that she could have lunch at home. After that, things become murky. It seems that Maggie walked north, down Pelton Avenue to Fairfield, with a classmate named Mary Hall, who wanted Maggie to see some flowers behind her family's home at 17 Fairfield. Maggie was next seen several houses away at 5 Fairfield, where she played briefly with three-year-old Gracie Larson. She had wanted to show Maggie her new tricycle. Maggie left the Larson home about 11.30, turned the corner to walk the last block home, and disappeared. Maggie was missed almost immediately. When she didn't come home for lunch, Clara woke Jacob just afternoon and sent him to look for Maggie at school and at the homes of neighbors and Thompson relatives who lived nearby. It was a close-knit neighborhood. Everyone knew Maggie and each other, but no one had seen her. When a quick search turned up no trace of her, the police were notified. Detectives aided by family and friends began a thorough search of every street, sewer, outbuilding and waterway in the area. The frantic search continued for more than 24 hours. Notices were posted all over the city, instructing citizens to be on the lookout for the little girl. Her detailed description was given to the newspapers and handed out to passersby. All of Cleveland seemed to be in an uproar over the missing girl. By Friday, the search had become bogged down in the all-too-familiar chaos of false leads and people looking for attention. Cranks and curiosity seekers, always a part of every investigation, hindered the police and plagued the Thompson's with wild tales of clairvoyant visions and mysterious men who lurked on street corners. A number of quote-unquote eye witnesses proved to be no more helpful. Even the police muddied the investigation. They stoked the rumor mill themselves, using dark and repeated hints, both on and off the record, that Jacob Thompson knew more than he was telling about Maggie's whereabouts and fate. But Jacob knew no more than the police did. The search for his daughter continued for days, then weeks. May gradually turned into June, and the case of Maggie Thompson grew cold. The month of May, 1889, had been cool and rainy in Cleveland, so the warmth of June was welcomed by all the people who lived on Merchant Avenue. Well, almost all of them. There was one resident, Mrs. Clarissa Shevel of 42 Merchant, a two-family house that was just seven doors away from the Thompson home, who was bothered by something that was caused by the warm weather. There was a terrible smell in her home that had just started after the weather changed. She had no idea what was causing the foul stench, but it was driving her mad. Clarissa and her husband, Joseph, lived in the back part of the house, which they rented from owner Henry Loof, who lived in the front section of the home with his wife Lena, and 16-year-old son Otto. Henry had been out of town for most of the previous six months. He was a cabinet maker and had been working in Fremont. During that time, Lena had been residing part-time in a private, insane asylum, or she had gone for treatment for her nerves. With the landlords away, Clarissa had been unable to find one to deal with the odor. It had become so bad that even neighbors were starting to smell it. Finally, in early June, she saw Otto and asked him to do something about it. He took a nickel from her, bought three boxes of chloride of lime, and put them down a ventilation hole in the shovel parlor. He told Clarissa that the smell was probably caused by dead rats in the cellar, or even a pet cat that had not been seen for several weeks. If it had gotten into the cellar and died, well, that would certainly explain the stench. The following day, Otto also purchased some sulfur from a store in the neighborhood and asked the clerk for direction on the best ways to burn it as an antidote for odors. The clerk showed him how to do it, and even offered to help him, but Otto refused his assistance. Several days later, Otto was seen carrying some badly stained, maggot-infested bedding into a smokehouse at the back of the looth yard. He offered the information to a neighbor that he had vomited on the bedding after drinking too much a few weeks before. He had forgotten about the mess and needed to clean it up. More days passed, and the smell coming from 42 Merchant Avenue got worse. By the evening of June 9, Lena Luth had also reached her limit with the stench. Something had to be done about it. She had endured it since she had returned home from Dr. C.B. Humiston's asylum the previous week, and she could stand it no more. Her husband, Henry, was also home, and that evening she confronted him and demanded that he go down to the cellar, search until he found what was rotting down there, and get rid of it. He dutifully went down into the dank cellar, which was little more than a circular, brick-lined chamber that was only about nine feet in diameter. Henry descended the ladder-like staircase into the dark room and raised his lantern high above his head. He peered into the shadows and let out a choked cry. Henry turned and ran back up the stairs to where his wife was waiting. His face was ashen. There's a corpse down there, he shrieked. Henry hurried out of the house and went up the street. In those days, policemen still walked the neighborhood beat, and it didn't take him long to find one. They ran back to the house together, and Henry volunteered to go back into the cellar through a small window that was accessed by a dirt crawlspace under the house. As the police officer held the light, Henry wriggled through the window and disappeared into the shadows. He soon returned with a pungent bundle of clothing in his arms. He pushed it out into the yard, and the officer pulled aside the cloth to see what had been concealed in what turned out to be one of Lena Luth's old house dresses. It was the nude, badly decomposed body of Maggie Thompson. The little girl had been wrapped in a house dress with her own clothing underneath her. Her skin had rotted completely off her skull. Her brain was missing. Her lower limbs had detached when she was pulled out of a dark hiding place. She was a horrific sight, and one like nothing Henry or the police officer had ever seen. The young officer vomited in some bushes along the side of the yard. Within minutes, the house and lot were full of policemen and neighbors. A hysterical Jacob and Clara soon identified Maggie by the scars on her hips, the result of a childhood accident. Henry and Lena Luth, along with Clarissa and Joseph Shevel, were placed under arrest, as was Otto Luth, who returned home from a nearby ice cream parlor at 9.30 p.m. Do you know anything about this? His mother demanded, but Otto swore to his mother and to detectives that he knew nothing. He was the first lie that he told. It would not be his last. The five occupants of the house were taken to the 9th Precinct Station on Barber Street for questioning. The coroner determined that Maggie had been beaten to death with a hammer-like object. There were three holes in her skull, her nose, and jaw were broken, and she had been hit so hard that her teeth had been driven into her palate. Her right arm had been torn off of the elbow, probably before she died. This news did not sit well with friends and relatives of the Thompson's. A crowd gathered outside the police station calling out for justice. Someone who had been brought into the station from 42 Merchant Avenue was guilty of murder. If the police didn't find out who it was soon, there were Cleveland residents willing to lynch all five to make sure that the guilty one was punished. The interrogations went on for more than five hours, but almost from the start, detectives settled on their prime suspect, Otto Luth. From 10.30 p.m. until the early morning hours of June 10, Captain E. K. Hutchison, Captain A. S. Gates, and detectives Jake Laura, A. A. Lawrence, and Francis Douglas questioned the 16-year-old boy in isolation, constantly moving him from room to room around the station. They knew that both his parents had been largely absent from the home for the past month, and they were also aware of his reputation in the neighborhood for mischief and bullying younger children. Even before Otto returned home on the night the body was discovered in the cellar, Clara Thompson asked one of the police officers at the scene if they had arrested Otto yet. Once in an interrogation room, Otto was cooperative with the police, at first, probably until he realized they suspected him. However, he grew more sullen and nervous as the hours passed. The inconsistencies in his story multiplied, and he told several different versions of what he had been doing on May 9, the day Maggie disappeared. Finally, he broke and Otto screamed, I killed her, I killed her, please give me your revolver so I can kill myself. A moment later, officials came into the interrogation room, wrote out Otto's confession, and had him swear to it and sign it. He was led away in manacles to a cell at the Cleveland Central Police Station on Champlain Street. Otto's confession was brief and to the point. He told the police that he had been standing at the gate of his home at about 11.30 on the morning of May 9 when Maggie walked by. She stopped and asked him if he had any buttons for the button string that she was collecting. He replied that he would give her some if she came into the house to get them. He took her upstairs to his bedroom, and as soon as they walked in, he tried to assault her. Maggie screamed, and he hit her with a small tin smith's hammer that was lying nearby. He may have killed her with the first blow, we'll never know, but we could hope so, but he kept on hitting her until the bed was covered with blood. Otto pulled off the little girl's clothing and tried again to rape her. Unable to do so, though, he fled from the house. He returned briefly again that night when he savaged her body, but then spent the next week at his brother John's house. Six days later, the following Wednesday, Otto returned to the murder room. He knew that his mother might be released from the institution at any time, so he needed to get the body out of the house. Not knowing what else to do, he took it down to the cellar. He told no one what he had done, coldly returning to his daily activities and even helping with the neighborhood's search for Maggie. Almost every day, he spoke to Clara Thompson and asked whether there'd been any word about the lost little girl. Otto Luth was a psychopath before the word even existed. At the same time that Otto was being arrested and questioned by the police, Maggie's parents were faced with the sad business of burying their slain daughter. Two days after she was found, a service was held for the little girl at nearby St. Augustine Catholic Church. The original plan had been to hold the service at the Thompson Home, but on the night of the wake, more than 2,000 ghoulish curiosity seekers turned up at the house to file past her coffin which was on display in the parlor. The family did not want a repeat of that hellish experience. After the service, Maggie was buried in St. Joseph Cemetery. Meanwhile, Otto's arrest and trial became the most sensational criminal proceedings in Cleveland up until that time. He spent his days in his cell, closely monitored by the newspapers, weeping, smoking cigars, reading the newspapers, and participating in the religious services offered to prisoners by the Ladies of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. On June 14, 1889, he was indicted on four counts of murder and his trial was set for later that same month, although eventually it was delayed until December. A main cause of the delay was Otto's difficulty in finding an attorney to represent him. There were very few reputable lawyers in the city who wanted to represent a figure already known to newspaper readers as the Boy Murderer Rapist. Finally, W.S. Kirish agreed to take the case, but tragedy delayed the trial once more. Jacob Thompson had fallen between two railroad cars several nights after Maggie's body was found and was badly hurt. At first it seemed as though he would recover quickly, but then he suffered a paralytic stroke and was gravely ill for some time. The death of Mr. Kirish's son and then Clara Thompson's serious illness further delayed the trial. It did not begin until December 2. The prosecution's case was compelling and sufficiently gory to keep the attention of the audience, mostly female, that packed the courtroom on each day of the three week trial. The jurors were presented with a narrative of Maggie's last hours before she vanished, the discovery of the body in the cellar, and Otto's anguished confession. The evidence that was brought into the courtroom was even more exciting. Maggie's bloody dress, her felt hat, the blood-soaked headboard from Otto's bed, and her abandoned button string were all held up by prosecutor Hayden for everyone to see. Several jurors were even wiping away tears during Clara Thompson's heartbreaking testimony. But things took a turn on December 10th, when prosecutors attempted to introduce the details in Otto's confession. Kirish objected. He was revolted by his client, but he had to do his job, and that meant providing him with the best defense possible. He was willing to concede the facts of Maggie's murder in return for saving the boy from the hangman. To do that though, he had to keep Otto's written confession out of the record. That document included both the admission that he had killed her because he wanted to rape her and that he tried to rape her again after she was dead. If the jury heard that, they would hang him for sure. Judge Solders sent the jury out of the courtroom and listened carefully to Kirish as well as Hayden's arguments. His subsequent ruling that the confession was admissible sealed Otto's fate. But Kirish didn't give up without a fight. He mercilessly grilled the prosecutors and detectives who had interrogated Otto on the night that Maggie's body was found. He argued that Otto's confession had not been voluntary, as they all claimed, stating that he was a young boy who'd been terrorized by bullying adults into confessing. The problem was that Kirish could make a case for Otto being pushed into a confession, but he couldn't deny the fact that Otto confessed to something that he had actually done. His other defense was to try and portray his client as the victim of tainted genes. Otto, he claimed, was an epileptic, which was a condition linked to insanity in those days. In addition, his family line was filled with other epileptics and insane relatives. Otto's relatives claimed that the boy's maternal grandmother, aunt, uncle, mother, and brother all suffered from epileptic fits. Otto himself, Lena Luth testified, had suffered spasms and night terrors as an infant, suffered from debilitating headaches as an adolescent, and had a poor memory. Kirish's argument was that on May 9, Otto had experienced a sudden epileptic fit and acted without knowing what he was doing. Kirish didn't get far with his medical hypothesis, but he did manage to find several eminent physicians who supported his diagnosis of masked epilepsy, although none could say that Otto really suffered from it. Interestingly, Kirish didn't pursue a line of argument that modern-day lawyers would have seized upon with ferocity, that he was an abused child. In the testimony about mental illness in his family history, it was well established that his mother, Lena, suffered from maniacal fits of rage that were so fierce that she frequently spent time in an asylum. As her husband, Henry, her older son, John, and she herself swore under oath, Lena sometimes went into a demonic rage during which she abused her children, especially Otto. From an early age, she admitted without expressing any guilt about it, she had pulled his hair, kicked him, beaten him, stomped on him and hit him with any object she could reach. Once when he was eight, she had beaten him with a chair leg and when Henry tried to intervene, she had stabbed her husband twice with a butcher knife. Just a few months before Maggie Thompson's murder, Lena had repeatedly slammed Otto's head with a wooden door. It is a strange statement about parental discipline of the era that Lena's brutality was dismissed and even excused because she was poor and her methods were in the German style. The courts certainly didn't feel that such treatment provided a reason for Otto to have committed rape and murder. Lena's behavior in the courtroom also did nothing to help Otto's case. She constantly muttered to herself and experienced a number of spasms at climactic moments of the trial. Several times she had to be removed from the courtroom until she returned to normal. The jury deliberated for only four hours and 27 minutes before finding Otto Luth guilty of murder. Otto took the news with white-faced calm, swaying only slightly when the verdict was read. But Lena refused to leave the courtroom after Judge Solders excused the jury. She began a sing-song chant, No, I will not go. I might as well die here as outside. If they kill him, they kill me. If he is guilty, so am I. They are murderers. They will hang my poor boy, though everybody says he is wrong in the head. I have no more use to live." And then she started saying that all over again. Henry Luth had to forcibly drag her from the courthouse. Four days later on New Year's Eve, Judge Solders sentenced Otto to hang on April 26, 1890 at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus. Otto sank into his chair, but Lena let out another impassioned outburst. Damn, damn, damn, the jury be damned. All 13 men be damned. They are fools. It is a damned shame to hang a child of 16 years. They all be damned, their children and grandchildren. I damn them, the mother of the murdered boy. When Bailiff's Harry Lansfield and Peter Hill tried to restrain the crazed woman, she flew into a rage and screamed at them, Don't touch me, I'll kill you, I'll kill you. Over the next few months, Kurish's motion for a new trial made its way through the Ohio appeals system. The verdict was upheld, but Otto's death date, which had already been delayed allowing time for an appeal, was moved back to August 29, so that the Board of Pardons and Governor Campbell could consider Otto's merits for clemency. The decision to delay the execution came just three days after the death of Jacob Thompson, who succumbed to his physical ailments, and some say a broken heart exactly a year and a day after his daughter's body was discovered in that dark cellar. Otto's time began running out. On August 22, the Board of Pardons turned him down, despite the pleas of former President Rutherford B. Hayes and four members of the original trial jury. Lena Luth took the news badly. She threatened to kill herself, but didn't. Four days later, the Governor refused to grant clemency, and final preparations for Otto's execution began. Otto didn't take this news any better than his mother did. He cursed everyone that he could think of, aside from his mother. Meanwhile, Lena had confronted the penitentiary's Deputy Warden, screaming at him that she was going to shoot and poison Governor Campbell. Considering the way that he had lived his life, Otto Luth died with dignity. After a few tears, he pulled himself together, requesting only that newspaper reporters not, quote, give it too hard to me, unquote, in their accounts that the hangman do his business quickly and well. Wearing a black suit and white tie and with a black hood over his face, Otto took his position on the gallows. At 12.05 a.m. on August 29, he spoke his last words. All right, let her go. The trap was sprung, and he died a second later from a broken neck. Otto's short life had been an ugly one, leaving horror and chaos behind. Even his death was messy. When his family showed up at the church for his funeral, they found the doors were locked. There had been a misunderstanding about the time. His body was then shipped off to Fremont, Ohio for a service and burial. It should come as no surprise that Lena Luth had the last word about the whole sorry situation. A week after the execution, she sent a letter to the Cuyahoga County Sheriff, in which she again cursed everyone who had participated in her son's arrest, incarceration, trial, and death. She claimed the jury was bribed, so there could have been no other outcome than one that led the boy to the gallows. And she added, I tell you, I, the mother of the murdered boy, cursed be you all. May his shadow pursue you by day and by night, and in the hour of your death, may you suffer the pangs that I now suffer. He was a murderer against his will. You murdered him with premeditation. Therefore, once more, all will be cursed that lent their hands, you murderers, signed Lena Luth. Thanks for listening. If you like the podcast, please tell someone about it. Recommend Weird Darkness to your friends, family, and coworkers who love the paranormal, horror stories, or a true crime like you do. Every time you share the podcast with someone new, it helps spread the word about the show, and a growing audience makes it possible for me to keep doing the podcast. Plus, telling others about Weird Darkness also helps get the word out about resources that are available for those who suffer from depression, so please share the podcast with someone today. Be sure to join me for a new episode every Sunday at my other podcast, The Church of the Undead, also found at WeirdDarkness.com. Do you have a dark tale to tell of your own? Fact or fiction, click on Tell Your Story on the website and I might use it in a future episode. 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. The eerie death of Hiker Jason Chase is from StrangeOutdoors.com. The LaFleur County Bigfoot War was written by Michael Mays for the Texas Cryptid Hunter website. Now the super-rich, planned to live forever, was written by Michael Moran for The Daily Star. The Pissetto Family Possession is by Jamie Bogart for TheLineUp.com. And Otto Luth and The Girl in the Cellar was written by Troy Taylor. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. Proverbs 16 verse 28. A perverse man stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates close friends. And a final thought. Our character is not defined in the good times, but in the hard times. Paul Brody. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness.