Roads Less Taken II: From Butchers to Drifters

Explore real-world horrors and ghostly legends as we embark on this chilling journey from the streets of Kansas City to the haunted highways of Nebraska. 

Much like our Pit Stops from Season Two, these Roads Less Taken episodes cover details we couldn’t quite squeeze into our previous Story. These are often interesting tidbits that would have taken us too far off course from the main narrative.

What’s different is once we wrap up a few things (which in this case will be from “The Kansas City Butcher”), we’ll buckle in and take an eerie road trip to our next destination, covering a few ominous details, places, haunts, and legends along the way. Buckle in for a road trip where every mile brings you closer to the darkness…



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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
This take and contains content that may not be suitable
for all audiences. Listeners discretion is advised. Less thank you

(00:32):
so much for checking out this episode. The second Roads
us take an episode called From Butchers to Drifters. Much
like our pit Stop episodes from season two, these roads
Let's Taken episodes pick up covering details we couldn't quite
squeeze in into our previous story. Many times, these are
interesting tidbits that would have taken us too far off

(00:55):
course from the main narrative. What's different is once we
re up a few things, which in this case will
be from the Kansas City Butcher, will buckle in and
take an airy road trip to our next destination, covering
a few creepy details places, hans, and legends along the way,
ones which you can check out for yourself if you're

(01:18):
so inclined. Oh, and be sure to check out the
second story of season four, called the Kansas City Butcher
before continuing. Or don't it's your choice, or so you
think I'm seeing Humphreys and this is less taken real
life horror stories from the Midwest. If you're ready, let's

(01:38):
go ahead and explore a few details from our previous
episode called The Kansas City Butcher. When we assembled the

(02:17):
full length episode of The Kansas City Butcher, the Tale
of Roberdella, we felt that his meticulous records deserved more airtime,
but unfortunately the pacing forced us to trim them down.
So here they are. What didn't make the cut was
the moment detectives found his stenographer's pad hidden in that

(02:40):
false back drawer. When they flipped past the invoices and
antique catalogs, they saw a single page scrawled in ballpoint blue.
It went DC, ICE wire in eighty six. Each shorthand
entry read like a steril labor report. So d C

(03:02):
was for drain cleaner assaults, ice was for his homemade
tranquilizer cocktail, and wire was for piano wire experiments. Oh
in eighty six that was Burdella's own word for terminate.
There's little contexts and certainly even less remorse. There's just

(03:26):
a cold bullet points of his twisted mythology. We also
hinted at the Polaroids in the main episode, but never
dove too deep into their sheer volume. There were over
three hundred images tucked away in the locked basement filing cabinet.
There were experimental shots victim's eyes or limbs mid torture,

(03:48):
carefully framed and labeled in his logs, electrocution portraits, frozen
frames of muscle convulsion beneath alligator clip leads, post mortem
still lifes. These photos had limbs and torsos arranged like
macab Museum specimens. There was survivor proof, Christopher Bryson's battered

(04:14):
face and the evidence that saved his life. There were
also lurid souvenir shots. Burdella occasionally included his own gloved
hands in the frame, a thumbs up or pointing as
though signing each quote unquote masterpiece. There were also a
handful of images that captured the empty, blood stained basement

(04:36):
floor after cleanup, with only a faint outline of where
the victim once lay. There are also unidentified faces. There
are roughly forty photos that show men whose disappearances were
never linked back to Burdella, blank stairs, dark cellars, severed
heads half obscured by newspaper wrappings. Another thing we glossed

(05:03):
over a little bit was the morbid auction. After sentencing,
Kansas City held what felt like a circus of the grotesque.
Fordella's personal effects when on public auction they sold his
rotary phone and the chef's knife set, the same blades
used in their early experiments. There were also leather straps

(05:25):
and handcuffs, sees from the crime scene, and that very
same polaroid camera snapped up by a true crime collector
for just twelve hundred dollars. By day's end, the bids
peaked at six hundred thousand dollars. National news crews swarmed
to courthouse steps as super neer hunters fought for pieces

(05:45):
of a house that no longer stood. Victim advocates protested outside,
calling it capitalizing on human misery. And now that we've
got these exclusions out of the way, let's take a
deep breath. Hop in the are in travel from Kansas
City to Nebraska for our next real life horror story.

(06:45):
To begin our journey from Kansas City to Nebraska, let's
leave behind a cracked asphalt of twenty one twenty nine
Truce Avenue, believed to be Bob Ardella's former layer, where
between nineteen eighty four in nineteen eighty s the Kansas
City butcher kidnapped, tortured, and murdered at least six young
men in that very brick house. And again, if you

(07:09):
haven't checked it out already, be sure to go back
and listen to our take on the Kansas City Butcher.
As we travel out of Kansas City to our final destination,
the setting of our next real life horror story, we're
going to make a few stops along the way. Our

(07:29):
first stop will be the Sally House in Atchison, Kansas,
a place we previously covered in season three. That's Season three,
episode twenty if you want to go check it out
when you're done. In our story, we focus on an
individual who tried to renovate the home and the madness
that ensued. But the backstory of the house is as follows.

(07:55):
At five oh eight North Second Street stands the midnight
nineteenth century home where doctor Charles Finney allegedly botched an
emergency epidectomy on a six year old girl, Sally, who
bled out on his operating table. Today, male visitors report

(08:15):
waking scratches on their chest, earning her the moniker, the
man hitting ghost. An occasional fires flair in the upstairs
nursery for seemingly no reason. Paranormal teams, from sightings to
ghost adventurers have battled flickering lights in cold spots in
the dining room. BuzzFeed Unsolved returned for a second investigation

(08:39):
in twenty twenty one, proving there just might be something
ominous drawing people in for centuries. Now moving through Kansas,
let's wander over to our second stop, Stoole Cemetery in
Douglas County, Kansas. We've debated covering the legends behind stools

(09:21):
several times, and maybe we will in the future, but
we've yet to cover the folklore in full. They say,
if you forge your way through the overgrown paths to
the patches of rebel of the eighteen sixty seven Emmanuel
Church ruins, you might just see the devil. Legend says

(09:41):
the devil himself appears twice a year on Halloween and
Spring Equinox. For a nineteen seventy four University Daily Kanson
article that launched the myth about what's considered one of
the seven Gates of Hell. For decades upon decade, there
have been folkloric whispers of headstones marked for witches, unbreakable

(10:05):
glass tossed against the church's stones, and troopers locking the
gates at knight to ward off through seeking students or
perhaps something far more sinister. However, some have found our
next stop even more terrifying. We leave Kansas behind in
journey into Nebraska. Our next stop the Wildwood House in

(10:29):
Nebraska City, built in eighteen sixty nine for the Ware family.
The ten room Gothic revival Wildwood House invites your imagination
to travel back to an era of elegance or perhaps decadence.
But inside, visitors have reported phantom footsteps in the dining

(10:53):
room and claim to have witnessed a spectral lady in
black drifting through the kitchen. Her normal team to report
dead batteries in their flashlights, only to hear children's laughter
echo up the backstairs through the brick line pantry. While
most of this can be dismissed rather quickly, what's alarming

(11:14):
are the sheer number of reports. However, We must make
haste so onto the Seven Sisters Road in Otto County, Nebraska.

(11:43):
As we turn off onto weathered el Street, still called
Seven Sisters Road, we drive past seven low rolling hills,
once said to mark the spots where a deranged farmer
hanged each of his seven daughters over a century ago.
Engine stall mid drive headlights them without cause, and hapless

(12:05):
travelers report blood curling screams coming from the shadowed tree lines. Next,
we're onto our fifth stop, the Great Platte River Road
Archway Monument and Kearney, Nebraska, Straddling I eighty for three

(12:26):
hundred feet. The Archway opened in July two thousand as
America's only highway spanning museum, chronicling one hundred and eighty
years of westward migration from covered wagons and pony Express
riders into the nineteen fifty drive. Ins came across something

(12:48):
that read, as you pass beneath it still ribs. The
echo of Buffalo stampedes and prairie shooter wheels fade into
modern traffic roar important crossroads of frontier dreams and today's
relentless journey, or so the write up implies. Nothing spooky here,

(13:11):
just something to check out. So onto stop number six.
Harold's work, Pioneer Village and Mind in Nebraska. Harold Warp,
Nebraska's self made plastics magnet, spent decades hauling twenty eight
authentic frontier structures to this twenty acre campus, one room schools, sodhouses,

(13:38):
a pony Express station, each frozen in a moment of
pioneered life. What people report here is that by dusk
there's an eerie look to the lantern lit porches and
the mannequins and period garb, And there are stories of
phantom footsteps in the blacksmiths shop and distant piano notes

(13:59):
in the church. Now for the final stretch, the Harrelson
Homestead as Cornfield's blur past us. The sun dips on
the homestead lane where doctor Stephen d Richards once negotiated
Mary Harrison's need only to turn an axe on her
and her three children in cold blood on November third,

(14:22):
eighteen seventy eight. But that's next time, unless taken. We

(15:06):
hope you've enjoyed the second Roads Let's Taken episode. Let
us know what you think by leaving a fair rating
and review wherever you're listening. You can also leave reviews,
check out All Things Less Taken and pick up some
of our sweet new merch at lesstakanpod dot com. If
you truly enjoy the show, be sure to subscribe with

(15:27):
notifications or downloads on see don't miss a real life
horror story. Oh and please be a pal and tell
a friend and did you know you can suggest ideas
for future episodes of Less Taken, Send your ideas and
check out so much more at Let's takenpod dot com.
Be sure to follow us before we follow you on Facebook, Instagram,

(15:50):
and threads under the handle at Let's Taken Pod. There
may be a slight delay on our next episode, called
The Nebraska Fiend, due to some issues in room one
of our cellar studio, but it should come out on
time or damn close either way. Please come back next
Tuesday for a preview of Nebraska Fen, a tale about

(16:13):
Stephen Richards, one of Nebraska's first serial killers and one
that seemingly had little to no motive for his actions.
A quick note on our storytelling. While we do our
best to stick to the facts, we sometimes take creative
liberties to maintain narrative cohesiveness. I'm Seem Humphreys and this

(16:36):
is Less Taken, real life horror stories from the Midwest. Again.
Thanks for listening, and please join us Tuesday for a
preview of Nebraska Been, the third full length story episode
from Less Taken Season four, Hollo Lands. Oh and we

(16:57):
mentioned Sally earlier. If you want to check out that episode,
stick around for part one. If you like that, you
can go back to season three, episode twenty two for
part two. Again, thanks for listening, and I hope you
enjoy Sally Part one. This take and contains content that

(17:28):
may not be suitable for all audiences. Listeners discretion is advised. Wrathful,
please help us. Minutes after midnight, a desperate mother dredges
through the flooded streets of Atchison, Kansas, an aggressive thunderstorm overhead.

(17:56):
Carrying her six year old daughter in her arms. The
mother continues to run through the night, cutting over to
Second Street. She finally starts to slow down and catch
her breath, although the latter is much more difficult than
it might seem. Her arms are numb from the weight
of her daughter, but she's never letting go, not even

(18:18):
when it feels like her arms are separating from her shoulders.
Lightning splits the sky, momentarily illuminating the weathered wooden. Sighting
in the small covered front porch of a rectangular, two
story home with a pitched roof, doing her best to
make sense of the address and the darkness, she stops

(18:39):
in front of the building she believes to be five
away north Second Street. The mother takes her chances and
races up to the porch. She pounds at the front
door until doctor Charles Finney, half asleep in disheveled greets
her from inside panic. A stream of disconnected sentence fragments

(19:05):
pours out of the mother's mouth until the doctor can
calm her down enough to hear the words, my Sally
might be dying. It's her side. The doctor opens the
door and urges the mother to bring her daughter inside.

(19:28):
Her boots crack along the hardwood floor. Every bit of
the storm can be seen through two large windows in
the living room, which comes into full view with every
brilliant strike of lightning. She explains that her little Sally
has had a fever and chills all day. She complains

(19:49):
of severe pain all along her abdomen, but the worst
of it comes from her lower right side. Her daughter says,
sometimes the pain goes away for a bit, but it
always comes back in full force. The doctor has an
idea of what's going on, and after quickly examining Sally,

(20:12):
he concludes it must be the young girl's appendix troubling her.
It might have even ruptured already. They need to rush
her downstairs to his lab where he can operate on her.
Before things get out of control. The three of them
make it into the downstairs lab and record time, and

(20:34):
doctor Finney quickly brings Sally over to his operating table.
He assures the mother that everything is going to be fine.
He's done this exact procedure a million times before. Isn't
that while you came to me, he asks her. The
mother nods her head and tries to conceal her worried

(20:57):
shoulders and concern. Whimpers as doctor Finnie administers the anesthesia.
They both wait for the medication to kick in. Should
be ready, the doctor says, as he collects his tools.
The mother disagrees. Sally doesn't appear to be unconscious. She's

(21:18):
not too sure that her daughter's even numb. We don't
have time, doctor Finney says, as he begins to mark
his incision points. She won't feel any pain. Sally squirms
and screams in agony as doctor Finnie makes the first
cut along her abdomen, and then another. Her mother wants

(21:43):
to scream too, but she's not even sure what she's
seeing is real. She's so disconnected. This can't be real,
can it. This has to be a nightmare. Maybe she's
had a fee her too, She's been so focused on
Sally that who knows. Maybe she's been sick this entire time.

(22:08):
Maybe the fever is starting to make her delusional. Sally's
mother wants to kill this doctor, but she doesn't. She
doesn't move, she doesn't speak, she doesn't do anything other
than stare at her daughter's blood pulling up on the
concrete floor. Then all the commotion stops, Sally stops convulsing.

(22:35):
She doesn't move at all. You kill her, her mother
screams across the cellar, snapping out of her trance like state. No, no,
Doctor Finney replies, She's alive. She's still alive. Come check
for yourself. Sally's mother remains frozen at the far side

(23:00):
of the basement for several moments before she finally heads
toward the operating table. Once she arrives, doctor Finney asked
her to reach along Sally's neck. There's a pulse, her
mother says, a hint of relief in her voice, but
she knows that pulse is fading. Why is she like this?

(23:24):
What have you done? The doctor informs Sally's mother he
didn't do anything wrong. In fact, the procedure was a
great success. The only issue is that Sally's anesthesia waited
until damn near the end of the operation to settle in.
Sally's sleeping that's all, she just needs some breast, So

(23:47):
Doctor Finnie and Sally's mother let her slumber. Hours pass
by and then days. They wait for Sally's meds to fade,
but they never do. While his intention was to act swiftly,
potentially save Sally's life, the doctor administered far too much anesthesia.

(24:12):
They can wait all they want, but Sally is never
waking up. You're listening to Sally Part one, the ninth

(24:46):
story from Less Taken season three. In this episode, we
explore the horrific events that unferl when a family moves
into the infamous Sally House with intentions of turning it
into their dream home. In part one, we'll cover a
bit of the house's background, the family's background, and the

(25:09):
unsettling paranormal events that unfurl with no end in sight.
Please let us note you think of Less Taken by
leaving us a fair rating and review. Wherever you're listening.
You can also submit reviews at our official website, lesstakanpod
dot com. There you'll find all of our episodes sources,

(25:30):
additional information, media and more. One more thing you can
do on the site is scroll down to the bottom
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of Less Taken. Be sure to follow us before we
follow you on social media under the handle at less
Taking Pod. I'm Seam Humphreys and this is Less Taken

(25:55):
real life horror stories from the Midwest. Once again. Thanks
for listening, and I hope you enjoy Sally Part one
from Less Taken Season three, December nineteen ninety two, five

(26:27):
oh eight North Second Street at Jason, Kansas. As the
sun dips below the horizon, casting a warm golden glow
over the quiet street, Tony and Deborah Pickman pull up
to their new house with a mix of excitement and anticipation.
Their move has been underway for some time now, but

(26:48):
they're almost wrapped up and ready to introduce their newborn
to their new home. Before them stands a modest two
story structure with a quaint covered port flush with the walkway.
The house, built in the mid eighteen hundreds, exudes a
vintage charm that immediately captivates them. Tony steps out of

(27:13):
the car, cradling their infant son, Taylor in his arms.
Deborah follows, her, eyes wide with excitement and a hint
of nervousness. They walk up to the front door, and
Tony fumbles with the keys for a moment before unlocking
the dead bowl. The door swings open and reveals a

(27:36):
living room that seems rather cozy, with worn hardwood floors
and large windows that let in the last rays of
the setting sun. The air inside is cool, carrying the
faint scent of an aged wood and something else, something
they can't quite place. Later that evening, they make their

(28:00):
way upstairs, the old staircase groaning with each step. Taylor's
room is at the end of the hall, a small
but bright space with a single window overlooking at the backyard.
Tony gently places Taylor in his crib, the baby gurgling
happily as he looks up at his parents. Debraa leans over,

(28:23):
brushing a soft kiss on Taylor's forehead. A sudden chill
fills the room, causing Deborah to shiver. She glances at Tony,
who is rubbing his arms as if they warned off
the cold. They exchange a look but say nothing, both
attributing it to the quirks of an old house. As

(28:48):
they continue to unpack and settle in the feeling of
being watched lingers. They don't know why, but it does.
It's an unspoken presence that's seems to follow them from
room to room. Despite the odd chill, the Pickmans are
determined to make the house their home. They spend the

(29:09):
evening on packing boxes, arranging furniture, and dreaming about their
future in this charming, albeit slightly eerie, old house. As
night falls, they finally settle into bed, exhausted but still
feeling content about purchasing this home. Tony wraps his arms

(29:31):
around Deborah, pulling her in close. They drift off to sleep,
unaware of the dark presence that lurks in the shadows,
waiting to make itself known. Taylor sleeps peacefully in his

(30:02):
crib upstairs. The house is still save for the occasional
creak of the old wooden floors. Deborah's in the kitchen
unpacking dishes, while Tony sits in the living room flipping
through some magazines that happen to survive the remove to
the new home. Suddenly, a soft thud echoes from Taylor's room.

(30:26):
Tony looks up, alarmed again. He dismisses it with something
simple as the old house settling, and he returns to
his reading. A few minutes later, there's another thud, louder,
this time Tony and Deborah exchanged looks, a silent question
passing between them. Tony stands and heads upstairs to check

(30:51):
on Taylor. As he reaches the top of the stairs,
the air fills colder again heavier still. He pushes the
door to tailor's room open and freezes. The light is on.
When Tony's certain they turned it off, tailor's stuffed animals,
which had been neatly arranged on a shelf, are now

(31:13):
sitting in a circle on the floor. The mobile above
the crib spins slowly, though there is no breeze. Tony
steps into the room, his heart pounding. He picks up

(31:36):
one of the stuffed animals and places it back on
the shelf. Before leaving the room, he flips the light
switch off again. By the time he reaches the bottom
of the staircase, Tony hears another thud. He pivots back

(32:00):
up the stairs and barges into the tailor's room. Once more,
the light is on and the stuffed animals are strewn
across the floor. Fifteen minutes later, Tony and Deborah are
startled by the sound of their family dog barking incessantly
somewhere upstairs. Deborah races to the top of the staircase,

(32:24):
still worried about all the other commotion they heard earlier.
Turning the corner, she finds their dog standing stiff in
front of the nursery, aggressively barking at the door, but
too afraid to enter the room. This time, the light
is still off, but once more all of the stuffed
animals are littered across the room. She stands there, the

(32:48):
weight of the house pressing down on her, with an
air of some unspoken presence, something unseen but undeniably there.
To her, the feeling of being watched is palpable. Deborah
and Tony decide to gather Taylor and head into the
master bedroom for the rest of the night, their dog

(33:10):
at the foot of the bed, standing guard. Deborah's sense
of unease returns twice as strong before they call it
a night. Tony walks over to the bedroom door and
locks it tightly. This old house, once their symbol of
hopeful new beginnings, is starting to feel like a place

(33:32):
of rogue shadows and disembodied whispers. Unfortunately, this strange occurrence
is merely a series of events that will test their strength,
their courage, their love, and their sanity. The house is

(34:05):
unusually quiet, save for the gentle hum of an air conditioner.
Tony lies sprawl on the couch, his chest rising and
falling in as steady rhythm as he naps. His wife, Deborah,
sits nearby, engrossed in a book, occasionally glancing at her

(34:26):
husband as he groans in his sleep. Suddenly, Tony stirs,
his eyelids flutter open, revealing a distant and almost vacant gaze.
Deborah looks up from her book, sensing some kind of
change in the room. Tony's eyes lock unto hers, and

(34:46):
for a moment, it feels as though he looks right
through her, into some unseen realm beyond her shoulders. He's mind.
Tony murmurs, his voice low, gravelly, and foreign to him.

(35:07):
Deborah opens her mouth to respond, but Tony's eyes close again,
and he drifts back into a deep sleep. Although Deborah's
left shaken, she dismisses her husband's deep voice and uncanny
words as part of a nightmare or a stress. Dream
moving has been quite taxing, and she knows their sleepless

(35:29):
infant has worn him down to some degree. She wonders
if it's her that he's dreaming about, it would makes sense. Nonetheless,
there's a part of Deborah that can't help. But wonder
is Tony talking about someone that belongs to him or
is Tony saying he belongs to someone else? Now Tony

(36:06):
and Deborah's infant, Taylor, has been restless, his cries piercing
the silence of nearly every night, not that any of
their evenings have been completely quiet to begin with. They
wonder if most of it might have to do with
the faulty wiring in the house. At least, they assume
there's some sort of electrical issue. Lights and appliances have

(36:29):
been turning on and off and malfunctioning ever since they
showed up at the place. These flickering lights tend to
form eerie shadows on the nursery walls, so it's no
wonder that Taylor can't sleep. To him, there must be
at least a dozen shadowy boogeymen encircling his crib. Every night,

(36:50):
Tony and Deborah struggled to keep their chins up as
they stand in the dimly lit hallway, the lights above
them flashing erratically. This can't go on, Deborah whispers, her
voice tinged with exhaustion and fear. We need to do something.

(37:29):
The next morning, Tony and Deborah called an electrician. He
arrives promptly, a middle aged man with a reassuring smile
and a toolbox. He spends hours inspecting the wiring, checking
the fuse boxes, and testing the outlets. Finally, he emerges

(37:49):
from the basement, wiping his hand out a rag. Everything
looks fine, he says, shrugging, I can't find anything wrong.
Although they don't believe him, perhaps he wasn't thorough enough.
Deborah and Tony think him for his time and showed

(38:10):
the electrician to the door. Later that night, as they
settle into bed, the lights begin their ominous dance once more,
and Taylor's cries echo throughout the house. After returning home

(38:35):
from his night shift, Tony follows the smell of something
burning into the living room, where he finds his wife Deborah,
standing over a candle on the table. The candle, still
wrapped in its plastic packaging, has melted into a misshapen
blob and the wax, a small, delicate print is clearly visible.

(38:58):
Deborah's eyes are wide with fear as she looks at Tony.
What is that? She whispers, her voice trembling. The print
looks like a tiny hand pressed into the candle, as
if by some unseen force, one hot enough to melt
down into the wax. Tony's face can be seen by

(39:34):
the soft glow of a night light near the nursery door.
He stands by the crib, rocking tailor to sleep. Suddenly,
Tony feels a sharp, burning sensation on his back. He winces,
trying to ignore it, but the pain intensifies. He carefully

(39:55):
places Taylor in the crib and steps back, his hand
instinctively reaching for the source of his pain. His fingers
brush against three fresh, angry red scratches. Tony's heart races
as he catches the faint reflection of his back in
the nursery mirror. The scratches clearly visible. He feels a

(40:17):
cold chill run down his spine. The air feels heavy, oppressive,
and again he has the sensation of being watched. Tony's
first encounter with this unseen force has him shaken, and
the scratches on his back, or a stark reminder that
something malevolent blurts within the walls of their new home.

(41:05):
The living room of the Pickman household is bathed in
the golden hue of the late afternoon sun, filtering through
lace curtains. There's a musty odor that seems to cling
onto everything. Deborah and Tony sit nervously on the worn
floral pattern couch, their eyes darting around the room. They've

(41:29):
tried everything. An electrician came and went, leaving them baffled
by the strange occurrences. The melted candle with the small
handprint another mystery they can't solve. Desperate for answers, Deborah
makes a call that changes everything. Barbara Connors, a psychic medium,

(41:54):
stands in the center of the room. Her eyes are
closed and her hands are outstretched, fingers wavering slightly. Barbara's
presence is calming yet intense. She begins to speak softly
as she senses the energy in the house. She mentions
a young girl named Sally, who lived in the house

(42:15):
many years ago and died tragically. Her spirit, Barbara explains,
might still be present seeking their attention. Deborah gasps clutching
Tony's hand tightly as his face pales. Barbara continues describing

(42:36):
how Sally's energy is strong and can be overwhelming, causing
the disturbances the Pickmans have been experiencing. Tony shifts uncomfortably,
glancing towards the nursery where many of the incidents have occurred.
Barbara reassures them that Sally doesn't mean any harm, but

(42:59):
she's simply try trying to communicate. She advises them to
acknowledge Sally's presence, speak to her, set boundaries and remind
her that this is their home now and Sally needs
to respect that. Deborah's eyes fill with tears as she
looks at Tony, who nods with determination. As bizarre as

(43:20):
it might seem, they both realize that understanding and addressing
Sally's presence might very well be the first step toward
finding peace in their home. Barbara offers her support, promising
to help them through their unique situation. As Barbara's words
sink in, the oppressive atmosphere in their room seems to

(43:41):
lighten up, and the Pigments feel a glimmer of hope.

(44:02):
Tony and Deborah sit in the living room, the light
of a lamp liking at the walls. Taylor is asleep finally,
and his cries are silence for the moment. Then the
faint smell of smoke returns and travels through the air.
Tony's nose twitches and he looks around, puzzled. Do you

(44:27):
smell that? Yes? Deborah nods with wide eyes. They rise
from their seats, following the scent of the nursery. As
they push the door open, both of their hearts nearly burst.
There in the middle of the room, a doll sits

(44:47):
on the floor, its plastic face twisted in a grotesque grin.
Flames whip at its dress, the fire, seemingly coming from nowhere.
Tony rushes forward, grabbing a blanket to smother the flames.
Debora stands frozen, her eyes fixed on the doll. The

(45:10):
fire is quickly extinguished, but the damage is done. The
doll's face is charred, its eyes melted into hollow sockets.
How did this happen? Debora whispers. Tony shakes his head.
I don't know. There's no way it could have just
caught fire like that. A sense of dread settles over

(45:34):
them as they stand at the center of the nursery.
They stare down at the burnt doll, wondering at the
house or something or someone within it is trying to
give them a hint. Thank you for listening to Sally

(46:16):
Part one, the ninth story from Less Taken Season three.
Next Wednesday, we'll drop a preview of Part two, in
which we continue the story of the Pigman family inside
of the Sally House, including more strange encounters and attacks,
more paranormal and psychic investigations, and where the house stands today.

(46:38):
In the meantime, please let us know what you think
of Less Taken by leaving a fair rating and review
wherever you're listening. You can also submit reviews at our
official website, less takenpod dot com. There you can also
check out all of our episodes, sources, additional media, and more.
We've got some new merch up in the store in

(47:00):
special discounts on hats and t shirts, so be sure
to give the shop a gander while you're perusing the site.
One more thing you can do on the site is
scroll down to the bottom of the homepage and submit
your ideas for future episodes of Less Taken. Be sure
to follow us before we follow you on social media
under the handle at Less Taken Pod. You can find

(47:23):
updates on Facebook and media and early previews on Instagram
and the occasional post them threads. Pretty much nothing on
x If you think we could use a TikTok or
a YouTube, or just want to help us out with
the social pages, hit us up or less Taken Pod
at gmail dot com. A quick note on our storytelling.

(47:45):
While we do our best to stick to the facts
when we tell our real life horror stories, we sometimes
take creative liberties to maintain narrative cohesiveness. I'm Seam Humphreys
and this is Less Taken Real life horror stories from
the Midwest Chase County Productions