MOMMY DEAD AND DEAREST and Other Disturbing Munchausen by Proxy Stories

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Imagine pretending to be sick or injured just to receive attention.
While it seems strange, there's actually a psychiatric disorder called
Munchausen syndrome that describes people who do just that, and
in some cases, the person with Munchausen inflicts injury or
illness on someone else, often a child, for the same reasons.

(00:31):
Munchausen by proxy is what it's called. It's a sadistic
disorder that causes caregivers to hurt others for their own benefit.
Because the perpetrators are frequently mothers, it is usually a
long time before doctors or authorities suspect anything at all,
although the motive is generally to elicit emotional sympathy and attention,

(00:55):
not murder. There are many true stories of Munchausen by
proxy end in death, including one of the most famous
cases of all, that of d D. Blanchard, whose condition
was so extreme that her story was made into a
documentary film entitled Mommy Dead and Dearest. I'm Darren Marler

(01:20):
and This is Weird Darkness. Welcome weirdos. I'm Darren Marler
and this is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of

(01:41):
the paranormal supernatural, legends, lore, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved
and unexplained Coming up in this episode. It was nineteen
oh nine and Bud and Temple Abernathy rode their horses,

(02:03):
just the two of them, from Oklahoma to Santa Fe
and then made the return trip home, a thirteen hundred
mile horseback trip. Big deal. You say, that's what life
was like back then. You say, what if I told
you that Bud was only nine years old and Temple
was only five. But first, we'll look at the disturbing

(02:26):
case of D. D. Blanchard, who suffered from a horrible
mental condition that caused her to torture her daughter, And
we'll look at similar terrifying cases of other people doing
the same to those under their care and supervision. It's
the sinister truth of Munchausen by proxy. Now, bult your doors,

(02:49):
lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with
me into the weird darkness. The documentary Mommy Dead and

(03:15):
Dearest tells the story of Claudine Dede Blanchard, a seemingly
friendly woman who suffered from Munchausen Syndrome by proxy MSBP
and manipulated her young daughter into believing that she was
terminally ill. Her daughter, Gypsy Rose Blanchard would ultimately conspire

(03:36):
with her online boyfriend to murder Dedi in an effort
to stop the torture that her mother inflicted and live
her life as a free young woman. Dedi was not
well liked by her family. In fact, her own father
flushed her ashes down the toilet and said that she
had gotten what she deserved. The documentary tells the true

(03:59):
story of the atrocities dd committed, making it one of
the most frustrating and sad documentaries ever created. While never
formally diagnosed, the details surrounding the case suggest that DDY
suffered from Munchausen Syndrome by proxy MSBP is when a caregiver,

(04:20):
usually to a child or elderly person, makes up, exaggerates,
or makes existing health conditions worse for the person receiving
care in order to get attention and sympathy from others.
Her daughter, Gypsy Rose Blanchard, was the victim of this condition.
It started when she was just a baby with an

(04:41):
alleged sleep apnea issue and quickly snowballed out of control.
The laundry list of what DDY put Gypsy through is
enough to make your stomach turn. She shaved Gypsy's head
to make it seem like she had cancer, made her
take seizure medication that caused her teeth to rite out,

(05:01):
had a feeding tube inserted when it was not needed,
and forced her to use a wheelchair from a very
early age, even though Gipsy was perfectly capable of walking.
Gypsy wasn't educated past second grade, and DeeDee often claimed
that the young woman had brain damage. At some point,
Gypsy realized that she didn't need the wheelchair and thought

(05:23):
that she might not be sick, but it was easier
to avoid Dede's wrath and just continue the charade than
to challenge her mother. On the morning of June fourteenth,
twenty fifteen, a post appeared on Dede's Facebook page stating
quote that bitch is dead. Friends were extremely worried about

(05:46):
the post and tried to contact Dedi and Gypsy. A
few hours later, another Facebook post appeared declaring quote, I
Efen slashed that fat pig and raped her sweet innocent daughter.
Her scream was so f en'loud lol. Alarmed friends and

(06:06):
neighbors gathered at the home and called the police. Several
hours later, after securing a search warrant. The police entered
the home to find DeeDee Blanchard's bloody body in her bedroom.
Gypsy was nowhere to be found, with her wheelchair and
a wealth of questions left behind. Gypsy met Nicholas gojon

(06:26):
on a Christian dating website two years prior to the murder,
and it was a troubled match from the start. Godojean,
who was six years older and living in Wisconsin, was
a far cry from an altar boy. In fact, he'd
been arrested for an incident involving masturbation at a fast
food restaurant a few years prior. While Gypsy's relationship with

(06:49):
Goadajean was transformative, Dede did not let Gypsy socialize, let
alone date. It was a match made in toxic heaven.
Godajean took advantage of Gypsy's vs. Vulnerable state and hastily
moved their relationship into a sexual realm. The two were
quickly involved in cosplaying and creating sexual fantasies, many of

(07:10):
them involving BDSM. Gypsy and Goadajon arranged for him to
sneak into the home after Didi had gone to bed.
Gypsy led him into the home and hid in the
bathroom while he stabbed her mother to death in the
next room. Gypsy stayed in the bathroom listening to her
mother's scream out for help. The couple hopped a bus

(07:34):
from Gypsy Rose's Missouri home to Wisconsin. Shortly after, the
police located the two based on the IP address of
the Facebook posts from Dedie's account. There were other more
obvious pieces of evidence that linked Gypsy Rose and Gadajean
to the murder of DDI, although they tried to hide it.
Gadojean mailed the knife he used to stab Dedi to

(07:57):
his home address in Wisconsin. Police also recovered letters that
Gypsy and Goadejean had written to each other, bloody clothing,
over four thousand dollars in cash, and laptops and cell
phones containing correspondence between the two. On a rare outing
without Dedy. In twenty eleven, Gypsy Rose tried to escape

(08:18):
from her mother. She'd met an older man at a
sci fi convention she'd gone to with some family friends
and planned to join the man in Arkansas. She packed
up some things, snuck out of her home, and hitch
hiked a ride. Dede was quickly able to track down
her daughter and bring her home. As punishment for running away,

(08:39):
Deedy smashed Gypsy's phone and computer. She also threatened physical violence,
but fortunately stopped short of committing the acts. Deede was
an incredible scam artist. She knew how to make strangers
open up their hearts and wallets to her and her
sick child. The family accepted donations, created gofundmes, were given

(09:04):
trips to amusement parks, and other forms of charity due
to all of Gypsy Rose's conditions. The family was also
given a home from Habitat for Humanity. There seemed to
be no end to what deed could get her hands on.
Where were the doctors in all of this? How could
Dede keep up this charade for so long without proof

(09:27):
that Gypsy was actually sick? Dedi, always two steps ahead
of suspicion, claimed that most of Gypsy's medical records were
lost when Hurricane Katrina hit. De d and Gypsy Rose
had lived in Louisiana with Gypsy Rose's father prior to
their divorce. Dedie had also had a vast knowledge of

(09:48):
medical terminology, had a gone to nursing school and worked
in a hospital. She could speak intelligently about a variety
of medical conditions, making her web of lies that much
more believable. Rod Blanchard, Dede's ex husband and the father
of Gypsy, had no idea that his daughter wasn't sick.

(10:10):
He explained that Dedi was always the one taking care
of Gypsy, and he just took her word for it.
He was busy working, trying to provide for the family
and trusted Dede had their child's best interests at heart.
He has since lived to regret that decision and hopes
to have a better relationship with Gypsy. Rod Blanchard divorced

(10:32):
d d in nineteen ninety one and lives in Louisiana
with his current wife. The documentary suggests that it is
Gypsy who is the real victim in this tragedy. While
she went through an incredibly horrendous upbringing, could she have
picked up the same masterfully manipulative tendencies that flourished within Deedy.

(10:53):
She lied to the police several times, playing off her
innocence and apparent naivete fight the strong evidence of at
least some sociopathy. The doctor in the film, doctor Mark Feldman,
believes that Gypsy is in fact a victim of child abuse.
Regardless of our feelings, Gypsy pled guilty to second degree

(11:15):
murder and was sentenced to ten years in prison. Dede
Blanchard might have had an extreme case of Munchausen by proxy,
but she is by no means the only case. Here

(11:39):
are a few more true cases of Munchausen by proxy,
some sad, some horrifying, and some that could mess with
your head. Mary Beth Tinning had eight biological children and
one adopted son. None of these kids lived past the
age five. Although prosecutors are convinced Tinning murdered several, if

(12:04):
not all, of her children, she was only convicted of
murdering her youngest daughter, whom she smothered with a pillow
on December twentieth, nineteen eighty five. In a parole board meeting,
she said that she did not murder the others, but
that they had all died from sudden infant death syndrome.
The only explanation she provided to the board was that

(12:25):
she was so traumatized by the death of her other
babies she was convinced her youngest was dying as well,
so she killed her instead. Tinning is serving twenty years
to life at Bedford Hill's Correctional Facility. Beverly Allitt, better
known as the Angel of Death, is one of the

(12:45):
most notorious female serial killers of all time. All It
trained as a nurse in England, where her reputation was
less than pristine. She was frequently absent as a result
of a string of illnesses and was one caught smearing
feces on the walls of a nursing home. She later
worked in the children's ward at Grantham and Kestephan Hospital

(13:08):
in Lincolnshire. It was during this time all It began
abusing her patients. Once her killing sprey began, she took
the lives of three patients in only a month, including
seven month old Liam Taylor and eleven year old Timothy Hardwick,
a cerebral palsy patient. All It was overlooked until two

(13:30):
more children were murdered and another nine abused under her watch.
All It was found guilty of murder and attempted murder.
She is currently serving thirteen life sentences, the most severe
sentence ever given to a woman. Lisa Hayden Johnson. Not

(13:52):
only did Lisa Hayden Johnson get the empathy and support
that came with having a sick child, she also received
monetary benefits. Aiden Johnson didn't turn down any of the
lavish gifts offered to her for having the most ill
child in Britain. After her son was born prematurely, Aiden

(14:12):
Johnson began forcing him into a wheelchair for his quote
unquote cystic fibrosis, feeding him through a tube in order
to avoid triggering his life threatening allergies, and adding glucose
to his urine to convince the doctors of his diabetes. Meanwhile,
she was invited to meet with Royalty at a charity

(14:33):
event for critically ill children, collected thousands in disability payments
each month and received free tickets, vacations and charitable cash donations.
That all came crashing down when doctors became suspicious of
Hayden Johnson and demanded her son receive further testing to
determine the root of his various illnesses. Aiden Johnson tried

(14:57):
to put off the testing by saying she was sexually
a assaulted, but eventually it was discovered it was all
a big sham. After six years of abuse and lies,
Aiden Johnson was tried and convicted of child abuse and
perverting the cause of justice. In October two thousand and nine,
she served thirty nine months in prison. Mommy blogger Lacy

(15:22):
Spears went to prison for murdering her five year old
son with fatal levels of sodium. Spears was giving her
son high levels of sodium through a feeding tube that
caused him to become very sick. She said her son, Garnett,
had numerous illnesses and documented his medical setbacks and progress

(15:43):
on a blog called Garnett's Journey. During this time, he
was in and out of twenty different medical facilities, none
of which were given information about Garnett's other hospital visits. Then,
in twenty fourteen, the sodium reached such a high level
Garnett was placed on a life flight to another hospital. Unfortunately,

(16:05):
his brain suffered irreparable swelling, and he was pronounced braindead
on January twenty third, two thousand fourteen. Suspicions about Spears
arose among the medical personnel. They launched an investigation and
searched her home. Police found medicine bottles sitting behind a
canister of salt, and later recovered two bags of breast

(16:26):
milk that Spears used to feed Garnett through his feeding
tube with fatal levels of sodium in each. She was
found guilty of depraved indifference murder of a child and
sentenced to twenty years in prison. In two thousand eight,
Leslie Wilfrid called her husband Chris from a Georgia hospital

(16:46):
room with news that their twins were stillborn five months
into Leslie's pregnancy. A service was held for the twins
with photos of their ultrasounds and two matching Teddy Bear
shaped urns. Family and friends gathered to mourn and show
their support. Leslie and Chris Wilfrid had four children from
previous relationships, all of whom suffered from a slew of

(17:10):
psychological and medical conditions. According to their parents. Their drama
filled history raised suspicions with the Georgia Division of Family
and Children's Services, though it all came to a head
after the baby's deaths and resulted in a full blown investigation.
While filing through her computer, police discovered Wilfrid had ordered

(17:30):
the urns five days before the death of her children.
Investigators also discovered that Wilfrid had her tubes tied before
marrying Chris, she was never pregnant with twins, and her
other claims made about her actual children's terminal health issues
were not true. Wilfrid was sentenced to eight years in

(17:52):
prison and thirty years of probation for child abuse. Blanca
Montano was only twenty one when she was arrested for
harming her two children in February twenty eleven. She had
both kids admitted into an Arizona hospital. Soon Montano's son
drastically improved and was released. Her newborn daughter, however, only

(18:17):
became sicker over the course of her hospital's stay. She
was diagnosed with an array of rare conditions that worsened
nurses noticed after time spent alone with Montano. Police were
alerted of the hospital's suspicions, and that investigation revealed that
Montano had intentionally poisoned her daughter, causing the infections in

(18:39):
order to garner attention and sympathy. Once Montano and her
child were separated, the infant's condition improved drastically. Montana was
arrested for child abuse. Hope Ebarra, a former chemist, was
a mother of three suffering from her third bout with cancer.

(19:01):
She blogged about her illness as well as her daughter's
terminal cystic fibrosis. So when Ibarra became pregnant with twins
and subsequently lost them five months into the pregnancy. The
family and their community were absolutely wrought with grief. It
wasn't until the police got involved that the truth began
spilling out in massive, sadistic waves. Pope was clear of

(19:24):
any and all cancer, her daughter did not suffer from
cystic fibrosis, and there was never a pregnancy with twins.
Ibarra had poisoned her child with pathogens, tampered with sweat
tests to ensure the medical results she wanted, and even
periodically drained the child's blood. This last step caused the

(19:48):
most bodily harm, and on one occasion, caused her daughter
to go into anaphylactic shock. Hope was tried and convicted
of child abuse and sentenced to eight years in prison.
Nurses at two separate hospitals in England started raising suspicion
about an unnamed mother of four after finding two sets

(20:08):
of DNA in her daughter's urine samples. Although the initial
test results did not find the child suffered from any
kidney issues, each of her urine samples had blood in them.
This raised concerns among doctors and eventually resulted in the
child undergoing a painful and risky procedure to determine the
status of her kidneys. The results found that nothing was wrong. Suspicious,

(20:35):
the nurses searched the room and found a cup of
blood left behind by the mother and two syringes of
blood in the toilet. As it turned out, she was
placing her own blood in the samples, contaminating the results,
which explained the two sets of related DNA. The mother
eventually pled guilty to wilfully assaulting, ill, treating, and neglecting

(20:58):
a child in a manner likely to cause suffering or injury.
Jennifer Bush, the daughter of Kathy Bush, endured more than
forty medical procedures and two hundred plus hospital visits in
the early nineties between the ages of two and eight.
Her mother insisted she was seriously ill and needed to

(21:21):
be fed through a tube. Medical personnel began suspecting that
Bush had tampered with her daughter's medications and proceeded to
launch a full investigation. In nineteen ninety nine, Kathy Bush
was found guilty of child abuse and sentenced to five
years in prison, three of which she served. Despite having

(21:41):
two brothers and a father, Jennifer was placed in foster care,
an experience she describes as traumatic. Nineteen years later, Jennifer
and her family, including her mother, have been reunited. She
insists that her mother never abused her. Gregory, the daughter
of Sandy Gregory Paris, wrote the book Sickened, The True

(22:05):
Story of a Lost Childhood, where she depicts horrible stories
of psychological and physical abuse inflicted upon her by her mother.
She details memories of digging through her mother's purse looking
for her special suckers, which turned out to be a
pack of matches that she was encouraged to eat. Police

(22:26):
and psychiatric professionals investigated Gregory's parents and their adopted children
to follow up on claims made in the book. Nothing
was proven. Instead, Gregory Parasai gave her own account of
Gregory's childhood, where her daughter claimed child abuse to receive
lesser punishment for an offense she committed. Gregory was allegedly

(22:47):
investigated and found innocent in that instance as well. And
Alexandria Konstantinova Zeeman is the child of a Munchausen syndrome sufferer.
In her book m Is Four Munchers, she describes the
horrifying abuse she and her siblings faced from verbal to

(23:08):
sexual assault. Zemen and her siblings were abused until they
ran away. Unlike most cases, Zeman actually recognized her mother's
strange behavior at a young age. Instead of finding some
affection for her mother, like many other child victims of
those suffering from Munchausen syndrome do, she attempted to out
her every chance she got. Unfortunately, for their family, very

(23:32):
few people did very little. Although there's no proof that
the stories Zeeman is telling her false, there is little
evidence like a conviction that her stories are true either.

(23:54):
Coming up, it was nineteen oh nine and Bud and
Temple Abernathy rode their horses, just two of them, from
Oklahoma to Santa Fe and then made the return trip home,
a thirteen hundred mile horseback trip, not bad for a
couple of boys only nine years old and five years old, respectively.

(24:14):
That story is up next. We all know someone who
struggles with depression, whether we're aware of it or not.
It's something those who suffer tend to deal with in silence,

(24:37):
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 in normal lives. I do
this fundraiser only one month out of the year, as

(24:57):
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, visit Weirddarkness dot com
slash hope. The fundraiser ends Halloween night at midnight. Please

(25:21):
give what you can Weird Darkness dot com slash hope.
More than a century ago, in the years between statehood
and the beginning of World War One, nine year old

(25:44):
Lewis bud Abernethy and his five year old brother Temple
hankered for adventure. Their dreams were not unusual. What was
out of the ordinary was that their father said yes
after the boys asked to ride their horses by themselves
from Oklahoma to Santa Fe to see the new mansion

(26:04):
of The governor, Jack Abernathy, seriously considered their request. Their
mother had died and they were growing up fast. With
every confidence in their horsemanship, He laid down some guidelines,
opening a checking account for each with one hundred dollars apiece,
and encouraged them to saddle up. They set out in

(26:25):
June nineteen oh nine from Oklahoma to Santa Fe and back,
in a journey that was covered by not only local
newspapers but the New York Times. Quote. Anxious to emulate
the strenuous life and carry out their father's instructions to
toughen up, Temple and Lewis Abernathy, aged five and nine, respectively,
sons of United States Marshal John Abernathy, left late today

(26:49):
for a thirteen hundred mile horseback trip. Quote. It'd be
the first of six treks or for four years, covering
more than ten thousand miles. Would include meetings with mayors
and governors and presidents, and offered a fly with the
Wright brothers and crowds ripping at their clothes to get
a piece of them. The brothers would become two of

(27:12):
the best known children in the world, inspiring an Ohio
newspaper to note the Abernathy boys are beating all records
for juvenile fame. They couldn't have become better known if
they had gotten themselves kidnapped and ransomed. Even among the
rough and tumble characters of the wild West, Jack Abernathy

(27:32):
stood out. He worked as a saloon pianist in Sweetwater,
Texas at the age of six, surviving a gun battle
that left bullet holes in the piano. Was a full
time range rider on the Akx Ranch at the age
of nine, patrolling the still fenceless prairie with a thirty
eight pistol because a forty five was too heavy for him,

(27:53):
and at age fifteen, won a job as a top
broncbuster and first saddle on the Ja Ranch. At age eighteen,
he fell in love with gray eyed music teacher Jesse
Pearl Jordan and devised an elaborate escape plan to Elope
on March tenth, eighteen ninety four, brandishing his pistol at
porters trying to block their path, one step ahead of

(28:15):
her angry family. What would bring him fame, however, was
his ability to jump from horseback and wrestle with wild
wolves and coyotes, sticking his hand in their jaws. To
immobilize them, then wiring their muzzle shut and binding their legs.
The skill bestowed a nickname that would follow him the
rest of his life, Jack Catch him Alive Abernathy. Stories

(28:40):
of his unusual talent made their way to President Teddy Roosevelt,
who trekked to Frederic in nineteen o five to meet
the twenty nine year old wolfcatcher, described as not more
than five foot two inches, but he's built like an
ox and his muscles are like steel. Abernathy's skill so
impressed the President over five days hunting in Oklahoma Territory's

(29:03):
Big Pasture that Roosevelt declared, this beats anything I've seen
in my life, and I've seen a good deal. John R.
Jack Abernathy was born January twenty eighth, eighteen seventy six,
in Bosque County, Texas, to Martin Van Buren Abernathy, a
veteran of the Confederate Army's Wayco Rifles who fought through

(29:25):
the Vicksburg and Atlanta campaigns before being injured and taken
prisoner of war, and his wife, Kitty Williams Thompson Abernethy,
widow of a Confederate soldier. In addition to caring for
the four sons and two daughters from Kitty's first marriage.
The couple had five additional children. Jack was the baby.

(29:46):
His eldest son, Lewis Bud Van Abernathy, named for his grandfather,
was born in Busque County on Deceever seventeenth, eighteen ninety nine.
Temple Reeves Abernathy, named in honor of Sam Houston's younger son,
was born March twenty fifth, nineteen oh four, in Tipton,
Oklahoma Territory. The next year, Roosevelt appointed him US Marshall

(30:10):
for the Western District of Oklahoma. The plum job made
Abernathy the top federal law enforcement official in the state,
granted a salary of five thousand dollars plus expenses, and
made him the youngest US Marshal in history. As their
father's star arose, the Abernathy boys continued with elementary school
and dreamt of their next big adventure. Despite the hooplaw

(30:34):
surrounding their first trek, The Santa Fe trip had been
riddled with near disasters. Bud's horse, Sam Bass, borrowed from
his father, and the Shetland pony mix named Geronimo were
sure footed, but Temple contracted diarrhea by drinking gypsum water
and sprained both ankles trying to dismount. Bud was forced
to lie awake one night firing his shotgun into the

(30:56):
darkness toward a pack of wolves that circled while his
brother slept. The boys ran out of both food and
water between stops and were saved by the kindness of strangers.
The most chilling episode was a note scribbled by the
point of a lead tipped bullet on a brown paper sack,
addressed to the Marshal of Oklahoma and delivered to the

(31:18):
Abernathy home. It said, I don't like one hair on
your head, but I do like the stuff that's in
these kids. We shadowed them through the worst part of
New Mexico to see that they were not harmed by sheepherders,
mean men or animals. It was signed az Y, the
initials of a rustler whose friend had been killed in

(31:39):
a shootout with Abernathy. Jack was tickled by the note.
It just goes to show you there's good in all men.
He had killed me at the drop of a hat,
but he was honorable to protect my innocent boys, he said.
As school was about to shut down for summer. The
boys asked if they could go to New York City
to witness the reception for Roosevelt, which was planned to

(32:01):
welcome his return from fifteen months abroad on safari in
Africa and speaking in the capitals of Europe. Jack asked
how they planned to pay for their train ticket. Temple
said it was all settled. Their round trip tickets were
out in the barn eaten hay. The brothers argued that
a trip east, though longer, would likely have better roads

(32:21):
and more amenities. Jack agreed, and planning was underway. Almost
famous after their Santa Fe trip. By the time they
set out to New York in nineteen ten, the Abernathy
Boys approached celebrity status. Easterners were fascinated by the brothers
pluck and by the growing legend of their father. Red

(32:42):
carpets were unrolled, bands were assembled, Speeches were made. One
account noted kids envied them, women adored them. Grown men
pulled hair from their horses tails to keep as souvenirs,
But the boys still had long, lonely stretches by themselves.
The pony Geronimo foundered in Hominy, Oklahoma, and Temple was

(33:05):
forced to leave him behind and by a new horse,
a red and white Pinto he named Wyley Haynes. Temple's
now the host saddle blanket was stolen at a livery
in Chicago. Unimpressed kids challenged them to fight. They pressed
ahead in driving rain and muddy roads, guided only by
directions from one stable to the next. Bud nearly crushed

(33:27):
his leg and a fall. Temple suffered a bronchial infection,
and a doctor in New Jersey measured his temperature at
one hundred and three and ordered him to rest. Even so,
they drove the train in Saint Louis, slept at a
firehouse in Cincinnati, where made deputies for the day in Dayton,
and were guests of honor at a Hailey's comet viewing
party in West Virginia. In Washington, the House of Representatives

(33:51):
stopped its proceedings some members could hear of their adventures
in New Jersey. They were followed by local armies of
small boys, riding stick horses and describing the mob scene
at the Boys Hotel in Manhattan. New York Times headlines blared,
Abernathy boys put ban on kissing fearless youngsters who have

(34:12):
ridden here from Oklahoma, mobbed by women surrounded by mounted police.
They have a triumphal march to their Broadway hotel. The brothers,
now joined by their father, Jack, who had arrived by train,
were among the VIPs allowed on one of the cutters
sent out in a flotilla to greet Roosevelt, but in
Temple rode Sam Bass and Wiley Haynes just behind his

(34:35):
carriage and in front of the rough riders in the
five mile parade up Broadway and on Fifth Avenue and
fifty ninth Street. At the end of the route, Roosevelt
jumped out of his carriage and strode toward the boys
with an oversized teddy bear that he'd been given, draped
in the flags of the world, and created a perfect
ending to a perfect day, Deer Temple, this is for you,

(34:56):
the President, said. Jack shipped the boy his horses back
to Oklahoma, and after a few more days of sightseeing,
planned to follow by train. But budd and Temple had
a better idea. Why not buy a horseless carriage. Jack
was skeptical. He told the boys he'd consider the request
if they could find a simple, small automobile that they

(35:20):
could handle themselves. He gave them one day to search.
At their last stop in Manhattan's new Auto showrooms, they
discovered a small red brush roundabout. It featured a single cylinder,
a chain drive, a fuel pump that would help with
climbing hills, and a price tag of four hundred and
eighty five dollars. The salesman promised if it broke down

(35:43):
on the way, he would pay the freight back and
refund their money. Bud spent that afternoon on driving lessons,
and Jack was inspired to buy a sturdier Maxwell touring
car and hire a chauffeur to drive him back home.
The boys mostly but sometimes Temple, drove themselves, clad in

(36:03):
goggles and dusters. They made good time and stopped along
the way to visit Niagara Falls and the brush factory
in Detroit. Their dad's car caught fire along the way,
burning the boys souvenirs, including the Teddy Bear from Roosevelt.
The car was salvageable, and they motored into Oklahoma City
on July thirtieth, guests of honor at a reception at

(36:24):
the Fairgrounds sponsored by the New Oklahoma Auto Club. The
trip took twenty three days to travel two thousand, five
hundred twelve Miles. Promoters soon realized there was money to
be made off the Abernathys fame. The boys starred as
themselves at a nineteen ten silent movie, Abernathy Kids to
the Rescue, A story of the real, wild and wooly

(36:47):
Western type which will arouse your enthusiasm, which will bubble
with excitement and interest. They were hired as spokesman for
the Brush Company for the nineteen eleven Auto Show in
New York, paid to sit in a booth and talk
about their adventures. Fred Thompson and Skip Dundee, who built
the Hippodrome theater and owned Luna Park on Coney Island,

(37:10):
paid Bud In Temple to sit astride their horses on
the boardwalk and talk of their adventures. To keep the
boys in the public eye, Thompson and Dundee arranged an
elephant and donkey race from New York to Washington, ostensibly
to predict the winner of the upcoming presidential race. Accompanied
by animal trainers. Bud rode the seven thousand pound elephant

(37:31):
and Temple settled for the donkey. The race was called
off in Philadelphia, though when the elephant was too exhausted
to continue, not to be thwarted, promoters cooked up an
even grander scheme, a ten thousand dollars challenge for the
boys to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific
on horseback in sixty days. Bud now eleven and seven

(37:53):
year old Temple would be allowed to rest on Sundays
and to sit out bad weather without counting toward the
sixty day total. They'd be allowed one change of horses,
and finally, in an odd and cruel twist, the boys
would not be allowed to eat or sleep under a
roof for the duration of the journey. So it was

(38:13):
that on the stroke of midnight August eleventh, nineteen eleven,
the boys on the horses emerged from knee deep water
in the Atlantic Ocean, carrying a flask of sea water
to dump in the Pacific. At San Francisco's Golden Gate Park,
thousands vacationers cheered their departure. The boys did not dawdle

(38:34):
for receptions and parades. They slept on the ground in
bed rolls, and as some are turned into fall, would
burrow into haystacks for the warmth. At night, some sympathetic
towns would have a table laden with food and drink
set up outside so the boys could keep their word
and never have a meal indoors. Others had never heard
of them, nor cared to, and chase them off their

(38:56):
property when they tried to set up camp. They traveled
through the Rockies, over the Continental Divide, and into the
Great Salt Lake Desert, where they woke one morning to
find their horses had disappeared. The boys spent three days
searching the shadeless desert. I think we both suddenly realized
that we could die there in the heat, Temple would

(39:18):
say later. We had little food and almost no water left.
Without the horses, survival would be almost impossible. But at
last they found one of the horses and caught up
with the other in Calton, Utah, where he had wandered
in search of water. Bolstered with food, drink, and fresh supplies,
they followed the railroad tracks out of town. Soon a

(39:41):
westbound train screeched to a stop. The men aboard offered
a ride to the boys and their horses, which would
spare them three more days of desert riding, but did
not hesitate. No, sir, we can't do that, he said.
It'd be breaking our contract. We'll never tell, said one
of the crew and another agreed, that's right. No one
I'll ever know. We'd know, Bud said. The exhausted boys

(40:06):
pressed on, making it through Nevada to California, then San
Francisco and into Golden Gate Park to dump their flask
of Atlantic water into the Pacific. They covered three thousand,
six hundred nineteen miles in sixty two days of traveling,
missing the goal by two days, but setting a record
for crossing the continent on horseback, breaking the old mark

(40:28):
of one hundred and eighty two days. Their expenses were
two eight hundred dollars, their payout was zero. Reports noted
that neither seemed disheartened at missing out on the prize
the Taciturn. Bud had few words to share. It was
too hard, he said. We averaged nearly sixty miles a
day when we rode, and it was too far. Temple said, gee,

(40:53):
but it's great to get here. I liked the trip
all right, but sometimes it got cold, and then I
didn't like it so well. I want the deepest bed
I can get in this town. The boy's final ride
came in nineteen thirteen, when the maker of Indian motorcycles
spelled at the time without the letter R, so motorcycles
not motor cycles. That's the way they spelled it at

(41:15):
the time. They offered a custom made two seat, twin
engine machine if the boys would travel on it from
Oklahoma to New York City. Temple had just turned nine
and Bud was thirteen. Now. The company sent along a
second bike for a mechanic to ride along. After teaching
themselves to drive the five hundred pounds cycle, they headed

(41:37):
out in June, stopping along the way to give demonstrations
and visit dealerships. Roads had improved so much at this
point they were able to hit speeds of up to
seventy miles per hour on some paved stretches. In the
book Bud in Me, authored by his wife Alta Abernethy,
Temple talked of their arrival in New York. We were

(41:57):
salesman now, not celebrities as before, and we didn't have
to deal with reporters and crowds. I missed the excitement,
but all in all, I liked it better because we
were free to do as we pleased. Although we didn't
realize it at the time. Our cross country travels as
the Abernathy Boys, were at an end. The statue commemorating
the Abernathy Boys was dedicated on the lawn of the

(42:19):
Tillman County Courthouse on April twenty second, two thousand and six,
a month after what would have been Temple's one hundred
second birthday. Their bronze figures oversee the town of Frederick's
annual Abernathy Day celebration, held the first Saturday in June.
Although instilled with cowboys swagger, the likeness of nine year
old Bud and five year old Temple appeared to be

(42:42):
even smaller than their ages would suggest. After their celebrity,
childhood bound down with the coming of World War One,
the boys enrolled in military school in San Antonio. Jack
became a wildcatter and relocated to Wichita Falls, Texas. Temple
joined his father in the oil and gas business. Bud

(43:02):
would go on to graduate from University of Oklahoma Law School,
becoming a lawyer and eventually a judge. Hear the end
of his life, Temple Abernathy said, We've been royally entertained
by some folks and coldly turned away by others, and
we'd always faced the question of whether it was worthwhile
to go on. I'm glad we always pressed ahead. That's

(43:24):
where the future is. Thirty year old Jesse Pearl Abernathy
died in Guthrie on May seventh, nineteen oh seven, three
months after giving birth to a sixth child. She left
behind four daughters, Pearly May, Kitty, Joe, Via Golda and
Johnny Jack Martin, and the two boys. Abernathy's father and

(43:47):
sister stepped in to help raise the children. Jack remarried
the next July, eloping with Almira Prevaane, the teenaged daughter
of a wealthy farmer near Guthrie. The union would last
less than two year years, as Abernathy filed for divorce
in April nineteen ten, weeks after the arrival of the
daughter they named for Roosevelt, Theodora Lucille. In June nineteen

(44:11):
oh nine, The New York Times quoted Jack, whom they
called the cowboy Sheriff of Oklahoma, saying of his sons,
they got all their good points from their mother, who
died about three years ago. The newspaper noted there was
a touch of sadness in his voice. Thanks for listening.

(44:45):
Be sure to subscribe to the podcast if you haven't
already done so, and if you're already a weirdo. Please
take a moment today and share the podcast with someone
you know who loves paranormal stories, true crime, monsters, or
mysteries like you do. All stories in Weird Darkness are
purported to be true unless stated otherwise, and you can
find source links or links to the authors in the

(45:07):
show notes. The Disturbing Truth behind Mommy, Dead and Dearest
was written by Stephanie Hammond for Graveyard Shift. Other True
Cases of Bunchausen by Proxy was written by Carl Krano
for Unspeakable Times, and The Astounding Adventures of the Abernathy
Boys is by m J. Alexander for four h five Magazine.

(45:30):
And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll
leave you with a little light Isaiah sixty one, verse one.
The spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because
the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to
the poor. He has sent me to bind up the
broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release
from darkness for the prisoners. And a final thought, stop

(45:55):
focusing on how stressed you are, and remember how blessed
you you are. I'm Daryn Marler. Thanks for joining me
in the weird darkness m m hm hm

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