My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - 452 - Morals & Morale

Episode Date: October 31, 2024

This week, Karen and Georgia cover the 1918 Hammond circus train wreck and the mystery of “The Watcher.”  For our sources and show notes, visit www.myfavoritemurder.com/episodes. Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/3UFCn1g. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I did a long take to my camera if you want to do some sort of, yeah, that one. Spooky. Look at her. Look at us. I dressed up like the Mothman. That's right. My little Mothman costume. And I dressed up like the sweater you brought me.

You did dress up just like the sweater I brought you. I dressed up like a little Mothman. I did. I did. I did. I did. I did. I did. I did. I did. The Mothman. That's right. My little Mothman costume. And I dressed up like the sweater you brought me. You did dress up just like the sweater I brought you. I dressed up like a little bit like Mimi.

Oh, there's a lot of cat hair on that for sure. There's no avoiding it. I mean that is having pets and then bringing clothes anywhere. You just turn around and go, is it like this all the time? That's so embarrassing. Yeah. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to embarrass you. No, no, you're good.

I also dressed up with my enormous zit that just decided to come hang out today. The third league character of this podcast? That's right. I mean, is it one that hurts? Yep. Hurts a lot. Big red bump. Wow.

And it's just fun. And it's fun being in your 40s and still getting enormous fucking zits. Well, it's like your teens are saying, hey, Georgia, don't forget it wasn't just trauma. There was also acne. Right. Keeping it real. Yeah. Keeping it real.

All right. Keep yourself grounded. Okay. I put on a bunch of makeup before this because, of course, we're doing video now. Yeah. And realized that I shouldn't have brought my brand new makeup to try. I should have gone with the old trusty. But it looks good.

Can I fucking take these off? I mean, you can. It looks good. Now I can see you. Yeah, thank you. It looks right. I appreciate it. I didn't do, I did the powder wrong.

Have you tried, there's like new Korean, it's like the foundation, the powder foundation. Oh yes, the cushion. Insane. I love it. Also, it's so exciting, the Korean trend, but especially that stuff, because everything is really pale. Right. Whereas when I was growing up, everything is one and a half shades too dark, because

I was pale. Right. You're already taking the cushion off? It's so hot in here. But see, I still have this shirt on. Oh, yeah. Halloween-ish. And I have these on. Let's pretend they're cat ears.

Yeah, what else would they be? Bat ears, because I was Mothman. Oh, right. Do bats have smaller ears? Don't they? Little, what are they, bat ears? Could we get this zoologist in here, please, Maureen? What do you got? I thought we should share some of our favorite

Halloween memories. Oh. Go ahead. I got nothing. Well, we used to go, and I'm positive, told you this already, but we used to get into the back of my Uncle Steve's truck, which was like a 1935 Peterbilt,

and he would fill it with hay. And then we would all be back there. Like we were going on our own individual hay ride, me, my sister, my cousin Stevie, my cousins Lisa and Cheryl, maybe some other neighborhood kids, because the houses were so far away that we couldn't walk trick-or-treating.

Oh my god. So we had to be driven. And then, I know I told you this, but I've definitely tweeted it. We had this legendary neighbor, Mr. Lewitter, who gave out full-sized candy bars. Oh my god. And we didn't talk to him the rest of the year. Sometimes maybe he'd wave from his driveway, but it wasn't like he was like friends of the family. But man, was he our best friend when we went trick-or-treating.

I'm just like, thank you so much. That is amazing. I wonder, like, you still think about him. That's so wonderful. It's a good thing to remember, like, when you appeal to kids' sense of candy, sense of like the stuff they're into, and you're like, I'm not just gonna go short and fun size and rip you off, I'm going to treasure you because there's only eight of you in this neighborhood. Well, we have hundreds of kids every year come trick or treating in our house

because we just live in one of those neighborhoods, which is so fucking great. I love it so much. But we run out of candy so quickly. And if we did the full-size candy bar, it would be thousands of dollars because there's that many kids. Hey, pony up. Pony up is my people would say. But you know, we do do, Vince does because he's the one who buys it all, buys like little bags of chips instead of just candy. So like sometimes you get a fucking bag of like voodoo

chips in your fucking bag and ring pops, which to me is like the ultimate. That is the best. And also that's the candy that lasts you weeks after. Absolutely. Yeah. Ring pops are like you can go back to that pillowcase in the corner and it keeps on giving. That's right.

I mean, I love Halloween. I do too. All right. Well, since it's Halloween, should we... Eat candy? Yeah. I do too. All right. Well, since it's Halloween, bye. Goodbye. Should we... Eat candy? Yeah. Ooh, candy.

That's right. Wait a second. These are different flavored Kit Kats that are on our fucking table right now. Okay. We have to bust into this. Okay. Yours is different than mine. What's yours?

Witch's Brew Kit Kat. It says it at the very bottom there. What does it say? Crisp wafers in marshmallow flavored cream, naturally and artificially flavored. This is crisp wafers in cinnamon toast flavored cream. Let's eat them way off mic. Okay. Oh, it's orange!

Yours is green! Kit Kat! You did yourself. Nice. Alejandra really went for it. You're trading me the other one. All right, I'm getting a little cinnamon-y. It's a bit crayony.

We're both not totally overwhelmed. Okay, I'm gonna taste yours now. Marshmallow. Tastes like a, tastes sweet. I feel like marshmallow is very subtle. I think the Kit Kat people understand that. Yeah. And they're just like,

let's appeal to the kid's sense of gourmand. I think I like the marshmallow the best. But there's also these Reese's Peanut Butter Cups called Werewolf Tracks. What? Milk chocolate with vanilla cream flavor. So it's chocolate on the bottom, vanilla on the top of the cup,

and then peanut butter in the middle. I'm loving this variety that they're bringing. I know. And then there's some weird Skittles, which I don't care about. Fuck yeah. Shocking lime, ghoulish green apple. Oh, these are Skittles Shrieks, Shriekers.

What does that mean? No idea. You open this and they just start screaming. Okay, now I'm totally sugared up. I'm also having a Coke, which I don't ever do. So I'm going to be like bouncing off the fucking walls. Okay, great. I think that's what we need for podcasting.

That's the fun. Yeah. I'm just going to take one bite of this. Okay, me too. This Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Mm-hmm. Mm, I don't mind that. That's great.

Werewolf tracks? Yeah, werewolf tracks, yeah. Do kids care about like white chocolate and stuff these days? I don't think kids like white chocolate. I think I'm the only person in the world who likes like white chocolate. You and days? I don't think kids like white chocolate. I think I'm the only person in the world who likes white chocolate. You and some German aunt or something.

Totally. Oh my God, I could eat the whole thing. All right, okay. Clear it. Clear the set. Clear the set. Okay, did you hear we're in a fucking Marvel movie? You and I.

Huh? We're in a Marvel movie. I've never gotten past an audition. That's crazy news. What are you talking about? I got a comment on Instagram that was like, we heard you get mentioned in the new Marvel movie, Venom. That's a Tom Hardy movie.

I know. And I was like, I don't know what you're fucking talking about. I forgot. You're in love with Tom Hardy. I thought it was, who's the football player guy? Oh, Tom, the guy from the Patriots. Brady. Brady. And I was like, I don't really like him. No. No. Go Dodgers. I was like, I don't really like him.

No. Go Dodgers. That's a different sport. But we are in Venom when they're walking through a forest. One of the characters says, this is what my favorite murder warned us about. No. Yes, which is like such a deep cut. That means whoever wrote that, like fucking knows who we are.

Look it up, see who wrote it. Stay out of the forest. Vince told me that, told me knows who we are. Look it up, see who wrote it. Stay out of the forest. Vince told me that Tom Brady is... It's not Tom Brady. Who is it? It's Tom Hardy. Tom Hardy is credited as a writer, but he's like, I doubt it.

But he did see us at the iHeart podcast awards, right? No, that's Chris Pine. Fuck. Jesus. I have no interest in heartthrobs or not my thing. Okay, who wrote this? Let's see. So yeah, so it was him and then the writer Kelly Marcel.

So I feel like we've got her to thank. Kelly, if it was you. Oh my God. Like that's deep because stay out of the forest is not like my favorite murder said stay sexy and don't get murdered. It's we're in the forest. This is what my favorite murder warned us about. If it's Tom Hardy, I just want to say to Tom Hardy, I've been wanting to talk to you for

a while, sir. She saw you at the I Heard a Word and she was like, wow, that wasn't you since your FX series, Taboo. I was literally just telling Lily, our development director, have you seen Taboo, the FX series with Tom Hardy? It's so good. I literally was just recommending it. And listen, Tom, if you want a podcast, we're waiting for you. We have so many ideas for you over here. Karen's blushing right now.

It's just that kind of thing where you're just like. We're in a Marvel movie. That is zeitgeist. That's wild. I thought we were, cause we're old. I know we're so old. We've been around. If someone could get that on film in the theater and like send it to us, I want to hear it.

We're going to have you arrested by the FBI because that's actually piracy. Right. Okay. I love, I mean, sorry to be superficial, but. No, it's the sexiest, funnest thing. It's so fun. It's so fun. It's real good and Tom Hardy is real good. Yeah. So tell us if you see that. All right. Well, let's get into the stories then, shall we? Or first, though, no. First, we have a podcast network called Exactly Right Media. Yeah, there's business we have to do. Just because it's a holiday doesn't mean you're

getting out of school early. That's right. So here are some highlights today on spooky Halloween. This week on the Bananas Podcast, Kurt and Scottie are joined by performer and writer Mamrie Hart. Everybody's best friend. You love her, you know her. She's there to chat about the weirdest news out there. Go listen to that.

Mamrie is hilarious. Mamrie is so funny. And then also hilarious comedian Joel Kim Booster is Roz's guest on Ghosted by Roz Hernandez. Rumor has it Joel actually bought a haunted freaking house. So you obviously don't want to miss that episode. On Wicked Words, Kate Winkler Dawson talks to Texas Monthly reporters Karen Jacobs and Rob D'Amico about their podcast Shane and Sally detailing the 1988 disappearance of two teenagers in West Texas. Oh, I love that shit. And also, if you don't know about Texas Monthly,

it's one of the most incredible publications. It makes me so happy that it has survived all of the everything, COVID, shutdowns, journalism, whatever. And that's where our friend Skip Hollinsworth writes a lot. That's right. But what a great, I'm so excited they're making podcasts. Yeah. And then over in the MFM store, we now have a very exciting new enamel pin for all the day one listeners out there. You don't have to prove that you're a day one listener

to buy it, so don't worry about it. So go to myfavoritemurder.com and check out the new day one listener pin. And you can fib a little bit if you want to. That's okay. We don't mind. We don't care. It can be month one listener. It can be year one listener. But you do get an award. And if you haven't noticed, our website's listen page is now searchable, organized by year, and it allows you to find episodes by themes like heroic women or cults or whatever. So we know we have a lot of podcasts. It's very dense. We have a long history. It's difficult. It's problematic. Go get into it. It's yours as well as ours.

You're welcome. And lastly, Nick Terry has outdone himself yet again. There's a new episode of MFM Animated Live on YouTube.com slash exactly right media. It's from Minnesota 290 and it's called Vlad the Bat and it's the perfect way to celebrate Halloween. Also, just real quick, it's October 31st. Scary, scary times. We're all teetering on the edge. Will we turn into a fascist dictator state or will we have the first female black president? Oh my God.

Please let it be the second one. Please. Please make sure you vote because it does matter. It matters so much. Think it through. Yeah. Okay. We don't want to lecture you, but Jesus Christ.

We've been doing this podcast for a while. Let's not repeat ourselves. We've gone through this stuff before. We have. Let's not kid ourselves. Today's episode is sponsored in part by Acorns. You know, as much as we try to save for our future, the present has a way of throwing unplanned expenses at us.

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Okay, you're first. I, today, on Halloween, have a story for you that is horrible, upsetting from the beginning of the 20th century and involves elephants. Oh, no. So, are you ready for me to begin? No. This story begins in the early hours of June 22, 1918, on the railroad tracks just outside

of Hammond, Indiana, about 25 miles south of Chicago. A train from the Hagenbeck Wallace Circus is headed for Hammond, where they're scheduled to put on their famous show and delight families from all around the area. And this big spectacle of entertainment is very much needed at this time in America. The Spanish flu has been ravaging the United States, and then the devastation of World War I is just coming to an end overseas. So of course, back then, it was a very big deal when the circus rolled into town. Journalist Les Standifird writes in Time Magazine, quote, at the industry's peak, the day the

circus came to town ranked with Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the Fourth of July. Banks and businesses closed, schools were dismissed, and an entire populace assembled on early morning main streets to watch the elephants, clowns, and bejeweled entertainers parade from the train station to the circus grounds where the big top was raised to house thousands for afternoon and evening performances. Oh my god, that sounds amazing. But today's Hagenbeck Wallace show will not go on. Instead, the circus' stop in Hammond will go down in history as an enormous tragedy.

This is the story of the 1918 Hammond Circus train wreck. I didn't know about this. Yeah. I think before we get into a horrible tragedy, I'll go ahead and take these off. There's little cat ears that are bobbling on your head. Yeah. All right. So the main sources used in today's research are the book, The Great Circus Trainwreck of 1918, by writer Richard Lytle. And that's heavily cited in this. I love it when Marin reads a book.

Then she just she knows everything about the story. She just tells me every single detail. It's above and beyond. It's great. The rest of the sources are in our show notes. So first let's talk about the Hagenbeck Wallace circus. As Smithsonian magazine reports in the 20th century, quote, the Hagenbeck Wallace circus wasn't the largest show in the country, but it came close. It is very successful in the Midwest, and it rivals the Barnum and Bailey and Ringling

Brothers shows. By 1918, the Hagenbeck Wallace Circus has been around for about a decade, officially starting in 1907 after two pre-existing circuses merged. Benjamin Wallace, who ran the famous Great Wallace Show, purchased the Carl Hagenbeck trained wild animal circus run by an animal trainer named Carl Hagenbeck. So the result of this merger is, of course, a bigger, better circus complete with more acts and more animals. By 1918, the Hagenbeck Wallace Circus is uniquely acclaimed for its incredible elephant acts

as well as an impressive roster of about 250 talented performers. So, of course, as I'm reading the research in this, I get to incredible elephant acts and the depression sets in. So... Yeah. We all know circuses are fucking horrible, right? Like, it's a time and a place and that time and place didn't give a fucking shit about animals. It is. It's Dumbo in hell and it's very sad. So I just want to put a little, point a little finger at that of like, yes, but this story is actually about human tragedy. Okay. So among them is Rosa Rosalind. She's an equestrian who can do things like somersault from one

horse to another. She's the highest paid member of the Hagenbeck Wallace Circus and she's often described as its superstar. She earns $25,000 a year, which in today's money would be... It's 1917, right? 18, yep. 1918. How much was it? 25?

Yep. That's a fucking lot of money. I'm going to go... I'm going to go 150. It's fucking $500,000 a year. Holy shit. She's a true star. Girl. Another huge draw are the Flying Wards, which are a nationally known group of aerialists

who do an amazing trapeze act as they hang dangerously high above the audience. Then there's the three-person strongman act called the Dirks Brothers, though only two of the three performers are actually related. Their act involves incredible stunts, including one where, quote, elephants walk over a bridge held up by the legs of the brothers who are lying on their backs. So, elephants' revenge a little bit. So, of course, there's circus clowns, which I know I should have done a trigger warning because the people who don't like clowns really don't like clowns. Is that a real thing? Yes.

I think there are some people who witnessed clowns at like just that age where no one explained that a man wearing a bunch of white makeup was going to come up and make goofy noises at them. I mean, it, when we were kids, was fucking terrifying, for sure. So I guess. Yeah. It's scary for a reason. Yeah. The film and the book.

And the book. So among those circus clowns is a man named Joe Coyle. He goes by the name Big Joe, and he takes his clowning job very seriously. Years later, he'll tell the Chicago Tribune, quote, being a clown has its serious side. You have to be ingenious. Develop your own makeup and costumes. For example, I have all my costumes copyrighted.

My hats, shoes, even my makeup. Yeah, I've heard that. That's wild. He gets it. He knows. That's IP. Yeah, all right. Protect it. It's your idea. Those are just a few of Hagen Beck Wallace's many performers. Richard Lytle notes that the show had, quote, 25 different acts and was advertising the presence of 60 aerialists, 60 acrobats, 60 horse riders, 50 clowns, 100

dancing girls, adding to that impressive pool of performing talent were the show's seven elephants, lions, tigers, zebras, camels, a hippopotamus, hundreds of draft horses, perhaps as many as 80 horse-drawn wagons, and 20 specially trained trick ponies. Yeah. So, it isn't just the raw talent of these performers or the spectacle of exotic animals that make the Hagenback Wallace Circus so successful, it's also a matter of logistics. As author and journalist Doug Wissing writes, the enormous growth of railroads in the post-Civil

War era fueled the golden age of circuses. Instead of plodding through the mud at 10 miles a day from small town to small town, circuses hitch their rail cars to trains and clatter to cities hundreds of miles apart overnight. So the business of the Hagenbeck Circus booms after they invest in their own train cars and they use railways to crisscross the country, a trend in the circus and carnival world around the turn of the century. According to Smithsonian Magazine, around 100 circuses are operating in the U.S. at the time, and nearly a third of them tour by train.

So that brings us back to June 22, 1918. The Hagenbeck Circus packs up after performing a charity show in Michigan City, Indiana, at the State Penitentiary. Oh, that's nice. We're going over to the pen. Go over to the pen and we're going to do some somersaults off a horse. Yeah, morals are down over the pen. We're just going to stop by.

Morals and morale. This tour has already taken the circus through the Northeast. It's now moving through the Midwest. And the next stop is Hammond, Indiana. The Hagenbeck Wallace crew always travels on two separate trains, which the circus operators purchased secondhand many years ago. Each train has about 25 cars, and they're all made of wood. There's all sorts of equipment and circus infrastructure packed onto both trains, but one of the two also transports all of the circus animals and livestock, along with the people who handle and train them.

And then the other train carries most of the circus staff, including the performers, roustabouts, managers, and their friends and families. So the train with the animals heads out from Michigan City toward Hammond first. It's planning to pass through their destination and head up to the stockyards in Chicago. Then the animals can more easily be fed and watered before the show in Hammond later that day. So they kind of have to go out and away, handle everything, and then come back in. This train cuts through Hammond at around 2.30 in the morning with no incident and then heads up to Chicago.

Around the same time, the second Hagenback-Wallace train, the one that's carrying most of the people, leaves Michigan City. This train has four long sleeping cars, which are mostly lit by kerosene or oil lamps. It's 1918. Just one of those sleeping cars has electrical lighting. So it's right on the verge of that innovation. It's so weird. It's such a weird time. Did you read the book Water for Elephants?

No, I kind of watched three minutes of the movie on a plane. The book is really fucking good and it's like this is, it could take place right now in this story. Because it's all about that. I mean it's interesting to think about it's like this is it could take place right now in this story. Because it's all about that. I mean it's interesting to think about it's like the things that were going around in America and going down and it's like come over here and look at this horse and this elephant and this like and this guy up on a track piece. We have to give these people something. Yeah your life is so boring. The day to day is exactly the same. You're never going to

leave your small town. A bunch of people died of the Spanish flu. Jesus, and went to war. Yes, just intense. So there's somewhere around 400 people on this train. Many are sleeping in bunks. Some of those bunks are stacked three beds high, while the VIP employees have more private accommodations in sleeper-style

compartments. So the family of Joe Coyle, the clown Big Joe, is currently sleeping in a birth that's reserved for family acts. He's been temporarily given this birth because he has guests, his wife Stella and their two young boys, 10-year-old Joe Jr. and their toddler Howard. Big Joe's family is joining him for a few shows and then they're going to go back home to Ohio. The entire Coyle family lives and breathes circus life. Stella's an accomplished bareback writer who used to perform in the same shows as her husband. So it's basically like the bareback writer and the clown fell in love.

Oh my God, I love that. And then the couple's oldest son, Joe Jr., seems to be following in his dad's footsteps. The Cincinnati Enquirer reports, quote, he was practically born under the big top. And the sawdust ring was his first playground. When little Joe was about six weeks old, his mother returned to the circus, joined her husband and continued her work. He was a fine, strong baby. And when he was four years old,

his father gave him a tiny clown suit for a plaything. That's adorable. Really precious. So, the coils, along with everybody else on board this train, are fast asleep until around 3.45 in the morning, when a brakeman notices one of the train's bearings is overheating. Even though they're very close to their destination in

Hammond, the engineer decides it'd be safest to stop and give that bearing time to cool down to prevent a fire. So the engineer pulls the train through a switch where the tracks branch off and then slows the train to a halt. While most of the circus train is now safely positioned on an adjoining set of tracks, the last several cars, the sleeping cars, are still on the main line. Meanwhile, there's a troop train that transports World War I soldiers to East Coast cities for deployment heading down those same tracks.

At the moment, it's empty and an engineer named Alonzo Sargent is at the controls. And he's been working for almost 24 hours straight. And he's getting drowsy. So back on the circus train, the engineer crew is taking all of the routine safety precautions and sending various signals and flares to alert approaching trains to ensure that they have enough time to either reroute to another track or slow down before approaching their stalled train. But the engineer on the troop train hasn't seen any of these warnings because he has

fallen asleep at the wheel. Shit. Yeah. His train has roared past four caution signals and a series of flares. And now he's going about 50 or 60 miles an hour. His train is flying towards the Hagenbach Wallace train. It is worst case scenario, a few minutes before 4 a.m., this all steel troop train slams into the back of the wooden circus train. According to Richard Lytle, quote, The sonic boom of the crash vibrated glass window panes in houses near the tracks and

brought local residents out into the pre-dawn night to see what had caused the noise. This scene was evidently beyond immediate comprehension and the onlookers froze at the edge of the wreck. AMT – Can you imagine like just you've seen nothing in your life basically and then this catastrophe happens right in front of your house. Your day is like flapjacks, hard work, hopefully a little bit of beer at the end of the day, some radio. And you're ten. You're ten. And that's the rest of your fucking life. Rolling your own cigarettes. You're getting ready to go to work in the morning, you're ten. Yeah. Yeah, horrifying. And just like, what could this be? So dozens of passengers are killed instantly.

And the remaining hundreds of sleeping passengers are violently jolted awake into an extremely disorienting and brutal reality. The troop train drills into the back of the circus train three cars deep. The whole wood versus steel thing is just like, it hurts to hear. Three cars deep. The whole wood versus steel thing is just like, hurts to hear. Yeah. Three cars deep. Oh my god. Yeah. Broken beams, boards and beds and most disturbingly bodies are violently hurled forward through the collapsing roofs and mangled walls of the sleeping cars, creating a deadly crush. Yeah. An assistant lighting engineer named Henry Miller later remembers, quote, I was in the last coach, next to the caboose.

I woke up to the sound of splintering wood. I was pounded into the corner of my berth. My scalp was split open. The whole car buckled. It parted down the center as clean as though it had been sliced with a giant knife. Another survivor, I.S. Steinhaus, who handles the circus' props, says this, quote, when I woke up, I thought someone had slugged me one

in the neck. I felt like I was under an apartment building. There was enough wood on me to build a ship. Whoa. End quote. So the sheer force of the troop train slamming into the circus train is of course deadly all on its own But the nightmare is just beginning because shortly after the crash all of the kerosene and oil lamps that light the Hagenbach Wallace

Set the train on fire shit This fire moves quickly throughout the wooden sleeping cars Those who survived the initial impact now have to scramble through sharp pieces of wood and debris Those who survived the initial impact now have to scramble through sharp pieces of wood and debris with serious injuries or in outright shock to escape being consumed by an enormous fire. And when they do escape, many of them turn right back around and risk their lives to pull their loved ones out of the fiery wreckage while men, women, and children are trapped on the train screaming in terror.

Oh, my God. One ticket seller named A.F. Roberts, who manages to get to safety, later remembers that, quote, I saw people burned alive in one great flaming hell of tortured souls and consumed flesh. God, the awfulness of it. And how brave were the injured who aided in the rescues. So, it's 1918. of it, and how brave were the injured who aided in the rescues." So it's 1918. The emergency response is, of course, nothing like it is today.

No 911. There aren't even readily accessible phones to call for help. Instead, basically the only help these people are going to get is whatever they can go and get themselves. At least one crash survivor actually does just that. They just go run for help. And meanwhile, all of the survivors from roustabouts to acrobats and everybody in between, they act as first responders, even though they themselves have just experienced unfathomable

trauma. There's no time to process what's happened. They just begin pulling their friends and coworkers from the wreckage and doing whatever they can to save lives, including Big Joe Coyle. Big Joe was actually thrown from the train during the crash, so he watches as it erupts in flames in front of him, knowing that his wife and boys are still on board. No. A newspaper article written shortly after the crash reports that Big Joe is, quote, badly injured, but he tore hysterically at the wreckage that pinned down his wife and little ones, end quote.

And he keeps doing it even when it's basically assumed that his family has died in that fire. Joe has to be physically pulled out of the burning train. He refuses to give up and he continues fighting to reach them. This desperate blend of panic, courage, and heartbreak repeats over and over. An 18-year-old named Bobby Cottrell, whose family members are bareback riders with the circus, is able to pull his parents to safety, but he's unable to reach his aunt and she dies in the fire. A group of boys named Jimmy Mulvaney, Jay

Kirker, and James Everett, two of whom had literally run away from home to join the circus, quickly mobilize and begin pulling as many of their colleagues as they can from the burning train. It takes about a half an hour for fire engines from Hammond and nearby Gary, Indiana to get to the scene. Half an hour? Yeah, it's like by that time. And even then, they're limited in what they can do. Smithsonian Magazine reports, quote, the only source of water were nearby shallow marshes.

A wrecking crane was also brought to the accident site to dig people out, but it couldn't initially be used because the heat from the fire was too intense." End quote. So still, firefighters try their best to free people from the wreckage until around 445 a.m. when rescue trains start to arrive. They bring more supplies to help fight the fire and carry the wounded back into town where they're diverted to a handful of area hospitals. The call goes out to doctors and nurses who travel in from surrounding towns to treat

this big influx of new patients. The tight-knit nature of the circus crew and their resourcefulness is on display both at the hospital and at the crash site where they continue to help their friends and colleagues. Richard Lytle writes that, quote, acrobats, trapeze performers, and contortionists, the most athletically oriented of the circus staff, had forgotten their priceless legs at the accident site and leaped into small holes in the wreckage

to give aid to those pinned under debris. And at the hospitals, they continued to move the injured wherever necessary. Surviving cowboys from Wild West shows acted as nurses. And at the hospitals, they continued to move the injured wherever necessary. Surviving cowboys from Wild West shows acted as nurses. The hospital staff quickly found that they were quite adept at handling cuts, bruises, and minor burns." So they're just like in there with their people. Doing whatever they can. Kind of like through the whole thing.

Which they themselves, it's like you're not just going to go sit down and take a breath. It's like nope, they're in there like working on it. So around 110 people are injured in this crash and 86 people are killed. Wow. The death toll is likely higher because of the transient nature of the circus. No one really knows for sure how many people were on the train in the first place. I mean it's such a, I kind of love it was like a romantic time where you really could run away and join the circus. That was real.

Yeah. Oh my god, like what if you had seen the circus in this one city and like just jumped on the train because you fell in love with the trapeze artists and you were on the train and no one knew you were there and then... Yep. They think that happened. Yeah. And the reality of those 86 lives lost is absolutely devastating for the Hagenbach Wallace Circus. Among the casualties is a member of the Flying Wards named Jenny Ward Todd, two of the strong men from the Derrick's Brothers Act and tragically, of course, Joel

Coyle's entire family, Stella and his two sons, Joe Jr. and Howard. When medical help, this is horrible, when medical help arrives, Joe's taken away on a stretcher weeping, and he's heard to say, I wish I could have died with them. The steaming train wreckage is eventually cleared from the railway, but it's, of course, a difficult process. It requires a crane, which is terribly gruesome in and of its stealth. Still, spectators come and stand and watch as it's being cleared. The Indianapolis Star reports that, quote, at noon, bodies were still being hauled from the mass. It was impossible to say that the things taken from the burning wreckage were human beings.

Oh, fuck. Of course, the question of who is to blame comes up immediately. A joint investigation by the Interstate Commerce Commission and Indiana Public Service Commission eventually singles out two parties. Of course, one is Alonzo Sargent, the engineer of the troop train, who'd fallen asleep. He is arrested. He's charged... He's alive?

Yeah. He lives through it. Holy shit. His train is steel. Right. Right. So, yeah. You're going to kind of win that one.

But still. So he's arrested. He's charged with manslaughter, but the criminal case against him ends in a mistrial. He'd been working since five in the morning, which could be why the jurors were unable to reach a verdict. I'm sure they got in there and it's like, especially back then, if there was no union, there's no protections, and he was forced to do his job exactly that way,

then, you know, it's a human mistake. He's never retried, but this accident effectively ends his decades-long career on the railroad, and he reportedly struggles with the guilt until his passing in 1942 at the age of 75. What a horrible thing to live with. Just horrible. Meanwhile, the same investigation by the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Indiana Public Service Commission does place some blame with the Hagenbach Wallace Circus itself. While there are still plenty of wooden trains on the tracks at the time, there's a clear understanding that steel cars are much safer and worth investing in. And

the circus, like many traveling shows, saved money by buying older wooden trains for their tours, a decision that wound up costing dozens and dozens and dozens of lives. As they rebuild operations in the coming years, the circus does invest in more expensive steel cars. So it's not like the most cynical thing where they would just go back and replace them. But 125 lawsuits are filed on behalf of the victims for this disaster for damages at top of a million dollars, which is more than $20 million in today's money. On June 26, 1918, four days after the train wreck, a funeral service is held for the victims

at Woodlawn Cemetery outside of Chicago in a section of the cemetery known as Showman's Rest. So the Showman's Rest. So the Showman's League of America, which is a guild for circus and carnival workers, had coincidentally purchased 750 plots here at this cemetery just before this train wrecking happened. Wow. Yeah. Their intention was to create a final resting place for people in the industry who might not have the money or a family to give them a proper burial. So the league's president is quoted as saying, no showman need ever go to a pauper's grave.

Love that. I know. So of the estimated 86 crash victims, 56 are buried at showman's rest and they all get their own headstone. But because some of them were burned beyond recognition or no one actually knew their legal names, these victims were unable to be identified. So it is a mass grave. As museum director Patty Drabing explains in a 2018 Indy Star interview, quote, these

were often people who literally ran off and joined the circus. They might've only been there a few weeks and their names might never have been known. That's like in the mayhem of the crash. It's not like you're sleeping next to your identifying, you know, papers or bag or whatever. It's just mayhem.

Right, and it's like, if it is, and it is like show business, it's like you could be in a different train car that you're not supposed to be in, or you're not a science bot or any number of things to be going on. It's show biz. So because of all that, the headstones often don't include a formal name. Instead they list the victim's circus world nickname, like Baldi or their act four-horse

driver or most devastatingly something more tragic and simple, like an identified male or female. 1,500 people attend this funeral service on June 28th, including Joe Coyle himself, who is just beginning to mourn the loss of his entire family. Joe will eventually return to performing, but only as a down and out quote sad clown who's always dressed in ragged clothes. Just devastating.

He couldn't do the joyful thing he used to do anymore, but he loved it so much that he just needed, like he's doing it as himself, his real feelings. And he can show it, which is kind of maybe cathartic in a way, too, right? Where it's like, you don't have to put on a suit and go back to work and everything's fine. It's like, here's my sorrow. Let me fucking show you. That's right.

And like, do an overdone version of that where it's like watching little kids laugh while he does it. I mean, hopefully that was cathartic. It's so sad. And it also is like, oh, all the clowns that kind of creeped you out. Then you're like, oh, is that why you were creeped out? Because you're like, something's going on back there. Your aura is just like, oh, you're back. So the funeral at Showman's Rest is funded by Hagenback Wallace owner Ed Ballard.

But Ed Ballard is not in attendance. Instead, he's back on the road and he is working to rebuild the circus. According to Richard Lytle, quote, of the 25 acts in the show on June 21st, all but one of them had been affected by this tragedy. Wow. End quote. Ed's behavior might sound shocking or callous, but he knows that if he's going to keep this operational float and continue housing and feeding staff and paying everybody, he has

to do what needs to be done. So he works to borrow performers and equipment from other shows, like the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey, until his staffers are ready to return. And in the end, the circus carries on with the help of its borrowed crew, and they only have to cancel two of its slated performances before they are back. Meanwhile, survivors of the wreck are dealing with serious trauma. When a reporter later asks one of the animal trainers, who is unidentified in the reporting

if any animals were killed, he explains, quote, no ma'am, not an animal was killed. They were all in the first section ahead of the next section. Only people were killed. This place ain't the same. We all aren't here. The actors can't get their minds to work straight. It's all so't here. The actors can't get their minds to work straight. It's all so-so. The lady that trains the lion over there, her name is Millie Jewel, was burned to death.

Her partner ain't half doing his act. He just naturally can't." Yeah. End quote. As hard as Ed Ballard tries, the Hagenbach Wallace circus never fully recovers from the disaster financially or spiritually, and two decades later its operators file for bankruptcy. By the mid-20th century, the golden age of the American circus has faded with the rise of movies and TV. But the allure of the circus

lives on. Nowhere is more the case than ironically at Showman's Rest. You can still visit it today. And legend has it that the area is haunted, with some visitors claiming to hear spooky sounds of ghost animals during their visits. Although, as many articles point out, the source of those noises could be the nearby Brookfield Zoo. Okay, that makes sense. However, if anywhere is haunted,

that place is fucking haunted. For real. You know. For real. But even more than a memorial or a paranormal hotspot, Showman's Rest stands as a tribute to the circus, an industry that offered so many people more than just a paycheck or a place to live. For many people, the circus was their chosen home.

Where it didn't matter who you were or where you came from, that home came with a built-in family. A ceremony is held at Showman's Rest every Memorial Day that honors the victims of the 1918 Hammond crash, along with the many other performers and roustabouts who are buried there. The village of Oak Park in Illinois, which is very close to Woodlawn Cemetery, notes on its website that this event, quote, is a time to reflect on the lives and legacies of these performers, whose dedication to bringing joy and wonder to audiences shaped an important chapter in American entertainment history.

The Memorial Day service is a solemn yet celebratory occasion filled with stories of life under the big top, ensuring that the spirit of the circus lives on even as the performers themselves have passed. And that is the story of the devastating Hammond Circus train wreck of 1918. Holy shit. Had you ever heard of that? No. It's so crazy.

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Okay, my turn. Great job. Thank you, kindly. So I have a perfectly Halloween, spooky, but not gruesome, creepy story to tell you. Great. And it happened kind of recently. It's a story that inspired the Netflix series The Watcher. Oh, yes. Did you watch it with Naomi Campbell, right? Nope, not Naomi Campbell. Naomi. Jennifer Coolidge? Watts. Yes. I mean, how epic would it have

been if Naomi Campbell started it? She's just doing like super cunty walks back and forth down that street. Hell yeah. How dare you stare at my house? Ugh, please someone make that. So the series is only very loosely based on actual events, but what happened is still creepy and fascinating and as of yet unresolved. Yes, you love that. I love an unresolved.

So this is the story of The Watcher. The main source for the story is a reporting in New York magazine by Reeves Wiedemann. And the rest of the sources can be found in the show notes. Okay, we're in Westfield, New Jersey. It's June of 2014, like posh, high-end neighborhood. It's a New York City suburb. It's one of the wealthier higher end ones in New Jersey. It has lots of beautiful old houses.

But it's a little spooky too because the man who created the Addams Family cartoons actually was from Westfield and he based the house that the Addams Family lived in off one of those Victorians that they have in town. So like, gorgeous. Perfect. So it's a lovely late spring evening and a man named Derek Broadus is busy painting one of the rooms of the house his family has just

bought. The house is on a street that's just called the Boulevard. Which is like fancy. Sheesh. Pinky out. And it's full of tasteful, beautifully maintained old houses. It's got these long sidewalks. It's just really gorgeous. And the Broaddus's family's new street address is just 657 Boulevard. Like that's the name of the street. I just love that like long sidewalks are so good. They're so sweet. As opposed to what? That they stop a bunch?

I don't know. I don't know what Ali meant by that. I'm thinking of like in the valley, there's a lot of places that just don't have sidewalks, right? Because they're so... Are there? Yeah, it's just like road and then I don't know. Yeah, I get it.

Yeah. So I guess sidewalks are fucking like for rich people? I wouldn't know. I'm from the country. We did not have sidewalks. All we had were sidewalks in the suburbs. Okay. The house is about 100 years old.

It's a six-bedroom Dutch colonial, similar to the Amityville Horror House. So, picture that. That looks like it has two eyes. You know what I mean? Got you. So creepy. The Broaddus family has just purchased the house for a terrifying $1.3 million. The spookiest number of all.

Yeah. Which in today's money, so 1.3 in 2014. This is harder, I feel like almost, because you can't just leap, you know. Yes, that's true. We really have to be reasonable with our estimations. Two, five. One, seven. Just kidding.

You know, inflation. Deris Broadus grew up in a working class town in Maine, but has done very well for himself and is now a senior vice president at an insurance company in Manhattan. Derek and Maria have three children who are 10, 8, and 5. And the family already lives in Westfield in a house they're about to sell. And Maria is actually from that town, so her parents live nearby. So nothing bananas there. The Broaddus' plan is to live in their old house for a few

more months while they complete those fucking pesky renovations. Everyone hates them. They haven't changed their address yet. So on that June night when Derek is painting, there's not a ton of mail, just some junk mail that's piled up. He finishes his work for the night and brings a stack of the mail in and goes through it. Tucked in with a few bills is an envelope, the kind that you send a greeting card with, and it's addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Broaddus, but the last name is misspelled. So it's just kind of spelled a little bit different as if someone just heard it and just took a guess at it and got it wrong.

Okay. The handwriting is shaky, like a child or old person wrote it. Or a nervous child. Nervous old child. N person wrote it. Or a nervous child. Nervous old child. A nervous elderly child. The worst and spittiest kind. The most terrifying fucking thing on the planet. Think of it.

A nervous elderly child. Like gray hair, crouched over, Legos. Legos. Okay, inside is a typed letter and it reads, quote, dearest new neighbor at 657 Boulevard, allow me to welcome you to the neighborhood. Oh, great so far. Sounds great. I'm really open to whatever this card has to say.

657 Boulevard has been the subject of my family for decades now. And as it approaches its 110th birthday, I have been put in charge of watching and waiting for its second coming." Okay, you're starting to get a little nervous, right? Like a little what? Second coming of a house? Mm-hmm. My grandfather watched the house in the 1920s and my father watched in the 1960s. It is now my time. Do you know the history of the house? Do you know what lies within the walls of 657 Boulevard? Why are you here? I will find out."

Okay, so you're already like running for the hills. I mean, but also this spookiness isn't really staying on track. No. So it's like, is it in the walls? Why would it be the new people who moved in's like problem? Why are they doing something to you? And why do you need to watch it? Like, what's the deal? If there's something in the walls, then like, what? Okay, it goes on.

Do you need to fill the house with the young blood I requested? Better for me. Was your old house too small for the growing family or was it greed to bring me your children? Once I know their names, I will call to them and draw them to me. Uh-oh. Yeah, you're involving the children now, you know? Who am I? There are hundreds and hundreds of cars that drive by 657 Boulevard each day.

Maybe I'm in one. Look at all the windows you can see from 657 Boulevard. Maybe I'm in one. Look out at any of the many windows in 657 Boulevard and all the people who stroll by each day. Maybe I am one. Welcome, my friends, welcome. Let the party begin, end quote. Little my friends, welcome, let the party begin."

End quote. A little hacky, a little corny. A little corny. A little heavy handed. Still not what you want to fucking see. Absolutely not in any way. But it made me go, when they first said cars driving by and like windows or whatever, it's like, oh, you live nowhere near this house.

Oh, you think? That's what you got? Sure. Just like trying to make it seem like I'm there watching. And it's like, or are you like seven miles away trying to write a scary card? Right. And underneath is signed in cursive, the watcher. They name themselves, they give themselves a nickname. No one's scary if they give themselves a fucking nickname.

Right. Everyone knows that. So Derek though freaks out. He runs around the house turning off all the lights. He calls the police and an officer comes over but, you know, can't really do much. You know, the family doesn't have any enemies. And so, that night, Derek tells his wife Maria about the letter, which is like, why did you tell her? You're going to, like, scare the shit out of her. Yeah, but if she doesn't know, then you're in trouble, too.

Absolutely. I mean, yeah, I wouldn't want Vince to tell me. They email the previous owners of the house that they had just bought it from and tell them about the letter and are like, do you know who it could be from? And the woman, Andrea Woods, says that they never got a letter in the 23 years they lived in the house until right before they moved out. So after it was listed for sale but before the house was closed on. And the note had been weird again, had referenced young blood,

but she and her husband threw it away without thinking too much about it. Like yeah, don't tell the people who are just putting in an offer. Right. Certainly not. You don't have to. That's just a card. Bye. Bye. We're out. Well, the Brottices can't stop thinking about this letter. The couple is on high alert, and at one point they're showing the house to a new neighbor, and that neighbor uses the phrase, young blood, in reference to the children. What have you ever heard or said

someone be like, oh, those little young bloods? No. No. That's just like a media red flag. And is that the Jennifer Coolidge character in the TV show? I think she's the real estate agent. Oh, okay. If I remember correctly. I don't know what you're saying.

So I would, if I were Naomi Watts, I'd never stop being suspicious of that person. Yeah. Who says that? But what if it's like multiple people and they just like don't like this family and they're like, you don't belong in this neighborhood. It's like everyone's against us. Yeah. Let's scare them away.

But why? Yeah. So the scare them away. But why? Yeah. So the next letter arrives. Wait, I have a theory of why. Do it. The people who sold wish they didn't sell lied about getting a card themselves. So then that makes it look like they're also victims. It's hard to, right?

And then it's like, actually, we want you out so we can get back in. Okay, but it doesn't match the end. So great idea. I love the idea. I'm going to pout for the rest of your story. I don't care. But I do want to hear what you think. And I think to me it's kind of obvious, but whatever. Okay. The next letter arrives two weeks later. So at the end of June or beginning of July, this is a distinctly threatening tone now. It mentions the contractors who have been

working on the house and ask, quote, have they found what's in the walls yet? Is it black mold? That's the fucking most terrifying thing. You can find it. I truly fully agree. Yeah. It says in time they will, end quote. And it also references one of the broadest kids painting at an easel on the front porch. So they definitely have at least driven by and seen them. Yes, you're right.

Then it goes on to say, quote, 657 Boulevard is anxious for you to move in. It has been years and years since the young blood ruled the hallways of the house. Have you found all of the secrets it holds yet? Will the young blood play in the basement or are they too afraid to go down there? I would be very afraid if I were them.

It is far away from the rest of the house. If you were upstairs, you would never hear them scream." No, I don't like this card at all. No, this one's worse. And then it goes on, will they sleep in the attic or will you all sleep on the second floor? Who has the bedrooms facing the street? I'll know as soon as you move in. It will help me to know who is in which bedroom, then I can plan better. So, fuck you. Yeah. Is it like the son of the family from before who knows the whole layout

and is just being a weirdo and maybe put some stuff in the walls himself? Just fucking with him? So it goes on and then it says, have a happy moving in day, you know I will be watching end quote. Wow. Derek and Maria stopped taking their kids to the house

after the second letter arrives. Obviously remember they haven't moved in yet. They give this one to the police as well, but continue to keep everything a secret from their neighbors, all of whom are suspects. They attend a neighborhood barbecue and find out that the family in the house immediately next to theirs is a little colorful. In that neighboring house, a 90-year-old matriarch lives there with four of her grown children. They're in their like 60s at this point.

And they've all been there since the 1960s, like the letter writer indicated. Additionally, the letter writer said that they had been watching the house for almost two decades after taking over for their father. And the family patriarch in this house next door had died 12 years earlier. So the timing lines up. To me, it's like, boom. Right? It turns out that this family was one of the first the Westfield police thought of. They were like, hey, it's these guys. The police had interviewed one of the adult sons

and this man had been known to trespass and look in windows in the past. But later we learn that he's been managing schizophrenia since he was a young adult. And when he looks in windows, he's actually interested in the renovations in unoccupied houses, not at peeping at people. But it still seems close to the motive of the watcher. But this man's never been a physical threat to anyone, and he denies having anything to do with the letters.

Some people will always think that this family had something to do with them. It's the only house that's been occupied by the same family for as long as the letter writer claims to have been around and also has a good view of the Bratises' home. Both letters had been sent through the mail and had been postmarked in Kearney, New Jersey. And the first letter had been sent three days before the sale of the house had been made public, which also suggests to investigators that the letter writer is someone local who, like, knew who was moving in. Yeah. You know, because they already had their name before it even got in public. And all the neighbors, when they know, like, a house is up for sale, and then would selling, ask about stuff, talk to either the family or the real estate agent.

Yeah. Totally. Okay. So at the end of July, the third letter arrives. This one points out that the family is barely spending any time at the new house and asks, quote, where have you gone to? 657 Boulevard misses you. And then six months pass and the renovations are finished, but the bradises fucking give

it a hard hell no, and they never move into the house. Oh my God. And they did like crazy renovations to make it their dream home. They sell their old place that they had been living at in Westfield, but they move in with Maria's parents. They just didn't want to bring children to this house, you know, obviously, right? Yeah, right.

So they're trying to get this mystery solved. But soon it looks like it's not going to happen, like no one really cares that much about it. And so the brotuses decide to put the house back on the market, which would be where your theory comes in and would be so spot on, right? They first list the house in early 2015 for 1.5 million to reflect those costly renovations that they've done. But already there are a lot of rumors circulating and anyone who views the house can see that it was only purchased six months prior, which will make any buyer go, what the fuck is wrong

with this house? Right? And that's when the whole story starts to come out publicly. The family gets a few lowball offers for the house, but they don't want to take such a huge financial hit. The brotuses then file a lawsuit against the Woodses, the family who had just sold it to them. Who didn't disclose. Yeah. The brotuses say that the Woodses should have disclosed that first letter they got

right before they closed on sale. The lawsuit is eventually dismissed. Which I wonder like, I guess it was like threatening and they did something, maybe it wouldn't have been dismissed, but like nothing had happened. Yeah and it's kind of just like we got a weird card. Yeah. There's no law that says we have to tell you about every weird card we got. Totally. It makes me think of there's this one story I heard about this house that had been bought and then one day spiders started coming out of the wall in droves.

Like it was so infested with spiders that they had to move out and like shut the house down. There was no getting rid of them as they were able to sue the people who lived there before because they were like, oh yeah, we didn't tell you that this house is fucking owned by spiders. Can you imagine just like seeping out of the cracks in the wall, spiders? No, that's from the devil. And actually something in my, when I was subletting my house in Burbank, when I was working in Chicago, the guy that was subletting for me called me and he's like, dude, I have to tell you there's crickets everywhere.

In the house? Yes. Did you just never notice? And well, I'd never had that experience. Like there would be one here and one there. But apparently there was like an infestation of crickets where I'm like, well, at least it's crickets. I know. It's like the least horrible insect that could happen. So what did you do? Just sent the bug man over and sprayed for it. But I was just kind of like, it was so weird.

I was just like, so okay. That's like a Bible curse. It is. It is. You should have been like, you brought the motherfucker. There were not crickets before. Stop sinning in my house. Yeah. Oh my God.

Do you know they have dogs who sniff out black mold at houses? I've seen some videos. I love it. Okay. Stop it. You brought it up. I know. I'm telling me, stop fucking changing the subject.

Okay. Okay. Lot's of it's dismissed. The brates are like, all right, we need to sell the house. But they're like, we're not going to fucking do what these people did to us. We have to disclose what happened, even though they legally don't. But nobody wants to buy the house because of that, right? Like no one wants those letters and they don't feel right not telling them about them.

What's weird is that truly there isn't really anything. I know. It's like, it's just a weird letter. But if they're scared enough and like let's pretend they're just like normal rational people and they're freaked out enough by it not to move in then like you kind of can't do that to other people. Yeah true. It's almost like passing on a stalker. Right and like so maybe the person they tell her like oh we don't give a shit about that this is a fucking nice house and like let's get it for a discount. Someone might not care.

Right, true. So they tell them hoping they find that person, but they can't find that person. So then a developer comes and wants to buy the house. And they want to split the lot in two and like take down the old house, build two new houses there. And then problem solve, the house isn't there anymore. But fucking Westfield is like, hell fucking no. You're not tearing down a 110 yearyear-old house because of some letters. Yeah.

Right? So everyone has a planning board meeting and the neighbors are like, absolutely not. And among the people at this meeting is the woman, is a woman from that same eccentric family next door. And... She's giggling. Probably. She's rubbing her hands together. This is all my doing. That's right. Oh, wait, what did I do? Did I say that out loud? She says on the record, quote,

I've spent almost 60 years looking at a magnificent, beautiful house. I don't want to be looking out at a driveway, end quote, which is like even watching this house. And the town ultimately rejects the brides' proposal. They're like, nope, go back. Can't do it. Can't do it. Which is like, I get that. I think so too.

You can't tear down a fucking gorgeous old house with history because... Also it doesn't solve the problem. Right. Actually, it's just a sidestep. Yeah, totally. So over the next year, the brottices keep lowering the asking price on their house. They always insist on showing any potential new buyer all the letters before they proceed with the sale. At least they're honest people.

I know. That's noble. Giving them a lot of credit for that because, you know, when you are in that in-between house, like they spent all this money, they still have that mortgage. That's a fucking lot of money to be waiting on for a house to sell. But they're smart enough to know that if they lied about it, that would just be one more burden on them. Right.

That was one more thing that they're feeling bad about. So it's like, keep your side of the street clean and try to get this taken care of. Yeah, definitely. I think their agents and lawyers are like, shut the fuck up. Stop fucking telling people. Those letters will win. People make offers, but every time they read the letters, they back out. Derek says about one of the people who were interested but then saw the letters he says about it quote some cocky guy from Staten Island

said fuck it I'm gonna get a house on a discount and then Derek says he read the letters and we never heard from him again. So the Staten Island guy was like oh no you're not as brave as you thought you were. He can deal with Cropsey but not the Watcher. So by now the story has been picked up by a lot of local New Jersey news outlets and some national ones. I totally remember hearing about it because it's just so creepy and fascinating. I think I remember reading that article, actually. Yeah, totally.

And, of course, that makes it even harder for the Bratises to sell the house. In 2016, they finally managed to rent it out to a family who pays $5,000 a month to live in it, which I think is a huge discount. It's like not a lot for that house or whatever they could have gotten for it. And a few months after that family moves in, the renters, they call Derek because another letter has arrived. This one says, quote, 657 boulevards survived your attempted assault and stood strong with its army of supporters barricading

its gates." Meaning like that public, you know, housing thing. Yeah. Meaning, my soldiers of the Boulevard followed my orders to a tee. They carried out their mission and saved the soul of 657 Boulevard with my orders. All hail the watcher." End quote. So it could be the whole fucking neighborhood that's in on this.

I mean. And listen, I live in a neighborhood that's got some really fucking old, like, original houses before, like, Los Angeles was a place, you know? I would defend one of those fucking houses. They're gorgeous. Sure, but what are you defending it from? Getting torn down and turned into a lot. Oh, yeah. Not like someone moving in. Yeah. Before they had, they were forced to get that, what do you call it, developer in. They were just trying to live like a normal family. So what's the fight here? You didn't really give them much of a choice.

Yeah. That's true. This is all the watchers' fault. It is. Hold on. I can't stop eating these skittles. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.

I'll stop now. No, it's ASMR. It's Halloween. It's Halloween. It's Halloween. Okay, so, end quote. Then the letter then goes on, drastically changing to this threatening tone, saying, quote, maybe a car accident, maybe a fire, maybe something as simple as a mild illness that never seems to go away but makes you feel sick day after day after day after day after day." Like black mold. Maybe the mysterious death of a pet.

Loved ones suddenly die. Planes and cars and bicycles crash. Bones break. You are despised by the house and the watcher won. End quote. Okay, then I'd be like, light a fucking match and run. Wait, sorry. This is to the original family?

It's to the original family, but to other people living in it at the time. Okay. Yeah. So this is the last letter that ever arrives at the house. And then in November of 2018, more than four years after that first letter arrived, New York Magazine publishes that long article about the whole saga, which is the main source for this story. The attention this attracts will eventually inspire the Netflix series, The Watcher, again, though very loosely based on what actually happened.

But the article also brings attention to the initial police investigation and how unthorough it was. Like they didn't give a shit because like, I mean, what it's a kind of a threat. It's a card. It's a card. What are they supposed to do? Yeah. I mean, also, it would be interesting to know what could they do, like, based on what, the

postmark? Can you go back to the... Hello. You're on the right track. Karen is a detective. So in 2018, the police test the DNA on the envelopes and discover an intriguing detail. The envelopes that the letters were sent in had been sealed, Lick sealed, by a woman. This brings renewed focus to the woman who had been living at the house next to the bradises. But police ask neighbors to voluntarily submit DNA samples.

The woman next door, who had spoken out at the town meeting, she is not a match. But it's like you fucking stop somewhere on the street and you're like, lick this closed. I don't know. Is that a thing? I mean, you could. Would anyone do it? Yes. Right?

I don't like the taste of these. Do you mind? Right. Or you know, you could do, you could take it to the post office, put it in the outgoing mail without it being sealed. And then whoever's like sealing them licks it and sends it on. Oh. Right?

Without even thinking about it. I would never fucking do that. No. Yes. I wonder if you're allowed to do that. Like leave it unsealed? Yeah. Oh, it's an accident.

Oh no, I better seal this one before the card gets lost. Also what I wonder if they had that because there's I've watched people do it where they just have a little piece of wet sponge. Yeah. And they do that. That's what you're supposed to do. So wait. But the DNA was on it.

So the DNA was on that part of the envelope? Yeah, like saliva. Okay, so there's a woman somewhere that probably wasn't the neighbor. That sealed it. That's all we know. Oh, okay. Someone sealed it. It wasn't that neighbor.

People around Westfield have thrown around a couple theories, but they're very loose and they name people directly, so I'm not even going to bother talking about them. It's Joanne. You know Joanne. She did it. Oh, Jesus. And her brownies are terrible. Some people theorize that the whole thing was an elaborate hoax concocted by the brotuses to either get out of buying such an expensive house that like maybe when they moved in,

they're like, oh, shit, we actually can't afford this. But they did all these renovations to it. You know what I mean? It's weird. Yeah, that doesn't seem right. Or maybe they did it to get rich from a movie deal. But how would they know that was going to happen? You know what I mean? They would have to be sure that the best writer at New York Magazine picked up on this story. That seems a bit far-fetched. Before I tell you our story, Naomi Campbell has to play me. I just want to get that clear.

I require that she's attached throughout this project. It's such a waste of money. I know. There's no evidence to back any of this up. And if it were true, their plan would have been a spectacular failure, not to mention a huge risk for an insurance executive to take. You know what I mean? And the money that the family did get from the Netflix show apparently didn't even cover

the losses on the house. I bet they had two grand or something. For the whole family. Let's be real. Yeah. Not each. And that's basically it. There's been no more letters since 2018.

No one has made any additional headway on the case. The broadesses want the female DNA from the envelopes to be run through forensic genealogy testing and have even offered to pay for it themselves. But so far, police are like, no, no, we have things to do. But why can't they hire their own private genie? Paul Holes knows a genealogy lab that you could hire. Just get the question answered. Call Paul Holes. We're always saying it. I mean, have him solve your cards. The Broadduses finally sell the house for just under a million dollars in 2019,

which is about 400 grand less than they paid for it four years earlier. It happens. It happens. It hurts, I feel like. That's a lot of money. I bet the marble they used in that kitchen was worth fucking three times that. Yeah, that's the thing, is the budget that they were remodeling under did not take into account the watcher. The budget they were using was that they were going to live there while their kids grew

up. So let's use the nice fucking marble. Let's use the nice tile and then faucets and shit. Perhaps someday resell it way above what we bought it for. Right. I mean, not to be like boohoo this fucking rich family, but like, it's kind of lame that it's just because some fucker fucked around and found out. Right. That he was right.

Fucked around and we didn't find out. That's right. It kept it secret. It's so annoying. Since the new owners have bought the house, there have been a few incidents with alarms being triggered mysteriously, which they'll do, particularly in the basement. Oh my God, I had that house fucking alarmed to the hilt. And camera'd up, down, and sideways.

Everywhere. Simply say fucking all over the place. We've told you and told you. The police have actually been called to the house more than 50 times since the new owners moved in, because I bet they're fucking terrified. Five-zero? Yes. to the house more than 50 times since the new owners moved in. Because I bet they're fucking terrified. Five zero? Yes. They like hear a fucking one cricket and they're like, nine one one.

I don't like that at all. I know. I wouldn't want to. Would you do it? You get the house at a huge discount. It's a big old beautiful house in a fucking great neighborhood. In New Jersey. It's dirty Jersey.

So that's a no just because it's in Jersey? I mean, I'm just saying that there's lots of lovely places to live in New Jersey. If that's where you need to live, why does it have to be on the boulevard? Is it a kind of like, is that a status symbol? I think you couldn't afford a house in that probably area slash school district or whatever for what you had if you didn't get that huge discount. You know what I mean? So it's like every horror movie where they're like,

we don't care, and then as they are in the house, they're starting to learn. Yeah, I don't believe in that. And then, so I think like, don't. 9-1-1 may help you. Crickets. Crickets. But, oh, by the way though,

it seems that most of those calls are due to people trespassing on the property because of the house's notoriety. That's really shitty. It's so shitty. That's very inconsiderate of those people where it's like my interest trumps your constant paranoia That I'm it's gonna take one thing Oh my god that house today on Halloween they do not pass out candy They turn all the lights off and they fucking leave for the fucking Adirondacks Well, also, why wouldn't their security walls go up? I wonder if there's like HOA rules

where they can't build or something. I don't think there's like fences. Like, yeah, some of those places won't let you build fences and shit, I know, it's so fucked up. The Broaddus is moving to another house in Westfield, which is perfectly nice, but way smaller and probably not as nice as the one on the Boulevard. Derek Broaddus has tried his best to move on, but he's still consumed with the mystery, which I'm sure has been

so irritating to him and it's taken a toll on him. In 2022, he tells New York Magazine, quote, I had just turned 40 when we bought the house. I am now 93 years old, end quote. Yeah, the gray hair. And that is the story of the enduring mystery of the watcher. You know, also it's kind of the thing of like the more mysterious the message, you are left to interpret. There's nothing worse than a void of information that you are left to interpret or make up what's going on. It makes people crazy. And the incoherence of it, that it's a little all over the place in what, does point to someone not being rational. It's unhinged to do that in the first place, but then to

like make yourself seem legitimately unhinged by how poorly you write this letter. It just adds to it. Also, I wonder if they really want to just tear all those walls out because they're like, fine, let's see what's in the walls then. If you insist. There's just so many. I would. Question, question, question. And what did the, like if the letters stopped at a certain point, certain year, did anybody

look up if anybody died? Good idea. Or like. Who in the neighborhood died? Yeah. Or who in the city died? Or who in people's lives. Because also there's the thing, did you watch the, oh, it's so good, the new Olivia Colman movie? I recommended it.

Yes, you did. What was it called? Dirty Little Letters, I think. Yes, yes. And she does, it's like her, but no one would expect it because she's this different kind of person. That was so good. I wonder if it's that thing where there's like somebody that one of the people in that family did something to and didn't realize

it. Right. Yeah, it could be. It could have been someone they actually know. And it's just some weird, a weird person's revenge that's insanely effective. Yeah. Like, if he's an insurance adjuster, did he have a client that he said, nope, you won't be covered? Right. He fucked someone over.

Or maybe it was like someone he works with who he fired and something. God. Yeah. Or a mom at the PTA fucking meeting. It could be anybody. It could be anybody. It could be anybody. Spooky Halloween.

We did it, you guys. We hope you have a really good spooky Halloween. Great job. That was really, that was, I think I watched the beginning of that and then for some reason had to go somewhere or something and then I just forgot that I was watching it. Now I want to watch it. Yeah, totally. Because I need to know this. Because anyone could be the watcher. Yeah. What are the details? What are the possibilities?

Possibilities. They're endless. We have to go to... Where we're family? Because when you're at the Boulevard, you're family. Let's go get endless breadsticks and figure out who's doing this. Let's sit around a table of breadsticks and fucking figure this out. The possibilities are endless. It's just a little Italian guy going like this to his mustache. It's a me! It's me! I Italian guy going like this to his mustache. It's a me! It's me, I'm in the driveway!

Tony Soprano. Tony. Thanks for listening. Yeah, thanks for listening. Please be safe on your Halloween. Check your candy. Light sweater. Wear a coat over your costume to ruin it.

Watch your plastics. That's right. And stay sexy. And don't get murdered. Goodbye. Elvis, do you want a cookie? This has been an Exactly Right production. Our senior producer is Alejandra Keck.

Our managing producer is Hannah Kyle Creighton. Our editor is Aristotle Acevedo. This episode was mixed by Liana Squillace. Our researchers are Maren McClashen and Ali Elkin. Email your hometowns to MyFavoriteMurder at gmail.com. Follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at MyFavoriteMurder and Twitter at MyFaveMurder. Goodbye. at my fave murder. Goodbye. Yes, no? These are just skittles. Wait, aren't they sour?

Oh, hold on. Yep. Too sour? Not too sour, they're good. Okay, I'm gonna try them.