 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. Beginning in 1974, the Smerl family went through one of the worst hauntings ever that lasted 15 years. For an intense two-year period, the family was subjected to a series of physical assaults perpetrated allegedly by a mysterious demon and a horde of ghosts. The haunting affected everyone in the Smerl family. Even the dog had a run-in with one of the angry ghosts. Out of all of the families that have claimed to be haunted over the years, the Smerls claimed to deal with some of the most aggressive entities of the 20th century. These ghosts lasted for a great part of their lives. The haunting became so bad that the Catholic Church got involved in an attempt to exercise the demon. Even after the Smerls called in demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren, they still weren't able to rid themselves of the horrible creatures that seemed set on ripping their family apart. And they ultimately lived with remnants of the haunting for the next 15 years, even after the most vicious attacks seemed to simmer. In the 1990s, the Warrens' experiences trying to rid the Smerls of their hauntings were turned into a made-for-TV movie called, appropriately, The Haunted. The Smerl family haunting facts include everything from ghosts attacking children to the demonologists who tried to stop them. The question remains as to whether they truly were evil forces at work and whether the demonologists held any sway over the atrocities the Smerls experienced. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. 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 this hour. In 1974, the Smerl family was tormented by supernatural forces so intense the haunting even withstood intervention by demonologists. Who or what was behind the terrifying oppression of this previously normal Pennsylvania family? There are numerous tales of ships simply disappearing without a trace. Some are never heard from again. Others have created legends that terrify sailors to this day. The 1992 runners came across a gruesome discovery in a South Wales state park, a dead body, but it was only the beginning of what quickly became a string of murders by a serial killer. Weirdo family member Jan Daniels relates events that happened to her on a new job, with odd happenings in the women's restroom among other things. Plus, in tonight's sudden death overtime in the podcast after the show, Azrael is known by many names in numerous cultures, but he is most famously, or infamously known as the Angel of Destruction. And not only are his powers terrifying, so is his appearance. If you're new here, welcome to Weird Darkness. If you're already a member of this Weirdo family, please take a moment and invite someone else to listen 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 follow Weird Darkness on Facebook and Twitter and visit WeirdDarkness.com to find the daily Weird Darkness podcast, watch streaming B horror movies and horror hosts 24-7 for free. Listen to free audiobooks that I've narrated, send me your own true story of something paranormal that's happened to you or someone you know, and more. 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. In 1974, Jack and Janet Smerl moved out of their flood damaged home and into a West Pitson Pennsylvania duplex that has been lovingly described by all sources as a fixer-upper. Jack, Janet, and their kids lived on one side of the duplex while Jack's parents, John and Mary, lived on the other. It didn't take long for the haunting to start. The first instances of their ghostly visitors were benign. A tool would go missing. A stain on the wall would seep through the paint. Nothing too scary. But then kitchen appliances started to go up in flames, even when they weren't plugged in. And then there was the smell. The odor wafted through the house at random intervals and was absolutely stifling. During his investigation, Ed Warren described the smell as something akin to rotting flesh. Shortly after the haunting began, Mary suffered a heart attack and the family began to struggle to pay bills. It seemed the haunting was taking a toll on more than the family's living space. One of the creepiest ways in which the haunting manifested was the sound of it. Mones and blood-curdling screams ripped through the house at all hours of the day and night. Many of the chilling sounds reportedly took on the voices of the Smurl family, a particularly cruel way to haunt the family. It wasn't just the Smurls who heard the ghostly sounds either. Allegedly, their neighbors claimed to hear screams coming from inside the house when no one was home. As the weeks went on, the haunting increased from sounds to floating black creatures and shadow people. Self-taught, self-proclaimed demonologist Ed Warren later claimed that he saw a mucus-like, smoky-type substance that began to whirl and materialize on the mirror, spelling out filthy obscenities, telling me in no uncertain terms to get out of the house. The creature, or creatures haunting the Smurl family, were hell-bent on ripping the family apart. The worst indignity suffered by both Jack and Janet were separate sexual assaults that happened numerous times. First, Janet claimed she was woken in the middle of the night by an unknown figure sexually assaulting her. Then Jack claimed that while he was watching a baseball game in the living room, he also was assaulted in the same way by a succubus. He later claimed that while he attempted to say the rosary, the creature dragged him around the room. During a 15-year haunting, no one in the Smurl family made it out of the haunting without being harmed. One of the daughters was sliced open by a flying wall fixture and the family's German shepherd was thrown against the wall. Janet claims that she was grabbed by the creature before being hurled across her living room. On another occasion, an invisible entity bit Jack in the face and threw another one of their daughters down a set of stairs. A skeptic's view of this situation says that all of these attacks are similar to those of domestic violence. It's completely understandable to think that the Smurls were in the middle of a turbulent marriage and that they covered their screaming matches and physical altercations with an interesting ghost story. But nothing like this has ever been verified. As with all hauntings in the 70s and 80s, the Warrens, yes, of the Amityville horror, finally worked their way into the story. Supposedly the Smurls were reluctant about calling the Warrens because they were worried about drawing unwanted attention on themselves. After the investigation, Ed Warren said the Smurls are truly a family coming under a visual attack. The ghost, devil, demon or whatever you call it is in that home. Ed Warren claimed that on his very first night in the home, he experienced a major cold spot and saw a shadow person. He explained, I did not have to wait moments when the very thing I felt was a drop in a temperature of at least 30-some degrees, then a dark mass formed about three feet in front of me. After the appearance of the shadow person, Ed Warren claimed that something in the home began throwing things around the house, including the mattress in the master bedroom. From the amount of stories that came out of the Smurl haunting, it seems like there wasn't a day that went by without something creepy happening. Janet Smurl claimed that while she was in the kitchen one evening, the house grew cold and she felt a hideous presence. That's when a black, human-shaped form appeared in her kitchen. It had no face, but it was more tangible than a shadow. The shape passed through her wall and appeared to marry on the other side of the duplex. Whatever was haunting the Smurls, it absolutely hated religious iconography. One night, the Warrens tried to draw out one of the entities with a group prayer they got more than they bargained for. In the middle of the prayer, something began screeching, you filthy bastard, get out of this house. Then the house started shaking and two female ghosts that looked to be from colonial America slunk through the house. This was the only time that the appearances of the colonial ghosts were recorded, but it's possible that one of these two was the succubus that had assaulted Jack while he watched a baseball game. Try as they might, the Smurls couldn't shake the ghosts that made their every waking moment total hell. Even though priests from the Scranton Branch of the Roman Catholic Church blessed the home and performed multiple exorcisms on the house, the family continued to experience pure terror. Despite priests saying they saw no harmful activity while on the property, Janet claims that the demons were able to avoid their Catholic banishment by moving back and forth between the two sides of the duplex. After 15 years of being harassed by invisible entities, the Smurls finally moved to Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. There are no reports as to whether or not they ever experienced another haunting. After an in-depth investigation of the Smurl home, the Warrens were able to pin down exactly what was assaulting the family, more or less. Lorraine Warren, a clairvoyant, claimed that there were definitely four entities roaming the duplex. The first was an elderly woman who mostly kept to herself. There was also an older man who died in the home, which is oddly similar to the Enfield Haunting, a case that the Warrens also investigated. Lorraine said that the violence the family experienced came from the ghost of a young woman and a demon who was able to control the other entities. Even though the Warrens claimed that the Smurl family was haunted by a gang of ghosts led by a demon, there is another explanation for the nearly two decades of terror. A mass hallucination. Apparently in 1983, Jack Smurl went under the knife for complications stemming from a case of meningitis he'd had as a child. Smurl said that the doctors were trying to remove water from his brain. It's possible that Jack had a brain tumor and that's why he was experiencing such violent attacks, but the Warrens' stories don't really corroborate this. Professor Paul Kurtz of State University of New York at Buffalo believes that the haunting started with Smurl's brain impairment and that the rest of the family followed suit. It's possible that the family fell under the delusion through which Jack Smurl was living, but that doesn't explain why they would follow along with his bonkers behavior for more than a decade. Hey weirdos, have you signed up for the Weird Darkness email newsletter? It'll keep you up to date on what's happening with the podcast when our next Weirdo Watch party will take place. You can see when the next sale in the Weird Darkness store is scheduled and more. Sign up for the Weird Darkness email newsletter for free at WeirdDarkness.com. The town is standard. A small mid-western town where nothing ever happens. Quiet, peaceful and tucked away among the cornfields and away from the dangers of the outside world. Unfortunately, there is nothing normal about standard. There has been an evil that has been awakened and now the residents are slowly going crazy. Men for no reason are coming home and murdering their families and dark forms are appearing in people's mirrors. The evil is spreading and now it's up to ex Chicago cop Rob Aletto to find it. Time is running out and the neighbors are becoming quiet shadows as they watch him. He doesn't have long before it'll start to get into his mind and then he himself would be making that deadly trip home. Inside the Mirrors by Jason R. Davis, narrated by Weird Darkness host Darren Marlar. Hear a free sample or purchase the title on the audiobooks page at WeirdDarkness.com. I'm Darren Marlar. Welcome back to Weird Darkness. If you're looking for Weird Darkness merchandise, you can find it in the Weird Darkness store. You can search through all the merchandise right now by clicking on store at WeirdDarkness.com. Humans are fascinated by stories of ghost ship disappearances. Why? Because humans are drawn to tales that leave us without answers. Stories of ghosts, the supernatural, alien intervention and conspiracies may sound like something from science fiction, but these are the stories that have captured the human imagination since they first came to us through newspaper headlines in the mouths of whispering sailors. These are the stories of ghost ships that haunt the high seas in the minds of everyone who reads about them. These are ships that disappeared without a trace that simply stopped sailing and that may have even murdered their own crews. History proves over and over that sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. These are stories of eerie ghost ships that really happened and nobody can explain how. In November of 1872, the captain of the Mary Celeste, Benjamin Briggs, set sail from New York to Italy. He was traveling with his wife, daughter and eight other shipmates. On December 4th of that same year, the Mary Celeste was discovered abandoned by her crew and set adrift in the Atlantic Ocean. According to the men of the British ship Delgracia who found her, the ship was completely intact, with plenty of food and water to last her six more months of sailing. The ship's log was written up to the 24th of November. The ship's only lifeboat was missing. To this day, nobody knows what caused the crew and passengers of the Mary Celeste to abandon a perfectly seaworthy ship in the middle of the Atlantic. The only thing anyone knows for sure is that the ship's occupants left in a hurry. The captain of the Delgracia wrote in his log that the crewmen of the Mary Celeste had left behind their smoking pipes. To him, this seemed a clear sign that the crew had abandoned the ship in a panic. Today, the mystery of the Mary Celeste has still not been explained. Many theories have been broached, including mutiny, madness and murder, but none have held water. In June of 1947, an officer aboard the British vessel the Silver Star picked up a mysterious, unsettling distress signal. It said, all officers, including captain, are dead, lying in chat room and bridge, possibly whole crew dead. Silence crackled across the line, then one simple sentence, I die. The message was picked up by several other ships in the area, but the Silver Star reached the source first. It was the Dutch freighter, Orang Medan, floating adrift in the straits of Malacca. The star's officer and crew boarded the ship to find bodies strewn about the decks, their faces fixed in a cry of pain. Even the ship's dog was dead. The bodies were unharmed. There was no sign of injury or attack. Before any further investigation could be done, however, the crew of the Silver Star smelled smoke and quickly abandoned the ship. They boarded their own escape vessel, cut the ties to the Orang Medan and sailed away. Within seconds, the ship exploded, leaving only empty water and debris in its wake. To this day, no one knows what really happened aboard the Orang Medan in the seconds before the crew of the Silver Star arrived. As far as anyone knows, the ship murdered its captain, passengers and crew, killing them without a trace. Some people believe the ship was carrying biological weapons manufactured by the Japanese, but the mystery remains unsolved. The ship lives on now in an infamy that rivals the mystery of even the Mary Celeste. I'll tell you about a few more real ghost ships when Weird Darkness returns. Do you have a true paranormal story that has happened to you or someone you know? You can share it by clicking on Tell Your Story at WeirdDarkness.com. If you or someone you know is struggling with depression, dark thoughts, or addiction, please visit the Hope in the Darkness page at WeirdDarkness.com. There, I've gathered numerous resources to find hope and solutions. For those suffering from thoughts of suicide or self-harm, there is the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, as well as the Crisis Text Line. Both have trained counselors at all hours to help those in need, and the page even includes text numbers for those in the US, Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland. Those struggling with depression can get help through the Seven Cups website and app, and there's information for anyone to read more about what depression truly is and how to identify it through our friends at ifred.org. There are resources for those who battle addictions, be it drugs, alcohol or self-destructive behavior, along with help for those related to addicts. The page has links to help you find a therapist or counselor, to find help for those who have a family member with Alzheimer's or dementia, help for those in a crisis pregnancy and more. These resources are always there when you or someone you love needs them on the Hope in the Darkness page at WeirdDarkness.com. Welcome back to Weird Darkness. I'm Darren Marlar. Have you checked out the Monster Channel? It has horror hosts, B horror movies, retro television commercials and a whole lot more, and you can watch it anytime absolutely free 24-7-365 on the Weirdo Watch Party page at WeirdDarkness.com. Let's get back to looking at Ghost Ships on Weird Darkness. The flying Dutchman first appeared in popular folklore in Holland. For years Dutch sailors told the tale of a cursed sea captain, doomed forever to sail around the Cape of Good Hope. German sailors, voyaging in this area of the world corroborated the legend, saying they had seen such a ship. The tale emerged out of folklore and into reliable reports the 19th century. One 1835 ships log stated that the flying Dutchman appeared out of nowhere in a storm with all sails unfurled, bearing down on them. Later, in 1881, another ship's log wrote that the flying Dutchman passed them, emitting an eerie red light. The same red light pops up in a tale told by the other ships in the surrounding area. How many logs and reports constitute a real phenomenon? In 1761, the Octavius loaded up with cargo from China and set sail for London. The crew would never be seen alive again. The captain of the Octavius thought it would be a great idea to try and shorten his trip back to London by making the Arctic Passage, a trip that had never before been made successfully. So they set sail northward. It was a mistake that would cost every crew member his life. The ship went missing for 13 years. Finally, in 1775, a whaling ship, the Herald, was sailing just off the coast of Greenland when it spotted the Octavius floating in the icy waters. The crew of the Herald boarded the Octavius and found the ship's crew frozen solid below deck. The captain of the ship was found at his desk, upright, frozen to death, while in the middle of penning a ship's log dated 1762. The crew of the Herald fled the ship immediately, leaving the Octavius to continue to wander the Arctic Ocean. Nobody has seen the ghost ship since. The young teaser wasn't an innocent merchant ship or cruise ship making a return trip home. No, the young teaser was a pirate ship, an incredibly fast one. In 1813, the young teaser had made several successful raids around the coast of Nova Scotia when she was cornered in Mahoney Bay by a Nova Scotian schooner captained by Sir John Sherbrooke. Just moments before the British boarding parties could approach the boat, the young teaser exploded. According to reports, the first officer of the privateer had been seen rushing to the magazine fire in hand. The story of the young teaser might not seem like something too crazy. The pirates chose suicide over capture, sure. But the teaser has inspired one of Nova Scotia's most famous ghost stories, the story of the teaser light. According to folklore, an orange glow can be seen in Mahoney Bay and one can hear the crew screaming into the foggy night. Accounts say this happens every year on the anniversary of the explosion, June 27. On March 1, 1858, the huge steamboat Eliza Battle caught fire in what would become the biggest maritime disaster in Tobigbee River, which flows between Mississippi and Alabama history. 33 people died. The ship had been loaded with over 1200 bales of cotton. Sometime during the night of March 1, a strong north wind began to blow, and somehow the cotton bales on deck caught fire. The flames soon engulfed the ship and the passengers and crew jumped overboard. Today, people still tell tales of sightings of the Eliza Battle floating down the river, wreathed in fire, and the sounds of 33 people screaming in pain and calling out for help. In 1906, the SS Valencia was caught in a terrible storm off the coast of British Columbia. The ship was carrying 108 passengers. Only 37 of these were eventually rescued, and the ship itself became the subject of ghost stories from that day forward. It began in 1910 when the Seattle Times reported sightings of a phantom ship that resembled the Valencia adrift in the area. Other reports from fishermen around British Columbia told the story of a lifeboat manned entirely by skeletons. But stranger still, in 1933, the Valencia's number 5 lifeboat was found, empty in Barkley Sound. Even after years of exposure to the harsh oceanic elements, the lifeboat was completely untouched and unharmed. Part of it is now on display at the Maritime Museum of British Columbia, while the wreckage of the Valencia was eventually found near a 100-foot-high bluff. This one detail has never been explained. In the year of 1748, just before Valentine's Day, the Lady Levebonne was sailing the high seas in honor of its captain's wedding. Unfortunately for the captain, his best friend had been in love with his new bride, and in a fit of jealousy, he ran the ship aground on the Goodwin Sands of the English Channel, killing everyone on board. Since then, there have been many reported sightings of the ship. The captain of the Edinburgh reported that he nearly collided with a three-masted vessel off the Goodwin Sands, and the captain of a smaller fishing schooner reported the same. Many thought the ship had run aground, but no wreckage nor survivors were found in the nearby Sands. Fifty years later, local residents in Kent saw a ship with three masts heading on a collision course with the Goodwin Sands. Like before, a rescue party was sent, yet no survivors or wreckage were ever found. In 1955, the MV Joyita was overdue for its return home. Five weeks after its missed return date, the ship was found, 600 miles off course in the South Pacific, completely abandoned and in bad condition. No distress signals had ever been received. The ship had never run into bad weather. The crewmen examining the ship smelled decay but found no signs of foul play or dead bodies anywhere. They did find a doctor's bag on deck, however, littered with bloody bandages. To this day, all anyone knows is that the crew abandoned the ship. The pipes may have been corroded, and the radio may not have worked due to faulty wiring, but investigators still haven't pieced together why the crew didn't simply stay aboard and wait for help. On January 29, 1921, the schooner Carol A. Deering was returning home from Hampton Roads to Barbados when she passed the Cape Lookout light ship. Something seemed a little bit off to the captain of the light ship. He reported that the Carol's crew seemed intact, but they wandered idly around on the deck of the ship. A crewman who didn't look or act as if he was in charge told the light ship's captain that the Carol had lost her anchors. The ship was later spotted by the SS Lake Elon, behaving strangely and steering a peculiar course. After that, the ship just disappeared. Two days later on January 31, the Coast Guard discovered the Carol run aground on the outer shoals. The weather was too treacherous for a better look, but C.P. Brady of the Cape Hatteras Coast Guard station reported that the ship was missing her lifeboats and the decks were covered with water. Later, when the weather was better, another Coast Guard ship rescue showed up to investigate further. They found the ship was missing all of its important papers, equipment and personal belongings. The lifeboats were indeed missing, as were the anchors. This wasn't a strange find for a ship run aground in dangerous waters, but then the crew found something that has baffled conspiracy theorists to this day. A meal perfectly laid out for the entire crew, untouched. There have been all sorts of theories about this ghost ship. Some believe the crew mutinied. Others think the ship was stolen by rogue Russians. Due to the proximity of the location, some reports even believe the Bermuda Triangle might be to blame for the crew's disappearance. The ship was scrapped in 1921, but the mystery still remains. This next story comes from weirdo family member Jan Daniels. Here is her story. After working in a building that was reportedly haunted for 27 years, I retired this summer and went to work part-time for a different company. The company that I work for is right in the middle of Farmland, so I'm sure it has a lot of history. Right after I started working there, I was asked by a co-worker if I believed in ghosts. I told her I did, and she asked me if I'd ever noticed anything weird that went on, especially in the women's restroom. I mentioned that I had heard water run, and a hand towel dispenser went off when I was in there by myself, but I had just put it down to people running in and out. Although I have to admit I never heard the door open or shut. Then one night, something happened that can't be explained. The entry to our foyer was decorated for fall with straw bales, pumpkins, and a couple of scarecrows that were propped up on sticks. My co-worker and I work in the front and were working late one night. It was still early evening but dark outside. We heard someone knock on the windows of the foyer. We kind of looked at each other and kept working, shrugging it off to being the only ones in the building. A few minutes later, we hear the knocking again. Thinking that it's another employee that forgot the key and needed in, I go and look out the entrance door. Nothing. I went back to my desk and proceeded to try and finish my work when we heard the knocking again. This time my co-worker went and looked and again saw nothing. She swears one of the scarecrows was not in its original spot. I don't know about that, but both of us decided our work could wait for the next morning, quickly shut down our computers, and left. I made sure that I didn't look at the scarecrows on my way out. Did they or something else knock on the windows? I don't know. But since then, I make sure I leave before dark. Hey, truckers, if you're on the road behind the wheel of a tractor trailer for a living, I have a contest just for you. Every month, I'm doing a random drawing from entries I receive in the Deadhead Truckers Contest. Go to WeirdDarkness.com slash truckers and register to win. If I draw out your name, you'll win two Weird Darkness Trucker t-shirts, two travel mugs, a large pillow, and a blank hardback journal. If you listen to Weird Darkness because handling 18 wheels alone on the road by yourself just isn't scary enough, then this monthly contest is for you. Register to win at your next 10-100 and visit WeirdDarkness.com slash truckers. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash truckers. On a fine September day in 1992, two runners were working their way through New South Wales Belongio State Forest and made a horrific discovery. A decaying body. This body would be only the first of seven discovered as part of a string of killings now known as the Backpack Murders, committed by one Ivan Malut. The runners reported their discovery to local police who found a second corpse less than 100 feet from the first upon their investigation. It was quickly assumed that the bodies found were one of two pairs of tourists who had gone missing in late 1991 and early 1992. Either Carolyn Clark and Joanne Walters or Gabor Nugbauer and Anja Habschild. Both pairs had disappeared from King's Cross in Sydney. Soon the police had successfully identified the corpses as Carolyn Clark and Joanne Walters. Clark had been shot 10 times in the head, seemingly as a bizarre disturbing form of target practice. Walters instead had been stabbed 14 times before her death. The police, hopeful that the discovery of these two corpses would lead to the discovery of other missing persons, continued their investigation deeper into the state forest, spending five days searching the brush and wilderness, but with no success. With no new information to go on, the investigation soon came to a halt, but it would be revived over a year later when another man discovered human bones in a remote area of the state park. Two more bodies were found, Debra Everest and James Gibson, who had been missing for four years. Gibson had been stabbed eight times, Everest had been severely beaten before being stabbed in the back. It had long been known that Everest and Gibson had likely been the victims of foul play. After the pair had gone missing, Gibson's backpack and camera had been found alongside the road in Sydney, but the location of the bodies, nearly 75 miles south of that site, baffled investigators. Within a month, three more bodies were found in the forest. They were identified as Nugbauer, Habschild and one other missing tourist, Simone Schmidt. With these discoveries, investigators became certain they were dealing with a serial killer. Although the methods used to murder each victim differed, they had all been posed, face down and hands behind their backs. They had also been hidden from view by sticks, ferns and other brush. There were also campsites near each burial ground, suggesting that the killer had camped out with the victims both before and after their deaths. Police began using vehicle and gun records, among other information like gym memberships, to create a list of possible suspects who operated in the area and owned a gun that could have been used in the shooting deaths, like Clarks. They had narrowed their suspect list from over 200 to about 30, when Paul Onions, a United Kingdom resident called the New South Wales Police, shared a terrifying story of his own near-death encounter. In 1990, Onions, like all the other victims, had been backpacking through Australia. Outside of Sydney, he hitchhiked and caught a ride with a man who introduced himself as Bill. About an hour and a half from Sydney, the man pulled ropes out of the car pointing a gun at Onions. Bill attempted to tie his hands. Onions managed to escape and flag down another car as Bill continued to shoot at him. He was picked up by a woman named Joanne Berry. When contacted, Berry confirmed Onions' account. By this point, the suspect pool had narrowed enough that Onions' description of his attacker's large and memorable mustache made it clear that one Ivan Malott was most likely Bill, the perpetrator. Malott and his brother worked on road gangs between Sydney and Melbourne, the killer's main striking ground. He'd sold a car soon after the discovery of the first bodies and friends and acquaintances reported an obsession with weapons and death to police. Hoping to peg their killer, police flew Onions to Australia to identify his attacker. Once they received confirmation that Malott had attempted to kidnap Onions, police were able to arrest Malott and search his home. An alarming stash of weapons was discovered at Malott's home, including two rifles that fit the gun types used in the seven murders. Even more conclusively, a number of items that belonged to the seven victims had been kept as trophies. Soon, Malott had been charged with robbery, unlawful possession of weapons, and seven counts of murder. In July 1996, Malott was found guilty of the seven murders and of the attempted murder of Paul Onions. He received a life sentence for each victim, with an additional 18 years for his crimes against Onions. He was not made eligible for parole. It is believed that Malott was responsible for more murders than the seven for which he was brought to trial. His culpability has been proposed for at least eight other murders. His crimes also spurred a copycat killing, chillingly by his own great nephew. Matthew Malott killed David Osterlone in the very woods that his great uncle hid his victims. The killing, filmed by Malott's friend Cohen Klein, occurred on Osterlone's 17th birthday. Malott remains in prison to this day. He attempted to escape from jail in 1997 unsuccessfully. He has consistently appealed his case and once cut off his own little finger, planning to send it to Australia's high court as a sign of his displeasure at continued imprisonment. He also began a hunger strike in 2011, hoping to lose enough weight that the prison would be forced to give him a playstation. Unsurprisingly, this ploy did not work either. Malott continues to gain notoriety as the inspiration for the killer in the disturbing Australia slasher film Wolf Creek. He and Bradley Murdock, another Australian killer, are cited as the main inspiration for the film in which three backpackers found themselves held hostage and tortured by a man who despises any and all tourists. And if you're one of my patrons, you get a commercial-free copy of tonight's show immediately after it's over, including the overtime content. You can become a patron and or subscribe to the podcast at WeirdDarkness.com, or you can search for Weird Darkness wherever you listen to podcasts. You can follow the show on Facebook and Twitter at Weird Darkness, and please tell others about the show 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 call in to the dark line, toll-free, and tell your own true paranormal story or a story that happened to someone you know. That number is 1-877-277-5944. Again, the toll-free number is 1-877-277-5944. You can also email me anytime on the contact page at WeirdDarkness.com. Weird Darkness is a production and trademark of Marlar House Productions. Copyright Weird Darkness. 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. 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 of ridicule, and they suffer silently, trying to deal with the internal horror of what they've experienced. If I'm describing you or someone you know, there is now a place you can turn to for professional counseling from experts who, unlike others in their field, are open to the paranormal, supernatural, and extraterrestrial experiences of others, and they're not there to explain away your experience but to help you recover from it and move forward with living. I'm referring to the Opus Network. If you want to reach out for help or learn more, look for the Opus Network towards the bottom of the Hope in the Darkness page at WeirdDarkness.com. Humanoid. Tall. Six foot at least, no reference points, but I sense six foot six, maybe seven feet tall, moving away from me back up the bank. I'm chest high in the river. The first thing I see was the grasshopper thighs bending forward like a human. Triangular head, huge slanted black eyes, just like a praying mantis. Its whole body was gangly, knobby, knobby, but you could still sense it was powerful, and no, I would not say it was a big bug. It was definitely humanoid, despite the mantis insect qualities. I'm Darren Marlar, and this is Weird Darkness. 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 this hour, bugs, spiders, all manner of creepy crawlies raise goose bumps for many, but even those who have no natural fear of insects might run in terror if they see one the size of a human being, and that's exactly what people around the world have been reporting. Weirdo family member Shaylyn Hayworth describes the haunted house she lived in as a child, and the ghostly occurrences that took place in her bedroom at night. When you sit down to a good ghost story, you expect horrors, terrifying encounters, frightening situations, but not all ghosts are malevolent. In fact, some appear to take solace from beyond the grave by reaching out to those still living to help them, even rescue someone or save a mortal's life. And in tonight's Sudden Death Overtime in the podcast released after tonight's show, when you hear the words Loch Ness, you immediately think of Nessie, the Loch Ness monster. But this deep, lengthy body of water in Scotland is known for other strange creatures, including what some are reporting as a giant bird of prey. At just 14 years old, Jesse Pomeroy became the youngest convicted murderer in the common wealth of Massachusetts. What would drive a boy so young to such brutal crimes? 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 follow Weird Darkness on Facebook and Twitter, and visit WeirdDarkness.com to find the daily Weird Darkness podcast. Watch streaming B horror movies and horror hosts 24-7 for free. Listen to free audiobooks that I've narrated. Send me your own true story of something paranormal that's happened to you or someone you know, and more. 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. This next story is from Weirdo family member Shay Lynn Hayworth. Here's her story. I'm currently 21, and I know my childhood house is haunted. Since I was little, I'd always heard strange things. The weird noises at night, the strange feelings when I was alone. But as I got older, I began to experience more. Both me and my brother slept in the basement. My two sisters and parents slept upstairs. My grandparents on my father's side had passed before I'd gotten the chance to meet them, and recently we lost my grandfather on my mother's side. My father's parents had lived in the house before my parents moved in. The years after I graduated high school, I took a year off to work and figure my life out. This was about five years ago. It was a week after all my friends had left for college and my sister and dad had almost gotten in a car accident that would have killed them both. I was lying in bed, just woken up from the night, and I rolled over and closed my eyes. I then began to hear footsteps on my hardwood floors. I opened my eyes and no one was there. When I closed them again, I heard the footsteps, just walking around my room. After that, I'd gotten up for the day, skipped the next morning when I'd just woken up again. I had a plastic grocery bag in the corner of my room, and again when I'd closed my eyes after waking up, I heard the bag crumble up and being tossed across my room. When I opened my eyes, the bag was next to my bed. I had no windows open as my window was broken and I couldn't open it at the time and all the vents in my room were closed. That following night, I was laying in bed again. I had my eyes closed and was trying to sleep. I then heard a deep breath being let out. It was the sound of a man maybe elderly, and I felt it. I felt the breath being let out on my right cheek, as though he was standing right over the top of me when he let it out. I opened my eyes expecting to see my brother playing a trick on me as we always tried to scare each other at night, yet I see an elderly man standing at the side of my bed watching me. I freaked out and covered myself with the blankets. I then called for my brother and he came into my room and the man was gone. The next day, I told my family about what I'd been experiencing and they all didn't believe me. Through the years, there have been more close calls and losses in my family. My brother in a car accident, my dad falling ill and spending six months in the hospital and the loss of our grandfather. I had also moved away from home to go to college, but it seemed that every time something would happen in our family, the strange occurrences would begin again. My sister experienced the sound of someone walking down the hallway, dragging something behind them while alone at the house. My mother had experienced the feeling of someone sitting on her bed at night and choking her right before my dad got sick. And again, more strange noises. The most recent occurrence was a few months ago. Me and my boyfriend had made the trip home to visit family during Easter. My grandfather had passed away a few months prior. While sleeping in my childhood room, I had suddenly woken up only to see a white figure in the shape of a man. I didn't feel scared. He was glowing. I stared at it for a while and eventually I woke my boyfriend up. When he awoke, he claimed he didn't see anything and the figure was gone. I had heard rumors that the house had been built on the spot where four men had died in a sewer. I like to think that it may have been my grandparents on my father's side checking in and making sure the family was okay, or that it was my grandfather letting me know he was in a better place. I try and not think of any experience as bad, or of the spirits that may have been the ones that had passed long before we lived there. Weird things had also happened at my brother's house. He's recently built a house at our farm yard and yes, you guessed it, in another spot of death years ago. It belonged to a man who lived there with his wife and baby. Him and his father had gotten into an argument and the father came over and shot both his wife and baby. My brother and his girlfriend had experienced things falling off the wall, the sound of gunshots in the middle of the night, and the sound of people talking, yelling, and even a baby crying. We were there one night for a fire and my brother's dog began barking and running into the trees. It was dark, so we couldn't see anything, but we heard people talking. We ran into the house from there. We don't know why, but our family seems to always pick the spots where bad things happened. The Lord of the Elements wants to change reality. He's enlisted the evil Zeltan to help him and together they'll try to recruit Stanley, a man gifted with incredible imaginative capabilities to help them. Unless Edward and his friends can stop them, that is. A tale of white and black magic, quantum physics, and a plot that twists and turns. If you like science fiction, fantasy, and horror, you'll love The Last Observer, a magic battle for reality by G. Michael Vacy, narrated by Weird Darkness host Darren Marlar. Here a free sample of The Last Observer on the audiobooks page at WeirdDarkness.com. Welcome back to Weird Darkness, I'm Darren Marlar. There are more than a few people in this world who find insects, spiders, and bugs of all types to be unsettling at best and revolting at worst. They seem to prickle at some innate primeval part of our brain that says, run, and they've become a staple of all manner of horror movies. There are reports out there that seem to take things to a new level, though, with witnesses coming across such creeping, skittering denizens from beyond our understanding that are not only mysterious, but also far beyond the sizes of anything we know of. An incredibly weird report appeared on the site Cryptozoology News in 2013 and was given by a 32-year-old doctor named Marco Gasotti, who was on a flight from Rome to Boston at the time. It was a rather uneventful flight, at first, and 30,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean is probably the last place one would expect to have a run in with some sort of mysterious creature, but things got interesting to say the least when Gasotti says that he was overcome by a sudden and inexplicable sense of overwhelming dread and a feeling of nauseousness. He at first thought this was some kind of abrupt panic attack, but looking around he could see that others sitting nearby seemed to be suffering the same ill effects as he. This is where things would get intense, very quickly. Gasotti claims that he heard a loud, jolting thud on the window of the plane, which some others around him also clearly heard, and when he looked out into the sky, he saw something from a horror film. There, fastened to the outside of the plane was allegedly some sort of immense beetle-like insect with a metallic green body and large segmented eyes that was somehow able to maintain its grip on the aircraft. He would say of what happened thus. It had attached to the window with a claw-like structure on its big black legs. There were hairs and hooks and some sort of adhesive pad that apparently helped the animal stay on the plane. Then it unfastened its legs from the glass and his green metallic body opened up. Two wings came out, I should say, rolled out like a rug. They were translucent and I could see it full of red veins. It looked like tree branches or a leaf. The thing glided for about two seconds then it started flapping its wings slowly. It was incredibly slow, not like a regular insect where you can't even see the shape of the wings. His eyes stared at us, looking like a red flashlight. After a few moments, the bizarre creature was gone. It would turn out that ten other people had seen it as well, and one even claimed to have taken a photo of it, although it is unclear what happened to that photo. You saw he claims to have exchanged email addresses with the passenger who took the photo, but that it was never sent to him. He would say, I exchanged emails with one of them that claimed to have taken a picture, but he never replied. I never liked the way email addresses work. You get a letter wrong, and that's that. Or maybe he doesn't want to send it to me, I don't know. I know it's hard to believe. I know what I saw. I've never seen anything like this big, big insect out of this world. This is certainly one of the most bizarre accounts I've seen in a while, and it leaves myriad questions swirling about it. First of all, how big was it exactly? There is no precise size estimate, save to say that it was supposedly gigantic. Also, what could it possibly be, and why was it so high up in the atmosphere? How could it manage to match speeds and course width and then attach itself to an airliner going at full speed tens of thousands of feet in the air? And why? What caused that debilitating feeling of panicked dread and nausea amongst some of the passengers? Was this a real insect, an alien, an interdimensional creature, a gremlin, or what? The only evidence we are left with is this testimony and a sketch of the creature, and there has been no success in tracking the other witnesses down it seems. It is also outlandish that, although the witness is described as being intelligent and reliable, one wonders if any of this really happened or not, although it would seem odd for a doctor to make up such a far-out tale for no reason at all. Perhaps even creepier are the various reports of giant spiders lurking within the jungles of the African interior. Lurking within the thick, nearly impenetrable jungles of the most remote parts of primarily the Democratic Republic of Congo, but also Cameroon, Uganda, and the Central African Republic are said to be enormous ground-dwelling spiders, which the natives of the region refer to as Shibafufi, which literally translates to giant spider. The Shibafufi are said to be reminiscent of a tarantula in both form and color, with adults exhibiting a dark brown coloration, but the real difference is in the size, as the Congolese giant spiders are said to attain leg spans of anywhere between an unsettling four to six feet. This shockingly immense size allows them to allegedly prey on a variety of small animals, including birds, small jungle antelopes known as dukir, monkeys and various reptiles which they trap in an elaborate pattern of webs strung out between trees and devour after pouncing forth from a shallow depression camouflaged by leaves in a manner very similar to trap-door spiders. Reports from missionaries in the region and natives have long suggested that the spiders are even known to kill humans on occasion and that their venom is extremely potent, which is illustrated by old reports from the jungle-choked African interior of porters or tribesmen succumbing to giant spider bites in short order. Although explorers, missionaries and natives had long told of seeing these massive spiders in the depths of the African jungle, perhaps the report that most thrust the Shibafufi into the spotlight was a sighting made by Reginald and Marguerite Lloyd in 1938 and which was chronicled by cryptozoologist George Everhart. According to the account, the Lloyds were exploring in a remote region of what was then known as the Belgian Congo, when they spied a dark shape skitter out from the underbrush and across the road in front of them. At first the couple thought it was merely some sort of cat, monkey or some other common jungle animal and stopped their truck to avoid hitting it and let it pass. It was then that it became apparent to the horrified explorers that the creature was in fact a gigantic spider with a purported leg span of at least four or five feet. Before either of the startled witnesses could get a camera or even really overcome their shock at seeing such a nightmarish sight, the spider had already scampered into the thick brush on the other side of the track and was gone. Mrs. Lloyd was reportedly so upset by the incident that she demanded that they return to their home in Rhodesia at once. Another report of giant spiders comes from Uganda during the 1890s when an English missionary named Arthur Sims was exploring along the shores of Lake Nyasa. As Sims and company were trekking along, several of his porters allegedly became hopelessly entangled in a network of webbing that hugged the ground and was too strong to break with any means they possessed. It was not long before at least two giant spiders with legs bands of around four feet across pounced upon the ensnared men and bit them before Sims was able to drive them off with his pistol. Moments after being bitten, the porters were reported to have become feverish and delirious. Their extremities swelled up considerably and death followed shortly after. Even people with no natural fear of insects might run in terror if they see one the size of the bugs that we're talking about, and we'll take a look at a few more examples when Weird Darkness returns. You can stay up to date on everything Weird Darkness by signing up for the email newsletter. Sign up for the Weird Darkness newsletter for free at WeirdDarkness.com. 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 could 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. I'm so sure you'll love it that we've even set it up for you to get free delivery on your first order if you use the promo code Weird. I'm Darren Marlar. Welcome back to Weird Darkness with more giant bugs and mantis men. There are also accounts of giant spider sightings from several other expeditions into the region in search of yet another cryptid, the Saurian dinosaur-like McKellie Bambambe. Such expeditions often heard stories from the natives about the Chebaphophae, or even saw the spiders themselves. In fact, one naturalist and cryptozoologist William J. Gibbons was able to glean more detailed information on the Chebaphophae during one of his many expeditions to the Dark Congo in search of the McKellie Bambambe. Through various conversations with local tribes, it soon became apparent that not only did the natives know of them and see the giant spiders on a fairly regular basis, but they had a good deal of knowledge about their behavior and life cycle. For instance, the eggs of the spider were said to be white or a pale yellow white and around the size of a peanut, which were laid in clusters wrapped in webs in the underbrush and which were widely avoided by those who came across them. The newly hatched young spiders were said to be a bright yellow color with a purple abdomen and gradually became a dark brown as they matured. Their preferred method of hunting was said to be laying in ambush for prey by weaving a series of webs between trees on either side of a game trail and lying in wait within a ditch covered with a pile of leaves woven together with webbing and said to be reminiscent of a pygmy hut. The natives claimed that the venom of the spiders was powerful enough to drop a full-grown man in seconds. Interestingly, Givens was able to learn that the Chabafofi had once been common and had the unfortunate habit of sometimes building their nests near human settlements, but that they'd become rarer over the years, suggesting that their numbers were perhaps dwindling or they were being driven by habitat encroachment further into the depths of the jungle. Givens was able to track down accounts of giant spider activity in the steamy jungles of Africa as recently as the year 2000, when he heard from a chief of the Ibaqa tribe that a Chabafofi had built a nest near his village in the wilds of Cameroon. Givens' information is very intriguing not only for its detail but also because it demonstrates that the tribes of the area saw the Chabafofi as a very real flesh and blood creature and a real part of their world. The detailed description of Chabafofi's life cycle with mention of the eggs and the changing color as the juveniles attained adulthood suggests that to the natives the giant spiders were not merely some sacred spirit or revered creature of myth, but rather a regular, albeit dangerous, jungle creature like any other. The description of the spiders is very matter-of-fact and there seems to be no attempt on the natives' part to play up the attitude of the spiders or make them seem like anything other than just another of the many denizens of the jungle with a normal life cycle like any other real organism. Besides the fact that no spider on such a vast magnitude has ever been documented by science, there seems to be no reason to assume they would be lying about such things and this has all of the hallmarks of an ethno-known animal or one that is known by natives or locals but is not typically yet formally recognized by outsiders or science. Bear in mind that a great many new species that were discovered, including ones that at one time were even considered fantastical or absurd such as the gorilla, okapi and panda, were at some point ethno-known animals and natives account of the creatures which they take as a fact of life but for which we have no strong evidence yet are not always to be brushed off or dismissed so lightly. Do more legs equal more frightening? If so, what are we to make of the numerous reports of giant centipedes said to prowl the remote corners of the earth? In the uncharted wilds of the Amazon, travelers have long come back from the wild frontiers of the rainforests with tails of horrifying centipedes measuring up to five feet long, slithering through the underbrush. These creatures are said to have venom that can quickly kill a full grown man and is so powerful as to completely melt and dissolve flesh. Some reports have even made mention of the creatures projecting their potent poison over great distances. While no evidence has ever been found of such large living centipedes in South America, native Amazonian tribes have at times claimed to have killed such intimidating beasts. Another account of a massive cryptid centipede was first mentioned in an article in the August 2009 issue of BBC Wildlife magazine in which naturalist Jeremy Holden describes a truly strange and terrifying creature. While exploring in the remote jungles of Sumatra, Holden visited an isolated village in the western part of the country where the locals told him of a type of centipede which was said to be around 12 inches in length with a thick body green in color and a wicked nearly unbearably painful bite. This mysterious centipede which they called the upa was said to lurk in trees and have the unsettling ability to let out a high-pitched shriek or mew that was described as sounding like that of a cat. The stories of a shrieking or yowling giant centipede were not taken very seriously by Holden but he would soon have a first-hand encounter with one. A few weeks after first hearing of these strange creatures, Holden claimed that he had been walking along a jungle trail with some guides when he heard a sudden, booming, cat-like scream pierce down from the trees above which was followed by a strange rattling sound. The guides confirmed that this was indeed the cry of an upa but even after scanning the trees with binoculars, Holden was unable to locate the elusive centipede itself. On another occasion, Holden was yet again traversing the thick jungle when he heard an unidentifiable cry from the canopy once again which sounded remarkably similar to the one he had heard before. However, one of Holden's companions on this particular excursion was an avid bird watcher and identified the noise as coming from a rare species of bird called the Malaysian honey guide which is well known for its distinctive cat-like call and for being easier to hear than to see. Does this mean that the local villagers were misidentifying the call of this elusive bird as something else or is the uva a genuine ethno-known cryptid giant centipede? No one knows. Moving over to North America, we make another addition to the list of giant centipedes. The Ozark Mountains, in particular the areas of Gainesville, Bradleyville, Stone County, and Tanley County in Missouri, and Marion County in Arkansas have been claimed to be the layer of some kind of mysterious enormous centipede since at least the mid-19th century. Described as being up to 18 inches in length, the Ozark giant centipede was frequently reported from the region at the time by frightened locals and visitors alike who sometimes described the creature's odd habit of wrapping its massive body around its young. In one case, in 1860, a specimen measuring 18 inches long was allegedly captured at Jimmy's Creek in Marion County, Arkansas and its body preserved in alcohol and displayed at a drugstore, but the specimen was lost during the Civil War. Another case tells of a young boy who was attacked by one of the giant centipedes and bitten, after which the flesh of his leg literally rotted off, crippling him for the rest of his life. Another case still tells of a boy who was out hunting with his brother when he was chased by an immense centipede several feet in length who seemed intent on attacking the boy until his brother shot it dead. There are even larger mystery centipedes reported from the Ozarks from time to time. In one report, an unidentified bow hunter told a harrowing tale. The witness claimed that while out hunting at a small private wood in Sebastian County, Arkansas, he went along a trail toward a rocky ridge to take cover and lie in wait for his quarry. As he approached the ridge, he claimed to have seen movement around 40 feet away from his position, and he soon realized that it was a wounded deer that appeared to be writhing about on the ground. On closer inspection, something about the odd scene didn't sit right with the hunter, as the deer's legs and head were not moving and it seemed to be awkwardly sliding along the ground away from him. The slightly unnerved hunter decided to move out into the woods to move around to get a better angle to see what was going on, and that was when he received a chilling shock. It seemed at first that the deer was being dragged along by a very large snake, but as the hunter warily moved closer, he claimed he noticed that it was something far weirder and more horrific than a snake. It was what appeared to be a massive centipede of some sort. It was described as dark-colored, around 10 feet long, with hundreds of skittering legs and armored segments all down its length, and it was determinedly pulling the deer carcass along the forest floor by its hind quarters and tail, with side-winding movements of its thick, powerful body. A now horrified hunter followed the creature down the ridge and tranced by the hideous site until it came to a rock pile which it struggled to drag the deer over. That was when the hunter claimed that the giant centipede let go of the deer carcass and reared up to look in his direction. The startled hunter described being watched by its piercing eyes and mentioned that if he had a gun he might have fired, but was unsure of whether an arrow would merely antagonize it. Instead of attacking the monstrosity, he slowly backed away and then quickly walked out of the vicinity, never to return to that particular wood to hunt. Such giant centipedes have been seen in other places throughout the world, including Japan. The Edo period, 1603 to 1867, produced many stories of giant centipedes said to be up to a meter or 3.2 feet in length. These centipedes were reported to be highly poisonous, with venom that could kill a grown man in minutes. On occasions, specimens were said to be exhibited in the various Misamono side shows which were popular at the time. Such stories are not confined to merely anomalous history. From the rural areas of Japan come modern reports of giant centipedes far larger than any currently known to exist. One such report comes from a farmer in Sega Prefecture who was working on a wood pile one day in 1986 only to be horrified by an enormous centipede the man claimed to be 60 centimeters or around 2 feet in length that came skittering out from under some logs. The farmer claims to have killed it with a rake, but later threw out the body in revulsion. For most people, this is probably already an uncomfortably large size for a centipede, yet even larger ones have been reported. A group of campers in Nagano Prefecture claimed to have heard an odd rustling one evening coming from one of their tents. Upon closer inspection, the noise turned out to be from a monstrous centipede claimed to have been around two feet in length. The creature was apparently startled and made a quick escape past the terrified campers out of the tent and into the forest. These are certainly not anything that most of us would want to run into scrambling through the brush, but even more bizarre are reports of what actually seems to be some sort of insectoid humanoid in the area of the Musconectong River in New Jersey. Sightings began in the early 2000s when a witness named Joe Parenty was fishing along the river when he suddenly felt some sort of electrical tingling flow through him and his hair stand up on end. When he whipped around to look about, he claims to have seen lurking in some nearby brush a seven foot tall entity with dark green skin and a head that looked like that of a praying mantis, which had prominent mandibles that seemed to be in the process of chewing something. Apparently, the two stared at each other for a few moments and then Joe began to get the distinct feeling that his mind was somehow being probed, that there was someone or something crawling around in his head who was not supposed to be there. He began to back away slowly, and that was when the mantis man would unfurl a pair of immense wings, after which it was enveloped in a sudden creeping mist and vanished without a trace. In 2006, there was another report of a similar creature from a witness named Paul Jacks, who had also been fishing along the same river. The witness would describe the sighting on the site phantoms and monsters as humanoid, tall, six foot at least, no reference points, but I sense six foot six, possibly seven feet, moving away from me back up the bank. I'm chest high in the river. The first thing I see was the grasshopper thigh, but bending forward like a human. Then the whole form. He's looking at me over his shoulder, moving up the bank, astonished, amazed. What, that I'm in the water in a strong current that I can see him? But yes, we lock eyes, and this creature is astonished. I get the sense that he can't believe I'm in the water, that he can't believe I've seen him, that I'm not perturbed at all, something of all three, I still don't know. Just astonishment. And he is actually trying to get away from me and the water. Triangular head, huge, slanted, black eyes, just like a praying mantis. Its whole body was gangly, knobby, knobby, but you could still sense it was powerful and no, I would not say it was a big bug. It was definitely humanoid despite the mantis slash insect qualities. Interestingly, the creature in this case also seemed to simply dematerialize into thin air as the horrified witness looked on. Yet another sighting comes from Hackettstown, New Jersey along the same river. The witness claimed to have encountered the same entity in 2011 as he drove along a place called Newberg Road and he would say of what he saw, as I drove near the bridge over the river, I noticed to my left something, I thought a fisherman standing in the river just off the South Bank. I slowed the car and looked closer. It wasn't a person and it was transparent like with a weird shape. It moved slowly towards the bank and into the trees. I drove further so I could see it coming out of the trees. That's the last I saw of it. It was tall, eight feet or so and had long, thin arms hanging off of it. The color was a peel brown but I could see through it. The head was small compared to the body. There have been other sightings of something weird lurking in the area as well and it all leaves one to wonder just what in the world it could be. It seems unlikely that there is a real bigfoot-sized praying mantis that has been lurking in New Jersey undiscovered so we're probably dealing with either a hoax or something very odd indeed, perhaps something interdimensional in nature or even an alien according to some. Whatever it is, the mantis man of New Jersey still gets mentioned in reports on various supernatural forums from time to time. Are we looking at anything possibly cryptozoological in nature? Are these undiscovered creepy crawlies that have simply eluded us or are they something else? No matter what the origins of the creatures described here may be, such accounts are perhaps enough to cause the skin to crawl for many. They manage to worm their way into some primitive part of our psyche that tells us that these creatures are something to be avoided, especially so if they are as large as anything described here. Whether any of these creatures are real or not, the very idea that some of them skitter and scamper about in the periphery of our knowledge is perhaps enough to be disturbing, and they are certainly not anything someone wants to come across while out in the wilds. To what lengths will someone go in order to survive? Does the survival instinct override their conscience and allow them to commit not only murder but also the taboo act of cannibalism? What happens when a person crosses the line from dark fantasy to real-life acts of brutal rape, murder and cannibalism? Are these people driven by a desire so insatiable that they are incapable of controlling it? Murderous Minds Volume 3 Stories of Real-Life Murderers that Escape the Headlines is the latest offering in a series that takes you inside the lives of killers who committed cold-blooded murder for a glimpse at events that drove them to kill. Authored within a historical context, each chapter is an unbelievable venture inside the dark and twisted world of real cannibal killers whose names and crimes might not be familiar to you. By weaving a tale in which dark fantasies become reality, this audiobook invites you to see life from a perspective few ever witnessed, from that of the killer. Along with a historical look at cannibalism through the ages, these stories beg the listener to answer the question, was the murderer committing cannibalism because he was incapable of resisting the urge to kill and consume, or is the explanation simply pure evil? Murderous Minds Volume 3 Written by Ryan Becker and Curtis Giles Vasey, narrated by Weird Darkness host Darren Marlar. You're a free sample on the audiobooks page at WeirdDarkness.com. When you sit down to a good ghost story, you expect horrors, terrifying encounters, frightening situations, but not all ghosts are malevolent. In fact, some appear to take solace from beyond the grave by reaching out to those still living to help them, even rescue someone, or save a mortal's life. Unfortunately, we've run out of time in this hour for me to share that story, but I will include it in the Sudden Death Overtime in tonight's podcast, which you can get by searching for Weird Darkness wherever you listen to podcasts. If you missed any part of tonight's show, or if you'd like to hear it again, you can subscribe to the podcast where you'll hear not only tonight's radio show, but also the extra Sudden Death Overtime content that I prepared that I didn't have time to fit in. And while the radio show is one night per week, I upload episodes for the podcast seven nights per week, and if you're one of my patrons, you get a commercial-free copy of tonight's show immediately after it's over, including the Overtime content. You can become a patron and or subscribe to the podcast at WeirdDarkness.com, or you can search for Weird Darkness wherever you listen to podcasts. You can follow the show on Facebook and Twitter at Weird Darkness, and please tell others about the show 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 call in to the dark line toll-free and tell your own true paranormal story or a story that happened to someone you know. That number is 1-877-277-5944. Again, the toll-free number is 1-877-277-5944. You can also email me anytime on the contact page at WeirdDarkness.com. Weird Darkness is a production and trademark of Marlar House Productions. Copyright Weird Darkness. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness. Despite being a lesser-known angel, Asriel is an important figure within several major religions, including Judaism, Christianity and even Islam. He is an archangel in heaven similar to Gabriel and Samuel, but wields frightening power. The angel of destruction is commanded by God himself to eradicate and renew all life. Though he is said to be a being of light, Asriel has a horrifying dark side. Similar to the fallen angel Abaddon, he is tasked with carrying out the will of God, whether it be collecting the souls of the departed or emitting out punishment to sinners. Regardless of the chaos that he may cause, Asriel puts his loyalty to God above all else. Although none of the various religious texts that mention Asriel pinpoint his exact size, one common theme is that he has a massive form. Asriel doesn't just look like a human with wings. His body stretches across multiple levels of heaven. Asriel is said to have four faces and a body covered in countless eyes and tongues. These features represent the billions of people alive on earth. Islamic teachings also describe Asriel as having 70,000 feet and 4,000 wings. Although Asriel is commonly regarded as the angel of destruction, he also carries other monikers. These include the angel of the Lord, the messenger of death and simply the destroyer. It is unclear in some of these cases whether the title is a specific name for the angel or a generic term used for several angels. For instance, the title Angel of Death is also used about Abaddon. He is referred to as such in Judaism. According to Hebrew tradition, the name Asriel translates to Whom God Helps, nodding to him being a direct servant of God who carries out his wishes. Asriel often carries a huge sword to match his giant form. It not only symbolizes his power and ability as a warrior in defense of heaven, but also of his responsibilities on earth. As an angel of destruction, Asriel must carry out vicious acts at the behest of God. The blade identifies Asriel as a loyal soldier. The angel, like a soldier, slays those that his Lord commands. Later defictions of Asriel replace his sword with a knife or a cord to tie around the necks of those he dispatches. Another Hebrew tradition states that Asriel plays a significant role in keeping track of humanity. Some texts indicate he holds a record of every single living person. To do this, Asriel writes down the name of every person in a ledger, which gives them life. When God has ordained the person's passing, Asriel erases their name and ends their life. Asriel is almost always portrayed as an incredibly powerful angel. He holds the ability to command life itself. Traditionally, on the same level as the archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, he is entrusted with the ability to separate body from soul after he provides God with seven handfuls of earth to help create Adam. In the Book of Exodus, the slaying of the first born in Egypt was the tenth and final plague set against Ramses for his refusal to free the Israelites. God's followers were to sacrifice a lamb and use its blood to mark their doors so the condition would not affect them. The mark on the door would ensure that those inside would not suffer the destroyer to come into your houses and spite you. While Asriel is not mentioned by name, scholars believe the angel referenced in the text is the same entity who was also called upon to eliminate various other people and locations within the Bible. In 2 Samuel, King David commits adultery with a woman called Bathsheba. He confesses his sins to God, but God rules the king can choose what punishment shall befall him and his people. David leaves the decision in the hands of his master, so God instructs the angel of the Lord to spread a plague on Israel. Some 70,000 men perish at the hands of Asriel. The decimation of Jerusalem is only prevented when God commands the angel to stop his work after David pleads for mercy. In the Biblical Book of 2 Kings, when the Assyrian army of Sinatra prepares to strike Jerusalem and defeat Hezekiah, God answers the prayers of his followers and intervenes. Their Lord sends the angel to carry out his will to ensure the city is not besieged. During the night, Asriel slays thousands of Assyrian soldiers and ends the conflict in one swift move. Although the Bible does not mention Asriel by name, it states that it came to pass that night that the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians 104 score in 5000. According to Islamic tradition, Asriel not only keeps the records of who is alive, but he must also transport the recently perished to the afterlife. Once someone has passed, Asriel removes their soul from their body and severs the link between the spiritual and physical worlds. The angel then takes the soul either to heaven or hell, as decreed by God. Asriel is known to have several different forms. He is said to typically appear as a warrior or a giant being with thousands of eyes, wings, and feet, but he also takes the shape of a reaper or an old man. Asriel also frequently assumes the appearance of a wanderer or beggar. This allows the angel to carry out his tasks and travel among humans without attracting attention. Asriel is a powerful entity capable of carrying out harsh acts at a moment's notice, but he cannot do anything of his own accord. Instead, he is an obedient and loyal servant of God. This means that everything the angel does is at the command of his Lord. God reveals when a person is due to pass so that Asriel can collect their soul and also indicates when the angel should punish those who have sinned. While still associated with the grisly duty of helping those that have departed, Asriel supposedly holds a secondary function. According to some spiritual experts, Asriel essentially acts as a grief counselor to those who have lost a loved one. The angel can advise those who are grieving and aid them through an emotionally difficult time. He will also try to make the journey from the physical world to a spiritual existence as comfortable and pain-free as he can for those who have passed. When the topic of ghosts arises, it typically involves poltergeists behaving creepily or maliciously toward the people and locations they happen to haunt. Yet these preconceptions about ghosts overlook the notable times that spirits have reportedly helped people in dire situations. Though deadly ghost encounters may sometimes occur, there are plenty of stories that involve supernatural entities saving the day. People who claim that ghosts saved them have relayed encounters with friendly specters that managed to rescue them or a loved one. There are historical and modern accounts of times when spirits were saviors, meaning that those from beyond might have influenced human history more than anyone ever considered. Maybe Casper is only one of the many friendly ghosts in the world. In March 2015, Utah police officers investigated a damaged, partially submerged car in the Spanish Fork River. As they got closer, they clearly heard a young female voice cry out from the car, help me, we're in here. Police immediately went to work. They pulled the wreck out of the river and tipped it right side up. Inside they found Jennifer Grossbeck and her 18-month-old daughter, Lily. Jennifer had seemingly passed hours before, so it was unlikely that she was the one who called for help. Lily was barely conscious but alive. The emergency personnel at the scene appreciated the disembodied assist, though they never established the source of the cry for help. His officer Tyler Bedose put it, for two nights I've laid awake trying to figure out exactly what it could be. All I know is it was there. We all heard it. It was extra motivation. In February 1897 in Greenbriar, West Virginia, Mary Jane Heaster claimed she started receiving visits from her late daughter, Elva Zona Heaster Shoe regularly at midnight. Zona had died a month prior of everlasting fate, though Heaster suspected a more nefarious cause was to blame. When she took Zona's burial sheet home and watched it, Heaster watched as the water ran red. Because of this, Heaster took the situation seriously when her deceased daughter allegedly appeared in the middle of the night. Zona told her that her husband, Erasmus Edward Stribling Trout Shoe, had snapped her neck. The specter reportedly rotated her head to show her mother what happened to her. Heaster immediately went to the police and told them her story. Miraculously, they believed her and exhumed Zona's body. They performed an autopsy since Edward had prevented the local coroner from examining Zona when she died. Doctors quickly discovered Zona's neck was indeed broken, and they arrested Edward for killing her. Country singer Dolly Parton, the wearer of coats of many colors, apparently has guardians of many dimensions. The famous singer and actress claims she received help from both of her grandmothers long after they died. On one occasion, they warned her not to board a plane headed to Salt Lake City. As Parton recalls, suddenly I saw my grandma's ghost standing in the corner. She kept saying, don't catch the plane, don't catch the plane. Parton decided to heed the advice and switched flights. The flight crashed, leaving no survivors. Later, her guardian grannies also supposedly warned her about a potentially costly deal. Parton declined to sign a contract that would have resulted in her losing millions of dollars. Pauley's Island, South Carolina is known for its beautiful homes, amazing beachfront properties and frequent hurricanes. Those who live there are aware of another island Bainstay, the Gray Man, a figure dressed in old-fashioned pirate clothes. Legend states he appears before the onset of a hurricane, and those who see him will survive with their house intact. In 1989, Jim and Clara Moore, longtime residents of Pauley's Island, say the Gray Man saved their lives. During a stroll along the beach, the Moors claimed they saw no one else on the beach except for one man who was walking toward them. Jim remembers, when I got within speaking distance, I raised my hand to say hi or beautiful evening or whatever, and he disappeared. After Hurricane Hugo hit in 1989, most homes in the Moors neighborhood ended up destroyed, except for their home. They believe it was because the Gray Man had come to see them on that fateful day. Another witness to the Gray Man, a fisherman, says he saw the figure while fishing a few miles north of Pauley's. While out in the early evening, the witness alleges he saw someone waving to him on the shore. Drawing closer, the fisherman realized the man dressed in the garb of an old pirate held up his hand as if to say stop. The figure disappeared from the shore, and their fisherman decided to take it as a sign. Later that night, a strong storm hit the area, and the fisherman credits the Gray Man for saving him from it. In 2007, a young woman staying with a friend experienced her first paranormal activity. The friend she stayed with had a shrine dedicated to his late sister, to whom he performed a sort of daily ritual in her honor. A shot of tequila and turning on the stereo to play a song she loved. The woman says her friend assured her that as long as she stayed under this roof, his sister would protect her. One day, while home alone, the woman alleged that her abusive former partner broke into the house and tried to attack her. He threatened her with a knife, but the shrine suddenly came to life. It shook violently, and candles were blown out. The crucifix flung itself at her attacker, and the stereo on the memorial turned on by itself. He fled. She reportedly never heard from him again. In the early 1900s, a New Jersey farmer by the name of Charles Henry Durand barely escaped with his life, thanks to the warnings that he supposedly got from his late wife. According to his story, as he rode home in a buggy, the horse pulling it suddenly stopped. Within moments, a ghostly woman in white appeared, which Durand recognized as his late wife. Both he and his horse remained frozen in fear as she whispered to him, there is danger at home, stay away till morning. As frightened as his horse, Durand was forced to spend hours on hitching the animal from the buggy so he could get home. By the time he arrived, it was already daylight, and Durand noticed a number of things amiss in his home. A window was open and muddy footprints covered the floor. Durand also noticed a string stretched across his bedroom doorway. He set it off using his umbrella. It triggered a gun attached to the string, creating a booby trap to shoot anyone who entered the door. Without the warning from his wife, Durand would have been struck by the trap. On Christmas Eve 2016, Shropshire resident Jane Reynolds sensed something strange afoot in her home, but she dismissed it before heading to bed. On Christmas Day at 4 a.m., she claims an unknown force ripped her duvet off her bed and began shaking her. Before she could process this abrupt wake-up call, Reynolds heard banging and screaming from somewhere in her house. Afraid that her sons might be in danger, she ran to check on them. In their room, Reynolds saw one child, Ethan, sleeping silently, while her other child, 18-month-old George, was softly choking. She quickly turned him over and patted him on the back to clear his airway. Later, she realized that something or someone must have warned her since Ethan was sleeping and George's airway was blocked. Who did she hear screaming? Her friends told her that 50 years prior, a family moved out of the house shortly after their baby perished. Reynolds believes the baby who passed had warned her about her own baby, George. Northumberland resident Sonia Burton suffered a severe heart attack in January 2016. Arriving to work early that day, Burton began experiencing chest pains before she collapsed. Paramedics arrived on the scene quickly, but they failed to resuscitate her immediately. While the paramedics scrambled to save her life, Burton says that her late husband visited her. According to Burton, her husband said, it's not your time, Sonia, go back to the children. Then she came back to life. The paramedics who rescued her were astounded. They said no one they ever saved remained departed for as long as Burton. On June 6, 1994, Christine Scoobish and her three-year-old son Nick set out on the road from Sacramento, California to restart their lives. On the way, Scoobish fell asleep at the wheel and crashed 40 feet into an embankment below the road. She passed instantly, but her son Nick survived. Barely. On June 10, Sacramento local Deborah Hoyt arose from sleep in the early morning, feeling as if she needed to leave urgently. As she and her husband traveled along Highway 50, they came across a woman lying on the side of the road. The couple immediately phoned the police who then investigated the area but found nothing initially. After learning of these Scoobish's disappearance, El Dorado County Deputy Rich Strasser decided to return to the site where the Hoyts claimed they saw the woman. Examining the area, Strasser discovered a shoe belonging to a child which led him to discover Scoobish's car in the embankment. Though exposed to the elements and on the verge of starvation when rescued, young Nick managed to live through the tragedy. Scoobish's family believed it was Christine herself who tried to look out for her son one last time before her final departure. In 2016, three buildings in Omaha, Nebraska were slated for demolition, including the Christian Spect Building. Built in 1884, it was historically significant for being the only cast-iron building in all of Nebraska. In an attempt to preserve the structure, over a thousand people signed a petition and held a rally. Even local ghost hunting team, rural investigators of the paranormal, wanted to save the building. They tried to do so in a unique way. They went to the building, investigated it and claimed that its creator, Christian Spect, still resides there. According to the team, they communicated with Spect through yes-no questions, asking, Do you mind if we are in the building? Do you know this building is on the verge of getting torn down? Thanks to the efforts of the public and the ghost hunters, the building was spared from destruction. Loch Ness, Scotland A body of water around 22 miles long is mostly noted for its legendary resident monster, Nessie. It's a fact though that Loch Ness has been the site of additional weirdness, not just for years or decades, but for centuries. Long before Nessie was on the scene, Loch Ness was the haunt of water horses and kelpies. They were supernatural shapeshifters that would drag people into the deep water, drowning them and stealing their souls. Alistair Crowley, the great beast, owned a home at Loch Ness. Its name was Bullskine House. Visitors to and subsequent owners of Bullskine House talk of strange vibes and of shadowy, supernatural things lurking in the old house. There have been more than a few UFO encounters at Loch Ness, and Nessie's secret had holiday had a chilling encounter with a lock with a man in black. And there is the matter of a curious owl seen at Loch Ness in 2007. The story involves a Scottish woman, who I shall refer to as Maxine, and who I met in 2014. On a clear summer day in 2007, Maxine was walking her dog along the hills that overlook Loch Ness when she saw what, from her description, I can only describe as an alien gray. When she first saw it, at a distance of a couple hundred feet, she assumed it was a young child, chiefly because of its short height. As she got closer, and as her dog froze to the spot, she could see that not only was it not a young boy, it wasn't even human. Maxine and the gray stared at each other for just a few seconds, after which it stretched its arms out and it instantly transformed into what Maxine described as an impossibly large owl. It was practically man-sized. It immediately took to the skies and headed across the lock at a fast rate. Maxine continued to watch with astonishment as the alien owl thing vanished into the trees on the opposite side of the lock. Maxine is 100% sure that she did not experience missing time. She does not have any vague memories of being taken aboard some kind of futuristic alien craft. She is not plagued by graphic nightmares involving extraterrestrials. In fact, she is completely sure that what she recalls is exactly what she saw – a small, alien creature literally shape-shifting into the form of a large owl. Interestingly, since her experience took place, Maxine has come up with an intriguing theory to try and explain and rationalize the situation. She now believes that the grays have the ability to transform their physical appearances. This, she also suggests, means that the grays can spy on us whenever and wherever they choose, without being noticed for what they really are. If we see an owl, a black cat, a German shepherd dog – the list goes on – we may actually be seeing something very different, a shape-shifting ET using a piece of brilliant camouflage. Whatever you may think of Maxine's theory and her experience as well, the fact is that there are numerous cases of UFOs and aliens being associated with and linked to owls. Check out, for example, Mike Clellan's 2015 book, The Messengers. Its subtitle would give you an idea of its content. Owls, Synchronicity and the UFO Abductee. The chapter titled Owls as a Screen Memory demonstrates something notable, but the UFO phenomenon often uses the owl motif as a means to mask the real nature of certain UFO encounters. Witnesses tal of seeing impossibly large owls, very often while driving late at night and in situations involving so-called missing time. We're talking about people assuming they saw large anomalous owls, when the reality of the situation was likely very different. Does the UFO phenomenon utilize owl-like imagery to try and ensure the witnesses fail to realize what really happened? That particular chapter suggests that is exactly what's going on. It's unfair to categorize children as either naughty or nice without any shades of gray in between. But in the case of one youngster from 19th century Boston, naughty doesn't come close to describing his sadistic deeds. Jesse Palmeroy was born November 29, 1859. Before his 15th birthday, he would become the youngest person convicted of first-degree murder in the history of Massachusetts. As a child, Jesse was ridiculed because of a facial deformity. His right cornea was covered with a thick white film. He kept to himself mostly, reading dime-store novels full of macabre tales instead of playing with the neighborhood kids or his older brother Charles. Jesse's father, Thomas Palmeroy, was an alcoholic and physically abused his young son, whipping him regularly. Jesse's mother, Ruth and Palmeroy, sympathized with Jesse but did little to stop the abuse. This dismal environment undoubtedly had a negative effect on the boy. At age 12, he lashed out the only way he knew how, by bullying those smaller and weaker than him. In the winter of 1871, in Chelsea, Massachusetts, reports surfaced of young boys being viciously assaulted by a mysterious attacker. Unbeknownst to the community and the Boston Globe, which referred to the perpetrator as the Red Devil and the boy torturer, the culprit was Jesse Palmeroy. From the beginning, Jesse's attacks were disturbing, not just mirroring the drunken beatings he received from his father but taking them one sadistic step further. Jesse exploited the innocent nature of his young victims, promising candy and money to lure them away. Once he got them alone, he forced the children to strip naked, whereupon he whipped and beat them unconscious. As the number of victims grew, Jesse's methods became more brutal. He used knives and pins to slash their bodies and slit their faces, even sexually assaulting them. The terrified children reported how their attackers smiled and laughed throughout the ordeal. Jesse's mother came across the reports and feared she knew just who was behind the assaults. In an attempt to protect her son, she moved the family from Chelsea to South Boston. Subsequently, the attacks in Chelsea ceased and began again in South Boston, where Jesse continued down his dark road of violence. He targeted local children in much the same way, luring them with promises of sweets to desolate train tracks or the beach. In August 1872, a young boy was discovered brutalized and abandoned along the shore of Boston Harbor. A few weeks later, five-year-old Robert Gould was found bound to a telephone pole, stabbed and bleeding. He was also sexually assaulted. Despite the trauma Robert suffered, he was able to describe his attacker, honing in on the cloudy right eye. Jesse, aged 13, was caught soon thereafter. A juvenile court found Pomeroy guilty of the attacks and sent him to the State Reform School of Westboro, where he would remain until he turned 18 years old. Jesse's one champion, his mother, did everything she could to get her son released, including striking up affairs with influential police officers. Ultimately, her efforts proved successful. In February 1874, the State agreed to release Jesse into Ruth Ann's guardianship. Pomeroy was a free boy. By now, Jesse's abusive father was out of the picture. Ruth Ann supported her family by operating a dressmaking store, while her eldest son worked a paper route. Jesse would have plenty to do to keep him out of trouble, or so his mother thought. A month after his release, Jesse's actions turned deadly. On March 18, 1874, nine-year-old Katie Coran went missing. The last place that she had been was the Pomeroy shop where Jesse now worked. Police talked to Jesse but discovered nothing. A month later, two brothers made a grisly discovery in a sandy ditch in Dorchester Bay. The naked body of four-year-old Horace Millen had his throat slit and was stabbed multiple times in the chest, groin, and even the eyes. Police were able to link the crime to 14-year-old Jesse who was seen fleeing by witnesses and whose shoe prints matched those in the sand. He also had scratch marks on his body and blood on his clothing. Upon Jesse's second arrest, Ruth Ann was forced to close her dressmaking shop. No one in South Boston wanted to patronize the Pomeroys. New owners moved into the empty storefront in July where they uncovered the decomposing body of a child in the basement. The remains were quickly identified as Katie Coran. The facts of the murder soon unraveled. Katie had come into the family shop to buy a notebook. Jesse lured her to the basement, attacked her from behind and slit her throat. He then mutilated her body in much the same way he had brutalized Horace Millen's. Afterward, Jesse buried her under a pile of ashes. Initially, Jesse confessed to the murder. I couldn't help it, he claimed. Later in life, he would amend his confession. In a rambling autobiography penned while incarcerated, Jesse alternately maintained his innocence and claimed insanity. In December 1874, young Jesse Pomeroy was found guilty of first-degree murder. He was 14 years old. The judge initially sentenced Pomeroy to death by hanging, but Massachusetts Governor William Gaston refused to sign a warrant for his death on account of his age. Instead, Jesse spent the rest of his life in prison, part of it in solitary confinement which began just shy of his 17th birthday in Charlestown State Prison. He died in the Bridgewater Hospital for the criminally insane at the age of 71 on September 29, 1932.