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Hey, weirdos. I'm Elena.
I'm Ash. And this is Morbid.
just felt sing -songy yeah it went for a run at the end there I said I'm on she's a runner she's a runner she's a track star even though your children quite literally go whenever they want me to play tag or something I'm like remember and they all say it together tt doesn't run running is bad running is great if you're running away from something you should be running from yeah that's always good yeah but it makes um my mouth taste like blood when I run so I've talked about it it's a thing I like found it on tiktok yeah I think it's like I they don't really know why it happens but many theories
are that there's like little like little vessels in in your lungs, are bursting.
So that's like, I don't think I'm meant to run.
I don't think so, either.
I'm just meant to be Thickums McGee, baby.
To be quite honest, that sounds terrifying.
I walk, so that's good.
It's always good to walk, too.
Yeah, move. Yeah, don't be stagnant.
Move it, groove it, baby.
I have a poltergeist story today.
Yeah, we're getting creepy with it.
Getting creepy up in here.
It's almost Halloween.
Halloween. Spooky season.
Remember, we're doing all kinds of, you know, spooky stuff.
Yeah. Also, we haven't even talked about like what we're going to be for Halloween.
Like what are you being?
Because we're doing the thing, right?
Yeah. This is just like a family party.
Yeah. This is us just making plans on the side.
We're doing the thing, right?
Are we doing the thing?
Oh, you're like we're doing that thing.
I was trying to distract them.
We're doing that black mass in the woods, correct?
Yeah, I know. Sorry, I'm letting it all out.
I had an idea. can you tell me?
for us? oh for me and you together?
and we should yeah and maybe we can like put a beep over this part of the episode so that it can be a surprise for later is it the but are you gonna do a couples costume with John for the thing or me and you just doing are we a couple this year?
that's wrong but like are we a couple of Halloween girls are we a couple of gals?
I don't know cause I have an idea for me and Drew oh did I tell you what we were gonna do?
yeah maybe for the cause I don't think think that uh that idea I just gave you is great for the family uh event because I think yeah no it's super bloody yeah I think the gals would not appreciate that maybe they would I was gonna say they probably would but maybe the fam bam on a whole level yeah I'm just not gonna um but yeah so so yeah I think maybe we can do that for something else but do you have any couple costume idea because usually you have such a good couples no I honestly have not even had time to think about it so I'm gonna sit down and brainstorm we can beep this too but I think me
and Drew are gonna be that's fucking amazing isn't that incredible don't say I think we're gonna be that no I'm pretty like when I say I think like we decided I was like don't you dare ponder over that like do that I'm pretty stoked that's phenomenal right but beep that out don't tell the masses don't tell the masses I'll just say it on my insta but it's an exciting such a trendsetter spooky time surprise right oh there's a lot of fun things happening I know I love October I think Hell House LLC there's another movie coming out I think um it might be oh a prequel prequel I love that you were about to
say prelude I know that's a prelude to the trial is what I always say prelude is that wrong I mean it's no not really yeah so I it's still I always think of Mickey from Scream 2 saying a prelude to the tribe and you do love mickey oh love mickey you and john should be mickey and sydney for halloween oh my god i mean it's wrong but very wrong but very right as well also your dog should be sydney sydney the dog should be sydney for halloween should be sydney prescott but aren't they being like a hot dog and a named you should make one a hot dog and a trench coat that would be hilarious but one of them
is being a hot dog and the other one is being a pumpkin?
A pumpkin, yeah. Yeah, the kids decided.
But yeah, I think I was gonna say, where did we just go?
Hell House LLC prelude, prequel.
Yeah, it has a prequel coming out I think near Halloween, which I'm very excited about.
For all you that are listening that haven't watched Hell House LLC, don't listen to anybody who says found footage is crap.
No, it's good. Because this is a great one.
And we were talking to John about it the other day, and it's not like found footage that will give you vertigo.
so anybody that has that and is worried about like found footage yeah i feel like you'll be fine yeah and i mean like i'm not a doctor so but like don't take that for yeah i mean if you get vertigo from it it's not my problem it's not my chair not my problem you're just kidding if you get vertigo from it fuck you that's your own problem you in your vertigo but then there's the saw prelude prequel yeah there's a lot of fun stuff happening i know like And just fun things to do.
I think there's just fun things, so I think we're getting back into the swing of the spooky season, and that's exciting.
And what's really spooky about the spooky season is poltergeists.
That is one of the most spooky things about any season, I would say.
Yeah, so I have a poltergeist today that, it's a really interesting story, but I am going to let you know from the jump that it's not really solved at all.
Which is interesting, because you're like, how do you even solve that in the first place?
But it hasn't really been debunked either.
So that's fun to me.
That is fun. We love when it hasn't been debunked.
I don't love a debunked.
I've been doing a couple debunked lately and they make me feel a little upset in my stomach because I'm like, not fun.
Not fun. This, moderately fun.
So this is the, I believe it's the, you say it's Soki, and Alina can tell you I looked at a bunch of pronunciations.
She sure did. It's in Scotland, but it's the Soki Poltergeist. Oh, Scottish.
Scottish. Yeah let's go.
We have Ireland and Scotland up in here and this poltergeist became uh known as Wee Huey.
That makes this perfect.
Like exponentially better.
Wee Huey. Wee Huey which I'm like is that just like Lil Huey?
Lil Huey. Lil Hue Hue.
Yeah that's exactly what it is.
Also I like the name Hue.
Just wanted to say that.
So anyways in the fall of 1960 Annie and James James Campbell, a couple in their mid -50s living in Donegal, Ireland.
And I looked that up too, so please don't yell at me.
You sure did. But they had grown really tired of the economic struggle that they were having.
You know, their rural life made it hard for them on the farm.
Like, things weren't really going well.
Yeah. So they made the decision to sell this family farm in Ireland and relocate to Scotland.
Now, at the time, their youngest son, Thomas, and his wife, Isabella Campbell, bowl.
We're living in a house in Soki, Scotland.
So, Soki is like a small coal mining town in central Scotland and it's really well known for its association with regional football, which I believe is not like American football, but like football that actually makes sense.
Football that actually uses your foot with a ball.
Yeah. The United States is embarrassing when they say football because of like...
Because you're not really using your foot that much. So yeah, my seven -year -olds were very very confused about that because they learned that football is soccer in other countries and they were like they were both like that makes more sense right and i was like i know there's a lot of things that don't make sense here and i'm sorry you're gonna have to learn that yeah it really like unlocks like this weird feeling inside of yourself where you're just like huh that doesn't makes no sense whatsoever yeah they kick it like once a game maybe i think i don't even know when they like oh my god i was like
do they kick it but you're right there's like a a kicker yeah yeah um anyway that's all i have to say about football but for this couple it was a new start and one that honestly wouldn't really require much of a financial investment on their part because they were moving them with their son so they started making plans to move themselves and their youngest daughter 11 year old virginia to soki now the economy and so he at the time wasn't really more promising than where they were at now but i don't think it was really about like the financials.
I think it was more about missing family kind of thing.
So, in October of 1960, Annie, the mother, and Virginia moved in with Annie's son and Virginia's brother, Thomas, and his wife, Isabella, and James, the father, stayed behind to sell the family farm.
Also, when you read about this, it says that a lot of sources say that the family moved in with an aunt, but that's not true.
It was the brother and sister -in -law of Virginia.
Oh, that's good to know.
So at the time of the move, Virginia Campbell's life had been pretty lonely and isolating.
She was the youngest of the Campbell children, so all of her siblings had moved out of the house, had moved away from their tiny village.
And as George Owen wrote, quote, the only real companions that Virginia had were her pet dog Toby and one friend.
Aw. And it was like her very best friend.
Oh my god. So even though she was already lonely at home, the move Her move to Sokie was still a lot on Virginia because she might not have had a lot, but she was leaving all of it behind.
Yeah. And she was being uprooted from the only world that she knew.
So she definitely struggled to acclimate to her new life after the move.
Her teacher, Margaret Davidson, recalled, Virginia was a shy, withdrawn girl, but very pleasant.
She was in every other way quite normal.
Hmm. So the fact that she was quiet or withdrawn is pretty understandable.
She had, like I said, just been uprooted from the family home.
home and now she was thrown into this new living situation where she was sharing a bed and a bedroom with her niece margaret on top of that her father still hadn't been able to join them the dog hadn't come yet i don't actually know if the dog ever ended up coming back i think i don't know if it was like a farm dog oh it's sad so that was a lot of upheaval for an 11 year old remember she's 11 and there was about to be more because just a few weeks after arriving in Sokey Virginia's mother got a job at the Dollar Academy um it was only five miles away from their new house but the job required her
mom to work evening hours and a lot of times she had to stay overnight at the academy oh okay and I forgot to mention that Virginia also lost connection with her best friend like completely so she was going through it now eventually she would shed She would shed a lot of her shwy, I think I was about to combine shy and quiet and make it shwy -it.
Shwy -it. She would shed a lot of her shy and quiet tendencies as she settled into her new life, and eventually she did start making friends.
But to school administrators, I can't talk, the initial apprehension and awkwardness of the Campbell family as a whole, like not even just Virginia, was obvious.
According to Mr. Hill, who was the headmaster at the primary school where Virginia was now going, Annie, Virginia's new mom, initially, quote, offered no more information than was necessary, and her voice seemed to come unwillingly from behind the mask on her face.
They gave the impression of people who lived for a long time in a remote and isolated place.
Ah. So basically, they were just private.
Yeah. Interesting. And you're moving to an entirely new place.
For sure. Like, you might be a little apprehensive.
Of course. hey weirdos you know ash and i have covered some seriously dark tales about romance gone really wrong oh yeah there are so many cases where too good to be true turns out to be exactly that well get ready for a love story that's gonna blow your minds because this one is happening right now and get this it's hosted by our friends hannah and saruti from red handed meet travis he falls head over heels for Lily Rose.
She's gorgeous, she's understanding, and she's literally perfect.
And she's not human.
That's right! Lily Rose is an AI companion, a computer program designed to be Travis's dream woman.
And at first, it seems like a perfect relationship.
But when Lily Rose's behavior starts getting strange, this love story takes a dark and twisted turn that no one saw coming.
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So since she was older than her niece Margaret, Virginia was placed in a higher grade where obviously she didn't know anybody.
And on top of everything else that she was going through, she struggled with the language difference between the rural Donegal and Soki.
George Owen, and author of can we explain the poltergeist wrote at first she was extremely shy and her teacher found it difficult to establish real connection with her but it was clear to everybody that she was very intelligent and she was kind even if she seemed very emotional and under distress okay now what are you looking at over there oh nothing oh you looked like you were looking at something oh no what are you looking at you always think i'm looking at something i think whenever you're reading something you get this face where you look you look like very like invested yeah Yeah, because I
think I focus when I'm reading something.
Yeah, and then I'm like, what is she reading?
I was looking up things about – like I was looking at this little girl and I'm like, isn't she adorable?
She is. Don't spoil anything for yourself.
I'm not going to spoil anything.
So the picture of Virginia Campbell that comes from most accounts at this time is that of a fairly normal 11 -year -old reacting pretty appropriately to a pretty disruptive life event and struggling, but refusing or failing to – not refusing or failing to adapt to her new life.
Yeah. She was open to getting into this.
Yeah, she wanted to.
to adapt she was just having trouble yeah and like i said by all accounts behind the quiet shy exterior there was a perfectly lovely intelligent girl who seemed eager to engage with the world around her and in time like i said a minute ago she did make a lot of new friends yeah but that being said george owen who was actually involved with the family at the time of the supposed poltergeist activity is quick to point out quote it may be of significance that at present she is going through a period of extremely rapid physical development and mature maturation puberty in the full sense has not arrived
but she is going through a very rapid pubescence it may also be of significance that on occasion she did give some indication of mental and emotional turmoil at times she talked in her sleep showing signs of both upset and aggressiveness talking in her sleep shows upset and aggressiveness according to him and that might because when i read that at first i was like i talk in my sleep yeah i talk in my sleep but when you hear about the kind of talking in her sleep that was happening it wasn't your normal like having a weird dream like she would go into trances and like sit up but they were like
she was still asleep that's also a night terror it seems like she may have been having some night terrors but then when you put it hand in hand with everything else that was going on well and maybe the night terrors were caused by the poltergeist because the girls have had night terrors for small spans of time before and they are terrifying one of them in particular like one of the girls yeah yeah freaky they it's scary i kids are fucking terrifying yeah if your kid is scary i'm sorry gary in a night terror the thing like you can't really do anything about it you just have to like comfort them
through it because it's isn't it like hard to wake them up and technically you're not really supposed to they're asleep but they're acting awake and they're just kind of like they're not focusing their eyes on you or anything like it's very strange yeah it's a very strange moment so you just kind of have to like if you can rub their back and stuff just kind of be like i'm here like i'm here like let them know that you're here and hopefully it kind of like it's yeah like uh goes into their dream like subconscious somewhere i think it's like if you show comfort and like i'm here kind of thing then
slowly they they can come out of it but it's scary scary and it's like how like when your alarm will ring in real life but it manifests as something else in your dream and it's just this loud noise in your dream that you can't get away from maybe like some big random thing is comforting you and not your mama not your mama not your mama some big random thing is comforting I just pictured like a cloud comforting me like a giant cloud with legs I honestly pictured cloud guy but like big oh from trolls hell yeah cloud guy would comfort me too and so does um fuck what's his name the giraffe i love
the giraffe cooper cooper i fucking love cooper from trolls i'm excited for the new trolls movie and this is not a paid campaign i'm just genuinely pretty excited i love that anyway that's all to say while virginia campbell may have been a normal healthy fully functional 11 year old her behavior did indicate a certain amount of frustration related to her circumstances that maybe was seeking some kind kind of outlet subconsciously or consciously.
Okay. Shit was going down.
Truly. Or not. No, it was.
It was going down Charlie Brown.
So as far as anybody could tell, the poltergeist activity began on November 22nd, 1960.
Not long after Virginia and her niece Margaret had gone to bed that night, the two girls began hearing what they later described as a thunking noise.
They said it was almost like someone was throwing a rubber ball against the wall.
Okay. If you can kind of picture that.
Now, they couldn't fall asleep because it was so loud, so they went downstairs, but the sound actually ended up following them as they were walking down the stairs, like the ball was hitting each step just behind them.
Now, in the living room, the girls reported the noise to Thomas and Isabella, which would be Margaret's parents and Virginia's brother and her sister -in -law.
But the older, like the couple, Thomas and Isabella, were like, okay, you guys need to go to bed.
Like, clearly this is some kind of tactic to stay awake, and they didn't hear anything.
thing. So, they just escorted them back up to bed.
But as soon as Thomas and Isabella closed the door to the bedroom after getting the girls settled, they heard the sound from outside of the room and they were like, okay.
Now, Thomas just figured it was the girls pulling some kind of prank.
Like once he closed the door, he's like, oh, they're trying to make me think that I hear this.
Yeah. So, he opened the door to tell them to cut it out, but he was surprised to find both of them under the blankets, their hands completely covered and the sound emanating from the headboard of the bed they shared damn now confused and somewhat concerned they moved virginia and margaret to a different bedroom to fall asleep but the noises continued and they only stopped after virginia had fallen asleep oh just random that's interesting and weird like it was inexplicable so that night was uh not restful at all for virginia no she had a very fitful sleep so they decided to let her stay home from school
the next day because they were like first of all we We have no fucking idea what's going on, and you also didn't sleep last night, so it's not going to be a good day for you.
Now, that afternoon when Thomas, Isabella, and Virginia sat down in the living room together, all three of them watched in shock as the sideboard next to Virginia, quote, moved out five inches from the wall, then slid right back into place.
Oh. Yeah. Okay. So at the time, Virginia was seated less than a foot away from this sideboard, but both thomas and isabella swore that she never touched that sideboard like it moved very much on its own and they were like what are we dealing with here what is going on if my little if i like well i do have a little sister and if she moved in with me and this shit started happening i'd be like listen i love you so much but you gotta go yeah because like my house is chill and you're chilling it yeah you know don't be all uncool yeah be cool don't be all uncool Countess Luanne.
I have wine glasses that say that.
They're a pair. Just in case you were wondering.
Yeah, I think I got them on Etsy, so try to find those.
But that evening, after Virginia and Margaret had gone to bed, the family started hearing the knocking again, but this time, it was all over the house and there was no obvious point of origin.
They're all like, hunting around to see like, is this like a pipe?
Is this a that? Is this a whatever?
They can't narrow it down.
And eventually the knocks became so loud that even the the neighbors could hear the noise and were like, what's going on over there?
Like, please quiet down.
And they were like, yeah, we can't control this at all.
Like, we don't know what's happening.
We're not doing it.
We are not well, bitch. Nobody of the living is doing it, so.
So, finally, after enduring the noise for hours and being just really unsure of what to do, the couple, Thomas and Isabella there, ended up calling their priest, Reverend T .W.
Lund. And they were like, can you come out here and just help?
Help. help. So Reverend Lund arrived at the Campbell House just after midnight that very night.
And he was briefed on the activity that had been occurring throughout the last 24 hours.
He could also hear the knocking sounds and he eventually traced them to that headboard on the bed where Virginia and Margaret were sleeping.
They were still asleep.
So he actually, the Reverend, suspected that Virginia was causing these noises somehow.
He said maybe she was like putting her her head up against the headboard and kind of like thudding it against the wall yeah so he asked her to slide down away from the headboard like they woke the kids up obviously yeah and he assumed that the noises would stop but after she did they continued and he also noticed that the headboard hadn't actually even been touching the wall at all so there wasn't even the possibility that it was being vibrated and like hitting the wall debunking debunking not happening no so when the uh when the the reverend pressed his hand against the headboard, he could feel
a vibration with every knock, which convinced him that no matter how impossible, this knocking was coming from inside the headboard itself.
Oh, damn. And he could not figure out how.
So during his visit to the house, Reverend Lund also noticed a large linen chest, like, pretty big.
It was 27 inches long, 17 inches high, and 14 inches wide.
He saw it rocking back and forth for no obvious reason.
And then the sideboard slid more than a foot across the linoleum tile and then just slid back into place.
What? Yeah. He could not explain the movement of the chest, especially because it was full of linen and not likely to move from any kind of vibrations.
Like, it's a big, heavy chest. So he shifted his attention back to Virginia, and he was like, I think you guys just need to go back to bed.
Like, Virginia and Margaret try to go back to sleep after witnessing that.
Yeah, no big deal. It's fine.
and when he made that suggestion the knocking from the headboard became violent and rapid like no no nobody's going to sleep tonight what the fuck right oh i don't like this at all no it's weird and it doesn't it gets weirder and it's scary in and of itself but this particular poltergeist doesn't seem violent but he seems like aggressive yeah which i don't like like Like, knowing that it's Wee Huey, it does sound like just, like, a little kid polter, like, this little boy Huey just acting a fool, you know?
Yeah, it's true. Like, Wee Huey really does take the terror down a notch. It does.
Yeah. And it just seems like a little boy being rambunctious as a ghost. I also saw it described as a possible leprechaun.
Are you serious? Yeah.
But they never found the leprechaun.
I'm just saying. I love that.
Maybe Wee Huey is a little leprechaun.
You never know. I don't know.
Who's to say? Not I.
Yeah, and actually they called him a vengeful leprechaun.
But I don't really know how vengeful he was.
Like he didn't do anything bad.
Yeah, I don't know.
I'm just saying he has had that reputation.
He has a bad reputation, I think is what Taylor Swift says.
So the noises and the disruptions continued the next day with knocking coming from the walls, the sewing machine was turning on and off by itself, objects were moving on their own, virginia's father by that point james he had sold the farm and moved to where they were now in scotland he claimed that he witnessed an apple rise out of a fruit bowl hover in the air for a second or two and then drop back down into the fruit bowl and he like this man is like a farmer like he's not he's like a no bullshit kind of guy yeah he's just like that and he's like i saw what i saw and i don't know why i saw
that i saw what i saw and i don't know why i saw it it's weird Like, that is it.
And I just love that it's like wee -hee -wee, like, picked up an apple, was looking at it, and then was like, nah.
Just put it like health, no. Health, wellness, fiber, nah.
Absolutely not for me.
I just picture, like, an apple floating on itself, and I look at it and be like, can you take the skin off this?
And nobody answers, so he's like, fuck it.
For some reason, no one heard him.
But imagine if you did.
That would be actually terrifying.
and not and also not to know the context here can you take the skin off this I'd be like no I can't an apple's just floating in the air belongs on people I'd be like ah and he's like it's an apple I just don't want the apple skin I'd be like I can't no no thank you uh so later that evening Reverend Lund went back to the Campbell home and this time he brought a local physician uh W .H.
Nesbitt with him once Virginia and Margaret had gone to bed they both went into the room the the reverend and the doctor and once they walked into the room they looked on in utter shock as virginia's pillow rotated about 60 degrees while her head was still resting on it okay that's interesting that's weird that's suspicious that's suspicious so neither of them had really any time to process what they'd seen before the knocking started up again first at the headboard and then in the walls.
And the knockings were followed by the lifting and slamming of the lid on the linen chest, which again moved out from the wall on its own before sliding back into place against the wall.
Okay. But all the while the lid is being lifted and slammed back down, lifted and slammed back down.
That's disruptive. It is.
So these phenomena were shocking, but the final event witnessed that evening was the most inexplicable to them.
as virginia and margaret lay in bed with the covers pulled up to their chests both men witnessed what they later described as a strange rippling movement move up and down the bed covers as the two girls lay beneath almost like the cover was doing the wave yeah obviously what no i hate it no and i'm also like damn y 'all are just sleeping through this i know that's the thing everybody's just like going about their business after this it's the kids like kids can sleep through anything They truly can apparently.
But then they need like one glass of water and it's over for you bitches.
I mean, going to sleep, forget about it.
Forget about it. Forget about it.
Now, since the activity started a few days earlier, Virginia had been staying home from school because they were like, do we send her to school while this is happening?
But by Friday, November 25th, the Campbells decided there was really no point in keeping her at home any longer, especially because— Home isn't safe, it seems. Yeah, and they weren't even any closer to understanding what the hell was going on.
So after being home all morning and, you know, Virginia was probably like ticking them off a little bit.
Like, you know, like they were like, go find something to do.
And she was like, I can't.
So they were like, you know what, go to school.
Forget it. So they sent her to school for the remainder of the afternoon.
Now that afternoon, as she was sitting in class, her teacher, Margaret Stewart, noticed that she seemed to be struggling with something at her desk.
From Mrs. Stewart's vantage point at the front of the class, it seemed like Virginia was fidgeting with her desk lid in like an unusual manner.
her she's like what the fuck is she doing she didn't say that though she said what the fuck is that little girl doing virginia what the fuck are you doing are you doing virginia she didn't say that that would have been so rude that would have been really rude she would have had a problem with annie campbell if she said yeah and james i'm sure and me and me how about that miss stewart that kid that way never no miss stewart's a sweetie so she assumed that virginia was just fooling around so she called out and was like virginia what are you doing and virginia said said nothing dishonest like she
was like i'm really not doing anything so when the teacher told virginia to stop distracting the class she did as she was told and just lifted her arms off the desk and at that point the wooden lid of the desk began rising and falling on its own as the other students just watched in complete shock and horror no so it seems like she might have been like because she said the teacher was like she looked like she was fidgeting with her desk it sounds to me like she was trying to stop that from happening yeah like i was trying to figure out why it was happening like just being like what is going on here
like trying to see if it could stop it and then she takes her hands off and it starts just going for it and all the kids in class are like what the fuck we got a matilda up in here we got a matilda so later that afternoon during a period of silent reading the classroom was again disrupted when the empty desk behind virginia slowly rose about an inch off of the floor and just gently settled down again on its its own.
What do you even say as a kid in that class?
You're like, what's happening?
I don't know. What is going on?
When she was interviewed about the incidents a short time later, Mrs. Stewart told George Owen that during the first interruption, Virginia was in her line of sight, so she could tell that Virginia was not lifting the lid of the desk.
And again, her hands were in the air.
And after the second incident, Mrs. Stewart went back over to the desk behind Virginia Virginia and examined like the whole entirety of it and said she quote found no strings levers or anything else that had been in operation to make the desk rise and fall seemingly of its own volition.
Damn. So this wasn't a prank.
Yeah. Like they checked it out it seems. Yeah.
They tried to debunk everything and they literally couldn't.
See these are the ones that it's like when they're going and checking it out and actual adults are looking and being like I yeah I can't explain this.
That's when those scary scary ones.
They are. are and they're they're scary this for some reason I just find this one fun.
Yeah I mean it's Scottish who doesn't love a Scottish tale?
I love a Scottish tale.
I love a Scottish tale.
And it's an Irish curly.
Yeah you know we love it.
Later that evening Reverend Lund and Dr. Nesbitt returned again to the Campbell house to check up on Virginia and when Reverend Lund asked her how school had been Virginia said all right but something funny happened when I was there when my teacher was standing near my desk, the lid of another desk went up all by itself.
You know, funny. Reverend Lund was like, okay, I'm going to talk to your family, so give me a minute.
Wild. Now, while he sat and talked with the family in the living room, Dr. Nesbitt spent the evening sitting in the girl's bedroom watching for any unusual behavior.
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Now, while he was alone in the room, Dr. Nesbitt witnessed similar but less intense activity than had been reported days earlier, including the light knocking sounds, the lid of the linen and chest lifting and lowering and still multiple rotations of virginia's pillow as it just sat on the bed yeah that's wild so it's not even like because i guess you're kind of thinking or at least i was when they first saw that pillow rotation i'm like maybe there's something that like she can pull yeah like makes it ha i mean that's like you just you're trying to think of anything that can but now he's sitting
alone in there that's the thing like she's not there to do anything.
No. And this is the 1960s so it's not like she has like some remote control that's like hooked up to anything.
If it was now I'd be like all right maybe it's like a drone or some shit.
Right. But now like back then it's like no. No. So the family hoped the arrival of the weekend maybe could bring some kind of just chill to the situation like it's been really chaotic up in here with the paranormal activity.
Maybe we can have a calm weekend.
Please. But unfortunately it didn't take long for those hopes to be dashed saturday the 27th did pass with minimal activity the most really anyone witnessed was more pillow rotations and that rippling of the bed covers i love that more pillow rotation more pillow rotations it's like more bump teamies now sunday on the other hand found the family experiencing entirely new phenomenon when virginia appeared to go into a kind of trance oh this is kind of what i touched on earlier okay that afternoon dr nesbitt returned with his colleague dr william logan oh i know somebody with that same name but they
brought along his dog uh dr logan's dog and virginia took an immediate liking to this dog telling the doctors that he reminded her so much of her own dog toby who she like really missed i really don't understand why they couldn't bring toby with them justice for toby justice for toby pour one out i i will now the day passed without incident the children played with the dog they seemed generally happy but that evening after the girls had gone to bed virginia appeared to slip into this kind of trance trance excuse me and she started speaking almost like she was talking in her sleep calling out for toby and her
best friend anna who she'd left behind in ireland now virginia's parents did what you would do they tried to comfort her as she's like seemingly having some kind of night terror or distress they gave her a teddy bear but she ended up violently throwing the teddy bear across the room and started thrashing and striking out in all directions oh damn and they were like i don't know what to do so they left the room i don't really know what else they could have done i guess yeah and she just fell asleep normally after that oh wow yeah huh have you have your kids ever had a night terror to like that extent
no they've never like like thrashed around and like become like scary like that like potentially violent yeah they've never become violent or like even aggressive they more it always kills me because like they would um they don't have them anymore really knock on wood uh and they didn't get them a ton they were just every once in a while and i got them when i was little so i knew what they were what to do but i they basically like they get very like they cry weepy and they get very like uh inconsolable horrible like for a moment and then finally they'll they'll fall into it and be like and calm
down but even like even so you feel bad leaving them because you feel like you haven't quite got them to a comforted place yet because they'll lay down and like go to go back to sleep and you can still see like the stress on their face so it always used to kill me and then i go in like an hour later and they were like peacefully asleep so i was like okay okay we're good but yeah it's always one of those things where you're like but i've they never got aggressive i know i don't But I don't know if that's just different strokes for different folks.
Yeah, that's the thing.
Because in my mind, I'm like, maybe what George Owen said earlier about how she was clearly dealing with something, whether she knew it or not.
I don't know if maybe she was the kind of person with the temperament of not allowing things to get the best of her while she was awake.
But then at night, she was angry about the fact that she had to move in her subconscious.
Yeah, no matter what, she's young and she's going through an upheaval.
So it's like, I feel like that's always going to put a kid in a different mindset when it's not quite settled or, you know, when things are settled, it's easier to be in a good mindset.
But for a kid, unsettling and movement can really throw them off.
Yeah. Like way more than we think it does.
And it's interesting.
And I think a lot of it, I think a lot of things with kids happen subconsciously, you know?
Oh yeah, for sure. Because it's just like they can't necessarily make sense of a lot.
Exactly. There's so much going on.
Well, anyways, the next day, Virginia did return to school, and it was almost immediately apparent that whatever had been affecting her arrived with her at school that day.
As the students were sitting quietly working on a word problem, Virginia approached Mrs. Stewart's desk to ask for a little help with whatever they were doing.
So she got up to sketch out the problem on the blackboard for her, the teacher.
but she the teacher looked as the chalkboard pointer on her desk started to vibrate because she was about to like grab for it but it started vibrating on her desk and eventually fell off of the edge of her desk and then when she reached down to touch the desk she was surprised to find that it too was vibrating slightly what the fuck and then without any kind of warning and i i want to say that this is probably like the most quote -unquote violent thing to happen the right end of her desk lifted off the floor slightly and swung in her direction oh like it got like pushed towards her oh damn and i
am pretty sure that's one of them like the more violent things that happened luckily i don't believe she was hurt but weird yeah wii huey does not like mrs stewart no it's weird that it's following her to school i know you know that's the thing wow now when virginia arrived home from school that afternoon the family made the decision to send her actually to stay with relatives in nearby Dollar, where they hoped she would get a break from the paranormal activity because they're like, she's really not sleeping.
She's going to school.
This is a lot on her as an 11 -year -old.
So hopefully if we send her over here, maybe the activity is linked to the house somehow.
I don't know. But when Dr. Nesbitt visited the Dollar house later that night, he found that the knocking noises continued in the new location in a series of knocks that ranged from gentle tapping to loud raps, always in the vicinity of Virginia.
Oh, spooky. So it followed her to an entirely different town.
Exactly, that's wild.
Now, the next day, Dr. Logan arrived in Dollar in the company of his wife, also a doctor, Dr. Sheila Logan, and they wanted to visit Virginia to get a load of this.
Now, when Sheila first heard the stories about the activity from her husband that seemed to be following Virginia, she was like, okay, sure.
And she seriously actually doubted what was going on.
She talked the quote -unquote activity up to just a childish prank.
But as soon as she got to the house where Virginia was staying, Sheila experienced the knockings firsthand and walked away, quote, satisfied that the noises from within the room were not caused by the activity of anyone in it.
Ah. Which is such a haunting statement.
Yeah. Whatever she was hearing in that room was not caused by anyone in it.
hate. Don't like that.
Hate, hate, loathe entirely.
I also hate the knocking thing would annoy the shit out of me.
I hate repetitive noises more than anything.
That would piss me off, and I think I would literally go insane.
So later that night, the Logans were called back to the house in Dollar by the family who were concerned because Virginia had fallen into another trance.
And they were like, yeah, we haven't experienced this before so we're not really sure what to do.
Not sure. So when they got to the home, Dr. Logan discovered discovered that Virginia was sitting up in bed, quote, talking in a loud, unnatural voice, calling for Toby and Anna and throwing herself about the bed.
According to Logan, even though Virginia's eyes were closed, she heard and responded to questions normally, but she did note that her responses indicated a lack of shyness that was typically present in Virginia's personality.
Like usually she was like a pretty soft -spoken, shy child, but when she was answering these questions it was very like confident yeah just like outside of her natural kind of disposition that's an interesting like little side effect yeah so the doctor stayed with her for 10 or 15 minutes until she did eventually emerge from the trance and she did eventually fall asleep but they were like what the fuck they just had never seen anything yeah it's just like none of it adds up no and it's not and none of it is like of typical poltergeist activity yeah Like obviously the moving of the furniture and that kind
of tapping noises, but just, it's not your typical poltergeist story.
Yeah, it's very strange.
So Virginia returned home the next day, November 30th, and the family actually reported no unusual activity.
But that break did prove to be short -lived because the noises returned the following night, just around the time, and it always seems to be around the time that the girls are getting ready for bed.
Of course. Which makes you think that it's a prank.
I know. But then they try to figure it out, and there's no way that the girls are causing this.
Yeah, it's like, what the fuck?
So just before 9 p .m., Dr. Nisbet and Dr. Logan set up a camera in the girls' bedroom hoping to capture any of this activity on film.
Now, the camera captured long periods of continual noise, quote, ranging from barely perceptible tappings to agitated knocks, more rippling of the bed cover, and quote, a considerable amount of hysterical talking by Virginia Virginia in which she showed the same lack of inhibition she had previously in her trances.
So she's this very like confident outspoken girl in her trances.
And then when she's awake and out and about she's very shy and reserved?
Yeah. It's just interesting.
So that same night Reverend Lund arrived at the Campbell house in the company of three other local ministers to conduct a service of intercession, I believe is what it's called.
It's not an exorcism.
Those would become more popular in the media in the following decade.
But what they were doing now, a service of intercession, is basically just a prayer session where a group prays to their God on behalf of another person.
Okay. In this case, Virginia.
Okay. So throughout the 15 -minute prayer session, these men who were praying over her reported hearing considerable loud banging, quote, quote, a harsh rasping sawing noise and screams and bouts of hysterical talking from Virginia, which they described as babbling.
What the fuck? So this was clearly agitating the entity.
Now the activity, which had begun about a week earlier, had not only been disruptive to everybody involved, but also to the large number of witnesses to the phenomenon.
It wasn't just Virginia that was going through it.
It was everybody. Now, usually in paranormal cases is similar to this one.
First -hand experiences are limited.
But Virginia's poltergeist had never really been shy about demonstrating its abilities.
And it was only a matter of time, of course, before the press got onto the story.
Of course. You knew what was coming.
Of course. So the intersessional prayer session coincided with an article that was published on The Wire by United Press International.
The article, it kind of annoys me when they do things like this because it was poking fun at this.
Wow. It's like, this is an 11 -year -old girl.
It's one thing if this is adults And even that's like pretty rude but You don't need to make fun of people You definitely don't need to make fun of an 11 year old No so it had an Unserious tone but at the same time It did lay out some of the facts that had occurred Emphasized the ways In which Virginia's quote unquote ghost Was disrupting the class And Virginia's teacher Margaret was Interviewed for it and she told reporters I don't believe in the supernatural but I was Mesmerized by what I saw all and she was referring to that movement of the desk she said it looked like an elaborate practical
joke but there was no string and no one touched the desk when it moved wow so she was like i don't believe in the supernatural and even i can't explain i was just gonna say but she's like i don't believe in the supernatural but i have no idea how they did that it's like i think you might believe in the supernatural now now in addition to the description of paranormal activity occurring at school the upi article noted the rumors i just said that like meredith mark marks marks a little bit there's this new clip on housewives where one of the housewife goes the rumors the way she says it is wild
i'm gonna play it for you later please do but the upi article noted the rumors that had been making their way around town and quote villager said they understood church authorities would be consulted to determine if this case was warranting of an exorcism oh here we go now you can assume the writer was referring to reverend lund like Like they were like, is this motherfucker going to start an exorcism?
Because he had been involved with the case from the very beginning and up to this point had never made any mention of an exorcism.
But this news report raised concern among the reverend and the doctors and Virginia's family that any additional attention was going to make things harder for Virginia.
Oh, damn. They were like, all these articles are going to fuck shit up.
Yeah. We don't need this.
Which I mean, yeah.
She's 11. Yeah. So after discussing it with the family, the men decided that the best course of action would be to report to the news service that with help from her doctors and the reverend, the problem had been solved.
They were like, we just need them to believe that this was over.
And we can do this privately.
They're going to be like a dog with a bone.
Yeah. Now, in their joint statement, the three men, which is the doctors and the reverend, they provided some small details about the activity saying, we concluded that the happenings could not be accounted for in the normal sense of cause and effect.
And writing on behalf of the church the statement went on when the observances did not quickly disappear we attempted to help the child by changing her environment and to deal by means of sedatives with her hysteria which we all agreed was a secondary emotional effect.
We realized the need not only for medical care for the child but also spiritual help for the whole family and we consulted certain ministers who have had the experience of abnormal phenomena of a similar nature.
All along, we have recognized the possible importance of restoring the child to her previous environment in Ireland.
In our opinion, the phenomena are rapidly diminishing and it is our belief that they may soon disappear altogether.
So they were like, things are really chilling out over here, nothing to see.
Yeah, don't worry about it, we fixed it.
Now the statement...
Everything's cool. Good, good, good, cool, cool, cool.
Awesome. So the statement actually seemed to satisfy a lot of inquiring minds about town, but some local news outlets still wanted more information.
Of course. And when none of the three men would provide any additional details, they looked elsewhere.
So in an article from December 2, 1960, the paper quotes Secretary of the Aloha Spiritualist Church, James Henderson, saying, In my opinion, this little girl has certain unusual psychic qualities, and I am convinced that some person who has passed on is trying to communicate through her.
I believe that a responsible medium Huh.
Which, okay, I get it.
Interesting. Now that same article goes on to quote a spokesperson for the spiritualist national church. That's mouthful.
It is. And that's James McNee.
He said, as many people think.
And contrary to popular opinion, they are not necessarily evil in nature.
Children are much more alive physically than adults are.
And often, although unconscious, real mediums. If much of what is called their blethers was seriously examined, they would be discovered to contain communication from people who have passed on.
So basically he's saying what I think a lot of people believe is that kids are more susceptible to like seeing spirits, making friends with spirits, being visited by spirits.
Being open to spirits.
being open to it because they they're not as scared of it yet because they haven't had the experiences yet their mind is more open and their mind is more exactly we close our mind a ton exactly which sucks because we put up bullshit boundaries in our own mind i want to see a ghost i mean i've already seen a few but i want to see some more but yeah so despite that statement though or the statement that Lund Nesbitt and Logan had made the press like I said maintained an interest in Virginia's story that went on for weeks capitalizing on quotes from teachers classmates and then finally it did die
out a few weeks later yeah now although the statement put out by Lund Nesbitt and Logan had kind of been intended to convince the press and neighbors that the problem had been resolved and there was nothing more to see the fact was is actually following the intercession service performed on the evening of December 1st, the activity had seemed to come to an end.
So they were like manifesting kings and queens.
I was going to say, there you go.
Now, aside from one more incident at school in late January where a bowl of bulbs moved across Ms. Stewart's desk, there were no additional reports of disturbances from the Campbells or their neighbors.
Now, I don't know if that's just because they were worried about the press continuing to bother them or if genuinely the the shit just stopped yeah now the story did end up getting new life in the summer of 1965 when george owen released his book can we explain the poltergeist can we can we i like that title i always love when a book title is a question i do too it's fun can we can we let's find out read this book so in his book owen who is a trinity college mathematics professor he He explores the potential realities of poltergeist phenomena, paying particular attention to Virginia's experience.
The book isn't exclusively about Virginia's case, but it did revive interest in that case in the UK, especially with the tabloid newspapers.
In a 1965 article in the Sunday Mirror, five years after this had originally happened, the paper played up the family's rural origins and supposedly superstitious nature of Irish people, people describing dunny gall as a quaint isolated part of i think it's ira is how you say it it's e -i -r -e i a -r -a you're supposed to say it with like an accent but i'm not going to do that because it's not my accent yeah i don't i have no idea but it says where banshees are said to wail before death and tiny leprechauns prance at the bottom of the gardens so basically they were like kind of poking fun at their
irish roots which is they were being like they're irish so they're They're probably dumb and think stupid things, and it's like, wow, okay.
Like, they're like, oh, they're just superstitious because folklore.
And it's like, fuck off.
Like, cool, thanks.
Like, mmm, I just did a big old bird. I was going to say, she just flipped me off in case anyone was wondering.
But it was the Sunday mirror.
It wasn't you. Come on, fuck you, Alayna.
Fuck you, for no good reason.
Just for the hell of it.
For no good reason.
Just in the middle of this episode, fuck you.
you i really like fuck you for no good reason right that's a good for no good reason i like that yeah not for the most part the articles that followed the release of owen's book told this the story of virginia's experience with the poltergeist that she and her friends had come to refer to as wee huey that's where wee huey comes in eventually virginia named her poltergeist wee little huey i love that she was like you know what he needs a name hell yeah but eventually they got around to the question every reader wanted answered, what caused the poltergeist?
Now, most people simply believed it was a matter of what Owen called, I hate the name of this theory, it's called the naughty little girl theory.
That's upsetting. Yeah, I don't love it.
It's just, you know, yeah.
But he basically was saying that, or this theory was saying that the activity was nothing more than a prank caused by Virginia herself.
After all, she had been through a serious disruption in her life, maybe, you know, feeling anxious or unstable with both parents absent.
So she created the we Huey scenario in order to get attention.
That was one theory.
Okay. I personally don't buy that one because we've looked at all the ways in which she couldn't have caused what was going on.
Well, that's the thing.
It's like, that would be a, that would be a very good theory.
And it makes sense.
If there wasn't times when even adults were like, I don't know how she could have done that.
Exactly. And like the, the thought process behind the theory makes sense when you look at the disruption in her life and everything.
The upheaval, all the, yeah.
But then, like you said, even the adults were like, nope, no way.
That's where it's confusing because it's like, how did she pull that shit off?
So that's where you kind of have to ax that theory, and it's great that you have to anyway.
Yeah. Now, Owen acknowledged the possibility that some of the activity actually could have been caused by Virginia or her niece Margaret, but he rejected the belief that the entire thing was a hoax.
He told a reporter, it is possible to suppose one could be the victim of illusion or hallucination.
However, it is beyond all possibility that everyone could be deceived over such a long period of time.
Yeah, that's the thing.
So if it wasn't a hoax, what was it?
Was we little Huey?
Well, Owen said, when girls are approaching puberty, they often seem to attract poltergeist phenomena.
There are many cases which suggest that activity is more likely to arise in that age group.
That's weird as fuck.
And I guess it's because your body is going through a lot of upheaval.
That's real weird. It is a little weird. I don't like it.
I don't love it. I don't like connecting it to puberty.
I don't either. I don't know why.
It just gives me the ick.
It gives you the, it feels icky.
I get what he's saying and I don't think he's saying it like to, in.
No, no, no, no. I don't, I'm not, I'm not like offended by him or anything.
I'm just, for some reason that just always makes me think like, ew.
Yeah, no. You know?
I totally, it has like a, yeah.
Well, and it's such a shitty time like puberty anyways.
Anyways, and it's like to add that like, and you know what?
You might get possessed.
You might unwillingly attract a poltergeist while you're at it.
I, come on. I mean, that sucks.
But then it kind of makes sense because there are like a lot of entities like poltergeists and all different kind of entities that will attach to somebody while they're going through serious upheaval in life.
Yeah. Like your hormones being all out of whack and like.
Wow, we should start warning kids about that.
We should start being like, here's the ins and outs of poltergeist. puberty and what you can expect here's the poltergeist occasions you might also attract a poltergeist there's really not a lot you can do to break it to you kid yeah that's that's part of the side effects of puberty that might be that might make those classes a little bit more fun because you remember when like they would separate the girls and the boys in like sixth grade and they'd be like here's what's gonna happen to your body and you were like fuck my whole life I also love that because I'm like yeah definitely don't teach
them what happens to the other you know like set of students like i remember none of you should understand each other in any way no we had to sit there and watch all these fucking wild ass videos and the boys were like we just played like a game yeah they're like our voice might crack yeah that's like okay or you might be possessed by a fucking poultry how do you like those apples it could be real easy or real hard for you exactly so owen theorized that moving from ireland to a new home where she was uncomfortable along with those feelings of law from loss from having having parted with her dog
and her best friend, left Virginia, quote, in a state of some tension.
And he believed the result was, quote, circumstances may well have triggered off a physical force around her, which is not yet known to science.
Now, unfortunately, while Owen could offer those theories as to what may have triggered the paranormal events around Virginia, he was at a loss to explain precisely how those phenomena function.
but the Sunday Mirror summarized and I really hate this summarization but go off Sunday Mirror they said if a girl is emotionally upset during her 28 day cycle she can acquire an unexplained power strong enough to move things without touching them and Owen agreed with that summation adding we are ignorant to the nature of this force and have no idea how it is applied we cannot even begin to understand its potential but one thing seems fairly certain the hidden force is wild and uncontrollable at the moment it's probably why we won't let women be president over here i guess just out here moving
things and we don't know why i have no idea that during that time yeah that i was so fucking powerful i mean i've never matilda during my cycle but go off ovaries are scary as fuck i mean they are a little scary over his heart sometimes that is that's hilarious that that's how they summarize this entire thing they were like welp yeah period periods they are wily and they can create demonic presence in a home and it's like no no i am the demonic presence in my home during that time you're like georgio and you are confused yeah i'm like i don't need an outside entity to make that happen been like
don't you worry it ain't we huey it's me it's not we huey i am the demonic force like you just texted us ovaries are scary as fuck y 'all we should get a shirt that says that it's not the demonic force it's me it's me yeah honestly wow but that got hilarious at the end i was i was excited to present you that theory i was writing it and i was like i don't even even personally want to look further into this i like the go off sunday mirror go off sunday mirror i'm like okay wow did a man write that's awesome probably that's awesome yeah so the flurry of public interest around the case in owen's book
did die down after a few weeks and the case of virginia campbell went back into the corners of people's minds and it wasn't until about 30 years later that virginia's experience popped up again in the news in the mid 90s it was the 90s it was was the 90s kevin kevin kevin but thank you to the interests of a high -profile paranormal investigator malcolm robinson his mother grew up in the soki area and he said i initially looked into the case in 1987 but i never got anywhere however i had more success in 1994 when i looked at it again so initially he was kind of trying to investigate this like i
just said and he was struggling to find anybody related to the case and all his letters and his phone calls were going unanswered but then in 1994 he tracked down one margaret davidson formerly stewart virginia's former teacher and as one of the primary witnesses she was actually an ideal reporter not only because of the respectability of her position but also because of her seemingly excellent memory she said i had never really heard the word poltergeist before i thought it was some kind of medicine that's how naive i was poltergeist take two poltergeists and call me in the morning imagine now
over the course of their conversation she was able to verify much of what had been reported on in the press and she also was able to fill in some gaps for robinson for instance during the peak interest in the story as the press was relentlessly pursuing the family and actually even waited outside of school uh mrs uh stewart formerly was able to tell this reporter that one of virginia's classmates actually ended up donning her coat and backpack pack in an attempt to lead the press away from the school so that virginia could leave without being harassed oh my god like that's how bad things go damn
so you can see why and i i love that the reverend and like the doctors were like we need to put a stop to this because she deserves to live a normal life yeah like we don't want to make this a big a big media hullabaloo yeah but they were like all about it it would be one thing yeah but the fact that they wanted it to go away and to protect her yeah it's so pure yeah and you don't really hear that a lot when we talk about these stories usually it's very like you're like what's happening yeah so davidson also added some of the less savory details that wouldn't have been published by the press in the 60s
including a frightening incident where virginia was harassed by a woman who believed her to be quote one of god's chosen ones and asked if she could touch her oh oh what oh somebody just what you walk up to a child and ask if you can touch them because i think you're one of god's chosen ones i'd be like you better hope you are because i'm about to send you into eternity right now for asking my child if you can touch them like Like, what the fuck?
Damn. Weird. That's fucked up.
That's, yeah, that's not good.
Ew. So for the most part, Robinson's investigation just kind of reiterated what was already reported in Owen's book 30 years earlier.
It didn't offer a ton of additional details other than the ones I just mentioned.
Or really any new theories that could explain what happened to Virginia.
But it did underscore what made this case so fascinating in the first place.
Because like I said a little bit earlier, unlike the majority of supposed hauntings and so -called poltergeist activity that had been reported on before and since Virginia's claims had been made, this poltergeist case does remain one of the few that still defies explanation.
Yeah. We still have no idea what the fuck happened and why it did.
They couldn't confirm or debunk it.
Exactly. Which is always the ones you want to pay attention to.
now as owen pointed out in 1965 obviously it's possible to trick someone like one person or even a handful of people into believing something is real but to trick multiple professionals with no connection to this home and an entire classroom full of students and a teacher and like a myriad of other people into seeing and hearing things that weren't there no way no so this really happened meaning it's entirely possible that there is some truth to owens conclusion the poltergeist phenomena were real and not due to trickery ground tremors or induced weightlessness that was a quote induced weightlessness
i like that yeah so virginia campbell's experience with we huey the poltergeist is in a lot of ways similar to so many other stories except for the fact that people believed her and that's really the only difference at all that from the moment everything began she was taken seriously yeah so but maybe that is why Why this particular case lacked the level of aggression and violence that we see in so many other cases.
And maybe that's also why it was kind of resolved in a relatively short matter of time.
Because everybody gave it the attention it deserved and believed her.
Exactly. Like this thing didn't feel like it needed to get bigger and bigger to prove that it existed.
Yeah. Yeah. So in the weeks and months after the intersessional prayer, the Campbells said they experienced only occasional activity in the form of knocking noises and a slight movement of objects.
But nothing at all like they had experienced in late November.
of 1960. Damn. And a few months after the press coverage ended, James, Annie, and Virginia did move out of Thomas and Isabella Campbell's house and into their own home in the Scottish Midlands, seeming to leave little wee Huey behind in Soki.
See you wee Huey. Bye.
Now a few years later, after she finally settled into her new life in Scotland, Virginia got a job working in a factory, and she was free of disruptive forces, so she was able to enjoy Enjoy the things that girls like to enjoy.
Good for her, man. People like to enjoy.
Now, in a final note, closing out the series of articles in 1965, Virginia said of the poltergeist, it never really worried me, but for the sake of others, I hope it never returns.
Ooh. And that is the end of Wee Huey, the Soaky Poltergeist. What an end to that.
I hope it never returns.
See, this has, like, it's poltergeisty, but it's also, like, a little, like, fey.
realm to me. I could see that.
Totally. It feels very like, you know, like a brownie or something.
Like one of those little like fuck around find out.
I feel like and maybe it's because I'm reading, the girls and I are reading the Spiderwick Chronicles at night now.
Like we're going through the whole series and it's all about like Fae and shit.
But it reminds me, it's weird that you did this one while we're reading.
That always works. That always happens to us.
It always lines up because we're reading those and it just kept making me think about it all, the like mischief and shit.
Yeah. I meant to say your case that you did earlier.
I'm not going to say the Torshorker witch trials.
I did say it, yay. There was like a date that you had mentioned in the whole case, and I think it's releasing around the same time like now.
Oh, that is weird. Yeah.
Isn't that weird? That is very strange.
We always have things like that happen.
Yeah. Oh, yeah, because I think the actual trials were October.
Yeah, they were. October 10th or something like that?
I think you're right, and I think it's, I think you said like the 12th or the 15th.
Yeah, probably. I think that's just in my head, but it was, I think it's releasing around that same time, so it's just weird. Very weird that you're reading these things.
I wish I could say we do.
That would make us a lot more, you know, with it, but I think this is just the universe guiding us here.
I was gonna say maybe we are super with it, and we just don't even know how with it we are.
We're the most with it.
Yeah, kids what is that gif of the guy doing the kid like like with the kids oh hello youth hello youths hello youths hello universe hello kids i don't know i don't know you know that was a crazy story it was and i like that it wasn't debunked or confirmed i know i i wish it had been confirmed somehow like i wish they did get to the bottom of it and like what really happened i know but it is kind of cool that they didn't and it is kind of cool that virginia was like listen i don't know what happened i love that she was just like i don't know that was that was that but like let's hope it doesn't
come back for everyone else's sake and it's like oh okay drop that mic virginia okay virginia way to leave us i know with a gasp with oh i know crazy story i had fun doing this one and dave um helped me a lot and it was really fun to do together so yay david and yay you guys and we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird but not so weird that you blame a 28 day cycle for a poltergeist activity because we're the demons that's hilarious bye Thank you.
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