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I have been listening to the Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club, which actually Elena recommended to me.
She did not listen to it, but she said, girl, this title sounds so you.
And let me tell you, it did. I've been listening to it while I walk, and I am absolutely loving it.
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Podcasts. Hey, weirdos. I'm Alayna. I'm Ash.
And this is Morbid. Yeah, it is. Thank you.
Thank you. And it's like spooky edition morbid.
It is spooky edition because, you know. It's the month of October, and I figured we're, I mean, most of the time we do true crime.
But every now and then we'll do like a little haunted area of the world.
Yeah, and we've only done like a handful of those.
But sometimes they're so much fun. Yeah, and I feel like, so because we do two episodes a week, like...
Let me just brush that dirt off my shoulder real quick.
No, I'm totally kidding. But because we do two episodes a week, we figured the month of October, we could kind of switch it around and do something fun. and do one murder case a week, like true crime, and then one... paranormally spookier case a week yeah just for the month of october just spooky season so for the next couple of weeks you're gonna get one spooky thing and one true crime Yeah, because why not?
It's fun. I love it. Ghosts are Halloweeny, so let's do it.
I mean, most of our listener tales are like paranormal.
Yeah. Like nine out of ten times we get a paranormal one.
And they're fun as hell. And they're hella fun.
And, you know, maybe we could do witches, ghosts, you know, something paranormal.
We can do something. Yeah. Just look forward to that.
Something morbid. Yeah, you know? And then I think...
This week we also dropped just a random extra episode that was ad-free.
That was the Samhain. episode no no sam hayne the sam hayne episode and the origins of halloween And we will just do that every now and then whenever we can.
Yeah. There's not going to be a schedule for it.
We're not going to promise anything. We're just going to tell you.
Every once in a while, we'll try to drop an ad-free one in there whenever we can.
We'll just be like... Woo! Here you go.
Have it. And you know why? Because we love you.
And we cherish you. And we appreciate you.
And we want to stroke your hair. We do. I ran out of things to say.
But we do. We want to stroke your hair. We do.
So we hope you, it seemed like everybody enjoyed that one.
That one was a fun one. It was fun to research and it was really fun to talk about.
I'm pretty excited to do egg yolks with you.
Yeah, there you go. And people were telling us about this.
And also, a lot of people requested the Day of the Dead, Dia de los Muertos.
Oh, good job. And I think that's a great one to do.
Yes. So I'm gonna do it. Are we going to do it next week?
I think I should do it next week. I think so too.
I think I should. So you do that for like the like. creepy like haunted episode and i'll do a true crime episode exactly there you go just planning on the air and who i mean yeah we'll we'll see we'll see what happens but you're gonna you're gonna get it yeah October is fun because we can kind of like switch around what we already had planned and fit in some more spooky stuff.
So thank you guys for recommending that and suggesting that.
And we're excited to do it. yeah so without further ado boom so it's the spooky episode time It is the spooky episode time.
I have to tell you where I came up with the idea to do this.
You do. It all started at Target. Sure did.
As most great ideas start. As most have migrated. yes so i was at target in the checkout line and annie was like buying all our stuff and i was like oh my god so nice and then i saw this magazine And normally I don't buy myself magazines because they're ridiculously overpriced.
Sure. But. I said, Annie, will you buy me this Life magazine with the 15 most haunted places in the world?
And she said, yes. And so I got it. And she said yes.
And then I was reading through it and I found this place that I'm going to talk about. and it's england's most haunted home oh i'm I'm ready.
So I'm here. I was like, I have to tell the weirdos about this.
Oh, I'm so excited. You might already know.
So the Borley Rectory, like I said, is often referred to as England's most haunted home.
We love the most haunted anything. So it was built by this reverend named Henry Dawson Ellis Bull because everybody back then had four names.
Yes, I trust him immediately. Do you? No, there's really no reason not to trust him because I felt trusting of him.
Good. Well, he built this home and it was completed in 1863.
So we're in the way back machine. Wow. Henry was the rector of Borley Church nearby, and he was a husband and a father to just a 14 kids.
Oh, just a little handful. Just a couple of kiddos running around.
Just a strong handful of children. They needed a big old house to fit them all in.
They sure did. So they were constantly adding more rooms and more construction.
But like I said, it was finally done in 1863.
It's like the Winchester Mystery House. Yes, exactly.
Adding on rooms for kids. Less upside down things.
Yeah. The home itself was built on the grounds that used to be home to another rectory that was the Herringham Rectory.
I probably said that wrong. I like it. Thanks.
And before that, it was said to have been another building that nobody remembered.
And then before... We didn't give a shit about that other building.
Yo, fuck that building. Fuck you, other building.
And before that, well, nobody really knows.
Oh. But... There were rumors that the grounds were also once home to a monastery...
Where this really good looking monk was living.
We love a hot monk. Oh, so hot right now.
We love it. Ooh, monk. It's so hot right now.
Well, down the street from the monastery, happened to be a nunnery because the olden days.
Oh, shit's about to get wild. And wouldn't you know it, Elena?
Oh, I know it. there was also a good looking nun who lived there.
We love a hot nun. So the two of them crossed paths one day and they were like, holy shit, we're both so attractive.
Also we're nice people, so we're in love.
Oh, I love that. Isn't that so sweet? i want them to work out and then they were like well they were like let's run away and get married i love that uh duh I mean, they had a few like rendezvous in the woods before that whole marriage talk, but you get the point.
Hell yeah, they did. Yeah, they rendezvoused in the woods.
They both were hot. And then they're like, let's get married.
Let's get it. It is not a ghost story or a haunting without a monk, a hot monk, a hot nun, and some rendezvous in the woods.
Hot, hot rendezvous. Yeah. Recipe for a beautiful haunting.
I'm ready. So they make this whole plan together.
And they actually got this friendly coachman Who was going to whisk them away into their new life.
And they would have lived happily ever after.
But some shit went down. Because it's haunted, so duh.
So there's a few different accounts of what happened.
One is that they got in a fight and that the monk strangled her.
Oh, I hate that. And then he got caught and was hanged for his crimes.
But I don't believe that because... Love.
Because they were love. And monks are known to be like very chill people.
I feel that way. I feel like he didn't strangle her in love.
Another version of the story is that they were caught together And because neither of them was supposed to have a love life, the monk was hanged for his crimes.
So either way, he gets hanged. And then the nun was boarded up in the cellar of the monastery.
Holy shit. Like, they just, like, boarded her up Edgar Allen Post style.
I mean... That's the story I'm going with.
Oh, yup. Because it involves them like getting caught in their love, which I'm like.
You still love each other. Yeah, no matter what, it ends with love.
And someone else was the one who did something terrible.
Yeah. And I love a good Edgar Allen Poe, like H.H.
Holmes, board up in the wall kind of situations.
I'm surprised that you didn't just yell at me for saying catacombs.
Yeah, I just was going to let it go. The catacombs.
Catacombs. So yeah, so she was boarded up in the wall and that's sad.
That's a bummer. But there's like a big problem with this entire story because there's no record of a monastery ever being on the grounds.
Oh, shit. Ever. And then there's no record of a nun being killed that way.
They're like sentenced for anything. So I don't know.
Womp womp. But there is a record of a nun haunting the shit out of the Borley Rectory.
I bet it's her. So. We're back to the home.
I told you it was huge. It had more than 20 rooms.
There were stables on the ground. a cottage, and everything was on nine acres of land.
I bet he had a great office. I need an office.
I bet he did have a great office. A lot of rooms.
I didn't even think of that. You can make a really great office with that many rooms.
He was cool as shit. So Henry Bull was rumored to have built a cottage facing the woods and and like to this particular path that the family referred to as Nun's Walk.
This is amazing. So he built this specific thing to look at this place that they called Nun's Walk.
Yeah. Because he wanted to communicate with the ghost of the nun.
Yes. He literally just wanted to talk to her so bad.
This is great. On multiple occasions, he had seen her walking along the path of the woods, but he was never able to talk to her.
Oh man. He tried all the time to talk to her.
You should have put an ad in that like missed connections thing.
I know, right? If I was his wife, I'd be like, why do you want to talk to this nun so bad?
What's this nun got that I don't? You have 14 kids.
I think I gave you all of those. What, she got an eternal afterlife?
I don't... What the fuck? I love it. So he would see her and she would just disappear and he never got the chance to talk to her.
And his four daughters saw the nun for the first time when three of them were coming home from a party.
So Ethel Mabel, excuse me, Ethel Mabel and Frida, I think. were walking up to the house when they saw her and they thought that she was like a real life alive nun.
They're like, oh, lost nun in the woods.
Exactly. But they noticed that she didn't seem to be walking and she was like kind of floating.
And she didn't... It's different. It is different.
You don't see that every time. And she was floating and she didn't look very happy.
All right. So they got freaked out a little bit.
I definitely would. And they ran inside to get their older sister, Caroline.
And Caroline was like... You guys, it's fine.
It's probably like, remember, they're in a rectory, so it's not.
It's crazy to see a nun on the ground. No, definitely not.
And they're like, it's probably a sister of mercy, like running an errand for the church or she needs something from dad.
Just levitating. It's all good. She's just levitating.
Hashtag none shit. You probably just can't see her feet and you guys just got back home from a party.
So who knows? so you might have got turnt maybe you got turnt 1900 style or at this point 1800 style whoa That's a different kind of turn.
They were probably drinking hooch back then.
So... Caroline ran out to see what the nun needed because she was a good Samaritan.
And as she was running out to talk to her, she's like running up to her.
She sees her. The nun just disappears. Poof.
Gone. That's different than a normal nun.
I feel it. so caroline was like cool cool cool cool The town of Agde in France is famous for sun, sand, sea and sex.
But lately, life on the coast has taken a strange turn.
The town's mayor, a respected pillar of the community, has been arrested for corruption.
His wife claims he's been bewitched by a beautiful clairvoyant.
Then there's the mysterious phone calls that local people have been getting I am the Archangel Michael The whole town has been thrown into chaos.
As the mayor is unable to carry out his duties, I would like to address you all.
Legal proceedings have been initiated. Join me, Anna Richardson, and journalist Leo Schick for The Mystic and the Mayor. as we investigate a story of power, corruption and magic.
Binge all episodes of The Mystic and the Mayor exclusively and ad-free right now on Wondery Plus.
Start your free trial in Apple Podcasts Spotify or the Wondery app.
And they told their dad and he was like, oh yeah, that's the nun that I built that whole fucking cottage out there to look at.
He's like, oh, that's my girl. My girl, you seen her too?
So. Everyone who had been to the Borley Rectory had something to say about it, and it was known in town as a haunted place to avoid.
Nobody wanted to go there. Which makes everybody want to go there.
I know. Because I found stories about parents not letting their kids walk past the rectory after dark. stories of people seeing the nun leaning over the gate in the front of the property, almost like she was waiting for someone.
Her monk. Or people saw a man standing up in one of the windows of the home.
But there was like not supposed to be a man up in that window.
Oh. And it wasn't like one of the kids or Henry himself.
It was her monk. Yeah, I don't know who it was.
It was a man's up in the window. the sightings of the man became so frequent and the family was like getting freaked out with the man watching them like from the upstairs window.
So they boarded up the window. Holy shit.
They just straight up boarded it up and like left it.
And they were like, KK, do what you got to do, right?
So in 1916, a man named Edward Cooper and his wife moved into the rectory cottage and Edward was working for the family as a gardener and a coachman and a coachman if you don't know is just somebody that like drives the horses for you Yeah.
He's a goose that turns into a man and then drives you to the ball.
And then he says, can't drive, I'm a goose.
And if anybody has children, you don't have kids.
And you're not a TD. So you can't drive your goose.
So they only lived there for four years because things got weird right off the bat.
I'm ready. Are you ready? Oh, I'm ready.
So they'd get into bed at night and Miss Cooper right away thought that she was hearing voices and footsteps above the bedroom.
And for a while she chucked the footsteps up to like rodents that broke in or like a cat somehow in the attic.
Gross. So she was just chalking it up to all that.
But one night the noises were super loud and really disturbing her sleep.
And they continued into the next afternoon.
So she was like, okay, like, what the fuck?
So she and Edward went up to see what was making all the racket.
And when they got up there, they found nothing out of place.
No sign of any cat or rodent. or anything at all to suggest that anything had been up there.
Uh-uh. So everything was untouched and completely fine.
That's like when we heard recently the noise and went up there.
I was so thankful to see something on the ground that's what it reminded me of I thought of you you want to see things amiss yeah so you're like okay the wind An animal.
A cat. Just that. Anything. Yeah. Nothing for them.
And then another day, Edward came home and he said to his wife, he was like, oh, did you see a nun walking about the rectory today?
Yeah. And she was like, nah. And he was like, cool, cool, cool.
So I'm going crazy. oh fun i'm going awesome i'm nuts so because that day he saw a nun And it looked like she was headed toward the road, but she had come from the back of the rectory.
So like the wife would have seen her. Yeah.
Like if she had taken that path. And he said when he saw her, her movements like there was something really strange about them. because she was fucking floating probably oh it makes me think of like those horror movies where the ghosts are like something will make those jerky weird like almost like glitchy movements that's what I was just thinking of it freaks me out or it just makes me think of the craft when they start to levitate and they're like toes are pointed in the scary boots and it's like scratching against the floor It's weird because I wasn't freaked out when I was like researching this in my brand new apartment.
But because we're in your old ass home with like a boarded up wall right there, I'm pretty nervous.
And it's from 18. 1960. It's from the same time that this all started.
But we're not in England, so that's good.
So he was like, wow, that nun looks strange.
I should follow her. Where is she going?
And he followed her to the road, but she just disappeared while he was following her.
And he was like, I think I lost my mind.
Yeah. I would think that. And they weren't the only ones who saw things.
The family kept seeing the nun walking about the property.
They would hear banging crashing sounds.
They'd see, quote, eerie black shapes. Ooh.
Yep. In the house, out of the house. A maid who worked there said she woke up on her first night, first night ever in the house, because... she heard slow, deliberate footsteps coming toward her bedroom. and they stopped like and when they stopped they would have been right in front of her door but there was nobody she didn't see anybody So the next morning she woke up and like asked the other maid.
She was like, oh, I bet they were playing a trick on me.
Because it was my first night, like, initiation into mating.
Into madedom. And everybody was like, no, this place is haunted as hell.
Bitch, no. Bitch, no. Nah. I would have been like, and I quit.
And I'm done. So they were like, yeah, it's probably one of the Borley ghosts.
Then in 1892, Henry Bull passed away. R.I.P.
RIP. I know. You trusting son of a bitch.
I know. Just trying to communicate with these ghosts out here.
Yeah. Well, no fear. His son Harry took over as the rector, so the family still got to live there.
Yeah. Harry lived another 35 years in the rectory and the hauntings continued, nothing stopped.
One of his friends would spend time in the rectory if he was vacationing.
And he remembered seeing stones falling from nowhere, objects moving by themselves, the nun herself.
And the coach driving by with headless horses.
Oh, that's amazing. Imagine seeing that.
Holy shit. I wouldn't say I'm nuts. I'd be like. holy shit, I done seen this i would paint a watercolor painting of that immediately like from memory I would have to have that for all time.
I like our very different reactions. I'd be like, I've seen that.
And you'd be like, I'm going to paint a watercolour from direct memory of this exact moment.
Just so I can hang it on my wall and be like, I saw i'd just be running around going i saw it i saw it people would be like yeah that bitch is crazy I would just bust out a portable easel and just start quickly doing it.
I call this headless horses. I call this I'm going insane and I want to record it.
I call this from memory. So, yeah, he lived another 35 years there and then he passed away because he was old.
Yeah. And the rectory was offered to 12 different clergy.
Is it clergy or clergymen? Clergy. Clergy.
It was offered to 12 different clergymen, and they all took a hard pass.
So 12 different people were offered this home, like, for free.
Like, you can live here because it's rectory.
And they were all like... nah i'm good no thank you thank you though so the rectory was just empty for six months oh it An empty rectory.
And I don't know why, but I feel like that creeps me out more than all the shit that happened when people were Because it's just an empty ass rectory.
But it's not empty because ghosties. It's full to the brim.
Full to the brim. So finally, this other reverend, his name was Guy Eric Smith.
He had recently moved to England with his wife and they were both like of an older couple, like not in the best health.
But they were offered the rectory and they didn't know anything about it and they didn't believe in ghosts.
Uh-oh. And, like, nobody told them anything about it.
Yeah, nobody told them. So he was like, let's move in.
So like I said, they were an older couple.
Did I tell you they'd been living in India before this?
No. So big change. They were living in like a warm climate and then they moved to this like creepy ass house in England that's haunted as hell. so cool that sounds like the beginning of every single movie ever it sounds like my ideal And like I said, neither of them were believers, but I'm pretty sure as soon as they moved in, they became believers.
Yeah. Because almost right away, they started hearing voices in the home.
Um, uh, she walked by a bedroom one day and she heard the phrase Carla or the, like somebody say Carlos don't.
Ugh. Like, don't do that. Oh, fuck. Right?
And it was in the blue bedroom. And I guess the blue bedroom is said to be like the most haunted bedroom.
I would have been like, please don't, Carlos.
Listen to whoever that was. Listen to that person.
And it was just the two of them in the house.
Like, it was just them. So nobody else should have been there.
Yeah, Carlos wasn't there. No, Carlos was no boy.
He was there, but he shouldn't have been there.
Yeah. And they'd hear footsteps like the maid did, again, when it was just them. the sightings of the nuns started, and all of that wrapped around the fact that as soon as they moved in there, everyone in town started telling them how haunted this place was.
That drove them to, they wrote to the Daily Mirror newspaper asking for help dealing with all this paranormal activity.
I know. So, oh, and while Mrs. Smith was cleaning one day, I read a couple of different like um setups for this she was either cleaning in the kitchen or the basement but either way she was cleaning like this cupboard that hadn't been used in a while okay and she found just a casual woman's skull wrapped up in a paper bag.
That is rad. It's so funny because telling you this story is just like, you'd be like, yeah. like I want to do that yeah it'd be so cool if I heard that crazy footsteps and anybody else would be like She found a woman's skull in a paper bag.
That's so gnarly. So gnarly. Holy shit. So this guy named Harry Price saw their ad in the paper and he wanted to help. oh Harry Price Harry Price if you don't know was a parapsychologist and a magician Oh, fun stuff.
Who wanted to help the Smiths, and he also just wanted to investigate the property in general.
So he brought this guy who was a reporter also at the Daily Mirror.
Vernon Hall with him. And Vernon was a writer, but also was just going to act as somebody to cooperate all the findings.
Yeah. It's like better if two people find it than just one.
Oh yeah, definitely. Duh. So Vernon and Henry decided the first place they wanted to check out was Nunn's Walk.
Oh, that would be my first stop. Double duh.
Double duh. So they head out to the cottage and they try to spot the nun. maybe even the light upstairs like from the where the man is because It's boarded up, but you could still see the light come through.
Like it was still coming through. So creepy.
So creepy. So they're like, I want to see something.
And while they were out there, Vernon thought he saw the nun.
But Harry was like, I don't know if I saw her.
Like, you're being a little crazy. Yeah, I think you just want to see her.
But what did happen right away, like right after they had that conversation where Harry was like, oh, I don't think I saw her. a fucking half of a brick smashed through the roof and fell to the ground next to them.
Oh. And it was like the nun, like, oh, you didn't see me, motherfucker?
Oh, you didn't see that? Here I am. See that brick right there?
I'm right. Wow. Isn't that nuts? What a badass.
So it smashes to the ground and... um they headed upstairs to investigate to like see like where that came from And they hear this loud crash.
And then a glass candlestick came flying down the stairs at them.
What? Yes. So, Harry Price was just kind of used to this activity because he's a paranormal investigator.
And he was like, OK, what we have to do is head downstairs.
We got to turn all the lights off. Obviously.
Because he wanted to pick up even more activity and ghosts love the dark.
Of course. Duh. So they're waiting for more activity after they turn the lights off, and Vernon complains that someone hit him in the head.
As soon as they turn the lights off, he's like, I just got hit in the head.
Somebody's hitting me. And then... They started hearing something roll down the stairs.
Oh. And it was a mothball. But nobody else was there.
It was just them. So a mothball rolls down the stairs.
And then the servant bells just start fucking ringing.
What? But they're not attached to any of the...
Like they weren't in use. So normally they'd be attached to something and that would be how they run.
But they weren't. What? So they're just ring-a-ding-dinging on their own.
What? And, and... Miss Smith had told the investigators that the Bells had been doing this the whole time so they were like just waiting for this and then keys that had been in the locks of doors you know how like in old houses normally the keys stay in the doors they all fell out of the keyholes at the same time.
Ed and Lorraine Warren wish. Yes. They could never.
That could never. Holy shit. Isn't that crazy?
I am into this. So this is probably, like, needless to say, but the older couple had enough, and they moved out of the house in 1929.
Good for them. they had barely lived there a full year yeah no thank you they were like peace out So when the Smiths left, the church, again, had a hard time getting anyone to move into the home.
And the rectory was empty for another six months.
And then a cousin of the Bull family, the original Bull family, moved in. with, it was this guy named Lionel Foyster, his wife and their daughter Adelaide.
So Lionel Forrester's wife was Marianne and they had it the absolute worst in the house.
Oh no. Like shit. went nuts. As soon as they moved in, shit was going crazy.
There was crashing sounds, footsteps, more bell ringing, even though they were still disconnected. apparitions now there were strange odors in the house oh and that's like some ghostbusters that's some like demon shit Physical assaults, including Adelaide being locked in a room on her own.
And she was two and a half years old. I know.
And something new. Messages on the walls that were addressed to Marianne.
Get the fuck out of here. And they said things like, Marianne, help, please get.
And then another one said. Marianne, light mass candles.
I'd be like, okay, I'll do anything you say.
What do you need me to do? A lot of skepticism started to surround this particular family.
Do we have a Lutz family? Oh my, shut the fuck up.
Do we have the Lutzes? Yes. And I wrote that.
So it was getting... Immediately I was like, uh-oh.
Yeah, exactly. That's what I wrote. And I'm still going to read it anyways.
You can still read it. So... The haunting was getting worse.
The messages had never happened before. Yeah.
That's weird. And I think people thought it was an Amityville horror type deal. when the family moved in and started exaggerating an already creepy story.
I immediately started thinking that. Because that's the thing.
It's like, this is already creepy as hell.
You don't need to make it worse. Don't add to it because it's just going to ruin it.
And when you're making it seem like your family has it the worst of everybody, it's like...
No, they're probably equal opportunity hunters.
I don't think they're really like... Ooh, let's get these ones worse.
What did you guys do? So there were people, though, who still did believe the family.
This guy named Edwin Whitehouse was a neighbor, and he confirmed that while he spent time there, he had, quote, seen more than enough to convince him that the phenomena at the Borley Rectory was preternatural.
I mean, I definitely think it's for sure.
I think it's like haunted. And I believe that like old couple and everything.
Oh, hell yeah. But I think. I think these ones might be exaggerating.
Well, the messages I don't buy. I don't buy the messages either.
And let me just get into it. You're like, holy shit, I'm going to get, I got to tell you so much stuff.
He went on to say that he had never seen any member of the family set up any tricks and he didn't have any reason to believe that they would.
OK, so Harry Price, remember, he helped out the Smiths and then he went about his day. life, whatever.
He was like, cool. And then he finds out that this new family moved in and everything's getting worse.
So he returned. He came in October 1931 and he brought a couple members of his national laboratory with him.
Hell yeah. Because he's cool as hell. And after some time investigating, he came to the conclusion that that a lot of the new haunts in the home were Marianne's doings.
I knew it. And there was later rumors that Marianne was having an affair with a guy named frank perlis and she was creating some of like the craziness in the house as a distraction holy shit right What an asshole.
I know. Like, she's a true asshole. If she did it, she's an asshole.
Yeah. We don't know. I don't know. I think she did it.
We don't know. I'm blaming you, Marianne.
Marianne. She wrote a book about it later.
Anyways... Harry Price told Lionel about his findings and that Marianne was probably doing all this shit or most of this shit.
And Lionel was furious. Yeah, I would be.
Because he was furious with Harry Price.
Oh, he was furious with him. Because he's like, you're accusing my wife of doing this?
Oh, see, yeah. My wife isn't doing anything.
So he asked Harry to leave. Hold on. And he wouldn't let him back.
And Harry Price was actually really bummed.
He wrote to Guy Smith about it and was like, I really just want to go back.
I just want to go back there, man. He said some curious things have been happening at Borley during the last 12 months.
Two to three of us went down a few weeks ago. bottles were thrown at us, ink mixed with wine, etc. etc.
I formed a conclusion as to who I think was doing these things, but of course we had no proof.
I should like to go back there again, but the Foysters will not permit it.
See, I believe him. I do too. Because he was saying that it was haunted before.
He's not denying that it's haunted. Well, when he said to Harry, he was like, I'm sure some of the hauntings going on right now are like the boredly ghosts but the writings on the wall and stuff like that like the really intense things yeah like He was like, some of this is Marianne.
I know it is. Yeah, I would think that too.
But he just didn't have a way to prove it.
So while Harry was bumming that he couldn't get back to the rectory, a ton of stuff was going on.
They were doing exorcism ceremonies there.
Harry Bull was popping up everywhere. Damn.
Harry Bull, like, Because he had died in the house, the original owner.
Oh, shit. So he just came back and was like, I'm here too.
I'm here too. He would hang out in the, remember I told you about the blue bedroom?
It was like really super haunted. He would hang out there.
And he would wear his favorite plum colored dressing gown.
Hell yes. And then eventually two of the sisters that used to live in the house, like the Bull sisters...
They went into the seance there and there was like tapping on the mirrors and they said it was their brother and they could tell it was him.
Oh, my God. So the dad haunted the house and the brother did too.
That's amazing. Who both died there. I thought that was so cool.
Yeah. Keep it in the family. Of course. Keep the haunt in the family.
People were seeing dark figures in the driveway and inside the home like before.
The passerby were still freaked out by all the creepy vibes given off by the rectory.
And Lionel actually had been keeping a diary of his findings and experiences since day one.
And he kept them until the family moved out of the home.
Oh, geez. And he had filled three diaries with experiences and later published them.
But he published them as fiction. So I think he added to some of them.
Oh, okay. And made it fictionalized. Yeah, he embellished slightly.
But Marianne said that Harry Price had asked to read one of the diaries while he was there.
And like investigating the home and that he never returned it to the family.
Oh. So that's what Marianne says. So we're pointing fingers left and right.
There's a lot of shady business going on here.
There is. And we're going to get to more shady business at the end.
So the Forresters were the last family to live in the rectory, and they left in 1935.
Okay. When they left, Harry Price wanted to come back and do more investigating of this house.
I would. So he rented the home and lived in it for a year.
Holy shit. Isn't that so cool? That's badass.
So he put an ad out in the local paper. And like was asking for recruiters to come like stay too and like write down their experiences.
Pick me, I'm the one. Yeah, you would have gone.
Yeah. And once people responded to the ad, he would give them a manual of instructions.
And Harry said the reason that he got all the recruiters and gave them the manual of instructions is because he wanted reliable and impartial witnesses.
This sounds like House on Haunted Hill. Oh yeah, it does.
You're right. It sounds like the basis for that film.
Maybe it was. This guy recruits people to come stay in this house.
Shit, I wonder if it was. Yeah, it really does.
Well, we'll have to find out after. So he said he just wanted impartial witnesses and like reliable people.
Yeah. But a lot of skeptics accused him of putting suggestions into the mind of these people and that the manual they got was just like a blueprint of what they were supposed to find.
I could see people saying that. So I get that.
But this guy, Ella Cowell, went with Harry to set up like an operations room.
Any ghost hunt, you got to set up an operations room.
You need a war room. Obviously. Of course.
So they go and they're setting everything up.
They're... They were... like chalking up like literally like marking up with chalk any like object that could move in the house.
Oh yeah. And they're taking note of anything and And while they're setting up, they heard like two loud thumps above them.
And that was followed by a couple of short tapping noises, but they couldn't determine where the tapping noises were coming from.
And then an upstairs door slammed shut, like slammed shut.
But there was no one in the house and no. breeze or open window or anything like that oh my And Ellick said that there was absolutely no way Harry could have engineered any of these incidents.
And he believed that it was just the haunting of the house.
Damn. That's so creepy. Again, because this is like in the 1930s.
It's not like they had like tons of. technological advances to do this stuff.
That's the thing. I believe that now people do that, I'm sure.
Oh, for sure. like shits and giggles and there was ways to like set certain things up and he was a magician Well, that was the thing.
When you said magician, I was like, uh-oh.
And not because there's anything wrong with magicians.
No. It's just... They know how to make an illusion.
Exactly. That's kind of their job. I just feel like I believe Harry.
I feel very strongly that Harry is telling the truth.
I do, too. Actually, my soul. I don't know.
And that's why we drink to an episode about this.
I was telling you before we started. I'm telling the listeners.
We love you. And that's why we drink. We do.
Hi. And I texted Em, and Em said that they are a big fan of Harry Price.
Oh, really? They did a whole episode just about Harry Price.
I love that because I feel, okay, I'm glad because I was feeling very like, I was like, I really, I believe him.
Literally. I just started so bad. Literally.
I feel like connected. Yeah. I just feel like he's telling me the truth.
Em was like, Harry Price is my dude. I trust So when you're finished with this episode, go listen to And That's Why We Drink's episode about Harry Price.
Do it. I think it's a couple parts, actually.
Back to this little rendition. So from May of 1937 to May of 1938.
All the investigators stayed at the Borley Rectory doing table tipping, planchette sessions, seances.
Ooh. It sounds like a fucking damn good time.
I was going to say, count me in. And there was this guy named, well, it was one of the recruiters.
Sydney H. Glanville, and he took notes of everybody's experiences the whole year that they were there.
And when they were finished, he gifted it to Harry Price.
So it was like this book of everybody's experiences.
That's incredible. And that's so cool. Wow.
And during the seances, a nun... who had lived on the grounds in the 17th century, came through in one of these seances.
She said her name was Marie Leary. It looks like Mary Larry.
That's not the name. Mary Larry. Mary Lurie, we're going to say.
Marie Lurie. I love that. Yeah. She said that she had traveled to England from France and that she was murdered.
And she asked for prayers to be said for her at Borley Church nearby.
Aww. So, the murdered nun. That's her. Hello.
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Huntakiller.com slash morbid. Sydney also said that he had a planchette that never worked until he brought it to Borley and that's when it started to work.
And it was the same planchette. Now, this is fucking crazy.
His children Helen and Roger were using this particular planchette set on March 27, 1938.
And they were contacted by this spirit through the planchette named Sunix Amurs.
Oh. Like, hello. Hello. Like, what? Jackpot.
Jackpot, honestly. Yeah. And Sonix told them that Borley was going to burn down that night at 9 p.m.
Oh, so he's Sonex is like, get out of there.
Exactly. Wow. And Sonex also said that when everything burnt down, bones would be found in the fire. to prove that, like, something horrible had happened here and that's why it was so haunted.
Can you imagine getting that kind of fucking message?
No, I got chills just telling- I'm literally chilly.
I got chills reiterating the message. chilly willy right now it's also very cold in here it sure is but i'm chilled chills so no fire happened that night so maybe like sonics come on shit But exactly 11 months later, exactly 11 months. on February 27th, 1939. a lamp had fallen over and some books had just been put away.
And they moved themselves and knocked this lamp over.
Like some people say somebody bumped into it, but I'm telling you the fun version.
Yeah, of course. These books moved by themselves and they locked the fucking lamp over.
And back then lamps had like gas and shit in them.
I didn't fully look into it. Had like gas and shit.
And so a fire happened. So the fire, unfortunately, wiped out the entire place.
And when people came because obviously people love to watch a burning building I guess.
I'm so sad. I know. but people came to watch the building fall and they saw dark figures walking through the flames.
Fuck you. That is awesome. Isn't that rad as hell?
Holy shit. Just... Imagine you're... I mean, don't go watch a burning building.
That's a little bit rude. No, it is, but like...
So you're watching the burning building fall, even though I told you not to, even though you should just live your life.
And you see fucking dark figures walking through the flames.
That is... So metal. I can't even... I can't even properly... understand it but it's bumming me out that this place burned down because I was going to be like you know who needs to go to this place we do Well, us, but I was also going to say BuzzFeed Unsolved, Shane and Ryan need to go to this.
I wonder if they have, because you can still go to the grounds.
The grounds are still super haunted. I wonder if they have.
I'll have to look. And something else is haunted.
Because I think they would be great. I'm getting back into it because wait until you hear what happened.
Sorry, we just keep shouting out other people.
Oh, no. Other creators. I love shouting.
I'm happy. Today we're like, Other Creators Day.
It is Other Creators Day. Go do this. Fucking love Other Creators.
Every day is Other Creators Day. Da-dun! that was so cute thank you for helping me you're welcome thank you okay sorry we're annoying So people are seeing like people, like dead people walking in the flames.
I mean, this should just prove it even further because a police constable saw them.
And asked who else had been in the house there.
He's like, people are still in the fucking house.
He's like, who are these maniacs just walking through the place?
And the new owner was like, no, it's just me.
This place is haunted as fuck. That's ghosts.
Those are ghosts. That's ghosts. That is ghosts.
That's ghosts. for you police constable so after the home burned down they did indeed Find bones underneath the cellar door.
Sonics. Sonics. Some people are not. I'm so sorry.
Not the door, the floor, the cellar floor.
OK, either way, either way. Some people think that they were the remains of a pig, but they're just like skeptics.
No, that's bullshit. We don't have time for skeptics today.
Get out of here with that. Get the fuck out of here with your skepticism.
Logic. And a surgeon, so I'm going to believe the fucking surgeon.
Oh, there you go. Leslie J. Godden believed that she like looked at these fragments or he, I didn't look into it. and believed that they were fragments of a young woman's skull and her jawbone.
Oh, that should tell you. And Leslie said the woman was younger than 30.
And when the woman died, it may have been from a tooth infection that spread to the bone.
Because the bone, you could tell that it had been infected.
Oh, shit. And remember... the nun didn't look very happy when she was walking around.
So maybe it's because you had a hella infected tooth bone.
Dude, a toothache is no joke. Right. And then when that gets to your jaw and infects your bone, can you imagine?
Oh, yeah. abscesses and stuff. That's no joke.
Lots of pain. She can kill you. So I don't know.
But even with the discovery, the hauntings continued.
The building is burnt down and the hauntings are continuing.
Amazing. The property itself wasn't demolished until 1944.
Wow. Yeah. Before that, people would walk by the property or just straight through it.
Hell yeah. One man who walked through the property said that a stick elevated from the ground in front of him and shook quickly in front of him.
Almost like somebody was like... No, no, no.
No, no, no. This is what I'm picturing. You stay back.
And then it... it stopped and then did one more slow wag back and forth like oh like that's how i'm trying to get you to picture it And then it just fell to the ground.
I really picture that as a ghost being like, no, no, no.
And then the guy didn't leave. So he was like, leave.
Exactly. And I, buddy, left after that. And he said that he had been super hot before that, like it was warm.
Yeah. And when that happened, he got like freezing cold.
So hello. I'm saying. I mean, if the sticks don't just float in front of you and say, uh-uh, no, or mm-mm-mm.
And then this other guy, he was a sergeant stationed nearby and he was walking home one night and he had to walk past Worley to get home. which I can fuck that.
Um, and he, he heard horses and, and a coach in the distance, like he heard like the wheels and everything and the horses neighing and getting ready.
God, it's like the headless horseman. It is.
And he heard it in the distance. And then he said it got louder and louder.
So he stopped waiting for something to pass by. and it did pass by and he heard it, but he didn't see anything.
He just knew that it had passed by because like- Because it felt like it was right there.
Right. And then he didn't see anything except a little light.
All he saw was a light. That's it. I want this so bad.
I want it so bad. I want this experience.
So fucking cool. I love it so much. And then there was this other guy.
This one's kind of boring. He said that like his lantern wasn't working like at all.
And then when he brought it to Borley, it started working.
Oh shit. Like it worked there and then he took it home and it didn't work anymore.
Oh. Whatever. They gave him like shitty batteries for a minute.
Yeah, I guess so. Shitty metaphysical batteries.
And then we're like, we're taking those back.
So then when the remains were to be demolished, they were demolished, unfortunately.
That bums me out. I know. So a Life magazine photographer went out while they were like, about, like, right before they were going to be demolished.
His name was David Sherman. I'm Googling this.
Well, I should have brought the magazine to show you my magazine.
My magazine. And he took a now famous picture where and it's he's far back and it's like the whole property and you can see in the doorway. a fucking brick levitating.
Get the fuck out. And there it's like it's not attached to anything.
And he said it levitated in the air for a few minutes and then fell down.
Is that not the coolest thing ever? I'm looking it up.
So now that Borley Church is like still around, I guess.
Yeah. And the church is said to have had even more hauntings since the property, the rectory was demolished because the ghost. all just moved over there I was gonna say you gotta go somewhere this photo this photo I know we'll post it don't worry we're gonna post it oh I got chilled oh my goodness I know And so now people go to the Borley church all the time and they'll like camp out there, especially on Halloween and stuff, and they try to get EVPs.
And I guess this one guy camped out there on Halloween night and he heard scratching on his tent.
Stop it. And he just like got super freaked out and like pulled a me and just ran the fuck out of his tent.
He was like, I'm out. He did what you did at the Lizzie Borden house.
He was like, nope. Yeah, except you made me stay.
I didn't run out of there. I wanted to.
You wanted to. I wanted to get the fuck out of there.
So he said as he was running out of the tent, he saw these two shadowy but white figures.
And he was, like, freaked the fuck out. And he said they were emotionless.
Like, emotionless. And just, like, stared at him.
They're just very epic. They were just unscathed by his panicked state.
Don't care. And then when he, so he just like left his tent there.
And then the next day he went back to get it and it was covered in red stains.
What? Isn't that so weird? That's amazing.
It's incredible. I love this. And then Harry Price himself.
Told you, he went under a lot of scrutiny surrounding this specific haunting at the Borley Rectory.
This journalist, who sounds like a douchebag.
Charles Sutton said that Henry created poltergeist effects by throwing stones in the dark.
I'm like, I don't believe it. What about everything else that happened?
I believe Harry. And then William H. Salter, who sounded salty, was the president of the Society for Physical Research. he launched an investigation into Harry Price's working methods and found that Harry was willfully deceptive.
Now, whatever, because I think personally that everybody was just jealous that they didn't get Harry's findings.
All right. I want to believe, Harry. I do too.
But like the science part of my brain is like ding, ding, ding, ding.
My brain has no science part. So my brain is like, I'm trying to muffle it right now.
My brain is just screaming spooky, scary skeletons are the findings of Harry Price.
There you go. There you go. So he ended up writing a book Harry called The Most Haunted House in England.
Oh, I want to read it. I read some of it.
It was really good. And there was a couple other books that I read that I don't have right in front of me, but I'm going to put them in the show notes for the episode perfect so that is the haunting of the borley rectory that is so cool i know i want to go to like see I want to go.
I want to see Shane and Ryan go from BuzzFeed Unsolved.
I want to see that. Like, I just want all of this.
Let's all go together. Let's all head out to the Borley Rectory.
I think us... And we don't know Shane and Ryan, but like, hey, Shane and Ryan, you guys want to come?
And Em and Christine need to go. Yes, 100%.
I think I've just made this happen, guys.
I'm really excited about it. So once Rona is out of here, we can go other places.
We have a lot to do. then we are doing it haunted road trip baby we gotta do it that was so fun right It was fun to research that, too, because it was a little bit lighter than true crime.
It is. Yeah. Once in a while, it's fun to have just like really spooky.
I mean, that's like spooky to your soul.
Like that gives you chills. I was like freaked out falling asleep.
Actually, I have to end this on like a really funny story.
It's about my cat because I'm a cat lady.
Of course, she's a cat lady now. Elena this morning was like, it's really shocking just like how much of a cat lady you've become.
But I feel like we have a lot of fellow cat people.
We definitely do. So I had researched this like for a few nights in a row.
And the first night I was like really freaked out because I
You know when you just find something and you're like, holy shit, I'm so scared.
Yeah. So I woke up at 3 o'clock in the morning.
And Franklin was on my chest just like sleeping because he sleeps on me.
And I went back to sleep, but I didn't kind of thing.
And I saw this shadow in my bedroom. And so I woke up and I went. and franklin fucking flew off of me like i scared the shit out of him He flew all the way from my bedroom to the living room.
I just ran the fuck out of there. He's such a distinguished man.
And Annie just didn't even move. He was like, I'm not into this. like fuck you mother so yeah i scared my cat because of this oh that's funny but yeah so Anyways, we're going to post some of these fun pictures, especially the famous Life magazine picture.
Yeah, it's what drew me into the story in general.
That's a cool one. That's a really cool one.
So yeah. You can see those pictures if you follow us on Instagram at Morbid Podcast.
Hit us up on Twitter at Amorbid Podcast.
Send us a Gmail. Morbidpodcast at gmail.com.
And like I said last time, if you don't have a podcast listener if you go to shop.morbidpodcast.com and check out and buy some of our cool dope ass merch do it We hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird. but not so weird that you move into a poorly rectory because it's haunted as fuck but do keep it so weird that you build a whole fucking building just to see a nun walking down the street singing do up diddy diddy dum diddy doo And then don't keep it so weird that you die in the house and you wear your favorite purple robe forever.
And don't keep it so weird that you're Marianne just writing things on the wall because I don't believe that anybody actually wrote things on the wall.
And keep it as weird as Harry Price because no matter what you say, I don't believe you that he faked it.
Bye. Bye. If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
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