 This episode is dedicated to the men and women of our armed forces and first responders. Whether you are currently serving or have served in the past, you are appreciated. It is because of your courage and sacrifice that we enjoy the freedoms and liberties we hold dear. And I, for one, appreciate every single one of you for protecting what many of us take for granted. So thank you. In January 1692, a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, became consumed by disturbing fits accompanied by seizures, violent contortions, and blood-curdling screams. A doctor diagnosed the children as being victims of black magic, and over the next several months, allegations of witchcraft spread like a virus through the small Puritan settlement. Twenty people were eventually executed as witches. But contrary to popular belief, none of the condemned was burned at the stake. The myth of burnings at the stake in Salem is most likely inspired by European witch trials, where execution by fire was a disturbingly common practice. Medieval law codes such as the Holy Roman Empire's Constitutionalus Carolina stipulated that malevolent witchcraft should be punished by fire, and church leaders and local governments oversaw the burning of witches across parts of modern-day Germany, Italy, Scotland, France, and Scandinavia. Historians have since estimated that the witch-hunt hysteria that peaked between the 15th and 18th centuries saw some 50,000 people executed as witches in Europe. Many of these victims were hanged or beheaded first, but their bodies were typically incinerated afterwards to protect against postmortem sorcery. Other condemned witches were still alive when they faced the flames, and were left to endure an excruciating death by burning and inhalation of toxic fumes. Fortunately, that barbarity did not come to the shores of America, but that does not mean that America didn't create its own barbarities. Back in Salem Village, Massachusetts, in accordance with English law, 19 of the victims of the Salem witch trials were instead taken to the infamous Gallows Hill to die by hanging. Still more accused witches and sorcerers died in jail while awaiting their trials, but the elderly guile's quarry, meanwhile, was to suffer a much greater, much more horrible fate, a death which would later cause this accused sorcerer to be seen not as a criminal, but as a martyr. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Welcome, Weirdos! I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness Radio, where every week you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved, and unexplained. Coming up this hour, when you think of the Salem witch trials you typically think of women being burned at the stake, innocently accused of witchcraft. There are two incorrect assumptions about that mental picture. First, most of the accused were hung and none had been truly verified to be burned alive, not in Salem at least. And second, sorcery and Satan worship were not seen to be bound by gender and so either a man, woman, boy or girl could be a witch, and one of those unfortunate men was Guile's quarry, but his punishment went beyond the norm and into the gruesome. If you're new here, welcome to the show. If you're already a member of this Weirdo family, please take a moment and invite someone else to listen in with you, recommending Weird Darkness to others helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show. And while you're listening, be sure to visit WeirdDarkness.com and click on Contact Social to follow Weird Darkness on social media. And also on the website you can find the daily Weird Darkness podcast which comes out seven days per week. You can enter monthly contests, find Weird Darkness merchandise and more. You can even send in your own true story of something paranormal that has happened to you or someone you know. You can find it all at WeirdDarkness.com Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights and come with me into the Weird Darkness. No matter the time of day or season, sometimes you need to find a way to rid yourself of those ghostly chills that bring raised hairs and goosebumps to your skin. Other times you're looking for those ghostly chills. Either way, it sounds like you need a mug of Weird Dark Roast coffee. Weird Dark Roast coffee has deep notes of cocoa, caramel and a touch of sinister sweetness that'll send shivers down your taste buds. This is an exclusive coffee that I selected specifically for you, my Weirdo family. Weird Dark Roast is not available in stores, coffee houses, mad scientist labs or even the dark web, but you can find it at WeirdDarkness.com slash coffee. Weird Dark Roast coffee. Fresh roasted to order so it's as fresh as it can be when it lands on your doorstep and knocks three times. Grab yours now at WeirdDarkness.com slash coffee. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash coffee. Weird Dark Roast coffee. It's not actually knock on your door because it doesn't have arms or hands, so if you hear knocks at the door and no one answers when you ask who it is, it's probably paranormal and you should just leave the door shut and locked. Giles Corey was killed during the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. These trials were a series of events that have since become renowned for their gory, shameful and unjustified proceedings. In the strict and ultra-religious Puritan society of the new American colonies, citizens viewed witchcraft in Massachusetts as something utterly profane and inexcusable. They believed witches to be followers of Satan, and the idea of witches living in the area caused mass hysteria and societal breakdown, despite being entirely based on lies and fear. Trouble started within the village of Salem when the two daughters of Minister Samuel Parris began having fits of convulsions and screaming. The cause was diagnosed as bewitchment and blamed on Tidaba, a slave woman brought from Barbados who was working in the household. Other young girls in the village began to exhibit the same symptoms and more people were consequently accused of witchcraft and dealing with the devil, and so began various investigations, hearings, convictions and even executions of these supposed witches. Several of these accused witches themselves accused others in an attempt to lessen the punishment thrust upon them. Paranoid frenzy spread like wildfire as more girls joined in on the accusations, finding ludicrous ways to show evidence, such as claiming specters of the accused visited them at night, forcing them to sign the devil's book. Sorcery and Satan worship were not seen to be bound by gender, and so either a man, woman, boy or girl could be a witch. Giles Corey was one such village citizen who was unfortunate enough to get caught up in the unjust consequences of the delirium. Giles Corey was born in 1611 in England. He immigrated to Salem where he lived until 1659, at which point he bought a large piece of farmland in Salem Farms just outside of Salem Village. He did not get on well with some of his fellow villagers, clashing with many because he was considered to have lived a scandalous life. He did, in fact, have a few run-ins with the law, proving him to be not such an upstanding citizen. He was accused of stealing twice, and in 1675 he pummeled a farm worker named Jacob Goodell to death for stealing apples, though he claimed Jacob had fallen from a horse. He was put on trial, found guilty, and ordered to pay a substantial fee in place of imprisonment. From all this, he earned a horrible reputation, causing villagers to sometimes blame him for other crimes, like when John Proctor's house burned down. This most likely helped to contribute to his being accused as a witch. He married a woman named Martha who was devoted to the church, and he then, at the age of 80, applied to be a member of the church as well. He was asked to repent for his sins for a month, and was then accepted back to the brethren. After marrying Martha, Giles never committed another crime, and the village saw Martha as an impetus for change in his life. It therefore speaks to the amount of fearful panic and deranged paranoia running rampant that Martha of all people was accused of witchcraft. When giving testimony in court, she was so calm about her denial of it that the judges mistook her demeanor for evil intentions. Martha incriminated herself further when she tried to go to Anne Putnam's house, where Anne and her mother acted as if Martha was torturing them. Moreover, the village girls began to mimic Martha's movements as if she was controlling them, cementing her guilt in the eyes of the jury. Giles defended his wife and was then swiftly accused of witchcraft as a result. The fact that he was a stubborn man who very likely expressed skepticism and criticism of the whole situation might have also made him seem guilty. There was no substantial evidence against him other than his previous murder conviction. He was alleged to have been at a witch's sacrament torturing girls. Giles was arrested and put in jail with his wife, then left there for five months awaiting trial. At his trial on September 16, 1692, he attended only to plead not guilty, and then being a proud man, refused to put himself fully on the court to be judged by a jury as he knew they had already decided on his definite guilt. He was ruled as a standing mute because he denied being tried and was thus sentenced to death. He was given the atrocious death sentence by way of peinforte adjour, which meant having heavier and heavier stones placed on your body until you were crushed to death. This practice was actually determined to be illegal in the colony by the governor of Massachusetts because there was no law permitting it and it went against the Puritan code that disallowed barbarous punishment. Nevertheless, his sentence was carried out. He was placed in a pit in the field next to the jail where all his neighbors could see. They positioned a large board across his body and heavy stones set on top. He is famously known for continuing to utter the words more weight in an attempt to seem obstinate and quicken his death. Over the course of two days, his request was granted with more and more weight until finally he was pressed to death at the age of 81 on September 19, 1692. Until this day, he is the only person in the history of the United States to be given a court-ordered death sentence via pressing. Giles Corey's tale led to him being perceived as a martyr willing to die for what was right, or at least as someone who fought against the ridiculousness of what was happening in his society. At the time, his death influenced others to see the light about the unfairness of trials, seeing as the way he acted during his punishment did not reflect someone who was indeed guilty of being a witch. To this day, he is viewed as one of the faces who stood up against the immoral and unwarranted proceedings. By the end of the events, 25 people had been killed, 19 by hanging. Martha, Giles' wife, was hung to death on September 22, only three days after her husband died, and was buried along with him and all the other convicted people on the part of town that became known as Gallows Hill. The Arctic Circle is a frozen region in the northernmost part of the globe, spanning Canada, Greenland, Alaska, and various other icy lands. Like many desolate places, the Arctic has its share of ghost stories and haunted legends floating around the frigid, largely wild areas of its domain. It has long been a popular site for exploration, with early expeditions seeking to uncover the realm's many secrets and study the strange animals living within it. Alas, with the exploration of such freezing wild lands comes the exploration of its visitors and the basis for the creepy tales that emerge from it. According to some, spirits still hold court over specific locations, unleashing their power upon the unfortunate and uneducated who dare trespass upon their territory. From haunted hotels built on centuries-old land to ships facing misfortune at sea, more than a few lingering souls remain desperate to make their presence felt throughout the Arctic Circle. The cargo ship Octavius met its demise in 1761 after leaving China and setting sail for Britain via the Northwest Passage. No ship had ever successfully navigated the Northwest Passage at that time. The Octavius disappeared, proving it was no exception. A whaling ship came upon the damaged remains of Octavius on October 11, 1775, boarding it to look for survivors and cargo. When the whalers ventured into the below deck quarters, they found the ship's captain, frozen at his desk, mid-entry in the ship's log. The rest of the crew were similarly encased in ice throughout their rooms. The whalers snatched up the ship log and fled the Octavius, leaving behind all, including the first and last entries which were unyieldingly stuck to the captain's frozen desk. The log revealed that the Arctic temperatures and ice captured the Octavius 250 miles from Barrow, Alaska, where all those aboard perished on November 11, 1762. The whalers, however, found the boat near Greenland, meaning it somehow made its way through the Northwest Passage, even with its crew frozen solid. Shamans in the Eskimo culture speak of eight physical worlds that exist on the edge of their own reality. YouTube channel Xenohunters shared the story of an unnamed tribal elder that, as a young girl, mistakenly fell into one of these alternate planes for three days. At the age of eight, the girl was playing with her father outside when suddenly the world seemed to shift and change around her. In a moment, the world looked somehow different, ensconced in tall grass and a strange dream-like feeling. After spending around 20 or 30 minutes examining and exploring this world, the young girl decided to clamp her teeth on her hand to awaken herself. Blood poured down her hand, alleged to have a scar to this day, but the world she knew slowly shifted back into focus. Upon finding her father searching for her, the girl found out the half-hour she experienced was three days in our world. The SS Pachimo was built of steel and powered by steam in 1914 Sweden. Way more than 1,300 tons, the ship took cargo from Sweden to Germany and back again until World War I when it was sent to the Hudson's Bay Company in Scotland. The ship once again carried trade goods across the ocean, but to Canada and Alaska instead of Europe. On October 1, 1931, the Pachimo was caught in a perilous storm as it sailed for British Columbia. As the vessel became trapped in ice, the captain and crew evacuated to wait out the storm in nearby Barrow, Alaska, before relocating to a frosty outcropping closer to the ship. They waited for the Pachimo, alternately trapped in ice or drifting at sea until October 15, when the Hudson's Bay Company rescued 22 crew members. The remaining captain and sailors stubbornly refused to abandon their ship. They stayed in their camp, subsisting on supplies from their employer until November 24, when Pachimo disappeared from view. With the vessel considered lost, an Inuit spotted it in the ice 45 miles from its last known location. The ship, badly damaged by the winter, was boarded by the captain and crew to retrieve the more expensive cargo and then left to sink in the ocean. Instead of sinking, the Pachimo became a spectral legend of the North Atlantic, spotted in the waters repeatedly over the years, with the ship avoiding most would-be explorers with the deafness of a manned vessel. Those who managed to board the cursed ship find themselves surrounded by ice floes seemingly summoned by Pachimo itself, unable to collect any cargo still on board. In 1933, a group of Inuit scavengers got trapped on the ship for 10 days while a frigid storm raged around the ship. Last spotted in 1969, the Pachimo is assumed wrecked and resting on the bottom of the Atlantic, although there are no plans to prove it with a diving expedition. Like many desolate places, the Arctic has its share of ghost stories and haunted legends floating around the frigid, wild areas of its domain. It might be the frights rather than the cold that give you goosebumps. More ghostly shivers from the Arctic Circle when Weird Darkness returns. Urban legends are thought by most to be tall tales passed down through the ages. Some of the stories are obviously make-believe, while others, as strange as they may seem, have their origins in actual events. Do alligators roam the dark tunnels deep beneath New York City? Do boogeymen who terrorize those afraid of the night really exist? Are killer clowns a myth born from our fear of the unknown, or could such evil truly walk among us? These are just a few of the urban legends that are explored in this book. After hearing some of the history for yourself, maybe you will be able to answer the age-old question, could it be true? Could it be true? Volume 1, Urban Legends by Cindy Parmitter, narrated by Weird Darkness host Darren Marlar. Here a free sample on the audiobooks page at WeirdDarkness.com. On March 15, 1853, fur trader Augustus Richard Piers passed while working as a post manager for the Hudson's Bay Company's Fort McPherson. It was known that Piers wished for his remains to be interred at a location other than Fort McPherson. His supervisor, Roderick McFarland, ignored that wish and buried him in the same place where he passed. Around December, 1859, McFarland received prompting from Piers widow to dig Piers up and relocate his body. After finishing a sturdier coffin to securely transport the body, workers unearthed Piers and found him looking much as he did during his life, free of six years worth of decay and decomposition. The group was unnerved. Traveling via dog sled, the team began their journey with Piers to Fort Good Hope, 300 miles from Fort McPherson. On March 21, 1860, Piers and his transportation made it to Fort Good Hope but not without incident. Six days before reaching their destination, they heard a voice, conspicuously reminiscent of that of the departed, warning of approaching wolves. Three days later, the voice spoke out again, in McFarland's encampment, alerting the crew of a Wolverine supposedly intending harm on the intransit body. Two days after arrival, Piers found his final resting place, while McFarland prepared to return to Fort McPherson. At one point, McFarland recalled feeling his spirit appears around him. Later that night, McFarland awoke to found the ghost of Piers staring at him and his roommate as they slept. Both men saw Piers before them but covered their heads and tried to will the specter away instead of daring to interact with it. A man named William shared an encounter that transpired when he and his cousin chose to camp and fish near a lake, said by elders, to be filled with bad spirits. After reaching the spot and setting up camp, the two men had a few drinks while sitting by the fire. All of a sudden, William's cousin lunged at him and attempted to start a fight. William fought him off but noticed that the light of the fire illuminated the outline of two shadowy raven-like wings on the cousin's back. Throughout the night, the cousin's eyes remained completely black as he tried time and time again to harm William, even attempting to lure him into the lake to drown him. With the help of his dog and with a defensive measure taught to him by his grandmother firmly in mind, William fought off the possessed cousin repeatedly. He called on all of his ancestors that shared his name to assist him in keeping the evil spirit within his cousin at bay while his dog alerted him to incoming strikes and kept the man beside the blazing fire. When the sun rose, William ran back to his village. His cousin's wife asked what happened as her husband had returned muttering about seeing something by the lake. The conversation with his mother led William to believe that a spirit known as Evil Raven inhabited his cousin's body. They determined his cousin's late father accidentally brought the spirit back with him after visiting another cursed location alone, leaving Evil Raven free to attach itself to the son after the father passed. Another man named William shared tales of his strange encounters during hunting and fishing trips around Alaska. In order to get to his regular cave-side camping spot in a valley he frequented, William had to traverse a tricky path that bottlenecks down to about a 12-foot width. During one visit, he began his trek toward the bottleneck as usual when a robin suddenly began dropping sticks and rocks onto his head as if to get William's attention. He eventually decided to follow the robin which took him to a cliff that overlooked the path. After detecting the strong scent of scat, William realized that Bear, one known to locals as Scarface, stood directly in the bottleneck area of the valley. Sporting a large scar over part of its face, the bear would have easily overpowered William and his 22 in such a narrow area. After saving William from such an unwinnable altercation, the robin disappeared, leading him to believe it was a guardian spirit protecting him. In November 1930, a Canadian reporter named Emmett K. Kellerer wrote a piece about a trapper named Joe LaBelle who discovered a ghost town on Lake Anjikuni. Hundreds of kilometers from civilization in Manitoba, Canada, LaBelle stumbled upon the supposed village and found it empty of all human life, with only two starving husky dogs in residence. LaBelle claimed to see abandoned tents made of animal hides, seven dog cadavers, multiple warm coats and other signs of previous tenants in the encampment. There was no trace of human remains, but LaBelle said a traditional grave covered in stones was disturbed. LaBelle wandered the area for an afternoon, noting that while nothing showed signs of a fight, there was something in the air. After feeding two freshly caught fish to the dogs, LaBelle returned to civilization to share his tale about the village, and his inkling that an evil spirit named Tornrark may have had a hand in its demise. Labrador, Canada is the home of the Phantom Trapper, a specter cursed to drive a team of 14 pure white huskies across the barren landscapes of winter for all eternity. His real name is unknown, the trapper appears dressed from head to toe in furs and skins, and he endlessly speeds his way through the afterlife. Legend has it that in life, the trapper sold toxic alcohol to the indigenous population and assaulted many women before meeting his end from natural causes. Since the trapper evaded legal retribution during his life, he never paid for his acts or asked for forgiveness. That lack of earthly punishment prompted his unending mission to assist those lost in the snow and guide them to safety, an eternal penance. A woman known as Mary Jane told YouTube channel Xeno Hunters about a strange experience from her youth. She had a friend set out to find berry bushes to pick salmon berries when they came upon a hill along their path and they were greeted by an elderly couple. The couple warned the girls that a grizzly bear was prowling the road on the other side of the hill. After checking for signs of the supposed animal, the girls decided to walk over the hill and down to the road. Once over the hill, Mary Jane and her friend began to pick berries, checking every few minutes for the grizzly. After her companion wandered away, Mary Jane noticed a long white cloud hovering above and seemingly following her just 30 feet over her head. Emerging from the cloud were the voices of two elderly women, frightening Mary Jane and prompting her to check her surroundings. That's when she finally found the grizzly bear, working on the carcass of a reindeer and paying her no mind. Mary Jane raced back up and over the hill to safety. Taquitna, Alaska is a small town with the haunted Fairview Inn within its city limits. Built in 1923, the Homie Inn once played host to President Warren G. Harding and an extramarital affair. Soon after his illicit stay in a hotel, Harding suffered a heart attack. The room he occupied at the time has since been labeled cursed. The walls of the Fairview Inn bear photographs of departed townspeople, many believe the ghosts haunting the hotel are or were among them. Rocky Cummins worked in the town as a miner and trapper. In his spare time, he liked to party. Jim Schaff had ties to the military through his work and enjoyed gardening, as well as hanging out with Cummins. The duo is thought to be behind both the random flushing of toilets in guest rooms and the mysterious faucets that turn themselves on when no one is around. Many also suspect Cummins and Schaff lock doors on guests, draw around beer cans and napkins, and generally make Mary in the haunted room, room one, where the pair hung out during their lifetimes. Pounding sounds, rattling door knobs and creaky footsteps on the floorboards can be heard in the haunted room. Visitors have reported seeing apparitions in the halls while making their way between rooms, despite the inn being resumptively unoccupied. Located in Central Alaska, the Arctic Circle Hot Springs Resort is the site of a 400 gallons per minute hot spring of crystal clear water first discovered by a prospector in the 1890s. By 1918, Franklin Leach gained ownership of the spring and patented it, with 320 acres of land surrounding it. Leach and his wife expanded the property to a resort, with gardens and a restaurant and made various upgrades over the years until Leach's passing in 1955. Robert and Laverna Miller bought the estate in 1980 and kept the resort open until 2002 when financial setbacks forced the business to close. While the history of the location is rich already, the creepy encounters reported by staff and visitors only add to the intrigue. The third floor library is supposedly home to a female ghost that roams the premises. A staff of kitchen workers under the millers heard repeated whistling noises they couldn't account for, even after following the sound outside the resort into the surrounding acreage. On another occasion, a teacher from California visited and recorded an attempt to contact the late Mrs. Leach from the fourth floor. He caught doors opening and closing on their own and described feeling the presence of Mrs. Leach around him. Laverna Miller saw chandeliers in the hotel swinging without the aid of wind and shared other accounts from visitors who heard unexplained footsteps on the stairs during their stay. Averse to changes to the building, the spirits are allegedly more active during construction and enjoy moving objects or even bringing paintings on the wall to life. In 2012, a travel channel ghost hunting series visited the resort. The 1845 expedition of Captain Sir John Franklin and his subsequent disappearance features several elements of the mystical and spiritual, with clairvoyance and mesmerists taking part in the search for him. It was Franklin's fourth time exploring the Arctic. He took his ships Erebus and Terror to seek a northwest passage and attempted to reclaim his positive reputation after nearly starving on a prior journey. Instructed due travel north, the Franklin expedition was last glimpsed outside Lancaster Sound before disappearing. One of the rescue groups sent out in 1850 to recover the lost Franklin crew and ships was headed by Commander Edward Belcher. Supposedly, one of Belcher's friends was a member of the Franklin expedition, leading him to write about an encounter with a charmed wolf he felt might be his fallen comrade. Quote, It is a ridiculous feeling, yet who is free from it? Indeed, I have been so far at times a victim to some such feeling as even to attach the name of one of my friends to this coming visitor. Up next on Weird Darkness, you never know what might be lurking just out of sight in the shadows behind a door. I'll share a few true stories that might make you double check the locks at night and check the closet before going to bed. Are you a member of the Darkness Syndicate? The Darkness Syndicate is a private membership where you receive commercial free episodes of the Weird Darkness podcast and radio show. Behind the scenes, video updates about future projects and events I'm working on. You can share your own opinions on ideas to help me decide upon Weird Darkness contests and events. You can hear audiobooks I'm narrating before even the publishers or authors get to hear them. You also receive bonus audio of other projects I'm working on outside of Weird Darkness. You get all of these benefits and more starting at only $5 per month. Join the Weird Darkness Syndicate at WeirdDarkness.com slash Syndicate. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash Syndicate. The following stories are taken from various Ask Reddit threads and are all supposedly true. To me, that makes them so much scarier. Ghost stories are fun and all, but I'm just not a sucker for a campfire tale. If you tell me a story that's actually happened, though, well, I'll be much less inclined to turn off the hallway light at night, if you know what I mean. Because who knows what's lurking just out of you, in the middle of the woods. Growing up, I lived in the middle of the woods. No neighbors for about a mile on each side, and we owned 60 acres of forest, then a swamp after that. So, basically, I lived in the middle of nowhere. One summer, when I was about 14, I was out in the middle of the woods playing with my dog. I'm an only child, and both of my parents were out of town, when I kept feeling something hit my elbow. I'd go to throw Max's ball, and the bump would make me throw it almost straight up. Assuming it was just me bumping it on trees or something, ignored it. After the fourth or fifth time of it happening, I thought, well, this sucks, I'll just go home. Walking back, I felt uneasy, but I knew I was freaking myself out because we were alone. About an hour later, Max and I are at home on the couch when the garage door opens, and he starts barking, barking, barking. I hop up to go let in my mom or dad, even though they were home really early. I peered through the pee pole and saw the door was still shut, and no one was in the garage. Quieting Max down, I open the door slowly and called out for my dad. Nothing. No response at all, so I go out to check the door, and it's still locked. Okay, sure. Weird, but oh well. Max heard it too, so at least I know I'm not crazy. About 20 minutes later, I hear the door open again, and this time Max starts growling like crazy. I quiet him down and again just assume it's the wind or something making noise, even though by this point my heart is racing. I hear footsteps come up the stairs and think, oh jeez, dad really is home this time, and I hop up and run to the door. It starts to jiggle so I run faster to let him in. I peep through the hole, and even though my hand is loosely around the jiggling handle, there is no one on the other side of the door. Terrified, I go hide on the couch with all the lights on. Max is still growling. About an hour after that I start to feel a little better, even though I'm still terrified, and then I hear the door handle jiggle again. This time it was Max jiggling it. He needed to go outside, and the only way outside is through the garage. Fantastic. I literally sprint with him to the kennel, and as I'm standing in there I decided to ask this thing questions to make myself feel better, because I knew it wouldn't answer me. Thinking about what to ask at my eyes are drawn to the huge, heavy oak door on the kennel. It was always open because it was too heavy for me to move easily. I said, okay, ghost, if you're real, you'll shut this heavy door. Nothing. A minute goes by, nothing. Max is still sniffing around. I turn around to yell at him to hurry up, and then from behind me I hear click. I whipped around and saw the giant door had swung shut and latched. Okay, clearly it was just the wind. It wasn't really windy, but it was the wind. For sure, it had to be. I proceed. Okay, ghost, that was the wind. If you're really real, you'll open this massive door back up. Nothing. I relax a bit and then squat down with my head in on my knees, reminiscing about how lame I was just being scared when I hear click, click. The door was now wide open. Max was done, so we booked it back into the house, locking every door in the house. For the next four hours I would hear the footsteps on the stairs and the door handle jiggling every few minutes until finally around 11pm my dad walks in and yells at me for wasting electricity. I never told him or my mom about it until about four months later when my dad came in from hunting after dark. He looked shaken and I asked him what was wrong. He said he aimed at two deer but missed both completely because it felt as if something was hitting his elbow and making him shoot way above that deer. That's when I told him everything. The house on Acorn Street. When I was 14, my family and I fell on hard times. We got kicked out of our house and ended up in emergency housing. Basically we went to charity who found us a house that we were able to rent for $100 a month, but only for three months. That summer my mom and stepdad separated temporarily and my three younger siblings would go to my stepdads for a week or so then come back to my mom and me. This house was creepy. It started off with just that feeling, you know, like something isn't quite right, that you might not be the only person in the room. In the day that's all it was, the feeling that something was up, your instincts pricking at you. I tried to ignore it, but as soon as dusk arrived, stuff would start happening. More than once I could hear this static-filled music playing, but I couldn't find the source, it just filled the halls. I heard whispering and went to my sister's room. In the open closet, a pair of eyes looked at me and disappeared. My brother spent one night in the house and didn't come back. In my room, I could never win. On one wall, a mirror, which I flipped over to face the window. I watched tall shadow figures pace in front of it. In my mother's room, the same shadow figures paced in circles around her room. One night, she and I sat up for two hours in her bed watching these shadows. She was strongly religious and didn't know what to make of it. During the time we lived there, there was a lunar eclipse. I'd never seen one before and was really excited for it. When I went out to look, every time this terror took over me and I couldn't stay outside, I couldn't explain it. When the moon was fully cloaked, I went outside, looked up, but my head suddenly snapped down into my left. I could see three tall shadows walking in between the tall pine trees in the yard. Panicked, I ran back inside and into my room, flinging myself under the covers and my eyes shut tightly but listening to the pacing outside my bedroom window. Three months of this. We moved out at the end of the summer into a new house. My mom and stepdad got back together and I was with my younger siblings again. We all agreed the house on Acorn Street was screwed up and still get chills when we drive by it just to see. Thanks for listening. If you missed any part of tonight's show, or if you want to hear it again, you can subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcast app at WeirdDarkness.com slash listen. Not only will you hear a copy of tonight's show, you'll also receive the sudden death bonus content that I did not have time to use in the show tonight, including the story of little Stephen McCarron, a five-year-old boy having a time of his life at a carnival and suddenly goes missing. And when found later, there is no evidence whatsoever as to how he got where he was, who took him there, or what happened to him before he was found. That's only available in the podcast version of tonight's show which you can find at WeirdDarkness.com. I'll be posting it on Monday. You can follow Weird Darkness on social media by visiting the contact social page on the website. And please tell others about Weird Darkness who love the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters, or unsolved mysteries like you do. Doing that helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show. If you'd like to be a part of the show, you can send in your own paranormal experiences by clicking on Tell Your Story at WeirdDarkness.com. All stories in Weird Darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise, and you can find links to the stories or the authors in the show notes, which I will upload to the Weird Darkness website immediately after tonight's show is ended. Ghostly shivers of the Arctic Circle is by Jody Smith or Ranker. The most dreadful execution of the Salem Witch Trials is from sometimes interesting and Evan Corey for history, and never trust the dark is from the lineup. Weird Darkness is a registered trademark. Copyright Weird Darkness. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. Psalm 112 verse 1, Praise the Lord, Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who find great delight in his commands. And a final thought from George R.R. Martin, once you've accepted your flaws, no one can use them against you. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness. Break checkers, trucklets, 18-wheelers, deadheads, yard dogs, you got your ears on? Whatever you call yourselves or whatever call sign or moniker is thrust upon you. This episode is dedicated to all you truckers, driving the boulevard, keeping our bellies full, shelves stocked, septics cleaned, and brains entertained with what you're hauling. In the eyes of this ratchet jaw, I'm honored to have you listening. Maybe once in a while grab your CB, head to Sesame Street and tell other drivers how to join this weird old convoy. Appreciate it. May your break checks be with you, your shutter trouble be absent, and your bear bites non-existent. Keep it cool on the stool. This is Spooky Santa, and I'm tan and on the side. When Cleero Wilson turned 16, he was ready to get out of foster homes and reform school. So he lied about his age and joined the U.S. Air Force. Blessed with a non-stop personality, he entertained fellow airmen with so many funny stories they claimed he was flipped out. The name stuck. Leaving the Air Force, Flip Wilson found work as a bell hop and started performing between paid acts at the hotel's stage show. Before long, he was a successful comedian. One of Flip's most popular characters was Geraldine Jones, whom he portrayed in a dress, a copper-colored wig, and with exaggerated facial expressions. Geraldine was constantly misbehaving, crossing the line and violating her conscience. But she had a one-sentence explanation for her behavior. The devil made me do it. The phrase, the devil made me do it, became part of entertainment lore. I wonder why. On its surface, it's not a particularly funny line. Perhaps it struck our funny bones because it struck a nerve. We know we are not a deep down inside. We're bewildered at how easily we do wrong and how hard it is to do right. We need a rationale for our bad habits, or at least an excuse. It's as good an excuse as any. In some way, this tag line became an expression of national self-justification. The devil made me do it. But the line is not always uttered in jest. Here in the real world, away from the comedy club stage and TV cameras, there has been many a time when a heinous crime was committed, and the one who committed the act was the devil himself. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Welcome, Weirdos. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness Radio, where every week you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious macabre, unsolved and unexplained. 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 with you. Recommending Weird Darkness to others helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show, and while you're listening, be sure to visit WeirdDarkness.com and click on Contact Social to follow Weird Darkness on social media. And also on the website, you can find the daily Weird Darkness podcast, which comes out seven days per week. You can enter monthly contests, find Weird Darkness merchandise and more. You can even send in your own true story of something paranormal that has happened to you or someone you know. You can find it all at WeirdDarkness.com. Coming up this hour, the devil made me do it. It's an excuse that has been used so often by so many that it's kind of lost its meaning and its effectiveness. It's only a fool or a madman would commit a horrible act and then try to blame it on the devil or a demon. Unless, of course, that person truly believes that is exactly what happened to them. Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness. Supposedly demon-possessed criminals have been around for as long as people have been murdering their wives, sexually assaulting young people or gunning down strangers in the street. Some criminals seem to use this as a calculated excuse for their actions, while others, usually suffering from mental illness, drug addiction, or both, seem to truly believe they were under demonic control when they performed their evil acts. One of the most famous cases of a demon committing crimes involves serial killer David Berkowitz, also known as the son of Sam, who claimed a demon inhabiting the body of his neighbor's dog compelled him to walk the streets of New York for an entire year, firing indiscriminately at anyone who was hanging out in a parked car after dark. If you've ever been curious about demonic possession or want to get the inside scoop on some of the most vile acts ever committed by the possessed, say the Lord's Prayer, say a blessing over whatever you're drinking and hope it becomes holy, and keep listening. You're about to hear about some of the most heinous crimes supposedly committed by demons. After Uber driver Jason Bryan Dalton went on a shooting spree killing six people in the early hours of February 21, 2016, people wondered what could drive a man to commit such heinous murders. Money. Revenge. It turned out the real reason was something much more insidious. Dalton told detectives that the Uber app on his iPhone had taken over his mind and forced him to commit murder. A detective for the case said Dalton explained how when he opens up the Uber taxi app a symbol appeared and he recognized that symbol as the Eastern Star symbol. Dalton acknowledged that he recognized the Uber symbol as being that of the Eastern Star and a devil had popped up on his screen and when he pressed the button on the app, that is when all the problems started. But it's not just that the app demon forced him to kill, it also helped him get from place to place in a timely manner. Dalton explained how you can drive over a hundred miles per hour and go through stop signs and you can just get places. Dalton said he wishes he would never have spoken what that symbol was when he saw it on his phone. Dalton described the devil figure as a horned cow head or something like that and then it would give you an assignment and it would literally take over your whole body. New York City, during the summer of 1976, was a hotbed of anger, frustration and fear. And David Berkowitz, a.k.a. the son of Sam, didn't help the matter by killing six people and wounding seven others in this fan of one year. After his arrest, Berkowitz told people that he was under the control of a demon named Harvey who inhabited his neighbor's dog and implored him to kill people. Once during a three-month break from his murder spree, Berkowitz wrote the New York Post to say, I am still here like a spirit roaming the night, thirsty, hungry, seldom stopping to rest. After being incarcerated, Berkowitz received a sentence of 365 years in prison. He became a born-again Christian, but he still believes that the devil and God are fighting for possession of his soul. Pazuzu Algarad was arrested in 2014 for killing a person and then burying the body in his backyard in July 2009, as well as helping his girlfriend bury someone she killed later that year. He had taken the name Pazuzu in reference to a demon mentioned in The Etrusist, and he had a forked tongue and sharpened teeth. An anonymous man who lived at the home where the bodies were buried told police that he felt Pazuzu was possessed. It was very serpentine and his eyes would kind of get a little like glazy, like almost not there, like the inner part of him would kind of phase away. You could tell when his demons needed something from him, because they took over. About once a month and it was usually on a full moon, they sacrificed at least one rabbit and then he would eat the heart of it and then burn the flesh of the rabbit. Investigators on the scene later deemed the home, the site of many animal sacrifices, as unsafe for human life. In 1974, Michael Taylor was just a simple butcher living in Osset, England, who was suddenly overcome by an evil spirit. He had an exorcism performed on October 5th and 6th of 1974, and while it went okay, the priests weren't able to expel all the demons. According to Bill Ellis, an authority on folklore and the occult in contemporary culture, in an all-night ceremony the exorcists believed they had invoked and cast out at least 40 demons, including those of incest, bestiality, blasphemy and lewdness. At the end, exhausted, they allowed Taylor to go home, although they felt that at least three demons, insanity, murder and violence, were still left in him. So, you know, the big three. After he returned home, Taylor immediately murdered his wife by ripping out her eyes and tongue, then tearing off most of the skin from her face, finally strangling their pet poodle. Police found Taylor standing in the street naked and covered in blood, shouting, It is the blood of Satan. In 2012, after living in what they believed to be a demon-possessed house and becoming convinced that the world was ending, Deborah and Adolfo Gomez admitted to restraining their children, ages 7 and 5, with duct tape, inside an SUV and a Walmart parking lot because they were demon-possessed. The couple was arrested in Lawrence, Kansas, where investigators learned that not only was the couple under demonic possession, but Adolfo had not slept for the last nine days. So, maybe that had something to do with it. In March 2016, 17-year-old Tommy Smith attempted to rob Peter Churm, a 66-year-old man for the keys to his son's Range Rover. When Churm refused to hand the keys over, Smith flew into a rage and stabbed Churm in the face, neck and ears. The teenage boy stabbed the old man so fiercely that the knife actually broke in two. Churm ended the attack by bashing Smith in the head with a claw hammer. Smith, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, later told a psychiatrist that he was magnetically drawn toward his victim and that he saw a demon float out of Churm's wounds where he attacked him. According to Reverend Cecil Begbie, South African Aljar Swartz was possessed by demons when he strangled a Ravensmeade teenager to death before beheading him and leaving his body in an abandoned school in October 2013. Swartz claimed that he had become possessed by a vague collection of satanic attacks, but he never went into further detail. Allegedly, after beheading his victim, he'd intended to sell the man's head to a traditional healer called a Sangoma. Reverend Begbie did his best to help out Swartz and instructed church groups all over Africa to pray for Begbie on the Good Friday following Swartz's incarceration. Swartz said that when the collective prayer was held, he felt that he was standing under a waterfall with pure, clean water flowing through his body. He claims he's no longer possessed by demons, however the courts have stated that they will not mitigate his sentence based on his supposed recovery. Jason Nelson, a 32-year-old English man, claimed to be under the spell of a demon when he went on a spree of violence, raping a woman, attempting to rape her daughter, and then murdering Jordan Maguire after inviting the man into his home to sell marijuana. This case is a little opaque due to the lack of verifiable facts. It seems that in 2015, while Reverend Connery Dagadu was attempting to perform a multiple-day-long cleansing ceremony on Roland Zinna of Derby, Pennsylvania, he was strangled to death by Zinna, who then immediately ran outside and started beating on a minivan with a shovel. First responders noted that Zinna seemed to be dancing when they arrived on the scene, and when they tackled him to the ground and slapped him in cuffs, he allegedly began shouting, I kill demons. Which is confusing because we thought he was the guy who was possessed by demons. Louis Zambrano, 30, was sentenced to 26 and a half years in prison for the murder of his girlfriend Angie Escobar by stabbing her over 80 times with a pair of scissors. After she died, he shoved her into the trunk of his car. He told a judge that he was under demonic possession when he killed Escobar, but that there were also trust issues at play in the gruesome murder. On April 29, 2016, two police officers responded to a phone call about a man screaming and yelling in the street and found a man who proceeded to give one of the officers a piece of his mind, like he knew him from high school, before biting the other on the hand. Pamela Fornit, the biter's wife, told WTKR, I apologize to those police officers about what happened, but I begged them please don't shoot my husband. The officers did not shoot him, but were able to take him into custody. He is believed to be mentally ill. Fornit later said that her husband had been possessed by a demon. I caught it on camera, she said. A demon? It really was, so I figured that's what got into him. Nour Walil, a 38-year-old English imam, raped a boy in the bathroom of the church where he was giving lessons. When the elders of the mosque found out what had happened, Walil simply said that the devil made him do it. The elders told Walil that his choices were to face the police in England or to return forever to his native India. Walil fled to escape persecution from the police, but later secretly returned to Lycester where he was promptly arrested and slammed with a rape charge. Quite possibly the most famous of all demon-caused crime cases is Arnie Cheyenne Johnson. The twisted story of Arnie Cheyenne Johnson, also known as The Devil Made Me Do It case, comes directly from the case files of demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren. You might recognize the controversial ghost hunters from the Conjuring movie franchise, with a real-life couple as played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. While the various spin-offs of the franchise have gone in more overtly fictional directions, the core titles have stuck closer to their inspired by true events logline. 2013's The Conjuring covers the haunting of the Perrin family, while 2016's The Conjuring 2 centers on the Amityville horror and the Enfield poltergeist. The third installment, scheduled for release in September of 2020, looks to be no exception. For the new movie titled The Conjuring, The Devil Made Me Do It, filmmakers are digging into the case of Arnie Cheyenne Johnson, the first known person in America to attempt to use demonic possession as a defense plea in a murder trial. On February 16, 1981, Johnson, then 19 years old, stabbed his landlord several times with a 5-inch pocket knife. It was the first murder on the books in the 193-year history of Brookfield, Connecticut. According to Johnson, however, while his was the hand that held the knife, the murder was committed by a demonic force that had overcome him. For Johnson's victim, the story ended there, but for Johnson and the Warrens, it had started months earlier, when 11-year-old David Glatzel allegedly had a strange encounter. Glatzel's older sister Debbie was Johnson's fiancée. David Glatzel, Debbie Glatzel, and Johnson were cleaning up a rental property when David told them that an old man had appeared, pushing and threatening him. At first, the couple wrote it off as a kid trying to get out of doing his chores, but David remained adamant. The odd sightings not only continued, they increased in both frequency and intensity. At night, David would wake up sobbing, describing visitations by a man with big black eyes, a thin face with animal features and jagged teeth, pointed ears, horns and hoofs. The Glatzels asked a priest from nearby St. Joseph's Catholic Church to bless their home, but David's frightening encounters continued unabated. Over the next few months, he gained 60 pounds in rapid succession and family members had to sit up with him through the night. David would suddenly jerk awake at all hours to hiss, growl, speak in strange voices and suddenly begin reciting passages from the Bible or from Milton's Paradise Lost. His nocturnal visitor also began making daytime appearances, during which it took on the more innocuous shape of an old man with a white beard, dressed in a flannel shirt and jeans. The family was so desperate at this point, they called upon self-styled demonologist Ed and Lorraine Warren. We'll find out what happens next on Weird Darkness. 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. I'm Darren Marlar, welcome back to Weird Darkness. You can get more Weird Darkness seven days a week through the Weird Darkness podcast, which you can find wherever you listen to podcasts. Or visit WeirdDarkness.com slash listen and find a list of all the apps where you can listen to the show. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash listen. The Glatzels were so desperate to get help for their son David, who was dealing with a demonic possession, they called cell-styled demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren, and apparently the demon was not too happy about that. When the couple first interviewed the family, Lorraine reported seeing a black, misty form next to David, which told me we were dealing with something of a negative nature. During the course of David's possession, the Warrens had feared that they were sitting on a powder keg. In October of 1980, the Warrens contacted the Brookfield police and warned them that the situation was growing increasingly dangerous. David made numerous references to murder and stabbings Lorraine claimed. David complained of being choked and hit by invisible hands, and witnesses reported that red marks appeared spontaneously on his body. As the situation worsened, the Warrens claimed to have been present at three lesser exorcisms in an attempt to rid the boy of whatever dark spirit was troubling him. Four priests from St. Joseph's were said to have been in attendance. During these lesser exorcisms, David purportedly levitated, ceased breathing, and gave the names of the 43 demons that were possessing him. In desperation, Arnie Cheyenne Johnson, who was present at the exorcisms, demanded that the demons leave David alone and possess him instead. After the exorcisms failed, Johnson was in a car accident, during which he claimed that a demon took control of his vehicle and forced him off the road and into a tree. He was unharmed, but determined to do something to try to put an end to the demonic activity. According to an episode of the Discovery Channel series The Haunting, which aired in August 2006, there was a well on the same rental property where all the trouble had started. The Warrens warned Johnson not to investigate the well, but after his car accident he did just that. Johnson recalls making eye contact with the demon in the depths of the well. According to Johnson, this was the last time that he was completely lucid until after the murder. Shortly thereafter, Debbie Glatzel and Arnie Cheyenne Johnson moved out of the Glatzel home, which was becoming unbearable. Debbie had been hired by Alan Bono as a dog rumor at the Brookfield Pet Motel, and the couple also rented a nearby apartment from Bono. But Debbie began to fear that they had brought David's demons with them. Johnson, who had played Little League and sang in the church choir when he was younger, would growl and say he saw the beast, Debbie recalled. Later he would have no memory of it, it was just like David. On February 16, 1981, Johnson called in sick to work and joined Debbie at the Brookfield Pet Motel. Bono took them all out to lunch at a local bar where he apparently drank heavily. Later in the day there was an altercation at which point Johnson stabbed Bono repeatedly while growling like an animal. When it came time for the trial, Martin Manella, Johnson's attorney, attempted to enter a plea of not guilty by reason of demonic possession. While this was the first time such a plea had been attempted in the United States, Manella cited two cases in England where similar pleas had been used, although neither case ever went to trial. Lorraine Warren agreed that Johnson had been possessed at the time of the murder, and Manella planned to fly in experts from Europe and subpoena the priests who had been involved in the exorcisms of David Glatzel, none of which ultimately came to pass. Robert Callahan, the presiding judge in the case, rejected the plea, arguing that such a defense would be impossible to prove and that testimony on the subject was irrelevant and unscientific. Ultimately, Johnson's legal team entered a plea of self-defense. However, the jury was not persuaded of his innocence. On November 24, 1981, Johnson was convicted of first-degree manslaughter and sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison, though he served only five. Upon his release, he married Debbie Glatzel. The bizarre events surrounding Alan Bono's murder were published in a book called The Devil in Connecticut, written by Gerald Brittle in collaboration with Lorraine Warren. The case was later dramatized in a TV movie called The Demon Murder Case, which premiered on NBC in March of 1983. The movie featured Andy Griffith and a very young Kevin Bacon playing the role of the possessed boy, who in the movie version goes on trial for murder. In 2006, The Devil in Connecticut was re-released, prompting David's older brother, 42-year-old Carl Glatzel, to sue Gerald Brittle, Lorraine Warren, and the William Morris Agency, who owned the rights to the book. According to Carl Glatzel, his brother David suffered from mental illness and had been exploited by the Warrens. The book also painted Carl as a villain, quote, simply because I had a sane voice and knew the story was false since the beginning, unquote. Carl isn't the only one to cast aspersions on the Warrens' account of what happened to the Glatzel family. While Father Nicholas Grieco of the Diocese of Bridgeport did concede that David's case was investigated by the church, he denied that any exorcism was performed. As for the priests who were supposedly present for the rituals, they weren't talking and were transferred to other parishes after the ordeal. So did Arnie Cheyenne Johnson really believe that he was possessed by demons, or was it just an excuse to distance himself from his deplorable actions? We will likely never know what happened in the small Connecticut town of Brookfield back in 1981, though the questions surrounding this chilling true crime case will certainly return come September 2020, with the release of The Conjuring Three. The devil made me do it. Norway is perhaps remembered as two things, either as the savage Vikings plundering Europe and beyond, or they're perhaps remembered as this rich oil country they are today. Most often, perhaps not remembered at all, where it sits at the edge of the world. But few people know of the dark times in between. It was only in the 50s and 60s that the country grew in wealth, and before that it was one of Europe's poorest countries. So centuries with coldness, starvation, and ghosts. The folklore is still thriving and the ghosts of the past lurking around the corners in between the walls and inside the houses and homes. On a very unscary place like Berumverk, a village in Norway, the quaint streets and not the most busy city life, we find one of the country's most haunted places along the river and mountains where it's built. Between the old wooden walls of the ancient houses creaks the history from many lives that walked through this place since it was first built in the 1600s when it was found iron ore there. The tales of the Berumverk are many. Dogs refuse to go into certain rooms. There are steps and doors creaking. Doors that never want to open. Norway is not very known for their factory and mining skills, but at the birth of the industrial revolution the mountains were hacked into. The waterfalls harvested to use as energy. The grouping of people changes from being spread out on small farms and along the coast. They group together inland to work the land, hack into the mountains, train the water to make their bidding. Some of these communities are alive and thriving today, like at Berumverk, where people still live and work long after the iron foundry the settlement was founded on closed. And so do the ghosts of the past as well. The legend wants to tell of the former owner, Conrad Klosson, that haunts the Verkskada. At least he's one of them and according to the workers and people living there, there are a lot of them. Conrad was only a young guy when the whole place fell on his shoulders. He took over the iron foundry in 1773 at 18 years old. In those times, small villages for the workers were often built around foundries like this, a lot of them standing to this day. Klosson gave all of his life, his energy to the place where he lived and worked, even if his life was going to be a very short one. Only at the age of 31 he died in the bedroom. The same bedroom now operating as a meeting room for people working there today. Now the foundries turned into a shopping mall. Typical, isn't it? A young man dies too soon. Steps in the night. Creeking of the doors. But perhaps the strangest with the haunting must be the phones. It's the middle of the night. No one is at work. No one is there to answer the phones. No one is up to make a call to them. But still they are ringing. The people employed in the offices of the shopping mall, where Klosson lived, claims that phones call constantly during the night. To the same time, quarter past 12 or quarter past one, depending if it's summer or winter saving time. It's rumored that if you try to take the phone it would only answer with a strange beeping sound. Straight after, the phone in the room next will start calling, and then in the room next again. That's how it continues through the whole building. Yes, and why haven't they just called the telephone company? Yes, they have, several times. But no one seems to be able to figure it out. The leader of the shopping mall, Gries Skaden, told the local newspaper that it was exactly what the workers at the mall tried to do. When we get into work in the morning, the whole switchboard is blinking away. But when the telephone company comes to fix the whole thing and explain it all, only more questions rise. Before I started here, we found that the phone signals came from the lunchrooms. That was back in the day, the bedroom of Conrad Klosson, and where he died, Skaden says. It's not the only reported ghost haunting this settlement of iron workers. On the oldest tavern in the country, there have also been reported many cases of unusual happenings. Maramsverk has become somewhat of a cultural place. That's what the people planned, at least when working at the tavern thought of when serving recipes based on old ones and classical Norwegian food. Perhaps that's contributing keeping the ghosts alive here. The buildings are protected and will remain as part of the cultural heritage. The smell of the food in the tavern, perhaps similar to the ones they used to eat when they themselves were alive. In any case, the strange occurrences, like with the phones to the malls, is happening all over the settlement. So unusual, in fact, that several journalists, ghost tourists, paranormal investigators, mediums, and the ghost hunter TV show in Norway stopped by to get a glimpse of it. Most claim they did. At the tavern, for instance, the staff as well as the owners have had trouble dealing with a green-clothed woman, a very lauded imagery in Norwegian culture. It's just not practical working in the oldest tavern when a ghost in green clothes just walks around. The owner, Ula Lekak, told the local newspaper. But she and her husband found a way to work for their advantage though, as they now published their book on the persistent hauntings at the place. The local history team have identified the woman in green as a woman called Anna Crefting that still walks amongst the guests at the tavern as it fits with her period clothes she's observed in. There's a lot in the walls in this place, and it's important to take care of, the writer of the book Caroline Palsberg says. It is however interesting how the locals and workers feel about living in the country's most haunted place, or rather haunted village. On their own Facebook group, they claim that yes, it is haunted, but they would like to keep them around. Most of the people around haunted places would perhaps not feel the same way, but according to them, the ghosts are nice, and they have the same right to be there as the living, having once themselves lived and worked there. When Weird Darkness returns, there have been more than a few stories from people around the world claiming to have seen tiny humans, perfectly proportioned but a third of the size of a normal human man. What are people seeing? We'll talk about that coming up. If you're a weirdo and proud of it, you can find Weird Darkness t-shirts, buttons, hoodies, office supplies, clothes for your kids, stickers, magnets, coffee mugs, and a whole lot more in the Weird Darkness store, with dozens of designs to choose from, and a variety of colors to match your style, even tie-dyed. Grab some Weirdo merchandise for yourself, or maybe as a gift for the Weirdo in your life by clicking on Store at WeirdDarkness.com. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash Store. Nothing goes better with chocolate than vanilla, and nothing goes better with the darkness than vampires. So we've combined all of them into a new blend of weird dark roast coffee called Very Vampilla. This bloody good blend combines a medium dark roast coffee with hints of chocolate, vanilla, and just a tad bit of dried cherry too. So good, you'll want to sink your fangs into the fresh roasted bag itself. Weird Dark Roast Very Vampilla, the only thing at stake, sorry, not sorry, bad pun, is your dissatisfaction with your old coffee. Sip it while the sun is down if you're one of the undead, or when the sun is up if you just feel dead and need a bit of a boost. Get your Weird Dark Roast Very Vampilla at WeirdDarkness.com slash Coffee. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash Coffee. Now and again, a story will surface that is so bizarre it's difficult to know what to think of it. In this story, the subject matter falls firmly into that particular category. In fact, there are several such stories, not just one. We're talking about those who claim to have seen what can only be termed little people. I'll let you, the listener, offer comments and suggestions on what might have been the cause of such tales. Frank Banner's family tells of the time that Frank, in 1971, encountered a group of around 15 strange, diminutive beings in the woods surrounding Trimplow Mountain, Wisconsin as he took a stroll with the family dog. According to Banner, as he walked along one particular track, he suddenly developed a sense of being watched. He was, within seconds, a group of very human-looking but only about two feet tall creatures came out of the woods in front of Banner. Curiously, the dog did not act in a hostile fashion, but wagged its tail vigorously as if it was greeting a bunch of old friends. Banner, however, was terrified by the sight of this strange band of many people, all of whom were dressed in what Banner described as primitive clothing. The group did nothing more than smile at Banner, wave, and then continued on their way into the woods on the other side of the track. Despite the fact that the family made jokes about Frank having met a tribe of pixies, until his dying day, Banner believed he had encountered an extraterrestrial race of very human-like, albeit small, aliens. Of course, there is an important question to ask. If they were so advanced extraterrestrials, why were they dressed in primitive clothing? Oh well, moving on. Dave Shaw's experience in 1999 is another perfect example of high strangeness. While walking through the woods surrounding Texas Lake Worth, he saw a little man that raced past him at a very fast speed and who was dressed in a yellow one-piece outfit. Little is undeniably apt as Shaw estimated that the man was between one and one-and-a-half feet in height. The little man didn't turn back to look at Shaw, he just carried on running, vanishing into the undergrowth. Alien? Sprite? Goblin? There is no answer to the question. Adelaide, Australia was the site of a profoundly odd encounter reported by Samantha Kaye in September 1984. As she walked home from a late shift at the restaurant she worked for at the time, she almost stumbled into what she too described as a little man. He was about two feet tall, raced across the quiet road, was dressed in a silver one-piece suit and a large helmet. He vanished into a nearby alleyway. Sam says she was too amazed to be scared by the weird experience. A similar saga comes from Janice Bakewell, who encountered a small UFO, as in extremely small, in Marlboro, Wiltshire, England in January 1977. Just like Frank Banner in 1971, Janice was walking through the woods with her dog. It was early one morning when she heard a loud buzzing noise that quickly filled her ears and clearly those of her dog. Puzzled, she looked around but it was all to no avail. At least for around two minutes, then everything became amazingly clear. As if out of nowhere, a small flying saucer appeared before her, hovering at a height of around four feet off the ground, in a small clearing in the trees. It was circular in shape, silver in color, and had a red band around its middle, and it was barely four feet across. She watched astonished as the diminutive craft settled to the ground, in decidedly wobbly fashion, and a small door opened. Janice still recalls holding her breath, wondering what might happen next. She soon found out. Out of the door flew three, three to four-inch-tall, small humanoid figures, clearly female and glowing brightly. They fluttered around Janice for a minute or two, dressed in silvery mini-skirts. At one point, the tiny trio landed on Janice's right arm, smiled, then flew back into the craft, which shot away into the skies, never to be seen again. Bizarre? Yep. Theories, anyone? Thanks for listening. If you missed any part of tonight's show or if you want to hear it again, you can subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcast app at WeirdDarkness.com-listen. Not only will you hear a copy of tonight's show, you'll also receive the sudden death overtime content which can only be heard in the podcast, with the story of John and Eva, who were married and told relatives they planned to honeymoon on the Atlantic coast. But John had another plan, and it would not be his last deception. But it would be the first act in what ended up being a mystery that has still gone unsolved to this day. That story is only in the podcast version of tonight's show, which will be posted on Monday at WeirdDarkness.com. You can follow Weird Darkness on social media by visiting the Contact social page on the website. And please tell others about Weird Darkness who love the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters or unsolved mysteries like you do. Doing that helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show. If you'd like to be a part of the show, you can send in your own paranormal experiences by clicking on Tell Your Story at WeirdDarkness.com. You can also email me anytime at Darren at WeirdDarkness.com. Darren is D-A-R-R-E-N. All stories in Weird Darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise, and you can find links to the stories or the authors in the show notes, which I will upload to the Weird Darkness website immediately after tonight's show has ended. A demon made me do it is by Jacob Shelton for Ranker and Oren Gray for the lineup. The most haunted village in Norway is from moon Mausoleum, and big stories about little people is by Nick Redfern for Mysterious Universe. Weird Darkness is a registered trademark. Copyright, Weird Darkness. Now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. 1 Peter 3, verse 14, But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear their threats. Do not be frightened. And a final thought, don't sit back and let things happen to you. Go out and happen to things. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness. Don't go anywhere, Weirdos, because sudden death over time is up next. Ever had that eerie feeling of being watched? There's no one there. At least nobody you can see anyway. But still, you can feel those ghostly eyes upon you, the watchers in the shadows waiting for their moment to scare you, haunt you, or something even worse. That is the theme for these carefully selected creepy true stories of the paranormal designed to have you wondering if you too are being watched from the shadows. This all-new collection includes stories about the hat man, black-eyed kids, shadow people, poltergeists, UFOs, the premonitions of a dying man, forest demons, and much more. All absolutely true, all chosen by the master of the paranormal himself, G. Michael Vasey. Watched from the shadows, scary true stories of the paranormal, available now on the audiobooks page at WeirdDarkness.com. That's WeirdDarkness.com I was born and raised in Brazil and, unfortunately, not in a nice or safe neighborhood. Being the youngest child, I was raised by my four brothers, more specifically my brother Caesar, whom took care of me while my parents worked all day. I loved my brother more than anything in the world, but unfortunately, on February 14, 2001, he was taken from me. At the young age of 21, my brother was shot 12 times, two blocks down the street where I grew up. I was only 12 years old, and to make things worse, I was forced to see and recognize my own brother's body in a pool of blood laying on the streets while people surrounding his body didn't seem to care at all. My world ended there. But time went on, and I was forced to accept the fact that I would never see him again. Moving on, I used to go to church with my family every weekend. In my mom, being very religious, I have always heard my mom saying, �Ghosts don't exist, Joy, but the devil, he is real, and he uses your weakness to manipulate you and make you believe that ghosts are real, especially when it takes the form of someone you love.� I heard that when I was 8 years old because I am used to experiencing the paranormal, my mom did too. So, three or four years had passed after my brother passed away, and I almost forgot what his smile was like until one morning. I woke to someone touching my feet. In the sleep stage I was in, I thought it was my mother waking me up to get ready for school. I opened my eyes just to be surprised just to see my brother Caesar sitting by my feet, looking down on me. I closed my eyes again to think that maybe I was dreaming at that very moment. I started praying that maybe yes, it was just a dream. I waited a couple of minutes and opened my eyes again, and there he was, still sitting on my bed. I don't know why, but I decided to sit down on my bed and I looked into his eyes. I couldn't believe it. I wasn't dreaming. It was really him. I've missed him so much and I smiled at him and he smiled back. I didn't know what to say. I just wanted to hold him. But then something weird, even more so, happened. He got up and asked me to follow him to the backyard. And that's exactly what I did. I followed him. When we got there he sat down on a big rock that was in the backyard and my curiosity kicked in. I started asking him questions. My first question was, who did this to you? He replied, you'll find out soon. You know who did it. And then he asked me, how have you been, little sister? I miss you so much. I'm so sorry I had to leave like this, and I'm so sorry for not being here for you, but I'm here right now and I'm never going to leave you again. I started crying. I did miss him, and the pain of that day came back hitting me like a tornado of emotions. He said, I love you, little sister. I said, I love you, too. I ran into his direction, ready to hold him. When I felt something, someone pulled me back and whispered into my ears, don't do it, Joy. It's not your brother. This whisper voice didn't scare me. On the contrary, it made me feel calm and safe. And then I remembered what my mom said to me. The devil uses your weakness to manipulate you and make you believe that ghosts are real, especially when it takes the form of someone you love. I froze. I suddenly realized what was happening, and I said to my brother, wait, it can't be you. It's not you. And then I yelled, you're not my brother. I know who you are. Immediately after I said that, the demeanor on my brother's face changed. It wasn't him anymore. His body started to decompose, slowly right in front of me. He had an evil look in his eyes, and I could feel the anger, the darkness coming from him. But I wasn't scared. I felt strong, and I felt embraced by that good energy that was surrounding me. I could feel it embracing me. I then closed my eyes, and when I opened them, I was alone in my backyard. I saw the devil manifested as my brother that morning, and I know it wasn't a dream. 19 years have passed, and I have never, ever seen that thing again. But that doesn't mean that he hasn't tried in other ways to get to me. When John Keyes and Eva Dickinson were married in Cincinnati on August 21, 1890, they told their relatives that they planned a honeymoon on the Atlantic coast. But John had another plan. He purchased an Ohio River shanty boat and planned a slow trip down river to St. Louis. It would not be their last deception. In fact, what transpired on that fateful journey would remain forever shrouded in mystery. When the boat left Cincinnati, it was carrying four passengers, a friend of John's whom he allegedly introduced to Eva as Billy Moore would be the cook on the trip. At the last minute, John also agreed to take his friend, Bert Rusk, who had taken $115 from his mother and was afraid she was searching for him. John told Rusk to pose as his brother, so it would not look so suspicious, one woman traveling with three men. John was 19 years old. Eva, 17, the other two men were in their early 20s. The boat left Cincinnati and traveled west on the Ohio River, then docked near a group of shanty boats in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. They remained there for several days, then all four passengers disappeared, leaving behind the shanty boat and all their furnishings. Shanty boats on the Ohio River would dock gunwale to gunwale, and what went on in one boat would soon be known by all. Several witnesses had seen three men and a woman take a skiff from Key's boat to the Kentucky shore of the river. Shortly after, one man returned alone. The witnesses heard three gunshots and a scream that heard the man who returned say, Oh dear, my brother has shot his wife. When a body was found floating where Big Bone Creek fed into the Ohio River, it was assumed to be one of the four who had abandoned their shanty boat. It was the corpse of a man, stark naked with a gunshot wound to the chest and a slit throat. The body was hastily buried in an unmarked grave, but later was exhumed for identification. It was first believed that the dead man was Burt Rusk, but when his sister and his uncle saw the corpse, they said it was not Rusk but Billy Fee. Fee, it turned out, often used the alias Moore. The dead man had been the cook of the shanty boat. Warrants were issued for the arrest of John and Eva Keyes and Burt Rusk. In Cincinnati, the police located Eva Keyes who claimed she did not know the whereabouts of Rusk or her husband. She told them of her wedding tour on the shanty boat and confirmed that Billy Moore had been their cook, but she had never known anyone to call him Fee. She said the shots heard on the river were fired by her, practicing with a small rifle her husband owned. The shouting heard was her husband trying to scare her by jokingly pretending to be shot. She said that Moore had left them on Monday and they suspected him of robbing them. Rusk had left them on Wednesday, bound for Cincinnati. The warrant for Eva's arrest had been requested by Billy's brother, Richard Fee, who told a different story. He claimed that Eva had been the wife of his brother Billy. They both disappeared and the next he heard of Eva, she had married John Keyes. John Keyes was arraigned in Lawrenceburg, Indiana and although several witnesses heard the gunshots on the fateful night, none could tell which side of the river they came from, except Thomas South, who said they came from the Kentucky side. The defense offered no evidence but moved for a dismissal for want of jurisdiction and Mayor O'Brien, who presided over the hearing, promptly dismissed the charges. Officers from Petersburg, Kentucky, asked Lawrenceburg to hold him until a requisition could be secured from the governor, but the request was refused. Keyes' attorney said he would give himself up when the proper papers were presented. Eva Keyes was out on bail. In October, John Keyes was arrested again, and Bert Rusk surrendered voluntarily. All three were charged jointly for the murder. Rusk's attorney accused the Cincinnati police of unscrupulous tactics to get him to confess, offering him whiskey to loosen his tongue and falsely telling him that the Keys had accused him of murder. Rusk contended that he had nothing to confess. John Keyes and Bert Rusk agreed to go voluntarily to Kentucky. Eva Keyes was released on her own recognizance and was not expected to be extradited. In January, 1891, Bert Rusk went to authorities in Petersburg, Kentucky, and under oath, confessed to his role in the murder of Billy Fee. He said that on the night of the murder, all four had taken the skiff across the river to the Kentucky side, and John Keyes sat with a .38 caliber revolver, loaded and cocked in his hand. As soon as they got off the skiff, Keyes sent him back to the shanty boat to get a trot line for fishing. When he got to the shanty boat, he heard three shots. Heard Eva scream and heard Fee exclaim, Oh, Johnny, for God's sake, don't kill me. That was when he said to Mrs. Cornes on a nearby shanty boat, my brother has killed his wife. Rusk rode back across the river and saw Fee's clothing saturated with blood. He asked Keyes what happened, and Keyes said, I've killed the SOB, damn him. He knew too much about me, and I've put him out of the way. He's not the first man I've killed, and if you ever say a word about him, I'll kill you. Keyes told him that he and Fee had done up a man in Newport, Kentucky, and was afraid that Fee might give him away. He also said that Fee had courted his wife for two years before they were married, and there was some bad blood over that. When Rusk and the Keyes returned to the shanty boat, they met Thomas South who asked about the shooting. That was when Keyes first told the story of Eva firing the rifle, and trying to fool her into thinking that he was shot. The next day, the Keyes took a train to St. Louis and Rusk went to Cincinnati. Following Keyes' orders, he sent a telegram to John Keyes in care of a third party in Lawrenceburg to throw suspicion off of them, saying that Billy Fee had gone from Cincinnati to Richmond, Indiana. In April 1891, John Keyes was tried alone for the murder of William Fee. In his testimony, Keyes told a different story of the night of the murder. He said that when they reached Lawrenceburg, Rusk claimed he was missing $40 and accused Fee of taking it. Fee denied it, and they continued to quarrel. Twice Keyes had to break up fistfights. Monday evening, they took this gift to Kentucky, and Rusk accompanied Fee to buy provisions to cook a meal. When they returned, they began fighting again. Suddenly, three shots were fired. He heard two or three o-os, then all was still. Eva began to scream, and Rusk came running, saying, Stop that yelling or I'll slap your mouth. John and Eva began to row away in the skiff, and Rusk called for them to wait. Rusk got in the boat while holding the hand of the naked corpse floating in the water. They rode out to the middle of the river, Rusk still holding the hand. Then, when Rusk let him go and the body sank out of sight, Keyes denied that Rusk or anyone else had rowed back to the boat alone. The state had failed to secure any testimony beyond Burt Rusk's, and there was little evidence beyond Rusk's story and Keyes' story. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty, and John Keyes was released. The following August, Eva Keyes filed suit for divorce, citing cruelty and failure to provide. At that time, she said under oath that her husband and another man had murdered Billie Fee. Coming up, Weirdo family member James Pierce brings us a true story of the strange and weird with the story he calls It Came Through the Screen Door. Do you keep a journal or diary? If not, maybe you should consider it. It's been shown that journaling can help you reduce stress, help relieve depression, build self-confidence, it boosts your emotional intelligence, helps with achieving goals, inspires creativity and more. In fact, my friend, S. N. Lenees has created a Weird Darkness-themed journal just for you, full of blank pages for you to use as a diary, make notes for class or office meetings, jot down ideas for that novel you want to write, use it for keeping a mileage log if you travel for business, whatever you want. In fact, she has numerous styles of journals to choose from. Along with the Weird Darkness journal, there's one for dealing with grief, or teacher's notes, for medical residencies, keeping track of your meds or health routine, and several others. Journals make a great gift for others, but it's also a great gift for yourself and your own mental health. No matter what you might want a journal for, my friend Ann has it, and you can see all of our journals, including the one for Weird Darkness on the sponsors and friends page at WeirdDarkness.com. This is a true story that occurred in rural Arkansas, farming country in 1959. We had a hard scrabble 80-acre farm and we made a bare living from it, along with our livestock. We kept chickens, hogs and some dairy cattle. I was seven years old when this incident occurred and it stuck with me all the days of my life. It was also a lasting memory of my dear mother until she passed away. She told me that she thought of what had happened on that summer afternoon almost every day. Later in life, after I had grown up, when we were all alone, I asked her mom, just what was that that came through the screen door and into the kitchen that day so long ago? All she could reply as she gazed at the floor was, I just don't know Jimmy, I just don't know. It was August 1959 and it was hot and humid in Arkansas. The sky was clear with very few clouds in the bright blue sky. My father was out in the back 40, plowing to get ready to plant sugarcane to make a fine money crop of sorghum molasses. Mom knew he'd be gone quite a while so she took out a cold foul-staffed beer, my father forbid alcohol, but she stuck a beer every great once in a while. She brought out the dominoes and began to play at the kitchen table. It was hot so we had the back door open, but the screen door was closed to let any breeze come through. The game was spirited and mom was her usual ace at the game and we gave each other the usual banter as each hand was passed when suddenly I saw mom just freeze. She had dominoes in her hand, eyes staring at the table but she was just frozen. And then she said, Jimmy, be still right now. I knew she meant business and then I saw it too and I froze as well. It came through the screen door and floated into the kitchen at about four feet above the floor and then it stopped, stark still and you could feel that it was observing us. It was a ball of light between the size of a soft ball and a volleyball. It was bright but not overpoweringly bright. It shimmered but it had clearly defined edges. Then it started to move again. It floated through the room some more and then got much closer to us and then froze again. I heard mom say, Jimmy, you be still now here. All I could muster was a week. Yes, ma'am. Once more, I got to say this thing was checking us out. It was alive. It was a living sentient being and I could clearly tell that it was analyzing us. It seemed like forever and then the ball of light began to move again. I thanked God because by this time I was scared to death. It had gotten close to us last time and I was afraid that the next time it was going to actually touch us. As it slowly floated around the room it seemed to notice an electric clock on a new stove my mother had just received. The ball of light circled the clock two or three times and then it made a high pitched zip type sound and a bright flash of light and burning smoke and the ball of light was gone. The clear plastic cover on the stove clock was melted and the clock never worked again. Mom and I did not say a word. We put up the dominoes, she poured out her beer and I left to go hunting and she went back to her chores. We were both shell shocked over this event and did not speak of it for some time. We were just simple hillbilly folk trying to scratch out a living from these hills and when something like this happens it was totally out of our realm of understanding. I've told the story to several people and everyone says ball lightning. Maybe so but there was not a rain cloud in the sky and I'll swear on my mother's grave this thing was alive. It could sense our presence and it knew we were there and it was moving up to us checking us out. There is not a doubt in my mind. I think it was some kind of plasma based electric life form unknown to us. Remember there is always something weird in the darkness. The following stories are taken from various Ask Reddit threads and are all supposedly true. I would always have the same dream. Up until about I was 8 or so, I lived in a really old house that since the beginning of time had been bounced around from relative to relative until eventually my mother had been handed over the keys. It was basically a dump. Two stories, a collapsed balcony on the second level, mold and mildew all over most of the ceilings, one tiny bathroom and the toilet was outside overrun with frogs and spiders and whatever other kind of hell spawned the Australian outback would throw at us. I was terrified as a child, scared of basically everything. I'm much braver now and I probably have this old house to thank for it. I remember as a child that I'd always have the same dream. I'd start in the kitchen, no idea how I got there of course. It was during the day, probably later in the afternoon, nobody was around so naturally I'd go looking for my mother and father. I go to all the normal places. Mum wasn't in the laundry shed or the lounge room, dad wasn't on the patio outside or up the back of the chicken coop and my sister wasn't around either. I was starting to get worried thinking that everyone was gone and they'd left me alone until I heard a noise above me coming from the second floor where the bedrooms are. Relieved, I darted towards the stairs and jumped on the first step. Then I felt it. There was something in the back of my head making me stop. Legs still raised up as I prepared to move on to the second step, something telling me that I shouldn't go up there. Of course this thought was running rampant in my mind, don't go up there, don't go up there, stay down here, don't go up there, there's something up there. Finally my leg dropped before I could reconsider. I pushed myself up those stairs and even though I didn't want to anymore I couldn't stop myself, only slow down. Each step up was taken at an agonizingly slow pace and I wanted so bad just to go back downstairs and find someone, run to my grandparents house and stay with them until my mom was home. But eventually I rounded the corner, leaving only the last few steps leading up to the floor ahead of me. There was nothing there, I couldn't see anything in the stairwell. I started getting hopeful at this point, maybe it's okay, nobody's here, I was just imagining things and it's gonna be fine. I'm still taking the slow steps up when it appears, something's there. I can't actually remember what it was and I never could after I woke up, but it was horrifying beyond belief. I'd always try to close my eyes because that was my thing as a child, if you can't see it then it can't see you. But I could still see it, I couldn't blink, I couldn't shut my eyes, it was like my eyelids weren't working, I didn't even try holding my hands in front of my face but still I couldn't block it out. I could see through my hands and I couldn't do anything, I was frozen, unable to do anything except stare at this thing all but a meter away from me. Whatever I saw, whatever I did for those eight years I was at that house, I had to force myself up the stairs, day or night it was horrifying. My mother sighed and tried to reason with me, my father growled at me and called me a coward and my sister just laughed and said I was retarded. But every time I had to go up those stairs as soon as I hit the top stairwell I had to stop and make sure that I could cover my eyes with my hands or that I could shut my eyes to make sure I wasn't in another dream. Of course it would terrify me most when I'd go to blink and wave my hand in front of my face and it wouldn't work. It had realized I was dreaming. The neighbor. A few years back I rented an apartment from a friend of mine. He'd recently bought it and had it completely renovated. He put it up for sale but couldn't find a buyer so I offered to rent it in the meantime. After moving in I realized there was something wrong with the lady next door. She is about 45 but looked much older. She'd sit up all night listening to Christian radio shows and talking loudly to someone. It got to the point where I couldn't sleep so I went over to her place and asked her to keep it down. She opened her door and I got a quick peek. Her walls all had crosses painted on them in different colors and words like Jesus and angels scribbled everywhere. The windows were painted black letting no light in at all. It was damp, yellow stained, 50 year old carpets, dog poop and cockroaches everywhere. No dog though. I asked her to please keep it down. She just looked at me and shut the door. Then she turned up the radio even louder. The next night I had my girlfriend staying over. I wake up in the middle of the night and see a shadow of a person next to the bed looking at us sleeping. I think I'm hallucinating as I usually do in the dark when I'm sleepy but then the shadow starts talking. It's my neighbor. She's holding something in her hand. She broke in during the night and who knows how long she stood there. You should lock your door at night she says and walks out. Next morning I hear somebody making strange noises below my bedroom window. It's my neighbor talking to herself in tongues. She has a plastic bag in her hand and her rotting dead dog inside. It's hot outside and I can smell death from the bag. At this point I am scared. She's obviously very insane. I go upstairs and knock on another person's door and ask what is going on. This guy is as scared as I am. Apparently she broke into his apartment one evening as well while he was watching TV with his kids. He got up from the couch to get a snack, only to find her behind the couch staring at him holding a power drill. Now I know what was in her hand. At this stage I'm basically pooping myself, like all the cops and they know all about her. Apparently she's a violent schizophrenic and she has not taken her meds. But the can't force her or enter her apartment without her permission because she owns it. The only thing they can do is get her when she goes outside. I sit up for the next two days waiting for her to run out of cigarettes. When I hear her leave at 2 am to go across the road to the 7-Eleven, I call the cops. They have three cars and a special van over in less than two minutes. They restrain her and throw her in the van and drive off to some institution and, in less than a minute, it's like she was never there. I never see her again, but I still have nightmares about her looking at me in my sleep. When Weird Darkness returns, a five-year-old boy, having the time of his life at a carnival, suddenly goes missing. And when found later, there's no evidence whatsoever as to how he got where he was, who took him there, or what happened to him before he was found. Sometimes you feel a bit nutty, especially if you're a weirdo. If that feeling transfers to your taste buds as well, I've got some great news for you. Weird Dark Roast Nutty Mummy Coffee. Wrap your taste buds around this medium dark roast blend with shrouds of almond, honey, and chocolate. Each bag of nutty mummy is exclusive to Weird Darkness and is roasted to order. Then, bandaged, I mean, bagged specifically for you to ensure a maximum freshness for you, your mummy, and anyone else you share it with. Entomb your old coffee and bring your taste buds back from the dead with Weird Dark Roast Nutty Mummy at WeirdDarkness.com slash coffee. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash coffee. September 17, 1988 was set to be one of the happiest days in the brief life of Stephen McCarran. The five-year-old from Hamilton, Scotland was on a week's holiday in air at the home of his aunt and uncle, Lynn and Ian Sneddon. He was eagerly anticipating his visit to Air's Wonder West World Holiday Park, a seaside amusement center featuring rides, games, entertainment, and all the other features guaranteed to thrill the heart of any lively little child. For some three hours, Stephen had the time of his life at the crowded Mary Park, and then, suddenly, the unthinkable happened. While the boy was playing on an escalator, the Sneddons, each thinking that the other was watching him, briefly lost sight of Stephen. Although he was only out of their view for a matter of seconds, it was time enough for him to vanish completely. The increasingly frantic Sneddons quickly searched the park, but found no trace of the child. They then went to the park's security team, who in their turn called police. The hunt for Stephen McCarran was the largest missing child search in Scotland's history. A six-mile radius around the park was searched by hundreds of officers and volunteers. His description was widely circulated. Divers searched local rivers and water tanks. A special helicopter was brought in that had heat-seeking equipment that could detect a body. It all did no good. Stephen appeared to have vanished into dust. The publicity brought in several alleged sightings of the boy. One person claimed to have seen a distressed looking Stephen in a Wonder West World Cafe several hours after he went missing. He was in the company of a middle-aged man. Another park visitor said he saw a boy matching Stephen's description climbing Wonder West World's seven-foot high fence. A number of motorists believed they had seen Stephen walking alone along the Air Turnberry Road about a half hour after the Sneddons last saw him. Whether those reports were credible or not, they were of little help in finding the child. After a few days had passed, the police admitted that they were desperate for leads. The assumption was that Stephen had been kidnapped. He was a happy child with no motive to run away, but that didn't square with the eyewitnesses who claimed to have seen him wandering alone. In any case, where was he? Stephen's loved ones were left tormented by horrible suspense until over two weeks after he vanished when their worst fears were realized. On the afternoon of October 2, a woman was walking her dog in open country near her home at Biosch over six miles from the holiday park. She was stunned to come across the dead body of a little boy. He was lying in a fenced ditch about a half mile away from two farmhouses. When police arrived on the scene, they quickly confirmed that Stephen McCarron had finally been found. He was lying just outside the search area. It was ruled the child had died of exposure. There was no sign that anyone had harmed him in any way. Authorities believed that Stephen had walked to the site alone six miles over some of the most difficult and unappealing countryside in Scotland, full of marshes, hills, gullies and thick woods. A local described it as hellish territory. It would have been hard for a strong adult to walk so far through such an area. For a five-year-old, it seemed virtually impossible. The police came in for a good deal of criticism for not making the search area a wider one. A department spokesperson retorted with, How far do you go? Law enforcement pointed out that their search area had been based on previous experience, as well as professional estimates on how far the boy could possibly have traveled on foot. What happened to Stephen was, quite simply, beyond anything anyone could have imagined. The puzzle of Stephen's disappearance and death was, of course, far from solved. His distraught family insisted that he would not, could not, have walked to this remote site on his own. They believed that someone must have abducted the child and then left him in that ditch to die. His father also highlighted the odd fact that when Stephen's body was found, his socks had been removed and were in his pocket. Mr. McCarran pointed out that his son did not know how to tie his shoes. Not only would it have made little sense for Stephen to take off his shoes, remove his socks and then put his shoes back on, he could not have done it at all. Of course, it makes no sense that anyone else would do it either. The question at the heart of the tragedy, namely, why Stephen would voluntarily leave the park at all, was also impossible to answer. An official inquiry was held in March 1989 before the local sheriff, Neil Gow, after considering the various theories involving foul play that someone had kidnapped Stephen and left him in this remote spot to fare for himself or killed him and then dumped his body in the ditch, Gow ruled that the boy had simply died a strange but completely natural death. Stephen's enterprise and stamina had been seriously underestimated by all concerned. The sheriff concluded that for whatever unknowable reason, the boy had wandered away from the park and continued to hike until he collapsed and died. As far as the authorities were concerned, the case was closed. Case closed, however, does not necessarily mean mystery solved. We'll be spending two hours with Hexen Arcane, sisters Morgan and Celeste Parker. These sexy sirens, these gorgeous ghouls, will be presenting 1972's Moon of the Wolf, starring David Jansen, Barbara Rush and Bradford Dillman. After several locals are viciously murdered, a Louisiana sheriff starts to suspect he might be dealing with a werewolf. Our weirdo watch party is always free to watch online, so grab your popcorn, candy and soda and jump into the fun and even get involved in a live chat as we watch the movie. It's Moon of the Wolf on Saturday, March 2nd, hosted by Hexen Arcane. The show begins at 10 p.m. Eastern, 9 p.m. Central, 8 p.m. Mountain and 7 p.m. Pacific. You can watch a trailer for the film and watch horror hosts and schlocky B-movies anytime, day or night on the Weirdo Watch Party page at WeirdDarkness.com. Weirdos, be sure to click the like button and subscribe to this channel and click the notification bell so you don't miss future videos. I post videos seven days a week, and while you're at it, spread the darkness by sharing this video with someone you know who loves all things strange and macabre. If you want to listen to the podcast, you can find it at WeirdDarkness.com.