big deal for my family thank you so much for all you do you're very welcome you actually you make it worth it excuse me I tickle on my throat that's why you saw me cough right before that break in fact let me take a sip here real quick I could not do what I do without people such as yourself Jane anybody that's listening and watching right now you have no idea how much it means to me I would never have expected that I would be doing this for a living I've been in radio like I said earlier you know since 1990 it's that's that's what I thought I would be doing the rest of my life is radio I'd be working at a radio station somewhere some on the air entertaining people or maybe in the production room doing audio production like creating commercials and stuff but working for radio somewhere and I'm still in radio and the fact that I do have the syndicated radio show which is which is great the weird darkness radio show that plays on weekends at on several stations and while while we're talking about it November 6th so week from yesterday Monday November 6th KGRADB.com or KGRA KGRARadio.com you can go either one starting then I'm going to be on their radio station five days a week in the mornings you can get more details on that actually I think I have I have more information on that on the events calendar for the launch date on that so you can find that at weirddarkness.com on the events calendar but yeah I thought I'd be doing radio you know the rest of my life or maybe voiceovers which would be nice I love doing that but I don't see myself ever giving this up because I really enjoy the connection that I have with you the audience and that's one of the reasons that I really like doing the live stream because I can actually connect with you here and talk to you like right here instead of reading the comments later on YouTube or seeing somebody comment on a post that I make on Facebook which is great I don't mind doing all that but I like the immediate that's one of the things that I kind of miss about radio is the immediate action the immediate interaction so thank you very much for the comment I appreciate that Randy wanted to know did it snow by me yes it did it snowed for a little while we were thinking that we were supposed to get a lot more snow than we did it didn't last long it didn't last long at all let's see here if there's any other questions that came in no I think we're good alright well then let's move on oh you know what we haven't talked about the the caption contest let's do that here real quick we do have a caption contest going on at weirddarkness.com slash live and that's the page you can actually watch what we're doing here I embedded a YouTube player there so you can watch if you want to there but if you scroll down under the video there is a form to fill out for the creepy caption contest you won't see the actual photo for the caption but you will see the form for you to fill out if you are chosen if I like your caption the best tonight it's purely up to me so it's purely subjective but if I like your comment the best then you'll win three weirddarkness t-shirts and two weirddarkness coffee mugs and the caption that you are looking to find a caption for is this, this is the picture that you want a caption and we did get a few more that came in Derek says snowman who this is pumpkin man let's see Jaina says this would be so much easier with snow yeah it would Jill says looks like Jack is getting ahead this year cute very cute, I love it if you got a caption for this again just go to weirddarkness.com slash live and you can give us your own caption and maybe you'll win and again if you do win you'll get this price back right here with three t-shirts and two weirddarkness coffee mugs that you guys throw into stuff like that let's talk about testing for a witch shall we? one way to identify a witch was to bake a cake with rye and the urine of a witch's victim and then feed the cake to a dog there are differing accounts on how witch cake was used to identify witches if the dog began to exhibit symptoms similar to that of the victim often that would indicate the witchcraft was at work and the dog would then identify the witch a ducking stool which is if you look at a ducking stool it looks more like a dunking stool but it was called a ducking stool it was a medieval torture device that was primarily used to punish and humiliate women the contraption resembled a seesaw with a chair fixed to one end and the device was placed along the edge of a river and the offender who would be strapped into the chair was repeatedly plunged into the cold river water like I said dunking stool but they called it a ducking stool witch hunters would use this device to coerce confessions from the accused the method was later simplified accusers just forewet the device and just toss suspected witches into the water to see if they drowned probably the ultimate example of a situation some accused witches had their hands and feet bound and then they were thrown into a body of water and it was believed if the person was a witch the water would reject them and spit them back out however if they were innocent then they would sink and would drown so it's like they say no situation you're dead either way this method was used to manipulate accused witches into their guilt the witches in question had a board laid on top of them and their accusers placed heavy rocks on the board until they either confessed or were literally crushed Giles Corey one of the few men who had been accused of witchcraft he met his end in this unfortunate manner some of the accused were tested by being scratched by their supposed victims it was believed that those cursed by a witch would experience relief if they scratched the person responsible for their affliction victims would scratch the witch in question until they drew blood and if their symptoms improved after doing that they knew they had found their witch accused witches were asked to recite the Lord's Prayer and to recite it perfectly this means perfect pronunciation no stuttering no twitching real witches were known to be unable to recite the prayer perfectly that is without skipping a word or stuttering even passing this test wasn't always sufficient to reach an acquittal George Burroughs was executed in 1692 in Salem Massachusetts even after passing the Lord's Prayer test I've been a church going guy for a long time we've been a Christian since 1989 still went to church I was born and raised Catholic the Lord's Prayer was there but even today if somebody were in a situation where my life depended on it I knew I'd die if I got it wrong I don't know if I'd say the Lord's Prayer perfectly with no twitching no stuttering, no shaking with perfect pronunciation I would probably be called a witch and killed some victims were afflicted with violent fits that caused them to shake to prove their innocence some witches were asked to touch their victims if the victims were brought out of their fit then the accused was declared a witch the reasoning behind this test was that only the person who put the spell on the victim could remove it this method is known to have been used exclusively in and over Massachusetts suspected witches were searched for a third nipple it was believed that this third nipple was used to feed one of the witch's helpers or their familiars witches were supposedly given this mark by Satan during their transformation in addition to being searched for a third nipple suspected witches were also examined for unusual markings during witch hunts moles, scars and birth marks were often believed to be the mark of the devil it was believed that anyone who made a deal with the devil would bear his mark it was believed that witches bore a special mark that identified them as a practitioner of witchcraft witch hunters would identify these marks and use a pin or a needle to prick at them if the suspected witch felt no pain he or she was declared a witch and some witch hunters would dull one end of their tools so that the accused would not experience any pain known as charging or incantations some of those on trial for witchcraft in the devil supplicating him to stop possessing an individual who might be in the middle of a fit or seizure of some sort in this test the witch really couldn't win if the fit stopped she was clearly in league with the devil and she should be treated accordingly if the fit kept going then she wasn't doing a good enough job summoning the devil another test required that a suspected witch would be weighed more than the stack of bibles if the accused weighed more than the bibles she was innocent however if she was lighter than the stack of bibles she was deemed a witch and punished accordingly evidence that Weight Watchers is of the devil this one's cruel and bizarre to the extent that it turns what was likely upon a mental illness into a tell-tale sign of a witch if you could observe a potential witch talking to herself muttering under her breath in some fashion odds are she was probably a witch doing incantations or something else evil so being ever vigilant for this manifestation of witchcraft was something any good citizen should have been ready and willing to do Sarah Good one of the women slain during the Salem witch trials was particularly famous for having a habit of talking to herself for some unfortunate women the only test they needed to pass for the public to declare them a witch was to be a bit older according to John Gall an English Puritan cleric during the height of the witch trials every old woman with a wrinkled face a furred brow a hairy lip, a gobbler tooth, a squint eye a squeaking voice or a scolding tongue a dog or cat by her side is not only suspected but pronounced for a witch spectral evidence where it refers to testimony provided by a witness states the accused person's spectral shape appeared to the witness in a dream this was an accepted form of accusation during the Salem witch trials too if a neighbor claimed a woman appeared to them in a dream with malicious intent that was enough to condemn her for witchcraft if you've looked into witch trials before you might learn the majority of these cases were pure hogwash mass hysteria, political motives hatred, they've all been used as reasons for an individual to be executed as a witch but in some rare cases people killed as witches really did confess proudly to their crimes and a few even committed acts so terrible people assumed that they had to be supernatural so keep in mind that a few of these following stories are a little graphic and climb aboard your broomsticks as we look at some various souls who were killed for their witchy tendencies after I take a sip of my drink here people accusing each other of witchcraft it's entirely a new concept around the year 415 BC I'm sorry, no, 415 AD there was a young woman by the name of Hippesia living in Alexandria, Egypt people thought that she was a bit unusual unusual in the sense that she wasn't really embracing the Christian religion and instead spent her time studying the pants off of the other mathematicians of her day in fact she's still known as the first female mathematician in the world which unfortunately upset a lot of people at that time Peter the Lecter in particular wanted to make sure that she and her pagan, math loving ways were stopped immediately the best means of doing that well tell everybody she's a witch and then kill her she was not exactly quick first a mob dragged her from her carriage and stripped her clothes off at a nearby church they then beat her with roofing tiles until she was dead or near enough and then for good measure they tore her into pieces and burned what remained in short they really wanted to make sure this supposed witch was eliminated the first woman to be executed for witchcraft in England was Agnes Waterhouse also called Mother Waterhouse she was known for having a cat that answered to the name Satan for possibly killing men and for being labeled a witch when she was as young as 12 the cat supposedly spoke to her in a dark tongue telling her to take the lives of children and certain people that she saw it demanded to be fed blood and milk and it supposedly tormented her sister with these demands as well Waterhouse also claimed to have had relations with demons who threatened to harm her if she did not do their bidding once she was convicted she was sentenced to death at first she stood strong and proud acting unafraid however eventually she began to plead for her life saying that she believed and trusted in God it was not enough and she was executed in 1566 some people accused of witchcraft really were nasty people though case in point, Giles Garnier he was a hermit living in France up until 1573 and committed terrible acts for which he was accused of being not just a witch but a werewolf when Garnier married his new bride was not happy with the lack of food variety surrounding her husband's isolated way of life to make up for this Garnier began killing, butchering eating children he also fed the meat of these children to his new wife to satisfy her craving for variety he did this with at least four children when he was caught and put on trial he claimed that he'd come across a specter in the woods that gave him the ability to change into a wolf and do magic in order to hunt more easily witnesses claimed to have seen him eating the raw flesh of children in the fields even claimed to have seen him in wolf form he was found guilty of witchcraft and lycanthropy for which he was burned at the stake in 1573 from then on he was known as the werewolf of dole when a village's harvest fails it can be easy to blame it on witchcraft unfortunately this was what caused the demise of Stadellen a man who lived in the late 1300's in Switzerland and happened to make a very powerful enemy one day Peter von Greiers a judge during that time firmly believed that the occult was alive and well in Switzerland he claimed that miscarriages crop failures, marital disputes storms and more could all be linked to dark magic specifically Greiers accused Stadellen of sacrificing a black rooster on the Sabbath and of placing a lizard under a doorway you know full witchcrafty stuff the thing is that Stadellen actually admitted it after being tortured of course he admitted that he'd made a pact with demons and was promptly burned at the stake after his demise Greiers went on searching for other members of satanic cults and continued persecuting people for years women were tortured excuse me we got another tip here women were were tortured men were killed and it all began with that one incident the Inquisition definitely had its share of torture cases and gruesome killings and that included executing people for witchcraft in 1275 a French woman named Angèle de la Barth can you imagine going through life with the name of Barth anyway Angèle de la Barth was accused by the supreme chief of the Toulos Inquisition of having relations with the devil and giving birth to a monster that ate babies a tall order perhaps but she didn't really claim to be innocent during the course of her trial she admitted that she had been feeding the monster babies for two years and even boasted about having slept with the devil she was burned alive for her deeds this incident is widely credited as being the first killing in a string of terrible witch persecutions and there were many more that followed some people now believe the account is fictional but either way the time period was full of people being executed for witchcraft you might have heard this name before or at least the name of his associate Thomas Dowdy was a nobleman, explorer and soldier who lived in the mid 1500s before he met his untimely end he sailed with famed captain Sir Francis Drake who was also a slaver and politician and he also ended up being his accuser the two men started off as friends but in the summer of 1578 Drake became separated from the rest of his fleet during a storm and slowly convinced himself that it was because Dowdy was practicing witchcraft the two argued but Drake eventually snapped and had Dowdy tied to the mast accusing him of being a witch there was a brief trial once they landed and although Drake later seemed to regret his decision it was far too late Dowdy was found guilty of witchcraft and was sentenced to be killed by beheading a decision that would haunt Drake for the rest of his life Native Americans have their own version of witches and they are often viewed with no less malice Leatherlips, a wine dot Indian in the 1800s in Ohio is perhaps best known for having signed the Treaty of Greenville and for encouraging peace and cohabitation with European settlers however this didn't sit well with many other chiefs and some began to conspire against him in 1810 Roundhead ordered that he be put to death for witchcraft settlers who were living with him at the time pleaded for his life but to no avail he went back with the other tribal leaders without a fight once there he prayed ate and drank with his people he then dressed up in his very best clothing gave a ceremonial death chant and was promptly taken out by a Tomahawk blow there is now a statue in his memory in Dublin, Ohio Salem isn't the only place to have had a witch hunt in the late 1590s northerly in Germany was hit with a swath of witch accusations and executions in all 32 women were convicted of witchcraft one of them a woman by the name of Rebecca Lemp Rebecca was the mother of six children she didn't stop local lawyers and burgamasters from arresting and torturing her she was tortured on at least five different occasions and eventually she confessed to witchcraft unfortunately things didn't end there in order to make her appear more guilty Rebecca was forced to write a letter to her husband who was away on business and children in which she admitted to being a witch although her husband didn't believe it there was nothing he could do she was tortured a bit longer and then burned at the stake many other women followed her down this path of torture and death in 1895 a man in in a ballet of Adelaide Ireland and I'm sure I'm butchering that and I apologize for my friends in Ireland he was tried and eventually convicted for killing his wife this might sound dark but not terribly unusual except that Michael Cleary claimed to have done it because his wife was actually a witch or changeling you see Bridget Cleary had gone missing and when investigators eventually questioned her husband he claimed that his wife had been taken by fairies and replaced by some sort of magical evil creature when he realized this Michael did the only logical thing there was to do burn his wife to death it's still not clear if he burned her body before or after her death but it's pretty clear that he was the one who killed her the trial was a long man arduous one and Michael was imprisoned for 15 years for his crime and to this day there's still an Irish nursery rhyme that goes are you a witch or are you a fairy or are you the wife of Michael Cleary when thinking about people who have been killed for being witches the 1692 Salem witch trials inevitably come to mind around 72 people were accused of being witches with 20 actually being executed for it the first of whom was Bridget Bishop she was a rather flamboyant woman for her day and other women took notice eventually women accused Bishop of being a witch claiming that her shape would haunt or threaten people and during the trial they screamed and flailed claiming she was hurting them even then men also stepped forward saying that she had tormented them and even poisoned them after disputes previous now deceased husbands were even brought up this was enough to seal her fate and despite the fact that she claimed to be innocent Bishop was sentenced to death and was hanged one thing that comes to mind when thinking of witches is their mysterious potions and Giovanna Bonanno held to that stereotype pretty well she was a beggar in Palermo Sicily in the late 1700s when she was brought to trial for witchcraft she confessed during the trial to being a professional poisoner and had been selling poisons to women who wanted to murder their husbands she claimed that initially the poison would cause pain then put them in the hospital and then eventually kill them the doctors at the time could not figure out the cause of death and it's unknown who so excuse it's not known how many people she poisoned during this time many women testified against her as did the local apothecaries who sold her potions she was supposedly very good at creating various ointments and magical potions to help with minor and major ailments however her poisoning habit was where she found her end she was executed by hanging on July 30th 1789 to this day she is known as Old Vinegar even the nobility was not a free from the accusation of witchcraft in 1621 Christend's Crocow was a noble lady living in Scandinavia and her life was pretty good unfortunately her sister Ann was not so lucky Ann had given birth to 17 children all stillborn it could not seem to conceive a healthy baby after a while people started to blame this misfortune on witchcraft women were accused of carrying out this deed and one was even executed at first none of these people were nobles but eventually Christian IV the king of Denmark pushed people to accuse Christend's Crocow of the act upon being arrested Crocow admitted that she had cursed her sister's marriage bed in jealousy she was found guilty of sorcery and was decapitated with a sword she was however given the burial of a noble rather than a witch and some might think that killing people for witchcraft is a thing of the past but that's not entirely the case Marie Ben Ali Ben Issa al-Asiri of the Najran province in Saudi Arabia was a bit of an adulterer and had committed this act with two women when he was finally investigated he was found to have books in his possession as well as various talismans when accusations of witchcraft were added to his list of misdeeds he was enough to have him sentenced to death he was beheaded amid protests from human rights groups in 2012 yeah, it means that some parts of the world people are still being accused and killed for supposedly witchy behavior in 1692 the quiet Puritan settlement of Salem, Massachusetts descended into madness when its residents suddenly began accusing each other of witchcraft we know them now as the Salem witch trials and the phenomenon would go on to become the largest witch hunt in American history but what caused the Salem witch trials in the first place between 1692 and 1693 more than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft in Salem and 20 were executed but almost as suddenly as the trials began they stopped Salem came to its senses and life carried on since then the Salem witch trials have fascinated and perplexed scholars like few other episodes in American history many experts believed misogyny played a big role especially since most of the victims were women however some men were also put to death during the Salem witch trials perhaps the most infamous, Giles Corey as we mentioned earlier the 80 year old farmer who refused to stand trial after being accused of wizardry denied the typically quicker execution of hanging so he was instead pressed to death by stones which were piled on top of him one at a time not even animals were safe, at least two dogs were executed due to their alleged involvement in witchcraft so even though gender played a role in the Salem witch trials it could depend the only factor what really caused this quiet Puritan town to descend into total paranoia and persecution let's take a look at some of the most popular theories one theory suggests that the Native American wars may have contributed to the hysteria that took hold in Salem in 1692 one of the brutal conflicts known as King Philip's war raged in the colonies during the 1670s and the front lines of this battle were not that far from Salem most people in the region had been impacted in one way or another by the wars and this created an atmosphere of intense anxiety many were afraid of further attacks and raids from neighboring Native American tribes some of the afflicted girls who accused women of bewitching them had actually witnessed some earlier raids prior to making their claims so it's been suggested that watching those attacks may have caused some post-traumatic stress which might have played a role in inspiring these accusations in the first place historian Mary Beth Norton believes that the Native American wars may have impacted the trials in another way she suggests that the accusation and execution of Ex-Minister George Burroughs who led a number of failed military campaigns against the Native Americans indicates that town officials were trying to shift blame for their own inadequate defense of the frontier onto supernatural causes in other words, they wanted to believe the devil was threatening them instead of their own weaknesses so if safety was just a witch cleaning away, in the minds of the public at least, it would be a powerful incentive to root out the culprit who was terrorizing their community the witch trials began in early 1692 after 9-year-old Betty Parris and her 11-year-old cousin Abigail Williams began to exhibit some strange behavior they hid under furniture cried out in pain and sometimes even barked like dogs Samuel Parris, the father of Betty Parris called for a physician to look at the girls since the doctor found nothing physically wrong with them, it was then concluded the girls had been bewitched but some sources suggested that the girls may have been acting strangely because they were simply frightened by a fortune telling game in Salem at the time children were restricted from almost all forms of play they were expected to spend most of their time doing chores and studying the Bible this lack of stimulation naturally led to boredom and this boredom may help explain why Betty Parris and Abigail Williams became so interested in fortune telling which was allegedly introduced to them by a slave named Tideba as one of their only outlets for activity they naturally became drawn to these superstitions that's why some believe that their involvement in these forbidden activities and a combination of guilt and fear they felt from participating in them may have been the real cause of their strange behavior some of the first people who accused others of being witches in Salem were very young girls and many accusers that followed were teenagers or in the early 20s of course it wasn't just young people who were making claims about alleged witches but the fact that their accusations were so prominent early on have led some to believe that simple teenage angst may have been a factor that led to some of Salem witch trials in the book entertaining Satan witchcraft in the culture of early New England which I have linked to in the show notes at weirddarkness.com Jon Putnam explores the idea that the witch trials were essentially a teenage rebellion against the Puritan authority of the older generation after all most of the people accused of being witches were adults if teen angst truly inspired young women to make these accusations that these feelings could have very well stemmed from the patriarchal oppression of the time but whether that was true or not older women often bore the worst effects of this oppression during the actual trials some feminist historians have interpreted the Salem witch trials as just another way the patriarchy persecuted women who acted in ways that were different from the accepted social norms at the time as was the case with many similar witch hunts in Europe there were the primary targets of accusation during these Salem witch trials particularly women who acted unusual for the era while the exact cause of the Salem witch trials remains contested there is almost no doubt that underlying social forces played a role it may sound strange but cold weather has been suggested as a potential cause of the Salem witch trials in 2004 Harvard graduate Emily Oster suggested this theory to the senior thesis in her paper Oster points out that the most active era of witchcraft trials in Europe and other places coincided with a 400 year period of lower than average temperatures the most active period of the witchcraft trials mainly in Europe coincides with a period of lower than average temperature known to climatologists as the little ice age Oster wrote the colder temperatures increased the frequency of crop failure and colder seas prevented cod and other fish from migrating as far north eliminating this vital food source for some northern areas of Europe Oster posited that people would have searched for a scapegoat in the face of deadly changes in weather patterns as it turns out the year 1692 fell right in the middle of a 50 year long cold spell from 1680 to 1730 giving some weight to this theory on top of that many people at the time believed that witches were able to control the weather and destroy crops so when people suffered from poor harvests and bad weather some may have concluded that it was all the work of witches while mass hysteria is usually associated with the time the trials were happening some are proposed that it may have caused them as well mass hysteria has been defined as the rapid spread of conversion disorder involving the appearance of bodily complaints for which there is no organic basis in such episodes psychological distress is converted or channeled into physical symptoms there is a mouthful some have argued that this is exactly what the girls who were first bewitched were experiencing the stress of living in such a rigid and religious society on the dangerous wilderness frontier may have led these girls to convert this stress into physical symptoms the hysteria experienced by the girls may then in turn have triggered a collective delusion among the villagers that witches were in their midst if pretty much everybody is feeling the same way this could certainly have paved the way for a witch hunt mass hysteria was clearly at work but how much of a feedback loop these delusions created can probably never be known regardless it is a compelling theory that can't easily be discounted by the rational explanation for what caused the Salem witch trials in the 1970s a truly wild theory about the cause of the Salem witch trials took off hallucinogenic fungi sounds far fetched but the fungus ergo can be found in fungus ergot I believe is how it is pronounced can be found in rye and wheat under the right conditions known to cause convulsions, hallucinations and pinching sensations are sometimes used to create lsd but it might also offer an explanation for the symptoms of people who were bewitched in Salem first introduced by Linda this theory posits that ergot poisoning may have caused the bizarre physical afflictions associated with being bewitched after all many of the symptoms of ergot poisoning were quite similar to what was happening to the girls interestingly enough weather conditions in Salem during the winter of 1691 to 1692 were just right for ergot to grow plus studies on ergot poisoning have found that children are the more susceptible most susceptible ones to its effects but is it really possible that something like ergot poisoning could have caused the Salem witch trials it's no wonder why this theory is one of the most controversial and also one of the most fascinating theories ultimately we may never know for sure what caused the Salem witch trials but there's no question that this strange piece of American history remains just as curious today as it was centuries ago when the weird darkness live-screen returns the real life monsters who made trick or treating not only more scary but deadly by putting tricks into the treats paranormal experiences encountering extraterrestrials extraordinary states of consciousness spiritual phenomenon encounters with non-human entities that can't be explained by science these stories of what people have come across are ubiquitous here on Weird Darkness and often those who've had these encounters choose to stay quiet and not even tell close friends or family out of fear of ridicule and they suffer silently trying to deal with the internal horror of what they've experienced describing you or someone you know there is now a place you can turn to for professional counseling from experts who unlike others in their field are open to the paranormal supernatural and extraterrestrial experiences of others and they're not there to explain away your experience but to help you recover from it and move forward with living I'm referring to the Opus Network if you want to reach out for help or learn more look for the Opus Network towards the bottom of the Hope in the Darkness page www.darkness.com I've mentioned it numerous times but I'm going to mention it again because it's so important to me tonight's the last night of our overcoming the Darkness fundraiser we can really use your help to raise as much as we can to support organizations that help people who struggle with depression those organizations by the way are the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline save.org the Crisis Text Line and the International Foundation for Research and Education on Depression and you can donate right now by visiting the Hope in the Darkness page www.weirddarkness.com you'll also see a big donate button on the website and that'll take you directly to a donation page but please give whatever you can I'd greatly appreciate that we're only raising funds through midnight central time tonight or actually until the end of the broadcast whichever comes first excuse me whichever comes last so if I go over midnight tonight which I don't think I will then I'll keep it going but as soon as I shut things down I've got to shut down the fundraiser too so again weirddarkness.com if you want to get more information on the fundraiser and also all the organizations that we are supporting with it I did draw another name for our newsletter contest again you have to email me before the end of the show tonight and while you're getting shorter and shorter amount of time to do that because we're getting closer and closer to the end so if you want to win our prize which is three Weirddarkness t-shirts and two copy mugs you need to register for our newsletter it's absolutely free to subscribe just go to weirddarkness.com if you are not already subscribed and the name that I drew is Michael Slonwhite Michael Slonwhite you now have until the end of the show to email me at the email address right there right there there I've got things flipped around on me anyway at the bottom left hand of your screen but you'll see my email address there email me and let me know you heard your name on the show and I will send you a prize pack also had a couple more captions this is the picture that you're looking into caption and we had two more come in I believe, Stephen came in with come on great pumpkin this has got to be my year and then Mark came in I think Mark has entered the panderverse I'm truly addicted to Weird Darkness I can't even make a normal snowman anymore nice nice very nice pandering there Mark I really appreciate that it was really good alright so if you've got a caption for that picture again here's the picture go to weirddarkness.com slash live and there's a form that you can fill out under the video where you can place your caption there and if I draw not if I draw but if I choose your caption as the winner at the end of the show tonight you too will win that prize pack of three t-shirts and two coffee mugs from the Weird Darkness store so we got that alright I share this story every year during the Halloween live screen because well first it's terrifying second it's a true story and third it addresses a long held belief about Halloween a trick or treating that we've all held since we were children so hold on a second if you're a parent what's your greatest fear just about every person that I know where the child is going to answer this question almost immediately it's that some sort of tragedy might befall their children accidents calamities automobile crashes natural disasters fires the list goes on all these things terrify parents these are the things that keep them awake at night staring at the ceiling of their bedrooms wondering how they would handle the nightmare if something terrible happened to their child of course accidents and calamities are cruel twists of fate bad luck if you believe in luck or perhaps providence if you don't it plays no favorites the idea that a terrible accident might occur that claims the life of your child might keep you from sleeping at night but in the end there's nothing you can do about it accidents happen right but what about that terrible thing that's not an accident at all what about when the horrible death of a child comes at the hands of another there are without a doubt killers who walk among us is there a more loathsome killer lurking in the darkest corners of America than one that would prey on children such monsters have been with us since the first settlers arrived on American shores we often fool ourselves into believing that the good old days were actually good but this is far from the truth monsters have always been with us they stalked the innocent in the days when children stayed close to the rugged settlements of the colonies afraid to wander into the dark forest they were among us before the civil war claimed the lives of thousands of men and boys these monsters claimed the lives of the young and naive during the gilded age at the dawn of the 20th century through the depression and beyond these monsters are not the stuff of fiction they are bloodcurdlingly real they've been among us since the nation began and they are with us still always looking for their next victim we know this as did our parents and their parents before them the fear of strangers and their terrible deeds have been rooted in the minds of multiple generations of Americans we created myths and legends of monstrous shapes hoping to scare children so that they never strayed too far from the welcoming light of home and yet blood was spilled children vanished never to be seen again they became faces on milk cartons and they were like a child we must keep our children safe parents told themselves but even the most watchful eyes weren't always enough our cautionary tales created one of the most popular and most terrifying urban legends of all time it involved just two things a babysitter and a telephone it tells the story of a babysitter who's been left in charge of young children the parents hoping for a much-needed night out of dinner and a movie left this trusted and neighbor girl with their children she was experienced, she was reliable and the parents had nothing to fear the night is quiet and after finishing some homework the babysitter turns on the television and then the telephone rings when the girl answers she hears a man's harsh voice have you checked the children he asks her assuming it to be a prank call she hangs up the phone the telephone rings again and once more the same man's voice repeats the question the babysitter slams down the receiver but it keeps ringing and the same man keeps asking her about the children now terrified she phones the police who assure her that they will have the calls traced and find out who has been harassing her a few minutes later the police operator calls back with horrifying news the calls are coming from inside of the house when officers arrive on the scene they find a distraught babysitter and two murdered children in the upstairs nursery the killer had somehow gotten into the house he made the calls to terrorize the babysitter and lure her upstairs to her death of course this morality play ends in tragedy for the young woman who did not watch the children closely enough she loses her mind she locked away in a mental institution for the rest of her life of course this is only a story right? we all know that it's just an urban myth that illustrates the perils of being a babysitter and the fact that children are never really safe even in the most innocent circumstances stories like this and a lot of others like it have been told and retold thousands of times over the years it's only a story or is it? when you were growing up how many times did you hear stories like that one? or were told never to talk to a sketchy looking man that your mother pointed out on the street or to never accept a ride in a car with someone you didn't know or to never accept candy from strangers especially at Halloween it was at Halloween when every horror story that your mother could ever imagine came to life never knock on the door of a house without a porch line on never accept treats that were not professionally packaged never bite into an apple that your parents had not carefully checked they were filled with needles and razor blades don't you know they'll all boil down to never take candy from strangers but that was crazy wasn't it it was Halloween for Pete's sake who was evil enough to stick razor blades into apples or put poison into candy bars stories aren't they those kinds of things never really happen every Halloween without fail my mother retells the story of her worst Halloween ever her dad after biting into an almond joy from her Halloween supply began feeling a tingling sensation in his mouth sending him quickly into an anxious spiral as he convinced himself he'd been poisoned it was to say the night ended with a distraught and confused and forced to dispose of the remaining pieces of his delicious spoils and later an apologetic father with a clean bill of health after a frantic trip to the hospital revealed it was solely a case of anxiety so why is it that so many households to this day have a fear that their children's lives are at stake every Halloween night is there any truth behind this old urban legend of Halloween candy tampering should parents really be checking their kids candy piece by piece to ensure no tricks are hiding among the treats well as it turns out stories like this often get started for a reason although the paranoia surrounding Halloween candy tampering began popping up more prevalently in the 1950s and 60s and appeared to grow even more drastically through the 70s and 80s the fear of contaminated food actually began all the way back in the 1800s consumers began feeling worried about the content of their food during the industrial revolution since it moved fresh food that used to come from farm to table to a distant factory where people were forced to put their trust in companies to look out for the well-being of their families the community did seem to be rightly concerned since the U.S. Bureau of Chemistry tested thousands of candy samples in the late 1800s and found traces of copper, cheap dye and syrup although thankfully no traces of poison jumped forward to the 1960s and 1970s and the anxiety bred from societal fear surrounding otherness within middle-class white suburbs directly influenced neighbors to feel distrustful of one another there was a deep fear of not only people of color transforming their neighborhoods and cities but also the new concept of the career woman who could intimidate by being both a doting mother and a highly successful employee or boss rising in rank these changes led people to become suspicious about the lives that their community members were leading therefore in 1985 a poll by ABC news and the Washington Post revealed that 60% of parents were fearful of candy tampering during Halloween time before we investigate whether we should be afraid of the goodies gifted to us on Halloween night by our seemingly friendly neighbors it's important to mention that there have been various large-scale accidental poisonings due to unregulated food production take the 1858 candy poisoning in Bradford, England for example to save money on sugar expenses a local candy maker William Hardaker wanted to purchase powdered gypsum which could conveniently be used both in drywall and as a food additive in his humbugs a peppermint flavored hard candy William Hardaker then conducted business as usual and directed his gypsum supplier to add it to the candies but he didn't know that a series of events would lead to catastrophic consequences it just so happens that this day his supplier sent another man James Archer to buy the ingredient from pharmacist Charles Hodgson Hodgson down with sickness asked his young apprentice William Goddard to complete the transaction on his own unfortunately the young man mistook arsenic trioxide for a gypsum leading to 40 pounds of humbugs being made from 40 pounds of sugar 12 pounds of arsenic trioxide 12 pounds of gum and a bit of peppermint oil even though the candies had an odd discoloration Hardaker accepted them after taking a discount and although he became violently ill after testing some of his new batch of candy he ended up selling 5 pounds of them having not realized the source of his sudden bout of illness 21 people died and 200 people became extremely ill Goddard, Hodgson and the supplier Joseph Neil were all arrested and charged with manslaughter by gross neglect but were eventually acquitted this sad event ended up resulting in better protection being put in place to prevent other similar incidents from happening for instance the Pharmacy Act of 1868 was enacted to control the distribution of poisons and resulted in a national poison register nevertheless this occurrence shows how helpless consumers can be when it comes to putting unwarranted trust in food companies you may be thinking well thankfully that happened far in the past you come a long way with different food policies and prescription drug policies in place to protect us right yeah that might be true but sometimes that doesn't prevent twisted people from finding a way to do harm anyway consider the 1982 case in which 7 people died after taking Tylenol which was then tested and found to have traces of cyanide the manufacturer of Tylenol Johnson & Johnson sprang into action by issuing a nationwide recall stopping all further production of its product however it was clear that the bottles had been tampered with post production since each bottle had come from a different manufacturer although there have been various suspects the culprit sadly has never been caught this disturbing case of poisoning led to the creation of Title 18 which makes it a federal offense to tamper with consumer products it also pushed drug and food companies to develop safer tamper proof seals and Johnson & Johnson to develop excuse me and it also pushed Johnson & Johnson to develop the caplet form of their drug rather than the capsule that was easily tampered with despite the positive effects that came from this incident this case destroyed the American people's sense of safety and added to the deep rooted fear that their everyday products could easily be tampered with all that would be needed was a sick minded individual willing to execute a deadly plan so getting back to our initial question do we need to be wary of neighbors with a secret deadly status or plans for cruel pranks on Halloween night possibly there have been instances in which candy has been tampered with throughout the years however as you'll see with the following examples many instances could be considered sick pranks meant to do minor bodily harm rather than with intent to commit callous murder take New York housewife Helen Field our file who was upset with older trick-or-treaters who knocked on her door even though her teen sons were out doing the same thing so she placed a bottle cap shaped ant trap labeled poison in their bags for the trick-or-treaters to find in 1964 19 ant traps had been handed out but when she was arrested with child endangerment charges she claimed it had been a joke then there was California dentist William V. Shine who handed out 450 candy coated laxatives to trick-or-treaters causing 30 kids to get sick and Shine to be eventually charged with outrage of public decency and then finally the case from 2000 in Minneapolis when Joseph Joseph Smith hid needles in Snickers bars that resulted in a 14 year old boy getting pricked as he unsuspectingly took a bite none of these cases thankfully resulted in death but drew alarm to community members who wanted to ensure kids safety Professor Joel Best's research suggests there have been around 80 cases of sharp objects in food incidents since 1959 only 10 led to minor injuries the worst case being a woman who needed to get stitches most cases appeared to be hoaxes planned by parents or children to get some laughs for some good old fashioned Halloween trickery even if they are deeply unsettling laughs if you ask me yet there has been one case of candy tampering that has led to an innocent life lost and one sinister cover up of murder both are in some ways more sinister than the myth of trick-or-treat murders of random unsuspecting kids these murder victims and murderers were not strangers in 1970 5 year old Kevin Tostin from Michigan died after ingesting heroin yet at first it appeared to be a case of candy poisoning since the heroin was found sprinkled on his treats in reality the boy mistakenly swallowed some of this uncle's heroin stash so his family dusted his candy with the remaining drugs to make it appear like somebody outside the family had killed their son thankfully the investigators were able to determine what actually happened to the young boy on Halloween night 1974 Timothy O'Brien and his sister Elizabeth had anxiously waited for their father Ronald to get home from work so that they could go trick-or-treating the family which included their mother Danine lived in the suburb of Deer Park, Texas Ronald was an optician at Texas State Optical in Houston he was a deacon at the Second Baptist Church where he also sang in the choir and was in charge of the local bus program and was as far as everybody who knew him was concerned a wonderful loving father when he finally walked through the door of the family home the children rushed to him hurrying him back out to the street still wearing his white optician's lab coat Ronald took Timothy and Elizabeth out to celebrate Halloween they met some friends and went to the first house of the night Timothy rang the doorbell there was no answer if anyone was home they were taking far too long to answer the door the children impatiently ran to the next house on the block leaving Ronald to catch up when he did he had 5 giant pixie sticks in his hand tubes of pure sugary goodness that the kids couldn't wait to consume but Ronald promised he would distribute the candy among the children when they got back to the house it was late when they returned home Ronald got the children ready for bed but before he fell asleep Timothy asked for just one treat from the night's bounty of sweets he chose a 22 inch giant pixie sticks the sugar had hardened in the tube so his father helpfully rolled the candy between his hands to loosen the contents Timothy poured the confection into his mouth but his face wrinkled and disgust it tasted terrible Ronald quickly ran to get some Kool-Aid for his son to wash the bad taste away Timothy never had a chance to drink it within moments he began to choke vomit and then convulse something was terribly wrong when paramedics arrived they found Ronald creedling Timothy in his arms as the little boy gagged and foamed at the mouth he was pronounced dead at the hospital less than an hour later an autopsy later revealed that the 8 year old had died from a fatal dose of cyanide where had it come from the top two inches of the giant pixie sticks that Timothy had been so excited about contained enough poison to kill two grown adults the little boy never had a chance words spread about Timothy's death naturally starting a panic in the community numerous parents in Deer Park and the surrounding area took the candy their children had collected from trick-or-treating to the police terrified that it was laced with poison none of it was but the authorities could understand the fear that Timothy's death had caused they had already started their investigation into the boy's murder thankfully the other four laced pixie sticks which Ronald O'Brien claimed he received from the first house on the trick-or-treating route after the kids had run ahead had not been eaten when questioned by detectives Ronald sobbed as he suggested that the monster must have handed out poisoned candy to trick-or-treaters he told police he vaguely remembered where the candy had come from but he never got a good look at the owner all he saw was a shadowy hand clutching the pixie sticks from behind the door the police went to the address and questioned the owner of the house Courtney Melvin who worked as an air traffic controller at Hobby Airport but the police were confounded when they learned that he had not left work until 10.30 p.m. on Halloween night his wife had stopped answering the door when she ran out of candy around 6.45 that was before Ronald O'Brien claimed that he was there in addition Mrs. Melvin had not given out pixie sticks that night detectives interrogated the entire neighborhood and still could not find the source of the deadly candy Ronald O'Brien was grief-strickened by his son's death he was already having a terrible year and Timothy's death seemed to have pushed him over the edge with grief Ronald was 8 months behind in car payments and was being threatened with repossession he had defaulted on several bank loans and was suspected of theft at Texas State Optical and was close to being fired he had held 21 different jobs over the last decade and was more than $100,000 in debt he further strained his family's finances by taking out a $10,000 life insurance policy on his children earlier in the year to which his wife protested as an unnecessary expense she also probably would have objected to the additional pair of $20,000 life insurance policies Ronald took out on Timothy and Elizabeth on October 3rd if she had known about them and she definitely would have been horrified to find out that earlier hours after Timothy's death her husband called to collect on those policies the police didn't know about the life insurance policies not yet anyway but they did discover that Ronald had visited a chemical supply store in Houston to buy cyanide just a week before Halloween you left without purchasing anything after the smallest amount available to purchase was five pounds when they found out about the life insurance policies they were convinced they had their man detectives theorized that he had laced the candy with poison so that he could kill his own children for the life insurance money poisoning their friends with the extra pixie sticks would help cover up his crime luckily none of the other candy was ever eaten investigators repeatedly questioned Ronald but he maintained his innocence he blamed the whole thing on some mad poisoner just like in the stories who handed out Halloween candy laced with poison or needles and candy apples with razor blades inside surely the police had heard those stories hadn't they O'Brien was arrested and brought to trial on June 3rd 1975 a jury took just 46 minutes to find the dedicated father and devout member of the second Baptist church guilty of capital murder and four counts of attempted murder Ronald was sent to death row in Huntsville, Texas he was so hated by the other inmates that they reportedly petitioned to hold an organized demonstration on his execution date they had to wait a while because his first execution date was set for August 8th 1980 but his attorneys managed to drag things out until March 31st 1984 shortly before midnight he was executed by lethal injection outside the prison a crown of about 300 demonstrators cheered during the execution while others yelled trick or treat Ronald O'Brien didn't just kill his son and try to kill four other children on October 31st 1974 he also killed the idea of Halloween for several generations of kids that hadn't even been born yet Ronald who was known as the Candy Man by his fellow death row inmates successfully perpetrated a perpetuated the legend that there are strangers out there intent on killing children with poisoned Halloween candy after all is said and done it's highly unlikely you'll have to worry about your candy being messed with this Halloween many people who take part in the holiday do so because they want to bring joy for the spooky holiday season since they remember the fun they had trick or treating when they were young but Ronald O'Brien was a monster in human form and a nightmare brought to life up next, redditors share some of the strangest and most frightening experiences they have had on the spookiest day of the year plus thousands of people flocked to Halloween haunted houses mazes and amusement parks to get scared easily by a bunch of actors and monstrous prosthetics if you frequent Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights or other big scare hotspots you probably wonder what it's like to work as a haunted house actor well here are a few of their stories coming up you'd find somewhere to stop and think about how to survive the next few minutes of your life then you see it and run towards the water station the zombie fun run will have to wait until you quench your thirst but bottled water is expensive and you don't even want to know what might be in tap water or much less fresh water fortunately the horde of horror fanatics at this water station planned in advance and brought patriot pure outdoor filtration water cooler system clean cold water wherever you go it's five gallon tank keeps water cold keeps ice for days on end reduces the levels of over 200 contaminants with a two step filtration technology which you can use with tap water well water river water or any water source you find it's UV resistant so it works just as well at any time of day and you're avoiding the cost of bottled water while also avoiding the unnecessary use of plastic all in one system it might be the only terrifying thing at your halloween or fall themed activity get the patriot pure outdoor filtration water cooler system at 4patriots.com that's the number 4 patriots.com and use the promo code weird to get 10% off everything you order that's 4patriots.com promo code weird uh oh zombies are back Central Massachusetts is a land of oddities and apparitions stories of the strange and paranormal found from generation to generation and only the local populace has any idea of just how vast and deep their superstitions run the world around you is much more than you can touch taste, smell see and hear some of the stories are funny some are sad but all of them give you a taste of what it's like to be from the oddest part of the United States you can't have a region of the country without getting a few odd tales out of it open up a whole new world of fact and fiction that'll leave you with a deep appreciation for the strange and bizarre ghosts and heroes await and the only thing they need to live on is you slightly odd Fitchburg by Ed Sweeney now available on Kindle paperback and audiobook versions on the audiobooks page at weirddarkness.com Weirdos welcome back to the live stream and thank you to whoever gave another $120 came in just over the last few minutes we are now at $5,560 for our overcoming the darkness fundraiser thank you so much to everybody who's been giving you still have time before the end of the evening like I said after the show around midnight my time which is central time I'll have to shut it down so you have a little over an hour if you want to give all those donations every dollar that I receive is going to be split evenly between four amazing organizations that help people who struggle with depression and thoughts of self harm you know how important that is especially to me I suffer from depression so please if you can just give every dollar makes a difference let's check on some of the comments I forgot to do that last time let's see if there's anything going on that people wanted to ask me most of it is just you guys talking back and forth which is great there's like what 93 people right now listening or watching live which is a whole lot more than I usually get with a video premiere so no looks like looks like we're still okay so I'll check on this again here a little bit later on but if you do have a question for me if you want to answer something again put my name Darren in all caps and then follow that with your question that way it's a lot easier for me to recognize we did get another caption for our caption this contest here's the picture and it's your job to come up with a caption for this if you win if I choose your caption as my favorite is really what it is then you will win the prize pack for tonight which is and two mugs from the Weird Darkness store and the one that came in is from Janna saying surely this will be the best of the neighborhood decorations this year well it's definitely it's definitely a good one so thank you very much for that Janna and at the end of the evening I will choose a winner for the caption this contest and you guys are going to make it tough on me to do it after the show and then announce it in the podcast or probably on social media and I'll also place the winner on the Weird Darkness website on WeirdDarkness.com on this page so that way you can see it I'll put the photo up as well so people will know what we're talking about but then I'll also place the winning caption there and I will also connect with whoever it was that won and thank you very much to everybody that gave those I really appreciate it alright so Halloween season is the spookiest time of the year and during the cooling fall months many people are just a little more open to the idea of haunting hijinks, spectral sightings, all sorts of other worldly antics so here are some of the creepy strange and downright unexplainable experiences that people have had on and around this infamous holiday from ghosts to cryptids to demons there's something here for everybody from a former redditor a few years ago yeah a few years ago my sister and I were walking back from trick-or-treating across town to set the scene it was a small historic town with lots of old homes, churches, grave yards and wrought iron so even the houses that don't go all out look like sets for a horror movie on Halloween I decided to walk along the creek on the railroad tracks it's a lot quicker than walking the road back to our house from the center of town it was around 10pm and a light fog was setting in as we were getting close to our property we heard some splashing in the creek I turned around because I thought my sister was being stupid and had jumped in I was about to say something but I realized she was still right beside me what caused the splashing must have been a big animal I was going to tease her and say something about seeing a bear or a wolf but she seemed genuinely scared so I just grabbed her hand and kept walking still about 15 minutes from our property we heard splashing again closer than before and both spun around this time it was clear exactly what was making the noise there was a young girl wearing a dirty, frilly dress and playing around in the water just sort of splashing it with her hands waiting in the creek she looked in our direction but it was like she was in her own world oblivious it scared the heck out of me and I jogged the rest of the way home with my sister needless to say every light in the house was on that night our parents didn't believe us they thought it was a prank but we know what we saw funny thing is I didn't find out until I visited a town historical society meeting last year there used to be a grist mill on that creek and the owner's young daughter drowned in the mill pond in October of 1984 from Redditor Yu Fang Runt so around about 2013 my senior year of high school my mom, brother and two friends planned a Hollywood ghost hunt type deal we headed out to this park and that was notoriously haunted we even made sure to go at 3am to get maximum results here my brother decides to sit on the end of the pier on the lake and do some recordings and he ends up getting the clearest creepiest EVP I've ever heard in my life about two minutes in he asks a question he goes quiet and you can clearly hear a man's voice yelling out don't shoot followed by a few seconds of silence and then an agonized groan none of us heard this until we played it back in the car I remember shivers running down my spine and I started crying because I was so freaked out I still have the recording but I only ever show it to people I trust that wasn't the only strange thing that happened that night but it was by far the one that sticks with us all the most my brother's only listened to that one time in the car afterwards he refuses to listen to it again from Redditor welcome to Wonderland so on Halloween ten years ago three of us decided it'd be scary to walk through the woods nearby where I lived I knew my way around well as I had grown up going there we were walking along chatting when by a hollowed out tree I saw a yellowish glow I stopped where I was and just stared at this glow as it got brighter and my friends did too we all glanced at each other with a what the heck look on our faces I'm literally thinking I'm imagining things but they both confirmed they were seeing the same thing in the glow a young girl appeared who looked to be about eight years old she started off looking quite washed out in color and kind of transparent then she became more of a solid looking shape and the glow got brighter I went from feeling normal and in disbelief to feeling uneasy then fear and dread then finally like we needed to get out of there and that our lives were possibly in danger I grabbed my friends hands and started pulling them down the steep hill as the main road was at the bottom of it we stood at the bottom of the hill by the main road looking at it for about 30 minutes maybe longer eventually it was gone and I just saw a slight glow in the distance then nothing later Sarah Grace 151618 this whole ordeal happened two days away from Halloween around 1.45 am I heard what sounded like a distorted house alarm and then my dogs started going bananas so I woke up my husband and I asked him to go to make sure the doors were locked after he looked outside and checked the doors he came back to bed and immediately passed out but I still felt super uneasy later I was almost asleep when suddenly I was jolted back to wide awake by a scratching sound it sounded like someone dragging their finger across the walls of my room but I looked all around the room and saw nothing and I have the bathroom light on at this point so I lay back down it gets louder it sounds like it circles the entire room until it stops directly above my head then I felt something touch my neck it sat up for a while and turned on the closet light too before finally trying to go back to sleep only to wake up again around 3.45 to what felt like someone else's foot against my foot but my husband was asleep under a separate blanket so I stayed completely still until his alarm went off at 6 am when I sat straight up ready to fight anyone but no one was there time to sage the house again from Redditor Solo Hobo I went camping with friends on an island down near La Crosse, Wisconsin typical fire, drinking some fireworks and cooking food on the fire it gets late and someone in the group brought a Ouija board never paid those things any attention but we're on an island drinking so I'm sitting there watching as some of the girls move it around or it moves itself they're asking it questions the typical if you're here let us know and then off in the woods I hear a hello I thought it was my imagination but then my buddy sees me looking at the tree line and says you heard it too I said what did you hear someone just said hello that's what I heard it came from the trees we shined a few lights but don't see anything everyone's pretty drunk and a little freaked out we continue sitting by the fire but we're running out of wood so couple of us go into the woods to look for branches or a dead tree as we gather wood I'm shining my light and it falls on a grave not a graveyard, just a single grave on this random island we picked the camp on it looked very old and was pretty much in line with where I was sitting by the fire it was really weird and we all heard that voice from Redditor Mixum Null I worked nights at a hotel it was my first it was my first overnight shift on Halloween it was about 3 a.m. when I spotted a man in the kitchen he was a little over six feet tall and he was wearing an olive green windbreaker we stayed motionless for a long moment just watching each other before suddenly he lifted both legs at the knees and floated out the door I didn't initially think I'd seen a ghost I ran into the back hallway looking for him and spent about two minutes searching every room back there never found anyone it was dead silent I returned to the desk angry that this dude had gotten away and it took me a good five minutes more to accept that I'd seen him float and that people don't do that from Redditor Silence Voice 21 The night before Halloween my roommates and I were in bed and everyone was asleep except for me I woke it up around 2 a.m. which would make it Halloween day feeling uneasy and a little creeped out I kept telling myself to shut up and then I was freaking myself out until the doorknob started shaking like someone was trying desperately to get in the door was just off to the left of a window so I know no one was standing at the door unless I would have seen their shadow cast on that window all I could do was lay and stare at the door while this was happening for a solid two to three minutes I tried to listen for voices and stared intently at the window to see if I could catch someone's movement outside but I was too scared to actually get up and peek through the blinds after it stopped I said out loud that's it I'm done good night and close my eyes to go to sleep then I heard a voice in my ear say good night I immediately opened my eyes and I frozen for a hot minute before proceeding to get onto YouTube to watch happy videos while listening to our desk chairs creak as if someone was leaning back in them from Redditor Corrine DeSavani my sister was riding home with her boyfriend from the Halloween gathering they had gone to it was dark of course when he pulled into the driveway to our house she said the lights landed on something large running on all fours it was humanoid shaped he didn't see it she told me about it and I told her that it was fine not to go outside again that night later I was pulling into my driveway at night after getting off work it was late and everybody else would have been gone to bed by then it was the first time I had seen something like it and hopefully the last I understand my sister was freaked out that time a large humanoid creature on all fours was running through the yard it was only a few seconds that I saw it but it was close it was big maybe twice the size of our chocolate lamp once we passed each other I didn't see it again needless to say I made a mad dash into the house and would not let the dogs go out to use the bathroom Halloween is not always fun and games from Redditor heathendemon420 had an experience with my soon-to-be brother-in-law I'll call him Bill it was Halloween we were going to check out a place where witches and some satanic cults would practice their rituals as we're heading down the road Bill and I noticed the headlights dim soon after the radio cuts off then the car dies all together that's when we noticed something moving in the bushes well okay we're out in the middle nowhere not something that should be odd at all but that's when the thing walks out we stare for about a minute looking like idiots I hear Bill ask if it's standing on its back legs I answer yes it is we continue to watch this thing walk for about five yards before crossing the middle of the road and jumping off into the opposite side of bushes car finally fires up on its own after whatever leaves we look at each other then Bill hits the gas and we're on our way home closest we could figure we just saw a coyote come out of the bushes and walk across the road on its hind legs only problem with that outside of the coyote crossing the road on its hind legs is that we both realized the hind legs weren't bent or angled right they were bent or angled like a human's legs we also realized the coyote was bigger than either of us had seen before that's when we note the subject and went to sleep good times on Halloween in Oklahoma from Redditor nonsense for a name I took my little sister's trick or treating invited some friends over for a bonfire then went upstairs to watch scary movies we went on watching scary movies late into the night one by one my friends started leaving and finally the last friend left around one in the morning I was tired so I just fell asleep on the couch upstairs I woke up around 4 in the morning to someone saying my name and was surprised to see my recently deceased great grandmother sitting in the chair across from me but she looked young I almost remember she said it's so beautiful here and I was never sure whether she meant here as in the house or whatever afterlife she's in now anyways we sat and talked for a while just catching up eventually she just kind of faded I guess just disappeared I woke up a little bit later I must have just fallen back to sleep at some point this was about 3 years ago I told my siblings about it but never told my mom she was really close to grandmommy and I didn't want to upset her or have her think that I was lying I guess what would have been grandmommies 100th birthday is coming up and I'm tempted to tell my mom about it then but I'm still not sure how she'll respond also when I told my sister she told me that she had seen her around the house before from redditor memehooms memehooms hoomst is viet whatever anyway a few years ago we were treating with my friend we went to this house got candy moved on typical stuff no we had been going in a straight line making no circles but later on we came across the same house we joked about it oh we traveled back somehow and the house owner joked about how we came back for more then later on we came across it again we were super confused whatever happened that night might not be natural and I'm going to end tonight with this some true stories from haunted house actors some of them are scary some of them were funny the scare acting it's a grueling but rewarding test of a performers improvisational skills and physical fitness they work every night of the week audition months ahead of time even after being employed for years and they wear these cumbersome costumes regardless of the weather there's also a chance the nervous guests are going to punch on you urinate on you is it a job worth all that effort it certainly seems like it though scare actors love what they do and they have loads of funny stories from haunted houses to share at boring dinner parties from an actor's account in USA today I decided to become a murderous flirty demon a name I will continue to call myself these after this job I approach men who are walking arm and arm with their dates and hold intense eye contact then I strut alongside them tussle my hair and put my hand on my hip finally out of nowhere I threaten their girlfriends with a hatchet once I master that I widened my scare demo I stalk stare some flirt back others scream a few say hey girl many laugh for Redditor never enough muffits we had a guy who would chase after you with a chainsaw chain removed after you left the house you know just run after you a few steps when you came out the door well one time these two girls came out and I swear one of the girls just had like an extreme panic response and I guess her body chose fight over flight she literally chased the guy down while he was yelling I'm just kidding it's just a joke and she kicked him in the groin so hard he vomited she apologized and said she just freaked out from Redditor fatal B we had a haunted outdoor maze section I chased people dressed as a hillbilly werewolf with a real chainsaw replaced the bar and chain with the fake one the smell of real chainsaw exhaust would hang in the air and only added to the effectiveness of the scare I liked to hide near the exit in hidden walls I'd start the chainsaw only five feet away from my prey one night I was carrying a particular group of teenagers particularly well the girls were borderline in tears and the guys were trying to push them in front but would run away full speed anytime I started the saw they only finally made it to the exit when a group led by a ten year old passed them and the youngest made fun of them the kid barely flinched when I ran at him with the saw and when I got close he just stopped and looked at me and said werewolf then why would you need a chainsaw proceeds right past me out the exit from an actor's account in the Los Angeles magazine some guests are runners some will cower in the corner that's the worst thing you can do that means we're all going to surround you until you get on the floor and curl up in a ball then all six of us would hold hands and dance around them until we saw a puddle on the floor we get a high five from the supervisor if somebody peed their pants from Redditor Eddie Minyan one year I'm doing the autopsy room body parts everywhere, the basket of intestines dangling from the ceiling blood everywhere, you know, the normal stuff one night early on I missed dinner so I raided the candy bowl and grabbed a bunch of those fun sized snickers and hit them in the gut basket group comes in faster than I expected just in time to see me taking the candy bar out of the basket and pop it in my mouth a woman screams, oh my gosh she's eating poop she swears she saw me squeeze a big old lump of human feces out of one of those intestines which can't be true, they were made out of expanding insulation, foam and painted they were all solid after that I started working that into my routine made more than one person vomit that year from Redditor Spooky Throwaway we are emphatically told to scare everyone a lot of scare actors don't like to scare young children which is understandable, but I do children shouldn't be there in the first place the parents usually force them to go not my fault, your kid is going to have nightmares from Redditor again from the same Redditor Eddie Minyan little old lady had to be 80, dragging her two 60 year old sons by their hands into the haunt telling them in the sweetest little old grandma voice you can imagine now now boys, don't be scared she gets into the last room which was dressed as a movie theater where the entire screen would break open as a giant monster jumped out she sat front row center my friend literally got his phone out and dialed 911 and was waiting to hit send monster jumps out two inches from her nose she shrieks and then just collapses we all rush in she turns and looks at us and starts laughing another Redditor said I was dressed as death big antique scythe and everything this little boy like maybe 6 to 7 years old got it in his head that I wanted to personally off him he's crying like a baby I get yelled at to take my mask off so I take my mask off everybody turns around to look at him going see he's not going to get you I on the other hand am furrowing my brow nodding my head and mouthing I'm going to end you he starts shrieking he's still going to get me and from Redditor Brendan 685 I volunteered at one for a few years in high school the best thing that happened was that I saw a girl from grade school going through the room she obviously couldn't recognize me so as she passed I whispered her name she got a huge fright and the next day she asked on Facebook who was working in the haunted house I never told her who it was sorry Jenna they say you are what you eat and if that's true I'm soon going to be looking like pumpkin head from that horror movie because I just received my limited release box of pumpkin cookie chunk from Bilt Bar this is a seasonal flavor so I have to stock up on it when it comes out Bilt bars are not candy bars they're protein bars the pumpkin cookie chunk bar has 19 grams of protein plus it's low sugar low carbs and low calories I would never know it's a protein bar if you just taste it Bilt bars have become my go-to guilt-free solution for dessert, late afternoon or even late night snacks and often I just grab a Bilt Bar as a full meal because they're pretty filling you know how everything pumpkin is going to disappear soon though so grab your pumpkin cookie chunk Bilt Bar while you can before they sell out visit WeirdDarkness.com and look in the limited release section for pumpkin cookie chunk visit WeirdDarkness.com and use the promo code WeirdDarkness all one word to get 10% off your entire purchase ever had that eerie feeling of being watched? there's no one there at least nobody you can see anyway but still, you can feel those ghostly eyes upon you the watchers in the shadows waiting for their moment to scare you, haunt you or something even worse that is the theme these selected creepy true stories of the paranormal designed to have you wondering if you too are being watched from the shadows this all new collection includes stories about the hat man, black-eyed kids shadow people, poltergeists UFOs, the premonitions of a dying man forest demons and much more all absolutely true all chosen by the master of the paranormal himself G. Michael Vasey watched from the shadows scary true stories of the paranormal available now on the audiobooks page at WeirdDarkness.com that's WeirdDarkness.com slash audiobooks let's take a look at some of the comments that have come in we only have a few and Kimberley says Darren, thank you for the live stream you are greatly appreciated well you're very welcome Kimberley I had a lot of fun and looks like everybody had for me so we'll get out of that and I did have time to choose a winner for our caption contest our caption let me bring that up again so you can all see it here's the picture that we were captioning and I looked through all of them during that break I think my favorite one is probably from Mark Jenkins he says you will be known as Gordy O. Lantern the lesser known brother of Frosty he's our winner thank you very much Mark I appreciate that and I'll be sending you your prize pack with 3 t-shirts and 2 mugs thank you so much for getting involved I really appreciate that and well that's it folks I'm going to go ahead and call it a night I'm getting really really tired and my voice is going so thanks for watching keep watching though through the end because I am going to play my song Werewolf Girlfriend before the stream ends you guys liked that last year so I'll do it again this year and this is my last opportunity to ask you for help in raising funds to combat depression and suicide our current Lee now at $5,585 we had another $25 coming in thank you very much for that gift if you're not already done so please visit the Hope in the Darkness page if you're darkness you can make a donation there any amount to help the cause and also learn more about the organizations that are going to benefit from you so please skip visit WeirdDarkness.com click the donate button or just visit WeirdDarkness.com slash Hope and if you like the show please share it with somebody you know who loves the paranormal or strange stories true crime monsters or unsolved mysteries like you do I might do this live stream once a year but I upload episodes of the Weird Darkness podcast 7 days a week so you can email me anytime with your questions or comments at Darren at WeirdDarkness.com you can see the email address right there on your screen WeirdDarkness.com is also where you can find all of my social media you can listen to audio books that I've narrated you can shop the Weird Darkness store sign up for contests find other podcasts that I host including Church of the Undead and more that's WeirdDarkness.com all stories that I use tonight are purported to be true unless dated otherwise links to all of those stories in the show notes which you can find right now at WeirdDarkness.com slash Mark Weird Darkness is a production and trademark of Marlar House Productions copyright, Weird Darkness and now that we're coming out of the dark I'll leave you with a little light Psalm 23 verse 4 even though I walk through the valley at the shadow of death I will fear no evil for you are with me and the final thought from Shane and Maguire the problem with people who say monsters don't really exist is that they're almost never saying it to the monsters I'm Darren Marlar thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness I met her in the park on a moonlit night I met her in the park on a moonlit night I met her in the park on a moonlit night without a single word without a single word I knew our love was right I felt her heart breath get near when she nibbled on my ear that I saw her face come into the light she's my werewolf girlfriend it was love at first bite she's my werewolf girlfriend she's only dangerous at night she's still a fox to me even though she has like cathropy my werewolf girlfriend and me every month she has her womanly change but instead of getting grumpy she suffers from the mange I don't need to buy her furs the best in the world is already hers her manicures are out of my price range she's my werewolf girlfriend it was love at first bite my werewolf girlfriend she's only dangerous at night she's still a fox to me even though she has like cathropy girlfriend we're dangerous when we fight it's really strange when we kiss good night she's always in the best place to be the leader of my party more hectic to silver so I buy her gold I know she's healthy when her nose is cold I know our love will never fail when she starts to wag her tail she's my werewolf girlfriend it was love at first bite and she's only dangerous at night she's still a fox to me even though she has like cathropy girlfriend


The insights are something that we check every day almost sometimes more because you need to keep checking what is working, what is not working And believe me, most of the common perceptions are trash when you actually see the data Because opinions and data are totally different things and sadly people think more about opinions For a long long time we thought the kind of people who follow us are only people who are interested in food But then we realized that we have sold cars, we have sold airlines, we have sold other things Which is actually also people who are actually one thing What happens is the people and I have not defined it yet because I don't know But you know people who are youngsters are not the people who really spend lots of money I mean they comment a lot, they share a lot, they say a lot But they are actually the people who spend the money, they are the silent people They come, they watch, they go and spend their money You will know Having said that, what I am trying to say is all depends on what kind of content you are creating And what kind of audience you are creating If you are saying everybody is my audience then you are the bigger school on the earth You have to be very specific that this is the kind of age group that I want to target This is the kind of income parameter that I want to target This is the kind of city, state, country that I want to target 60%, 40% if you are done, you are successful 60% if you are done, you are successful