October 24, 2025 • 49 mins
Way back when King James II was attempting to bring his bride to England, her voyage hit some bad weather. So he blamed witches. Angie shares the North Berwick Witch Trials and how the king later regrets them. Theresa takes things down a dark path as she wades into some true crime, telling the story of the Lady of Crescent Lake. Come for the terrible relationship where the wife goes missing. Stay for the part where the lake relinquishes her body years later, after it had turned to soap.
This episode pairs well with: The last witch burned in Ireland The Haunted Queen Mary
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:08):
Hi, and welcome to the Unhanished HistoryPodcast. The podcast were two compulsive net
jobs. Joint forces became friends and startedword vomiting history stories upon the other one.
And the other one stands there and takes it. Andthen we switch spaces and allow the other one to
(00:30):
vomit upon ourselves. God, we're glad in forpunishment. Look, I'll deal with what I have to
deal with just to be able to get this story out. Imean, honestly, yes, sir, if I've got to listen to
Terere again, I suppose. I mean, it is spookyseason and I did find something. You're welcome to
(00:56):
be at the plasm and I'm sorry in advance. No, notectoplasm. But we shouldn't really worry about
what my story is because you go first. And you wantto tell people our names. Oh, I'm Teresa and that.
I'm Angie. Welcome. Nearly 150 episodes and we'vegotten this in. We figured this part out. We know
(01:23):
how to say our names most of the time withoutinterrupting the other. Right. We've done it.
We've peaked y'all. Well, OK, you know, there's noway to start my story off. So I'm just going to I'm
just going to go if you're ready. I mean, that'sthat's why I was like, you should go first and we
(01:46):
should quit talking about what substance my storymay or may not have because. Oh, yeah, OK, it's
going to be 30 minutes till we get there. So thiswill be a great callback, but we have to abandon
ship to get there. Let's go. My sources are three 60on history. It's an article by Sayima Bayes, March
5th of 2025. Agnes Samson, the first victim of thewitch trials. This is not actually a source that I
(02:14):
used, but a source that I found reallyinteresting. So I thought other people might be
interested in as well. The National Archives ofScotland has a witches confession that is
beautiful. Like the writing is beautiful. Thewords are not news from Scotland. Bell, the N.E
.W.E .S. is the earliest tract on Scottishwitchcraft. It's written around 1591 and is
(02:38):
provided by the University of Glasgow. It'spretty sick and cool to see, but also again, words
are pretty. The font is pretty. The words are not.There is a mental floss article by Bridget Katz
from October of 22 called Agnes Samson, the quote,witch who confessed the plotting against King
(02:59):
James VI. Historic Royal Palaces, which is one ofmy favorite sources, has a write up on James in Anne
of Denmark. There is a BDC bite size called CaseStudy, James VI in the North Burwick Witch Hunt.
And a historic UK.com North Burwick Witch Trial.So if you can tell, I'm talking about American
(03:24):
history here. Yeah, sure. I brought it. OK. Sothere's a little backstory here. Last week, I
finished a book called The First Witch of Boston byAndrea Catalino, I believe is how you pronounce
her name. And this looks about a woman calledMargaret Jones. She was the first woman executed
for witchcraft in Boston, or rather, this is theMassachusetts Bay Colony in 1648. So I was
(03:50):
originally thinking that I was going to do my storyon her. But then I realized I would actually be
really sad if you beat me to my current topic. So Idecided I might do her later. But in the meantime, I
really want to do the story. So what you just did wasmention her name and said dibs and then went
through the other story. Yeah, pretty much. Oh,OK. I'm just I'm just calling out your bullshit.
(04:11):
But here's the thing. Even if I tried to do herstory, there's not a ton of evidence about it. So it
would be like a five minute story. So there's that.So then I remembered this other topic like I was
like, oh, yeah, I completely forgot that that'sthat's an option. So I decided to do a little
research when it hit me that James the sixth or thefirst, depending on which country you're
(04:35):
standing in, has this really interesting story.So I started to poke around and was reminded of the
North Burwick Witch Trials of 1590 and 91. Sothat's something I'm going to give you. And you
will recognize some names, I promise. So. KingJames, I swear he's relevant to this story. I'd say
I recognize that name. So so far, we're off to astart. We're doing great. OK. So he is the son of
(05:01):
Mary, Queen of Scots, right? But he basicallybecomes King in 1567 when she's forced to abdicate
and he's just over a year old. We're going to fastforward a little bit. It's 1589 and he needs to
marry like a woman, you know, I like how youclarify. Like obviously it's not a chicken. Yeah,
well, because he had a soft spot for the fancy boys.So but like legacy, you need to continue the line
(05:28):
and all that. So we've got a married woman. So enterin of Denmark, Denmark. James and Anne get married
by proxy in August of 1589. Anne sets sail forScotland in September. Not once, not twice, but at
least three times. And she is stopped by badweather each time. So she finally gets going and
(05:51):
then her entourage, like her fleet of ships,endures the biggest storm in known memory. So
she's basically sort of marooned in Norway for alittle bit. Like these ships aren't going
anywhere because of how blasting this storm is.Now, James, on the other hand, he is staying at this
gorgeous private castle called Seaton Palace andit has these beautiful, clear views of the Leith
(06:16):
Harbor. Now, this is the harbor that Anne issupposed to disembark from her, from her fleet.
But these storms, they've, they've obviouslycaused major problems, right? And it is her
getting there is taking substantially longerthan the original plan voyage. And what I can only
describe as an absolutely romantic gesture,James and 300 of his besties set sail to retrieve
(06:42):
her himself. Because if she can't make it to us,maybe the storms won't stop us. It's like, you
know, when you're traveling on the highway,obviously northbound's a little rocky, but maybe
if. Right? Yeah, I think that's got to be what he'sthinking. So they also experience like the worst
(07:02):
storm ever. And their fleet is battered the helland back. Oh, shocker. So, I know, right? So they,
they eventually, like they eventually gettogether, like they're finally in the same place
at the same time. And in the midst of, of what'sgoing on, um, James and Anna, they, they have what
(07:25):
you would consider their honeymoon. They travel abit of Norway. Um, they make it back to Scotland.
And in the meantime, Denmark is dealing with thislegacy of witches who can command the weather,
like the weather itself is beholden to thesewomen. Like apparently this has been a long
standing belief amongst Danish people that thereare witches that can control the storm. So there's
(07:52):
a Danish minister of finance. He is a man calledChristopher Valkendorf. At the same time as like
these, these thoughts are swirling about Danish,which is he's accused of under-equipping the
ships for the storm. So he's got that. And that'snot looking great. He's accused of
under-equipping these ships and like veryunprepared for the storm. And so he's a little bit
(08:16):
shaky on things. And then sort of points the fingera little bit at the Danish admiral, a man called
Peter Monk, which I'm going to be honest, is like aterrible name for an admiral. In my opinion. And so
wait a minute, you would look at him and be like, youcan't be admiral. Your name sucks. You need a
better name. Doesn't sound like you don't soundlike an admiral at all. That's just, that's just
(08:38):
me. That's just me. But it is a funny dude with twofirst names. I mean, I did marry. I have three first
names when you think about it. And you gave yourkids multiple first names as well. Yeah. What was I
supposed to do? First one is Campbell. Second oneis Anderson. Okay, you're right. I blew it. I'm
(09:00):
sorry. Anyway, but also my husband's not trying tobe a Danish admiral here. So we got that going for
me. Now these two guys are both sort of, um, oh, Ishould state, I should, I should back up a little
bit and say the Danish admiral, Mr. Monk, he'saccused of not actually really knowing how to do
(09:20):
his job, like in the simplest terms. And so the twoof them are sort of looking at each other when it
hits them. Oh, we could just blame the witches. Um,so they do. I mean, I like the good old days. Right.
They collectively blame this group of women inCopenhagen of casting spells to raise the bad
(09:41):
weather because why not? Right. Now, according tohistorian, Gareth Russell, who has this amazing
book coming out in the US called Queen James. Thereis also this belief that witches can like fast
travel. So the storm basically follows them hometo Scotland. Cause of course it does. What I find to
(10:03):
be really funny about this belief is that ifwitchcraft in the way that they're saying is
possible is real and these women are in factwitches and they can fast travel. Why are they
being captured? Because they didn't know thatthis was cut. They didn't know they were getting,
(10:23):
they were getting caught. Clearly. So there's aninvestigation and it's called form Denmark and
people are tortured and they're, they're keptunder these awful conditions and a woman called
Anna Coldings named five other women as witches.And they all admit that they had seen the devil
himself climb up the keel of princess Anna ship,princess and ship and, and like begin to create
(10:50):
cause problems on the ship. And now this mind you isthe ship that is supposed to carry her to Scotland.
So long story short here, Coldings as well as 12other women are then burned at the stake in 1590,
which is unfortunate to say the least. Right. Um,it is really interesting to point out Anna
(11:11):
Coldings was the wife of a nobleman who hadpreviously had a bit of a row with the Admiral.
Surprise, surprise. Right. Now the thing that Ifind really interesting about this is she is a
noble, like she, she's not just some backwaterhealer that we often find in which trial stories,
(11:32):
right? Like this is a woman who had good standingwithin her community. This means she's going to
have her lands up for being seized. There's a moneyaspect. This is just like now. If somebody's
right, if somebody's ended, it's like, what's themotive? Is it love? Was it money? What we, we tail it
all this time. We're going to off people for thesame reasons today. We did 500 years ago. Right. So
(11:58):
just like just keep that in the back end, the backend noodle, I guess, cause I thought it was really,
really interesting. Now I do have to take a quicksidebar and like give you a little snapshot about
James at this time. Um, he hears all of this, ofcourse, right? Like this news travels to him. Um,
but he also hears that there's a plot on his life. Sohe's pissed because now there's a threat to his new
(12:20):
wife, but he is also dealing with the paranoia of apossible assassination, assassination attempt
on him. Now, what we need to understand about Jamesis that while he is wonderfully educated and
considered this great intellectual as time, he isalso dealing with some very real mental games.
(12:41):
Like there have been attempts on his life sincebefore he was born. So when he finds out that this is
happening, that there has been this supposed callfor his assassination. Um, I think any normal
train of thought he would have had goes right outthe window for him and it's obviously witches. So
(13:01):
he basically, for lack of a better way ofdescribing this, decides to host his own witch
trials at home. But now this is done, right? Nowthis is done because at the same time as him going
out to get his wife and, and returning, there isthis little town called Trannin and it's in, it's
(13:27):
in East Lothian. Coincidentally, this is alsoEast where? East Lothian. So Lothian L O T H I A N.
It's a part of Scotland. Okay. I say spelling itdidn't really help me located. It's a, it's, I
don't want to say the county. I'm not exactly surehow they named the province, but that's the area
that it's in. This is the seat in the home of SeatonPalace. The palace King James was staying at while
(13:51):
he waited for his bride, bride to wife, just alittle while sooner, right? Now David Seaton, the
guy who like runs the joint is super boiled to theKing, but he has started to become pretty
suspicious about one of his servants. So likeJames comes to visit. He's waiting for his wife,
(14:12):
James leaves to go collect his wife. And in themeantime, all of this stuff starts like becoming
obvious to David Seaton. This young woman iscalled Gaila Stunckin. Oh, here we go with another
Claire Frazier bit. Yes. I was like, if she does notget this, I'm going to be so upset. So locally, she
(14:32):
is known as a healer. However, according toSeaton, she frequently disappears at night and he
can't figure it out, but it's likely because she isassisting in like midwife's duties, like she's
learning the trade. She is probably a young woman,like a late teen, early 20s, like, so she's young.
Um, and she's learning the art of midwifery and hecan't really figure out where she's going. So
(14:56):
obviously she's a problem. She gets arrested andtortured with a device with the really fun name of
Pilly Winks. That sounds like kids were going toplay Pilly Winks. No, you didn't need all your
vegetables. We're not playing Pilly Winks. Itsure does, but I can assure you it's not cute. And
more closely akin to some screws. Oh, oh, yeah.Kids don't play with those nowadays. Not
(15:23):
typically. We also don't have tiny guillotines onour dinner table anymore either. I mean, really,
we have all the fun toys gone. Bro, if you'relistening, we've got ideas. We would love to have
our tiny guillotines back. Thank you so much. Sothe other thing that Duncan is probably being
subjected to is sleep deprivation. One of the, um,like go to forms of torture, um, investigative
(15:51):
methods that which fighters and, um, which trialparticipants would do is subject these women to
like days of sleep deprivation. So you're in painand you also haven't slept and they're forcing
that upon you. Like they're making it impossiblefor you to go to sleep. Um, additionally, once
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she's inspected, it's discovered that she bearsthe devil's mark on her throat. Now in news from
Scotland, like I mentioned earlier, this is apamphlet that's like going around at the time and
sort of telling everybody what's going on, whichmakes it a really cool first person source. The
(16:34):
pamphlet says, quote, Gaila Stunken was torturedwith the pilliwings on her fingers and by binding
or winching her head with a cord or rope, she did notconfess until her tortures declared they had
found her devil's mark. It being believed at thetime by due examination of which, which craft and
which is in Scotland, it had lately been found thatI believe the word they're saying is devil, but it
(17:01):
is spelled D I U E L L. And I'm unclear. I'm assumingthat is a Scottish term for devil. Thus generally
mark them with a privy mark. So at this point, GailaStunken of course confesses and then proceeds to
name other witches from both Edinburgh and theEast Lothian area. She says these witches are
(17:24):
behind the attempt to sink the kingship. She'sconvicted and executed by being strangled and
then burned because double tattoos can't killthem once you got to kill them twice. I mean, I
respect the thoroughness if nothing else,literally nothing else. Literally. Now, some of
the others that are accused are Agnes Sanson,Agnes Thompson, Dr. Fien, which is goes by the
(17:48):
alias John Cunningham. I'm unclear why BarbaraNapier and Effie McCallaghan to name just a few of
them. In total, there's around 70 people that areimplicated in this case. And you can imagine that
most of these are tortures in a process. Now, up tothis point in time, most witch trials are sort of
(18:10):
handled like locally with like the localmagistrate or however your form of government
works. It's not handled on a greater level thanthat, but James is not having any of that. And so he
orders the accused to be brought to him inEdinburgh so he can be personally involved in
their interrogation, which is like completelyunheard of. And the first time a royal is involved.
(18:34):
So good news. Now, he gets to meet the king. He'she's super excited to see you. That is, you're
going to love this quote. It's both positive andnegative. And we typically refer to the positive
connotations. I'd say he's more super biased.Yeah. Now, Agnes Thompson gives this super
detailed story saying, quote, a coven with as manyas 200 other witches that had met the devil in the
(18:59):
Kirk of North Burwick had come and how he had it,excuse me, and how he had instructed them to use
spells and throw a dead cat into the sea to create agreat storm, which was intended to waylay King
James ships as he traveled back from Devin Markwith his fiance. Apparently the devil had told the
witches that the king that the king is the greatestenemy he has had in the world. Okay. So King James
(19:23):
hears this and he is like, well, obviously I'm I'mGod's chosen. Clearly. Yeah. I'm I'm the
favorite. Like you're not wrong, Miss Thompson.Now Dr. James, he's the local schoolmaster. He has
his legs put in boots, which basically this is abrand new form of torture to me. When I was reading
(19:44):
this, I had no idea that this was a method, but thisbasically means that his legs are put into these
like super tight clamps and then wedges are of woodare hammered into them. Oh, yeah. Right.
Eventually this crushes his legs. And once that'sdone, the king and counsel decide he would be made
an example of so they burn him at Castle Hill inEdinburgh in late January at 1591. Just as a way of
(20:10):
like, I don't know, behave, I guess. Now thenthere's Agnes Sampson and she is really
interesting in my opinion. She is this healer whoinitially had denied the charges brought against
her. That was until she is completely shaved downhead to down her head with rope, which caused a pain
(20:31):
quote, most grievous and then inspected for thedevil's mark. So she is. She is victimized in the
worst sort of way. Eventually they discover thedevil's mark in what they find as quote upon her
privates. So they, they investigatedthoroughly, thoroughly. And so you can imagine
(20:57):
with this sort of humiliation that she isexperiencing, she confesses to whatever they
say. Like, sure, I'll tell you whatever you want tohear. Right. I'll create a great story for you. The
mental floss article gives a really gooddescription of her story saying quote on Howley
Knight, she claimed 200 witches sailed to a churchin North Borwick, North Borwick, a seaside town in
(21:20):
the county of East Lothian near Edinburgh. Therethey danced and sang until the devil appeared and
the guys of the man. He proceeded to bend his bearbottom over the church pulpit and demand that the
assembled witches kiss his buttocks in sign ofduty to him, which they did. It goes on to say that
(21:41):
Sampson also confessed to a nefarious plot tomurder James with black magic. She said that after
the King sailed aboard in 1589 to Mary AnnaDenmark, the North Borwick witches baptized the
cat, bound it with a dead man's bones and tossed theanimal into the sea, creating a hex that caused
severe storms to plague James's journey. The saidwitch declared that his majesty would have never
(22:07):
come home safely from the sea. Now. For his part,James appears to be pretty skeptical about most of
this until supposedly and whispers to him theprivate things that him and his wife talked about
on their wedding night. No, see that part's great.I'm glad that he was skeptical about baptizing a
(22:28):
cat, which is a fate I wish on most people. Oh, youpissed me off. May you baptize cats today. Like
what? Uh, unfortunately for her, that seals herfate and she is strangled and burned. Several more
of the accused would lose their life in similarways. Now, this happened over the course of
(22:50):
roughly six months. It's believed that those whowere not executed died of their injuries related
to the torture that was inflicted upon them. TheNorth Borwick trials were the first in a series of
witch trials and panics that swept throughScotland during the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. These events convinced King Jamesthat witches were real and they were a threat. And
(23:13):
that's when he started his work on the book,humanology, that would first be published in
1597. And I have a very charming piece of art. If youwould like to see it. Um, I always, always. This one
(23:33):
is quite a doozy. I'm not sure if it's, I'm going tohave to scroll up and down. I need to give it a
second. Oh, okay. So this is a full, full image.Scroll back up. Okay. So she's showing me an image.
It's a high up in a canopy because scroll up. Don'tscroll down. Oh, I see. I'm sorry. There you go.
(23:53):
There. That's the time. I think I did say scrolldown, but I use the word don't in front. Whatever.
So you see like up high in the tree tops, you know, sothere is a naked woman writing a goat backwards.
She's got a pitchfork that has some sort ofcauldron in it that is roasting something there's
(24:19):
like like sticking out or that smoke. Yeah. It'svery intense thing. Everybody looks like they
have not like. There's there's a bunch of justnudity. You can scroll down now. I'm nudity
everywhere. Yeah. Lots of naked naked women. andvery long nipples. The long end of nipples. Well,
(24:44):
that was clearly her devil's mark. Or the factmaybe she's breastfeeding. She looks to be
elderly. But if you've got digits sticking out ofyour mammaries. I knew the seizure was just going
to mess with your brain for the next forever. AndI'm not sorry. No. Terrary. You're right. This
(25:08):
image is haunting. Yeah. It's gnarly. But this issupposed to be, my understanding is this is a
description of the debauchery that occurred tomake the storms that caused James and Anne's ships
to be waylaid. Now, not that it matters because heallowed this to happen in the first place. But
(25:34):
later in life, he sort of recanted on his stance onwitchcraft and was like, well, maybe they weren't
actually doing the things they said. But like, youknow, this is years later by that point. And you
already condemned them to death. So there's that.Yeah. You can't go free them from their grave and be
(25:56):
like, all right, you've served your time. Where'sthat cat in the dead man's bones? Maybe we can get
them back. Yeah. So that is just a brief overview ofthe North Berwick witch trials. There's so much
more history that's surrounded and surround thetime. But I thought it would be just a fun little way
(26:22):
to torture people. Sorry. I appreciate that.You're not sorry. Let's don't lie. We've been
together for 144 episodes. We don't lie to notbecome us. Yeah. Now is not the time. I am going to
tell you about the lady of Crescent Lake. OfCrescent Lake? Correct. No, you said? Yeah.
(26:48):
Crescent Lake. My sources, historylink.org,true crime, the lady of the lake by Mavis Amundsen,
Olympic National Park, the lady of Crescent Lake,nation's vacation, spooky national park
experiences, this Halloween, Seattle TerrorsOlympic National Park. So you have no idea. We are
(27:13):
sticking to the Pacific Northwest for this one. Weare headed to our national parks and I did not
include the National Park Service. My God, are youokay? You know, I don't even mention syphilis.
Damn. Sorry, Alessandro. We're falling down. Ibet you James had syphilis. One can only hope. I
(27:37):
don't know, but maybe. Okay, so Crescent Lake andOlympic National Park for those playing at home,
it's apparently no stranger to bloody stories.There's a legend of two local tribes that a bloody
battle beneath Mount Storm King happened, thatthe mountain became angry, it broke off a hunk of
(28:02):
rock at its peak and the mountain threw into avalley over the battlefield and the rock killed
warriors, it dammed up the river and that's how theCrescent Lake was formed. Okay, that's the hell of
a story already. Okay. And then generations ofindigenous people would go near the lake because
(28:23):
of the legend. Smart. They also had this beliefthat Crescent Lake never gave up its dead. Ooh,
okay. That was a lake like that in Michigan. Okay.Now, the lake held on to its dead until the lady of
(28:45):
the lake surfaced in 1940. Okay, you ready? Doesshe have a knife and is she handing out government?
Handing out government? Yeah. Oh, sorry. You'rethinking of the Ethereum legend. A watery thing
passing up. So, while it's the heath of Mawney,Python and the Holy Grail, but I guess it all goes
back to the Arthinian legend, yeah. Okay. So,Hailey Latham Illingworth, she'd arrived to the
(29:12):
Annipa Pulissa, she'd arrived to the OlympicPeninsula about three years earlier and she'd
gone through two failed marriages. Okay. Again.That is unfortunate. This is the late 30s. So, not
the best of times to have a couple notches on yourbelt. Yeah. She's a little lady. Yep. January 8th,
(29:35):
she's born 1901. She's born to a farm couple inGreensville, Kentucky. And she's a young adult
when she kept repeatedly moving west and she'ssearching for a better life. And somehow she finds
herself west of west at the Crescent Lake Tavern.It's now called Lake Crescent Lodge. So, if you're
(29:55):
there. Okay. Okay. And it's here that she met a dudenamed Monty Illingworth and he becomes her third
husband June 16th, 1936. Okay. Let's do it. Now,they apparently did not have the best of
marriages. The word used to describe it asvolatile. Okay. And she had the habit of choosing
(30:22):
the wrong man as indicated by two failedmarriages. Now, Monty, he has this habit of not
hiding the fact that he's a white beater. Oh, goodfor him. At least he's doing it out in the open. He's
living his authentic life. Truly. And so she comesto work with bruises and black eyes. Oh. And she
(30:45):
confides to a coworker that Monty had choked herand broken one of her teeth. Oh. Super chill. Okay.
Now, five months into their marriage. So, thehoneymoon phase came and went pretty quickly.
Clearly, yes. They get into a pre-dawn fight sofierce the police are called to break it up. Okay.
(31:12):
Pre-dawn, which either means you fought all nightlong or you woke up with a passion. Yeah. Okay. And
Halle shows up for work at a Port Angelesrestaurant with bruises on her face and arms. And
then the holidays approach in 1937 and shedisappears. I was hoping she was going to leave
(31:39):
them. Yeah. We don't get to stories like Lady of theLake with this kind of opening and you thinking
that she's going to make it out alive. Yeah. I guessthat's true. Thanks. You're welcome. I'm just
here for the realism. And it's the night andmorning of December 21st, 22nd that she just turns
(32:05):
up missing. Those are the, it's some time in thattimeframe, right? Monti, he starts telling
friends that his wife had run off with a sailor fromAlaska. Okay. Is that common? Do we get a lot of
sailors from Alaska in this area? You know, I can'tsay that I've been to Olympic National Park and
asked around, but okay. I'm not that close to thenorthern part of Washington. Yeah. I'm just
(32:35):
thinking it, okay, because this is going to sounddumb, but in the book I just read, multiple women
run off with Spanish sailors because they dock inBoston. Okay. You know what? Yeah. So I was
thinking, oh, I wonder if this is like acommonality during the time. Maybe. I don't know.
Run off with the ship and sailor. Yeah. Okay. Buteither way, months go by. Her close knit family,
(33:01):
they haven't heard a damn thing from her. I hatethis. Yep. And there's a bunch of suspicion, but
Monti is granted a divorce in 1938. And it's herethat he moves to California with the roommate of
Halle's sister. So Halle's sister's roommate.Yes. I hate that. Okay. All right. You said that and
(33:25):
I had to like go back through and draw his diagram.Like what am I talking about? Yeah. What's the
family tree here? Now apparently it was rumoredthat he'd been seeing her romantically,
biblically before Halle's disappearance. So, sohe's a philanthropist in Philander. Philander.
(33:46):
Philander. Not a philanthropist. He's not givingmoney to charities. He's giving other things. I
was going to say, or he's giving money to charity.That could be her name. That could be her name.
Anyway, carry on. Okay. But it's then on July 6,1940, almost three years after she disappears,
(34:06):
that two fishermen spotted the body of a woman, thelady at the lake floating on the surface of Lake
Crescent. Now, the body's taken to Port Angelesand that's where a young medical student, Harlan
McNutt, examined it. He noted the upper part of herface, her upper lip and her nose are gone. And
that's because her hands, like, oh, so little bitsare exposed, fingertips are exposed as well. And
(34:33):
so it seems that there's a little bit of predationand that, but she's remarkably well preserved.
So, okay. Her, there's a little bit of an issuebecause there's an unusual state to this corpse.
The dead woman's flesh had turned into somethinglike ivory soap, McNutt described. Like, okay.
(35:02):
Like it had gone through this condition known assapification. Oh, that's a word. All right. Yeah.
So, just in case you're wondering, under the rightconditions, you too can become soap. I'm good. I'm
so good. I don't want to be soap. Yeah. Like, likefight club, but meets true crime. Great. Yeah. And
(35:27):
okay. So Crescent Lake's depth isn't known withany certainty, but there's parts that are likely
deeper than a thousand feet. And so the body hadbeen submerged in the deep waters of the lake and
the cold had prevented decomposition. And thenthere's salts and calcium in the water that slowly
converted the tissue into a mineral-like soapcalled adipocere. I probably said that wrong. And
(35:53):
it's just like soap. And the body, when convertedin this matter, floats. And so even though it
eventually down, there's ropes that have beenconnecting to the weights and eventually those
ropes decayed and not cause the body to just goright up. Right. Okay. That makes sense. So
because, you know, there's a couple of issues onthe face. There was no ability for facial
(36:16):
recognition or fingerprints. They were able tomake a positive ID on the body as Haley
Lillingworth or Illingworth had, because of herphysical max, she had hair color, they had dental
record, they had dental records, dental records.That's amazing. Okay. And see like side story.
When I had to have a little bit of oral surgery, theygave me laughing gas. And as they're waiting for it
(36:45):
to kick in, I probably scared the bejesus out of thepoor tech in the room with me because I said, hey, do
you have any questions? I was like, I do. Is there adatabase for all of our dental records to go in that
maybe corresponds with missing persons so thatyou guys could like match dental records like on a
national level. Like I'm thinking like DNA, likefingerprint, like, yeah, I thought there was.
(37:11):
There's not. Oh, and, and so you call every dentistin town. You have to know, hey, my wife, Teresa is
missing. Great. Can I get a hold? What? Who is herdentist name? Can I get those records signed over
and then can we upload it and then manually test?Not like, we've got a Jane Doe. We're going to run
her teeth against the record. Okay. That'sinsane. I thought it was a national database. It
(37:38):
should be agreed. Okay, but there's not. Butanyhow, they're able to match our girl Haley.
Okay. Because of dental records. That's amazing.Yeah. Okay. So there's a visual inspection of the
body and that, and then they also have a subsequentautopsy. This kind of gives more detail. They're
(37:59):
able, despite the fact this body is nearly threeyears old and has, you know, just been lost,
they're able to see that she met this super violentdeath. Her neck is bruised. It's discolored. Her
chest shows evidence of extensive, extensivehemorrhaging. Oh, it shows that she'd been beaten
(38:19):
and strangled. And though that there was littlewith which to make an identification, the body had
a distinctive upper dental plate. And that's theclue that they were able to use to hunt down who she
was and then subsequently back to her killer. Wow.Okay. So they're able to get a hold of a South Dakota
(38:41):
dentist who identified the dental plate as onethat he'd made for her several years before. Okay.
So again, that's like having to be like, okay, andwho is her dentist? Oh, I have to like go from
Washington. Six states away. Okay. Yeah. To usesome code on town to find this. Okay. Now, they also
have another clue. The police had the rope that wasused to tie it onto the weights. The rope was
(39:08):
peculiar to Sears and Roebuck. And you see theywere able to track it down to the tavern owner who
had bought it to tie it boats. And the tavern owner,he remembers that a beer salesman had borrowed
about 100 feet of rope to pull his truck out of themud, but he never returned the rope. That is wild.
Like so much rope is probably bought and soldthrough Sears at the time that you would be able to
(39:32):
match that back that way. And do you know who thebeer salesman was? Her husband. Monty. Yeah.
Because it always is. It's always the husband. I'mdevastated. Like I really wanted it to not be this
time. You know, yeah. When it's not, it makes news,but it's the husband. So the investigators, they
(39:54):
close in on Monty, who's living in Long Beach,California. And on October 26, 1941, he's
arrested and taken into custody by L.A. Sheriff'sdeputies. It's not long after he's charged with
murder, brought back to Port Angeles and put ontrial for Haley's murder in Callum County
Superior Court. The trial begins February 24,1942. And was so sensational that it compete with
(40:22):
news from the front lines of World War II. Wow. Imean, yeah. I mean, you find this nearly perfectly
preserved body that's turned to soap. Yeah. It'sgot like what? I think it would have been smart of
him to join the military. He would have been able tolike, I don't know. But I'm assuming. He's
(40:46):
probably a little bit too old. Oh, yeah. You gottawait for the war to get going a little bit where
we're really needing troops. Yeah. At this point,you know, it's like, how are your knees? You look
like your knees hurt. Your knees hurt. Yeah, wedon't need you. You can stay home a little longer.
Yeah. So the trial developments are splashedacross the front pages of local newspapers daily,
(41:13):
daily. Like this was the OJ Simpson trial of thetime. Spectators are arriving early. We've got
homemakers, teenagers, and just your standardtrue crime lovers that are in the courtroom for
this nine day trial. Okay. And Monty's defense isat the dead one, not Haley. He swears. She's a lot.
(41:37):
Last time I saw her, she was alive. Where did you seeher last time then, Bob? As I tied the weights to her
and dropped her into the lake. Oh, I'm sorry. Istrikes that from record. I didn't mean to say
that. Oh, those were my inside thoughts. Thedentist from South Dakota, he's a credible
witness and he insisted that the dental plate isHalley's. There's no way, no ANZIF or BUDS. That's
(42:03):
hers. I made it. That's hers. Moreover, herfriends identify the clothes worn by the dead
woman belong to Halley. And the key evidence ofthat rope? Yep. Monty had borrowed 50 feet of rope
from the storekeeper at the lake and the storestill had remnants of the rope and the fibers
matched. Wow. Monty really did himself in, didn'the? Yep. So it took the jurors four hours to reach a
(42:30):
verdict and on March 5, 1942, the jury foundIllingsworth guilty of psychotry murder and he
was sentenced to life imprisonment at WashingtonState Penitentiary in Walla Walla. And he served
nine years prison. He's paroled 1951 and he diedNovember 5, 1974 in Los Alamitos, California. I
(42:53):
don't like that he had several years out. But Imean, okay. Yeah, I agree with that. Like, what'd
you get out on parole for? I mean, and he was only innine years. Your crimes were violent, Bub. You're
not rehabilitated from that. Yep. Now,especially not in the 40s and 50s. You would think.
Yeah. But either way, it's just, we really need alot of reform here, but these are things. There's a
(43:21):
contemporary of Haley's that later observed thather murder was probably not premeditated. They
probably got into their standard fight in theirapartment in December of that, you know, that 1937
night. And it probably took a violent turn as perusual and then escalated and he probably
strangled her to death. Hollis Fultz, acriminologist at Washington State Attorney
(43:46):
General's Office who'd helped investigate themurder, he maintained that Monty tried to conceal
the crime by placing his wife's lifeless body inthe trunk of his car and driving the lake crescent.
Monty then stopped in the vicinity of the presentday, logged Cabin Resort and wiped his, wrapped
his wife's body in blankets and tied the bundlewith a rope. He then put the body in a rowboat,
(44:09):
attached weights to the bundle, rode into deepwater and then dropped the bundle into dark
waters. And then the rumors started circlingduring the murder investigation that Monty
didn't act alone, but no one other than Monty wasever charged with the crime. Oh, so he has an
accomplice. Maybe, but I, you know, like, I thinkprobably not. I'm going to assume there is no
(44:32):
accomplice, that that was just a rumor. Like wedidn't check out the tavern guy wasn't involved? I
mean, I'm sure we probably checked out we couldn'tfind anything, but we're like, this was so
heinous, we have to have more people involved.Yeah, we've learned that that's not in fact the
case. Right. Now, it's rumored that her ghostlingers near Devil's Punch Bowl, which is a
(44:53):
popular swimming spot. Oh, I'm familiar. I'mfamiliar with Devil's Punch Bowl. There you go.
This is a long one. If I was going to hauntsomething. I mean, at least some were pretty,
right? Yeah. And this is kind of the area where herbody found that was wrapped in blankets tied with
rope. And then visitors to the area have reportedseeing a spectral figure gliding across the water
(45:16):
or simply standing on the shoreline at dusk. Oh,sometimes people hear faint cries or muffled
screams at night. Now, I'm going to call hogwashthere because we've got cougars. I was just
thinking that exact same thing. And boy, likethere was one time, Hubs and I got into a discussion
(45:38):
about what a cougar sounds like. And I said thatit's terrifying. It sounds like woman screaming.
It's like, if you hear it, no, you didn't. Yeah,don't go on check. And he's like, what do you mean?
And I pull up YouTube videos with the sounds and hegoes, oh, yeah, no, no, no, I'm good. I'm good. So
(46:00):
there's that. We've got that going for us. There'salso reports of sudden cold spots on summer days.
Okay. I don't know how I feel about cold spots, butI'd be like, hey, look, an air conditioned spot on a
100 degree day. I'm going to maintain here. Youguys carry on. I think I'll sit with this ghost.
Thank you so much. Yeah. We're having a nice chill.I'm getting my water bottle out literally. I'm
(46:25):
going to have my granola bar. You go ahead. Don'tsit too close to me. I'm fine. Now visitors to the
area. Oh, I already said that. At the infamous LakeCrescent Lodge where Hallie wants to work, guests
and staff have reported eerie conditions.They've experienced flickering lights,
unexplained footprints or footsteps, and doorslocking and unlocking on their own. Okay. And then
(46:51):
Hallie isn't the only one that was found in thewaters in Lake Crescent. In 2002, a Chevy was
pulled from the water revealing the bodies of acouple who went missing in 1929. So the Chevy and
the couple were recovered? Yep. That is insane.Were they also soap? Unclear. It's not said. So
(47:14):
maybe it doesn't say that they weren't soap. Okay.But that really kind of makes me interested
because it's not like I could find all of thesereports of like, hey, these strange things
happened. And then I found out that there was aghost. It seemed like we'd all heard this story.
And then we went there and we saw the ghost. So wesort of made ourselves believe that the ghost is
(47:40):
there. That's kind of what I'm feeling. Yeah.Because nobody was claiming to see the ghost
before she turned up. Yeah, that checks. Thatchecks. But that's how urban legends start
though, right? That's the truth. I mean, we hearthis horrible thing happened and then we go out and
we like, oh my gosh, I see the pattern. I see thething. I feel the breeze. This is a cold spot. Ergo
(48:05):
ghost. Always. Yeah. But the fact that it turnedinto soap, that was like one of the craziest things
that I. Yes, that's not an end I want to meet. So whenyou grab a bar of soap that had been sitting
submerged in the water too long and it's a bitspongy. Thank you. You're welcome. Cool. Yeah,
(48:29):
I'm here. You want to hear about torturing withboots again? You know, I don't know if either of us
had the ability to really get into the water. Wewere really in the story and so I'm grateful we both
took a swing and failed two times. Consider it awin. We did it. I'm not going to apologize to our
(48:50):
listeners this time. No, you know what? It'sspooky season. Tune in next month. Be spooky. And
on that note, goodbye. Bye. Bye.
Hi, and welcome to the Unhanished HistoryPodcast. The podcast were two compulsive net
jobs. Joint forces became friends and startedword vomiting history stories upon the other one.
And the other one stands there and takes it. Andthen we switch spaces and allow the other one to
(00:30):
vomit upon ourselves. God, we're glad in forpunishment. Look, I'll deal with what I have to
deal with just to be able to get this story out. Imean, honestly, yes, sir, if I've got to listen to
Terere again, I suppose. I mean, it is spookyseason and I did find something. You're welcome to
(00:56):
be at the plasm and I'm sorry in advance. No, notectoplasm. But we shouldn't really worry about
what my story is because you go first. And you wantto tell people our names. Oh, I'm Teresa and that.
I'm Angie. Welcome. Nearly 150 episodes and we'vegotten this in. We figured this part out. We know
(01:23):
how to say our names most of the time withoutinterrupting the other. Right. We've done it.
We've peaked y'all. Well, OK, you know, there's noway to start my story off. So I'm just going to I'm
just going to go if you're ready. I mean, that'sthat's why I was like, you should go first and we
(01:46):
should quit talking about what substance my storymay or may not have because. Oh, yeah, OK, it's
going to be 30 minutes till we get there. So thiswill be a great callback, but we have to abandon
ship to get there. Let's go. My sources are three 60on history. It's an article by Sayima Bayes, March
5th of 2025. Agnes Samson, the first victim of thewitch trials. This is not actually a source that I
(02:14):
used, but a source that I found reallyinteresting. So I thought other people might be
interested in as well. The National Archives ofScotland has a witches confession that is
beautiful. Like the writing is beautiful. Thewords are not news from Scotland. Bell, the N.E
.W.E .S. is the earliest tract on Scottishwitchcraft. It's written around 1591 and is
(02:38):
provided by the University of Glasgow. It'spretty sick and cool to see, but also again, words
are pretty. The font is pretty. The words are not.There is a mental floss article by Bridget Katz
from October of 22 called Agnes Samson, the quote,witch who confessed the plotting against King
(02:59):
James VI. Historic Royal Palaces, which is one ofmy favorite sources, has a write up on James in Anne
of Denmark. There is a BDC bite size called CaseStudy, James VI in the North Burwick Witch Hunt.
And a historic UK.com North Burwick Witch Trial.So if you can tell, I'm talking about American
(03:24):
history here. Yeah, sure. I brought it. OK. Sothere's a little backstory here. Last week, I
finished a book called The First Witch of Boston byAndrea Catalino, I believe is how you pronounce
her name. And this looks about a woman calledMargaret Jones. She was the first woman executed
for witchcraft in Boston, or rather, this is theMassachusetts Bay Colony in 1648. So I was
(03:50):
originally thinking that I was going to do my storyon her. But then I realized I would actually be
really sad if you beat me to my current topic. So Idecided I might do her later. But in the meantime, I
really want to do the story. So what you just did wasmention her name and said dibs and then went
through the other story. Yeah, pretty much. Oh,OK. I'm just I'm just calling out your bullshit.
(04:11):
But here's the thing. Even if I tried to do herstory, there's not a ton of evidence about it. So it
would be like a five minute story. So there's that.So then I remembered this other topic like I was
like, oh, yeah, I completely forgot that that'sthat's an option. So I decided to do a little
research when it hit me that James the sixth or thefirst, depending on which country you're
(04:35):
standing in, has this really interesting story.So I started to poke around and was reminded of the
North Burwick Witch Trials of 1590 and 91. Sothat's something I'm going to give you. And you
will recognize some names, I promise. So. KingJames, I swear he's relevant to this story. I'd say
I recognize that name. So so far, we're off to astart. We're doing great. OK. So he is the son of
(05:01):
Mary, Queen of Scots, right? But he basicallybecomes King in 1567 when she's forced to abdicate
and he's just over a year old. We're going to fastforward a little bit. It's 1589 and he needs to
marry like a woman, you know, I like how youclarify. Like obviously it's not a chicken. Yeah,
well, because he had a soft spot for the fancy boys.So but like legacy, you need to continue the line
(05:28):
and all that. So we've got a married woman. So enterin of Denmark, Denmark. James and Anne get married
by proxy in August of 1589. Anne sets sail forScotland in September. Not once, not twice, but at
least three times. And she is stopped by badweather each time. So she finally gets going and
(05:51):
then her entourage, like her fleet of ships,endures the biggest storm in known memory. So
she's basically sort of marooned in Norway for alittle bit. Like these ships aren't going
anywhere because of how blasting this storm is.Now, James, on the other hand, he is staying at this
gorgeous private castle called Seaton Palace andit has these beautiful, clear views of the Leith
(06:16):
Harbor. Now, this is the harbor that Anne issupposed to disembark from her, from her fleet.
But these storms, they've, they've obviouslycaused major problems, right? And it is her
getting there is taking substantially longerthan the original plan voyage. And what I can only
describe as an absolutely romantic gesture,James and 300 of his besties set sail to retrieve
(06:42):
her himself. Because if she can't make it to us,maybe the storms won't stop us. It's like, you
know, when you're traveling on the highway,obviously northbound's a little rocky, but maybe
if. Right? Yeah, I think that's got to be what he'sthinking. So they also experience like the worst
(07:02):
storm ever. And their fleet is battered the helland back. Oh, shocker. So, I know, right? So they,
they eventually, like they eventually gettogether, like they're finally in the same place
at the same time. And in the midst of, of what'sgoing on, um, James and Anna, they, they have what
(07:25):
you would consider their honeymoon. They travel abit of Norway. Um, they make it back to Scotland.
And in the meantime, Denmark is dealing with thislegacy of witches who can command the weather,
like the weather itself is beholden to thesewomen. Like apparently this has been a long
standing belief amongst Danish people that thereare witches that can control the storm. So there's
(07:52):
a Danish minister of finance. He is a man calledChristopher Valkendorf. At the same time as like
these, these thoughts are swirling about Danish,which is he's accused of under-equipping the
ships for the storm. So he's got that. And that'snot looking great. He's accused of
under-equipping these ships and like veryunprepared for the storm. And so he's a little bit
(08:16):
shaky on things. And then sort of points the fingera little bit at the Danish admiral, a man called
Peter Monk, which I'm going to be honest, is like aterrible name for an admiral. In my opinion. And so
wait a minute, you would look at him and be like, youcan't be admiral. Your name sucks. You need a
better name. Doesn't sound like you don't soundlike an admiral at all. That's just, that's just
(08:38):
me. That's just me. But it is a funny dude with twofirst names. I mean, I did marry. I have three first
names when you think about it. And you gave yourkids multiple first names as well. Yeah. What was I
supposed to do? First one is Campbell. Second oneis Anderson. Okay, you're right. I blew it. I'm
(09:00):
sorry. Anyway, but also my husband's not trying tobe a Danish admiral here. So we got that going for
me. Now these two guys are both sort of, um, oh, Ishould state, I should, I should back up a little
bit and say the Danish admiral, Mr. Monk, he'saccused of not actually really knowing how to do
(09:20):
his job, like in the simplest terms. And so the twoof them are sort of looking at each other when it
hits them. Oh, we could just blame the witches. Um,so they do. I mean, I like the good old days. Right.
They collectively blame this group of women inCopenhagen of casting spells to raise the bad
(09:41):
weather because why not? Right. Now, according tohistorian, Gareth Russell, who has this amazing
book coming out in the US called Queen James. Thereis also this belief that witches can like fast
travel. So the storm basically follows them hometo Scotland. Cause of course it does. What I find to
(10:03):
be really funny about this belief is that ifwitchcraft in the way that they're saying is
possible is real and these women are in factwitches and they can fast travel. Why are they
being captured? Because they didn't know thatthis was cut. They didn't know they were getting,
(10:23):
they were getting caught. Clearly. So there's aninvestigation and it's called form Denmark and
people are tortured and they're, they're keptunder these awful conditions and a woman called
Anna Coldings named five other women as witches.And they all admit that they had seen the devil
himself climb up the keel of princess Anna ship,princess and ship and, and like begin to create
(10:50):
cause problems on the ship. And now this mind you isthe ship that is supposed to carry her to Scotland.
So long story short here, Coldings as well as 12other women are then burned at the stake in 1590,
which is unfortunate to say the least. Right. Um,it is really interesting to point out Anna
(11:11):
Coldings was the wife of a nobleman who hadpreviously had a bit of a row with the Admiral.
Surprise, surprise. Right. Now the thing that Ifind really interesting about this is she is a
noble, like she, she's not just some backwaterhealer that we often find in which trial stories,
(11:32):
right? Like this is a woman who had good standingwithin her community. This means she's going to
have her lands up for being seized. There's a moneyaspect. This is just like now. If somebody's
right, if somebody's ended, it's like, what's themotive? Is it love? Was it money? What we, we tail it
all this time. We're going to off people for thesame reasons today. We did 500 years ago. Right. So
(11:58):
just like just keep that in the back end, the backend noodle, I guess, cause I thought it was really,
really interesting. Now I do have to take a quicksidebar and like give you a little snapshot about
James at this time. Um, he hears all of this, ofcourse, right? Like this news travels to him. Um,
but he also hears that there's a plot on his life. Sohe's pissed because now there's a threat to his new
(12:20):
wife, but he is also dealing with the paranoia of apossible assassination, assassination attempt
on him. Now, what we need to understand about Jamesis that while he is wonderfully educated and
considered this great intellectual as time, he isalso dealing with some very real mental games.
(12:41):
Like there have been attempts on his life sincebefore he was born. So when he finds out that this is
happening, that there has been this supposed callfor his assassination. Um, I think any normal
train of thought he would have had goes right outthe window for him and it's obviously witches. So
(13:01):
he basically, for lack of a better way ofdescribing this, decides to host his own witch
trials at home. But now this is done, right? Nowthis is done because at the same time as him going
out to get his wife and, and returning, there isthis little town called Trannin and it's in, it's
(13:27):
in East Lothian. Coincidentally, this is alsoEast where? East Lothian. So Lothian L O T H I A N.
It's a part of Scotland. Okay. I say spelling itdidn't really help me located. It's a, it's, I
don't want to say the county. I'm not exactly surehow they named the province, but that's the area
that it's in. This is the seat in the home of SeatonPalace. The palace King James was staying at while
(13:51):
he waited for his bride, bride to wife, just alittle while sooner, right? Now David Seaton, the
guy who like runs the joint is super boiled to theKing, but he has started to become pretty
suspicious about one of his servants. So likeJames comes to visit. He's waiting for his wife,
(14:12):
James leaves to go collect his wife. And in themeantime, all of this stuff starts like becoming
obvious to David Seaton. This young woman iscalled Gaila Stunckin. Oh, here we go with another
Claire Frazier bit. Yes. I was like, if she does notget this, I'm going to be so upset. So locally, she
(14:32):
is known as a healer. However, according toSeaton, she frequently disappears at night and he
can't figure it out, but it's likely because she isassisting in like midwife's duties, like she's
learning the trade. She is probably a young woman,like a late teen, early 20s, like, so she's young.
Um, and she's learning the art of midwifery and hecan't really figure out where she's going. So
(14:56):
obviously she's a problem. She gets arrested andtortured with a device with the really fun name of
Pilly Winks. That sounds like kids were going toplay Pilly Winks. No, you didn't need all your
vegetables. We're not playing Pilly Winks. Itsure does, but I can assure you it's not cute. And
more closely akin to some screws. Oh, oh, yeah.Kids don't play with those nowadays. Not
(15:23):
typically. We also don't have tiny guillotines onour dinner table anymore either. I mean, really,
we have all the fun toys gone. Bro, if you'relistening, we've got ideas. We would love to have
our tiny guillotines back. Thank you so much. Sothe other thing that Duncan is probably being
subjected to is sleep deprivation. One of the, um,like go to forms of torture, um, investigative
(15:51):
methods that which fighters and, um, which trialparticipants would do is subject these women to
like days of sleep deprivation. So you're in painand you also haven't slept and they're forcing
that upon you. Like they're making it impossiblefor you to go to sleep. Um, additionally, once
(16:14):
she's inspected, it's discovered that she bearsthe devil's mark on her throat. Now in news from
Scotland, like I mentioned earlier, this is apamphlet that's like going around at the time and
sort of telling everybody what's going on, whichmakes it a really cool first person source. The
(16:34):
pamphlet says, quote, Gaila Stunken was torturedwith the pilliwings on her fingers and by binding
or winching her head with a cord or rope, she did notconfess until her tortures declared they had
found her devil's mark. It being believed at thetime by due examination of which, which craft and
which is in Scotland, it had lately been found thatI believe the word they're saying is devil, but it
(17:01):
is spelled D I U E L L. And I'm unclear. I'm assumingthat is a Scottish term for devil. Thus generally
mark them with a privy mark. So at this point, GailaStunken of course confesses and then proceeds to
name other witches from both Edinburgh and theEast Lothian area. She says these witches are
(17:24):
behind the attempt to sink the kingship. She'sconvicted and executed by being strangled and
then burned because double tattoos can't killthem once you got to kill them twice. I mean, I
respect the thoroughness if nothing else,literally nothing else. Literally. Now, some of
the others that are accused are Agnes Sanson,Agnes Thompson, Dr. Fien, which is goes by the
(17:48):
alias John Cunningham. I'm unclear why BarbaraNapier and Effie McCallaghan to name just a few of
them. In total, there's around 70 people that areimplicated in this case. And you can imagine that
most of these are tortures in a process. Now, up tothis point in time, most witch trials are sort of
(18:10):
handled like locally with like the localmagistrate or however your form of government
works. It's not handled on a greater level thanthat, but James is not having any of that. And so he
orders the accused to be brought to him inEdinburgh so he can be personally involved in
their interrogation, which is like completelyunheard of. And the first time a royal is involved.
(18:34):
So good news. Now, he gets to meet the king. He'she's super excited to see you. That is, you're
going to love this quote. It's both positive andnegative. And we typically refer to the positive
connotations. I'd say he's more super biased.Yeah. Now, Agnes Thompson gives this super
detailed story saying, quote, a coven with as manyas 200 other witches that had met the devil in the
(18:59):
Kirk of North Burwick had come and how he had it,excuse me, and how he had instructed them to use
spells and throw a dead cat into the sea to create agreat storm, which was intended to waylay King
James ships as he traveled back from Devin Markwith his fiance. Apparently the devil had told the
witches that the king that the king is the greatestenemy he has had in the world. Okay. So King James
(19:23):
hears this and he is like, well, obviously I'm I'mGod's chosen. Clearly. Yeah. I'm I'm the
favorite. Like you're not wrong, Miss Thompson.Now Dr. James, he's the local schoolmaster. He has
his legs put in boots, which basically this is abrand new form of torture to me. When I was reading
(19:44):
this, I had no idea that this was a method, but thisbasically means that his legs are put into these
like super tight clamps and then wedges are of woodare hammered into them. Oh, yeah. Right.
Eventually this crushes his legs. And once that'sdone, the king and counsel decide he would be made
an example of so they burn him at Castle Hill inEdinburgh in late January at 1591. Just as a way of
(20:10):
like, I don't know, behave, I guess. Now thenthere's Agnes Sampson and she is really
interesting in my opinion. She is this healer whoinitially had denied the charges brought against
her. That was until she is completely shaved downhead to down her head with rope, which caused a pain
(20:31):
quote, most grievous and then inspected for thedevil's mark. So she is. She is victimized in the
worst sort of way. Eventually they discover thedevil's mark in what they find as quote upon her
privates. So they, they investigatedthoroughly, thoroughly. And so you can imagine
(20:57):
with this sort of humiliation that she isexperiencing, she confesses to whatever they
say. Like, sure, I'll tell you whatever you want tohear. Right. I'll create a great story for you. The
mental floss article gives a really gooddescription of her story saying quote on Howley
Knight, she claimed 200 witches sailed to a churchin North Borwick, North Borwick, a seaside town in
(21:20):
the county of East Lothian near Edinburgh. Therethey danced and sang until the devil appeared and
the guys of the man. He proceeded to bend his bearbottom over the church pulpit and demand that the
assembled witches kiss his buttocks in sign ofduty to him, which they did. It goes on to say that
(21:41):
Sampson also confessed to a nefarious plot tomurder James with black magic. She said that after
the King sailed aboard in 1589 to Mary AnnaDenmark, the North Borwick witches baptized the
cat, bound it with a dead man's bones and tossed theanimal into the sea, creating a hex that caused
severe storms to plague James's journey. The saidwitch declared that his majesty would have never
(22:07):
come home safely from the sea. Now. For his part,James appears to be pretty skeptical about most of
this until supposedly and whispers to him theprivate things that him and his wife talked about
on their wedding night. No, see that part's great.I'm glad that he was skeptical about baptizing a
(22:28):
cat, which is a fate I wish on most people. Oh, youpissed me off. May you baptize cats today. Like
what? Uh, unfortunately for her, that seals herfate and she is strangled and burned. Several more
of the accused would lose their life in similarways. Now, this happened over the course of
(22:50):
roughly six months. It's believed that those whowere not executed died of their injuries related
to the torture that was inflicted upon them. TheNorth Borwick trials were the first in a series of
witch trials and panics that swept throughScotland during the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. These events convinced King Jamesthat witches were real and they were a threat. And
(23:13):
that's when he started his work on the book,humanology, that would first be published in
1597. And I have a very charming piece of art. If youwould like to see it. Um, I always, always. This one
(23:33):
is quite a doozy. I'm not sure if it's, I'm going tohave to scroll up and down. I need to give it a
second. Oh, okay. So this is a full, full image.Scroll back up. Okay. So she's showing me an image.
It's a high up in a canopy because scroll up. Don'tscroll down. Oh, I see. I'm sorry. There you go.
(23:53):
There. That's the time. I think I did say scrolldown, but I use the word don't in front. Whatever.
So you see like up high in the tree tops, you know, sothere is a naked woman writing a goat backwards.
She's got a pitchfork that has some sort ofcauldron in it that is roasting something there's
(24:19):
like like sticking out or that smoke. Yeah. It'svery intense thing. Everybody looks like they
have not like. There's there's a bunch of justnudity. You can scroll down now. I'm nudity
everywhere. Yeah. Lots of naked naked women. andvery long nipples. The long end of nipples. Well,
(24:44):
that was clearly her devil's mark. Or the factmaybe she's breastfeeding. She looks to be
elderly. But if you've got digits sticking out ofyour mammaries. I knew the seizure was just going
to mess with your brain for the next forever. AndI'm not sorry. No. Terrary. You're right. This
(25:08):
image is haunting. Yeah. It's gnarly. But this issupposed to be, my understanding is this is a
description of the debauchery that occurred tomake the storms that caused James and Anne's ships
to be waylaid. Now, not that it matters because heallowed this to happen in the first place. But
(25:34):
later in life, he sort of recanted on his stance onwitchcraft and was like, well, maybe they weren't
actually doing the things they said. But like, youknow, this is years later by that point. And you
already condemned them to death. So there's that.Yeah. You can't go free them from their grave and be
(25:56):
like, all right, you've served your time. Where'sthat cat in the dead man's bones? Maybe we can get
them back. Yeah. So that is just a brief overview ofthe North Berwick witch trials. There's so much
more history that's surrounded and surround thetime. But I thought it would be just a fun little way
(26:22):
to torture people. Sorry. I appreciate that.You're not sorry. Let's don't lie. We've been
together for 144 episodes. We don't lie to notbecome us. Yeah. Now is not the time. I am going to
tell you about the lady of Crescent Lake. OfCrescent Lake? Correct. No, you said? Yeah.
(26:48):
Crescent Lake. My sources, historylink.org,true crime, the lady of the lake by Mavis Amundsen,
Olympic National Park, the lady of Crescent Lake,nation's vacation, spooky national park
experiences, this Halloween, Seattle TerrorsOlympic National Park. So you have no idea. We are
(27:13):
sticking to the Pacific Northwest for this one. Weare headed to our national parks and I did not
include the National Park Service. My God, are youokay? You know, I don't even mention syphilis.
Damn. Sorry, Alessandro. We're falling down. Ibet you James had syphilis. One can only hope. I
(27:37):
don't know, but maybe. Okay, so Crescent Lake andOlympic National Park for those playing at home,
it's apparently no stranger to bloody stories.There's a legend of two local tribes that a bloody
battle beneath Mount Storm King happened, thatthe mountain became angry, it broke off a hunk of
(28:02):
rock at its peak and the mountain threw into avalley over the battlefield and the rock killed
warriors, it dammed up the river and that's how theCrescent Lake was formed. Okay, that's the hell of
a story already. Okay. And then generations ofindigenous people would go near the lake because
(28:23):
of the legend. Smart. They also had this beliefthat Crescent Lake never gave up its dead. Ooh,
okay. That was a lake like that in Michigan. Okay.Now, the lake held on to its dead until the lady of
(28:45):
the lake surfaced in 1940. Okay, you ready? Doesshe have a knife and is she handing out government?
Handing out government? Yeah. Oh, sorry. You'rethinking of the Ethereum legend. A watery thing
passing up. So, while it's the heath of Mawney,Python and the Holy Grail, but I guess it all goes
back to the Arthinian legend, yeah. Okay. So,Hailey Latham Illingworth, she'd arrived to the
(29:12):
Annipa Pulissa, she'd arrived to the OlympicPeninsula about three years earlier and she'd
gone through two failed marriages. Okay. Again.That is unfortunate. This is the late 30s. So, not
the best of times to have a couple notches on yourbelt. Yeah. She's a little lady. Yep. January 8th,
(29:35):
she's born 1901. She's born to a farm couple inGreensville, Kentucky. And she's a young adult
when she kept repeatedly moving west and she'ssearching for a better life. And somehow she finds
herself west of west at the Crescent Lake Tavern.It's now called Lake Crescent Lodge. So, if you're
(29:55):
there. Okay. Okay. And it's here that she met a dudenamed Monty Illingworth and he becomes her third
husband June 16th, 1936. Okay. Let's do it. Now,they apparently did not have the best of
marriages. The word used to describe it asvolatile. Okay. And she had the habit of choosing
(30:22):
the wrong man as indicated by two failedmarriages. Now, Monty, he has this habit of not
hiding the fact that he's a white beater. Oh, goodfor him. At least he's doing it out in the open. He's
living his authentic life. Truly. And so she comesto work with bruises and black eyes. Oh. And she
(30:45):
confides to a coworker that Monty had choked herand broken one of her teeth. Oh. Super chill. Okay.
Now, five months into their marriage. So, thehoneymoon phase came and went pretty quickly.
Clearly, yes. They get into a pre-dawn fight sofierce the police are called to break it up. Okay.
(31:12):
Pre-dawn, which either means you fought all nightlong or you woke up with a passion. Yeah. Okay. And
Halle shows up for work at a Port Angelesrestaurant with bruises on her face and arms. And
then the holidays approach in 1937 and shedisappears. I was hoping she was going to leave
(31:39):
them. Yeah. We don't get to stories like Lady of theLake with this kind of opening and you thinking
that she's going to make it out alive. Yeah. I guessthat's true. Thanks. You're welcome. I'm just
here for the realism. And it's the night andmorning of December 21st, 22nd that she just turns
(32:05):
up missing. Those are the, it's some time in thattimeframe, right? Monti, he starts telling
friends that his wife had run off with a sailor fromAlaska. Okay. Is that common? Do we get a lot of
sailors from Alaska in this area? You know, I can'tsay that I've been to Olympic National Park and
asked around, but okay. I'm not that close to thenorthern part of Washington. Yeah. I'm just
(32:35):
thinking it, okay, because this is going to sounddumb, but in the book I just read, multiple women
run off with Spanish sailors because they dock inBoston. Okay. You know what? Yeah. So I was
thinking, oh, I wonder if this is like acommonality during the time. Maybe. I don't know.
Run off with the ship and sailor. Yeah. Okay. Buteither way, months go by. Her close knit family,
(33:01):
they haven't heard a damn thing from her. I hatethis. Yep. And there's a bunch of suspicion, but
Monti is granted a divorce in 1938. And it's herethat he moves to California with the roommate of
Halle's sister. So Halle's sister's roommate.Yes. I hate that. Okay. All right. You said that and
(33:25):
I had to like go back through and draw his diagram.Like what am I talking about? Yeah. What's the
family tree here? Now apparently it was rumoredthat he'd been seeing her romantically,
biblically before Halle's disappearance. So, sohe's a philanthropist in Philander. Philander.
(33:46):
Philander. Not a philanthropist. He's not givingmoney to charities. He's giving other things. I
was going to say, or he's giving money to charity.That could be her name. That could be her name.
Anyway, carry on. Okay. But it's then on July 6,1940, almost three years after she disappears,
(34:06):
that two fishermen spotted the body of a woman, thelady at the lake floating on the surface of Lake
Crescent. Now, the body's taken to Port Angelesand that's where a young medical student, Harlan
McNutt, examined it. He noted the upper part of herface, her upper lip and her nose are gone. And
that's because her hands, like, oh, so little bitsare exposed, fingertips are exposed as well. And
(34:33):
so it seems that there's a little bit of predationand that, but she's remarkably well preserved.
So, okay. Her, there's a little bit of an issuebecause there's an unusual state to this corpse.
The dead woman's flesh had turned into somethinglike ivory soap, McNutt described. Like, okay.
(35:02):
Like it had gone through this condition known assapification. Oh, that's a word. All right. Yeah.
So, just in case you're wondering, under the rightconditions, you too can become soap. I'm good. I'm
so good. I don't want to be soap. Yeah. Like, likefight club, but meets true crime. Great. Yeah. And
(35:27):
okay. So Crescent Lake's depth isn't known withany certainty, but there's parts that are likely
deeper than a thousand feet. And so the body hadbeen submerged in the deep waters of the lake and
the cold had prevented decomposition. And thenthere's salts and calcium in the water that slowly
converted the tissue into a mineral-like soapcalled adipocere. I probably said that wrong. And
(35:53):
it's just like soap. And the body, when convertedin this matter, floats. And so even though it
eventually down, there's ropes that have beenconnecting to the weights and eventually those
ropes decayed and not cause the body to just goright up. Right. Okay. That makes sense. So
because, you know, there's a couple of issues onthe face. There was no ability for facial
(36:16):
recognition or fingerprints. They were able tomake a positive ID on the body as Haley
Lillingworth or Illingworth had, because of herphysical max, she had hair color, they had dental
record, they had dental records, dental records.That's amazing. Okay. And see like side story.
When I had to have a little bit of oral surgery, theygave me laughing gas. And as they're waiting for it
(36:45):
to kick in, I probably scared the bejesus out of thepoor tech in the room with me because I said, hey, do
you have any questions? I was like, I do. Is there adatabase for all of our dental records to go in that
maybe corresponds with missing persons so thatyou guys could like match dental records like on a
national level. Like I'm thinking like DNA, likefingerprint, like, yeah, I thought there was.
(37:11):
There's not. Oh, and, and so you call every dentistin town. You have to know, hey, my wife, Teresa is
missing. Great. Can I get a hold? What? Who is herdentist name? Can I get those records signed over
and then can we upload it and then manually test?Not like, we've got a Jane Doe. We're going to run
her teeth against the record. Okay. That'sinsane. I thought it was a national database. It
(37:38):
should be agreed. Okay, but there's not. Butanyhow, they're able to match our girl Haley.
Okay. Because of dental records. That's amazing.Yeah. Okay. So there's a visual inspection of the
body and that, and then they also have a subsequentautopsy. This kind of gives more detail. They're
(37:59):
able, despite the fact this body is nearly threeyears old and has, you know, just been lost,
they're able to see that she met this super violentdeath. Her neck is bruised. It's discolored. Her
chest shows evidence of extensive, extensivehemorrhaging. Oh, it shows that she'd been beaten
(38:19):
and strangled. And though that there was littlewith which to make an identification, the body had
a distinctive upper dental plate. And that's theclue that they were able to use to hunt down who she
was and then subsequently back to her killer. Wow.Okay. So they're able to get a hold of a South Dakota
(38:41):
dentist who identified the dental plate as onethat he'd made for her several years before. Okay.
So again, that's like having to be like, okay, andwho is her dentist? Oh, I have to like go from
Washington. Six states away. Okay. Yeah. To usesome code on town to find this. Okay. Now, they also
have another clue. The police had the rope that wasused to tie it onto the weights. The rope was
(39:08):
peculiar to Sears and Roebuck. And you see theywere able to track it down to the tavern owner who
had bought it to tie it boats. And the tavern owner,he remembers that a beer salesman had borrowed
about 100 feet of rope to pull his truck out of themud, but he never returned the rope. That is wild.
Like so much rope is probably bought and soldthrough Sears at the time that you would be able to
(39:32):
match that back that way. And do you know who thebeer salesman was? Her husband. Monty. Yeah.
Because it always is. It's always the husband. I'mdevastated. Like I really wanted it to not be this
time. You know, yeah. When it's not, it makes news,but it's the husband. So the investigators, they
(39:54):
close in on Monty, who's living in Long Beach,California. And on October 26, 1941, he's
arrested and taken into custody by L.A. Sheriff'sdeputies. It's not long after he's charged with
murder, brought back to Port Angeles and put ontrial for Haley's murder in Callum County
Superior Court. The trial begins February 24,1942. And was so sensational that it compete with
(40:22):
news from the front lines of World War II. Wow. Imean, yeah. I mean, you find this nearly perfectly
preserved body that's turned to soap. Yeah. It'sgot like what? I think it would have been smart of
him to join the military. He would have been able tolike, I don't know. But I'm assuming. He's
(40:46):
probably a little bit too old. Oh, yeah. You gottawait for the war to get going a little bit where
we're really needing troops. Yeah. At this point,you know, it's like, how are your knees? You look
like your knees hurt. Your knees hurt. Yeah, wedon't need you. You can stay home a little longer.
Yeah. So the trial developments are splashedacross the front pages of local newspapers daily,
(41:13):
daily. Like this was the OJ Simpson trial of thetime. Spectators are arriving early. We've got
homemakers, teenagers, and just your standardtrue crime lovers that are in the courtroom for
this nine day trial. Okay. And Monty's defense isat the dead one, not Haley. He swears. She's a lot.
(41:37):
Last time I saw her, she was alive. Where did you seeher last time then, Bob? As I tied the weights to her
and dropped her into the lake. Oh, I'm sorry. Istrikes that from record. I didn't mean to say
that. Oh, those were my inside thoughts. Thedentist from South Dakota, he's a credible
witness and he insisted that the dental plate isHalley's. There's no way, no ANZIF or BUDS. That's
(42:03):
hers. I made it. That's hers. Moreover, herfriends identify the clothes worn by the dead
woman belong to Halley. And the key evidence ofthat rope? Yep. Monty had borrowed 50 feet of rope
from the storekeeper at the lake and the storestill had remnants of the rope and the fibers
matched. Wow. Monty really did himself in, didn'the? Yep. So it took the jurors four hours to reach a
(42:30):
verdict and on March 5, 1942, the jury foundIllingsworth guilty of psychotry murder and he
was sentenced to life imprisonment at WashingtonState Penitentiary in Walla Walla. And he served
nine years prison. He's paroled 1951 and he diedNovember 5, 1974 in Los Alamitos, California. I
(42:53):
don't like that he had several years out. But Imean, okay. Yeah, I agree with that. Like, what'd
you get out on parole for? I mean, and he was only innine years. Your crimes were violent, Bub. You're
not rehabilitated from that. Yep. Now,especially not in the 40s and 50s. You would think.
Yeah. But either way, it's just, we really need alot of reform here, but these are things. There's a
(43:21):
contemporary of Haley's that later observed thather murder was probably not premeditated. They
probably got into their standard fight in theirapartment in December of that, you know, that 1937
night. And it probably took a violent turn as perusual and then escalated and he probably
strangled her to death. Hollis Fultz, acriminologist at Washington State Attorney
(43:46):
General's Office who'd helped investigate themurder, he maintained that Monty tried to conceal
the crime by placing his wife's lifeless body inthe trunk of his car and driving the lake crescent.
Monty then stopped in the vicinity of the presentday, logged Cabin Resort and wiped his, wrapped
his wife's body in blankets and tied the bundlewith a rope. He then put the body in a rowboat,
(44:09):
attached weights to the bundle, rode into deepwater and then dropped the bundle into dark
waters. And then the rumors started circlingduring the murder investigation that Monty
didn't act alone, but no one other than Monty wasever charged with the crime. Oh, so he has an
accomplice. Maybe, but I, you know, like, I thinkprobably not. I'm going to assume there is no
(44:32):
accomplice, that that was just a rumor. Like wedidn't check out the tavern guy wasn't involved? I
mean, I'm sure we probably checked out we couldn'tfind anything, but we're like, this was so
heinous, we have to have more people involved.Yeah, we've learned that that's not in fact the
case. Right. Now, it's rumored that her ghostlingers near Devil's Punch Bowl, which is a
(44:53):
popular swimming spot. Oh, I'm familiar. I'mfamiliar with Devil's Punch Bowl. There you go.
This is a long one. If I was going to hauntsomething. I mean, at least some were pretty,
right? Yeah. And this is kind of the area where herbody found that was wrapped in blankets tied with
rope. And then visitors to the area have reportedseeing a spectral figure gliding across the water
(45:16):
or simply standing on the shoreline at dusk. Oh,sometimes people hear faint cries or muffled
screams at night. Now, I'm going to call hogwashthere because we've got cougars. I was just
thinking that exact same thing. And boy, likethere was one time, Hubs and I got into a discussion
(45:38):
about what a cougar sounds like. And I said thatit's terrifying. It sounds like woman screaming.
It's like, if you hear it, no, you didn't. Yeah,don't go on check. And he's like, what do you mean?
And I pull up YouTube videos with the sounds and hegoes, oh, yeah, no, no, no, I'm good. I'm good. So
(46:00):
there's that. We've got that going for us. There'salso reports of sudden cold spots on summer days.
Okay. I don't know how I feel about cold spots, butI'd be like, hey, look, an air conditioned spot on a
100 degree day. I'm going to maintain here. Youguys carry on. I think I'll sit with this ghost.
Thank you so much. Yeah. We're having a nice chill.I'm getting my water bottle out literally. I'm
(46:25):
going to have my granola bar. You go ahead. Don'tsit too close to me. I'm fine. Now visitors to the
area. Oh, I already said that. At the infamous LakeCrescent Lodge where Hallie wants to work, guests
and staff have reported eerie conditions.They've experienced flickering lights,
unexplained footprints or footsteps, and doorslocking and unlocking on their own. Okay. And then
(46:51):
Hallie isn't the only one that was found in thewaters in Lake Crescent. In 2002, a Chevy was
pulled from the water revealing the bodies of acouple who went missing in 1929. So the Chevy and
the couple were recovered? Yep. That is insane.Were they also soap? Unclear. It's not said. So
(47:14):
maybe it doesn't say that they weren't soap. Okay.But that really kind of makes me interested
because it's not like I could find all of thesereports of like, hey, these strange things
happened. And then I found out that there was aghost. It seemed like we'd all heard this story.
And then we went there and we saw the ghost. So wesort of made ourselves believe that the ghost is
(47:40):
there. That's kind of what I'm feeling. Yeah.Because nobody was claiming to see the ghost
before she turned up. Yeah, that checks. Thatchecks. But that's how urban legends start
though, right? That's the truth. I mean, we hearthis horrible thing happened and then we go out and
we like, oh my gosh, I see the pattern. I see thething. I feel the breeze. This is a cold spot. Ergo
(48:05):
ghost. Always. Yeah. But the fact that it turnedinto soap, that was like one of the craziest things
that I. Yes, that's not an end I want to meet. So whenyou grab a bar of soap that had been sitting
submerged in the water too long and it's a bitspongy. Thank you. You're welcome. Cool. Yeah,
(48:29):
I'm here. You want to hear about torturing withboots again? You know, I don't know if either of us
had the ability to really get into the water. Wewere really in the story and so I'm grateful we both
took a swing and failed two times. Consider it awin. We did it. I'm not going to apologize to our
(48:50):
listeners this time. No, you know what? It'sspooky season. Tune in next month. Be spooky. And
on that note, goodbye. Bye. Bye.
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