 Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and is intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised. Welcome Weirdos, I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained. Coming up in this episode, it's the official day of romance, at least according to Hallmark cards. Valentine's Day brings up feelings of love and adoration, moments of affection, gifts to show one's heartfelt emotions for another. But February 14th doesn't always bring the warm and fuzzies. Sometimes the day brings tragedy, heartbreak or just something of the bizarre and strange. If you're new here, welcome to the show and while you're listening, be sure to check out WeirdDarkness.com for merchandise, my newsletter, to enter contests, to connect with me on social media, plus you can visit the Hope in the Darkness page if you're struggling with depression or dark thoughts. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com. Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness. Emmett and Priscilla Birgiano were legends in the Carnival world, particularly in the freak show industry where they performed as the world's strangest couple. Before they were married, they performed separately. Priscilla was known as the Monkey Girl and Emmett was known as the Alligator Skinned Man. They were human attractions, putting themselves on display for the entertainment of others. Both were born with incurable skin conditions. Priscilla's hypotrocosis caused her to grow thick black hair all over her face and body, including a full beard, and Emmett's ichthyosis gave him dry, hard skin that appeared scaly like a fish or a reptile. While the exploitation devices used by circus leaders have been heavily criticized, Emmett and Priscilla Birgiano did not outwardly act victimized. Like many of their fellow performers, they embraced the way that they were made and used it to make a respectable living. They figured if people were going to stare anyway, why not make some money at the same time? Emmett and Priscilla truly embodied the spirit of the sideshow and inspired many people with their unusual love story. But when you look past appearances like they did, they weren't so unusual at all. They led the normal life of a married couple and were devoted to each other until the very end. The unique pair met while performing with the Johnny J. Jones Exposition in the late 1930s. Priscilla Lother was described as having a beautiful singing voice and was an accomplished dancer by the time she met Emmett Birgiano, the Alligator Skinned Man. Emmett himself was described as kind and gentle. Their love quickly bloomed and they eloped in 1938. They were just two people with rare skin disorders who truly understood each other and were on the same path in life. It was obvious to those who knew Emmett and Priscilla that they were not just in love, they were perfect for each other. They began making plans for the future, but surprisingly Priscilla's parents voiced their dissent. Carl and Francis Lother had been her adoptive parents since Priscilla was just a toddler and they had become very protective of her. They were also concerned that, as the star of their show, Priscilla shouldn't be too exposed to outside influences, such as a husband who might convince her to leave. In the end, the couple put their love for each other first and eloped in 1938. Emmett and Priscilla left her adopted father Carl Lother's show in 1945 and joined up with Ripley's Believe It or Not's traveling exhibition, performing as the strangest married couple in the world. They continued to work through the 1950s and 60s as the Birgiano family. The pair had positive attitudes about their line of work and even took pride in it. In a 1978 interview, Priscilla said, we have fun in our work. When they start making fun at me, I say I can see you for nothing right here, but you had to pay to see me. Emmett added, sideshow work keeps me off the relief line. It's an honest effort and I feel more or less proud of the fact that I can earn my own living and can do anything anybody else can. Nature does funny things sometimes, but I've lived a normal life. Both Emmett and Priscilla eventually worked with the king of the sideshows, Ward Hall, who had a lot of praise for Priscilla in particular. He was quoted at a fairground in 2006 as saying, she had an orange-green complexion and long, silky, beautiful hair all over her face and body. She was a very intelligent, educated lady and she loved to dance. Oh, I spent many hours dancing with Priscilla. She was a great Latin dancer and I loved Latin dances. Priscilla and Emmett were like many other married couples. They wanted children. Sadly, their first experience with parenthood ended in tragedy. They had a daughter, Francine, who passed away from pneumonia about four months after she was born. Heartbroken but unwilling to give up, they decided to adopt a baby boy in 1960. His name was Tony and they called their little piece of land in the town of Gibson, Florida, PET Ranch. The nickname stood for Priscilla, Emmett and Tony, PET. He grew up working the Carnival Circuit with his parents, operating rides and selling concessions. Emmett and Priscilla were very successful on the sideshow circuit and even branched out into film later in their careers. The couple starred in the movie Carni in 1980 with Gary Busey and Jodie Foster and they also made appearances in several documentaries. They gave interviews in the 80s and 90s as some of the last veterans of the freak show culture. Many of their contemporaries had quit or been phased out long ago due to the now taboo nature of sideshows. Many of the shows had been shut down by activist groups. They eventually retired and pulled away from life in the public eye in the early 1990s. Emmett passed away on April 17, 1995. He and Priscilla had been married almost 60 years. It was at that point that Priscilla decided to shave her beard and she continued to do so for the next six years. She made a few more television and documentary appearances, including the Jerry Springer show, talking about her long life as a sideshow attraction and also talking about her beloved husband. Priscilla passed away in her sleep, February 5, 2001, at the age of 90. Priscilla's biological father's logic was that if there was no cure for his daughter's condition, the family might as well use her unique appearance to make some money in the United States. Her parents had six other children back in Puerto Rico and could use the extra income. Priscilla was three years old the first time she went on display for the public. Priscilla's father was originally from Spain and spoke mostly Spanish, so he needed a little help with promoting Priscilla as a carnival attraction. He turned to professional showman Carl Lauder, who had years of experience running sideshows. Lauder immediately took an interest in Priscilla and he was helping to care for her when her father was shot and killed in Gainesville, Florida. Priscilla's father's last wish was for Carl Lauder and his wife to adopt Priscilla. Lauder had been her sideshow promoter for a brief period of time before her father was slain. He and his wife adopted Priscilla as their own and they continued to promote her as an attraction. The Lauders reportedly treated Priscilla very well. Priscilla was very smart and fluent in English and Spanish. They hired a tutor to make sure that she finished her schooling and when she told them that she was lonely they gave her a pet chimpanzee. It was very common for sideshow promoters to adopt their human oddities in the early 20th century since their parents often couldn't handle them or knew that performing could give them a better life. Emmett was also adopted by his promoter, Johnny Bajano. Carl Lauder was conflicted about Priscilla's presentation as the Monkey Girl though. He was not a real fan of the name and openly defended her when people heckled her or called her a freak. But he gave in when he realized that Monkey Girl was a name that drew crowds. Priscilla performed with a trained chimpanzee named Josephine and the pair had a bit of a balancing act in terms of personalities. Priscilla was polite and graciously invited guests to her exhibit while Josephine would smoke cigarettes and occasionally spit at the guests. Priscilla's biological mother and father had a hard time coming to terms with their daughter's condition. She didn't just surprise them, she surprised the entire medical community and general public of Puerto Rico. Her parents brought her to the United States for testing repeatedly. But in the end Priscilla's mother gave up her rights to her daughter. She stayed in Puerto Rico with the family's other six children while Priscilla's father put her on display in America. She did however occasionally come to America to visit her daughter throughout Priscilla's long career as a performer. Priscilla Roman was born April 26, 1911 in the town of Bayamon, Puerto Rico. Back then people were a bit shaken by babies born with conditions such as hers, Hypertrocosis. She was born with a full head of hair, two full rows of teeth, and hair all over her body. Hypertrocosis is a congenital skin disease, linked to the X chromosome but can also develop later in life. Symptoms vary from person to person, but can include excessive hair growth, mild abnormalities in the face and teeth, and deafness. Ictheosis is defined as a family of genetic skin disorders characterized by dry, scaling skin that may be thickened or very thin. Icthe is a Greek root word for fish. It was this scaly reptilian appearance that led to Emmett's stage name, the Alligator Skinned Boy. The disease is fairly rare, with 16,000 babies born every year with some form of the condition and 300 born with moderate to severe ichtheosis. There is no cure for ichtheosis, but doctors are developing treatments to ease the symptoms a person would suffer from throughout their life. Due to his condition, Emmett was unable to sweat properly, so he would spend time between performances sitting in vats of ice water. Coming up, we look into the spectral side of Love and Valentine's Day, those ghosts who still linger thanks to a broken heart. That's up next on Weird Darkness. They say tragic events can leave spirits on earth, and passionate love so often ends in tragedy. They also say unfinished business can leave souls wandering the earth. How often have we felt a romance end without closure? Today, on the most romantic of holidays, it seems appropriate to explore these stories of love. Love so passionate it leaves a heartbroken supernatural stain on earth. In Stovermont lies a covered bridge they call Emily's Bridge. There are several versions of Emily's sad tale. Some versions say that Emily and her boyfriend were meeting at the bridge to elope since her parents did not approve. He never came, and she hung herself from a rafter. Another version says Emily was left at the wedding altar. She hopped on a carriage to find her love, and when she reached the bridge, one of the horses was startled and she died in an accident. Some versions say that she was killed by runaway horses on the way to her wedding. Whatever way you put it, Emily reached a tragic fate. Visitors to the bridge have reported scratch marks on their cars and their own bodies, and strange noises like footsteps, ropes, tightening, a girl screaming. If you park your car on the bridge, you might hear banging on the car or hear a body's feet dragging on the car's roof. The Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, Florida is the oldest masonry fort in the United States. The site itself is dripping with paranormal activity, but today we focus on an affair that led to murder. In 1784, Colonel Garcia Marti brought his young wife Dolores to the fort. He wasn't the most devoted husband and often ignored his wife, thus she found other ways to spend her time. She began an affair with her husband's assistant, Captain Manuela Abella. Dolores were a very unique perfume which Garcia smelled on Manuela one day. Shortly after, Dolores and Manuel went missing. Garcia told everyone that Dolores had returned to Spain and that Manuel had a special assignment in Cuba. About 50 years or so later, a hidden room was found in a dungeon behind a brick wall. The remains of a woman and a man were found. Some versions say chained to the wall, some say in a pile of ashes. Sightings of a woman with a white dress have been reported on the site. Could it be Dolores? Minnie Quay was the 15-year-old daughter of James and Mary Ann Quay. They lived in Forrester, Michigan, so they often saw boats coming in and out of town. Minnie fell in love with a sailor. Not much is known about him and her parents disapproved of her crush. One day, word came to town that the boat sank. Minnie was quite distraught, especially since her parents had forbidden her to say goodbye when he last left. Some time after, she was babysitting her infant brother for her parents. She left her house and walked towards the waterfront. People near the town in the Tanner House waved as she walked by. Suddenly, their friendly faces turned to faces of horror as she walked right into Lake Huron. Legend says that she still walks the beach, waiting for her sailor to return. More frightening versions say she lures young girls towards the water and towards their deaths. Jesse's strang deserted his wife and children and began a new life in Albany, New York. He lived under a new name, Joseph Orton, and began working at the Van Rensselaer's residence at Cherry Hill. He caught the eye of the affluent Elsie Van Rensselaer, a married woman. Jesse and Elsie decided their love could really flourish without Elsie's husband, John Whipple, around. In May of 1827, after a failed attempt of arsenic poisoning, Jesse Strang shot John Whipple. Jesse and Elsie tried to hide their murder plot, but they didn't cover their tracks very well. Murder by Gaslight, a great blog that's a favorite of mine, describes the sensational trial that followed. In June, Jesse Strang confessed to the murder and told prosecutors where to find the rifle. He believed that if Elsie was convicted as well, her powerful family connections could get them both pardoned and he tried to lay the blame on her. But when his lawyer and the prosecutor told him that nothing he said against Elsie would lighten his punishment, he withdrew his confession. Members of the household testified that they had heard Strang spread the stories of prowlers out to kill Whipple. The merchants, who sold in the rifle and the arsenic, testified as did hotelkeepers who had seen Strang and Elsie together, but it was Strang's confessions admitted over the objection of the defense which sealed his fate. The jury deliberated for 15 minutes before returning a verdict of guilty. Elsie's trial followed the same course as Strang's, except the prosecution tried to call Strang as a witness. There was much debate over his eligibility to testify because he'd been convicted but not yet sentenced. In the end, the judge would not allow his testimony. The prosecution rested and the jury, without leaving their seats, acquitted Elsie Whipple. The Albany establishment had closed ranks to save one of their own from a public hanging. Jesse Strang was found guilty of first-degree murder and Elsie Whipple was found not guilty. According to the Albany tourist site, all members of this love triangle roam the halls of Cherry Hill. People have witnessed a ghost on the bottom floor of Cherry Hill and believe that it is Mr Whipple. He's not hostile, but he does give off a feeling of anger. Jesse Strang's ghost is seen where the gallows once stood, wearing the same clothes he wore the day of his execution. Imagine repeatedly running into both your exes in the afterlife. That's pretty tragic. As we can see, tragic love often ends with lingering ghosts. There's even a type of ghost, the white lady, that's often attached to a story of betrayal by a lover. The white lady appears in folklore all over the world to name a few, the United States, the Czech Republic, Germany, Brazil. Even if you don't believe in ghosts, you could acknowledge the universal power of tragic love when it comes to storytelling. And what better metaphor for heartbreak than a ghost? When you think about it, most ghost stories also have elements of romance in them, don't they? Common ghost origin stories tend to run one of three ways. A murder or misdeed has been committed, an unjust, sudden or premature death occurred, or the old standby, they died of a broken heart. Since New York City abounds with ghost stories, it makes sense that we'd have a lot of love stories there, too. Here are but a few. Many people are familiar with Gertrude Treadwell, the famous spinster ghost of the Merchant's House Museum. Born in 1840 to a wealthy merchant family on East Fourth Street, Gertrude grew up and fell in love with a very dreamy doctor named Louis Walton. Walton, though, was a Catholic and Gertrude's strict Episcopalian daddy, forbade the marriage. She never loved again. Gertrude pined away on East Fourth Street until she died in 1933. She still wistfully haunts her old home, which is now a museum. Harry Houdini and his wife, Bess, also fall into the category of romantic ghosts. Before Houdini died, the two of them agreed on a secret phrase that one of them would transmit to the other after death through a medium, thus proving the spirit contact between loved ones was indeed possible. Sweet, isn't it? I recommend you try that with all your best friends and loved ones. The only tricky part is that you can't write it down or share it with anybody else, so you'll probably forget it or get it mixed up with your Dropbox password. But give it a shot, let us know if you make contact with any dearly departed spouses to prove definitively that life exists after death. Another high-profile New York City ghost is John Lennon, who has been said to visit his wife Yoko in the Dakota apartment on at least one occasion. Most famously, his spirit appeared to her sitting at his white piano. He turned to her and said, Don't be afraid, I am still with you. All of these star-crossed lovers and adoring spouses are well and good, but if you like a little scandal with your romance, you can't do better than Aaron Burr. Burr's notoriety began with the trial of Levi Weeks in 1799, and if he had been anybody else would have climaxed around 1804 when he shot Alexander Hamilton. But because he was Aaron Burr, he kept on digging himself deeper into trouble. He attempted to start his own country in Louisiana and was tried for treason, and then he was exiled to France. Finally, he finished it all up by marrying and then divorcing scandalous heiress Eliza Jamelle. Burr is a fairly active ghost around New York, having been variously spotted on the battery waiting for his daughter Theodosia's ship to come in. In the Burr family tradition of excellent luck, she was lost at sea, and at one if by land, two if by sea restaurant in Greenwich Village. Incidentally, voted the city's most romantic restaurant, and in various NYU buildings around West Third Street. Burr was an apparently pretty randy fellow in life, and he still seems to like the ladies in the afterlife. Reports of him goosing co-eds and female diners have abounded for years. He seems to stay away from the Morris Jamelle mansion, though, probably because his ex-wife Eliza haunts that place. Moving into the even more lurid end of the spectrum, we have the notorious ghost of Broadway impresario David Belasco, who never met an actress he didn't want to cast. Belasco still haunts his namesake theater, sometimes dressed in the kinky priest's cassock that earned him the nickname Monk in life. According to Playbill, he is as amorous as ever, once startling a female star in the dressing room shower. For sheer numbers of women, though, you can't beat the chic, Rudolph Valentino. He had a youthful career as a taxi dancer, two wives, loads of ladies throwing themselves at him while he was still alive. After he died, tens of thousands of fainting, shrieking women mourned in the street in front of Frank Campbell's funeral chapel on the Upper West Side. The phrase, Latin Lover, was basically invented for this man, for goodness sake, so he is synonymous with romance. He also has a connection with Astoria Queens. Valentino used to dine at the Astor Room when it was adjacent to Paramount Studios, now Kauffman Astoria Studios, back in the Roaring 20s. Some say his specter still flits among the tables there. Of course, his ghost has also been spotted in Los Angeles, so you never know. But what about ghosts in the other boroughs? We've got Queens represented here and Manhattan amply covered, but are there any romantic ghosts in Brooklyn, Staten Island, or the Bronx? Of course there are. Our definition of romance is going to get a bit twisted here. In colonial times, a British colonel and loyalist named William Axel bought a mansion called Melrose Hall, located in what is now the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, and moved in there with his fiancé. His fiancé was educated, graceful and beautiful, but she was not the one Axel loved. Alas, he was in love with her sister, Alva. He simply just could not bear to be without Alva, and so he did what any man would do. He built a secret chamber in his house and hid her away in there. Only one other person knew about Alva, the slave woman who took care of her and brought her food. Alva would wait all day until the colonel could slip away and then he had visited her upstairs in their secret sex chamber. One day, when the colonel was away on an extended business trip, the slave woman died. There was no one to bring Alva food or drink, and so being locked in the room unable to escape, she starved to death. Let that be a lesson to you if you've secreted an illicit love away in a clandestine sex chamber. Have some kind of food distribution buddy system in place, you know, like how you don't go swimming alone. Does Alva haunt the site? Well, she did at one point. The house was later purchased by Anna Carla Moet, an actress who learned of the story of Alva and wrote about it in her memoir, The Autobiography of an Actress. She affirmed that a young girl had starved to death in that chamber and that her ghost wandered at night around the house. No word on whether the colonel ever visited her though. The next story actually strains the definition of ghost a little bit too, since there's no evidence of a spirit and unrest, but it's such a good story and it really has that Valentine's Day twist to it, so it's kind of impossible to resist. According to the New York grimpendium by J. W. Auger, in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, you'll find the grave of a boy killed by kisses. George Spencer Millett celebrated his 15th birthday the day after Valentine's Day, February 15, 1909. He was working as an office boy at the Metropolitan Lifebuilding at the time and according to Auger, he was so popular with the ladies at the office, they chased him around on his birthday trying to shower him with kisses. In the ensuing playful scuffle, George fell and then shouted out, I am stabbed. He then went unconscious, bleeding profusely from the chest and dying soon afterward in an ambulance. Turns out George had an ink eraser in his pocket, which in those days bent a pointed blade for scraping ink off of paper. Somehow in all the well-meaning shenanigans, he'd fallen on the pen and it had pierced his heart. If you visit his grave in Woodlawn, you'll see the whole narrative spelled out on the tombstone, which reads, lost life by stab in falling on ink eraser, evading six young women trying to give him birthday kisses in office Metropolitan Lifebuilding. And now we'll return to tradition for this last one. On Staten Island today, you could find a building known as the Old Bermuda Inn. Its website builds it as a place where people dying, dance, and fall in love. And they're not far off. It's the former Merceroe Mansion, a sumptuous white-pillared 19th century mansion built as a wedding gift for Martha Merceroe and her husband. In 1861, the Civil War would come along and sweep away Martha's beloved Mr. Merceroe. Martha fretted and paced and waited for her dear husband to come home to no avail. He died in battle. She joined him not long afterward of the classic Broken Heart. Say, I told you this was a traditional story. Naturally, she still roams the mansion's capacious hallways, waiting for Laurenly for her long lost love who is never to return. Drawing on the inn's website again, we find the following account of her ghost. People have reported seeing Martha's silhouettes in the window, as well as a figure walking around in the front part of the inn. Workers at the restaurant have reported strange noises and locked doors opening on their own. An oil painting of Martha mysteriously caught fire during a recent renovation, which many have interpreted as her specter expressing its displeasure at the intrusion into her home. Like most true lovers, she would rather be left alone to await her one and only. Death, tragedy, Broken Hearts, it all makes for a morbid Valentine's Day, but nothing I have told you up to now even remotely compares to the bloody story behind how Valentine's Day got started to begin with. I'll have that for you up next on Weird Darkness. Valentine's Day is a secular celebration despite being connected to the Western Christian Church. Celebrated all over the world, among all age groups, Valentine's Day is regarded as an appreciation for love and romance. The 14th of February, a day we all exchange gifts, greetings and affection with our beloved, or beloveds, is not all that it looks like. Hopeful singles, preparations beginning a month prior, market brimming with lovey-dovey goodies and rose-tinted glasses become the norm this time around every year. But the reason for celebrating this day has been lost somewhere along the line similar to various other celebrated days. Although the origin of this day has failed to make its point among the Gen Zers, its darker and sinister counterpart has not been lost. Romans have always been big on blood and slaughter. People in ancient Rome were the first to avail this holiday. Considered a matter of great pride, February 13th, 14th and 15th was celebrated as the Feast of Luprikelia and sacrifices were made. Luprikelia was their festival in which sacrifices of goats and dogs were followed by whipping women with the hides of the just slain animals to avert evil spirits and purify the entire city. Of course, men could never have been involved in the impurity so only women had to be treated, that is whipped. This entire festival was believed to bring fertility and good health. Women too, after years of suffering, had come to believe that this was all done in good faith and that their fertility had everything to do with the beatings and sacrifices and nothing with actual biology. Hence, love in romance had only one definition in ancient Rome. Violence. Toxicity was the norm and so was the vulnerability of the Roman woman. Like in 21st century fares, the Romans had names of women put in jars and lucky draws were taken out for the lucky women who would be beaten to a pulp and granted fertility. So lucky. Matchmaking was adopted as an answer to the unsettling ratio of men to women so that every woman could have a fair chance of being blessed after the feast. And so, it is not difficult to understand where our modern day toxic, intolerable and patriarchal love comes from. The Western Christian Church announced the 14th February as St. Valentine's Day in honor of two early Christian martyrs, both named Valentine, who were executed on the same day in different years in the 3rd century AD. But a hope of significant intelligence combined both St. Valentine's Day and the Festival of Lupercalia later on, resulting in the half-informed muddled version of the origin that is known to the general public today. The rituals were expected to have stopped, and they did, or so the Church thought. With love in the air and literature, thanks to Shakespeare and other poets suffering from love sickness, the attention got diverted from the barbaric Festival of Lupercalia. With the evolution and prolonged knowledge of right and wrong came an end to the sacrifices and violence attached to the day. But the toxic mindset and the sadistic pride continues to this day. The Valentine's Day celebration will go on with gusto, and rightfully so. We are not Romans, and our thought process is not like theirs. But should love not be celebrated all day every day? Should we only be grateful and appreciative of our loved ones just one day a year? Also, since the day has been modified several times already, why not a bit more? Why not celebrate love in all of its glory, both platonic and romantic? Modern love has been granted most of the salient features of the Roman love, where the toxicity is on top. But let's keep that conversation for another time, and end this on a positive note. Congratulations, you have not become a part of this fake love. At least not in this lifetime. Thanks for listening. If you like the show, please share it with someone you know who loves the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters or unsolved mysteries like you do, and please leave a rating and review of the show in the podcast app you listen from. Doing so helps the show to get noticed. You can also email me anytime with your questions or comments through the website at WeirdDarkness.com. That's also where you can find all of my social media, listen to free audiobooks, shop the Weird Darkness store, sign up for the newsletter to win monthly prizes, find my other podcast, Church of the Undead, and find the Hope in the Darkness page if you or someone you know is struggling with depression or dark thoughts. Plus, if you have a true paranormal or creepy tale to tell, you can click on tell your story. 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. A freak love story was written by Rachel Sowerbury for Ranker.com. Ghost love stories was posted at notebook of ghosts.com and boroughsofthed.com. The bloody story behind Valentine's Day was written by Avani Raj for ED Times. Again, you can find links to all of these stories in the show notes. Weird Darkness is a production and trademark of Marlar House Productions. Copyright Weird Darkness. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. Second John 1 verse 6. And this is love, that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love. And a final thought from Franklin P. Jones. Love doesn't make the world go around. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness. Podcast, you can find it at WeirdDarkness.com.