“THE HOUSE THE DEVIL BUILT” and More Terrifying True Horror Stories! #WeirdDarkness
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#paranormal #truestories #paranormalstories #ghoststories #horrorstories #truecrime #cryptids #serialkillers #reincarnationstories #flight401 #congeliermansion #skyquakes #murdersuicide #kasparhauser #OliviaMabel
IN THIS EPISODE: A chance meeting brings two people love, then marriage… then jealousy and murder. (The Bitter Fruit of a Jest) *** He terrified citizens in Australia in the 1990s – suspected of at least twelve murders, and sentenced to seven life terms in prison. His name was Ivan Milat. (Serial Killer Ivan Milat) *** How can a young woman remember herself being old? (Hannah’s Past Lives) *** A toddler plays with an imaginary friend – who ends up being his deceased grandmother whom he has never met. (Panteletas) *** In 1972 an aircraft crashed into the Florida Everglades – and has become one of the most famous aircraft flights in the annals of the supernatural. (Ghosts of Flight 401) *** A young girl is beaten and abused as a child, ignored by her family and schoolmates, and ended up crying each night alone in her room… although she was not truly alone. (Who Is With Me) *** The dark and strange history of the Congelier Mansion in Pittsburgh is lost to time, but not to those who’ve heard the stories. (The House The Devil Built) *** There is no doubt that something puzzling did happen hundreds of years ago in Ireland. Scientists, historians and locals admit this particular place is shrouded in mystery. (Unexplained Phenomenon in Ancient Ireland) *** Skyquakes. Mistpouffers. Seneca Guns. The mysterious booms in South Carolina have many names, but no one knows what causes them. (Mysterious Booms in South Carolina) *** A man had apparently leapt off the roof of a building, committing suicide. That would’ve been the end of it, except that police found a note in the man’s pocket with instructions on how to find the pieces of his girlfriend. (The Zach and Addie Murder/Suicide) *** No one paid much attention to Kaspar Hauser when he strolled into Nuremberg one morning in 1828. But that would soon change. (The Enduring 200 Year Mystery of Kaspar Hauser) *** When a man goes to prison, only to come home a year later and find his wife with another man, you know the ending already. (The Brown Tragedy) *** A woman’s body was found in a secluded Texas home, sitting upright in a rocking chair in front of a mysterious altar. The murder of Olivia Mabel is so strange that authorities are asking for your help in solving the mystery. (The Bizarre Death of Olivia Mabel)
SOURCES AND ESSENTIAL WEB LINKS…
“The House The Devil Built” posted at The Occult Museum: http://bit.ly/2WqLUgd
“The Bitter Fruit of a Jest” by Robert Wilhelm for Murder By Gaslight: http://bit.ly/2WtC2Cy
“Serial Killer Ivan Milat” by Robert Keller (link no longer available)
“Hannah’s Past Lives” was submitted anonymously.
“Pantaletas” submitted by Michy from Upcycle Creations: http://bit.ly/2WqMwCx
“Ghosts of Flight 401” by Troy Taylor in his book, “Cabinet of Curiosities”: https://amzn.to/2KEWqI5
“Who Is With Me” from YourGhostStories.com: http://bit.ly/30Q2WnJ
“Unexplained Phenomenon in Ancient Ireland” by Ellen Lloyd: (link no longer available)
“Mysterious Booms Plague South Carolina”: (link no longer available)
“The Zach And Addie Murder/Suicide” by Shelly Barclay for Historic Mysteries: http://bit.ly/2HZq8qR
“The Enduring 200 Year Mystery of Kasper Hauser” by Gina Dimuro for All That’s Interesting: http://bit.ly/2Kgll7l
“The Brown Tragedy” by Robert Wilhelm for Murder By Gaslight: http://bit.ly/2I5NZoD
“The Bizarre Death of Olivia Mabel” from OliviaMabel.com: http://oliviamabel.com/
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PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT…..
INTRODUCTION==========
“My Aiden… I’m sorry… I’m so sorry. I should never have let it get like this. I’m leaving. I will not let you keep me you vile, evil creature! Mommy is coming for you Aiden, my sweet Aiden. Mommy loves you.”
When you think of the most haunted house in America, you probably jump right to the sinister looking colonial in Amityville, Long Island. Or maybe the home in St. Louis that inspired “The Exorcist”. But not every famous haunt has an empire of entertainment media to boost its reputation. Some of it is part of a local oral history. And for residents of Pennsylvania’s most western city, Pittsburgh, the stories of the Congelier Mansion, made it more than deserving of the title of “Most Haunted Home in America”. It has been given several other monikers through the years, including “The House The Devil Built”.
I’m Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness.
SHOW OPEN==========
Welcome, Weirdos – I’m Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Here you’ll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained.
Coming up in this episode…
A chance meeting brings two people love, then marriage… then jealousy and murder. (The Bitter Fruit of a Jest)
He terrified citizens in Australia in the 1990s – suspected of at least twelve murders, and sentenced to seven life terms in prison. His name was Ivan Milat. (Serial Killer Ivan Milat)
How can a young woman remember herself being old? (Hannah’s Past Lives)
A toddler plays with an imaginary friend – who ends up being his deceased grandmother whom he has never met. (Panteletas)
In 1972 an aircraft crashed into the Florida Everglades – and has become one of the most famous aircraft flights in the annals of the supernatural. (Ghosts of Flight 401)
A young girl is beaten and abused as a child, ignored by her family and schoolmates, and ended up crying each night alone in her room… although she was not truly alone. (Who Is With Me)
There is no doubt that something puzzling did happen hundreds of years ago in Ireland. Scientists, historians and locals admit this particular place is shrouded in mystery. (Unexplained Phenomenon in Ancient Ireland)
Skyquakes. Mistpouffers. Seneca Guns. The mysterious booms in South Carolina have many names, but no one knows what causes them. (Mysterious Booms in South Carolina)
A man had apparently leapt off the roof of a building, committing suicide. That would’ve been the end of it, except that police found a note in the man’s pocket with instructions on how to find the pieces of his girlfriend. (The Zach and Addie Murder/Suicide)
No one paid much attention to Kaspar Hauser when he strolled into Nuremberg one morning in 1828. But that would soon change. (The Enduring 200 Year Mystery of Kaspar Hauser)
When a man goes to prison, only to come home a year later and find his wife with another man, you know the ending already. (The Brown Tragedy)
A woman’s body was found in a secluded Texas home, sitting upright in a rocking chair in front of a mysterious altar. The murder of Olivia Mabel is so strange that authorities are asking for your help in solving the mystery. (The Bizarre Death of Olivia Mabel)
But first… The dark and strange history of the Congelier Mansion in Pittsburgh is lost to time, but not to those who’ve heard the stories. (The House The Devil Built)
If you’re new here, welcome to the show! While you’re listening, be sure to check out WeirdDarkness.com for merchandise, my newsletter, enter contests, to connect with me on social media, plus, you can visit the Hope in the Darkness page if you’re struggling with depression or dark thoughts. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com.
Now.. bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness!
STORY==========
HOUSE DEVIL BUILT
According to legend, the house on 1129 Ridge Ave. was built in the 1860s in the Manchester neighborhood in Pittsburgh’s Northside. Charles Congelier was the original owner and inhabitant, along with his wife Lyda and their maid Essie. Congelier made a fortune as a direct result of the Civil War and moved his family north to settle in the booming industry town of Pittsburgh. Like many great tragic stories, it ends with infidelity and a jealous wife. Lyda, after discovering her husband and Essie were having an affair in a rage, took several knives from the kitchen and slaughtered her unfaithful husband and his paramour. She was found by a neighbor several days later, calmly sitting in a chair with the severed head of the maid in her lap.
After the grisly murders the house was dormant for quite some time until a railroad company purchased it in 1892, planning to convert it into housing for their staff. After several workers complained of strange noises and unexplained happenings in the house, the railroad abandoned it and put it up for sale where it remained on the market for several years until 1900 when Adolph C, Brunrichter, a German-born doctor, purchased the house. Brunrichter was described by his neighbors as a recluse who did not often partake in socializing and spent much of time in the house by himself.
But on the night of August 12th, 1901, neighbors reported the sounds of a woman screaming and strange lights in the home. The police were called and were appalled to find the body of a decapitated woman and the doctor, nowhere to be found. What comes next is straight out of American Horror Story as they discovered a laboratory in the basement with several more body parts and, most horrifyingly, a severed head that Dr. Brunrichter had used in his ghoulish experiments to keep victims of decapitation alive after the fact.
The doctor was never seen again, though almost 30 years later some believe he emerged from hiding in New York, drunk and claiming to have conducted strange experiments in Pittsburgh. Police did not put much weight on the man’s claimed identity and eventually released him from prison, deeming him harmless and never to appear in history again.
Thanks to its dark history, which only seemed to grow with each new tenant, the house developed a reputation as a home for wayward spirits. According to some accounts, Thomas Edison himself was one of the many who visited the house to investigate the notorious paranormal phenomenon. Along with Julia Murray, a psychic medium of the time, they claimed to encounter a malevolent spirit with the power to harm the living and the ability to travel beyond the confines of the house.
It continued to be dormant of any new inhabitants until it was once again purchased, this time by the Equitable Gas Company, again to be converted into apartments for workers. As before, the workers inside reported strange noises, disembodied voices, and two workers were discovered dead in the basement of the house. No cause of death or homicide suspect was ever found and many of the men quickly moved out of the housing. The company continued to maintain a presence in the area but in November 1927, a massive gas explosion resulted in spectacular damage to the surrounding area, leaving 27 dead and over 500 people injured. The house itself was totally destroyed in the blast leaving only a crater in the earth where once the house had stood.
The site, however, wasn’t free of its dark past just because the house was gone. Several locals continued to report strange occurrences happening in and around the former location of the house. Leading some to suggest the explosion was caused by the Devil in an attempt to reclaim the dark and mysterious house for himself.
The story of the Congelier Mansion has captured the imaginations and the horror of American citizens for over a century. But, like Amityville, how much it is real? We do know a family named Congelier lived at that exact address on Ridge Avenue, and in 1927 Marie Congelier was killed during a gas explosion when shattered glasses from the house windows severed an artery in her leg. The house was then demolished sometime after her death and a highway was later built over the homestead.
As for the evil German doctor? No record of him exists according to historian Troy Taylor but the legend continues to haunt locals as they share their experiences and stories of the strange mansion. Perhaps it just so happens the origins of the legends have some horrifying grounding in fact, but it’s something we may never truly know. Pittsburgh is home to a slew of haunted histories, from the hallowed halls to the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning to the world famous Halloween attraction ScareHouse, rumored to be really haunted.
The Congelier Mansion is just one of many tales of hauntings intertwined in the industrial history of America’s steel town. And whether you choose to believe the gruesome tale or not, some parts are rooted in fact. So that begs the question, where there’s smoke is there a fire? Or is this simply a case of the collective imaginations of the people of Pittsburgh run wild for local scares and fun? We may never know…
STORY==========
HANNAH’S PAST LIVES
I have 3 very vivid memories of when I was younger. It’s hard to tell if this was a reincarnation or just childhood dreams of sorts. Again these are very clear to me. I hope I can describe in detail, but I’ve always been bad at explaining.
1: I remember being an old lady sitting in my big bed at home tons of children surrounding me. My mind going a little, couldn’t remember their relation to me but knew they were family. I had 4 kids they kind of stood around my bed. Lastly my husband was old as well. He sat at my side and was holding my hand saying ” it’s ok to go. We’ve all said goodbye” then breaking down crying saying he loved me over and over as I kinda fell asleep and died.
2: I remember talking to someone who refused to show his face. We were staring down at the world. He said ” what do you say, you lived a long and happy life. Do you want to stop now or give it another try?” I remember telling him I wanted to try and do better this time.
2: I remember seeing myself on the ground at about 6-years-old… lifeless and dead, I remember kind laying on top of her body and then becoming me.
STORY==========
BITTER FRUIT JEST
Elvira Houghton, a dressmaker in Southbridge, Massachusetts, hired a carriage and driver to take her to her mother’s funeral in the summer of 1847. The driver, 27-year-old Milton Streeter, was instantly infatuated with Elvira. They had a pleasant conversation and when they returned to Southbridge Milton asked if he could see her again and Elvira said yes.
Also 27-years-old, Elvira feared she was approaching “that delicate and dreaded period, when, having out-maidened all her early associates, she would remain alone a withered remnant of the past.” Her fear may have clouded her judgment; After a whirlwind courtship of one month, she and Milton Streeter were married.
It did not take the couple long to realize that they had very little in common. Elvira liked to wear fashionable clothes and attend balls and parties, Milton was a man of dissolute habits who would rather drink and play nine-pins. He was also not very bright. As the Boston Herald would say, “Streeter is a man of a low order of intellect and almost entirely governed by animal passions.” He brought this trait to the marriage in the form of extreme jealousy.
The young men of Southbridge knew about Streeter’s jealousy and would play “jokes” on him, trying to rile him up by implying that they were intimate with his wife. Sometimes they would give him half a dollar to give to Elvira as payment for unspecified services. The worst of them was a man named Bacon who had come from out of town. He learned of Streeter’s jealousy and did everything he could to insinuate that he was in “unlawful communication” with Elvira.
Streeter began neglecting his occupation to spent time watching Bacon and his wife, and although he found no evidence of unfaithfulness, he was convinced the two were intimate. When he could take it no more, he threatened Elvira with a razor and demanded that she confess. She did not confess, instead, she filed a complaint with the Justice of the Peace saying that she considered her life endangered by any further cohabitation with Streeter. The justice ordered the couple to separate and put Streeter under $100 bond to keep the peace.
To pay his bond, Streeter sold his share of the household furnishings to his sister’s husband, Joseph Janes. On October 23, 1848, Streeter and Janes loaded the goods into a wagon and hauled it to Janes’ house. When they had unloaded the wagon, Streeter said that he had left his shirts had to go back to his old apartment to get them. Janes took him back to the house and waited outside. He heard Streeter ask his wife where the shirts were and she said they were upstairs in the basket then he heard her go up the stairs. A few minutes later Janes heard a scream and rushed up the stairs to find Elvira Streeter coming downstairs bleeding profusely from her throat. He took hold of her and led her to a neighbor’s door. As Janes and the neighbor were helping Elvira out of the house they saw that Streeter was also bleeding, he had slashed his own throat. By the time a doctor arrived Elvira was dead. Streeter’s wound was not as serious, he was stitched up and taken to jail.
Milton Streeter’s defense at his trial the following June, was insanity. The testimony revealed a history of mental problems beginning when Streeter was two-years-old. When his mother wasn’t looking he fell off his chair into an open fire; one side of his head was severely burned, laying bare the skull. During childhood, he was subject to severe fits which cause the impairment of his mental faculties, which had always been considered below standard. The murder, said his attorneys, had no motive and was probably committed in a state of frenzy occasioned by jealousy and aggravated by the reprehensible conduct of some young men in his neighborhood playing jokes on him.
The jury was reluctant to convict Streeter of a capital crime, but at the time there were not degrees of murder, he was either guilty or not guilty. After nine hours of deliberation, the jury found him guilty of murder but accompanied the verdict with a unanimous recommendation for mercy. The judge sentenced Milton Streeter to hang but left the date of the execution to the discretion of the governor. The newspapers put the heaviest blame on the irresponsible pranksters of Southbridge. The New York Commercial Advertiser said, “These rude and remorseless Jokers have now the satisfaction of knowing that their fine sport has been purchased by the death of one human being at the hands of a murderer, and is yet to be farther paid for by the death of another on the scaffold.”
In December 1849, the Governor of Massachusetts accepted the unanimous decision of the Committee on Pardons, and commuted Milton Streeter’s sentence from death to life at hard labor in the State Prison.
BREAK==========
Coming up…
He terrified citizens in Australia in the 1990s – suspected of at least twelve murders, and sentenced to seven life terms in prison. His name was Ivan Milat. (Serial Killer Ivan Milat)
Plus… A toddler plays with an imaginary friend – who ends up being his deceased grandmother whom he has never met. (Panteletas)
And… In 1972 an aircraft crashed into the Florida Everglades – and has become one of the most famous aircraft flights in the annals of the supernatural. (Ghosts of Flight 401)
But first… A young girl is beaten and abused as a child, ignored by her family and schoolmates, and ended up crying each night alone in her room… although she was not truly alone. (Who Is With Me)
That story is up next on Weird Darkness.
STORY==========
WHO IS WITH ME
For as long as I can remember I’ve been alone, as a young girl I was always bullied and abused by my brother. He would always hit me and people would always treat me bad at school and my mom didn’t bother to see what was wrong. I’m not in school anymore and I am in my mid 20’s. Every night as a child and teen I would cry myself to bed and I would feel very depressed and suicidal seeing that no one cared about the harm that was happening to me. With that said I have always felt a presence be near me ever since all the bullying and attacks started to happen since I was six.
As a smaller child I used to live in a haunted apartment, I would see many ghost including a man that was killed in the building and lived where we lived. At the time my mom always claimed I would scream because I saw clowns in my closet. Ever since I can remember the paranormal has always fallowed me especially throughout the upcoming years. I know I’ve always saw ghost and shadows all these years until now.
Well right now I don’t have many friends and I’ve never really had many friends maybe just 2 actual friends, so I’ve always felt really alone and depressed. For some reason though most of the time when I am feeling this way I always feel cold chills everywhere and then I start to feel a sudden warmth. This happens almost all the time I’m going through this. Or I’ll be out somewhere and I will see someone and I would wish I had more friends and then I would get a deep gut feeling that tells me to talk to them following with chills. Example; one day I was out eating at a taco place and I see this girl and a voice in my head tells me that me and her will be friends. It wasn’t wrong, later on I was introduced to her and we became friends. This tends to happen a lot.
Another example I haven’t had good luck with getting a boyfriend and don’t get me wrong I have dated but it’s been a year and a half or 2 years. So where I work at in a contact center we got some new people one is a guy my age and has long hair, is chubby not fat, and is not too short but not tall and wears glasses just like me and turns out we have many things in common. (from what I saw).
Well I knew nothing about this person not a darn thing and I had no clue what his name was or what it could be. At work we get emails delivered to us on outlook and for our department I can see a list of names, so I was looking through all the names and I saw one that got my heart racing. I saw the name Max Jacobo and then again I got that feeling in the pit of my stomach telling me that it was his name, I looked it up and indeed it was him, and we have more things in common then I’d like to admit. Now every time I walk by him I have a strong feeling and I feel like he also looks at me because I caught him.
The point is even though I’m so alone I don’t feel as if I am I always feel as if there is a presence who is helping me. At the end of the day when I’m ready to call it a night I always feel like I’m being watched like I’m never alone. I have even felt like I have received warm hugs in couple of occasions. This always happens when my emotions are the strongest.
How do I know if I’m truly alone? I don’t have good communications with my family but I heavily feel a presence that follows me everywhere. I cannot explain this phenomenon. Anything I need help with it always feels like I get a helping hand as in emotional help. When I’m feeling down or I think I’m getting sick random things always appear in all kinds of places. Like random quotes on my internet browser as inspirational ones. Or on several accessions my phone or computer will act up and then it will just play the perfect song depending on how I’m feeling that day. Or recently I bought a car from my aunt and I had received an important letter in the mail regarding my registration and I thought I didn’t need the paper so I threw it away or at least I swore I did. Turns out I needed that paper because the car wasn’t under my name yet, I looked everywhere for it
And nothing. The next day it was on top of my bed and no one had left it there.
At night I’ll go to bed really sad and I have salt lamp that calms me down so I’ll turn it on but sometimes I forget. So when I wake up in the middle of the night it will be on and no one other then me could’ve done it. There is just certain things I cannot explain or are very hard to explain.
I’m not sure if anyone else has gone through something like this.
STORY==========
SERIAL KILLER IVAN MILAT
In September 1992, hikers in Australia’s Belanglo State Forest found the decomposed remains of two women. The corpses were identified as Caroline Clarke, 21, and Joanne Walters, 22, British tourists last seen alive in Sydney on April 18, 1992. Autopsies revealed that both women had been raped before Walters was stabbed to death, and Clarke shot.
A short while later, the skeletal remains of James Gibson and Deborah Everist, both 19, were discovered in the same area. They’d been missing since December, 1989. Then, after the decomposed corpse of 21-year-old Simone Schmidl was found, a task force was hastily put together. The police now knew they had a serial killer working the area, preying on hitchhikers and backpackers.
November 1992 brought the gruesome discovery of two more bodies. Like Simone Schmidl, 21-year-old Gabor Neugebauer and his fiance, 20-year-old Anja Habschied, were tourists from Germany. They had last been seen alive on December 26, 1991, when they set off to hitchhike from Sydney to Darwin.
The police investigation, meanwhile, was getting nowhere. Then a man named Paul Onions contacted the task force from Birmingham, England. Onions described an incident that had happened in January 1990, while he was touring Australia. He’d been thumbing rides when a man in a Nissan truck had picked him up. Just north of the Belanglo State Forest, the man had pulled a gun and threatened him, but Onions had managed to jump from the vehicle and escape. Onions was able to provide a description of his assailant, and the police were very interested, given the proximity of the attack.
The trail led eventually to a man named Ivan Milat. An Australian national of Croat descent, Milat had an arrest record for an attempted rape and was known to be something of a weapons enthusiast. When police raided his Sydney home on May 22, 1994, they found all of the evidence they needed, including firearms that would later be linked to the murders by ballistics and camping gear stolen from the victims.
Milat was charged with seven counts of murder, and was convicted on all counts in July 1996. He was sentenced to seven life terms. Police also regard him as the primary suspect in a series of 12 murders, committed in and around Newcastle, Australia, during the late 1970’s.
STORY==========
Hi Marlar
Something super crazy happened this morning. It was about 9am and after breakfast I came upstairs with my 2 yr son to clean and make the beds. He went to his room to play and I kept on cleaning my room. About 7 or 8 mins later I heard my son talking. I didn’t think much of it but then he started to talk like he was answering someone’s questions. So i went and stood by his door from where i saw that he was sitting on the floor looking up and talking to someone or something.
I ask him “Benjamin, who are you talking to?”
And he said grandma. I froze Marlar, i wasn’t expecting him to say that. I said. “No Ben, grandma is in heaven.”
He said “no mamá. Grandma right there” and then he pointed at an empty space on the floor.
I again said “Ben, grandma is in heaven.”
And he got supper upset and started to cry and he kept saying, “No mamá grandma right there. Playing truck, mamá right there.” Then he stopped crying, like just stop and look up and said, “Ok grandma – bye.”
So i ask him “Benjamin… is grandma here?”
He said, “yes mamá “panletas”.
I ask him what are panletas?
And he looked at me like i was supposed to know what that word meant. All of the sudden I remember a word my mom said alot to me and i ask him. “Baby do you mean “pantaletas”?”
And he smile and said yes mama panletas.
Heres the thing my mother died sep 24th 2010. And when she was alive she used to tell me that when she died i was gonna get her “pantaletas” as my inheritance. (Oh pantaletas is a old fashion Spanish word for panties.) Theres no way he knew that word. We mainly speak English in the house. And pantaletas is not a word i use.
I trully believe my dead mother was in that room playing with my son. And that she told him to say that word so i would know he was telling the truth. . Which i know he was. I just hope this is a one time thing and he doesn’t start seeing and talking to dead people all the time..
I felt at peace after the incident but i have been researching online and im scared that it could happen again..
STORY==========
GHOSTS OF FLIGHT 401
On December 29,1972, Eastern Airlines Flight 401, a Lockheed L-1011 aircraft, crashed into the Florida Everglades near Miami International Airport, killing 101 of the 175 people on board — and has since become one of the most famous aircraft flights in the annals of the supernatural.
Due to malfunctioning lights and displays, the airplane crashed northwest of Miami, almost nineteen miles from the end of runway Nine Left, in the heart of the Everglades, a vast swamp region of water, saw-grass, marshland and alligators. Flight 401 was traveling 227 miles an hour when it hit the ground. The left wingtip hit first, then the left engine and the left landing gear. Together, they slashed three long trails through the heavy saw-grass. Each trail was five feet wide and more than one hundred feet long.
When the main part of the fuselage hit the ground, it continued to move through the grass and water, coming apart as it went. It hit once, lifted into the air and then slammed back down again with a hard, grinding sound. About halfway along its path, the nose of the plane spun clockwise and careened around until it was sliding backwards. As the plane was skidding through the swamp, a fireball rushed through the cabin, from front to rear. Passengers felt a blast of cold air and then a wet wave of fuel as the plane broke apart. The huge white fuselage crumpled and tore into five large sections and countless smaller pieces. From the first impact to the point that it came to a shuddering halt, the plane traveled more than one-third of a mile.
Passengers drowned in the murky water. Others were thrown from the plane, suffering broken bones, paralyzing injuries and death. Rescue workers converged on the scene, saving many lives — and recovering many more of the dead than the living.
As it happened, the crash of Flight 401 was not the end of the story.
Captain Bob Loft and flight engineer Dan Repo were among the one hundred and three people who lost their lives when Flight 401 crashed. Both of the men would be found to be at fault by the NTSB investigation, although most of the blame fell on Loft’s shoulders. They were accused of being preoccupied with finding a source for an indicator light problem and ignoring the fact that the plane was steadily losing altitude. When they discovered what was wrong it was too late – a fact that apparently haunted both men after their deaths, for their ghosts soon began to be encountered aboard other Eastern L-1011 jets.
Apparently, to save costs, Eastern ordered the salvageable parts of the aircraft to be removed and incorporated into other Eastern planes. Soon after, reports of the ghosts of Repo, Lofts and even some unidentified flight attendants were encountered on various Eastern flights. For the next year or so, they were most often seen on Eastern flights that contained the salvaged parts. Eastern crew members and passengers saw the ghosts or heard them speak on the plane’s intercom systems or received verbal messages and warnings from them. Witnesses also experienced cold sensations and sensed invisible presences, aircraft power turning on by its own volition and a tool inexplicably appearing in a mechanics hand when no one was in the area.
Substantiation of the sightings was difficult, however. Eyewitness reports made to Eastern’s management were met with skepticism and a fear of further damaging the airline’s reputation and causing a further loss of business. The crash had done enough damage and for the public to hear that the ghosts of some of the lost plane’s crew were visiting other flights could make for a public relations disaster. For the most part, eyewitness crew members were told that perhaps seeing a psychiatrist would be in order, which most took as a precursor to being fired. After that, most were reluctant to talk to anyone investigating the hauntings and the sightings that did occur were often covered up. Log sheets that contained the sighting reports, as well as the names of witnesses, mysteriously disappeared from the planes where they occurred. Normally, a logbook would contain entries for several months, but these pages vanished. To this day, many hotly deny the stories of the ghosts from Flight 401, despite the scores of credible witnesses that eventually came forward.
Eventually, once the parts from Flight 401 were removed from the various planes, the hauntings came to an end. Eastern Airlines ceased operations in January 1991, leaving behind a mystery of what actually happened in the planes that were said to have been visited by ghosts.
BREAK==========
Up next… A woman’s body was found in a secluded Texas home, sitting upright in a rocking chair in front of a mysterious altar. The murder of Olivia Mabel is so strange that authorities are asking for your help in solving the mystery. (The Bizarre Death of Olivia Mabel)
When a man goes to prison, only to come home a year later and find his wife with another man, you know the ending already. (The Brown Tragedy)
Plus… There is no doubt that something puzzling did happen hundreds of years ago in Ireland. Scientists, historians and locals admit this particular place is shrouded in mystery. (Unexplained Phenomenon in Ancient Ireland)
These stories and more when Weird Darkness returns.
STORY==========
THE BIZARRE DEATH OF OLIVIA MABEL
On February 27, 1994, Olivia Mabel’s body was found in her secluded Texas ranch house sitting upright in a rocking chair in front of a mysterious altar dedicated to her deceased son. The mysterious discovery of Olivia Mabel’s body is at the heart of Celina’s first and only unsolved case.
Olivia Jane Mabel was a proud stay-at-home-mom, living with her husband Travis and their son, Aiden, on 12.77 acres of property in the quiet town of Celina, Texas. In 1990, tragedy paid an unexpected visit to the Footlights Ranch as young Aiden was found dead in the small seasonal pond on the property.
Olivia was heartbroken. Suffering this unimaginable tragedy threw her into a deep grief, filled with self-blame and a refusal to believe the facts. She eventually pulled away from her friends, her work and her husband, which eventually lead to a divorce in early 1991. Ex-husband Travis had happily remarried and moved to New England, losing touch with Ms. Mabel after a matter of months. With no other family members, Olivia was last seen in September 1991.
At roughly 9:30pm on February 27th, 1994, police respond to several silent 911 calls coming from the usually still Mabel house. What they found was all but unseen for this small town.
In a neglected and dust ridden house, seemingly not touched in years, the body of Olivia Mabel was found inside the bedroom of her late son. The room was clean and well taken care of, in stark contrast to the dirt and disrepair contained in the rest of the home. Against the far wall of the room there was a crudely constructed and decorated altar, surrounded by hand drawn images and hundreds of heartfelt letters to her child. Pasted to the front of the altar were words written in Tibetan and Sanskrit languages, translating as “Construct” or “To Build”.
Her body was found sitting upright in a rocking chair clutching an eery hand crafted stick doll, of her lost child.
In a 1999 magazine article, Sgt. Terry Goldscher, lead investigator for the case, had this to say about the curious circumstances surround the discovery of Olivia Mabel.
“Nobody had seen her in years. Almost 3 I think. She clearly passed her time in some pretty unhealthy ways. The negligent damage to the house, the obsession with her deceased son, and the clearly pagan symbols and altar were all signs of something seriously wrong with her mental health. Which is understandable after the death of a child like that, but she just balled up. Ran her husband out. Never went back to church. See if she had reached out, her brothers and sisters in Christ would have supported her. But she left the flock and became the devil’s prey, plain and simple.“
After a thorough investigation, the case was closed with an unsolved outcome. Local rumors have become legend regarding what happened to Olivia; the most popular being that Ms. Mabel attracted or created something evil.
The first officer on the scene, Francesca Santiago, describes what she witnessed entering the residence,
“I spent a lot of time in El Paso and had an uncle that was into some really dark occult stuff. I recognized it immediately. When I walked in that room and saw the symbols and the photos on that altar I felt a strong angry presence looming over me. It was honestly the last thing I expected to see in this town.”
The people who have read into the case have their own theory of what happened to Ms. Mabel. Based on translations of the Sanskrit found on the altar, local legend now holds that she might have created an entity of her son, a sentient being based in Tibetan Buddhism created through the power of the practitioners thoughts. It is known in Tibetan as a Tulpa, or in English, a “thought form.”
Years after the discovery of Ms. Mabel’s body, rumors that the house was inhabited by evil spirits grew so persistent that current landlord, Christopher Hagen, hasn’t been able to sell the property. In 2005, in an attempt to debunk these tales, Mr. Hagen hired Austin-based paranormal investigator, Drew Navarro, to determine the validity of this legendary tale.
“I’m not even sure this was even ever on our physical plane. In the hundreds of locations I’ve studied I’ve never felt such an imposing force. I couldn’t breathe, my heart was constantly racing. It’s energy kept changing, but none of it felt inviting. Whatever is in there, it’s extremely possessive and behaves so erratically, like a jealous child throwing a tantrum. As far as I’m concerned, that house and that entire property should be avoided. It needs a serious intervention, because I’m not sure what we’re dealing with.”
This only added fuel to the fire surrounding the rumors of a living Tulpa inhabiting the The Footlights Ranch.
“One of the oddest parts for me,” says Officer Santiago, “is the date on the last letter we found. Dated the very day we kicked that swollen door down. The city concluded that she post-dated everything but I don’t believe she was alone in that house. And I don’t believe her spirit wasn’t still in the room with us that night. But then that makes me the crazy one, right?”
The letter, written by Olivia Mabel, dated February 27th, 1994, read…
My Aiden,
I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.
I should have never let it get like this.
I’m leaving.
I will not let you keep me you ViLE, EViL CREATURE.
Mommy’s coming for you, Aiden, my sweet Aiden.
Mommy loves you.
The thirteen-acre property still sits vacant as when the mysterious discovery surprised the sleepy North Texas town. You can see photos of the letter and other pieces of the crime, hear actual news reports, and find information to contact authorities if you have any information at http://oliviamabel.com/.
STORY==========
THE BROWN TRAGEDY
A wholesale robbery operation was uncovered outside of Irvington, Indiana, four miles east of Indianapolis. In January 1879, John G. F. Brown and Pressley Miller were convicted of grand larceny and concealing stolen goods and sentenced to one year in the penitentiary. Brown’s wife Mary was also indicted but was released on her own recognizance.
John Brown left his wife with a 40-acre farm to manage and three children to raise. She was 33-years-old—nineteen years younger than her husband—and desperately in need of help. That’s not to say that Mary Brown was helpless; she very soon found the answer to all of her problems in Joseph W. Wade, a 33-year-old Irvington saloon owner. Wade, who was in the middle of a divorce, agreed to live at the farm and manage it for Mary, and even before his divorce was final he was sharing her bed as well as her board.
A one-year prison sentence is not very long. John Brown was released from the penitentiary and returned to his farm to find a domestic situation that was not to his liking. It is not clear what transpired at the Brown farm, but John Brown expected trouble and consulted his attorney. The last thing Brown said to him was, “I may never see you again.” Less than three weeks later John Brown was found murdered.
At a railroad crossing, about three miles from the farm, a neighbor found a horse and buggy, its cushion and lap rug were saturated with blood. The buggy was identified as John Brown’s and a search of the area found his body lying nearby, beside the railroad track. It first it looked like he had been shot in the head, but it was later determined that his skull had been fractured with a hammer.
I didn’t take long to determine who was responsible—Joe Wade was clearly in conflict with John Brown and Mary Brown had told her friends she would do away with her husband if he ever returned, she had a younger, better-looking man and she didn’t desire to “be tied down to an old fool like Brown.” Both were arrested for the murder of John Brown.
At first, they both denied any knowledge of the murder, but after a brief incarceration Mary Brown weakened and told her story of what happened the night of the murder. She said that Wade had planned to go to Irvington to sell his horse and went out to hitch the buggy.
“I went about attending to my work as usual when I heard a dull, heavy sound, and some groans. I rushed out and saw my husband dying. I had the child in my arms and Wade said, ‘Take in that child.’ I did so, after which I came out again and exclaimed, ‘Oh, my God, what have you done?’ He came up to me and put his arms around me saying ‘This is what love will do, darling.’…My reason for making a different statement before was, Wade threated my life if I gave him away.”
After hearing Mary Brown’s confession, Wade corroborated the story of the surroundings of the murder but said it was Mary who actually did the killing. Both were charged with first-degree murder.
They were tried separately, with Joseph Wade tried first in April of that year. The issue was not whether Wade was involved in the murder, but whether he wielded the hammer and if it was premeditated. Wade could not convince a jury that he was only an accessory; he was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to hang.
When Mary Brown was tried in July, Wade testified for the prosecution. He was not offered any clemency for his testimony, he would hang regardless, so had no incentive to lie. He testified that he had been discussing the sale of a horse with John Brown that Friday evening when Mary came up behind her husband and struck him in the back of the head with a wooden mallet. He fell to the floor, knocking his head against a table. Wade grabbed a lamp from the table as Mary struck Brown again, this time in the face. Wade said, “My God, woman, what have you done?” She said, “That’s no more than he has done.”
Wade hurried out of the house and began to unhitch his horse. Mary asked where he was going and he said Irvington. “No, you ain’t,” said Mary, “Joe Wade, if you leave me now, you’ll rue the day—you’re a man and I’m a woman—you’ve been staying here and nobody will suspect me of doing this.”
She wrapped up the body in a blanket and he helped her load it into the buggy. Then Mary dressed in Joe’s clothes and drove the buggy with Joe sitting beside her. Anyone who saw them would think they were two men. They left the body by the railroad track, and Mary turned his pockets inside out to make it look like he was robbed. Abandoning the buggy, they walked back to the farm.
The jury deliberated for forty-six hours then found Mary Brown guilty of first-degree murder. She was sentenced to hang on October 29, 1880, the same day as Joseph Wade. Two days before the scheduled hanging, Governor Williams granted them a thirty-day respite to appeal their cases to the state Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court reviewed both cases. They found the two of the jurors on Mary Brown’s case were not competent, having prejudged the defendant; she was granted a new trial. The Supreme Court found nothing wrong with Joe Ward’s trial and let the verdict stand.
On November 18, Governor James D. Williams, in his last official act before dying three days later of inflammation of the bladder, granted Wade another respite so he could bring another appeal to the Supreme Court. This time he appealed on the grounds that the judge gave the jury erroneous instructions.
While awaiting the Supreme Court’s ruling, Ward testified at Mary Brown’s second trial. This time said that Mary’s intent to kill her husband “was of a sudden conception,” the murder had not been planned. Mary Brown was again convicted of first-degree murder, but this time sentenced to life imprisonment in the women’s reformatory.
In February 1881, the Supreme Court granted Joseph Ward a new trial and in his second trial, he was also sentenced to life in prison.
STORY==========
UNEXPLAINED PHENOMENON IN ANCIENT IRELAND
There are some ancient mysteries that cannot be easily solved. This is especially true when witnesses to strange events are long gone and all that is left are ancient ruins that raise more questions than answers.
There is no doubt that something puzzling did happen hundreds of years ago in Ireland. Scientists, historians and locals admit this particular place is shrouded in mystery. Our understanding of the nature of reality is insufficient in this case. Archaeologists who excavated at the site could not shed more light on this historical Irish mystery.
What we are about to discovered is a case that shows legends and science sometimes collide. Some who have investigated the place, say there is no other explanation than the presence of a completely unknown unexplained force.
Your own opinion of the events will most likely be based on your own personal beliefs and common sense.
In this article we will look at what happened through the eyes of scientists and locals. We examine myths and legends and compare them with real-case scenarios. As always, it is up to our readers to judge the event for themselves.
There are countless ruined churches in Ireland, but one is of particular interest to us. Jumping Church of Kildemock, formally known as Millockstown Church is located some miles south of Ardee in County. The church has become famous for its eye-striking ancient ruins.
The age of the church is unknown, but historians think it is rather old. In 1953, archaeologists excavating at the site discovered a silver penny from the reign of Edward III who ruled from 1327-1377. Locals tell the church was already a ruin in the 18th century.
The Jumping Church is mentioned in Irish folklore and myths. The most puzzling part about its history, is that one wall of the church was mysteriously relocated some two or three feet from its foundations. The wall hasn’t fallen. It simply moved! How is it possible?
Jumping Church of Kildemock remains an unexplained ancient mystery that may never be solved.
According to legends, the wall of the church moved in 1715 to exclude the grave of an excommunicated man outside the building.
A plaque on the site reads: “This wall by its pitch, tilt and position can be seen to have moved three feet from its foundation. Contemporary accounts mention a severe storm in 1715 when the wall was lifted and deposited as it now stands but local tradition states that the wall jumped inwards to exclude the grave of an excommunicated person.”
Apparently, the church was so annoyed that it moved all by itself, leaving the sinner’s grave outside of the church grounds. It certainly does sound like a very implausible scenario. Buildings require an external force to change location.
Another explanation to the strange movement is that on Candlemas Day in 1715, a great storm caused the wall to shift. This scientific explanation doesn’t provide us with all answers. How can a storm lift part of a building and set it back down in a new location?
Archaeologists who excavated at the site did confirm the wall had been moved. When the original outline of the church became apparent, it was revealed that the wall really did stand two-to-three feet inside its foundations. Standing 19 feet high, 15 feet wide and three feet thick, the huge bulk of masonry rises imposingly from the ground, close to the foundation from which it had cleanly been severed.
In his book Kildemock The Jumping Church that contains a detailed history of the church, Fr. Michael Murtagh writes the storm theory is far-fetched. “A storm alone could hardly have lifted a chunk of masonry that is many tons in weight and move it one or so metre inwards and replace it at a precarious slant. The wall is built of rough rubble stone and would easily crumble.
There is also the supernatural explanation that hinges on a controversial burial within the walls of the ruined church. It is said that the wall jumped inwards to exclude the unworthy corpse from the holy ground of the church interior.
There are other local stories from the period that tell of controversial burials and refusals of burials to those deceased who offended the church’s sense of what was right.
Whatever the explanation – natural, supernatural, or both – the natural beauty of the area and the spiritual history of a community combine in this hallowed spot and draw one into contemplation,” Fr. Michael Murtagh wrote.
If you ask locals, many will tell you they believe the legend is true. The man who was buried on the Kildemock church grounds was a Freemason who had abandoned the Catholic faith. He died suddenly and unexpectedly. While working on the building of Stabannon Church, he fell to his death from scaffolding. His corpse was brought to Kildemock and laid to rest within the ruined church, inside the west wall.
The next day, locals reported that the Church’s wall had jumped inward, leaving the remains outside the sacred enclosure of the one-time building.
Historians think the controversial burial of the Freemason did take place as well as the storm, but what happened next is unknown.
The whole story sounds incredible and unbelievable, but there is an answer to this ancient mystery hidden somewhere, we just cannot find it.
We are forced to admit that there is still much we do not know about the nature of reality.
BREAK==========
When Weird Darkness returns…
Skyquakes. Mistpouffers. Seneca Guns. The mysterious booms in South Carolina have many names, but no one knows what causes them. (Mysterious Booms in South Carolina)
But first… No one paid much attention to Kaspar Hauser when he strolled into Nuremberg one morning in 1828. But that would soon change. (The Enduring 200 Year Mystery of Kaspar Hauser)
STORY==========
KASPAR HAUSER
No one paid much attention to Kaspar Hauser when he strolled into Nuremberg one morning in 1828. The young boy of about 16 was wearing pantaloons, a silk necktie, a waistcoat, a gray jacket, and a handkerchief with the initials “KH” embroidered onto it. His boots were so torn up that his feet were bursting though them and mangled from the road.
When police finally approached the apparent vagabond, they found that he could only speak a few words and was clutching a letter addressed to a cavalry captain. The missive claimed that its author had no blood relation to Hauser even though the author had raised him as a son. It also noted that since 1812, Hauser had not gone “a step from the house, in order that nobody might know where he was brought up.”
The mysterious note went on to claim that the boy could read, write, and wanted to become “a horseman like his father.” Although he did not have parents, said the letter, if he did “he would have been a learned man.” It ended ominously with the author stating that “it would cost me my neck” had he escorted Hauser to Nuremberg himself.
Police took the boy into custody, where observers reported that although he behaved as if he were a child (indeed, he walked as though he were a toddler just learning how), he was clearly not “a madman or an idiot.” He did not speak unless it was to parrot words and phrases. He had a very small vocabulary, which consisted mainly of words referring to horses. Oddly, although his feet had been damaged from his journey they were “as soft as the palm of a hand,” as though he had never work shoes before he had traveled to Nuremberg.
Hauser was repulsed by all food and drink except for bread and water. When he was brought a lighted candle he stared at in amazement and tried to grab it, only to burn his hand. He was equally fascinated by his own reflection in a mirror, which he also tried to grab in vain.
Hauser was eventually made a ward of the city and went into the custody of Lord Stanhope, a British nobleman. As the “forest boy” learned to communicate effectively, he began to weave a strange tale about being brought up in a prison. He claimed to have never seen the face of the man who brought him to the outskirts of Nuremberg, saying that he had been forced to look at the ground the whole journey before being handed the letter and left alone.
Hauser also described a detailed dream in which he found himself in an enormous castle in the company of an elaborately-dressed woman and a man all in black with a sword. Professor Daumer (who had been treating and observing Hauser) theorized this could have been a faint memory of his early life before the prison.
This strange tale that seems torn from a Dickens novel enthralled all of Europe; there were rumors he was a lost prince, perhaps the son of Grand Duke Carl von Baden and his wife Stephanie de Beauharnais (who had been adopted by Napoleon). Many people, however, though he was just an impostor seeking fame and fortune.
Another strange incident further fueled the rumors: in 1829 Hauser was found in Daumer’s basement bleeding profusely from a wound in his head. He claimed that he had recognized the voice of his attacker – the same man who had brought him to Nuremberg.
Kaspar Hauser’s mysterious life concluded in an equally enigmatic manner. One night in 1833, he burst through the door of his home in Ansbach clutching his side and babbling about how he had lured to the park by a stranger who then stabbed him in the side. His story was doubted from the first, and when Hauser attempted to lead his friends back to the spot of the stabbing, he collapsed midway on the journey. He died of his wound.
The mystery of his life did not end with his death. DNA tests in 1998 using a sample from his bloodstained shirt and blood samples from two of de Beauharnais’s living descendants have shown he was not, in fact, a prince of Baden. And so true identity of Kaspar Hauser remains a mystery.
STORY==========
MYSTERIOUS BOOMS
Skyquakes. Mistpouffers. Seneca Guns. The mysterious booms in South Carolina have many names, but no one knows what causes them. And recenty the mystery came back in the spotlight after an unexplained boom rattled the Charleston area.
“My whole house just shook…. anyone else? Weird and heard loud boom on Folly Beach,” wrote one witness on Facebook.
“The whole restaurant here at Shem Creek just shook! Earthquake?!,” wrote other.
The boom and subsequent vibration startled Charleston-area residents around 12:26 pm. By 1:00, witnesses were searching for answers online. Though an earthquake was the most common theory, the USGS website shows no record of a quake. So what was it?
The most logical explanation is a sonic boom. After all, a nearby air station did confirm they had F-18 jets in flight at the time of the incident. However, while a sonic boom seems likely, people in the area have reported odd booms as far back as the mid-1800s, well before the invention of modern aircraft.
In 1850, James Fenimore Cooper wrote “The Lake Gun,” a short story named after the odd sounds that emanated from New York’s Seneca Lake. The mysterious sounds continue to this day and are now known as the Seneca Guns. Though the name originated in New York, Seneca Guns has become a catch-all term for the strange booms heard up and down America’s East Coast, including South Carolina.
In 2007, I had my own experience with the Seneca Guns. I was alone at my in-laws’ home in Beaufort, SC when a large boom rattled the entire house. I was convinced someone had driven into a support pillar in the garage, but found nothing when I went to investigate. The boom was so powerful it cracked a wall in the neighborhood guard house, and the security team accused my husband of dynamite fishing after finding him on the beach (he hadn’t been). We never did find an explanation for the boom, though a quick Google search turned up (and continues to turn up) countless reports of mysterious booms in the South Carolina Lowcountry.
Theories about the source of the booms range from the fascinating to the mundane. A few theories include…
- Shallow earthquakes that are too small to be recorded
- Military aircraft and/or submarine activity
- Naval guns firing offshore
- Top secret military testing
- Tidal waves
- Landslides off the continental shelf
- Pockets of air released from the ground
- Methane gas released from the ocean floor
- New faults forming
- A meteorite exploding in the atmosphere
- Cold air slamming into warm air
- even… Indian ghosts (yes, really)
Though it’s clear South Carolina is booming, it’s not clear if scientists will ever agree on the cause. Has anyone else heard a mysterious boom? What do you think causes the sounds?
BREAK==========
Coming up… a man had apparently leapt off the roof of a building, committing suicide. That would’ve been the end of it, except that police found a note in the man’s pocket with instructions on how to find the pieces of his girlfriend. (The Zach and Addie Murder/Suicide)
That story is up next on Weird Darkness.
STORY==========
THE ZACH & ADDIE MURDER/SUICIDE
In late October of 2006, police responded to a call from the Omni Hotel in New Orleans regarding a jumper. A man had apparently leapt off the roof of the building and landed five stories down on the hotel’s parking garage roof. When the police got there, it was clear that the man died on impact. It seemed, at first, that this was not a job for homicide. What did they have to do with a man who took his own life? The answer was in the deceased’s front pocket in the form of a several page long suicide note. In it were instructions on how to find pieces of his girlfriend.
Zack Bowen was, according to those who knew him, a decent person There was nothing about him that made people guarded or nervous. He was neither extraordinarily attractive nor memorably unattractive. He was not mean. He was not the homecoming king. He was just a pretty average American boy. He had plenty of friends, was sociable and clearly hid whatever was welling beneath the surface in the last few years of his life.
When Zack was 18 years old, he met a 28-year-old stripper named Lana Shupack. The two married and, according to some sources, Zack joined the military in order to support her and the two children their marriage bore. He rose to the rank of Sergeant in the U.S. Army over the course of a tour in Kosovo and a tour in Iraq. Some of his time in Iraq was spent at Abu Ghraib. At least one of his friends told Bowen’s biographer that he seemed to change while overseas. He was less happy and wanted to come home.
Zack Bowen got his wish to come home via a general discharge. Because of the less than honorable conditions of his departure from the Army, despite an alleged honorable recommendation from his commanding officer, Bowen was left bitter. Still, he managed to keep enough of a smile on to become a bartender in the French Quarter of New Orleans after he came home. He and his wife separated not long after his return, leaving Zack single in a city full of eligible women.
Bowen eventually set his sights on another bartender. Her name was Addie Hall. The two had one important thing in common, they both liked to drink — a lot. When Hurricane Katrina hit, the two holed up in their apartment together and rode out the storm. They were two of very few people who did not evacuate. This gained them media attention in the wake of the storm, partly because Addie had a habit of baring her breasts at police officers when they drove by. The two were also known to make cocktails for visitors to the damaged neighborhood.
The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was like a camping trip to the young couple. They lived without electricity, drank what they had, traded booze for water and lived a life without responsibility beyond survival. Many would later say that it suited them and going back to real life had been the tragedy for the pair. Hall was known for being a mean drunk and abusing her boyfriend when she was in the mood. Once things started getting back to normal in the French Quarter, she reportedly told their landlord that Bowen was cheating, so she was going to kick him out. It is hard to tell if these accusations were based on drunken delusion or reality.
It could be said that Zack Bowen and Addie Hall had an unsustainable lifestyle. On the one hand, there is a bartender (perhaps also a stripper, according to some sources) who drinks too much and may be too free with her fists. On the other hand, there is a damaged man who also drinks too much, has been across the world to fight only to come back to a small corner of the world and fight again, in more ways than one. Add to that the fact that their friend “Squirrel” was allegedly supplying them with a steady stream of cocaine and disaster couldn’t be more obvious. What was shocking was how it all came crashing down.
This was the state of their lives when the two 28-year-olds got into a fight on October 5, 2006 in their apartment on N. Rampart St. above the Voodoo Spiritual Temple . According to notes left by Bowen and evidence at the scene, Bowen strangled Hall to death in the bathtub before cutting her into pieces. Her head was placed in a pot on the stove. Her feet were either in another pot with her hands or in the oven with her legs, sources differ. The remainder of her corpse went in the refrigerator in a large bag.
What Zack did next was cook what he managed to get on and in the oven. He reportedly said that he was trying to “separate the meat from the bone.” It is likely that this was an attempt to get rid of the evidence. There is nothing to suggest that the man was trying to consume Addie Hall’s remains. What he did cook was so charred as to be unrecognizable. While the police knew who the victim was before they even entered the home more than a week later, it took some time to i.d. her because of the condition of her remains. Some sources also state that Bowen had sex with her corpse. Police adamantly denied this claim.
After the murder, Zack Bowen spent some time in the apartment, writing messages on the wall in spray paint and penning the five-page note that would eventually be found with his body. When he wasn’t there, he was out drinking, getting strippers and doing drugs with his friends. All of this was evidently in an effort to numb the shock of what he had done, as evidenced by what he wrote and eventually did.
The letter in Zack Bowen’s front pocket at the time of his death told police where he lived, where they would find Addie and why. His keys were also in his pocket, as was the name of his landlord, who would eventually let the police into the apartment. On the walls of the apartment, in spray paint, they found these messages: “please call my wife. i love her. i’m a total failure. look in the oven. please help me stop the pain.” There were also burns on his body that left a message. He stated that he burned himself with a cigarette for every year of his life as punishment for his failures.
There are those from the French Quarter and elsewhere who think this was more than just the story of tumultuous love, drugs, alcohol and murder. There are those who believe Zack Bowen may have been influenced by a demonic presence emanating up from the voodoo shop above which the pair made their home. Whether this theory holds any water is a matter of opinion. However, the owner of the Voodoo Spiritual Temple is well known and respected in the French Quarter. Whether or not that has any bearing on her hosting a demon in her shop is another matter of opinion.
Another possible explanation for this bizarre crime is that Zack’s experiences just caught up to him. Perhaps he had some lingering issues from his two tours overseas. Maybe Addie really was as abusive as they say. Maybe all of this added up to him feeling so much like a failure that, after he snapped and killed his girlfriend, he first tried to hide the evidence and then took his own life.
Whatever the reason Zack Bowen killed Addie Hall, he was clearly one of the few killers who went to enough trouble to cook their victims and later felt true remorse. The Albert Fishes and Jeffrey Dahmers of this world do not typically feel bad. Of course, they also ate what they cooked. That Bowen killed himself and the clear confusion he felt in the aftermath is evidence enough that even he was disgusted by what he had done. Do demons, whether war-related or truly from hell, excuse such a ghastly crime? Of course not. Even Zack Bowen knew that. Is it possible that his own suffering made victims out of both him and Addie Hall? Almost definitely.
SHOW CLOSE, CREDITS, A LITTLE LIGHT, AND A FINAL THOUGHT==========
Thanks for listening. If you like the show, please share it with someone you know who loves the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters, or unsolved mysteries like you do! And please leave a rating and review of the show in the podcast app you listen from – doing so helps the show to get noticed! You can also email me anytime with your questions or comments through the website at WeirdDarkness.com. That’s also where you can find all of my social media, listen to free audiobooks I’ve narrated, shop the Weird Darkness store, sign up for the email newsletter to win monthly prizes, find other podcasts that I host, and find the Hope in the Darkness page if you or someone you know is struggling with depression or dark thoughts. Plus if you have a true paranormal or creepy tale to tell, you can click on TELL YOUR STORY – or call the DARKLINE toll free at 1-877-277-5944. That’s 1-877-277-5944.
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 House The Devil Built” posted at The Occult Museum
“The Bitter Fruit of a Jest” by Robert Wilhelm for Murder By Gaslight
“Serial Killer Ivan Milat” by Robert Keller
“Hannah’s Past Lives” was submitted anonymously
“Pantaletas” submitted by Michy from Upcycle Creations
“Ghosts of Flight 401” by Troy Taylor in his book, “Cabinet of Curiosities”
“Who Is With Me” from YourGhostStories.com
“Unexplained Phenomenon in Ancient Ireland” by Ellen Lloyd
“Mysterious Booms Plague South Carolina”
“The Zach And Addie Murder/Suicide” by Shelly Barclay for Historic Mysteries
“The Enduring 200 Year Mystery of Kasper Hauser” by Gina Dimuro for All That’s Interesting
“The Brown Tragedy” by Robert Wilhelm for Murder By Gaslight
“The Bizarre Death of Olivia Mabel” from OliviaMabel.com
Again, you can find links to all of these stories in the show notes.
WeirdDarkness™ – is a production and trademark of Marlar House Productions. Copyright, Weird Darkness, 2022.
Now that we’re coming out of the dark, I’ll leave you with a little light… “This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.” – 1 John 3:11
And a final thought… “ Surround yourself with people who reduce the amount of stress in your life.”
I’m Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness.
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