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[Assistant] My dad gets there with the officer, takes one look and was like, yep, that's Jesus. That's him. Turns out Jesus wandered down from a secret meth lab in the woods to our house after a drug dealer in him had gotten into a big fight. Man, this just keeps unraveling. You're also so lucky to be alive. Holy shit. Absolutely. Like everybody in this situation. Everybody is.


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[Assistant] We were just the first porch light he saw. He was arrested and held on 10k bail and the daylight broke.


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[Assistant] The families that were in need that she adopted still got their gifts that year too. A bright spot in the story. I did, however, get to enjoy my 15 minutes of fame at school when I recovered from the flu because I had the tale that everyone wanted to hear. Hell yea, you did, Dani.


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[Assistant] Joe's Bar has since rebuilt and I've enjoyed a cocktail or two there in my adult years. I highly recommend it if you ever find yourself in Boulder Creek.


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[Assistant] Oh, fun fact, the video for Fight Song by Rachel Platten was partially filmed in Boulder Creek, and the bar she's at in the video is Joe's. Oh, I wanna see it. I do too. Still to this day, they have a sign in their bar that reads, not a drive-through bar. That's hilarious.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Years later, when I was 15, my mom and I were at the Boulder Creek Art and Wine Festival. My mom points to a man and says, do you know who that is? My mom was the local mail carrier and knew everybody, so I was like, no, who?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Usually the answer was, oh, that's so-and-so, and you know, so-and-so's mom.


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[Assistant] But this time, my mom looked at me seriously and says, that's Jesus. She then yelled over to him and forced


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[Assistant] Uhm, it was honestly sad. I forgave him that day. He had a problem. But the legend of my anxiety will live on forever. I now live in the damn suburbs and I lock my fucking door at night. I have now unironically...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have many other stories, like ones about trying to get, uh, onto the Lockheed Martin property that was just up the road from us as a teenager, and all the weird lights we used to see in the sky over it. But that's for another day. Send them on. Send it to us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Lots of love to you guys and yours and keep it weird, but not so weird that you tell your eight year old girl that you're Jesus in their foyer at 2am. All the love and less sinister babe vibes, Danny.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh my god, I'm obsessed with you. Also, while you guys are in Salem, if you haven't gone yet, which...


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[Assistant] I get that that's like pretty scary, but like you don't need to scream about it. Like you're in my house. Don't be annoying. I feel like that was like too much. That was pick me behavior.


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[Assistant] That's like, nice, because they're like, oh my gosh, here you go, I got you. But also, please don't be in the bathroom with me. No, and also


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[Assistant] Anyways. Anyways. Anyways, my next one is called Listener Tale, Neighborhood UFO Summer of 1995. Let's go. It says, hello there. I am a long time listener and have wanted to share this story for quite some time, but I am lazy, so I never got a lot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Goodbye. I never got around to writing it. Until now! Yay for being sick with COVID and being sooooo bored! Locked, isolated in my apartment while we have an unusually warm fall.


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[Assistant] Also, again, Ash was not born during this. But I was on the way, I think. You were on the way. Right? Yeah. Oh, in the summer of 1995 I wasn't.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I was, I was about to be on the way. That's true, I was 10. Wow. So. That shit goes crazy. That does go crazy. As Caleb would say.


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[Assistant] I grew up in a very small town in Michigan. Dirt roads, lots of fields and farms. At night the only light came from the moon and stars. I kinda love that. I do too. It's kinda beautiful.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When the lights were first spotted, it came from the neighbors. The husband Joe and daughter were outside at night bringing in groceries and they both saw three orange lights.


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[Assistant] They were above their cornfield off in the distance. That's where I wanna see spooky UFO lights above a cornfield. Always. The lights just sat there, not moving. There was not any sound. The lights were about a hundred feet or so above the corn. I love that they're just like hanging out over the corn.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Anyways, they moved into the house and when Joe looked back outside, the lights were higher in the sky and moving away, very slowly toward the south.


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[Assistant] He did not see a craft or object that they were attached to, but said they stayed in the same shape as they hovered and then moved.


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[Assistant] This of course made it into the neighborhood gossip, but it was joked about, but not taken very seriously. Aw, Joe.


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[Assistant] About a week later, my father and uncle were returning from a quick trip to the store.


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[Assistant] And they saw three orange lights above the woods on what would be my uncle's farm.


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[Assistant] They stopped the truck and watched. Like the previous time, as Joe and his family had witnessed, the lights just hovered. They didn't move and there was no noise. The lights then quickly moved off and out of sight.


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[Assistant] My uncle said that the shape was, quote, like if three yellow school buses were in a triangle. Ooh. I had to put that in because it still makes me laugh to think that THAT is how he came up with the size. As I said before, country folk.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Later that night, the electricity in the neighborhood started acting very strange. We had gone back home and the lights would get extremely bright and then darken. The TV would go dark and then come back on. That happened occasionally. It was the country and when it was really hot or storms were happening, electricity would act weird.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My mom called my aunt and she said the same thing was happening there, but that my aunt and my uncle's phone kept ringing.


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[Assistant] When they would pick it up, it would be really loud static. As my mom and aunt were talking another neighbor picked up


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For the next two to three weeks, multiple neighbours saw the lights, either moving through the sky or hovering in various spots. My cousin, who was five years older than me, who was 19 at the time, said he saw the lights move across the field while he watched from his bedroom. Another neighbour said that his cows, Mrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr


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[Assistant] I tried again. It got better this time. Did it? So I feel like you're on the right track. Uh, hopefully he says cows again. Yeah. Cows. You can just say it at the end.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Another neighbor said that his cows and horses would start acting really strange and make lots of noise at night. Then he would see the lights.


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[Assistant] On Fridays, all the neighbors would usually get together at someone's house for cards and socializing. I fucking love this. Right? I'm obsessed with this. We kids would play and there would usually be a fire, everybody sat around. That's so lovely. That's so kind and nice.


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[Assistant] The talk was soon of everyone seeing the lights, having electrical issues, phone issues, and barn animals and pets acting weird.


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[Assistant] One neighbor said that his entire family saw the lights over their barn and then the object, craft, whatever, hit their house with what they said was the brightest spotlight. That it was so bright you couldn't even see. Woah. Then it just went off and the lights were gone. That's the only time I heard of that happening.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wish I could tell you something exciting, like missing time, crop circles, seeing grays, or the lights chasing people, but really, that was it. It's still pretty exciting to me. I love it. For about a month the lights appeared, almost everyone in the neighborhood talked about seeing them, and then, as soon as it all started, it just stopped.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Today, no one talks about that summer or the lights. My father and uncle have both passed away. I'm sorry. Rest in peace.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They are the only two that ever continued to talk about it, but they would never say UFO, just...


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[Assistant] Thanks again for all that you do and for creating a community that is safe for all people of every background to share their experiences. From Billy. Billy! Billy!


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[Assistant] Love the 90s tales, keep em coming cause those are really fun and nostalgic. Yea, if you guys want to send in a 90s tale, just put it in the uhm, in the title line, subject line, that's what it's called.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hawaii y'all. Hawaii y'all. And it's, and it's rainy out. Yeah, it's real spooky. It is. It's cold though. It's like very cold rain, which is disgusting. The holidays are upon us. Yeah, Thanksgiving is like in a minute.


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[Assistant] It's like in a minute. In a minute. We did this early in the morning because Chigirl is leaving on my honeymoon because I got married. Woooo. Whole ass Sysic these days. A whole ass Sysic. Absolutely wild. It was such a good wedding. It was so much fun. It was.


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[Assistant] There's one of you giving your speech and I'm just like, actually there's one of you giving your speech and I'm looking unlovingly and then there's one of you giving your speech and I'm holding up a one finger. And I know exactly what it's for. Because it's sort of a Captain Crunch Slurpee that she's literally told everyone and the fish tacos I told you we weren't speaking of it anymore. We're not talking about the fish tacos. It's one time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Please be aware that I'm not encouraging you to go anywhere near there because that is illegal. Ohhhh. But this person I think went before it was illegal or went on the low.


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[Assistant] I am imploring you to not know because you'll get in trouble and I don't want that for you. I don't want that for you. It's expensive to get in trouble. Oh no. Yea, I'll let you know how much.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. And let's get into it. So deep in the woods near Cornwall, Connecticut in a valley known as Dark Entry Forest. I'm already sold. Yeah. Are the remains of the small village of Dudley Town.


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[Assistant] Dudley Town was a thriving mining community. It was settled upon in the mid 18th century by British colonists, much like pretty much everywhere else around here. Yea, you know. Yea. The town provided charcoal and other minerals.


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[Assistant] And because of that slowly but surely the population of Dudleytown shrank until by the


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[Assistant] Early 20th century, there were only a handful of people living in this little...


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[Assistant] You can call it a village, it's like barely a village. Like a little hamlet. Yeaah, kind of actually.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] By 1924, the village of Dudleytown was completely abandoned at that point. And it fell into the ownership of a private trust who wanted to restore the forest ecosystem to its pre-colonial health. So they set out on a little ecosystem.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Makeover. Extreme makeover. Forest edition. I like that. So looking back, historians and other people familiar with this area chalked up the abandonment of this little town hamlet to a variety of social, economic, ecological reasons. But with that being said,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There are people who think that those reasons, all those social, economic, ecological reasons,


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[Assistant] Are bullshit. And that the real reason the village was abandoned is much darker.


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[Assistant] There are rumors of widespread madness among the villagers, unexplained deaths, and other tragedies.


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[Assistant] Uh, and of course a curse that dates back to the founding of the village in the 1740s or actually possibly even before that. Huh. Regarding this one family. Woman to it.


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[Assistant] Now today the area is still said to be haunted and despite being private property. Private property. Private property.


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[Assistant] It has become a popular destination for ghost hunters and legend trippers who are determined to find out whether Dudleytown is a truly cursed village


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[Assistant] Or just a victim of those shifting social and economic trends. Boo. Boring. Haunted. Cursed. Alright.


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[Assistant] So let's get into it. Located in the northwest corner of Connecticut, the town of Cornwall was incorporated in 1740, like so long ago.


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[Assistant] And it was after multiple shares of lands were purchased at auction from Yale College. Cornwall. Yeaah, and it was about a year or two earlier.


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[Assistant] Now, early colonists were initially drawn to this region for farming and the proximity to the Housatonic River, but they learned pretty quickly


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[Assistant] That the mountainous landscape made transportation difficult.


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[Assistant] And that it also limited the crops that could be sold outside of the area for that very reason.


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[Assistant] Now, the river did aid in transportation of agricultural goods.


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[Assistant] But most people in the area shifted their focus to other forms of business like education and mining. They're just a little more fruitful.


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[Assistant] I was kind of saying it earlier, the name would imply that they ended up with their own whole lost town, or like, formally recognized reason. Yeah. Or, yeah. But it was just an informal name that they gave to the settlement.


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[Assistant] I also love that they gave the name Dudley Town. Like their last name was Dudley and they were like, Dudley Town. This is our town, bitch. It feels like uhm, and I'm not equating them to him, but it feels like something Mayor Humdinger from Paw Patrol would do. That's a mom moment. Uh, I just- Humdinger Town. Brought to you by Paw Patrol.


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[Assistant] No, sort of like how an urban neighborhood, like a city neighborhood, might gain an informal nickname due to the particular characteristic, that's exactly what it was.


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[Assistant] Like at like Bean Town for Boston, you know? Ah, yeah. Which, I didn't know why Boston was called Bean Town. Really? I thought it was Bee Town for the longest time of my life.


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[Assistant] But yea, I always thought it was Bee Town. Wow. But it's Bean Town because we have a lot of baked beans here. That's hilarious that you did not know that. I also didn't know that baked beans were like a Boston thing. Yea, Boston baked beans. Yea, who knew? I did. You, you, but not me, not I. Who knew? Who knew, but not what I do. Or, you know. Anyways.


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[Assistant] Just wild ass names though. Wild ass names. Barzallet is my favorite thing ever. Barzallet is where it's at. Oh my god, and I meant to text you, you know that French guy on the pronunciation that we love? Yes, I love that guy. I looked it up and he goes, Barzallet, it is easy.


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[Assistant] Now at first, the settlers in Dudleytown tried to follow the path of


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[Assistant] Other settlers in Cornwall by clearing large plots of forested land to establish farms of their own.


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[Assistant] However, after decades of tilling the soil and trying but failing to establish really any crops, the residents learned that


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[Assistant] And it was definitely not as suited as the lower areas in the valley. And again the natural limitations on transportation made selling the few crops that were successful very difficult.


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[Assistant] So unable to farm the land, the residents of Dudley Town turned to the only other potentially lucrative resource at their disposal, iron ore. We all know it. We all know it, we all love it. We all harvest it. We all live it. Yea. You know? Ore. Ore. I don't even really know what


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[Assistant] I don't know. I know that Bobby Orr was a hockey player.


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[Assistant] I like the East personally. Me as well, personally. But the problem, however, was that extracting iron ore from the earth was a very costly, time consuming process that


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[Assistant] And soon the area became known for its active mining industry, and they were providing large amounts of charcoal to the growing mining industry.


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[Assistant] The industrialization of labor that occurred throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.


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[Assistant] Insured that New England's mining industry wasn't going anywhere.


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[Assistant] And during this period, iron forges and industrial blast furnaces were scattered across the region, uh, region, excuse me, including two in Cornwall alone.


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[Assistant] Cornwall, and the Dudleytown area specifically, became a really important source of charcoal to keep the regional furnaces operating. So they were really, really needed in this period of time, which meant they were really, really profitable. Like, we got a quarry. We got a fucking quarry, Ken. Very Boston, also. Yeah, it is. So everything's going great.


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[Assistant] Well, for a little while. But by the end of the 19th century, the prosperity the residents of Deadly Town were enjoying and just like, slithering on.


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[Assistant] The discovery of rich ore deposits in places like California and Nevada?


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[Assistant] And that took most of Cornwall's residents with it. Ah. So they were kind of fucked again.


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[Assistant] So soon after, life in the relatively isolated area of Dudleytown really became more of a hardship. Like if you stayed, you were roughing it.


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[Assistant] And if you didn't want to stay, you would relocate to be closer to the train system and the center of town.


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[Assistant] And those people just effectively abandon their homes to eventually be reclaimed by the forest. Oh damn. Which like-


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[Assistant] There's something about the forest just eating up your house. Yeah, there's something about the forest reclaiming things that really just...


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[Assistant] Don't mind if I do. Like, that's what I think. Just like, that's mine. My trees are going back there. It's like, damn. Yea, the forest is, she's a sassy bitch. She will, she'll just reclaim. And good for her, she should. Yea. Now, by the early 20th century, there's like so many centuries, huh?


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[Assistant] There are only a handful of people still trying to manage a living in Dudleytown until the late 1920s when only one resident remained. Damn. One. In this once thriving community.


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[Assistant] Unfortunately, the last holdout learned the same lesson of the early settlers and found the area impossible to farm. Eventually he lost all of his income and had to abandon the farm and relocate closer to town. Poor person. I know.


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[Assistant] They have a name for him, but I'm not gonna say it because like, it might be incorrect.


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[Assistant] But some books point to this one man, but then others are like, no.


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[Assistant] Now by the end of the 1920s, Dudleytown, like I said, had become completely abandoned and at that point, it was purchased by a land trust known as Dark Entry Forest Association. That's fucked up. Metal. I love that. That's a private organization started by New York philanthropists.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now under the management of this land trust, the area once known as Dudley Town became a popular destination for New Yorkers who needed an escape from city life.


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[Assistant] They found Cornwall a convenient place to vacation or a place where they could commute into the city for work.


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[Assistant] Exactly. Totally. In simple terms, people chalk it up to the decline in the demand for charcoal.


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[Assistant] Ghost towns do have a way of, you know, getting our imagination to go wild. And Dudley Town is no different. And maybe it's not just our imagination. I don't think it is. It's not. Because rumors of supernatural forces and curses started even before this place was fully abandoned. Hell yea. Right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So according to the Cornwall Historical Society, the earliest mention of the curse of Dudley- Dudleytown, excuse me, appeared in Edward C. Starr's 1926 book, History of Cornwall.


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[Assistant] People say quote, Star's account has formed the basis of every story published since then about Dudleytown.


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[Assistant] But they are quick to point out that his account doesn't make any mention of the supernatural, it just weaves together a myriad of accounts about life in the 18th and 19th centuries.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I think the time lens just got a little obscured there. Yea, and I think maybe some sources, King Henry VIII is such a...


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[Assistant] A polarizing and like, very like, whoa figure, then it's like, throw him in there and it's like, oh shit! Exactly, cause he's also just, even if you don't know like, anything about King Henry VIII, you know the name.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] of being executed because they were associated with him. Hell no. So the remaining members of the deadly clan came to the colonies trading in, quote, title and fortune for a life of farming and brighter horizons in Connecticut.


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[Assistant] So they were literally like, we don't wanna be associated with your plot to assassinate the king. We don't wanna get killed. So we're gonna give everything up.


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[Assistant] No, the legend was expanded a decade later in the 19- Excuse me. Shut up. Never.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The legend was expanded a decade later in the 1938 publication, They Found a Way. They found a way. Found a way. Written by Iva Hunt Sherry and William Garigas, Garigas, excuse me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] According to Sherry and Gargis, uh, after Dudley's attempted assassination of the king, a coven of Brit- British Satanists placed a curse on Edmund Dudley's bloodline, dooming them to a tragic existence no matter where they fled. I'm in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're gonna place a curse on the guy that tried to kill the king. You would feel like the satanist would be against the king. Yeah. Cause he was all about like the church at that point. Yeah, you'd think like some, some, some anarchy kind of stuff. Right? I don't...


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[Assistant] Like you're the deity, right? Yea, like you worship yourself. That's hot.


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[Assistant] The like symbol of like, you know, kinda independence of free thought. That's cool.


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[Assistant] Uhm, but, so according to American Hauntings Inc, one of Edmund's sons, the guy that got assassinated, he also tried to take control over the British throne. Because like, who wasn't trying to take control over the British throne? Damn. I mean, me, I wasn't, but. Well, you weren't alive. If you had been alive, me thinks you would have. Me thinks you would have fucked over that crown hard. You're like, you know what?


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[Assistant] Instead of threatening to behead anybody, this guy just meddled and that scared the absolute shit out of me. Oh my god, that brought us back to early days of recording when my charger would just be ripped out of the wall and fall down all the time. That was my charger everybody. That was my charger.


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[Assistant] Falling out of the wall for no reason. Does that plug even usually loose? No.


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[Assistant] Well, instead of threatening to behead anybody, this guy, one of his sons actually.


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[Assistant] She's a very historical figure. Yeah, and at this point in time, she was supposed to be next in line for the crown, so he was effectively setting his son up to become king.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But unfortunately for them, after Edward, I believe it was the 6th, if it's VI, if the I's after the V you add, so yea, the 6th.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, unfortunately for them, after Edward VI passed away, Lady Jane did become Queen, but her reign was short-lived and she was actually beheaded along with John Dudley and his son, Guilford. And Ioop. And Ioop.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Big yikes. Big yikes. Big target on your back right there. Wow, Dudley's. Dudley's not killing it, but like, also killing it. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So other accounts that emerged in the years that followed actually suggested that the curse begins centuries earlier, when Edmund Dudley was beheaded for attempting to assassinate King Henry VIII, like I was saying.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the family eventually was said to bring that curse with them to Cornwall when they fled New England, or when they fled England.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In time, the Curse of Dudleytown would supposedly earn the region the nickname Village of the Damned.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh my goodness. But other people think that nickname Village of the Damned started with a relatively simple murder.


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[Assistant] Yeaah, is that a movie? Yeaah. Actually? Yeaah, Village of the Damned. Yeaah, cause it's like, uhm, and like Children of the Damned.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thanks killing movie. Me too! I wanna see that. I really wanna see that. That was uhm, that's been like 16 years in the making. Are you serious? Like that first, he first uh, we're just gonna talk about Eli Roth for a second. Eli Roth did like uhm, did a short of that movie like, in like Grindhouse, so it was like 16 years ago.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People have been waiting for it forever. It looks incredible. The full length thing of it. And he finally was able to do it. And it looks, I've heard amazing things about it. I've heard


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My girl Sydney on TikTok. Horror Chronicles.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] By the way, quick little shout out to her, she has a podcast now. Oh shit! Called, uhm, I think it's called Hello Sydney, the Hello Sydney podcast, and she like


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She like goes through horror movies, she's like so knowledgeable, I've told you guys about her before. Oh, that's cool. So go listen to her podcast so it can blow up. Yeah, hell yeah. Because she's great. But she said, and I trust her, that it was a fucking phenomenal movie and that she thinks John Carver


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The killer in that movie is gonna be one of those like iconic killers. And then there will be more movies. And I've been waiting for one of those. We haven't had one since. Give me another one. I feel like the last iconic killer is probably like Ghostface, right? Yeah, it's like, cause you gotta wait for the real, the real good one to put him on the Mount Rushmore of killers. That's true.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I said, John can't decide who goes on the rush more.


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[Assistant] After decades of struggling and ultimately again failing to farm that land, considerable tensions had arisen between the families in Dudleytown. Cause they're all trying to make something happen that's not happening. Yeah, they're all aggravated. They're all like Regina George and Gretchen Wieners over the fetch of it all. Yeah, it's not gonna happen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And neither is the farming. No, those tensions were said to finally come to a head in 1792 when Gershon Hollister was found murdered in a home owned by a man named William Tanner.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now, the weird thing is, Hollister's murderer is never named. No one knows who really murdered him. And it's unclear why he was even murdered in the first place.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it is said that immediately after the murder occurred, William Tanner started to lose his fucking marbles and would go around just speaking


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[Assistant] But before that he claimed that some kind of unrecognizable animal killed Hollister in the forest.


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[Assistant] Or like attacked him and then he brought him back into his home to try to help him and that's where he died. Oh damn.


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[Assistant] Other people say that he died, uhm, building a barn, but that's boring. Yeaah, that's boring. I think animal. Demon.


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[Assistant] Animal Demon. Demon Animal. Yeaah. You know? Oh shit. And this guy just went like mad afterwards. Damn. And it's like, Animal Demon, William Tanner. Yeaah.


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[Assistant] Wow. So he had to be taken away actually because he was talking about demon animals and just like all kinds of nonsense.


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[Assistant] Like people took it as nonsense. So there's like a consistent thread through this madness as well. Of demon animals. Damn.


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[Assistant] Now once he had been taken away, Abel, Nathaniel Carter and his family moved into Abel's house. Oh shit. But they too became so disturbed by inexplicable tragedies that they just up and left and moved to Birmingham, New York where they built a cabin. Holy shit.


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[Assistant] Now, I have like chills even just saying this. So they got out of there because something just so disturbed them in that house that they moved out of the state and over to New York. Now one day while Nathaniel was in the village,


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[Assistant] The home was raided and his wife and children were killed.


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[Assistant] And when he returned later that day, he was also killed.


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[Assistant] And according to the New England Historical Society, the unfortunate turn of events was likely linked to the Dudleytown case and even followed them all the way to New York.


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[Assistant] Holy shit. Isn't that nuts? Like somehow the curse rubbed off on them from living in Noobl's house. Damn.


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[Assistant] A hero of the Revolutionary War returned home after the war.


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[Assistant] Which like, if my mans got killed by a lightning strike out of nowhere, I might too, also go mad. But it's like, who gets struck by lightning?


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[Assistant] That's the thing. This is strange. And of course, in Dudleytown. In Dudleytown. She's just like standing on her porch and got struck by lightning. Oh my god. Mhm.


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[Assistant] Now then, there was the newspaper editor and one-time presidential candidate, Horace Greeley. I believe he was going up against, um, Ulysses Grant. Oh shit. Yeah.


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[Assistant] Now in 1872, just one week before the presidential election,


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[Assistant] Greeley's wife, Mary Chaney, took a trip to her childhood home.


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[Assistant] Oh, I think I can picture him in my head. Yeaah.


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[Assistant] But damn, this is all, this is a lot. And then, so he loses his wife after she goes and like, you know, hangs herself and her child at home in Dudleytown.


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[Assistant] And then he loses the presidential candidacy. Or he loses the election. Yeaah. Cause the curse.


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[Assistant] Okay, terrifying. Now, this person is said to be the final victim of the deadly town madness and she is the wife of Dr. William Clark.


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[Assistant] One of the original founding members of the dark entry forest association. Oh shit.


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[Assistant] According to legend, Dr. Clark took a short business trip to New York in 1924, and when he returned home to Dudleytown, his wife had completely lost it. And he literally had to like, institutionalize her at this point.


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[Assistant] Death seemed to have taken a liking to Dudleytown from the very beginning. Yeaah. In 1774, not long after, um, Adonaram Carter settled in the area with his family,


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[Assistant] In the late 19th century, the curse also found its way to the family of John Patrick Brophy when his wife died of consumption.


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[Assistant] A short time later, the two Brophy children disappeared into the woods and were never seen again.


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[Assistant] But then the children disappeared into the woods and no one ever saw them again. You said two children? Two children. Just disappeared into the fucking dark forest. And no one. Where the demon animals are. And we're not done with this poor family. Oh. Because if those tragic losses weren't enough, the home in which the Brophy's lived,


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[Assistant] around ten or younger. And it's like even that it's like damn you just walked into the damn forest and never to be seen again. Never. And then he was never heard from again after he just dipped after lighting his potentially allegedly lighting his home a place. Wow.


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[Assistant] So by the mid-1970s, after people, all the people had fled and nature began to reclaim the land, all that remained of Deadly Town, and I believe still today all that remains, is a few cellar holes.


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[Assistant] Oh, which is so fucking creepy. And then one or two of the original dark, or dirt roads, which are also probably dark, and the remnants of centuries old farms just scattered throughout the forest.


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[Assistant] And that was by the 70s, right now you probably can't even find the farms.


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[Assistant] Gained a reputation as a popular destination for hikers and campers from around New England and beyond. But they weren't alone.


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[Assistant] By the mid 1970s, a growing national enthusiasm for folklore and the paranormal


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[Assistant] Let literally anyone with an interest in the supernatural out into their communities to find evidence in their own backyards of Dudleytown.


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[Assistant] In late May 1976, a reporter from the Meridian Journal, excuse me, joined a parapsychology group from the University of Connecticut into the Dark Entry Forest where they spent a night in the remains of Dudley Town.


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[Assistant] This just like creeps me the fuck out. It's like barely anything, but it just creeps me out. Reporter Chris Campos wrote,


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[Assistant] That fucks me up. Yeah, that fucks me, cause it, it reminds me of the, um,


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[Assistant] Okigahara, the forest in Japan at the base of Mount Fuji. And it's so dense that it's so silent. Yeah, it's like, it's got that like, just


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[Assistant] That's why it's called like that like ocean of trees kind of thing, cause it's just like dead silence. Oh, it's, I, there's something about, I can't even sleep in silence. I can't.


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[Assistant] And especially like a forest. A forest should be when you walk in because you think of like a forest around here that you walk in.


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[Assistant] And to go into a forest and have it be dead silent. Dead silent. And as he said specifically after dark, you don't even hear like a fucking cricket. See, and that's, and at night,


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[Assistant] You hear nothing but sounds from the forest. We bring the dogs out at the end of the night. Oh yeaah. And the forest is fucking...


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[Assistant] Yeah, and he said, he was like, we didn't really experience anything supernatural, like, or that people I think would take as supernatural.


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[Assistant] But he said, quote, we all sensed a very uncomfortable, very uneasy, and very frightening presence around us. Like, couldn't put their finger on it, but something was there, and it was off. See, and I feel like you know. Your body knows when something's off. And it's like, when you feel a heaviness and an unsettled,


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[Assistant] That's the thing, like, it's, I feel like you know when something is amiss. You totally do. And something's amiss there. It is.


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[Assistant] Now Campo's story actually got picked up by the wire service and over the course of the week that followed it appeared in newspapers across New England.


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[Assistant] Now within just a few years, the legends had completely taken off. And according to some, the curse, like we said, began after the residents had moved to the village and had been placed by quote, a dabbler in black magic causing those residents of Cornwall proper to fear the village and all those who lived in it.


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[Assistant] And similarly, the story about William Clark was moved forward by more than a decade to 1937. And upon his return from his New York business trip, his wife hadn't just lost her mind, but had quote, seen something so terrible that her mind snapped. Ooh. Which like, that's kind of what I think. Hey.


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[Assistant] I mean, I wouldn't put it, it's not shocking when you look at everything else. Exactly.


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[Assistant] No, by the 19- the early 1980s, ghost hunters and legend trippers and scavengers, they had all set upon Cornwall, all looking to have first-hand experience with this haunted forest.


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[Assistant] Or to find some kind of relic that they could take away and possibly sell because this place was getting all kinds of street cred. Yeah.


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[Assistant] But I think that's boring. I think it's just, yeah, it's whatever. That's even weirder. And when it's in your backyard, like of course, you're going to be like, yeah, there's nothing wrong with it. And it's like, that's even weirder that you can walk through a whole last, like, quote unquote town and not know it.


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[Assistant] Librarian Hildreth Daniel. Oh. Of course you're a librarian. Fuck yeah, Hildreth. Hildreth Daniel.


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[Assistant] Love it so much, but the stories of the, the curse, according to one elder residence were made out of a whole cloth, mostly by those who'd recently moved to the area.


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[Assistant] And according to this resident, they sit around and dream things up like this is just so that they can entertain their summer guests. But I'm like, I don't know about that because I think everybody's starting to get a little bit irritated that like too many people are coming. So now you're like, no, no, no, it's not haunted. Because it's like there's history to back it up that like,


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[Assistant] Something happened. I mean, there's some bad energy there. There is, and by the mid-1980s, stories of the supernatural experiences that people had in Dudleytown at this point began circulating widely. There were unexplained anomalies that showed up in photos taken in the forest.


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[Assistant] And strange shapes and subtle movements that people would catch out of the corner of their eye.


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[Assistant] And of course, there was that eerie, unnatural silence that was emphasized by the lack of bugs in wildlife. Yea, that's weird. Why wasn't there any wildlife or bugs? Yea.


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[Assistant] Now as time went on, the reports of supernatural occurrences grew to include a wolf-like shadow, quote-unquote. Shadow. That followed hikers but would always disappear if somebody tried to get a good look at it. Ooh. So it was like, it was following you and then the second you sensed it was and turned your head, it would be gone. It would be gone? Like you knew something was following you. Ooh, spooky. Yeah, very, very creepy.


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[Assistant] Now after more than a decade of entertaining the ghost hunters and visiting, uh, excuse me, and visitors seeking a brush with the supernatural,


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[Assistant] But I think that's also why they're trying to shut down any kind of thought that it could be. That's what I think. And I get it. I get it too. I might do the same thing. But Cornwall Historical Society President Michael Gannett told reporters, there are some nuts who believe that sort of stuff.


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[Assistant] Whoa. Like what did Dudleytown do to you? Oh yea, that sounded like it was personal. Sounds like you had an experience that you want to chalk up to bakery. That's right. You don't want people blocking you into your driveway, so you're like, fuck this, it's a fraud. Exactly.


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[Assistant] So the increasingly frustrated and annoyed perspective of the Cornwalls locals aren't all that difficult to understand, like we said. What began decades earlier as like a campfire story told by hikers and campers had in the years that followed ballooned into this crazy macabre legend that was starting to attract all these visitors that locals were like, can you not? Yeah.


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[Assistant] And that sucks. And that sucks. Cause that can happen, like we've seen that happen in other places, like in Salem, every Halloween, like the residents of Salem


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[Assistant] And according to Joan and John Leach, lifelong residents of Cornwall, they said the real curse of Dudleytown are the legends themselves.


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[Assistant] Which have attracted everyone from witchcraft societies to motorcyclists who disrupt the flow of life in Cornwall and rarely pick up after themselves. Yea, that's the thing. It's like I don't care who you are. Witchcraft, motorcyclists, like whatever. Everything in between. Pick up after yourself. Just pick up after yourself and like keep it quiet after a certain network. Yea.


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[Assistant] But despite the complaints and frustration of locals, interest in Dudleytown and the curse only intensified in the 90s. And the legends got a big boost in 96 when a guy named Greg Soltes, I believe is how you say the last name,


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[Assistant] A college student from Wallingford, Connecticut took some pictures in Dudleytown that he believed contained evidence of supernatural activity. Oh shite.


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[Assistant] He ended up taking those photos to this like, local and husband wife duo from Connecticut. I don't know any husband and wife duos that are into the paranormal. You don't? And a Lorraine Warren ring a bell? Never heard of them. No.


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[Assistant] Lorraine Warren told a reporter, those pictures were the best I've seen of Dudleytown. For some reason, the spirits seemed to be attracted to that guy. Oooh. According to the Warrens, Greg's photos captured electromagnetic energy that they referred to as ghost globules.


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[Assistant] Now, with Greg's permission, the Warrens started using his photos in their presentations about the haunted forest.


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[Assistant] And according to him, his objective was to gather an abundance of evidence of the paranormal.


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[Assistant] He said I go there, I observe, I take some pictures and leave. I think there are really bad places to go.


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[Assistant] If I felt something like that, I would leave and never come back. The Warrens say don't conjure up things in cemetery. They say you have to have faith in God or in yourself. Which I like that they give you the option there. There you go. You can have your faith in God or have it in yourself. Have, have just whatever faith you feel is right. Yeaah.


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[Assistant] But by then, the wooded area around Dudleytown had not only attracted countless paranormal enthusiasts, but also a large number of teens and those claiming to be occultists who held seances and gatherings in the area and were just...


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[Assistant] Causing, they were running amok, basically. Yea, a ruckus, you know? And in addition to being a general nuisance, the attraction was also posing fire hazards, hazards, excuse me, and other dangers on this private property, which the Dark Entry Forest Association was like, we're trying to like reclaim the forest, and like save the forest, can you not burn it down?


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[Assistant] So that led them to close the area to public access in 1999.


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[Assistant] That I get. I get it. I get it. Especially the fire thing. It's like, your whole point is you're trying to save these ecosystems and this forest.


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[Assistant] To go out into their own communities, like Dudleytown, and try to make found footage horror movies. It sounds like it would be a cool place to make a found footage horror movie. Why would you not go into the most fucking haunted forest in America to make your found footage movie?


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[Assistant] And the reason why you wouldn't now is because I'm not encouraging you to because it's bad. It's bad. It's private property. Private property. Don't do it. Don't.


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[Assistant] So despite their best efforts to keep people out of deadly town, the local authorities, they had a new generation of ghost hunters who, thanks to the legend circulating widely now on the internet, were determined to get into that forest. Fuckin' internet. I know. Connecticut State Trooper Scott Akin told reporters in 2008,


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[Assistant] Most of the trespassers we cite believe Dudleytown is haunted. A lot of them are looking for ghosts and stuff like that.


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[Assistant] Now if caught, first time offenders typically receive a ticket for about $100, which that's a lot. Yeaah. But then repeat offenders can receive even stronger penalties.


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[Assistant] In 2008, an 18 year old was caught trespassing in Dudley Town late one evening, and due in part to having drug paraphernalia on him at the time, he was arrested and eventually charged a thousand dollars. Oh damn. So that's why I'm saying like, don't do this. Don't do it.


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[Assistant] Because then, a few years later in December 2011, police arrested eight people from Maine and Massachusetts.


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[Assistant] Who trespassed into Dudleytown in order to film their own found footage horror movie titled Dudleytown Curse the 49th Key.


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[Assistant] And when asked why they were even interested in making a movie about Dudleytown, they were like, uh, because it's fucking cursed. Uh, clearly. They were like, Dudleytown, this is a quote, they said, Dudleytown is a fascinating area. It's got this history that dates back to 16th century England.


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[Assistant] You're fine. You're fine. So, we've got Listener Tales, Ghosts, Ghosts, Cryptid, What the fuck happened in Connecticut? What the fuck happened? Excuse me. What the fuk happened in Connecticut? What the fuk happened? Presented in huge ass font and double spaced puttifa. Ooh. Says, hey ladies, I'm Mandy. Use my name. Use my name. Hi Mandy.


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[Assistant] I live in central Connecticut. What up, Northeast pals? Hell yeaah. And I visited this spot in the western part of the state on a number of occasions, and every time I go I find something real weird happens.


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[Assistant] Side note, this area is restricted, so death don't visit there after you hear about it. Wink, wink. But really cool. But really, the cops are there a lot, so really, don't. And that's why I'm telling you, like, cops are waiting for you there. And Mandy is telling us, like,


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[Assistant] Now she says, so we drove up to this village because it's out in the middle of the woods. Side note, the road is called Dark Entry Forest Road. Isn't that the most metal street name ever? Yes! Yes it, Mandy.


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[Assistant] And as we're driving, it gets really cool outside. Not exactly freezing, but enough to make you wish you had a light hoodie in the summer. Next, the radio crackles and goes in and out, which I, a skeptic, explain as, oh, we're in the middle of butt fuck nowhere, so that explains it.


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[Assistant] Next comes the fog, like big fog, slowly rolling over and over the road in puffy clouds that obscure anything more than five feet in front of us.


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[Assistant] We all have the chills and start to nervously laugh to mask the feeling of impending dread. But here comes the really hideous part. We see something. An animal? Walking on the side of the road.


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[Assistant] As we get closer, we realize that we have no idea what kind of animal this is. My friends and I are squinting through the fog to try to see what this is as we slow down alongside it.


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[Assistant] The creature was as tall as a deer and very, very thin, like a greyhound.


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[Assistant] It was sauntering like it was on a catwalk at Fashion Week. Oh, hell yeaah. And its hip bone, hip bones jetted out with every step. Just swaying as it made its wa- as it made its way along real slow.


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[Assistant] Just then, the creature turns its head very, very slowly until it is looking right into the passenger, open passenger window of my car.


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[Assistant] We all pause, and then it lunges at the window with a snarl, just narrowly missing the open window and hitting the frame of the car as we all shriek, even the dudes.


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[Assistant] Just like the first time. It's dead quiet in the woods.


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[Assistant] Like people say. See? And nothing is around. We pull over to the side of the road and we were trying to get up the nerve to get out of the car and walk around the village, or is it ruins? I feel like ruins are ancient, not pilgrimi. Anyway.


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[Assistant] And somehow, she's got a new photo on her phone. It's a face.


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[Assistant] The picture had this bluish tint and the face was very pale, almost ghostly.


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[Assistant] We showed the picture to my sister, who's a big time computer nerd, for her to analyze. She offloaded it to her computer using sorcery because who the fuck knew how to do that in the early 2000s? And once she did, the picture somehow deleted itself from both the phone and the computer.


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[Assistant] Anyway, hope you liked my tales. Love you. Keep it weird. Mandy. Mandy, I love you. I love everything about you. And holy shit. I love everything about Mandy too. And the fact that Mandy experienced this wild ass creature that people seem to have gone mad after seeing. Yes.


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[Assistant] You can't figure out what it did, and that it lunged at them, it was, it attacked them. It attacked them. So it's like, all these people are going mad after this, probably because they were almost attacked by this demon animal. Well, and think of the one guy that died inexplicably. Yes! And like, definitely didn't die setting up a barn. And the kids disappeared in the forest? Yeah.


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[Assistant] Like what the fuck? Fucking scary shit. Holy shit. I for one believe that Dudleytown is haunted. I know there are skeptics out there, but I believe it. Especially


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[Assistant] For, for those people to have those things happen to them and be talking about this crazy ass animal in the woods in like the 1700s, and then to have our girl Mandy go out there in the 20s, in the 20s, or in the 2010s, and see the same thing, there's a reason.


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[Assistant] Good, I mean, I shall wait with bated breath. I'm gone. That's me on my twerk journey. Thanks for hearing me out. Brought to you by...


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[Assistant] So, that's fun. That's cocoonuts, bananas. And then we just go back to regular life. Well, for like a minute, but then I leave again. Yeah. But like, first Thanksgiving, I wasn't gonna leave for that. I fucking love your Thanksgiving.


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[Assistant] And last year I got the neurovirus on Thanksgiving, so I couldn't cook. And then I tried to take over Thanksgiving and nobody wanted me to, so. Cause I've really put my stamp on Thanksgiving. If I can't cook it, apparently it can't happen.


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[Assistant] It was not my intention last year. I did not ask for that. I did not manifest it.


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[Assistant] First of all, they taste delicious, and second of all, elderberry is like just one more punch to the food cold season. Alright, you heard a year first, okay, elderberry. Or elderberry.


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[Assistant] I think that's where I am, I've heard the name, I don't know anything about what you're about to tell me. Well, I kinda love that because this is a wild tale from start to finish. Part one is pretty like fast-paced, like we're gonna get through a lot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then I will tell you part two is a little bit trial heavy in the beginning. Okay. But I have to make it that way, just like, it makes sense for the setup. But once we get through the trial stuff in part two, shit goes down. Okay. Like.


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[Assistant] So, just know that, like bear with me through that in part two. Yeah, and I know some of you like, like really like going through the trial part. Yeah. So, you know, you'll love that. It's some people's cup of tea, it's other people's not cup of tea. Personally, it's actually not my favorite tea. It's the trial part. Yeah, it's like I would drink it, but I wouldn't. You would drink it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It wouldn't be my first choice. Yeah, I feel you. You know what I mean? Let's get into it. We're going to talk about Sharon Kinney. Let's go. But before she was Sharon Kinney, she was born Sharon Elizabeth Hall on November 30th, 1939 in Independence, Missouri.


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[Assistant] Missouri. Her father was Eugene and her mother was Doris Hall. Eugene was a steelworker and Doris was a homemaker. And when she was young,


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[Assistant] Her father actually, Sharon's father, hurt himself on the job and became unemployed due to that injury that he got.


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[Assistant] So once he was out of work, he started drinking heavily, and he really paid no attention to his kids.


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[Assistant] So dark from the start. I was going to say, so we're killing it already. Yeah. And we're not really going uphill at all because Sharon's mother Doris was equally distant, especially when it came to her daughter.


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[Assistant] And as a result, Sharon started to develop a very creative imagination. I think out of loneliness.


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[Assistant] So she was like, just join me in the sewers. But I kind of love that. She was such an adventurous, like, let's go find hidden jewels. Yeaah. I love that. That was me as a kid. That was a cool thing about her in the beginning. I was always making that shit up.


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[Assistant] Now by the time she reached high school, Sharon's creativity had taken a more serious, guarded tone. Oh, okay. Another former friend said,


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[Assistant] And as a teenager, I know it is. As a teenager, her complexion was described as quote, uh, modeled and sallow, sometimes pimply.


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[Assistant] Which made her the target of a lot of bullying and shitty comments from people at school. Oh that sucks.


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[Assistant] And then when she was 14, the family actually moved briefly to Washington due to rumors that Sharon had secretly married an unnamed man who quote, died when his truck plunged over a cliff in Idaho. What?


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[Assistant] The wild thing is, there's not evidence to indicate whether these rumors are true or not.


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[Assistant] But when Sharon did eventually marry her question mark first or second husband, James Kinney, she did list herself as a widow on the marriage license. What? Yeah.


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[Assistant] Wild. That is wild. Widowed or not, the Halls ended up moving back to independence about a year later when Sharon was 15.


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[Assistant] Do the math on that. Yea, James was instantly attracted to the 16 year old.


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[Assistant] Uh, unlike Sharon who was smart, savvy, and emotionally mature,


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[Assistant] James was shy, he was deeply self-conscious, and he was a student who was home on break from Brigham Young University. It makes sense that he was, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now Sharon noticed James was staring at her all night, but he didn't make any move to come over and talk to her. So she actually took the initiative and approached him, instinctively sensing that his attraction to her


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kinda gave her the upper hand on the situation. Now to James, a shy Mormon boy on campus surrounded by


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, chased proper Mormon girls. Sharon's boldness was very exciting.


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[Assistant] Also, her unfamiliar sarcastic biting wit kept him off balance the entire time they talked, which was even more exciting to him.


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[Assistant] In my opinion also still wrong because you know she's 16 years old and he's 22.


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[Assistant] Yeah, it's not, this is not a cute moment. No, it's not. But Sharon knew that she had the upper hand, like I said, so she made it seem like she wasn't super interested, but she did end up giving James her phone number before abruptly walking away. Wow. Now in all reality, James, or someone like him,


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[Assistant] Who'd speared her off to anywhere that wasn't Independence, Missouri. She wanted to be a woman of glamour and wealth.


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[Assistant] Now, James Kenney may not have been a prince exactly, but Sharon saw that she could use his...


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[Assistant] It doesn't excuse this behavior, but I feel like this was so much more common in like the 50s.


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[Assistant] No, it was a lot longer than 50 years ago now, so like, that's a long time ago, and it makes sense now that we're like, ugh. Like, what the fuck, what the fuck. We're like that about a lot of things. But the more infatuated James grew with Sharon,


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[Assistant] For example, just after, uh, after just a few weeks, James' father Haggard Kinney,


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[Assistant] Sure, that could be fine, but she's playing you. Yeaah, that's the thing, it's like you want to have some balance here. Yeaah, that's the thing. Nobody should be the all-powerful being in your relationship. Right. And James, he loved and respected his father immensely, like they talked about a lot, they were close, but he did not agree.


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[Assistant] He simply could not see what others saw in Sharon and dismissed their concerns without even a second thought. Oh, I've seen so many people like this. Love blind.


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[Assistant] So when the summer came to an end and James headed back to college in Utah, Sharon got really, really anxious about...


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[Assistant] And I don't really think he was in love with her at that point. I think they were maybe getting there. Yeah. But she did know that he was her best chance to get out of small town life. It's codependence. It's codependence, exactly. And she was very, very worried that with him heading back to school, some other girl might take that away from her. Oof.


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[Assistant] So playing into his religious sense of moral responsibility.


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[Assistant] Sharon sent him a letter at school in September saying, quote,


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[Assistant] The sins of summer have produced a child in my womb. Shut the fuck up. But don't worry. I don't expect you to sacrifice your education and return to independence. I'll handle the situation.


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[Assistant] That is so dark to do. And so manipulative. That's unbelievably manipulative. And just like the way she phrased it. The sins of summer. The sins of summer have produced a child in my womb.


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[Assistant] She's essentially saying, I care of this situation. You know, get rid of this. And he's deeply religious and obviously that would trigger something in him. Precisely. Wow. Yeah.


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[Assistant] Now, James, he didn't like depravity, but he was a little shocked and not really sure what he should do. Like, he's a kid, he's not a kid, but for all intents and purposes he kind of is.


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[Assistant] You guys obviously committed some sins over the summer. It's like, so you can't have that, you know, you can't be that, like, connected to those thoughts that you have, those boundaries that you have, like, seems like they might be a little fake.


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[Assistant] But so he wasn't sure what to do, so he showed the letter to a female friend, and she was like, you know,


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[Assistant] I don't know. It's one of those things though where they are super connected to those ideals.


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[Assistant] But he came to the conclusion that the only thing he could do...


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[Assistant] Was returned to independence and make Sharon an honest woman. Marry her.


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[Assistant] Packed up the few belongings he had, headed back to Missouri, intending upon doing the right thing.


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[Assistant] On October 17th, James, his father, and Sharon went to the Jackson County Courthouse to apply for a marriage license.


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[Assistant] Now, having secured her future with James, Sharon's attitude underwent a noticeable change. According to author James Hayes, who wrote the Sharon Kinney story,


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[Assistant] She no longer shared complicity in the pregnancy, but blamed the child on him alone.


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[Assistant] Sharon has been around, baby. And she's just gotten so, like, I'm just like, the high, again, the high level of manipulation here is just like really sinister. Because she is a 16 year old woman running around, like she has seen some shit, been through some shit, and it kinda sounds like she had been through some shit.


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[Assistant] So, she's saying that she's gone through this before.


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[Assistant] She's upset with him now that he's back when it seems like that's exactly what she wanted.


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[Assistant] And as she's filling out her portion of the paperwork...


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[Assistant] She starts mumbling all these kinds of shitty things about his father Haggard, who is right there, literally standing right next to her.


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[Assistant] And she's openly berating James for allowing his family's beliefs about virginity and religious purity to rob her of the traditional church wedding that she thought she was entitled to.


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[Assistant] But now you're upset because this is what she wanted, but it's not her version.


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[Assistant] I think she wanted him to marry her, but I think she wanted it to be this big fuckin' bash in a church and like- Yeah, she wanted all the fixes there. She wanted attention.


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[Assistant] Damn. And we're gonna pretend like you got pregnant after this courthouse ceremony. And it's like-


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[Assistant] What the fuck? She's reaping what she's sown and she doesn't like it. But she thought she was sowing exactly this.


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[Assistant] Damn. It's wild. I'm, this is just like so much. There's so many layers of just like wrongness here. Oh, just wait. Where about, you know those like potatoes that people make where there's just like 60 billion layers of crispy potatoes? That's the story. But not as scrumptious.


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[Assistant] Not delicious version of that. This is, it's like, uhm, they've like- Ratatouille? No, like, they've gone bad.


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[Assistant] It's a weird power dynamic. I'm very upset by all of this. You will continue to get so upset. I think it's all fucked up personally. It is.


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[Assistant] Exactly. Now when they arrived in Provo, James and Sharon moved in with James' friend temporarily while he worked to find a place of their own.


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[Assistant] But unfortunately, any hope that they, that James had of Sharon settling down now that they were married was immediately dashed once they settled in Utah. Shocked. From the moment they arrived, Sharon complained about absolutely everything, from their temporary accommodation, which was pretty cramped, to the fact that he never had time to take her anywhere because he was studying.


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[Assistant] Now, back in Missouri, James and Sharon moved into a small house next door to his parents, which his father owned.


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[Assistant] allowed them, like gave them a home to live in. And Sharon is constantly talking about how much she fucking hates this man. Oh man. She also


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[Assistant] But James' mom went out of her way to be kind to Sharon. She offered to pay their bills when they fell behind. She would take Sharon on shopping trips. She'd take her out to lunch.


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[Assistant] Which quickly turned out to not be enough to satisfy her spending habits. So as a result, she set out to find her own job to subsidize her constant need to spend money.


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[Assistant] No, even though she was very skilled at nearly every job she tried, she worked in a print shop, she was a babysitter at one point, she was a legal secretary, a hotel receptionist, and she was great at all of those things,


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[Assistant] But every time she started a new job, she just got bored easily and the second she got bored, she quit.


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[Assistant] And like spent zero time at these jobs. So she's just, she has no staying power for something, like she's not gonna stick it out. Even if she's good at it, it's just mundane to her.


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[Assistant] Exactly. Even if it's a good thing. Even if it is. And when she was working and making money, she also insisted that the money she made should not be considered family income.


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[Assistant] Instead, she thought of the money that she made as hers to use as she pleased and even with her own income, she continued to spend money recklessly.


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[Assistant] Usually charge, uh, charging things to James's account instead of her own.


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[Assistant] No, she takes care of it. You're gonna have to fess up. No, she doesn't. No? Okay. So, well, actually. Lord. We're there. Okay, guys, and just, uh, quickly trigger warning for, like, mention of pregnancy loss. Oh. One afternoon, several months after they settled back in independence, I think she realized, like, I'm not pregnant, I'm not gonna start showing anytime soon, so I gotta do something about this.


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[Assistant] She decided she was tired of the pregnancy ruse since it had served its original purpose of getting James to marry her. So she was like, meh, I'm done with this.


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[Assistant] So James came home that evening, and he, this is so sad.


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[Assistant] Fuck this bitch. I can't even. Yeah, fuck this bitch. Honestly.


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[Assistant] So James was confused, and Sharon used the opportunity to gain even more sympathy?


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[Assistant] from him by making it seem like his high security job at the Bendix Corporation.


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[Assistant] She's literally manipulating him by saying that it's basically like your fault that you didn't know about this.


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[Assistant] Like I'm suffering a miscarriage since you left for work this morning and the reason you don't know is because I couldn't reach you. So this is your fault.


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[Assistant] Carry on that, that lie to the father. Quote unquote.


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[Assistant] Something is deeply, deeply wrong with you. Like that's...


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[Assistant] Fuck you. That's on another level. If you're faking a miscarriage, fuck you. Fuck you. Yeah. Into oblivion. Yeah, that's fucked up. So in January 1957, not long after ending the pregnancy scam, if you will, Sharon learned that she was pregnant for realsies this time.


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[Assistant] And in the fall, she did give birth to the couple's first child, a daughter which they named, I think it's either Dana or Dana.


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[Assistant] Dana. Two N's, I would say Dana. Dana was my first instinct. Okay, cute name.


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[Assistant] Now from the outside, Sharon seemed to be a devoted mother, constantly doting on her daughter, really living up to every responsibility of domestic life. She actually even started going to church with the family, and for a second it seemed like she was embracing the Mormon lifestyle.


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[Assistant] But, like her attempts to hold down a job, she quickly got bored with the life of a homemaker and just went back to spending excessively.


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[Assistant] She's gonna stick to something, girl. She's something. She sticks to scheming.


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[Assistant] And the family moved into a newly purchased home in a subdivision. And the new baby in the new house seemed to occupy Sharon's attention for a little bit.


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[Assistant] Which made her at least temporarily less abusive towards her husband. Oh nice. That's great, yeah. But the baby in the house also gave her a reason to spend more money.


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[Assistant] And in response, James actually took a slightly higher paying second shift at the Bendix Corporation, which left Sharon alone with the children in the evenings and put more emotional distance between her and James.


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[Assistant] Now, unlike her life with James, which was filled with constant arguments, emotional distance, you name it,


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[Assistant] Her relationship with John was exciting. Because it was the forbidden fruit, if you will. Because it was not this one. That's why.


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[Assistant] And she reveled in the thrill of infidelity, sneaking around behind her husband's back to meet John at cheap motels in the backseat of his car.


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[Assistant] And where James had become increasingly immune to her domineering personality and manipulations, John was easy to manipulate and control because this was new and that made her feel powerful.


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[Assistant] Now even though Sharon eventually grew tired of John too,


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[Assistant] It seemed to James that Sharon was never home, which was mostly fine by him, except that


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[Assistant] So he could no longer expect a hot meal when he came home, and instead, she was just leaving him out frozen meals.


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[Assistant] And that was not the only thing that she was absent in. She was absent from the children. They were being neglected on a regular basis.


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[Assistant] Their basic needs were more often met by babysitters than their own mother. Yeah, it's like, I'm sorry, if you're going out to like, uh, fuck other men and leaving your children to be neglected, like, that sucks. Exactly. Like that's not cool. And that's the thing. James was being like, okay, you're not with the children. I'm not getting hot meals. Where the fuck are you? So he, he caught on pretty quickly to the fact that she was cheating on him, but he had no idea to the extent which he was right.


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[Assistant] And as a deeply deeply religious person, he knew that divorce would have been discouraged by everybody in his community, and he was right. Whenever he brought the subject up to his parents,


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[Assistant] His mom would typically encourage him to work out their problems for the children's sake.


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[Assistant] Like loving each other and not having a respectful discourse and If anything it's better to look at them and say


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[Assistant] Uh, it didn't at all. Now as the weeks went on, staying with Sharon seemed more and more impossible to James. And finally in mid-March, he actually did bring up divorce to Sharon.


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[Assistant] Her idea of, like, the terms of this divorce are so disturbing to me at least. According to Hayes, she was willing to go along with the divorce, but only if James gave her the house, Dana, and a thousand dollars in cash.


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[Assistant] And the thing was, so Sharon at this, they talk about the divorce for a little bit, but then she's realizing he's not going to agree to her terms. And then she realizes that her terms aren't even really good enough for her. It would get her out of marriage, but a thousand dollars was not enough to live on for very long. And it definitely would not sustain her lifestyle.


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[Assistant] And the salary that she was working for temporary jobs really gave her little pay. So it wasn't going to be a win for her.


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[Assistant] But there was another way that Sharon could get out of the marriage and it almost guaranteed that she would get everything she wanted and more. On Saturday afternoon,


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[Assistant] March 19th, 1960, the Jackson County Sheriff's Department received a frantic call from Sharon Kinney saying that her husband had a heart attack and she needed help right away.


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[Assistant] Now when sheriff's deputies arrived at the Kinney home, however, they found a very strange scene.


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[Assistant] James Kinney was lying on the couple's bed. His target pillow, excuse me, his target pistol on a pillow next to him.


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[Assistant] No, it's very unclear why she says heart attack. Yeah. I don't know if she thought they were gonna come.


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[Assistant] Faster? Yeah. I think they would still come pretty fast if you said, said he was shot. Yeah. I don't know.


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[Assistant] I don't know if maybe she didn't want something recorded on the 911 call. Yeah, maybe not. I don't know. But at the time that they got there, he was still alive.


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[Assistant] Sharon told the officers that he'd gone into the bedroom a short time earlier to take a nap, and then a short time later,


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[Assistant] She heard their two year old daughter, Dana, ask loudly, how does this thing work daddy? How does it work? And then she said she heard the shot ring out. I'm sorry.


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[Assistant] She's blaming this on her two year old daughter. She is blaming this on her two year old daughter, and not only that, she's gonna get away with it.


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[Assistant] Shut the fuck up. She's gonna get away with blaming it on her two year old daughter. For a little while at least.


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[Assistant] I'm without words. Now, James had always had a fascination with guns, and he would take them apart to clean them, but Sharon said that he was also forgetful and careless with them.


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[Assistant] According to her, he would sometimes leave them lying around the house. Oh that's fucked up. It is. On the kitchen table next to the television where the children could easily reach them.


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[Assistant] And the officers did note that his gun belt and ammunition were lying next to the bed, which did seem to support Sharon's claim.


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[Assistant] But then that her statement was also confirmed by James' parents. He was an irresponsible debt owner. And that's just the truth of it.


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[Assistant] But still, the death did seem suspicious. Accidental shootings did happen, but not typically with a two-year-old.


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[Assistant] And investigators wondered why James would have laid down to take a nap with a loaded pistol lying next to his head. Like you can be an irresponsible gun owner, but I don't think it goes to that extent. That's pretty far.


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[Assistant] And you can't be, like I'm saying there are irresponsible government leaders. Now, unfortunately,


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[Assistant] There wasn't much evidence to prove or disprove Sharon's claims.


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[Assistant] The 22 caliber pistol was taken from the scene, but it was covered in so much gun oil that it was impossible to get any fingerprints off of it. Which is interesting.


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[Assistant] Then the lab technician also didn't bother to test either Sharon or Dana's hands for gunshot residue.


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[Assistant] What the fuck? No idea why. Or excuse me, I do know why. They believed at that time, this particular lab technician believed that those tests were unreliable. Why wouldn't you just do it anyway? Couldn't tell ya.


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[Assistant] What? But the only other test that they did was to determine the pull necessary to fire the gun, which was smart.


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[Assistant] Now knowing that the pistol required a 3.25 pound pull.


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[Assistant] But she also knew how to release the safety catch on the gun. Why the fuck did she know that? A two-year-old. Why did this two-year-old girl know how to release a safety on a pistol? I do not know.


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[Assistant] And you don't want to think of a two year old gun, two year old with a gun, but when you do, you would think that they'd be like waving it around. That's the thing, like you just, I don't, this is just so strange. This is very strange.


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[Assistant] Maybe she just saw her dad shoot the pistol all the time? Maybe. Like that's why? Yea. I don't know. I honestly have no idea. I don't believe that Dana shot.


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[Assistant] Her father. Seems highly unlikely to me. I believe that Sharon did. Yeaah. Or that if Dana somehow did shoot her father, it was because Sharon made it happen. You know, she was set up.


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[Assistant] The bullet had entered from the rear and lodged just under the skin between the nose and the right eye.


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[Assistant] That this was consistent with the position of the gun, which was quote, lying flat on the pillow when it discharged, leaving a crease where it cut the cloth and powder burns were on the pillowcase.


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[Assistant] So the press were also made aware of the working theory that two-year-old Dana had accidentally shot her father while he was asleep.


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[Assistant] And they did stress that their tests confirmed James could not have fired the shot himself. Yeaah.


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[Assistant] And the investigators actually never bothered to ask Dana whether she'd fired the gun or not. Or any other questions about the incident.


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[Assistant] I'm sorry, what? They just felt like the evidence supported what Sharon had told them.


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[Assistant] There was no evidence to the contrary, and they were ready to rule the death an accident.


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[Assistant] An accident happened here. I couldn't find anything to say that they really ever questioned that.


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[Assistant] But would the autopsy complete in the cause of death listed as accidental officially?


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[Assistant] And with James dead, the balance on the mortgage for the house was wiped out and transferred to Sharon.


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[Assistant] She received roughly $29,000, which today would be like receiving $300,000. My god. So she cashed in on this.


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[Assistant] Now if it weren't for her reckless impulsivity, Sharon Kenney might have never become a suspect in her husband's death.


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[Assistant] Now, after cashing out on all those insurance policies, she wasted absolutely no time spending the money.


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[Assistant] And actually long before James' death, she'd been pestering him to buy her a Ford Thunderbird. She really wanted a Thunderbird.


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[Assistant] And he refused because he was like, one, we have two children. Like, that's not necessarily a family car.


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[Assistant] And uh, too, those are fucking expensive and we don't have the money. But now,


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[Assistant] With James out of the way and her pockets flush with cash.


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[Assistant] Sharon went down to the Rudy Fick Ford dealership on April 18, 1960.


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[Assistant] Walter was said to be a handsome guy with a big friendly personality.


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[Assistant] But Walter quickly and easily talked her into trading in the old car, her husband, her dead husband's car, for the one that she had dreamed about. Her new car. Yup.


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[Assistant] And soon she was making regular visits to the dealership, if you catch my drift. If you know what I mean. It's like Globe Motors and the Sopranos.


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[Assistant] It turned out, while Walter may have been a good car salesman, he wasn't really a great person. No. At the time he began his affair with Sharon, he was married.


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[Assistant] But by then, their marriage was doomed. In fact, Walter's affairs began almost immediately after they married and continued up until he met Sharon in the spring of 1960.


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[Assistant] And Patricia, excuse me, her choice to stay with her husband.


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[Assistant] There's a lot of evidence to prove that it doesn't work. And again, of course there's an exception to every rule that could work out.


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[Assistant] Now, Walter's marriage was of course always a source of frustration for Sharon, not because she was in love with him.


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[Assistant] But because as long as he was married she wouldn't have total control over him. Exactly.


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[Assistant] So now, determined to break up the marriage, Sharon relied on a strategy, a strategy, a strategy that had worked for her in the past. And in mid-May, she told Walter that she was pregnant with his child, and demanded that he end his marriage.


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[Assistant] She's the worst. She's not pregnant, by the way. Yeah, she's the worst. She is, and she'll only get worse. Fuck Sharon. So the news came as a surprise to Walter, but he was hardly ready to give in to those demands. He was already cheating on his wife and two children. You think he's gonna marry you and do the right thing? No.


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[Assistant] By that time, his infidelity was actually not really that much of a secret to his wife, which had led to several arguments between him and Patricia.


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[Assistant] Who by then had threatened to leave him and take the children multiple times.


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[Assistant] And faced with the possibility of losing his wife and kids, he actually started to reconsider his relationship with Sharon.


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[Assistant] And now he'd actually begun to resent how dependent he'd become on her for attention.


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[Assistant] And to add to all of that, during the week of May 27th, while Sharon had been away on vacation, he spent more time at home than he ever had while he was dating Sharon.


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[Assistant] And realized how much he actually missed his wife when Sharon...


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[Assistant] Like when she was gone and he actually went to spend time with his wife. What a guy. He was like, wow, I actually miss you. Like I remember why I married you.


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[Assistant] So given that, he decided that when Sharon returned in a few days, he would end the relationship and really begin working on repairing his marriage. Okay. But unfortunately, he would never get that chance.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the evening of May 27th, 1960, John Boldiz, I'm sure you remember that name, Sharon's high school boyfriend, and you know, side piece.


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[Assistant] Called the Jackson County Sheriff's Department to report that he and his lady


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[Assistant] Had taken a drive out to the Lovers Lane area just off of Phelps Road, a little outside of Independence, and they'd made a horrible discovery.


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[Assistant] At first, Boldiz told investigators the couple had thought the woman who was illuminated by their headlights had just fallen asleep in the wooded area.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When investigators arrived on the scene, they found very little evidence to work with.


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[Assistant] The woman, who would later be identified as Walter's wife Patricia Jones, What the fuuuck? had been shot four times, and at least one of those shots had been fired close enough to leave powder burns on her skirt. Oh my god.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now, there was a surprising lack of blood at the scene, which led investigators to strongly consider whether she'd been shot elsewhere and dumped in the woods.


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[Assistant] The scene had been staged. Yeah. But as far as emotive, they were lost.


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[Assistant] Now the next morning, Walter was brought into the sheriff's office for questioning, and he explained that he hadn't seen his wife the previous morning.


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[Assistant] He even offered to take a polygraph test to prove his innocence


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[Assistant] That one of his wife's friends had seen Patricia and Sharon together.


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[Assistant] The day before Cher- uh, excuse me, the day before Patricia went missing. What the fuuuuck? She was spotted with Sharon.


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[Assistant] Sharon? Not by just like a random eyewitness, by one of Patricia's friends. Sinister. This woman is sinister as fuck. Truly.


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[Assistant] So according to Walter's statement, he and Patricia had actually argued on the morning of Thursday, May 26th, and then they went their separate ways. She went to her job, she worked at the IRS.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he went to drop the children off with the babysitter before heading to work himself.


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[Assistant] And when he got home later that evening, he expected to find her, but she was nowhere to be found.


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[Assistant] So he starts calling all her friends and coworkers, one of which was the woman who said she had seen Patricia and Sharon together and then another friend.


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[Assistant] And I want to tell you about it because I think you deserve to know. And that's how she gets her into a car with her. Sharon sucks. Big time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This polygraph examination didn't rule him out entirely, but it did go a long way toward removing him from the suspect list. Yeah. Sharon, on the other hand, did little to get herself off of that suspect list and pretty much everything to get herself onto it. Yeah, that's not shocking.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Walter had agreed to that polygraph exam and he actually signed a written statement to his whereabouts.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sharon made a verbal statement, but she refused to sign anything and refused to take a polygraph examination.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In her verbal statement, she claimed she had only gone, quote, on about 12 dates with Walter. Which, like, that's a lot. He's still married with kids, my friend. And, like, your relationship has only been going on for two months, so that's pretty standard.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She said that she called Patricia Jones and met with her that Thursday afternoon to break off the relationship with Walter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it's like, no, you didn't. You said that he's having an affair with your sister. Like what the hell? You were setting her up. Exactly. The officer who took her statement recalled Sharon saying, I'm very fond of Walt and I didn't want anything to happen to him and his family.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So she said she called Patricia and told her there was something she needed to tell her about her husband, but that she needed to do it in person. So you're fond of Walt. You don't want anything to happen to him or his family, but you're going to tell his wife that you guys have been having an affair. You're going to blow up his entire family by saying that you, uh, your sister and him have been having an affair.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now Sharon's story was that she had borrowed her father's car that afternoon. Ah, a Dodge perhaps? So that Walt wouldn't recognize her car when she dropped his wife off at home.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that she picked up Patricia at the location where she was last seen by her co-worker. So that was Sharon. Like honey, you did it. You're admitting it already. Like, you're not getting out of this, I hope.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, it was awful, I can't believe I had to tell her that. And then I dropped her about a block away from the Jones house.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Why would you drop her off a block away? You're in a car that he doesn't recognize. That's the whole reason you had that car. Exactly. But she said, she then looked in the rearview mirror and quote, saw Mrs. Jones talking to a man in a two-tone green 1957 Ford.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now as far as she knew, she said that Patricia was quote, upset but not mad after she informed her of the affair. So she couldn't imagine what could have happened to lead to her death.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No way. Also, you went to a lover's lane with your boyfriend. Grow the fuck up. She's in her early twenties still. But like, grow the fuck up. Honestly. Well, you have two children, what are you doing? Yeah, shut the fuck up. It's wild.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The autopsy determined that Patricia's cause of death was the gunshot wound in her head, and they placed the time of death around 8 or 9pm on May 27th, just a few hours before the body was discovered.