PLAGUE WEDDINGS: Why They Forced Strangers to Marry in Graveyards to Stop a Pandemic

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Pandemics and plagues. They've come and gone ever since humanity
rolled out of bed and placed its feet onto the
earth for the first time. Fortunately, thanks to a greater
knowledge of disease, scientists and medical professionals have urged our
world leaders to initiate changes to help cut the crisis short.
Don't leave your home unless you absolutely have to wash

(00:29):
your hands frequently. Only gather with others online, which would
have been hard to do during the Black Plague when
the Internet hadn't been invented. Yet, keep events like weddings
as small as possible. In past few months of public
health crisis, though we weren't always so knowledgeable. Perhaps the

(00:49):
most unusual response was a ritual folk remedy in which
the living were married on a field of the dead
in front of their entire village. Black weddings were the
joining of two people previously on wed but done in
a graveyard. Nowadays, this might be done because the couple
live and love the goth lifestyle, or they admire the

(01:13):
beauty of old cemeteries, or they want to make sure
as keew relatives come to their wedding as possible, and
this is a sure fireway to do it. But the
betrothed for black weddings were often poor, orphaned, disabled, or
some combination of the three. In fact, sometimes the bride
and the groom didn't even know each other before arriving

(01:35):
at the cemetery to take their vows. The hope was
that the communal gathering and assembly of all their kindness
and love, combined with these blind date graveside nuptials, would
somehow stop the diseases cold. It was believed joining a
couple in the presence of the dead allowed for a
more direct appeal to be made to God, hoping for

(02:00):
him to intervene. I'm Darren Marler and this is Weird Darkness.

(02:23):
Welcome weirdos. This is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories
of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre,
unsolved and unexplained coming up in this episode of Weird Darkness.

(02:44):
Imagine a young mother coming home late one night after
a trip to the er for a minor illness. The
next day, she's missing. That is just the beginning of
the strange and unsettling case of Charlotte Polus. There was
a time when people would get married in cemeteries, not
because they were goth, or because they loved the macob surroundings,

(03:08):
but because they felt it would keep them from getting sick.
The five pointed star is ubiquitous. We learn to draw
it in grade school. Teachers draw it on our test
papers to show we've done a good job. But turn
the star upside down and suddenly it becomes mysterious and strange.
It becomes a pentagram. Why does the pentagram hold so

(03:31):
much power over some people? And what are the secrets
it holds. It's a supernatural creature that appears at night
to travelers. If you see a white one, it is
there to protect you from harm and help you along
your journey. If you see a black one, it is
there to kill you. We'll look at the Central American

(03:52):
cryptid known as the Cadejo. Now bult your doors, lock
your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me
into the weird darkness in some ways. The wedding of

(04:20):
Harry Fleckman and Dora Wiseman in November of nineteen eighteen
was traditional. The elaborate ceremony in Winnipeg, Canada had been
a month in the making. It featured music, scripture readings,
and two rabbis as officiants, but despite the familiar customs,
it would have been hard for guests to forget why

(04:41):
they were there. The solemn grave markers, the sounds of
a nearby funeral, and the ever present specter of Spanish
influenza were all reminders that the ceremony was not a
typical wedding. The ritual was part of a decade's long
tradition that was more about prevent illness than celebrating a

(05:02):
holy union. Various religions throughout history have responded to pandemics
by praying to or trying to appease a higher power.
During the Black Plague, the Christian Brotherhood of the Flagellants
marched through Europe, whipping themselves with scourges to earn God's mercy.

(05:22):
Muslims reacted to the same pandemic by giving greater importance
to communal forms of prayer, like processions and mass funerals.
In some Eastern European Jewish communities, one plague fighting ritual
that took root was the graveside wedding, which came to
be known as the plague wedding. Plague weddings, also called

(05:45):
black weddings, likely originated during the cholera outbreaks that ravaged
Europe throughout the nineteenth century. The thinking behind a plague
wedding was that holding a sacred ceremony among the dead
would make the participants and whitness more likely candidates for
divine intervention. As in the Jewish tradition, weddings bring people

(06:06):
closer to God. Even accessories associated with the ceremony were
believed to hold spiritual properties. Another old Jewish folk remedy
for combating illness involved covering a sick woman with a
wedding gown. For plague weddings, the bride and groom exchanged
vows in a cemetery, because being surrounded by death was

(06:29):
thought to make the holy ritual even more appealing to God.
There's no textual basis for this obscure practice, though, so
it was likely interpreted in many ways. An alternative explanation
is that seeing what should have been a joyful ceremony
in such a dreadful setting would provoke pity from God,

(06:49):
who would then show mercy by ending the pandemic. Plague
weddings were also notable for who was getting wed. According
to Izig Goatsman, a folk lorist at the University of Texas.
At Austin, the community arranged marriages between people who were
difficult to marry off, which usually meant they were poor, orphaned,

(07:10):
or disabled. The organizers may have viewed this as an
act of charity, thus boosting their favor with God, but
such matches, which were often between two total strangers, tended
to be dehumanizing. These marginalized people were typically viewed as
property of the community, and thus didn't have much say

(07:31):
in whether they wanted to be props and the ritual.
Though it was then spoken of as an ancient practice,
the black wedding was a relatively modern invention that never
expanded beyond the fringes of Jewish society. When they were
practiced during the cholera outbreaks of the eighteen sixties, Jewish
leaders in Eastern Europe condemned the practice and tried to

(07:54):
suppress it, but with cholera claiming millions of lives in
Russia alone throughout the eighteen hundred, any source of security,
even if it was symbolic, was hard to stamp out.
The tradition could be applied to any new plague Jewish
people faced. During World War One, at least one black
wedding was held in Warsaw, Poland defend off typhus. There's

(08:18):
even evidence of the ceremonies being performed to combat locust
swarms in the Middle East. It wasn't until the twentieth
century that plague weddings landed in North America. When Jewish
immigrants came to the continent, they found a new pathogenic
menace in the form of Spanish influenza. The Spanish flu
was one of the deadliest pandemics ever to sweep the globe.

(08:40):
Between nineteen eighteen and nineteen twenty, a third of the
world's population was infected and fifty million people died. Many
public spaces, including synagogues, closed in response to the threat. Meanwhile,
some immigrant communities took the new scourge as an opportunity
to revive of an old superstition from Europe. The nineteen

(09:03):
eighteen wedding between Harry Fleckman and Dora Wiseman in Winnipeg
was one of a handful of black weddings recorded in
North America during this period. A report of the event
in the Winnipeg Evening Tribune described the scene. The ancient
Jewish song of Life was played on the west side
of the cemetery. At the same time, Jews were chanting

(09:26):
the wail of death as a body was committed to
the grave. That same year, two strangers were wet in
Mount Hebron Cemetery in New York City. Another such wedding
took place in Philadelphia around this time, when Fanny Jacobs
and Harold Rosenberg were married under a chupa installed at
the first line of graves in a cemetery near Cobbs Creek, Philadelphia.

(09:49):
More than a thousand guests were in attendance. As had
been the case in Europe, the Black weddings of North
America continued to sow discord in Jewish community. Following that
October nineteen eighteen ceremony, the newspaper The Jewish Exponent published
an editorial criticizing the practice. The wedding held in a

(10:11):
Jewish cemetery last Sunday for the purpose of staying the
ravages of the epidemic was a most deplorable exhibition of
benighted superstition. It read. Unfortunately, the publicity given to the
occurrence will convey to many people that this is a
custom sanctioned and encouraged by the Jewish religion. The people
who do such things. Do not know what judaism means.

(10:34):
Plague weddings did nothing to staunch waves of disease. In fact,
it's possible they helped to spread them. In some cases,
all it takes is one carrier to infect a large
group of people, as typhoid Mary Mallin demonstrated when she
caused a typhoid fever outbreak at the summerhouse where she
cooked in nineteen oh six. There are no reports connecting

(10:57):
plague weddings to outbreaks, but similar events contribute to the
Spanish flu pandemic. A nineteen eighteen Liberty Loan parade led
to thousands of Spanish flu infections in Philadelphia, the same
city where a plague wedding was documented the same year.
Large gatherings like weddings were known to be vectors for

(11:17):
the virus, which prompted some cities to ban them completely. Fortunately,
like a virus unable to find a host, the tradition
of plague weddings appears to have faded away. Up next,
imagine a young mother coming home late one night after

(11:37):
next day, she's missing. That's just the beginning of the
strange and unsettling case of Charlotte Polis. When weird darkness returns,

(12:15):
imagine a young mother coming home late one night after
next day, she's missing. That's just the beginning of the
strange and unsettling things that would happen in this case
over the next several years. Sadly, twenty six years later,
there is still no resolution. Charlotte Polus was born on

(12:39):
July fourth, nineteen sixty five. She grew up in a large,
very close family and was the oldest of six children.
Charlotte was a very loving and caring person with a
huge heart who loved to bake and do crafts. She
met Paul Poulis through a friend around nineteen eighty five.
They would eventually marry and have a daughter, Layla, and

(13:01):
a son Aiden. Although Charlotte's family was not thrilled with Paul,
as he seemed to be the controlling type, they had
no reason to think anything was really wrong. That is
until March of nineteen ninety four. Charlotte was feeling ill.
On March eleventh. She'd previously made plans to go out

(13:22):
that Saturday night and celebrate her brother Ali's birthday. However,
she phoned Ali's wife earlier in the day and told
her that she wasn't feeling well and would reschedule. Charlotte
continued to feel poorly throughout the day and was suffering
from some dizziness as well. The decision was made that
night to take her to the er. Paul arranged for

(13:44):
his parents to watch the children as he drove Charlotte
to the er. She was diagnosed with an inner ear infection,
given some medicine, and sent home. She was also given
a prescription to be filled. After arriving home late and
speaking to her mother by phone around one thirty eight,
Charlotte went to bed. This was the last time her
mother would ever speak to her. At around eight thirty

(14:08):
the next morning, Charlotte's mother tried to phone her daughter
to check on her. They were normally in constant contact
and were very close, says Charlotte was a big help
to her parents as well as they would help her
with her young children. Paul answered the phone and said
that Charlotte was still asleep. He told her mother he
would have Charlotte phone her when she woke up, but

(14:28):
that phone call would never come. After hearing nothing from
her daughter. Later that morning, Charlotte's mother called the house repeatedly,
there was no answer. She kept trying throughout the day,
concerned about her sick daughter. There was still no answer,
which meant Paul wasn't home either. Charlotte's aunt even went
to the Polus's house that day to try to contact

(14:51):
Charlotte and knocked on the door, but the house appeared empty. Then,
around seven thirty pm, Paul called the Noggi family. He
said he was concerned because Charlotte was gone. Paul claims
that when he woke up on March twelfth, nineteen ninety four,
Charlotte was in bed. He said he spoke to her

(15:12):
and told her to go back to sleep and he
had some errands to run and would take the children
with him. He claims he was gone from about eleven
am to four pm with the children. However, Charlotte's mother
said she had phoned the house before eleven am, when
Paul claims he would have still been home and there
was no answer. He stated he made many stops the scrapyard,

(15:33):
laundromat pharmacy, fast food restaurant, and drove around town looking
at houses to buy. When he arrived home, he said
he noticed Charlotte was gone. The couple only had one
vehicle and Paul had been using it all day, but
her person medicine was still there. The only thing that
was missing was Charlotte. He did eventually phone Charlotte's family

(15:55):
that night to see where she was. All, he recalls,
the message from Paul seemed odd and he sounded under
the influence of something. He found it strange that Paul
would be so concerned with Charlotte only being missing a
few hours. They were all immediately concerned and went to
the Polis's house. When they arrived, Paul's parents were already there.

(16:18):
The neighbors even told Charlotte's parents that Paul's parents car
had been there all night prior. The Naggi family noticed
that there was some extreme cleaning being done at the
home that night, which was concerning to them. Paul's father,
who was at the time the deputy coroner of Trumbull County.
By Ali's recollection, seemed to be instructing his son what

(16:39):
to say and what not to say. As the family
looked around the property searching for clues, Charlotte's sister noticed
a little shed on the Polis's property. There had been
a small amount of snow on the ground, and she
noticed two sets of footprints that appeared to be dress
shoes and boots leading to the shed. Charlotte said also

(17:00):
said the doors were bulging on the shed and it
was locked with a padlock with a Noggi family asked
Paul for a key to see what was inside. He refused.
Allie said the next day his brother returned and chopped
the padlock off with an axe, and it appeared everything
had inexplicably been moved to one side and the doors

(17:21):
were no longer bulging. The police were called, and Paul's
father seemed to be in charge of things by what
the Noggies saw. As it started to sink in that
their loved one was actually missing, the Naggi family started
to get very suspicious towards Paul. Ollie recalls that about
a month before Charlotte went missing, his sister phoned him

(17:42):
one night and asked them to bring dairy Queen over.
Ollie and his wife arrived and Charlotte was there with
their children, but Paul was upstairs asleep. As the three
were visiting, Charlotte said something unsettling to Ollie. She asked
him if something happened to her, would he raise her kids.
She also wanted him to give the children her boxes

(18:04):
of Princess House crystal, or sell them and give them
the money and say the money was from their mother
if she was gone. But you can imagine Ollie was
very concerned at this question. He asked Charlotte if something
was wrong or if she was being abused by Paul,
and she downplayed it and assured him that everything was fine.

(18:24):
Another thing concerning was Paul's list of alibis for the
day that Charlotte was discovered missing. Paul listed several places
where he was with his children, and everyone interviewed either
didn't see Paul at all or didn't see the children
with him. He did appear to drop off Charlotte's prescription
at the pharmacy, but never picked it up. The scrapyard

(18:46):
Paul said he went to was actually closed that day. Also,
Paul went to the laundromet that morning after Charlotte went missing.
The person working at the laundermet was a relative of
Ali's wife, and she said the comforter Paul brought in
appeared to have a large dark red stain on it.
When he left the comforter in the washing machine, Paul

(19:06):
was adamant that no one be allowed near the machine.
Paul left and as the worker looked out the window,
she said the children were not with him. The idea
of Paul looking at possible houses to buy didn't make
sense either. Neither Paul nor Charlotte worked and lived on welfare,
so the idea of them purchasing a house seemed very unlikely.

(19:28):
A neighbor of the couples said she saw Paul the
day he was supposed to be running errands. She said
he had their car backed up to the front of
their house and all the doors and trunk were open.
The car was filled with boxes and bags, and the
children were not inside the vehicle. Also, according to Allie,
soon after the disappearance, Paul Poulis had a yard sale

(19:49):
and sold all of Charlotte's belongings. As the police were
investigating the disappearance, they wanted Paul to come in for
a polygraph exam. He used the excuse he didn't have
a vehicle, so one of Charlotte's brothers offered to drive
him there, and Paul accepted. However, when the day arrived,
Paul goes missing. He left behind a note talking about

(20:12):
how difficult it was being suspected and the way he
was being treated. Looking back now, Ollie did read the
note and said it appeared to almost be a confession
note of someone who had committed a crime. Charlotte's brother, Ollie,
worked as a Trumbull County Reserve deputy and then when
his sister went missing, transitioned over, volunteering his time. For

(20:33):
the next twenty six years with the Gerard Police Department.
He worked hand in hand on his sister's case with
the detectives to try to get justice for her. He's
still working the case even today, despite health issues. No
one knows for a fact where or what Paul was
doing those three months he disappeared. Ollie's opinion is he

(20:53):
was being kept at his attorney's house the entire time,
out of sight. When Paul arrived back, he was arrested
and charged with obstructing official business. However, the judge dismissed
the charges, saying that he had a fifth Amendment right
to remain silent. He also said Paul had cooperated by
speaking with them and initially allowing a search of his home.

(21:16):
Weeks after the disappearance, Charlotte's family was alerted by a
relative late at night that happened to be driving by
that the police were at the Polus's house. The Gerard
County PD was also contacted, and the family discovered that
the Ohio BCI Bureau of Criminal Investigation were there spraying
luminol looking for any presence of blood in the house

(21:38):
and the car. There was a spawn of blood found
in the trunk of the couple's vehicle. It was discovered
to not be animal, but before the sample could be
further tested, it was accidentally destroyed. There was also blood
found in the hallway of the Polis's house. Paul's mother
insisted it was menstrual, so it wasn't tested. He learned

(22:00):
that Paul's father was telling the police where they could
and couldn't spray. Why was Paul's family allowed to be
there during the investigation while it seems Charlotte's family was
not even made aware of the search. Ollie believes that
Charlotte was possibly being poisoned in the weeks before her disappearance.
He said that Paul would have Charlotte drink milk at bedtime,

(22:24):
Charlotte was never much of a milk drinker. In the
weeks before her disappearance, she did start complaining of feeling
ill and tired all the time. Ollie said she was
to see the doctor the week after she disappeared to
try to get some answers. Of course, she never made
it to that appointment. Ollie also recalls that a few
weeks after Charlotte disappeared, there was a nine foot by

(22:47):
thirteen foot area of concrete floor dug up at Paul
Poulis's parents' garage. He said they refused to explain why
the area was there, citing it was their own personal business,
and soon after had the area filled in with more concrete.
To his knowledge, this area has never been searched. There
were many concerning things that happened as far as the

(23:08):
police investigation into Charlotte's disappearance. Ali said after Charlotte went missing,
Paul had scratches from his elbow to his wrist. Paul
claimed he got them installing a hot water tank, but
Ali said there was no recent installation of one at
the house. Paul then said he got them installing drywall
at the house, but Ali said that wasn't true. Either

(23:29):
because he had been the one to help Paul install
the drywall. Police took photos of the scratches on Paul's arms,
but not long after the photos disappeared. About a month later,
when the Naggi family went back to the Pulis's house
to grab some things for Layla, who was staying with them,
Ali noticed some disturbing things and took photos of them.

(23:51):
He saw what happened to be blood splatter on the
kitchen ceiling, master bedroom pillow, on the couch, the curtains,
on the back door, and on a blanket in their hutch.
Ollie gave a copy of the pictures to the police
for their investigation. The copy of the police's pictures go
missing soon after. Being focused on his sister's disappearance, Allie

(24:13):
mistakenly then gives the original photos to the Gerard police.
Those photos have now gone missing as well. Another very
surprising thing they discovered at the Polis's home after Charlotte
went missing was found in the bedside table of the
couple's bed divorce papers that Charlotte had drawn up. This

(24:34):
seemed to even surprise most of the people in Charlotte's family. Apparently,
the situation in the Polis's house was more serious than
anyone had realized. The family then wondered if Paul had
seen the papers. In the years after, there seemed to
be no real advancement or leads in the case. When
Charlotte went missing, her daughter stayed with the Naggies while

(24:56):
the Polises raised the couple's son. The daughter of here
to have witnessed something unsettling around the time her mother
went missing. She was now terrified of black trash bags.
She told the Naggies as well as the police and
many others that Grandpa helped Daddy hurt mommy and put
her in trash bags. In nineteen ninety five, it was

(25:18):
reported in the media that Layla Poulis had went missing.
She even had a Charlie Project Missing Persons page. Allie
did explain that he got his parents and Layla out
of the area to protect her. Charlotte's father was determined
not to let what happened to his daughter happen to
his granddaughter. Paul was trying to get custody of Laila,

(25:40):
and the Noggies had custody, so before they could be
served with those papers, they fled the area. They made
the sacrifice to hide out to protect their grandchild and
returned several years later. Paul Poulis's parents had been raising
the couple's son, Aiden since Charlotte's disappearance. In all these
quests to find out what happened to his sister, he

(26:02):
tried everything he could think of to get Charlotte's case
more attention. He contacted all the major talk shows and
news programs in hopes that they would air the case,
but no luck. Then he decided to contact his congressman,
Jim Traffiicant and ask for help on the matter. Representative
Traffiicant was so amazing in helping with the case. He

(26:23):
dedicated his time and resources to it and wrote a
letter to the TV show Unsolved Mysteries asking them to
air Charlotte's case, which they did. Although Representative Trafficant has
since passed away, Ollie is still grateful for all the
help he gave to bring attention to his sister's case. Then,
around nineteen ninety nine, Ollie got a really strange call.

(26:45):
It was from an anonymous person who phoned him about
ten pm one night, directing him to check the dumpster
near the Trumbull County Police department before midnight when the
trash would be picked up. Olli brought a friend with
him and hurried over and was completely shocked at what
he found. Charlotte Pullis's entire police file was thrown in

(27:06):
the trash, along with numerous others. Ali was livid as
him and his friend retrieved all the files from the trash.
He also immediately contacted the media to let them know
the outrageous thing that had been done. He was eventually
told a story that it was just a mistake made
by a janitor working in the building, which Ollie found

(27:27):
pretty unbelievable. Angered at Alli bringing the media into the matter.
The pd also threatened Olli with theft if he didn't
return his sister's files, so he did comply. In the
years since his wife's disappearance, Paul Polis has certainly not
led a quiet life. He's been in trouble with the
law many times, from felony drug possession to pulling a

(27:50):
gun on a chief of police, to embezzlement of over
a million dollars along with his then girlfriend. There were
also a few people that Paul was connected to who
died under strange circumstances, and there is speculation as to what,
if any connection Paul may have even had to their deaths.
I'm sure you can imagine what my theory is on

(28:12):
this case. Paul Poulis killed his wife and with the
help of his family, disposed of her body. Paul was
known to have affairs, so it's unclear whether he just
wanted to get out of his marriage without giving up
his children, or killed her in a violent rage. He
has a well documented history of substance abuse. Perhaps Charlotte
even threatened to leave, or he came across the divorce papers.

(28:36):
It seems like the most unlikely scenario on the planet
that Charlotte would be abducted or leave the house in
her pajamas feeling very poorly with no purse or vehicle. Sadly,
this case appears to be like so many ice cold
Olie Nagi is still determined to find answers and find
his sister, but the leads seem to be few and

(28:58):
far between. At this point, he has no doubt what
happened to his sister, and Paul Pulis, even with a
very lengthy criminal history, is still free after so many
years and so few leads. Sometimes the public's interest can wane.
As Ali was quoted in an article, it's like no

(29:19):
one really cares, but we care. There's always hope in
any case that the family will get answers and that
Charlotte can be restored to her family until that day happens.
In this frustrating case, Paul Poulus appears to have made
a clean getaway when weird darkness returns the upside down

(29:50):
five pointed Star? Why does the pentagram hold so much
power over some people? Plus a supernatural creature appears at
night to travelers in Central America. If you see a
white one, it's there to protect you, but if you
see a black one, you're dead. These stories are up next.

(30:35):
TC Lethbridge once said, what is magic today will be
science tomorrow. He was an English archaeologist, parapsychologist and explorer,
and also a controversial figure in British archaeology. His significant
research is related to a certain magical pentagram, a five
pointed star, and its secret use. When he died in

(30:59):
a nerdersinghome in nineteen seventy one, his name was generally unknown.
Yet even more strange is that the last thing he
was thinking about before he died was again, a mysterious
pentagram known and used by cultures throughout the world for
thousands of years as a protective symbol with the power
to banish evil spirits. Today, those who admire Tom Lethbridge

(31:24):
and his contribution to paranormal research know that he is
the most prominent name in the history of psychical research,
covering subjects like life after death, dowsing, poltergeist's ghosts, second sight,
the nature of time, and precognition phenomenon. His ideas were

(31:44):
described in a series of books and published toward the
end of his life. Curious, but Lethbridge has never been
particularly interested in psychic phenomena until he came to the
crucial point at a later time in his life and
began to take a serious interest in the subject. Disappointed
with the hostile reception of one of his archaeological books

(32:07):
and his job as the keeper of Anglo Saxon antiquities,
Lethbridge left Cambridge and retired to Hullhouse, a Tudor mansion
on the south coast of Devon in southern Britain. He
planned to spend his last years of life reading and
digging some pottery, but suddenly his plans changed and so
it began the most exciting period of his life. He

(32:31):
came in contact with his neighbor, an old, white haired
witch who lived next door and possessed a few extraordinary powers.
One day, the old witch explained how she managed to
put off unwonted visitors by drawing a pentagram in her
head and then visualize it across the path of the
unwelcome visitor or on the front gate, for example. Her

(32:54):
secret use of the magical pentagram introduced psychical researcher Tom
Lethbridge to the old of the paranormal. In the beginning,
Lethbridge was very skeptical until something extraordinary happened that finally
convinced him for the rest of his life. Shortly afterward,
in the middle of the night, Lethbridge was lying in

(33:15):
bed practicing drawing mental pentagrams around his at his wife
Mona's bed. A few nights later, Mona woke up with
a strange feeling that there was someone else in the
room standing at the foot of the bed, but she
could only distinguish a faint glow of light which slowly
faded away, leaving the bedroom in the darkness again. The

(33:36):
next day, they both met their neighbor who asked if
someone had been putting protection on them. She explained that
she came to their bedroom on another night and couldn't
get near the bed because there were triangles of fire
around it. Three years later, the old Lady died in
rather peculiar circumstances, and her death resulted indirectly, of course,

(33:59):
in one of Tom Lethbridge's most significant insights in the
realm of the occult. One day, passing the cottage of
the Witch, he experienced a horrid feeling of suffocating depression,
and his scientific curiosity pushed him further to investigate this strange,
nasty feeling. He walked around the cottage, and all of

(34:21):
a sudden, he discovered that he could step right into
the depression and then out of it again, just as
if it was some kind of invisible wall. This disturbing
and inexplicable incident made Lethbridge convinced that he must look
for other clues. Another strange incident occurred about a year

(34:41):
after the death of the Old Witch. On a wet
January afternoon, Tom and his wife Mina drove down to
the beach to gather seaweed. Suddenly, a blanket of fog
descended upon them. It was a Ladram Bay devon that
Lethbridge experienced the blanket of fear in glue. The next
day he mentioned what had happened to Mina's brother, and

(35:04):
from him he heard about a similar incident that took
place in a field near Avebury in Wiltshire. A week later,
Lethbridge and his wife set out for Ladrum Bay. Once again.
They stepped on to the beach and both walked into
the same bank of depression or ghoul, as Lethbridge called it.

(35:24):
The feeling was intense, unpleasant and made them both dizzy.
They found the place frightening and sinister, and not only
for them. Nine years later a man committed suicide there,
and Tom Lethbridge was wondering what could make people feel
so bad in this particular place. What was this intense

(35:45):
bad feeling that imprinted itself in the area. Have feelings
of despair or perhaps even those evil ones been recorded there?
Tom Lethbridge was convinced that the key to the puzzle
lay in the water. He knew that underground water produces
changes in the Earth's magnetic field. Suppose the magnetic field

(36:06):
of running water can record strong emotions which as we know,
are electrical activities in the human brain and body, and
such fields could well be most energetic in damp areas
and during foggy weather. Lethbridge was a keen and accomplished dowser,
and the pendulum was the key to his interest in
the unknown. He had known for years that a pendulum

(36:28):
could be used for divining, and its accuracy could convey
a lot of extremely complex information. He was confident that
a pendulum responds to the mind, not only to some vibration.
Human beings possess powers were not even aware of, because
there are powers of an unconscious mind which go far
beyond that what we understand. In his book The Power

(36:51):
of the Pendulum, which I have linked to in the
show notes, Tom Lethbridge wrote about the unknown realm of
our mind. The super conscious, it be super conscious knows
far more than we do, because it does not have
to use the brain to filter around everything. It lives
in a timeless zone, all of which may be true

(37:12):
and probably is, but is also incomprehensible to us. What
Lethbridge tries to say to us is that everyone has
experienced moods of unusual vitality, such an ecstasy of excitement.
Having memories of such moments, as well as our power
to recreate them, we are equipped enough to research the

(37:33):
unknown realms of our mind. The year was twenty twelve.

(37:56):
In the Zona Rosa section of San Salvador, the capital
city of the Central American nation of El Salvador, an
urban revival of sorts was taking place in a place
known for its museums, cafes, and gardens. City feel. New
businesses were moving in and living spaces were being created
out of old buildings to accommodate the artists, young urban hipsters,

(38:19):
and those Central American forward thinkers who wanted to experience
something new. Amid the fusion sushi places and new cosmopolitan discotheques,
a brew pub emerged, inspired by the relatively new craft
beer movement in the United States. The logo of the
new brewery featured a red eyed, snarling doglike creature. Anyone

(38:42):
who came to the new business knew why the brewery
chose that image. The name of the brew pub and
the name of the animal were the same, El Cadejo.
This Central American business may be the first microbrewery in
the world to have itself named after a cryptid or
legendary creature. The stories of the cadejo range from the

(39:05):
country of Nicaragua, through El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala all
the way to the state of Chiappus in southern Mexico.
The specifics of this creature and the stories about it
are varied across the many countries and terrains of its
supposed habitat. Most cryptozoologists, for those who seek to discover

(39:25):
and describe previously unknown animals, dismiss this creature and believe
that the Kdejo is merely the stuff of legend. Many
Mexicans and Central Americans who have actually seen the cadejo
would argue this point. The cadejo has been described in
several ways. It's usually a big dog like creature with

(39:46):
hoofs of a deer and abundant fur. It runs more
like a deer than a dog. It has been spotted
in both rural areas and highly urbanized settings. There is
a black version and a white version. The black version
can be broken down into three different types, which often
cause the cryptozoologists to dismiss the cadejo out of hand.

(40:09):
The first kind of black cadejo is the most supernatural
of the three darker ones. It is often described as
a pure manifestation of evil, and may even be the
devil himself taking an earthly form to conduct his nefarious
business on earth. It appears as a huge black dog
with glowing red eyes and may be accompanied by the

(40:30):
smell of sulfur. It is often described as having a thick,
glowing metal chain around its neck, which some language scholars
believe gives the creature its name. In Spanish, the word
shane is cadena, and from this we get the word codejo.
This type of cadejo never attacks a person, but appears

(40:50):
to terrorize the victim by its mere appearance, or may
present the person with visions of hell or other scenes
of death and destruction. Incount of this type of creature,
a teenage boy named Santiago encountered a cadejo that showed
him a beautiful tree being consumed by hell fire. Santiago
believed that the vision was a sign to help him

(41:12):
to stop drinking and to serve as a warning for
him to stop disobeying his mom. This first type of creature,
while not threatening physically, is usually a bad omen and
may predict a horrible event in the person's life. Usually,
the witness is left with feelings of post traumatic stress,
and they are reluctant to speak of their experiences. Sometimes

(41:34):
prayer or the showing of religious objects such as a
cross may cause the creature too slowly back off and disappear.
Another precaution to take when coming across this type of
cadejo is to stand with your feet together so that
the creature doesn't run under your legs to whisk you off.
The second version of the black type of the cadejo

(41:56):
is the most troublesome of all versions. It is more
like a wild dog or wolf than anything else. When
a person comes upon this manifestation, it may mean a
fight to the death. The creature may appear first in
the shadows, making noises to alert the victim of its presence,
for reasons of pure terror and to generate a feeling

(42:17):
of demoralization in the victim. When the cadejo senses an
intense level of fear, it'll go in for the kill.
Prayer and religious objects have no effect on this second
type of creature, and a human cannot kill it. The
only thing that can save a victim from certain death
is the intervention of the white type of cadejo, to

(42:39):
be discussed later. The third type of black Cadeo is
the least powerful of all the manifestations. It is said
to be a combination of the second lethal version and
a real dog. Because it is a mortal hybrid, it
can be killed, although it is difficult to do so.
This type of creature surprisingly not bite its victim. Rather,

(43:02):
it kicks and pecks at the person with its snout,
while causing little physical harm. This harassing interaction with the
Cadeo can make the human go mad. If this third
version is killed, it is said that its body rots
very quickly and disappears within minutes on the ground where
it dies. According to legend, nothing will ever grow, as

(43:24):
it has left a stain of evil. Religious objects or
prayer can ward off this creature. One who encounters this
third type can also try another trick. The potential victim
can spit in his own hand and offer it up
to the Codejo. If the creature licks the palm of
the potential victim, it's a sign that everything will be
okay and the human does not need to fear the Codejo.

(43:48):
In addition to the three kinds of black Codeos, there
exists a white one. The white one is benevolent and
is described as having fluffy, downy like fur, and light
blue eyes. This big canine is more of a protector
and appears when needed, usually at night, often to guide
a person out of trouble. It is also the only

(44:11):
thing that can protect a person from the second and
most dangerous type of black cadejo. It is a human's
only real defense against the most malevolent black form of
this type of creature. The white Cadejo, according to some legends,
doesn't even eat meat like a normal canine. Instead, it
eats these small bell like flowers that grow in the

(44:32):
mountains of southern Mexico and throughout Central America. Some believe
that the white cadejo is not an animal in the
strictest sense, but more of a benevolent spirit that shows
up to help in times of distress. In a popular
story about the white Cadejo, a man named Wan repeatedly

(44:52):
returned home at midnight from a long day at work
to see a huge white dog hanging around his house
wife and small children, and sometimes was concerned for the
well being of his family because he spent so much
time away. Whenever Wan would see the dog and try
to get close to it, it would shake wander off

(45:12):
a bit, and then disappear. One day, Wan tried following
the dog, and when he got closer to it, he
touched its paw and the big white dog opened its
eyes and began talking. Wan was frightened. The dog said,
I am leaving. You don't need my help anymore. Wan
asked what help, and the dog replied, I was sent

(45:35):
from heaven to protect you and your family, but you
have showed me that you no longer need my protection.
The white dog then just closed his eyes and died,
at which point Jan buried him. To date, no bones
or other physical evidence has come to light to prove
the existence of the Cadejo as a real, living, breathing being.

(45:57):
So investigators of strange creatures you usually dismiss the Cadejo
as just a legend. Legends are based on something, as
is often repeated, so what would explain this phenomenon? Critics
often cite the many instances of the Cadejo being seen
while a person is intoxicated and dismiss the whole idea

(46:18):
of the creature as coming from an impaired mental state.
Combined with stories previously heard by the witness or experiencer,
investigators are still left with the stories previously heard. Where
did those stories come from. It appears as if the
whole Cadejo legend is a blend of the pre Columbian
and the Hispanic European belief systems. The indigenous of the

(46:41):
area believed that people were connected to a spirit animal,
and that the animal was also a protector. In the
White Cadejo, we see this along with the Catholic concept
of the guardian angel. This creature is thus a blend
and serves to bridge two cultures. The black Cadejo counterpart
also may have its pre Spanish origins in the Nagual,

(47:02):
a starling, upright dog like creature present in nearly all
of the Mesoamerican cultures, from the Maya to the Zapotechs
to the Aztecs. The combination of the Nagual with European
Christian devil imagery is very apparent. The malevolent black Cadejo
has hoofs, it smells of sulfur, and may threaten its

(47:23):
victims with images of a very Catholic hell. Like most
stories about the devil coming to earth, the stories surrounding
the Cadejo are cautionary tales. Don't go out and get drunk,
don't stay out too late, don't wander away too far
from home and don't disobey your parents. From this perspective,

(47:44):
the Cadeo is a very interesting study in social control
and serves to keep certain members of the believing population
in line. If you made it this far, welcome to
the Weirdo Family. Please share a link to this episode

(48:05):
in your social media to help spread the word about
the podcast, and if you could, please recommend Weird Darkness
to your friends, family, and co workers who love the paranormal,
horror stories or true crime. Maybe they'll become a Weirdo
Family member too. All stories in Weird Darkness are purported
to be true, and you can find source links or
links to the authors in the show notes. The disappearance

(48:28):
of Charlotte Poulis is from Lost and Found blogs, Plague
Weddings is by Michelle Debzach for Mental Floss, Secrets of
the Pentagram is by Asutherland for Message to Eagle, and
the Cadejo is by Robert Beto from Mexico Unexplained. Weird
Darkness theme by Alabi Music. And now that we're coming

(48:50):
out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little
light Psalm twenty three, verse four. Even though I walk
through the darkest valley, I will fear no ear, for
you are with me. Your rod and your staff. They
comfort me. And a final thought from Paul Bows forgiveness

(49:10):
does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.
I'm Darren Marler. Thanks for joining me in the weird
darkness

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