Family Vampire, Wrong Ghost

Family can be so draining! Specifically when your dead relative drains your life force! Also, sometimes you shoot the wrong ghost!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
School of Humans. Hello one, Hello all. Welcome to canaver Gals,
the podcast where we talk about all the ways people
have died throughout history to cope with our own mortality.
I'm your host, Taylor, along with Gabby Hey and Nika Hi. Okay,

(00:29):
Today we're gonna talk about ghosts and vampires and how
they may get you. Yeah, they're that's so sexy. They're gone.
Oh they're gonna get me. Oh don't get me, mister vampire.
They may get you, they may not, who knows. Some
trigger warnings for today are some just straight up gore, suicide, disease,

(00:50):
death penalty, Colorado murder, and ghosts. So get ready for that.
Cue the musical. Okay, so welcome back. I'm wondering should

(01:15):
I sing the whole um hosting for today? Probably not? Yeah,
sing it um? Okay, Gabby, Well, just from last our
two episodes ago with Governor Morris, for example, our last
episode I don't know time is. I do want to
make a Governor Morris musical and I've been thinking about it.
It's the follow up to Hamilton. Gabby is always wanting

(01:37):
to do a musical and I support this a lot.
Thank you, Um, but you know, until then, yea, until then,
until then, Gabby, do you want to tell us your
your story? Yeah, it's a story of some vampireres. Okay,
here we go. So, wow, here's the thing. I'm mad. No,

(02:00):
I'm just saying, have you ever considered that one of
your dead family members might be draining your life and
that's why you're turning into a pale white sheet of
a person and basically look like you're wasting away. Have
you ever thought that? Oh? No, no, but I feel
something now. Yeah, it's a possibility. Yeah, your dead relatives

(02:23):
might be draining your life force. Well, that is what
some people in New England thought in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries. Okay, and they're specifically like, wow, your dead
relative could be a vampire coming for your wife, your kids,
your husband, for you, and also at the time though
they necessarily use the term vampire, but what they kind
of meant by that was that they were convinced that

(02:46):
one of the relatives was not completely dead, Like if
you would bury your loved one, your relative wasn't completely
dead and then was maintaining some siblance of life by
draining the vital force from living relatives. Okay, wait what
people thought? This was like mostly in the eighteenth and
nineteen centuries in New England. Okay, great, why why did

(03:08):
they think those? Well, okay, well that also that thing
I just said, it's from this dude, Michael Ebel. He's
a folklorist and he wrote a book about vampires called
Food for the Dead. So he's just like he looks
for vampires, but not real vampires, but just like this
idea of what a vampire was. But what was happening
was that a lot of people were getting consumption and

(03:29):
so it was like a huge epidemic during that time.
It was like early eighteen hundreds, like one in four
people who died in New England was from consumption. And
because consumption it makes it look like you're wasting away,
so they're just like, obviously your dead relative is absorbing
your power. It's consumption. Like an infection, it's tuberculosis. Oh well,

(03:51):
there we go. Cuberculosis has a lot of names. I
feel like, yeah, they just didn't really know what was
up with it until like the mid nineteenth century or something,
and so it would like would describe a lot of
different illnesses, but mostly it was tuberculosis and it's a
bacteria that like affects your lungs and your kidneys and
your other organs, and it does it makes you look

(04:12):
like you're just like wasting away. So like skinny, skinny queen.
Can you imagine you're like in eighteenth century New England
living your life. You're fifteen, you're about to get married,
your entire life is ahead of you, and then one
fateful night you cough into your little cloth and it's blood,

(04:33):
and you know, I've got the tube. You know, like
that's just the dust? Tragic? Are you just know that
your dead sibling is absorbing your life force? You know,
one or the other? Yeah, it's one or the others anyway,
So this was a thing a lot people believed since
they didn't understand like tuberculosis. It was like because often
with tuberculosis consumption, it would be, you know, one relative

(04:55):
would get it, and then they didn't really know how
disease was spread it because then other relatives would get it,
and they're like, well, obviously the dead relative must be
mass yeah, mask or like how disease spread or like
I mean, I guess they understood it going from person
to person, but they're just like, well, sometimes because also
you would sometimes consumption would last, it would like take

(05:18):
you real quick, which was called galloping consumption, so you
would just gallop real quick into it. Or but you know,
sometimes it could last years before you would actually like die,
but you would you would die. You know, it was
pretty pretty certain anyway. So what they were saying is
that your dead relative might have been just actually draining

(05:38):
your life force. So what you had to do was
you would have to like destroy the body of your
dead relative. And so that's people people were doing that
m and the most famous one was an Exeter Rhode Island.
And if you didn't know, Rhode Island is a state,
and uh hey we have like one Australian listener, they

(05:59):
might not know it's a state that's very small. And
so what happens is in January eighteen ninety two, Mercy
Lena Brown, she's eighteen or nineteen, she dies of consumption.
And it's real sad because her mother and her sister
had also died of the same disease about a decade previously.
And obviously her dad, George was like, I mean, that's

(06:21):
a lot of relatives because then also his son, his
only son, Edwyn, and you know sons are more important
than daughters. His only son, Edwin, also had consumption, and
what he does to get better. He's like, I'm going
to go to Colorado to get better because Colorado it
was the destination for people with consumption, because doctors thought

(06:42):
that fresh air and high altitudes and plenty of sunshine
could cure any disease. Well, it's like the medical diagnosis
of go be like in the beach for a while,
you'll feel better. Very popular back then. Yeah, Colorado not
the beach, but it was a thing. Yeah, I feel
like that's a thing. Now it's called like self care. Yeah,

(07:04):
I mean vitamin D these nuts love its okay, but
the thing is, unfortunately, the consumption. He didn't feel better
in Colorado. So then he and his wife were just like, well,
I guess we could just go back to like where
our families are and like, you know, live out. He
could live out his days like being around people he

(07:24):
likes and stuff. But by the time he got back
from Colorado, his sister, Mercy Brown, she had gotten consumption
and she died. She gets interned in the family vault.
So anyway, George is like, well, Edwin, I don't want
you to die bro and but they're saying though historians
were like, they don't think George himself actually believed in

(07:45):
the vampires. It was just like a lot of name
like I'm just thinking, like you had that nosy neighbor
or whatever who was like, dude, it's the vampire's your
other dead relatives who are killing Edwin. It's not the consumption, Okay,
And he was like, I don't think that's true. But
then I think there were so many of them who
were saying that his relatives were vampires that he kind
of felt sometimes you just get bullied into, you know,

(08:08):
like your family's vampires. Yeah, thanking your family as vampires.
You know, we've all been there before. But you know,
he also wanted his son to believe. So sometimes you
agree with the supernational supernatural stuff just in case, Like
how I have crystals under my bed just in case,
and also I just in case, I also make sure

(08:28):
a live a very sinful life just in case Hell
exists and I need to go down to Hell because
that's where all the weird people are and we would
hang out. You know, that's a that's a great way
to think about that. Yeah, just in case, I make
sure to be a bad person. Okay. Anyway, so one
of his neighbors said, of course he's going to die
of consumption. There's no help for it, so long as

(08:49):
his brother and sisters prey upon him. My thing is, like,
why did they think that the other dead like were
their bodies? They got bullied into it, kept I know,
but I just the logic of it, because like, I
don't get bullied, okay except for us, That's actually true.
I did not get bullied growing up, mostly because I

(09:11):
moved around so much, and I just don't think I
realized it. Na. They were just the way that they
would prove that somebody was a vampire obviously, is that
what they would do is they would then go and
like exoom their relatives and if they still had blood
in their heart, obviously they were a vampire. Okay. So

(09:34):
in this case, what happens is there's this medical examiner,
doctor metcalf And at first there's this guy who was
like he was just like a dude in the community
went up to him and being like, hey, we should
zoom these bodies to make sure that they're not draining
Edwin's life force. And doctor Metcalfe is like, that's so silly,
you silly geese. What are you talking about. But then,

(09:57):
because George had probably been bullied by his neighbors, George
actually officially requested it from this medical examiner to zoom
the bodies and like, give i'm an autopsy to make
sure there wasn't any blood in the hearts. Okay. So
doctor my Cap was like, I mean, that's a nice
doctor thing to do. He's like, this is scientifically stupid,
but you know what, I want you guys to feel good,

(10:19):
So yeah, I'll just make sure they're not vampires or whatever.
So in March eighteen ninety two, which is just like
two months after Mercy dies, there's four dudes. They go
and they dig up the mom who had died nine
years ago, and all that was left to her was
she was mummified with the muscle and skin, but there's
no blood to be found, so they're like, Okay, the

(10:40):
mom is not a vampire. Then they go and dig
up the other sister and all that remained of her
was a skeleton and some hair, and they're like, okay,
there's no blood to be found here either. And then
there's Mercy's in the family tomb. And so they don't
have to dig her up. They just have to like,
you know, pull her out of the tomb. And you
know what, this bitch had blood in her heart. Ah wow,

(11:04):
Like it's definitely not because she died two months ago.
And it's definitely not because it was really cold and
so her body was pretty preserved. It's definitely because she's
a vampire. That's right. First. Yeah, another thing, well, this
is one thing that is kind of spooky about this
in real life is that there's a descendant of hers
who tells this story, and he said that when the

(11:25):
dudes found her in the family tomb, she was actually
turned over from where she was, like she was laid
down on her back, but she was turned over in
the tomb, which is spooky. But he was like, I
don't even attribute that to supernatural so everything. Maybe she
just like wasn't fully dead when they buried her or
when they put her in the family tomb, which I'm like, oh,
like that both those options are not ideal. Yeah, but

(11:49):
you know it's one. Back in the day, sometimes it
was hard to tell if someone was fully dead, you know, yeah,
it was hard. But then so they take her body
to doctor Metcalfe and he does the optopsy. He removes
the heart in the liver and he finds clotted, decomposed
blood in them, and all the towns people like vampire, vampire,
and he's like, guys, this is just like pretty normal
decomposition stuff. But they're like, they're they're not gonna have it.

(12:12):
And so they take the liver and the heart and
then there's this like stone in the cemetery and then
they burned them. Oh they burned them, okay, and they're like, not,
we got them, we got the vampire. And then some
people also say that they then took the ashes from
the heart and they mix them in water for Edwin
to drink. Okay, and they're like this elixir of the ashes,

(12:36):
in combination with destroying the vampire should cure him, right right, Uh,
this sounds a little too familiar to some things that
are happening today. They're like, no scientist, doctors, they don't know.
I'm gonna just make my own elixir and have you
know Horse de Warmer, Yeah exactly, And you know what happened.

(12:59):
He did. Win died two months later, so yeah, you know,
still earlier. It didn't work. Other things that people would do.
They would do even more dramatic things they wouldn't just
like often burning the heart, burning the organs, that was something.
Other times there was this other case in a similar

(13:19):
area where there was a guy who they thought was
a vampire and they but they exhumed him and there
was no blood to be found and said they just
broke all of his bones. They just like, yeah, corps's bones. Um.
Other times they would like burn full bodies. Um. Sometimes
they would also decapitate corpses, you know, just to be

(13:43):
safe so that you know they can't emerge and get
your stuff, get your It's like so tragic because they're
doing this to other relatives. Yeah, it's to your relatives. Yeah.
But like what I find a little bit silly is
like it's not out of the role of possibility that
this person is coming back alive and then like sucking
your soul. But like why wouldn't they like if you
try to like like if that's plausible, how could like

(14:06):
I mean it's possible that they could also continue come
out of their grave or whatever with broken bones or
you know, like you know what it's like, if it's
causing their logic, then yes, like I don't understand, Like,
how does that secure their death? You know what I mean? Well, yeah,

(14:27):
I guess burning the organs makes sense, like burning any
of the blood that they have, that makes that makes
sense to me. But you're right, I think just like
breaking the bones and chopping their heads off. You know
who's just reattach it. Yeah. Yeah, so you're right, you
should chop off the head and then burn the head.
I feel like, yeah, you should probably just burn the

(14:47):
whole thing, the whole thing to be safe. Yeah, not
just the head, because then you have the headless horseman exactly. Yeah,
and then that would be even scarier. Yeah, sucking your
soul and also headless, so scary. Then that would be weird,
but kind of sexy too, Yeah, so sexy anyway. So

(15:10):
it was also I mean a thing though around this time,
like when Mercy died, they the dude, a dude, a scientist, dude,
he had actually you know, found the bacteria and had
identified consumption as a disease. But then the funny thing
about that was that then like the New York Times,
like literally around the same time that Mercy Brown died,

(15:32):
they were like had all these like articles like mocking
this dude being like, oh, you silly goose, thinking it's
just this bacteria with this disease. And it wasn't until
like sixty years later that there was actually treatment for it,
but they like kind of knew what it was. But again,
it's like people weren't trust in the science. They're just like,
this is crazy town, Get out of here. So obviously
it's a vampire. Okay, obviously it's a vampire. It's not

(15:54):
a disease, it's not a bacteria. It's it's like a
basically like an energy vampire, like if we're using the
language of um, yeah, what we do in the show.
So I love that show anyway. So that is uh,
you know, Mercy Brown. And then there's like hundreds of
other people that this happened too, because there's that guy

(16:15):
who wrote the book about vampires in New England. He
there was just like yet, lots of bodies being exhumed,
lots of bodies being chopped up and burned. But because
there's a lot of consumption, So yeah, there we have it.
Well when we come back, more vampires, welcome back all

(16:37):
you could ever pals. We all love a good vampire story.
And I have a few I like went down quite
a rabbit hole. I was like, Okay, what's the origin
of vampires? Like, why are people deciding that vampires are
a thing? Why are they a tailor? I got you? Okay.
So often creatures such as vampires came to be known

(16:59):
because of a medical issue. As Gabby explained, that they
just simply didn't understand. So they're like, yep, they're a vampire, right,
I'm not sure why in a lot of these instances
earlier on, why they were being exhoomed. I guess, like
in my research I wasn't finding though, but I guess
it's because they suspected that they were sucking their souls.
So that makes sense. Okay, So this is like earlier on,

(17:21):
This is like early early early eighteenth century when it
first kind of came about. And so again they were
exooming people and finding that they weren't decomposing. But what
they were finding was a lot of these people also
had all these corpses had blood around their mouths and noses,
and so they were like, oh my gosh, these people

(17:43):
they're coming out, they're sucking the blood. Like that's where
the blood sucking part came about, is because they were
finding these corpses with blood around their mouth, and they're like,
they should have decomposed by now. They're like, you know,
they didn't take into consideration that, Okay, they've been buried
there in a cooler environment. You know, they're being preserved better, like,

(18:03):
especially in the instances where they weren't you know, didn't
die like a gruesome death with any like wounds or
anything like. Obviously that makes um decomposition happen faster. So um,
so yeah, they're like these guys, they're they're coming out
of their graves, drinking blood, going back to sleep in
their coffins. So obviously obvious. So to be sure that

(18:27):
people if they were suspecting that their loved ones were vampires,
they decided they're like, hey, let's just let's just make
a little bit more complicated for them to get out
of the grave, and we'll bury them face down so
it'll be more difficult. They might get lost on the
way out or whatever just because they're face down. Because
they're face down. Yeah, like I've lost a good figure
out how do I get out of it? Yeah, seemingly

(18:50):
like and then also a thing that they would do
is put a stake in their heart to just ensure
that they were dead. So like a ribbi uh no,
like a giant piece of wood, yeah, fly their heart. Yeah.
So later when it became more heard of, you know
that these vampires were a thing another disease that people

(19:15):
were acting very animal like. They were foaming at the
mouth and um, it's brabies. It it is not a
coincidence that rabies was thriving at the time. Okay, so
so so a lot of um so yes, tuberculosis was one,
but another was like people that were acting you know,

(19:36):
kind of crazy and animalistic or whatever it was because
they had rabies and so they would foam at the mouth,
and so people assumed that those those were those people
who had rabies also were vampires. But anyway, that makes
sense to me more than tuberculosis, I mean, because it
kind of like starts from I mean, I mean, tuberculous

(19:57):
is like, yeah, they were kind of like draining or whatever,
but like acting animalistic like air quotes. I don't know.
But enough of that, because I have like three things
about vampires and I'm real excited to tell you about
this next one. Okay, so y'all know, I gotta mention
lad Dracula or better known as vlad the Impaler, who
was this real person and his last name, yes, was Dracula,

(20:19):
which means dragon. So I just thought that was a
fun fact. That is fun. I'm having fun. Okay, good.
So it is very likely, as you can imagine, that
this inspired the late nineteenth century classic novel Dracula. So
old Vladie boy. He was an eighteenth century ruler of
what is now Romania. Nika, I know, you like to

(20:40):
hear what these crazy people look like. So he's very dazzling.
He has like this curly cue mustache. He's got like
long curly brown hair, big eyes, sharp features, and he's
got this like very bedazzled crown looking thing. Oh my gosh,
that's I love that. Thank you, You're welcome. He had
a very complicated childhood. I won't really go there. Trauma.

(21:02):
He had some trauma for sure, not drag, I know.
But his dad was a ruler, got killed, removed from
the throne. So Lottie boys like, I'm going to get
back on that throne if it's the last thing I do.
And he does. So the town is like anarchy, and
he's like, fine, I'll have a party. You guys, can't

(21:23):
you even you guys that like hate me, y'all can come.
I'm just gonna have this party and try and make
it up to you, generous king, so sweet, but you're
going to change your mind of what you just said.
So and then he was like, oh, I'm going to
kill all of you, and so at the party. At
the party, he killed every single one of his guests
by impaling them on stakes. Again, sharp sticks not count me.

(21:48):
So he wouldn't impale them, terrible party. He would impale them, y'all,
this is very gruesome. So if you're like, I don't know,
he would impale them from the bottom up. So if
you were dude through the annis out through the mouth,
and if you're a woman through the vagina and out
through the mouth, why didn't we get the all treatment
we also have buttholes? I mean, I don't know if

(22:08):
he was like, wait, oh my gosh, so steaks are
pretty long. So yeah, okay, So so anyways, so then
he like, you know, he had them all out on
the stakes, and so a lot of his enemies that
he would kill, and this was his preferred way. It

(22:31):
was rumored that he would eat dinner with them. Like
after he impaled them and would like dip his bread
in their blood. Oh, he's like actively not okay, he
is actively not okay, So but he has trauma though.
He's a poor boy. So we can all imagine how

(22:52):
perhaps Dracula came about by way of vladim Pillar. Yeah,
that makes sense. So, um, don't you worry. He's not
an actual vampire today. He was beheaded and as we
know that that like solid fies that you're not a vampire.
You can't be a vampire. He was beheaded in battle
by his enemies, which, as you can imagine, he had
a lot of it, like the beheading they do in

(23:15):
Twilight where they have to rip their heads off and
it sounds like ice breaking. Is that what happened? I
don't know. I wasn't there, okay, okay, I thought you
were doing better research. Now, Taylor, you weren't there, Okay.
I didn't take a time machine back, okay, okay, but okay.
And so the last thing that I'll say is they're
actually vampires to this day, and they will drink little

(23:41):
tiny bits of blood for health purposes. And there are
groups you can join in Atlanta. You guys has a
very pop in one called the AVA or the Atlanta
Vampire Alliance. So if you want to join this group,
it was a very complicated group. I started researching it,
and I think it's kind of bey on the realm
of what I could understand. It was going to take

(24:03):
me days and days and days done of it. I
love it. I researched a little a little bit just
for fun, like over a year ago, and I remember
reading that they have people who donate their blood to them, like,
which is so interesting. So they have like volunteer victims
and they're just really cute. But it's not like all

(24:23):
of their blood just like a little bit. No, it's
teeny it's a teeny tiny bit. And they fully really
believe believe they are vampires. Like they're like, oh, we
really do have sensitivity to the sun only kind of
we're nocturnal for the most part, blah blah. And I'm
just like, this is amazing. Live your best life. If
you believe you are a vampire, you are. They also

(24:46):
allow people who believe that they have like psychic abilities
or people who have psychic abilities, and like there's like
these houses that you can be associated with that like
that's where I started being like, Okay, I gotta go
way further down the rabbit hole than I'm willing to
go on a Monday afternoon. I love it. I think

(25:06):
they're great and it's a really big association. So good,
good for Atlanta. Yeah we represent yeah, Okay. So with that, Nico,
would you like to change the topic for us? I would.
I'm gonna go to a ghost story. I'm very excited
about it. Although I love vampires, I think vampires are
sexier than ghosts personally, don't hate me. Depends on it

(25:28):
depends on the vampire and it depends on the ghost.
That's true. That's true because some vampires throughout pop culture
have not been cute, and I disagree and my like,
a vampire story to me is not realistic if the
vampire is not hot. Sorry. Also, ghosts can be cute,
I know, I know. I think, Oh, Casper Caspers, a
good Cusper is adorable, okay, Oh my god. Or Jack

(25:49):
Skellington's dog Zero, He's freaking cute. Okay. So we're gonna
go to the town of Hammersmith in the outskirts of London.
It is eighteen o three in winter. Is a happening. Yep,
people are being terrorized by a ghost. Yes. Apparently a
man had set his own throat the year before and

(26:12):
was buried in the local churchyard, which, according to local belief,
meant that his soul would not be at rest since
he died from a suicide, and they just believed that
you shouldn't bury suicide victims in like a church cemetery.
So sometimes people assumed that's kind of what it was,
and that was it was his ghost kind of haunting people.
Others thought it was simply a deviant pretending to be

(26:34):
a ghost with a white sheet over you know, his
or her head and just like scaring people of her fun. Wow,
so scary the white sheet. But it was like someone
in all white like that's they would always say. It
was an all white being basically like this. One pregnant
woman reported seeing this very tall and thin figure when

(26:56):
she was crossing the churchyard late at night. Question why
were you crossing the churchyard late at night? But anyway,
and she reported that the figure seemed to rise from
the tombstone owns and had a human like form, and
it ran toward her and it shocked her and she
fainted and then this is tragic. She died two days later. Wait,
shocked her, like surprised her, shocked her like boo, or

(27:19):
like or like some sort of electricity. No, like like
shocked her like scared her. Okay, this is just a classic, Yeah,
a classic, like boo, I'm scaring you ghost. Um, anyway,
she died two days later, a little sad. And it
was also said that the ghost would hunt the passageways
to like get to the town, and so a bunch

(27:40):
of efforts were made in this town to try to
stop this person or ghost and there were but there
were like so many bylines and streets to get to
Hammersmith that it was impossible to tell which area the
ghost would be in. So they would have like patrol
women patrol certain streets, but then like the ghost would
pop up in the street that they were not patrolling,
which is just so it's just comedic to me at

(28:02):
this point. Um, yeah, it's it's a lot. The ghost
appeared to a couple other people as well, like documented
throughout the winter of eighteen oh three and in the
beginning of eighteen oh four, like this guy a brewer's servant, which,
by the way, the title some of these jobs are hilarious.
A brewer's servant, okay, he said that both he and

(28:23):
a friend were walking by the churchyard at nine pm
when something rose from a tombstone and grabbed him from
behind by his throat, and then when his friend turned
around to stop whatever it was, it let go of him.
And then the brewer's servant turned around and he saw nothing.
And he reports that he pushed on where his attacker
was and felt something like soft, like a coat, and

(28:45):
then they got scared right away because nothing was there obviously,
which actually does sound like a real ghost incident. But yeah, anyway, anyway,
so people were frightened that they were a little scared,
a little hysteric or desperate, as Gabby would say, like
with the other guy who was desperate, and the ghost
was just taking it to all on the town. And

(29:07):
Francis Smith, who was a customs officer, he was one
of the many men who were patrolling the community at
the time to catch the ghost. He was over. It
was like literally the original Ghostbuster. I mean, yeah, exactly.
They were like over and done with it. They were like,
this ghost has taken too much. We can't do it anymore.
And so he was out one night patrolling with his

(29:30):
friend and he was like, I'm gonna go to the
street over there. His friend was like, okay, I'll meet
you there at eleven. They're like okay. So he spotted
a white figure at around about to be eleven PM,
and the he like shouted, damn you, who are you?
And what are you? Damn you? I'll shoot you. Oh

(29:51):
scary to the ghost, And so he did. He shot
the separation. But the ghost is like in the left
lower jaw. Yeah. But it wasn't a ghost, is the thing?
Oh No, it was an innocent bricklayer named Thomas Millwood
who was simply dressed in his work outfit, which was
basically all white linen's like a white white apron, white

(30:14):
linen pants, like white, just white everything. And so Francis
Smith thought he was the ghost. It just shot him
immediately before even letting him like say anything, which is
bad before like following up like follow, hey are you
a ghost? You always got to ask first, literally, It's true.
You gotta ask you how to check in, you know,

(30:34):
consent to be yeah, be like hey, I doesneys know
if you're a ghost so that that I can shoot you? Well,
in my brain too. It's like, what would make you
think that a gun would kill a ghost? That's where
I'm just dead. But I think this was a minor
dumb and I think this is just like they were.
He was really desperate, and I think he just wanted

(30:56):
to be like the hero. You know. He was all rambo,
like I'm here to go kill the ghost tonight. And
it's like, well, you shot a person, can don't kill
a ghost. The ghost is already dead, guys, exactly. You
can pin them down though, you know, so they can't
get loose. No, you can't do that either. They're they're clear.

(31:17):
He might have a special gun or a special bow
and arrow or something, you know that a curse. Did
they have a curse that they could throw at the ghosts? Well,
he was very ill prepared. He really just thought a
gunshot would stop the ghost. Now they don't have bricks anymore.
He's like bricks anymore. I am man with gun. That's it, okay.

(31:39):
So it was bad and upon hearing the gunshot, Smith's
patrol partner and three other men ran up to the
scene of the crime and saw the dead body, and
his friend was like, go run while you can, and
Smith was like, no, I didn't do anything wrong, huh.
And so a constable arrested Smith, and Smith was relatively
compliant and went with him. Um, it's a super tragic

(32:00):
story because obviously someone innocent died, and it only gets
kind of weirder because the local courts didn't really know
what to do with him. Um. Smith pled not guilty,
and his argument was that he was convinced it was
the ghost, which makes sense, I guess. And actually Millwood's wife,

(32:21):
melodism And, who died, stated that she had asked her
husband to begin wearing a coat over his work clothes
because he had already been mistaken for a ghost twice
prior to the murder. That's sad. Also sad, why was
people be laying bricks at like midnight? Oh he was leaving. Um,
he was leaving his sister's house. Okay. Yeah, he was

(32:43):
saying he still wearing his outfit. Yeah yeah, I mean
this is a classic you know, like what was he
wearing situation? He was asking for it? Oh my god, guys,
I mean I guess. So she was like, you should
have worn a coat. Okay. Oh. Smith also tried to
say it was self defense, but Millwood had never attacked Smith.

(33:06):
He literally only stood there. And in fact, Millwood's sister
reported that it was just a few feet away from
her house when she had said goodbye to her brother
and she heard the words like that. For instance, Smith
said basically as he was shooting the gun, So you
can't even say it was like self defense or that
he gave Millwood warning because he didn't. He just like

(33:27):
got scared and shot. Basically, I do not like this man,
I know. So that was his argument. But killing someone
is killing someone, and the judge stated that even if
Smith had found someone dressing up as a ghost, it's
really just a misdemeanor and not acceptable to murder someone.
For obviously this is not acceptable to murder people. Okay, yeah,

(33:49):
And Millwood had done nothing to deserve being shot at.
He it was not self defense. And I mean, like
there is no legal he Smith had no legal right
to fire the gun at anyone ghost or not. You know,
like that was just he was not his legal rights
because nothing was happening. It's a risk also to shoot

(34:12):
someone because then you'll have more ghosts. That it is true.
That is true. So the court found him guilty and
sentenced him to hanging and dissection. Oh yeah, but the
case caused a lot of controversy on every angle. Some

(34:34):
people were a pro Smith, others were like, no, what
he did was wrong. They were really sad about Millwood.
Obviously the ghost was still terrorizing people, which is just crazy.
So the judge sent the case to the king and
then Smith actually ended up getting a pardon. His sentence
went from death to just one year in prison. Okay wow. Yeah. Also,

(34:57):
the real Hammersmith ghost came forward. It turns out that
he was an elderly shoemaker who was dressing up and
scaring townspeople to take revenge on his apprentice because his
apprentice had scared the shoemaker's children with scary ghost stories. Wait,
it was a real person. That was just yeah, that
was dressing He was literally going boo yes and scaring people.

(35:20):
But then there's the pregnant lady who died. So did
he get accused of it? Like, what's up with Ironically,
he received no punishment, like they were like, oh, okay,
you were dressing up. Okay, that's like oh yeah, it's
like you were just like really good at being a ghost,
Like good job. Just give him an Academy Award and
stad I mean kind of basically. I still think that

(35:42):
there must have been other like the guy saying that
he didn't see anything when he turned around and pushed
against someone and he felt something was like, oh, that
was probably not the elderly shoemaker, but the prankster who
was just scaring people to shock and to death was
in fact some weird old guy who for some reason

(36:03):
thought this was the way to take stress and revenge out.
I guess, Okay, people back then be weird. Yeah, I
mean there also might have been some copycat ghost, you know,
some other people being like I'm going to be a
ghost too, little tricksters, the tricksters or treaters. Yeah, we're

(36:25):
gonna treat you with a scare. We're gonna treat yeah exactly,
and then treat you with an accidental homicide. Yeah, okay,
that's a treat. Yeah, that's a real treat. And then
they're like, oh, you're going to be a vampire or
a ghost anyway, Okay, great, let's take a break. Welcome

(36:46):
back all you could have propalse I am. When I
started doing my research, I found this weird thing where
it was called ghost singles. Dot com and it is
a dating site for ghosts ghostly singles where you like
fill out this profile and you can chat with like
people and like you have like you say, like male

(37:08):
ghost speaking female female ghost or whatever. You can pick
your age range, you know, it can be like eighteen
to like one hundred, two hundred, three hundred whatever. You
can pick the kind of like death that they had, peaceful, crazy,
like morbid whatever. Anyway, I thought this was going to
be like really exciting to tell you all, but really

(37:30):
it wasn't because like I tried to fill out a
profile and then it was like you're a human, and
then it gave me this like other dating site. So
I was like, wait, why did it think you were
a human? Because I am a human. Anybody that can
feel that out it would be human. So that was
really stupid, and I got bamboozled, and you got banned
from the ghosts dating site also, Taylor, Yeah, Taylor, you
can just tell us you're lonely. You don't have to

(37:52):
revert to these ghosts. I know, I know, I know,
but anyway, I just I'm back on the regular dating sites. Anyway.
So I was like all excited to tell you guys
about this, but then it kind of fizzied away. So
instead I'm going to tell you an actual, factual ghost
story that is about my life. Okay, Oh, we're gonna

(38:19):
hear some intimate details about day. I still am pretty
mad that they, like gate kept you from a ghost
dating website. I mean, okay, like they had like sample
profiles too that you could read. You should have talked
more Victorian or something. Yeah, sure I could have what up,
but I didn't. So anyway, but there are new ghosts,

(38:42):
you know, there are recent ghosts, like modern contemporary ghosts,
so they also maybe they're just being Yeah, I'm mad
for you. Yeah, I know. I was like really excited
to like talk with other weirdouts or on this thing,
but it didn't work out. So anyway, a few years ago,
I was living in this apartment by myself and it
was really it was a good time. It was stop

(39:03):
bragging that you can live a Okay, Gabby, you live alone,
I know, but I'm old now. I was like twenty
nine when I lived there. Okay, anyway, twenty nine, you
were twenty nine only a couple of days ago, Gabby.
It's true. So I was living at this apartment. It
was a really cute apartment. It was an old apartment
built in the twenties. It had, you know, some plumbing issue.

(39:25):
They they had like all of the windows were like
painted shut. All of the like light switches, Like when
I first got there, I had to like hit them
really hard to like get them to flick on and
off because they just like painted over everything really thick,
you know. Helpful, Yeah, super nice and like my my,
I mean, it was a good time, but like it
was a hard time because they're also like the sink

(39:49):
was like just dripped and I didn't have a dishwasher
and so I would like have to wash my dishes
in the tub. It was a nightmare. But you know,
I it builds character. But what built more character was Gladys.
Who's gla. So Gladys was my ghost. I had a
ghost there. And let me just preface this by I'm

(40:10):
not I'm never really believed in ghosts necessarily, Like I
I don't know, I like never it had experienced it myself.
So I was just like whatever, I don't really believe
in ghosts, and I think that some people just make
stuff up anyway, So I'd like just be sitting there.
Note I didn't have air conditioning so or like central
heat or anything, so there was no drift or went

(40:32):
and all of the all of the windows were painted shut,
so like there was no airflow. This sounds like a
nightmare apartment. What do you mean the windows were painted shut?
You had no windows, Like you couldn't open a window. No. Wow, Yeah,
I'm so proud of where you are right now. There's
no air conditions. I started out the bottom of now

(40:57):
I met the lower middle. No, but anyway, so, um,
so I'd just be sitting there watching TV and in
my kitchen like I kept um, I kept my mail
on top of my refrigerator, and my mail would just
sometimes just go flying off the top of the refrigerator.
So there was like no draft. So like I had
to preface that there was no draft. So I was like,

(41:20):
that's weird and suspicious, but whatever. And that happened like
all of the time, and then you know, other things
kind of started to happen. I would kind of just
joke that I had a ghost because I was just like, yeah,
like that's the only thing that makes sense, right, And
I thought it was kind of funny. At first. I
was like so quirky and weird. So fun having a ghost. Yeah,

(41:43):
so like co tell my co workers and everything, and
like stuff just like I mean started falling, like cups
would fall off the tables, like I mean just stuff
was just like no, no, that's not it was that
and like it just kind of started to be on
the table, like in the middle of the table. It
all off. And then like my dog would also do

(42:04):
kind of weird things like looking in particular places, like
barking kind of randomly like whatever, thought nothing of it,
He's a dog. And then there was one night I
was like so tired. I think it was like a
long day, like I had a shoot it was a
shoot day. Um, so I was like I had worked
a lot of hours. It was really tired, and I
just like went straight to bed. I like didn't even

(42:25):
bother to take my contacts out, so tired. And while
I'm asleep, dead asleep, I just all of a sudden
just like wake up and like my eyes just open
and I see a figure and I'm like, oh good,
And I'm like, oh what is that? And I'm like
I I can see because I have my contacts in
and I'm like that that is a figure and it

(42:46):
is like kind of hovering off the ground, like just
kind of like what you would have met, like dark
long hair like kind of wearing like a white cloak
if you not cloak, but like a gown if you will.
And she was just kind of like swaying side to side.
I can not were you not terrifying? I know, I

(43:08):
was like ghost or not real. I was like this
makes no sense. I was like, okay. It was like
in front of my dresser and I was like, okay,
what what did I put all my dresser that could
be making this? And I'm like, god, it's weird because
I have my context and like I can actually see
and so I was like, well, I just cleaned, so
there's really nothing there. And I was like I don't know,
like what what is it? Like, I couldn't. I couldn't

(43:29):
figure it out. So turn the light on and it
kind of it just like dissipates and I'm like, okay,
there's like nothing there, like I saw it before and
now it's not there. And then I was like, okay,
I'm just being crazy. There's something wrong with me. I'm
dreaming whatever. Turn the light back off and it comes
back and so I'm like, well, I guess I'm sleeping
with the lights on because that's just too scary. Didn't

(43:50):
sleep the rest of the night obviously, because I was
so scared, you know, telling everybody going to work, I'm like, y'all,
you're not gonna be lo lose, but I have a
scary ghost. How did you even function? I can't even
think of like making breakfast the next day, Like I
just it scares me too. It was pretty scary. So
I was just like whatever, like I had to have
been dreaming, but like it was real as all get out.

(44:13):
And so then like my co worker, you know, I
always told her about it, but she would watch my
dog at my apartment sometimes, and so there was one
time she was watching us and she was like, I
was just sitting there watching TV and her in the
cup went just flying, like she heard the sound of
it going from the middle of the table to like

(44:33):
sliding off, which it wasn't sliding because it had been
sitting there forever, and just went shooting off the table.
And she was like, oh my god, I'm experiencing this
ghost the Taylor's been telling you about. So she like
left the apartment. She took my dog and she stayed
somewhere else. She was like, yours apartment's too scary, and
I was like, oh yeah, yeah, that's glad as you know,

(44:53):
and so okay, So that happened. And then there was
a time where I kind of woke up in the
middle of the night and I heard this like electric sound,
electricity like snapping sound, and I look over like in
my slumber, thinking like it was my alarm, and I
look over to like go hit it, and it's like
this glowing blue orb and I'm like, that's really scary.

(45:19):
I don't know. I'm not I'm not touching that. I'm
not And I was like, so I would always like
text my dad and be like, Dad, Gladys is back,
you know. And then the last thing that I will say, wait, okay,
hold with the blue or yeah, so you just didn't
touch it and you fell back asleep. Now I didn't
fall back asleep. I was just awake. I was like, well,
I was really scary, Like my heart was pounding, racing,

(45:42):
like but when you turn the lights on, it was gone.
But it was light in my room because it was
like it was like early morning, so like my room
was relatively light, so it wasn't like pitch black. It
was like six am or something in the summer. It
just disappeared like when you saw it. Yeah, it like
it like snapped and then it was just like gone.
And I was like, oh my god's so weird. Oh

(46:02):
my gosh. And then the last thing happened that was
like the straw that broke the camel's back. Is that
the term is. I was laying in bed again asleep
early morning. It was always kind of like early morning
that it would happen, and the bottom part of my
mattress lifted up and dropped, and I was like I

(46:25):
felt it. I like experienced it. I like you know
what I mean. Like before it was all like these
visual things and like whatever, like didn't affect me in
any way, but like this, I felt it and it
was like an actual like the bottom part of the
mattress lifted up and then dropped, and I was like, okay,
I think it's time to move. And is that why

(46:46):
you moved? Yeah, Oh my gosh, Taylor. I was like,
this is too, I mean that, and like there were
a couple of other reasons, but how like the windows
were painted and there is no air conditioning. Yeah, and yeah,
and that makes sense too, and no way to like
wash my dishes besides my tub. That's another good reason.
And then that's when I was like, I need somebody

(47:08):
to live with me so that I can live in
better conditions. So so now my sister lives with me.
But yeah, so I don't believe in ghosts, but I
lived with one. And her name was Gladys. And you know,
she never like harmed me, but she did scare the
bit Jesus out of me. Wait, why was her name Gladys?
Oh that was just kind of a just to name.

(47:30):
Just seems like she looks like a Gladys to me
because we saw her. Wow. Well yeah, so okay, I'm
glad you're safe. I'm okay. And I did fear for
a while that she was going to travel with me,
but she did not. She It's taking everything to me
to not like go to my old apartment and be like, hey,

(47:52):
have you experienced some weird stuff? Like I want to
talk to the people that live there now. So that
is my you can you know, believe me or not whatever,
But it was a real thing that happened to me,
and really scary, So look out for all the those
ghosts out there. Look out for all those ghosts out listen.
I respect, I respect to them. I just want to

(48:13):
say like, I don't want I don't want any of that.
I'm just listening here as an observant listener. Okay, Yeah,
I just don't want to get in trouble. Yeah, So
look out for those ghosts and vampires, you guys. But
until then, we'll have another episode next week. Thank you
for listening. Goodbye kidab Gwalles is a production of School

(48:49):
of Humans in iHeart Radio. It is hosted, produced, mixed research,
et cetera by Gabby Watts, Nika Duarte, and Taylor Church.
Follow us on Instagram and Twitter at Cadaver Gowls upland
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