THE TRUE MURDER CASE THAT INSPIRED TV’S “TWIN PEAKS” - and 6 More Macabre True Stories!

THE TRUE MURDER CASE THAT INSPIRED TV’S “TWIN PEAKS” – and 6 More Macabre True Stories!

Find Weird Darkness wherever you listen to podcasts: https://weirddarkness.com/listen. #paranormal #twinpeaks #laurapalmer #werewolf #werewolves #bigfoot #sasquatch #wildmen #callfromthedead #truecrime #cryptid #unsolved
Listen to “THE TRUE MURDER CASE THAT INSPIRED TV’S “TWIN PEAKS” – and 6 More Macabre True Stories!” on Spreaker.

IN THIS EPISODE: Most people laugh at, or outright dismiss, the possibility that numerous hair-covered humanoids could exist in the U.K., and without ever getting caught or killed. But, some cases and tales do seem to stand the test of time. Although, many of the creatures that appear in such tales – which date back centuries – may not be what people assume them to be. (Wild Beast Or Wild Man?) *** A mother receives a call from her son – who had been killed by a drunk driver. (Call From The Other Side) *** On a brisk morning, with wind wafting off the Mississippi river across from St. Louis, Missouri, the men faced each other with pistols, at barely more than arm’s length. They’d come to shoot at one another because of an ‘offense against honor’. The place, or ‘field of honor’, was Bloody Island. (What Happened to Bloody Island?) *** A police officer and his daughter see a large creature jump completely over the two lane road they are driving down – a creature that ran on only two legs. (Leaping Bigfoot) *** Sleep paralysis is one of the most terrifying experiences one can have – and one person’s story takes the creeps to a new level. (Confronted by Insectoids) *** One monster that seems to be pervasive in the human psyche across numerous cultures is what we would call the werewolf (although each part of the world has their own name for it). And while most consider it simply a legendary cryptid, there have always been those who believe that these are not merely the product of our imagination, but very real monsters that lurk out beyond our understanding. And they take it very seriously in Haiti. (The Mysterious Werewolves of Haiti) *** Did you know that Laura Palmer’s death on TV’s “Twin Peaks” was inspired by a real-life murder case? (The Real-Life Murder Case That Inspired “Twin Peaks”)
SOURCES AND ESSENTIAL WEB LINKS…
“The Real-Life Murder Case That Inspired ‘Twin Peaks’” by CWS for The Line Up: http://bit.ly/2mhBMpJ
“Wild Beast or Wild Man?” by Nick Redfern for Mysterious Universe: http://bit.ly/2kSeW7U
BOOK: “Dark Dorset: Tales of Mystery, Wonder and Terror” https://amzn.to/2IMrqE6
“Call From The Other Side” submitted anonymously at WeirdDarkness.com
“What Happened to Bloody Island” by John Davis for Mysterious Writings: http://bit.ly/2m2BUct
“Confronted by Insectoids” posted at PhantomsAndMonsters.com: http://bit.ly/2mp4hly
“Leaping Bigfoot” posted at PhantomsAndMonsters.com: http://bit.ly/2mp4hly
“The Mysterious Werewolves of Haiti” by Brent Swancer for Mysterious Universe: http://bit.ly/2lYCKqP
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Weird Darkness theme by Alibi Music Library. Background music provided by Alibi Music Library, EpidemicSound and/or StoryBlocks with paid license. Music from Shadows Symphony (https://tinyurl.com/yyrv987t), Midnight Syndicate (http://amzn.to/2BYCoXZ), Kevin MacLeod (https://tinyurl.com/y2v7fgbu), Tony Longworth (https://tinyurl.com/y2nhnbt7), and Nicolas Gasparini (https://tinyurl.com/lnqpfs8) is used with permission of the artists.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
(Over time links seen above may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
“I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.” — John 12:46
Weird Darkness®, Weird Darkness© 2022
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT…..

We all have that story. The story that haunted and intrigued us as children. The story that opened us up to a different world… to a darkness that many of us still seek out in true crime and horror. “Twin Peaks” – the bizarre and brilliant TV show from the early 1990s returned in 2017 to mystify a whole new generation of television viewers. The show centers on the small town murder of Laura Palmer – and the secrets that surface in the wake of her death. Turns out the fictional mystery of Palmer’s demise can be traced back to a real-life murder case. 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…

Most people laugh at, or outright dismiss, the possibility that numerous hair-covered humanoids could exist in the U.K., and without ever getting caught or killed. But, some cases and tales do seem to stand the test of time. Although, many of the creatures that appear in such tales – which date back centuries – may not be what people assume them to be.

A mother receives a call from her son – who had been killed by a drunk driver.

On a brisk morning, with wind wafting off the Mississippi river across from St. Louis, Missouri, the men faced each other with pistols, at barely more than arm’s length. They’d come to shoot at one another because of an ‘offense against honor’. The place, or ‘field of honor’, was Bloody Island.

A police officer and his daughter see a large creature jump completely over the two lane road they are driving down – a creature that ran on only two legs.

Sleep paralysis is one of the most terrifying experiences one can have – and one person’s story takes the creeps to a new level.

One monster that seems to be pervasive in the human psyche across numerous cultures is what we would call the werewolf (although each part of the world has their own name for it). And while most consider it simply a legendary cryptid, there have always been those who believe that these are not merely the product of our imagination, but very real monsters that lurk out beyond our understanding. And they take it very seriously in Haiti.

But first… Did you know that Laura Palmer’s death on TV’s “Twin Peaks” was inspired by a real-life murder case? We begin with that story!

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: TWIN PEAKS=====

Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost was loosely inspired by a certain story his grandmother used to tell him as a child while he spent summers with her in rural New York, a place called Sand Lake. “The inspiration … sprang from a nightmarish little bedtime story my grandmother Betty Calhoun planted in my ear as a young boy,” Frost wrote in an essay penned in a Sand Lake newsletter about his grandmother. She told him that a ghost haunted the area of the lake they lived near. But was it just a story?

Known locally as the Teal Pond Mystery, this ghost story comes from the real murder of a 20-year-old woman named Hazel Drew in 1908. Much like the central character of Twin Peaks, murdered teenager Laura Palmer, Hazel Drew’s body was found washed ashore. However, Hazel’s corpse was not “wrapped in plastic” like Laura Palmer’s in the pilot episode of Twin Peaks; instead she was found with a corset string wrapped tight around her throat, her death caused from blunt force trauma to the back of her skull.

It was this woman, Hazel Drew, who Mark Frost mentioned to co-creator David Lynch. It isn’t hard to tell from Lynch’s films that he has an obsession with young women and their secret lives. The story of the beautiful, young Hazel Drew piqued his interest, especially when Frost revealed what he had found while doing research on a trip back Sand Lake, hoping to fill in the details he never knew.

At the time of her death, no one knew that Hazel had a vibrant, chaotic personal life. Last seen picking raspberries on the side of a local road, this image of innocence was shared by her community, and so what was to follow would come as an enormous shock. She had no known boyfriends, but after her murder police uncovered a great deal of correspondence between Hazel and several different men. Just like in Twin Peaks, a lot of what authorities had to go on were the initials of those people Hazel had been meeting in the night or writing to in secret. And just like Laura Palmer, the evidence showed that Hazel Drew lived a complicated double life. With every lead announced by the police, a new character was added to the tapestry of suspects.

There was Frank Smith, a farmhand Hazel had known, but he was cleared with an alibi. Then came Hazel’s uncle, William Taylor, who lived within a mile of the lake where Hazel’s body was found and was there to help pull her corpse from the water. Though the town found him particularly suspect because of his odd behavior (he was known as ‘suicidal and melancholy’), he was eventually cleared as they could find no evidence linking him to Hazel’s death. There was another local man, known as a ‘half-wit,’ who was said to torture animals, as well as a professor said to have employed Hazel. Hazel’s mother also mentioned a man from Troy who she believed possessed “hypnotic powers,” which certainly echoes the occult elements of the Twin Peaks storyline.

The suspicious characters kept coming: a dentist that proposed to Hazel, a train conductor she may have been dating in secret, and local millionaire Henry Kramroth who ran a nearby club with an illicit reputation. Rumors of orgies and women being held against their will swirled around Kramoth’s resort, as well as rumors about Hazel’s romantic involvement with Kramroth. Ultimately, he was also let off, despite witnesses claiming to have heard screams from his establishment around the time of the murder.

Although her injuries were consistent with homicide, authorities put forth a different theory, probably meant to placate the community. A newspaper article contained this statement from police: “After five days of careful investigation. in which many theories have been advanced, a motive for the murder is lacking. Nothing has been learned that would warrant the authorities in making an arrest in connection with the crime. This being the case, the accident theory is advanced. The Macadam road between Troy and Averill Park is popular with automobilists. A reckless chauffeur speeding along at night, may have struck the girl with his car, causing her death. Rater than face the consequences, and knowing the country well, it would have been a comparatively simple matter to have taken the girl’s body in the car up the lonely road toward Taborton and to have thrown her body into the mill pond.”

The murder of Hazel Drew is still officially unsolved. Frost told the Washington Post, “It seemed to be kind of a hastily conducted investigation, and because she was a person from not a prominent family, I think you could fairly say, and because there was very little sympathy for female victims of that sort in this time she may have gotten the short shrift.”

Although the story of Hazel’s death and the subsequent case served as the basis of Twin Peaks, it is certainly far from the actual story. It was more the feeling of the story, the feeling of a small town that felt foreign to Frost, the secrets, the gossip, the closeness of the community that made for even more shocking revelations. The characters.

“I always lived in either big cities or suburbs in my life,” Frost wrote. “I’d grown up hearing about people in the mountain who were out of the ordinary, who were a little off-kilter sometimes. So I think all of those stories had an impact on my thinking about folks like this, and I definitely can remember feeling like, ‘Yeah, this is a little bit like the guy who used to live out by the sawmill’ or ‘This is one of the hermits that I’d hear about.’ ”

Superfans flocked to Sand Lake after the announcement of Twin Peaks’ return. By now, however, the community is used to people poking around the woods near the lake, hoping to piece together what happened to the woman who served as inspiration for one of the most iconic victims in television and cinema history, Laura Palmer.

BREAK=====

When Weird Darkness returns… a Weirdo family member tells of a creepy phone call they received… from the other side!

It was a duel with pistols in order to defend honor – two men, only arm’s length away from the other. Blood would definitely be shed – which was only appropriate, as it took place on Bloody Island.

Sleep paralysis is one of the most terrifying experiences one can have – and one person’s story takes the creeps to a new level.

But first… Most people seem to scoff at the idea of Bigfoot or other hairy bipedal cryptids existing in our world without ever getting caught, killed, or anyone finding a corpse of one. But that doesn’t stop the tales from being told – from real people who swear by what they say. In the U.K. a similar thing is happening – but with a very strange twist. Maybe what they are seeing there is not Bigfoot at all, but something else. That story is up next.

STORY: WILD BEAST OR WILD MAN=====

Most people laugh at, or outright dismiss, the possibility that numerous hair-covered humanoids could exist in the U.K., and without ever getting caught or killed. Admittedly, they have a good point. But, some cases and tales do seem to stand the test of time. Although, many of the creatures that appear in such tales – which date back centuries – may not be what people assume them to be. I’ll explain what I mean by that.

Robert Newland and Mark North are the authors of an excellent book titled Dark Dorset: Tales of Mystery, Wonder and Terror. In their book, the pair say that legends from the English county of Dorset tell of strange and sinister Woodwoses inhabiting the woods of Yellowham Hill, which is located near to the town of Dorchester. And, if you’re not familiar with the term “Woodwose,” here’s a bit of background information from Paranormal Encyclopedia: “Woodwose is a mythical bestial creature resembling the Sasquatch, AKA Bigfoot, of medieval Europe. The term ‘Wuduwasa’ is the Anglo-Saxon version. The Woodwose is believed by some to be the link between modern humans and their ancient ancestors…Unlike the Bigfoot, the Woodwose is not thought to be ape-like, but rather more human-like.”

According to the old legends coming out of Dorset, the wild men had the regular habit of abducting young girls from the local villages, many of whom supposedly ended up pregnant during their time spent in the company of the Woodwose. One such incident befell a particular young girl, who, when questioned by magistrates about the nature and name of the father of her impending child, replied: “Please your worshipfuls, ‘twere the Wild Man of Yal’ham.”

No one should doubt the possibility – perhaps even the probability – that this may simply have been an ingenious ploy on the part of the girl to try and protect her unknown, very human lover from the scalding wrath of her irate father! Or, perhaps, on the other hand, Woodwose really did once inhabit the thick woods of Dorset. And, in view of the many and varied hairy man-beast encounters that have been reported from all across the British Isles for centuries, we might well ask this important question: Are the woods of Dorset still, to this very day, the domain of the Woodwose? Are they responsible for such reports of British Bigfoot today? The questions are as outrageous as they are thought-provoking. But, the tales just might have a basis in fact – even if it’s fact that has been stretched and altered to significant degrees.

There is one other matter worth noting in relation to the words of Mark North and Robert Newland. If the Woodwose were truly Bigfoot-style entities, then they surely would not have been able to successfully mate with Homo sapiens. If, however, they were merely human beings who, having reverted to wild lives and states, subsequently developed excessive amounts of body hair as a result of near-starvation, then getting the girls of the local villages pregnant would not have posed much of a problem at all. While the wild men may have looked somewhat unusual, their genetic make-up would have been perfectly compatible with the girls, because for all intents and purposes, they were of one and the same, precise type.

This scenario is not at all out of the question. For example, there is a condition which causes a person to grow fine hair on their body. It is called Lanugo Hair and it often appears on the faces and bodies of people with anorexia and bulimia. But, it’s very possible that the wild men of Dorset developed such hair as a result of starvation, rather than from a desire to be skinny. If that really was the case, then they just might have been responsible for at least some of the centuries-old legends and which may have been absorbed into local folklore in an extremely altered fashion. A man living wild may have been perceived as a wild man. And not a real, mysterious beast in sight.

STORY: CALL FROM THE OTHER SIDE=====

This happened to my mom after her son, my big brother, died in a car crash along with her brother and mother. My brother was burned to death thanks to a drunk driver. The incident tore up my mom to the point of no return. One day she got a telephone call; she said the line was very static but she heard her son’s voice saying “mom, mom,”. She replied back by saying his name, but she kept hearing him say “mom mom” through the static line – and the static was getting louder and louder as my brother’s voice continued to say “mom mom”. Then the line went dead. That call strange call did more to damage my mom than the actual event of my brother’s death. My family says she was never the same after that.

STORY: BLOODY ISLAND=====

The place, or ‘field of honor’, was Bloody Island.

It was reached by rowing across the untamed river from 1831 St. Louis, already a major port. Because Thomas Biddle, the challenged, was nearsighted, he had only one hope of survival. Indeed he’d responded to Congressman Spencer Darwin Pettis’ challenge to a duel by accepting. Pettis had reason to believe it was Biddle who beat him in an alley with a horse whip some time earlier. Yet Biddle knew he himself, as the recipient of the letter of invitation to combat under the Code Duello, had the choice of weapon and circumstances.

He chose pistols at only five feet of separation. He’d hoped, as was often the case, that sense would intervene. Under these suicidal conditions, surely someone would call honor salvaged without a shot fired. Using purpose made English dueling pistols, on the order of the judge, they turned at one pace, aimed, and…..fired.

Bloody island was a large, tree and brush filled sandbar which sat near the Illinois side of the Mississippi river. Lying between the jurisdictions of two great states, it had become the focus of vice. Illegal cockfights, lawless bare fisted boxing and gambling, and the outlawed duel between offended parties all took place there. It was, in a literal way, no man’s land. Where there was no law, there was always someone to take advantage, so long as the law looked the other way.

Dueling, or individual combat under a rigorous social code which employed seconds, doctors, judges and support staff, was outlawed in Missouri in 1822. A vibrant, rough and ready frontier justice had to be overcome, and the rule of law introduced, even to the self styled aristocrats of early 19th century America. For that reason, the upper crust of frontier America, the judges, lawyers, editors, and politicians whose ‘honor’ was easily offended, used the island as a haven to practice their crime. For it was officially a crime to duel, to deliberately attempt to harm and possibly murder someone to satisfy a perceived slight.

And perceived slights abounded. One man shot another because he’d been called out for ‘notorious poltroonery’, while another went on to a potential murder because he’d been publicly called a “dish of skimmed milk.” Accusations in newspapers, cries of property and tax fraud, implications of sexual misconduct, cries of defiance of racial law, and imaginative slurs abounded. Yet, America in those days, particularly in the new regions beyond the Alleghenies, too often settled their scores by violence when verbal contests got too hot. Bloody Island was, in a word, lawless.

A politician, Thomas Benton, was called a tax cheat by Charles Lucas. Benton replied saying he’d ignore such accusations made by “any puppy who may happen to run across my path.” Puppy was a word one gentleman never called another. In the end, Lucas lay dead in his own blood on Bloody Island.

Thomas C. Reynolds, a future lieutenant governor of Missouri, called out Benjamin Gratz Brown. They’d argued about emancipation, with twinges of race baiting in the mix. Reynolds escaped being hit, while Brown’s leg was shot so badly he limped, even throughout his later Missouri governorship!

Abraham Lincoln, called out by an Illinois State auditor for anonymous accusative letter writing, (said by some to have come from Lincoln’s wife), chose broadswords on Bloody Island. Sense intervened, or perhaps Lincoln’s demonstrably long reach and able skill with the sword did so. Thus, ‘honor was served’ and both men left without a fight. Others however, continued to fight it out.

Bloody Island as a place of mayhem finally came to an end due to economics. The Mississippi River’s vagaries pushed the main channel closer and closer to Illinois. St. Louisans led Missouri politicians to call on the Federal Government to prevent its riverport from become an inland city. Lieutenant Robert E. Lee, US Army Corps of Engineers, arrived. He it was who established the dams and re-channeling which directed the river’s silt toward Illinois. Finally, after years of waterborne deposits of earth, Bloody Island was finally built into the Illinois mainland. Bloody Island disappeared.

Oh, and at five feet, Biddle and Pettis killed each other.

STORY: INSECTOIDS=====
On July 15th, 2013 – while living in Reading, Pennsylvania, I awoke from a difficult sleep paralyzed to notice two insect-like humanoids. Each had an opaque, large, triangular eyes and from an aesthetic standpoint were hideous. They hung their arms in front of them dangling. Their legs appeared very muscular but emaciated otherwise. The skin had a rippled or more likely wrinkled appearance. I felt little fear surprisingly whether this was a dream or not. Both stared at me for an unknown period of time. After a while one of them, for some reason I felt as if he was ‘outranked’, crouched beside my bed while the other simply watched. I remember that within my mind I yelled at them and said, ‘wait,’ and then followed with ‘help us.’ as in help humanity through this troubled era or something? Maybe I saw them as some technological messiah or something. But upon stating that the smaller (by no means small) one looked over to the tall one. I have no memory of waking the next day.

BREAK=====

Coming up, we travel to Haiti where they have their own unique ideas about werewolves… because they’re not always wolves!

Plus, A police officer and his daughter see a large creature jump completely over the two lane road they are driving down – a creature that ran on only two legs.

Those stories are up next on Weird Darkness!

STORY: HAITI WEREWOLVES=====

One type of monster that seems to be very pervasive in the human psyche across cultures is that of creatures with the power to transform from human to animal, and by far the most well-known of these entities is the werewolf of legend. Yet there have always been those who believe that these are not merely the product of our imagination, but very real monsters that lurk out beyond our understanding. One such creature seems to have crept out of the shadows of lore in the aftermath of a terrible tragedy in the Caribbean country of Haiti, where survivors of a terrible earthquake have had to deal with homelessness, lack of resources, looters, thieves, and apparently werewolves as well.

Far from coming from any one single origin, tales of werewolves have been present in cultures throughout the world for centuries, and they have been known by many names. In ancient Greece they were known as the lycanthropus, the Dutch had their woerwulf, the Italians their lupo mannero, in France they were referred to as the loup-garou. The list goes on and on, with this persistent myth of shape-shifting monsters prevalent across a surprisingly far-reaching range of peoples and cultures, although the means by which these individuals transform and their reasons for doing so can often differ, as can the aspect of whether they can actually control these transformations or not.

The Caribbean island nation of Haiti, already steeped in the dark lore of zombies and voodoo magic, also has its version of the werewolf, which they call the je-rouges, or “red eyes,” as well as referring to it as the French loup garou and by the creole word lougarou. In Haitian folklore these sinister creatures are said to be either powerful shape-shifting sorcerers wearing magical animal skins, or people possessed by nefarious spirits, which can twist and transform their bodies into a wide range of animals such as wolves, dogs, cats, eagles, lizards, snakes, and even chickens. At times they are said to become hybrid abominations that appear as winged humanoids or some other mixture of man and beast. Once the metamorphosis is complete, these creatures stalk out into the night to feed on blood, with their favorite said to be that of children. Indeed, one persistent part of the lore is that the je-rouge will typically steal or murder children, and will wake mothers in the middle of the night to ask for their children, with the sleepy mother often half-awake at best and sometimes saying “yes.” One Haitian woman has said of these werewolves thus:

**********They can be half wolf or half bird or any animal, but werewolf just means that they practice an evil art of Voodoo where they wear the skin of an animal and kill in the night. There have been many men who have been lynched when they were found out to be werewolves. Werewolves are normal men that use Voodoo to use the skin of an animal to turn themselves into monsters in the night. Because they are so strong when in their skin, the best way to kill a werewolf is when it is in the form of a man.**********

Stories of je-rouges have always terrified Haitians, and the myths cut across religions and socioeconomic borders, with belief in these creatures strong especially among the poor. Far from being seen as a mere legend, many Haitians truly believe that these creatures really exist, and claim to have seen them prowling about. Indeed, this belief is so strong that strange deaths are sometimes blamed on them, and suspicious people can be accused of being a je-rouge and lynched by frightened villagers.

In the wake of the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake some reports of this came out of the country and made mainstream headlines. The powerful, magnitude 7 quake struck the region of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince on January 12, 2010, causing massive damage, killing hundreds of thousands, and affecting over 3 millions people, many of whom lost their homes and ended up packed into filthy camps of survivors or simply sleeping out on the streets. Many of the 690,000 people who ended up in these camps sleep out in the open, often right in the mud and grime, and in addition to dealing with the hardships of being homeless they apparently have also been haunted by the fierce and mysterious je-rouges, which have been widely claimed by survivors to be stalking the camps to attack people and steal away children. One inhabitant of one of these survivor camps, a university educated man by the name of Vladimir Cadet, said of the situation in statement to the Financial Times:

**********Almost all Haitian families are afraid of this. While they are sleeping in the street, they are living with this reality. There was a woman whose two children were taken by a werewolf. This kind of thing is spreading like wildfire. I have never seen one but I’ve been told by my mother that they exist. When I was a little boy, I was nearly taken.**********

The situation was so bad that Cadet claimed that the homeless had set up guard patrols at night to keep a lookout for the monsters. In many cases there has been alleged success in finding the creatures, and this has usually led to bloody retribution. In 2016, three deaf women named Jesula Gelin, Vanessa Previl, and Monique Vincent, ventured out from the village of Leveque, which was set up to provide homes for displaced deaf people, in order to collect supplies in Port-au-Prince, some 20 miles away. They were later found in a ditch, beaten, stabbed, burned, and with their tongues cut out in an apparent ritualistic murder. According to an Associated Press article on the case, one suspect said that the women had been killed because they were suspected of being werewolves. The article stated:

**********One suspect told investigators that the deaf women were killed by Gelin’s husband because the family feared that they were werewolf-type creatures called “lougarou,” their disabilities the product of a hex.**********

In another camp for those displaced by the quake a man suspected of being a je-rouge was beaten to death after trying to steal a child, and in yet another camp a woman was supposedly lynched and murdered while in the process of transforming. In yet another camp called La Grotte a man killed by a mob was thought to be a je-rouge killing and kidnapping children as well. One resident of La Grotte named Michaelle Casseus said of this:

**********After the earthquake, the loup-garou fled from prison. He was bragging that he was in jail because he was caught eating children. During the night he went into the tents and tried to take someone’s child. He was killed.**********

Despite the claims that werewolves are running amok, the sad fact is that in the wake of the earthquake relief agencies and the UN have reported that instances of kidnapping and child smuggling have skyrocketed in this impoverished and disaster ravaged nation, where thousands of children were left homeless or orphaned by the calamity. Most of these are carried out by roving local gangs looking to sell the children into slavery for a profit, but foreigners have also had a hand in it, sometimes in an effort to take them away for illegal adoption in what they believe to be a better world. One shocking case of this concerned the arrest of 10 American Baptist aid workers who were accused of attempting to smuggle 33 homeless children ranging from 12 years old all the way down to 12 months old. As for the child stealing as it relates to werewolves, Sylvain Lafalaisse, Haiti’s secretary of state for finance, has said of this:

**********People talk about loups-garous to give a name to their fears, but it is child snatchers who snatch children, not evil spirits.**********

It is likely that the rise in reports of the je-rouges or lougarou of folklore after the earthquake stems from a volatile combination of the increased vulnerability of populations affected by the disaster, the opportunistic nature of human thugs who would prey on the weak, and the increased reliance on the belief in mysticism and voodoo magic to cope with the fierce hardships these unfortunate souls face. These age-old Haitian beliefs in dark folklore, magic, and spirits have come to the fore, and may be causing them to project supernatural monsters onto what are simply human monsters, and sadly even onto the innocent. Yet many of these people still continue to adamantly insist that the werewolves, these je-rouges, are real, and that they certainly do hunt the ravaged region of the earthquake. For them the darkness that has descended upon them is not only that of disaster and human suffering, but also of frightening supernatural monsters. It illustrates that in some cultures what we consider to be myth, legend and magic are a reality of life, and perhaps always will be.

STORY: LEAPING BIGFOOT=====

“My story is not very long so I’ll make it as quick as I can. My dad, back in ’78 was a Portland policeman for 30 years. And once a year I used to get to go with him while he did his police work for a book report at school or something. I was 12. Well, we were coming home. We worked the graveyard, coming home at 4 in the morning, about seven miles north of Hubbard, Oregon. We lived down a gravel road which was about one mile from a school. It was all gravel but it was big enough for two cars to go by each other. He and I both saw something jump the road as if it was previously running already. It jumped the WHOLE road which was at least ten feet wide. It didn’t even take a step in the middle. It jumped off the edge of the ditch and right into the orchard right next to where we lived. I kind of looked at him and he looked at me. He was a very quiet man but we just said, like, what was that?
We got to the house and we parked the car in the driveway and we were both kind of running trying to get through the door as fast as we could. My nerves were so shot that that night before I went to bed, like this was morning. I told my sister that we’re moving my bunk beds, we’re moving them to the other wall because we lived in a three story house and I didn’t want this thing looking in my attic window. So after that, I didn’t saying anything to anybody except my mom and I didn’t have friends around that lived close and school was out so the weird thing was.
A week later a doctor in his little red Volkswagen went down the same road towards town. He saw the same thing and he was so scared that he stopped at the police station and, of course, that got out and it was wrote up in the paper and all that… It looked just like the Patterson one (referring to the Bigfoot creature filmed by Roger Patterson) except lighter hair.”

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! You can email me anytime with your questions or comments at darren@weirddarkness.com. WeirdDarkness.com is also where you can find all of my social media, listen to audiobooks I’ve narrated, shop the Weird Darkness store, sign up for monthly contests, 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. Also on the website, if you have a true paranormal or creepy tale to tell, you can click on TELL YOUR STORY. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com.

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 Real-Life Murder Case That Inspired ‘Twin Peaks’” by CWS for The Line Up
“Wild Beast or Wild Man?” by Nick Redfern for Mysterious Universe
“Call From The Other Side” submitted anonymously to Weird Darkness
“What Happened to Bloody Island” by John Davis for Mysterious Writings
“Confronted by Insectoids” posted at PhantomsAndMonsters.com
“Leaping Bigfoot” posted at PhantomsAndMonsters.com
“The Mysterious Werewolves of Haiti” by Brent Swancer for Mysterious Universe

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… “Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe.” — Proverbs 29:25

And a final thought… “The top of one mountain is the bottom of the next… so keep climbing.” (Unknown)

I’m Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness.