Hey weirdos, I'm Alayna, I'm Ash, and this is Morbid.
I wasn't expecting you to say the first part.
I feel like I haven't started in a while.
I know.
We used to switch off every episode, but now it's like impossible to figure out who did the last one.
But I was looking down and I went to say it and then it felt like your voice came out of my mouth.
I was like, hello?
Like, what's happening?
I was like, am I in the sixth dimension?
Yeah, you are.
Just so you know.
No, this is not the sixth dimension.
No.
I think this is like the first one or some shit.
This is a dimension that I would like to... This is an hellscape.
Yeah.
I don't want to visit it again.
Our lives are cool.
Yeah, like, personally... I like my life.
Like, pretty rad.
I just hate the things happening around us.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's not great.
No, it's really bad.
But...
But let's not bring you all the way down.
Let's tell you about a cool opportunity for you.
Yeah.
Right?
What is that cool opportunity?
They can buy your book in the UK.
Okay.
I was like mama, we just talked about this.
I was like wait, they have an opportunity, what is it?
We literally were like okay, like what do we have at the top of the show?
She's like okay, my uk.
But i'm like a cool opportunity for you guys.
This is a cool opportunity.
I don't know why i didn't think of it that way.
It's the morning, it is, it's the morning, i haven't had enough coffee.
But uh uk, wonderful baby face magooches period.
You can buy, you can pre-order The Butcher Legacy.
What?
And The Butcher Game.
And you can buy The Butcher Game now.
Hell yeah.
That's cool because you haven't been able to.
Now you can.
So you can get both of the, now you can get all three.
You can pre-order the Butcher game.
You can pre-order the Butcher Legacy.
It's going to be awesome.
I'm going to try my very hardest to get something signed over to you.
Trust me, that's top of the morning on my mind today is making sure I get something signed.
Things are happening in group time. text messages.
Yeah, I'm looking at fucking stickers, all kinds of shit just to make it happen.
So I'm trying.
And yeah, so that's really rad.
Because I love you guys.
She loves you guys.
Yeah.
For me, my business is just that I figured out how to use TikTok appropriately.
Which is a big deal.
I figured out how to edit like legitimate videos and make them funny.
Yeah.
So it's over.
Good job.
It's over for you people.
It is.
It's over for every bitch.
I feel like every single I feel like I unlocked a new skill.
And I also feel, like you know, like when your grandma figures out Facebook and she just like, won't stop posting.
Yep.
That's me now.
I'm really excited about that.
Yeah, I'm excited.
I'm excited that you're just gonna keep going.
I'm now your grandma.
Yeah.
Hell yeah, you are.
Party.
As you should be.
I'm just going to insert my queen big ang into every video that I can.
My green velvet glasses.
She already did.
Gotta have them.
Yeah.
You gotta see.
You gotta see.
I love her.
Because yeah, I got the.
I was super, super fortunate to get a PR box for the new Scarpetta show because my entire life I've loved Kay Scarpetta and Patricia Cornwell and
What a fucking dream.
That was one of the coolest PR boxes that I've ever seen.
I always see people get PR boxes for cool TV shows and like movies and I'm always like I want one of those.
Yeah.
And then like usually I don't get them.
No.
But like a lot of them I'm like, ugh.
That's so cool.
And this one I saw it and I was like, I will die if I don't get that.
Yeah.
And honestly, Patricia Cornwell's team is so nice.
They like went out of their way to send one.
Yeah, they are the best.
But I think now that we posted one, maybe we'll get more PR boxes.
I hope so because I'll post them.
We'll post videos, you guys.
I can edit them now.
Yeah, exactly.
Elena can open the boxes.
And I almost called you your aunt name.
And Ash, we'll edit them.
Incredible.
And Titi will edit them.
And Titi is going to edit them.
The amount of times that happens, or you'll just call me love.
What love?
Yeah, I call you love a lot because she calls her kids that.
So it's just like a vocal stim, I think.
I do that.
I might call one of you love.
Who knows?
What love?
It might happen.
John did that the other day, I think.
I was like, what?
You're like, what?
He's like, I can do that, love.
Yeah, it's okay.
I can do that, love.
So funny.
And also, if you haven't already, get yourself some tickets to our Radio City Music Hall show.
Please do.
There's still tickets available.
It's a one night show.
We're not doing another one.
So come and do it.
Spend a little weekend in New York.
Treat yourself.
Spend a day in New York.
Who the fuck cares?
Spend some time in the Big Apple.
Do whatever you want, but come to our show.
Yeah.
Do whatever you want.
And even if you don't want to come to our show, just do one thing that you don't want to do and come.
Exactly.
Okay.
Please do that thing.
Maybe we'll do a kick line.
No, it'll be fun.
I'm excited for this one.
We're figuring out like themeys right now.
Some merch.
Merchies.
I have to send an email.
That just reminded me about that.
And I think it's going to be fun.
We're going to be in costume.
Yeah.
It's going to be really fun.
We have a whole theme where it, trust me, you want to be there.
Yeah.
We got, we got surprises.
We got fun.
We got, we have an opener.
We got an opener.
Yeah.
So maybe we'll like, I don't know.
I'm not, I don't know.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I'm not making any promises, but it's going to be great.
You got to see.
You got to come and see.
You got to come and see.
So get your tickets, but just know that we yeah, Ticketmaster is the only ones that we like, know and approved the prices.
So outside of that, we have not approved prices.
Sometimes bots, they go and they buy the tickets and they poop them up.
If they're out there being crazy... Not me.
We have not approved that.
Not us.
So fuck them.
Big Red and TT would never.
No way.
Never.
Okay.
We wanted to do something spooky today.
We did.
We were craving a spooky, ooky episode.
And also... What?
This one has a legitimate true crime.
Oh, you do.
Part of it, like most of mine is true crime.
Oh so, so it's definitely got spookiness true crime, but i have a true crime.
You have a true crime episode.
Yeah, that has weight for us, it does.
And the person who knows who they are yeah, you know who you are.
They're not listening though, um So anyway, mine is just purely haunted, but it involves Aaron Burr.
Oh, sir.
Yes, sir.
I love that.
Yeah.
I feel like you should go first, though, because Moira.
Yeah.
I think ending on like purely haunting, I think is the way to go.
Yeah.
So this is going to be West Virginia.
Yeah, West Virginia episode.
I saw that you were doing something from West Virginia, so I said I saw Elena Urquhart researching things about West Virginia, so I started researching haunted things in West Virginia.
I love that a lot.
Purdy.
And it just makes me think of Hannah Belector saying to Clarice Starling in your accent, which you've tried so hard to shed, is pure West Virginia.
Oh, a read makes me think of it.
I haven't seen silence of the lambs in so long.
I feel like i might have said that on every episode for the last three fucking months.
But i need to watch that movie again.
It's one of my favorite.
It's such a good movie it is.
It's fucking genius.
It is.
The way it's shot is unbelievable.
It's chilling.
This, the performances, oh my god.
Me and Drew went to this museum in LA when we were there and they had like a whole recreation of the cell area.
It was sick.
If we can ever get your ass on a plane, we got to bring you there.
If you can ever get your ass right now.
I'm not trying to go on a plane right now.
I can't believe, when we went to Disney like me and Drew and we came back, that we were able to get back in a timely fashion.
I think you slipped through that right before.
No, we literally did.
And I'm talking right before because we turned around and I was like like, as we got through security, i was like oh, we got here just in time, literally slipped through, i think yeah, i'm not trying to try to test the fates like that.
Yeah, i'll just be road tripping for a while.
Yeah, i'm just gonna stay on ground for a while.
Yeah, we'll see how it shakes out.
Yeah, stay grounded brothers, stay grounded from an earth sign.
Uh, so today i'm gonna be talking about cabin 13 in babcock state park in west virginia.
See, that's the thing 13 is a spooky number.
I think it's almost.
I always think of 13 as like a fake spooky number.
I don't.
Like I don't look at it as like a thing.
That's crazy because you're Irish.
I know.
Like in Irish culture, we see it as bad luck.
Ma will not see 13 people at a table.
Yeah.
And she instilled that shit into me.
Yeah, I don't know.
Maybe it's because it got instilled into me that I, like, rebelled against it.
Yeah, you're rioting.
Like, I always just think of it as... Because, like, I don't know.
13 doesn't really bother me.
So I think I look Whenever it's showing up in a place like this where something really bad actually did happen.
I'm like
Oh, because I always look at it as like fiction a little bit.
So when it translates into reality, it's like, oh, it really is cabin 13.
Yeah, it is.
So cabin 13 in Babcock State Park in West Virginia is said to be wildly haunted.
Want to go?
And yeah, because you can stay there.
Oh. you can stay there my friends there's lots of there's people who've done a lot of investigations in this place so i've already i've already uh thought about it we've already we've already uh contacted a couple of friends we've already reached out to some friends to say do you want to go to west virginia isn't that far away do you want to go we can stay grounded and go there we can stay grounded and go there and this cabin in particular i'll mention it again at the end but it's the last one in the series of cabins oh that makes it even spookier it's on the end of a very at the end of the road it's very isolated very secluded it's in particular the staff is like this cabin is the most secluded from all of them freaky So there was a real, very confirmed murder that happened there in 1996 in that cabin.
1996?
Yeah.
For some reason, I thought you were taking me way back.
Nope.
I'm just taking you back to your birth 29 years ago.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That year, in the middle of the night on April 30th, Cheryl Flippo, a 46-year-old wife and mother who was devoted to her family and her church, was killed in Cabin 13 brutally.
Now, Cheryl was a beautiful, loving, and again, by all accounts, dedicated member of her church.
She was married to the Reverend James Michael Flippo and they were happy.
From the outside it looked like.
Okay, but evidently not nothing to be shocked about.
Like, but i'm just from the outside, you're like okay, nothing that i can see.
Okay, in the 1980s though, something started happening to them.
They found themselves being stalked.
Oh fuck, they were getting letters, and they were sent in that like classic magazine letter, cut out like ransom note, kind of like ransom note, kind of vibe, And they would say shit like you're next and I'm gonna get you, and like, just like scary shit.
And it freaked them out, especially Cheryl, who obviously was like, who the fuck is doing this?
But they just kind of went on with their life because they couldn't figure out who sent them and they also couldn't figure out when they were coming or why they were coming.
Like, they would just kind of like... No rhyme or reason.
Yeah, it was very willy-nilly.
So they were like we don't even have like a pattern here.
I'm not even sure why they're coming.
Okay, very strange.
Now she and her husband, Reverend James Michael Flippo, decided to take a spontaneous trip to the park, to Babcock State Park, in 1996.
This was after Reverend Flippo had taken a man named Joel Boges to the park to baptize him in the water.
He, like, performed a baptism in the creek.
A crick?
A crick-tism?
A crick-tism.
He was doing a crick-tism.
Okay.
And he was doing that on April 27th, 1996.
Okay.
So he apparently loved the place when he was there because he made reservations that day for him and his wife to go stay.
He said, this place is the tits and I would like to stay.
He said, let's go.
So the reservation was for April 29th and they arrived a bit later than expected that day, according to James Michael Flippo.
So they didn't pick up a key at the office.
They just went to the cabin anyways and the cabin was unlocked.
So they were like, cool.
Everything was chill, although James Flippo did use a payphone at some point during the evening to make a phone call.
Okay.
So at 211 am that night that morning, excuse me, that morning.
As soon as I said it, I was like that night.
It still feels like the night because it's so late.
So I'll give you that.
So at 2.11 that morning, a 911 call came from the payphone.
Okay.
It was James Flippo.
He was absolutely panicked and he said that he and his wife Cheryl had been attacked in the middle of the night by a home invader and they were both hurt.
He didn't know if Cheryl was okay.
Like he was frantic.
Okay.
They sent police out immediately, and so the Fayetteville County Sheriff's Department arrived very quickly.
Deputy C Bryant was the first one on scene and he noted that James Flippo appeared to be bleeding only a little bit though, and he was only wearing underwear okay, just in tighty whities.
Um, he had to drive there, he said, because when he came out of his house, like out of the cabin, his car was gone.
So he's like someone stole my car, like the person who came in must have stole my car.
So he had to, like run to the pay phone.
That's why he was like just in his underwear, like okay.
So the police officer was like I'll drive us back to the cabin and we can figure out what happened.
So he gets there and there's a red Camaro parked in front of the cabin.
And so as is protocol, Deputy Bryant was like, Is that car yours?
Dude, is that your car?
And James Slippo was like, no, that's not my car.
He was like, I don't know whose car that is.
And he said he had driven his wife and him to the cabin in a green Cadillac.
And this was a red Camaro.
Who the fuck is just leaving a Camaro?
So he was like, what?
And he was like, I think like this person stole my car.
I don't know who that car is.
And he was like, so did he like, so this person stole your car and left his?
Like, why would he just trade out your car?
Like what?
And so he was like, what the fuck?
So James Flippo said that his wife was still in the cabin, very badly hurt again.
Didn't know if she was alive.
When asked if he had actually done anything to see if she was alive, he was like, no, I didn't.
That's weird.
I just ran out of there.
Which is like, okay.
Uh, what?
So, leaving James Flippo in the car, Deputy Bryant made his way into the cabin and immediately he took notes that there was no signs of forced entry in this cabin.
Okay, he was like i don't know if the like the door was unlocked or what, but there did not seem like somebody broke in there and it had recently rained and so the ground was very squishy and muddy.
And he said there was absolutely no footprints anywhere around the cabin besides theirs.
And he said when he went into the cabin he was like there was no mud, there was no water on the floor, like somebody come in, Like Mr Flippo.
So he was like, which obviously is not like smoking gun, but it made his radar go up a little bit because he was like it's a pretty big deal.
He's like I guess, if I'm, if you're thinking like an investigator, you're going to go.
OK, maybe they cleaned up.
Maybe they wiped up their muddy footprints and I just don't see them right now.
But like somehow there are no tracks in the mud as well.
Well, that's the thing.
He's like, but how does that happen?
So, making his way into the cabin, he found Cheryl Flippo after a lot of searching, because he couldn't find her at first.
She was in fact very deceased and was laying between the wall and the bed.
Okay.
Oh, wow.
Oh, my God.
Yeah.
Later it was discovered that she had been horrifically beaten with firewood and fire, like basically fire pokers.
Holy shit.
That's brutal.
Really brutal.
So paramedics declared Cheryl dead as soon as they arrived, and they brought James to the hospital where he was treated for literally a bruise on his head and scratches on his legs.
Uh-huh.
That's it.
So he was taken to the police station to give a statement to Detective S. Kessler.
His statement said that he had arrived at the cabin with Cheryl, gone to the payphone to call a sick friend who was in the hospital, just to check on them, and they made a fire.
They ate some ice cream.
They played cards like.
Sounds like a nice night together.
Yeah.
And he said after they went to sleep, nothing out of the ordinary, no fights or anything like that.
And he said at some point in the middle of the night he heard a noise and he woke up to see Cheryl on the ground next to the bed and a person with something over his face and a rope.
And when he described what was over his face, I have to say this because I felt like a dingus.
He said a toboggan over his face.
A toboggan?
Isn't that a sled?
Okay, I'm really glad that you thought that as well.
Apparently a toboggan is also like a hat of some sort.
I pictured somebody with a toboggan strapped to their face and I said...
I said, that's horrifying.
Not a toboggan.
Like I'm laughing at this part of this because I need you to picture somebody with a toboggan like the sled.
I need you to picture a sled face.
Yeah, I need you to picture that.
And then you'll understand.
I'm trying to look at the hat.
A toboggan is basically like a ski hat, I think.
So I didn't know it was called that.
It's kind of just like a beanie.
And when I saw it in the court documents, I was like, what the fuck?
And I looked it up and I was like, oh.
Oh, that's funny.
Oh, it's because that's the hat that you wear to go to toboggan.
Tobogganing.
See, that makes sense.
OK, see, it all makes sense.
And later he would say like he would change his story with this.
It was like a hat, a hat with eyes cut out, a hat with the mouth cut out.
Like, you know, like you would change it up a lot.
Um, so he said, I think you killed your wife.
He wakes up, he sees this person.
He said before he could do anything, he was walloped with a piece of firewood.
And when he woke up, cause he knocked out, the stranger was sitting on him cutting his legs with a knife.
That's ridiculous.
Just cutting his legs.
That's ridiculous.
He said he was knocked out again.
And when he woke up, the stranger, the killer was gone.
He checked Cheryl.
And this is when he said, I checked Cheryl and I laid my head on her chest and she had a heartbeat.
So I ran to the payphone.
But previously he said that you hadn't done anything.
Yeah.
So meanwhile, a detective and they're noting all of these things.
And meanwhile a detective at the scene has called now and said that there was clearly no forced entry and also that this was a very sloppily staged scene, in his opinion.
Yeah, I would say so.
No forced entry, no evidence of anyone else being there and things that were even put in strange places like they were trying to make it look like a scene.
Yeah, furniture was just like weirdly overturned, like things that wouldn't make sense.
Yeah this, along with the brutality of cheryl's injuries and his surface level scratches, that he's claiming he got from a knife.
It was clear something was off.
Okay, so james flippo was immediately told he was a suspect and soon after he was indicted on first degree murder for his wife.
Okay,
During his trial.
Some of the evidence that came out was it was discovered that 30 days prior to that, within 30 days before this, he had taken out a 100000 life insurance policy.
She was aware of this.
Okay.
Probably because she just thought like, yeah, he wasn't going to murder her for that money.
Like a lot of married couples take these out.
Yeah.
But yeah, he had done it less than 30 days before that.
He was also an overspender.
Oh.
She had complete control of the finances because he couldn't handle having control of the finances.
Yeah yikes um, she would also like she took his credit cards away because he had maxed them all out and she like cut them up and was like you can't have credit cards, oh my god.
Yeah, like he was like ruining their finances.
So she was like ruthless, she was trying to take control of it.
Yeah, but also cheryl had recently accused flippo of having an affair with a man who attended the church.
Oh shit.
So that had caused some tension in the marriage as well.
So there was things going on bubbling under the surface, obviously.
Big time.
Further investigation showed that Flippo wasn't just bad with money.
He was a thief.
He had stolen $12,000 from a fund that the church had set up to help a sick child.
Oh, this guy is scum.
So he's just a piece of shit.
He's scum.
Yeah, literally scum.
So Dr Irvin M Sofer, a former chief medical examiner, testified that James Flippo's injuries were not enough to even render him unconscious.
I like that he said that the killer was just cutting his legs.
Which, like, what?
But also, they were scratches.
They discovered that they were self-inflicted, obviously.
Like, it was very obvious to see.
Why would a killer just sit on top of you and cut your legs?
Because you can also see the direction where the scratches start and stop.
And if he's doing it from his angle, it's clearly he's scratching his own legs.
It's like people are not dumb.
People go to medical school for this.
Yeah.
Get a grip.
And in the 911 call, like I said before, there was the discrepancy between him saying he didn't check to see if she was alive and then later saying he put his head on her chest to see to hear a heartbeat.
Yeah, you would remember that.
That's a big deal.
He later said that he had to use the payphone because his cellular phone was actually missing.
That's why he was using the payphone that day.
And he said he arrived at the cabin and he didn't know where his phone was.
That's why he had to use it right away to make that phone call to the sick friend.
They found his phone, his cellular phone, in the fireplace.
Brother.
The roll of duct tape next to Cheryl's body.
You didn't even go throw it in the water?
No, in the fireplace.
Like, I'm glad you're dumb, but wow.
The roll of duct tape found next to Cheryl's body.
Only James's fingerprints were on it.
This man is a fucking idiot.
Investigators also found that the blood that they had found on the bed was not there because of the attack.
Someone had soaked up the blood on the floor and plopped it onto the bed to make it look like the attack had happened there.
That's actually crazy that they could figure that out.
Isn't that nuts?
Yeah.
But a weird thing to do.
Yeah.
And that call he had said was to a sick friend, was actually to Joel Boges, who he baptized in the park a couple of days earlier.
And that car outside the cabin.
Yeah.
That was also Joel's.
He claimed he didn't recognize it.
That was Joel's.
Joel had let James borrow his car to go to the park that day.
And he planned to say, my car was stolen and a random man left his car here.
And I also just happened to baptize him two days ago.
Well, he's a friend.
Right.
He's a, was like i let him borrow my car because it's convertible, and i think he was like gonna be getting rid of it or selling it.
So he had asked like oh, can i take the red convertible up to the park with cheryl because i want it to be like a romantic weekend?
And he was like yeah, That's so sad to think that she probably thought this was like a nice romantic.
That they were going to like try to like rekindle.
Especially after they were going through what they were going through.
Yeah.
James had also claimed that he had never been in the park.
But we know that's not true.
And staff confirmed that he was there only two days earlier.
They also spoke with witnesses who said that James claimed that this was a spur of the moment romantic getaway.
Not planned at all.
You booked it two days before?
Right.
Like, I wonder why.
Right.
Now, also, that stalker we talked about?
Was him.
That was James.
Yeah, as soon as you started, I was like, oh, that was him.
He sent them to scare Cheryl whenever she would get close to, like, catching him and all his shit.
Or probably leaving him.
Like, stealing money or claiming, like, anything to keep her on her toes, basically.
And, like, needing support.
Exactly.
Now there were some appeals, of course, and they tried to argue the police procedures, searching the crime scene for too long without a warrant, kind of thing.
They did argue this.
Well, you can look up the court case and they go like really obviously thoroughly into like each of the appeals and how they argued them.
And it's pretty interesting, actually.
Okay.
His conviction, which was a life sentence without possibility of parole, was upheld.
But out of this there was a Supreme Court ruling that came out that did limit the amount of time investigators can search a scene without a warrant.
So something did come out of this.
Now the clearly cursed energy that is probably pretty prevalent in Cabin 13 at Babcock State Park is definitely it's definitely been experienced by people.
People say they see a woman standing in the window when the cabin is vacant.
Mm-hmm. she just stares outside and sometimes she's wearing a nightgown like just looking outside and they see her sometimes walking through the woods and they all report that she just has like a very sad grieving kind of look on her face oh that's awful i hope that it's not cheryl i hope she's not stuck there i really don't want her to be stuck in that cabin yeah Now, in the silence of the middle of the night, people will hear sobbing or moaning coming from the cabin.
Oh.
And it'll be vacant.
Yeah.
Some visitors hear a residual struggle inside the cabin.
Like almost like they hear thuds and crashing and thrashing, like someone is in a fight in the cabin, but it's empty.
Oh, shit.
Which feels like a residual, like, just reliving it.
For sure.
I really hope that's not it.
Yeah.
Now investigators have noted that when they came towards this is interesting when they come towards cabin 13, the whole hollow around cabin 13 feels.
It just falls silent.
Like they've entered a void.
Yeah.
They said all insects stop making noises, animals don't make noise.
Like, it's like... It reminds me of Okigahara, the suicide forest.
Oh, yep, yep, yep.
And it's, like, how it just, like, is, like, this... womb of silence in there and it feels very unnatural it can feel very threatening and it can that kind of silence because it happens in akigahara a lot it can fuck with you psychologically yeah like we're just not meant to be that i think like you know devoid of any kind of uh sensory yeah you know but people who stay in the cabin report that they wake and this is a report that happens a lot that they wake up to see a shadow looming over them at the foot of the bed oh yeah Well, that gave me such a big chill.
Just like a shadow.
And sometimes they see the shadow lurking in the corners of the bedroom.
I don't like that.
Just like hanging out over there.
Nor.
And others said that they've been shook awake by something.
And when they open their eyes, they hear a woman talking to them, but they can't understand what she's saying.
Or she'll like ask for help or be crying.
Oh, I have nonstop chills right now.
They will also hear knocking at the door and no one is there when they go check.
Oh, I hate this so much.
And they hear someone creeping around outside and they'll look and no one's around.
I saw one report where a family stayed there and they woke up a few times to someone banging on the door hard.
And hard enough that their father opened the door several times to like scream out there, go away.
But no one was there.
Several times, brother, pack up your family and get the fuck out of there.
That's what I'm saying.
Several times, baby.
On the door.
Like that's, that's some strangers type shit.
Yeah.
So that's... Yeah.
I don't like the banging on the cabin door.
I hate the banging on the cabin door.
What are you doing staying in cabins, folks?
I have to ask.
Don't stay in cabins like this.
Nay.
Unless you're going to investigate, because I would like to now.
I'm not staying there, though.
I'm not staying there.
Stay awake.
Yeah, stay awake.
Keep those eyes open.
Have a Red Bull, let's go.
Hello hello, okay.
Well, mine is significantly less sad and horrifying, to be honest.
I mean that's good and some of my haunts are kind of funny, but some are scary.
Oh, i love it.
So there's haunts, we get a mix of everything.
So mine's a hotel and it's the blenner has it.
Hotel in parkersburg, west virginia, West Virginia.
West Virginia because, like I said, I saw you research in West Virginia and then I said I would like to research West Virginia.
West Virginia.
So the Blenner Hassett Hotel is one of the oldest hotels, and it opened on May 6th, 1889.
Damn, that's like as old as me.
No, it's older.
Not quite.
No, it's a little bit older.
The hotel took six years to build and the whole entire project was managed by Colonel William Nelson, Chancellor.
The goal was to make this like the most opulent hotel in West Virginia.
I love when they have that goal.
They were like listen, if anybody is traveling through this area, which there was a lot of travel at this time because it was like an oil boom and like a gas boom
It was just booming.
Appalachia.
Appalachia.
But they were like, if anybody is going to come and stay here, they need to stay at this hotel and no other hotel.
I think that's a pretty cool goal to be like, I'm going to be it.
Yeah.
That's it.
Like the hotel.
And I love when they have it's always the guy who says this is going to be the most luxurious, opulent hotel.
Fuck yeah.
I want to say like go into it that way, but now I'm like, should you?
I think you should.
Like sometimes it ends up poorly.
This is good, I think.
This is good?
Yeah, this is fine.
There's like fun haunts?
Yeah.
He said, I'm not building a hotel, I'm building the hotel.
And I respect that.
So this isn't like, you know, tragic hauntings.
These are like.
I mean, some of them are like a little bit sad, but like nothing crazy.
I like that.
So it was built in the queen anne style, which was all the rage in the victorian era picture ornate trims towers, large stained glass windows, all of the above get it.
Upon opening the hotel uh, it had the finest luxuries that anybody could have enjoyed at the time electric and gas lighting.
Get the fuck out of here.
It was like this thing where like, electric and gas were like working together to to make electricity or some shit.
They were collabing and they were And they were working on a collab.
And this was literally just one year after the city had like started transitioning over to using electricity.
So this was a really big deal.
Yeah.
It also had steam heating.
Whoa.
Both service and passenger elevators, which like that was huge at the time.
Not having to carry all your suitcases up to your room was a big deal.
Hell yeah.
Yeah.
And my favorite, state-of-the-art plumbing.
Oh.
I love good plumbing.
We love it when you can shit in peace.
Yeah.
You know?
Yeah, I do.
Now, according to the hotel's website, guests could enjoy leisurely strolls through double parlors on the second level, one graced with an upright piano.
A grand mirror stood in the lobby shielded by a wire cage to deter any potential damage stemming from the lively streets below.
A majestic central staircase spiraled through all five stories, overlooked by public restrooms on each floor and offering privacy in all 50 guest rooms.
I feel like we just don't make them like that anymore.
We don't.
You know?
We don't.
Like, that description, we don't see that anymore.
Dare I say, we make the ugliest shit now.
Oh, our buildings over here.
I'm not speaking for any of you in any other place in the world other than the United States.
America.
But our buildings, I'm like... They're ugly.
Can we... And everything is just condos now.
I just want... I want it to be back to like ornate, intricate carvings.
Victorian era shit.
Yeah, like...
You look at some cathedrals and shit, like Germany and shit.
Oh, my God.
There is one German cathedral in particular that every time I see it I'm like Elena has to go there.
Is it the Cologne?
Yeah, I think it is actually.
I believe it is.
It's the most gorgeous thing I have ever laid eyes on.
It's stunting.
Like it's stupid gorgeous.
It always goes on TikTok to that sound.
That's like, and then they're like.
It's like the rammstein or rammstein the yeah, that's an easier way to say it, that's an easier way to present the song.
Cologne cathedral, i think, is one of the most gorgeous pieces of architecture i've ever seen in my entire existence.
Gorgeous also.
Look up a picture of this hotel, because it's also very beautiful.
So the hotel was named after Irish aristocrats Harmon and Margaret Blennerhassett.
Oh, I love that.
And they lived on this gorgeous island on the Ohio River, which is also now named Blennerhassett Island after them.
Now, Harmon and Margaret came to America from England for a couple of reasons.
This was in 1796, and they had stirred up some trouble in England.
Oops.
One, because they were uncle and niece, and also husband and wife.
Oh.
And two because Harmon was advocating for Irish independence and his political homies were not trying to get arrested alongside him for that.
Oh.
Period.
I'm just really focused on the uncle and niece of it all.
Yeah, number two's not so bad.
Number two's not bad at all.
Number one, bad.
But number one is really shaking me.
Yeah, I was shook.
But apparently Harmon was kind of always embroiled in some kind of scandal.
Yeah.
He actually had to flee the island after it was discovered that he was involved with the Aaron Burr treason conspiracy.
Oh, no.
Aaron Burr apparently traveled to the island quite frequently to work on his military plans, which were like fucked up.
Uh Harmon was arrested twice in the U?
S and financially ruined before he just eventually returned to England.
But I mean, he still has a hotel on an Island named after him.
So I guess it all worked out.
Now, they weren't the only famous people involved in the hotel's history.
JFK campaigned there in 1960, and he stayed on two separate occasions in May of that year.
Apparently, he stayed in room 216 both times.
At that time, 216 was the biggest suite that the Blenner House had had to offer.
Now, it was officially added to the U.S.
National Register of Historic Places in 1982 and it has survived many feats fires floods, renovation and, most importantly, what we're here for today hauntings.
Yeah.
Damn.
Right?
Yeah.
Now originally, this part of the hotel was actually a separate building, which was the Kaltnecker Building, built in 1889 by John Kaltnecker.
Of course.
Of course.
The first floor back then was used as a saloon originally.
Oh, yeah, it was.
And then it became a popular restaurant years later.
It was such a saloon.
I fucking love a saloon.
Oh, who doesn't love a saloon?
Swinging door, let's go.
Let's go.
Now, it wasn't until the 1985-1986 major renovation that the buildings ended up merging.
Now, the suite is the only two-story suite in the entire hotel and it's marketed as being able to sleep 10 guests.
Ooh.
So like paranormal investigation, anyone?
I mean, looks pretty good to me.
You wanna?
Yeah.
If you did investigate this hotel, this suite is one of the places that you would be most likely to come face to face with.
Oh, let's go.
And, of course, a bowler hat.
Of course.
Uh, he mostly appears to people in the upstairs bedroom of the suite and then he just vanishes like he was never there in the first place.
I kind of love that.
He's just like, hello, goodbye.
He's like, hello, do you like my outfit?
Bye.
Do you like my hat or nah?
Now most people say he's pretty harmless and like they.
They just see him and then he's gone cool.
But one woman not so cool did report that she woke up in the middle of the night, saw the man and that he held her down by her neck in bed and she was unable to move.
That's rude, Some would say.
That is not as cool as do you like my outfit.
Some people would say that's paranormal assault.
Yeah, I would say so.
I don't know what you do about it, but fucked up.
Now, no one's quite sure who exactly this man is, but because the hotel attracted businessmen during the oil boom in the late 1800s, people are like he's probably just some kind of businessman.
Like, he's stuck there.
But some people also think he could be Colonel William Chancellor, who's the hotel's builder.
Oh.
But he, the William Chancellor, is more often accompanied by the smell or the sight of cigar smoke.
People will just smell it, not see anything.
But people have seen like little cigar smoke, Like plumes.
Yeah.
Oh, my God.
That's cool.
And he's more often seen on the third floor mezzanine.
So, like, while he could be the man in the bowler hat, I'm not so sure.
Yeah.
Employees and guests have seen legit smoke rings coming out of his portrait which hangs in the lobby.
Oh, my God.
I love that so much.
Like, imagine just sitting in the lobby and then you're just like, you just see a man blow nose.
The portrait's just smoking.
But he's a portrait.
Now, during renovations, that portrait was apparently moved and when the hotel reopened to guests, one man had a crazy interaction.
He was getting ready to climb into bed and as he sat down he felt an impression on the other side of the bed.
But he was by himself, he thought, and he looked over and he said he saw an older man sitting next to him who just looked at him and said i was here first.
I love that a lot.
What?
And he thought that it was William Chancellor.
I love that.
Now, once the portrait was returned to the lobby, things seemed to settle down a bit.
But people checking out will recognize like.
They'll walk by the portrait and they'll be like.
I saw that guy smoking a cigar in the hallway.
And you're like, yeah, you did.
And they're like, yeah, you did.
But he's dead.
And they most often report seeing him in a three-piece gray suit.
Ooh, I like that.
Very snazzy.
Yeah, if you go to the Blender House and you see a man walking down the hallway in a nice suit smoking a cigar, he's a ghost.
He's a ghost.
And he was there first.
And he was there first.
That's important to remember.
Something else that happens in Suite 409, just going back there for a second, is...
Oh, shit.
Like, it sounds like there's a party either in the room or, like, right next door.
Like great guests, freestyle party yes, like 20s party.
Now one guest told uh wboi news that he stayed in the room right next door 407, which apparently you can book 409 and 407 together, and like you can open up a door and connect them.
He was just in 407.
And he actually booked it because he wanted like a quieter stay.
But he woke up in the middle of the night and it sounded like people were having a huge party.
So he was checking out the next morning and he told the front desk like, what the hell was going on?
He's like, I booked that room.
Yeah, I booked that room for quiet.
And they were like, you were the only guest on that floor.
Oh, shit.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Fuck.
Yeah, that would fuck me up.
Yeah, that would, especially, honestly here, I'm the only guest on that whole floor.
I'd be like, what?
Yeah, I would hate that.
That would stress me out anyways.
I'd be like, oh my God.
I would hate that a lot.
I mean, good to tell somebody upon checking out, not checking in.
Yeah, definitely.
The elevators, which were a huge deal in the beginning.
They never seem to open to the correct floor, though.
A lot of times they open to the second floor, which is where guests most often report, seeing what any good location has that is haunted.
Oh, a bride.
A woman in white.
Yes!
You were so close.
Guests report seeing her dressed in all white clothing from the 20s or maybe the 30s.
And they say she also wears a white cap pulled down to almost cover her eyes.
Ooh, mysterious.
Yeah, she is.
And she's a beauty.
A man once saw her and he thought that she was like alive, and he asked her to hold the elevator door for him, and she did.
But then when he stepped on the elevator, there was nobody there.
Oh, damn.
He was like, no, that woman literally just held the door for me.
That would fuck me right up.
But what he did experience was a like overwhelming smell of lavender perfume as soon as he got into the elevator.
And a lot of people associate lavender perfume with sightings of her.
Oh shit.
Yeah.
I like that.
Right?
What a soothing scent.
Yeah.
I love lavender.
Yeah.
Uh, employees who work in the kitchen are said to be visited by a little newspaper boy.
Oh my God.
He used to work at the old newspaper stand in the back and he will pull on their clothing.
And when they turn around, they literally see an apparition of him with his like little news cap and his messenger bag.
Oh my God.
I was like, that's an experience that I'd like to have.
Yeah.
Now, there's a little bit of debate about who this next ghost is.
Some people think that he's a sea captain.
Oh.
And others claim that he looks exactly like Harmon Blunderhassett.
Oh, damn.
Either way, the ghost is most often seen in the mirrors of the bar and the restaurant on the main lobby.
He's just living.
But always in the mirror.
Okay.
According to Haunted Parkersburg Tours, this is weird because the mirrors were fashioned from windows and doors from an old apartment building that was torn down in New York City.
Oh, interesting.
So it'd be weird if it was Blennerasset.
Yeah.
Like maybe it's more likely to be a sea captain.
A salty sea captain.
From New York City.
Yeah.
Now, one place in the hotel that you would assume would be quite peaceful, but is actually the complete opposite, is the library.
I would assume that.
Which I love that they have a library.
Oh, hell yeah.
I don't know that I've been to a hotel with one.
I know.
Apparently, guests will just be chilling in the library and they will suddenly hear the appalling sound of a woman screaming bloody murder whoa, out of nowhere.
Now interestingly, there is a window in the corner of the library that used to be the door to the first national bank of parkersburg, and years and years and years ago there was a terrible accident where a tractor trailer lost control and crashed into that doorway oh shit and killed a woman, oh wow.
So people think that it's like some kind of residual haunting from her being struck.
Oh yeah, also in the library, people report seeing books being thrown from the shelves, chairs being knocked over out of nowhere.
Lots of people get touched in the library, a lot of people feel like tapping on their shoulder.
And then this one is just fucking weird.
People will be sitting there just like chatting or reading and all of a sudden they'll look at an ottoman, like near them, and they'll see the fabric getting pulled up on the ottoman, but nobody's pulling it up.
What?
Isn't that fucking weird?
That's so weird and niche.
It is super.
I don't think I've ever heard that in a haunting.
I've never heard that.
No.
And I would just be like, how do you explain that?
I'd be like, what the fuck is going on?
Yeah.
Now, if you want to stop at the Starbucks nearby to get a jolt of caffeine after that horrifying interaction, just know that ghosts might be lurking in line.
Oh, shit.
They're pretty chill during the daytime hours, but at exactly 4 am staff have heard a series of three knocks on the door beside the Starbucks and when they open it up, no one is there.
Why are they knocking on the door so early?
Like, are you open yet?
They're like, do you have the coffee, bird?
Please, I need espresso.
I mean, I get it.
But then maybe they're just like, oh, sorry, it's too early.
Yeah.
Now also, what would a haunted hotel be without ghostly children?
Oh, yeah.
Guests hear giggling children all over this place.
Damn.
But the maids tidying up the hotel room seem to be the most familiar.
They will be trying to put the toilet paper back on the holder, but the dispensers will just be spinning nonstop and they, like can't get the toilet paper on.
Oh my god.
And they'll hear kids laughing while it happens.
I was gonna say that's such a little kid thing to do.
Yeah.
They've also seen children's footprints walking across comforters.
Shit.
Yep.
During the holidays, it apparently sounds like the kids were singing along with jingle bells as it played over the hotel speakers.
Okay, that literally just gave me...
All the chills?
I don't like that.
Here's the thing.
This is a terrible fact about me, but it is a fact nonetheless.
I fucking hate the sound of children singing.
You do.
I just hate it.
It's spooky as hell.
Jingle bells?
Disembodied children's voices singing jingle bells? fuck a whole bunch of that noise that is honestly the scariest one to me i'd be like can i get an early checkout thanks yeah that would fuck me up now here's the other weird thing with the kids women in particular will just like have this great night's sleep and then they will wake up to the feeling of being kissed on their faces and they say it feels like a child's kiss Don't kiss me.
That's really cute, though.
Don't kiss me.
What if it's, like, a little kid, though, and they think you're their mom?
I'm not your mom.
Because that's really sad.
That's sad.
That's the case.
Like, just, like, giving your mom a kiss.
A mama kiss?
I don't want a mama kiss.
I mean, I don't want a ghost child mama kiss.
I just want to wake up to my alarm.
I...
Okay, the children thing is a little unsettling.
The children thing is the most unsettling.
Here I am like this man in a bowler hat is just like materializing in your room, sometimes choking you.
And I'm like, the kids thing is a little unsettling.
I hate that the kids are singing holiday music.
I hate that.
Like, where's the bowler guy?
He said the kids are giving me a kiss and singing holiday music.
I hate that.
Please get out of here.
Now finally, to end on my personal favorite paranormal report here.
The ballrooms are said to be the most haunted rooms at Blennerhasset, outside of Room 409.
Good.
There are weddings, obviously, and, like, different events held in the ballroom all the time.
And setting up for these events is always wild because like, the staff will be setting like place settings and stuff and if they turn around for a second, everything is completely rearranged.
Oh shit.
Yeah.
And they'll like misplace things and look for them in a certain spot over and over.
Yeah.
And then look back in that spot after checking several others, and it will be in the first place they looked.
Yep.
But this is my favorite thing on the planet.
According to Haunted Parkersburg Doors once, when the employees were readying a room, a microphone was set up.
That's when a cracking woman's voice came across the microphone saying Howdy fellas just said i'm ready for a good time.
I love that woman.
I love her a lot.
That's what you should do with your afterlife.
Yeah, you should jump onto microphones and be like hi fellas.
People think that she might be a local, madam.
Like just like messing around with people.
She better be.
I was obsessed with that one.
That's hilarious.
But this is like a fully functioning like gorgeous hotel.
They have a spa and shit.
I want to go.
I want to go too.
This is the thing.
We'll go and check out your spot, Cabin 13.
My horrific spot.
Yeah, we'll do a haunted investigation there and then we'll stay at the hotel, where things are chiller and funnier, and we'll just hope that children don't kiss us.
Yeah.
And I could do without the man in the bowler hat.
I'd be fine to see him as long as he didn't choke me.
Yeah, I don't want him to come anywhere near me.
Yeah, please don't touch me.
Please don't.
But like, you can show yourself.
Yeah.
Yeah, so that is the Blenner Hassett Hotel.
That was a good one.
Your scary ass case.
Yeah, mine is real scary.
But that is haunted as hell.
It is haunted as hell.
And I love it.
And I love that Aaron Bursar made an appearance.
Aaron Bursar.
Random.
He's always showing up.
He is.
People are going to be like, you know his name is Aaron Burr, right?
Not Burr, sir.
We know it's Aaron Burr, sir.
Sir, comma.
You know, watch channels then.
Yeah, of course.
That's what you got to do.
All right.
Well, thank you so much for listening to our haunted tales.
We've been wanting to do one for a while.
I know it scratched the itch partially, but i think i'd like to do more.
Yeah, let's do another haunted episode.
Yeah, we gotta do one soon party.
And in the meantime we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it.
Weird, but not so weird that you don't paranormally investigate these places because you would be missing out big time.
And not so weird that in your afterlife you don't just yell howdy fellas.
I love it so much.
I love it, i love it, Thank you.