Good morning people of the internet. Hi, it's been a while since I have vlogged, so sorry about that. But yeah, today is, what day is it? It's Wednesday, that's what day it is, and I'm having kind of a weird day today. If you can tell, my hair is still wet. My hair is not thick but takes forever to dry. Anyway, I worked for a little while and now I am leaving. I am headed off to my parents place and Jody actually from Life's Organized Chaos, I will link her channel below. You guys should follow her. She has all the good things and she is coming over to my parents place because she is picking up a bed. So, I believe that she has the week off, like she's on vacation or whatever. She ain't going anywhere but she's on vacation. So anyway, yeah, so she's coming over to my parents place but we're social distancing so I'm not going to be there. But she'll be there in about 40, 30, 40 minutes. So I'm going to head over there, unlock, make sure everything is good and then I believe her husband is coming with her to help her load in the bed and stuff like that. So anyways, that's what's going on here. I'm going to take you guys with me and I will show you the bed. You guys will probably recognize the bed because I had the same bed, not that exact bed, but the same bed from Ikea years ago and it actually was here before this sofa was here. So anyways, but yeah, my parents ended up wanting to get a bed for themselves. It's like a pull out like daybed and worked for a few years for my parents but since they have lots of really long people staying there, it's not really working anymore and I'll show you why. So let me take you guys with me and I'll show you what's up and then yeah, we'll be good. And Doyle says hello. So I will see you guys in just a second. Okay, so I'm at my parents place. Here is the bed in question. So this bed, you know, the problem is like I'm 5'6".  Like my brother is what like 6'1 or 6'2 or something. He can't really sleep in this bed unfortunately. So yeah, but I mean, it worked for quite a while and Jodi is going to use it and I think she's going to be using it for her stepdaughter. I think? I don't really remember. But anyway, they have a plan for it. That's all that matters. It's a really cool bed. It pulls out into a full and it's got a bunch of storage underneath. But yeah, so I'm going to move some stuff around and get you know, this place ready for them to move stuff out. And yeah, I'll just see you guys in a little bit. America's done here. Stripped the bed of all the things, moved some of the things I could. So there was like a little end table over here and there was a chair. I just moved out of the way to make it hopefully easier for them to move things. So yeah, so we should be good. I looked for the instructions and unfortunately couldn't find them. But they are downloadable on Ikea.com. So I just texted that to Jodi. I swear my mom kept the instructions but I don't know. I don't know guys. So anyway, I'm going to leave the light on. They're going to be here soon. So I knew that's that. I'm going to go but I need to make sure that they take these slats with them too. I don't know where they are. Okay, hold on. I need to go to the shed. I will be back. I'm back home and now it's time to go back to work. Yay.  Not me. Oh, that dog I swear. So had to clean that up before I started vlogging again but oh my gosh.  Every day. Well, there's my screens and it's time to go back to work. Bye. Okay, so I wanted to take just a little break from working and let you guys know. So I live in Minnesota and our stay-at-home order is through what day? Hold on, I'm looking. The 18th, which is this upcoming Monday. So typically what our governor does is the Wednesday before the stay-at-home order is supposed to be. He'll make some sort of announcement if there's modifications or like what's going on. So looks like he is going on a live broadcast tonight at 6 p.m. Normally he's been doing it at like 2 or 3 in the afternoon but now I guess it's at 6 p.m. So I'll keep you guys posted. This news outlet is saying that they expect him to extend the peacetime emergency and announce modifications for the stay-at-home order. So who knows? But I'll keep you guys posted. I will be at my home office here until that ban is lifted.  So and we're not all going back at the same time.  So like our HR and corporate is trying to kind of figure that out right now. But we can't do anything until that is lifted. So anyways, sometime this summer maybe? I have no idea. I don't know what's happening guys. I know every state's different but I hope everyone is staying safe. I just wanted to let you guys know because I just saw it on the internet. So anyways, I gotta change my battery here. So I will continue vlogging after I'm done working. See you in a little bit. Bye! Hey! So I am still sitting in the office. I just clocked out of work and I clocked out a little bit early because I was done with a few projects and my job has been really slow like just today. So nothing else was like sitting in my email that night needed to be dealt with. So I was like, you know what? I think I'm gonna have an early day. So that is what I'm gonna do. Since I'm having an early day out, I still have my containers from lunch. So I had leftovers.  You know what I mean? So whatever.  They got the bed okay. They said they had a little problem because one of the screws was stripped unfortunately. So they couldn't get that out but they made it work. So I was like, okay, perfect. So yeah, it sounds like they have it all set up at their house. So they're having fun playing with that and showing other people how the bed works where you can actually like pull it out into a larger bed. So it's just like minds are being blown all over the place. But it's raining out now. So glad Jody decided to come early. So yeah. And then yeah, I don't know. I just, you know, like I don't know how to vlog you guys. I don't know how to vlog. But anyway, I'm gonna take you guys with me.  Oh, but I wanted to say so the whole way like I can take two separate. Well, yeah, I can take two separate ways to get to my parents place because they live very, very close to me. They're not here right now to answer any questions. They're still in Florida. I think I might have said that earlier, but it's been a long time. And I'm getting old guys. I'm getting old. So the whole way there was construction. Like the road apparently, well, I don't get out much, you know, like because of all the things that are happening out in the world. So I like got out and I'm like, what is going on? The road is like legitimately ripped up like dirt road. And I don't live in an area that has dirt roads. So I'm like, what the heck? So it was the whole way there. There was like cones everywhere and all that. I'm like, okay. So on the way home, I took a different path. There was still a little bit of road construction, but not horrible. So, yeah. So now I know, don't go that way. Go that way or depending on where I am in the house. I don't even know. Yes, I'm going to run over there and check everything out. Make sure everything is okay. Make sure they grabbed everything. I'm sure that they did. There were some additional parts that I found for them. So just want to make sure they got those. I'm sure they did. Yeah, so Doyle is down there doing his Doyle things.  Maybe, I don't know. Maybe I need to edit. I don't know. Just unmotivated, but such is life right now. You know what I mean? Okay, so let's go over there and I'll show you around. Bye. I'm at my parents place. Let's check this out. There's no more bed. No more bed. That is what we want to see. Okay, so perfect. I'm going to put the other things back in here. So let's do that. I put them in my parents room. There is a chair and an end table that need to go back in there. So that is what we're going to do. So let's do that. Okay, so it is good to go. I need to text my mom. Just let her know, hey, this is done. So let's do that. Take a picture and we leave. I also moved the dining table in the corner. So it'd be easier for them to like get out. So I got to move this too. Hold on. All right. Dining table is back. That's it. It's all I got to do here. I'm going to leave one light on since they're not here. But, you know, just want to leave some sort of light on the situation. I'm fine. To leave the exterior lights on because first of all, you know, that it seems like somebody's home when they're not.  It is so, so dark. Interesting story. Last year, I think it was last year, my mom actually fell and took a pretty hard tumble on the stairs because the lights were not on. So it was like, oh, no. Poor favorite mama. So yeah, you definitely need to see out here because there's not really, I mean, there's a couple of street lights, but there's nothing like really close to like where their place is. I'm going to go home, maybe edit for a little while, something like that. And then, um, yeah, at six o'clock, the big conference, big TV chabil. So anyway. All right, I'm going to go. I will see you guys later. Bye. I am back from parents place. Took Joel on a quick little pee pee walk. It's time for his treat. Oh, wow, he's so gentle. Such a gentle boy. But yeah, I think I'm going to edit for a little bit. I did post a video today. I'll link it if I can remember. I finally got my Aaron Condren launch day haul, which was awesome. So I got that. So that's what I posted today. And then, um, I have already filmed, but I need to edit my, um, it's an Aaron Condren teacher lesson planner. So that'll probably be up Friday, maybe? I don't know. So that'll happen. So I need to do that. And Doyle is doing weird stuff. Anyways, we're going to go to the bathroom together. Not like that, but you know what I mean. I need to put my hair up. I don't know about you guys, but having my hair down for just even a little bit of the day drives me a little wild some days. Anyway, I just think I just operate better with my hair up or my hair shorter, which my hair is very long right now. So time to get it done at some point, but, uh, can't do that right now because all the salons are not available. We're not able to open up. Once my salon is able to open up, then I'll make an appointment. Ta-da. So I'll see my hair done in February, I think. And, uh, because I wasn't feeling great, I canceled my appointment and I never rescheduled because I was like, I'll figure it out. And then all this stuff started happening. And usually my ladies booked out like months in advance. So I'm sure it's going to be a long wait, but that's okay. I don't mind having long hair. But again, just throw it on up. Okay. So I am going to go and do some editing and then I will just chat with you guys in probably a few hours. See you then. Bye. Look at that gaze. Smoky. Well, hey, um, Doyle is, uh, sitting on the soft sofa on the soft blanket with his soft body. It's just a plethora of softness over there. Um, so yeah, I did a little bit of editing. I talked to my mom for a little while. So, uh, update. I watched, this is going to be a really long vlog, I feel like. Um, I watched the governor thing on the television and the things that affect me are there is no more stay at home order. However, the governor is encouraging everyone that can stay home and can work from home to continue doing so. I think that's really smart and I don't know what's going to be happening with my office, but I know that they're definitely going in waves of people to go back into the office and they're taking people that want to go in first when those dates are actually, when the dates, what am I trying to say? When that actually happens, we don't know yet. So that could be a month and a, you know, a month out. I have no idea. But, um, I am not going to be the first to raise my hand. I will guarantee that. I do miss my coworkers. I love them. They are amazing people. Um, but I still feel very connected to them. We do online hangouts, happy hours. Um, you know, virtual meetings. We do meetings on the phone or video meetings and stuff too. We all text each other. So, um, you know, we all have access to our emails and phones. So I still feel connected to them and I feel like for me personally with what I do for the team that I am still feeling connected. So I don't feel that push to go back into the office. It's just not on a like high priority for me. Um, so what our governor said today and, um, he said gatherings of 10 or less people are okay. But obviously to practice, you know, washing hands, distancing as much as possible, but 10 or less is okay. And then retail, some retail locations are able to open up, I guess on the 18th or 19th sometime next week. Um, I don't have the actual dates. Sorry. Um, but they're only able to have like a 50% capacity of people in their stores at any given time. So they clearly need time to prepare and sanitize and get some precautions in place and get a process in place and probably have somebody at the front door, you know, doing a one in one out when they're at capacity, I would assume. But, um, you know, the national chains are still open and have been open this entire time.  Um, so like retail places like clothing shops, furniture stores, things like that is, um, I think what he's talking about. I don't know. I mean, I'm clearly not a politician, nor do I work for the government. Um, but yeah, still unfortunately no salons or barbers or anything like that. Um, and then also restaurants are able to open. Um, but at, I think still a 50% capacity if I remember, right? I don't know. I watched it a couple of hours ago and my mind is a little old. So anyways, but um, yeah, again, I'm not going to be the first one to go to a restaurant. Um, I just don't feel super comfortable at this point and I think that everybody needs to, uh, respect people where they are and you know, if people want to have gatherings of 10 and give hugs and kisses and all that, that's fine. But that's just like not for me right now. So I want to stay healthy and make sure that I am keeping myself comfortable in my body and also my mind. It's like two separate things, but they all connect. You know what I mean? So anyway, that is that. And, um, yeah, I'm making some dinner, making some macaroni and cheese because I don't, I don't know what else to eat guys. Um, I had some chicken rice for lunch. Thank you guys. Oh, you didn't see it, but you saw empty containers. So I had that for lunch and I'm like, hmm, it's almost eight o'clock. I should probably have some dinner. So it's time for mac and cheese because that's what I have. I think I'm going to call it quits here because I have been waiting on for like 10 minutes now and hopefully I can trim this baby down a little bit. But I feel like this is going to be really like a really long vloggy vlog because I haven't vlogged like over a week. So I feel like I had a lot to say. Anyway, um, there is the doober. Being weird. What are you doing bud? What are you doing? Huh? Nothing? Anyway, but yeah, Doyle and I are going to go. Thank you guys so much for hanging out and watching. Um, so yeah, but I will be back with another video soonish. Um, I will have that other video up on Friday, I think. I think I'm scheduling it for Friday. It's currently uploading right now. So fingers crossed Friday. I will probably get this video up in the meantime, but um, I'll be back with another vlog soonish someday. I don't know. Maybe tomorrow, maybe in a week. I don't know, but I just like sharing with you guys. So anyways, um, I'm going to go. Thanks for hanging out. Feel free to give a thumbs up, subscribe. Follow me on the Instagram down below if you want more daily updates and I'm going to see you guys tomorrow or any other time. Bye.


In Las Vegas, Nevada, this is theCUBE, SiliconANGLE, and Wikibon's flagship program. We go out to the immense instructor soon from the noise. Go to SiliconANGLE.com, that's the reference point for tech innovation, you'll see all the stories in tech, from Apple, to Android, to HP, to IBM, to NetApp, to all the enterprise customers, Amazon. We cover the cloud mobile and social, first blog to do that since 2009, the only blog doing it until the night, and the first one to cover that. I'm John Furrier, the founder of joint Jeff Frick, and our next guest is Bruce Trev-Arthin. Trev-Arthin got it, managing director of the cloud.net.nz. The cloud.net.nz, your company. Welcome to theCUBE. Thanks very much for having me. So this is theCUBE, so this is where we get all, kind of we talk tech. So let's talk about cloud infrastructure as a service and HP, so first introduce your company and then get into specifics. Sure, so the cloud as an infrastructure as a service provider, built in New Zealand, for New Zealand companies. So any service we take to market has a very in-country flavor to it. Naturally you can buy cloud services globally now. So the key for us was around automation and in-country nature of those services. And we developed that in 2008, early 2008. We've been evolving it ever since. And it's going really well. It's certainly growing at a rate quicker than we anticipated. And the technology platform eases the pain of that rate of growth. So just take us through what's changed since 2008 to now in terms of good stuff like automation, because configuration management and cloud has evolved, right? Little things. So what are the things that you can point to and say since 08 to here, were big improvements in game changing? Some of the big game changes, well, first and foremost, at the cornerstone of the environments, and we have three discrete production environments and in the three major cities of the North Island. And the cornerstone of each of those environments is the storage array, the storage network. And initially that was on a fairly monolithic technology that scaled okay, but didn't really provide us with any flexibility or any differentiation when it comes to actually taking that storage to market as a product. So the HP three-past all-serve product slotted in there pretty well like a glove and gave us not only that tier one resilience in terms of the architecture there, but also with the different tiers of storage. And the way you can carve them up and deliver them out as a very specific level of service, that meant that from this one storage technology, we could actually deliver all of our storage requirements under this one management, one technology umbrella. So it certainly reduced our overhead and gave us the ability to then scale without having to maintain and manage all of these disparate sort of technologies. So when you talk about the cloud, we hear a lot from HP about bursting. What does that mean for folks out there that are trying to figure that out? Because, you know, as customers, they want to have some SLA user experiences that they're consistent. I mean, Amazon has great elastic cloud and great resources, good stack. I mean, we use a lot for our stuff, but could be lumpy. So what have you found from customers in dealing with HP in particular with this bursting? So bursting's pretty new for us. We're currently working with HP on that. The beauty of that, again, it does come back to the three power and some of the converged technologies, converged convergence of the technologies up in the compute stack as well.  So we had to build our own orchestration and building engines because it wasn't any kind of cloud system matrix back then. Thankfully, now there is. And that's certainly- It's hard stuff at a rate. It's hard stuff at a rate. You know, we had to develop that. We had to keep evolving it and there's a finite limit. And I'll say so myself to how far we can push that before you have to adopt something like an enterprise out of the box product. But so we're working with HP through that now and regarding bursting, I'm a little more comfortable with that concept commercially from the point of view that HP run the same stack as us anyway. So if we burst to HP, it's on three power. It's on Gen 8 servers. It's on that same physical infrastructure and therefore performance. And the constraints or the caveats around that performance to make sure that the multi-tenancy aspect of delivering cloud is not to the detriment of any other multi-tenanted customers, that's going to be the same on HP's cloud. So quite comfortable with that versatility. So Bruce, talk a little bit about again, 2008's a while ago. So you were kind of at the beginning of this show how the customer app selection and process for putting stuff at your facility has changed over that time. And what does it look like going forward? So we, and again, it's a New Zealand-centric approach to this, but we are a nation of early adopters. So ultimately, in 2008, we saw the need to commoditize the tin that was on-premise. And so what customers were doing, it's a customer understood 2CPU and they understood 4G RAM and they understood a terabyte of disk. So if they were going to go along to a website and buy medium, what does that mean? And then they have to architect their solution to adhere to the constraints of medium. What does that mean? So we felt that, certainly back then, and I'll come to why it's changing, but we felt back then that customers needed to consume what they understood. And so we had to sell TPU, RAM, and disk. And then we can add some resilience and some other enterprise elements around the outside. But so we've shift forward five years to now. And now what we're seeing is less concern about TPU, less concern about the RAM, less concern about the amount of disk. And basically, here's my workload, make it go. By the way, make it go in these two locations and keep that one up to date so that if this one fails, I can turn it on. And that's really the shift. I think a lot of... So how are they measuring that now if they're not measuring it by the metrics that you kind of started out with? So, and this is the whole industry in itself, right? You've got companies like New Relic who actually, their entire model is around being able to measure the entire experience from the database interaction through the stack out to the end user. And you can measure that right down to per user now. So that's the measurement.  That's just no longer really a concern for the actual customer deploying their workload. But I think the main reason for that shift is that software doesn't last forever. And it has to evolve and often it gets rewritten from scratch. And more and more now when software gets rewritten from scratch, it's written in a cloud way. So they're writing it to actually make use of things like Amazon Beanstalk or a computing environment that will scale but not necessarily in a traditional sense. Interesting. So what do you see as the biggest challenge Amazon has in the enterprise? Because a lot of people are using Amazon for shadow IT. I mean, we're at HP show, but I'm just going to say it.  We think they're doing awesome. They have great commoditization of infrastructure as a service. They pump out new stuff all the time. RDS, Elastic Beanstalk is fantastic, tight, fast. But not SLA oriented. They're just moving so fast. What do you see? Very innovative though, right?  One, they're commoditizing a market called infrastructure. And on top of commoditization, they're innovating. You don't see that very often in our business. So it's exciting to watch. The question is, is that, you know, where are they going with that? Enterprise is a different ball game. OpenStack has got a lot of traction because it's just flexible. It's like a warm blanket for an enterprise. What's your take on the charging Amazon and the warm cuddle of OpenStack for the enterprise? You know, Amazon have inertia as well. You know, there's a, I wouldn't call them a juggernaut, but there's no stopping them. So recently, obviously Amazon are now in Australia. So that makes them an Australasian player, which affects New Zealand. But so when we take our products and services to the market, there's a big in-country message there. And so Amazon ultimately, I wouldn't want them to go away. They're innovating, which gives us ideas. They're also driving the price down and commoditizing it to the end of the degree, which means that we have to come up with new innovative ways ourselves to achieve the same capability in-country at a different scale. And when it comes to enterprise and SLAs, look, I think, again, tool for the job tends to be the approach. And Amazon absolutely fits certain workloads. And we have customers who would quite happily put archival data on Amazon because for a cent a gig, why wouldn't you? And then we have customers who actually need that data on the end of a 10 gig fiberlink, but they're not gonna get a 10 gig to Amazon for anything, any kind of cost effective price from New Zealand. So tool for the job. And I think Amazon, they belong in the toolbox. There's a place for that. Jeff, what's your take on Amazon? Given your opening stack of co-hosting at theCUBE. Yeah, and also at AWS Summit, I think this relentless innovation and relentless drive on pricing and relentless delivery value has been very powerful. And it's like my whole carrot stick thing. Had they not done that, had Amazon not delivered those services and the adoption of what it is, I don't know that we would be where we are today in terms of the speed of adoption of the cloud. So clearly they're driving out front. I'm curious to talk a lot of it about globalization. And I know moving data is hard and moving data across large geographies, right? It's real time. It takes real time even at the speed of light. It takes time to move data. So talk a little bit about kind of your focus on going very local and what's kind of the impact of the globalization that you see and we have to have these data centers all over the place. I mean, we're going to have the data distributed all over the place. And that's the same in country. We have Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington. We don't just have one, we have three. Not only because we need the resilience of being able to fail over between them, but also because a customer with an office in Wellington and a branch in Auckland say they wouldn't necessarily want to have their workload where they have the most people, for example. So there's no point posting in Auckland if all of your people are in Wellington because if you lose that connection to Auckland, it's as good as losing the connection to the internet totally. So regionalization of latency sensitive or high volume data services is important because international bandwidth is expensive and certainly from New Zealand it's expensive to the point that it's simply not freely available right down at the end user level. It's cost prohibitive. And so regionalization plays a role and I think you can scale that up to the world. So then you have to have your actual platforms regionalized and I think we're seeing that with a zero now in Australia as well, Amazon in Australia. Whereas previously they were just in, for example, Microsoft Azure was in Singapore and Hong Kong. And so for them to push into an Australasian market seemed a little niche, but ultimately they're not getting the market penetration by being only in four sites in the world because people actually want their workload closer to the high-speed networks. Yeah. Bruce, thanks for coming inside theCUBE. We got our next guest coming up. This is congratulations down under in New Zealand taking care of the cloud business down there and being an owner of your own business. Good luck and has been a good ride. Thank you. It's great fun. Keep doing it while it's fun.  So that's what I always say, don't go out of business. That's true, that's true. Thanks for having me. As we say to all the startups in Silicon Valley, you can't go out of business if you have money in the bank. That's right. So, hope this is good. Thanks for coming out of theCUBE. Share your perspective. This is Silicon Angles theCUBE. We'll be right back after this short break with more action. Day one of HB Discover, three days. Wall-to-wall coverage with a Mexican out coming up at four o'clock. Stay tuned. We'll be right back at this short break.


Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and is intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised. From the outside, Chris Watts looked like he had it made. He had two beautiful daughters – Bella, aged four, and little Celeste, three. His wife Shannon was 15 weeks pregnant with a much-wanted baby boy. He had a successful job for a gas and oil company, and from the outside, the family had an idealistic life. But inside, the family was crumbling. The couple had extensive financial problems. Medical bills had stacked up as Shannon had a severe case of lupus. They had previously filed for bankruptcy and their credit card bills were out of control. Shannon had a job working in a call center and her own small business in a multi-level marketing position was taking off, which was taking her away from the family home on the odd weekend for meetings and training. Watts had supported his wife throughout her illness, and the couple were shocked when she first became pregnant, as they had been told it would be nearly impossible for her to conceive due to her lupus. A second precious daughter came along soon afterwards. But Chris Watts was tired of family life. He yearned to be a bachelor. He wanted a life free from the constraints of raising children and being financially responsible. Watts had started an affair with a co-worker. He had told his mistress he was seeking a divorce from Shannon. Shannon had noticed her husband's suspicious behavior and had confronted him repeatedly after noticing restaurant and hotel charges on the credit card. On 13 August 2019, Shannon was returning home from a business trip in Arizona. She had her best friend Nicole pick her up from the airport and drop her home. Nicole knew of their marital troubles and had told Nicole that Chris didn't want another baby and that he felt that they were no longer compatible as a couple. Shannon had also told her friend that she didn't feel safe with Chris after what he said about the baby. It was the last time she was seen alive. Later the same day, Nicole became concerned when Shannon failed to attend a prenatal appointment and wasn't returning her text messages or calls. She reported it to the police. The police undertook a welfare check on the family. The house was searched by police where they found Shannon's handbag, mobile phone and car keys. Both the girl's car seats were also inside the home. The police started their investigation. The Watts' neighbor had a surveillance camera that proved that Shannon had not left the house but showed Chris Watt loaded suspicious looking packages into the back of his vehicle. But Watts was unconcerned about his family's whereabouts. He had unenrolled the girls from their preschool and had set up appointments to sell the family home. He was also seeking deals for a holiday in Aspen. The police arrested Watts on suspicion of murder. He subsequently confessed that Shannon had strangled the two girls and he had killed his wife in a fit of rage. Police located the bodies of Shannon and their two daughters in oil tanks at his place of employment. Chris Watts eventually pleaded to the murder of all three of his family members and his unborn son, Nico. He has been sentenced to life without parole. Chris Watts is just one of numerous examples of what we have come to classify as family annihilators. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Welcome Weirdos, this is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained. If you're new here, welcome to the podcast and be sure to subscribe so you don't miss future episodes. If you're already a Weirdo, please share the podcast with others. Doing so helps make it possible for me to keep creating episodes as often as I do. Coming up in this episode When you become a celebrity, you expect certain individuals to go past being fans and in two being fanatics, even stalkers. It's always been that way. Not even Clark Gable was spared and one woman named Violet made his life a living nightmare. Between the years 1925 and 1927, a young teenage girl named Elinora Zagun from Romania became the most closely observed, investigated and tested poltergeist victim of the 20th century. Her story is terrifying. There is a rumor that Jacques Cousteau dove to the bottom of Lake Tahoe and filmed a creature but did not release the film, saying that the world was not ready yet for what was down there. What is at the bottom of Lake Tahoe? But first, there is a type of mass murder that draws true crime connoisseurs like no other. Familicide, most often called family annihilation. It is a crime that has invoked horror and fascination in equal measure. We begin there.  Familicide is defined as one family member who murders other members of their family, commonly taking the lives of all of the members. It is most often used to describe cases where a parent, usually the father, kills his wife and children and then himself. These cases are horrifying acts which can wipe out an entire family, leaving relatives, friends and colleagues stunned and confused. Often no outward signs are visible to suggest anyone was in danger or that there was a risk of an individual taking such horrific actions. It is a crime that has invoked horror and fascination in equal measures. For those with an interest in why such horrific crimes take place and how an individual can murder their own family, such cases are explored in detail. Familicide is commonly intertwined with the term family annihilator stemming from the act itself, that of family annihilation. Most researchers agree that this act is a form of mass murder due to the multiple victims involved. Chillingly, in the United Kingdom, statistics suggest that a child is more likely to be killed by a parent than by a stranger and in most cases the killer takes his own life after the act. There is no court case, no opportunity to find out why and whether or not this was planned murder or an act which was spontaneous due to thoughts of that very moment. Those left behind can only speculate on what may have caused someone they loved to kill their family and most often take the lives of innocent children. Criminologists have been conducting increasing research into the phenomenon of familicide and in the process have produced many terms and definitions to describe such acts and distinguish them from each other. Familicide, the family annihilator, murder suicides and family murders are all terms which have been used to describe cases where a family member has killed other family members. The very definitions of the term familicide can make a comparison of studies and cases challenging. Familicide sits among a number of types of family murder, all the term which means the act of killing in Latin, often adding to the confusion over terminology. Parasite, the killing of one's parents. Matricide, the killing of one's mother specifically. Patricide, the killing of one's father specifically. Siblicide, the killing of one's sibling that is one's brother or sister. Fratricide, the killing of one's brother specifically. Sororicide, the killing of one's sister specifically. Filicide, the killing of one's child. Exorcide, the killing of one's wife. Meridicide, the killing of one's husband. A research study published in the Howard Journal of Criminal Justice in 2013 by Elizabeth Yardley, David Wilson and Adam Lins has been particularly influential in this field. They analyzed newspaper articles over three decades from 1980 to 2012 where cases of familicide were reported. They found a total of 71 cases where 59 of the perpetrators were male and over half were between the ages of 30 and 40 years old when they committed the crime. Yardley Wilson and Lins reported that 57% of cases they studied occurred inside the family home, compared to 17% in an isolated country spot, no doubt pre-selected by the offender. In 32% of cases, the method of killing was stabbing, followed by 15% of cases involving carbon monoxide poison from a car exhaust. Most offenders were employed and aged between 30 and 39 years old at the time of the murders. In 68% of cases, the male annihilator committed suicide after the murders. Professor David Wilson has stated that family annihilators have received little attention as a separate category of killer and they are often treated like spree or serial murderers, a view which presupposes traits such as the idea that the murderer snaps or that after killing their partner or children the killer may force a standoff with the police, which is not an entirely accurate representation of these killers. In contrast to other groups, such as serial killers and mass murderers, these were found to be individuals with good backgrounds. They were not known to the police or the criminal justice system. They often had good jobs, families and friends around them.  As highlighted by Professor Jack Levin, Professor of Sociology and Criminology Emeritus at Northeastern University in Boston, the profile of a man who kills his family is a middle-aged man, a good provider who would appear to neighbors to be a dedicated husband and a devoted father. Researchers also identified four common areas which may be the causes of such family murders, a breakdown in the family relationship and issues surrounding access to children, money worries and financial hardship, cultural honor killings and mental illness. These findings echo the conclusions drawn from a 2009 study by Levillean colleagues who examined 16 cases of familicide in Quebec between 1986 and 2000. They found that social loss, economic reasons, mental illness and intimate partner loss were the most common likely causes of murder suicide within a family. Two more recent literature reviews carried out into familicide also provide some key points when focusing on the profile of a family annihilator. Psychologist Sharon Malau found offenders to be predominantly male and in a long-term relationship with possessive tendencies over his family in her literature review published in 2014 in the Journal of Family Violence. Employment issues, problems with substance misuse and a history of domestic violence also featured across the cases she studied. Divorce or separation was found to be a trigger point. In 2017, Anna-Lisa Ho, Ani Ramal and Aja Pavalanan from Tampere University in Finland examined the background factors that may be involved in familicide in western countries. They found familicide offenders were mostly highly educated men with psychological problems, depression, self-destructiveness and substance abuse issues. Past violent behavior and unsteady social relationships were also prevalent.  As long as there have been relationships that go bad, there have been these evil people whose sole purpose is to either wipe their whole family off the face of the earth or to punish the person who dared to leave them. Here are a few cases of familicide other than that of Chris Watts which we began this episode with. The case of Bruce Blackman, a 22-year-old man in British Columbia, is a tragic example of how mental illness can be involved in cases of familicide. In the weeks leading up to the killings, his roommate reportedly noticed strange behavior from Blackman where he claimed to be getting messages from the Bible and believed the world was going to end. Blackman drove to his parents' house on 18 January 1983. Once there, he shot both his parents and his younger brother with a .22 caliber rifle. He called his elder sisters, who no longer lived in the family home, and fatally shot them and his brother-in-law when they arrived. Bound walking near the crime scene, he was arrested and charged with murder. Bruce Blackman was found not guilty by reason of insanity and sent to a psychiatric unit for treatment. Released from the hospital in 1995, he now has a new identity. However, must forever live with the fact that he murdered his family in 1983. Researchers have focused on any link between borderline personality disorder and familicide and while some evidence was found that could conclude a causal link, in such a rare crime it is difficult to draw any solid conclusions as to the role of such mental disorders within this crime. The Case of Scott Peterson Lacey Peterson was eight months pregnant with a baby boy when she went missing just before Christmas. It was the 24th of December. Her husband, Scott Peterson, said he had left to go fishing at Berkeley Marina. He had told other people he had planned to play golf on Christmas Eve. Scott said that when he left home, Lacey was about to take the dog out for a walk.  There was no sign of Lacey. Scott Peterson returned home later in the day. There was no sign of Lacey even though her vehicle was in the driveway. At 5.15 pm, Scott called his mother in law and Lacey's stepfather who called the police. The police arrived to find the dining room table of the Peterson's house was fully set for Christmas. Lacey's purse, keys and sunglasses were on the bench. A huge scale search was undertaken looking for Lacey. Scott Peterson didn't seem worried and that worried the police. After a few weeks and still no sign of Lacey, a member of the public, Amber Frey, called the police. She couldn't understand why her boyfriend, Scott Peterson, was on the television and billboards looking for his wife. Peterson had told his mistress Amber that he was single. He also told her that he was over in Paris. All of this whilst Scott was attending a memorial service for his wife. Police at Amber taped multiple phone calls with Scott trying to get him to confess to the murder of his wife. Amber fully cooperated with police and recorded an astounding 27 hours of recordings whilst trying not to let him know the police were on to him. In April, the remains of a male fetus washed up ashore near where Scott Peterson had been fishing. The next day, the partial remains of a female washed up. No head, no arms or legs. DNA proved that the remains were that of Lacey Peterson and their unborn son, Connor. Peterson was arrested soon after as he had changed his appearance and police feared he would try and run. He had with him camping equipment, four mobile phones. He had grown a goatee beard and had dyed his hair blonde. He was charged with two counts of murder. Although no forensic evidence could be found for the murders, it was the overwhelming circumstantial evidence that put Scott Peterson behind bars. The fact he had a girlfriend who knew nothing of his wife, the fact he went fishing when she disappeared, and contents of the taped telephone calls. Peterson had also taken out a $250,000 life insurance policy on his wife. The prosecution for the case say the reason for the killings were that Scott and Lacey had increased debt, the pressure of a child, and Scott's desire to be single again. Then there's the infamous John List. John List was a father of three in 1971 in New Jersey who shot and killed his wife, all three children, and his mother before fleeing and building himself a new life. A 46-year-old accountant, John List struggled to maintain his employment and pay his mortgage and had been stealing money from his elderly mother. Police officers discovered the bodies of his family inside the family home on the 7th of December, 1971, along with a note that he'd written to his pastor, expressing his concern that there was too much evil in the world, and he had taken the lives of his family to save their souls. With his car found at Kennedy International Airport, it soon became clear Mr. List had fled, but despite extensive searches, he could not be found. In 1989, the TV program America's Most Wanted became involved in the case and presented a show featuring his story along with an image of how John List might have looked 18 years after he was last seen. John List was arrested 10 days later after being recognized by a neighbor as a man who lived next door with his wife going by the name of Robert Clark. Upon his arrest, he denied being John List until confronted with fingerprint matches. Convicted of murder, he was sentenced to five life sentences. In a television interview in 2002, John List claimed he did not take his own life as he wanted to be reunited with his family in heaven. He died in prison at the age of 82 in 2008. Then there's the case of Stephen Supell. Stephen Supell was a 42-year-old former bank vice president on bail for embezzlement charges to the tune of $560,000 from his own bank in Iowa City, Iowa. Admitting the fraud and resigning from his position, he was distraught and devastated by the shame of his actions. In March 2009, he murdered his wife and four children before leaving numerous voice mails for family members and ex-colleagues apologizing and expressing the shame he had brought upon his family that was too much to bear. He had beat his wife to death and led his children between the ages of three and ten years old to the garage where he tried unsuccessfully to kill them and himself with carbon monoxide poisoning. When that failed, it's thought that he beat the children to death in the same manner he had his wife. Stephen Supell called emergency services and told them to go to his house. He then drove his car into a concrete pillar on the interstate, killing himself when his van exploded into flames. Next is the case of John Hogan. John Hogan was a 32-year-old man from Bristol with a wife and two children. By all appearances, he was happy and successful in his professional and personal life. In August 2006, without any warning while on a family holiday in Crete, he threw his six-year-old son, Liam Hogan, off their fourth-floor apartment balcony, killing him instantly. He then jumped off the 50-foot-high balcony himself with his two-year-old daughter, Mia Logan, in his arms. Both he and little Mia survived the fall with broken bones. After the tragedy, it was revealed the couple were having marital troubles and had argued, signaling an end to the marriage just before John Hogan took the actions he did. John Hogan was accused of murder and attempted murder and spent three years in psychiatric hospitals and Greek jails after pleading temporary insanity. He was a broken man in dealing with the actions he took on that day. In 2008, he was acquitted of his son's murder in Greece and in 2009 he was released from psychiatric care to return to the UK. While one man tries to come to terms with the fact that he murdered his own son and tried to murder his daughter in the most horrific of ways, Natasha Visser, the children's mother and her family have been left angered by a not guilty verdict and the decision to allow him to return to the UK as a free man with no convictions. It is understood John Hogan entered inpatient psychiatric care upon his return and has agreed not to try and contact his daughter. The Crown Prosecution Service chose not to retry John Hogan for the murder in the UK. Mental health is often questioned in these cases with an assumption of a disordered mental state from the father who has made a decision to kill all members of his immediate family.  Another case is that of John Sharp. John Sharp and his wife Anna had been arguing. They were arguing a lot lately. Anna was pregnant with their second child, but John didn't seem to care about the pregnancy. He didn't attend the ultrasound and hardly even murmured a response when Anna told him the sex of the baby. John had struggled with the birth of their daughter Gracie a few years back. Gracie had hip dysplasia which meant that she had to be strapped into a corrective harness. This made Gracie irritable. She cried a lot. She had trouble eating and trouble sleeping to the point where Anna had to seek professional help.  He didn't want another child, so he took care of it. In 2003, John Sharp went down to the local fishing supply store and bought a spear gun. He spent hours in the backyard firing the gun, practicing, learning how it worked. He hadn't shown any interest in spear fishing before. On the 23rd of March 2004, the couple argued yet again before bed. John casually got up, retrieved the spear gun from the shed, and fired it into his wife's temple. But she didn't die, so John fired a second spear into Anna's head. This one had the desired effect. He covered Anna's body with towels and went to bed on the downstairs sofa bed. The next day, John took Gracie to daycare. When he got home, he tried to pull the spears from his wife's body but could only remove part of them. He then buried her in the backyard. He went back to the fishing supply store to purchase more spears. Six days after killing his wife, John put Gracie to bed and downed a few potent alcoholic drinks. He loaded the new spear and fired it into Gracie's skull. Gracie screamed. John went running to grab the two spears he had removed from his wife and fired both into Gracie. But she still lived, so he pulled one of the spears out of Gracie and again shot the spear into her head. He bundled her body into a garbage bag and disposed of her body at the local transfer station. John then pretended that Anna had taken Gracie and gone to live with Anna's new lover. Anna's family were suspicious. It wasn't like Anna never to call.  Her mother then knew something terrible had happened. It took two months for police to investigate the disappearance of Anna and Gracie. Finally, after multiple police interviews, he admitted to the murders of Anna, her unborn child and their daughter Gracie. John Sharp told police he had killed Anna because she was moody and irritable and tended to be controlling. He said their marriage was loveless. Police believe that Sharp may have killed Anna because she uncovered the sexual abuse of Gracie by her father. The bodies were recovered and Sharp was sentenced to two consecutive life terms of imprisonment. He resides in protective custody due to ongoing threats of harm by other prisoners. And one more case. Robert Farquharson was ticked off. He and his wife Cindy had separated a few months back. He had not taken it well. He was prescribed antidepressants and saw a psychologist to deal with the breakup. But now Cindy had a new man. They would never be together again. She lived with her new man in his house with his sons and they were driving the good car. All he drove was a crappy Commodore.  She got everything and Robert perceived that he got nothing. Robert wanted vengeance. He wanted Cindy to pay. On Father's Day in 2005, Robert Farquharson did the unthinkable. He was due to drop his three sons back to Cindy. He never arrived.  He then flagged down the first car he could find. Instead of calling the police, Robert only wanted to do one thing, to see Cindy. The driver dropped Robert off at his ex-wife Cindy's home where he knocked on the door. When Cindy answered, he said, I've killed the kids. Cindy's new partner flew to the dam and tried desperately to save the boys. But it was too late. The vehicle was retrieved from the water 2 a.m. the next day. All three boys were still inside the vehicle, although Jai, the eldest son, was out of a seatbelt. It's believed he tried to get his brothers out of the car. Robert told police he had a coughing fit and blackened out, and that's why the car ended up in the dam. However, a few months before, he had told a mate that he intended to kill his children to get back at his wife. Robert Farquharson was charged with life imprisonment with a 33-year minimum. The middle side is a very difficult concept for any of us to get our head around. We've all faced problems and difficulties in our lives, but very few of us could resort to such drastic and terrifying actions. What makes one individual decide to murder their family before themselves is a question still being asked. Coming up next, when you become a celebrity, you expect certain individuals to go past being fans and into being fanatics, even stalkers. It's always been that way. Not even Clark Gable was spared, and one woman named Violet made his life a living nightmare. And between the years 1925 and 1927, a young teenage girl named Eleonora Zagun from Romania became the most closely observed, investigated and tested poltergeist victim of the 20th century. Her story is terrifying. These stories and more, when Weird Darkness returns. Here it comes, my favorite part. Have you ever noticed that when George Bailey is on the bridge, it doesn't start snowing again until after he says, aww man, the power's out? No problem, because you're prepared with the Patriot power generator from Four Patriots. While the rest of the city is dealing with the weather outside is frightful, you can have the power that's so delightful inside your home. Flip the switch and suddenly you're back to the TV and radio for weather updates, your space heaters are keeping you toasty warm, your phones and laptops are charged, your fridge is still running, and you're back to watching It's a Wonderful Life in time to hear Atta Boy Clarence. The Patriot power generator has zero fumes, so you can use it indoors, and it's solar, so if the outage lasts a while, you're still good to go. Grab a Patriot power cell CX2, and everybody can charge up at the same time. Don't let the unexpected put your family in danger. Grab a Patriot power generator today at fourpatriots.com slash weird. That's the number four Patriots.com slash weird. Free shipping for orders over $97.  Visit fourpatriots.com slash weird for the Patriot power generator, the Patriot power cell CX, and more. That's the number four Patriots.com slash weird. From 1931 to 1932, Clark Gable went from relatively unknown to being a superstar.  One male fan described Gable in a letter to Picture Play Magazine as, tall, dark, and steely-eyed, he walks among men, yet strangely apart from his fellows. One minute, a nobody, and then a giant of the screen. Just one more actor looking for his coffee and cake, and then a star of stars. Seeing him in films like Dance Fool's Dance, The Finger Points, and A Free Soul, women compared Gable to earlier heartthrob Rudolph Valentino. Movies provided a welcome escape for depression-weary audiences. Among the throngs of movie goers was Violet Wells Norton. She sat in a darkened theater in Canada, her eyes glued to the screen. Everyone else in the audience saw Clark Gable. Violet didn't see Gable, she saw Frank Billings, the father of her daughter Gwendolyn. Violet met Frank Billings in 1923 in Billericky Essex, England. Billings was her neighbor, and one night he overheard Violet and the man she called her husband arguing. Offering a shoulder to cry on and a warm bed to lie in, Frank Billings fathered a daughter Violet named Gwendolyn.  He abandoned her and left for his home in the U.S. Violet did not see Frank again until years later, when he appeared before her on a movie screen. In 1925, Violet married Herbert James Norton and moved with him to Winnipeg, Canada. They separated on November 23, 1934. For two years, Violet wrote to Clark Gable. She never received a reply. Gable was aware of the letters and ignored them as the ravings of a crank. Violet traveled to Hollywood in October 1936 to confront Gable with his teenage daughter Gwendolyn and to convince him to set up a trust fund for her education. Or, failing that, purchase one or all of the four scripts she penned. Gypsy Nell's revenge, love in a cottage, love at first sight, and the spirit mother. Gable turned Violet's letters over to the police. He said that he never was in England, never met Violet and was not a papa. Federal authorities indicted Violet for mail fraud. The letter on which the feds based the mail fraud charge came from 451 Cumberland Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Mailed on March 9, 1936, addressed to Clark Gable, MGM, Beverly Hills, and signed Violet N. Following her indictment, Violet addressed the press. Don't misconstruct me, she said, which she actually meant misconstrue me. She explained that she merely asked Gables, as she called him, to support her daughter or by her scripts. Violet asserted her requests were reasonable. From her jail cell she said, He looks like the Frank Billings I knew in 1923. I'd like to see him in person. Gable dismissed Violet's accusations as silly and fantastic. Were they? In her effort to prove that Clark Gable fathered her daughter, Gwendolyn Violet mounted a vigorous media campaign. If you believed her story, he was the man who seduced and abandoned her 14 years earlier in a sleepy English village. There was limited support for Violet's fantastical tale.  In an interview with the London Daily Express, Newton confirmed that a man calling himself Frank Billings, who did bear a striking resemblance to Gable, ran a poultry farm at Billericky around 1918-1919. The dates supplied by Newton were a few years earlier than Violet's alleged affair. Newton studied a photo of Gable and said, That either is Frank Billings or his double, even to the trick of folding one hand over the other. Yes, he has the same brow, nose, temples, and twisted cynical half-smile. Adding another layer of absurdity to the unfolding story was a penny postcard mailed from Tacoma, Washington. It read, Dear sir, the lady is right, Frank Billings is the father of her child, but I am the man also and a perfect double for CG. Several of Gable's friends, acquaintances, and a former wife received subpoenas to appear in court. Among those subpoenaed was Jimmy Fidler, a radio personality and journalist. Violet wrote to Fidler offering to sell him, for a price, the story of her affair with Clark Gable, the man she knew as Frank Billings. Violet shared with Fidler her version of how Gable got his screen name. She wrote, In Billericky, Essex, England, where I was wooed and won by a man known as Frank Billings, but who I now believe to be Clark Gable, this man told me of his love. I later learned through pictures and a story in a film fan magazine that he had changed his name to Clark Gable. It is my belief that he got his name in this way. Our grocer in Billericky was named Clark, and he owned an estate he called the Gables, hence Clark Gables. Yes, Violet frequently referred to the actor as Gables and was apparently unaware of his birth name, William Clark Gable. The letters to Violet weren't the only ones Violet wrote. She attempted to correspond with Mae West, but West publicist, Terrell DeLapp, intercepted the missive during a routine vetting of Miss West's incoming mail. The letter received at Paramount Studio in January 1963 read, Dear Mae West, how would you like to be fairy godmother to Clark Gable's child? Nothing could be more lovely than for you, Miss West, to be fairy godmother to my Gwendolyn and put Clark Gable to shame. Despite Violet's attempts to garner support from Fidler and West and who knows how many others, Gable had no difficulty refuting her claims. He produced witnesses from the Pacific Northwest to prove that during the time he was allegedly impregnating his accuser, he was selling neckties and working as a lumberjack in Oregon. Gable's first wife, Josephine Dillon, was steadfast in her defense of her former spouse. Clark and I were married in December 1924, but I knew him the year before in Portland, Oregon, where he attended my dramatic classes. To my knowledge, he has never been in England. It is sure he was not there in 1923 or 1924 when we were married and therefore could not be the father of a 13-year-old girl born there at that time. Violet's accusation was ludicrous, but on the plus side the trial afforded hundreds of women an opportunity to catch a glimpse of the man who would become the King of Hollywood. Secretaries and stenographers in the Federal Building held an impromptu reception for him. He autographed mementos and chatted with them. They were in heaven. In the hallway prior to testifying, Gable chain-smoked and appeared a little nervous. He told reporters, It's my first court appearance. I don't know what to expect. In court, Gable testified that he did not recognize the woman in court. For her part, Violet remarked Sotovoce to her attorney. That's him. I know him anywhere. Courtroom spectators keen to see Gable face his alleged progeny were disappointed when he wasn't required to appear during her testimony. Judge Cosgrave wasn't well pleased that Gwendolyn was subpoenaed to appear. I regret that this witness has to be called at all, and I insist that her examination be limited only to extremely necessary points bearing on the charges in the indictment. Gwendolyn had nothing substantive to add to her mother's scheme. The girl was Violet's pawn. The jury began deliberations at 3.40 p.m. on April 23, 1937 and returned with their verdict at 5.20 p.m. They found Violet guilty of fraudulent usage of the males. As Gwendolyn attempted to console her distraught mother, reports reached Gable by telephone. He said, Of necessity, the woman's charges were false in view of the fact that I have never been in England and had never seen her until the trial began. It is unfortunate, of course, that she must come to grief in this manner, particularly because of her children. U.S. Attorney Powell, who prosecuted Violet, was not as understanding as Gable. This woman should be made an example that man of Clark Gable's type cannot be crucified in such a manner. Powell went on to describe Clark's ascent to stardom. Clark Gable has pulled himself up by the bootstraps out of an obscure background. He worked as a lumberjack, longshoreman, struggling actor to achieve the ambition which drove him on to a 250,000 a year of salary. Attorney Morris Levine, who had handled Violet's appeals, defended her. She was simply calling to her sweetheart. She was sincere, he said. It is doubtful that Morris Levine believed a word, Violet said, but he was an attorney known to go the extra mile for a client. Violet was lucky to have him as her appeals attorney. He himself was a fascinating man and the self-described defender of the damned. The appeal Levine filed on Violet's behalf was nothing short of brilliant. He contended that her letter did not fall within the statute concerning mail fraud. The court agreed with Levine and ruled in Violet's favor in October 1937. They characterized Violet's plan as a scheme to coerce or extort and as a species of blackmail. If local authorities had filed on Violet for blackmail or extortion, she would have done more time. In February 1938, following the success of her appeal, Violet faced deportation. An action was filed on the grounds that she had overstayed her visa and that she committed a crime involving moral turpitude. Levine told reporters that Violet would stay with a sister in Vancouver. Gwendolyn did not accompany her mother to Canada. She was placed in a private school by a local religious organization and was required to remain there until June. Was Violet a greedy blackmailer or a delusional dreamer? We'll never know for sure. Clark Gable received thousands of fan letters over the course of his decades-long career. Violet's letter was an unwelcome anomaly. The adoring letter written to him by Judy Garland in the movie Broadway Melody of 1938 was probably a more accurate depiction of the kinds of letters he received on a regular basis. As Judy writes, she sings, You made me love you. She performed the song earlier in 1936 at Gable's birthday party. It's one reason she got the part in the film which helped launch her career. It has been almost 100 years now since Eleonora Zagoon, a young teenager from Romania, became the most closely observed, investigated and tested poltergeist girl of the 20th century. The disturbing poltergeist phenomena which pursued her across Europe makes the case one of the most remarkable and well-attested on record. It is also the first poltergeist case in which Freudian psychoanalysis came to be applied to the girl at the center. American researcher D. Scott Rogo considered that the idea of a sexual base for the poltergeist was only suggested by the Zagoon case. Thus it played a part in cementing the link between adolescence and poltergeist activity, which is a standard connection made today. The case began in 1925 when violent poltergeist activity broke out around the then 11-year-old Eleonora Zagoon after an argument with her grandmother during a visit. Her grandmother's home was reportedly struck by a rain of stones, breaking windows. Inside small objects began flying around Eleonora. She was packed off back to her parental home in Tulpa quickly the day after. On arriving home, the manifestations continued, terrifying her father and stepmother. Fearing that evil forces were at work, Eleonora was brought before the local priest, a father morrescu, who soon witnessed manifestations for himself and by a young man. A jug full of water rose in the air and a heavy trunk rocked up and down soon after Eleonora had sat on it. The next evening, a trunk was seen to move itself by Nicolai Ostafi. Soon after, a board for mixing porridge rose up and struck Ostafi on the head, inflicting a wound. An exorcism failed to quell manifestations and Eleonora was sent to the small 18th-century monastery at Guevari for prayers. The phenomena continued unabated. She was then moved to a mental asylum for adults, apparently after press coverage about the phenomena and concerns about her treatment. The press coverage came to the attention of the German papers leading to a visit from a German psychical researcher Fritz Grunwald of Berlin. He traveled to Tulpa and located Eleonora and could find no abnormality in her. He intended to pursue the case but, unfortunately, Grunwald died suddenly from a heart attack when making a brief return to Berlin. Fortunately, Eleonora's case was taken up by a remarkable young Austrian aristocrat Countess Zoe Wassilco-Sarecki, who spoke Romanian. The Countess duly retraced the path of the deceased Air Grunwald back to Tulpa in September 1925, funded by the most influential figure in German psychical research, Baron Schreink-Notzing. She succeeded in contacting Eleonora and her family again and decided to take Eleonora to Austria. After paying money to Eleonora's father and stepmother to take Eleonora into her care, the Countess was duly granted permission to take the girl out of the family peasant environment and take her back with her to Vienna for investigation. It was not rushed. Eleonora eventually reached Vienna on January 29, 1926. The Countess at once moved Eleonora into her flat, allowing her to live there for months under close observation by the Countess and psychical researchers. Often, the separation of the adolescent poltergeist focus from the domestic environment seems to bring an end to the phenomena. However, this did not occur. Eleonora's arrival in Vienna was soon marked with further poltergeist activity. The first incident was the fall of a silver spoon reported by a maid. It seems, from her log of phenomena, the Countess initially had doubts about how it was occasioned, showing she was not minded to be duped by the young Eleonora. More upsetting for the household was the displacement of an ink pot, thrown across the room sprinkling and smearing many items with the contents. Following this, all the ink was locked away and Eleonora's movements were restricted to certain parts of the flat. Water mysteriously filled Eleonora's boots, realizing that the phenomena usually occurred in the same room or one room away from Eleonora and realizing that damage to valuables in the flat would follow if Eleonora was in range, the Countess responded by restricting her movements. Consequently, the drawing room and dining room and some bedrooms were put out of bounds. This left Eleonora with the hallway and the domestic quarters of the servants, where she was as given the same freedom to roam about the place as any other member of domestic staff. The poltergeist phenomena followed Eleonora to Vienna and can be divided into two stages, object movements, and then marks appearing on her skin six months later. Both categories of manifestation were blamed upon an entity Eleonora called draku, the Romanian word for devil. The result was one of the closest and lengthiest studies of an adolescent girl at the center of a poltergeist outbreak. At one stage, the Countess attempted a psychoanalytic assessment of Eleonora. Of course, the name draku immediately brings to mind the novel Dracula and Bram Stoker's immortal vampire count. Today, a teenage girl who talks of vampiric entity biting her might be presumed to have become obsessed with romantic and erotic images of vampires in novels, in a cinema and TV. This was not the case with Eleonora. Since in 1926, the largely cinema-driven cult of the immortal vampire count had not emerged as a social phenomenon. Bella Legosi had yet to bite anyone on stage or screen. But Eleonora's draku did share one unpleasant feature associated with the fictitional vampire. He wanted to bite a younger female with Eleonora, his only chosen victim.  Much was recorded by Countess Wasilco, including the following, wraps on furniture, a ports of toys and other objects dropping from the air in various rooms in the flat, object movements including items of furniture, automatic writing produced by Eleonora, disappearance and reappearance of objects sometimes for weeks, on one occasion a strange voice, sudden displacement of pins and needles found in Eleonora's hands and arms. Objects were moved and seemed to materialize and dematerialize. Locked doors seemed no hindrance to their transportation. These included three valuable chess pieces from a set owned by the Countess's father that reappeared after three days, seemingly falling from the air. The Countess recorded each and every phenomenon, firstly in her hand written long books, volumes one through three, totaling 141 pages which she later turned into a book. In the flat rotas of visitors to the flat taking turns and keeping the log established by the Countess, a total in excess of 3000 phenomena which nearly 900 are very well documented. The Countess recorded 67 incidents in one day and 1050 in three months whilst Eleonora was in Vienna. The British researcher Harry Price believed he witnessed both the dermal phenomena and object movements on his visit to the Countess's flat in Vienna, being present when a mirror was mysteriously transported along with the repeated disturbance of books in the flat of the Countess. Harry Price is a controversial character, a researcher who has been both championed and vilified since his death in 1948. Probably the truth about him lies in between. Writer Robert Aikman who knew him for 30 years stated he was neither as good nor as bad as people made out. But it is interesting that his later critics made scarcely any attack on his involvement in the Eleonora Zagoon case. The Countess herself lived until 1966 and there were too many other distinguished witnesses who were involved to single out Price in this case. To sustain the fraud theory would require evidence of an international conspiracy of researchers, observers and scientists, many of whom must also have been in league with Countess Wasilko. The movement of objects gradually shifted almost wholly to the dermal phenomena, that is, scratches and bites on her skin and spitting. Thus there had been two clearly distinct phases. Eleonora's body suffered marks, scratches and apparent bites which appeared on her skin which were attributed to attacks by the invisible draku. The bite marks did not correspond to Eleonora's own teeth. Whoever was responsible for the bites it was not Eleonora inflicting them on herself. Some of the punctures left impressions like teeth in Eleonora's skin which was smeared with what appeared to be saliva. On October 25th 1926 Eleonora was examined by a number of doctors in Berlin and a zoologist who tested the saliva appearing around the bites. The substance was found to be teeming with microorganisms different to those found in the mouth of Eleonora, though there was some doubt as to whether it was spittle at all. Swarming in the white substance were staphylococci bacteria linked with a variety of infections. Cases of poltergeist scratches and abrasions are recorded historically but exceedingly scattered in the literature of the poltergeist. For example, in September 1910 a case was recorded of a biting, pinching, wrapping poltergeist at Trifontien, South Africa which moved objects and left nail marks on the arm of a 16-year-old girl while an earlier one occurred at the Lamb Inn, Bristol, England in 1761 or 62 although details of the latter did not become known until 1970 with the reissue of the obscure 18th century pamphlet. In the autumn of 1926 the Countess embarked with Eleonora upon a tour of some five-months duration visiting the leading psychical researchers of that time covering London, Berlin, Nuremberg and Munich during which time records. Harry Price tested Eleonora along with a number of interested scientists and observers on her arrival in London receiving a great deal of publicity. Eleonora was subject to study at the National Laboratory for Psychical Research leading to an extensive report and much coverage in the British press. Aside from the punctures there were also stigmatic marks and welts appearing on Eleonora's breasts, arms and wrists. Psychosomatic marks and lesions have been noted in the case of hysterical patients and stigmatics but the marks and abrasions on Eleonora gave the impression on being physically inflicted by an external force. However, it appears from later examinations that Eleonora had an exceedingly responsive skin. In its later stages she was accused of manufacturing incidents, a later stage but the issue was complicated by Eleonora seeking to provoke attacks by harming herself in order that the phenomenon could be recorded on film. It was also induced by her striking herself, suggesting that she was finding an internal way of controlling both her feelings and the phenomenon. In any other context, such marks or injuries would be classed as evidence of self-harm or abuse. Eleonora was accused of faking her injuries, perhaps with the assistance from the Countess but the critics could prove nothing. Numerous individuals in different places were able to witness the phenomena and virtually all observers over the period 1925-27 were satisfied that the majority of marks were not deliberately inflicted injuries, suggesting at the very least a psychosomatic origin, a subconscious reaction within the body. Simple fraud, deliberate or unconscious, fails to explain the totality of incidents. Throughout all of this, Eleonora seemed to retain a certain childlike quality. Although moody on occasion, she seems to have been a simple and rather pleasant child. The underdeveloped nature of Eleonora's personality was shown in that many of the apports were toys.  Eleonora gave the appearance of loving the Countess very much, though this may have been the attachment of a child who had never known much love or attention hitherto. She did not seem to display altered states of consciousness that often seemed to arise in poltergeist cases, and the mystery of what lay behind the physical symptoms remained. At the end of the tour in 1927, a record of Eleonora's demographic phenomena was made on 36mm film. The Countess wanted the movie to be shown only in connection with her introductory text and only to very selected audiences. Giving Eleonora's age as 14 rather than 13 years, it is silent and shows sessions with her conducted by three experimenters, one female and two male in which abrasions of the skin apparently emerge. Altogether it is a disturbing film. The phenomena waned after Eleonora reached puberty and began to menstruate, ceasing entirely soon after. With the ceasing of the phenomena, the Countess funded Eleonora to train as a hairdresser, and she eventually moved back to Romania. Harry Price traced her in 1945, by which time she had married, and in the 1960s she visited Vienna again, a guest of Austrian parapsychologists where she again met with Countess Wacelko. There had been no reoccurrence of the phenomena. Eleonora died in Romania in 1998. Coming up, something scary dwells at the bottom of Lake Tahoe. At least that's what they say. We'll learn about the Lake Tahoe monster when Weird Darkness returns. Do you keep a journal or diary? If not, maybe you should consider it. It's been shown that journaling can help you reduce stress, help relieve depression, build self-confidence, it boosts your emotional intelligence, helps with achieving goals, inspires creativity and more. In fact, my friend S. N. Lenees has created a Weird Darkness-themed journal just for you, full of blank pages for you to use as a diary, make notes for class or office meetings, jot down ideas for that novel you want to write, use it for keeping a mileage long if you travel for business, whatever you want. In fact, she has numerous styles of journals to choose from. Along with the Weird Darkness journal, there's one for dealing with grief, for teachers' notes, for medical residencies, keeping track of your meds or health routine and several others. Journals make a great gift for others, but it's also a great gift for yourself and your own mental health. No matter what you might want a journal for, my friend Anne has it. And you can see all of our journals, including the one for Weird Darkness, on the sponsors and friends page at WeirdDarkness.com. At 1,645 feet deep, Lake Tahoe ranks as the world's 10th deepest lake. By volume, it is the 26th largest lake in the world. It is 22 miles long and 12 miles wide, and was formed about 2 million years ago. Eight creeks run into the lake. Its primary outflow is the Truckee River, which runs into Pyramid Lake, also known for monster sightings, and into the Great Basin. Legends of this creature first began to surface in the mid-1800s, when members of the Washoe and Paiute Indian tribes began to tell the white settlers about the monster dwelling in the depths of the Tahoe Basin. It has been described by eyewitnesses as being over 15 to 80 feet long, with an undulating, serpentine body, thick as a barrel, and with smooth, dark skin. In modern times it has been given the nickname Tahoe Tessie. In the 1950s, two off-duty police officers out on the lake reported seeing a large, black hump rise from the water and keep speed with the boat, going over 60 miles per hour. Rick Osborne of Sacramento, California and three of his friends saw one of the creatures in 1979. Myself, along with three others, watched a large serpentine-like creature feeding or hunting in a school of large trout. It was in the middle of winter of 1979 off the dock at Homewood. It was about as big around as a telephone pole and maybe 30 to 60 feet in length from what we could see of it. It didn't swim like a snake, side to side. It was diving up and splashing down with its head or neck into the school of fish, which were leaping out of the water ahead of it. We were speechless for several minutes afterwards. Dan, personally of Napa, California, saw the creature in 1982. He writes, In the summer of 1982, my wife and I had stopped our 22-foot boat to sun ourselves in Lake Tahoe, California. We were about 400 yards from the shore near Emerald Bay. My wife climbed out to the bow of the boat and held on by holding the windshield behind her. I laid out across the seats. The water was still and smooth as glass. About five minutes or so later, the boat began rocking as if it was being hit by a boat's wake speeding by. I sat up but saw nothing around that could have caused this disturbance. As I looked at the water around our boat, there were large air bubbles surfacing. I felt this was rather odd, as I am an experienced scuba diver and they didn't appear to be bubbles coming from a diver's scuba equipment. Then in the water, five feet away from the back end of the boat, I spotted the largest fish tail I ever saw. It was slowly submerging in the water. The whole scene was like a slow-motion movie. I jumped up and told my wife to get back in the boat and we had to leave. She asked, what happened to you?  I didn't tell my wife what I saw until we got back to shore, nor did I tell anyone else except a few close family members. In the years that passed, I began looking through every book I could find that had pictures of fish tails. I found nothing that resembled what I saw. Then I began looking through dinosaur books with no luck. Finally, I heard about a catfish society in Nevada that published articles about experiences other people had with unusual fish. I learned that long ago, when Indians lived in the area, they talked about a great fish. Many people believed it was a large sturgeon. What I saw, however, was no sturgeon. In fact, in my opinion, what I saw was nothing like anything that ever existed before. It was longer across than the entire back of my boat. It was 10-13 feet across, with smooth, dark green skin and as the tails submerged in the water, it flipped towards the boat opposite to the way a whale's tail flips. To this day, I cannot understand how something so large could swim so close without hitting my boat in an outboard motor. I remained quiet about this incident until now, and it was not worth hearing the skepticism, ridicule and disbelief of others. In the 1980s, two fishermen reported seeing a 15-foot-long or 4.6-meter serpent pass underneath the surface of the water near Cave Rock. Several weeks after, two divers reported finding an underwater cave, a creature shot out leaving the silt stirred. Where the creature had been there were two large fin prints. In 1982, Chris Bebe and Jerry Jones, two sober Reno police officers, were out for a day of water skiing on the deepest part of the lake when something resembling the top of a Volkswagen Beetle paged their boat from roughly six feet away. It was so massive, water was sucked down around it. I knew that whatever it was, it was alive, and I knew that it was bigger than my boat, Officer Chris Bebe said, estimating its length at 18 to 30 feet. My immediate reaction was that I would stop moving so that I didn't lose any of my feet. Bebe never returned to the lake and eventually left his job and moved away from Tahoe because of the publicity. In 1982, Gene St. Dennis and a friend were looking out across Lake Tahoe near Cave Rock when they reportedly saw a blotchy gray creature about 10 to 15 feet in length. On another occasion, St. Dennis reported that while swimming over a large hole in the lake bottom, he felt what he described as a large explosion underneath them, followed by what appeared to be a 16-foot-long creature swimming away. We waited for the silt to settle, said St. Dennis and found large fin prints where the creature had been. In 1984, on the 17th of June, Patsy McKay and Dianne Stavrockis saw a 17-foot-hummed animal surface several times. In 1985, Mike Conway and Virgil Anderson filmed an animal creating a 20-25 foot wake at Zephyr Cove. However, the film, to my knowledge, has never been shown. In 1991, witness Andrew Navarro saw the creature whilst in a boat off King's Reach. He told researcher John Kirk the following. I was with a friend and we were on a party boat. There were other people, but they were on the other side of the boat, so they didn't see anything. But my friend and I did. The first thing that I saw was water shooting out of the lake, like when a whale blows water out of its blowhole. Then I saw the surface of the water being disturbed by something underneath. This was followed by the hump of a brown creature which came out of the water. It moved around in a circle for a while, then it was gone. The movement of the creature was more up and down, not side to side like a snake. The sighting lasted for about three minutes or so. My first thought was that it was a whale, since the creature had to be huge from the size of the hump, but I know there were no whales in Lake Tahoe. Most of the other people on the boat said it was probably just a fish, but if it was a fish it was as big as a whale. I really don't remember any more details since I was mostly scared to death. The creature was so close I thought it would eat me. In 1992, a witness called Barry from California saw the creature. I saw and watched Tessie for 30 minutes from the highway on the east side of the lake. I originally saw it swimming while I was driving, not sure what I was seeing. I pulled over to get a better look.  I estimated the length to be 50-60 feet. It just floated in the shallow water, maybe 50-110 yards offshore like it was sunning itself. Then it made like a snake and swam off to deep water and disappeared. This happened in 1992 and I had a friend with me who saw it also. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would not believe it. Samantha of Incline Village, Nevada saw the creature in 2003. About five years ago, my family and I were out boating for the 4th of July. That night, as we were watching the fireworks, I heard something swimming next to the boat, and I felt the boat shake from the waves. I looked over and saw a long serpent-like creature swimming by the boat. After I stared at it for a few minutes, it disappeared underwater. My mom and step-brother saw it as well, and had I not seen it myself, I wouldn't have believed it. I didn't know of Tahoe Tessie at the time, but now I know that's what it was. In 2004, an off-duty bartender on the boat Tahoe Queen took a picture of a black hump in the water, which he claims is the top of the creature's head. In April 2005, Beth Douglas and Ron Talmadge, tourists from Sacramento, reported seeing a creature with three to five humps along its back in Tahoe. In October 2007, multiple witnesses saw the creature swimming off City Commons Beach. One observer videotaped a dark, humped object to the surface. Jack of Kings Beach, California saw the creature in 2008. I lived in Tahoe for over 10 years, and this last month was the first time I saw anything. I was above Incline Village on a stormy day. There was nothing and no one on the lake, except a periscope-looking object on the lake. Then it dipped underwater and disappeared. I sat there, looking at the lake for an hour afterward with not so much as a ripple on the lake. I thought it was a myth and played along. Now I'm a believer. On April 19, 2009, the aunt of Ingrid of Studio City, California saw the animal. My aunt and I witnessed Tessie this morning about 300 meters offshore at Edgewood Golf Club in South Lake Tahoe. The morning was perfectly still and clear. The lake was glass. There were no waves, barely even lapping on the shore, and the only boat out there was some five miles or more away. Suddenly a wake churned up which caught my attention and I looked out and saw her. Four dark blue humps still against the water. No head or tail though. I want to believe it was Tessie, but like all other sightings probably are, it was the generation of standing surface waves from the collision of air and water currents. They appear still in relation to the surface of the water, and in this case, the set was drifting very slowly south to north before it stopped, or sank beneath the surface. Holly of Tahoe City writes, I was born in Truckee and moved to Tahoe City a year ago. During the summer of 2009, my boyfriend, son, and I decided to go to the beach at Kings Beach. On the way there, before passing Tahoe Vista, I looked down towards the water and saw large humps in the water moving in a circular motion. The water was still with no waves. The humps were dark in color, like a brownish-dark green. I didn't see a head or a tail, but I'm sure it wasn't a fish, because there were no scales, and I have never seen a fish of that size or shape in Tahoe. I'd compare the size of the humps to those like a big anaconda. I've lived here forever and been to Lake Tahoe many times and I've never seen anything like it. I truly know that there is something in Lake Tahoe that has not yet been identified. Dr. Charles Goldman, limnologist and director of the Tahoe Research Group at UC Davis, organized conferences in Nevada in 1984 and 2004 to discuss unidentified swimming objects, where a number of scientists testified that they had seen Tessie. The only person to have been to the bottom of Lake Tahoe, Goldman says his 1979 expedition was inconclusive in terms of the monster. His possible explanations include frolicking river otters, mirages, colliding boat wakes, and the white sturgeon. The latter is found in the Sacramento and Feather rivers some 75 miles from the lake. They can reach 20 feet and weigh 1,798 pounds. This may explain the whale-like sightings, but the serpentine creatures are harder to account for. The serpentine sightings may be a gigantic mutant strain of eel. However, I do not know if eels occur in the Great Basin. There is a rumor that Jacques Cousteau dived to the bottom of the lake and filmed the creature, but did not release the film, saying that the world was not yet ready for what is down there. Of course, the whole thing seems to be no more than a tall story. In 1998, the U.S. Geological Survey mapped the entire lake bottom of Lake Tahoe with multi-beam sonar. They found nothing unusual. However, it is possible that the creatures, if they exist, are not full-time residents but move around the waters of the Great Basin. However, it should be noted that none of these connect with the open sea. Thanks for listening. If you liked the podcast and you haven't already subscribed, be sure to do so now so you don't miss future episodes. Also, please tell someone else about the podcast. Recommend Weird Darkness to your friends, family and co-workers who love the paranormal, horror stories or true crime like you do. Every time you share the podcast with someone new, it helps spread the word about the show, and a growing audience makes it possible for me to keep creating episodes as often as I do. Plus, telling others about Weird Darkness also helps get the word out about resources that are available for those who suffer from depression, so please share the podcast with someone today. Do you have a dark tale to tell of your own? Fact or fiction, click on Tell Your Story on the website and I might use it in a future episode. All stories in Weird Darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise, and you can find source links or links to the authors in the show notes. The Psychology of Family Annihilators was written by Fiona Guy for Crime Traveler and Jody Allen for Stay at Home Mom. Dear Mr. Gable is from Deranged LA Crimes. The Romanian poltergeist girl is from Euro Paranormal, and the Lake Tahoe Monster is by Richard Freeman for Forty and Zoology. Weird Darkness theme by Alibi Music. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. 2 Timothy 1 verse 7, For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. And a final thought from Booker T. Washington. Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness. Instead, he drove his car with his three...  The press coverage came to the attention of the German papers, leading to a visit from a German... Leading to a visit from a German physical... Oh, psychical... Leading to a visit from a German psychical researcher, Fritz Grunwald of Berlin, Berlin. Leading to a visit from German... The Countess was duly granted permission to take the girl out of the family peasant environment and taking her back with her to Vienna. Microtarrers, 10 scary stories for kids. Volume 1 is now available. It includes 10 stories originally heard on the podcast, including The Creeping Ghost, Space Monster, Computer Crash, Starved for Detention, and more. Plus, two horrific tales written by young Microtarrers listeners. Microtarrers, 10 scary stories for kids. Volume 1 is available on Kindle or in paperback at Microtarrers.com