Hey weirdos, Elena here. If you're looking to kick back and relax with Morbid, Wondery Plus is the way to go. it's like having a cozy seat in our haunted mansion no ads just you and early access to new episodes You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or in Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
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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.
I love all the Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen.
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I am absolutely obsessed with a sweet treat after dinner, and my favorite sweet treat right now is my mochi.
It's mine now! Not yours. Just kidding.
You can have some too. This is a cool creamy scoop of ice cream. wrapped in a soft, chewy dough.
It's like a sweet little ice cream dumpling or ravioli.
I'm obsessed. It's pillowy. It's satisfying.
I feel indulged. I just love it so much.
I really am obsessed with the strawberry flavor right now.
My mochi is only around 70 calories per piece, which like, hello, that's amazing.
My mochi is gluten free and each box has six perfectly portioned mochi snacks.
Do I eat two a night? Yeah, yeah I do because they're that good.
And guess what? My mochi is the number one mochi ice cream in the US of A.
The strawberry flavor is bursting with fresh picked fruit flavor that tastes incredibly refreshing.
I love, love, love them after dinner. This August, look for the purple box of My Mochi ice cream at your local grocery store. and feel joyfully chill with the coolest treat around, my mochi.
Hey weirdos, I'm Alayna. I am a shh. I wanted to do the cool thing.
This is morbid. Welcome back. Hey! It's the holiday weekend still.
And I hope you're not floating on Lake Lanier.
I hope you're not. We decided to take Morbid into a weird place this weekend because of the holiday weekend.
Mm-hmm. We did, indeed. Instead of taking a week off, which why would we ever do that?
We never do that. We decided to just make it really weird.
And lakey. And lakey. Very watery. Yeah. very liquidy very vacation spot very vacationy except mine i don't know i want to go there I don't know if everybody else does, but I think at the end of it, you might.
I'll find out. I don't know much about your thing.
Seems pretty cool. So I think what we're going to do today is I have a really cool swamp in Louisiana.
Because I love Louisiana and I love swamps in Louisiana and I want to go to this one.
There's a fact I did not know about you.
I love swamps in Louisiana. Who doesn't love a Louisiana swamp?
I don't know it seems awesome probably a lot of people there's so many cool stories about these swamps I'm going to be covering Manchac Swamp today, and after we talk about Manchac Swamp and you know, what it is, some spooky haunted tales that go along with it.
Then we are going to... Talk. Well, actually, a listener actually wrote in and had told us something to do not with Manchac Swamp in particular, but with Louisiana. and one particular thing that I'm going to talk about, so I just wanted to shout them out. that that happened and then we had uh since ash covered lake lanier Yeah, the last episode, we also had a listener tale come in about Lake Lanier.
Which was perfect timing. So we figure why not throw someone's personal experience with Lake Lanier after we've heard all about the catfishes that are Volkswagens. that are gonna eat you ladies who are just gonna I don't know what they do just wear a blue dress and somebody who's gonna float on a raft with a 45 foot stick just dive into the water if you just like you'll find a van there You'll find a van there.
Two vans. You'll find a whole damn civilization at the bottom of Lake Lanier.
You certainly will. And I hate it. I hate it. hate it so wait is there a civilization under your swamp there is not okay no my swamp is is just a swamp just a swamp But it's got a really cool story to go along with it.
Okay. And a lady who is like, whoa, whoa.
Whoa, whoa. She just walked around saying, whoa, whoa?
No, she walked around saying something... much scarier than whoa.
Oh, no. Yeah. Oh, no, no. We're going We're going to be talking about Frenier, which is 25 miles northwest of New Orleans.
Frenier is like a ghost town now. It really doesn't exist.
Yeah. But it used to be like a booming logging town along with Ruddock. which is where Manchac Swamp is really like around its surrounding.
Basically, to get to these towns, you would have to use the swamp.
Ew. Also, can we talk about the fact that it's friendier and linear?
I know, isn't that weird? Like slightly rhymes, sort of?
Yeah, we didn't mean to do that either. Yeah.
And so in the 1800s, early 1900s, you would literally like boat down this swamp to get to the next town.
I love that. Yeah. So it's crazy. It's located in John the Baptist, Paris. parish, which I love that Louisiana had their parish names. are like so much and i love it like john the baptist parish that's awesome that's awesome it is you're not It's just cool.
I'm like fascinated by Louisiana. I don't know why.
Louisiana as a whole is very fascinating.
The entire state. I love you guys. I think it's the coolest state.
It is. I don't disagree with you. Not just Nolans.
I think that, and I know that's like really annoying to people who don't live in New Orleans.
Or who do live in New Orleans, but I think New Orleans is great, but I think Louisiana has such like a...
Like I know we were just saying this, but I think it's like has such like a southern gothic. vibe to it.
Like anytime I'm on like TikTok or something and my TikTok knows me now.
Isn't it the best when your TikTok gets to know you?
It's really cool when your TikTok just gets you.
So now I get all these like vibey aesthetic people who just do creepy things in southern cemeteries.
Just walk through. I love that. Just walk through wearing some cool... like witchy outfit.
Like misty day. Like cool music playing.
And it just is like hashtag Southern Gothic.
And I'm always like, yeah. Yeah. That's also a really good podcast.
It is a really good podcast. That's a phenomenal podcast, actually.
I want that. Go listen to that podcast.
And I think he might have covered like Manchac Swamp.
Oh shit. Yeah. Or something. I think he covered part of it at least.
Cool. Go check it out. So yeah, we're talking about Frenier, which really doesn't exist, but it's still kind of there.
It did at one point. It did. It really did.
Yeah. And it went out with a bang. And it was a time.
It doesn't now. The reason it doesn't exist anymore, we are going to get to.
And wowzer, is it a story. So the swamp itself is really gross.
It's like really cool, but it's like... green, like pea green.
But it's like this one's like super green.
And it's got tons of alligators in it. So if you're not worried about the ghosts that I'm going to talk about.
You should be worried about the alligators.
Definitely be worried about that. It's definitely what you think of when you think of like a haunted bayou, you know?
Yeah, I'm picturing it in my head right now, and I feel like my brain's doing a good job.
Yeah, it really, it just gives you that whole vibe.
And the one thing that everybody probably, especially people from Louisiana listening are probably like what about the curse of voodoo queen julia brown oh no because i know you guys know it We love a good curse.
We love a good curse. I love it so much.
She's sometimes referred to as Julia Black, but everything else I saw was Julia Brown. her name okay so we're and it's called the curse of voodoo queen julia brown So she lived in Frenier after moving there in the 1860s after her husband passed away. she built a little cabin that still exists on the edge of the lake when are we going or swamp i keep saying lake it's a swamp When are we going?
I want to go to this cabin so bad. And she was also known as a healer and a voodoo priestess.
So she was just an all around cool lady.
She was doing the damn thing. She was just cool.
That's awesome. Yeah, that's really cool.
She just built a cabin on a swamp in Louisiana.
And was like, cool, I live here. Let me heal you.
And I think it's known, it's basically like a folk healer in Louisiana tradition is known as a traitor.
I think it is. It's like a French word. So I'm so sorry if I butchered that.
Louisiana people tell me. Yeah. Because I love your state.
I want to get it right. People in the community would go to her to basically just cure what ill them.
Right. back then it's not like doctors were like really doing anything except being like do some cocaine about it i was literally just gonna say like handing you some cocaine for for your problems.
Like the cocaine of it all. Rub this on your gum so you'll be fine.
I think she was the one that they would go to to be like, hey, my head's been hurting.
And she would cure them. She was really good at it.
They needed her. They really like, she was kind of, it's hard to explain.
It's just like she was beloved in that way.
Sure. But it's also kind of like that she was ignored outside of that.
Like they used her when they needed her.
And then they were like, she's kind of weird outside of that, which is like not cool.
Well, she's not weird. She's helping you.
No, she's... awesome we would have been at her cabin every single day for dinner i would have brought dinner as well i would have been hanging with julia Yeah, I didn't expect her to cook for me.
She sounds awesome. And this is just bonkers.
So what she would do at night, and she would do this during the day, but at night it was a lot creepier.
Of course. She would sit on her, she had a rocking chair, of course, on her little chair. porch.
You can picture this cabin. Yes, I literally can.
I know every single one of you are picturing a cabin by a swamp in Louisiana and that's exactly what Picture it, Louisiana, a long, long, long, long, long time ago.
Picture it. She would sit in her rocking chair on her porch on her... handmade cabin on a swamp in Louisiana.
And sometimes she would strum a little guitar.
Okay. And she would sing a lot. And a lot of times she would sing like really eerie songs.
And many of them were like predictions. Yeah, so people started calling her actually the big bad.
Oh, that's not very nice. Because... Her predictions and prophecies about people usually came true.
I mean, she knows what's up. So basically, she was known as an oracle.
If you would float past her going to like town or whatever you were doing, She would just start strumming and sing something about you and you would get a prophecy. oh sometimes so if you didn't like good for you and you can just keep going i was gonna say you didn't want one and she definitely like specialized in like telling people like when they were gonna die and you know you're gonna get really really ill soon and like, no, you know, I don't want to know that.
Nope. She predicted some bad stuff that happened in surrounding towns too, and she was correct.
So people were starting to get a little freaked out by her.
And they would literally row past her and just be like, please don't.
Please don't. Please don't sing. Please. don't say like people just didn't want to know but she was just letting them have she's got to let it out She's gotta, I mean, yeah.
She's gotta let it out. Yeah. You can't just expect Julia to have all that inside.
It must be exhausting. That's really tiring.
So, you know, it's not her fault. Thank you.
Then 1915 comes around. One of the townspeople is just tooting their boat down that swamp right past Aunt Julia.
They used to call her Aunt Julia, by the way.
Love it. Aunt Julia's cabin. She's sitting on her porch and she's just calmly rocking in her rocking chair.
And everybody said it was like the squeak of the rocking chair.
I heard it before you said anything. Yeah, it was just that squeaky rocking chair.
She's just sitting there watching everything go by and they said that she had this like creepy smile on her face as she was doing it.
And she rocked back and forth and she started singing.
When I die, I'm going to take you all with me.
Doesn't that give you... Auntie! And she's singing it with a smile on her face.
When I die, I'm going to take you all with me.
I don't want to go. And somebody was tooting past their house on a little boat in a swamp filled with alligators hearing that.
I'd be like, really? Oh my god. I'd be like, why?
Is it like invite? Like, do I have to RSVP because I won't?
Yeah, apparently it's like confer and she started the townsperson heard that and immediately was like, what the hell?
And then people, that's because this was 1915.
Everybody started hearing her singing that.
They'd go by and they would hear her sitting there going, when I die, I'm going to take the whole town with me.
And everybody was like, what the hell is going on?
And there are documents that confirm that.
There are witnesses that say they heard her singing this all the time.
Was she mad at everyone? Oh, she was happy as a clam and you'll find out why, but a very long time resident named Helen Slosserberg She said, quote, Aunt Julia Brown always sat on her front porch and played her guitar and sang songs that she would make up.
The words to one of the songs she sang said that one day she would die and everyone would die with her. oh man so it's like confirmed and this guy who had first initially heard it He went back and he told everybody because he was like, her predictions are always true.
Right. and you know like we're all gonna die with her as you ride by her she's She's giving you a prophecy more often than not.
And sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad.
But if she's singing that shit at you, you better...
You better heed that warning. You better move town, buddy.
That's not just her singing like, oh, I have twinkle, twinkle little star stuck in my head.
She's like, no. She's like, I'm about to kill you all with me.
Auntie Julia is telling you some business and you better make some arrangements. because she's taken the whole town with her.
It's happening. You need to become a resident of a town elsewhere.
You do. So everyone was freaked out when he tells them this.
They're like, what are we supposed to do?
And they're like, okay. So they're like, let's go check on her.
We should start paying a little more attention outside of needing her, basically.
And so they're like riding by her cabin just to see if she's going to sing it again and suddenly she's not on the porch.
And they're like, huh, so a couple days go by and they're like, what's going on?
Why isn't she on the porch anymore? So now, of course, everybody's like, is she okay?
Like, we should figure this out. So the next day, a few of them show up at her cabin and they find her dead.
Oh, no. So they figured, first of all, she did a lot of shit for us.
And we kind of treated her like a pariah outside of meeting her.
When we weren't asking her to heal us, we were kind of just being like, look at that crazy lady on the porch.
And she was basically ostracized for having the gift of prophecy.
Like she was, people were treating her like kind of shitty. for just knowing shit that was gonna happen and telling people.
Right. But also, They were probably thinking, we gotta make shit right, and we have to make sure that her prophecy does get fulfilled without actually killing us all right we need to figure out a way to make this make sense and like it'll be fulfilled make it make sense So they decided, let's throw her a massive funeral Every single person in the town can be there so that it's like, when I go, I'm going to take you all with me so we're all there with her. when she goes.
There's no loopholes with Auntie Julia. Yeah, I don't know if like, you know, prophesizing has loopholes, but like they, I will give it to them.
They gave it their best shot. It's too late.
They're just doing that because they don't want to die.
They're not doing it for the right reasons of loving Auntie Jewel's.
No. And you know what? Like, let me just quick little side note.
If you have like a voodoo priestess, Auntie Julia in your town.
Respect her. Respect her and cherish her.
Cherish her. Hold her close. Because man, oh man, I wish I had one in my town and I don't.
So if you have one, Hold on to her. Yeah.
I'd like one. Send her here if you'd like.
Yeah, send Auntie Julia here. she's cool she is also the garage door just opened and i just freaked out yeah every time it happens it terrifies me it freaks me out um so the way they figure so again they're figuring it's a technicality if you know we're there when the coffin goes in the ground right and you know we're all with her So they placed her in a coffin in a wooden box and placed that wooden box in the ground.
And they had everyone showed up. Everyone paid their respects.
Why'd they put her in a wooden box? That's how they used to do it.
Oh, okay. But immediately... After she was buried on September 29th 1915 the New Orleans hurricane of 1915 hit.
No one, and when I say immediately after it happened, she went in the ground.
And it started raining. Boom. No one knew it was coming because it's 1950, except obviously Julia Brown knew it was coming.
There was no way to prepare for it. And they knew immediately this was what Julia was saying.
Wow. So she wasn't saying, like, I'm doing anything.
She was just like, Mother Earth is about to take you all.
No, but she was fucking happy. happy about like she was smiling like i'm gonna take you all with me yeah because she She was probably like, you've all used me all this time.
Let's stick together now. Exactly. We're all going to stick together in death, motherfuckers.
Now, this was a Category 4 hurricane, and it came hurling into New Orleans.
Hurricanes are terrifying. And then made its way into the surrounding towns of like Ruddock and Frontier.
And it flattened them. I mean, decimated these towns.
There was nothing left of them. 145 mile per hour winds flooding all these swamplands and all the marshes, all the lakes overflowed and flooded. it into the towns.
Oh, it's so scary. At one point, 25 people in Frenier... tried to take shelter in a railroad depot structure, it collapsed under the chaos and killed all 25 people at once.
Oh no! 275 people died. Wow. It took two full weeks for people from towns nearby to even attempt to come back into Frenier to look for survivors and, like, try to help at all when they came into town they took the only way in which was manchac swamp right As they came down the swamp, they could hear a rocking chair creaking.
Shut up. And soft singing. But other than that, it was dead. dead silent oh my god that's so spooky then they began seeing things and what they were so they're they're coming in and they're seeing things like draped over trees and like bobbing in the water in front of them and they're like what the what is that shit Then they get closer to them and they see that they are the bodies of townspeople who had been flung into trees and drowned in the snow.
Oh, that is dark. Yeah. One of the literally handful of survivors said that he clung to an upturned cypress tree and just closed his eyes while he could hear screaming all around him while people were dying.
Oh my goodness. And when I say a handful of survivors, there's literally like count on one hand the amount of people survived.
That's so terrible. Now, Frenir and Ruddock again were leveled, completely gone, and they were just left abandoned.
From the New Orleans Times Picayune from October 2nd, 1915, that's the same newspaper from The Axeman of New Orleans.
I knew it as soon as you said it. It said, quote, about this.
Now, this was in the newspaper. It said, the funeral was scheduled and Aunt Julia had been placed in her casket and the casket in turn had been placed in the customary wooden box and sealed.
At four o'clock, however, The storm had become so violent that everyone left the house in a stampede, abandoning the corpse.
The corpse was found Thursday, and so was the wooden box, but the casket never has been found.
What? Yep. Yo, that is crazy. Yep. So...
Auntie Julia is out there. Oh my goodness.
Where is she? Now, those who survived in the surrounding towns anybody who was able to get out of this, which is not a lot of people, they had to come do something about the debt.
There's so many dead people. So they erected a mass grave. and they erected it at the highest point in the swamp for all these victims.
Because again, they're not going to be able to digging that many graves. no of course and they're gonna have to id everybody so it's a mass grave that's So sad.
There was a fence that says 1915 on like a wooden thing.
And then it's just like there's wooden grave markers in there.
But if you go today, you can see it. It's literally if you go down Manchac Swamp, there's a gate that says 1915 and it's like the area where the mass grave is.
Oh, wow. And apparently... Julia Brown's memorial or grave marker is about 100 yards away, separate from everybody else.
But I don't think she's there. No, of course not.
I think it's just her memorial marker. But people will say now that if you go down Manchac Swamp, especially at night, you'll hear screams of a woman and people.
And you'll also see Auntie Julia. standing in the foggy swamp wearing white and singing when i die i'm gonna take the whole town with me Oh my.
And people who see the cabin at night, because again, her cabin's still there, can see flickering candlelights sometimes and they'll hear her still singing Auntie Julia never left And if you go to that mass grave in the cemetery at night, people say they hear chanting. and singing almost like a voodoo ceremony is going on like all around them.
Yeah. sounds awesome yeah like and terrifying all at the same time yeah There is a tour that people, I looked online and it's like got hugely amazing people. reviews for seeing this stuff and it's the Cajun Pride Swamp Tour.
Oh, cool. They actually purchase the land so they'll take you like right to it oh that's cool and apparently it's supposedly like an amazing tour that i really want to take i can't wait to go When are we going to Louisiana?
Right? I need to go. I need to go to Louisiana.
So there's the Manchac Swamp. Now there's also the Manchac Swamp Bridge. that has seemingly absorbed the curse of Julia Brown.
So September 14th, 1976, it collapsed. With cars on the bridge.
Oh my god, that is my biggest fucking fear.
Yes. Because a tugboat slammed into it.
Well, fuck that tugboat. According to a clipping in the Daily Review newspaper from September 20th, 1976, the bridge attendant who was responsible for like opening the bridge and closing it to traffic.
He had to delay the opening of it for like an incoming tugboat because a train was coming. okay so he said he and he testified that he warned the tugboat four times that the bridge was staying down And he said he watched the tugboat slow down.
It like came to a stationary position and seemed to be heeding his warnings.
But the tug and the tug was apparently stopped completely while the trains crossed over.
But then it started to come forward before the bridge was open, like for no reason.
Right. So it was beginning to open and the tugboat slammed into the support beams like crazy.
Yeah. And collapsed the bridge. Wow. And it had at least two cars and a truck that plunged into the water below.
Oh my goodness. The tugboat captain said he never heard the warnings, but that's strange because he stopped.
Right. So like what's going on here? Yeah, that doesn't make any sense.
I think it might be Julia Brown. Just being, just fucking around.
Moving things around. I don't know. I mean, I'm not here.
I'm not here to point fingers at Julia. But I'm just saying there's a curse about.
So it could be happening. Right. It could have oozed onto this bridge.
Only two people survived the crash and the rest Were never found.
What? They remain in the water below. Dude.
Yeah. All these people that are just never found.
Honestly, people who are never found in water.
No. I found another body of water that I'm definitely covering in an upcoming episode. this is gonna be like the new spooky roads it's just like haunted i think it is haunted bodies Honestly, we're going to add it in because I found a few.
It's fun. And I found one in Japan and we haven't done a lot of Japan. things so i feel like it'd be cool for like our japanese listeners absolutely and woo boy i'm gonna cover it soon because it's really cool Maybe we should just do this like once a month.
We should. A fun spooky water. We can make it like a summer thing.
Yeah, there you go. Scary water. Yeah. How do you guys feel about that?
So about this crash, A woman named Roxanna Colon gave an interview with Herald Guide about it.
She was actually on the bridge when it happened, and she was a kid. oh dang or she was like coming onto the bridge okay she saw the entire thing happen That'll change you.
She said, quote, the ground started to shake and I remember hearing loud screeching sounds.
I looked out of the car window and realized the bridge had collapsed.
My stepdad and I were the 14th vehicle in line to get on that bridge.
Cologne saw an 18-wheeler jackknife and fly in the air.
It was horrible and I remember seeing pieces of concrete and bodies falling into the water.
I screamed and my stepdad took my head and told me to get down on the floor of the passenger front seat.
And she said she thinks it was his way of like protecting her from what was happening.
Like don't look at this. So he like literally just shoved her down and was like, you don't need to watch this carnage in front of us.
And she said, to this day, I can't get on a bridge.
I remember seeing cars plummeting into the water.
You could see them going in. Wow. So that is the Manchac Swamp Bridge.
Now there is this crazy like, you know, of course with all this kind of thing, with these spooky roads and these bridges and these swamps, there's always a ghost story.
Oh, hell yeah. Like for all of them. I was waiting for it.
So there's one that says there were three teens on their way to New Orleans one night.
And they were going over the Manchac Swamp Bridge.
And originally they had their windows down, but the driver was kind of like freaked out because of the swamp.
And he was like, so he rolled them up. and his friends were like no let's roll them down like it's nice out he was annoyed but then suddenly they hear screaming And it's like a woman.
So they slam on the brakes. And they're creeping through slowly, just seeing if anyone's in trouble.
They're like, who the hell was that? Because it It sounds like she's in pain.
Yeah, so they're like, what do we do? And they're not seeing anything.
And they're too freaked out to just stop and get out and look.
Yeah. So they're like, you know what? We're just going to put the windows back up.
Like, I don't know what to do here. Then suddenly they hear a louder scream and then they hear a growling sound.
But like a growling sound like it was from some great beast, like a Sasquatch or something.
And they started speeding down the bridge to get out and had to slam the brakes on because up ahead of them it looked like the bridge collapsed again.
What? going in reverse, they're hearing like thudding sounds in their car tire had popped.
No. And then they try to change the tire and they hear a woman behind them softly start singing One Day I'm Gonna Die and take the the whole town with me.
And they said it was like mayhem, like chaos around them.
They're like, the bridge just collapsed, what is happening?
And then all at once, like they all got in the car to just be like, what the fuck do we do?
And they said they look up. The bridge was completely fine.
What? And they ended up with a flat tire that they had to change.
But everything stopped. The bridge wasn't collapsed yet.
That's so crazy. That's like crazy hallucinations.
Literally, were they on like... LSD and of course this is like a story but it's like yeah but still but that's scary as fuck I mean based on everything else that we've heard so far I'm like I'm buying it Well, and I'm thinking that that great beast sound could have been something called the Rougarou.
That's what I was thinking as well. Weren't you?
No. Because what the fuck is that? Or...
The Loop Guru, it's also known as. Now, this is a cryptid of Louisiana lore.
We love a cryptid. We love them. It dwells on the bayou and is said to be half man and half animal, which sounds awesome.
It sounds like the devil. It sounds awesome.
It has roots in France and was told to young children to keep them from running off alone into the woods.
Don't do that ever. A really great way to not have children run into the woods.
Yeah, that'll do it, I bet. Yeah, it'll definitely do it.
It's like Krampus. It's like, yeah, like be good.
Exactly. Rougarou is going to get you. Now, when the French came to Louisiana, it became embedded in the Cajun legend and culture.
And that's when it kind of changed a little bit.
Okay. To like kind of fit the bayou more.
Of course. Of course. The Rougarou has the body of a man and the head of a snarling red-eyed wolf, usually.
Oh. Dang. But it also can have the head of kind of like, well, some things say it can have the head of any bayou dweller it wants.
Okay. can be like a hog head. Maybe it changes its outfit.
Which sounds horrifying. Yeah, a hog head is not for me.
As long as the animal lives in the bayou, I think it can be part of that.
It can be part of the whole Rougarou package that you get.
I didn't sign up for that. It's like signing up for... cable and you're like i'd really like bravo and also i would like all the news channels Yeah, it's just like that.
Totally. Absolutely. I just looked at her like, Like she lost her actual mind.
You sign up for a Rougarou and you're like, I would really like the man part of it.
I just keep thinking Roku. But I think I also have to get the Bayou Hog or something about it.
You know, like the Roku TVs? That's all I can think of when you say Rookaroo.
Yeah, you pick, it's like, you know, the soup du jour, whatever it is.
What? I'm saying words. Why did soup du jour come into this?
I don't know. The soup of the day. I don't know.
Oh, okay. Okay. I see. I see where you're going with that.
I did not at first. I was like, now we're eating soup.
Like, what the fuck? No, I think everyone agrees I'm not making sense.
It's been a long day. So yeah. So if you're, this guy is not awesome.
Like, it's, it's funny to talk about, but then you're like, no, I don't want to run into him.
I'm all set with experiencing that. Thank you.
Yeah, if you are, you know, approached by this creature, it's definitely going to attack you.
Eat you. for sure what it's all about. It's not there to talk to you.
It's not there to... Offer you the soup du jour.
It doesn't want to know your Game of Thrones theory.
Like it just wants to... Like it doesn't want to talk to you about anything.
It just wants to hurt you. So if you're attacked by this creature, it will attack you. but then it will reveal itself to you for who it really is because these creatures are real people. who you know what then it's going to reveal itself to you but it's only going to do that if you try to defend yourself and you draw blood from it.
Okay. So if you draw blood from it after it attacks you, it's going to reveal who it really is.
And then what? And then they're gonna tell you that you must not tell a single soul of your experience with it for one year and one day.
Okay. Or in other sources, 101 days. Okay.
If you break that promise, though... you will be turned into a Rougarou yourself forever.
Oh, bitch. Or the Rougarou will curse you to kill yourself.
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There are also variations that connect this to like regular everyday people who have a legitimate condition that turns them into a meat craving Rougarou at night. yeah and if they were to bite a human like human flesh they would become fully transformed Maybe that's what happens to your youngest.
She just becomes a Rougarou at night. I think she is a Rougarou at night.
Did you think that ever? I didn't but you know what you just really like that.
Nail on the head. That was one of those like glass shattering moments where you're like oh my god she is.
She's a Ruger. My youngest child is a Rougarou.
How do you feel about that? I mean, I feel like I have answers now.
We're not supposed to say anything about that.
No, we're not. Well, we're not supposed to.
We have an experience. We haven't had. She hasn't attacked.
And she hasn't revealed herself to us. And I haven't drawn blood, so we're good.
Don't do that. That'll never happen, so we're good.
So is she just gonna destroy us? all that yeah i think she's just i think she's just gonna like make our lives all up hard at night because it is it's at night yeah she turns into a rougarou i can't wait to tell john that I don't think he'll buy it.
I can't wait to tell him that our youngest is a Rougarou.
Who knew? Our youngest is a bayou werewolf creature from lore.
A bayou dwarf werewolf. And he'll be like, yeah.
Werewolf. He'll... But I think the moral of the story is don't let the Rougarou bite you or anything.
Like, don't let anyone bite you. I was literally just gonna say that.
Unless they're like a hot vampire. Yeah, only let Edward Cullen bite you.
That's the only time that they can bite you.
Do you know how bad I wanted Edward Cullen to turn me into a vampire when I was like 12?
I love it so bad. So, so much. You know, the good news is, here's the good news, everybody.
Is there good news? There's a way to keep the Rougarou.
What do you have to do though? Because sometimes they'll just walk up to your house.
You don't want that. So when they walk up to your house, you could leave 13 objects outside of your door, like stones or... coins or something like that however we're irish and you literally can't even have like 13 plates at a table Well, here's the thing though.
They can't count past 12. And so... Which seems like something...
I feel like if you couldn't count past 12, you can get around that by not trying to count past 12.
But they don't get that. They want to count past 12, but they can't.
And when they find out that they can't, they will, like, get real pissed.
They have to have like some self-reflection time.
They just want to count your shit. And when they can't count your shit that you left for them, they get really angry.
And they keep trying to until the sun comes up.
And then they have to go. And then they're either going to be human again or they have to run away.
All right. So they're just going to sit there and count your shit forever until they can't anymore.
Now what do I do if I live in an apartment and I can't even have like a welcome mat? then you're fucked or you could leave um a colander like a strainer on your doorstep or in your window i'm gonna do Because it will try to count the holes and can't because of all the dumb.
Hey, careful. Careful over there. Careful.
Did I say an untruth? Did I say an outro?
I'm not commenting. Did I? No comment today.
Funny thing. The Rougarou is definitely one of those like parenting hacks to keep your kids from being bad or running off into the woods, tell them about the Rougarou.
Absolutely. And funny thing, too, I read that people in Louisiana...
And I hope that our Louisiana listeners can tell me if this is true, because I love it if it is.
It's just a fun thing. Like if you've ever experienced it.
Well, that or that people will say that they made the Rougarou. if they had a bad night's sleep or stayed up all night.
Like it's a saying. They made the Rougarou.
I made the Rougarou last night. Like I just couldn't sleep because they cause all kind of havoc at night.
Yeah, yeah. And they sometimes refer to people who like party all night as like fair rougarou or fair loopgarou. because i love it i'm sad that that's not my way anymore What a cute way of just being like, God, I got a shitty night's sleep last night.
You're just like, ugh. I made the Rougarou last night.
I really couldn't sleep. Like, I'm going to say that.
I'm going to adopt that because I love it.
Please do. I'll honor it. I really will.
There's also a Rougarou Fest in October.
Do you get to dress up as whatever you want?
Do you get to dress up as whatever you want?
There's a costume contest. Oh, when are we going?
This Rougarou Fest costume contest was ranked as one of the top 10 parties in the or costume parties in the United States by USA Today.
I want to go please. And you can dress up as all kinds of shit.
They have categories like pets, most creative, funniest, scariest, movies, characters, kids costumes, and best overall.
Let's go and win. I want to do this so bad I'm not even kidding what do you guys I don't know but I think you just win the distinction but I'm not really sure that's fine I'll take it either i just love to win and it's rougarou fest so that's all yeah there's a rougarou queen yeah you can be the rougarou queen okay you can you can that's kind of my like Can both of us get to be the Rougarou Queen though?
Can we tie? I feel like it's like... my destiny can we be the rougarou queens of of it i mean we can ask I'd like to.
We can ask. Louisiana? Is that okay? Excuse me?
It's in, where is it? Houma, Louisiana?
Houma? Let's go. H-O-U-M-A? How do you say it, Louisiana?
I'm scared to mess it up. H-O-U-M-A? Halma?
Halma? Probably. That's what I would think.
I don't know. Right? Is it Houma, guys? Look at how Worcester is spelled and then say it.
Exactly. It's Houma, Louisiana. So yeah, there's a Rougarou queen and... Akeen?
Akeen! And all the proceeds from the Rougarou Fest go to the Wetlands Discovery Center.
Which is apparently revolutionizing how people think, teach, and learn about Louisiana's disappearing coasts.
Hell yeah. So it's all for a good cause too.
Oh no, a disappearing coast. I don't like that.
I know that's not awesome, but we love a Rougarou Fest.
And we love a Rougarou Fest that's also contributing to educating people about wetlands.
Yeah. I mean, I love it all. I'm here for it.
You're doing it right, Louisiana. Sign me up.
You're doing it right. I love that. and then i saw that in our inbox we had a message that was entitled louisiana with three alligator emojis louisiana there it is that's what that says and i said Whoa, it's from Gabby.
So hi, Gabby. Let me tell you. You're awesome.
And that just really, really sold it for me.
And Gabby was actually first telling us all about Myrtle's Plantation when we did that episode.
And she told us how in elementary school they learn all about that.
Yikes. They learn, because I think I told you guys during the myrtle plantation episode, go back and listen if you want to. that there's like the story of Chloe, you know, and how she's the one who haunts and like there was discrepancy about whether she lost her ear because she was listening into a conversation that she wasn't supposed to. cut off her ear.
She said that in Louisiana, the only story we believe is that of Chloe's ears cut off for listening in when she was supposed to oh my goodness and then she ends up poisoning the cake and killing the family good bye So they also go on like a field trip there.
It's just like, whoa. Yeah. Let's go to school there.
And she also mentioned that there is something called a Rougarou.
Yes. And she said that this is like a pretty big thing.
Most people at least know the name Rougarou there.
Yeah. And she gave me a little like background on it, which I think I just told you guys, but thank you for giving it to me, Gabby.
Oh, I love when people do that. Thank you.
And she told me, as children, we're taught that the Rougarou will get you if you're bad and don't listen to your elders.
Let's teach that to your kids. And then she said, yes, this is kind of scarring as a kid.
But Louisiana has a motto of... How bad can we scare the kids without really fucking them up?
There was also a Rougarou fest that happens in my hometown every year.
It's the biggest Halloween throwdown in the South.
People come from other states and countries. specifically for our Rougarou Fest.
Yes, like me and Elena, correct. Which sounds awesome.
And then Gabby also gave me a few more stories that I'm going to look further into.
I'm not going to say them yet because I want to look into them to like actually do an episode on them.
Yes. Gabby, you're the best. Thank you so much.
Because she said, there are so many stories that I can't cover them all. and she gave a link to the Louisiana travel page, and she said, covering stories that are believed by us from Louisiana.
Not some bullshit outsiders make up because they make up some shit.
Like I've literally been asked if I rode an alligator to school when on vacation out of the South. you bitches be crazy yeah that's a little intense like i love you gabby i love you so thank you for that gabby And also, Gabby told me if I needed help pronouncing words from Louisiana, I should have hit you up.
Oh girl, why didn't you? So that is my Louisiana like craziness i love that and on top of this We also, like I mentioned earlier, have a listener tale from someone who has an experience in Lake Lanier.
It's Lanier, right? Lanier, yeah, La-Nier.
Every time I say it right, I think I'm saying it wrong.
Because I always want to say Lanier. Yeah, we always want to say Lanier.
But whenever we can have a listener tale that's directly connected to a recent episode...
We got to do it. Hell yeah. Well, this is from, let me wait and see if I'm allowed to say their name.
I don't think you're allowed to. If I remember correctly.
Yep. Please don't say it. Look at me. Look at you, honey.
Look at me. Alright, well this person says, I'm a huge fan of the pod, hence why I'm taking the time to write this up.
Thanks. I even got my boyfriend hooked. I love when you guys do that.
I know. He never used to be interested in true crime, but one day I picked him up while listening to The Girl in the Box. episode oh man what a way to start i asked to finish the episode because how could anyone stop halfway through that crazy story and completely sucked him in Now every time we're together, he asks to listen to the murder girl.
That's y'all. Love that name. I'm honored.
The murder girls. Listening to y'all in the car or after a stressful day feels like I'm...
Just unwinding and hanging out with friends.
Is that weird? I hope not. By the way, Ash, I love the tangents.
Being ADHD as fuck. My thoughts are less like on or less like a train on tracks with a clear destination.
And more like a Roomba from hell that doesn't know where it's going, that destroys everything in its path.
You know, in that moment, we became kindred spirits.
So thank you. You are a Roomba from hell.
I wish that I knew that about myself earlier, but I literally am.
Your thoughts are. They absolutely are. No, I am as well.
Yeah, you are as a human being. You know what's so funny?
I always loved that Roomba commercial too.
Remember, I would always go, Roomba. Roomba, Roomba.
Like when I was like a little baby child.
She wouldn't when she was little. She would just come in and go, Roomba, Roomba.
I thought that was really funny. There were times when I was like, please stop.
Don't do the Roomba anymore. You were kind of rude.
No, I'm just kidding. I was not. Crushing my Roomba dreams.
I was. John wants to get a Roomba and do DJ Roomba.
I have a Roomba and my cats ride it around.
We need to do DJ Roomba. So do it. Anyway, enough rambling for now and on with the story.
And I love that the rambling applied not only to you, but us as well.
This takes place at Lake Lanier, which is widely considered by the residents of North Georgia the most haunted lake in the country.
And it is. As such, I think it deserves some backstory, so just bear with me for a little bit.
Lake Lanier, like all Georgia lakes, was artificially manufactured in the 1950s.
Someone thought of creating reservoir to supply water and power to Atlanta. and the surrounding areas while simultaneously preventing flooding of the Chattahoochee River.
Great idea, right? Well, maybe not so much.
Flooding the area displaced hundreds of families who left their entire communities under billions of gallons of water.
So crazy still. Even hearing it again is like...
I know it's so true. What? So that's how that was made.
It's so crazy. And preparation for the lake room, Workers removed anything they considered dangerous, such as barns and wooden buildings that could float up.
However, much of the original structure remains, making the bottom of Lake Lanier a sunken ghost town in more ways than one.
And then this person gives us some information.
But if you listen to the episode, then you already know that.
But I appreciate you for putting that all in there.
And then it says, now let's jump to the summer of 2019 when my then boyfriend, let's call him Jake. and I naively decided to take a trip to the aforementioned Lake of Death.
Remember pre-COVID when you could actually go places and do things and see people?
Yeah, me neither. We spent the majority of our trip doing what typical 20-somethings do, see sex, drugs, and sun.
Yeah, that's very true. I love it. However, we never got in a boat or even on the water while intoxicated.
I'm a stickler for safety and have seen too many people die in preventable accidents to take stupid risks look at that I'm so proud of you it's like you were hearing us before even hearing us you heeded our warning before you even heard it That's amazing.
See, I knew you guys were all smart. I love you guys.
I know it. I didn't need to say it to you guys.
You know. But still, we love you. So we said it anyway.
It's true. But on the last day of our vacation, Jake and I got into a huge argument.
I don't even remember what we were fighting about.
It was something small. But at the time, we got heated enough to start screaming at each other on the beach and cause a scene.
I'm not going to lie to you. I wish I was on that beach because that sounds great.
I would have been sitting there. I would have been inching closer.
Just ready. like oh my god me pretending to read my vogue but like definitely listening to you upside down literally Can you guess why we're no longer together?
Anyway, he eventually threw his hands up in frustration. and went to sit where we had set up for the day.
Not wanting to be around him, I decided to go for a swim and to calm my thoughts and my temper.
Oh, that's like the best way to do it. No, not in Lake Lanier.
Not in Lake Lanier, but like to go for a swim.
Let me preface the rest of this story by letting you know that I am a very strong swimmer.
My mom jokes that I could swim before I could walk.
I feel that. I swam for the varsity swim teams both of my high school... and college.
In addition to this, I worked as a lifeguard for four years.
I even saved a kid once. Yes, get it. Wow.
Apparently he wasn't actually drowning, but just faking it to try to get his parents' attention, which is a case study in and of itself.
PSA, don't ignore your kids when they're in 12 feet deep of water.
Yeah, don't do that. No, but back to the story.
I swam out a few yards just far enough so that my toes couldn't touch the bottom when I suddenly became overcome with an intense sense of dread.
Let me tell you, I have anxiety and this was not a typical panic attack.
It was a feeling of terror that I have never felt before or since.
There was no trigger, nothing outwardly dangerous.
My blood turned to ice. My arms, though still treading water, no longer seemed to belong to me.
Then without my head ever falling below the water, I started coughing water out of my mouth and nose.
That's insane. This discharge wasn't some sort of Is it cirrhose fluid?
Is that how you say that? Cirrhose fluid.
Yeah, thank you. that could have originated inside of me.
It was gray, silty lake water that tasted of dirt and decay.
This next part, I still can't explain or fully wrap my head around. but I felt a hand grab me by the ankle and pull me down into the water.
People say that! What did I tell you? I started fighting like a wild animal, kicking, punching and thrashing around.
My blind punches made contact with someone, not something.
I felt hair, flesh, and bone. Ugh. Struggling to... I know, hair. hair flesh and bone oh my god fuck that no oh wow no Struggling to open my eyes underwater, I looked to see who had a hold of me and saw her.
She had a sunken face and her mouth open as if to scream.
Searing pain shot down my calf as she dug her nails in to get a better hold on me.
That's the last thing I remember before blacking out.
The next thing I remember is waking up on the beach.
The sun glared brightly at me as I coughed in pain from water inhalation.
Apparently Jake had dragged me out of the water and onto dry land after seeing me go under and fail to resurface.
He frantically doted on my leg which had long gashes from mid calf to the base of my heel.
Wrapping a towel around my shredded lower limb, he scooped me up and carted me off to the nearest emergency room.
Thankfully, I didn't need any stitches turns out blood mixing with lake water makes it look like you're bleeding way more than you actually are I've actually experienced that it's really weird.
Eventually, Jake and I both calm down following the initial panic of what the fuck just happened.
He told me upon seeing my leg he assumed that I had gotten caught by some sort of debris and swept up in an undercurrent.
After telling him my experience, he changed his opinion, not to anything supernatural, but he assured that I was, excuse me, he assumed that I was stressed from our argument. had a panic attack while swimming and fell unconscious.
But what about the face I saw and the scratches down my leg?
According to him and most other people who hear this story, my mind was playing tricks on me.
Some sort of debris trapped my leg. When I went to look at it, my brain pieced together what it could through the water and formed a face.
No way. You experienced this. And I fully believe that you saw what you saw.
And even if it was debris, what the fuck, Lake Lanier?
Why do you have so much shit in your water?
Why do you have actual trees everywhere? and Volkswagens and vans and people and houses and buildings and race track seats.
Under the water. Why? People are going to bump into things.
Well, it was never meant for recreational purposes.
I don't care, it's there. People are going to jump in it.
I know, that's very true. And they should know the human race for what we are.
You say this is not for recreational purposes.
People are going to throw on their swimsuit and go take a holiday.
Like that's going to happen. you're gonna dive right in it's true you had to know now this says in all fairness it's entirely possible that this is what happened nope The rational side of me wants to accept a logical explanation, but still, there are things I can't explain away.
I know what I saw. That face will haunt me until I die.
I felt it, whatever it was, made of skin and bone and hair.
And it was... And if it was just a panic attack, then why did I start coughing up water before my head was ever submerged?
Yeah, that's the crazy part. I'll let you form your own opinion.
Was it a panic attack induced by a fight?
Was it the Lady of the Lake? Or does something else lurk beneath the surface of Lake Lanier?
I think something else. Because the Lady of the Lake seems chill as fuck.
Yeah, I think it's another hellish beast underneath there.
Sorry for the length. Never be. I tend to get sidetracked and rambly when telling stories.
If you decide to tell this for a listener tales episode, please feel free to shorten it as much as you need.
Thanks. And one last thing, if you enjoyed hearing about my experience at all, then I have a favor to ask.
Please look up the case of Terrell Peterson.
It will break your heart, but it's so important.
His name deserves to be remembered. If you decide to talk about Terrell on the podcast, that would be fantastic.
If not, at least someone else knows his name.
He lived a short, horrible life, but his memory is still so important.
I have a personal connection to the Terrell's case, so if you have any questions, please feel free to email me back.
Okay, that's it for this super long message.
If you made it this far, then thank you.
Sincerely yours, anonymous. I am definitely going to look into the case of Terrell Peterson.
I'm literally copy and pasting it into Google at this moment.
Hmm. But yeah, that is truly a horrific tale.
That sounds terrible. Oh no, is it a really bad case?
Yeah, it's about a child. Oh no. And a very beautiful child.
Oh, that really hurt my soul. Oh no. Well, on that note, thank you guys for sending in your tales and your personal experiences with these things because they add a little little spice and if you have any suggestions for a lake near you that you'd like covered please write in do You have a lake, lagoon, ocean, sea, large puddle that you would like us to cover.
A large puddle. send it in seriously use the uh Just so we can like collect them all easily, right?
Like spooky water. Spooky water. And then whatever else you want to say.
Like a listener tale or a spooky road kind of thing.
Spooky water. Yeah. And then we'll do some of those because I found a ton.
I'm hoping that people will have some really cool ones.
Water is terrifying. I love water. It's so scary.
It's gonna fuck me up this summer because I'm a literal fish, as you know.
Yeah, you really are. The other day we were swimming and Alina had to drag me out of a pool so that we could go to a meeting and I was like, okay, but why can't we just take it in the pool?
Why? Why? And I was like, no. And she was like, no, we also need to like drive home and there's many steps involved.
So no, we cannot do that. I was like, Fine, Mom.
We don't have an internet connection at this pool.
Oh, man. Well, guys, we love you so much.
And Elena, bomb episode. Thanks so much.
I liked that a lot. We love a swamp. We do.
Swampy. We just love it. And we hope we keep listening.
And we hope you keep it warm. Weird, but not so weird that you die and take everybody with you.
Thank you and good night. Thank you. 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.
Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.
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+.
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