Eerie News with M.P. Pellicer | STORIES: The Phantoms of Oxford and more! - Eerie News

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, everybody, This is Marlene was earing news and today
you know, let's let's go back into how's this. Let's
go back into true true crime, as in, sometimes you

(00:22):
know who did it, and you know some of the victims,
but it remains just as mysterious as ever because number one,
you don't have a name for all the victims, and
number two, you're not sure if you have all the
victims right. And this is this is something that unfortunately

(00:44):
in true crime happens more often than people think. Okay,
first story out of stranger than fiction stories. It's titled
the Fort Myers eight. It was a desolate, unlit force
about fifty yards off Arcadia Road. The street was unpaved
and this was a seldom used industrial area. The patch
of land was covered by cyprus and pines, no doubt

(01:06):
chosen as an ideal place to hide proof of a
heinous crime, and that proof was eight bodies which had
lain in their secret grave for years. Time is Fort Myers, Florida,
March two thousand and seven. The bodies were discovered by
an ecologist who was surveying a ten acre lot for developer.

(01:26):
He found a brown stained skull near a mella Luca Tree.
The area was often used as a dumping ground for
hunters to dispose of alligator and wild boar carcasses, and
police thought the surveyor had found animal bones. It turned
out it wasn't. A forensic anthropologist from Florida Gulf Coast
University came to help in determining the gender and age

(01:47):
of the victims. The skeletal remains showed no sign of trauma,
but no doubt these victims came to a violent end. Otherwise,
why were they left to rot? There was no skin
or clothing left on any of them. They were buried
very close to the surface, just one or two inches deep.
Eight skulls and a thousand other bones collected by investigators

(02:08):
were scattered around a two hundred square yard area, most
of them hidden by roots, plants, leaves, and other groundcover.
Once the skeletons were taken to the Lee County Medical
Examiner's office, it was confirmed they had eight nearly complete
skeletons of adults. There were no crushed skulls, bone knicks
to indicate a stabbing, or a bullet hole to confirm

(02:29):
they met with some type of foul play. Three months later,
DNA was sent to Texas, and sculptors in Wyoming were
trying to recreate the men's faces. Police also took DNA
samples from people who believed one of the men might
be a family member. In June two thousand and seven,
it was determined to skeletons belonged to white men who
died from nineteen eighty to two thousand. All of them

(02:52):
were estimated to be between the ages of eighteen to
forty nine. They all had great teeth, except one, who
suffered from period titus, had missing teeth and a large
mouth abscess. Chances are he was an alcoholic, homeless man
who smoked. Most of them had fractures to their face, legs, arms,
and ribs that had healed. Forensic anthropologist Heather Walsh Hainey

(03:18):
said this indicated these men had fallen on hard times.
Theories as to how the bodies ended up their range
from the expedient a funeral home left them there instead
of cremating them, to the disturbing which is that they
were the victims of a serial killer who targeted white men.
Some wondered if this was a dumb sight where the
Hogtrail murderer stashed his victims what are the Hog Trail Murders?

(03:43):
Daniel Conahan Junior was convicted of one murder. However, he's
believed to be responsible for several murders, mostly of gay men.
In his youth. He joined the Navy, but shortly after
completing his training in nineteen seventy eight, he tried to
perform oral sex on a sailor, which resulted in a fight,
and he was discharged. After he was ousted, he stayed
living in the Chicago area for thirteen years. Or He

(04:05):
had different jobs, but the majority of his free time
was spent frequenting gay bars. In nineteen ninety three, he
returned to Punta Gorda, Florida, where his parents lived, and
became a licensed practical nurse in nineteen ninety five. However,
during his time as a student Charlotte Vocational Technical Center.
At Charlotte Vocational Technical Center, it appeared he was stalking

(04:27):
and killing gay men. In February nineteen ninety four, the
decomposing remains of a man was found. He had rope
burns on his skin and his genitals had been cut
off and discarded. He was identified in twenty twenty one
via a DNA test as Gerald aka Jerry Lombard from Massachusetts.
Two years later, a family living in Northport had their

(04:49):
dog bring home a human skull. The rest of the
remains were found, and this man had also been castrated.
He has yet to be identified. Two months later, another
man was found, However, he'd been dead only a week.
He was identified in nineteen ninety nine as John Melrango
I'm sorry, Ragno. A month later, another man's skull was

(05:12):
found by hog hunters. The police searched the area and
found the rest of the skeleton, as well as a
second body. The second one had been dumped only twenty
four hours before. He'd been strangled, tied to a rope,
and raped. His genitals were cut off and found in
the woods. He was identified as Richard Montgomery, a twenty
one year old drifter. The first body was Kenneth Smith.

(05:37):
Most of the victims were slain in isolated, densely wooded
areas just inland from the Gulf Coast, within ten miles
from where Conahan lived in a condominium with his elderly parents.
Due to the location where the bodies were found, the
murderers were dubbed the hog Trail killings. In nineteen ninety six,
an intended victim escaped and directed police to Conahan. He

(05:59):
was charged with a murder of Richard Montgomery. Before his arrest,
detectives trailed Conahan as he cruised parks in Fort Myers
and Charlotte known as drifter hangouts and pickup spots while
awaiting trial. Another skeleton was found in May nineteen ninety seven.
Months later, DNA identified him as William Patton, who disappeared
in nineteen ninety three. Nineteen ninety nine, Conahan was found

(06:22):
guilty of first degree murdered I'm sorry, a first degree
premeditated murder, and kidnapping. A jury recommended a sentence of death.
He is presently on death row at Union Correctional Institution
in Florida, commonly known as Rayford Prison. Several more bodies
were found in Charlotte County with similarity with the Hog
Trail killings, one in two thousand two and twenty twenty one,

(06:45):
and then in two thousand and seven the remains of
the eight men in Fort Myers. Stanley Burdon, who was
a star witness at Conahan's trial, was attacked within a
mile of where the eight victims were dumped. Its belief
Conahan would lure the men to the wooded area so
he could take bondage photos he would end up killing them.
The one who survived was Stanley Burton, who acted as

(07:07):
a key witness against Conahan. However, the defense council pointed
out he was less than a credible witness since he
was serving ten to twenty five for child molestation and
his accounts changed from time to time. Conahan only admitted
to having sex with Burden, for which he paid him
twenty dollars. Conahan admitted to being gay and that he

(07:28):
was fascinated by bondage. However, he had denied killing any
of the victims. Based on the two surviving victims, testimony,
and evidence linking paint and fibers from Conahan's car and
home to the Montgomery crime, the gay serial killer was
convicted in a bench trial for all intents and purposes,
solving all six murders. Prosecutors posited that Conahan removed his

(07:51):
victims genitals with a sharp instrument, possibly a scalpel, since
he knew saliva left on their penis could be used
to trace his DNA. His training as a nurse, no doubt,
helped him in this procedure. This indicated a calculated effort
and premeditation to his crimes in order to not leave
any forensic evidence behind. By twenty nineteen, three of the

(08:12):
eight men had been identified. Eric Kohler, twenty one, lived
with his grandparents. He was sentenced on a mist the
demeanor disorderly conduct charge in Lee County on July fourth,
nineteen ninety five. He disappeared after this. John C. Blevins's
birth name John Burt Junior, twenty six, also went missing
in nineteen ninety five. He would frequent Sunset Park at

(08:35):
the foot of US forty one, now gone, where men
met other men for sex. He was arrested for solicitation
for prostitution in December nineteen eighty seven. A third man
named Jonathan T. Hay, in his mid twenties, disappeared between
nineteen ninety five to nineteen ninety six. He was an
unemployed drifter who was never reported missing. In twenty twenty two,

(08:58):
Robert ro Roerald aka Bobby Sodden, missing since nineteen ninety six,
was identified as a victim using DNA analysis. Despite face
reconstruction of the victims using the latest technology, no cause
of death has been determined on any of the victims
by the police. Conahan targeted transient men and those who

(09:19):
engaged in prostitution. Daniel Owen Conahan Junior. This was born
in nineteen fifty four. His parents, Daniel and Alyss, moved
to Florida in nineteen fifty nine. He had two older
siblings from his mother's prior marriage. At first Blush, there
is little to indicate of his early life that could

(09:39):
have pretended why he turned to this type of crime.
His paternal grandfather was a funeral director in Pennsylvania, and
his father had studied the mortuary business, but somehow ended
up owning a TV shop in Charlotte, North Carolina. Litla
is known of his early childhood, However, sources point to
a troubled childhood with a dysfunction remaining unclear but might
have involved sense abuse. Conahan's parents both died in nineteen

(10:03):
ninety seven, within months of each other. In twenty eighteen,
an online auction site specializing in serial killer items put
Conahan's blue Mercury Capri up for auction. The car belonged
to his father, but he used it when cruising for victims.
Forensic evidence from the victims were tied to the vehicle.
They were also selling his car, keys, playing cards, and

(10:25):
his art. The founder of the auction site develops a
relationship with different serial killers by trading letters with them.
One as to wonder if Conahan was responsible for any
cold cases from the Chicago area during the years he
lived there. Did he only start killing men once he
arrived in Florida, or did he start years before while
living in Illinois, which, by the way, is a good question,

(10:47):
because remember he got convicted of these murders, and all
this time he had apparently had more than one dump
site for these bodies. So they keep finding people, and
they found these fort Myers eight which were killed all
in the same obviously before he got convicted. All right,
They're discovered in two thousand and seven, and he gets

(11:08):
convicted what is in nineteen ninety nine, all right, So
in other words, he was killing these men all around
the same time. But apparently he had more than one
dumb site, which is why I was suggesting that one
day they could run another site that he because remember
all this time he's never admitted to anything, he's never

(11:29):
confessed and said, oh yeah, that was no for all,
you know, someday they could run across another another pile
of bones, you know of discarded, and they could be
his and maybe he had just more, which again we
come back to the original question of like, do you
think that this man that was living thirteen years up

(11:51):
in the Chicago area that he might not have done
the same thing, you know, stock to gay men lure
him out to because this is what he would do.
He would tell them, Hey, I want you to come out.
I want to take some bondage pictures of them. You know.
This is but you know, and also the prostitution angle.
But this is how he would lure them out to,

(12:11):
I guess secluded places and once it we're there, that
was it. The bondage wasn't pretend it was real. And
I don't think that there's a very good possibility he
might have been doing this since he was in Chicago
and same mo o. He Uh, he figured out a
way to like locations. He says, I can get rid

(12:32):
of bodies here, nobody's going to come looking. And uh,
maybe something was going on there where he thought somebody
was getting close and that's why he decided to come
to Florida. I think he just kept going with what
he was doing. But again he you know, after so
many years, it's very difficult sometimes to tell was how

(12:53):
was this person killed? So I'm telling you now, I'm
going to take your business like a two part story.
The following one. Part one, it's published in my substack newsletter. Okay,

(13:14):
and then I'll follow up because there was so much
it's so interesting about this university. It's a lot of
unusual things attached to it. But anyway, I'm gonna do it,
you know, Part one, Part two, and this one, which
is published in my Substack UNI's letter is titled the
Phantoms of Oxford, a university dorm once an asylum, sponded

(13:36):
and during mystery of a missing student that until this
day remains unsolved. In nineteen fifty three, Ronald Henry Tammand
Junior was attending Miami University as a sophomore. He played
stream base in the university dance band known as the
Campus Owls. He was part of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity.
He was a member of the wrestling team, and he

(13:58):
was enrolled in the Navy ROTC program. Ron drove at
nineteen thirty eight Chevrolet. In other words, he was the
picture of prototypical university students of the nineteen fifties. His
younger brother, Richard, also attended the university as a freshman.
On April nineteenth, nineteen fifty three, at eight pm, Ronald

(14:18):
Tamman left Room two two five in Fisher Hall to
get new bed sheets because his friend, Richard Titus, had
put a fish in his bed as a prank. Richard
was in Room to twelve, just a few feet from
Ronald's dorm room. The hall manager, or A Todd Hunter,
gave him clean sheets, and she was the last person
to see Tamman at ten thirty pm that night. Before

(14:42):
her death in nineteen seventy two, Missus Toddhunter said in
an interview quote the Sunday night Tamman disappeared. He came
downstairs about eight pm and asked me for two sheets,
a pillowcase and mattress cover. I noticed he looked very tired,
and I remarked about it to him. He replied by
saying that he was tired and going right upstairs and
go to This is the last time I ever saw him.

(15:04):
The identity of the prankster was not verified until twenty
ten by Jenny Wenger, who runs a blog about the
taman story. Richard akaight Dick Titus confessed he was the
one who put the fish between the sheets back in
nineteen fifty three. It seems that night before he disappeared,
Ron did not sleep in his bed at the dorm.

(15:25):
Once he returned to the dorm, he had gone first
to study with Richard Titus, who hinted at the prank
he had left in his bed over twenty four hours
before Ron's roommate, Charles Finlay, arrived at their room around
nine pm. He had spent the weekend at his Dayton home.
He found Tammon's psychology book open on his desk, the
radio was playing, and the lights in the room were blazing.

(15:48):
The door to their dorm was unlocked. The roommate did
not think anything sinister and thought Tamman had gone to
spend the night in the Delta Tau Delta house. Strangely, though,
Tamman had left his copy even though it was a
snowy night. Also, his wallet, school ring, and car keys
were in the room. The only thing missing was his wristwatch.

(16:10):
Visible from the window of the dorm was Ron's gold
Chevy with his base fiddle in the back seat. Both
of these were cherished possessions, which apparently were left behind
as well. Only when Ron failed to appear the following
day was a search initiated. A nearby pond was dragged.
His parents and the police were not notified until April
twenty third, which was four days after he disappeared. Four

(16:34):
hundred students walked three miles in each direction as part
of a search effort, but nothing came of it. One witness,
Clara Spivey, said that a dazed young man with a
streak of dirt on his face fitting Tamman's description, came
to her home at village of seven Mile early in
the morning of April twentieth, asking for directions to the
nearest bus stop. However, she did not come forward with

(16:57):
this information until June. Later on, there was a question
how accurate she was. I'm sorry, but I have the
notifications going off all the time. She could tell that
was the noise from a yes, you guessed it, predator. Yes, anyway,

(17:19):
let me keep going, okay, so. One witness, Clara Spivey,
said that a day's young man with a streak of
dirt on his face fitting Tamman's description, came to her
home at village of seven Mile early on the morning
of April twentieth, asking for directions to the nearest bus stop. However,
she did not come forward with his information until June,
and later on there was a question how accurate. She was.

(17:40):
By May eighteenth, the FBI had joined the hunt for
Ron Tamman after the draft board was notified by his
father that he was missing. Once he was not attending
the university, his deferment would end. His parents were hoping
that they would help to distribute their son's likeness across
the country. Oscar Decker, the Oxford police chief, said he's

(18:00):
probably alive and quite healthy, but maybe hundreds of miles
away where no one has recognized him. Again, this was
based on the theory that Ron was an amniesiack no doubt.
There were some that wondered if Ron had been a
victim of a hazing gone wrong. Others felt the police
investigation had not been adequate. Ron's room was at the
end of a hallway where hardly anyone passed by, and

(18:22):
it was closed to a fire escape. Was it coincidental
that if something the farius was planned, it was done
when his roommate would be a wait for the entire weekend.
Did someone pay play a practical joke on rom that
went too far? Was he a victim of mk ulter experimentation,
which had infiltrated different universities throughout the United States. Some

(18:45):
believed the case was treated more as a missing person
versus a murder, since there was no evidence of found play.
Only the FBI kept a fall on him. Or he
was just identified as missing two years past and the
local newspapers ranish short story reminding everyone that Ron had
yet to be found. His parents were interviewed at their

(19:05):
Maple Heights home and they said they believed he was
still alive. Hopes were stirred in nineteen fifty eight when
bones were discovered by workmen in a gravel pit near
West Alexandria, Ohio, which was twenty five miles from Oxford.
A complete set of teeth with no feelings were recovered
from the body. Missus Tannet said her son had several
teeth filled. In nineteen sixty seven, as mother Marjorie, passed away,

(19:29):
his father remarried and moved to Florida. Throughout the years,
there have been supposed sightings of Ron alive and well. However,
there are other stories that claim he haunts the campus
he disappeared from excuse me. A few years after Ron's disappearance,
the upper floors of Fisher Hall were left untenanted because
they were unsafe. The first floor was used for the

(19:51):
university's theater. The students all said there was a ghost there.
Items would disappear, and many were afraid to stay alone
in the building. Shadows passed swiftly behind the windows, and
once in a while muffled voices were heard, but what
was being said could not be made out. In nineteen
sixty seven, a spiritualist ceremony was held at Fisher Hall,

(20:13):
which by then was university's theater, where seance was scheduled.
John T. Lilly from Dayton would be conducting it on
a full moon night. The hall seated two hundred persons,
but the event became so popular that was decided they
should start to accept telephone reservations for a ticket. Lily
was a retired spiritualist minister, and after more than two
hours of attempting to make contact, none was made with Ron,

(20:35):
Tannan or any other spirit Virginia Ronald class of nineteen
fifty one said the ghost haunting Fisher Hall predated the
disappearance of Ron Tannan. It was believed the ghost was
left over when Fisher Hall was a private mental home.
Samuel Pine it was a spirit of Judge ELM. Fisher,
an eighteen seventy graduate who served as trustee until nineteen
twenty three. However, during the nineteenth century, Fisher Hall was

(20:59):
the women part of the college. Another suspect was William
Holmes McGuffey, who was a professor at Old Miami in
the early eighteen thirties. Dubbed the Phantom of Fisher, a
ghost dressed all in black was said to walk through
the formal gardens next to Fisher Hall eerily. He sang
in notes that ranged from deep bass the high falsettle,
but with no melody as accompaniment. If anyone gave chase,

(21:22):
the phantom just disappeared. Some believed it was Ron's an
easy spirit. Others thought it was a prank. In October
nineteen seventy, the entire building was deemed unsafe and it
was only used for storage. Students would remark that when
passing by the building they would feel someone watching them.
Once condemned security guards were posted at the building, they

(21:45):
would find remains of paper torches and Tammin's old room.
Demolition crews later found fraternity insignia's between partitions and walls
of the building. This was done when fraternity pledges made
their way alone into the darkened building to leave their marks.
In nineteen seventy three, the Butler County Corner said that
Tammann visited his office five months before his disappearance asking

(22:07):
for a blood test. The coroner thought this was a
very unusual request. The reply Tammann gave doctor Boone when
asked why he wanted the test, was that some day
he might want to donate blood. The doctor sent him
to Mercy Hospital where they took the specimen and the
results were mailed to Taman at Fisher Hall. His blood
type was OH positive. Another attempt for spirit communication was

(22:31):
made in nineteen seventy five. Not only did if Ron
would come forth, but also to see who else was
haunting the building. The medium also spiritually described a young
man at a study desk on the second floor who
heard noises in the basement. He was hit on the
head from behind when he went to investigate, and was
dragged out of the building by two men who were

(22:52):
quote men of evil. No other information came after this scene.
This left everything just as mysterious as before. Other people
who waited until January nineteen seventy six to report they
had seen tann In forty eight hours before his disappearance
were mister and missus Glenn Dennison. He had visited their
home to pay his insurance premium on April seventeenth. Since

(23:14):
mister Denison was a car insurance agent, this paid him
up to October. He stayed at their home for thirty minutes,
making small talk. One has took wonder why so many
who had some type of contact with Tannin waited so
many years to come forward with the information. Built in
eighteen fifty six, Fisher Hall was raised. In nineteen seventy nine,

(23:36):
an extensive search was made of the rubble. Nothing connected
to Ron Tamman was found. In its place, the Timothy
Markham Memorial Conference Center was erected. It was named after
Joseph Timothy Markham, who graduated nineteen seventy three and died
in a one car crash in July of that year.
In nineteen eighty seven, Carl Schreiverer, a theater professor, recalled

(23:56):
where one night, was grading papers alone in Fisher Hall.
A storm was coming in when suddenly he overheard footsteps
in a quarter that was sealed off. Six months later,
another professor and his students watched as a chandelier began
inexplicably to swing back and forth. In two thousand and nine,
a DNA sample was taken from his sister and compared

(24:17):
to a John doebody found in Georgia in nineteen fifty three. However,
there was no match. By twenty twenty five, Ron's sister,
his three brothers, and his parents had died. But luckily
there is DNA. There is a DNA sample that perhaps
one day will find a match. Born in nineteen thirty three.
Of Ron were still alive, he would be in his nineties.

(24:37):
It seemed that if he did go on to live
a life under an assumed identity, he never did anything
which would require him to submit his fingerprints, such as
an arrest or a job. It seems as if the
earth swallowed Ronald tammand Junior Hole. So what do you
guys think I'm going to read now? Who the other
usual suspects are for? It makes you I don't know

(25:02):
that somebody hit him on the head and one lady,
you know, everybody's around there, takes four days to notify
his parents. Okay, some lady sees, doesn't report it till June.
The guy that leaves that's down the hallway from him,
that leaves a fish and as bed as a practical joke,

(25:24):
doesn't say anything to anybody about it till twenty ten,
all right. And then the insurance agents that he that
he comes to see them, what two days? Two days?
Wait till nineteen seventy six to say that they had
seen him. Next makes you wonder why nobody would come

(25:46):
forward and say, hey, I saw him two days before
and he seemed weird, he seemed fine, he seemed what which,
by the way, according to what that couple said, he
seemed he just he came to pay. In other words,
same thing his His roommate arrives, being away all weekend,

(26:06):
noticing he's not there. Everything is left. He could have
looked out the window seeing his cars parked there, his
bass fiddle, his wallet, everything and his coat. All right,
everything is ler because even though it's April's, it was
supposedly snowing. It was a snowy kind of day, so
it's cold, and his roommate doesn't think. Man, that's really weird.

(26:31):
Not that he could have gone, I can't. But he's
left everything here, his books, everything. I don't know, there's
something here. Plus it's never clarified. Where did he go.
He didn't spend Saturday night there at his uh at
his dorm. Where was he? Who was he with? What
was he doing? A lot of people and again this

(26:55):
this guy does not sound even though he sounds like
they say, he was a quiet, nice guy. This doesn't
sound like a loaner. He's is you can tell. There's
a picture here for those of you watching the video
version of this. He's a wrestler. He's on the wrestling team.
By the way, he's already a sophomore. He had already
spent a year there at this university, all right. He

(27:16):
plays in the university dance band. He's part of a fraternity.
He's a member of the wrestling team. He's enrolled in
the Navy ROTC program. He's got a car. This this
guy is involved in activities. You know, this is not
some loaner that decides to just walk away. Something here

(27:37):
very unusual and like I said, nobody's ever found hide
nor hair of this this guy at all. So let's
find out. Okay, there's always more to this. Who could

(27:59):
be the other one? Who would be the other ghosts
besides the unlucky the unlucky Ron Okay, who just I'm
telling you, poor guy? Okay, this is more phantoms of Oxford.
Oxford College, Ohio has many ghost stories associated with it,

(28:19):
the most famous being the unexplained disappearance of student Ronald
tam And Junior in nineteen fifty three. His fate has
never been discovered. These are the lesser known mysteries associated
with a campus which once served as a mental asylum.
Old Fisher Hall was once the Oxford College for Women.
In eighteen eighty two, doctor Harvey Cook bought the building

(28:40):
and made it into an asylum and sanitarium. After it closed,
he added other buildings and it was then called the
Oxford Retreat. There was also the acquisition of a building
that was named the Pines, and doctor Cook lived in
an adjacent structure called Cook Place. There was a tunnel
that led from the Pines to Cook Place. The story

(29:00):
told about the tunnel is that doctor Cook used to
get it to his used it to get to his
house from the pines without being seen by the patients.
Miami University first acquired the retreat property in nineteen twenty five.
The old college building was renamed Fisher Hall and was
used as a residence for the male students. Every once
in a while, the students would come across discarded straight

(29:21):
jackets and other remnants of what the building was once
used for. According to When the School Screams the True
Stories of Victims who haunt, Fisher Hall already had a
reputation for being haunted. The structure had been occupied since
eighteen fifty six, when it was a female college with
a dining room which seated eight hundred students. Two hundred

(29:41):
students lived in the building. During World War Two, it
was used as the barracks for the Naval Radio Training School.
It was September fourteenth, eighteen ninety eight, when Professor Henry
Snyder died at his home. There were whispers of suicide,
but none could figure out why he would have done
away with himself. The coroner determined that Professor Snyder was

(30:03):
eccentric and his death was a case of suicide beyond doubt.
Snyder had experienced trauma early in his life when he
was nine years old. In eighteen sixty five, his mother, Amanda,
died during childbirth of her last baby, Charles. Doctor Harvey
Cooke from the university analyzed what poisoned Snyder had taken. However,
at the inquest a month later, he was unable to

(30:25):
identify which drugs caused his death. Her Mean Snyder Niemeizer,
thirty eight, was asked to give testimony at the inquest
about as she knew concerning her husband's death. She confirmed
they were married in eighteen eighty four and that he
had been connected to the university all those years. He
was the chair of the Physics and Chemistry department. Hermens

(30:46):
that his death declined in the last eight years, but
six weeks before his death he had a sunstroke which
affected him badly. Was a coincidence that only a few
months before his suicide, Snyder received a considerable inheritance from
two uncles, William and John, neither were married or had offspring.
Professor Snyder had gone to Springfield two months before to

(31:07):
oversee the erection of a monument for their graves, which
is when he suffered the sunstroke. Missus Snyder testified that
he had been despondent. She had even asked doctor Alexander,
a friend, to intervene. Doctor Alexander visited him at his
laboratory in Bryce Hall. However, Snyder refused to unbolt the door.
David Snyder, Henry's brother, was also questioned, and he had

(31:30):
concurred that his brother had not been in his right
mind the last few weeks of his life. On the
day of his death, Professor Snyder had gone to Bryce Hall,
where he taught. From there, he returned home and he died.
He refused to have a physician called. However, his wife
asked for help. Doctor Alexander, Doctor George, and Harvey Cook
all used the stomach pump to wash out his stomach,

(31:51):
but nothing worked. Some wondered when he visited his laboratory
had concocted the strange chemical that took his life. Wife Hermien,
nicknamed Minnie, was the polar opposite of her staid husband.
She dressed like a gypsy who loved to sing on stage.
Could she have done away with Professor Snyder? Some said no,

(32:11):
but then she went on to marry her husband's lab assistant,
William Pugh in nineteen o four. He was thirteen years
her junior, and in nineteen nineteen, he wud abandoned her, leaving
her destitute. Perhaps by then she had run out of
any money she had inherited from her first husband. She
died in nineteen forty. For thirty years, Helen Peabody was

(32:34):
the president of the Western Female Seminary in Oxford. Nineteen
o four, it was renamed to the Western College for
Women at Oxford. She was known to be stern and unbending,
and any boys trying to slip on campus knew they
faced a dragon who believed proper young ladies didn't spend
time with boys unless they were chaperone. She was vehemently

(32:55):
against co ed education. She died on October eighth, nineteen
oh five, in Pasadena, California, and Seminary Hall, built in
eighteen fifty five, was renamed for her that same year.
This Peabody had resigned as president in eighteen eighty nine
and traveled to Japan on mission business. She returned and
relocated to Pasadena. However, despite her absence, her body was

(33:18):
shipped back and interred in a cemetery in Oxford, Ohio.
She left no media family except nieces and nephews, and
her estate worth fifty thousand dollars, which included different properties
which were used to found a home for Christian workers
in foreign lands and home missionaries. Afield students claim that
it's her Goes that haunts Peabody Hall. Low growls are heard,

(33:40):
also reports of the shower turning off by itself. A
large portrait of Helen dominates the foyer, and many claim
the painted eyes follow you as you hurry along. Reed
Hall is also said to be haunted. Footsteps are heard
in empty rooms, and bloody hand prints were seen on
a door supposedly the Prince will not wash away, and

(34:00):
were made many years ago by a student shot and
killed when he tried to break up a fight. Two
boys once experienced what they called a small earthquake that
was only felt in their room. On May ninth, nineteen
fifty nine, Herbert A. Lucas eighteen was being searched for
by the police. Earlier in the day, he came to
the dormitory at Reed Hall looking for another student named

(34:21):
James Walker, ag. Eighteen. There was a dispute over Sandra Epps,
eighteen of freshmen from Greenville, who both young men had
dated in the past. Lucas had warned off rivals even
though Sandra Epps was only dating him, which is what
caused her to break off with him. Apparently, Lucas did
not take being jilted lightly. Roger T. Sayles twenty, a

(34:42):
dormitory councilor like Ron Tamman, came to quiet the students.
In response, Herbert Lucas pulled a twenty two caliber automatic
and fired at Walker, who was wounded in the shoulder.
He then shot Sales in the head and chest. Sales
was affiliated with Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity and Delta Sigma

(35:02):
Pie Business Fraternity. His reward for being a peacemaker with
death and a heartbreaking turn of events. Sale's mother was
visiting him for Mother's Day and had been staying at
the campus. Lucas was later found in a telephone booth
at Ogden Hall, where he shot himself in the head.
He lay there for five hours until student came to

(35:23):
make a phone call and found him slumped on the floor.
He had a suicide note in his pocket and he
was carrying two stolen twenty two caliber automatic pistols with
two hundred and fifty rounds of ammunition. He had gained
entry into the Rotc Indoor rifle range by breaking in
through the roof. A university spokesman said Lucas made a
high score on the freshman qualification tests, but failed to

(35:46):
live up to his potential. His behavior was erratic, and
he was dropped from the Naval ROTC for poor grades
and spotty attendants. Lucas dormitory counselor said he roomed alone
and was by himself a lot. He didn't talk much
about his personal life. Another student and friend of Lucas
described him as an intellectual who liked to be called

(36:06):
duke and who recently had its head shaped bald. Doctor Boone,
who had taken a blood sample from Ron Tamman, was
the coroner who examined Herbert Lucas's body. On a happier note,
Sandra EPs graduated in nineteen sixty six, and she married
Berkeley Sterling in nineteen sixty eight. Another ghost story that
circulates at Miami University's the story of a young Oxford

(36:28):
man who was accapitated by barbed wires stretched across the
road he ran through the wire while riding his motorcycle.
The story goes that he was traveling on Oxford Milford
Road on the way to visit his girlfriend who lived
on Earhart Road. He has said to repeat that ride
that he is never destined to finish. To see him,
one would go to Earhart Road and park facing south.

(36:51):
If you flash your headlights three times, you may see
the motorcycle headlights which suddenly disappear as they approached the
fatal curve. There is no record of this incident occurring
at this place or the way described. It's probably an
urban myth. Likely The story was based on the death
of George Higgins on June twenty first, nineteen eleven. He
was instantly killed when he ran into a barbed wire

(37:13):
stretched across the main road near Colby, Kansas. The wire
caught him below the chin. He was riding tandem with
another man named Charles Quick, who was also badly cut
but would eventually recover. They were traveling at a high speed,
and it was believed the wire was put across the
road maliciously. They were on their way to Atwood, near
Jim Campbell's farm. Higgins was the custodian of the school

(37:37):
buildings of Colby and Quick, and was formerly the clerk
of Thomas County. Within a week, it was discovered that
the barbed wire was stretched across the road by a
boy at the direction of a farm in the area
who made it his custom to stretch the wire while
driving the stock from one pasture to another. The boy
would have taken the wire down within another five minutes.

(37:57):
The repercussions of that ill fated day went on to
cla other lives. Higgins was a man in his forty
and had a twenty two year old son. His wife,
Mary Allen, was an invalid, and she died the following year.
It was described she arose on a Sunday morning to
prepare breakfast and suddenly fell over dead. Many believed the
grief of her husband's death contributed to her collapse. Also,

(38:19):
by then, of her six children, only one, John Henry,
lived into adulthood. Charles Quick, the tandem rider, survived and
by nineteen thirteen was back on a motorcycle. He made
the papers because he broke down out on the country lane,
and the story recalled now I barely escaped to his
life only two years before. By nineteen fourteen, he was
working for the Twin City Tractor Company and went on

(38:40):
to live many more years. Harry, though, was a brickmason
born in eighteen seventy and during his lifetime became notorious
for gate crashing different sports events, including twenty World Series games,
a Rose Bulls, three Orange Bowls, and a Sun Bowl.
Of course, without paying. He sported a white suit and

(39:02):
hat and diamond studded teeth. Thobe also carried an umbrella
and megaphone. In other words, he was unmistakable. He claimed
he attended fifty four Miami University homecoming games consecutively. In
nineteen hundred, he won one hundred and fifty dollars on
that year's election. He hired bands and exploded fireworks and
set fire to a huge pile of boxes and barrels

(39:23):
in Oxford's public square. Thogue claimed the outcome of Miami
games would come to him in a dream, then he
would announce it through his megaphone on game day. He designed, donated,
and built a fountain for the Miami campus. The fountain
was used to dunk over fresh freshmen, and the administration
was forced to fill it with rocks. After his death

(39:43):
in nineteen fifty, it fell into disrepair and a smaller
one was put in its place. This replacement was removed
in nineteen fifty nine and a plaquet monument was erected
to commemorate Harry's gift. There was something about Harry Is
that he didn't like to be overlooked. Stories are there.
His spirit still hangs out by the side of the fountain,
which is between King Library and Harrison Hall. All you

(40:06):
have to do is call out his name and he'll
echo his name back to you. No doubt. There are
many untold stories originating from when the Oxford Retreat welcomed
in saint patients to the drama that unfolds between hot
blooded college students. Any of them could be one of
the many phantoms of Oxford. So you see, even before

(40:27):
this guy Ron Tamman disappeared, there was a lot of
unusual things taking place, including murder as suicide plus and
insane asylum all right, which that in and of itself
could be a source of a lot of the weird

(40:50):
encounters or things that happen there. Now, as you can tell,
I have this is whoever's looking at the video version
of this, are going to see my cat, Marnie and
all black, which is a risk. Was once upon a
time a rescue kitten, not a kidney. Well she's still
technically a kitten, but she must be bored because she's

(41:11):
have to Okay, you know what you need to here.
This is my enforcer. Go get out of here. Anyway,
Let's let's go on. This is this is a story
out of Newsweek. This is following up on the Annabelle Doll,
which Alia has gotten a lot of attention. This is

(41:33):
titled The Conjuring Last Right. Stars on Annabel Doll after
Dan rivera death. Okay, several stars from The Conjuring Last
Rites have spoken out about the Annabel doll following Paranormal
investigator Dan Rivera said in death Annabel featured excuse me
prominently in the Conjuring films and is said to be

(41:53):
possessed by demonic entity, and Rivera was one of her handlers.
Rivera died in July thirteenth and Getty's Pennsylvania hotel room,
the New England Society for Psychic Research NSPR confirmed when
they prior to his death, he hosted a showing of
Annabel during the popular Devils on the Run tour. Adam's

(42:13):
County Corner. Francis Dutroux said Annabel was not at the
scene of Rivera's death. According to any spr's website, Annabel
was given as a gift to a student in the
nineteen sixties, but almost immediately she and her roommates noticed
strange occurrences with the doll. They were introduced to a
medium who told them the doll was inhabited by the

(42:34):
spirit of a young girl named Annabel. The two roommates
tried to accept the doll's spirit and please it, only
to reciprocrate with maliciousness and violent intent. Late NSPR founders
At Warren, a demonologist, and his wife Lorraine Warren, a
trance medium, said the doll was demonically possessed and they

(42:57):
encased it in a glass box. And for those of
you watching the video version, this is the doll that
was in the movie. But that's not the real doll.
The real doll is a Raggedy ann And from what
I understand, for the movie, the the the I guess
the manufacturers of the original Raggedy ann said, no, you

(43:19):
can't use our likeness in a movie about a demonic doll.
But that's not the real This is just this is
the movie version, so let's keep going, all right, all right?
What to know? Orion Smith and Madison Lawler, who star
as a young and Lorraine Warren in the Conjuring Last Rites,
shared their thoughts on Animel during an interview. Annabel has

(43:41):
been really freaking me out, Lawler told the outlet. She's
been in the news a lot, and I'm like, okay, Annabel.
She knows the film's coming out and may. There were
reports that Annabel went missing and was linked to events
like the Nottaway Plantation fire and the jail escape of
ten inmates in New Orleans. NSPR director Tony Sparra told Newsweek, however,
that the doll has never been missing. We had taken

(44:02):
the doll on a brief tour to several locations so
paranormal enthusiasts could witness the real Annabelle. Normally, the doll
is at the Warrens Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut. Smith
said that the cast and crew of The Last Rites
endured eerie experiences during filming. There was this door. First take,
this door by itself right when we pause, opens by itself,

(44:24):
and everyone on set was like, WHOA, what just happened.
That's so weird. We had to block the door. I
had to put a sand bag behind the door after that,
but it was like, well, Okay, that's the christening of
the beginning of a film. Earlier this month, comedian Matt
rife Riff revealed that he bought the ede Lorraine Warren's
home and a cult museum with his friend. He's a

(44:47):
very funny man, but this is a very bold move.
Most of the time, everything works out all right. But
when you roll the dice with paranormal artifacts, things can
go wrong when you least expect it. So be careful,
man warned. For the next five years. I hope he
is ready for anything. What people are saying the NSPR
on Facebook it is a with deep sadness that Tony

(45:08):
Wade and I share and I share the sudden passing
of our close friend and partner, Dan Rivera. We are
heartbroken and still processing this lass. Dan truly believed in
sharing his experiences and educating people in the paranormal. His
kindness and passion touched everyone who knew him. Thank you
for your support and kind thoughts during his difficult time.
Then Zach Begin's with Ghost Adventures said, my thoughts and

(45:32):
prayers go out to Rivera's family and friends. I can
only speak to my experiences with Annabelle. I did have
the opportunity to investigate Annabelle. When the owner brought her
to my museum in twenty seventeen, I got very affected
by her and it kind of caused me to touch
the doll. The owner didn't like that too much. It
was a demonic infestation and severely affected me and I

(45:54):
was literally in the hospital the next day. It was
a two month long attachment and one of the worst
experiences of my life. Okay, the next it was from
Jason Hawes with Ghost Hunters, and he said, recently the
world lost a good man. Dan Rivera was an army veteran,
a father of for a husband, and someone who truly
cared about people. What's even harder to see right now

(46:17):
are the post blaming his death on things like the
annabel doll and attacking places like ghostly images of Gettysburg,
tours and other locations for having events That needs to stop.
His family shouldn't have to read that kind of nonsense
while they're grieving. Some people are using his passing to
push an agenda for profit, and it's just disgusting. Dan
was a family man, a respected paranormal investigator, and he

(46:38):
left his world way too soon. Let's focus on remembering
Dan for who he was, not turning his death into
some made up BS story to get clicks or attention
another man, forget the garbage. Okay, but you know what
part of the thing I do agree partially with what
Jason Halls is saying. At the same time, this guy

(47:02):
Rivera was touring with the supposedly haunted doll for the notoriety.
And I'm sure you know what, people fall over and die,
even young, has nothing to do with anything paranormal. It's
just something happens. And then you know, they've been very
close mouth about what caused him, what his cause of
death was, always say it's natural, I think, or that

(47:24):
they perform CPR. Who knows. But anyway, people in the
paranormal pass away just like anybody else. But come on,
it's not a stretch that if he died after starting
on a tour with a demonic doll, that people are
going to talk about it. Yes, it's in bad taste,
but he himself was on a tour to make money
from the doll. And so this is not people being uh,

(47:49):
this is like what comes with the territory. Unfortunately, all right,
this is what comes with the territory and now the Warrens.
I believe that the new owner, that comedian that bought
over the UH the museum, is taking the doll up
to UH to Maine, I don't know, for some type

(48:11):
of exhibition. So he's riding high right now that Annabelle
the Doll is, you know, besides the UH the new
movie coming out, and even before the other conjuring movies,
he's this is he's taking advantage of the moment. I
just think most people don't want to take this seriously,
which I wouldn't, but of course you can't help. But thing,

(48:33):
was there a connection. Was this man affected in some
way by what was in the doll? Or who knows?
Or maybe just it was that was it? That was
his time. So anyway, I've been coming back so with
a lot of weird stuff until next time.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Eerie News with M.P. Pellicer | STORIES: The Phantoms of Oxford and more!