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Hey weirdos, I'm Ash. And I'm Elena. I'm Johnny.
And I'm Tyler. And this is Morbid and Not Spooky.
Woohoo! Yay! We have Johnny and Tyler from that spooky on today.
We're going to do a little. promo for their episode that just dropped and let's... really just get into it.
It's a little meet and greet. Yeah. It's time for the meet and greet.
I love that. i immediately thought of that i love that let me loosen my girdle Break out that fan real quick.
Yes, just thwarp it out. Clip my stockings up to my garters.
The only way to begin this episode. Yeah.
How are you guys? We're good. Thanks for having us today.
We're so excited. Thank you for coming.
This is so exciting. We were just saying the last time that we've done this together. is when we did our Invisible Man episode, which was like last year in the middle of the panini season.
Yes. Panoramic. It was in the middle of Miss Rona.
Yeah. Back when Patricia just started. Yeah.
When we were just yelling about Lee Wan-El.
Yes. Lee Wan-El. Yes. Oh, we're still yelling about Lee Wan-El.
We'll forever yell about Lee Wan-El. Forever and always, Lee Wan-El.
Have you gotten his attention yet? That's the question.
Has D1L answered the call? he has not answered the call but here we are staying persistent we will yes And persistence is key.
I'm going to keep it going. What did they say?
The squeaky wheel gets the grease? Hell yeah.
Is that what it is? The squeaky wheel gets the leaf.
Come on, wheels. Assemble. So, today we're just going to do, in case you guys have been following these little... these little episodes that we've been doing with our pod family, our Morbid Network family.
We just want you guys to get to know Johnny and Tyler, get to know that spooky, so you can say, wow, why haven't I been listening to that? and then you can run right over to their feed and start listening to your heart's desire.
No, because straight up when I found you guys, I found you guys something like a hundred or so episodes in and I was like, how do I not?
How did I not know this existed? We were just under the covers the whole time.
You know what? The monster under the bed just hiding.
Yeah, exactly. I guess so. That's the thing.
I remember when you brought it up to me too.
I was like, oh, I got to listen to that.
It was the Blackburn cult episode. Yep. Right, yeah, Johnny did that story.
That was so good. Yeah, it's funny because we were aware of each other and actually our listeners had started around the time that we got connected they had started saying to us like oh do you listen to more Like there must have been something out in the universe.
And then all of a sudden one day we woke up and I was like, what is happening with our listens?
People are listening. And yeah, suddenly people started to roll in and they were like, coming from morbid.
And yeah, we... It became a whole new case that we just had to investigate.
I love that so much. You're like, what's happening?
I love when that'll happen, when we'll suddenly look at our listens and we're like... what's going on who said something did someone say something who took the cookie from the cookie bar exactly But let's talk about your early days.
Let's do it. So we got to start out. First of all, the name that's spooky to me. is the perfect podcast name iconic thank you it's just perfect How did you, where did it come from?
How did you come to name? Because I know that naming a podcast is no easy task.
Oh yeah, it's precious. For us it really kind of came just from pulling names out of the air one night.
I originally had the idea to do the podcast out of the two of us.
And it was essentially just one night lying in bed being like, what would you call a podcast that is equal parts scary and queer and kind of intersectional.
And the idea that we've always had with the show is that we wanted to build our pink furry coliseum upon the pillars of humanity, horror, and humor.
I want to live there. I do live there in my mind.
We all want to live there. Angeline is the landlord.
It's wonderful. I ran into her last week.
Oh, my God. I was actually – I really took that for verbatim.
Sorry. I'm very impressionable the moment you start talking about Angelina.
I'm very convincing. But the thing is, I was just kind of going, what embodies all of that?
And the word spooky kept coming to mind. because we wanted something that was a little bit scary, but also campy.
Campy is kind of a thing because terrifying is a word that could describe the podcast or scary.
Scary is a word that could describe the podcast, but spooky, it's just it's a fun word because it's got that double O in it.
You know what I mean? It's spooky. Oh, you want to get into the letters?
Oh, yeah. Let's get into it. It's got that hard K comedy sound that just makes things funnier.
Let's get into the etymology of it, mama.
The K. Yeah, it's got a good kuh to it.
It's so true, though, because spooky... First of all, just encompasses so many things.
So it doesn't like box you into one thing.
Mm-hmm. Because that's what we were concerned with with Morbid.
We were like, we want to box ourselves into only one kind of thing.
We want to be able to cover a lot of different things.
Right. We love true crime, but we want to get into paranormal.
And then spooky does that same thing. And it also adds like spooky.
Like you can say like- You know, things that are not super scary are like, that's spooky over there.
Right. It's still fun. Yeah. Like it totally encompasses both sides.
The thing is, we always kind of frame it as like, we are your gay best friends who are skipping through a haunted forest with you.
Like, we'll take you to hell. We'll drop you off at the mall.
Everything will be okay. We'll talk about some of the scariest things that you'll encounter in life.
Because life throws that at you. Life gets real spooky.
We always say on the show, some of the spookiest things that happen in this world are the things that human beings do to each other in the daylight yes so true but I think something that we try to prioritize in telling the stories on our show is is bringing levity in the right places.
So we try to insert humor Sometimes it's not until the very end or the very beginning of a story.
We can't really get into it in the middle.
But we always try to find that little pocket to kind of have that experience because it rounds it out and it also makes it a little bit more palatable.
Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. Because it's true.
Gallows humor. is a thing. And especially like, like me work, like I work in the deaf industry and it's like, a necessary thing when you are constantly dealing with like really heavy, heavy, heavy things.
Of course. You never want to bring it to the victim or to the actual event itself, but... when you can sprinkle it in around the edges, it just makes it something you can take with a glass of milk.
That's the thing, I equate what we do to like Scooby Doo or the Addams Family.
Scooby Doo in the respect that it's like we have our kitschy fun, it gets scary, but we pull the mask off at the end and we have that moment. or like we love the Addams Family in this household because we were talking last night.
And it's like, if you really looked at the given circumstances of like Adam's family values, Like they are dropping a baby off a roof.
Like there's some horrible shit that they're doing to each other.
But the packaging is this kind of creepy and kooky, mysterious and spooky, altogether ooky Addams Family vibe.
Exactly! That just gives it a different feeling and a different vibe and you know that there's a heart in it as well that kind of acts as a through line.
And I think that's kind of what we do with our show.
Because Tyler and I do really like each other.
Like we're a couple that's been together for 10 years.
So it just kind of works. See, and that you just went right into the perfect next question.
I was just going to say that that was perfect.
I was gonna say because some people for anybody who doesn't know what how do you guys know each other?
Oh, we're so gay. It's so gay and so good.
Wait. You are? Yeah. Spoiler alert. What?
Yeah. I know that you always like to ask before the conversation starts whether someone's, you know, or not.
Sorry. I just flicked my wrist at the camera.
You can't see that. I do that all the time.
I was going to say, I wish this was a visual meme.
I feel like the voice, you know, really explains the, you know.
It does. The you know. But yeah, my apologies for not bringing that up.
But that's the thing. We are a couple that's been together for almost 10 years.
Almost 10 years. Yeah. love love oh my god 10 years really yeah can you believe it in the gay world that is a lifetime and some Well, that's what I was just going to point out because me and Drew have been together for... three years and I thought that was wild for the gays but I bet you started picking at the wallpaper two weeks in because we sure did I said I love you.
Like I think on our love story, I said that we said it like a month in, but it was a little more like two and a half weeks.
Oh, here's the thing. We had always joked early on, we're like, oh yeah, you know, people say that the gays move fast.
And basically what happened with us is we got together over a summer, came back into the new semester of school and the roommate that I started the new school year with.
Essentially, the long and the short of it is that They lost the apartment and I wasn't on the lease yet.
So I just ended up having to move in with Tyler because I was like, well, I'm going up to his place all the time.
So it just makes sense. So we literally moved in together after three months, two months ish.
Oh, my God. Iconic. I love it. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
It's just how it works. Like, we were trying to buck the stereotype and mm-mm-mm.
Mmm. Listen, if the universe puts you together, there's a reason.
You can't fight against the universe. The universe gathered me like a cheap ponytail.
Meanwhile, John on our love story was like, yeah, like.
Months into us dating, I decided to say I love you and Elena said, whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down.
And that's when we all saw how straight Elena really is.
That's right. Like, well. The Palm Pilot comes out.
She just starts clicking into the style.
She's like, no, no, no, no, no. We're not there yet.
He really hung in there though. I know, seriously.
He's truly the best. I love that three months in, you were like, too soon.
I was like. Two weeks and like, is it too soon if I tell you that I love you?
Right? Song and dance numbers. You know, you've got the whole cafeteria dancing behind you.
It's screen two, essentially. Yeah. That's literally what I was thinking of.
It's terrible. And Elena's just off on the outside like Laurie Metcalf, just writing stuff into a notebook with big eyes and a white suit being like, what's up?
What's up? That's right. Hanging out with Mickey.
She's got low remarriage calf eyes. Yeah.
I get told that all the time.
So see, that makes sense why you have such good chemistry.
Yeah, you guys work really well together.
Because you can tell that you just know each other.
Yeah, we kiss. How each other reacts to things.
You know what will get the reaction out of the other one.
You know how to like play off of each other.
Yeah. It's just like so easy to listen to when people are like that.
And I feel like it's rare. You have a banter.
Yeah. And we respect each other at the core of it.
So we're able to kind of go there with our joking and- understand where to leave it, you know, not to get all stereotypical relationshipy, but like we're the kind of couple that don't go to bed angry.
No, I love that. I think that's the most important.
I'm the same way. I can't. Oh, yeah. And we have listeners who are like, you two get along so well.
It's like you never fight. And it's like, oh, no. no, no, no, no, we just turn the mics off.
Yeah, we edit that part out. That's why it's healthy.
But we resolve. Yeah. Yeah. Right. You...
You argue it out. You discuss it. That's what it's all about.
Right. Exactly. Because we always say the same thing.
We'll never put our heads down on the pillow at night.
Mad. Or like leave the house angry or anything like that.
No. It's just not worth it. No, absolutely.
It can always be resolved, you know? I love that.
I love love. I love love so much. I love love and I love podcasting and I just love mixing them together.
I love podcasting. and I love spooky gay bullshit oh my god well I mean hey that's our brand we didn't even mean for that to happen that was just one of the things that we ended up spouting out and then we were like why don't we call the intro to every episode spooky gay It's perfect.
It's so organic. I love it. And it gives us a chance to kind of get like, you know, queer news out of the way.
It lets us talk about spooky stuff or stuff that's just making us go like, ooh, isn't like Balloon Boy, you know, just some bullshit news.
Yeah. Yeah. Just stuff that you're like, can I please just talk about this for a second?
You can all listen. Yeah, like in our newest episode, we just talked about a guy who made a guitar out of the rib cage and spine of his uncle.
Yeah, and then he played black metal on it in honor of his uncle who introduced him to metal.
Like, isn't that a great? It's so amazing.
I mean. wild great isn't even the that's yeah mind-boggling like how do you wow that's awesome There was like a heavy metal knitting competition that happened in the last few years.
Like a lot of people get killed by chickens and you don't even know.
Like there's a lot of spooky gay bullshit that happens in the world.
Yeah, chickens are awesome. I fucking hate chickens.
That shows the thing about that. I have one of my, like, very, like... deep rooted fears and I'm not joking at all like everybody get the smiles off your face this is so serious I hate chickens really I am so afraid.
And I would like to point out, I don't know if you know Junie B. Jones.
No. But she said that a chicken could peck your head to a nub. when I read that book in like third grade and I've never been the same.
It could if it wanted to. Have you ever heard of the Highgate Chicken Ghost?
Should I or should I not hear about that?
I don't think I have. Okay. It's very short, but it...
It was a ghost that I think came from Francis B. Bacon.
Francis B. Bacon? Yeah. Anyway. It is now.
Yeah. It's basically the person who invented. refrigerators more or less because he took a chicken, murdered it, put the corpse of the chicken in a snowbank to see if it would preserve it.
And then he died a few days later. Yeah, he did.
Yeah, he did. And this headless, plucked, frozen chicken haunts Highgate in England, terrorizes people.
Yeah, and you know where I'll never go? There.
And the thing is, too, it just comes in like... pure chaotic evil.
It just like drops from nowhere and starts running around squawking.
But it's a headless chicken. But it's headless.
And it's frozen and it's plucked. It's basically like the chicken in the grocery store coming to life.
You guys think that's wild. Most chickens are that chaotic.
I would love that ghost. Never trust a chicken.
Oh my God. I need to go there and just sit down with like some popcorn and be like, let's do this.
I hope you have a lot of fun. It's been covered on the podcast before.
I will say, you think chickens are bad? We recently talked about some gay penguins in the Netherlands.
Oh no, but listen to this. There was this couple of gay penguins who stole an egg from a lesbian penguin couple that was at their zoo. and then tried to raise it as their own, but it wouldn't work.
So these shady penguins. That should be in like page six for penguins.
It essentially is. That's so shady. And we've been boosting it.
I love that so much. Yeah, the world needs to know.
That's amazing. That's so cheesy. The world does need to know.
Wow. Penguins are shady too. But I love that the little baby penguin was like, no.
No, no. No. You're not my dad. You are not my dad.
Well, no, they had to retrieve the egg because it wouldn't have hatched with those shady penguins.
They had to give it back to the couple that originally had it.
Oh my God. Yeah, because you had to intervene.
I was just going to say, imagine intervening in that situation.
Having to walk up to the gay penguins and being like, I'm sorry, sweetheart.
We've got to split you up. This is not your egg.
You have to fill out some paperwork if you want this egg.
You need to go through the proper channel.
Yeah, Penguin Family Services says nay nay.
Well, and this is the thing. There have been very successful adoptions of eggs by gay penguin couples, but this was just not it.
This was thievery. Pure thievery. Upper echelon cat burglary.
That was thievery. That's right. Literally.
This was the Lindbergh baby. Absolutely.
The Lindbergh penguin. There we have it.
Fill out the paperwork. I mean, come on.
Just do it. Wow. That's something I did not know and I'm really glad I know now.
I'm better at knowing now. spooky gay bullshit at the beginning of every episode because it's like 10 minutes of that then we address any mistakes from the previous episode we call it oopsie poopsies housekeeping, anything like that.
That's my favorite. And then we get into two spooky stories every week that come from the worlds of true crime, paranormal, cult, strange phenomenon, anything like that.
Yes. And if that doesn't convince you to listen, that you know you're going to get like that 10 minutes of like what we just heard.
Right. I mean, those are just two little stories.
That's just a snippet. Hello. But that's what we can get into right now.
Well, and also, so I need to know. Do you have a favorite ghost or like paranormal story?
Both of you? Okay, so like not true crime, straight up like paranormal ghosty.
Yeah, we'll go paranoid. I mean, that's very much a good son situation because I feel like that answer changes on the regular.
But currently, right now, I've been really intrigued with the story of Christopher Case.
I don't know if you've ever heard of him before, but he was...
He was a music producer that lived in Seattle in the 90s, like late 80s, early 90s.
He went on a business trip to San Francisco, met a witch at a bar. who cursed him, and then seven days later, he died. and nobody has ever been able to explain it like He went back home to Seattle from San Francisco.
Over the week, paranormal activity just started happening in his apartment, which had never happened before.
Shadow figures. music, all of this kind of stuff.
When the police came, to his apartment, he was found dead in the bathtub.
Completely unexplainable. Can't be explained to this day.
It's terrifying. I got, you know, those chills that go through your body and they go.
Wow. In your body. You know what I mean?
Yeah. I just got that. They like radiate.
Wow. Wow. That's what they do. If they made a sound.
That's nuts. I wonder why. I wonder if he offended her in some way.
Well, that's it. I feel as though he must have.
According to him, she wanted to do the business, but he didn't want to do the business.
He rejected. Listen, honey, if a witch wants to do the business with you, you heard it here first.
I mean, just go ahead and do it. Explore your options with a witch.
Yeah, absolutely. Either way, you're fucked.
Oh, that's a good one. Yeah. Wow. And we talked about that one on episode 118 of the podcast.
That's so good. That was recent. I need to like go back and listen to that.
Wow. Yeah, I love that. And for me, I would say that probably my favorite that I've covered recently.
And again, it changes all the time. It would have to be Tom Taylor's Cabin.
So I covered this on episode 95. Okay, so you remember this one.
Yes, I do remember this one. He is a author of comic books and other things like graphic novels, literature, whatever, but He essentially went out on a little writer's vacation or retreat out in the Australian wilderness. in this little cabin and a whole bunch of weird stuff starts happening that he live tweets.
And stuff includes like hearing noises outside the cabin and then suddenly there's somebody out there shining a light at him from the darkness.
A mysterious package shows up that he doesn't want to open.
Then somebody comes in to check the cable, but he's just rooting around in this room.
There's stuff happening from all angles.
He documents it all on Twitter, like Dear David style.
Yes. But it's a little bit more believable.
This hasn't been optioned for a movie yet.
So I'm a little bit more excited to talk about Tom Taylor.
I get that. But the thing is he has never really commented on it since.
He's never come out and said that it was a hoax or anything.
But it's a really compelling story. Yeah well and the thing is basically the idea is that there was a couple that owned this Airbnb that he was staying at. that had a child that died and the ghost of the child is haunting the home.
But then he's He's also getting some like scratching on the rooftop and stuff like that when he's trying to sleep.
But again, it's all on a Twitter thread.
And this is what I love about a lot of these news stories that have been coming out because like another one of my favorites was like Don Paramo.
It was something that we covered in episode 100, Taco Spells.
Where essentially this guy was live tweeting a haunting that he was experiencing in a new apartment.
And at one point he goes on live on Periscope.
And he crosses by his bed. There's no one in his bed.
But then he crosses by a second time after he shows something in his room.
And he had been hearing... Okay, my body went...
And he had been hearing voices in the night like that wake him up.
Like, you know, that experience where you wake up thinking that somebody is like said something or you've heard breathing. he was having that lying in the bed.
And then this stuff was popping up on live streams where there was nobody else in the home with him.
And the people that were watching the stream are just like, Dawn, are you seeing this?
So it's... It's absolutely wild. And again, it plays out all on social media.
And this is kind of what I love. I'm so glad people.
There are these new stories that are popping up and Twitter is kind of like, and TikTok really, they're kind of like how we're transmitting folklore these days. and yeah but it's like in real time yeah and that's the thing like we've covered a tiktok haunting as well like i won't go into like a third right now but If you want to fall down the rabbit hole, like there is a ton of stuff that we've started to cover on the show recently that has to do with these kind of digital age hauntings that play out and are documented on social media.
And that to me just brings it to this new level where it's so relatable and it really gets the hairs on the back of my neck standing up.
Here I am. I have goosebumps all over right now.
Yeah. So scary. start bringing like video and pictures into it and like live streams of things happening where you're like oh Yeah, see, that's what makes me want to go off the grid.
And then there's this whole idea of, like, this Greek chorus of commenters that are seeing stuff.
Yes. In the videos and then responding.
So like with Tom Taylor, this happens too. where he'll tweet a photo and then after a day, people are like, hey, did you see this in the corner?
And they're zooming in and sleuthing the whole thing.
And he's like, no. Yeah. It's just so interesting because it becomes this kind of dialectic ghost story in a way.
And it's like a paranormal investigation in real time.
Absolutely. Exactly. And it gets everyday people involved.
Well, that's the thing. I remember teaching a theater design workshop in 2018 or 17 or something like that, but it was when Dear David was happening.
And I remember hearing these 16-year-olds whispering on break, being like, have you heard about Dear David?
Did you see the recent tweet? All this. Just going into the story and like, it's just brilliant how everybody knew exactly what they were talking about.
Oh, 100%. And that one went on for a long time.
It did. Yeah, there was like YouTube challenges.
I was like, damn. It got a little wild.
It got a little wild. an early episode, I think episode 13.
A lot of people say it's our scariest episode.
I think it has more to do with the audio quality.
The audio quality is good. We feel that.
Yeah, it's fine. But, you know, everyone goes on that arc as podcasters.
Everyone goes on that journey. We all face a little struggle in the beginning.
But Dear David hits hard. But yeah, it just goes on a little bit too long.
And then people start to think that he was possessed by Dear David at the end and that he was like tweeting as him.
And like, I just, I can't get on with that.
Yes, that's when I backed out because it's true.
The story itself was so scary. so well crafted at first and so well done, I was like, oh, even if this is fake, I'm Oh, yeah.
This is spooky. I'm getting the chills just reading it.
And the thought of the story behind it, this little kid who died in this horrific way and like it's now haunting and then as soon as it just sometimes you just you step a little too far yeah see that's it's like there's so many great things about social media like we just said like it's how we're passing on like the folklore now but then it's like we're also ruining it at The moment that I see a little girl in a white dress with long black hair or I hear that in a ghost story, I'm out.
I eat right out of them. I'm like, that doesn't exist.
You got to yeet that Samara Morgan imagery right at the window.
Yeet it to the next TikTok. Yeah. I'm out.
I'm out. I'm a head out. I'm a head out.
So what so now we want we're coming to the end here.
So what is an upcoming episode that you have coming up that you are very excited about that you can't wait for people to listen to.
Okay. Well, I would say that it's the episode that we have just dropped.
I personally covered the story of Teresita Baza on it, which is known as the voice from the grave case.
Okay. Yeah, there was a bad TV movie called Voice from the Grave made about it.
And it's because there was actually a quote from the trial where the judge was being questioned on whether or not he would accept a voice from the grave. as part of the testimony because essentially what happened was Teresita Baza was found murdered in her apartment And a few weeks after her murder, she had a coworker at the hospital that she worked at in Chicago who started going into trances, speaking as Teresita Baza in her sleep to her husband, who didn't know anything about the case. and basically said, I'm Teresita Baza.
I know who killed me. It was a man named blank. and basically gives him all of the details that he needs to be able to find her killer. over multiple trances and ultimately it's what solves the case.
Shut the fuck up. Holy shit. Oh my goodness.
I can't. I'm literally, as soon as this is over, play.
Oh, yeah. Well, and that's the second story.
That's my story. Tyler starts it off. that I covered on that episode was actually the murder of a woman named Ruthie Mae McCoy.
And this was a murder that happened in Chicago in one of the Chicago projects.
And it was a underreported murder, but it ended up influencing a lot of the narrative in the 1992 Candyman movie.
This sounded familiar. I found out about this murder through my interest in wanting to find out more about the Candyman. lore, the urban legend, because I grew up as a kid knowing about Candyman before I knew about the movie, before I knew about the source material.
And that research led me to this moment in True Crime, which is a really heartbreaking story. to be completely honest, but I think a really important story to share.
And then again, to see how that ties into the story and the movie of the Candyman because Candyman is very racially charged.
It deals with a lot of systemic racism, not necessarily in the best way.
The new movie should be able to do that very well.
The original didn't. But this story, it's just really heartbreaking.
But again, sometimes... I'm sure you get it too when you're researching something, you go into a research project going in one direction.
And then it takes you in a completely different direction to a place you didn't expect to go.
Absolutely. That's my favorite thing when that happens It's like a whirlwind I love that And the murder of Ruthie, I have to say, is pretty terrifying because it really reflects... some of the stuff that happens in Candyman.
Like, I don't know. Am I giving it away?
No, you're not giving it away. Basically, her murderers were able to get into her apartment by crawling through her bathroom mirror.
And that is where the trope of Candyman attacking you in the mirror comes from.
Yeah. I'm so uncomfortable. Elena, it's the middle of the afternoon.
I hope you don't have plans because you're not leaving until Drew gets home.
That's beyond terrifying. Holy. Crawling through a mirror. well and it kind of speaks to the stuff that we do on the show it's like you know there's a lot of true crime out there that we could cover but honestly there's a lot that we decide not to touch just because, you know, there are some people that.
Absolutely. Yeah, specifically cover true crime in a very conscious, focused way.
But for us, we really focus on stuff that makes you go, Ooh, that's spooky.
Yeah. Right. Exactly. And it's spooky because that could happen and, It did.
And it's like, ugh. My biggest fear is somebody being in the vents.
Last night, I told you guys I was sleeping in the bathroom because my kittens needed to be in the bathroom and I kept hearing this like tapping and it was definitely just the heat but I was like someone's in that vent I'm gonna die this is how I die There's someone in that vent.
You're like, either somebody's in the vent or it's Pennywise.
In either way, I'm not here. Either way, I'm going to die.
It's not a good situation one way or the other.
And I can't say no to a red balloon, so I'm fucked.
Guys, I'm so excited to listen. I'm so excited to listen to this now.
That's spooky. That's so spooky. All right.
Well, one last question to wrap this whole thing up.
So not this episode. But who have you covered in the past that you feel kept it the most weird?
Oh, my God. Okay. On episode 99, I covered the story of the Halifax Sleepwatcher.
Yes. And that was truly terrifying because this happened in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and we're originally from Nova Scotia.
We're up here in Canada. And the sleep watcher attacks were happening while we were university students living in Halifax.
Were they really? They were, yeah. And they weren't solved until many years later, but this guy is a total fucking creep.
It's terrifying. Did you hear about this story?
Yeah. I think I heard about it on My Favorite Murder, actually.
Oh, they talked about it? It's so scary.
Damn. I think so. I've definitely heard it.
Yeah. Well, that's the thing. We were living in Halifax at the time.
It's terrifying. And it was very uncomfortable because that's the thing.
We lived with some women and would hang out with over the years.
And when you'd be at their house, like there was always that thing in the back of your head where you were like, am I going to wake up in the middle of the night and there's going to be some asshole like creeping out of a door and he really started to escalate over time like people started off waking up to this person outside your window and then it started to turn into waking up to a scarf being dangled over your face and you think it's your boyfriend, but it's not.
It was very like Golden State Killer-esque.
Yeah. Yeah. Without any killing. And the escalation was scary.
Yeah, it didn't escalate that far, thank God, but it definitely could have.
Oh, right. Yeah. oh yeah scary that yeah he definitely kept it the most weird oh yeah well i can take it in a slightly more kitschy direction.
This is a little bit weird, but on episode 89, I actually covered the story of... of Cynthia the mannequin, who was a mannequin created by Lester Gaba, an American designer, who essentially became part of New York's high society in the 1930s.
Like the mannequin, like she was getting sent couture.
She was being invited to openings. She was being invited to parties.
Just a mannequin. And people were like schmoozing with her.
She was that bitch. Yeah. Like she was being treated better than I have ever been in my life.
She was Sonya Morgan before Sonya Morgan.
That's so America. Yeah, and then the thing is, after the war and stuff like that, he tried to turn her into an animatronic and stuff like that.
And it got really kind of uncanny. and just too far bullish in a way but i would say that or carl tanzler and you know Oh my God.
Say no more. We know all about that. Episode 25.
We'll just say that. X-Ray Diva? Mm-mm. A whole different mannequin story.
That's the other thing, the names. Yeah, I was gonna say a little different.
Yeah, yeah. Well guys, I mean, now you can see like a little snippet of this episode.
Right after this. Yes. So you can get your taste buds wet a little bit.
And then you have like... I think we've talked about eight different episodes probably.
You have a lot of binging to do, guys. We gave you a lot of homework.
Yeah. Homo work, as we like to call it. It's worth it.
Yes, exactly. All right. So where can we find you guys plug anything you'd like to plug?
Okay, well, you can find the podcast on Twitter and Instagram at That's Spooky Pod.
And more importantly, you can find us on all podcast platforms as That's Spooky.
Don't forget the apostrophe in there. And we release new episodes every Wednesday.
Yeah, you can find me on Instagram at tties.
That's T-E-E underscore T-Y-S. yeah and you can find me on instagram at pansy twist that's pansy like the flower and twist like the dance And I want to point out before we end this whole thing, not only are you two like super talented podcasters.
Tyler is an amazing artist and Johnny is an amazing, like the photography work that you do and the way you design like every photograph that's on on your Instagram.
You guys are so talented. Thank you. So like every episode has its own little design that like I get excited to see every time.
Yes. It's I'm telling you. And even Johnny's like personal Instagram is a work of fucking art.
Yeah. Well, yeah, Tyler's an illustrator and I do like projection and light and shadow installation stuff.
I used to design a lot of theater. So there were a few years back where I was like, how can I bring this into Instagram?
That just opens me up to a whole world of thirst traps.
Am I right? Exactly. So you have homework not only to listen, but to go check out their art. and everything that they put into this universe.
Stop, look, and listen. That's what you need to do.
Well, thank you so much, guys. This has been amazing.
Thank you so much. And we're so excited to share this with the world now.
So go listen. Thank you guys so much. We love having a Kiki with you always.
We have to do it more often. Yes, thanks.
Forever and always. Yes. Kiki forever. Yes.
And as we always like to say, kissy kisses.
Kissy kisses. Kiss kisses. i love it perfect Now, at 8.45 p.m. on April 22, 1987, 911 received a call from the Grace Abbott Homes.
The 911 operator answered the call to a woman in distress and it was Ruthie Mae McCoy.
Okay. The operator asked what the problem was and Ruthie explained to the operator that there was someone who was trying to get into her apartment through bathroom mirror oh the operator was confused and asked for clarification Ruthie reiterated that there was someone trying to get into her home.
Ruthie said that whoever it was, they had thrown down the cabinet in the apartment next to hers and were trying to get into her home through phone. the 9-1-1 operator was still confused by her explanation But instead of asking for further clarification, the operator collected Ruthie's name and address and informed her that they'd be sending police to her address yeah one would hope with haste right now the 911 operator did dispatch the police after ending the call with ruthie The problem was that Ruthie's call was logged as a less severe disturbance with a neighbor instead of what it really was, a time-sensitive break and end.
So they weren't able to underline the fact that somebody was literally coming through her bathroom mirror like a portal from hell.
Yeah, they didn't understand that. So they just, the operator just interpreted it as there was some disturbance with a neighbor and it was like... affecting her bathroom mirror.
I don't really know where the logic is there.
Well, yeah, no, it's not Ruthie's fault, I'll tell you that.
No, it is not. But at the end of the day, I mean, I probably just would have been like, it's real life Bloody Mary.
That's all that I can say. Right. Click.
Now, at 9.02, 911 received another call from a Grace Abbott resident reporting the sounds of gunfire from apartment 1109.
Ruthie's apartment. Two minutes later, another call came in at 9.04, and it was another neighbor claiming to have heard heard screaming and gunfire coming from Ruthie's apartment.
When these reports came in, more police were dispatched to the scene.
Police eventually arrived to Ruthie's apartment at around 9.10pm, 25 minutes after Ruthie's initial call for help. two officers remained downstairs while another two officers took the elevators up to the 11th Now, remembering that the elevators in the Grace Abbott High Rise usually didn't work,
Ruthie had actually made a point to let the 911 operator know that the elevators were in working order in hopes that that would help the police arrive to her apartment faster.
And that's a testament to these living conditions.
Yeah, the point that it's a known fact that the elevators usually aren't working.
Exactly. and that it's noteworthy that they were.
Yeah, when your elevator's reputations precede them, it says something.
That's right. Now, when the police arrived at Ruthie's apartment on the 11th floor, they knocked on the door.
It was about 9.15pm at this point. The officers stood outside the door and waited for an answer, but no one ever came to the door.
They knocked a few more times and there was nothing.
The officers then attempted to open the door, but the door itself was locked.
Now, assuming that perhaps Ruthie was in the apartment but unable to answer the door, police asked the dispatcher to call Ruthie's phone.
Really? Like given the cause and effect of everything that has just gone down, do they think that she's just watching an episode of Bonanza or something?
Listen, if you're a trying to ascribe logic to the police's behavior in this case, your brain's going to hurt by the end.
They're like, well, we don't want to fuck up the paint job on the door.
Right. One day, a little while after Teresita's death, Remi was working at the hospital late into the night.
When she decided to take a nap on a couch in the hospital staff lounge.
Now, moments after closing her eyes though, Remi said that she felt as if there was a ghostly presence in the room.
She was basically like, I felt like I was being watched.
So she opens her eyes and sees Teresita in the room with her.
Ooh. Yeah. Or well, at least the walking apparition of Teresita.
Yeah. Standing at the opposite side of the room, just staring blankly at her.
Now Remy is completely terrified on the couch frozen where she is not knowing what to do.
Uh-huh. Not being able to call out or anything like that.
Essentially in a state of paralysis. Sure.
But then just like that, Teresita disappeared.
Remi didn't really know what to do with the experience or where to place it.
She was just terrified. So ultimately, she didn't bring it up with anyone.
She was like, maybe it was a dream maybe it's just in my head i don't really know uh-huh But Remy just goes on with her life trying to shake this off.
Now, that would be easier said than done, because two weeks after that first encounter in the lounge in the hospital, Remi was at home one night with Jose and everything seemed to be normal.
However, all of a sudden, Remi starts to complain that she was feeling overly tired. so she ends up going to bed a little bit earlier than usual.
And a little while after she went to bed, Jose was puttering around the home and then decided to pop into the bedroom to check in on her. you know, wanted to see if she was like reading, if he could get her a cup of water, any of that kind of couple shit.
Just being a nice human being. Yeah, maybe you could do it for me every now and then.
I don't know. No, I'm just kidding. Don't wake me up from a nap.
You know better. Yes. Anyway, so he goes into the room, asks Remy if she is all right.
But when Remy responds to Jose, he notices that her voice sounds different, almost like she's in a trance-like state.
And ultimately, she starts speaking to him in Tagalog, which is, you know, her native tongue.
So she says, me in a rather breathy voice that is not her own very distinctively.
And Jose, seeing that she seemed to be in some sort of pain, starts to question her about what was going on. sure so it doesn't really go anywhere but at some point he asks this altered voice like okay well Who are you right now?
To which Remi responded, Teresita Baza. Oh, shit.
Yes. So this confuses the fuck out of Jose because he has no idea who Teresita Baza is.
The two of them weren't really that close, so it makes sense. that Remy hadn't necessarily mentioned it to Jose just yet.
So he's just kind of letting this roll over him.
Yeah, he's like, who is this stranger? Yeah, so he's like, who is this strange lady in my bed?
Let's have this play out. So... Then, Jose, not really knowing what was up, just lets her continue talking.
And it was at that point that Remi tells Jose to tell the police that the name of her killer was a man named Alan Showery.
A.S. Yes. And she says that he was an orderly at the hospital that she worked at.
Oh, oh, oh, oh. Yeah, and basically she's like, they are trying to find my killer.
I know who it is. It is a man named Alan Showery.
Please help. And the whole time, Jose is just kind of like, okay.
This is cool. This is very Lindsay Lohan.
I know who killed me. Oh, you're fucking right.
Yeah, absolutely. Oh, I mean, like not to ruin the moment and bring Lilo into it, but.
Ooh, this is how you party in Mykonos. Bitches.
Yeah, for real. So, she's saying all of this to him in a trans-like state, in their bed, in Tagalog.
And Jose is basically just kind of taking note of all of this.
And then after about half an hour of this trance conversation, Remi just wakes up.
She's lucid. And Jose doesn't really know what to do.
So he's just kind of like, hey, Remy, do you remember what just went down?
And Remy's kind of like, oh, I don't really know.
What are you talking about? And he just goes, nothing.
Oh. He doesn't explain to her what had happened?
Absolutely. She's like, what? And he's like, what?
You know, it's that kind of thing. He just responds to her question with a louder question with more upward inflection and just hopes that the moment goes away.
So he just moves on, not bringing it up, hoping that it just never happens again.
Much like she did after she saw the apparition weeks prior.
Sure, but, like, honestly, if I was in that situation with you and you were napping and you were talking... somebody else, I feel like I would tell you about it.
I don't know. I just feel like that would be something we'd have a conversation about.
Well, yeah, that's something that we would have a conversation about because we're spooky bitches, but you know, we can't speak for every couple.
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