The Demon Within

[0] Today's podcast features two separate, unique stories that are both themed around the same thing, people who suddenly just snapped.

[1] The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from my YouTube channel and has been remastered for this podcast.

[2] The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description.

[3] The first story you'll hear is called the horrifying true story of Katie Perry's ex -boyfriend.

[4] Her ex was a famous actor, and what he did will forever change the way you view these shows and movies he was in.

[5] The second story you'll hear is called This Demon Still Lives Among Us, and it is about one of the most notorious crimes in English history.

[6] These stories are both exceptionally graphic.

[7] As such, listener discretion is advised.

[8] But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious, delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do, and we upload twice a week, once on Monday, and once on Thursday.

[9] So, if that's of interest to you, please go to the five -star review button's place of work one minute before closing time and then proceed to browse around for about 30 minutes and then leave without buying anything.

[10] Also please subscribe to the Mr. Ballin podcast wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads.

[11] I'm Dan Tiberski.

[12] In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York, a mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast.

[13] What's the answer?

[14] And what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head?

[15] Hysterical.

[16] A new podcast from Wondry and Pineapple Street Studios.

[17] Binge all episodes of hysterical early and ad -free on Wondery Plus.

[18] Okay, let's get into our first story called the horrifying true story of Katie Perry's ex -boyfriend.

[19] Before we get started, I just want to give a special shout out to Billy Jensen, who is a fantastic true crime investigative journalist who wrote the article for LA Magazine called The Secret Life of Johnny Lewis.

[20] That article was used extensively in the making of this podcast.

[21] So thank you.

[22] Billy.

[23] Johnny Lewis was only seven years old when he landed his first acting role.

[24] Granted, it was only a bit part in an obscure escalator safety video, but it was a start.

[25] From there, Johnny appeared in dozens of commercials, including with Pizza Hut, before someone recognized this kid has real talent, and he earned appearances on the hit TV shows, 7th Heaven, Malcolm in the middle, and Drake and Josh, which were really big in the late 90s and early 2000s.

[26] In 2001, when Johnny was 18 years old, he had made enough money from acting that he was able to leave his parents' home in North Los Angeles and move into a new home right in Hollywood with a bunch of other up -and -coming actors and actresses.

[27] By 2006, when Johnny was 23 years old, he was riding high.

[28] He had landed several more big TV roles, like a recurring role in the show The O .C., which was very popular in the 2000s.

[29] And in 2006, he was dating the mega pop star Katie Perry.

[30] And although their romance was relatively short, apparently it was very intense because Katie would go on to write two songs that were apparently about Johnny.

[31] But Johnny's real rise to stardom occurred two years later in 2008 when he was cast as the character Half Sack on the critically acclaimed motorcycle drama Sons of Anarchy.

[32] While the show made him famous and fabulously wealthy, Johnny was growing concerned with the direction the show was taking.

[33] He felt like it was becoming too violent.

[34] Johnny liked reading poetry and studying philosophy and staying up late drinking tea and playing chess.

[35] He did not like acting out scenes of gratuitous violence.

[36] It just wasn't who he was.

[37] So after being on the show for two seasons very successfully, he was a very popular character.

[38] He went to the writers and said, you've got to write me out of the script.

[39] I can't do this anymore.

[40] The writers were totally caught off guard and begged him to stay, but he had made up his mind, and so in 2009, his character was killed off.

[41] After leaving Sons of Anarchy, Johnny decided that he wasn't going to pursue any serious acting roles for the time being.

[42] Instead, he wanted to focus his time on writing his first novel, which was about this musical genius trying to make his way in the world.

[43] And so he started asking around to see if anybody he knew knew of a quiet place he could live and write out of.

[44] And his photographer said, I think I know the place.

[45] It was called the writer's villa, and it was this beautiful house with six bedrooms for rent right outside of Hollywood.

[46] Over the years, it had become a sort of safe haven for up -and -coming actors and actresses still looking to land their big break.

[47] The reason it developed this reputation was because of the owner, Kathy Davis.

[48] She was this wonderful woman who really understood how difficult trying to break into Hollywood was for all these people that stayed at her house.

[49] And so she would look after them and make them food and offer them rides and she would stay up late and listen to their frustrations and be a shoulder to cry on if they didn't get the part they wanted.

[50] Many of her tenants who went on to be big Hollywood stars would later attribute their success, at least in part, to the time they spent with Kathy at the villa, which they remembered as being therapeutic and soothing.

[51] Even though Johnny had already had his big break in the Sons of Anarchy, he loved the idea of living in such a peaceful place that seemed to cater to eccentric artists like himself.

[52] So in April of 2009, Johnny called Kathy and requested a room, and she said, absolutely, you can stay on the second floor in the red suite.

[53] After moving in, Johnny would tell his friends that the writer's villa was just as amazing as he thought it was going to be.

[54] And Kathy specifically was just as wonderful as everyone said she was.

[55] He actually struck up a friendship with her almost immediately.

[56] Everything seemed to be going really well for Johnny in his life until a few months later he found out his girlfriend, Diane, was pregnant.

[57] Although this totally screwed up his plans for his novel, Johnny was really excited about being a father, and so he decided to move out of the villa and in with Diane, who lived nearby, to help take care of their child.

[58] Nine months later, on April 6, 2010, Diane gave birth to a healthy little girl named Cullamay and Johnny and Diane fell madly in love with her.

[59] But unfortunately, Johnny and Diane's love for each other faded quickly after becoming parents.

[60] And before long, Johnny had moved out and back in with his parents.

[61] Not long after that, Johnny and Diane became embroiled in this really vicious, long custody battle over Cullamay, which ultimately Johnny lost, which was devastating for him.

[62] A few months later, in October of 2011, when Johnny was still living with his parents, he decided to take his motorcycle out and just go ride around and clear his head.

[63] And so he drove for about two hours to the west of L .A. out into the desert where he lost control of his bike and he crashed.

[64] After getting to the hospital, his injuries were determined to be relatively minor, except they were concerned he might have a head injury.

[65] However, after testing negative for a concussion, he was said to be okay by doctors and he was sent home.

[66] But when he got home from the hospital, he was not okay.

[67] He was a totally different person.

[68] Johnny's father, Michael, immediately noticed the change in his son's behavior.

[69] He just started acting really weird and erratic, and his thoughts weren't always coherent and he was really agitated all the time.

[70] It was just very obvious that something was off.

[71] And it made Michael wonder, perhaps my son did get a head injury from that motorcycle accident, and the doctors just missed it.

[72] And so Michael scheduled two separate MRIs for Johnny to go to, but for whatever reason, Johnny refused to go.

[73] Around this time, Johnny's friends began to notice his strange behavior, when in December of that year he was at an acting class and he began speaking in a vaguely British accent and everybody in the class noticed it and eventually someone said hey you know why are you doing that and Johnny was like what and just kind of shrugged it off and acted like he wasn't doing that a few weeks later on the morning of January 3rd 2012 Johnny was at his parents house and he was sitting in the kitchen while his mom was making omelets and Johnny just kind of abruptly says I'm going to go out for a walk so he gets up he's only got his pajamas on no shoes on he walks out the door and as he's walking down the road, he gets maybe 10 or 15 feet away from his parents' house when he hears someone screaming, like they're screaming in distress.

[74] And he thinks it's coming from the apartment that was right next to his parents' house.

[75] And so he breaks into the apartment, but there's no one in the apartment.

[76] It's totally vacant.

[77] And so as he's in this apartment, wondering what's going on, the two men that owned the apartment, they came home and they see Johnny standing there and they told him he had to leave immediately.

[78] And instead of leaving immediately, Johnny grabbed a nearby glass bottle, and he charged at them and hit them both over the head with the bottle before they managed to restrain him and hold him down until the police showed up.

[79] Johnny claimed he was acting in self -defense, but the police didn't believe him, and so they charged him with trespassing, burglary, and assault with a deadly weapon, and they sent him to jail.

[80] When Johnny's father was finally able to come to the jail and bail his son out, it had been eight days, and in those eight days, Johnny had been moved from general population to a psych ward because he was banging his head against the inside of his cell and at one point he had tried to jump off of a balcony and he was just generally acting unhinged and so when he was discharged on his paperwork a doctor at the jail had commented that he thought Johnny at one point must have had some sort of head injury that had made him act this way and he was definitely suicidal when Johnny got back to his parents' house he was an absolute wreck physically I mean he had two black eyes and his face was all puffed up from the confrontation he had with those two men in the apartment and emotionally he was so distraught that he wouldn't let anyone in his family come near him he just hold up in his room and just told everyone to stay away he also became extremely sensitive to light to the point where he was turning off all the lights in his parents home and then when they would eventually just turn them back on again he would get agitated and turn them all off and then finally he just disabled his parents fuse box but despite johnny's obvious issues after coming home from jail over the next few weeks he did actually seem to be improving to the point where at the end of January, so about a month after he came home from jail, his parents allowed him to move out and go live on his own in Santa Monica, California, about 30 minutes away.

[81] But as soon as he was living on his own, his trouble started again.

[82] On February 10th, so about a week after moving into this place in Santa Monica, he was arrested for punching some random stranger in the head outside of a yogurt shop, but he was ultimately released on $20 ,000 bail.

[83] A couple of days later, Johnny, fully clothed, just walked into the ocean, and when he was pulled out, he had to be brought to the hospital to be treated for hypothermia.

[84] A couple of days after getting out of the hospital, he was arrested again, this time for trying to break into a woman's apartment in Santa Monica.

[85] He claimed he thought it was his friend's apartment, but nobody believed him, so he was brought to jail, and then released on bail again.

[86] After the second arrest in Santa Monica, Johnny's parents finally convinced him to go see a doctor about this potential head injury they thought he got from that 2011 motorcycle crash.

[87] Even though that jailhouse doc had suggested Johnny had a head injury, he had not officially diagnosed him.

[88] So Johnny needed another doctor to officially diagnose his head injury so they could begin to treat it.

[89] But the doctor Johnny wound up seeing did not suspect a head injury.

[90] Instead, he suspected schizophrenia or bipolar, which are two very serious mental disorders.

[91] And so he prescribed some medication to Johnny that would treat both of those disorders, and Johnny was on his way.

[92] Johnny refused to take the medication and refused to go see another doctor, and so his condition just continued to get worse.

[93] Johnny was still facing serious jail time for the break -in and assault against those two men in the apartment next to his parents' home, and so Johnny's lawyer was trying to get a deal done where Johnny would go to a mental health treatment facility for a year instead of going to jail for a year.

[94] But Johnny was so confident these charges would just get dropped, and he'd be allowed to go back to his life and live the way he wanted to, that he fired his lawyer and he represented himself in court.

[95] But the charges were not dropped and he was sentenced to one year in prison.

[96] However, the jail he was sent to was so overcrowded, they reduced his sentence all the way down to only six weeks.

[97] When Johnny's father finally came to pick him up from prison on Friday, September 21st, 2012, Johnny was at an all -time low.

[98] Even though he'd only been in jail for six weeks instead of the year he was supposed to be there, it was clear that amount of time had done an enormous amount of damage to him.

[99] And so on the car ride home from prison, Johnny just kind of sheepishly asked his father, you know, hey, dad, would it be possible if you called Kathy Davis at the writer's villa and just see if there's any way I can move back in?

[100] And Michael's thinking to himself, you know, I hadn't thought of that, but the writer's villa was the last place Johnny was when his life was still in order.

[101] It was probably the last place he was happy.

[102] And so he probably has attached a lot of fond memories to that place.

[103] And so that's a great place for him to go.

[104] And so as soon as they got home, Michael called Kathy Davis and explained the situation and said, you know, is there any way he can stay there?

[105] And she said, absolutely, the red suite is still available.

[106] I'll go up and make the bed right now.

[107] I can't wait to see him.

[108] Johnny stayed with his parents that weekend.

[109] And then on Monday, September 24th, he packed up his stuff and he moved back into the villa.

[110] Two days later, a 70 -year -old man named Dan Blackburn, who was actually neighbors to the writer's villa property.

[111] He was looking out his front window at this man who was standing out in the road.

[112] He only had on jeans and red shoes.

[113] He had no shirt on and he was very sweaty and he was just kind of frantically pacing around the road and he had never seen this guy before and so he's just kind of poking out behind his curtain watching him to see what he's going to do next.

[114] And after about 15 minutes of this kind of strange pacing in the road, this guy turns and walks directly towards Dan's property, goes right up to the front step and starts knocking on the door.

[115] Dan was definitely a little bit concerned, but he shut the curtain, he walked over to the door and he looks out the people and there's this guy standing there with bright blue eyes that are all wide, and he's looking at the people as if he can see through and see Dan, but he can't.

[116] And so Dan reaches down and he opens the door just a little bit and he looks out and the guy outside looks at him and goes, hi, I'm John, I'm your new neighbor.

[117] It would turn out John was Johnny Lewis.

[118] And so Dan opened the door a little bit farther and he looks at him and he goes, hi John, nice to meet you.

[119] And before the two men could have any sort of conversation, Johnny just abruptly turned around and walked away.

[120] And so Dan is totally puzzled by this strange interaction he's just had with Johnny Lewis.

[121] And he's watching him as he just walks back to the road, he walks back over and goes inside the villa and disappears.

[122] And so Dan kind of shrugs it off.

[123] He shuts his door, locks it and goes back to his morning routine.

[124] About 30 minutes later, Dan is doing his own thing in his house when he hears his wife outside screaming for him to come outside.

[125] And so Dan runs out the front door.

[126] He goes into his driveway, which is between his property and the writer's villa.

[127] And he sees his wife is standing on the driveway, horrified, pointing up towards the back of their house and he looks down and back near their back deck johnny johnny lewis is standing on top of the guy that dan and his wife had hired that day to paint their back deck johnny is just raining blows down on the sky he's got a piece of wood too that he's hitting him with and the worker is sitting there trying to shield himself there's blood all over him and dan instinctively just runs over to johnny johnny's not seen dan at this point dan gets right up to him and he grabs him by the shoulder and he tries pulling johnny off he's screaming at johnny to stop but johnny just seems totally unfazed.

[128] He's just destroying this worker.

[129] And so finally, after Dan yanks on Johnny hard enough, Johnny jumps up, turns around and levels Dan square in the face.

[130] Dan falls to the ground and when he looks up, Johnny is just standing over him, looking at him with no expression on his face.

[131] It's like he didn't know what he was going to do with Dan next.

[132] So he just stood there and stared at him.

[133] But Dan wasn't going to waste any time.

[134] He jumped up and he clocked Johnny square in the side of the head, but it had no effect on Johnny.

[135] He still just stared at Dan completely expressionless.

[136] And so Dan grabbed a nearby lawn chair and practically broke it over the head of Johnny.

[137] But again, it had no effect on Johnny.

[138] He just stood there completely expressionless staring at Dan.

[139] And so at this point, Dan just grabs the worker who can barely stand and he runs back down the driveway.

[140] He grabs his wife and they run towards the house to go inside.

[141] And the three of them managed to get inside the house.

[142] And as they're shutting the big heavy door, Johnny comes bounding up and he gets right in front and he jams his arm in the space between the door and the door.

[143] wall so they can't close the door because it's getting stuck on his arm and so all three of the adults inside dan his wife and the painter are putting all of their weight on this huge wooden door onto johnny's arm and johnny is just trying to grab them the whole time and so finally the three of them start raising the door and slamming it as hard as they can on johnny's arm and finally after several hard blows to his arm johnny retracted his arm and they were able to shut the door and lock it and so at this point dan's wife and the painter ran around the house closing every window locking every door.

[144] Meanwhile, Dan went to the side window that looked out towards the writer's villa property and he got his phone out and he called 911 as he's looking out the door looking for Johnny.

[145] And so after he tells 911 what's going on and he hangs up, Johnny suddenly just appears running down his driveway as if he's running back towards the back deck.

[146] But he stops almost right in front of Dan's window.

[147] He turns and he starts running towards the villa property.

[148] He jumps over a fence that's at least waist height, just jumps clear over it.

[149] And then he gets to this huge wooden fence that surrounded the entire villa property that was at least, you know, eight, nine, ten feet, and he very easily just jumps, grabs the top, and catapults himself right over the top, and then disappeared inside of the villa.

[150] Within minutes, the police showed up, and they went inside the villa, and they could not believe what they found.

[151] Based on the evidence, this is what investigators believe happened.

[152] After Johnny, for the first time, walked up to Dan's property and awkwardly knocked on the door and said, Hi, I'm John, I'm your new neighbor.

[153] After that, he turned around, and Dan watched him as he left his property and made his way back and went inside the villa.

[154] Once Johnny got inside the villa, he made his way up to the second floor, and he went into Kathy Davis's room where she was sitting.

[155] Now, Kathy most likely turned and saw Johnny standing in the doorway.

[156] He's got no shirt on, he's sweating, he looks totally crazed.

[157] She probably was not scared.

[158] Instead, her motherly instincts kicked in, and she probably said, hey, are you okay?

[159] Can I help you?

[160] What's going on?

[161] And as she probably stood up and made her way over to make sure he was okay, Johnny, for reasons no one understands, proceeded to beat and kick and strangle her.

[162] And then when she fell to the ground and was totally helpless, Johnny proceeded to either stomp on her skull repeatedly, or he hit her over the head repeatedly with a rusty hammer that was later found in his bedroom.

[163] But no matter how Johnny did it, he managed to severely fracture her skull, and that's what ultimately killed her.

[164] After killing Kathy, Johnny tracked down her beloved cat and killed the cat the same way.

[165] Afterwards, Johnny ran out of the villa, and that's when he spotted Dan's house painter just sitting outside, and he walked over to him and just began beating him.

[166] And just like the attack on Kathy and her cat, this attack on this house painter appeared to have no motive as well.

[167] After Dan came outside and managed to fight Johnny off, and then when Dan went back inside the house with his wife and with the painter, Johnny stood outside for a few minutes before running down Dan's driveway and then hopping over those two fences right in front of Dan, and then Johnny disappeared inside of the villa.

[168] Once Johnny was in the villa, it's believed he climbed up to the upper patio or onto the roof of the villa itself, and from there, he either jumped or fell to his death on the driveway below.

[169] His death was officially ruled an accident, not a suicide.

[170] After the news broke about what had happened at the writer's villa, everybody assumed Johnny must have been on some really hardcore drugs.

[171] That's the only explanation for why someone would act the way he acted.

[172] But when his toxicology report came back, it showed he had absolutely no drugs of any kind, legal or illegal, in his system.

[173] He was completely sober at the time he committed this horrible crime.

[174] Some believe Johnny really did have some undiagnosed head injury from that motorcycle accident, and this head injury is responsible for his violent outbursts.

[175] Others disagree and say the head injury had nothing to do with it.

[176] Johnny clearly had some undiagnosed mental disorder.

[177] Maybe it was schizophrenia, maybe he was bipolar, or maybe it was something else, but it was this mental disorder that led to these violent outbursts.

[178] But to this day, no one knows for sure why Johnny did what he did.

[179] All we know is an innocent woman and her cat were needlessly killed.

[180] She struck him with her motor vehicle.

[181] She had been under the influence that she left him there.

[182] In January 2022, local woman Karen Reed was implicated in the mysterious death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O 'Keefe.

[183] It was alleged that after an innocent night out for drinks with friends, Karen and John got into a lover's quarrel and route to the next location.

[184] What happens next depends on who you ask.

[185] Was it a crime of passion?

[186] If you believe the prosecution, it's because the evidence was so compelling.

[187] This was clearly an intentional act.

[188] And his cause of death was blunt force trauma with hypothermia.

[189] Or a corrupt police cover -up.

[190] If you believe the defense theory, however, this was all a cover -up to prevent one of their own from going down.

[191] Everyone had an opinion.

[192] And after the 10 -week trial, the jury could not come to a unanimous decision.

[193] To end in a mistrial, it's just a confirmation of just how complicated this case is.

[194] Law and crime presents the most in -depth analysis to date of the sensational case in Karen.

[195] You can listen to Karen exclusively with Wondery Plus.

[196] Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcast, or Spotify.

[197] If you're listening to this podcast, then chances are good, you are a fan of the Strange Dark and Mysterious.

[198] And if that's the case, then I've got some good news.

[199] We just launched a brand new Strange Dark and Mysterious podcast called Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.

[200] And as the name suggests, it's a show about medical mysteries, a genre that many fans have been asking us to dive into for years, and we finally decided to take the plunge and the show is awesome.

[201] In this free, weekly show, we explore bizarre, unheard of diseases, strange medical mishaps, unexplainable deaths and everything in between.

[202] Each story is totally true and totally terrifying.

[203] Go follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts, and if you're a prime member, you can listen early and ad -free on Amazon Music.

[204] The next and final story of today's episode is called This Demon Still Lives Among Us.

[205] In early 1974, 31 -year -old Michael Taylor was living happily with his wife, Christine, and their five children in Osset, which is a small town in central England.

[206] Michael was described as a great father and a great husband who had an excellent sense of humor.

[207] In fact, neighbors, whenever they would walk past the Taylor household, would say you could often hear the sound of Michael laughing or the sound of him telling jokes to his family.

[208] But in April of that year, everything changed for the Taylor family.

[209] Michael had been doing some home repairs when he fell off of a ladder and he hurt his back.

[210] The injury itself was fairly minor, but it resulted in chronic pain.

[211] and this chronic pain quickly changed how Michael behaved.

[212] Michael went from being this cheerful, funny, happy guy to being sad and depressed.

[213] And he was so irritable that his family could barely be around him because he would lash out at them.

[214] Now, the Taylor family was not a religious family.

[215] However, most families who lived in Osset at that time were.

[216] And so when one of Michael's friends found out about how poorly Michael was doing, they approached Michael and said, you know, you really ought to turn to religion for help and for guidance in this difficult time.

[217] And they also told him specifically that he really ought to check out this one particular Christian group.

[218] It was called the Christian Fellowship Group.

[219] And all it was was a prayer group for Christians who wanted more religious support beyond just going to church on Sundays.

[220] But this friend of Michaels told him that the real draw of this group was the group's leader.

[221] Her name was Marie Robinson and she was this 21 -year -old extremely friendly and energetic and charismatic person, who just had this incredible way of making all of her members really feel like they belonged.

[222] And so Michael's friend was telling him that he really thought Marie could be the difference maker for him, that she could help him get back to normal.

[223] And so Michael, you know, he trusted this friend and he really didn't have much to lose at this point.

[224] He was already at rock bottom.

[225] And so he agrees to go check this group out.

[226] So on September 12th of that year, Michael makes his way to the church where this fellowship group is held.

[227] He goes inside and he makes his way to one of the back rooms in the church.

[228] And when he goes inside, he sees there's a ring of people sitting in a circle about 20 people.

[229] And as soon as they see Michael coming in the room, they all stand up and they open their arms up.

[230] And they say, come on, come sit down with us.

[231] Welcome.

[232] Welcome to the group.

[233] And then the woman who had to be Marie, she stands up and she looks at Michael, huge smile on her face.

[234] And she encourages him to come over and sit right next to me. Welcome.

[235] We'd love to have you join our group.

[236] And so Michael, for the first time in ages, is smiling as he strides across the room and sits down right next to Marie.

[237] And then as Marie began to lead the group in prayer, Michael did not feel his chronic pain.

[238] He just felt happy again.

[239] But when the meeting was over and Michael went back home again, the pain and depression came flooding back.

[240] It was like the only place he could be happy was inside of the church at this fellowship group.

[241] And so over the next couple of weeks, Michael completely prioritized this group.

[242] He went to all of their meetings.

[243] And over the course of these couple of weeks, Michael became very close with Marie, and apparently Marie became very close with Michael, to the point where the two of them would stay after, after the meetings were over, and just those two would sequester themselves in quiet prayer.

[244] No one knew what they did in there, but it just seemed like they were developing a real relationship.

[245] And in fact, many people in this group suspected they were having an affair.

[246] And before long, the rumors in the church had spread outside and were all over Osset, and then before long Christine, Michael's wife, was hearing from a friend or a neighbor, that apparently Michael was having an affair with Marie.

[247] Now, Christine had already suspected her husband was having an affair with Marie because Marie was the only thing Michael talked about when he got home.

[248] So, on October 1st of that year, only a couple of weeks after Michael had first attended this group, Christine waited until Michael had left the house to head out to one of the group meetings, and then Christine hopped in her car and she followed him to the church.

[249] And when she got there, she parked her car, she took a deep breath, And then she got out, she made her way to the front doors of the church, and she stormed inside.

[250] And she found the room where these meetings were held.

[251] She barges in, and she points at her husband, and she says, I know you're having an affair with Marie.

[252] Then you're going to admit it in front of this whole group.

[253] And Michael, who's sitting with his back to his wife in one of the chairs, he stands up, and instead of addressing his wife, who's accused him of infidelity, he turns and looks at Marie on the other side of the room.

[254] And when Marie made eye contact with Michael, she screamed.

[255] She would later say, Michael did not look human.

[256] He looked like a beast and he had wild eyes.

[257] And so as Michael is standing there staring at Marie with this very aggressive face, he began breaking out in tongues.

[258] Speaking in tongues is where the speaker will be saying or uttering words or sounds that sound like language, but the speaker doesn't know what they mean.

[259] The idea is some entity has come inside of their body.

[260] and this entity is dictating their speech.

[261] And so Michael is broken out in tongues.

[262] He's barking these words and sounds at Marie, and everyone inside of the room has no idea what to make of this.

[263] Everything has happened so suddenly, and it's so surprising, you have the wife suddenly coming in and aggressively accusing her husband of cheating, and Michael is not responding to it, and he's acting totally crazy.

[264] And then, before anyone can do anything, Michael goes from just barking in strange languages at Marie to suddenly rushing across the room as if he's going to attack her.

[265] And when he does that, the rest of the members jump on top of them and hold him down.

[266] And despite there being like 10 or 15 people holding him down, Michael is still trying to get up and he's screaming and snarling and yelling at Marie.

[267] And then Marie suddenly breaks out into tongues too.

[268] And it's only then that Michael stops trying to force himself up out of this pig pile that's on top of him.

[269] And instead, he just continues to speak in tongues to her.

[270] And so the two of them are looking at each other, speaking in tongues, and the rest of the group is just totally dumbfounded, and so they just begin praying.

[271] And then after about an hour, Michael just collapses.

[272] It's like he went unconscious.

[273] And at that point, everybody in the room just goes silent, and they look at Michael.

[274] And then Michael kind of opens his eyes, and it's almost like he's waking up, and he begins looking around frantically trying to figure out what had just happened.

[275] Michael would claim he had no memory of what had just happened to him.

[276] And so at this point, Marie would tell him and Christine that she believed Michael was possessed, by a demonic force, and the only thing they could do at this point would be to perform an exorcism.

[277] An exorcism is an expulsion or attempted expulsion of a supposedly evil spirit inside of a person or a place.

[278] Michael and Christine were at a loss.

[279] They had no idea what to do in this situation.

[280] They were both kind of in shock for very different reasons, and so they just kind of deferred to Marie's judgment and said, yeah, you know, I think an exorcism is the way to go.

[281] So Christine and Michael just leave the church and go home.

[282] And then the next morning, Marie would get in touch with the Anglican Church of England and would request an exorcism.

[283] And after hearing about what was going on with Michael, the Anglican church would say, yeah, that does sound like he needs an exorcism.

[284] And so the following day, they would send out two of their best exorcists named Peter and Raymond.

[285] And so Peter and Raymond, they get to Osset, they go to Michael's house and they observe him.

[286] And very quickly, they determine that it does seem like Michael is possessed by at least one demonic force.

[287] And so they tell Michael, the only thing we can do here is perform this exorcism, but we need you to agree to it.

[288] And so Michael says, okay, yeah, I agree to this exorcism.

[289] And so would his wife, because she at this point is just completely unsure what to do.

[290] She's just going along for the ride.

[291] So a day later, on October 4th at 10 p .m., Michael, his wife, and the rest of the members of this fellowship group, along with Peter and Raymond, they would all meet at this other church in a neighboring town.

[292] then as soon as Michael had been positioned in the middle of this group in this chair, Peter and Raymond began the ritual by praying.

[293] And as soon as they did, Michael began screaming out in tongues, and he began writhing around and he fell to the ground, and he began contorting his body in grotesque positions, as if the words Peter and Raymond were saying were physically harming Michael.

[294] And so after eight hours of this, during which they had to actually tie Michael down to prevent him from hurting other members or hurting himself.

[295] After eight hours, they finally just came to a stop.

[296] Peter and Raymond were exhausted.

[297] It looked very much like Michael, too, was exhausted.

[298] And as soon as they stopped the ritual, Michael just kind of collapsed on the ground, as if he had fallen unconscious.

[299] And then at some point, he kind of wakes up, and he's looking around wildly, he's still tied down to the ground, and he's acting like he has no idea what's just happened.

[300] And at this point, Peter and Raymond, they tell him that, you know, the exorcism was mostly successful.

[301] We identified 40 demons inside of you, and this exorcism was able to expel 37 of them.

[302] So that means there's still three demons inside of you.

[303] Now, we can't do it right now.

[304] We're too tired.

[305] You're too exhausted.

[306] So go home, get some rest, and tomorrow we will finish this exorcism.

[307] We will get rid of those three demons, and you will be just fine.

[308] And so Michael and Christine, they get their things, and they leave the church, and they head home.

[309] A few hours later, around noon, a woman who lived near where Michael Taylor and his family lived thought she heard something strange outside of her house.

[310] It sounded like someone yelling.

[311] And so she went to the front of the house and she pulled the curtain aside on one of her windows.

[312] And outside, walking down the street, completely naked, covered in blood, was Michael Taylor.

[313] And he was saying something about Satan.

[314] And so this woman, she calls the police, the police show up, and they find Michael.

[315] He had curled up on the sidewalk outside of this woman's house.

[316] and he was giggling like a child in the fetal position.

[317] And so the police approach him and at some point Michael apparently snaps out of it and he starts looking up at the police like he has no idea what's going on.

[318] And eventually they would get him to tell them his name and where he lived.

[319] And so after calling in backup to deal with Michael, the responding officers made their way to Michael's residence.

[320] And so they go inside and immediately, as soon as they see what's in there, one of the officers just turns around and runs outside and begins dry heaving.

[321] The inside of the Taylor family home would become one of the most infamous crime scenes in English history.

[322] A few hours earlier, when Michael and his wife had come home from the exorcism, they had gone inside and then Michael had fallen into one of his trances and began beating his wife.

[323] And then at some point she fell to the ground and either was dead or was in the process of dying, at which point Michael jumped on top of her and using only his hands, he ripped her face off and flung it across the room.

[324] And then as she's laying there, bleeding to death, he began rubbing her blood all over his body.

[325] And then after she had finally died, he tracked down the family dog and killed the dog as well.

[326] Fortunately, their five children were not home at the time of this attack, and so they were unharmed.

[327] During Michael's trial, the prosecution and the defense blamed the Anglican Church of England and Marie and her religious group for effectively convincing Michael he was possessed with demons, which caused him to act out violently and kill his wife.

[328] And so ultimately, Michael would be found not guilty by reason of insanity, and after only four years of psychiatric care, he was released.

[329] And today, he is still living free in Osset.

[330] But despite the legal outcomes of this case, there are many people, both religious and not religious, who believe the Michael Taylor case is one of the only true demonic possession cases in modern history.

[331] Also, just to close the loop, we don't know for sure if Michael and Marie were having an affair, but it is assumed they were.

[332] Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast.

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[347] I'm Dan Tiberski.

[348] In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York.

[349] I was like at my locker and she came up to me and she was like stuttering.

[350] super bad.

[351] I'm like, stop fucking around.

[352] She's like, I can't.

[353] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast.

[354] It's like doubling and tripling and it's all these girls.

[355] With a diagnosis, the state tried to keep on the down low.

[356] Everybody thought I was holding something back.

[357] Well, you were holding something back.

[358] Intentionally.

[359] Yeah, yeah.

[360] Well, yeah.

[361] No, it's hysteria.

[362] It's all in your head.

[363] It's not physical.

[364] Oh my gosh, you're exaggerating.

[365] Is this the largest mass hysteria since the Witches of Salem?

[366] Or is it something else entirely?

[367] Something's wrong here.

[368] Something's not right.

[369] Leroy was the new dateline and everyone was trying to solve the murder.

[370] A new limited series from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios, Hysterical.

[371] Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[372] You can binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad -free right now by joining Wondery Plus.