Morbid - Episode 372: Listener Tales 52

Episode Date: September 30, 2022

Listener Tales 52!!!! We have imaginary Eric friends, a holocaust survivor tale and a closet man! We’ll leave you hanging with explanations on that last one and if you have a listener tale ...feel free to send it in to Morbidpodcast@gmail.com with “Listener Tale” somewhere in the subject line :)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:30 and more. If you've been wanting to form good habits, break bad ones, and improve motivation, atomic habits written and narrated by James Clear is a great lesson. It'll reshape your mindset on progress and success by helping you develop strategies to transform your habits. New members can try audible free for 30 days. Visit audible.com slash wondery pod or text wondery pod to 500-500 to try audible for free for 30 days.
Starting point is 00:00:52 That's W-O-N-D-E-R-Y-P-O-D. Audible.com slash wondery pod or text wondery pod to 500-500 to try audible for free for 30 days. The Angie's List you know and trust is now Angie, and we're so much more than just a list. We still connect you with top local pros and show you ratings and reviews, but now we also let you compare up front prices on hundreds of projects and book a service instantly. We can even handle the rest of your project from start to finish. So remember, Angie's List is now Angie, And we're here to get your job done right. Get started at Angie.com.
Starting point is 00:01:27 That's ANGI, or download the app today. Hey, weirdos, I'm Ash. And I'm Alina. And this is morbid. Hey everybody, it is a listener tails episode and this one is brought to you by you for you from you and all about you as they all are and it's amazing and we love you. The end. Guys, it's been, um, works. I feel like it's been like a minute since we put out a listener tails episode, but it really hasn't.
Starting point is 00:02:15 No, I think we just like record a lot of things throughout the week. I think that's what it is. We just record a lot of things and then I forget that we just had one. Yeah, last week maybe. We record a lot. What day then I forget that we just had one. Yeah, last week maybe. We were not. Record a lot. What day is it? I don't know. I have a witchy candle going right now and the flame is losing its fucking mind right now.
Starting point is 00:02:34 It's dancing. Well, it's Maybon today. It's Maybon. We're feeling witchy. We're feeling good. It's spooky as fuck. It is pouring. It's thunder earlier.
Starting point is 00:02:44 It was the morning, so we have a little routine. We go to get our coffee before anything else. Yeah, and our favorite barista. And our favorite barista, who's nameway literally don't know. I know, that's really, that's stupid. We have to fix that tomorrow. We need to figure out their name. Yeah, let's do that.
Starting point is 00:03:01 Yeah, let's do that. Let's do that. But we didn't get to see them today anyways. I know, so that wasn't great lame but but yeah We came back from our little coffee run and we closed the door to the house and all of the sudden it was like go Thunder lightning
Starting point is 00:03:17 torrential downpour and it was like that's right. That's right. It was so hot so hot, but yeah So hot. That's right. It was so hot. So hot. So hot. But yeah, it feels just like the weather and the mood and the vibe is right for a listener tale. Yeah, it's the first day of fall.
Starting point is 00:03:32 Let's get it. Yeah, we didn't really theme these ones out because we've done a couple themes so we just figured we'd go rogue. Go rogue a little bit. We'll do some more themes in the future obviously. But today let's do a classic fucking listen to tale. Let's do a classic one.
Starting point is 00:03:46 A classic fucking listen, let's see. No, classic. It's classic. I will say it again, I want to know you. Oh, you know what I wanted to say though? I don't, I like, we'll probably get sued, but like, it feels so classic. You know that song?
Starting point is 00:03:59 Nope. You know that song. You and me, we're magic. No, I literally don't know that song. And I know we have it, because it feels, yeah, it feels. No, I mean, it's not helping, I don't know. Wow, who is it? You know that I don't play that game.
Starting point is 00:04:16 Well, I hate when I like a song, and somebody's like, who sings it, I'm like, I'm no fucking know. I'm sorry I shouldn't have asked that, but how do you do? All right, well, I just started listening to Taylor's very evidently. Would you like to start or would you like me to start? I want you to start. Fine! I want you to do it.
Starting point is 00:04:33 I will. Listen to Taylor's. My mom's twisted murder. True story. Whoa. We should probably like chill out a little. Everybody take it down. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:04:42 Nice calm down, all right? It says, greetings, weirdos. I stumbled across your amazing podcast recently when I was on a date line, Lull, oh, fucking love, date line. And looking for something new to listen to, I'm completely hooked and absolutely love all of your content.
Starting point is 00:04:55 Thank you. Wonderful. I also love the fact that you drop F-bombs like confetti and this should be normalized. Fuck yeah. Fuck yeah. We've done like shows before where we couldn't swear and it feels so foreign.
Starting point is 00:05:08 Yeah, it's very hard. It also just makes me want to scream fuck. Yeah, that's true, you know. Mm-hmm. I have been hooked on all things true crime and murder since 2022 when I became a surviving victim of a violent crime, 2002. 2002, what did I say?
Starting point is 00:05:23 2022, how good. And I'm just in a place of right now. Listen, what did I say? 2022, oh good. And I'm just in a place of right now. Listener Tales is, and also I'm very happy that you survived. Yes. Listener Tales is absolutely one of my favorites, and I learned from-on sentences. Should you read my story, you may use all names.
Starting point is 00:05:49 This was covered in local news outlets and papers. Thank you, Stephanie, a fellow Gemini. Ooh. I love a Gemini. I love a Gemini too. Oh my god, you do. I do. That explains it all.
Starting point is 00:06:01 I love the Capricorn. Oh. All right, getting this story into written word has been healing and rewarding to finally share out loud. Oh, I'm so glad. I know. I'd like to start by saying just because your parents make bad lifestyle choices, you still love them and care for them. It's possible to become an upstanding individual thrive, be educated, and come from white trash. I mean, I'm proof of that. March 29th, 2002, just started as a bad day for me. Yeah, I just started reading
Starting point is 00:06:26 things that I was like, that does not say that. Nope, it doesn't. 2002, I got scared of it. March 29th, 2002 started as just a bad day for my mom Rita. She was almost 20 years into a long, drawn out, crack addiction. It was full of benches arrest. She even made a cop's appearance. Oh, wow. Injuries a cops appearance. Oh wow. injuries sex work and neglect the gentleman's club that she worked out was rated that evening and she was cited to appear in court for solicitation charges She had gotten a ride home with a fellow sex worker friend and decided to have a drink on the way home Alcohol was one of her gateways that always led to weak long vendors
Starting point is 00:07:00 I moved back home a few weeks prior because I was 18, four months pregnant and broke. I was babysitting for a friend of mine when my mom came in drunk, just staggering in. She was shit-faced and blabbering about getting cited. We started arguing because she was cursing and just being belligerent in front of my friends young girls. I had my friend come and get her girls to avoid the chaos of her verbal abuse. I knew my mom was gonna take off and sure enough I saw her leave half attempting to duck down in her friend's car. This was already so traumatic. I know, really so really bad.
Starting point is 00:07:33 The next morning, I jolted awake to the phone ringing. I couldn't place it, but I just had a weird feeling. It was my stepdad Ricky, my mom's live and boyfriend on the line. And he said, get your ass up, get dressed, I'm on my way to get you. He then says to me, someone hurt your mom last night and she's at Vanderbilt. I wasn't shocked, I wasn't as shocked initially because she always, she was always into something. They wouldn't let him go back to see her only immediate family. She was in the critical care unit as a no-information patient the code name, Medidor.
Starting point is 00:08:05 The term means bullfighter. And she fought so hard for the next 13 days. My stepdad and I gave our statements to detectives and was told she must have been beaten with a blunt force object. She had five bleaters on her brain that brought on an emergency, help me out there.
Starting point is 00:08:22 Craniautomy to relieve pressure when she got into the ER. Her brain was swelling. All her oil, oral max, maxillofacial bones were broken. Her hand was broken, later determined broken defensively. She was placed into a medically induced coma and all we could do was wait. However, we couldn't just sit there and do nothing. After all, I spent most of my childhood searching the streets of Nashville for my mom with my stepdad and my little sister, Rika?
Starting point is 00:08:51 Rika? Rika, who was 15 at the time. Oh, I'm so sorry you had to do that. I know. And I'm so, like, she's pregnant as this is happening, too. We had to retrace our steps from the night before, and we were not waiting on the cops to give us info. My parents were motorcycle club type of people and can find their resolutions, if that makes sense. Like the type not to trust the police,
Starting point is 00:09:12 or honestly because of her lifestyle. We thought they would disregard this as another drug addicted sex worker probably getting what she deserves in their eyes, but we were damn good at finding information and tracking someone, because she would go on bids as often. We were left looking for her. We were able to track down and find her movements from the night before.
Starting point is 00:09:31 When my mom came home, of course, her first destination was to find her drug of choice. She found her dealers set up in a sketchy motel room. Her friend that drove her had left her there with the dealer and another user and sex worker. So they did their drugs and then it was time to pay up. The dealer named Cadillac had put my mom and the other woman, we'll call her candy, out on the street and instructed them to go get his money. Oh my god, she's just so bleak. Yeah. It's like these people are humans. He reached over and slapped my mom for added seriousness. Candy was reluctant to help me, but in my stepdad, but would give details each time we found her. She knew detectives were wanting her story, and that's the only thing we could get from her.
Starting point is 00:10:18 She would not testify or anything to that nature due to her current habits, and let's face it, she was scared as hell, it would happen to her as well. Over the next few days, information was getting stale, and my mom's condition was not really improving, but it wasn't getting worse either. The doctors were very transparent and did not give us any kind of hope that she'd recover from this. And if she did, oh, sorry, and if she did, how would she function? She was already a survivor and had survived a tragic motorcycloxidant early in her life when I was just an infant. My mom was a madador and everything that means they decided to slowly pull her from her medically induced state to get her reactions. Her reactions were slow at first and as one could imagine
Starting point is 00:10:59 surviving, surviving not one but two traumatic brain injuries. She began with easy wiggle your toe commands and squeezing of hands of the therapist taking chart notes. Her eyes remained closed and she could not speak, doing to have a tracheonomy and ventilated. When we finally heard back from the detectives, they advised Cadillac was brought in on charges and was questioned and held for hitting my mom that night. The incident remained under investigation.
Starting point is 00:11:26 Meanwhile, my mom was making minor improvements with each day that passed. Each day, there was enough progress for us to remain hopeful for another day. It was the day she opened her eyes that I brought to my knees and full gratitude for all the Jesus and powers that be. I held her so tight with tears streaming down my face
Starting point is 00:11:43 and I hugged her so tight. I could feel the crunching bones in her face as she made a kissing expression. It was a miracle. I've never experienced relief like this before or ever again in my life. She could even hold up three shaky fingers when asked how many children she did have to represent her three girls that she had. Maybe just maybe she was going to make a full recovery. We began talks of scheduling the unbelievable number of surgeries it was going to take to fix
Starting point is 00:12:09 her broken bones. The reconstruction to her maxillofacial bones was also going to be a lot to endure. On the day of her first scheduled surgery, she spiked a fever and the surgery had to be rescheduled. I had an appointment earlier the same morning for my son a gram appointment to determine my baby's gender. Oh, you're going through all of this so much. I was nervous and my wonderful aunt came along and held my hand. It was so bittersweet trying to be happy, but I was hurting inside for my mother. The tech was amazing and let me know that I was having a girl. The first grand child of the family would be a girl. Yay! I was so happy and I couldn't get upstairs to her quick enough. The elevator ride up seemed like it lasted forever. Lots of pink glitter, tiaras,
Starting point is 00:12:50 and baby showers were dancing in my mind. You're gonna make me cry. I know. I already feel it. It quickly faded when I approached my mom's room and she wasn't there. I absolutely freaked out and I couldn't find her. Where did she go? How did they not tell me? I'd been pretty much living on the 10th floor of Vanderbilt Hospital and knew most of the staff at this point. My mom had fallen back into a coma. Only it was from the medicine this time.
Starting point is 00:13:12 She had closed her beautiful eyes and I was not ever going to see them again. Her brain activity faded and the countless machines were quickly added and she was only being kept alive by machines. I was absolutely crushed. Any ounce of hope or shred of a future was ripped from me in that moment. The decision was made and her beautiful light left this world on April 10, 2002.
Starting point is 00:13:34 Even being the family of a victim of circumstance, you truly never really think it's going to happen to you. I mean, this only happens on TV and it can't be real, right? Are the best ways to describe the following days. I left immediately following her burial and was so lost without her. Well, I want to give you a big hug. I do too. As time went by, in court dates for Cadillac we're approaching,
Starting point is 00:13:55 the biggest shock was still yet to come. The detectives have been questioning another suspect on other related charges to those like my mom. When the suspect admits to harming a blonde bitch too, that was in quotes. See, this guy had been a so-called, this guy had been on a so-called mission from God and was beating and killing sex workers. He'd been arrested for attempted murder
Starting point is 00:14:18 on a lady of the evening, and even through her into the Cumberland River after attacking her and leaving her there for dead. If I don't already have to tell you that woman like this are tougher than a coffin nail, she inevitably climbed out of said river and fucking survived. Oh shit.
Starting point is 00:14:34 This check right here gets all my praise and respect. The detectives were completely shocked and my mom immediately came into the mind of detective Abernathy that was conducting this interview. In true crime, CSI fashion, samples were taken from his shoes and his vehicle. However, in real non-television layup, the results took absolutely for fucking ever. Like the detectives told me it was going to take time, but I wasn't expecting almost a year.
Starting point is 00:15:01 The DNA was a match and charges were brought against William Joyce. That was only 25 years old and a father at the time. Wow. In happier news, my daughter was born and has totally changed my world for the best. Oh, I love that. We'll be celebrating her 20th birthday this year on the 20th anniversary of my mother's death. She is all the good things of my mom and none of the bad and I'm truly blessed to be her mom. Oh my God. And even happier news, he ended up having to serve 30 years and serve time at Tien's Brushie Mountain Prison. He begged the DA to move him from there
Starting point is 00:15:33 because his mental health was deteriorating being there. He also added that his bunk was next to Paul Reed. Wow. He said that Paul bothered him so badly that he requested a transfer, which of course was denied. When I spoke to the DA about it, I was like, hell no, deny that shit, because I wanted him to be tormented by an even more sadistic serial killer than himself. Wow. You went through so-
Starting point is 00:15:57 Stephanie. Much. Wow. Oh my god. I am so sorry you went all through all of that and I'm so sorry that you lost your mom at all. Never mind the way that you did lose her. And like while you were bringing your own life
Starting point is 00:16:13 into this world, that's like a terrible, terrible thing to go through. That's terrible, but it sounds like your daughter is like a light. And that you guys have this great relationship. Like that's a great thing. And I bet your mom is watching over you guys. And I bet she's proud of you.
Starting point is 00:16:28 Being a good mom. Totally. Wow. Okay. That was heavy. Thank you for sending that in. I'm really glad that that was like cathartic to you to write down because that makes us feel like it's like easier.
Starting point is 00:16:42 Yeah, exactly. All right, so the next one I'm going to do is a listener tale, 1940 style. Hello, insert a obligatory praise and adoration for the both of you and what you do here. Thank you. Thank you for fueling my insatiable white female interest in murder and such. You guys are great storytellers and I appreciate all the research and thought you put into each case. Thank you. I have attached a double space putt of fun because as an editor, I absolutely hate it when writers send me their work single space. And in a small font, my aging eyes struggle to see. That's the thing, my eyes are so fucking old right now.
Starting point is 00:17:15 That's the problem. If this gets some red on a listener tales episode, I will be elated. Be calm, elated. Be elated. I shall hold onto my butts in great anticipation. All the best, Ana. I hope it's Ana. Ana, Ana? Ana, Ana, Ana. I'm sorry if I'm not saying it. I'm sorry if I'm not saying it. Full place of frozen with that. I really always go to a full place of frozen, but if it's Ana, I'm very sorry. Either way, it's a beautiful name. Ana, Ana.
Starting point is 00:17:41 All right, so let's see. This is a long one, so I'll try to cut to the chase. This may not be your average listener tale. It's not about a murder case or spoopy super-national stuff. I hope that's okay. Of course, I think it technically qualifies as one, however, because it does have to do with mass murder. Not like James Town or Columbine mass murder. It has to do with a different kind of atrocious shit-stain of an event in human history. This is about my Polish grandmother's experience during the Holocaust. Spoiler alert, she survived. So that's quick little trigger warning to everybody.
Starting point is 00:18:17 Yes. This is about the Holocaust. Totally understand if you want to skip forward if this could be a little triggering. Absolutely. But that's that. Side note, Bob Sia, I hope I said that right, means grandmother in Polish, and I will often refer to her as such
Starting point is 00:18:32 throughout this story. Oh, thank you for the pronunciation, Cha. It's pronounced Bob Cha. Okay, cool. Thank you for that. It boils my blood to hear there are people out there today who don't believe the Holocaust even happened. Let me tell you, it's a wild thought.
Starting point is 00:18:47 It doesn't even register as like a real thought process to me. Like people who say that, I'm like, you don't believe that. Like there's no way you actually believe that that didn't happen. You're trying to be, like, you're trying to be different. I don't even know what you're trying to do, but you should stop trying to do whatever it is. So who don't believe the Holocaust even happened that it was exaggerated or that the numbers can't be accurate. It's disturbing beyond belief, and I agree.
Starting point is 00:19:14 Speaking of numbers, my grandmother had a bunch of them forcefully tattooed on her arm. Whoever's reading this out loud, take a deep breath because here comes an anger-induced run-on sentence, okay? As if the lifelong trauma of war, torture, and genocide wasn't enough to remind her of the bullshit she and millions of others had to go through because of one German white supremacist with a stupid ink stain mustache, hell yeah. Yep. Before getting too deep into the Holocaust of it all, let me tell you a little about my grandmother, or at least how I knew her growing up.
Starting point is 00:19:47 Bob's show was an intimidating lady, even before I knew that what she had been through. I know she loved me, but she had this way of making you feel like an utter disappointment without telling you that you were an utter disappointment. We all know at least one person like that. She had a Miranda priestly air about her. I fucking love that.
Starting point is 00:20:04 Or like a super unimpressed cat. Yeah. She might not have been aware that she gave off that vibe and a lot of it could have been in my overthinking head, but I digress. Aside from all that, Bob's show was also a hell of a cook, knitter, linguist, dressmaker, and stubborn overachiever with a naturally high-paying tolerance. If this was a visual, you would have seen my head slowly tilting to Elena. I have a stubborn overachiever with an unnaturally high-paying tolerance both physically and mentally. Thanks for that. Yeah. So it says, let me explain.
Starting point is 00:20:43 One summer when I was 11 or 12 years old, I was going to the lake nearby with some friends, but forgot to grab a beach towel. I had to go back inside my grandma, there's house to get one, and they were stored on the highest shelf in the bathroom. Now, I was a short kid. Did you guys ever have to line up
Starting point is 00:20:59 by height and elementary school for class pictures? I'm feeling this very hard, which was always in the front. I was always, always there. I was always, always there. I was always the kid at the end of the line. Here is a picture of me in kindergarten sitting in the front row. I'm the only kid whose knees
Starting point is 00:21:13 don't reach the edge of the chair. Oh my God, you are so small. Oh, fucking cute. What an adorable little mushroom. Oh my God, I swam squeege. What a little peanut. Anywho, I could barely reach the shelf even when standing on the toilet.
Starting point is 00:21:28 I went to ask my mom for help, but she was on a conference call and she'd me away. Bob show is in the middle of cooking something but offered to help. As she stood on her tiptoes to grab the towel for me, she slipped and fell on the ground hard. The movement caused her to slip a disc and dislocate a part of her spine.
Starting point is 00:21:45 Oh my! You'd assume after the ambulance arrived she was taken to the hospital, right? End of side story? No. No. My mom was still on a call in the other room when they got there. When she was done, here's the scene she walked into. Bob'sia sitting on the floor with her back against the wall, giving orders to the three to four emergency personnel in the kitchen, an 80-something-year-old woman with a broken vertebra, who should be wincing an unthinkable pain, has turned EMTs into sous chefs. Stop it! Telling one to keep stirring the pot and setting the burner to low while the other pre-heats the oven to 375 degrees. Never tell a Polish woman who survived the Holocaust
Starting point is 00:22:25 to just leave her cooking mid-preparation, even if it's to go to the hospital? I hope to possess that energy someday. Now for the main story. Let me preface this by telling you she was not Jewish. A surprising amount of people don't realize there were also hundreds of thousands of non-Jewish prisoners in concentration camps during the Holocaust.
Starting point is 00:22:46 In Bob's case, she was a spy for the Polish underground. The largest underground resistance movement in Nazi-occupied Europe. Wow! Can she get any more impressive? Her assignments included guiding refugees from the Tatra Mountains and delivering intelligence documents to allies as a courier. She was arrested by a Nazi doing the latter. Oh, God.
Starting point is 00:23:09 Couriers were not told what was in these documents because if they were captured, they couldn't give key information to the enemy. The assignment was to take it from point A to point B only. During my grandmother's particular mission, she was to deliver a briefcase of documents to someone at a train station. She sat on a bench at the train station
Starting point is 00:23:27 and placed the briefcase on the ground by her feet. As she waited and minded her own business, a Nazi soldier, perhaps on a prayer trip, walked up to her, accused her of being a sex worker, just because, and arrested her. She was able to kick the briefcase under the bench before being hauled off. Had the Nazi discovered it?
Starting point is 00:23:48 Well, I wouldn't be here writing you this list in her tale right now. Wow. Oh my God, the next fucking sentence. Oh, my whole body just got chills. And that's how she wound up in Auschwitz. Oh my God. She told me stories of a lot of close calls with death there,
Starting point is 00:24:04 including an instance where a Nazi prison guard set a pack of German shepherds on her. When the dogs were instructed to charge at her, they stopped short when they reached her and began whimpering. Maybe they sensed her non-threatening energy? I'm not sure, but yay for dogs being the best, for real. The fact that a group of humans just like, first of all, put people in camps,
Starting point is 00:24:28 but then, I mean, they did things even more terrible than this, but to turn a pack of dogs on a human, like, okay, Ramsay Bolton, are you fucked in the head? I'm, it's horrifying on every single level that something can be horrifying. Like, how collectively was there a group of humans that fucked in the head. I don't know. You see these kind of things start to to form even today like nothing of that magnitude of course, but you see how these ideas suddenly just like people don't
Starting point is 00:24:59 listen to facts. They don't listen to science or reality or anything logical and that's Once it happens, it's really hard to flip the other way and it's so really scary like really scary Remember how I said Bob Cho was an overachiever the woman knew six languages. Oh my god Polish English German Russian Chech and Swedish is that I say it Chech. Is that how you say it, Chech? I don't know if it's Chech or Czech. It's probably Czech. I think it's Czech. I think you're right.
Starting point is 00:25:30 We can look it up. And it's Czech. Yeah. I knew Ash was right. As soon as that came out of my mouth, I was like, that's not right. But also Swedish. And I think it saved her life.
Starting point is 00:25:40 When the Nazi guards learned this, they used her as a translator so they could dull out orders to non-German speaking prisoners in their own language. Fast forward towards the end of the year. As the Nazis learned the Soviets were getting closer in January 1945, they evacuated prisoners to other camps. These were called death marches, because they were moved on foot, and in windowless vehicles in the dead of winter. So many died during the journey, either from the cold starvation or because they were shot by Nazis who deemed them too weak or injured to work, like they were racehorses with broken legs.
Starting point is 00:26:15 My grandmother was in a group being sent to a concentration camp called Ravensbrook. The largest camp for women in the German Reich. One day in the spring of that year, Ravensbrock prisoners were told to pile into buses. Bob's share recognized these buses. They looked exactly like the ones used at the camps to shuttle prisoners to the gas chambers. She thought this was it. After surviving countless near-death experiences during the war, it was now her time to be killed. No one had told them otherwise.
Starting point is 00:26:49 They weren't told a thing except to get on the bus. It was unusually long drive, but when the vehicles stopped and the doors opened, they were greeted in Swedish, not German. They had been rescued by the Swedish Red Cross. Can you imagine that? I can't. I'm not even going to ask, can you imagine that I can't, I'm not even gonna ask can you imagine, because we can't, just like that feeling must have been. Oh, the fear must have been,
Starting point is 00:27:12 and then the feeling of realizing that you were rescued must have been you for the heck. Oh yeah. Bob Shad did not return to Poland after that. It wasn't safe yet since Roosevelt and Churchill basically gave the country to Stalin and the Soviets. She remained in Sweden and met my grandfather shortly after. My grandfather was in a concentration camp during the war as well, but I don't know any
Starting point is 00:27:32 details, neither do his kids. He died before I was born, but my aunt tells me he never spoke of it. After my grandmother was liberated from Ravensbrook by the Swedish Red Cross, she worked as a nurse and social worker for other survivors, my grandfather being one of them. What a badass. They married, had my mom and aunt, and then immigrated to the United States
Starting point is 00:27:53 when my mom was four. My mom says that the day they arrived in America as her earliest memory, it was quite serendipitous as that day was also the 4th of July. Wow. Isn't that one of the most American things you've ever heard? So the 4th means a lot to my mom's side of the family. And every Independence Day, we celebrate the anniversary
Starting point is 00:28:11 of their coming to America. That's my listener tale. Here's a picture of my dog, Jack. He's an eight year old American bully rescue. Keep it weird. Look at Jack and his car. I want to be on his widow nose. Oh my God, we need to ask if we can share this picture
Starting point is 00:28:27 because he's too beautiful not to share with the world. That's a perfect dog. Oh my God, there's two. He keeps scrolling. Oh my God. I love him. Oh my God, guys, I want to give him a treat. I want this baby.
Starting point is 00:28:38 Oh, Jack is beautiful. Wow, that was wild. Anna or Anna? Incredible. I'm sorry that I don't Anna, or Anna, incredible. I'm sorry that I don't have the, like, if I don't know which one is right, either way, Bob'sha, what an amazing lady. Literally, and I just love that she was like, yeah, keep stirring that.
Starting point is 00:28:57 No, that is literally my favorite thing ever. And she was a nurse, a social worker, a spy. Just spoke multiple languages. Just spoke six languages. And then it broke a vertebrae. It was like, yeah, can you stir that? Yeah, I'm cooking something. I can't just leave it.
Starting point is 00:29:11 Yeah. Who do you think we are? She's sitting by a wall, just like, holding on her back on the wall, being like, all right, stir that. She's like, I've been through it. What a badass. Wow.
Starting point is 00:29:20 Thank you for that tale. Even though that wasn't like a typical, like, soup crime tale. The Holocaust is one of the biggest true crimes to ever have been committed on this earth. So yeah. Oh, man. Thank you for that.
Starting point is 00:29:33 Thank you. Hey there, fellow podcast listener, it's Elena. And Ash! And we're taking you back to the days before streaming services. Whoa! You know when you would come home from high school and it was only a few hours until that TV show everyone was watching was about to come on? Well in 1999, that show was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In our podcast with Wondery,
Starting point is 00:30:08 the re-watcher Buffy the Vampire Slayer, we take it back to 1999. So get out your knee high boots and paste that poster of Angel on the wall. It's time to enter the Buffyverse. Some of you avid morbid listeners already know what we've gotten store. Hey, my nose.
Starting point is 00:30:24 Doing this as we sway our way through Buffy's drama, action and romance episode by episode. Slacy, follow the rewatcher, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and add free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. Daaaaaaah! Waaaaaaah! What if you were trafficked into a cult? Over shot nine times.
Starting point is 00:30:50 Or fell in love with a vampire. Or went into a minor surgery and woke up one week later. Paralyzed. What would you do? I'm Whit Missildine, the creator of this is actually happening. A podcast from Wondry that brings you extraordinary true stories of life-changing events told by the people who lived them.
Starting point is 00:31:10 From a young man that dooms his entire future with one choice, to a woman who survived a notorious serial killer, you'll hear their first person account of how they overcame remarkable circumstances. Each episode is an exploration of the human spirit and personal discovery. These haunting accounts sound like Hollywood movies, but I assure you this is actually happening. Followed this is actually happening
Starting point is 00:31:35 wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen, add free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. I'm wondering what you're going to do. All right, our next one is listener tale from the wife of the Michael Malloy book author. Hey! Hey, look at that! Your husband's book was phenomenal! I love that. All right, it says, hey, lady,
Starting point is 00:32:03 so excited to send this your way. You profiled my husband's book many episodes ago, which is how I stumbled upon you. And I've been a loyal listener every single time. I love that. We love Simon. Read his book. Well, yes.
Starting point is 00:32:14 And that's so cool. FYI, all names have been changed except mine and tripod the dogs. Totally fine with me to read my name. But if you need to conceal names for legal reasons or what I have, let me know. And I can cut that out. You don't have to know anymore. It's cool. It's all good. All right. Hi, hello ladies. It's high time we meet since we have been bestie McBesterson's for like a year now
Starting point is 00:32:39 and you don't even know it. I have a true Bestie claim to stake because you profiled my husband's book on your show. I loved his book. I will put it in the show notes for this again, yes. That is a good book. That's a great book and he's awesome. Also just a wild case. Yeah. It's true.
Starting point is 00:32:55 I'm married to Simon Reed of episode 235 fame. You put, wow. That feels like it was like not that long ago. I know. And that's like over a hundred episodes ago. I know that's wild. That's crazy. You profiled his book on the house for your Michael Maloy episode.
Starting point is 00:33:08 Thanks for that by the way. You're welcome, it's great. I couldn't let my husband be the only cool one in the family. And I'm a full, weirdo crew. Yes. So I'm sending you a listener tale. If you read it, my credibility around the dinner table will rise immensely.
Starting point is 00:33:22 PS Alaina read your book in a day and loved it. Oh my God, thank you. That's so cool. That's really cool. So insert gushing here about how great you guys are. Also insert me, a therapist, wanting to do a little mental health check on the book. You can see how you're handling the fame, the pressure,
Starting point is 00:33:37 and the constant immersion in the world, in the worst of humanity, all of it. It gets rough out in these streets. Take care of yourselves, adorable people. Oh my God, I love you. Wow, a few people lately have checked in on us. I know, just like take care of yourself. Yeah, like take care of yourselves.
Starting point is 00:33:51 Like if you need a break, take a break. That's really kind of you to say. That's so sweet. It really is. We're doing okay. Yeah, we're pretty good. We're okay. We're not a few that you stress moments
Starting point is 00:34:00 when we've dealt with it. I mean, I'm always like, I'm always going through a mentee bee. A mentee bee. That's what the kids are calling mental breakdowns now. I love that. It sounds a lot nicer. Like so hot. Like, I'm an a mentee bee right now.
Starting point is 00:34:13 I'm a mentee bee right now. No. Always at a state of mentee bee. Yeah, I'm just basically what we've realized is helping with the mentee bees is just like trying to like look at the gratefulness of it all. Like, it's helping me at least when I get super, super stressed about it. Yeah. I'm like, I'm very grateful that anyone wants to listen to me talk, that anyone wants to read my book, that I get to do this for my joe, like that I have healthy
Starting point is 00:34:38 kiddos that like I'm married to this six foot three tall glass of water. Look at that. Look at all of that. Look at all that. I love it. I was just laughing when you were like, that anybody even wants to read my book. It's true. That up, your book is true.
Starting point is 00:34:52 Your book is great. Thank you. You're great. And there's so much funners. There's so much fun. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Also, the reads are great. Yes.
Starting point is 00:35:02 So I was like, what? You're like the reads? Yes. I have a very bad memory. So I was like, what? You're like the reads? What? I have a very bad memory. So let's set the scene. In my Vagabon 20s, I basically lived all over the Western US, trying to figure out who I was and what the hell I should do with my life.
Starting point is 00:35:17 For two glorious years, I ended up in the beautiful mountain town of, I paused to look it up, and it's Tows. Tows, New Mexico, Tows new Mexico. Tows is a tiny little hippie artist community. I'm on my fucking way. And the most absurdly breathtaking place on Earth. It's also haunted as fuck. So it literally means all of the requirements of a place I'd like to go.
Starting point is 00:35:38 I heard more ghost stories and bizarre happening stories and creepy encounter stories there than I could even remember. Everybody had one. That's not even true. Everyone had like seven. Supposedly, according to the Native American tribe there, Taos was the longest continuously inhabited place in North America. I don't know how many Google feels about that little factoid, but given the crazy numbers of ghost stories there, my money is on the tribal legend.
Starting point is 00:36:03 I wanted to tell you two. I wanted to tell you too. I wanted to tell the two of you, my personal ghosty encounters while I lived there. I'm excited. I'm excited. Very stoked. Let's go. So at one point, I completely looked out and got a month's long house sitting gig at a house called the famous soft drink mansion. That's what she called it.
Starting point is 00:36:20 Ah, yep, yep, I can't read. At a house I called the famous soft drink mansion. I didn't actually call it that. I called it by the soft drinks real name, but I'm afraid that if I write it down, you won't be a leot. A lot to read it on the air. So let's just call it famous soft drink you definitely had before mansion.
Starting point is 00:36:38 I love that. That's hilarious. Could we, we could probably say it, right? Like if we knew it, yeah. In the future, we could say it. To be clear, it was totally not a mansion, just a super nice house, but it sure as hell seemed like a mansion
Starting point is 00:36:48 to my broke 23 year old self, who had spent the last couple of years going from shitty dorm rooms to shitty apartments. And why famous soft drink? Because the lady I was house sitting for was legit a famous soft drink, Aeros, not even kidding. Can you squeeze in an episode about how wrong it is that we were all not born into vast family fortunes, K-thang?
Starting point is 00:37:08 That is a true crime. So anyway, and the Aeros collected weird antiques. Oh, what? Oh, what? Oh, what? My girl. Probably every Aeros needs some sort of bizarre money dumping hobby.
Starting point is 00:37:20 Probably. Like maybe when you go down to pick up your fortune from the inheritance place, you get a report at least one eccentric thing. Oh, you you get a report at least one eccentric thing. Oh, you have to report. At least one eccentric thing you're gonna start doing. That sounds great. I wanna do that.
Starting point is 00:37:32 I don't have an inheritance though. Every couple days, some random box would arrive at the door filled with a creepy crap. Bus of warriors, ancient weapons, artwork that looked like it took a wrong turn on the way to the museum. That kind of stuff. I love it. I mean, I know. That sounds right up your alley. Yeah. Hilariously, I wasn't allowed to touch anything because she didn't trust my jinky self one bit. Instead, I had a literal housekeeper who came once a week and was trained to deal with the
Starting point is 00:37:59 aunties. Wow. Can you imagine? Brokeass me living alone in a giant house with a weekly housekeeper? Times was good, I tell ya. I'm obsessed with you. So the mansion had two hold, I'm dying. So the mansion had a whole two bedroom apartment on the basement level. This apartment had a sorted relationship with the fire code.
Starting point is 00:38:20 As there was just one long, steep stairway down to the apartment and no other entrance or exit. But what apps? Firecodes don't apply to rich people. I'm pretty sure that's in the Constitution. You're like really funny. You are. This was all in the golden days of the late 1900s and turn of the century, 2000s, and internet out in the mountains was rare and a precious dial-up treat. Famous soft drink, Ares, kept her big honking computer in one bedroom of that basement apartment. Ooh, so late one night I went down to check my email as usual. Now, the basement was creepy, not gonna lie. Once some friends had, uh, yeah, once some friends had come to stay, and my big strapping Italian friend from high school said he could
Starting point is 00:38:59 sleep down there. No problem. The vibe didn't scare him one bit. I bet it did. Where did we find our big strapping Italian friend the next morning? Curled up stairs on the green and gold brocade? Brocade. Brocade, living room couch. Why? Because in the middle of the night, he woke up to the distinct feeling that a man was sitting on his chest and trying to choke him. That's all. Just that.
Starting point is 00:39:21 Oh, okay. So anyway. I'm right. So anyway. So anyway, I walked down the long, steep stairs one night as I did most nights Hoping the dial-up would go through and then I'd get just enough internet to check my pop and AOL box Hell yeah, to get to think of me there You walk down the stairs on one side of the apartment then across the living room area Then into the bedrooms on the far side and the middle of the living room couch was area then into the bedrooms on the far side. In the middle of the living room couch, excuse me, in the middle of the living room was a couch, some chairs, and a coffee table
Starting point is 00:39:49 with a bunch of newspapers that lay untouched on top. So I got into the computer room, which is next door to the chest crushing murder ghost bedroom. Oh good! Now just to be clear, the famous soft drink mansion was out in the middle of nowhere, and all directions was sagebrush and nothingness. So when you're living out there and you're in the middle of nowhere. In all directions was sagebrush and nothingness. So when you're living out there and you're in the furthest corner of an illegal basement of a heart man, there's a level of silence that you just don't experience in modern life. I hate that. Yeah, the sound of silence creeps me out.
Starting point is 00:40:18 So the dialup works and I'm sitting in this deep silence in the corner of my bedroom checking my email when I heard it. I can hear that silence. I can hear the silence and then I can hear signing into old-ass computers where it's like, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh. It's like too much sound, like too much. You know who also hates silence and doesn't like loud sounds?
Starting point is 00:40:35 John, Tobias Ford. Tobias Ford. Yeah, he does. Yeah, he told us that. He did. He did. I was like, I stated before that I do not have a memory. Yeah, you don't, it's fine, it's okay.
Starting point is 00:40:46 I was just excited to put that in there, really, it's all that was. I love it. Anytime I could just throw that conversation into another conversation, I'm gonna do it. Yeah, I'll bring up for us in a minute. Yeah, it's fine. All right, clear as day.
Starting point is 00:40:56 That's when she heard it, clear as day. A sound I had heard every day growing up in the 80s. I distinctly heard a man clear his throat, then loudly flip open one of the newspapers. My whole body just went, for the youngins, in olden times, you had to do this flip move every time you turned a newspaper page, and the sound is uniquely only unto itself. Oh my god, I can hear it. I can't do. I can hear that. Yep, I used to live with a lady that fucking loved the newspaper and she would just, hup, hup, hup, yep.
Starting point is 00:41:30 Like, it's got like that kind of vibe to it. It's like, I grew up with two parents who read the paper every day and I knew that sound in my bones. Every part of my body was a adrenaline fire in an instant. I fully thought a murderer was sitting there on that coach taunting me. He'd snuck in, snuck down the stairs, and now here he was, relishing the fact
Starting point is 00:41:49 that my only escape was to somehow run directly past him, all along asked flight of stairs and out into the nothingness of a snowy messa at night. Oh wow. And to be clear, even at 23, I was, ehm, no act. I feel that. My heroic sprint to safety was unlikely at best.
Starting point is 00:42:06 I would have thought that same thing. Same. But I had to try. You did. I crept to the bedroom door. Silence. The air was buzzing. He was waiting.
Starting point is 00:42:16 It was my move. It was. Summarying all my courage, I bolted out at a full run. Probably my first in-stream class. And as you've already guessed, because I fully told you this was a ghost story, there was no one there, no one. I hate the clearing the throat is the thing that gets me. Yeah, because I've heard that before
Starting point is 00:42:37 when it shouldn't happen. When? I've heard like, oh, did I just hear a throat choir? Like, and it's a very distinct sound. And it's so human. That's the thing. It's so human sound. It's like even scarier that like, I hate it.
Starting point is 00:42:50 Yeah. Which was somehow even scarier. I booked it up the stairs full throttle and the newspaper flipping throat clearing old friend choking murder ghost was left to eat my dust. And I never let anyone down there at night again. The mansion has a lot of, had a lot of other stories, including a real prouder one night, doing everything
Starting point is 00:43:10 in his power to get in while I was there alone. But back to the goasties, tell ya. The next story happened way on the other side of town and many months later. A few of us were hanging out one night and my friend Joe got a call that his mom was very ill and he needed to drive the couple hours home, like now. The problem? Joe was pet sitting for his friend Rob's three little, little three-legged rescue dog, tripod. Oh, I'm so obsessed with that name.
Starting point is 00:43:36 I love it. No problem, I said. I can take over the pet sit. Also, do you get why his name tripod? Yeah, he's got three legs. So what? I followed Joe's car in the dark, down several bumpy miles of dirt to get to Rob's small little, again, middle of nowhere, Adobe. Adobe? Adobe. Thank you.
Starting point is 00:43:53 Joe quickly introduced me to tripod through his clothes in a bag and took off. Tripod turned out to be the sweetest, cutest, messiest little rescuement ever, and we bonded on the floor for a while. Finally around midnight, I got into bed. Rob's bed was against one wall and the room had one window next to the bed down by the feet. I hate that. He had no window coverings because I mean bachelor guy. I was just going to say he's a guy. I'm so busy I didn't have a flat sheet taped up and because honestly there was nothing way out there to need privacy from. So I climbed into bed and tripod settled beside me on the floor for all of maybe 12 seconds.
Starting point is 00:44:26 Because as soon as we laid down, we both heard from the absolute nothingness beyond the window, a sound that was clear and loud, and gleeful, and somehow freaking menacing all at the same time. We heard a man whistle, not just once and not like a dog whistle. A full tune. Oh.
Starting point is 00:44:46 A happy little tune. Oh. A tune that was 100% intended, I absolutely know, to let me know that he was there and he was watching. Oh, I hate this. I fucking hate whistling. No, no, no, no, no, nope. I don't like it.
Starting point is 00:45:01 And actually makes me angry. I used to have a boss that would whistle for me. Like there was like the whistle. I hope he's listening right now. I hated that. I hate it. And actually makes me angry. I used to have a boss that would whistle for me. Like there was like the whistle. I hope he's listening right now. I hated that. I hate it. He was probably not listening. But it made me so angry.
Starting point is 00:45:10 But also to this day, if Drew whistles, I'm like, cut the shit. Whoa. I don't like it. My best friend growing up when I was like little, she lived like right next door to me. I know her. And every time that her dad would call her in,
Starting point is 00:45:23 because we would, those were the days. When you could be out until it got dark. Until the street lights came out. Parents didn't really know where you were outside. You were just outside. And my mom would just call me in or my dad would, because he had more of a booming voice. But her dad would do this loud ass whistle
Starting point is 00:45:40 that you could hear. Anytime he needed her, he would just do that. Like, that when it was like this crazy loud whistle. Did he needed her, he would just do that like, that when it was like this crazy loud whistle. Did he do it with his pinkies? Yep, he would do that, but it was with the two fingers. Oh, okay. And it was, every time I think of a whistle, I think of that. I want to learn how to do that one with like the fingers, because I don't like a whistle, but that would be a fun whistle. That would be a fun whistle. I don't like people that whistle a jaunty little tune. Okay, don't do that.
Starting point is 00:46:05 I'm gonna do it. It makes me actually angry. You know how you get a rationally angry at mouth noises? Oh yeah. I get a rationally angry at whistles and many other things. All right. Okay, so that's terrifying though. I hate this.
Starting point is 00:46:17 I hate it so much. Thinking of hearing this outside in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night with no one around is not for me. No, thank you. Not for me, no. Not for me, dog. Not for me, tripod. Immediately, sweet little tripod went full Rambo on all three legs,
Starting point is 00:46:31 telling full attention at the window and grow and growling like Kooja. We love a dog. This wasn't my imagination. Even tripod, new bad news was outside freaking out. I sat up with my back against the wall, so I was next to the window and he couldn't see me. My mind was racing and calculating, but there was no way to cross the room and get out without being on full display. Plus, where was I gonna go? I was alone in a little house in the middle of the night off a windy dirt road out in the mountains. The Whistler kept Whistling off his
Starting point is 00:47:02 jaunty little tune, playing with my nerves like a cat with a mouse tripod barked and growled louder and louder, but the Whistler was unfazed Katie you have no choice. I thought there's nowhere to go You just need to face him and see who you're dealing with while you're bad bitch You are and so I did as fast as I could I flung myself forward so in an so as fast as I could, I flung myself forward. So in an instant, I went from the, beside the window to fully in the window looking out. The exact split second that I did that,
Starting point is 00:47:33 the whistling stopped. The exact second. And who was standing framed in the window? Who? A whole lot of no one. Ooh. My eyes started everywhere around the open land behind the house. There was no way a person could have run or hidden that quickly. a whole lot of no one. Ooh. My eyes started everywhere around the open land
Starting point is 00:47:45 behind the house. There was no way a person could have run or hidden that quickly. There was nothing to even hide behind. He was nowhere. When the whistling stopped, Tripard had stopped growling. And now he sat there looking at me,
Starting point is 00:47:57 head caulked in confusion. What that was? Oh, ho ho ho. Turned a little eye seemed to ask. I didn't honestly know what to do or think. I sure as hell wasn't going outside to investigate. So what to do? But the whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole Happy Tomb. Tripod resumes losing his mind, growling and barking. What is, I wanna know what the tune was. I wish you could tell what song it was. I am just hearing the flow right a song where it's like, can you blow my whistle, baby.
Starting point is 00:48:33 I love that you went there. Here I am thinking of some old-timey tune. It's like a bring-on. You're like, I think it might be flow right. I mean, I don't think it's flow right now, but that's what happened in my head. I love that. Okay, you're like, I think it might be flow-ride. I mean, I don't think it's flow-ride, but that's what happened in my head. I love that. Okay, you bastard.
Starting point is 00:48:48 I thought, this time your mine. I went through the whole ritual again, creeping up to the window pane, staying out of sight. I crouched on my feet so I could launch myself even faster into the moonlit window frame. And again, I heard myself forward and immediate silence. And again, I laid back down and immediate whistling. What?
Starting point is 00:49:07 I'm slightly embarrassed to say that I think I repeated this process three or four more times. Before I finally gave into the fact that I wasn't gonna catch this thing, whatever it was, and it definitely wasn't human. I eventually gave up and just laid in bed still at full alert listening to the whistler and watching tripod, bark, and gristle.
Starting point is 00:49:25 That poor baby must have been exhausted trying to protect me. A girl he had just met an hour before. Oh, tripod. I love him. He's a real hero. And eventually the Whistling just stopped. I have no real sense of how long it went on. And as I laid there, scared in the dark an hour,
Starting point is 00:49:41 or did it just feel that long in my fear? No idea. But finally, the night grew quiet. Tripod laid down and went to sleep, which was my cue that the Wh in hour, or did it just feel that long in my fear? No idea. But finally, the night grew quiet, tripod laid down and went to sleep, which was my cue that the Whistler, whatever it was, was really gone. As a post script, it wasn't until 20 years later, listening to your podcast that I heard about, I say that, right? Yeah, flush pedestrian. I couldn't remember if that was the real name or the actual number. And suddenly, everything about that night made sense. The puzzle pieces all went, click, click, click,
Starting point is 00:50:09 in my brain, as I started voraciously reading just how many stories of ghostly whistlers there are. And holy crap, and my glad I did not go outside. That's all I was thinking about this whole time, and I didn't want to say it. I was like, this sounds like a flesh pedestrian. I hate that so much. I never want that experience. Oh, if you, and I'm not telling to say it. I was like, this sounds like a flesh pedestrian. I hate that so much. I never want that experience.
Starting point is 00:50:25 Oh, if you, and I'm not telling you to do this, because I know a lot of people, this really scares them. If you see videos and stuff that people have posted on TikTok and stuff where they'll speak, it's stuff like, it's no stock. Like my whole body's just like, oh my God, I'm picturing the one that you showed me
Starting point is 00:50:42 like the other day with the woman screaming. And the man was like, mm-hmm. And the horse knew he was like, I mean, the horse got away. Yeah, no, I'm so creeped out. I need it. OK, thank you for keeping it so weird. I'm providing so much weekly entertainment.
Starting point is 00:50:56 And if you just finished reading this on air, thank you for giving cool bragging rights to my husband. Wow, the read household dinner table tonight, I need to know about it. Katie and Simon for life. A Katie and Simon, you guys have a great couple name, I love it. I do.
Starting point is 00:51:10 Kymin. Kymin or Sadie? I like Kymin. You girls truly rock and I hope you keep podcasting for as long as you love it and it feeds your fabulous souls. You're a wonderful human. The fact that you said that instead of, like, forever, it's just so sweet.
Starting point is 00:51:24 That's just really nice. You're a thoughtful therapist and I love you. And also, you're beautiful. I was gonna say that. You also have like incredible teeth and really good hair. Also, can I hire you? You're amazing. Right? I'm like therapist me.
Starting point is 00:51:38 It's therapist me. No, Katie, that was amazing. I was so great. And so fucking scary. So well written. Obviously you are a creative and amazing household. And I appreciate that. Your husband's book was great.
Starting point is 00:51:51 He was wonderful afterwards, like sharing that episode and everything. And I've been keeping in touch with everything that's been going on. So it's really cool to have this happen. And I think actually he had messaged and said, like, my wife is going to be putting in a tail. Oh, shit. And I think actually he had messaged and said like, my wife is gonna be putting in a tail.
Starting point is 00:52:07 And I didn't even know that it was in this. So Debbie chose this organically. Who's Debbie? Deb Deb, thank you. Deb Deb chose this organically without even knowing that. Look at that. That's like Kizmit.
Starting point is 00:52:17 That is some Kizmit. That is a Kizmit. To Deb. I meant to be like, oh, hey, look out for this. But I just hadn't done it yet. So the shit, you picked this episode. Yeah, I picked these. That's wild.
Starting point is 00:52:28 Dan will dead picked these. I just picked them in which episode did you get this? Holy shit. That's crazy. Katie, that was amazing. We love you guys. So good to hear from you and wow. We've been touched. All right, the next one I'm going to read is listener tails, the closet man.
Starting point is 00:52:58 You know this is the entire reason I picked this, this, this, really? That's, yeah. Just that name. Yeah, because it reminded me of, I can't say it, yeah. Yeah. It's Elena's next book for our next My Young Real Events. My Young Escape Me An Idea.
Starting point is 00:53:12 So this says, Hey fam, re-submitting this tale. It is double spaced a PDF, and there's a picture of my puppy. You can use my name also. All the pictures of the dogs. And your name is Lydia. That's my stepmom's name. Beetle juice, Beetle juice, Beetle juice.
Starting point is 00:53:25 Hey friends, I'm resubmitting this listener tail in the proper format. I love you guys. Love the podcast, love you. I'm seeing Ghost live on September 20th, by the way, and I feel like you guys will be there in spirit. That was two days ago, Lydia. You don't even know.
Starting point is 00:53:41 You don't know. You don't know. Alina's like so sad. I'm so sad that I can't see ghosts every single night. It's how I feel after Harry's house, but like very different shows. Very different, but like, I get it. I'm just, I can't, and you know what?
Starting point is 00:53:56 I looked at the September 21, and I think that was like in Ohio. And we're gonna be in Ohio for obsessed fest. And like in like a week. And I was like, oh, we just missed it. I know if it makes you feel that our Lizzo is going to be um in Boston the night we leave for obsessed fest. Oh, that made me it made me start sobbing. It's it's really sad I've that was like one of the I'm so glad that you so you must have seen them. What was that last night? No, night before um
Starting point is 00:54:23 So I'm sure it was an amazing show because our show, or ritual, was phenomenal. A phenomenal. The fire. Oh, the fire. My kids are so sad. My six-year-olds are so sad that they couldn't go to that show. But you guys didn't say hi to them. He did.
Starting point is 00:54:39 We got, it wasn't in the episode. We cut it out. But at the end. It's because, yeah,, it said their names, but I asked them to, I asked Tobias to say, hi to them and said their names. And he also said, I hope you're having a great day. That was like, new. It was adorable.
Starting point is 00:54:55 Such a dad move. It was such a dad move. He was very sweet and they were very excited. When I told them they were like, wait what? They all know, I thought it was Caleb at first. I thought it was Caleb. Did you know who that is? And one of them was like, yeah what? They all thought it was Caleb at first. I thought it was Caleb. Did you know who that is? And one of them was like, yeah, it's Caleb.
Starting point is 00:55:07 And we were like, that's not Caleb. It was like that is not. I was like, they don't sound anything alike. No, that's not. All right. But yeah, that was a really cool moment. But, ghost, you can use my name. It's Lydia.
Starting point is 00:55:18 Good, because I think we've used it 60 times. Lydia, my dog is also important in the story. And she would be pissed if her name was not used. Her name is Winnie. I love that name. Winnie. And she is a giant rot wiler, which is important for this story. Hold on to your butts because I'm about to tell you about the time I made the mistake of moving to Indiana. Oh, oh no. After I graduated from college in my hometown of Huntington, West Virginia, I got into graduate school in Indiana. Just to give you some idea of how big this was, I'm an, oh, you gave me the correct pronunciation
Starting point is 00:55:51 of Appalachian, first generation college student. Meaning I was the first in my family to go to college and first to move out of our little slice of the world. Good for you. What a badass. Good idea. Originally, I was going to tell you about my home invasion story. But then I realized my entire stint in Indiana was chock full of crime.
Starting point is 00:56:09 Oh, good. Also, tell us about the home invasion. We'll always take double listed or tell the news. If you want to even put them in the same one, feel free. Yeah, you can do double parts. Seriously, the day my family drove up to Indiana with me, I was groped by a strange man at McDonald's when we stopped for breakfast. Fuck that.
Starting point is 00:56:24 Ew, fuck that guy. I'll punch him. How are you going to a strange man at McDonald's when we stopped for breakfast. Fuck that. Ew, fuck that guy. I'll punch him. How are you gonna grove somebody at McDonald's? What is wrong with you? My mom had seen the guy eyeing me, but decided it was probably nothing. It wasn't. I decided not to say anything, though,
Starting point is 00:56:37 because I needed to be moved in that evening and if my dad, who is a huge stereotypical Appalachian working man, probably would have gone to jail if he knew. So I scarfed down some hotcakes and didn't tell dad until much later. I'm so sorry, that's fucked up. I know, also, what are hotcakes again?
Starting point is 00:56:53 Hotcakes are those pancakes? Are they? I don't know. I think it's like a different name for pancakes. Maybe. Or like some... Yeah, it made me think of hash browns and I... No, you know what? I actually thought of that too at one point. The McDonald's hash browns are so good. Maybe they are hash browns, let us know.
Starting point is 00:57:09 No, I think, I think you're right, I think it's pancakes. Who knows? The first year was relatively harmless besides the McDonald's incident, but things really started to take a turn in the fall of 2019. At that time, I had gotten a dog, my very first adult dog, all mine, and her name is Winnie. Winnie!
Starting point is 00:57:27 By the time we returned from summer break, I had moved into a bigger apartment with a yard. I didn't know anyone in the entire state of Indiana prior to moving in there, and by the fall of 2019, I only knew the people I was in school with. Therefore, no one knew to tell me that my apartment was positioned very close to a gas station, infamous, infamously known as the scarathon. Oh no. Think marathon station where bad things happen on the regular. Ah, scarathon instead of marathon.
Starting point is 00:57:53 Oh, oh, oh. I found out about this when a maintenance man came to fix my furnace. He said, Honey, do not go outside at night and don't go anywhere without that dog. Oh good. Thank you, maintenance man. What a nice man. Hopefully.
Starting point is 00:58:06 I know. Suddenly I was very grateful for being raised by two country folk who owned a bunch of rotwilers when I was a baby. When he proved to be a great companion. Sure, she has to eat anything I eat. And if I don't give it to her, she will take it. Oh, that was Bailey too. Sure, she's as big as I am.
Starting point is 00:58:22 But immediately, I mean, the first week of school that year, someone broke into my car. This happened twice. Sure, she's as big as I am, but immediately, I mean, the first week of school that year, someone broke into my car. This happened twice. The first time they left the doors open and I was terrified. The second time, they stole a brand new pack of gum, the little apple thing that led me listen to my phone in the car, I remember that, and a tiny coin purse full of pennies. I was most upset about the gum, but rejoiced in the fact that they robbed a grad student and got a pound of pennies for the trouble. The big event happened over Christmas
Starting point is 00:58:49 break in 2019. In short, I went back home for the holidays and have my wisdom teeth removed. Having the bad luck I have, my wisdom teeth were severely impacted. Oh, and my recovery was longer than expected. Fate or whatever magic is responsible for life had my back. I ended up staying a couple days longer than I expected, and my mother at the very last minute decided to come back with me and visit for a while. Me being an absolute idiot joked, well I hope no one has been living in the apartment
Starting point is 00:59:18 while I've been gone. I thought I was so funny. This might be a little long and I'm so sorry if it is. Okay, that is amazing. We get in and immediately I notice some things are off. Oh no. My mom runs in ahead of me to use the bathroom and I walk in to find garbage everywhere.
Starting point is 00:59:35 Empty donut boxes and cups from the scarathon. Oh no. I'm a stress cleaner and I knew I left my kitchen both spotless and smelling like lemons. It started to register that something was wrong. So I walked through the apartment to find that someone had broken in and ransacked the place. They stole my television set, my Xbox, etc. I mean, my house looked like a flat party had gone off like a bomb. My mom came out of the bathroom and said, so why
Starting point is 01:00:02 is there a cigarette in the toilet? I thought maybe you were smoking now and just didn't want to tell me. Oh, she was saying, and that's why there's a cigarette in the toilet. I was like, wait, then I started finding random shit that didn't belong to me. A backpack full of things, cigarette filters, ashes from lit cigarettes, and even a beard trimmer with trimming all over my bathroom. What the fuck? I ran upstairs to find a pile of clothes that didn't belong to me on my bed. Uhhh. I noticed too that the crawl space next to my bed had been left open and my closet door
Starting point is 01:00:36 was shut. No. I gotta go. No. I gotta go. Ho. I'm so stressed. You should know that being a young woman and living alone, I leave my closet door open
Starting point is 01:00:49 at all times and go to great lengths to keep that crawl space door shut. I mean, I would jam tissue paper in the cracks of this thing. That way if someone got in there, I would know about it. I was on my home alone shit. As if things weren't already terrible, I discovered that whoever had been in my house left wet towels in my bed. Still damp, wet-ass towels. You just thrown into the bed all willy-nilly. What the fuck? I-I'm so stressed out by the thought of this. Who just lives in someone's home
Starting point is 01:01:22 while they're not there? I I mean showers and leaves a cigarette. Like these are all just such random things. I'm just, I have, I can't, I cannot. This is long with a candle. I cannot. And I'm so fuked to the fact that they're wet and damp. It means they were just just there. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:01:37 I was in tears, but called 911 and waited for the cops. The maintenance man showed up and to start changing locks too. 45 minutes went by and no one had shown up. I called the second time, but this time I mentioned that I hadn't checked the crawl space or the closet. I love that they let 45 minutes go by anyways. Well, that was when the officer finally came running. As soon as the officer pulled in, I said, before you do anything, can you check the crawl space and the closet upstairs for me?
Starting point is 01:02:03 We go upstairs and Winnie is in her kennel, which is also in the bedroom. The crawl space was empty, but the closet door wouldn't open. What? While we wait for the maintenance man to come open the closet door, we search my bedroom top to bottom. The officer gathered all the possible evidence he could, which included a ziplag bag, lock baggy, full of cocaine. Oh, I'm so stressed out for you right now. Me too. The officer actually picked up the Coke and said, I suppose this isn't yours.
Starting point is 01:02:30 To which I said politely, I politely said no. And he informed me that he was just trying to make me laugh. I assured him I would not be laughing until the closet door was opening. Yeah. We had two piles going of stuff that wasn't mine for the officer to take his evidence. Two piles. This is terrifying. wasn't mine for the officer to take his evidence. Two piles!
Starting point is 01:02:45 This is terrifying. While we waited for the maintenance man to come help with the closet door, we sat and talked at length about my dog and how she was now a little over a hundred pounds and very protective of me. I'm pretty sure I even said, as we waited for the door to be opened, I said, that's where all the good shit must be. They must have hidden stuff in there. Oh, I'm so scared.
Starting point is 01:03:05 The maintenance man had to pry the door knob off the closet and he kept saying something wasn't right. Keep in mind, I was a foot away from the door, sitting on the edge of my bed with the cop next to me. What the fuck? Suddenly, we all heard something drop in the closet and the officer reached for his gun. My heart sank and I thought, fucking great,
Starting point is 01:03:24 bullets are about to fly. The dog started barking. My mother was standing on the foot of the stairs and kept asking, what's wrong? That's when the door shot open and there was a whole ass man in my closet. Oh my God. I could see a pair of dirty boots
Starting point is 01:03:40 peeking out from under my clothes. What the fuck? At first, he resisted and wouldn't come out. I immediately thought he probably had a weapon and I thought, this is it, killed by this gross ass wet towel-loving man. My mom is downstairs shouting about when the maintenance man cuts her off on the stairs and says, do not come up here.
Starting point is 01:04:01 When the officer finally got the man out, he threw him to the ground and told me not to move. The officer was handcuffing him as he lay at my feet. The man said, can I please explain? And my sarcastic traumatized ass said, you can explain anything you want to the dog who's about to eat your fucking face. That's amazing. They rushed him out to the squad car and I leapt over the railing and dropped almost 10 feet to the get my mother. While my mom and I were trying to call my dad who was several states away, the very nice officer took the guy off
Starting point is 01:04:33 and informed me that a lot of people, mostly homeless, had been drifting through my house while I'd been gone. What the fuck? He's just like, hey, by the way, you can just break in here. He's like, is that your house, but like so many other people are there? So many other, someone had been tipped off
Starting point is 01:04:47 that I wasn't home over break. What? To this day, no one knows who did the tipping and how many people were in there. It was the longest day of my life and at the very end of it, we still had to flip my mattress over because wet towels. How did you continue staying there?
Starting point is 01:05:01 It took weeks to get the smell out of the house. I bought loads of false scented candles, bleach and a new vacuum cleaner. I never got my deposit back because of all the cigarette burns and the carpets and holes in the wall. That's not fair at all. I would've been like, hi, check out the part
Starting point is 01:05:17 where the fucking police officer took a man out of my apartment. The man did go to jail and did have possession of things that belonged to me. Weeks later, $60 in cash magically appeared in my apartment. The man did go to jail and did have possession of things that belonged to me. Weeks later, $60 in cash magically appeared in my mailbox. The same cop that worked the break in came back to make a report. According to him, either the guy felt bad or my mailbox had been a drop spot for drug deals. I'm gonna say it's probably the latter.
Starting point is 01:05:41 I am so stressed out by all of this. I was about to leave for dinner with a friend, but before I could leave, I handed the officer the latter. I am so stressed out by all of this. I was about to leave for dinner with a friend, but before I could leave, I handed the officer the money. He said, I don't want that. I replied, but it's evidence. Him, I still don't want it. Keep it.
Starting point is 01:05:54 In the end, my waitress that night got a $60 tip. Nice. For months, right up until the pandemic hit, I ended up going back home to West Virginia. I wouldn't, I would find things, I would find out more things were just gone. Jewelry that belonged to my great aunt before she died. The only expensive jacket I owned.
Starting point is 01:06:12 I also discovered things that were not mine. For example, I discovered a pair of men's wool socks that were so big they went up and over my knees. Girl, why did you put those on? During that winter I wore those socks a lot. In each time I put them on I'd say, thanks for the sock closet pants. Girlfriend! No!
Starting point is 01:06:34 No! I think no! What the fuck is this a thing? And I know you washed them, I hope. But like, Lydia! Thanks for the socks closet, man. No! Oh, Lydia, I know you washed them, I hope. Lydia, Lydia! Thanks for the socks closet, man. No! Oh, Lydia, I love you.
Starting point is 01:06:48 During the final days in the apartment, my car was almost broken into one more time. However, Winnie was outside and met them at the fence. The men ran down the alley and one screamed, that's a big fucking dog. I love that. You're like, yeah, the fucking is. Yeah, the blue the fucking face.
Starting point is 01:07:06 There was also a shooting. Someone's child stole a handgun and let off five or six rounds in the street outside of my house. Oh my god. This happened only days after the break-in. Picture it. Me. A tiny 20-something, wearing only a very large shirt.
Starting point is 01:07:22 Army crawling down the stairs to get to my mom and the dog. It's comical, really. People always say it's amazing how nonchalantly I tell this story. Yeah. But to be fair, everyone I've ever even kind of known has asked me about this story. I still run into people two years later who will be talking to me and then drop everything and go, so that man in your closet, I ever meet you. No, that that's what I'm going to say. That man in your closet. The socks meet. You know that that's what I'm gonna say, and I'm just making it up by- That man in your closet. The socks, Lydia. The socks, Lydia.
Starting point is 01:07:48 Let's talk about the socks. The most important thing I learned from this is that it is so much better to be paranoid and live to talk about it, yes. My mom raised me on true crime and share. Needless to say, when the officer could told me he couldn't believe how well I carried myself and how I knew to make him check the closet first,
Starting point is 01:08:04 I simply said, my mama didn't raise a bitch. Also, I know way too much about murder to ever fall for the old hide in the closet, Kimmyk. I love that. While my mother did not raise a bitch, she didn't raise a young woman who goes to therapy regularly. Smart.
Starting point is 01:08:19 I'm so thankful for your podcast, my mother, share, and all this is my first life met who have treated me so kindly. I mean, I don't know share, but I feel like I know her in the same way I feel like I know you too. Whether you even ever know me or not, you're with me and made a profound impact. Oh, we love you.
Starting point is 01:08:36 We love you, Lydia. I'm attaching a photo of Winnie because I feel like I must. Let's see it. She's still a hero for me. I adopted her because my therapist told me I both needed a companion and deserved one. Oh, you do She's been the greatest dog of my life. I'm attaching a photo of her wearing her stranger things scoops a whole I hat Because I feel like you need to see that I do. Oh my god. Oh, my god Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my dog so fucking much. That's a big fucking dog.
Starting point is 01:09:05 Look at that beautiful baby face though. Is that the bed where the what towels were? Oh my goodness, I just, can we post all of these dogs? We're gonna have to see if we can have permission to post all of them. I hope we can. Because my goodness, they're gonna make everybody's day.
Starting point is 01:09:19 Cutie butts. Winnie! I love her. And I love her so much and I love the chees. Very much would have eaten that man's face. I would travel the world with Winnie. And I love her. I love her so much, and I love the chees. I love the chees. Very much would have eaten that man's face. I would travel the world with Winnie. I would too.
Starting point is 01:09:29 I love her, and I love you, Lydia. That was hilarious, and I'm so glad that you're okay. We got those. You're a smarty pants for going to therapy. You're just about us. You're the bestest. Damn. All right, the next one scares me, and it says,
Starting point is 01:09:43 an imaginary friend from hell. Oh, cool. And I see a bloody palm print. I was just gonna say what's that? Potentially, I'm not sure if that's blood. Hey, weirdo's eek. Totally geeking, I got to say that. Anyways, my name is Lakin, that's a really fucking cool name.
Starting point is 01:09:58 And yes, you can use my name and any name used in this story. I'm from the sunny state of Florida. This is a pretty long story, but I will try to keep it organized and fluid in order for me to do that though, I have to give you a small amount of what happened before the shit so starts.
Starting point is 01:10:12 So shit so shit show. Shit so, wow, bye. So here we go. I've attached a PDF below. Let me find the PDF, hang on. My eye is so itchy. Okay. My eye is itchy. eye is so itchy. Okay. My eye is itchy.
Starting point is 01:10:26 It was so itchy. How an imaginary friend became my hell. I grew up Christian and extremely terrified of anything paranormal, so much so that I'd literally have to sleep with the TV on it all times, because if not, I'd swear I could feel my bed shake and things would randomly crash down with no explanation. I feel that.
Starting point is 01:10:43 I feel that. I lived in an apartment where my bed used to shake when I was younger, and it was scary. It was not great. It was not well-bitch. Then my sister, who's six years younger than me, began having an imaginary friend with this guy named Eric.
Starting point is 01:10:55 I would scream if my kid was like, me and Eric are gonna hang. I'd be like, what's that? My imaginary friend, Eric? Eric? Just Eric? Just gives me boy meets world vibes. Mine was Martha, so I really can't say any.
Starting point is 01:11:07 Mine was Luke fucking Skywalkers. There you go. So let's go. He would constantly get her into trouble. Kind of like Noni Martha. It's Martha. And would tell her to hurt me so she was forbidden to play with Eric. Anyway, my mom remarried 10 years ago and we moved into what I called my dream home.
Starting point is 01:11:23 My whole life, we've constantly moved from house to house, so it felt nice to finally have a home. I was 14 at this time and I'd finally got my own bedroom. We also had this beautiful fireplace with this shiny gold trim. That's all important, I promise. Being so unexplainably fearful of ghosts would always cause me to pray to God,
Starting point is 01:11:40 something along the lines of God. If you want them to be here, they can be. Please just don't let me see them. So anytime I would come home after school and I was all alone, I'd turn on the TV and get my favorite snack and enjoy the piece and quiet before my sugar high baby sister came home and would insist on being the loudest human on earth. Seriously, how could an eight-year-old talk so much? So while enjoying my treat yourself time, I started to get this strange feeling,
Starting point is 01:12:08 this feeling of not being alone, this feeling of being watched. I then started seeing things out of the corner of my eye and the reflection of the shiny gold fireplace trim. I told you it would be important. It is. That went on for a few years, but I convinced myself that I was crazy.
Starting point is 01:12:23 Then any mirrors I put on my walls would fly off and shatter. Ooh, on carpet. Then my best friend and I were walking into the living room, and I turned and looked at her, and there was a little boy, all black figure walking right behind us, but instantly disappeared. Ooh, now I'm a pretty pale human being, same. But I turned so pale, I looked like I was the ghost. We have a fur baby that wouldn't stop going off. A furbie. Oh. I thought you were saying you were a dog that wouldn't stop marking.
Starting point is 01:12:53 We have a furbie. We had a furbie that wouldn't stop going off. Those things are cursed. A little red hand print that was drugged down a page in my twilight book. Oh, that just happened. A voodoo witch doctor who would stand at the edge of my bed. Did I mention I'm originally from Louisiana? Oh, no, you didn't.
Starting point is 01:13:10 And this beautiful lady in white who I literally saw her eyes, but she disappeared as fast as I looked at her. But I'll never forget what she looked like. That led for the first time we had a paranormal team come out and they told us I had been blessed or cursed. What? Would the gift of being a medium and that there's over 20 ghosts in my house all trying
Starting point is 01:13:30 to get to me because I'm a beacon for them and they need my help. What? I just got chills. That's crazy. Remember how I said I would pray that I just didn't want to see the ghosts, but this is my gift. I also need to mention here that in 2010, I lost my eldest sister to a terrible accident.
Starting point is 01:13:48 So my lovely weirdos, this is where the story begins. In June of 2021, my amazing boyfriend and I went on a road trip, not a road trip, one on a trip, to celebrate our two year anniversary. He proposed and we had the most incredible, amazing and peaceful trip. I was the happiest that I'd ever been. And then, when I went home,
Starting point is 01:14:06 I couldn't help but fall into a deep, dark depression. I couldn't understand why, because my life was just beginning, and I was supposed to be the happiest, and it was supposed to be the happiest time in my life. I couldn't even find the mental strength to even straighten up my room. That's when I was woken up at 1.32 a.m. to my door violently shaking without explanation.
Starting point is 01:14:26 Breaking my door handle. Some short time goes on without anything else really happening, but I can't get out of this weird days. One day, I'm staying at my fiance's house, and I get out of the shower, and I'm getting dressed. And my fiance puts out that I have three very long razor-like claw marks across my bum. Ooh, I checked my jeans to see if I could possibly... excuse me. Yeah, to see if I could have possibly been anything from work that ripped my jeans, and I didn't notice, but nothing. So then I instantly became horrified at every move. My fiance started sleeping at my house with me.
Starting point is 01:15:01 God bless his soul, he's a real wife. He sounds it. Here's just a few things that happened while he was house with me. God bless his soul. He's a real wife. He sounds it. Here's just a few things that happened while he was staying with me. I woke up in a panic to what sounded like a bunch of pencils falling all over the ground. There was nothing. That's so specific. I know. And I can hear that sound too. I can't. Oh. My fiancee and I both heard what sounded like a coin being thrown from my closet and bouncing along the floor next to my feet. But there was nothing. Oh. I woke up with my arm in a tremendous amount of pain, and when I looked at it, I had bruises that looked like finger prints.
Starting point is 01:15:30 Oh my god. Noise is all throughout the night would happen and keep me up. The last night before the paranormal team came for the second time, I was trying my hardest to keep my eyes closed and sleep. I felt my pinky finger begin thumping without my control. So I opened my eyes and right in front of my TV, I see a woman with ratty dark hair standing in front of my TV. Oh, so I did what anybody would do.
Starting point is 01:15:54 I don't know what you would do. It's a lot. So I did what anyone would do. And I screamed and I reached over from my fiance to wake the fuck up and saved me from this nightmare. The lady vanished as soon as I touched him, but I couldn't help but shake and cry from fear. When the paranormal team came to the house,
Starting point is 01:16:09 they consisted of the small team and two mediums. I told them what's been going on and they go to my room. Went in there, the medium says, there's someone living in my closet. What the fuck? What the fuck? We didn't mean to theme it, closets. No, what the fuck, someone's been living in my closet
Starting point is 01:16:27 They say something seems to be holding her in there. They find out it's my sister who's been trying to keep who's been trying to keep her in my Closet to protect me what my sister comes through to one of the mediums and tells her that she was the one that bruised my arm and she felt really bad Oh my god trying to wake me up to protect me from what evil was trying to get me. Oh my God, I'm getting like full chills. I am too. The mediums then start talking to the evil spirit and asked what did it want for me and why me. And they said it told them because it wanted to torture me. Oh my God, I'm not kidding you, I'm getting full chills. It's Eric, you know it's Eric, right?
Starting point is 01:17:04 This fucking Eric. Right when they say that, I instantly feel my neck start burning and I have scratch marks on my neck. At the same time, the medium feels a burn mark on the back of her neck, and it looks like a cigarette was being put out right under her hairline. Needless to say, the mediums told me I could no longer stay there.
Starting point is 01:17:22 It was such a violent spirit and hated me. It's Eric. It's Eric. So without any thought, I packed my bags and went to stay at my fiance's family's house. While I was in the room with the team, my fiance got the amazing call that we got accepted for our first home. Oh, that's great. So that was my saving grace within this whole situation. So time goes on and every time I visit, and every time I visited the house, I got better at knowing when I was in danger and when I wasn't. I never stepped foot in my old bedroom. My husband and I moved into our new house and got married. Yay! Then my mom and sister find a new house and move out. So we are there helping them pack and move. When my husband shares
Starting point is 01:18:00 with me this image of a woman he keeps seeing in his head by drawing it. She has rady dark hair and her mouth is all messed up. Oh my god. Oh my god. He shows me in my little sister. She's 18 at this time. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. And she goes, that's Aaron. I knew it. And I I go that's who's living in my closet. I have Showbub's going up my entire fucking body right now. Oh my god. Oh my god. I hate it Katie my sister then explains that her name wasn't actually Eric. She just couldn't pronounce their real name So she just called the Merrick. Oh my god. So this whole time from when I was nine Eric would have my sister hit me with things and hurt me in some way.
Starting point is 01:18:48 And he or she hated me so much that he followed me into my adult life and literally told the mediums I just like to torture her. Oh my God, I'm so stressed out. What the fuck? My know house is safe and I don't feel any spirits here. I've really done everything I can to ensure that nothing evil comes through that front door And I'm finally living the most peaceful life. Thank goodness. I've attached pictures of some of my experiences and to lighten the mood my beautiful family including our Chinchilla Stella, puppy Kylo and Kitty Remi. Thank you lovely ladies for all that you do and as always keep it weird, but not so weird take it away ash
Starting point is 01:19:21 lovely ladies for all that you do, and as always, keep it weird, but not so weird, take it away, Ash. Not so weird that a fucking scary woman named Eric lives in your closet and enjoys torturing you, and it's your little sister's imaginary friend from when you were like nine. XOXO, Lincoln. Lakin!
Starting point is 01:19:36 What the fuck? Did she stop fucking tail? Did she stop coming into your, fucking your fiancee or your husband's like mind? My god, oh my god, you're a little bum with all the Gosh, that's terrible. So you two are beautiful. Oh my god. Okay. What a beautiful couple. Oh my god. You're wedding shoes are so fierce. Do you see the shoes? I do. It won't let me zoom into just the shoes. Those are great. Oh, they're like a business. You guys are so me zoom into just the shoes. Some things. Those are great.
Starting point is 01:20:05 Oh, they look amazing. You guys are so cute. I love your cat. We're just like looking at them. I'm like, oh, you're talking. You know what? And you have beautiful pups and animals. And we should just ask if all of them. And we're going to send emails and see if we can get you guys to say that we can post these. All of them. Because we're supposed to we should put some. Holy shit, Lincoln. Oh my.
Starting point is 01:20:27 That stressed me out. To the maximum degree. My goodness. Should we end on Lincoln? I think so. Yeah, I think Lincoln really took the cake on that one. God. Wow. What a listener till, uh, my installment.
Starting point is 01:20:44 Yeah. That was just like a variety pack, uh, my installment. Yeah. And that was just like a variety pack. Oh, Eric was so creepy. That Eric, uh, oh, I feel like I can see Eric. Oh, I got stuff saying it. Okay, you got to say that. Well, we love you guys so much and we hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird.
Starting point is 01:20:59 But not so weird that any of these things happened to you because wow, this was so scary. Yeah, none of it. Love you. Bye. happening because wow this was so scary. Yeah none of it. Love you. Bye! Hey Prime members, you can listen to morbid, early, and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen ad free with Wondery Plus and Apple podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short
Starting point is 01:21:30 survey at Wondery.com slash survey. If you see this movie, you are an accessory to a crime. Now, on Prime Video, maximum truth. My name is Ritt Klingman. I am an attorney and a political consultant. Some people might say, oh, that guy is a con artist or a fraud or a dirty trickster. Or he can't name all three branches of the government. And they're all. I am simply a truth provider. Ike Barrenholz and Dylan O'Brien star in Maximum Truth,
Starting point is 01:22:17 the story of a documentary film crew following a bumbling political grifter as he tries to take down a U.S. congressional candidate. At this point, we would tries to take down a US Congressional candidate? Maximum Truth Now on Prime Video

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