Hey weirdos, before we dive into today's twisted tale, let me tell you about a place where the darkness never ends.
Wondery Plus. So come join us if you dare.
Morbid is available one week early and ad free only on Wondery Plus.
You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or an Apple podcast or Spotify.
You're listening to a morbid network podcast.
Listening on Audible helps your imagination soar.
Whether you listen to stories, motivation, expert advice, any genre you love, you can be inspired to imagine new worlds, new possibilities, and new ways of thinking.
Listening can lead to positive changes in your mood, your habits, and ultimately your overall well-being.
Audible has an incredible selection of over 1 million audiobooks, podcasts, and Audible Originals all in one easy app.
Find the genres you love and discover new ones.
Explore bestsellers like my sister's title. new releases, plus thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and originals that members can listen to all they want with more added all the time.
I have been listening to the Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club, which actually Elena recommended to me.
She did not listen to it but she said girl this title sounds so you and let me tell you it did.
I've been listening to it while I walk and I am absolutely loving it.
I love all the different narrators. I love Audible.
There's more to imagine when you listen.
Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free.
Visit audible.com slash morbid. if you're shopping while working eating or even listening to this podcast then you know and love the thrill of a deal But are you getting the deal and cash back?
Rakuten shoppers do. They get the brands they love, savings, and cash back.
And you can get it too. Start getting cash back at your favorite stores like Target, Sephora, and even Expedia. on top of cash back and feel what it's like to know you're maximizing the savings.
It's easy to use and you get your cash back sent to you through PayPal or check.
Stores pay Rakuten for sending them shoppers, and Rakuten shares the money with you as cash back.
Download the free Rakuten app or go to Rakuten.com to start saving today.
It's the most rewarding way to shop. That's R-A-K-U-T-E-N.
Hey weirdos, I'm Alayna. I'm Ash. And this is Morbid, the listener episode.
🎵 🎵 Brought to you by you, for you, from you, with you, and I love you.
All about you. Why? Oh, you. You beautiful, beautiful bunch of weirdos.
You guys are so hot. How's your week, Ash?
It's pretty good. I have a date tomorrow.
Ooh. I will tell you how it goes, sister.
Oh, you better. She's morbid dating. She's morbid dating.
She's morbidly dating. Hopefully it's not.
Hopefully it doesn't end morbidly. yeah i'll share my location with you yes please thank you that's smart that is smart yay we teach you things on here I learned.
I learned. And just a quick little update.
Speaking of, you know, potential serial killers.
Yeah. Good. Thank you for putting that fucking energy into the world.
We are going to cover the Samuel Little case because...
Whoa, that has exploded. So trust me, everybody, because we're getting a lot of messages about it, which we appreciate because I love that you guys always give us suggestions and like keep us updated on stuff.
That shit is crazy that he's like the most prolific serial killer.
So trust me, we're going to cover him. We just want to make sure we have all the information first before we die. that's gonna be like a six-parter seriously it really is i watched the 60 minutes on that the other night and i was like i want to cover that but like holy fuck how many episodes is it gonna be But it's going to be like six weeks.
That's not funny, though. No, it's not. It's fucked up.
No, it's really fucked up. So, yeah. So we will be covering Samuel Little, I promise.
But do you know what we're covering tonight?
We're covering all kinds of shit tonight.
Listener stories. Let's do it. It's time for a listener story.
What's happening? It's been a long day. First, I got an, well, we got an update from, I don't know if you guys remember the machete story. with Amber and she was like running down the street and then she got into this girl's car and then it turned out that her mans and her were like building a meth lab and then she went wrong it was intense it was intense our friend who shared that story who shall not be named it wasn't baltimore wanted to send us an update.
So our friend said, hey ladies, I just listened to Listener Stories episode and I wanted to clear some stuff up for you.
I literally screamed so fucking loud when y'all started reading my story that my neighbors came down to check on me.
Fuck neighbors. Police told me afterwards that not all of... the injuries Amber received were fresh.
So chances are she was tortured for a while.
Oh, good. But I don't know how long. Damn.
Her hair was definitely chopped off with the machete, but think of Angelica's doll Cynthia from Rugrats.
Oh my god, that's what I pictured. cynthia she's a really cool dancer cynthia shake it to the groove now yes you know You know.
She didn't write that. That was purely me.
It was. But she said that's how bad her head looked.
Also, police did confirm that both Amber and Jacob were both on drugs during this time.
Can't believe I let her in my car. Thank you guys again so much.
Stay weird. Heart, Voldemort. Just kidding.
That's amazing. I love when people update us when they hear their story and they're like, wait, let me tell you a couple of other things. there's more there's more so who wants to begin the listener stories this week drop me the love again yeah i like to be first you be first because first is the worst and i'm trash and second is the best and there's no third person with a hairy chest I don't know what is wrong with me today.
There's a lot happening right now. So this one's good.
Listener Stories finally found out why my 40-year-old brother is a scared beach.
And I think she meant bitch. Beach. Beach.
Hello, friends. I found your podcast in May and have been obsessively listening ever since.
Lovely. that for you i love all things spooky ghosts and consider halloween my favorite holiday even above christmas me too And may have had my Halloween decorations out since September 1st.
Hell yes. Helena's are up all year round.
Yep. My dad was a homicide detective for 10 years, 10 plus years, and I used to love hearing his stories about different cases.
So no wonder I became a true crime junkie.
Your podcast has definitely helped to fill that void and the relationship you two share is one I admire.
Oh my god. Aww. Thank you. Thank you. I actually fucking hate Elena.
Wow. Just kidding. I love you. I love you so much.
It just got so real in here. I love you.
I love you. I love you. Anywho, you have me, who is all into spooky shit, and then you have my oldest brother, Mike.
Michael has always been scared of everything since as far as I can remember.
Like homeboy still sleeps with the covers covering his neck because vampires.
Hey, can't be too careful. I literally sleep in like a cocoon, so I feel you, Mike.
You do. It wasn't until about a month ago I finally got to hear why he does not mess with spooks, spook ghosts, horror movies, and whatnot.
Apparently, in the first house my parents owned and Michael was the only child, he could see something he referred to as the wizard.
My mom says that he would refuse to walk in the hallway and come into their room at night and cry until my mom came to pick him. him up to bring him into their room because the wizard was standing in the hall and wouldn't let him pass Gandalf much?
What a dickish wizard. Gandalf much? Thou shall not pass.
I was literally about to yell that. It wasn't until Michael was a bit older until it wasn't until Michael was a bit older that until weird extra spooky shit began happening.
My dad had just started with the police department and would work overnight.
One night near Christmas time, my mom and Michael were sitting there watching TV when my brother's toy car began driving around making noise.
No big deal. My mom apparently was like, it's okay, don't freak out, and then proceeds to get up and take the batteries out of the car.
They both calm down and begin watching TV again when that fucking car starts to drive around again with no fucking batteries.
That's not right. I'm busy that day. Oh, I hate that.
Oh, I got chills. Hate it. My family noped the fuck out. of that house and sold it pretty fucking quick or pretty quickly after that i added the fucking i don't know why i was like that needs an extra fucking does It wouldn't be 20 years or so later when my brother began his career with the fire department that he heard a story.
And thinking about it gives me all the chills.
One of the older, more seasoned firemen was sharing a story of a house fire caused by faulty wiring that he had ran where a little boy had died in the fire.
Can you guess whose house it was? Oh, it's yours.
Yup. Like what the actual fuck. So no wonder my brother won't do scary shit.
That and all the emotional scarring my parents provided.
Like turning his animals and dolls around at night when he would make them face the wall before going to bed.
Oh my god. LOL. Now he has kids of his own and the oldest also used to see a man in my parents' old house that I grew up in.
So jokes on him. Anyways, hope you guys like the story and also congrats on baby morbid.
Thanks. Weirdo love, Carly. Oh my god, Carly Carly, that's fucking wild That's also hilarious The wizard?
The wizard Why is he a wizard? I don't know, but that scares me I just feel bad that he had to, like, cry.
He couldn't even go out in the hallway. He was so scared.
I know. Poor little thing. He's like, Mama!
Poor scared little beach. So my listener tale is called is named.
I think I just found Johnny and he's fucking dead. well that sounds like a trip so fill me in sis and this is by our friend dylan Hi, Dylan.
Is your last name Frances? It's not. Oh.
So they say, hey, ladies. Just finished up episode two of Listener Tales and thought I would share one of mine.
So here goes. Yes. I'm originally from Needham, Massachusetts.
What the fuck? What up, Dylan? Hey, neighbor.
But moved up to Belfast, Maine for a job at a ship... Where did he move to?
Why'd you move up there Dylan? For a job at a shipyard.
There you go. Wasn't that hard to say. Don't know why I couldn't say it.
Words are difficult. They can be. I moved in with my best friend Ben and his family.
I was 19 and 100% couldn't afford an apartment.
So Ben and I were in his garage working on his truck when we heard yelling, Help!
Help! and a shitload of dogs barking nope he found his two kids and wife in the house safe so we were like fuck it's not our problem good for you man hell yeah Well it was about to become our problem.
Oh. No. Two years prior Ben had to go to the neighbor's house and drag a pit bull off of the neighbor's dog.
The screaming and barking got worse and we put our hero capes on and decided it was time to go help.
Now for a little backstory on The Neighbors.
They lived in a trailer and had four dogs living with them.
I can't remember what type of dogs, but they were fucking huge.
They were on their dog run and the pit bull had gotten them pretty good and I could see blood all over the dogs.
And the pit bull had blood all over its face.
Then there were the neighbors. There was, quote, Randy, no joke, that's how she introduced herself, and Michaela.
Michaela was developmentally delayed or autistic.
She was cut all to shit and had blood and bites and claw marks all over her from grabbing the pit bull and trying to hold it back from attacking the dogs.
Something had to be done. There was blood everywhere and it was just an absolute clusterfuck.
Me and Ben corralled the pit bull and threw him in the truck and started to survey the damage of the girls and the dogs.
Now hold on to everything you find holy because the shit's about to get weird.
Me and Ben are talking with Randy when Michaela starts screaming, Gizmo, where's Gizmo?
I'll call Johnny. He's in the house sleeping.
He'll help. Now, at this time, we were like, wait a minute, hold the fuck up.
There's a guy in the trailer sleeping and that lazy asshole didn't come to help.
What a pussy, right? Michaela is still yelling to Johnny on her fake phone about Gizmo.
And for some reason, I still kind of regret I volunteered to find Gizmo.
Why choose a Sleep Number smart bed? Can I make my site softer?
Can I make my site firmer? Can we sleep cooler?
Sleep Number does that. Cools up to eight times faster and lets you choose your ideal comfort on either side.
Your Sleep Number setting. It's the Sleep Number biggest sale of the year.
All beds on sale. Up to 50% off the limited edition smart bed, plus free home delivery with the purchase of any smart bed.
Ends Monday. All Sleep Number smart beds offer temperature solutions for your best sleep.
Check it out at a Sleep Number store or sleepnumber.com today.
The town of Agde in France is famous for sun, sand, sea and sex.
But lately, life on the coast has taken a strange turn.
The town's mayor, a respected pillar of the community, has been arrested for corruption.
His wife claims he's been bewitched by a beautiful clairvoyant.
Then there's the mysterious phone calls that local people have been getting.
I am the Archangel Michael. The whole town has been thrown into chaos.
As the mayor is unable to carry out his duties, I would like to address you all.
Legal proceedings have been initiated. Join me, Anna Richardson, and journalist Leo Schick for The Mystic and the Mayor as we investigate a story of power, corruption and magic.
Binge all episodes of The Mystic and the Mare exclusively and ad-free right now on Wondery Plus.
Start your free trial in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or the Wondery app.
Michaela leads me into the trailer to find Gizmo.
He was a fluffy little dog that had also been attacked.
Oh no. I can't leave a hurt dog. That's really nice.
That is really nice. Good on you. Right?
Good job, Jelen. I look around and there's two beds and one of the beds has been made over what appeared to be a body.
Nope. As my tiny little brain is processing this, Michaela goes, oh, be quiet.
Johnny is still sleeping in here. At this point, I was like, oh, I'm going to wake this motherfucker up and give him a piece of my mind.
Michaela points under Johnny's bed and says the dog is under there.
I've watched enough murder stuff that I was like, yeah, fuck this.
Wish I had a gun right now. So I lean down, expecting to be bashed over the head by someone or have Johnny wake up and kill me.
I put my arm on the bed and grabbed the dog and as I'm coming back up my brain finally starts working and I was like hold the fuck up.
Johnny is not sleeping. That motherfucker is dead.
And I just put my arm on him. No. I went white as a ghost as I can feel this rotting corpse under my arm.
I get up and throw gizmo at Michaela and I'm like, peace the fuck out.
Hope the dog's fine. And start hustling out of this nasty ass trailer.
When I come face to face with Michaela's mom.
Her first words to me are, what are you doing in here?
You shouldn't have seen what you just saw in there.
Are you fucking kidding me? I just ran past her towards Ben.
He was talking with a state trooper and he takes one look at me and knows I had just seen some shit.
I walk up to him in the stadie and I told him I just found Johnny and he's fucking dead.
Oh my God. The state trooper doesn't even flinch and goes back to asking questions about the dog and says we can leave.
What? We went home and I immediately showered and had like 900 beers to try to forget the smell.
I would have done the same thing. I still can't.
Ben and I talked over the details of the day and tried to forget about it.
Until we were at a bar one night and somehow dead people came up.
As they do. It happens all the time, Dylan.
And Ben tells the story about Johnny to a state trooper.
Monday morning rolls around and I get a call from the state trooper and she wants to meet me.
I was like, oh fuck, what did I do now? She shows up to my work with a detective and everyone I work with sees me being escorted away by a cop and a detective.
Awesome. There were some wild rumors that week.
Oh, that is my dream. I tell them the story. and the detective tells me they looked into it and there just so happens to be a missing persons report of a guy named john associated with that family oh fuck But that just my story wasn't enough for a warrant to search the house.
So the case remains open. And Johnny, that lazy motherfucker, is still sleeping in that trailer rotting with three people living in it.
So that's my story of how I found Johnny.
And a special thanks to you for bringing up that repressed memory of the smell inside that trailer.
Can't thank you enough. Keep up the good work, Dylan.
Dylan! What a fucking trip, dude. Dylan, you just... Is the case still open?
How? You just blew my brain apart. Well, like the state trooper that was there that day when you were like, found Johnny, he's dead, didn't go inside?
Like, if you say to a trooper or a cop of any sort, found that so-and-so, that so-and-so is dead...
I think it's like rule number one that they like investigate.
I feel like in the academy, one of the things you learn is when somebody says, hey, there's a dead body in there.
You go inside. You go in there and you check it out.
I mean, could be wrong. I don't know. Maybe they teach you like...
I don't know. I mean, I don't know. Wow, Dylan.
Wow, Dylan. Thank you. Wild. Thank you for that.
Well, this one is called Listener Story.
Kids see the darndest things. Oh, they do.
And I said see, not say. Hey weirdos, I'm Stacey.
Hi Stacey. I'm a huge fan of your podcast and even got my BFF at work to listen.
Thank you. Oh my god. And we are now both hashtag obsessed.
We discuss the episodes at work and people look at us like we're weirdos, but we own it.
Anyway, to my story. Well, two to be exact.
One informs the other. The first actually happened to my ex.
He lived with his wife in a manufactured home.
On about a half acre lot, sorry, I'm like... This lot backed up to a river, which in Arizona hardly ever has water in it, except during monsoon season.
My ex would do various projects in the backyard, which required digging.
While digging, he would find pottery, arrowheads, and other things indicating it used to be a tribal land way back when.
He collected these artifacts and placed them on the windowsill in the kitchen, but something happened one night.
He was the kind of guy that would turn off every light and make sure all the doors were locked before going to bed.
One night before going to bed, he placed a few artifacts on the windowsill, did his normal routine, and he and his wife and kids all went to bed.
All of a sudden during the night, the lights started flickering on and off, pots and pans were clinging around, and it sounded like the cabinets were opening and closing.
Nope. He woke up with all of this ruckus, arming himself, thinking there was an intruder in the kitchen and there was no one out there.
Needless to say, he quickly removed the artifacts and buried them back in the backyard.
Good call. After that, no other weird things happened until...
My story. Fast forward. He got a divorce and we married years later.
I moved into that same house he shared with his ex.
Yeah, I know it was very weird and uncomfortable, but I was young and naive and he didn't let us move.
Which is one of the many reasons he is my ex, but that's another story. had one beautiful son together and when my son was about three or four years old he was talking and putting full sentences together One day we are all getting in the car and my son was laughing and pointing in the direction of the backyard.
Oh my God, no. I hate this already. And saying, that man funny.
Oh, he's not funny. Nope. I was looking around and I didn't see anybody and I asked him, what man?
Where? He again points to the direction of the backyard and said, the man.
The man with the fire. Oh, that man. This totally creeped me out, but I kind of dusted it off as a kid with a vivid imagination thing. but a few days later at the daycare, he drew a picture.
The picture was of the family, and his teacher asked him who each person was, and he labeled...
Mommy, Daddy, Leo half-brother, David half-brother, and Rusty himself.
These were all normal. There were two extra people in the picture named Stepmom and Stepdad.
I looked at the teacher and I was like, that's weird.
He doesn't have a stepmother or a stepfather.
Oh, no. no when it's weird that he like knew to have any new stuff and yeah no i don't love that When we got home, I showed my son Rusty the picture and went through the people saying, who's this?
Who's that? He named all the family. Oh my God.
And when I got to the people in the picture named stepmom and stepdad, I asked who they were.
And he said, Chuka and Beastie. Chuka and Beastie.
Chuka and Beastie? I was trying to think of maybe they were characters in a kids' TV show or book, but I googled the names and nothing came up.
So I asked, where do you know them from?
And he said, they're my friends. Okay, where did they come from?
When did you see them? He said, from the cowboy times.
Oh, no. I just about peed myself. Oh, no. and from cowboy times Well, that's good. good which i guess gave me a little comfort he never said anything more after that but anytime i felt scared in that house or heard weird things i said okay chuka and bc Aww.
Aww. Aww. That is why I say kids see the darndest things.
Oh, by the way, I attached the picture he drew.
Stay weird, my friends. This picture's fucked.
The picture is amazing. It's terrifying.
I want to know who's Chuka and who's Beastie.
Or maybe I don't want to know. I don't want to know who Chuka and Beastie are.
No. We can not know. Chuka and Beastie.
I want to stop saying their names. Yeah, I do too.
Cool. That's really scary. Yeah, I hate that.
Thanks so much for that. Don't love that.
These listener stories get me all fucked up.
They really do. All right, so mine is labeled The Doctor.
The Doctor. And it's from Dawn. Dawn. Hello, ladies.
Hey. Love the podcast and congrats on Baby Morbid.
Thank you so much. thanks I love true crime and spooky things however I generally don't believe in supernatural events I think reality is creepy enough True.
Yeah. Accurate. Anyway, this is the one event that has made me get chills.
Names have been changed. Thank you for changing names.
That makes my job easier. It totally does.
Okay, so I'm a nurse at a large hospital on the west coast of the United States.
I work in a busy surgical department. Man, good for you.
That's a hard job. There is a nurse. There is a charge nurse that I work with who has been a nurse for over 50 years.
Aw. Aw. at this hospital knows her and loves her.
She doesn't take shit from anyone and also has a kind and very approachable demeanor.
She's an amazing resource if you want to know anything about anything.
Anyway, I respect the hell out of her. Hell yeah, Gale.
Hell yeah. I respect Gale. I love Gale. Gale always opens the unit early in the morning.
She has a very set routine and arrives about 30 minutes before the first shift even starts so that she can take her time writing out the schedule and tidying up the unit.
So Gail arrived at the hospital early one morning a few years ago and parked in the large parking garage across the street.
The employee garage is on the back side of the hospital, so it's easiest to enter through the supply loading entrance.
This leads right into the basement of the hospital, and you can choose multiple routes to make your way towards various elevators or staircases.
The most direct route to our surgical area is to follow a very long hallway in the basement to the furthest elevator and then head up the stairs two floors, which will lead you directly to the unit.
Not many employees go that route because the majority of the staff work on inpatient units that are more centralized and not at the far end like surgery is.
Gail is making her way down the long hallway and it's pretty quiet, especially at 6 a.m. but on this morning she sees a doctor that she's known for years, a very well-respected cardiologist, Dr. Smith.
Dr. Smith had been diagnosed with cancer a few years prior and had been in and out of the hospital for treatment and admissions during times of illness.
Gail was so happy to see him because it had been a few months, and he looked incredible.
His treatment must have been working. As they passed each other, she said, Oh God.
Dr. Smith gave Gail a huge smile and said, Gail, I feel better than I have in years.
So nice to see you. Oh, God. I just got full bod chills.
Literally just got full body chills. Oh, yeah.
As soon as I said those words, I'm not kidding you.
I'm chilly willying right now. I'm literally...
Covered in the chills. Holy hell. Gail continued down the hall and up the stairs to the unit.
My chills are still here. I'm getting waves of chills.
She started preparing the schedule for the day and surgeons started trickling in to input orders and review patient charts.
Gail noticed another cardiologist who has also worked there for a long time.
She exclaimed, "'Dr. Allen, I just saw Dr. Smith as I came in this morning.'
He looks amazing. I'm so glad that he's responding to treatment.
Oh, my God. Dr. Allen was silent and had a strange look on his face.
He walked over to Gail and put his hand on her shoulder.
He said, Gail, Dr. Smith passed away last night on 6 South, the cancer unit.
Oh, my God. Gail thought he was kidding.
She insisted that she had just seen him, but Dr. Allen assured her that Dr. Smith had passed and was currently down in the In the basement.
Oh, my God. As soon as she was talking about the basement in the hospital, I was like, so you're in the morgue.
You're like near the morgue. You're in a hallway near the morgue.
Uh-huh. Oh, I'm so fucking spooked. This is the shit that fucks me up when I'm in the morgue at night, like when I go in in the middle of the night.
That's the shit I think of. I'm like, what if someone just comes in here?
I avoid the morgue at all costs. See, I go towards the morgue.
The entrance to the morgue is the only door in the middle of that long hallway that leads to the stairs.
He was headed towards the exit. She told Dr. Allen that she must have been mistaken as not to appear crazy, but she knew what she saw.
She was pretty shaken up when we arrived for our shifts, and after a few hours she quietly told some of us what had happened.
She stopped walking that direction and took the long route away from the morgue from then on.
She retired last year, and we all miss her dearly.
Every time I walk down that hallway, I get shivers as I pass the morgue.
A lot of other creepy stuff has happened in my hospital, but this incident is the one that I absolutely 100% think was supernatural.
Thanks for reading my story. Keep it weird and enjoy those priceless newborn snuggles.
Oh, they're the best. They really are. Love, Sweet D. My friends lovingly call me that because apparently I dance like the wacky inflatable tube man like D and it's always sunny in Philadelphia.
And I embrace that shit. Yes. Love that for you.
That's amazing. Sweet D. That spooks me the fuck out.
You just physically assaulted us with something.
Supernatural goodness. And I love you for it.
Thank you. I love you for it. Wow. That was a good one.
Like, I'm still... I'm... I am having involuntary body chills right now.
And for that, I thank you because not a lot of things give me that.
Sweet tea. Coming in hot. Sweet tea with a sweet tea, sis.
With a sweet tea. All right. Well, this one is called I Was Nearly Kidnapped at 10.
Oh, damn. Awesome. hi ladies can i just start off by saying thank you of course you can you're welcome just kidding I don't know how, but I found your podcast when you only had three episodes posted.
Aww. Oh my god. You liked us when we sucked.
Yeah, you came with the real bad audio. When I sounded like I was underwater at all times and never shut the fuck up.
I mean, I still do that, but whatever. We got a little better though.
We're in love with you too. You were my first true crime podcast.
Oh, I know, right? And needless to say, you rocked my world.
I'm an author and also a student, so I have a little time... I have little time to do anything that doesn't involve writing or studying, but...
On my walks to my local Pete's Coffee. Oh, Pete's Coffee is fucking incredible.
Great coffee. You guys are my company. I'm writing in with my only scary experience today, which I've been debating telling for a while, but I think I might as well because screw it.
There's no problem. Unfortunately, because of this, I wasn't exactly equipped to deal with danger when it shot up in front of my face.
I was 10 years old walking with my best friend, who we'll call Anna, who was three years older, and we were on our way to the bagel shop. both armed with five buckaroonies.
Amazing. We're walking along this empty residential street only about a block away from the shop Talking about whatever bullshit kids talk about.
About halfway down the street, I noticed a car trailing us about 20 feet behind.
Like any street smart person I promptly ignored it and kept on walking.
Good on ya. However a few seconds later this car pulled up next to us.
It was not a sweet ride, more like a Toyota thing with duct tape and all that good stuff holding it together.
Ugh. Gross. Yeah, no. He said, do you know where the Johnsons live?
Anna and I said, nope, sorry, and kept walking.
And he kept driving next to us. Ew, what the fuck?
I hate this. Fuck this guy. He goes, do you know where the Smiths live?
He asked. Anna and I said, no, sir, we do not.
Please go on your merry way. At this point, the car was so close, I could have reached over and touched it.
He was close, too. He then asked, what about the Jacobs?
What the fuck? I thought that was weird, but Anna and I kept walking.
Do you know where the riches live? No. The whites?
No. I'd be like, none of these fucking people live here.
They don't exist. At this point, I notice he's turning the wheel ever so slightly to gradually cut us off. block our escape route no literally go fuck yourself dude that struck a bit of panic into my heart i'll admit Anna, older than me and much more intelligent apparently, grabbed my hand.
We were extremely close, lived next door to one another, and were connected on an almost creepy level.
I love Anna. Oh, when she grabbed my hand, I knew something was up.
Anna never held my hand. I was 10, she was 13, and we were communicating with some telepathic shit.
I just remember barely flicking her eyes to the left around the back of the car.
I got what she was saying. If we ran around the back of the car, the man would have to back up and turn to follow us because he was sideways in the middle of an empty street.
Wow, good job, guys. I know. Now, at this point, creepy guy had unbuckled his seatbelt and fucking crawled into the passenger seat, hand on the door handle, ready to step out.
Absolutely not. Sir, no thank you. And then he did.
Oh my god, what the fuck? He stepped out of the car and moved toward me.
Anna was so protective of me. We were closest sisters.
So her big sis instincts just kicked the fuck in.
She dug her fucking fingernails into my forearm, pulled me in front of her and shoved me so hard I almost fell. the guy scrambled back into the driver's seat turned the wheel and tried to turn the car to chase after us i was running like a bat out of hell in order to turn the corner so he couldn't see us Anna, God bless her heart, kept me running in front of her the whole time.
As we sprinted around the corner searching for a hiding place, Anna spotted it first.
A big ass cactus with these swooping arms that provided a lot of coverage.
That's amazing. Okay. She was 13. I had never heard her swear before.
We watched the man in the car drive back and forth down the street, searching for us for close to 20 minutes. oh my god oh my god fuck this guy oh my heart is like in my nose oh my god this is fucked Eventually he left and we did what any smart children would do, which was dust ourselves off and go get those bagels anyway.
Are you serious? I would not be hungry.
That is next level. We sat in silence at a table in the back kind of just processing what had happened.
I had lost my $5 when I was running thanks to Super Creep.
So my Anna had to cover my chocolate chip bagel with strawberry cream cheese.
I'm crying. That's such a commitment to carbs.
Yeah. We walked home on the same street anxious as hell and told our parents what happened.
We were next door neighbors and I had a weird childhood where I was so close to Anna's family that they were also my family.
So I just walk in for dinner right through the front door of their house, whenever my parents were out, because that was our normal.
You can imagine my surprise when I discovered that not every person had two families like I did.
Now I've been parented by my own parents as well as my friends. and we had to inform multiple adults of our experience that day.
My friend's mom, an Ethiopian badass, shrugged and said, should have run earlier.
And my mother gave, that's what Papa would say.
My mother gave us both a cookie and some juice to shut us up like responsible parents would.
Hell yeah. We proceeded to have dinner like nothing happened.
The cops weren't called. Smart, I know, but as far as I could tell, no other little kid ever got snatched by the dude in the car, so that's a plus.
Thank you guys so much for being such a light in my life.
Elena, I know you're a writer and I would like to tell you that everything is going to work out great.
Oh, we doubt ourselves a lot, but you've got to give yourself the credit for showing up every day and working on it.
You're going to take the literary biz by storm.
I can't wait to see what you've been working on. been through this writing, editing, querying, and publishing more than once, so please don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions or need a pep talk.
Lord knows we all need them at some point.
Oh, and congrats on Baby Morbid, y'all. The little thing's lucky to have such kick-ass folks to grow up with.
A word of advice for me, don't let them go on bagel runs until they're at least 15.
Just say it for that way. All my love, Emmy.
Emmy! You're so sweet. I'm so glad you weren't kidnapped.
Like, one, your story just ruined me. Fucked up my life.
Yeah, fucked up my life, so thank you for that.
Two, love Anna. Love Anna. Love Anna. Hug her every day.
Three. So sweet of you about the writing thing because I love hearing other people who write because it's like you really do need... to hear that it's like because you doubt yourself a lot when you write it's that's like daily You're like, yeah, what the fuck am I doing?
I've written 50,000 words and they're shit.
Which is so wrong because I've read most of Elena's book and it's fire.
I can't wait. I need to finish it. It is straight fire.
Would you guys read it? Do you even need to ask that question?
Because I need, like, motivation. I, I, I, I, I.
I need motivation. I need motivation to finish it.
I need to like get on that shit. And you know what, Emmy?
You just made me want to write. So, you rock some shit.
Thank you. Thanks, Emmy. Love you, Emmy.
So my next listener tale is called Murder by the Sea.
Oh, dreamy. Sounds so whimsical. Ooh la la.
And this is from our pal Bradley. Hey Bradley.
I love that name. Hey Bradley. I do too.
I bet everybody's sick of me being like, hey love.
I love that name. They're like, yeah, I bet you do.
Hi, guys. First of all, massive congratulations on Baby Morbid.
Oh my god, thank you, Bradley. Thank you, Bradley.
She's pretty great. I say thank you like I fucking created her.
I'm like, thanks, guys. My niece is pretty fucking dope.
She is. She's pretty awesome. Huge fan of the work you guys do.
Oh my God, I'm a huge fan of the work you do, Bradley.
Your work is great. I have an hour commute to work every morning and you guys really get me through that.
I work in a neuroscience research department.
What? Bradley, that's my shit. That was like the next thing.
If I didn't do... like forensics and like biology and autopsy shit i wanted to go into neuroscience that's what i was gonna do if hair didn't work out So weird.
So weird. Yeah. No, but like for real, Bradley.
For fake, Bradley. But thank you. I bet you're fucking smart as hell.
Bradley, you're the shit because neuroscience is awesome.
And my friends in the office find it hilarious that I seem far more interested in the cases you guys talk about than my actual research area.
I think they're getting sick of me coming in every morning with a brand new tale of violent murder to share with them.
Listen, they suck, though. Yeah, it's cool, Bradley.
You're the best. Keep sharing murder tales.
I originally come from a little seaside town in England called Morecambe.
England, love it. It's near the historic city of Lancaster.
If you want to see one of the most beautiful natural scenes in the world...
Just Google Morecambe Bay Sunsets. They're world renowned.
I'm going to Google that. I am too. Lancaster in particular has an incredibly rich and dark history being one of the key seats in the war of the roses.
Oh shit. and also being known as the Hanging Town during medieval times as more people were hanged here than anywhere outside of London.
Holy shit. That's crazy. It also had a heavy involvement in the slave trade.
Boo. That's what it says. Agreed. And was part of the huge economic and technological boom associated with the Industrial Revolution.
And this is kind of where our story begins.
As I've already mentioned, I work as a scientist and as you can kind of guess, I'm a total skeptic when it comes to stories of the occult and the paranormal.
I'm fascinated by ghost stories, but more because of the history and the true crime tales that often contextualize them.
That's kind of how I always feel. However, the series of events that happened in my childhood home to this day challenge that skepticism almost daily.
Oh, I'm excited. I'm stoked. I'm not entirely sure whether you have terraced housing in the U.S.
I don't know what that is. So I'll explain it a little in case you don't.
Thanks, Pradley. During the Industrial Revolution, factory owners needed hundreds more cheap homes for their new workforce.
So they hired builders to produce long streets of housing that are all joined together and, most importantly, were identical copies of one another.
Yeah, we have a couple. We have some things like that.
Yeah. Each house would follow the exact same design so they could be mass produced quickly.
Oh, okay, okay, okay. We live on one such street in Morecambe.
As Lancaster is a historic area many of the streets have plaques that document their origin and our street was built by a single builder around the year 1810, who then took up ownership of one of the... and houses as payment and moved in with his wife and kids.
That house was our house. As I said, all the houses on the street are exactly the same inside except ours, which did not have a basement.
In the other houses, underneath the staircase would be another set of stairs leading to the basement.
Well, that's terrifying. My mom... My mom.
It says mom. I love it. I love that. I love that for you.
My mom has always believed in spirits and same, same.
And for the first year after we moved in, she always said she felt a spirit in the house.
Being a newly separated single mother, she said she had always felt the spirit was female and had a warming, almost protective energy over my sister and me. strange occurrences would happen often in our house moved furniture strange banging sounds tvs randomly turning on in the middle of the night etc One of the most chilling experiences was one night around 2am, I vividly heard the sound of a woman scream.
Oh no. I don't like that I don't like it followed by the sound of someone falling down our stairs Oh, chills, Brad.
Yeah. Bradley. Full body chills. Involuntary spasming happening right now.
No, no. As I lived with my mom and sister, I quickly ran assuming it was one of them to find the corridor empty and all the lights turned out.
Instantly, my mom appeared out of the bedroom wide-eyed and said, you heard it too then?
Oh, God. Oh, Bradley. My sister and I often spent weekends at my dad's house and it turns out my mom had been hearing the same scream and falling routinely.
Oh I don't like it. Another such incident happened when my mom's friend was at the house.
Her friend said, I thought you said the kids were at their dad's. mom they are then whose kids are playing upstairs i can hear them laughing and running around nope nope nope nope nope nope nope Oh, my God.
Oh, my God. Safe to say my mom's friend didn't stay the night.
Nope. She was like, bye, my Uber's here.
Yeah, I'd be like, love you, girl, but I gotta leave.
I'd be like, you should come with me. Yeah, you should definitely get out of there.
But the most personal incident for me came one morning.
I'd woken up and was sat on my bed staring at the wall contemplating life.
When a woman in a long flowing dress walked clear across my view.
I quickly turned to get a better look, but the woman disappeared almost as quickly as I'd seen her.
To this day, probably 13 or 14 years later, I can see it as clear as day in my mind, though my mind doesn't want to believe it.
I bet it doesn't. Guys, I'm so chilled.
This is a neuroscientist. I'm so chilled.
And he's saying he saw this. Yeah, I'm not chill, I'm chilled.
I believe you, Bradley. Like a popsicle.
I'm a goddamn popsicle right now. While renovating our brick shed in the garden, one of the builders found an old key in the cavity of the wall.
That's awesome. That's like the dream. that had been sealed into the shed when it had been built.
I took it to a local historian who verified the key from around early to mid-1800s. and also confirmed that the builder had lived in our house during the census of 1811 with his wife and children. until the census of 1821, when there was only one occupant of the house, the builder.
Where'd his wife and kids go? What? Where'd his wife and kids go, Bradley?
Are you going to tell me? Oh, I don't like that.
Oh, my God. and her love for us. Mom still lives in the house and claims the activity had dropped markedly since we moved out.
Once again, apologies for the length. Feel free to leave out any bits and pieces you wish I know.
It's probably too long to read all of it.
No, it's not, Bradley. and while I have your ear I'd love to suggest some local tales for the podcast good because I just said I wanted to do some English ones perfect The Pendle Witch Trials are some of the most famous in British history and the story of Dr. Buck Ruxton, a fascinating local double murder that has an ingenious ending.
Thank you so much for reading. Best regards, Brad.
Brad. You just fucked me up. You provided, Brad.
Oh, that like, that made me so sad because obviously she was murdered, but it makes me so happy because she took care of you and your sister and your mom.
I love that. And your mom. And your mom.
And your mom. Wow. Oh my goodness, Bradley.
Thank you for that. That was a good one.
That was. Uh, my last one is clowns because fucking of course it's a clown.
Of course it's a clown. I hate clowns. Same.
Ash, Elena. Hey, I love you guys so much.
Oh my God, I love you. I love you. I know everyone says this but I listen to so many true crime podcasts my friends literally can't stand it and out of all of them y'all are my favorite.
Well, guess what? You're our favorite. You are.
Anyway, my friend told me this story and I told her she should write it She should write and tell you guys about it, but I doubt she'll get around to it, so I'm gonna tell you.
Yay! She heard it firsthand from her husband, and the first thing you need to know is that her husband is almost obnoxiously logical and straight-laced.
He would never, ever make this up, and since it's not supernatural slash unexplainable, there's absolutely no reason to doubt him.
Here we go. Friend's husband was a kid and had finally, finally convinced his parents to let him stay at home alone while they went out for the night.
When it was time for bed, he decided that acting as man of the house, he was going to follow the same routine his father did every night.
Yep. Yep. Yep. The window in his parents' bedroom was a big one centered behind their headboard.
He climbed up on the bed to check it. He opened the curtains and right there, directly- directly on the other side of the glass staring right back at him was a clown nope i'm out i died i'm leaving He threw the curtain shut and buried his face in the bed below the headboard.
He doesn't know how long he waited there only that it felt like forever.
When he came up and opened the curtains again and this time he saw a man walking away across the field beyond the window and he could see the elastic band What the fuck?
Why would you want to? Yeah. As far as I know, his wife decades later is the only person he's told.
End of story. I never enjoyed clowns but wasn't afraid of them until...
That absolute nonsense in 2016 with people intentionally dressing up like clowns and wandering around or chasing people.
That was nonsense. Yeah, it was fucked up.
That's still most of the reason I have to close all my mini blinds at night.
I'm certainly not calvrophobic. but I definitely hate them and even more after this story.
My apologies to any genuine and well-meaning clowns out there.
I know y'all exist and this isn't your fault.
It's true. It's not. My absolute best to you too.
Your friends, families, and little baby morbid.
Yay. Thank you for sharing your passions and a bit about your lives with us.
Good luck on your live shows. Wish I could be there.
I live in Indiana. Mindy. Oh my god, Mindy.
Thanks, Mindy. That fucked me up in a big way.
That was a nice little terrifying sprinkle.
Teal. I love it. Well, we're going to end on a tale called How a Demon Saved My Sweet Sixteen.
What? This is from Beth. Hi, Beth. Okay, Ash and Elena.
I've never told this story to anyone since it happened because I'm pretty sure people will think I'm a wackadoo.
And my friends and I were there. My friends and I who were there and experienced this have never talked about it to this day.
But I'm also pretty sure this shit is right up your alley.
So here it goes. Sounds like it's about to be.
Already. I'm ready. Let's go in the way back machine.
Yeah, yeah. Here I am. To 1998. It's my 16th birthday party and my three friends and I are chilling in the wood paneled basement listening to music and whatnot.
We decided to bust out my Ouija board, which I hardly ever used.
That's just what you did in 1998. I know.
My friend, let's call him David, did not want to join.
I'm David. The next part is just your normal cliche Ouija board tale.
The planchette started moving around. We all figured it was one of us moving it.
You get the gist. Then the planchette spelled, don't go outside.
No. No, not into that. We asked it why. God, like, the fuck?
And it spelled out David's name. Again, he was not playing.
We just laughed it off and continued asking stupid questions to whoever was on the other side.
But three move times the plant spelled out David's name and don't go outside.
What? So guess what our dumbasses did? You went outside.
Yup. By this time, it's dark out, and we decided to walk to a nearby store to get more snacks and also for a smoke break.
The way to the store was on a very lit, very busy road, even at night.
But for whatever reason, we decided to take the back way home.
You had to cross over train tracks, then pass a few abandoned factory buildings.
Oh good. Yeah, that sounds fine. Then after that were a few houses leading back to where my back alley began. shortly after we crossed the tracks we heard a group of guys approaching behind us anything of it.
They were loud and smashing glass but then they started to call out to us and then they got closer.
No. I'm scared for you. Oh my god. Oh my god.
He was super skinny with glasses and not much of a threat to anyone.
Seriously, the sweet soft-spoken gay friend that everyone needs in high school.
They were calling him fag. I hate that word.
I hate that word too. And soon started pushing him around.
There must have been seven of them. Oh my god, I'm so scared.
Oh no, this is so stressful. The guys keep asking us where we live, and I grab my one friend's hand and tell her we have to run for help.
They ask again where we are from and what street we live on, and then one takes out a knife.
My friend and I start booking down the road like hell to the nearest house When we all hear this booming voice so deep and menacing, I still get chills thinking about it.
I'm from hell. Leave them alone. That's some Buffy the Vampire type shit.
Fuck! I'm from hell. Leave them alone. Ugh.
Ugh. Ugh. I've had too many involuntary chills this episode.
What the fuck? I stop running and turn to see the assholes running away in the opposite direction.
I run back to check on David and we are all shook.
Not only did he almost get jumped, no one knows where the fuck that voice came from.
My one friend who stayed behind in David swear the voice came out of nowhere, yet sounded like it was everywhere.
Let us use the phone to... Oh, my God. Whatever that was on the Ouija board had our backs that night.
I guess not all spook spooks are bad. Love you girls so, so much.
Also, please don't use my full name because it's pain in the ass to try to pronounce.
That's amazing. Holy ballsack. Oh, yeah.
What the fuck? I'm from hell, leave him alone.
That's savage. That's fucked. So like hellions are good too.
That is so fucked in the best way. You know what that should tell you?
Even Satan isn't homophobic, so. move on with your life so there you go boom shakalaka Wow.
Those were some listener tales. Those were some fucking tales.
You guys are... Killing the game with these listener tales.
Keep sending them in, please. I'm enjoying them thoroughly.
I really am. Wow. Wow. Guys. Elena made a gratin potatoes and I'm really hungry.
So we have to end this. We do. So we're going to end it on that tale of a helpful hell demon.
Yep. Yep. So we hope you keep listening.
And we hope you keep it weird. but not so weird that you get invited to a sweet 16 party where there's a hell demon and also not so scary that like there's a clown in your window walking away and then the protective lady who wanted to save those kids because she fell down the stairs don't do that Don't keep it as weird as dead Johnny hanging out in the trailer because that's really fucking scary.
Don't keep it as weird as the doctor that wanted to scare the nurse because he was dead and he said he was feeling good.
And don't keep it so weird that you get kidnapped, but if you do get kidnapped, I bet you have a friend like Anna.
She won't let you get kidnapped. Also, don't be so scared. that you're a scared bitch like that girl's brother.
And definitely don't keep it so weird that your kids see Native American spirits because that is fucking scary.
It's so weird. If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music.
Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com.
