289 - MFM Guest Host Picks #12 - Nick Terry

[0] This is exactly right.

[1] Hey, everybody.

[2] This is Nick Terry, guest hosting My Favorite Murder, which is very exciting.

[3] If you don't know who I am, I'm the creator of MFM animated.

[4] If you don't know what that is, you should go to Exactly Right Media's YouTube channel and check it out.

[5] I've been doing these animations officially in an official capacity for MFM just for a couple months now, but I've been doing them overall for about three years, basically since I started listening to the podcast, which I've been a big fan of since that time.

[6] I'm super excited to be here, so let's get into it.

[7] The first story we're going to hear is from Georgia.

[8] It's from episode 186 Sprankers, and it's all about stories of people buried alive.

[9] I picked this one because, I don't know, this is one of those fears that I think we all have.

[10] There's actually a part during this story where, Karen says something like taffophobia is the fear of being buried alive, but I would call it just being a human being.

[11] And I agree with that.

[12] I don't consider myself claustrophobic, but sometimes I just think about what it would be like to wake up buried in a coffin and I get panicky.

[13] So let's get panicky together and hear Georgia talk about the weird Victorian panic that led to safety coffins and all the weird nonsense around that.

[14] Enjoy.

[15] But wait.

[16] But wait, there's more.

[17] Here's the weird thing.

[18] What?

[19] You did the same story?

[20] No. I'm doing stories of people being accidentally buried alive.

[21] No, you're not.

[22] Swear to fucking God.

[23] What?

[24] How crazy is it?

[25] That's why I was so.

[26] We should have saved this for Halloween.

[27] Do you think after a while we have the same brain?

[28] It's like we, these won't be.

[29] This is just how it's going to be where it's like, well, then I also.

[30] Well, I really love.

[31] that we open this up a little, this after the break to like weird tales and stuff that's outside the realm of just straight out of murder?

[32] This is literally buried alive in a grave.

[33] How fucking crazy.

[34] I love it.

[35] So sorry, this whole time you've just been sitting over there with your little sit.

[36] That's why you had that smile on your bed.

[37] I was like, this is unbelievable.

[38] Okay.

[39] I specifically got this when I was just searching for weird shit and found a rancor article called Scary Stories of People who were buried alive.

[40] I was like, great, I'm doing this.

[41] God bless you, Rancor.

[42] Also got a story from Reuters about a dead man who wakes up under the autopsy knife.

[43] Spoiler alert.

[44] Okay.

[45] Yeah, no, we're got there.

[46] We'll get there.

[47] History collection, amusing planet, popsci .com, all that's interesting .com.

[48] Wikipedia, of course.

[49] So Wikipedia and then research was from Lily Bellinghausen, who's been helping me with research.

[50] God bless.

[51] Amen.

[52] A fucking man. All right.

[53] So, Karen, yes.

[54] Cases of being buried alive have been recorded as far back as the 14th century.

[55] Jesus.

[56] And I don't think they recorded shit before that.

[57] Yeah, there was no ability to record.

[58] Inc. got invented right around that same time.

[59] They had a, what is the thing we've recorded on the beginning of this podcast when we first started?

[60] Zoom.

[61] They didn't have Zooms before the 1400.

[62] So it wasn't recorded.

[63] In 1308.

[64] Too long to chisel it into a big piece of stone.

[65] Right.

[66] Forget it.

[67] And then you got to have the headphones like still.

[68] you look like Stephen and they have to have the mustache and that takes forever.

[69] So in 1308, the vault of Franciscan philosopher John Dunn's Scotis is open and his body is reportedly found outside of his coffin with bloodied hands.

[70] No. A lot of bloodied hands and nails in this story.

[71] I bet.

[72] Just want to let everyone know.

[73] Of all the things I hate, and there are many things I hate about being buried alive, the smallness of a waking up in a casket, the smallness of the space that you then have to suffer in.

[74] Yeah.

[75] I think that's the fear that everyone has.

[76] Like, when I was reading through this, and you'll hear, like, the, like, panic that everyone has about the idea of being buried alive, I think has a lot to do with the idea that you're fucking stuck once you're awake.

[77] Stuck in a tiny place.

[78] And that scratching your way out is pretty much your only hope.

[79] Yeah.

[80] Horrifying.

[81] Here we go.

[82] Great.

[83] Happy Halloween, everybody.

[84] Well, this story is considered a myth.

[85] Oh.

[86] The fear of being buried alive became a pandemic during the Victorian era.

[87] That was fucking crazy Victorians.

[88] Everything great and the creepiest of all creepy things happened during then.

[89] Fogs that would come upon the city and fogs and bustles and pandemics and lots of child death.

[90] Right.

[91] Listen to listen to this podcast will kill you for more information.

[92] Yes.

[93] In the 18th and 19th centuries, there was widespread bacterial infections and cholera outbreaks.

[94] And in addition to the popular literature like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Edgar Allan Poe's 1844 premature premature burial, there's also reports from doctors about people supposedly coming back from the dead.

[95] Tapophobia, I think, is the fear of being buried alive and that spreads across Europe and the U .S. and leads to the invention, and I've always been obsessed with this idea, safety coffins.

[96] Love it.

[97] Okay.

[98] Safety coffins or security coffins are a coffin fitted with a mechanism to prevent premature burial or allow the occupant to signal that they have been buried alive.

[99] A large number of designs for safety coffins were patented during the 18th and 19th and 19th, centuries and variations on the idea are still available today.

[100] Is that true?

[101] I guess that's what Lily said.

[102] It is and I believe her.

[103] You know what's funny is that tapophobia is the name for the fear of being buried alive.

[104] I would call it being a human being.

[105] Yeah, it's not claustrophobia.

[106] It's not tapophobia.

[107] It's just if you are alive now, you have that fear.

[108] You're like, guess what would suck?

[109] Peeing my pants, being buried alive.

[110] And then what's another one?

[111] choking biting into an old sandwich oh yeah exactly eating a salad and finding a cockroach at the bottom of it at the bottom once you're all done live cockroach a live cockroach you ate that first of all who eats the entire salad usually only get about are you okay the way down yeah this time you finished your salad and writers you're like oh one last crout no no it isn't okay um the most popular designs use some type of device for communication to the outside world like a cord attached to a bell that the buried person could just ring in case they woke up it's that idea I think you talked about this in another a live show one time yes yes I get to what I talked about oh okay no no keep talking but I just want to say that it's like a person who makes set who makes sets and props for a horrible play yeah was like what would be the the creepiest thing this coffin could do.

[112] It ring.

[113] It's so awful.

[114] You're the grave digger and you're standing in the cemetery in the middle of the early morning.

[115] Whistling?

[116] What's the creepiest thing you could hear?

[117] How about a bell?

[118] Ding -lingling -ling.

[119] Also, how do those bells not go off when just the wind?

[120] Oh, sorry, sorry.

[121] No, no, no. You're right.

[122] And in addition to that, shit, I should have let you finish.

[123] No, no, no. Okay, so.

[124] I should let you actually tell your story.

[125] Instead of guessing.

[126] That's not this podcast.

[127] Okay, you're right.

[128] Remember, we are buried alive in a grave.

[129] That's true.

[130] Other variations of the bell include flags and pyrotechnics.

[131] What?

[132] I don't know.

[133] That's all Lily fucking told me. And I was like, this could be a whole episode of its own.

[134] You wake up in your coffin, and AMAD goes off above four.

[135] And then a fireworks show.

[136] Ooh.

[137] And then the gravedigger there's like, ooh, ah, and then walks away.

[138] Yeah.

[139] It doesn't help you.

[140] Some burial designs include ladders, escape hatches.

[141] and even feeding tubes, but most of them lacked a method to provide air.

[142] Remember air?

[143] Remember air.

[144] Also, yeah, you're buried alive.

[145] You don't want a snack.

[146] No. Don't worry about the feeding tube.

[147] Yeah, you know, you don't want to live longer.

[148] Send me down an apple, would you?

[149] No. Or just a mush apple.

[150] Applesauce.

[151] Is that what you mean?

[152] Wait, they invented a thing?

[153] Yes.

[154] That's just a mushed apple?

[155] You don't just have to.

[156] mush your apples anymore.

[157] Wait, what?

[158] Yeah.

[159] The time I'm an expense I have been going to.

[160] There's a family name a mott and they figured out how to mush up your favorite apples.

[161] God bless them.

[162] Amen.

[163] Amen.

[164] In 1791, Robert Robinson, I doubt that.

[165] A man from Manchester creates the first safety coffin prototype.

[166] He was laid to rest in a mausoleum fitted with a special door that could be opened from the outside by the watchman on duty.

[167] So inside would be his coffin and there would be a removable glass panel and he instructed his family to periodically check on the glass inserted in the coffin basically to see if he was breathing if there was condensation.

[168] Sure, dad.

[169] We will.

[170] No, dad will be there every day.

[171] You are.

[172] Can you imagine what his like living life was like?

[173] It was very stressful for all the family.

[174] Such a pain in the ass.

[175] Um, the first true, am I dead?

[176] Did I die?

[177] No, you're sitting here at dinner.

[178] It's fine.

[179] Yes, we can, can, can you stop breathing in my face?

[180] You were breathing.

[181] Yes, you were breathing.

[182] The first true recorded safety coffin was made on the orders of Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick before his death in 1792.

[183] He had a window installed to allow light in, an air tube that provided the supply of fresh air.

[184] And instead of having the lid nailed down, he had a lock fitted.

[185] And in a pocket of his shroud who's buried in, he had the keys for them.

[186] Perfect.

[187] You got it.

[188] And then a really cute key chain.

[189] Yeah.

[190] With like dolphin magic.

[191] Yeah, and it said, here you go.

[192] Keep J .K. Liven.

[193] And when you turn it this way, the dolphins has a bathing suit on.

[194] When you turn it that way, the dolphin's bathing suit comes off.

[195] The dolphin has a humongous erect penis.

[196] And it attacks you because dolphins are rapists.

[197] Does the penis have a bathing suit on it?

[198] And this bathing suit after a bathing suit falls off, the pen is very thick.

[199] It's complicated.

[200] It was actually the pen that killed him.

[201] It crushed his death.

[202] He invented it.

[203] It crushed him.

[204] What?

[205] Okay.

[206] So, a German priest named PJ Pesler suggested in 1798 that all coffins have a tube inserted so that a cord could run to the church bells.

[207] And if an individual had, what's that you say?

[208] An individual had been buried.

[209] I've only had one can of wine, I swear to go.

[210] Why are there two sitting there?

[211] Because I'm drinking the other one.

[212] It just hasn't been drank yet.

[213] Girl.

[214] Girl, I've been my head.

[215] Check my wine.

[216] Okay, they could draw attention to themselves by ringing the bell inside.

[217] They'd be like, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

[218] You're ringing the church bells now.

[219] You want the whole town to come.

[220] I guess so.

[221] So this led to signaling systems that came around.

[222] But unfortunately, the coffins, oh, wait.

[223] So then his bro, a colleague of his, was like, well, we should put trumpet -like tubes instead.

[224] So a trumpet instead of bells.

[225] Yes.

[226] Which is more annoying.

[227] And more haunting.

[228] Each day the local priest.

[229] I'm alive.

[230] Still alive.

[231] Each day that local priest could check the state of, oh, okay, wait, okay.

[232] The other thing is that they would have a small trumpet -like tube attached.

[233] And the point of that is not so you can blow your fucking trumpet when you realize you've been buried alive.

[234] Okay.

[235] But so that a local priest would go to the cemetery and smell each of the trumpet funnels and make sure that there was decomposition happening, that the smell of the odors emanating from the tube would be that.

[236] of decomp, not of a live person just shitting their pants or whatever.

[237] The priests are like, have we not given up enough by never marrying, taking a vow of poverty?

[238] I wrote, above my pay grade.

[239] They don't get paid though, do they?

[240] Well, I don't know.

[241] They get paid by going straight to heaven.

[242] That's right.

[243] First in line, bitches.

[244] Unless.

[245] Uh -oh.

[246] It's you or me. Dr. Adab Gutzmus was buried alive several times to demonstrate a safety coffin of his design.

[247] And in 1822, he stayed underground for several hours and ate a whole meal, which I'm like, whatever.

[248] What's this eating in the coffin situation?

[249] Delivered to him through the coffins feeding tube.

[250] No, you people are fools.

[251] Get up and go to a restaurant.

[252] It's a really lovely experience.

[253] So nice.

[254] In 1829, Dr. Johann Gottfried Taburger, okay, created a more elaborate bell signaling system.

[255] So Bell's house above ground connected to strings attached to the body's head, head, only one, hands and feet, and it prevented rainwater from going into the tube, blah, blah, blah.

[256] If the bell rang, the cemetery watchman would insert a tube into the coffin and pump air in using be bellows until the casket could be dug up, so they'd have fresh air.

[257] That's the most, I like that one the best so far.

[258] Here's the problem, and this is the antidote I must have fucking told because it's one of my absolute favorites that I must have read it as a child and love so much.

[259] well when a corpse is decomposing and swelling and losing mass and all this shit everything moves and so the bells would start going off that's right ding ding ding nope it's not someone alive and so like all the bells going off at once can you imagine the first time that happened whoever was nearby died of a heart attack there's no way they didn't that's right this is insanity uh -huh so they it all activate the bell system, which led to false positives.

[260] The worst false positive in the world.

[261] Well, I don't think of a couple.

[262] Not really.

[263] Franz Vester's 1868 burial case overcame this problem by adding a tube through which the face of the corpse could be viewed.

[264] Oh, I remember that one.

[265] Really?

[266] Yeah.

[267] If the buried person woke up, they could ring the bell like they wanted to.

[268] And then the watch one could check to see if the person had actually returned to life or was just movement of the corpse.

[269] So that was basically the 2 .0 version, once they realized the bells were ringing, and then they're like, okay, well, then go look at it.

[270] Yeah, enough pre -said quit because they're like, I'm not sniffing these fucking tubes anymore.

[271] Not going to smell those dead bodies anymore.

[272] Because they were always smelling a dead body.

[273] There was no time they weren't.

[274] Right, because it's still going to pass.

[275] In 1995, a modern safety coffin was patented by Fabrizio Caselli.

[276] His design included an emergency alarm, intercom system, a flashlight, a breathing apparatus, and both a heart monitor and stimulator.

[277] A corkscrew and a nail file.

[278] Despite the fear of burial while still alive, there's no documented cases of anybody being saved by a safety coffin.

[279] Oh, man. What a great life lesson.

[280] They just should keep inventing them.

[281] They've gotten better and better.

[282] I mean, it's like, I have this fear.

[283] and instead of dealing with the fear that I have, I'm going to continually invent things to make me feel like anything can be done if a bad thing happens to me. Or maybe add one more check at the morgue to just double check that the person's dead.

[284] How about you stab them right in one of the air off?

[285] Would that wake you up?

[286] That would wake you right up.

[287] A poke in the ear maybe?

[288] Ow.

[289] With a feather?

[290] A tickle.

[291] How much smelling cells?

[292] I guess it doesn't have to be violent.

[293] A tickle.

[294] A tickle.

[295] I'd wake up Okay but the practice of modern day embalming has for the most part eliminated the fear of premature burial That's pretty much going to solve it Thanks Because no one has ever survived that process once completed I wonder how many people got embalmed when they were still We were like well I still have my spleen Yeah Ring ring ring ring ring That's all I mean It's been thought that phrases like saved by the bell Dead ringer and graveyard shift come from the use of safety coffins.

[296] Why do I keep doing that?

[297] Coftans?

[298] Uh -huh.

[299] Like you're thinking of caftans.

[300] Or attic, an attic.

[301] Yeah.

[302] In the Victorian era, but these have been dispelled as an urban myth attributed to a linguistic email hoax that was, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[303] I said that saved by the bell is actually from boxing.

[304] So shut up.

[305] But that's interesting because it really does apply.

[306] But it does sound like Dead Ringer could be from that.

[307] Yeah.

[308] I would love to be on any kind of a hoax email chain involving linguists.

[309] Remember all those email chains that used to be a thing?

[310] Send this to five people or you're going to get smushed.

[311] Also, there was one where it was like, fill out this thing.

[312] Yeah.

[313] Did you ever do that one where it was like you basically, you get the name of a person, you fill out all these things about them and then send it to them and then they do it for somebody else?

[314] No. We did it in our family.

[315] I can't really explain that process logically, but basically, I got one my like ever all my cousins and all these people did it and then it came around and my dad sent me mine and then and the one thing he was like the it was some like you had to say like nice things about these people and what they're like and whatever and like I think he said my best attribute and he said smart he just put smart and I was like hate you he does a lot but it was really exciting because all my life he'd always been like hey easy smart ass it was always kind of like a negative and I was always kind of like a negative and And suddenly I was like, you liked it this whole time.

[316] Yeah, you were egging me on.

[317] He was like, not trying to get you to stop.

[318] That's right.

[319] That's sweet.

[320] Do you still have it?

[321] The email?

[322] I bet you could find it.

[323] I printed it up.

[324] I put it in a frame.

[325] Okay.

[326] Okay.

[327] So here's some cases of people being buried alive.

[328] Ready?

[329] I am.

[330] In November, 1656.

[331] Oh, wait.

[332] It really did happen.

[333] It's just that they weren't saved by those coffins.

[334] Oh, yeah.

[335] Spoiler alert.

[336] Shit.

[337] I get it.

[338] But these are also like.

[339] they didn't, these people weren't buried in these coffins either, but these are people who were, you'll find out.

[340] Okay, got it.

[341] In November 1656, Alice Davies is married to William Blunder of the Baxingstoke, a man from a well -established local family.

[342] They're like, they're like nobles and shit like that.

[343] Sure.

[344] What country, does it say?

[345] England, probably.

[346] Yes, probably.

[347] William Blunder was a maltmaker and his wife, quote, had accustomed herself to many times to drink brandy.

[348] So she drank a lot.

[349] She'd accustomed herself to it.

[350] Yeah, me too.

[351] One evening she drank a large quantity of puppy water and fell into a deep sleep that no one could wake her from.

[352] Opium.

[353] Oh, right.

[354] Right?

[355] Oh, yeah.

[356] Just like Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz.

[357] It was concluded that she had died.

[358] And William, being the amazing, sweet, wonderful husband he is, was like, hey, I have to go to London really quick.

[359] Keep her body there.

[360] I swear I'll come right back for the funeral.

[361] What was you doing?

[362] I don't know.

[363] But it was really important.

[364] guess um but her her family was like fuck that shit it's hot out we're not leaving her body out to rot like i got tickets to go see big ben i'm stoked i'm gonna go see the book of mormon and i can't or the new flea bag screen live show yes um so they were like fuck that shit we're gonna bury her so then a few days after the burial a few of some boys who had been playing nearby reported hearing a voice from the grave.

[365] They didn't think it was real, but the grave was open, and her body was found.

[366] It looked like she was beaten, but in actuality, it was injuries inflicted by herself on her body and her confinement.

[367] Oh.

[368] Yeah.

[369] So being unable to detect any continuing signs of life, those present at the scene, they put Alice back in the grave overnight and the corner some of the next day.

[370] And they had found that she tore off a great part of her.

[371] her winding sheet, scratched herself in several places, beaten her mouth so long, it was filled with blood, and she was now definitely dead.

[372] Sorry, are you saying she was buried alive twice?

[373] The second time she was dead.

[374] Great.

[375] That's a huge relief to me. I think in hope.

[376] I think they would have left her out just to make sure, you know?

[377] You would hope that they would make double sure, but, you know, most of the stories on the show don't go that well.

[378] Yeah, exactly.

[379] no one's convicted or like gets in trouble for this although the town had a considerable fine that they had to pay because of this the whole town I guess the whole town we're all going down together yeah like this sucks on all of our parts yeah so in 1880 here's another one 1884 kentucky's hickman courier reported that a young woman by the name of anna hawkwalt is dressing for her brother's wedding she sits down to rest in the kitchen as we all do and then someone checks on her and she's just laying there with her head against the wall and appears lifeless.

[380] A medical aid arrives and the doctor thought she was dead.

[381] He couldn't revive her.

[382] And she had a nervous nature and the fact that she suffered from heart palpitations was the cause of death, they said.

[383] But Anna's friends were like, this doesn't seem fucking real.

[384] And her ears look pink still, her friend said.

[385] So they figured blood was still flowing through them.

[386] Her friends must have just gotten drunk at the fucking funeral.

[387] general, though, because they didn't tell her family about this and their assumption until after she's buried.

[388] Great friends.

[389] No. You know what I was thinking?

[390] Remember when her ears were pink?

[391] I just think she's still alive.

[392] Her parents are like, what the fuck?

[393] They dig her back up, and they find Anna's body, she's lying on her side, her fingers are not almost to the bone, and her hair is torn out by the handful.

[394] Of course.

[395] I mean, all backs are wrong.

[396] No. You wake up in that situation.

[397] You're like, can I, just kill me. Yeah.

[398] In 1889, a woman named Octavia Smith married a wealthy Kentucky named James Hatcher.

[399] They had a son named Jacob, but the infantility rate was so high back then that they, that this Jacob died in infancy.

[400] And Octavia goes into a deep depression.

[401] She's bedridden, and she shows signs of a mysterious illness.

[402] And eventually, she enters a coma -like state.

[403] and no one can wake her up.

[404] She's pronounced dead in May of 1891, just four months after her infant son died.

[405] It was super hot that year, so Octavia's buried quickly, and embalming wasn't a common practice yet, but a few days later, other people in the town began falling into a similar coma -like state that she had with shallow breathing patterns, and they wake up a few days later, though.

[406] They discover it was an illness caused by the bite of the setsy fly.

[407] Tizi.

[408] Thank you.

[409] Sitsi, lie.

[410] Fearing that she'd been buried alive, her husband James panics, has her exhumed.

[411] And she had been buried alive.

[412] But James was too late.

[413] Oh, no. Her coffin was airtight.

[414] He found the coffin lining had been shredded.

[415] And Octavia's fingernails were bloody.

[416] Yes.

[417] So many bloody fingernails.

[418] And her face was frozen in a shriek of terror.

[419] Yes, I believe that.

[420] James is traumatized as fuck.

[421] I mean.

[422] We buries his wife, erects a life -like monument of her that sits in the cemetery that she's still buried in.

[423] I know.

[424] Say where?

[425] I think Kentucky was where they're from Kentucky.

[426] Yeah.

[427] I mean, there's a mausoleum you want to go visit.

[428] Oh, my God.

[429] At midnight on Halloween.

[430] No. Should we do it?

[431] Let's record.

[432] Let's record on Halloween from a fucking cemetery.

[433] Inside a mausoleum.

[434] Want to?

[435] As many people as can fit.

[436] So it'll be like an 11 -person live show.

[437] and we'll all be screaming at the top of our lungs the entire time.

[438] What was that?

[439] Okay.

[440] Eleanor Markham is an American woman who became one of the most prominent cases of averted premature burial in the 19th century.

[441] According to news reports, 22 -year -old Markham, Eleanor Markham, was pronounced dead in Sprankers, New York.

[442] Which is like, what?

[443] How have I not known about that?

[444] You know what I would love if Lily misspelled yonkers?

[445] Sprankers If Sprankers is real We're doing an only Sprankers Hometown mini episode next week Sprankers Steven do you mind Wikipedia He's already doing it When George is on When George is done we can do a quick update on Is it real?

[446] Is it real?

[447] Oh really?

[448] You're off the hook Yeah Sprankers is a hamlet in the town of Root Montgomery New York Wow Sprankers Notable people George A Mitchell Founder of Cadillac Oh Is from Sprankers From Sprankers And that's why every Cadillac Has the trademarked Sprankers handle On the driver's On drive Please send us Sprankers hometown And put in the subject line Sprankers hometown Please write Sprankers bitch In the subject line Please let us keep saying the word Sprankers It's our favorite word Wow Okay.

[449] This is July 8th, 1894.

[450] How am I 50?

[451] And I've never heard the town name of Sprankers, New York.

[452] They're fiercely private.

[453] I'm so tired of people keeping things from me. It does feel like people are always keeping shit from us.

[454] It feels like people are talking behind our back about Sprankers.

[455] Like everyone knows about us.

[456] They refuse to tell us.

[457] Should we go to Sprankers?

[458] This is the only podcast that doesn't know about sprankers.

[459] It's so sad when they talk and they don't know about Sprankers.

[460] And they don't mention sprankers every five minutes.

[461] Okay.

[462] She's dead, they say.

[463] It's warm.

[464] They're going to bury her quickly.

[465] Her coffin is closed and fastened after the family members say goodbye in the church.

[466] And on the way to the graveyard, the hearse has stopped after a noise is heard coming from the coffin.

[467] Oh, thank God.

[468] She doesn't go underground.

[469] No. The lid is unfastened.

[470] and she says, you're burying me alive.

[471] I love her.

[472] I'm in Sprankers and you're bearing me alive.

[473] Holy Sprankers, you're going to bury me alive.

[474] You fucking sprankers.

[475] And then the doctor who had fucking done this was like, hush, child, you're all right.

[476] It's a mistake easily rectified.

[477] Yeah, now, bro.

[478] Step off, bitch.

[479] She says that soon after she had fainted, which is when they thought she was dead, she had recovered.

[480] after being administered some stimulants, cocaine.

[481] Yes, cocaine, full there at every ailment.

[482] Except for getting alive.

[483] She said that she had been conscious the entire time of the preparations for burial, but she couldn't cry out.

[484] And she thought she's going to be buried alive, like the whole way.

[485] And finally she was like, move your fucking body sprankers.

[486] And she was able to, you know, make a noise.

[487] That's the worst thing.

[488] Knowing you're going to be.

[489] Oh, my God.

[490] Yes.

[491] I don't think I usually.

[492] have these feelings when we talk about terrible, terrible things to each other.

[493] This one's getting to me. I do not like it.

[494] Well, guess what?

[495] You're going to be buried alive tonight.

[496] I will spank you so hard.

[497] Her case is among those included in the book, Premature Burial, and How It May Be prevented by William, Teb, and Edward Volum.

[498] So in 19...

[499] Teb and Volum.

[500] Tab and Volum.

[501] They wrote the best books.

[502] Yeah.

[503] So another one is in 1937 and 19 year old from France named Angelo Hayes He goes for a fucking motorcycle ride Hits a fucking wall Fucking head first into a brick wall His head is mangled He has no pulse He's so terrible to look at that They're like to his family You can't see him Yeah you know it just sucks He's declared dead and buried three days later Oh no But the insurance company Was like we don't we don't buy it exhumed the body because they're insurance companies.

[504] They're like, we won't pay.

[505] Yeah, until we see.

[506] They discover that his body is still warm.

[507] No. And in the aftermath of the accident, his body had put him into a deep coma.

[508] Yes.

[509] And didn't eat a lot of oxygen.

[510] So he's still fucking alive.

[511] After being buried alive, he received proper medical care and went on to make a full recovery.

[512] No. Away.

[513] What's his name, Angelo?

[514] Angelo Hayes.

[515] Wow, Angelo.

[516] Um, he, uh, he invented a type of security cofton after this.

[517] Why do I keep saying Coftan?

[518] You're, you're saying caftan with a weird accent.

[519] I am just like dying to be in my caftan or...

[520] A Cofton.

[521] He tours across France showing off his security coffin and, uh, in it is a small oven, a refrigerator, and a high -fi cassette player.

[522] No. Yeah.

[523] That's what it says.

[524] So this was like in the 60s.

[525] like a later on.

[526] No, this was in the, in 37, 1937.

[527] A high -fi, did you say cassette player?

[528] Did I hear that wrong?

[529] Is that what I meant?

[530] Cassette player.

[531] High -fi cassette player.

[532] Well, those are in quotes, so I didn't, yeah.

[533] Lily is quoting herself now.

[534] It's so funny.

[535] I'm questioning everything.

[536] You already said Lily's name, and I'm like, is that this?

[537] How the fuck would I know?

[538] Lily's like, record can't be right.

[539] She's like 22, too.

[540] So she wouldn't know.

[541] She's like, cassettes are from 1843, right?

[542] They're vintage.

[543] Okay.

[544] In 2007, a Venezuelan man named Carlos Camahoe, he's 33.

[545] He's declared dead after an accident, an highway accident, taken to the morgue.

[546] Examiners begin their autopsy.

[547] Oh.

[548] Then he starts bleeding, which, you know, guess what, guys?

[549] Dead bodies don't bleed.

[550] Yeah.

[551] Right?

[552] That's day one of medical school.

[553] Yeah.

[554] Remember that.

[555] Day one of autopsy school.

[556] He starts bleeding And then he wakes up And he's an excruciating pain And the autopsy Yeah, I bet Because he's still alive And that table's so cold Oh God They quickly stitch him up And his grieving wife Had just turned up to ID him And then finds him in the hallway alive Which is so sweet Oh, that's, yeah, good for her Right Then as recently as 2014 So sweet Like to be so bummed To be like, I have to do this Oh, you're alone Oh, my God, you're alive.

[557] I love you have that huge scar.

[558] See, that's a romance story.

[559] Not your fucking shitty.

[560] You did great.

[561] I didn't mean you.

[562] There was also in 2014 a case of a woman being buried alive in Greece.

[563] She had succumbed to cancer and her children heard her screams coming from her grave.

[564] No. Not long after burial.

[565] She's exhumed and it was discovered that she actually died of cardiac arrest after she was buried.

[566] No. I know.

[567] Did you say 2014?

[568] Yeah, I did.

[569] Oh, man. Oh, yeah, y 'all.

[570] Promise.

[571] Never mind.

[572] I don't want to jinx.

[573] I will.

[574] I'll come and check your grave and sniff your trumpet or whatever it was.

[575] Like, poke me with a safety pin or something.

[576] I'll make sure that the fireworks haven't gone off.

[577] Thank you.

[578] Yeah, no problem.

[579] Most of these modern cases are because of unforeseen circumstances and just plain bad luck.

[580] The positability.

[581] The postability.

[582] the posthabilities the possibility of being buried alive today is virtually impossible because of embalming however if by some should 2014 was five years ago i know but it's grease i'm just kidding i don't know what that means some scientists say that you can survive up to 36 hours if you're if you've been buried alive with the oxygen so like keep knocking keep knocking shallow breaths make sure you get um make sure you get buried with like a tasty cakes in your pocket or something that's why i always have a protein bar that's right in a cell phone yeah right it all depends on how much air is in the coffin and those are stories of buried alive in a grave unbelievable in a coffin in a cough town oh in a coffin in a coffin in a coffin there's i love that because i really was getting upset really getting upset that's a you know there's a ryan reynolds movie where he is buried alive no and it's him and a lighter it's very frustrating it's not the whole movie but it's a lot of the movie it's insanity buried alive in a often.

[583] In a grave.

[584] In a grave.

[585] In a grave.

[586] Wow.

[587] That was amazing.

[588] Well, welcome to, uh, hell.

[589] Basically fall.

[590] We're welcoming in fall.

[591] That's what we're doing in this episode.

[592] Yeah.

[593] Yeah.

[594] It's exciting.

[595] Get your shirts with bats on them.

[596] Yeah.

[597] We're get ready to transition out of summertime.

[598] What are you going to be for Halloween this year?

[599] I'm probably going to be buried alive in a grade, I think.

[600] The film.

[601] The lead in the film.

[602] Perfect.

[603] You're alive and gray.

[604] Let's make it.

[605] Let's make it as a student film.

[606] Okay.

[607] Let's go back to school.

[608] But the whole, yeah, but the whole thing is, it's much more like, it's like, what's that movie?

[609] It's like my dinner with Andre, where it's the discussion about being very live and gray.

[610] No one has to go into a coffin.

[611] But it gets like St. Elsewhere kind of, where it's like, is that the one?

[612] Or it's like.

[613] St. Elmo's Fire.

[614] Yes.

[615] Or like someone that is like, well, I'm going to try it.

[616] Yeah.

[617] I'll try it.

[618] Robbie, you're so wild.

[619] Oh, my God, you're crazy.

[620] Mili O. Roblo starts playing the saxophone.

[621] A lot of amazing cocaine use in that movie.

[622] I fucking bet.

[623] I love it.

[624] Demi Moore does way too much cocaine, and she opens all the windows in her room.

[625] And then there's this insanely 80s shot of her.

[626] I'm sure I've described this before because it's truly one of my favorite memories from my teen years.

[627] And this is how everyone in my family should have known that I was a drug addict waiting to happen.

[628] because that scene was like, I was like, yeah.

[629] Well, she just didn't cocaine.

[630] She did a ton of Coke by herself and then was in her room holding her knees.

[631] I think she was wearing like a shirt and no pants.

[632] Holding her knees.

[633] All the windows were open and these long white curtains were blowing.

[634] And you were like, great.

[635] That looks fun.

[636] I was like, I love this.

[637] I want to do this.

[638] That looks lonely and cold.

[639] Her room, I think it's because she had high ceilings in the walls where painted a cool color.

[640] From what I remember.

[641] Romanticizing cocaine.

[642] I mean, it's one of the more romantic.

[643] elements in filmmaking.

[644] Karen, you know I'm all about vintage shopping.

[645] Absolutely.

[646] And when you say vintage, you mean when you physically drive to a store and actually purchase something with cash.

[647] Exactly.

[648] And if you're a small business owner, you might know Shopify is great for online sales.

[649] But did you know that they also power in -person sales?

[650] That's right.

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[656] With Shopify, we have a powerful partner for managing our sales, and if you're a business owner, you can too.

[657] Connect with customers in line and online.

[658] Do retail right with Shopify.

[659] Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify .com slash murder.

[660] important note that promo code is all lowercase.

[661] Go to Shopify .com slash murder to take your retail business to the next level today.

[662] That's Shopify .com slash murder.

[663] Goodbye.

[664] What a collection of delightful stories.

[665] I think that collection is just prime MFM because it was equal parts joking around and riffing and discussion about a terrifying, horrible thing, which is really, isn't that why we're all here in the first place?

[666] For Karen's story, we're going to go to episode 183, here we back are, where she talks about the Mothman legend and the Silver Bridge collapse.

[667] I have obvious connections to this one just through animation.

[668] I'm with Georgia also, in that I had never heard of Mothman before this, even though I'm a big fan of urban legends, and here in the Pacific Northwest, where I'm at, we've got Bigfoot, you know, we've got some of the big ones.

[669] But this one, I've always loved urban legends, and the idea that there's this spooky mothman creature that appears and then vanishes in the wake of a disastrous bridge collapse is just just the the coolest, worst, best, awful, great thing.

[670] So, uh, enjoy.

[671] And with that, I'm going to change gears on you.

[672] Great.

[673] As, uh, as I want to do only because for me, it's still summer.

[674] Uh, yes.

[675] I don't want to let go of that endless summer feeling yet.

[676] No. And so, uh, my story this week is going to be partly, it's actually partly a disaster story, but then it's also partly a cryptozoology legend.

[677] That's right.

[678] I'm doing The Mothman story.

[679] That's right.

[680] Tell me everything.

[681] Now, how much do you think you know about the Mouth Man?

[682] Literally zero.

[683] Is that true?

[684] I don't think so.

[685] You haven't even watched The Moth Man Prophecies, the movie I've told you to watch about 20 times.

[686] I've not watched a single movie you told me to watch ever.

[687] I keep meaning to.

[688] Have a night and just watch all Karen's a movie recommendations.

[689] I'm going to make you a list.

[690] Oh, I have something for you.

[691] Oh.

[692] My friend Doug Jones, who's going to be DJing the night who I write about in the book, Stay Sexy and Don't Get Murdered as being someone who likes to share weird, obscure things like Mr. Show.

[693] Oh.

[694] And Largo with made us a movie from the TV, murder in Texas, the 1981 TV movie about the murder that you covered.

[695] Yes.

[696] What was it?

[697] Oh, God.

[698] This could be the one about the rich woman and her shitty husband and her father.

[699] Yes.

[700] The father, the husband killed her, she was into horses, and the father killed him.

[701] Yes.

[702] This was a live show that we did.

[703] I don't know if we've posted it.

[704] Really?

[705] We must have posted it if he knows about it.

[706] I think it wasn't alive, Steven.

[707] What were we talking about?

[708] Yeah, I know it was because we did it in.

[709] Oh, that's right.

[710] It was like, Texas?

[711] Yes, Texas.

[712] You did?

[713] Good.

[714] Oh, it's called murder in Texas.

[715] Oh, my God.

[716] I shouldn't have taken that eighth shot.

[717] This is amazing.

[718] I know.

[719] Doug Jones.

[720] Thank you.

[721] Thank you, Doug Jones.

[722] Joan Robinson Hill.

[723] Joan Robinson Hill.

[724] And her father had a, like a Texas guy's nickname.

[725] Bucky.

[726] Bud.

[727] It was dude.

[728] Hat.

[729] Ash.

[730] Ash Robinson.

[731] Oh, I was close.

[732] You were close with hat.

[733] Hot Robinson.

[734] I want my nickname to be hat from now.

[735] Okay.

[736] Promise.

[737] Because you wear hats so much.

[738] I do.

[739] Thank you, Doug.

[740] This is, I'm so excited.

[741] Wait a second.

[742] I think this might star either Fair or Fawcett.

[743] Yes.

[744] And maybe Tommy Lee Jones is in there.

[745] I think so.

[746] And I think we posted this.

[747] No, it was the guy who should have a mustache all the time.

[748] Sam Neil.

[749] No, no. Sam.

[750] Sam.

[751] Thank you.

[752] We got there.

[753] We got there.

[754] And it wasn't a live episode.

[755] Was not?

[756] Shit.

[757] What episode was it, Stephen?

[758] 172.

[759] Okay.

[760] Was it, we had just come back.

[761] from Texas and it was one I hadn't done there.

[762] Thank you.

[763] You can have that.

[764] Okay.

[765] I'll give you that.

[766] I appreciate it.

[767] I'm going to get that one on a technicality.

[768] Okay.

[769] So we're talking now about one of my favorite stories and I have referenced on this show that to me, of all things that are scary, the scariest one, is people talking too fast on the phone.

[770] My sister and I talk about this all the time.

[771] There's a part in the Mothman prophecies where Richard Gere, the star of the Mothman prophecies, which is basically.

[772] basically an amalgamation of all of the witness stories put together in one.

[773] Creepy!

[774] So they kind of made it, and it's based on a book by an author named, hold on front, back.

[775] Simply named.

[776] Simply named, and I quote John Keel.

[777] He wrote the book, The Mothman Prophecese in 1975, and then they made this movie in 22 -0.

[778] And Richard Gere was like, I'm on board.

[779] Richard Gere's like, this is my jam.

[780] Yeah, I'm gonna, this is my vehicle.

[781] So these creepy things are happening to him as a reporter.

[782] It's completely, this version of it is not real.

[783] But at one point he's staying in this weird little hotel and he picks up the phone and there's weird feedback and electrical noises.

[784] And then there's a voice that goes, like that fast creepy talking.

[785] And my sister and I decided one day because I did it to her on the phone just to be funny.

[786] Never do that again.

[787] And she got so mad.

[788] And we decided that way too fast talking is the scariest thing.

[789] It's so scary Anotherworldly So anyway If you haven't seen The Mock Man Prophecies Starring Richard Gear Oh we're all gonna watch it together Please stream it on your local streaming services Also I got most of my information From an article on Ranker The website that works so hard And gets almost no credit Such a good website God bless you Ranker And then they're like Oh you like this article Well here's 10 other ones You're gonna fucking stay up all night reading Yes you're gonna like all the rest of these articles As much if not more So God bless Ranker whole um and also the website which i can i'm starting to use more and more weird us which basically there's a book series that i used to read in the 90s called like weird los angeles weird san francisco and it would have all the haunted places creepy places murder sites whatever yeah yeah kind of creepy of interest areas so now they're it they're all on one website called weird us love it and and then of course the Mothman prophecies.

[790] Okay.

[791] So this story took place in and around the cities of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Gallupolese, Ohio, which I can't believe that's the way it's pronounced when it looks exactly like Gallipoli.

[792] And acceptable.

[793] It made me really mad when Stephen looked it up for me. From November of 1966 through December of 1967.

[794] So this started happening November of 1966 and went on for a year.

[795] And these two cities sit directly across from each other, across the Ohio River, or the northern part of Gallup Police, it sits directly across from Point Pleasant, West Virginia.

[796] Got it.

[797] So the West Virginia side is best known for Mothman sightings, but it actually also happened over on the Ohio side as well.

[798] Okay.

[799] The Ohio River is between, and it also kind of acts as the state line between West Virginia and Ohio.

[800] My mind just blanked out.

[801] Geography.

[802] Don't resist geography because here's the thing.

[803] This is how we're learning about our great nation, the thing we know nothing about.

[804] And also, did you even know West Virginia and Ohio were next to each other?

[805] No. Of course I didn't.

[806] I failed that class.

[807] I stared at this map for so long.

[808] Okay.

[809] So the story begins November 12th, 1966, 80 miles southeast of Point Pleasant, West Virginia.

[810] In a little town, oh, I didn't look up the, okay, I'll just.

[811] pronounces how I feel it.

[812] Let's hear it.

[813] Clendenin.

[814] That's right.

[815] C -L -E -N -D -E -N -I -N.

[816] Or it could be clendinan.

[817] Or could be clendinan.

[818] But this is a little sleepy burg of about 1 ,500 people in Wikipedia says in 2010, over 1 ,200 people.

[819] It's probably tripled since then.

[820] I would like to think.

[821] Okay.

[822] So this is what happens.

[823] Cut two.

[824] We're in a cemetery.

[825] Five grave diggers are digging a grave.

[826] Why are we here?

[827] cut that out no leave it so gross it's like a weird thing coming on my throat I belched in the microphone so it's only fair okay five grave diggers digging a grave they look up they hear noise in the trees overhead they look up to see a man -sized black bird with huge glowing red eyes fly out of the tree tops and then down low to the ground near them and away okay so it's not a man it's just the size in one and it's a giant bird.

[828] I think the word man being thrown in there is confusing.

[829] Man -sized.

[830] It was a hyphenate.

[831] Okay, got it.

[832] A man -sized bird.

[833] Got it.

[834] So he didn't have like hands and arms.

[835] No. He didn't have like weird eyebrows that need to get trimmed.

[836] No. It was just size -wise.

[837] Got it got to got it.

[838] You know, birds are usually the size of your arm or smaller.

[839] Sure.

[840] Not my man. Not Vince -sized.

[841] Okay.

[842] So for me immediately you're kicking this.

[843] off my cynic mind goes when have there ever been five grave diggers anywhere unless this was a unionized cemetery from the late 60s two max totally three maybe what is this fucking family annihilator yeah how do you get five why you're all together and they're probably also kind of freaked out a little because they're in a fucking grave yard digging they might be used to it if it's their job unless they're just digging a grave and they're not professionals we don't know it was the late 60s calculation.

[844] Anything could have happened back then.

[845] But then the fact that so I was saying con that it's five because I'm not buying it that con that it's grave diggers because it, oh, it starts on a dark and spooky night or whatever.

[846] But then pro is the fact that five individuals came forward.

[847] So that's meaningful.

[848] Yes.

[849] Although, I'm sure they were ignored and humiliated by the authorities, but three days later, on November 15th, two young couples in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, their names are Roger and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Millett.

[850] They report seeing a, quote, large flying man with 10 -foot wings.

[851] Now, that's different than a man -sized bird.

[852] That's right.

[853] This is a man that flies with huge wings.

[854] I think someone wrote that down wrong.

[855] So, but this huge man -sized bird was following their car.

[856] Wait, man -bird, though.

[857] Yeah.

[858] Okay, was following their car.

[859] Was following their car in an area known as the TNT area, which was the site of a former World War II munitions plant near Point Pleasant.

[860] They said his eyes glowed red when the car's headlights picked up, like shone on him.

[861] Like a big man -sized deer in night vision.

[862] Okay.

[863] But a moth man. Got it.

[864] I'm here for this.

[865] That didn't help.

[866] He just had a bunch of words.

[867] Right.

[868] Then more sightings start coming in.

[869] On November 17th, so that's two days later, a teenage boy is driving down Route 7 near Cheshire, Ohio.

[870] And he sees a gray man -shaped, 10 -foot -tall creature with red eyes.

[871] Based on the pictures, I think the reason they're saying man -shaped and man -sized is because it's got wings, but two legs.

[872] Ew.

[873] Yes.

[874] And also, the head stops mid -wing and doesn't go up above it.

[875] So it's like, it doesn't look like a man wearing wings.

[876] Like a hot who's got a little.

[877] Yeah, it's like, yeah.

[878] Yes.

[879] The head's down low, almost like below the wingspan.

[880] But it's a birdhead, not a manhead.

[881] But the head part is a question mark.

[882] Oh, Stephen has a great.

[883] Stephen has a bunch of pictures.

[884] Oh, yeah, yeah.

[885] Let me take a look.

[886] Oh, God, I just closed it.

[887] Stephen, what's your password?

[888] I'll say it on the air.

[889] C -A -T -Z.

[890] Cat.

[891] Oh, it's like an owl who has eyes in his chest.

[892] Yeah, we'll come back to that part.

[893] Okay, that's creepy as fuck.

[894] We'll post that on my favorite murder on Instagram.

[895] All our socials.

[896] Go on.

[897] Okay, so this teenage boy driving down Route 7 sees this tall gray, man -shaped 10 -foot -tall creature.

[898] That's bad enough.

[899] But then he tells the authorities that as he sped away, it followed his car.

[900] Yeah.

[901] So very creepy and spooky.

[902] Then about two weeks later, we're back over in Ohio at the Gallupolis Airport and or Gallup Police.

[903] Sorry.

[904] Gallo Police Airport.

[905] Thank you.

[906] Five pilots.

[907] Circle in red and put a question mark above.

[908] Five pilots see what at first they believe to be a weird airplane flying at 70 miles an hour.

[909] Then they realize is some sort of large bird with a long neck.

[910] Why are there five pilots on one plane?

[911] Well, we don't know if they were separate and it was five reports.

[912] Okay.

[913] If they just loaded a plane filled with pilots of like, we have to get this thing where it's going.

[914] Everyone's a little sleepy.

[915] So if everyone takes a turn, it'll be great.

[916] One awake a co -pilot equals four sleepy co -pilots.

[917] Also, back then, did all men spend time in groups of five?

[918] And is that why things are so fucked up now?

[919] I trust pilots.

[920] I do too.

[921] Do you?

[922] I do.

[923] Except when you find out like one of them, they get arrested because they're drunk trying to fly a plane.

[924] Yeah, but that never happens almost hardly yet.

[925] I'm joking, JK.

[926] So then it is credible because they see a lot of stuff.

[927] Sorry grave diggers.

[928] I trust you too.

[929] We absolutely trust you.

[930] But you see creepy stuff.

[931] You're creeped out a lot.

[932] There's a Scooby -Doo element to being a grave digger.

[933] That when you're a pilot, you're just like.

[934] I've got everything on lock.

[935] Yeah.

[936] And I must.

[937] I'm from the Air Force.

[938] So then on December 7th, four adult women, because it's women, so it has to be one less, four adult women are driving up Route 30.

[939] I'm saying these roads like we know them at all.

[940] Oh, sure, Route 30.

[941] You know Route 30.

[942] I take it to the 10 to the 110, to Route 30.

[943] To the Route 30.

[944] Okay, so they're driving up Route 30 and they see what they report to be a brownish, silver man -shaped creature with glowing red eyes.

[945] Great way.

[946] So you can rely on the women to get accurate about that color.

[947] Maybe the sun was setting.

[948] Crimson.

[949] They're like crimson.

[950] There was like, he was either super tan.

[951] Big apple red.

[952] That's what I paint my toenails.

[953] So, okay.

[954] So authorities are baffled, probably very scared because they keep on hearing these stories of people seeing creepy ship.

[955] Yeah.

[956] So the Mason County, West Virginia sheriff, comes up with a totally logical answer to this mystery.

[957] He claims that everyone's seeing an unusually.

[958] large heron that has gone off of its normal migration route.

[959] And he refers to the bird, whether it's local terminology or he's just mad.

[960] He calls it a shite poke.

[961] Shite poke.

[962] What's that?

[963] I know.

[964] I know.

[965] It might be slang.

[966] Okay.

[967] Then a wildlife biologist at West Virginia University tells reporters that the descriptions of the moth man all fit the sandhill crane, which is a large American crane with a seven -foot wingspan that's as tall as a grown man with the reddish circles around the eyes and that that it could be just this type of crane that's somehow lost.

[968] Say you're taking a fucking short cut down an alley.

[969] Stephen is showing me this crane.

[970] That is a fucked up crane.

[971] Let me see.

[972] I haven't loved it.

[973] What if you run into that crane in an alley?

[974] Holy fuck.

[975] That's a fucking ugly creepy.

[976] I don't like the shite poke.

[977] The Sand Hill crane's pretty serious.

[978] yeah they're big big and he has like an eye it looks like an eye mask like a sleep mask that's red that's bright red yeah so okay frightening frightening here's my problem this bird is white as as are many cranes these are white gray a little bit brown I'm not I'm not buying it okay maybe everyone was on acid I mean this was definitely when acid started getting popular so I would not argue you maybe it's like the Salem witch trials were, there was mold on the grain that they were, that made their head.

[979] Did you hear about that?

[980] Is that why?

[981] That's one of the theories and I fucking love it because I'm obsessed with mold, aka what, hence fucking, this podcast will kill you being on our network.

[982] It's amazing.

[983] That there was mold on the grain that they used to make the bread and everyone went fucking hallucinogenic psycho.

[984] Silocybin style.

[985] Exactly.

[986] Hell yeah.

[987] Read about it.

[988] Okay.

[989] not now right no please listen to this podcast okay so essentially now we've got the crane theory in the mix and people are like whew it's just a crane it's just a huge man -sized grain yeah calm down okay but none of the witnesses who hear this say they saw a crane they're like no it's it's simply not that fucking crane is yeah don't you dare condescend to me professor so including a man who's a contractor named neil newell partridge and he argues that the theory doesn't explain all these weird electrical um interferences that he's been getting at his house since he spotted the moth man in a field on his property and he basically saw it in a field and put up a flashlight saw the glowing red eyes and was like that was no crane and here's how i know because since i saw the moth man my german shepherd has disappeared what that doesn't mean anything yeah it ate the dog.

[990] Oh, God, I got to cut it.

[991] Or did it run away and join the Mothman.

[992] Join that crane.

[993] And they became a fucking dynamic duo.

[994] The crane carries the German Shepherd like a little baby.

[995] A newborn baby.

[996] And they're like, fuck migration patterns.

[997] We're going wherever we want in West Virginia.

[998] We're going to do it.

[999] Let's do it.

[1000] Okay.

[1001] No old partridge is like, no. Something weird's going on.

[1002] I know it.

[1003] My dog knew it.

[1004] Do something about it.

[1005] So now, there's a reporter named Mary Hire, who is a correspondent for the Athens, Ohio newspaper.

[1006] A woman.

[1007] The messenger.

[1008] Yeah, in the 60s.

[1009] In the 60s.

[1010] She wore the highest of heels.

[1011] So she begins writing about all these strange sightings that she's seeing coming over the telegraph.

[1012] I don't know if that's what I was called.

[1013] Is that the telegraph?

[1014] What?

[1015] A mothman, you say.

[1016] Why?

[1017] Why?

[1018] There hasn't been a mothman around heaven.

[1019] In about 25 years, a really short amount of time.

[1020] People start calling.

[1021] So she starts writing about it in the messenger, the Athens messenger.

[1022] Sure, sure.

[1023] Then people start calling her and telling her when they see UFOs, experiencing odd electrical interferences like Newell did.

[1024] They also start hearing weird humming sounds coming up out of nowhere.

[1025] On one particularly busy weekend, she got over 500 calls from people in the area saying that they had, been seeing strange lights in the sky 500 calls in one weekend Holy shit So something was going to leave me alone I'm trying to sleep how'd you get this number She's like I'm just trying to report the news Yeah So here's this is John Keel Who I already told you is the author of the book The Mothman Prophecies for 1975 Upon which the classic Richard Gear film is loosely based loosely And he is basically considered to be the foremost authority on these Mothman stories He claims that between November of 1966 and November of 1967, at least 100 people personally witnessed the Mothman in the Ohio and West Virginia area.

[1026] Wow.

[1027] Now, on the Wikipedia page, it goes on to, when it gets into the debunking stage, talk about how none of these people, nobody could, to track them down.

[1028] But I just told you people's names because they were like, there's no real names and nobody, and you can't track them down.

[1029] But it's like, just because people have died since 1967 doesn't mean they didn't have the experience they had.

[1030] Right.

[1031] Right.

[1032] So, fuck you.

[1033] Professor.

[1034] Why are we mad at this?

[1035] The scientists always take the most shit.

[1036] Okay.

[1037] And the sightings of strange creatures in the sky is not new for this area.

[1038] In the early 1900s, that area was known for reports of thunderbirds, which in cryptozoology are known as their giant.

[1039] birds with 12 -foot wingspans that were spotted flying up and down the Ohio River Valley.

[1040] Steven, do you want to look up Thunderbirds?

[1041] Because this is a real thing.

[1042] Now, the pictures that you find on the internet, they could very well be hoaxes, but Thunderbirds are kind of legendary.

[1043] Tell me what they are again?

[1044] They're humongous birds.

[1045] A lot of people think that are somehow holdovers kind of Loch Ness Monster style.

[1046] Or like, like, taradactyls?

[1047] Exactly.

[1048] They're like leftover dinosaur birds that come in and are just like what's that a toddler goodbye oh no and it happened to like the pioneers and stuff oh shit yeah so this is a this is a story that's been going on for a while there's also stories of similar types of creatures that would ascend from the sky that um native americans and first nation people have always told right where if a certain type of cloud would come in they'd be like get all the kids inside because those evil uh things now i can't remember birds those evil thunderbird type animals are coming oh my god so this is not this isn't new in any way is my point wait Stephen let me see like a drawing there was some cars showing up the thunderbird of course there were you can't tell the size but this is real ugly majestic ugly and a majestic in an ugly way this looks like if your high school mouse got is the falcons yeah it does there's nothing Stephen there was actually a picture I was talking about Wait, is it the science picture with the scientists?

[1049] Read his text.

[1050] Oh, yeah, yeah.

[1051] You know what?

[1052] Read his text.

[1053] Seriously.

[1054] Stephen, can you bring up that picture?

[1055] He brings up a pencil drawn.

[1056] It might as well say Alex P. underneath it or like.

[1057] Or have like a. I was looking for us.

[1058] Do you see?

[1059] Look at that big ass bird.

[1060] Holy shit.

[1061] Stephen, will you post this picture also?

[1062] And also, Stephen, will you find out if that picture's a hoax?

[1063] Yes.

[1064] That's insane.

[1065] Oh, if it's a hoax, they'll tell us.

[1066] That's a hoax.

[1067] There's no way.

[1068] there's that big of a bird.

[1069] This is the fun part of the show where we're going to say something's real and it's your job to tell us if it's a hope.

[1070] But say it angrily.

[1071] Yes.

[1072] Make sure that you act like we are always supposed to get everything right.

[1073] That's right.

[1074] We should do better.

[1075] We're your primary source of news.

[1076] Okay, so what we're saying is just that big, huge, bird -like things in the sky is not new for this Ohio Valley area.

[1077] Get with it.

[1078] Ohio River Valley.

[1079] I don't know if it's a valley.

[1080] That's how I go wrong.

[1081] He's adding in words like that.

[1082] Okay.

[1083] So all of the witnesses, here's the difference, though, in this period between 1966 and 1967, all the witnesses who reported seeing the moth man gave similar descriptions.

[1084] It was whiter than a man, but had human -like legs, that its eyes were set near the top of the shoulders, which is the creepiest aspect of it.

[1085] Yeah.

[1086] And that it had bat -like wings that glided rather than flapped when it flew, and when it flew away.

[1087] It ascended straight up into the air like a helicopter.

[1088] And it flipped you off on the way out.

[1089] It said, bye, bitches.

[1090] Every time it said, bye, which is rude.

[1091] It'd say, well, they didn't know at the time what it meant, but hashtag, bye bitch.

[1092] And I'm like, what's a hashtag?

[1093] It said it really fast.

[1094] It's just scary.

[1095] So scary.

[1096] Witnesses also described the murky skin is either being gray or brown and that it emitted a humming sound when it flew.

[1097] Like that?

[1098] Like he was nervous in the grocery store?

[1099] Again, and I probably said this before, if you're ever near a person who just starts whistling or humming, you're getting your pocket picked.

[1100] And you need to keep your eyes open.

[1101] You need to get, put that head.

[1102] Just start punching, I think, is the answer.

[1103] But first start by punching behind you.

[1104] Yeah, you be the weird one.

[1105] If someone's humming near you, become the weird one and just start punching.

[1106] Yeah.

[1107] Because you can just, you can always stop and walk away.

[1108] they're still the weird one that's humming.

[1109] We are so back, baby.

[1110] Okay.

[1111] Can you feel it?

[1112] Can you feel the energy of it?

[1113] Okay, so, oh, this is my favorite sentence of this, of all of this research.

[1114] The humming sound when it flew, and then it says, it was also incapable of speech.

[1115] It communicated with a screeching sound.

[1116] Me too.

[1117] So thank God it didn't land in front of your car with its red eyes.

[1118] I was like, what's up, Jerry?

[1119] I'm here to freak the fuck out of you.

[1120] It's never like that.

[1121] You mean it talked like a bird?

[1122] But I thought it hummed.

[1123] Anyway, what's up in your car?

[1124] Okay, so all of this is fun and creepy and weird and crypto zoological, which is kind of my favorite, as we know.

[1125] But, and maybe not true as also my favorite.

[1126] I believe it.

[1127] But here's the part that's interesting and factual.

[1128] These sightings continue for a year up until disaster strikes.

[1129] the evening of December 15th, 1967.

[1130] And all these commuters are sitting in their cars in traffic waiting to cross the Silver Bridge, which connects Point Pleasant, West Virginia.

[1131] And Gallopolis, Gallopolis, it's Gallopolis, and Gallopolis, Ohio, which are on either side of the Ohio River.

[1132] Got it.

[1133] So the Silver Bridge is a span bridge.

[1134] It was built in 1928, and about 4 ,000 cars a day cross it.

[1135] Wow.

[1136] And that is very different since the 40 years ago when it was built.

[1137] I wrote since it's erection.

[1138] Shut up.

[1139] But the bridge has never been updated or rebuilt to accommodate the increasing drive time congestion.

[1140] So here's the way it happened.

[1141] And I found this story, these stories, from a website called Timeline.

[1142] Because I just put in Silverbridge Disaster Timeline, and then there's a website called Timeline .com.

[1143] God bless it.

[1144] And it had these stories on it.

[1145] Okay.

[1146] So around 5 p .m., there's a woman named Charlene Wood who's on the, getting on the bridge to get home from her job at a hair salon.

[1147] She's pregnant.

[1148] She's been working all day.

[1149] She just wants to get home.

[1150] Oh, her fucking feet.

[1151] All around her, there's trucks, there's commuters, and there's people shopping for Christmas, because it's almost Christmas.

[1152] Okay.

[1153] Beginning in December.

[1154] suddenly she feels the bridge shake now apparently because this is a span bridge what does that mean a span bridge is kind of it's like built similarly to it's it's one where it goes over a river over a body of water so it has to suspend itself but it's i guess a span bridge i'm not going to be able to explain this correctly but like the golden gate bridge is technically a span bridge but it's the cables on it that hold it up and keep it out and that's not like pillars instead it's like holding itself up with Yeah, tension.

[1155] Exactly.

[1156] But these, the way this bridge was built was flat pieces of metal that were a foot wide and like two inches thick.

[1157] As opposed to, you know, the Golden Gate Bridge is just all those cables.

[1158] Yeah.

[1159] Yeah.

[1160] So there is a tiny and I think they, in the end, they found out that it was like a three millimeter wide flaw in the steel on one of the spans.

[1161] But it had been there for so long.

[1162] There was no way to inspect it unless they would have to like look at every single.

[1163] to the bridge right but it but but nothing had ever been checked or updated or ever so over the years and the way this bridge it would move with the cars and with um whatever so people said it was very common to be on the silver bridge and have the whole thing move and shake and do stuff yeah it was just kind of people were used to it but over the years this thing kind of wore away and wore away until this day so charlene uh is sitting there and she feels the bridge shake really hard.

[1164] So she real quick decides to throw her car into reverse and back up as far as she can.

[1165] And luckily, she can because one minute later, 60 seconds later, the cars in front of her began sliding down off the bridge and into the river.

[1166] The bridge had collapsed and the cars were just going in.

[1167] Holy shit.

[1168] And she had somehow miraculously been able to back up to solid ground and get off the part that had collapsed.

[1169] Oh, my God.

[1170] Yeah.

[1171] And she said, and the water, of course, it's December.

[1172] It's freezing.

[1173] The water's 40 degrees.

[1174] She said, it was like someone had lined up dominoes.

[1175] I could see cars lights flashing as they went tumbling into the water.

[1176] The car in front of me went in, and then there was silence.

[1177] So she was the last car that before they stopped going into the water.

[1178] A truck driver named Bill Needham is midway across the bridge when it collapsed.

[1179] is he's thrown into the water, but he's able to escape because he has a half rolled down window.

[1180] Oh, my God.

[1181] And he was quoted as saying, I didn't know how far I had to go up when he means like swim back up.

[1182] He says, but I could tell that the water, I could tell the water kept getting lighter.

[1183] So that's basically how he knew what direction to swim.

[1184] He used a box that was floating in the water because basically there's all these trucks and all these cars.

[1185] So there's just stuff in the water.

[1186] So the people that were able to get out of their cars and get to the surface were grabbing things to hold on to because he, Bill didn't get rescued out of the water for 15 minutes.

[1187] Oh, my God.

[1188] He was in 40, I think they said it was 40 degree water for 15 minutes.

[1189] Holy shit.

[1190] His partner, Robert Toe, did not make it out of the truck.

[1191] He died in that truck.

[1192] And so did 18 -year -old Marjorie Bugs, who was driving her husband Howard and their 17 -month -old child across the bridge when it collapsed.

[1193] Howard was pulled to safety by a rescue boat, and the first thing he said to the crew when he got on board was, I just hope to God, Marjorie and the kid got out okay.

[1194] Marjorie and her baby and Howard's baby's bodies were found six weeks later in the car, in the river.

[1195] State trooper Rudy O'Dell, who was 31 years old at the time, was one of the first officers to respond to the disaster.

[1196] And he said, quote, I could hear them hollering for help.

[1197] I didn't know how many there were at the time.

[1198] There was absolutely nothing I could do.

[1199] It was a long way out into the water.

[1200] So he's basically on one side of the river looking out at these people.

[1201] He was going to jump into 40 degree water and try to sleep.

[1202] Yeah.

[1203] And that's not the way you save people when they're drowning.

[1204] No. So in all 31 cars went into the Ohio River that day, sending 64 people into its 44 degree waters.

[1205] Oh, so it's 44 degrees.

[1206] Of the 64 people who went in, 46 of them died.

[1207] Holy shit.

[1208] The silver bridge collapse remains the deadliest bridge disaster in United States history.

[1209] President Lyndon Johnson released a statement saying all Americans were shocked by the cruel tragedy and loss of life and assembled a task force, the task force on bridge safety to mount an investigation.

[1210] And forensic analysis traced the problem to a small stress crack inside the bearing loop.

[1211] of ibar 3 .30.

[1212] So the iBars were the things holding it up.

[1213] No sightings of the mothman were reported again in the Point Pleasant area after that day.

[1214] What?

[1215] Yeah.

[1216] So that's why people connect.

[1217] There's the theory is that the moth man appeared trying to warn people about this tragedy that was coming.

[1218] If that is the case, he did not do a good job.

[1219] I mean, it must have been the only I can screech part.

[1220] Write something down.

[1221] Yeah.

[1222] Speak in human tongue.

[1223] Sorry, Mothman.

[1224] That it's just the truth.

[1225] Whatever you did, all you did was freak people out and you were not on message.

[1226] But good try.

[1227] In 1969, the Silver Bridge was replaced by the Silver Memorial Bridge, which was a mile downstream of the original.

[1228] And there is a memorial installed in Point Pleasant to commemorate the 46 bridge collapse victims.

[1229] That's so sad.

[1230] It's horrible.

[1231] But, and I think, I think the reason that legends like this.

[1232] pop up because a lot of you know the theories are that there's always been this legend in in like these stories and that it come it comes up after the fact right because people want to lace some kind of that that there would be help or something out of this just senseless tragedy where in the middle of the day at christmas time all these people just got dumped in the river and died so it's this there is a lore and a legend around it like something was there and it could have helped but also I think it's that idea that like that maybe some somebody's watching us could help us prevent these tragedies in the future who just knew how to pay attention to them correctly right um understood screeching yeah exactly now on an up note point pleasant held held its first annual mothman festival in 2002 really and a 12 foot tall metallic statue of the creature created by artist and sculptor Bob Roach was unveiled in 2003.

[1233] Yes, there are pictures.

[1234] And it's much more silver and beautiful than any of the drawings or illustrations and also much, much taller than the way people described it.

[1235] The Mothman Festival is a weekend -long event held on the third weekend of every September, and there are a variety of events that go on during the festivals such as guest speakers, vendor exhibits, a Mothman man pancake eating content.

[1236] Yes.

[1237] Can we go?

[1238] Could we please?

[1239] Can we be the speakers?

[1240] I mean we have to hit the Circleville pumpkin festival first.

[1241] Right.

[1242] I think this should be number two.

[1243] Yeah.

[1244] Oh and then also the cheese festival in Wisconsin.

[1245] Yes, that's right.

[1246] In Athens, Wisconsin?

[1247] I think so.

[1248] Isn't it some kind of a other foreign city name?

[1249] You're so smart.

[1250] Stephen.

[1251] Thank you.

[1252] I just love that it's a mothman pancake eating contest like moths love pancakes if you're going to have a legit you have a how about you have a wool suit eating contest because that's the real deal my vintage dress eating contest exactly it'd be way harder way longer but much more accurate there's also hayride tours focusing on the notable areas of point pleasant and there's now a mothman museum and research center that opened in 2005, run by someone named Jeff Wamsley.

[1253] Good job, Jeff.

[1254] If that's still open, God bless you.

[1255] It would be amazing to go look at that.

[1256] That's right.

[1257] And that's the legend of the Mothman and the tragedy of the Silver Bridge collapse of 1967.

[1258] Wow, that was not what I was expecting.

[1259] Great job.

[1260] Right?

[1261] I didn't feel like getting fully back into the full tragedy.

[1262] No, I get it.

[1263] That was a good one.

[1264] Just a touch of it at the end.

[1265] I feel like, you know, we can do stuff like that now.

[1266] And we do this, we do this at live shows a lot of times, too, of, like, urban legends and stuff like that.

[1267] Yeah.

[1268] I feel like, let's, now that we're back.

[1269] It's storytelling.

[1270] It's storytelling.

[1271] This is new.

[1272] We don't need to find the world's worst murder every week.

[1273] It can also be stories like this, and I like that.

[1274] Spooky.

[1275] So that was the story of Mothman.

[1276] Like I had mentioned beforehand, my connection to that is there is an animation I did of a portion of that story where they talk.

[1277] about the description of Mothman, hashtag buy bitches, and all that good stuff.

[1278] If you want to check that out, head to the Exactly Right Media YouTube channel, and you can give that a watch.

[1279] This has been a delight to join you all on this episode of My Favorite Murder as a guest host.

[1280] And now I get to end it with the iconic phrase, stay sexy and don't get murdered.

[1281] Bye.

[1282] Elvis, do you want a cookie?