What Really Happened to the Donner Party: The Horror And The Hauntings

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome Weirdos. I'm Darren Marler and this is Weird Darkness.
Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, loure, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre,
unsolved and unexplained. Coming up. In this episode, Mary Anne

(00:30):
Cotton managed to poison three husbands to death, as well
as killing eleven children before she was finally caught. How
did England's first female serial killer get away with it
for so long? Redditt asked men and women who have
served in the military to share the creepiest things that

(00:51):
happened to them while on duty. After hearing some of
the stories, you might think the word creepy wouldn't be
sufficient enough to describe them. But first, the tragic demise
of the Donner Party has become infamous. But what led
to the failed journey and to the eventual cannibalism some
of the party resorted to in order to survive? We

(01:14):
begin with that story. Now, bult your doors, lock your windows,
turn off your lights, and come with me into the
Weird Darkness. On April sixteenth, eighteen forty six, nine covered

(01:42):
wagons left Springfield, Illinois on the twenty five hundred mile
journey to California, in what would become one of the
greatest tragedies in the history of westward migration. The originator
of this group was a man named James Fraser Reid,
an Illinois business man eager to build a greater fortune
in the rich land of California. Reid also hoped that

(02:05):
his wife, Margaret, who suffered from terrible headaches, might improve
in the coastal climate. Reid had recently read the book
The Emigrants Guide to Oregon and California by Lanceford W. Hastings,
who advertised a new shortcut across the Great Basin. This
new route enticed travelers by advertising that it would save
the pioneers three hundred fifty to four hundred miles on

(02:28):
easy terrain. However, what was not known by Reed was
that the Hastings route had never been tested. Written by Hastings,
who had visions of building an empire at Sutter's Fort
now Sacramento. It was this falsified information that would lead
to the doom of the Donner Party. Red soon found

(02:50):
others seeking adventure and fortune in the vast West, including
the Donner family, Graves Breen's, Murphy's Eddies, McCutcheon's Kessberg's and
the Wolfingers, as well as seven teamsters and a number
of bachelors. The initial group included thirty two men, women
and children. With James and Margaret Red were their four children, Virginia, Patty, James,

(03:15):
and Thomas, as well as Margaret's seventy year old mother,
Sarah Keys, and two hired servants. Though Sarah Keys was
so sick with consumption that she could barely walk, she
was unwilling to be separated from her only daughter. However,
the successful Read was determined his family would not suffer
on the long journey, as his wagon was an extravagant

(03:37):
two story affair with a built in iron stove, spring,
cushioned seats, and bunks for sleeping. Taking eight oxen to
pull the luxurious wagon, Read's twelve year old daughter, Virginia
dubbed it the Pioneer Palace Car. In nine brand new wagons,
the group estimated the trip would take four months to

(03:57):
cross the plains, deserts, mountain us and rivers in their
quest for California. Their first destination was Independence, Missouri, the
main jumping off point for the Oregon and California trails.
Also in the group were the families of George and
Jacob Donner. George Donner was a successful sixty two year
old farmer who had migrated five times before settling in Springfield, Illinois,

(04:21):
along with his brother Jacob. Obviously adventurous, the brothers decided
to make one last trip to California, which unfortunately would
be their last. With George were his third wife, Tamzine,
their three children, Francis, Georgia, and Eliza, and George's two
daughters from a previous marriage, Elitha and Leanna. Jacob Donner

(04:44):
and his wife Elizabeth brought their five children, George, Mary, Isaac, Samuel,
and Lewis, as well as Missus Donner's two children from
a previous marriage, Solomon and William Hook. Also along with
them were two teamsters, Noah James and Samuel Shoemaker, as
well as a friend named John Denton. At the bottom

(05:04):
of Jacob Donner's saddle bag was a copy of Lansford
Hastings Emigrants Guide, with its tantalizing talk of a faster
route to the Garden of the Earth. Ironically, on the
very day that the Illinois party headed west from Springfield,
Lanceford Hastings prepared to head east from California to see
what the shortcut he had written about was really like.

(05:27):
The wagon train reached Independence, Missouri about three weeks later,
where they resupplied. The next day, on May twelfth, eighteen
forty six, they headed west again in the middle of
a thunderstorm. A week later, they joined a large wagon
train captained by Colonel William H. Russell that was camped
on Indian Creek, about one hundred miles west of Independence.

(05:49):
Along the entire journey, others would join the group until
its size numbered eighty seven. On a twenty fifth, the
train was held for several days by high water at
the Big Blue River near present day Marysville, Kansas. It
was here that the train would experience its first death,
when Sarah Keys died and was buried next to the river.

(06:10):
After building ferries to cross the water, the party was
on their way again, following the Platte River for the
next month. Along the way, William Russell resigned as the
captain of the wagon train and the position was assumed
by a man named William M. Boggs. Encountering few problems
along the trail, the pioneers reached Fort Laramie just one

(06:30):
week behind schedule. On June twenty seventh, eighteen forty six,
at Fort Laramie, James Reed ran into an old friend
from Illinois by the name of James Climan, who had
just traveled the new route eastwardly with Lanceford Hastings. Climan
advised Reid not to take the Hastings route, stating that
the road was barely passable on foot and would be

(06:52):
impossible with wagons, also warning him of the Great Desert
and the Sierra Nevadas. Though he strongly suggested that the
party take the regular wagon trail rather than this new
false route. Reid would later ignore his warning in an
attempt to reach their destination more quickly. Joined by other
wagons and Fort Laramie, the Pioneers were met by a

(07:15):
man carrying a letter from Lansford W. Hastings at the
Continental Divide on July eleventh. The letter stated that Hastings
would meet the immigrants at Fort Bridger and lead them
on his cutoff, which passed south of the Great Salt Lake,
instead of detouring northwest via Fort Hall present day Pocatello, Idaho.
The letter successfully allied any fears that the party might

(07:37):
have had regarding the Hastings Cutoff. On July nineteenth, the
wagon train arrived at the Little Sandy River in present
day Wyoming, where the trail parted into two routes, the
northerly known route and the untested Hastings Cutoff. Here the
train split, with the majority of the large caravan taking
the safer route. The group preferred the Hastings route, elected

(08:01):
George Donner as their captain, and soon began the southerly route,
reaching Fort Bridger on July twenty eighth. However, upon their
arrival at Fort Bridger of Lanceford Hastings, there was no sign,
only a note left with other emigrants resting at the fort.
The note indicated that Hastings had left with another group
and that later travelers should follow and catch up. Jim

(08:25):
Bridger and his partner Lewis Vasquez assured the Donner party
that the Hastings cutoff was a good route. Satisfied, the
emigrants rested for a few days at the fort, making
repairs to their wagons and preparing for the rest of
what they thought would be a seven week journey. On
July thirty first, the party left Fort Bridger, joined by

(08:45):
the McCutchen family. The group now numbered seventy four people
in twenty wagons, and for the first week made good
progress at ten to twelve miles per day. On August sixth,
the party reached the Weber River after having passed as
through Echo Canyon. Here they came to a halt when
they found a note from Hastings advising them not to

(09:06):
follow him down Weber Canyon as it was virtually impassable,
but rather to take another trail through the salt Basin.
While the party camped near modern day hennefer Utah, James Reid,
along with two other men, forged ahead on horses to
catch up with Hastings, finding the party at the south
shore of the Great Salt Lake. Hastings a companied read

(09:28):
part way back to point out the new route, which
he said would take them about one week to travel.
In the meantime, the Gravest family caught up with a
Donner party, which now numbered eighty seven people in twenty
three wagons. Taking a vote among the party members, the
group decided to try the new trail rather than backtracking
to Fort Bridger. On August eleventh, the wagon train began

(09:51):
the arduous journey through the Wahsach mountains, clearing trees, and
other obstructions along the new path of their journey. In
the beginning, the wagon train was lucky to make even
two miles per day, taking them six days just to
travel eight miles. Along the way, they discovered that some
of their wagons would have to be abandoned, and before

(10:12):
long morale began to sink, and the pioneers began to
adamantly blame Lanceford Hastings. By the time they reached the shore,
they also blamed James Reed. On August twenty fifth, the
caravan lost another member, one Luke Hallerin, who died of
consumption near present day Grantsville, Utah. About this time, fear

(10:33):
began to set in, as provisions were running low and
time was against them. In the twenty one days since
reaching the Weber River, they had moved just thirty six miles.
Five days later, on August thirtieth, the group began to
cross the Great Salt Lake Desert, believing the trek would
only take two days according to Hastings. However, what they

(10:55):
didn't know was that the desert sand was moist and deep,
where wagons got bogged down, severely slowing their progress on
the third day in the desert, their water supply was
nearly exhausted, and some of Reed's oxen ran away. When
they finally reached the end of the grueling desert five
days later on September fourth, the emigrants rested near the

(11:16):
base of Pilot Peak for several days. On their eight
mile journey through the Salt Lake Desert, they had lost
a total of thirty two oxen. Reed was forced to
abandon two of his wagons, and the Donners, as well
as a man named Louis Kesseberg, lost one wagon each
on the far side of the desert and Inventoria. Food

(11:38):
was taken and found to be less than adequate for
the six hundred mile treks still ahead. Ominously, snow powdered
the mountain peaks that very night. They reached the Humboldt
River on September twenty sixth, Realizing that the difficult journey
through the mountains and the desert had depleted their supplies,
two of the young men traveling with the party, William

(11:59):
McCutchen and Charles Stanton, were sent ahead to Sutter's Fort, California,
to bring back supplies. From September tenth through the twenty fifth,
The party followed the trail into Nevada around the Ruby Mountains,
finally reaching the Humboldt River on September twenty sixth, and
it was here that the new trail met up with
hastings original path, having traveled in extra one hundred twenty

(12:24):
five miles through strenuous mountain terrain and dry desert. The
disillusioned party's resentment of Hastings and ultimately Read was increasing tremendously.
The Donner Party soon reached the junction with the California
Trail about seven miles west of present day Elco, Nevada,
and spent the next two weeks traveling along the Humboldt River.

(12:44):
As the disillusionment of the party increased, tempers began to
flare in the group. On October fifth, at Iron Point,
two wagons became entangled and John Snyder, a teamster of
one of the wagons, began to whip his oxen created
by the teamster's treatment of the oxen. James Reed ordered
the man to stop, and when he wouldn't, Reid grabbed

(13:06):
his knife and stabbed the teamster in the stomach, killing him.
The Donner Party wasted no time in administering their own justice.
Though a member, Lewis Kesberg, favored hanging for James Reed,
the group instead voted to banish him, leaving his family.
Reid was last seen riding off to the west with
a man named Walter Herron. The Doughter party continued to

(13:29):
travel along the Humboldt River with their remaining draft animals,
Exhausted to spare the animals, everyone who could walked. Two
days after the Snyder killing, on October seventh, Lewis Keseberg
turned out a Belgian man named Hardcoop who'd been traveling
with him. The old man, who could not keep up
with the rest of the party with his severely swollen feet,

(13:51):
began to knock on other wagon doors, but no one
would let him in. It was last seen sitting under
a large sagebrush, completely exhausted, unable to walk, worn out,
and left there to die. The terrible ordeals of the
caravan continued to mount when on October twelfth, their oxen

(14:11):
were attacked by Pyute Indians, killing twenty one of them
with poison tipped arrows, further depleting their draft animals. Continuing
to encounter multiple obstacles, on October sixteenth, they reached the
gateway to the Sierra Nevada on the Truckee River present
day Reno, almost completely depleted of food supplies. Miraculously, just

(14:32):
three days later, on October nineteenth, one of the men
the party had sent on to Fort Sutter, Charles Stanton,
returned laden with seven mules loaded with beef and flour,
two Indian guides, and news of a clear but difficult
path through the Sierra Nevada. Stanton's partner, William McCutcheon, had
fallen ill and remained at the fort. The caravan camped

(14:54):
for five days, fifty miles from the summit, resting their
oxen for the final push. This decision to delay their
departure was yet one more of many that would lead
to their tragedy. October twenty eighth, and exhausted, James Reid
arrived at Sutter's Fort, where he met William McCutchen, now recovered,
and the two men began preparations to go back for

(15:16):
their families. In the meantime, while the wagon train continued
to the base of the summit, George Donner's wagon axle
broke and he fell behind the rest of the party.
Twenty two people consisting of the Donner family and their
hired men, stayed behind while the wagon was repaired. Unfortunately,
while cutting timber for a new axle, a chisel slipped

(15:39):
and Donner cut his hand badly, causing the group to
fall further behind. As the rest of the party continued
to what is now known as Donner's Lake, snow began
to fall. Stanton and the two Indians who were traveling
ahead made it as far as the summit, but could
go no further. Hopeless, they retraced their steps, where five

(16:00):
feet of new snow had already fallen. With the Sierra
passed just twelve miles beyond the wagon train. After attempting
to make the pass through the heavy snow, finally retreated
to the eastern end of the lake, where level ground
and timber was abundant. At the lake stood one existing cabin, and,
realizing they were stranded, the group built two more cabins,

(16:22):
sheltering fifty nine people in hopes that the early snow
would melt, allowing them to continue their travels. The twenty
two people with the Donners were about six miles behind
at Alder Creek. Hastily as the snow continued. The party
built three shelters from tents, quilts, buffalo robes, and brush
to protect themselves from the harsh conditions. At Donner Lake,

(16:45):
two more attempts were made to get over the pass
in twenty feet of snow, until they finally realized they
were snowbound for the winter. More small cabins were constructed,
many of which were shared by more than one family.
The weather and their home hopes were not to improve.
Over the next four months, the remaining men, women and

(17:06):
children would huddle together in cabins, makeshift lean tos, and tents. Meanwhile,
Reed and McCutcheon had headed back up into the mountains
attempting to rescue their stranded companions. Two days after they
started out, it began to rain. As the elevation increased,
the rain turned to snow, and twelve miles from the summit,

(17:27):
the pair could go no further. Cashing their provisions in
Bear Valley, they returned to Sutter's Fort, hoping to recruit
more men and supplies for the rescue. However, the Mexican
War had drawn away the able bodied men, forcing any
further rescue attempts to wait. Not knowing how many cattle
the emigrants had lost. The men believed the party would

(17:48):
have enough meat to last them several months. On Thanksgiving,
it began to snow again, and the pioneers at Donner
Lake killed the last of their oxen for food on
November twenty ninth. The very next day, five more feet
of snow fell, and they knew that any plans for
a departure were dashed. Many of their animals, including Sutter's mules,

(18:12):
had wandered off into the storms, and their bodies were
lost under the snow. A few days later, their last
few cattle were slaughtered for food, and the party began
eating boiled hides, twigs, bones, and bark. Some of the
men tried to hunt, with little success. On December fifteenth,
Ballast Williams died of malnutrition, and the group realized that

(18:35):
something had to be done before they all died. The
next day, five men, nine women, and one child departed
on snow shoes for the summit, determined to travel the
one hundred miles to Sutter's fort. However, with only meager
rations and already weak from hunger, the group faced a
challenging ordeal. On the sixth day, their food ran out

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and for the next three days no one ate while
they traveled through grueling high winds and freezing weather. One
member of the party, Charles Stanton, snow blind and exhausted,
was unable to keep up with the rest of the
party and told them to go on. He never rejoined
the group. A few days later, the party was caught
in a blizzard and had great difficulty getting and keeping

(19:21):
a fire lit. Antonio Patrick Dolan, Franklin Graves, and Lemuel
Murphy soon died, and in desperation, the others resorted to cannibalism,
living off the bodies of those that died along the
path to Sutter's Fort. The snowshoeing survivors were reduced to
seven by the time they reached safety on the western

(19:42):
side of the mountains on January nineteenth, eighteen forty seven.
Only two of the ten men survived, including William Eddy
and William Foster, but all five women lived through the journey.
Of the eight dead, seven had been cannibalized immediately. Messages
were dispatched to neighboring settlements as area residents rallied to

(20:05):
save the rest of the Donner party. On February fifth,
the first relief party of seven men left Johnson's Ranch,
and the second, headed by James Reid, left two days later.
On February nineteenth, the first party reached the lake, finding
what appeared to be a deserted camp until the ghostly
figure of a woman appeared. Twelve of the immigrants were dead,

(20:28):
and of the forty eight remaining, many had gone crazy
or were barely clinging to life. However, the nightmare was
by no means over. Not everyone could be taken out
at one time, and since no pack animals could be
brought in, few food supplies were brought in. The first
relief party soon left with twenty three refugees, but during

(20:49):
the party's travels back to Sutter's Fort, two more children died.
En route down the mountains, The first relief party met
the second relief party coming the opposite way, and the
Reed family was reunited after five months. On March first,
the second relief party finally arrived at the lake, finding
grisly evidence of cannibalism. The next day they arrived at

(21:13):
Alder Creek to find that the Donners had also resorted
to cannibalism. On March third, Reed left the camp with
seventeen of the starving emigrants, but just two days later
there caught in another blizzard. When it cleared, Isaac Donner
had died and most of the refugees were too weak
to travel. Reed and another rescuer, Hiram Miller, took three

(21:35):
of the refugees with them, hoping to find food that
they had stored on the way up. The rest of
the pioneers stayed at what would become known as Starved Camp.
On March twelfth, the third relief, led by William Eddy
and William Foster, reached Starved Camp, where Missus Graves and
her son Franklin had also died. The three bodies, including

(21:57):
that of Isaac Donner, had been cannibalized. The next day,
they arrived at the Lake camp to find that both
of their sons had died. On March fourteenth, they arrived
at the Alder Creek camp to find George Donner was
dying from an infection in the hand that he had
injured months before. His wife, Tamzine, though in comparatively good health,
refused to leave him, sending her three little girls on

(22:20):
without her. The relief party soon departed with four more
members of the party, leaving those who were too weak
to travel. Two rescuers, Jean Baptiste Trudeau and Nicholas Clark,
were left behind to care for the Donners, but soon
abandoned them to catch up with the relief party. A
fourth rescue party was sent out in late March, but

(22:43):
were soon stranded in a blinding snowstorm for several days.
On April seventeenth, the relief party reached the camps to
find only Lewis Keseberg alive among the mutilated remains of
his former companions. Kesseberg was the last member of the
Donner Party to arrive at Sutter's Fort on April twenty ninth.
It took two months and four relief parties to rescue

(23:05):
the entire surviving Donner Party. In the Donner Party tragedy,
two thirds of the men in the party perished, while
two thirds of the women and children lived. Forty one
individuals died at forty six survived in the end, five
had died before reaching the mountains, thirty five perished either

(23:27):
at the mountain camps or trying to cross the mountains,
and one died just after reaching the valley. Many of
those who survived lost toes to frostbite. The story of
the Donner tragedy quickly spread across the country. Newspapers printed
letters and diaries accusing the travelers of bad conduct, cannibalism,

(23:48):
and even murder. The surviving members had differing viewpoints, biases,
and recollections, so what actually happened was never extremely clear.
Aimed the power hungry Landsford W. Hastings for the tragedy,
while others blamed James Reed for not heating Climen's warning
about the deadly route. After the publicity, emigration to California

(24:12):
fell off sharply, and Hastings cutoff was all but abandoned. Then,
in January eighteen forty eight, gold was discovered at John
Sutter's Mill and Colomba, and gold hungry travelers began to
rush out west once again. By late eighteen forty nine,
more than one hundred thousand people had come to California

(24:32):
in search of gold near the streams and canyons where
the Donner Party had suffered. Donner Lake, named for the party,
is today a popular mountain resort near Trucky, California, and
the Donner Camp has been designated as a National Historic Landmark.
If you're fortunate, you may be one of thousands of
visitors who visit Donner Memorial State Park in Truckee to

(24:55):
actually feel the presence of Tamsen Donner of the ill
fated Donner Party, or should we say unfortunate. The trials
that she and the eighty seven men, women, and children
of that expedition endured are ghastly and unimaginable. The traumatic
suffering endured both by those who died and those who survived,

(25:15):
was so great, says Barbara Smith, author of Ghost Stories
of California, that resonances from their experiences can still be
felt in and around the area where the group wintered.
Smith writes of one woman's creepy experience in the spring
of nineteen eighty eight. The woman only identified as Elizabeth
in order to preserve her privacy, started feeling sensations while

(25:37):
driving toward Donner's Summit, excited as if she was going
to be seeing dear friends whom she hadn't seen in years.
She was confused by this feeling, as she was a
practical sort a history buff and she didn't have any
friends she was meeting. The closer she got to the
Donner Memorial Park, the more intense the sensations got include odoors,

(26:01):
what the campsite and the pioneers smelled like, and tears
that sprang unbidden for their horrible plight. Once at the park,
Elizabeth had overpowering feelings of being watched, not being alone,
even though no one else was in the park at
that time. But these feelings only occurred at the site
where it was thought that George Donner and his wife

(26:23):
Tamsen had their tent one hundred and fifty two years earlier.
Could the presence Elizabeth felt be the ghost of this woman?
By all accounts, Missus Donner was an intelligent, resourceful person
who first sent her children ahead to find their way
to civilization, then left herself only after her husband died,

(26:44):
the last member of the Donner party to leave the place.
No one knows, but there have been others who have
had odd experiences regarding this point and time and history.
A woman identified as Joan Williams was hypnotically regressed to
a past life by paranormal researcher doctor Michael Newton in
the early nineteen nineties, only to have Donner Party survivor

(27:06):
Paddy Red come through. She said she was eight years old,
cold and in the mountains further, she said she'd been
carried out of the camp by a Frenchman. When asked
what was most responsible for the tragedy, her answer was Hastings.
Newton discovered that the lady he regressed had no knowledge
of the Donner Party in her waking state. Patti Reid

(27:29):
had died in nineteen twenty three at the ripe old
age of eighty five. While not a ghostly presence in
the normal sense of the word, the essence of her
seemed to live on reincarnation, maybe in Joan Williams. Then
there's the story of a skier who got seriously disoriented
while skiing alone at Sugar Bowl Ski Resort, close to

(27:50):
where the Donner Party had their last camp. After a
day of wandering about looking for help, he claims a
woman skier appeared led him to a camp of people
who asked him to do some work for the next
day for them alone. When he went back to camp
later that day, the camp wasn't there. There weren't even
any signs that it had been there. Everything and everybody

(28:14):
had disappeared. Creepy, for sure, but at least not threatening.
When we'd darkness returns, Reddit asked men and women who'd

(28:34):
served in the military to share the creepiest things that
happened to them while on duty. After hearing some of
the stories, you might think the word creepy wouldn't be
sufficient enough to describe them. Serving in the military is

(29:10):
probably scary enough, knowing that you are literally signing away
your own life to defend the lives of others if needed.
But the scares aren't confined to the battlefield. Redditors who
have had military experience were asked about the creepiest things
they've seen while on duty. Here are some of the
spookiest answers that were given. Redditor Lightbulb wrote, US Navy photographer. Here,

(29:37):
in the deepest parts of the ocean, you'll often steam
past small boats that are empty or seemingly empty. Sometimes
they look like they got loose and no one looked
for them. Sometimes they look disgusting, like someone lived in
them until they couldn't. Sometimes it's obvious someone is still
in them, but they haven't moved for weeks. Rainbow Grim wrote,

(30:02):
as a marine, I used to have the graveyard patrol
shift at the Beirut Bombing Memorial. Part of the memorial
is dedicated to a veterans cemetery, Ali left. I never
got freaked out being completely alone in a remote cemetery
in the middle of the night, surrounded by dense woods
on all sides. It was actually kind of peaceful, to
be honest. However, one night I was patrolling near the

(30:25):
perimeter fence where some of the oldest headstones are, when
I heard the sound of a woman humming. I followed
the sound and noticed a light glowing through the vines
and brush of a large tree. As I approached, I
could literally feel my hair beginning to lift, as if
there was an electric current in the air. I pushed
aside the brush, and what I saw nearly took my

(30:48):
breath away. It was an old, weathered headstone with a
large cross etched into the marble. Only the cross was
glowing a bright, vivid blue, like a neon bar. The
humming was also suddenly much louder and had a weird
plurality to it, like it was coming from hundreds of

(31:08):
voices at once. Needless to say, I freaked out. I
screamed like a scared little girl and sprinted back to
the parking lot. I radioed the guard who was supposed
to relieve me, and forced him to come early, then
spent the rest of my shift in the cab of
his truck. I don't think he believed me, but he
stayed in his truck and didn't go out on patrol

(31:28):
until the sun was fully up. A few days later,
I worked up the nerve to return to the grave
during the day. Of course, as I suspected, in the
light of day, it was a completely mundane headstone. There
was no name, only the aforementioned cross. I ran my
hands over the stone and checked to see if maybe

(31:49):
there was some sort of a hidden light source or
solar panel, but no, it was just plain, solid, unremarkable stone.
The humming was gone too. I eventually returned to my
normal shift, but I find myself thinking about it from
time to time. It certainly sounds absurd when I say

(32:09):
it out loud, and I suppose it could have been
a hallucination or a trick of my tired brain, but
I don't believe it was. I think it was real,
a ghost or spirit of some sort, but I don't
think it was malevolent at all. Redditor Boss Avery said
we wrote it off as some of the instructors messing

(32:29):
with us, but while training at JWTC, there was a
blood curdling scream in the middle of the night. Definitely
sounded like a woman. The lieutenant in charge made us
do a quick accountability check, then he started radioing the
training center to see what had happened. The instructors went
out from their compound did some checks but didn't find anything.

(32:49):
They said, it's not the first time they had units
out there calling in to report the same thing. This
one was posted by redditor I'm am a. I was
on one rooftop on post with another marine and on
the building next to mine was a dude's smoking a cigarette.
I looked at my partner to mention it, but when

(33:10):
we looked again, he was gone. The roof access door
for that building was very rusty and loud, so there's
no way he snuck out in those few seconds it
took to get my partner's attention from redditor Blackjack three
five seven. Not my story, so I'll tell it as
best I can. This happened during a rotation at the

(33:30):
National Training Center sometime in twenty fifteen. A battle was
occurring at night. A light appeared in the sky and
for ten minutes or so there was silence. This be
not seem too interesting until you look at the numbers
and statistics. You're looking at massive amounts of people and
equipment during a rotation, constant radio chatter, vehicle noise, people talking,

(33:51):
et cetera, and suddenly just nothing. Then the light seemed
to make a couple of strange turns, one being around
ninety degrees and split and disappear. From Evan four six six.
There were multiple instances of North Vietnamese soldiers just walking
straight up to US forces in the middle of combat.

(34:14):
They look at them, and they wouldn't even raise their
weapons or unsling it. They just start laughing at the
US soldiers. Then the US guys would shoot them. I'm
sure there's a reasonable explanation of why this happened, but
it's pretty creepy that the enemy might just walk up
to you and just start laughing in your face, seemingly

(34:34):
not caring whether you shoot them or not. From redator is, Sir,
I was by myself in the engine room of a
submarine on the Midwatch, just a newly reported sailor, trying
to find equipment so I could display knowledge to one
of the watch standards. There are a number of bays
in engine room lower level with narrow passages that pass

(34:56):
through the center. I came down one of the ladders
and I swore I saw someone walk across the ship
about fifteen feet in front of me. I could hear
his footsteps as he walked around a corner and out
of sight. Three problems. One he was wearing utilities, an
older light blue blouse and dark navy slacks. Nobody had

(35:17):
utilities anymore, it had been phased out three years earlier.
Two there was only one other person awake in the
engine room that late at night, and he was standing
at the top of the ladder behind me, waiting for
me to come back up with an answer to his question. Three,
he wasn't actually there. I wrote it off as sleep deprivation,

(35:37):
but I'll admit it shook me for a while. Fast
forward to four months later, I gone out to see
with another submarine of the same type. While I was there,
I met a sailor who had previously served on my ship.
After a few weeks of standing watch with him, he
told me a story of a sailor who had committed
suicide while on watch when he served on my ship

(35:58):
almost a decade earlier. An engine room lower level in
his utilities. I wish I could have gotten a picture
of the look on my face. I'm sure it was
the definition of disbelief. From Reddator tofu delivery boy. A
friend of mine went to Afghanistan and got stationed in

(36:20):
an area that was used as a base by the Soviets.
He swears that sometimes when he was on sentry duty,
he could hear whispers that didn't sound like English or
the local languages. He's convinced he heard Russian from Reddator
snow Goose. One time at an Air Force base in
the Rok, we had a power outage at night. All

(36:43):
of us walked out of our hanger doors to take
a sea what the problem may have been, and saw
a very very large triangular shape passing over our hangar.
It was a clear, moonless night previously, and when we
went outside to look around, we noticed the starscape being covered.
Then slow uncovered no sound associated with the event other

(37:04):
than normal sounds of the location. I'll never forget. This
one comes from redditor Creepy Reddit loner. This is my
dad's story. After he was done in Vietnam, he was
soon stationed at an Air Force base in Greenland. They
had blizzards often there, and when they came through, the

(37:25):
base shut down and every section of the barracks would
take roll call. These blizzards are intense. There were cables
running between all the buildings that you attached to your person,
so if there was a sudden white out, you didn't
get lost and die. They had people die literally twenty
meters from shelter because they got lost in bad weather

(37:45):
and froze. He said. For about five months, every time
they locked down for weather, they'd hear horrendous screaming outside.
Everyone was accounted for, so they didn't risk sending anyone
out to investigate. They wrote it off as as an animal. However,
every time this was heard, the engine room would be wrecked,

(38:05):
tools everywhere, paperwork all over the floor, tables and toolboxes
knocked over. Even one time a several thousand pounds jet
engine had been lifted from its workbench crane thing and
smashed almost thirty feet away. The hangars and engine room
had cameras covering every single possible entrance with spotlights that
made them clear even in a white out. No animals,

(38:29):
no people know anything was ever seen entering or leaving
those buildings. Then one day it just stopped. Okay, since
I have a lot of debate on what could have
caused this, I'll clear some stuff up. This was not
something they just shrugged at. It cost a lot of
money and through a wrench in at least one surveillance
routine which caused a lot of brass from the DoD

(38:50):
and the CIA to breathe fire down the base commander's neck.
This facility, beyond military function, served as a base for
a lot of civilian research as well. There was a
full investigation using all manner of scientists, engineers, and specialists.
They came up with no satisfactory explanation for what was happening.
I don't believe in the paranormal, nor did my father.

(39:14):
This is the only spooky type story he had from
twenty two years in the service. No one knows what happened.
It was very strange in every way. Hundreds of people
wrote reports and documented this. It wasn't just some grease
monkeys scratching their heads and randomly guessing that said. I
spoke to my mom. She told me a couple of
things I missed when originally posting this story. After one

(39:36):
of these occasions, the U two in the shop had
all its electronics turned on. Many of the systems in
this plane were special built for this airframe and this
particular cruise mission. These systems were complex and archaic. Very
few people knew how to operate this machinery, and the
only ones on base that could were two engineers and
its crew. It wasn't a simple matter of hitting power

(39:59):
buttons and flipping switches from off to on. Another time,
three barrels of hydraulic fluid vanished and were never found.
They doubted the screaming noise was wind because it came
in short, irregular bursts, and winds never produced those sounds. Again,
they theorized it was a polar bear, but if it was,

(40:19):
its coincidental timing was extremely uncanny. Lastly, control picked up
a bunch of weird interference and anomalous readings that again
had the uncanny timing of happening only when this was
going on. They were never able to reproduce those errors
in a controlled manner. From Retator P. H. Damon used

(40:43):
to be F twenty two avionics for the USAF No
shred At an undisclosed base. A light appeared above the
flight line, moving in odd ways and hovering. We called
it into our number one and he called other amus
to ensure that there were no sorties being flown that
we didn't know about. Shortly after, F twenty two's and
sixteens were scrambled and could not intercept the object. It

(41:05):
disappeared into the night. We saw this go down from
our flight line. Shortly after we were informed that this
never happened. From Redator Compact twenty five ninety eight Navy.
When I was in Groton, Connecticut for a basic enlisted
submarine school, I was roving the barracks at night. I

(41:26):
had a UI under construction, so I was showing him
the ropes, what to check and how to check. It
was mainly fire extinguishers and secured doors. Well, on the
second or third floor of the barracks there was a
recreation room with a TV, in chairs and a piano.
Mind you, everyone was asleep and it was two hundred
in the morning. Well, I decided to go and see

(41:47):
if I remembered how to play the piano a little.
We decided to continue to finish the patrol, so we
started walking down the hall when we heard a single
piano note go off. We both heard it while I
was in mid conversation, so we kind of looked back,
and then we both looked at each other to see
if we both had heard the same noise. We shrugged
it off as our imaginations running wild. But as soon

(42:09):
as we got to the end of the hall and
opened the door to the stairway, a sharp keynote was
heard coming from down the hall in the direction of
the room at the piano. We left the floor as
soon as possible, and later shared the story with some shipmates,
and they told us stories of sailors that had died
in the barracks. This one comes from Driftwolf sub Mariner.

(42:33):
Here there are a few things as unnerving as wandering
about the engine room from twenty three thirty to five
thirty alone on watch. When the boat is largely shut
down in port, it becomes a very quiet place. The
roving watches usually make it an hourly game to speed
through their log rounds, especially in the lower levels. One

(42:53):
particular in port period, the boat was moored at Pearl
Harbor and a few people started complaining about a real
unease feeling. I was on the midwatch as the SEO
on evening, and a senior chief came back to do
as required. Three hundred tour we saw him walk past
maneuvering on his way to shaft Alley. This particular senior
chief was the crusty old salt type and would usually

(43:15):
spend a bit of time just sitting in the lower
levels of the engine room alone and contemplate life, so
we expected as much. What we didn't expect was him
to literally run into the maneuvering area. A few minutes later,
the man was peel faced and breathing heavily. We sat
up straight, our eyes as wide as his, thinking we
were about to have to announce and fight some ship casualty.

(43:38):
He slumped into the edo chair. A few tents and
silent moments go by. We're on pins and needles. He
finally opens his mouth and tells us about the effing
ghost in shaft Alley. Swears a sailor passes by him
as he's sitting on a trash can in shaft Alley.
His first response was to call out to the guy,

(43:58):
see who it was, but then he realized this guy's
not dressed right. He describes what the guy's wearing the
old World War II naval uniforms, so he quickly gets
up to catch up to the guy, and he does,
catches up to him all the way aft. The guy
turns toward the senior Chief, looks right at him, then
turns away and literally walks through the ass end of

(44:20):
the boat. It's now that the senior Chief decides it's
time to leave shaft alley and promptly does so, swears
up and down that he knows what he saw. I
share as hell, wasn't about to leave maneuvering that night
to find out for myself. This one comes from Redator
de Swoozy. What am I drill? Sergeants actually has a

(44:42):
creepy story from one of his Afghanistan deployments. He was infantry,
so being in the field and off on missions for
multiple weeks wasn't uncommon. One night, while sleeping in a
fighting position, he dug he felt something nibbling at his feet.
He woke up and kicked it off, and what he
saw wasn't any type of marsupial, but a little humanoid

(45:02):
figure that he could only describe as looking just like Gollum.
But being in the field with little sleep, he chalked
it up to just see things. A couple days later,
he and another guy on watch, and the other guy
pointed out something and said, what the heck is that
and pointed at a stone wall in the distance. My
drill sergeant looked through his binoculars and crawling across the

(45:23):
top of this stone wall was the exact little humanoid
creature he encountered a few nights before. From reditor Chris
Berman four ten. I worked in Arlington National Cemetery while
I was in the Army. The tomb guards always talked
about seeing or just hearing soldiers marching. Some nights. We

(45:43):
were cataloging graves one night when I thought I saw
a soldier in my team up ahead, so I called
him over. He answered from behind me. When I looked back,
the other soldier was gone. I'm a skeptic, and I
believe everything paranormal has a real world explanation. But I'm
still trying to figure this one out. And a story

(46:07):
from Reddator Dirpslot nineteen eighty four. Saw a ghost and
some creepy stuff happen when we were removing the old
fresnel lens from the Presque Isle Light in Michigan. Also
some weird creepy lights and Saint Elmo's fire near the
Wagashant's light. Compasses and radios all quit. Radar and GPS
wouldn't work either. The light near Sturgeon Bay is haunted

(46:30):
as well, and we stayed at the light near two
Rivers and the whole family saw the ghost. There are
several lights in the Great Lakes that are open to
active reserve and retired military members as vacation rentals. We
stayed at Raleigh Point Lighthouse and the Sherwood Point Lighthouse.
They have visitors' logs that are like a diary and
multiple stories are in there about the hauntings dating back

(46:51):
to the seventies. I know that Sherwood Point is haunted.
Coming up, Mary Anne Cotton managed to poison three husbands
to death, as well as killing eleven children before she

(47:16):
was finally caught. How did England's first female serial killer
get away with it for so long? That story when
Weird Darkness returns. Mary Anne Cotton didn't go easily. When

(47:50):
the hangman opened the trap door beneath her feet, the
fall was not enough to break her neck. The executioner
had to push down on her shoulders to hasten her death.
Despite her rather gruesome death, there was little public sympathy
for mary Anne Cotton when she was hanged in eighteen
seventy three. She was executed for the murder of her
step son, but it is likely she killed at least

(48:13):
twenty one people, including eleven of her thirteen children, three
of her four husbands, and her mother. She is known
as England's first female serial killer. Like many female killers
going back to ancient times, her method was poison arsenic.

(48:34):
Arsenic was easy to obtain in the nineteenth century and
even easier to administer in food. Victims are likely to
experience vomiting and stomach pain, along with other easily identifiable
signs of the poisoning before their death. It's still unclear
just how Cotton managed to kill so many people over
so many years before she was caught. Working class women

(48:56):
in the eighteen hundreds did not have easy lives, and
mary Anne's was no exception. She had to go to
work early as a nurse and a dressmaker. After the
death of her father in a mining accident in eighteen
fifty two, when she was twenty years old, she married
her first husband, William Mowbray, a minor like her father.
The couple left the area, moving to Southwest England. Although

(49:19):
reports at her trial included four or five children born
to the couple during this time dying young, there's only
one birth recorded. Their daughter, Margaret Jane, was born in
eighteen fifty six and died in eighteen sixty. When mary
Anne and Mowbray moved back to Northeast England, they had
two more daughters and two sons. Only one of them, Isabella,

(49:43):
survived past the age of four. In eighteen sixty five,
Mowbray died, supposedly of an intestinal disorder. After his death,
mary Anne collected insurance for both his death and that
of one of their sons, totaling about three hundred seventy
five pounds. This would have been the equivalent of about
six months wages at the time. Shortly after Mowbray's death,

(50:05):
Mary Anne married husband number two, George Ward. The pair
were married in August eighteen sixty five. After a long illness,
Ward died just over a year later in October of
eighteen sixty six. He too showed signs of intestinal problems.
Mary Anne collected an assurance payout for Ward as well.

(50:26):
Husband number three, James Robinson, was the only husband to
survive his marriage to mary Anne. She entered Robinson's home
as a housekeeper. When Robinson's child died of a gastric illness,
he turned to his housekeeper for comfort. Mary Anne was
soon pregnant and they were married. It was at this
time that mary Anne's mother also died. The official cause

(50:48):
was hepatitis, but nine days after mary Anne arrived to
take care of her, she started developing stomach pains and died.
The sole remaining child from mary Anne's first marriage, Isabella,
died only weeks later, along with two of Robinson's children
from his first marriage. All three developed in tense stomach
pains before their death. Isabella's death left mary Anne five

(51:11):
pounds of insurance money. Soon mary Anne had given birth
to two children with Robinson. The first, Margaret Isabella, died
in only four months. The second, George, was born in
eighteen sixty nine. As the death toll grew around mary Anne,
Robinson became suspicious of his wife's demand that he take
out insurance on his life. He also discovered that she

(51:33):
had run up debts with local merchants and stolen fifty pounds.
He threw her out of the house. Luckily, their son, George,
stayed with his father. Unlike most of his brothers and sisters,
he survived. Mary Anne's sudden change in circumstances left her
living on the streets. In spite of her history, she

(51:54):
managed to find a fourth husband, Frederick Cotton. Frederick was
the brother of mary Anne's friend Margaret Cotton. When Margaret
died of mysterious stomach elements, mary Anne was there to
console her brother. That led to mary Anne's fourth marriage.
But Frederick soon followed his sister, dying of gastric fever,
but not before mary Anne was enabled to enact an

(52:16):
insurance policy on his life. With no husband, Mary took
a lover who also died. Mary Anne Cotton's killing career
lasted twenty years. So how did she finally get caught.
It was the murder of Cotton's son, Charles Edward that
was mary Anne's final undoing. She'd complained to friends that

(52:37):
he was in the way and wondered how to be
rid of him. Unable to commit the boy to a workhouse,
she used her usual method to kill the boy. Mary
Anne then, as usual, went to the insurance office to
try to collect, but by now people were suspicious this
death was investigated, Arsenic was found in Charles Edward's system.

(52:58):
Mary Anne was quickly sent a trial for the murders
of her husbands and children and convicted. Only two of
mary Anne's children had managed to survive, George who stayed
with James Robinson, and Margaret Edith born while mary Anne
was in prison awaiting execution. As mary Anne's long murderous
past was finally brought to light, she went to the

(53:19):
gallows and end the history. Thanks for listening. If you're
listening to Weird Darkness on the radio or on a
streaming station, be sure to look for the Weird Darkness
podcast too. I upload episodes seven days a week, and

(53:42):
be sure to subscribe if you haven't already done so.
I'd also appreciate you leaving a review of the show
in the podcast app you listen from. And if you're
already a weird oot, please take a moment today and
share Weird Darkness with somebody you know who loves paranormal
or strange stories, true crime, monsters, or mysteries like you to.
All stories in Weird Darkness are purported to be true

(54:04):
unless stated otherwise, and you can find source links or
links to the authors in the show notes, The tragic
story of the Donner Party is from Legends of America
and Pam Jong from The Union. Mary Anne Cotton, England's
first female serial killer, is from the Lineup, and Creepy
Things that Have Happened to Military Personnel is by Emily
Madriga for Thought Catalog. And now that we're coming out

(54:27):
of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light
Matthew seven verses seven and eight. Ask and it will
be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock
and the door will be opened to you. For everyone
who asks receives, he who seeks finds, and to him
who knocks, the door will be opened. And a final thought,

(54:48):
there is a lot that is good in your life.
Don't take it for granted. Don't get so focused on
the struggles that you miss the gift of today. I'm
Darren Marler. Thanks for joining me in the weird darkness.

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