10,000 Human Skeletons Per Year: The Disturbing Truth About The Origin of Medical School Bones

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome Weirdos. I'm Darren Marler and this is Weird Darkness Radio,
where every week you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends,
more the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved
and unexplained. Coming up this hour, the story of Kate

(00:30):
Watson is a grim one, living as a prostitute in
the Old West, and when that wasn't enough, she took
up cattle rustling. Her husband wasn't any better, so it's
probably no surprise that she was strung up until dead.
But maybe you should wait to pass judgment until you
hear the whole story. In March of two thousand and four,

(00:51):
teenager Brianna Maitland left work in the late evening hours
and was never seen again. To this day, it is
still one of her mother's most infamous mysteries. In June
of nineteen eighty nine, a nurse was found dead, drugged, strangled,
and tied up outside of Vancouver, British Columbia, with her

(01:12):
hands and feet bound behind her. So how could police
conclude she committed suicide? First up, though seeing a lifelike
human skeleton in a doctor's office, especially in the past
couple of centuries was and in many cases still is commonplace.
But where did one go to get such lifelike skeletons

(01:35):
if you were a doctor in the eighteen hundreds? Why
a skeleton factory, of course. That stories first. If you're
new here, welcome to the show. And if you're already
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(01:57):
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You can even send in your own true story of
something paranormal that has happened to you or someone you know.

(02:19):
You can find it all at Weird Darkness dot com. Now,
bult your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights,
and come with me into the Weird Darkness. Did doctors

(02:40):
use real skeletons long ago? And how did they get
those human skeletons? If they did well, It turns out
that the wired skeletons that hung from a pole were
made in various major cities around the world, including New
York City, London, and Paris. According to the article I'm
about to Share with You, originally pushed in the late

(03:00):
eighteen hundreds, the human skeletons were often the remains of
people left unclaimed in the morgues. Travelers would also gather
unusual specimens of people from other countries to be shipped
to the skeleton factories, d fleshed, and then made into
a lovely skeleton for display. According to the Los Angeles Herald,

(03:22):
July eighteenth, eighteen ninety seven, a skeleton factory has been
discovered in London. From it are procured the majority of
the skeletons owned by doctors and atomical museums, et cetera.
It has existed for some time, but never before has
the public been made aware of the fact. Its story
is told here for the first time, and the facts

(03:43):
presented explain in large measure what has heretofore been. One
of the mysteries never was Masonic secrets more carefully guarded
than this one, which included the location and methods of
this skeleton factory. It is certain that many of the
medical men, in fact the greater proportion who are customers
of the skeleton factory, are in absolute ignorance of its existence.

(04:07):
They know that certain persons can supply them with skeletons,
all wired and ready for use. They are wise enough
to ask no questions, for if the story that lies
behind every skeleton were told, many a tale of savagery
and of wanton desecretion would be revealed. That it's better
should be kept secret. At the English hospitals, dissection is

(04:30):
not allowed, so all unclaimed bodies are, after the lapse
of a certain time, transferred to the medical schools, where
in the dissection pavilions they become subjects and the students
are taught the science of anatomy by means of these
realistic object lessons. The medical schools have no means of

(04:50):
utilizing the bones of the subjects, and so when the
operation of dissecting is complete, the subject is turned over
to the representatives of the skeleton factory and promptly ship
by them to the place where the skull and crossbones
are truly emblematic of the institution's character. The factory, which
was visited by the writer, who therefore tells only that

(05:11):
which he saw and has learned authoritatively, is conducted on
as strict a system as the most punctilious business house
in the United Kingdom. Never was the old adage a
place for everything, and everything in its place more strikingly exemplified.
Every bone of the human body has its particular place.

(05:32):
But when I had completed my inspection, the fact was
forced upon me that hardly a single skeleton, among the
countless ones that we see from time to time, is
composed of the bones which nature originally placed together. In
addition to the bodies that are sent to the factory,
from the dissecting school, I learned the travelers often have
the curious desire to secure what they know are genuine

(05:54):
skeletons of inhabitants of far away countries. Therefore they obtained
bodies of such persons, and, after having them embalmed, send
them to London, agents of the skeleton factory, who at
once see to it that the desire of the shipper
is carried out. Many such skeletons are to be seen
today in the anthropological museums in different parts of the world.

(06:16):
It takes twelve months to put the human bones in
proper condition for wiring. The first step after the subject
reaches the factory is to cleanse the bones of the flesh.
The subjects are therefore placed in tanks filled with water
and phonic acid. The next process is that of boiling
in strong soda water, after which the subject is consigned

(06:38):
to a tank. When the bones have been thoroughly cleansed,
they are turned over to skilled anatomists, who wire them
together so strongly that each is sure to retain its
proper place. It is not always the case that bones
are wired together by the anatomists as soon as they
are in proper condition. A visit I paid to the
stock rooms of the factory indicated that there were shelves

(07:01):
upon shelves of which were arranged with gruesome irregularity, skulls
that seemed to represent every type of humanity that has
ever existed. Some of them had been, for one reason
or another, broken into pieces, and were held in proper
semblance by fine brass wires beneath the shelves, ranging upward
from the floor to a height of about four feet.

(07:23):
Were huge drawers filled with bones of every description, although
they were not fixed together, but the different sorts scrupulously
kept by themselves. There were vast heaps of ribs and
thigh bones. Every one of the bones in these drawers
was lettered and numbered, so that when the anatomists desired
to wire a skeleton, they would simply ride out an

(07:45):
order for exactly what they wanted by number and letter,
and the component parts of the skeletons were soon brought
to them by one of the workmen. Not the least
important feature of the skeleton factory is the task of
the workmen who make it possible for them the anatomists,
to wire the bones together. It may easily be understood
that in every bone there must be bored a hole

(08:07):
at each end of sufficient size to permit the passage
through of a wire. This is a very delicate task,
for the bones split easily, and ordinarily, when once split,
they are useless. In the workrooms, where the more delicate
portion of the task of placing the skeletons together is performed,
the site is so odd that one really forgets its gruesomeness.

(08:30):
Here an anatomist is engaged in putting together the various
bones which go to make up the hand. Another is
putting the finishing touch on the bones of the foot,
just as the shoemaker carefully examines the shoe before he
turns it over to his assistant to be made presentable.
When the task of the anatomist is completed, the skeleton
is taken into an adjoining apartment and mounted on a

(08:52):
stand attached to an iron rod or The ring which
is inserted into the skull is placed upon a hook
at the end of a rope which comes down from
the ceiling and hangs suspended. The showroom of the factory indicated,
perhaps better than all else, the exceedingly businesslike methods of
the establishment. It is very large and light, and lined

(09:15):
with glass cases containing specimen skeletons of giants, dwarfs, and
strange races discovered by travelers in foreign lands. Then there
are skeletons of criminals with the name, date of execution,
and a record of their crimes unattached to labels. Skeletons
of males and females of all ages, shelves of baby

(09:35):
skeletons huge of head and small of body, and others
of all sorts. It was a strange place, and the
strangest of all things to me was the absolute nonchalance
of everybody about. They appeared to consider the skeleton business
nothing more out of the ordinary than the selling of
dry goods or the manufacture of toys. I do not

(09:57):
believe that one of the persons in this place, over
which which seemed to me the shadow of death and
the funeral Paul always hung, had any of the physical
fear of the discarded mortal tenement that exists in the
heart of almost everyone. I learned in the course of
investigating that matter, that the London skeleton factory is an
offshoot of a parent establishment in Paris, which has existed

(10:20):
for nearly a century. I also learned that a similar
institution was in full operation in New York, and that
both places were as busy as they could possibly be
filling the orders. This is perhaps accounted for by the
statement to me by well posted men that ten thousand
skeletons a year are needed to supply the demand. Personally,

(10:43):
I think this is an exaggeration, but the demand is
certainly very great. The Parisian factory is under government supervision,
but its secret is well guarded, and a few persons
know of its existence outside the pale of those who
have daily business connection therewith The Factory in New York
is located on the East Side. It is said to

(11:03):
employ nearly one hundred persons. One of the most curious
things about these establishments is the fact that all about
them is kept secret so well. One would think in
employing so many persons, the facts would leak out, but
they do not seem to. Certainly, the Skeleton Factory is
one of the most curious of modern institutions. I would

(11:26):
not recommend it, however, to anyone who is inclined to
be nervous. When We'd Darkness returns in March of two
thousand and four teenager Brionna Maitland left work in the
late evening hours and was never seen again. To this day,

(11:47):
it is still one of Vermont's most infamous mysteries. That
story is up next. October is birthday month for Weird Darkness.

(12:10):
This year makes ten years of doing the show. But
while it's our birthday, we want the gifts to go
to those who help people who suffer from depression, anxiety,
or thoughts of suicide or self harm. That's what our
annual overcoming the Darkness campaign is all about. It's the
only fundraiser I have all year long. You can bring
hope to those who are lost in the darkness of depression.

(12:31):
You can make a donation right now at weird Darkness
dot com slash hope. I'll close out the fundraiser at
the end of October and announce how much we raised.
The more we raise, the more people we can help.
To donate, get more information about the fundraiser and the
organizations we're supporting, or find hope for yourself or someone
you know who are fighting depression. Visit weirddarkness dot com

(12:51):
slash hope. Please donate now while you're thinking about it.
Weird darkness dot com slash hope. I'm Darren Marler. Welcome
back to Weird Darkness. On March nineteenth, two thousand and four,

(13:17):
seventeen year old Brionna Maitland left her shift at the
Black Lantern Inn around eleven twenty pm. What happened next
remains a mystery to this day. Earlier that same day,
Maitland had completed a test to obtain her ged and
had lunch with her mother, Kelly, to celebrate. The two
then went out shopping, where, according to Maitland's mother, something

(13:40):
or someone caught Maitland's eye outside a store. She went
outside to investigate, and when her mother joined her there later,
the young woman seemed tense, shaken and agitated. Maitland said
that she needed to get home to prepare for her
evening shift at the Black Lantern. In and not wanting
to pry into her daughter's private life, Kelly drove Maitland

(14:02):
back to the apartment that she shared with her friend,
Jillian Stout. It was the last time she would see
her daughter. The year before, Brionna Maitland had decided to
move out of her family home in order to be
closer to her friends, who attended a different high school
fifteen miles away. Things did not go according to plans, however,
and soon after Maitland dropped out of school entirely. Despite

(14:25):
this rough patch, it took the young woman only a
few months to secure more staable living arrangements, including working
two jobs. According to those who knew her, Brionna Maitland
had gotten her life back together. She was even talking
about attending college part time once she received her ged results.
Before leaving for her shift the Black Lantern, in. Maitland

(14:47):
had left a note for her roommate saying that she
would be home after work when her shift at the
restaurant was over. Several of her coworkers asked her to
stay and have dinner with them, but she said that
she was tired and needed to go home and rest
because she had to work at her second job in
the morning. Her coworkers said that Maitland got into her
nineteen eighty five Oldsmobile alone and drove off into the night.

(15:10):
The next day, several passing motorists reported an abandoned car
with its rear end stuck in the wall of a
vacant building, the Dutch Burned Farmhouse, about a mile from
the Black Lantern In. When state troopers investigated, they found
Brianna Maitland's nineteen eighty five Oldsmobile around the car. Police
found loose change, a water bottle, and an unlit cigarette

(15:33):
inside the car. Two of Brianna Maitland's uncashed paychecks and
various other personal effects were found. The trooper who first
visited the scene assumed that the car had been abandoned
there by a drunk driver and had a tow truck
take it to the impound lot. He drove down to
the Black Lantern Inn in an attempt to get more information,
but finding it closed, radioed in his report and thought

(15:56):
little more of it at the time. However, even before
the trooper came to the car, several passers by found
the scene suspicious or at least interesting enough to stop
and take photographs. The resulting image of the car stuck
part way into the wall of the Old Gray House
presents a strangely haunting tableau, and more than one observer,

(16:19):
including both Maitland's mother and the host of the Trace
Evidence podcast, has said that they felt a sort of
instinctive chill upon seeing the photograph. My stomach rolled. Kelly
Maitland later said of her immediate reaction to the photo.
I started to shake. I saw evil in the picture.
Maitland's mother said that she knew immediately that it wasn't

(16:40):
her daughter who had left the car in such a state. However,
it wasn't until several days later, after the car was discovered,
that Brionna Maitland's disappearance was recognized. With plans already in
place to spend the weekend with her boyfriend Gillian Stout,
thought little of Maitland's note when she saw it that
Friday night. It wasn't until Gillian returned home the following

(17:02):
Monday and found the note in the same place that
she began to worry. Assuming that her roommate had spent
the weekend with her parents, Gillian didn't call until that Tuesday,
when she phoned Kelly and Bruce Maitland. They, in turn
began calling around to their daughter's various friends, none of
whom reported having seen her since her final shift at work. Finally,

(17:26):
Maitland's panicked parents called the police and filed a missing
persons report, but by then their daughter had already been
gone for almost a week. In the years since, innumerable
theories have come forward about what happened to Maitland that night.
Police and Brianna's family almost immediately began receiving phone calls
from people claiming that the young woman had been kidnapped,

(17:48):
that her body was at the bottom of a river
or a lake, had been tied to a tree in
the woods, or disposed of at a hog farm. One
call claimed that Brianna Maitland was being held against her
will in the house of two known drug dealers in
a town not far away. While the two men were
investigated in relation to the disappearance, neither was ever charged.

(18:10):
This was only one avenue investigated by police. Maitland had
recently been in an altercation with another teen at a party,
supposedly over a boy. The other young woman had punched
Maitland in the face, leaving her with a broken nose
and a concussion. She filed charges against the friend, which
were dropped by the police. Three weeks after her disappearance,

(18:31):
police stated that they investigated the friend and she had
been cleared of any involvement. A more chilling possibility was
that Brionna Maitland's disappearance might have been somehow connected to
the disappearance of Maura Murray just a month before and
about ninety miles away. Investigators, however, never revealed any connections

(18:52):
between the two cases. Later, a potential connection between Brianna
Maitland's disappearance and serial killer Israel Keys was brought to light,
but the FBI eventually ruled out Keys's involvement in the case.
Keys later killed himself in prison in twenty twelve after
confessing to a string of rapes and murders. Other theorists

(19:13):
speculated that Brionna Maitland was still alive, either she had
run away or been sold into sex slavery. In two
thousand and six, a woman who resembled Maitland was spotted
on security footage at the Caesars World casino in Atlantic City,
though the woman was never identified. In twenty sixteen, police

(19:34):
revealed that they had recovered DNA samples from the car
at the time of Maitland's disappearance, but to this day,
what happened to her on that dark March night remains
a mystery. This episode is dedicated to the men and

(20:09):
women of our armed forces and first responders. Whether you
are currently serving or have served in the past, you
are appreciated. It is because of your courage and sacrifice
that we enjoy the freedoms and liberties we hold dear,
and I, for one, appreciate every single one of you
for protecting what many of us take for granted. So

(20:30):
thank you. Cattle Kate Watson was one of early Wyoming's
most scandalous outlaws. She was a prostitute, a cattle thief,
and a mean, aggressive Amazon. It would beat you up
as soon as look at you. She wasn't sure at

(20:50):
a public menace. In eighteen eighty nine, he harassed neighbors.
Finally it had enough and resorted to classic rough frontier justice. Watson,
along with her equally disreputable husband, Slash Pimp, were captured
and strung up, and no one mourned them. It's a
colorful story, one which made Watson one of the Old

(21:12):
West's most famous villains. There's just one problem. Not one
of those historical facts is even close to being true aside,
unfortunately for the Lynchang part. Ellen Watson was born in
Ontario in July eighteen sixty. When she was seventeen, her
large family she was the eldest of ten surviving children,

(21:35):
moved to Lebanon, Kansas. Soon afterward, Watson began to work
as a housekeeper for one h R. Stone. In eighteen
seventy nine, she married a farm laborer named William A. Pickell.
During this period, she was described as a tall, solidly
built woman with a pronounced accent inherited from her Scottish parents. Unfortunately,

(21:55):
Ellen's marriage was a disaster practically from the start. Pickle
was an alcoholic who treated his wife with great emotional
and physical brutality. In early eighteen eighty three, Ellen finally
had enough and fled to her parents. Pickle followed her
and tried to force her to return to him, but
Ellen's father put such a scare into him he decided

(22:17):
it was wisest to leave Ellen's life for good. Finally
a free woman again, Ellen moved to Red Cloud, Nebraska,
where she made her liberation official with a divorce. She
then went to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where she worked as a
cook in a seamstress. As Cheyenne proved to not be
to her liking, Ellen, who seems to have had a
decidedly restless and independent personality, moved on to Rawlins, Wyoming,

(22:41):
where she found work in the town's main boarding place,
the Rawlins House. In early eighteen eighty six one, James
Averril claimed land along the Sweetwater River, where he opened
a restaurant and general store. He hired Watson as a cook.
Several months later, James and Ellen applied for a marriage life.
Although there is no proof the pair actually wed, historians

(23:04):
have surmised that they did make their relationship legal, but
kept it a secret so that Ellen could apply for
land through the Homestead Act. This eighteen sixty two legislation
allowed women to buy one hundred and sixty acres of land,
but only if they were unmarried. In May of eighteen
eighty eight, Ellen filed a homestead claim to land adjacent
to her Subrosa spouse. She lived in a small cabin

(23:28):
on the property, where she supplemented her income by doing
sewing for the many cowboys who passed through the area.
When she had saved enough money, Watson began accumulating a
small herd of cattle. Although she never could have dreamed
it at the time, this investment was to prove her undoing.
It was a tricky time to be a small scale rancher.

(23:48):
At the time, it was common for cattle owners to
graze their animals on public land. However, in eighteen seventy two,
owners of the larger ranches came together to create the
Wyoming Stock Grower Association and claimed rights to the open range.
In the terrible winter of eighteen eighty eighty one, cattle
were unable to get enough grass. As a result, ranchers

(24:11):
began growing hay to feed their animals in winter. This
meant that in this generally arid land, water suddenly became
a particularly precious resource, and the land claimed by Ellen
and her husband contained one mile of Horse Creek. Thus,
the formerly humble Watson Averril property suddenly became of great value.

(24:33):
A wealthy rancher named Albert Bothwell made numerous offers to
buy this land from them, only to be repeatedly rebuffed.
Averil and Ellen began to prosper. James became postmaster, a
notary public, a justice of the peace, and an election judge.
This hardly fits the popular image of Avril as a pimp,

(24:53):
outlaw and cattle thief. Inevitably, the WSGA used their newfound
self cre created power to crowd outsiders out of the
ranching business. They used their influence to pass a law
decreeing that all unbranded calves automatically became WSGA property. They
limited independent ranchers from bidding at auctions, and announced that

(25:16):
all cattle owners, no matter how small, must have a
registered brand. Naturally, they all engineered it so that the
cost of these brands was so high that few could
afford it. Additionally, the WSGA had the power to have
brand applications either accepted or rejected. This all went just
about the way you would think. Watson and Averrill filed

(25:39):
five different brand applications, only to have them all thrown out. Finally,
in eighteen eighty nine, Ellen bought a previously registered brand
from a neighbor, John Crowder, and began branding her cattle.
Although records show that she had bought only twenty eight cattle,
she branded forty one, leading historians to surmise that many

(26:00):
of them were calves born in the wild or mavericks,
which the WSGA considered to be rightfully theirs. Avril had
also taken to writing a number of letters to local
newspapers exposing the corrupt practices of the WSGA and its
campaign to stifle rival homesteaders. In short conditions were ripe

(26:21):
for Ellen and her husband to have some sort of
showdown with the more powerful ranchers. That showdown began taking
place in July eighteen eighty nine, when Ellen filed for
permission to build a water ditch to irrigate her land.
This would mean less water from Horse Creek would be
available to her neighbors, most particularly Albert Bothwell. Bothwell decided

(26:43):
it was time to teach this upstart a lesson. He
began entirely un lawfully fencing in parts of Ellen's land
and began sending his workers over to harass her and Avril.
The beleaguered couple, apparently tragically ignorant of just how far
Bothwell was prepared to go, tried ignoring the persecution and
carried on with their lives as best they could. On

(27:06):
July twentieth, Bothwell had a meeting with the other powerful
ranchers where he announced that he had evidence that Watson
was a cattle rustler nineteenth century Wyoming. Those were quite
literally hanging words. Although some of Bothwell's neighbors protested against
his assertion that Watson and her partner must be lynched
for this crime, five of them agreed. Bothwell and his

(27:30):
cohorts rode to Ellen's ranch, where, at gunpoint they forced
her and Avril in their buckboard. Jean Crowder, a young
boy who lived with the couple, saw what was happening
and ran for help. Tragically, by the time he returned
with a neighbor, Frank Buchanan, it was too late. Bothwell's
men began a gunfight that forced the would be rescuers

(27:50):
back long enough for Ellen and James to be hanged.
Bothwell and his five co murderers were arrested, but before
their trial date. Jane Crowder apparently warned that he would
share Watson's and Avril state if he stuck around fled Town.
Although Frank Buchanan had been taken into protective custody, he
too disappeared. Whether he, like Crowder, ran for the Hills

(28:14):
or was murdered was never established. With both witnesses to
the lynching now unavailable, the charges against Bothwell and his
allies were dropped. Watson's executor, George Durant, sued Bothwell and
another of the lynch mob, John Durban, accusing them of
stealing Watson's cattle and rebranding them as their own. The

(28:35):
case was eventually dismissed. Bothwell wasted no time acquiring the
properties of the couple that he'd murdered. He continued to
prosper right up to the time he died in Los
Angeles in the nineteen twenties, and I'm willing to bet
his conscience never pained him once. After the couple was hanged,
it was naturally advisable for Bothwell and his allies to

(28:57):
come up with a good cover story. Even in the
Old West, the ruthless murder of innocent people was frowned upon.
Happily for them. The w SGA controlled all of the
West's major newspapers. Editors were given their instructions, and the
lurid legend of thieving, hoarring cattle Kate, a name never
given to her in life, was born. The lynching was

(29:21):
explained in editorials as merely a lawless but justifiable deed,
the sort of thing cattlemen were forced to do in
order to protect their rightful property from desperadoes. In brief,
the victims were asking for it. Averil's brother R. W.
Ca Hill tried to set the record straight, telling reporters
that the lynching was cruel and cold blooded murder, but

(29:44):
he was ignored. Given the choice between a good story
and tedious truth, most will opt for the former. Increasingly,
colorful and fictitious accounts of Watson's life spilled over from
the newspapers into numerous Western TV shows, movies, and even
so called history books. The myth of cattle Kate would

(30:06):
possibly be reigning unchallenged to this day if in the
late twentieth century, a composer named George Huffsmith had not
begun researching Watson for an opera that he planned to
write about her. He learned that the accepted history about
Watson was, in his words, pure fabrication. Family and friends
described Ellen Watson as brave, honest, hard working, and generous.

(30:30):
In the words of one acquaintance, Harry Ward, other women
looked down on her in those days, but no matter
what she was or did, she had a big heart.
Nobody went hungry around her. Hufsmith eventually published the fruits
of his groundbreaking research in his nineteen ninety three book
The Wyoming Lynching of cattle Kate. Although Watson's and Avril's

(30:53):
murders were never brought to justice, perhaps history can give
them some small measure of reparation. I don't think I'm
going to have time to share the murder of nurse Cindy,
who was found dead, drugged, strangled, and tied up outside Vancouver,

(31:15):
British Columbia, and they concluded that she'd committed suicide. I
don't have time for that story, so I will place
that in the Sudden Death overtime content in the podcast
version of tonight's show, which I will upload early Monday morning,
and I'll find something appropriate to share with you when
we come back that I do have time for. We

(31:50):
all know someone who struggles with depression, whether we are
aware of it or not. It's something those who suffer
tend to deal with in silence, in the shadows. But
the organizations we are supporting with our or annual Overcoming
the Darkness Fundraiser this month are working to make it
easier for those in the darkness to come into the light,
to find help, and to learn they're not alone, that
there are ways to overcome the darkness of depression and

(32:12):
live normal lives. I do this fundraiser only one month
out of the year, as October is the anniversary month
for Weird Darkness we launched in October twenty fifteen. It's
National Depression Awareness Month, and this month is spooky and dark,
kind of like depression. If you'd like to make a
donation or learn more about the fundraiser, or find hope
for yourself or someone you know who struggles with depression,

(32:34):
visit Weird Darkness dot com slash hope. The fundraiser ends
Halloween night at midnight. Please give what you can Weird
Darkness dot com slash hope. Interconnecting trails, breathtaking views, and
a wealth of rivers, lakes, and ponds makes the Adirondack

(32:55):
Mountains what are the most salt after vacation destinations in
the world, apparently not just for humans, but for ghosts
as well. Located in New York, four hours north of
Manhattan and two hours south of Montreal, the area has
attracted hikers, fishermen, and hunters from around the globe. The

(33:15):
Adirondack region is an area rich in history and exquisite
natural beauty. At night, you'll be treated to a view
of the unpolluted, vast, starry sky, accompanied by the hellish
screech of a barred owl or a young fox. By day,
you may hear the constant chatter of active, some say
mythical forest creatures searching for food within the wooded pines

(33:39):
they fiercely protect. The natural Adirondack Playground is a destination
meant for everyone, although some who once came to the
region for fun, a flight of fancy, or to improve
their han drum lives remain within the coveted back country.
Their murdered souls are eternally tethered to the soulil of

(34:00):
the mountains by the trauma of unrequited love and unsolicited death.
Denied by heaven and hell, their ghostly apparitions are forever
trapped along the rocky banks of the Adirondack's unpredictable waters
and dark, mysterious forests. On July eleventh, nineteen o six,

(34:20):
Grace Brown set out for a boat ride along Big
Moose Lake in Eagle Bay with her lover, a trip
from which only one of them would return. As a
little girl, Grace Brown lived in South Osilic, Shenango County,
New York. At eighteen, she moved to Courtland with her
sister Ada and her family and began working for the
Gillette Skirt Factory as a seamstress. She met and soon

(34:44):
fell in love with the factory owner's nephew, Chester Gillette.
Grace developed an innocent schoolgirl crush on Chester, which would
be a fatal mistake. The couple kept their love affair
secret until the spring of nineteen oh six, when Grace,
now twenty, discovered she was pregnant. Unable to face the

(35:05):
consequences of his actions, Chester lured Grace to the Adirondack
Mountains on the promise of marriage. Although it is still
unclear what Chester's murderous plan was, or if he even
had one, we know that he eventually checked into a
hotel under an assumed name and with sinister intentions, Chester

(35:25):
falseheartedly escorted the mother of his unborn baby down the
river in a small boat. Suddenly, raising a tennis racket
that was once strapped to his monogrammed suitcase, he struck
Grace on the back of her head, causing her to
fall into Big Moose Lake and drown. After a three
week trial, Chester was found guilty of the careless murder

(35:47):
of Grace Brown. On March thirtieth, nineteen oh eight, Chester
Gillette died by electrocution. However, that is not the end
of the story, one would argue. On the topic of murder,
or any sudden or traumatic death, it never is. It's
evident that the spirit of Grace Brown continues to roam
the thickly forested area of the Adirondack Mountains. Locals say

(36:10):
she often appears along the water where she was ruthlessly murdered,
mourning the body of her unborn child, although some say
she's seeking revenge on the cowardly soul of her bloodthirsty lover.
Whatever the case may be, the ghost of Grace Brown
has been seen within the area of the cove Wood
Lodge on Big Moose Lake for more than a hundred years.

(36:34):
Rondea Mouslat, a one time employee at the Cove Wood Lodge,
reportedly walked up to the second floor of the building
and reached for the pole string of the overhead light. Suddenly,
Ronda had the distinct feeling that someone was standing in
front of her. However, no one was there. She stood breathless,
frozen in her tracks. Ronda stated, it lingered for only

(36:55):
a few seconds, then it moved away. I didn't see
anything myself, but I felt that somebody was right there.
At the same time, her friends, who were standing just
outside the lodge, reported seeing a ghostly figure through the
second floor window. Another employee, Linda Lee Mackin, encountered the
ghost of Grace Brown just a few months later. Linda

(37:18):
described walking toward Big Moose Lake, the glow from her
flashlight becoming increasingly dim. By the time she reached the
edge of the lake, her flashlight was no longer working.
Linda turned around and headed back to the lodge. She
returned with a friend a few minutes later, only to
find the ghost of Grace Brown appearing out of the
mist on the bank of Big Moose Lake. Linda, along

(37:42):
with being thoroughly shocked, also reported feeling an instant overwhelming
sense of sadness. The unanticipated feelings of grief confirmed for
Linda that it was, in fact the spirit of the
young mother she had encountered. Most visitors come to the
Adirondack Mountains for fun, but back in the eighteen seventies,

(38:03):
doctor Edward Livingston Trudeau came for a cure. Stricken with tuberculosis.
He was soon healed by the area's clean mountain air
and the upcountry's peaceful soul nurturing natural practices, Trudeau established
the first of its kind in the United States, Tuberculosis
Sanitarium in Saranac Lake, New York, eventually calling the small

(38:26):
village home. Wealthy families traveled to the sanitarium seeking recovery
within want of many cure cottages, a name given to
the local homes in the area catering to those inflicted
with tuberculosis. Many of the sick who came to the
Adirondack region in search of a cure for tuberculosis recovered

(38:46):
from the devastating disease, although some were not so lucky
in the end. Money made by you happiness, But I'm
pretty sure it can't bring you back from the dead. Yet, unfortunately,
a death from a disease one did not ask for
or deserve can sometimes bring on a sort of spiritual resentment,

(39:08):
sparking more than just a handful of random hauntings that
tend to leave those of us left behind questioning our reality.
A worker from the Trudeau Sanitarium reported seeing a young
boy with a thin, skeletal face staring at her from
the inside of an abandoned home, a home that was
padlocked from the outside. Another story comes from a worker

(39:29):
who witnessed a mysterious janitor walking to and from a
boarded up home that was also abandoned. The Trudeau Sanitarium
is only one of the many haunted locations paranormal enthusiasts
fastidiously explore. Twenty miles north of Malone, New York, on
the edge of the Canadian border, is the hamlet of
Fort Covington. Rich in farmland and historical significance, Fort Covington

(39:54):
is also well known for being a hotspot of paranormal activity.
During the War of eighteen twelve, the fort was used
as a blockhouse to shelter wounded soldiers. Over twenty three
thousand Americans, British and Canadian soldiers lost their lives in
the war, also known as the Second War of Independence,
where for the first time in history, America declared war

(40:17):
on a foreign nation, Great Britain. A wood framed Victorian
home a young couple had turned into an antique shop
was located in the area of Fort Covington and was
precariously haunted alone in the shop at night. The owner
stated that unexplained noises and curious activity would often occur.

(40:37):
Lights would turn on and off, doors would open all
by themselves, and heavy objects would move from their shelves
at random and unassisted. One night, the owner recalled an
unseen hand changing the station to her radio playing in
another room. A more chilling personal experience relates to the
climate within a small room located near the back of

(41:00):
the centurion home. No matter how high the owners would
set the thermostat, the narrow room used to store vintage clothing,
maintained a constant wintery temperature. The owner, along with some
of her customers, clearly felt the presence of something supernatural
lurking inside the home. However, all hauntings are not exclusive

(41:23):
to the bitter souls of military men. Alone. Sometimes the
spooky encounters involved the women behind the soldiers. Nye Manor,
also known as Parkhurst House, dates back to eighteen twenty
seven and was a home built for Army Major Jebez Parkhurst.
Parkhurst was an abolitionist and a committed member of the

(41:44):
Underground Railroad. Many people died within the home, including Parkhurst's
first wife and daughter. Both women committed suicide. Fidelia, his wife,
suffered from mental derangement, taking her life in eighteen forty nine,
and Caroline, the major's daughter, killed herself shortly after her
husband's death and one year after the death of her

(42:06):
only child. It's easy to see how devastating earthly traumas
can lend themselves to mysterious ghostly happenings. A recent owner
of the park Cursed Home, working late one night, claims
to have heard a female voice calling out to him,
hearing a soft, feminine voice say simply hello. The owner's

(42:28):
wife reports that she is prone to feel suddenly sad
when roaming into certain parts of the refurbished house. Both
have heard footsteps within the home with no earthly explanation
of where they came from. Neighbors of the Parkhurst House
can also confirm odd activity, stating that they recall seeing
lights glowing brightly on the second floor of the eighteenth

(42:50):
century home when it was clearly boarded up and without power.
Whether you are someone looking for a paranormal adventure within
a densely wooded forest or simply seeking a stroll through
one of the many historical homes in the naturally Majestic
region whose occupants are decidedly more than happy to offer
their visitors a ghostly adventure of their own, the Adirondack

(43:13):
Mountains are definitely a perfect fit. Thanks for listening. If
you missed any part of tonight's show, or if you
want to hear it again, you can subscribe to the
podcast in your favorite podcast app at Weirddarkness dot com

(43:34):
slash listen. Not only will you hear a copy of
tonight's show, you'll also receive Tonight's Sudden Death overtime content
about the death of Nurse Cindy and other stories. All
stories in Weird Darkness are purported to be true unless
stated otherwise, and you can find links to the stories
or the authors in the show notes, which I've already
uploaded to the Weird Darkness website. The Skeleton Factory is

(43:55):
from Strange Ago. The Lynching of Cattle Kate was posted
at Strange Company. The Vanishing of Brianna Maitland was written
by or In Gray for the Lineup, and Haunted at
airon Dack Mountains is by Molly Briggs for Paranormality Magazine.
Weird Darkness is a registered trademark copyright Weird Darkness. And
now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave
you with a little light Matthew six verses nineteen through

(44:18):
twenty one. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on Earth,
where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in
and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
where moth and rust do not destroy, where thieves do
not break in and steel. For where your treasure is there,
your heart will be also. And a final thought, enjoy
the little things in life, because one day we will

(44:39):
look back and realize those were the big things in life.
I'm Darren Marler. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness.

(45:06):
Welcome Weirdos. I'm Darren Marler and this is Weird Darkness Radio,
where every week you'll find stories of the paranormal supernatural, legends, lore,
the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained.
Coming up this hour, John List planned the murders of

(45:30):
his whole family so carefully he almost got away with it.
In fact, it took eighteen years to catch him. We'll
look at what it was like to be a woman
in the seventeenth century and accused of witchcraft. If you
drink whiskey, or even if you don't, you're likely familiar
with jameson Irish whisky. But did you know that cannibalism

(45:55):
played a part in its history? But first, it's considered
by many Britain's most well known disappearing person case. Even now,
over three decades later, people in the UK are still
fascinated and intrigued by the unexplained vanishing of Susie Lampla.
We begin with that story. If you're new here, welcome

(46:18):
to the show. And if you're already a member of
this weirdo family of ours, please take a moment and
invite someone else to listen in with you. Recommending weird
darkness to others helps make it possible for me to
keep doing the show. And while you're listening, be sure
to visit Weirddarkness dot com and click on Contact Social
to follow Weird Darkness on social media and also on
the website. You can find the daily Weird Darkness podcast,

(46:40):
which comes out seven days per week. You can enter
monthly contests, find Weird Darkness merchandise and more. You can
even send in your own true story of something paranormal
that has happened to you or someone you know. You
can find it all at weird Darkness dot com. Now
bult your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights,

(47:02):
and come with me into the Weird Darkness. In the

(47:23):
summer of nineteen eighty six, London was on the cusp
of a boom, with house prices having risen by almost
twenty percent in a year. When Susie Lampla applied for
a job as an estate agent, she noted with delight
in her diary, I'm hired on the spot. In a
distressingly prescient later entry, she revealed the company puts me

(47:45):
in the window desk as the most attractive female. That's
how it is the most attractive female on display for
any man to see at lunchtime. On July twenty eighth,
the twenty five year old left her window desk for
a twelve forty five a point with a mister Kipper
and was never seen again. The disappearance sparked Britain's biggest

(48:07):
ever missing person's inquiry, but detectives were never able to
trace her body and failed to gather enough evidence to
charge their prime suspect. The Mystery of Susie Lambla, a
Sky documentary, unpicks why the murder remains unsolved, but it
doesn't fully answer the other mystery, why does Britain remain

(48:28):
so obsessed by her disappearance even decades later. A few
days before Lampla went missing, Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson.
Parts of the Soviet Union were being slowly poisoned by
the fallout from Chernobyl. That year, British cows began to
show traits of violence and nervousness, later attributed to Bovine's

(48:50):
bongeform met cephalopathy or BSE. Listening to the fascinatingly dated,
regally clipped diction of Sue Lawley as she described the
police investigation on the news, the era feels curiously familiar
and impossibly distant. The documentary evokes an almost forgotten period

(49:10):
of wine bars, pearl lipstick, and Princess Diana hairstyles. But
despite the passing of decades, online amateur detectives remain engrossed
by this case to an obsessive degree. Nick Ross, the
journalist and crime Watch presenter who covered Lampla's disappearance at
the time, finds nothing surprising in this. He attributes it

(49:34):
to a British taste for this genre of crime, a
morbid fascination with watching happy, affluent, privileged lives being destroyed.
The story, he says, prompts an instant intake of breath. Oh,
my gosh, a nice middle class family. Ross goes on,
it's the cliches of crime which fascinate. Susie Lampla was

(49:56):
an attractive female, young and middle class. It would have
been very different if she had not been good looking,
or had come from a tenement somewhere from a disrupted,
dysfunctional background. Its Midsummer murders. People tend to be more
interested in the murders of people from privileged backgrounds than
underprivileged ones. Ross is profreshingly blunt about the dark appeal

(50:20):
of these programs. People say they don't like crime, but
our appetites say something quite different. Look at the crime
shelves and bookstops. See what Hitchcock's films are about. Crime
is endlessly fascinating. Previously unseen pictures from the family's album
of Lampla show her skiing, surfing, laughing with her sisters

(50:41):
and brother, and dressing up in an off the shoulder
ball gown. At the time, people were horrified by the
speed with which her untroubled background was fractured. This, says Ross,
was why the Disappearance featured so prominently on such programs
as his. Its daytime element also alarmed viewers. The greatest

(51:01):
cliche all time is broad daylight. But most crimes happen
in broad daylight, because most of us are asleep at night.
If you're a broadcaster, you inevitably get drawn into projecting
back what your viewers are prepared to tune in for.
What interests us in real life is just what interests
us in fiction, and the cliches are hugely self perpetuating.

(51:25):
Women are half as likely to be murdered as men,
yet will get twice as much publicity. Nobody's interested in.
The people most vulnerable to homicide, those under the age
of twelve months. Jim Dickey, the detective charged with reopening
the case in nineteen ninety nine, says it was the
idea of a young woman going to work in the

(51:45):
morning and never coming home. The troubled people he and
the other detectives interviewed for the documentary look exhausted by
the failure of their efforts to secure a conviction after
decades spent trying, but he is valiantly try trying to
stay positive about the chance that broadcasting these new photographs
and witness accounts may encourage more people to come forward

(52:07):
with evidence that finally allows them to resolve the case.
Something might jog someone's memory, he says. There may still
be someone out there who hasn't come to the police before,
or whose evidence has been ignored. The family deserves closure.
The investigative failings were partly due to policing systems. We
were in an analog age, says Dickie. Everything was on paper.

(52:31):
There were old fashioned card index systems for evidence gathering.
Now we have all sorts of technology, computer systems, number
plate recognition, CCTV. I think we could probably have solved
the case a lot quicker now. Lampla's younger brother. Richard
also looks crushed by the weight of what happened to
his family, but appears to be forcing himself to revisit

(52:52):
it in an effort to pay tribute to his sister
and to voice the family's frustration that police were never
able to charge the main suspect, John Cannon, who has
denied involvement and who remains in prison for the murder
of another young woman. Richard says the family is back
into thinking, well, maybe we could have a finish, you know,
an end. We'd love an end. There is an optimistic

(53:16):
end of sorts, in the creation of the Susie Lamplea
trust by her parents. Instead of privately grieving her mother,
Diana channeled her energies into campaigning. Her impact on anti
stalking and anti harassment legislation, as well as the licensing
of mini cabs, has been considerable. She appears several times

(53:37):
in the film, dressed cheerfully, sometimes wearing a pink beret,
calmly addressing the media. The documentary includes footage of Sue
Lawley asking her, some people say that you have courted publicity,
that you've enjoyed the limelight, but Diana found campaigning to
draw attention to her daughter's disappearance the only logical response

(53:58):
to trauma. If I had a long and was dressed
in black, I wouldn't get my message across. It certainly
wouldn't bring Susie back either. Diana died in twenty eleven,
but the charity continues to do positive work, and the
family's dignity and the face of ghoulish interest in their
difficulties shines through the trauma that the family has doesn't

(54:20):
bear thinking about, says Sukie Baker, CEO of the Trust.
Susie was a colleague, she was a friend, she was
a daughter, she was a sister. She was just going
about her normal day. And I think that's what struck
a chord with so many people. What Diana did just
amazingly was to turn this tragedy into something that's had
such a positive impact on so many individuals' lives. That's

(54:43):
a real testament to the family's vision. When Weird Darkness returns,
John List planned the murderers of his whole family so
carefully he almost got away with it. In fact, it
took eighteen years to catch him. Weird Darkness is celebrating

(55:20):
our birthday this month. We use this annual celebration to
help those who struggle with depression. Every October, we raise
money for organizations that help people overcome depression, anxiety, and
thoughts of suicide and self harm. It's called Overcoming the Darkness,
and you can make a donation right now at Weirddarkness
dot com slash hope. That's weird Darkness dot com slash hope.

(55:42):
A gift of any amount helps, with every dollar bringing
hope to someone affected by depression. To donate, to get
more information about overcoming the darkness, or to find hope
to battle back the darkness of depression in yourself or
someone you love, visit Weirddarkness dot com slash hope. The
fundraiser ends on Halloween night at midnight, so please give
right now long you're thinking about it. That's weird Darkness

(56:04):
dot com slash hope. John List was a Sunday school
teacher and successful bank executive. He lived in a mansion
in New Jersey with his wife and the Toy children.
The Lists were even comfortable enough to provide for John's mother,
including housing her in an in law apartment. List was

(56:27):
the perfect familyman until when things went drastically wrong. Despite
his seemingly pristine life. List was also known for being
aloof a coold man with few friends. His lack of
social skills caused him many problems, even leading to repeated
job losses. So John List killed his perfect family and

(56:50):
started a new one, and he almost got away with
it for weeks before he killed his family. List left
every day for work, but he only got as far
as the train station, where he would spend the day reading.
His wife. His children and his mother did not know
that he had lost his job, but he knew they
were going to find out the mortgage was not being paid.

(57:14):
The foreclosure process had begun. He was about to be
exposed as a failure. Something had to be done. On
November ninth, nineteen seventy one, after the children left for school,
List shot his wife, Helen in the back of the
head as she was drinking her coffee. He went upstairs
and shot his eighty four year old mother. He took

(57:34):
a break and made himself lunch. Then he went to
the bank to close his accounts and cash his mother's
savings bonds. When his daughter, Patricia sixteen and son Frederick
thirteen came home, List shot them too. Then he went
to the high school to watch his fifteen year old son,
John Junior, play in a soccer game. After the game,

(57:56):
he drove his son home and shot him in the
chest and face. He called his children's schools to say
they would be away for a while. Being the religious
man that he was, List wrote to his pastor after
committing the murders. According to List, he was attempting to
save his family's souls because the nineteen seventies had become

(58:17):
a sinful time. List believed that his family was succumbing
to temptation, especially after his daughter expressed her interest in
becoming an actress. He viewed the occupation as corrupt and
linked to Satan. However, many criminal profilers concluded that List
fabricated this motive in order to ease his mind and
lessen his stress and his decision to murderous family. He

(58:41):
put the bodies of his wife and children in sleeping
bags and left them on the floor of the mansion's ballroom.
He left his mother's body in her apartment. The next day.
He cut his picture out of all the family portraits
so police would not have a photo for the wanted
poster they were sure to draw up. He turned down
the thermostat and turned on the radio tuned to a

(59:03):
religious station. Then he thoroughly vanished. Despite the great lengths
List went to in order to delay the search, teachers
grew suspicious of the prolonged absence of the children. Concerned
neighbors alerted law enforcement after noticing that the lights were
constantly left on. Neighbors also realized that the lights in

(59:25):
the mansion were starting to burn out one by one,
unsettling everyone. It would be nearly a month before police
found the bodies. They launched a nationwide manhunt, but the
trail had gone cold. It would take another eighteen years
for police to learn where John List went. List had

(59:45):
left his car at the airport, but that was just
a ruse. In fact, he had taken a bus to Denver,
where he found a job as a hotel cook using
the name Robert Clark. Eventually he got a better job
as an accountant for H and N. He joined the
Lutheran Church and met a widow, Dolores Miller. They soon

(01:00:06):
married and moved to Richmond, Virginia. John List might have
lived the rest of his life in freedom if it
weren't for the TV show America's Most Wanted. The show
featured the List family killings in nineteen eighty nine. They
had a forensic sculptor create a bust showing what List
most likely looked like. Eighteen years after he killed his family,

(01:00:29):
his old neighbors in Denver recognized him. He was sentenced
to five consecutive life terms and died in prison. In
two thousand and eight, when America's Most Wanted agreed to
feature the John List case, it was the oldest case
on the program. List had been missing for eighteen years.
They brought in forensic artist Frank Bender to create the

(01:00:51):
bust of the aging fugitive. Bender had success in helping
capture aging fugitives and identifying decomposed bodies through his sculptures.
In order to create a bust of the Aging List,
Bender consulted a forensic psychologist in order to make a
profile of the man. Bender also used family photographs to
predict how he would age the bust depicted List with

(01:01:14):
a receding hairline, sagging jaws, and a pair of glasses.
Bender's theory that List would use glasses to disguise himself
as someone more important than he was would prove accurate
when List was arrested. He was wearing the exact style
of glasses Bender had envisioned. List said he killed his
family to spare them the humiliation of losing their home

(01:01:37):
and because he hoped that they would go to heaven.
Psychiatrists say he never showed remorse for his cold blooded
murder of his family. Later, during the trial, it was
confirmed that List suffered from obsessive compulsive personality disorder, and
it caused him to consider only two solutions to his
predicament except welfare or kill his family. List deemed welfare

(01:02:01):
and unacceptable option because he and his family would be
exposed to ridicule, he would be viewed as a failure
in his community, and accepting handouts violated his authoritarian father's teachings.
In a two thousand and two interview with Connie Chunk,
Liszt was asked why he didn't commit suicide. He stated
that he thought taking his own life would forbid him

(01:02:22):
entrance into heaven, where he hoped to reunite with his family.
The FBI posed another question during Liszt's disappearance, was he
also d B. Cooper. The infamous case involved a man
supposedly named Dan Cooper, who bought a one way ticket
to Seattle, Washington on November twenty fourth, nineteen seventy one.

(01:02:44):
While the plane was in motion, Cooper hijacked the plane
and made several demands. Afterwards, he jumped out of the
plane with a parachute and the ransom money that he'd demanded.
Investigators drew a link between the two men since both
committed their crimes in November of nineteen seventy one. They
also shared physical similarities. Both were white men with the

(01:03:05):
same height and weight, who appeared to be in their forties,
and they both wore glasses. Because the crimes occurred so
close together in time, investigators believed that List might have
committed the crime under the reasoning that he had nothing
left to lose. In nineteen eighty nine, List was captured
and confessed to the murders, but fervently denied any involvement

(01:03:27):
in the Cooper hijacking. Eventually, List was removed as a suspect. Thus,
the true identity of D. B. Cooper remains a mystery
to this day. As of twenty sixteen, the FBI suspended
active investigation on the dB Cooper case, citing the need
to focus their resources on investigating other issues of higher priority.

(01:03:48):
List's tumultuous life soon made its way to the silver
screen in nineteen ninety three, a made for TV movie
starring Robert Blake and Beverly De Angelo, depicted fictionalized versions
of the murders committed by A List instead of merely
providing a dramatic retelling of the murder. Though director Bobby
Roth focused on several other perspectives, those of a hometown

(01:04:10):
chief of police, List's sister in law, and her husband.
The movie met with criticism over Roth's apparent exclamation of
what drove List to commit the murders. Much of the
film focuses on the women in List's life. According to
the film, with a controlling, alcoholic wife and domineering mother,
there was only so much List could handle before he

(01:04:32):
was driven to murder. List in his Crimes also went
on to inspire other films such as The Stepfather and
The Usual Suspects. On March twenty first, two thousand and eight,
List died of complications from pneumonia at the age of
eighty two while in custody at Saint Francis Medical Center
in Trenton, New Jersey. Darkness returns if you drink whiskey,

(01:05:02):
or even if you don't, you're likely familiar with Jamison
Irish whiskey. But did you know the cannibalism played a
part in its history? That story is coming up. If
you've ever wanted to learn more about stories I share
in the podcast, you'll want to sign up for the
free Weird Darkness newsletter. Several times per week, you'll get
an email that not only includes the audio player with

(01:05:22):
a recent episode, but a deep dive article of that
same subject, going more in depth than what you heard
in the podcast. I also post numerous articles that never
make it into the podcast, and I share those in
the newsletter too. Sign up for the free Weird Darkness
newsletter at Weird Darkness dot com slash newsletter. That's Weird
Darkness dot com slash newsletter. October is birthday month for

(01:05:57):
Weird Darkness. This year makes ten years of doing the show.
But while it's our birthday, we want the gifts to
go to those who help people who suffer from depression, anxiety,
or thoughts of suicide or self harm. That's what our
annual Overcoming the Darkness campaign is all about. It's the
only fundraiser I have all year long, you can bring
hope to those who are lost in the darkness of depression.

(01:06:18):
You can make a donation right now at weird darkness
dot com slash hope. I'll close out the fundraiser at
the end of October and announce how much we raised.
The more we raise, the more people we can help
to donate, Get more information about the fundraiser and the
organizations we're supporting, or find hope for yourself or someone
you know who are fighting depression. Visit weirddarkness dot com

(01:06:39):
slash hope. Please donate now while you're thinking about it.
Weird Darkness dot com slash hope. John Jamison was born
in seventeen forty in Aloa in Scotland. He began his
career as a lawyer, but after he married Margaret Haig

(01:07:00):
seventeen fifty three, his future would be forever changed. Margaret
just so happened to be the daughter of John Haig,
the famous whiskey distiller in Scotland. In seventeen seventy four,
John joined the Convivial Lodge Number two oh two of
the Dublin Freemasons, and by seventeen eighty his Irish whisky
distillation began. He worked for the next forty one years

(01:07:24):
building up the business, then passed it on to his son,
John the Second in eighteen fifty one. John Jamison the
second married, had children, and continued the family business. By
the turn of the nineteenth century, Jamison Irish whiskey was
the second largest producer in Ireland and one of the
largest in the world, producing a million gallons annually. Meanwhile,

(01:07:47):
in Africa, the Modest War was being fought between the
Modest Sudanese of the religious leader Mohammed Ahmad bin abd Allah,
who had proclaimed himself the Mahdi of Islam or the
Guided One, and the four of the Catavate of Egypt,
which consisted of the initial and latter forces of Britain.
In eighteen eighty five, the Modists captured the city of Khartoum,

(01:08:10):
effectively collapsing the administration of Sudan and cutting off Equatoria,
the extreme southern province. This posed an issue for Emin Pasha,
an Ottoman doctor, who had been appointed to the role
of governor of Equatoria. He was still able to send
and receive letters, and by February eighteen eighty six had
been informed that the Egyptian government was going to abandon Equatoria.

(01:08:34):
In July eighteen eighty six, Emin Pasha was encouraged to
invite the British government to annex Equatoria itself. Unfortunately, the
British government was not interested, but the people were. That's
when Scottish businessman and philanthropist William McKinnon came into the picture.
MacKinnon had been involved in various colonial ventures during his time,

(01:08:56):
and by November eighteen eighty five he approached Henry Morton's Stanley,
a Welsh journalist, explorer, soldier, colonial administrator, author and politician,
about leading a relief expedition. Stanley was ready, so McKinnon
approached J. F. Hutton, a business acquaintance, and together they
organized the Emin Pasha Relief Committee. The committee raised a

(01:09:18):
total of about thirty two thousand pounds. Stanley was still
in the employment of Leopold Second of Belgium and had
to get permission to go on the expedition. Leopold the
second agreed with the stipulation that the expedition would take
a longer route up the Congo River to ease widespread
public acclaim in London. Stanley declared the expedition is non military.

(01:09:41):
That is to say, its purpose is not to fight, destroy,
or waste. Its purpose is to save, to relieve distress,
to carry comfort. Em N Pasha may be a good man,
a brave officer, a gallant fellow, deserving of a strong
effort of relief. But I declined to believe, and I
have not been able to gather from anyone in England

(01:10:01):
and impression that his life or the lives of the
few hundreds under him, would overbalance the lives of thousands
of natives and the devastation of immense tracts of country
which an expedition strictly military would naturally cause. The expedition
as a mere powerful caravan armed with rifles for the
purpose of ensuring the safe conduct of the ammunition to

(01:10:21):
Emin Pasha and for the most certain protection of his
people during the retreat harm, but it also has means
of purchasing the friendship of tribes and chiefs, of buying food,
and paying its way liberally. The Relief Committee received over
four hundred applications from expedition hopefuls. From these, Stanley made

(01:10:43):
the decision whom he would take. Among the applicants was
James Jamison, grandson of John Jamison and heir to the
Whisky Empire. On June eighteen eighty eight, Jamison was in
command of the rear column of the expedition at Ribakiba,
a trading post deep in Theo known for its cannibal population.
He began to deal directly with Tippo Tip, a slave

(01:11:06):
trader and local fixer. Ever curious, Jamison expressed his interest
in seeing cannibalism firsthand, leading Tippu Tip to speak to
local chiefs of the village. It produced a ten year
old girl, for whom Jamison paid six handkerchiefs. There are
varying accounts of what happened next from Jamison's diary, his wife,

(01:11:27):
and even a translator who had been on the trip
with him. According to the translator Assad Faran, upon presentation
of the girl, the chief said to their villagers, this
is a present from a white man who wishes to
see her eaten. Varan continues, the girl was tied to
a tree. The natives sharpened their knives the while one

(01:11:48):
of them then stabbed her twice in the belly. Jamison
recounted in his diary. Three men then ran forward and
began to cut up the body of the girl. Finally,
her head was cut off and not a particle remained,
each man taking his piece away down the river to
wash it. Bob Jamison and Faran agreed the girl never screamed.

(01:12:12):
The most extraordinary thing was that the girl never uttered
a sound, nor struggled until she fell, wrote Jamison. When
I went home, I tried to take some small sketches
of the scene while still freshening my memory. According to
Jamison's wife and diary, he'd only gone along with the
proceedings because he believed it to be a joke. He
couldn't believe the villagers would actually kill and eat the

(01:12:35):
little girl. Jamison was never held accountable for his actions.
By the time the story reached Stanley, Jamison had already
died from a fever. He'd contracted. His wealthy family, along
with the assistance of the Belgian government, was able to
hush any mention of the atrocities committed. On June twenty ninth,

(01:13:02):
sixteen thirty four, the Privy Council wrote to Alexander Baker
and William Klows, both surgeons in Royal service, ordering them
to gather a group of midwives and inspect and search
the bodies of those women that were lately brought up
by the Sheriff of the County of Lancaster indicted for witchcraft.
Having received their orders, Plows gathered a group of surgeons

(01:13:22):
and midwives and carried out the examinations. On July second.
They provided a certificate place stated at the Surgeon's Hall
in Mugwell Street and signed by themselves, some surgical colleagues
and a number of midwives, which outlined the results of
their examination. The certificate stated that they had made diligent
searches and inspections on those women and find as follows,

(01:13:46):
on the bodies of Jeanette Hargraves, Francis Diykinson and Mary
Spencer nothing unnatural, neither in their secrets or any other
parts of their bodies. On the body of Margaret Johnson
we find two things that may be called teats, the
one between her cervix and the fundament, the other on
the middle of her left buttock. The first is shaped

(01:14:07):
like to the teet of a female dog, but in
our judgment, nothing but the skin of the fundament, drawn
out as it will be after the piles of application
of leeches. The second is like the nipple or teat
of a woman's breast, but of the same color with
the rest of the skin, without any hollowness or issue
for any blood or juice to come from. Thence, in
other words, they found nothing odd at all on the

(01:14:29):
bodies of three of the women, and on the fourth
there were a couple of growths, but nothing. The examiner's
thought sinister, But why were these women being subjected to
this examination in the first place, What were the surgeons
and midwives looking for, and why was the Privy Council,
the elite group of advisers around the king, interested in
four women from rural Lancashire. The answers to these questions

(01:14:53):
shine a light on a witchcraft scare that rocked seventeenth
century England and tell us much about beliefs witchcraft and
how they affected ordinary people at that time. The story
begins in late sixteen thirty three, when a small boy,
Edmund Robinson, started making accusations of witchcraft against women living
in his neighborhood at Lancashire. Soon other neighbors started making

(01:15:16):
similar accusations, and within a few months a large group
of women and a few men were on trial for
their lives at Lancaster as Sizes. Many of them were
found guilty, but the judge who presided over the case
was uneasy about the verdict and referred the case to
the Privy Council. The Privy Council undertook its own investigation,
asking the Bishop of Chester to interview some of the

(01:15:39):
accused women, and going so far as bringing them as
well as young Edmund Robinson himself to London for further examination.
It's not clear exactly why the judge was concerned or
why the Privy Council agreed with his concerns. In seventeenth
century Europe, witchcraft was very much a fact of life.

(01:15:59):
No one would have questioned the existence of witches or
the belief that they could use sorcery to cause harm.
The Witchcraft Act of fifteen sixty three had established witchcraft
as a felony in England and Wales, and as such
suspected witches could be tried in the assized courts. The
assizes were by no means swamped with witchcraft cases, but

(01:16:21):
there was a steady stream of trials of accused witches
which passed off with no intervention from central government. It
may have been the scale of the witch scare in
Lancashire that concerned the authorities. While most cases at the
Assizes concerned one or two people, usually although not invariably women,
in this case around nineteen people were put on trial. Moreover,

(01:16:45):
there had been another mass witch trial at the Lancaster
Assizes twenty odd years before, which had resulted in the
hanging of ten people. Perhaps the Privy Council was thus
concerned to find out for itself whether Lancashire really was
a hotbed of witchcraft, and we should certainly not assume
that it was automatically skeptical about the accusations. One of

(01:17:08):
the key problems facing anyone involved in witchcraft investigations or
trials was the issue of evidence. Allegations of witchcraft frequently
blamed the accused for naturally occurring events, the illness or
death of people or livestock, the failure of crops, even
sexual dysfunction, but to prove that this was the fault

(01:17:30):
of a witch rather than just misfortune was very hard.
Elsewhere in Europe, suspected witches could be tortured into confession,
but under English law torture was illegal. Suspected witches were
occasionally subjected to ordeals such as swimming, whereby the accused
was dunked into a river in an attempt to prove
guilt or innocence. But where this happened, it was usually

(01:17:52):
carried out by local communities and was not part of
the normal functioning of the justice system. But there was
one element of English witch beliefs that did provide the
possibility of physical evidence, the belief in familiars. Familiars were
demons who helped the witch with her sorcery. That was
their belief. At least, they were believed to take the

(01:18:13):
form of common animals and feed on the blood of
the witch, leaving tell tale marks which were thus considered
physical evidence of witchcraft. It is these marks that the
surgeons and the midwives were looking for in the inspection. Indeed,
a letter from the Bishop of Chester to the Privy
Council recording his conversation with Margaret Johnson, one of the
accused women, states that Johnson herself claimed to have familiars.

(01:18:38):
She described how she was visited by the devils, sometimes
as a brown colored dog, sometimes as a white cat,
and at other times like a hare, and that she
had two dugs or paps in her private parts. Where
the familiars sucked her blood. The surgeons and midwives thus
knew exactly what they were looking for, Yet as we
have seen, found nothing that they can considered to be

(01:19:00):
sinister or only explicable as a mark of witchcraft. Midwives,
of course, were experts in female anatomy. They were also
often relatively well educated and frequently literate. A number of
the midwives in this group signed their own names on
the certificate. One of the midwives listed, Arrelia Mullins, was
married to one of the surgeons listed, James Mullins. The

(01:19:23):
surgeons named on the certificate were all professional men and
members of the Barber Surgeon's Company. Several of them were
in Royal service. The accounts of the Barber Surgeon's Company
from the period carefully noted the disbursement of money for
the examinations of the four women brought to our Hall
by the King Commander to be searched. Yet, as with
the Privy Council, we should not simply assume that this

(01:19:44):
group was skeptical about witchcraft. Belief in witchcraft was prevalent
at all levels of society, even among the most highly educated. Indeed,
in fifteen ninety seven, James the sixth of Scotland. Later
James First of England had published his own compendium of
witchcraft lore. References in contemporary literature regularly make references to

(01:20:05):
women giving evidence in court that they have found suspicious
marks upon the bodies of accused witches, but certificates such
as this one, providing documentary evidence of exactly what was done,
what was found, and by whom, are extremely rare. It
is stark disturbing evidence of what was done to ordinary
people by other ordinary people. No matter that in this

(01:20:27):
case nothing sinister was found. For Jeannette Hargraves, Francis Dysonson,
Mary Spencer, and Margaret Johnson, the examinations themselves must have
been a degrading and traumatic ordeal. Witchcraft is a subject
in which there is enormous interest, but these documents remind
us that stories of historical witch scares are not fantasies

(01:20:49):
invented to thrill us, but the histories of real people
accused of terrible crimes and subject to terrible suffering as
a result. Coming up on Weird Darkness, a strange phenomena
takes place in Arkansas, and despite the numerous sightings and investigations,

(01:21:12):
there's still no explanation for it. That story is coming up.
We all know someone who struggles with depression, whether we're

(01:21:35):
aware of it or not. It's something those who suffer
tend to deal with in silence, in the shadows. But
the organizations we are supporting with our annual Overcoming the
Darkness Fundraiser this month are working to make it easier
for those in the darkness to come into the light,
to find help, and to learn they're not alone, that
there are ways to overcome the darkness of depression and
live normal lives. I do this fundraiser only one month

(01:21:58):
out of the year, as October is anniversary month for
Weird Darkness, we launched in October twenty fifteen. It's National
Depression Awareness Month, and this month is spooky and dark,
kind of like depression. If you'd like to make a donation,
or learn more about the fundraiser, or find hope for
yourself or someone you know who struggles with depression, visit
Weirddarkness dot com slash hope. The fundraiser ends Halloween night

(01:22:21):
at midnight. Please give what you can Weird Darkness dot
com slash hope. Anyone interested in the unexplained phenomena knows
that not everything we see can be easily explained in

(01:22:42):
scientific terms. The human mind is fascinated with unexplained sightings
and events because they challenge our knowledge of the world
around us. Solving mysteries plays an important part in the
development of modern science. For more than a century, residents
of Arkansas have witnessed something extra ordinary. Modern scientists have

(01:23:02):
debated what is behind this unexplained phenomenon. Many have wondered
whether we're dealing with a phenomenon of natural or supernatural origin.
This spectacular phenomenon has been mentioned in myths and legends.
Can the answer to this old mystery be found in
old tales? Through the mountains of dark forests in the

(01:23:22):
region hold the clues to this unusual mystery. Curiously, in
other parts of Arkansas, people have reported similar unusual sightings
that still remain unexplained. Is there a connection between these
events and the source responsible for the display? For years,
mysterious lights of Dover have fascinated enthusiasts interested in unusual

(01:23:46):
and unexplained phenomena. People systematically come each night to a
remote area located only ten miles north of Dover and
not far from Russellville, Arkansas, hoping to see this light phenomenon.
If they're lucky, they can observe the so called dover
lights in a variety of colors such as orange, yellow, red,

(01:24:08):
or blue, or simply white. Sometimes the lights are flickering,
but it also happens they look like lanterns or flashlights,
and their brightness can light up the entire valley. In
the Ozark Mountains, the lights have been observed since the
late eighteen hundreds, and many legends are associated with them.
The dover lights are a phenomenon that even to this day,

(01:24:31):
remains a mystery. One popular legend tells a story about
a coal mine which collapsed one day, trapping and killing
many miners. In this case, the lights symbolize lanterns which
belonged to miners who desperately tried to find their way
back to their homes. Another one explains the lights as
the spirits of ancient Native American warriors and tribal leaders,

(01:24:53):
and yet another tells the story of an elderly and
poor couple that had not money to pay for doctor's help. Instead,
the doctor was offered a bag of homemade bullets in payment.
Years later, after the old couple had passed away. The
doctor was cleaning up his office and accidentally found the
long forgotten bag of bullets. He realized the bullets were

(01:25:15):
not made of lead, but of pure silver, and decided
to give up his practice and devote his remaining years
to a search for that lost silver mine. The light
that occasionally appears hovering over the valley is believed to
be his lantern that he needs to continue his search
from beyond the grave. The Dover lights phenomenon has never

(01:25:37):
been solved, despite that it has appeared in thick forests
of the area since the eighteen hundreds. Some believe the
Dover lights are nothing but a hoax, and perhaps their right.
Others suggest the phenomenon is the refraction of lights from
distant points. However, many eye witnesses to the Dover lights
definitely disagree because the area where lights appear is hardly

(01:25:59):
act and the lights have been appearing for many years. Moreover,
they cannot be electric lights because there has never been
electricity in the area of observations. The lights may also
be of supernatural origin, but in that case it's doubtful
that their mysterious origin will ever be solved. As we
know supernatural is something associated with forces we don't understand

(01:26:22):
and science cannot explain them either. In a wooded area
of Gurdon, people report they have witnessed similar lights. The
lights are said to be bobbing about and they vary
in color. They can be blue, orange, green, or white,
and are visible day and night. The Gurden lights have
been mentioned in folklore. According to an old tale, a

(01:26:44):
railroad worker died when he fell into the path of
the train. The legend states that the man's head was
separated from his body and was never found. Late in
the night, the ghost of the killed railroad worker walks
the tracks or the lantern, searching for his severed head head.
The Gurden lights are said to come from his lantern.
Another folk lore tale states that the Girden light is

(01:27:07):
a lantern carried by a railway foreman William McLean, who
was killed in the vicinity during a confrontation with one
of his workers in nineteen thirty one. Those who favor
a more scientific explanation think the Gurden phenomenon lights are
nothing more than lights from passing cars on the distant highway. However,
according to Nicole Plot from the Wachtaw Baptist University. The

(01:27:29):
headlight theory is a straightforward way of looking at the
cause of the light. This theory can be disproved though,
because of the fact that the highway that the car
lights would be on was not finished until nineteen fifty seven.
For that reason, it's not possible for the light to
have been from car headlights. Some have also suggested that
the gurden light is a pisoelectrical effect. Certain crystals, such

(01:27:51):
as courts, are piso electric. That means that when these
crystals are squeezed together, they develop an electric charge, giving
off sparks. And the US area where the unusual lights
are visible is located above large amounts of quartz crystals
and the New Madrid fault line. Most likely, there is
a natural and scientific explanation behind the Dover and Gurden lights.

(01:28:13):
We simply just haven't all the answers yet. If you're
in the area, you can go and see the spectacular
light phenomenon so you can decide what to think about
this old mystery. Thanks for listening. If you missed any

(01:28:37):
part of tonight's show, or if you want to hear
it again, you can subscribe to the podcast in your
favorite podcast app at Weird Darkness dot com slash listen.
Not only will you hear a copy of Tonight's show,
you'll also receive tonight's Sudden Death overtime content, which talks
about what some have termed indigo children and whether or
not they have supernatural or paranormal abilities. That's only in

(01:28:59):
the podcast version of Tonight's show, which will get posted
early Monday morning, and if you're not already subscribed, you
can do so for free right now at Weirddarkness dot com,
slash listen, or just search for Weird Darkness wherever you
listen to podcasts. You can follow Weird Darkness on social
media by visiting the contact social page on the website.
And please tell others about Weird Darkness who love the

(01:29:20):
paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters, or unsolved mysteries
like you do. Doing that helps make it possible for
me to keep doing the show. All stories in Weird
Darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise, and
you can find links to the stories or the authors
in the show notes, which I have already uploaded to
the website. The Susy Lamplaw Mystery was written by Amelia

(01:29:42):
Gentlemen for The Guardian. The family Man who murdered his
family is from the lineup whichly Accusations is by Jessica
Nelson for the UK's National Archives. Whiskey and Cannibalism was
posted at the Scare Chamber, and Unexplained in Arkansas is
by Ellen Lloyd for Ancient Pages. Weird Darkness is a
registered trademark copyright Weird Darkness. And now that we're coming

(01:30:06):
out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little
light Proverbs nineteen, verse eleven. A person's wisdom yields patience.
It is to one's glory to overlook an offense and
a final thought, just let it be. You can't control everything.
You simply can't, So stop overthinking so much and simply

(01:30:27):
just let it be. I'm Daryn Marler, Thanks for joining
me in the Weird Darkness.

Speaker 2 (01:30:58):
Darkness.

Speaker 1 (01:31:12):
On June eighth, nineteen eighty nine, a forty four year
old Canadian nurse named Cindy James was found dead in Richmond,
a suburb of Vancouver. She had been drugged and strangled,
with her hands and feet tied behind her back. She
was found in the yard of an abandoned home a
mile and a half from a small shopping mall where
her car was parked. She'd been missing since May twenty fifth.

(01:31:36):
When her car was discovered in the parking lot, there
was blood on the driver's side door and items from
her wallet were found under her car. When her body
was discovered at the abandoned house, it looked like Cindy
James had been brutally murdered. Black nylon stocking was tied
tightly around her neck, and the autopsy revealed that Cindy
died from an overdose of morphine and other drugs. The

(01:31:59):
Royal Canadian Mounted Police, however, believed her death to be
an accident, even a suicide. The Vancouver coroner ruled that
Cindy's death was not suicide, an accident, or a murder,
claiming that she died of an unknown event. This was
despite the fact that in the seven years preceding her death,

(01:32:19):
Cindy had reported nearly one hundred incidents of harassment, beginning
four months after she divorced her husband. To this day,
her death remains a mystery, even after a public inquest
at which eighty four witnesses were called to testify. Her father,
Otto Hack, and his wife Matilda never believed that Cindy
killed herself or that she would have been able to

(01:32:41):
stage the death scene. Her sister, Melanie Hack, who was
twenty seven when Cindy died and who was now married
with two children and lives in British Columbia, ended up
writing a book titled Who Killed My Sister? My Friend?
It took her fourteen years to conduct research into the toxicology,
the autopsy, and the medical and police reports to obtain

(01:33:03):
enough information into her sister's unsolved death. This case, which
became the subject to the show Unsolved Mysteries and was
discussed on some American TV talk shows, including A Current
Affair An Maripovich, was not really sensationalized or kept alive
to fuel anger towards a specific perpetrator. There was no
villain or hero in this story. Rather, it was the

(01:33:26):
puzzling case of an upstanding nurse who struggled for seven
years with an imagined or real threat and ended up
losing her life in the most mysterious and baffling way.
This story had legs and created endless speculation. In nineteen
eighty nine, forensic's investigation was in its infancy and the

(01:33:47):
technology did not exist to solve the case the CSI
way or to determine if James was creating her own drama. Instead,
the investigators had to rely on basic traditional techniques to
determine if her stories of attacks, kidnapping, and harassment were true.
Cindy was the eldest of six children. At age nineteen,

(01:34:09):
she'd married doctor Roy Makepeace, who was eighteen years her senior.
She worked as a nurse but also loved to counsel
children with emotional problems. She seemed happy, but when she
decided to end her marriage in nineteen eighty two and
move on with her life, all hell broke loose. She
had a fairly good relationship with her parents, and she

(01:34:30):
approached them first with stories of harassment. She ended up
going to the police because she was getting death threats
by phone and by mail. With each incident, this beautiful,
vibrant woman took one step down physically and mentally. Three
dead cats were found hanging in her garden, her porch
lights were smashed and her phone lines cut. Bizarre notes

(01:34:53):
began to appear on her doorstep, and five violent physical
attacks were reported. All night, Cindy's good friend Agnes Woodcock,
dropped by, and when there was no answer, which she
knocked on the door, she went around the back of
the house and found Cindy crouched down with a nylon
stocking tied around her neck. She gone to the garage
to get something and was allegedly grabbed from behind by

(01:35:16):
an unidentified intruder. Messages were left on the windshield of
her car, along with a picture of a covered corpse
being wheeled into a morgue. Raw meat was delivered to
her house, and even her dog, Heidi, was found shaking
with fright, sitting in her own feces with a cord
tied tightly around her neck. The harassment would stop and

(01:35:38):
start again, leaving Cindy feeling more and more destabilized. She
expressed her despair in her private journals. Cindy moved to
a new house, painted her car, and changed her last name.
She finally hired Ozzy Caban, a local private investigator. The
police were investigating, but as time passed they were starting

(01:35:59):
to doubt her stories. Ozzy reported later that Cindy would
be evasive at times and withhold information. Her mother thought
that her daughter was reluctant to tell the truth because
she was threatened and feared for her sister and family.
Her private investigator installed lights at her residence and gave
her a two way radio and a panic button. The

(01:36:19):
police would do surveillance on a regular basis. One night,
Caban heard strained sounds coming from the radio and rushed
into the house. He found Cindy on the hallway floor
with a pearing knife. Threw her hand with a note
on it saying you are dead, bitch. He checked her
pulse and thought she was dead. She was hospitalized and

(01:36:40):
only recalled that a needle was put into her arm.
The police did not take fingerprints and were growing tired
of the whole saga, but Caban was adamant that nobody
could have done that to themselves. Cindy subjected herself to
several hypnosis sessions and polygraph tests to try to get
to the bottom of this, but was considered too traumatized

(01:37:02):
to be a good candidate. The threatening phone calls continued,
but could never be traced because they were too short.
Mind you, there were never any calls when the police
was doing twenty four hour surveillance, so you cannot blame
them for a growing suspicious The incidents always happened when
they were not around. Her parents thought her attacker was

(01:37:23):
smart enough to stay away at the proper times in
order to make Cindy look more and more suspicious. Nowadays,
we could trace the calls and know exactly who is
zooming who. After an attack, Cindy was found lying in
a ditch six miles from her home, wearing a man's
work boot and glove. She was suffering from hypothermia and
had cuts and bruises all over her body. She also

(01:37:45):
had a black nylon stocking around her neck, a trademark
of her alleged attacks. She did not remember the event
and asked her parents to stay with her. One evening,
they were awakened by noises in the basement and saw flames.
After realizing their phone was dead, they went outside to
alert the neighbors. They saw a man at the curb
and asked him to call the fire department, but instead

(01:38:08):
he ran off. It was the second arson. The police
determined that the fire was started from inside the house
because they saw no fingerprints on the window they thinked
a perpetrator would have used to gain entry into the house. Therefore,
they determined that Cindy had staged the incident. They also
found it quite odd that Cindy would walk her little

(01:38:29):
dog alone late at night when she feared being attacked.
I have to admit they do have a point there.
Her parents saw her condition deteriorating further and feared for
her mental state. She was terrified and going downhill steadily,
believing she was suicidal. Her doctor committed her to a
local psychiatric ward. Ten weeks later she was released. That's

(01:38:52):
when she admitted to friends and family that she knew
more than she was saying about the perpetrator and would
go after him or them herself. Was she falling deeper
into delusion or was there a real person behind all this.
Cindy became very depressed because she felt that her credibility
was destroyed and that no one believed that someone wanted

(01:39:14):
her dead or was pushing her towards insanity. Her life
was a living hell, and while hospitalized, she wrote about
committing suicide. She finally told police that she believed her
tormentor was her ex husband Roy makepeace. They encouraged her
to phone him to confront him, and they taped the conversation.
As a psychiatrist, Roy would have been familiar with the

(01:39:37):
fine art of playing with her mind, but he totally
denied any involvement during the conversation. This phone tape was
played at the public inquest. In fact, Makepeace gave the
police a recording from his own answering machine that contained
a death threat, which, though hard to hear, says, Cindy
Dead meet soon. Here's what it sounded like. If the

(01:40:15):
poor man had nothing to do with his former wife's demise,
imagine how awful it must have been for his reputation.
Cindy James was either confused, psychotic, or totally innocent, but
she was sounding more and more out of it as
her despair deepened. And it all ended when they found
her body two weeks after she was reported missing. She'd

(01:40:38):
gone to the shopping mall to deposit her hospital paycheck
and do some grocery shopping. We have to wonder why
she would bother doing all of this if she intended
to kill herself, Plus why not ended quietly in her
bed to avoid causing her family so much pain and sorrow?
After all, she loved them dearly. Neil Hall, a Canadian

(01:41:00):
journalists who wrote a book about the case, now thinks
she killed herself, but her investigator Ozzie Caban disagrees. He
does not buy that her body took two weeks to
be found when it was so close to traffic and
pedestrian walks. He believes her body might have been dumped.
The fact that she had an injection mark on her
arm makes it hard to believe that she could have

(01:41:22):
walked a mile and a half to the spot where
they found her and then tie herself up after injecting herself.
They found no needle close to her car or around
the crime scene. The police think she ingested the morphine
and had plenty of time to do the rest, but
they found no evidence to that effect and no proof
of purchase of black nylons. Cindy also had a lover

(01:41:45):
named Pat McBride who happened to be a cop. The
police suspected him and make peace, but had no concrete
evidence against either of them. The evidence in this case
was quite contradictory, incomplete, and very so the police opted
to blame Cindy. Her ex husband came to believe that

(01:42:06):
Cindy had multiple personalities and was unaware that she was
tormenting herself. She adored her dog and her parents and
would have never tortured them willingly. Her father was convinced
that the investigation was never aimed at finding a perpetrator,
but at pinning the responsibility on his daughter. The only
undeniable truth in this whole story is that Cindy James

(01:42:30):
suffered immensely in this saga, and she paid with her life.
Her journals tell the heart wrenching story of a woman
tortured mentally and physically, either by her own hand and
mental illness, or because of an unscrupulous and sadistic perpetrator
who wanted to drive her crazy and eventually killed her.
If she was an innocent victim, the lack of support

(01:42:53):
from the police must have caused her excruciating pain. In
my opinion, Nurse Cindy James was a victim either way.
Otto Hack died in twenty ten after a distinguished career
in the military. His wife, Tilly, passed away in twenty twelve.
They believed till the end that their daughter did not

(01:43:14):
commit suicide. Their daughter, Melanie, continues their search for the truth.
Andrew Yury was born on May eighteenth, seventeen seventy eight,
in Glasgow, United Kingdom, the son of a wealthy cheesemonger.
He received an expensive education, studying at both Glasgow University

(01:43:35):
and Edinburgh University. He received his MD from the University
of Glasgow in eighteen oh one, before spending a brief
time with the Army serving as a surgeon. In eighteen
oh three, he finally settled in Glasgow, becoming a member
of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons. In eighteen oh
four at the newly formed Andersonian Institution now the University

(01:43:56):
of Strathclyde, Ury became a professor of chemistry and natural philosophy.
He gave evening lectures on chemistry and mechanics, which he
encouraged the average working man and woman to attend, with
audiences of up to five hundred. His lectures inspired the
foundation of numerous mechanical institutions throughout Britain. In eighteen oh seven,

(01:44:17):
Yuri married Catherine Monteith and the couple had three children,
one daughter and two sons, one of whom became a
surgeon in London. One year later, he founded and became
the director of the Garnet Hill Observatory, which was run
by the Glasgow Society for Promoting Astronomical Observations. He met
with Sir William Herschel, a German born British astronomer. Herschel

(01:44:39):
was giving lectures to the local Astronomical Society and even
helped install a fourteen foot reflecting telescope that was designed
and built by Yuri. In eighteen eleven, Uri was elected
Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. During this time, Uri
worked as a consultant for the Irish Linen Board. There
he devised his alkalimeter for volumetric estimates of the true

(01:45:02):
alkali contents of various substances that were being used in
the linen industry. By this time he had successfully earned
himself a reputation as a highly competent practical chemist. It
was at Glasgow University where Andrew Ury became acquainted with
James Jeffrey, a professor of anatomy and physiology. Jeffrey was
a renowned teacher, attracting over two hundred students to his

(01:45:25):
classes each year. An innovative surgeon, he's credited, along with
Edinburgh obstetrician James Aitken, with the invention of the chainsaw
for use in the excision of diseased bone. As a
teacher in anatomy a field that was growing in demand,
his options for teaching instruments was limited. The only legal
supply of material for dissection was the bodies of hanged criminals.

(01:45:48):
On November fourth, eighteen eighteen, Ury joined Jeffrey in the
dissection of one such criminal. Matthew Clydesdale was a weaver
arrested and found guilty of murdering a seventy year old
man in a drunken rage. He was sentenced to death
by hanging, and on November fourth, eighteen eighteen, that execution
was carried out. Upon his death, his body was placed

(01:46:11):
in a cart and transported up to Glasgow University and
into the Anatomy Theater. During this time, people, especially scientists,
were fascinated with electricity. In fact, in seventeen eighty, Italian
anatomy professor Luigi Galvani discovered that by utilizing sparks of electricity,
he could make a dead frog twitch and jerk. This

(01:46:33):
discovery quickly led to others experimenting with electrical currents on
other animals. Shows were made where scientists would electrify the
heads of pigs and bulls. James Jeffray and Andrew Uri
would take that experiment one step further. The crowd gathered
in the Glasgow University Anatomy Theater, where they would learn

(01:46:53):
what would happen when electricity was exposed to a deceased
human body. With his galvanic battery charged. The experiments commenced.
Incisions were made at the neck, hip, and heels, exposing
different nerves. Yuri stood over the body holding two metallic
rods charged by a two hundred and seventy plate voltaic battery.

(01:47:16):
Those rods, when placed to the different nerves, caused the
body to convulse and writhed. When the rods were touched
to Clydesdale's diaphragm, his chest heaved then fell. When the
one rod was applied to the slight incision in the
tip of the forefinger. Uri later described to the Glasgow
Literary Society the fist being previously clenched, that fingers extended instantly,

(01:47:39):
and from the convulsive vegetation of the arm. He seemed
to point to the different spectators, some of whom thought
he had come to life. The experiment lasted about an hour.
Yuri wrote his account of the experiment and even delivered
a lecture. Oddly, only one of the three Glasgow newspapers
took the time to write up a coda to the execution. Uri, however,

(01:48:01):
wrote down his descriptions of the experiment, noting how the
convulsive movements resembled a violent shuddering from cold, and how
the fingers moved nimbly like those of a violin performer.
Regarding the stimulation of muscles in the forehead and brow,
Uri wrote this, every muscle in his countenance was simultaneously

(01:48:22):
thrown into fearful action, rage, horror, despair, anguish, and ghastly
smiles united their hideous expression in the murderer's face, surpassing
far the wildest representations of a Fuselli or a Keen,
wrote Uri, comparing the result to the visage of tragic
actor Edmund Keene and the fantastical works of Romantic painter

(01:48:44):
Henry Fuselli. He continued, at this period several of the
spectators were forced to leave the apartment from terror or sickness,
and one gentleman fainted. Urie and Jeffrey did not bring
Matthew Clydesdale back to life, though they did not believe
it was a failure on their methodology. Instead, Yuri believed

(01:49:04):
that if his death had not been caused by bodily injury,
there was a possibility that his life could have been restored.
He also noted that if their experiment had succeeded in
bringing him back to life, it would not have been celebrated,
after all, he was a convicted murderer. The story eventually
took on a life of its own. Memories and accounts differed,

(01:49:27):
and one such account as that of Peter Mackenzie in
eighteen sixty five. Mackenzie claimed to have been present at
the Glasgow University Anatomy Theater that day. He claims that
URI had actually been successful and Clydesdale had been brought
back to life. To abate the risen fear among the crowd,
one of the scientists grabbed a scalpel and slit his throat.

(01:49:48):
Clydesdale fell down once again dead, Andrew Ury has been
painted a mad scientist for these experiments, even considered inspiration
for the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, though the story
had been written two years earlier and published in eighteen eighteen,
the same year as the experiment, URI's book and encyclopedic work,

(01:50:11):
A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Minds, was published in
eighteen thirty seven, for which he received one thousand guineas
or approximately thirty five thousand dollars. Today, his work has
been translated into almost every European language, including Russian and Spanish.
Andrew Uri died in eighteen fifty seven in London. Michael Faraday,

(01:50:33):
a fellow scientist, posthumously wrote his skill and accuracy were
well known, as well as the ingenuity of the methods
employed in his researches, and it has been stated that
no one of his results has ever been impugned. His
extensive knowledge enabled him to arrive at conclusions and to
demonstrate facts considered impossible by his compeers in science. URI's

(01:50:55):
buried in Highgate Cemetery. A secondary memorial was erected in
life Asco Cathedral by his daughter, Catherine McKinley. Parapsychologist Nancy

(01:51:18):
Ann Tapp had always been able to see people's auras.
The colors surrounding an individual would inform her what their
particular purpose in life was. In the late nineteen seventies,
she suddenly began noticing a vibrational color that she had
never seen before. The new indigo shade was appearing only
around certain children, so she determined that it must indicate

(01:51:41):
that a new consciousness was emerging on Earth, and thus
the concept of the indigo child was born. If you're
not familiar with the term indigo child, it's not surprising
unless you're into New Age thoughts. Based on New Age
concepts developed in the nineteen seventies, Indigo children are thought
to be divine creatures with supernatural powers who were sent

(01:52:04):
here from God or the universe or Zuol well whatever, whoever,
to fulfill the purpose of upgrading our existence. A variety
of books, conferences, and related materials have been created surrounding
belief in the idea of indigo children and their nature
and abilities. The interpretations of these beliefs range from their

(01:52:25):
being the next stage in human evolution, in some cases
possessing paranormal abilities such as telepathy, to the belief that
they are more empathetic and creative than their peers. Pop
cultures always embraced the idea of a group of children
secretly harnessing supernatural powers like X men and stranger things,

(01:52:46):
and while indigo children may not be able to flip
cars over with their minds, they have achieved a sort
of cult status within New aide circles, where they represent
a leap in human evolution. According to Nancy Tap, there
are several types of indigo children, although they all share
several common traits, including a sense of superiority or acting

(01:53:07):
like royalty, difficulty with authority figures, refusal to do routine
things like weight in line, and non responsiveness to certain
disciplinary actions. According to that definition, I was probably an
indigo child. Tap under followers believe that the Indigo children
exhibiting these traits have knowledge that is superior to that

(01:53:28):
of any adult and will help bring hitherto unimaginable technologies
into the world. Psychologists and doctors believe that children exhibiting
these traits have disorders that need to be treated. Indigo
children all tend to have high IQs and self confidence
that coincides with the resistance to authority and disruptive tendencies,

(01:53:49):
traits coincidentally exhibited in children with ADD or ADHD. For
some parents, it is easier to attribute their child's behavioral
problems to a superhuman quality rather than have them diagnosed
with a disorder. Tap warns that respect must be earned
from Indigo children and that they are not to be
talked down to contradictory advice to most parenting guides. Skeptics

(01:54:13):
caution that letting these children run amok without any discipline,
or withdrawing them from schools, as some Indigo parents do
in an attempt to not restrain their child's abilities could
ultimately hinder rather than help, the kids. Denying them the
structure or treatment they need will only inhibit their learning
and social development. Tap also makes the astounding claim that

(01:54:35):
every child she's encountered who has murdered another child or
parent has been an Indigo child. Since they are fearless
and know who they are, It's just a survival mechanism
for them. Okay, maybe I'm not an Indigo child anyway.
While this element of the story may seem more sci
fi than science, it does serve as a warning as
to the harm an unrestrained childhood could do, creating an

(01:54:58):
adult who's utterly convince of their own righteousness. Some psychiatrists,
such as doctor Besil Vanderkok, have suggested that this sudden
rise in popularity of New Age beliefs is actually a
response to the over medication of children. Prescribing a child
a light methamphetamine for ADHD will not address his or
her underlying issues, just as giving that child completely free

(01:55:21):
reign does not address behavioral problems. Frustration with being told
to simply medicate their unruly children may have pushed some
parents to seek answers in the pseudoscience of the New Age.
Whether they are leading the world into a new consciousness
or not, it must be remembered that these indigo children are,
after all, still children who must be cared for. That

(01:56:00):
or British cows began to show traits of violence and
nervousness later attributed to bovine sponge ofform and sponge ofform encephilothropy.
It cphlop it'cephlop sponge ofform, encephalos encephelopathy inside, son of

(01:56:22):
a sense, son of a philothopy is what what it is?
Encephalopathy and cephalopathy. Okay, I'll try that andcephalopathy,

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