July 10, 2024 • 21 mins
We've all seen the insane headlines "Florida man.... blows up mausoleum", "Florida man...corpse turns into a bomb", etc.. This week Michelle and Edwin dive into some weird and horrifyingly true stories that inspired those headlines.
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Hosted by Michelle Newman and Edwin Covarrubias. Episode edited & sound designed by Sarah Vorhees Wendel of VW Sound
Scary Mystery Surprise (Campfire Story) is no longer being updated, but be sure to check out our other shows from Scary.fm for more scares!
Do you have an idea for an episode theme? email us: hello@campfirestory.com
Get ad-free episodes and support the show at CampfireStory.com
Hosted by Michelle Newman and Edwin Covarrubias. Episode edited & sound designed by Sarah Vorhees Wendel of VW Sound
Scary Mystery Surprise (Campfire Story) is no longer being updated, but be sure to check out our other shows from Scary.fm for more scares!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Pieces of his body, guts,everything flew everywhere. Remember this is just
a three day old, freshly deadbody. Get ready for a campfire story.
I'm Edwin, I'm Michelle, andwe'll share spooky stories with playful banter
(00:21):
that'll keep you up at night.So throw some wood on the fire and
put a wiener on a stick.We're telling you a campfire story. Tonight,
Edwin, I present for you thestory the Doctor that Kept the Dead
Girl. When Karl was a childin Germany, he was regularly visited by
(00:47):
the spirit of a dead relative.This was normal for him. The spirit
would show him images in his dreamsof a dark haired, exotic looking woman
and told him this was the faceof his one true love. As an
adult, Carl became a doctor,married and had two children, immigrated to
(01:10):
America, but he never forgot thevisions of his true love. By the
time he was fifty three, hehad left his family and was working in
Key West, Florida as a radiologist. That's when the woman from his dreams
walked into his life. It's likea Disney love story. Hold tight on
(01:34):
that. Elena was a stunning localbeauty and had come to the hospital seeking
treatment for tuberculosis at only twenty Thatdiagnosis was a death sentence. Over the
next eighteen months, Carl became obsessedto cure the woman that he considered his
one true love. He brought Xray equipment to her home for personalized treatments,
(02:00):
order with jewelry clothing, professing hislove to her every day, even
though he was still illegally married andthere was a thirty three year age gap.
Sadly, Elena died and there's norecord that she ever reciprocated any of
his feelings, by the way,so Carl was devastated by the death of
(02:21):
his one true love. He immediatelymade a death mask of her face,
which you know people do culturally.I don't understand. I've never understood why
people do that, but you know, he did that, and then with
the permission of Elena's family, hepaid for the funeral and then constructed an
above ground mausoleum in the Key WestCemetery. He then insists on an airtight
(02:46):
casket with an incubator tank full offormaldehyde to prevent decay, and then he
proceeds to visit the mausoleum every night, where he says her spirit routinely popped
up to sing to him. Anyway, one night, two years into him,
you know, routinely visiting her mausoleumwith her song in his head,
(03:09):
Carl creeps into the cemetery with alittle toy wagon, where he removes her
corpse from the mausoleum and wheels iton home. Next So, anyway,
Elena's body's laying in his bed andhe's making sweet, sweet love to it.
As time goes by, Elena's bodystarts to decay. Carl starts to
(03:30):
use piano wire to keep her together, fits her face with glass eyes,
replaces her decomposing skin with silk clothsoaked in wax, and gets rid of
all the maggots, and uses perfumesand preserving agents to mask the smell and
to stop the riting. Are youin shock, o, maggots man?
(03:52):
Anyway, seven years of bliss goby for Carl. What is this whole
story? Oh no, and itgets weirder. There's like some levels of
weirdness. This isn't even that weirdyet. So seven years of bliss go
by for Karl. Rumors are swirlingaround about his odd behavior. Those who
(04:15):
remember his frequent visits to the mausoleum, wonder why he suddenly stopped coming.
His neighbors find it curious that heroutinely buys women's clothes and lots of perfume,
and a boy claims to see Carlin the window dancing with what looked
like a supersized doll. Finally,Elena's sister gets suspicious and she marches over
(04:40):
to his house, and Carl willinglyshows off Elena's body, or what's left
of it, in his bedroom.He's instantly arrested for wantonly and maliciously destroying
a grave and removing a body withoutauthorization, and is examined by chiatrists and
(05:00):
declared sane, and the story makesheadlines in Florida, of course, classic
Florida man's story, and the publicconsiders, actually considers Carl a hopeless romantic
who's just an eccentric, misunderstood oldman who needs to have sex with a
young girl's dead body. And sothere's even a public viewing of Elena's body,
(05:24):
and eighty five hundred people came tosee it. Isn't that weird?
Like that's how big this story was, So with public support of his love
and frankly madness Carl asks if hecould have Elena's body back so they can
go back to their happy life together, but his request is denied. Elena
(05:46):
is actually reburied in a secret,unmarked grave, so he can't go digger
up again, so the family keepsit a secret. But then furious Carl
set off a bomb Elena's mule asa way to show the authorities quote unquote
wantonly and maliciously destroying a grave whatthat really looks like. Carl goes on
(06:11):
to live another twelve years before dyingalone. In his final diary entry,
he writes, human jealousy has robbedme of the body of my Elena.
Yet divine happiness is flowing through me, for she has survived death, forever
and ever. She is with me. Three weeks after his death, his
body was found in his apartment nextto a homemade life sized doll wearing Elena's
(06:39):
death mask. Love. I'm tellingyou things you do for love. It's
his one true love. So thirtythree years be damned, death, be
damned. That is disgusting. That'sa disgusting story. Florida. Uh,
(07:00):
something's in the water in Florida.Yeah, Floria. You know when you
first started telling me about the guywith his one true love and everything.
I did feel kind of bad.Fro hm, I'll admit, because I
think I told you about this imagethat really traumatized me back when now I
was like in middle school or highschool or something. No, I don't
know if you did. They showedme this picture from like rotten dot com
(07:21):
of this guy and there is thiswoman next to him who's not alive,
and this guy smiling, and Ithink the caption was like notice anything wrong
with this picture or something. Andwhen they showed it to me, I
was like, oh my god,Like she's dead, Like she's dead,
like she I've never seen a pictureof a dead person, Like I've never
(07:44):
by that time, I had neverseen a dead person at all. Yeah.
And you know you can see thatthe eyes aren't there, like I
said, they're just not alive.You can She's not looking at anything.
No expression is like really thin,like sucked in face. Bizarre and traumatizing.
We talked about it. We're like, do you feel bad for him?
Like do you think that's his wife? And like he just really misses
her and like this is so messedup, and like he just wants to
(08:05):
keep her close or just some sicko. I'd go with the sicko on that.
So what you're saying is that thisdidn't form a fetish for you when
you saw that dead woman, youweren't like, you weren't like this,
is it? I feel bad forthis guy, Like if his wife died,
he doesn't want to say bye toher yet That's what I thought back
then, But it was gross still, It's just I thought of like,
(08:28):
I mean, it's weird to takea selfie with a dead body. I
mean, I took a selfie witha bog body, but that person's been
dead for three million years? Isthat any better than I mean, I
wouldn't have. But also, likethey don't have wastes anymore so Florida.
(08:50):
So if we go back like eightyyears in Florida, we have a whole
different landscape, right. And whenyou told me about the Florida's story,
I had to look up some stuff, obviously, and I found so many
things about Florida to live in Florida, which I think is funny that you
did. Yeah, kick maverl it'sa strange place, and to imagine it,
(09:11):
I always thought that like in theduring the Civil War times or a
little bit before then, there wasnothing there. I always thought Florida was
just empty. I don't know why. I just imagined it as like a
yeah, and it wasn't like no, It's always had people there for a
long time. And we all lovea little bit of history. So I'm
going to take you through the lifeof a Florida man who became a well
known figure. Okay, unlike allthe headlines that we hear that include Florida
(09:37):
man a tax girlfriend with a banana, Florida man blame's paranormal activity for driving
car missing two tires, Florida mandrives stolen truck to Space four space to
warn of battle between aliens and dragons. All real, by the way,
this one it's more historical. We'regoing back to Florida, Sa Augustine in
(10:01):
the eighteen sixties. At this pointwere right before the start of the Civil
War in the United States. Churcheswere being built and repaired around Saint Augustine
Jacksonville, Key West, and oneof these priests that was helping out with
everything was Augustine Vero. People werearguing about slavery at the time and how
it was okay how it wasn't okay. Religion was spreading with the Catholics,
(10:22):
Christians, Protestants, like all thesepeople, this mix of who's going to
win, who's gonna the usual humanexperience. Right. So this guy,
Augustine Vero had just immigrated and theywere along with the Catholics who were trying
to find their spot. He laterbecame Bishop of Savannah and the first Roman
Catholic bishop in Saint Augustine. Healso became known as a rebel bishop through
(10:46):
his sermons defending the rights of theslave states, but he also wanted the
slaves to be treated a little bitbetter. Anyway. He died in eighteen
seventy six on a sweaty, extremelyhot Florida summer in June. And that's
where our story begins. You see, Saint Augustine has a cemetery that is
(11:07):
said to be one of the mosthaunted in the United States, the Tolo
Motto Cemetery. And before the CatholicChurch took it over, it had been
an Indian burial ground, which weall know what that means haunted, and
this is where the bishop was buried. Now, according to the Saint Augustine
Ghost City tourist page. The storyof this bishop who has a really peculiar
(11:31):
story here. You see, whenyou're a bishop, you're well respected,
and even once you're dead, peoplewant to come and see you. They
want to come and say goodbye,pay their respects. Like you're kind of
like an important person. Did alot of things, built churches, did
a lot of good so we wantto go and say proper goodbye. Funerals
usually require the body to be outfor a few days. Of all this
(11:54):
happens. Unfortunately, the funeral forthis bishop did not go. According to
Plant. To keep the bishop's bodythere for people to come and visit,
they put them in a pit withsawdust and ice, and they put them
in a casket. So there wasin a pit inside of a casket made
of iron. It was supposedly veryexpensive material, and it was the least
(12:15):
they could do for the man.I mean, he was a writer,
she was smart, studious, soto thank them for his work, they
needed to do this for him.But when I hear a face plated iron
casket in the scorching heat in themiddle of June in Florida, I think
of an oven. For three dayshe was sealed there and left in this
(12:37):
shut casket, just like slow roasting. I guess. Mourners were there quiet
on the third day, they werepaying their respects, and then he exploded.
The iron explodes. Yeah, itjust popped open and it just boom.
It just pieces of his body,guts, every thing flew everywhere.
(13:01):
Remember this is just a three dayold, freshly dead body, right.
Thankfully no one was hurt, butthey left quite abruptly, like they're just
they were like, ah, likeI've brains all over me, or have
like liquid ah. So those incharge of the funeral had to gather up
the pieces and take what remained ofhim to rest right there at Tolamadol Cemetery.
(13:26):
Now, this city, Saint Augustine, is historic, known as America's
oldest city, and it's well documentedthat the streets were built on top of
graves of yellow fever victims. Protestantvictims of the yellow fever were not allowed
to be buried within the city andhad to go outside the city walls and
be buried there. So, alongwith this bishop's story, which I found
super interesting, I also found someother ghost stories, not necessarily like Florida
(13:52):
man stories, but like more aboutthe cemetery, and for this Bishops was
collected and placed to rest. Therewas this ghost story of this five year
old kid, his name is JamesP. Morgan, who liked to climb
trees, hang out in the branches, and one day in November eighteen seventy
seven, he climbed the giant oaktree. He slipped, fell and landed
(14:16):
hard of the dirt of Tolamado Cemetery, where he broke his neck and died.
Fortunately, though, the Morgan familyhad already bought plots in the cemetery
under that same tree, so that'sconvenient. I mean, the family wanted
all of them to be buried togetherso they could be there forever, but
no one was expecting to have touse a plot so soon, so they
(14:39):
did bury him there. But theycouldn't stand the pain of his death so
early on, so they left SaintAugustine forever, leaving their son alone by
himself. Now, little James isseen running around, happy, laughing,
going up that tree and sitting inthe giant oak tree watching people that walk
(15:00):
by. Some people see him andtell him to get down because he can
hurt himself, but he doesn't respond. He simply just stares at them.
Another one of these tales that weremain here in Florida has a tale of
this Apop'nack's tree. I don't knowif I've pronounced that right. Biologists and
(15:20):
treatists, please let me know.In the nineteenth century, people were freaking
out about being buried alive. Didyou know about that? Yeah? I
always kind of like, can theylike install like bells and stuff in case
they needed to ring a bell toget out of their coffin? But those
things cost money, right, Soit was expensive, so not everybody could
(15:41):
afford that, so a lot ofpeople were buried alive. Unfortunately, there
was this war veteran and lawyer,Colonel Joseph Smith. He had started his
new life in Saint Augustine when hemet a young couple at a party.
They met for dinner, and that'swhen he learned that the young woman was
ill and was eyeing. So shedied the following week. The husband,
(16:03):
hurt, obviously, invited his newfriend, the colonel, to the funeral
to participate in this ritual that theydid, delivering the dead person to the
cemetery seated in a chair. Everythingwas well decorated. The woman's body bounced
and moved around the chair as itmade their way to the cemetery from the
church. I don't know what religionthis is, but it sounds kind of
(16:26):
cool being in a chair. Sothey're taking this woman's body to the cemetery
and then they pass under in apoppin neck's tree in the graveyard, and
that's when the young woman's forehead hitsa branch. Blood started leaking into her
eyes, and as blood hits hereyes, she kind of like winces her
eyes like she kind of goes likethe colonel saw this right, and he's
(16:51):
like, yo, the eyes likethis woman's alive. Nobody was believing him,
and he's like no, seriously,Like the eyes just moved, like
and why is she bleeding? Likewhat's going on. Eventually, though,
they brought the body back to theirhome and they just kind of lay her
there for several days, and thenshe suddenly wakes up in her bed and
(17:15):
the colonel was said to have savedthe young woman's life. Six years later,
though, she actually died and theyleft her there for a week just
to make sure that she was actuallydead. The husband wanted to do the
ritual again, but asked not topass by that tree. He didn't want
to get his hopes up. Understandable, we get a bunch of these stories
(17:38):
in old Florida. I don't knowif it was as insane as it appears
now it's I mean, I feellike we bullied Florida a lot. Some
of it is justified, some ofit is just like humans being humans are
Florida listeners. Obviously you're the exception, right, so obviously just to make
sure. But this is one ofthose places where I think it's something about,
(18:00):
you know, the weather, tothe soil, the area in general.
It's so different than everything else.It feels very jungly to me,
like that part of the South,but still super interesting. My point here
is that we could take one ofthese stories and just kind of turn it
into a funky headline religious Florida manexplodes at burial, Florida family abandoned sun
(18:21):
for an eternity. Or Florida mankeeps woman in bed for a week after
she died just in case. Mystory would be like Florida man lives happily
with corpse for seven years. Ifthose stories happen today, like it would,
you could see these headlines they're justlike that, so still bizarre place
never been. Now it's time forfan corner, fan fan Cornery. This
(18:49):
comment is from Anthony. Love Love, love this podcast. The chemistry between
you two is amazing and hilarious.I have to Edwin for a long time
on his other podcast, and it'sfunny and interesting to hear him in a
different light, basically being freaked outby things. Michelle says, hu,
huh, keep up the good work. Thanks. That was kind of the
(19:12):
point I think when we started theshow, right, I was like,
ah, because people don't really hearme like reactingly. You're very easily grossed
out Edwin, So that is true. A lot of people don't know that,
but I am. And thank youAnthony for writing in. Okay.
This message is from Madeline. Iheard fans can leave messages now, so
I have listened to SMS podcasts sinceit started, and I'm a fan.
(19:36):
You both make me laugh about theweirdness and scary things that keep me amused,
and I learned something new every time. Thanks. And then you know
smiley blushy emoji yay. Well weare good teachers. Yeah, for some
reason, we do educate, butalso we encourage everyone to actually look up
(19:56):
the information. Yes, don't trustthat verify our fans. But thank you
Madeline for your comment, and Ihope you enjoy camp Fire Story as much
as you enjoy Scary Mystery Surprise.Since it's almost the same show, I
hope join us in this transition,this awkward stage. If you have any
comments, feel free to leave amessage. We'd love to hear your voices
(20:19):
on our website, campfirestory dot com, and you can record an Instagram voice
message as well and we'll play iton the show. Or you can just
write us a little comment. I'mfine reading those out loud. If you
want to keep up to date andsupport the show, check out Scary Mystery
Club at scarymistery club dot com.Big shout out to Laurie, Amanda Gonzalez,
(20:42):
Sophia, Kevin, Hannah, Tia, Maggie, the Archists, and
Alex. Thanks a lot, Thanksa lot for your support helping us out
and join the Scary Mystery Club andget shouted out and support the show and
join us next week at the campfirethat never goes out until we put it
(21:07):
out because that's fire safety. CampfireStory is hosted by Michelle Newman and Edwin
Karubias. This podcast was edited andsound designed by Sarah Vorhez Wendel, a VW Sound
Pieces of his body, guts,everything flew everywhere. Remember this is just
a three day old, freshly deadbody. Get ready for a campfire story.
I'm Edwin, I'm Michelle, andwe'll share spooky stories with playful banter
(00:21):
that'll keep you up at night.So throw some wood on the fire and
put a wiener on a stick.We're telling you a campfire story. Tonight,
Edwin, I present for you thestory the Doctor that Kept the Dead
Girl. When Karl was a childin Germany, he was regularly visited by
(00:47):
the spirit of a dead relative.This was normal for him. The spirit
would show him images in his dreamsof a dark haired, exotic looking woman
and told him this was the faceof his one true love. As an
adult, Carl became a doctor,married and had two children, immigrated to
(01:10):
America, but he never forgot thevisions of his true love. By the
time he was fifty three, hehad left his family and was working in
Key West, Florida as a radiologist. That's when the woman from his dreams
walked into his life. It's likea Disney love story. Hold tight on
(01:34):
that. Elena was a stunning localbeauty and had come to the hospital seeking
treatment for tuberculosis at only twenty Thatdiagnosis was a death sentence. Over the
next eighteen months, Carl became obsessedto cure the woman that he considered his
one true love. He brought Xray equipment to her home for personalized treatments,
(02:00):
order with jewelry clothing, professing hislove to her every day, even
though he was still illegally married andthere was a thirty three year age gap.
Sadly, Elena died and there's norecord that she ever reciprocated any of
his feelings, by the way,so Carl was devastated by the death of
(02:21):
his one true love. He immediatelymade a death mask of her face,
which you know people do culturally.I don't understand. I've never understood why
people do that, but you know, he did that, and then with
the permission of Elena's family, hepaid for the funeral and then constructed an
above ground mausoleum in the Key WestCemetery. He then insists on an airtight
(02:46):
casket with an incubator tank full offormaldehyde to prevent decay, and then he
proceeds to visit the mausoleum every night, where he says her spirit routinely popped
up to sing to him. Anyway, one night, two years into him,
you know, routinely visiting her mausoleumwith her song in his head,
(03:09):
Carl creeps into the cemetery with alittle toy wagon, where he removes her
corpse from the mausoleum and wheels iton home. Next So, anyway,
Elena's body's laying in his bed andhe's making sweet, sweet love to it.
As time goes by, Elena's bodystarts to decay. Carl starts to
(03:30):
use piano wire to keep her together, fits her face with glass eyes,
replaces her decomposing skin with silk clothsoaked in wax, and gets rid of
all the maggots, and uses perfumesand preserving agents to mask the smell and
to stop the riting. Are youin shock, o, maggots man?
(03:52):
Anyway, seven years of bliss goby for Carl. What is this whole
story? Oh no, and itgets weirder. There's like some levels of
weirdness. This isn't even that weirdyet. So seven years of bliss go
by for Karl. Rumors are swirlingaround about his odd behavior. Those who
(04:15):
remember his frequent visits to the mausoleum, wonder why he suddenly stopped coming.
His neighbors find it curious that heroutinely buys women's clothes and lots of perfume,
and a boy claims to see Carlin the window dancing with what looked
like a supersized doll. Finally,Elena's sister gets suspicious and she marches over
(04:40):
to his house, and Carl willinglyshows off Elena's body, or what's left
of it, in his bedroom.He's instantly arrested for wantonly and maliciously destroying
a grave and removing a body withoutauthorization, and is examined by chiatrists and
(05:00):
declared sane, and the story makesheadlines in Florida, of course, classic
Florida man's story, and the publicconsiders, actually considers Carl a hopeless romantic
who's just an eccentric, misunderstood oldman who needs to have sex with a
young girl's dead body. And sothere's even a public viewing of Elena's body,
(05:24):
and eighty five hundred people came tosee it. Isn't that weird?
Like that's how big this story was, So with public support of his love
and frankly madness Carl asks if hecould have Elena's body back so they can
go back to their happy life together, but his request is denied. Elena
(05:46):
is actually reburied in a secret,unmarked grave, so he can't go digger
up again, so the family keepsit a secret. But then furious Carl
set off a bomb Elena's mule asa way to show the authorities quote unquote
wantonly and maliciously destroying a grave whatthat really looks like. Carl goes on
(06:11):
to live another twelve years before dyingalone. In his final diary entry,
he writes, human jealousy has robbedme of the body of my Elena.
Yet divine happiness is flowing through me, for she has survived death, forever
and ever. She is with me. Three weeks after his death, his
body was found in his apartment nextto a homemade life sized doll wearing Elena's
(06:39):
death mask. Love. I'm tellingyou things you do for love. It's
his one true love. So thirtythree years be damned, death, be
damned. That is disgusting. That'sa disgusting story. Florida. Uh,
(07:00):
something's in the water in Florida.Yeah, Floria. You know when you
first started telling me about the guywith his one true love and everything.
I did feel kind of bad.Fro hm, I'll admit, because I
think I told you about this imagethat really traumatized me back when now I
was like in middle school or highschool or something. No, I don't
know if you did. They showedme this picture from like rotten dot com
(07:21):
of this guy and there is thiswoman next to him who's not alive,
and this guy smiling, and Ithink the caption was like notice anything wrong
with this picture or something. Andwhen they showed it to me, I
was like, oh my god,Like she's dead, Like she's dead,
like she I've never seen a pictureof a dead person, Like I've never
(07:44):
by that time, I had neverseen a dead person at all. Yeah.
And you know you can see thatthe eyes aren't there, like I
said, they're just not alive.You can She's not looking at anything.
No expression is like really thin,like sucked in face. Bizarre and traumatizing.
We talked about it. We're like, do you feel bad for him?
Like do you think that's his wife? And like he just really misses
her and like this is so messedup, and like he just wants to
(08:05):
keep her close or just some sicko. I'd go with the sicko on that.
So what you're saying is that thisdidn't form a fetish for you when
you saw that dead woman, youweren't like, you weren't like this,
is it? I feel bad forthis guy, Like if his wife died,
he doesn't want to say bye toher yet That's what I thought back
then, But it was gross still, It's just I thought of like,
(08:28):
I mean, it's weird to takea selfie with a dead body. I
mean, I took a selfie witha bog body, but that person's been
dead for three million years? Isthat any better than I mean, I
wouldn't have. But also, likethey don't have wastes anymore so Florida.
(08:50):
So if we go back like eightyyears in Florida, we have a whole
different landscape, right. And whenyou told me about the Florida's story,
I had to look up some stuff, obviously, and I found so many
things about Florida to live in Florida, which I think is funny that you
did. Yeah, kick maverl it'sa strange place, and to imagine it,
(09:11):
I always thought that like in theduring the Civil War times or a
little bit before then, there wasnothing there. I always thought Florida was
just empty. I don't know why. I just imagined it as like a
yeah, and it wasn't like no, It's always had people there for a
long time. And we all lovea little bit of history. So I'm
going to take you through the lifeof a Florida man who became a well
known figure. Okay, unlike allthe headlines that we hear that include Florida
(09:37):
man a tax girlfriend with a banana, Florida man blame's paranormal activity for driving
car missing two tires, Florida mandrives stolen truck to Space four space to
warn of battle between aliens and dragons. All real, by the way,
this one it's more historical. We'regoing back to Florida, Sa Augustine in
(10:01):
the eighteen sixties. At this pointwere right before the start of the Civil
War in the United States. Churcheswere being built and repaired around Saint Augustine
Jacksonville, Key West, and oneof these priests that was helping out with
everything was Augustine Vero. People werearguing about slavery at the time and how
it was okay how it wasn't okay. Religion was spreading with the Catholics,
(10:22):
Christians, Protestants, like all thesepeople, this mix of who's going to
win, who's gonna the usual humanexperience. Right. So this guy,
Augustine Vero had just immigrated and theywere along with the Catholics who were trying
to find their spot. He laterbecame Bishop of Savannah and the first Roman
Catholic bishop in Saint Augustine. Healso became known as a rebel bishop through
(10:46):
his sermons defending the rights of theslave states, but he also wanted the
slaves to be treated a little bitbetter. Anyway. He died in eighteen
seventy six on a sweaty, extremelyhot Florida summer in June. And that's
where our story begins. You see, Saint Augustine has a cemetery that is
(11:07):
said to be one of the mosthaunted in the United States, the Tolo
Motto Cemetery. And before the CatholicChurch took it over, it had been
an Indian burial ground, which weall know what that means haunted, and
this is where the bishop was buried. Now, according to the Saint Augustine
Ghost City tourist page. The storyof this bishop who has a really peculiar
(11:31):
story here. You see, whenyou're a bishop, you're well respected,
and even once you're dead, peoplewant to come and see you. They
want to come and say goodbye,pay their respects. Like you're kind of
like an important person. Did alot of things, built churches, did
a lot of good so we wantto go and say proper goodbye. Funerals
usually require the body to be outfor a few days. Of all this
(11:54):
happens. Unfortunately, the funeral forthis bishop did not go. According to
Plant. To keep the bishop's bodythere for people to come and visit,
they put them in a pit withsawdust and ice, and they put them
in a casket. So there wasin a pit inside of a casket made
of iron. It was supposedly veryexpensive material, and it was the least
(12:15):
they could do for the man.I mean, he was a writer,
she was smart, studious, soto thank them for his work, they
needed to do this for him.But when I hear a face plated iron
casket in the scorching heat in themiddle of June in Florida, I think
of an oven. For three dayshe was sealed there and left in this
(12:37):
shut casket, just like slow roasting. I guess. Mourners were there quiet
on the third day, they werepaying their respects, and then he exploded.
The iron explodes. Yeah, itjust popped open and it just boom.
It just pieces of his body,guts, every thing flew everywhere.
(13:01):
Remember this is just a three dayold, freshly dead body, right.
Thankfully no one was hurt, butthey left quite abruptly, like they're just
they were like, ah, likeI've brains all over me, or have
like liquid ah. So those incharge of the funeral had to gather up
the pieces and take what remained ofhim to rest right there at Tolamadol Cemetery.
(13:26):
Now, this city, Saint Augustine, is historic, known as America's
oldest city, and it's well documentedthat the streets were built on top of
graves of yellow fever victims. Protestantvictims of the yellow fever were not allowed
to be buried within the city andhad to go outside the city walls and
be buried there. So, alongwith this bishop's story, which I found
super interesting, I also found someother ghost stories, not necessarily like Florida
(13:52):
man stories, but like more aboutthe cemetery, and for this Bishops was
collected and placed to rest. Therewas this ghost story of this five year
old kid, his name is JamesP. Morgan, who liked to climb
trees, hang out in the branches, and one day in November eighteen seventy
seven, he climbed the giant oaktree. He slipped, fell and landed
(14:16):
hard of the dirt of Tolamado Cemetery, where he broke his neck and died.
Fortunately, though, the Morgan familyhad already bought plots in the cemetery
under that same tree, so that'sconvenient. I mean, the family wanted
all of them to be buried togetherso they could be there forever, but
no one was expecting to have touse a plot so soon, so they
(14:39):
did bury him there. But theycouldn't stand the pain of his death so
early on, so they left SaintAugustine forever, leaving their son alone by
himself. Now, little James isseen running around, happy, laughing,
going up that tree and sitting inthe giant oak tree watching people that walk
(15:00):
by. Some people see him andtell him to get down because he can
hurt himself, but he doesn't respond. He simply just stares at them.
Another one of these tales that weremain here in Florida has a tale of
this Apop'nack's tree. I don't knowif I've pronounced that right. Biologists and
(15:20):
treatists, please let me know.In the nineteenth century, people were freaking
out about being buried alive. Didyou know about that? Yeah? I
always kind of like, can theylike install like bells and stuff in case
they needed to ring a bell toget out of their coffin? But those
things cost money, right, Soit was expensive, so not everybody could
(15:41):
afford that, so a lot ofpeople were buried alive. Unfortunately, there
was this war veteran and lawyer,Colonel Joseph Smith. He had started his
new life in Saint Augustine when hemet a young couple at a party.
They met for dinner, and that'swhen he learned that the young woman was
ill and was eyeing. So shedied the following week. The husband,
(16:03):
hurt, obviously, invited his newfriend, the colonel, to the funeral
to participate in this ritual that theydid, delivering the dead person to the
cemetery seated in a chair. Everythingwas well decorated. The woman's body bounced
and moved around the chair as itmade their way to the cemetery from the
church. I don't know what religionthis is, but it sounds kind of
(16:26):
cool being in a chair. Sothey're taking this woman's body to the cemetery
and then they pass under in apoppin neck's tree in the graveyard, and
that's when the young woman's forehead hitsa branch. Blood started leaking into her
eyes, and as blood hits hereyes, she kind of like winces her
eyes like she kind of goes likethe colonel saw this right, and he's
(16:51):
like, yo, the eyes likethis woman's alive. Nobody was believing him,
and he's like no, seriously,Like the eyes just moved, like
and why is she bleeding? Likewhat's going on. Eventually, though,
they brought the body back to theirhome and they just kind of lay her
there for several days, and thenshe suddenly wakes up in her bed and
(17:15):
the colonel was said to have savedthe young woman's life. Six years later,
though, she actually died and theyleft her there for a week just
to make sure that she was actuallydead. The husband wanted to do the
ritual again, but asked not topass by that tree. He didn't want
to get his hopes up. Understandable, we get a bunch of these stories
(17:38):
in old Florida. I don't knowif it was as insane as it appears
now it's I mean, I feellike we bullied Florida a lot. Some
of it is justified, some ofit is just like humans being humans are
Florida listeners. Obviously you're the exception, right, so obviously just to make
sure. But this is one ofthose places where I think it's something about,
(18:00):
you know, the weather, tothe soil, the area in general.
It's so different than everything else.It feels very jungly to me,
like that part of the South,but still super interesting. My point here
is that we could take one ofthese stories and just kind of turn it
into a funky headline religious Florida manexplodes at burial, Florida family abandoned sun
(18:21):
for an eternity. Or Florida mankeeps woman in bed for a week after
she died just in case. Mystory would be like Florida man lives happily
with corpse for seven years. Ifthose stories happen today, like it would,
you could see these headlines they're justlike that, so still bizarre place
never been. Now it's time forfan corner, fan fan Cornery. This
(18:49):
comment is from Anthony. Love Love, love this podcast. The chemistry between
you two is amazing and hilarious.I have to Edwin for a long time
on his other podcast, and it'sfunny and interesting to hear him in a
different light, basically being freaked outby things. Michelle says, hu,
huh, keep up the good work. Thanks. That was kind of the
(19:12):
point I think when we started theshow, right, I was like,
ah, because people don't really hearme like reactingly. You're very easily grossed
out Edwin, So that is true. A lot of people don't know that,
but I am. And thank youAnthony for writing in. Okay.
This message is from Madeline. Iheard fans can leave messages now, so
I have listened to SMS podcasts sinceit started, and I'm a fan.
(19:36):
You both make me laugh about theweirdness and scary things that keep me amused,
and I learned something new every time. Thanks. And then you know
smiley blushy emoji yay. Well weare good teachers. Yeah, for some
reason, we do educate, butalso we encourage everyone to actually look up
(19:56):
the information. Yes, don't trustthat verify our fans. But thank you
Madeline for your comment, and Ihope you enjoy camp Fire Story as much
as you enjoy Scary Mystery Surprise.Since it's almost the same show, I
hope join us in this transition,this awkward stage. If you have any
comments, feel free to leave amessage. We'd love to hear your voices
(20:19):
on our website, campfirestory dot com, and you can record an Instagram voice
message as well and we'll play iton the show. Or you can just
write us a little comment. I'mfine reading those out loud. If you
want to keep up to date andsupport the show, check out Scary Mystery
Club at scarymistery club dot com.Big shout out to Laurie, Amanda Gonzalez,
(20:42):
Sophia, Kevin, Hannah, Tia, Maggie, the Archists, and
Alex. Thanks a lot, Thanksa lot for your support helping us out
and join the Scary Mystery Club andget shouted out and support the show and
join us next week at the campfirethat never goes out until we put it
(21:07):
out because that's fire safety. CampfireStory is hosted by Michelle Newman and Edwin
Karubias. This podcast was edited andsound designed by Sarah Vorhez Wendel, a VW Sound
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