“THE TULLY NEST AFFAIR” and More Terrifyingly Disturbing Tales From History! #WeirdDarkness

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Listen to ““THE TULLY NEST AFFAIR” and More Terrifyingly Disturbing Tales From History! #WeirdDarkness” on Spreaker.

IN THIS EPISODE: When you think of the most deadly, man-killing animals in existence, you might think of the big cats, or alligators, or sharks… but don’t be too quick to dismiss birds as dealers of death. (Death-Dealing Fowl) *** It’s one of the world’s most haunted places… it is a ship that you can now book a room in as a hotel. We’ll look at the very haunted Queen Mary. (The Haunted Queen Mary) *** The result of an accidental pregnancy finds out later in life he might be the son of a demon. (Son of the Demon) *** Most every item I bring to you here in Weird Darkness is going to have taken place in history – and most all of them you hear are going to be unnerving, or even horrifying… but there are some particularly macabre moments in history that stand out among the others. Most of which you’ve probably never heard of. (Macabre Moments in History) *** Something strange happened in 1966 Australia. Lights in the skies, sightings of saucer shaped objects, and the start of what eventually came to be known as crop circles. It’s a mystery that still lingers today, and it appears to be a kind of catalyst for so many similar oddities to follow. (The Tully Nests Affair)

SOURCES AND ESSENTIAL WEB LINKS…
Book a room on the Queen Mary: https://queenmary.com/tours/tours-exhibits/
“Delphine LaLaurie” episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8vr5wj
“Mellification” episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/4km5fa57
“The Tully Nests Affair” by Marcus Lowth for UFO Insight: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2jm2bujx
“Death-Dealing Fowl” by Darci Heikkinen for ListVerse: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yckrdrea
“The Haunted Queen Mary” from The Scare Chamber: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p98rr3z
“Son of the Demon” by HauntedJurist, posted at YourGhostStories.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/5n954sur
“Macabre Moments in History” by Lauren Glen for Ranker: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/y69r65ft

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TRANSCRIPT:

DISCLAIMER: Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised.

INTRODUCTION=====

UFO sightings, like many other countries around the world, were particularly rife throughout Australia throughout much of 1966. Many of these sightings were witnessed by multiple people, as well as leaving behind evidence of their visit. Consequently, they also drew the attention of the local and national media who, for a time, ran significant stories on the events. One incident in particular, however, stood out from the rest, and, for a time, was the subject of intense media scrutiny and speculation. A brief sighting of a typical saucer-shaped object on farmland, followed by the discovery of circular patches of swirling reeds on the surface of a nearby lagoon. Not only were these circular anomalies photographed, but they remained in place long enough for investigators to study them more closely. The sighting and what caused this mysterious circle of swirling reeds remains a mystery today. However, it would prove to be one of many very similar encounters to unfold in the country over the following years, with other, similar encounters on record in the years prior. In short, something very strange unfolded in Australia during this time – encounters that researchers into strange events are continued to be fascinated by today, over 50 years later.

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…

When you think of the most deadly, man-killing animals in existence, you might think of the big cats, or alligators, or sharks… but don’t be too quick to dismiss birds as dealers of death. (Death-Dealing Fowl)

It’s one of the world’s most haunted places… it is a ship that you can now book a room in as a hotel. We’ll look at the very haunted Queen Mary. (The Haunted Queen Mary)

The result of an accidental pregnancy finds out later in life he might be the son of a demon. (Son of the Demon)

Most every item I bring to you here in Weird Darkness is going to have taken place in history – and most all of them you hear are going to be unnerving, or even horrifying… but there are some particularly macabre moments in history that stand out among the others. Most of which you’ve probably never heard of. (Macabre Moments in History)

Something strange happened in 1966 Australia. Lights in the skies, sightings of saucer shaped objects, and the start of what eventually came to be known as crop circles. It’s a mystery that still lingers today, and it appears to be a kind of catalyst for so many similar oddities to follow. (The Tully Nests Affair)

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: THE TULLY NESTS AFFAIR=====

(Continued from the introduction…)

According to most reports, at around 9 am on 19th January 1966, 28-year-old banana farmer, George Pedley, was driving his tractor toward an area of water known as Horseshoe Lagoon, around 100 feet across and approximately six feet deep. The small stretch of water was on the property of his neighbor, Albert Pennisi, in Euramo, near Tully in the north of Queensland.

As he came closer to the water, however, he noticed that the engine of his tractor appeared to be failing. He then heard a strange hissing sound, making him think there was a problem with one of the tires.

Before he could contemplate anything else, a large, silver-grey disc-shaped object suddenly rose into the air from the lagoon. Pedley watched in amazement as the object made its way to around tree-top height, tilting from side to side as it did so. He would estimate the object was around nine feet in height and approximately 25 feet across. He also noticed that the hissing sound had stopped and the object itself was completely silent. Then, with lightning speed, the object shot into the distance and disappeared in a flash.

After taking a second to contemplate what he had just seen, Pedley jumped down from the tractor and immediately made his way across the field to where the saucer had risen from. As he made his way through the reeds – many of which also grow from the bed of the water and protruded past the surface of the water – he stopped in amazement. There, in the middle of the lagoon, was a perfect circle that was clear of any reeds, and in which the water was gently swirling. What’s more, the size of this circle in the water, was the same size as a saucer-shaped craft.

Pedley went back to his tractor after contemplating what he was seeing. He was certain that the circular formation had not been there several hours earlier when he was near the water. And this time, he had brought Pennisi with him.

When they arrived there, however, they discovered reeds, flat on the water in a distinct circular swirling formation were now covering the circle. The two men decided to wade out into the water and to the circle. They were amazed to find that they could swim below the reeds and that they had all been pulled cleanly out of the lagoon bed, and not merely bent and shaped.

They further noticed that the outer edge of the circle of reeds appeared to be pointing down slightly as if an even amount of pressure was present around the outside of the circle.

Pennisi would take several photographs of the remarkable display before the reeds deteriorated, certain that the bizarre object his neighbor claimed to have seen was responsible for the nest. He would also recall that his dog had begun acting very much out of character at around 5:30 am, immediately heading toward the lagoon when he had let him outside. While he didn’t think anything of it at the time, it was clear to him now that he sensed the arrival of something strange near the water.

Pedley would ultimately report the incident to the Tully Police Department later that evening. They, in turn, would pass the report to the Air Force. Several days later, the account was in the hands of the media.

The usually sleepy area of Queensland was a sudden hive of activity as news reporters and UFO investigators descended on the region over the days and weeks that followed. And with the intense scrutiny came a plethora of possible explanations for the strange formation – none of which were particularly watertight.

Some people put forward that a large bird or a crocodile likely made the nest, while others claimed a helicopter or even a small, isolated whirlwind was responsible. The fact that Pedley had clearly seen the disc-shaped object rise from the lagoon only moments before he made the discovery was seemingly glossed over by many.

During various investigations, several other nests were also discovered, although these were all smaller than the first nest of that January morning. Whether these were “copy-cat” arrangements of the original is unknown, but many soon began to ridicule the farmers regarding their claims, and consequently, each would begin to pull away from the media. Although not before Pennisi had made some further remarkable revelations.

He would state to a reporter with the Sydney Sun newspaper that he had several dreams in the week leading up to the discovery of UFOs landing on his property. In the article, that appeared in the 24th January 1966 edition, Pennisi would state that he would have them “almost every night” and they eventually began to worry him somewhat. He would recall that these dreams were always the same, although he couldn’t understand the meaning of them. What he always did remember, though, was of a “giant dish (that) would come out of nowhere and land nearby”.

The sightings, ultimately, remain a complete mystery but are largely seen as very credible encounters in the UFO community. The vast majority of the explanations put forward were not only shown to be weak, but they were also largely actively disproven.

Just over three years later, another intriguing encounter unfolded. A monitoring device had been left set up in the Pennisi home by investigators. In the early hours of 8thFebruary 1969, again at around 5:30 am, the alarm went off. As Albert had left for work several hours earlier, his youngest son simply switched the alarm off and then thought little of it and went back to sleep.

However, when Albert arrived back and discovered the device switched off, he questioned his son and realized that something had been on the property that morning. He immediately made his way to the lagoon area and to his disbelief, saw a perfect circle in the water with reeds in a swirled formation on the top. He would also discover yet another nest at the far end of the lagoon. Although this second formation was much smaller, it was identical in appearance.

When investigators examined the areas beneath the circles, they discovered that not only had the reeds been cleanly uprooted, but that the entire area appeared to have been “vacuumed” – no stones, rubble, or even algae or insect life was present.

Even more intriguing, a tree near the large nest had scorch marks on several of its leaves nearest the anomaly on the water.

Much like the first encounter three years earlier, no explanation was reached. It is perhaps interesting to note that the alarm was activated at the same time as Pennisi’s dog had become alarmed three years previously on the morning of the first nest discovery. Whether this is a detail of consequence or not, also remains unknown.

Not only were there many other UFO reports from around Australia in the mid-1960s, there were also very similar to the Tully Nest incident. For example, according to the files of Bill Chalker, around a decade later near Murray Upper, a father awoke his daughter after himself being awoken by a brilliant orange glow outside. Fearing their property was on fire, they went about waking other family members in the house.

Bizarrely, they were unable to awake anyone else, and they both suddenly felt a surge of panic run through them. They each ran down the hallway, away from the source of the glow. Then, without knowing what had happened, each of them awoke in their own beds, and it was morning. More importantly, the house had not burned down and was very much still standing.

The pair spoke to each other at breakfast, convinced they had experienced some kind of shared dream. However, when they heard a news report of UFO sightings in the region the previous evening, they began to consider that their shared dream might have, in fact, been a very real shared experience.

When they went outside later that morning, they discovered a patch of sugar cane near their home that had been flattened in a perfect circle.

There is little else known about the incident, or whether either the father or the daughter were abducted by the occupants of the apparent craft or whether they were simply witness to the events – events their minds appeared to have suppressed – is unknown.

Another similar sighting occurred several years later in November 1971 in South Johnstone. According to the report, two locomotive drivers witnessed a strange, bright glowing light over a field during one of their journeys. They would radio a report of what they were seeing, but interference on the radio left traffic control more than confused. Ultimately, a search team was sent out to their last known location.

They would eventually discover the men, one of whom required treatment for severe shock, who told them what they had seen. An examination of the field revealed a depressed circular area of sugar cane.

Perhaps one of the earliest reports involving these strange circles being left behind in the wake of UFO sightings occurrences also took place in Euramo in September 1959. According to the files of Claire Noble, a local farmer, Max Menzel, was on his tractor when he witnessed a “brilliant large, conical craft” that he recalled being around 30 feet in length hovering directly over the sugar cane approximately 100 feet in front of him. A circular impression was later discovered where the craft had hovered.

As we will turn our attention to next, though, UFO sightings were occurring all over Australia during this time.

There were several other strange UFO sightings around the same time as the Tully Nest events.

Without a doubt, one of the most intriguing sightings of strange aerial objects in the skies of Australia occurred in Balwyn, Melbourne on the afternoon of 2nd April 1966. At around 2 pm on the day in question, an anonymous businessman was in his garden at home when he noticed a metallic disc-shaped object overhead.

Immediately realizing he was looking at something out of the norm he reached for his Polaroid camera and snapped a picture, which you can see below.

The picture was subject to many examinations and investigations, although there appeared to have been no evidence that it had been tampered, nor did it appear that any exposure faults were the cause of the anomalous object.

Only two nights later, at around 8 pm on 4th April in Burkes Flat, Victoria, Ron Sullivan was driving along a quiet road when he noticed a strange light appear in the sky ahead of him. At first, he thought it was the light of a tractor that was at work in one of the fields that ran along the roadside. However, the more he looked at it, the more he realized it was something altogether more peculiar than a mere tractor.

The single light now turned into some kind of bizarre light display. As he got closer, he could make out a clear oval shape on the top of the obscure glow. From this oval, a beam of light shone toward the ground in a cone shape. Inside this cone were multiple different “tubes of lights” of many different colors that went right through the spectrum. The lights appeared as though they were traveling up and down the tubes.

As he looked on, the light then appeared to contract until it had disappeared entirely. The sighting remains unexplained.

Arguably one of the most well-known UFO sightings in Australia during this time occurred only two nights after Ron Sullivan’s sighting, once more in Melbourne. According to reports – of which there are many – at around 11 am on the morning in question, multiple students at Westall High School, as well as at least one teacher, witnessed a disc-shaped object moving in the skies above the school grounds.

Witnesses would estimate that the object was approximately twice the size of an average car and appeared to have a strange “purple hue” around it. The object appeared to descend before leveling out and making its way across the school. It appeared to land somewhere out of sight behind some nearby trees.

During this time, more and more students had joined the initial group – with estimates being any up to 200 witnesses gathered on the school field. After around 20 minutes, all of those present witness the object suddenly rise into the air from behind the trees. It proceeded off into the distance at a considerable pace. Some witnesses even recall seeing five small aircraft appearing to pursue the object.

Interestingly, when the area where the UFO appeared to have landed was examined, there were three separate burnt patches of grass were discovered. A short time after the sighting, what appeared to be a military unit attended the scene and performed their own tests and examinations.

What happened next depends on the source. Some reports state that this military unit searched the area – including the barn nearby – high and low, as if looking for something specific, leaving the area in a ruin by the time they had finished. Other reports state the barn and other small buildings were burnt down.

Even more concerning, many of the witnesses – both staff members and students – received mysterious visits from members of this unit. Many were warned not to speak of the incident, with some who had already done so being threatened with criminal charges.

Whatever was seen that day over Westall High School, it appeared the authorities had an unusually intense interest in the events, suggesting they knew much more than did, or do, let on.

Several UFO encounters that occurred the previous year to the rise of activity in Australia in 1966 or also worthy of our time here. Without a doubt, one of the most intriguing occurred around 12 months before the Tully Nest incident, in January 1965 in Dorrington, Brisbane, and comes to us from the research files of Brian Vike.

According to the report, it was a little after midnight on the evening in question when the witness and his wife were getting ready for bed after spending the evening at a movie theatre. It was a particularly wet night, but just before they each climbed into bed, a sudden bright glow from outside lit up the room. The witness would recall it was as if someone had turned a huge spotlight onto them.

When the witness opened the window to try and see what the source of the light was, he noticed a huge, glowing object coming toward them from out of the clouds. He called to his wife to come to the window, which she duly did. Each of them could see the disc-shaped object with bright, glowing lights of different colors around its outside. It was traveling quite slowly – approximately around 20 miles per hour and was completely silent, to begin with.

Then, a high-pitched noise suddenly hit their ears causing each of them pain. Then, as the object passed directly over their house, the high pitch stopped. The pair rushed to the front patio, seeing the underside of the object clearly as they stepped outside. The witness recalled that the underneath was lit up with similar, bright-colored light to those around the edge. They also noted, unlike many reports, the object was stationary (to itself) as it moved and was not spinning.

They estimated the object to be between 200 to 300 feet across and approximately 200 feet above the ground. It remained in sight for approximately five minutes before finally disappearing into the distance.

The following morning, the couple was more than surprised that no one else in the house had seen the object, and equally so that there were no reports on the news or morning newspapers. Ultimately, they opted to keep the encounter to themselves.

In a bizarre twist, decades later, the witness happened to be enjoying a beer with an old friend in a local bar when he mentioned the sightings. Remarkably, his friend had witnessed it also, relaying how it had arrived from over the mountains with bright, glowing lights and moved calmly across the sky before disappearing. He too kept the sighting completely to himself. The witness eventually reported the sighting in the early 2000s.

A similar object was witnessed and photographed several months later in Adelaide. Although there is little known about the actual sighting, one of the witnesses did manage to capture a photograph. What little is known is that several people witnessed the object, which remained in the afternoon skies for around 20 minutes before it suddenly shot into the distance with great speed.

Around the same time, at around 5 pm on 19th July at Vaucluse Beach near Sydney, another multi-witness sighting of a metallic disc-shaped object was reported. On the afternoon in question, Dennis Crowe was walking along the beach when he noticed a strange glow in the distance. He walked closer to the strange light, and soon realized he was looking at a disc-shaped object that was resting on the beach on three small legs.

The object was approximately 20 feet across and was a dull gray color with some kind of “blue-green hue rim” around it. On the top part was a transparent domed section, although he could see no signs of activity inside. It was at this point that he realized how quiet his surroundings were, with the only sound being a dog barking somewhere in the distance.

He continued on toward the object, which remained completely silent and motionless. Then, when he was around 50 feet from it, the craft suddenly began to rise into the air. As it did so, a sound similar to “air being forced out of a balloon” could be heard. The object continued to rise into the air, gaining speed as it did so. It was completely out of sight within no more than 10 seconds.

Realizing he was the only person on the beach, Crowe reported his sighting. Eventually, a local geologist arrived at the scene and studied the ground where Crowe claimed the object had been resting on the sand. Intriguingly, not only did the geologist find evidence that a large, heavy object had been there, but within the parameters of this object, all plant life was dead or dying.

Following these findings, the media would take quite an interest in the incident. So much so, that the Royal Australian Air Force felt the need to offer a sudden explanation – ultimately, that a freak tornado was responsible for the sighting. Perhaps not surprisingly, many people, including Crowe, outright rejected this idea.

The sighting remains a complete mystery. However, we should point out that there are many more sightings than we might think that feature a disc-shaped craft sitting at a roadside – or in this case, a beach – which then suddenly rises into the air when approached. We might wonder if this sudden ascension is, in fact, automatically triggered by some kind of sensor on the vehicle as opposed to the alertness of any crew who might be on board.

UFO sightings and encounters, as well as claims of alien abduction, continue to happen in Australia today, much like they do around the world. Just what was, however, behind the surge of sightings in this part of the world in the mid-1960s, sightings that would often leave behind evidence that something strange had taken place, at the very least.

Were these objects that left behind this physical evidence the result of reverse-engineered alien technology? Were the sightings and strange nests that were discovered the consequences of test flights, landings, and take-offs. Might this be why there appeared to be such a drive to dismiss and, in some cases, destroy any evidence of such evidence?

Or, if these aerial vehicles were extraterrestrial in nature, why did these particular encounters leave behind apparent evidence of their visits? Were they an intentional message of some kind? Or might these visitors have been independent of other cosmic entities journeying here, their presence only temporary?

There is even the possibility that the objects that left behind this temporary evidence in Australia in the 1960s were drones of some kind, and contained no occupants at all. Perhaps they were here on some kind of reconnaissance mission, one that would later be followed by crewed missions.

Ultimately, the Tully Nest sighting and the similar encounters around the same time remain as mysterious today as they did when they happened almost half a century ago, and they continue to fascinate researchers and investigators today.

BREAK=====

Coming up… when you think of the most deadly, man-killing animals in existence, you might think of the big cats, or alligators, or sharks… but don’t be too quick to dismiss birds as dealers of death.

Plus… it’s one of the world’s most haunted places… it is a ship that you can now book a room in as a hotel. We’ll look at the very haunted Queen Mary.

These stories when Weird Darkness returns.

STORY: DEATH-DEALING FOWL=====

Are you someone who considers birds a great pet, with a bevy of cockatoos or parrots sitting peacefully in their cages? Or have you had another experience, like a chicken pecking at you as you collect eggs? Regardless of your experience, we have Alfred Hitchcock to thank for creating a fear of what many consider a harmless creature in “The Birds”. After watching it, you will likely form another opinion of ravens and seagulls. Interestingly, a flock of crows is called a “murder,” but crows are not the birds to be afraid of. Deaths caused by birds are rare, but they do happen and can be really freaky!

***Ostriches have the “head in the sand” reputation of being cowardly, preferring to run from threats. But when threatened or cornered, the powerful bird can be dangerous and will attack. In June 1999, Linda Carter was shocked to discover her father, 81-year-old Fred Parker, lying dead in an ostrich pen on her exotic animal farm near Seattle, Washington. Parker, who was afraid of ostriches according to his family, was living in a recreational vehicle on Carter’s farm. While alone one weekend, he took responsibility for feeding his daughter’s ostriches, emus, llamas, and pot-bellied pigs. Carter explained that the ostriches were supposed to be fed by throwing food over the fence and was unable to explain why her father had entered King Tut’s pen. The 400-pound bird stomped or kicked Parker and broke the man’s neck. It’s thought that Parker’s bad heart may have contributed to his death as well. One year earlier, King Tut kicked Carter, sending her flying more than 3 meters (10 feet). She defends the bird and maintains her booming business of selling ostrich meat and skin. “I have no intentions right now of destroying my ostrich because of my father’s death,” she said. “The ostrich was protecting his domain. It’s just like any wild animal. You don’t go in a bear’s pen; you don’t go in an ostrich’s pen.”

***A town in the Somali region of Ethiopia was under attack… by a terrifying martial eagle. Residents of the area believed all of the repeating attacks came from the same bird. In September 2019, at least three children were pecked or clawed by the vicious bird. One woman was in her house when she heard her son screaming. “We rushed outside the house. I saw [the bird] holding my son on the ground and biting him,” she told the BBC. “He was crying ‘Mother… Mother!’ I ran to him and threw a stick at the bird.” The action likely saved the boy’s life because another child was not so lucky—he was clawed to death. Armed with shoot-to-kill orders, police began actively hunting the vicious eagle. Authorities believe that the rogue eagle mistook children for its usual prey.

***The Taung child, unearthed in South Africa in 1924, is a hominid skull believed to be 2 million years old. It was long thought that the 3- or 4-year-old was killed by a leopard or a saber-toothed tiger. But in January 2006, Johannesburg paleoanthropologist Lee Berger asserted that the Taung child had been scooped up by a large bird of prey that ripped out and ate the child’s eyes. The murderous bird was likely a crowned hawk-eagle, which still today preys on small primates in Africa. The Taung child’s skull revealed bone damage that distinguishes bird-of-prey kills from those of big cats. “These critical clues were puncture marks in the base of the eye sockets of primates, made when the eagles ripped the eyes out of the dead monkeys with their sharp talons and beaks,” Berger said. “It was a marker that others hadn’t noted before, that linked eagles definitively to the kill.” The marks on the Taung child were perfect examples of eagle damage.

***An unnamed 76-year-old woman was gathering eggs from her rural Australian property in August 2019 when she was pecked to death by a rooster. The bird’s beak punctured a varicose vein, which hemorrhaged and caused the woman to collapse. She died from blood loss before paramedics arrived. In addition to her varicose veins, the victim had also been diagnosed with hypertension and Type II diabetes. “Even relatively small domestic animals may be able to inflict lethal injuries in individuals if there are specific vascular vulnerabilities present,” read a report in the Journal of Forensic Science, Medicine, and Pathology, adding that the freak incident shows how vulnerable the elderly are.

***In August 2021, an Australian woman was holding her 5-month-old daughter when a magpie swooped at them. As she attempted to avoid the bird’s dive-bomb attack, the mother tripped and fell. Baby Mia died from the head injuries she sustained in the fall. Magpies, which grow to about 40 centimeters (15 inches) long, are native to Australia. They are notorious for aggressively defending their nests, especially during the July to December breeding season. The sharp-beaked black-and-white birds are a protected species in Australia, where it is illegal to kill the bird or remove its chicks or eggs from the wild. But Queensland’s “Magpie Alert” website logged 1,231 magpie swoops in 2020. Thousands more were reported across the rest of Australia. More than one in ten people swooped by magpies suffer injuries. In 2020, a Melbourne man nearly had his eye plucked out by a magpie. In 2019, a 76-year-old Sydney man died of head injuries after crashing his bicycle while attempting to avoid a swooping magpie. And in 2018, a child in Perth was almost blinded when a magpie attacked his face while he sat in his stroller. “Swooping season only occurs when the male magpies are defending the chicks in the nest,” said Sean Dooley from BirdLife Australia. “While it’s only the male magpies that swoop and only 10 percent of males do swoop… the consequences, especially when people are caught unaware, can be truly terrifying and devastating.”

***A carrion bird was blamed for the unusual death of 67-year-old playwright Aeschylus. In 455 BC, the “Father of Greek Tragedy” died when the high-flying bird dropped its tortoise dinner on the man’s head. The bird, most likely an eagle or vulture, had likely mistaken the top of Aeschylus’s bald head for a rock or hard surface suitable for shattering the tortoise’s shell. The lammergeier vulture, common in southern Europe at the time, carried large bones high in the air and dropped them onto rocks before descending to feed on the exposed marrow (a technique that also worked for tortoise shells). Ironically, according to Naturalis Historia by Roman author Pliny the Elder, the tragedian Aeschylus had intentionally spent time outdoors to avert a prophecy that he would be killed by a falling object.

***Pigeons are both reviled and revered: detestable “rats with wings” to some and symbols of peace and domesticity to others. For at least 5,000 years, pigeon fanciers across the world have been practicing pigeon keeping. Bill Brailsford was a champion pigeon fancier for nearly 80 years. Brailsford kept his winning pigeons, sometimes as many as 170, at his Derby home. In September 2010, the 91-year-old died from extrinsic allergic alveolitis, a lung disorder resulting from repeated inhalation of organic dust. Brailsford’s grandson, 47, blamed the toxic dust created by the birds. “Pigeons were my grandad’s life; now he has been killed by them,” he said. After cleaning the birds out of his grandfather’s house, the younger Brailsford battled pneumonia and feared he was suffering from the same condition. “I would advise other pigeon fanciers to wear masks and probably not to keep so many,” he said. The coroner, who attributed the death to exposure to dust from pigeon droppings and bird food, recorded the death as accidental.

***In April 2019, an unnamed 70-year-old biker died after being hit by a wild turkey. The victim was riding his motorcycle when several turkeys began to cross the road in front of him. One of the turkeys took flight and hit the man in the chest. The man, who was wearing a helmet and protective clothing, lost control of his bike and hit a guardrail post, severing his leg below the knee. Medics transported him to a nearby hospital, where he died from his injuries. Spring is the breeding season for wild turkeys in the East Northcentral U.S. The birds can become aggressive at this time, occasionally even charging, threatening, and acting aggressively toward people.

***In southern India, in February 2021, 45-year-old Thanugula Satish was killed by his own cockerel at an illegal cockfight. The young rooster had a 7-centimeter (3-inch) knife—a “kodi kathi”—attached to its leg and impaled its owner in the groin while attempting to escape the fight. Satish bled to death on the way to the hospital. Police searched for the dozen or so people involved in the event—they faced charges of manslaughter, hosting a cockfight, and illegal betting. (Cockfighting was made illegal in India in 1960). The knife-wielding rooster was sent to live on a farm but will be called as evidence at the trial. In January 2020, 55-year-old Saripalli Venkateswara Rao died after his throat was slashed by his bird’s kodi kathi. While raiding an illegal cockfight in October 2020, Philippine police lieutenant Christine Bolok bled to death after a rooster’s blade sliced his femoral artery.

***If there was any doubt that birds are dinosaurs, the cassowary puts it to rest. Native to Papua New Guinea and Australia, the cassowary is considered the most dangerous bird on the planet. Smithsonian Magazine describes the prehistoric-looking monstrous creature like this: “Imagine an ostrich as described by H.P. Lovecraft, or maybe a turkey fused with a velociraptor. Weighing in at close to [68 kilograms] 150 pounds, she stands on powerful reptilian legs that let her stretch to [1.8 meters] six feet tall when she needs her full height. Though flightless, the cassowary is covered in a coat of long black feathers, against which her brilliant blue visage—crowned by a towering, keratinous casque—stands out like a symbol in a dream.” The cassowary’s weapon is its claws. On each three-toed foot is a 12.7-centimeter (5-inch) toenail, “probably the closest thing you’ll find in nature to a railway spike.” The deadly talon can disembowel a human in an instant. The cautious, defensive, flightless bird rarely attacks without provocation, but it doesn’t take much to provoke it. A Florida man who raised cassowaries was killed by one of his own. Marvin Hajos, age 75, fell between two cassowary pens in April 2019. The motion either startled one of the cassowaries or simply presented the opportunity for the bird to attack Hajos through the fence. The medical examiner said that Hajos died from the trauma inflicted by the bird and added, “I know ostriches and emus have their moments, but cassowaries are an extremely, extremely dangerous bird. You don’t want to fool around with them. They have no sense of humor.” Cassowaries are bred for their meat in New Guinea, where they remain part of the diet. But in the U.S., they are more likely bred for high-paying hobbyists who want to add the monstrous bird to their exotic animal collections. Following Hajos’s death, the killer bird went up for auction with 100 or so fellow exotic animals kept on the Florida property.

STORY: THE HAUNTED QUEEN MARY=====

If you’re anything like me, when you hear “Queen Mary,” you immediately think of the ship, transformed into a hotel, in Long Beach, California. Reportedly haunted, the hotel boasts more than 150 spirits. While not violent, the ghosts still make their presence known.

The Queen Mary started out as “Hull Number 534” when construction began in December 1930. It was fitted with 24 Yarrow boilers in four boiler rooms and four Parsons turbines in two engine rooms. Queen Mary achieved 32.84 knots on her acceptance trials in early 1936.

The ship was named after Mary of Teck, consort of King George V. Legend has it that the original plan was to name the ship Victoria, in keeping with the company tradition of giving its ships names ending in “ia.” When company representatives asked the King’s permission to name the ocean liner after Britain’s “greatest Queen”, he said his wife, Mary of Teck, would be delighted. This story was (and still is) denied by company officials, and traditionally the names of sovereigns have only been used for capital ships of the Royal Navy.

The Queen Mary sailed on her maiden voyage on May 27, 1936 and won the Blue Riband that August. She lost the title to SS Normandie in 1937 and recaptured it in 1938, holding it until 1952, when it was taken by the new SS United States. With the outbreak of World War II, she was converted into a troopship and ferried Allied soldiers during the conflict.

After the war, The Queen Mary was refitted for passenger service and along with the ship Queen Elizabeth commenced the two-ship transatlantic passenger service for which they were initially built. They dominated the transatlantic passenger transportation market until the dawn of the jet age in the late 1950s and by the mid-1960s, Queen Mary was aging and operating at a loss.

She ran for several years with decreasing profits until she was officially retired from service in 1967. She left Southampton for the last time on 31 October 1967 and sailed to the port of Long Beach, California, United States, where she was permanently moored. The City of Long Beach bought the ship to serve as a tourist attraction featuring restaurants, a museum and a hotel.

Since then, the city contracted out management of the ship to various third-party firms over the years before taking back operational control in 2021 when the operator filed for bankruptcy and it was found that extensive repairs were needed to keep the ship from sinking.

Today, the Queen Mary is maintained as a hotel, museum, and event center. It hosts educational tours as well as haunted ones. Guests can “Dine” with the spirits or catch a show. Join a paranormal investigation, or just stay in a haunted room.

Here are some of the most notable haunts on the ship.

What was once a luxurious swimming pool, complete with an illuminated fountain, beautiful mosaic tiles, and a mother of pearl ceiling sits abandoned. The pool, no longer in use due to issues with the California code, is considered to be a hotbed of activity.

People have reportedly seen several ghosts in the area, including a woman in an old wedding gown next to the pool with a little boy in a suit. They have spotted a younger woman, wearing a tennis skirt, walking down the stairs before disappearing behind a pillar. Then there’s the little girl. Guests have reported seeing a cloud of steam appear out of nowhere along with a little girl in a blue and white dress, who disappears in an instant.

It is reported that a little girl drowned in the pool.

Other children can be heard laughing and crying in what was the third-class playroom and nursery.

In 1948, a British third-class passenger named Walter J. Adamson, passed away in stateroom B340. While details of his death are unknown, it is believed he still resides in the room. Guests have reported being woken when their bed covers were pulled off. One woman, in 1966, reported seeing a man standing at the foot of the bed. She screamed and rang for the steward, but the man mysteriously disappeared.

Guests have also reported hearing knocking on the door in the middle of the night, and have witnessed the bathroom lights turn on when no one was around. The bathroom doors have also been known to shut on their own. Even hotel maids have been known to complain that after days of the room being unoccupied, they will still enter to find the bathroom water running.

B340 was once three third-class staterooms, but was remodeled to be a single guest room suite.

What was once the ship’s beauty salon, and now used for offices, the Mayfair room has its own spirit. The story says that in 2001, a member of the accounting staff went in early for work – 5:30am early. As she went about her business, she felt that something was off. When she finally sat down at her desk, she noticed that it was unusually cold, but she continued working.

Then, sometime later, she felt someone brush up against the back of her chair. Turning around, there was no one there. Minutes later, she saw a transparent figure in white, walking across the room before passing through the door.

Then there’s the lounge, also known as the Mauritania room. Guests and employees have reported seeing a passenger in the middle of the room. One such story, from 1989 claims that two women, sent to clean the lounge for a VIP reception, found a passenger sitting on a chair in the middle of the dance floor.

When a third woman came in she too, saw the passenger, who now appeared to be staring. She asked the passenger to move, but when they didn’t the employees picked up the phone to call security. Then, before their eyes, the passenger faded.

Now, for rooms one might expect to be haunted, there’s the boiler room #4. Here people have reported seeing a little girl, who sometimes has a doll with her, and other times is seen sucking her thumb.

Hatch door #13, also known as Shaft Alley, was the site of a horrible accident. One night, in 1966, the watertight doors in the engine and boiler rooms were ordered to be closed. About five minutes later, an 18-year-old crew member from Yorkshire was found crushed in the door of Hatch #13. He was trapped with his arms pinned to his side.

He was freed and still alive, taken to the hospital ward. He showed obvious signs of the crushing injury on his arms, chest, and pelvis, and was bleeding from his nose. He was given an injection of morphine, but died shortly thereafter.

Unfortunately, the man never really left the ship. His ghost, spotted as the figure of a bearded man in blue coveralls can be seen from time to time. Several guests have reported seeing an engineer wandering the hallways asking guests if they’ve seen his wrench. When they look back to find him, he’s gone.

Other guests have noticed spots of grease appearing on their faces – grease that looks like fingerprints. They’ve even heard the sound of someone running behind them and whistling.

If you’d rather see for yourself, book a room, or a tour – or better yet, both. I’ve placed a link in the show notes so you can do just that.

BREAK=====

When Weird Darkness returns… most every item I bring to you here in Weird Darkness is going to have taken place in history – and most all of them you hear are going to be unnerving, or even horrifying… but there are some particularly macabre moments in history that stand out among the others. Most of which you’ve probably never heard of.

STORY: MACABRE MOMENTS IN HISTORY=====

Some historical moments just can’t be erased from the brain. Disturbing mysteries or true stories with grotesque or terrifying details can swim around in your conscious memory day and night.

From humanity’s surprising obsession with mummy cannibalism, to mysterious archaeological findings with unsettling explanations, these creepy things from history will stay with you, probably for longer than you’d like.

***Six months after Pearl Harbor, the salvage crews who raised the remains of the USS West Virginia from the ocean found three cadavers in an airtight storeroom, along with empty emergency food rations, used batteries, and a calendar marked with 16 red X’s from December 7-23. Once the cadavers were found, fellow service members and friends didn’t have the heart to tell their families how they perished. Ronald Endicott, Clifford Olds, and Louis “Buddy” Costin were trapped inside the ship when it sank. On December 7, most service members thought the banging noises they heard coming from the West Virginiawere pieces of loose rigging hitting the side of the ship. As the other surrounding noises grew fainter, they realized men were still alive in the storeroom. Because the water around the battleship was covered in oil, rescuers couldn’t use a torch to create an escape. Besides, cutting any type of hole in the vessel would immediately cause the whole room to flood. Marines and sailors dreaded having to stand duty anywhere within earshot of the wreckage, knowing they would hear the cries of their friends stuck on board with no way to help them. The fates of Endicott, Olds, and Costin remained a well-kept secret for 54 years. All three of their headstones still claim they perished on December 7, 1941.

***On July 2, 1816, a French naval vessel, the Medusa, got stuck on a sandbar off the coast of Africa. The incident immediately caused a scandal because the incompetent captain, Hugues Duroy de Chaumareys, had earned his position due to political connections. After three days of trying to redirect the ship, the crew decided to abandon the vessel. More than 400 people were aboard, but the lifeboats could hold only around 250. De Chaumareys chose to save himself and his senior officers, leaving 146 ship passengers to fend for themselves on a hastily and poorly constructed raft. The unfortunate raft passengers spent a grueling 13 days at sea, with only a bag of biscuits, some water, and a few casks of wine to survive. Out of desperation and growing hostility among the group, many were thrown overboard in fights, or slain and eaten by the remaining people afloat. By the time they were rescued, only 15 men had survived.

***To onlookers, he was a handsome gentleman from Budapest who ran a successful tin business and threw elaborate parties. But behind closed doors, the eligible bachelor killed and mutilated at least 23 women before pickling their bodies and storing them in steel drums on his property. In 1903, Béla Kiss began placing ads in newspapers under the alias “Hoffman,” claiming to be a lonely widower looking for a companion. When a woman responded, he would convince her to give him all her money and assets before luring her into his home, where he would strangle her with a rope or his bare hands. He drained each woman’s blood by making an incision in her neck, then placed her body in a steel barrel filled with methanol. Kiss stored the drums, filled with the pickled women’s remains, on his property, eventually arousing suspicion from neighbors. Still, most people assumed he was using the drums to store gasoline. The women’s remains were undetected on his property until he was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army in 1914. After hearing rumors that Kiss had been killed in action, his landlord went through his belongings to make room for a new tenant. When he opened the first drum, the landlord was overcome by the smell of a decomposing corpse. He called the constable, who opened the remaining drums to find 24 pickled cadavers. Kiss never returned home, and was never seen or heard from again. His fate, along with the names of many of his victims, remains unknown.

***Madame Delphine LaLaurie, a New Orleans socialite in the 1830s, often threw parties in her Royal Street home, where several enslaved people served her guests and attended to her needs. We covered her story a bit more indepth in the Weird Darkness podcast several months ago, and I’ll leave a link to the episode in the show notes for you. While she outwardly treated the enslaved people politely, she hid a horrific secret behind closed doors. On April 10, 1834, a house fire revealed that she had been tormenting and slaying them. The year before, LaLaurie had been ordered to sell the enslaved people after she chased a small enslaved girl over the mansion’s roof to her death. She then sold them to loyal friends and family members who helped her sneak them back into the estate. When firefighters arrived at the scene the night of April 10, they found an enslaved woman chained up in the kitchen, unable to escape, while LaLaurie was frantically trying to save her furniture from the flames. The 70-year-old Black enslaved woman told officials she started the fire to escape from the pain she was enduring, then directed them to the attic. There, firefighters found seven malnourished enslaved people wearing iron-spiked collars. Some had gaping holes in their heads, some were weighed down by heavy chains around their feet, and all were incredibly thin and covered in scars. Although her reputation was ruined, LaLaurie was never charged for her offenses.

***Though people recognize honey as a tasty treat that can heal everything from cuts and scrapes to seasonal allergies, its use for mummification often goes overlooked. The ancient Assyrians embalmed the deceased with honey, and Alexander the Great was reportedly submerged in a coffin full of the amber liquid. But in 16th-century China, people combined honey’s use as a food and embalming substance: They ate mummies covered in honey to cure all types of ailments. The mummification process started while the person was still alive. The process, mellification, gave the elderly population an opportunity to donate their cadavers to science. As they neared the end of their lives, they stopped eating or drinking anything but honey. Eventually, their insides basically turned into the substance; they would sweat, defecate, and bleed honey until they perished. Then, their cadavers were placed in coffins filled with honey and left to marinate for about a century. Once the body had turned into a sugary blob of candy, it was sold by merchants as a healing tonic. Patients could use it topically to treat scrapes and broken bones or ingest it to heal internal ailments. Although no concrete evidence exists that patients used the mellified human remains as medicine, corpse medicine was common at the time, and archaeological dig sites suggest that honey entombment was a part of cultural practice. This, too, was covered in a previous episode of Weird Darkness, I’ll place a link to the Mellification episode in the show notes.

***Johan de Witt, the son of an influential Dutch aristocrat, became ruler of Holland during the “Dutch Golden Age” in 1653. His subjects loved de Witt, and he was reelected for three consecutive terms. Although he successfully maintained peace with other European nations, his extreme dislike of the Orange monarchy, a branch consisting of Europe’s social elite, caused tension among the nation’s political sects. De Witt’s hatred was so intense that he refused to appoint the Prince of Orange to a political position. The fragile peaceful equilibrium de Witt created between the Dutch and neighboring countries came to an abrupt halt in 1672 when Louis XIV declared war on the Dutch Republic, with England joining the French. Though the Dutch navy was prepared to fight, de Witt had overlooked the Dutch army. This fateful oversight caused upheaval among the Dutch people as France repeatedly besieged their homeland. The Dutch ultimately blamed de Witt and his inattention to the Dutch inland army for the catastrophic losses. Dutch law enforcement detained de Witt’s brother, Cornelis, after charging him with treason and conspiracy against William III – the Prince of Orange. In August 1672, Johan de Witt resigned before he left to visit his brother in prison. Unfortunately for the once-beloved ruler, a lynch mob waited for him at the Gevangenpoort prison. With no guards present to stop them, the mob ripped de Witt and his brother to pieces before hanging their cadavers by their feet in the center of town. Then, group members cut up what remained of their mangled cadavers, selling off the pieces of flesh, meat, and bones for 10 sous apiece. Though it can’t be confirmed, it’s rumored that the Dutch people ate Johan de Witt’s body parts after his demise. William III never pressed charges.

***In 1920, behaviorist John Watson set out to expand psychologist Ivan Pavlov’s study of conditioning in dogs, deciding he should test the theory on humans. In the famous controversial study, Watson paid the mother of a 9-month-old baby $1 to purposefully create a fear-based response in the child. After placing the baby boy, nicknamed “Little Albert,” in a room, he introduced several objects to see how the baby would respond. In the beginning, Little Albert was unafraid of the white rats, monkeys, masks, and burning newspapers placed in the room with him. However, his reaction dramatically changed when Watson started making startlingly loud noises every time the rat entered the room. Eventually, Little Albert correlated the scary noise with the rat and began fearfully crying at the mere sight of the animal. The little boy and his mother moved away before Watson and his colleagues had the opportunity to decondition him. Because the psychologist referred to the child only by his nickname in notes, the experiment’s lasting results and the child’s welfare remained a mystery for almost a century. While some considered the experiment entirely unethical from the beginning, Watson’s work fell under even more scrutiny once the mystery of the child’s identity was solved. In 2010, Appalachian State University’s Hall P. Beck, along with his colleagues and students, spent seven years uncovering historical documents and using facial recognition technology to identify the child and reveal his tragic fate. They believed the little boy’s name was Douglas Merritte, and he died from hydrocephalus (a build-up of fluid in his brain) when he was 6, a condition he had since birth. In 2012, Beck and Alan J. Fridlund revealed an even more disturbing aspect of the tragedy when they presented substantial evidence that Watson knew of the baby’s condition the entire time he was conditioning his fearful responses. Another possible “Little Albert” was identified in 2014, however. Researchers posited that the little boy was Albert Barger. Born on the same day as Merritte, Barger had characteristics that resembled those of “Little Albert,” his mother worked at the same hospital as Merritte’s mother, and he also grew up to fear furry animals. His name (which was actually his middle name but the one he went by throughout his life) also supports claims that Barger was “Little Albert.”

***In 1996, archaeologists uncovered a mass grave in Herxheim, Germany, of over 500 men, women, and children whose muscles, tissues, and organs were cut from their cadavers postmortem. After examining the bones, experts believe that all of these people were healthy at the time of their passing. They disagree on whether or not the remains display signs of human butchering practices or reburial rituals. Bruno Boulestin of the University of Bordeaux in France believes the bones belong to enslaved people, war prisoners, and others who were subjected to a cannibalistic ritual 7,000 years ago. The remains show signs of butchering, where meat was stripped from the bones and brains, and facial tissues were removed from the skulls. Other experts remain skeptical about why the meat was stripped from the bones of the dead. Jörg Orschiedt of the University of Leipzig and Miriam Haidle of the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum maintain that the missing jawbones on the cadavers indicate a reburial scenario, much like those performed in ancient Egypt.

***China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, was a highly ambitious ruler. By the time he passed in 210 BCE, he had successfully united China’s six quarreling states to create a peaceful, unified nation. His interment site is famously surrounded by the Terracotta Army, a collection of over 8,000 ceramic soldiers and horses meant to protect Qin Shi Huang in the afterlife. Ironically, he never intended to end up in this massive mausoleum. The emperor spent his short 39 years searching villages near and far to find an elixir for immortality. Unfortunately, this very quest most likely ended his life. When over 36,000 slips of bamboo covered in ancient calligraphy surfaced in 2002, researcher Chunlong Zhang set to work deciphering them. Zhang found 48 medicine-related slips, confirming that the emperor placed a decree on the nation in pursuit of a potion that would allow him to live forever. Some slips even revealed the villager’s responses to the request, offering special elixirs or expressing regret that they hadn’t found a solution. One of the substances he regularly ingested was cinnabar, also known as mercury sulfide. Experts attributed Qin Shi Huang’s cinnabar habit to his belief that the substance would help him live for eternity. Instead, he was inflicting himself with mercury poisoning.

***During the prehistoric ages, dragonflies were the size of seagulls. While scientists used to believe this occurred because the enormous insects thrived on the higher amounts of oxygen in the atmosphere at the time, recent studies present an alternative answer. Some experts now argue that too much oxygen can be a bad thing, and insect larvae had to increase in size to avoid oxygen poisoning. Around the same time frame that giant dragonflies flew across the skies, the swampland forestation levels led to a 30% increase in oxygen levels, about 50% more than what we breathe daily now. According to experts, this atmospheric phenomenon during the Carboniferous period also provided a way for the giant insects and bugs to thrive once the levels of oxygen in the atmosphere began to decrease. As the avian population adapted, birds became the most dominant animals in the skies. If giant dragonflies don’t bother you, consider 9-foot millipedes, 8-foot scorpions, and long-legged cockroaches that could turn their heads to spot their prey. Aren’t you glad you didn’t live with the Flintstones?

BREAK=====

Up next on Weird Darkness… the result of an accidental pregnancy finds out later in life he might be the son of a demon.

STORY: SON OF THE DEMON=====

This story happened to my mother and some supernatural thing that surrounds me.

I was an accidental baby. Being an accident, my mother does not want me to be born. She was considering aborting me. She had a last-minute change of heart after intense crying and praying in Quiapo church.

A few months later, she was having a sleepover at a friend’s house. Her friend’s house is famous for supernatural occurrences and miscarriages. Two of my mother’s friends miscarried in the house. They all thought it was a coincidence. However, during that sleepover, my mother woke up and saw her friend entering the bedroom. My mother pretended to sleep and she felt cold hands massaging her tummy. My mother then began to fall asleep.

The following day she hurriedly went home because she thought that something is wrong. She really feels that I am not moving. She called a friend and explained what happened. Her friend suggested going to a “manggagamot” (a healer of some sort that has some sort of supernatural power). The manggagamot touched my mother’s tummy but quickly let go. She exclaimed that she did not do anything to my mother yet. She told my mother that I already don’t have a heart beat, and I am dead. My mother went into hysterics. She cried and pleaded to the healer to help her. The healer does not really want to do anything since I am already dead. But my mother was persistent and the healer was forced to do a ritual. I’m not exactly sure what ritual but my mother said it involved water, candles, some plants, chanting, and prayers. After the ritual, my mother’s tummy began to move. She felt that I was kicking in her tummy to the point that she can small bumps of kick in her stomach. I was alive again.

A few days or weeks after giving birth to me, my mother was sleeping and my grandmother was there looking after us. Suddenly, she noticed an entity, a demon, near my crib. My mother quickly snatched me from my crib and she began crying. She crouched in a position that protects me from the demon. My grandmother was asking what was wrong. My mother said that there’s a demon, and in the arms of a demon is also a baby demon. The demon was smiling and pointing at me. The demon said to my mother, that the child is his. After that, my grandmother took me from my mother’s arms and told my mother to close her eyes to stop seeing the demon. She assured my mother that she will protect me from anything. After that night, the demon never appeared again.

Now, my father once told me that I killed a kitten while playing with it. After that, he told everyone that he foresees that I am going to be a killer. A few other people who say they can read fortunes also said that I am going to become a killer or I will kill someone in the future. Because of this, my mother raised me to be a God-fearing and good person.

To be honest, I am a bit of an empath. I know the emotions of others and manipulate those emotions to better benefit me. Having empathy as psychic power is taxing. While I did abuse such a gift before, I am certainly not using it anymore because I feel like invading personal privacy.

Anyway, throughout my childhood to teenage years, I always have this thought of razing our town to the ground or about murder. It was in adulthood that I was able to control this thought. Although, I still have them but I know that I will not act on them unless necessary. Right now, I am taking law. I am hoping that if what they are saying of me as a killer is true, I will have to do it as an act of justice or out of the defense of somebody. I will do my best not to be evil. Although I know that I can’t be on the good side, I can strive to be on the side of justice.

SHOW CLOSE=====

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 Tully Nests Affair” by Marcus Lowth for UFO Insight

“Death-Dealing Fowl” by Darci Heikkinen for ListVerse

“The Haunted Queen Mary” from The Scare Chamber

“Son of the Demon” by HauntedJurist, posted at YourGhostStories.com

“Macabre Moments in History” by Lauren Glen for Ranker

Again, you can find link to all of these stories in the show notes.

WeirdDarkness™ – is a production and trademark of Marlar House Productions. Copyright, Weird Darkness.

Now that we’re coming out of the dark, I’ll leave you with a little light… “The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests the heart.” — Proverbs 17:3

And a final thought… “If God led you to it, He will lead you through it.” — Author Unknown

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

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