[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hard royal icing was replaced with softer icing in the 1980s, but other than that, traditional wedding cakes have remained largely unchanged since the Victorian era.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it all harkened back to one simple superstition, a broken barley cake for luck thousands of years in the past. But hey, if you have a wedding coming up and you want to do something extra special for your guests, nothing says true love like a pie crust full of snakes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This episode of Lore was produced by me, Aaron Manke, with writing by Jenna Rose Nethercott, research by Alex Robinson, and music by Chad Lawson.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Don't like hearing ads? I've got a solution. There's a paid version of Lore on Apple Podcasts and Patreon that is 100% ad-free.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Plus, subscribers get weekly mini-episodes called Lore Bytes. It's a bargain for all of that ad-free storytelling and a great way to support this show and the team behind it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Lore is much more than just a podcast. There's the book series available in bookstores and online and two seasons of the television show on Amazon Prime Video. Information about all of that and more is available over at lorepodcast.com.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you can follow this show on threads, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. Just search for Lore Podcast, all one word, and then click that follow button. And when you do, say hi. I like it when people say hi. And as always, thanks for listening.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, you can carry around, what is it, five grams here legally? Yeaah. You can have five grams in your pocket a person, without any problems. Nice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Welcome to Lore Legends, a subset of lore episodes that explore the strange tales we whisper in the dark, even if they can't always be proven by the history books. So if you're ready, let's begin.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The older it is, the darker it tends to be. That's true of a lot of things, including old paintings, tarnished jewelry, and castle walls. Everywhere you go, it's possible to spot the older parts of our world because they tend to just look a bit darker, more shadowed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In my neck of the woods, that can be a fun game to play. Driving through places like Salem and Ipswich, it's hard not to stumble upon examples of homes built in the early 1600s. They look crooked and tired, and they have a character to them that practically screams ancient.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But those shadows aren't just limited to the physical world.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Time and tragedy have a way of seeping into the stories we tell as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And oftentimes, the farther back we look, the darker those tales become. One great way to see this in action is to explore any of the classic Disney fairy tale movies, like Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As you roll back the clock toward their origins, all of those glittering elements seem to fade away. Shimmering dresses and silvery swords get replaced by fear and shadows and blood. Stories that are presented today as elegant, beautiful adventures suddenly become the stuff of nightmares.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Toward the eastern coast of England is the city of Lincoln. It's home to a number of architectural wonders. There's Lincoln Castle, which was built by William the Conqueror sometime during the 11th century.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's also Brayford Pool, a natural lake in the middle of the city. There's even a Roman arch that dates all the way back to the third century.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But to many, the city's main focus is the Lincoln Cathedral. One thing to know about it is that the structure there today is not the first. It's been torn down and rebuilt a number of times over the years.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The first cathedral, completed in 1092, was ravaged by a fire in 1124, then replaced only to be brought down by an earthquake a little more than 60 years later.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Lincoln Cathedral seen today was finished in 1311 and held the record as the tallest man-made structure in the world for more than 200 years. Sadly, after its central spire collapsed during a rough storm, so too did that record. Its towering 525-foot frame was forever shortened.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the cathedral's height isn't why visitors flock to its doors. Instead, what draws tourists in from all over is the imp.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And no, they won't see a small mischievous demon roaming the building's halls. At least, not anymore.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Lincoln Imp is actually a grotesque, a carved stone decoration, not unlike a gargoyle. It's located inside the cathedral's angel choir, beside the east window, and measures only a foot in height. And for 20 pence, by the way, you can even turn on a nearby spotlight to get a better look at it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] According to legend, the imp was one of two such creatures sent by the devil himself to cause mischief on Earth. Their first stop was in nearby Chesterfield, where they twisted the spire of St. Mary and All Saints Church.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even today, you can see that it leans about nine feet to one side, evidence, they say, of the truth behind the legend.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Once those imps had their fun in Chesterfield, the stories say they made their way to Lincoln Cathedral, where they shattered windows, blew out candles, and tossed hymnal pages all over the floors. Nothing was sacred to these demons, who also broke furniture, danced upon the altar, and even tripped the bishop as he walked.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Meanwhile, the heavens above caught wind of what was going on and sent down an angel to handle things. The legend claims this guardian materialized out of a book of hymns or perhaps a Bible and quickly caught the imps destroying the angel choir. So it ordered them to stop.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One of the creatures hid from the angel under a table, but the other was not so afraid. It picked up a pile of stones and hurled them at the divine messenger. Some say it even threatened to pluck out the feathers of the angel's wings, taunting it and shouting, stop me if you can.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The angel, though, refused to argue or entertain the imp's nonsense. Without a moment's hesitation, it turned the vile bean into stone right where it stood. And so the Lincoln Imp was born.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Although some say that it first climbed up one of the pillars to get a better view of the destruction. And that's where the angel turned it to stone, complete with its crossed legs and sinister smile.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The other imp got away. If you believe that version of the events, that is. Legend says that strong gusts of wind blowing outside the cathedral are actually the work of that second demon, who is still frantically flying in circles, searching for its fallen comrade.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Others, however, claim it was also turned to stone and can be found on the outside of the building.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Today, the Lincoln Imp is a symbol, one that the city has capitalized on with lots of Imp-related souvenirs for tourists.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Keychains, postcards, t-shirts, you name it. There seems to be no end to the items that bear the image of this legendary creature. Heck, even Lincoln's soccer team, Lincoln FC, has its image inside its logo. And the team's nickname? The Imps, of course.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But of all the things this creature is said to represent, there is one message that stands above all the rest. That no matter how far it runs or which way the wind blows, evil will never triumph over good. So don't be fooled by its eerie grin, because the Lincoln Imp has nothing to smile about.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Off the northern coast of Scotland is a collection of 70 islands, most of which are uninhabited. These are known as the Orkney Islands and what they lack in humans they more than make up for with myths and legends.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For example, there are the selkies, creatures that can turn from humans into seals simply by putting on their seal skin and diving into the water. But another beast living among the Isles is a creature called the nakalavi. Its name is believed to come from the Orcadian word meaning devil of the sea.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As for its origins, the Nuckelevi is said to derive from a combination of Celtic Kelpie and other horse-like creatures from Norse mythology, the kind that lure swimmers to their death or cause mischief in the water.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the Nuckelevey is not a cheeky rascal looking to have fun. According to 19th century folklorist Walter Trail Dennison, this was a monster of unmixed malignity never willingly resting from doing evil to mankind.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But there is no tragic origin story to the Nuckelevi. It doesn't owe its wickedness to circumstance, and it doesn't want something from us the way vampires seek blood or how zombies crave our flesh and brains. No, the Nuckelevi just wants to destroy humanity, pure and simple.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The creature's legend can be traced back to the 1500s, when those who lived on the northern isles of Scotland would not utter its name without saying a short prayer. Like the selkie, the knuckle-o-vie lives in the sea, but can also roam freely on land.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And its appearance is unsettling to say the least. When on solid ground, it walks on four hooves like a horse, seen through a single red eye. In the water, those legs sprout fins and flippers to aid with swimming. It has no hair or skin.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Black blood churns through its veins, and its venomous breath is known to kill anything in its path. But the Nuckelevi's most disturbing feature sits on top of its back. It's a human rider. At least that's what it looks like at first glance.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Only there's something uncanny about it. Its arms are so long they drag across the ground. Its head is said to be ten times bigger than the average man's, with a cavernous mouth full of sharp teeth. And its body seems to blend in with that of the creature it rides, making it impossible to know where the man ends and the beast begins.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Whenever the people of Orkney faced a hardship, like a drought, disease, or a failed harvest, it was blamed on the Nucklelevey. But not all hope was lost. The people did have ways of keeping it at bay. For one, it hated the smell of burning seaweed. One whiff and it would run in the opposite direction.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There was also its aversion to fresh water, which kept it under the waves when the weather turned. But the creature did also have one true enemy, the Mithir of the sea. This was a mythical spirit of Orcadian folklore that had the power to confine the Nucklelevey to the ocean during the summer months.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mither, by the way, is the Orcadian pronunciation of the word mother.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But in 1891, an old man with no special powers or connections to the sea came forward. He had encountered the Nakalavi and survived.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] His name was Thomas. He'd been out walking very late one starry, moonless night. The road he traveled wound between the sea and a freshwater loch. As he walked, he caught sight of a large object moving toward him in the darkness.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He was stunned. Realizing that he was surrounded by water on both sides, and that there was nowhere for him to go, he stood his ground and faced the creature head on. Which, of course, was none other than the Nuckelavie.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] According to the report later published by Walter Trail Denison, this demonic horse and its rider lumbered toward Thomas and, I quote, with a mouth as wide as a whale's, from whence came breath like steam from a brewing kettle.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The skinless rider could barely hold up its giant head as its arms swung low over its mount.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thomas, remembering the beast's hatred of fresh water, moved closer to the lock, and as the monstrous rider reached for him, Thomas could smell its putrid breath. He stumbled toward the lock and caught the water with his foot, which splashed on the creature. Immediately the thing recoiled, and that's when Thomas got an idea.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He bolted toward a small stream, knowing the Nucklelevey couldn't cross the fresh water. The creature gave chase, stretching out its arms to catch him, but thankfully, Thomas was faster. When he reached the stream, he leapt across, leaving the Nucklelevey roaring with disappointment. It had lost its prey, but not to worry. There would always be others.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not all devils of the UK are monsters by reputation. In fact, if one legend in particular is any indication, it's even possible to be considered a hero. This figure, though, wasn't sent by the devil to bring destruction, nor did he terrorize islanders. And while he is known by several names, he's best known as Jack O'Kent.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now, the stories of Jack are most often told along the border between England and Wales, and many of them take place in the border town of Kent Church. The first references to him appear in a play published around 1590, but it's clear that the stories of his exploits had been passed around by word of mouth long before they were ever printed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And these tales often center on Jack's confrontations with the Devil. In one legend, for example, he and the Lord of Darkness were fighting over a recent harvest. Jack owed him half his crop, but offered him a choice. The Devil could either take the tops of the wheat crop that had just begun to sprout, or he could take the butts underground instead.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Since what was above ground was so meager, the devil opted for the butts. But the joke was on him. Because when harvest time finally came, Jack received all of the wheat, while the devil only got straw.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The following year, Jack gave his enemy the same choice, and the devil, thinking that he had outsmarted his foe, chose the tops instead. But little did he know that Jack hadn't planted wheat this time. He had planted turnips. So the devil got greens, while Jack took home the roots.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Still, his cunning wasn't limited to crops. One day, as Jack headed to market to buy pigs, he asked the devil if he wanted the curly-tailed pigs or the ones with straight tails. The devil knew that more pigs were born with curly tails, and so that's what he chose.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Their cart was loaded up, and the devil was pleased. That is, until Jack drove them through a stream on the way home, straightening their tails. Which meant that those pigs now all belonged to him, leaving the devil with none.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The following week, Jack returned to the market for more pigs, and this time the devil said that he wanted the ones with straight tails. So, Jack fed them all a heaping helping of beans, which, according to the legend, caused their tails to curl. Once again, Jack had outsmarted the devil.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But aside from his keen mind, Jack was also said to have special powers over animals, and he used them against the Prince of Darkness. For example, he could travel at great speeds thanks to the magical horses that he rode through the air.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, one Christmas Eve, when the devil made him a wager.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He bet Jack that he couldn't deliver a mince pie to the king in London in time for breakfast. When his adversary arrived in Kent Church the following morning, Jack was already there. The devil greeted him with a smile saying,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, who was Jack really? Well, a few theories exist. One claims that he was a Welsh Franciscan friar named John Gwent or Kent, who died in 1348. Also known as John of Kent Church, he was a revered poet and scientist capable of producing small, natural miracles.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then there was also the astronomer John Kent of Carolean, who wrote a 13th century treatise on witchcraft. In fact, there are at least five different Englishmen between the 13th and 15th centuries that were believed to have inspired the legend of Jack O' Kent.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Today, visitors to Kent Church Court can visit Jack's childhood bedroom, which is said to be haunted by his spirit. All they have to do is wait around on a dark and stormy night, and the man himself will appear. Let's just hope that the devil isn't close behind.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They say that the devil is in the details, but judging by the stories told throughout the UK, I think it's also fair to say that the devil is in the shadows.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The ancient legends that span the British Isles seem to have a never-ending obsession with the Lord of Darkness himself. And if the stories teach us anything, it's that we can count on him and his minions to deliver some frightening and thrilling adventures. Maybe that's why folks love the stories of Jack O' Kent so much.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even his death became as legendary as his life. Some say that he lived until the ripe old age of 120, possibly by making a deal with the devil for supernatural powers when he was younger.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] According to the contract, upon Jack's death, the devil would take possession of his body and soul. And it didn't matter if that body was buried inside or outside a church.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But even at a tender age, he was always a step ahead. He'd already made arrangements to be buried in the church's wall, neither inside nor outside the building. The contract was iron-clad, too. The devil had been beat one last time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When he was laying on his deathbed, Jack had declared that his liver, lungs, and, depending on the storyteller, his eyes as well, be impaled on three iron spikes. Those spikes were meant to stick out of the church tower so that, as Jack foretold, a raven and a dove would fight over his organs.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If the raven won, that meant that the devil had finally gotten his soul. But if the dove came out victorious, then Jack had truly defeated him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Another version of the story argues that if his organs were eaten by birds, then it would be proof that Jack was in fact a wizard with dominion over the animals. But if they rotted on the spikes uneaten, then he was just a man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Unfortunately, we don't really know who came out on top, or even what happened to his body parts. Some say the dove won, but other variations claim that it was the raven. Still, the truth is anyone's guess.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It seems that many of the oldest and most frightening stories share the devil as a common main character, often to frightening effect. So I hope you enjoyed today's tour through a handful of the ones that can be found within the British Isles.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But there are plenty more where those came from. In fact, I have one more devilish tale to tell you, this time from Scotland. Stick around through this brief sponsor break to hear all about it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Scotland is known for its rolling green hills, and tucked between two of those hills near the ancient town of Linlithgow is a house. Well, not a house in the traditional sense. This one is a sprawling country estate called the House of the Bins.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bins is a word derived from the Celtic ben, meaning hill. A fitting name. It's a massive stone structure lined with turrets that looks more like a castle than a home.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The land it sits on has likely been occupied since prehistoric times, and may have been the site of a fort dating all the way back to the pre-Middle Ages. A house has existed on that land since at least 1478, but no one really thought too much about it until the 17th century, when the Devil came to visit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You see, during the mid-1600s, the house was occupied by a military general named Thomas Daliel, although history would come to know him by a different title.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bloody Tam. He'd gotten a taste for violence as a teen when he enlisted in the military, and his exploits during that time could have filled several volumes, although many of those stories were more legend than fact. Still, his brutality was never understated.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He was an executioner, and he didn't wait for judges or juries to convict. He wiped out entire families by himself, or tossed women into dungeons where they would be torn to shreds by wild animals. Then he also had a fondness for torture.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bloody Tam is often credited with introducing the thumb screw to the United Kingdom, and he had a soft spot for a device known as the boot, which crushed the feet and legs of its victims.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There was also his key role in suppressing the Covenanters of 1666. They were a Scottish religious activist group who rejected Catholicism in favor of the Presbyterian Church.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bloody Tam helped to move 100 of the group's prisoners to St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh. They were locked up in a tiny room known as Hato's Hole, where an example was made of their leaders. Ten of them had their right hand severed and nailed to a door, while their heads were shipped back to their families.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of course, there were other more supernatural legends attached to the story of Bloody Tam. One of them has to do with his thigh-high leather cavalry boots from his military days.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's been rumored that they were given to his son John following Tam's death. And at night, when darkness descended upon John's home, the sound of those boots marching could be heard throughout every room.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] His family was woken each night by their spectral stomping, and they would continue to march until they were finally returned to their rightful place, the House of the Bins, where they can be seen to this day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, if the stories are true, Bloody Tam still isn't at rest. Because every now and then, those boots disappear. The reason? Well, they say that he likes to put them on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But that isn't the only supernatural legend attached to Bloody Tam. It should come as no surprise that Tam was rumored to have entertained a regular guest at the House of Bins, the Devil himself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They would play cards at a white marble table adorned with precious stones. And Satan never lost. Which is why one night, Bloody Tam tried to cheat by placing a mirror behind his guest's chair.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Unfortunately, the devil saw right through this trick and wasn't too happy about it. In anger, he picked the table up and hurled it at his host, except he missed and it landed in a pond outside.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, and 200 years later, when a drought caused the water level in that pond to drop, a mysterious object was found in the mud at the bottom. You guessed it. A marble table.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Some people claim that when that table was finally pulled out, the devil's touch was as clear as day upon it. Because there, on one of the corners of the tabletop, was a burn mark. A mark, they say, in the shape of a cloven hoof.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This episode of Lore Legends was produced by me, Aaron Manke, with writing by Harry Marks and Aaron Manke, and research by Cassandra Dayalba. Don't like hearing the ads? I've got a solution. There's a paid version of Lore on Apple Podcasts and Patreon that is 100% ad-free.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Plus, subscribers also get weekly mini-episodes called Lore Bytes. It's a bargain for all of that ad-free storytelling and a great way to support this show and the team behind it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Lore, of course, is much more than just a podcast. There's the book series available in bookstores and online, and two seasons of the television show on Amazon Prime Video. Information about all of that and more is available over at lorepodcast.com.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can also follow this show on threads, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Just search for Lore Podcast, all one word, and then click that follow button. And when you do, say hi. I like it when people say hi. And as always, thanks for listening.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's been, what, four or five days since you've been high, Ricky. Quite a fucking difference from, uh, Amsterdam when...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Grab them by the balls. Spear them in the nuts. Oh yea yea. Oh spear them in the nuts. Right, I remember now. Wife carrying championships.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I guess you'd be harder to carry. Might slow you down, but yeaah. The bigger the chick, the more of a buzz on you'd get.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yellovenia! Yeaah. The J is silent. Cracker open reckey. That's good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay what's this, the Sami people, whatever you say, S-A-M-I, of northern Finland. Sami, Sami. Sami people have a unit of measurement called the Poronkusema? Poronkusema. Ah, Poronkusema.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We should get our buddy Wek to fuckin' start servin' this at the Alamo combo.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was the, wasn't Reggie Leech here, he wanted to fight you, he was pissed off at you about something.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, you're a pretty good skater. Not so good on rollerblades as we found out this week, but...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well. As I said, there's a guy that was on the oilers, that worked for the oilers, that looks a lot like you, or looked a lot like you. I forget the name.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ever since you got out of the sauna with all those dudes this afternoon, you've had a weird edge to you. Well, I don't know. I got fired up in there, I guess.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's fucked up. Like tigers and lions or like regular house cats?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You guys must have a different son than we have, because our state is up, even today till about eight o'clock at night.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People are saying that it stays lighter out longer in the summer, almost 24 hours a day, and then not so much in the winter. It's darker more, so it's definitely not the same sun we have.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who's the dirtiest player you've ever played against?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're liking the vodka though? Yea, it's kind of making me want to go to the bar. Yea, I hear ya. These are going down pretty good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I said who was the biggest dick like Julian. Oh. Not who had the biggest dick like Julian, cause he doesn't. Well, you know why? How do you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Couple of girls in the trailer park. Oh, what are you talking about, Ricky? You're so full of shit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I'll go to the bathroom together and see who does.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We'll hopefully see you again soon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When we die, we're remembered by the people who knew us. Siblings, cousins, friends and colleagues carry on our memory until they too pass on. I've heard it said that the people we love don't really die until we do, because their memory is still inside us every day. But once we're all gone,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What's left? For many of us, it's our grave and headstone. Just a few words about who we were. Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sons or daughters who eked out a living between two hopefully distant dates, all of which is etched onto a stone slab a few feet high.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That doesn't seem like a lot to honor a life well lived or one that was taken from this world too soon. But some legends are remembered a bit differently. Their graves do more than just honor them. They helped define who they were while they were still drawing breath.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Some of these graves were marvels of modern engineering, while others demonstrate the lengths people will go to in order to remain with their loved ones, even in death.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So join me as we examine the most unusual graves, the ones that go beyond simple headstones. They are works of art, shaped and molded out of our grief and paranoia. And while they serve as reminders that yes, we too shall one day pass away, we don't have to be forgotten.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The first story takes us to Moncton, Vermont, located along the state's western border. It was there where Timothy Clark Smith was born in 1821.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He was an ambitious man, graduating from Middlebury in 1842, followed by a stint at the U.S. Treasury Department in Washington, D.C. Then, he received a medical degree from the University of the City of New York in 1855.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But soon after graduating, Smith uprooted himself from the United States and moved to Russia. He built a new life there, becoming an army surgeon and eventually meeting his future wife, Catherine. Some reports claim that she was Russian, but it appears that she was actually the child of an English army surgeon. They had several children together.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After a number of years, Smith was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln to the position of Consul in Odessa. He valued his career, but also wanted what was best for his family, especially his children. And that's why when his eldest four reached a certain age, Smith took them back to the United States with him to attend school.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Catherine and the younger children stayed behind in Russia, seemingly for decades. Timothy Smith was found dead at the age of 71 on February 25th of 1893. His body was interred at the vault at New Haven, Vermont's central burying ground, while officials waited word from his widow.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] New Haven, Vermont, is a small picturesque town, just north of Middlebury, close to the New York border. Now, the cemetery where Smith's Grave is located was renamed Evergreen Cemetery in 1915, after a row of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You guessed it, evergreen trees was planted there. The oldest grave at Evergreen dates back to 1791, although it's possible that it was moved there from a family cemetery later on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The land itself appears to have officially become a burial ground in 1810, and it is still an active cemetery to this day. It's located just off the rural Townhill Road, and its ornamental gate is flanked by its namesake evergreens.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But according to local lore, Timothy Clark Smith was deathly afraid of being buried alive, a fear known as taffaphobia. This was a common fear to have at the time, too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For example, Edgar Allan Poe published a short story called Premature Burial in 1844 about a man who takes extensive precautions to avoid winding up six feet under while still alive, a fate he ultimately succumbs to by the end of the tale.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The 19th century saw a variety of inventions which were designed to help those who had been buried alive communicate with people above ground. These included air pipes and bells connected to pull strings.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] More on those later. Smith, not one to take chances, availed himself of as many of these precautions as possible.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One legend claimed that his biggest fear was contracting a disease known as sleeping sickness, which would give him the appearance of having passed away. The last thing he wanted to do was wake up inside a coffin with a lid over his head.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so, after his death, his son, Harrison, traveled from Iowa to Vermont to make sure his crypt was built according to certain specifications. It cost a pretty penny, of course, but the end result was a grave that any corpse would be happy to decompose in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was a single underground room, which was constructed out of cement and stone. It boasted a cement shaft filled with glass that connected the room to the surface above. Some say this window was meant to provide his relatives with a way of confirming that he was truly dead. All they had to do was look down through the window.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There was also a staircase leading up in the event that Smith felt the need to leave his grave at any moment. And, as was customary at the time, he was buried with some kind of a signaling contraption. Either a bell inside or a wire connected to a bell on the surface.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Although for a man who is so afraid of being buried and forgotten, he made his grave pretty difficult to find. He has no headstone, nor any kind of engraving or plaque identifying his burial site. The glass window looking down on his remains is sadly no longer functional.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ferns have moved in beneath the surface of the grave, and condensation on the windows' interior have blocked visitors from peering inside.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In 1939, one local paper reported that several older locals had tried to catch a glimpse of Smith's corpse, debating whether or not they actually saw the bones of one of his hands. By the 1940s, the grave had already become a tourist attraction.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That makes sense, as the window had already become too cloudy to see all the way into the tomb. Of course, that hasn't stopped certain rumors from spreading, even to this day. And the most disturbing legend of all...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That if you listen carefully, you might hear the sounds of screams and a ringing bell coming from the grave.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For our next chapter, let's do some traveling. About 850 miles south of Vermont is the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, the home of Leila Maude Davidson Hansel. She was born there in 1861 to a wealthy family. How prominent were they? Well, the nearby Davidson College was named after her grandfather.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Leela herself worked as a school teacher, where she was known for a number of positive qualities. She had a sunny demeanor and an unwavering love for humanity. She was also beautiful, with one paper describing


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Golden hair that wreathed a face that was the talk of ballrooms of two states. These were attributes that earned her the nickname, The Sunshine Woman.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then, in 1910, she married a judge named Charles P. Hansel, who happened to be a member of the state legislature. The two began building a life together, until things took a turn for the worse around 1914.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's when Leela came down with a case of tuberculosis, forcing her and her husband to pack up and move to Hendersonville, North Carolina. The hope was that the change in scenery and in climate would help her get better. Unfortunately, she only got worse.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But no matter how sick she got, nor how badly the disease sapped her beauty away, she still held onto her smile, which lit up every room she entered until her death on December 2nd of 1915.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Leela's unimbalmed body was buried in a brick above-ground vault in Oakdale Cemetery, with her coffin sitting directly on the ground. Located in Hendersonville, Oakdale was founded in 1885 and encompasses 22 acres of land. Over 5,000 bodies are interred there, with more being added each year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Her vault was the first of its kind at Oakdale, and just like Timothy Clark Smith's grave, it was not marked with her name. But her burial site differs quite a bit from the Good Doctor's in one unique way. Rather than a windowed shaft leading down to her chamber, Leela's tomb was fitted with a roof made of glass squares.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] An article in the Charlotte Observer stated the squares measured about 2 inches square at the base and 4 inches through to the tip of the pyramid, which points downward.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It seems that even in death, she could not bear to be kept out of the sun. According to one account, she pleaded with her husband before her passing that she not be buried underground. She was quoted as saying,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Her tomb was designed by undertaker JW Step while Leela was still alive. In fact, she had been the one to approve his design and it was completed only a few weeks before her untimely passing. When she was finally laid to rest, songs about beauty and sunshine were sung in her honor as she took her place beneath the glass roof.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But her unusual burial site led to a proliferation of rumors. People started wondering whether they could see inside her tomb. One news article from 1926 reported that three out of four visitors to Leela's grave claimed that they could see her body.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The trick was visiting on a sunny day and waiting for the light to hit the tomb at just the right angle.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, what might someone expect to see while peering inside? Well, some have said that Leela wears a grey dress adorned at the wrists with elegant lace. Others claim the chamber is chock full of flowers surrounding her casket. And those who knew her while she was still alive believe that she wore a permanent smile across her face, never the embodiment of her nickname, the Sunshine Woman.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the tomb's designer, Mr. Step, disagreed. For one, seeing inside her tomb was practically impossible, as he had used opaque glass, which was then arranged in such a way that it would keep the light from reaching the inside.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In addition, Leela was laid to rest in a simple burial shroud, not a great dress. Her coffin was only opened enough to reveal the top half of her body, and she didn't have thousands of flowers positioned around her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But of course, that didn't stop people from trying to catch a peek. A newspaper reporter in 1926 decided to see for herself and visited the grave a total of two times. Afterwards, she came away convinced that the tomb's designer had in fact been wrong. It was possible to see inside. What she witnessed was astounding, too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She reported not seeing a body, but a miniature skeleton, its eerie bones exposed to the light, with no trace of the shroud mentioned by Mr. Step. Apparently a crack in the tomb had let in sufficient moisture that had utterly decayed the cloth.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The reporter also believed that the flowers people claimed to have seen were pieces of brick that had the appearance of roses.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The skeleton's diminutive size was blamed on the glass panes, which acted like a camera lens and optically shrunk the full-sized bones. But the reporter's article did little to shut down the rumor mill. It was back up and running by December of 1931.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] According to the legends, Leela has been a bit restless since her death, as the gossip going around claimed that she had turned over in her grave. The reason for her change in position? The branches of two pine trees west of her tomb had grown so much that they overshadowed the chamber's glass roof, blocking out the sun.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of course, some people have suggested cutting down those trees to grant Leela her beloved sunshine again. Meanwhile, neighborhood children did brisk business selling cups of water to visitors so that they could pour them on the glass to better see the skeleton inside.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Unfortunately, no amount of water will offer a glimpse into her tomb today. The grave has long since been covered over in concrete, blocking out Leela's afternoon sun glow, leaving the Sunshine Woman where she doesn't belong. Lost in eternal shadow.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Several states away from Leela Hansel are the remains of Mitty Wilkins Manning. She was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi on January 19th of 1871. Her father, Van Manning, had been a lawyer and a former Confederate soldier, while her mother grew up as part of a wealthy local family.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mitty wasn't alone in the house growing up. She had two older brothers, as well as an older sister named Mary, and a younger sister named Harriet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sadly, while her siblings would go on to do great things, such as enter local politics or serve during World War I, Mitty wouldn't be so lucky. Her life was tragically cut short in April of 1875 by an unknown disease. It took her quickly, at the tender age of four.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Middie's body was laid to rest at Hillcrest Cemetery. Founded in 1845 as Towne Cemetery, its grounds have been used for burials all the way back to 1838.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She's varied among a number of unknown Confederate soldiers, as well as some victims of an 1878 outbreak of yellow fever, some of whom are marked by special monuments. One was put up by the Mississippi Press Association to commemorate some of the reporters who died of the illness.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Another was put up in honor of Father Oberty and the Catholic nuns who tended to the sick as the epidemic dragged on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But despite all that celebration and grandness, Midi's grave is something special.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's an above-ground brick-walled tomb with a marble slab on top. In fact, it looks an awful lot, like a large table. And right there on the top of it is a raised circular portion of the slab that bears her name, her birth and death dates, and the names of her parents.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But that's not what sets Midi's grave apart from the others. You see, that circular section of the marble top does more than just tell people who rests inside. It also moves.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was designed to swivel to the side in order to reveal a window, which would allow visitors to gaze down into the tomb itself. You see, Midy's mother Mary was so devastated by her daughter's death that she had the sliding window installed so that she could visit and look down at her daughter's face, which was positioned directly beneath the glass.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sadly, Midi's angelic face couldn't last forever. As her remains started to decompose, Mary's visits did more to inflame her grief than to soothe it. Before long, she was staying at her daughter's tomb day and night, staring through the porthole at what was left of her daughter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Her husband eventually had to step in and have their daughter's body buried underground, but he left the marble slab and sliding window in place, and eventually the Manning family moved away, and Mitty was left alone. In fact, neither of her parents nor any of her siblings are buried there in Hillcrest Cemetery.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In recent years, a local preservation society donated time and money to restore the young girl's tomb, which was sadly on the verge of collapse.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Years of being hit with lawnmowers by maintenance crews had done considerable damage to its integrity. So the group built a cement base around it, along with a new brick structure to support the marble slab on top. And they repaired the sliding mechanism for the window.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And a rededication ceremony for the new grave was held in September of 2020, with a local reverend presiding over the occasion. And of course, you won't see Mitty through the glass. She's tucked safely beneath the soil, out of view from the public. But visitors can still slide that cover out of the way and gaze into her empty tomb.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Clearly, Mitty Manning was well loved in both life and death. And although things have changed a lot since then, those tender mercies are still on display.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Timothy Clark Smith wasn't the only person with a fear of being buried alive. After all, there's a reason it was a common fear. And although he came up with several ingenious solutions to avoid that fate, others went to even more extensive lengths to avoid it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In 1799, George Washington was dying. Several days before, he had contracted a throat infection after going out in the cold and wet clothing. And now he was on his deathbed. His secretary, Tobias Lear, close at hand.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Washington whispered to him, I am just going. Have me decently buried and do not let my body be put into the vault in less than three days after I am dead. Lear allegedly bowed in agreement with the former president's wishes and repeated the instructions back. Then Washington responded with his final words. Tis well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Washington died on December 14th and was officially buried on December 18th. For those doing the math, that was more than three days later, just as he had wished for.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] During a later autopsy, Chopin's heart was removed from his body and placed in a jar of cognac. It was then smuggled into Poland by his sister, where it was kept safe inside a local church. The rest of him is interred in Paris' famous Père Lachaise Cemetery.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And those are just two more examples of a very common fear. Over the years, inventors removed the need for waiting periods and pickled organs by creating a variety of safety coffins meant to stop premature burials. According to historians, Central Europe was ground zero for the safety coffin craze during the 1790s.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Most of the devices included some element to allow the not-quite-dead to activate a signal on the surface. Bells were common, but some even allowed the trapped person inside to raise a flag or set off a firecracker as a message to the living.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Shovels and ladders were also incorporated. You know, so someone could dig their way out if they needed to. And many safety coffins were equipped with a built-in breathing tube that could carry food, water, and fresh air from the surface above down to the person below.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thankfully, advancements in medical science have stopped most premature burials, although they do still happen from time to time. And yet the coffin industry is still stubbornly innovating. Some recent patents have even incorporated audio playback into their designs.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] None of these inventions have removed our fear though, and so we'll keep asking ourselves the most terrifying question of all. What would we do if it happened to us?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you're like me, graveyards have always been a fascinating place to visit. From the names and dates upon the stones to the beautiful headstones and decorations, honestly I love being inside a cemetery.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But of course, today's tour of some of the most unusual burial sites has been far from exhaustive. Thankfully, my team and I have one more grave to tell you about. Stick around through this brief sponsor break to hear all about it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Most graves tell a story. Sometimes that story is just a name and a pair of dates. Frequently it also tells us who their beloved spouse was, or their children, or both.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sometimes, though, a grave can tell us more. What kind of person were they before they died? Did they leave their marks on the lives of those around them? And, on rare occasions, was their death celebrated, and why?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, out west there's a grave that tells such a story, and in many ways this burial site has done something even more. Its legend has outgrown the person that it commemorates.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To find it, we have to head to Lafayette Cemetery, which is in the mining town of Lafayette, Colorado. Coal was discovered on a farm there back in 1884. Four years later, two mines were in full operation, along with a pair of general stores, a few boarding houses, and even a stable.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People came from all over the world to work in Lafayette's mines, and Eastern European immigrants were especially sought after by the mine owners. As you'd probably guess, they worked grueling hours in dangerous conditions for meager pay. And one of those Eastern European miners was a man named Fodor Glava, from the country of Transylvania.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now, we don't know much about Glava in his life. Sadly, most of the details we do know come from his tombstone in Lafayette Cemetery. He died in December of 1918 as a result of the flu pandemic that was sweeping the nation at the time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He only lived to be 41 years old and was survived by a wife back in Europe. He was buried alongside others from Europe too, including John Trantifer from Romania, who died from the same sickness on the same day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Both men were buried in the Potter's Field section of the cemetery. Their burial site is marked by a simple, crudely fashioned stone, lined down flush against the ground.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Eventually though, rumors started to swirl that Glava was not just a minor. The story said that there was something more, something sinister about him. According to the whispers, he was... a vampire.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Some people claim that these rumors started before his death. Local historian Krista Barry, though, believes that the folklore surrounding Glava began in the 1950s and 60s by high school students, because vampire culture was in vogue.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The legends became so irresistible, in fact, that the locals allegedly took matters into their own hands. They dug up Glava's grave to see for themselves whether the rumors were true. And what they found shocked them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] According to the stories, his teeth looked larger than normal and his nails had continued to grow. But it was the blood around his mouth that really set them on edge. So they drove a wooden spike through his heart and covered him up with dirt again.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Remember though, this is all hearsay. There's no historical evidence backing up this particular piece of lore. It's just a legend.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Over time, Glava's grave continued to collect stories. According to Claudia Lund, the curator of Lafayette's Miners Museum, a tree had grown over the grave in the exact spot where his heart would have been. How would it have gotten there? The stake, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then there are the blood-red rose bushes growing alongside his stone. The rumored source are his fingernails, naturally. It's even said that you can see a dark, mysterious figure stalking around the cemetery at night. It's been described as tall and thin, wearing a dark coat with long, claw-like nails extending from its fingers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And of course, some folks think that figure is Glava himself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Other paranormal thrill seekers claim to have seen strange lights, heard disembodied voices, and experienced malfunctioning batteries while passing by the graves. Some even leave small trinkets and flowers as a gift for Glava in a vain attempt to save their necks.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This episode of Lore Legends was produced by me, Aaron Manke, with writing by Harry Marks and research by Cassandra Dayalba. Don't like hearing ads? We've got a solution. There's a paid version of Lore on Apple Podcasts and Patreon that's 100% ad-free.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Plus subscribers get weekly mini episodes called Lore Bites. It's a bargain for all that ad-free storytelling and a great way to support this show and the team behind it. Lore is much more than just a podcast. There's the World of Lore three book series, plus two seasons of the television show on Amazon Prime Video. Learn more over at lorepodcast.com.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you can also follow this show on threads, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Just search for Lore Podcast, all one word, and then click that follow button. And when you do, say hi. I like it when people say hi. And as always, thanks for listening.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Let's be honest, life is hectic. Between work and family and friends and chores, it can be hard to find time for yourself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We all find ourselves longing for peace and quiet from time to time. I know, I do. A moment alone with a book or a creative project or even just time to sit and think.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 50 year old Beatrice Flamini is an extreme athlete from Spain and she was participating in a research expedition called


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After being lowered into the cave, Flamini spent the next year and a half alone, reading, weaving, exercising, drawing, and preparing her meals. And what did she say when the scientists finally came to retrieve her on April 14th of 2023?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now, if you're feeling your chest tighten at the very idea of this story, you aren't alone. What was a dream come true to her would be for many of us, a nightmare.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Claustrophobia is, of course, one of our oldest and most common human fears, and horror writers have made use of this fear for centuries.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask of Amontillado. If you've ever read it, then no doubt the final horrifying image is burned permanently into your mind. A man deep in a catacomb, far from sympathetic ears,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The word emir is derived from the Latin words in and miris, meaning in or into and wall. Pretty straightforward as far as etymology goes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the practice itself is far less simple. From a way to punish criminals, to torturous political execution, to superstitious human sacrifice, emirament has been doled out for nearly as many reasons as there have been victims.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Take the emirament of the Vestal Virgins, for example, which we've covered here before. If you recall, Vestal Virgins were an order of priestesses in ancient Rome who served Vesta, the goddess of the hearth and a protector of Rome.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] These Vestal Virgins were responsible for keeping the fire in the Temple of Vesta perpetually burning. If it went out, it would be seriously bad news, because it meant that the goddess's protection of Rome would snuff out with the flame.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, suffice to say, Vesta's priestesses couldn't afford distractions. And that's where the virgin part came in. Hard to tend to an eternal flame if you're busy romping around with some handsome gladiator, right? And breaking that vow was more than just a sin. It was essentially treason, since they were putting Rome itself in danger.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was sacrilegious, however, to kill a Vestal Virgin outright. To punish one who broke her vow of chastity, they had to find more creative methods. And what's a way to execute someone you aren't allowed to physically kill? That's right. Immurements.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Vestal virgins who broke their chastity vows would sometimes be sealed into tombs alive. That way, no one had to execute them. Starvation and suffocation would take care of that for them, and the state's hands would be clean.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The victim would be stripped of her badges of office, dressed like a corpse, and led down into her vault while her sisters wept, looking on. The tomb contained only a couch, a lamp, and a table with a small amount of food, which would obviously soon run out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I can only imagine the horror these priestesses must have felt staring at the final bite of bread, the last handful of dried fruit, as that lamplight begins to flicker and dim.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There were about ten recorded cases of Vestal Virgin emirament, which, given the order existed for about a thousand years, is luckily a fairly low frequency. But still, I can't help but feel like that's ten too many. But Vestal Virgins weren't the only religious figures in history punished that way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In 1409, for example, four Christian clerics in Osberg Bavaria were accused of pedophilia.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] First, the men were forced into wooden coffins and locked inside. Then the church suspended the coffins with ropes inside a tall tower where the clerics were left to starve.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In another case, in the year of 1149, Duke Otto III of Umolots, part of the Moravian Premish Lid dynasty,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it does seem a bit suspicious in retrospect. But, emirament wasn't just for punishing transgressions. It was also a means of political execution.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In India in the year 1660, Shah Shusha, the second son of an emperor, was on the run.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He ended up trying to overthrow the Arakanese king, and let's just say it didn't go over very well for him. Shah Shu Shah was killed, but the king didn't stop with his execution. He also killed all of Shah Shu Shah's children. The sons were beheaded, but the daughters had it even worse. They were emmured in their own apartments and left to die.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Once overthrown, he and his family were sealed up in either a cistern or a tower, where they died of starvation and cold.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And hey, remember our old friend Elizabeth Boutry, the serial killer who turned her lavish home into a torture chamber for young women? She too was a mirrored within her home, where she was supplied with food until she died four years later. Consider it an extreme version of house arrest.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sometimes though, emmurement wasn't about crime and punishment at all. In fact, in many instances throughout history, to be emmured was quite the opposite. It was considered holy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Take, for instance, the children of Yuya Yako. In 1999, archaeologists discovered three perfectly preserved ancient Incan mummies on the border of Chile and Argentina, sealed in a small tomb one and a half meters underground. All three were children, and they appeared to have been human sacrifices.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Examination of the remains revealed that the children were likely selected for sacrifice a year prior, being fed fine foods like maize and animal protein, as well as being heavily drugged before their sacrificial day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Once the children had fallen asleep due to the alcohol and cacao they were fed, they were then sealed alive in a tomb within the Yuyayaco volcano. And there they remained for 500 years.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Whether used for ritual or retribution, closing a person into their own grave brick by brick sounds like a fate worse than death. It's hard to imagine a crime worthy of the punishment. But the thing is, sometimes, a mirrorment had nothing whatsoever to do with the person it mirrored. Often, it was less about the victim and more about the vault.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There are all sorts of lucky charms out there, right? Rabbit's feet, four-leaf clovers, human corpses. Oh, and if that last one seems a bit out of place, it shouldn't, because it's actually pretty common.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The practice has different names in different cultures. Da Sheng Zhuang in China, Hitobashira in Japan, Miyosande in Burma, but it all refers to the same thing, sealing a person inside a construction project, usually a bridge or a building, to make the structure strong.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now, if you're like me, you're asking yourself one simple question right now. Why? What exactly does any of this achieve?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, a number of things, it turns out. Sometimes human pillars, as they were called, were intended as sacrifices to the gods and spirits of the Earth who were being disturbed in order to build the structure in question. In other cases, the spirit of the dead would become a phantom guardian, protecting the structure from harm. And often, it was both.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One story from Hampi, India, tells of a wall with a history of falling down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then there's the Balkan ballad, The Bridge of Arta, which follows a group of masons hard at work building a bridge. They labor all day, only to watch the bridge collapse each night.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One day a talking bird comes to them, you know, as talking birds do, right? And proclaims that if you bury not a human being, no bridge can be strong.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But not just any human being. The gods demanded the head mason's wife. So the builders tell the wife that her husband has dropped his ring into the foundation pit and ask her to go down and retrieve it. She dutifully descends, and then the masons seal her in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This idea of closing your wife into a foundation is so common, in fact, that legendary folklorist Alan Dundee's even edited an entire book about it called The Walled Up Wife.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In Japan, human pillars were common practice from ancient times through to the 16th century. Japan's Maruoka Castle, Matsue Castle, and Matsue Ohashi Bridge are all rumored to have been built with the help of human sacrifice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Legend says that when Matsue Ohashi Bridge was being built in 1608, the builders grew more and more despairing because every time they tried to embed a pillar in the river, it was swallowed by water and sediment. There seemed to be no solid ground to build upon, and so they decided to try another approach. That's right, a human pillar.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The workers seized a man named Gensuki and buried him alive in the riverbed beneath the bridge's middle pillar.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And how did poor Gensuki earn this fate, you might ask? Well, by wearing his trousers wrong.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You heard that right, the builders decided that the first man to cross without having his hakama, a traditional kind of pants, properly pleaded would be chosen as sacrifice. And Gensuki, well, he had left the house a little sloppy that day, apparently. Talk about fashion police, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's said that for centuries after, ghostly red fire would flicker around the bridge on moonless nights. Yes, centuries. Because after Gensuki's emirament, the bridge held firm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, I will admit, some believe that Gensuki is actually the name of an era and not a man at all, misinterpreted by dialect and time, but stories don't need to be true to hold power. The legend was so popular that whenever a new bridge was built, townsfolk would flee the area in terror, afraid to be the next human pillar.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now, lest you think there is no room for fun and games when it comes to walling up people alive, fear not. While there is definitely debate on the topic, some scholars believe that the popular children's song, London Bridge is Falling Down, is in fact about a mirroring a human sacrifice in London Bridge itself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The bridge is even said to have been, and I quote, sanctified by the blood of children.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's hard to know for sure how many of these legends are true. After all, many of the buildings are still standing, so whether or not they contain a body is unknown. That said, old buildings often need restoration, and when that happens, well, sometimes ghastly discoveries are made.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like the skeleton found in the wall of a parish church in Devon, England, when the building was restored in 1885.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or the one found in Wickenby in Leakinshire, buried in the foundation of the West Wall. And over in Germany, the castle of Niedermanderscheid was said to have been built around a young woman. In 1844, they decided to find out once and for all. So they broke open the wall where the legend claimed that she had been emirate. And sure enough, there was a skeleton there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People of our time aren't the only ones to see this practice as barbaric.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Past peoples also recognized that emirament wasn't necessarily ideal, so sometimes stand-ins were used. Effigies or dolls were embedded in foundations, often resembling a specific person. Animal sacrifice was even used. But my personal favorite


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's right, sometimes rather than emir a person, builders in Greece or what is now today Transylvania among others would simply emir a person's shadow.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] First, the shadow would be measured, then the shadow's owner would stand so that the shadow fell upon the foundation stone, sometimes even being nailed in place. Then it would be sealed into the wall. It seems like a good compromise, except for one teeny tiny side effect. Anyone whose shadow was immured would die within 40 days.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We don't know much about Julian of Norwich. We don't know who her parents were, or the circumstances in which she was raised. We don't know her birthday. We don't even know her real name. Julian simply being the name of the church, St. Julian, with which she came to be associated.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What we do know is that on May 13th of 1373, when Julian of Norwich was 30 years old, she just so happened to be dying.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She was sick and bedridden, plagued with strange dreams and pain, and she knew her time on Earth was limited.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] First, she went numb from the waist down. Next, the numbness crept up to her neck. Her breath grew short. And then, just as death felt nearest, her pain disappeared.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's when she received 16 divine visions from God.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She saw God hand her a small object the size of a walnut, and when she asked what it was, he said it was all things. She was struck by the fragility of this, the universe in her palms.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She saw Christ in his crown of thorns. So plenteously, she would later write, the hot blood ran out that there was neither seen skin nor wound, but as it were, all blood.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And once the revelations finally ended, she miraculously survived her illness, and she decided to dedicate the rest of her life to being an anchoress.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now what exactly is an anchoress? Well, let's just say that not all amearment was involuntary. Anchoresses were women who consented to be walled up within a cell for an ascetic life of spiritual contemplation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And when I say walled up, I mean, totally walled up, they would be bricked into a cell with no way out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the intent wasn't to kill or starve them. Rather, the anchoresses would be passed food and water to survive, while they lived hermetic, simple lives of prayer. The cells were attached to the church itself, so the emirate were permanent residents of that church.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] An ankyrosis cell was no more than 12 feet square, usually closer to 8 feet square.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] While there were no doors, the cell would have three small windows. One window opened to a parlor, allowing servants to deliver food and supplies, as well as ferry out the human waste. Another tiny window opened into the church so that the anchorists could observe services and take the Eucharist. And the last one opened to the outside world.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] None of them however were large enough for a person to pass through. Once sealed in, they would never leave again.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Inside the cell, one might find a small table and a chimney for heat. There was also a pit dug into the ground. This pit was where the anchoress would kneel each day in prayer, and eventually, it would become her grave.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In fact, when an anchoress was first sealed in her cell, a priest recited prayers typically reserved for funerals, symbolizing the ascetic was now dead to the outside world.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now, anchoresses weren't all women. Their male equivalents were called anchorites. But it was far more common for women to volunteer to be reclusive than men. In fact, twice as many women than men were emirate in the 14th and 15th centuries, and three times as many in the 13th century.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I know what you're thinking. There can't have been that many of them, because who on earth would volunteer for this? But actually, in the medieval age, it was pretty common. In England, between the 13th and 15th centuries, for example, there were a good 200 anchoresses and anchorites actively living in cells.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It seems like Beatriz Flamini, that Spanish athlete who spent 500 days in a cave,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wasn't the first woman to seal herself behind stone to get some peace and quiet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Anchoresses could have visitors though, and in fact church members would often go to them for advice and wisdom. Imagine it like a confessional booth, but one where the priest could never leave. Frequent visitors were discouraged, but you could have a chat every now and then.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of course, anchoresses could never have visitors within their cells, but most portraits of Julian of Norwich do portray her with a companion right there on her lap.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was a cat, probably just small enough to slip in and out of the windows. Who knew that the ultimate cat lady was a medieval woman living behind a wall?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Anchoress' day consisted mostly of prayer. She also did handiwork, making lace or working with metals, or in the case of Julian of Norwich, writing one of the greatest works of mystic literature the English-speaking world has ever known.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not long after receiving her visions, she wrote a book referred to as the Short Text of the Revelations of Divine Love. Later, in her cell, she wrote an extended exploration of those visions, called the Long Text of the Revelations of Divine Love.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We don't know exactly how long after having these visions that Julian of Norwich became an anchoress, but we do know that she remained emirate for more than 20 years, well into her seventies.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The results, however, had one revolutionary after-effect. Her Revelations of Divine Love volumes were the first books ever written in English by a woman.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The fear of small spaces is very real and very common. I myself have a deep fear of tiny enclosed places that make me feel trapped, and whenever I've brought it up in conversation, it always elicits nods of agreement from everyone else in the room. It's not universal, but it certainly covers the majority of us, doesn't it?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's always a twist, right? Yes, for some, emmurement was a horrific form of torture. To be feared and fled from. For others, a necessary evil to appease the gods. And for others, still, it was a path into holy life of prayer, solitude, and community power.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Any ritual, it seems, can be wielded for punishment or for peace depending on its application. And sometimes, it was both.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well despite the discouragement of frequent visitors,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] More permanent companions for anchoresses wasn't unheard of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the thing is, they weren't always cats. In fact, they weren't always animals at all. Some were children.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Historical records show instances in which parents would donate a child under the age of 10 to the church.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was a devotional act, the ultimate sacrifice to prove their love of God, and also relieve themselves of one more mouth to feed while they're at it. And the child they knew would never go hungry because it would be cared for by the Church.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And of course, when I say cared for, what I mean is that the child would be walled in with an anchoress to keep her company. And there, two companions would remain. One by choice, and the other by force. Snug within a cell. For decades.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Here at Lore, we love a full circle moment. There's nothing more satisfying than a story that can be tied up with a neat little bow. And in our research on Amirment, we happen to stumble upon just that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But to prove it, we need to return to the beginning with another look at the cask of Amontillado. Stick around through this brief sponsor break to hear all about it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Edgar Allan Poe's short story, The Cask of Amontillado, didn't come from nowhere. And I don't just mean the long history that we've explored. No, I'm talking about something more specific. Because in fact, The Cask of Amontillado was likely based, unfortunately, on a true story.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In 1844, Reverend Joel Taylor Headley, a contemporary of Poe's and a famed writer in his own right, was on a trip to Italy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Headley and a friend were wandering in the small town of San Giovanni in what I imagine was an afternoon of fine food, warm weather, and lively conversation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At some point though, the two companions decided to pay a visit to the church of San Lorenzo, right there in town.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Headley was a reverend after all, maybe he just wanted to spend a few moments in prayer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But when they entered the church, a place that should have been holy, the men were both horrified and mesmerized to discover an example not of God's love, but of human cruelty.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Receiving a tour of the space, the men were shown an open hole in the wall, covered by only a thin trap door. Behind the trap door stood an upright human skeleton.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Apparently the skeleton had been discovered there within the wall a number of years earlier, during some construction work on the church.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After finding it, the clergy had, for whatever reason, decided to leave it in place, pristine and undisturbed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not your typical choice for interior decorating, but hey, who am I to judge?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The image of the Walden man, however, stuck with Headley, haunting him long after he returned to America. And as a writer, Reverend Headley processed what he had seen the only way he knew how. By writing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Later that same year, he published a letter in the Colombian magazine, which he titled, A Sketch, A Man Built Into a Wall.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Although the actual history of this poor victim was unknown, Headley's letter was full of lively speculation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In a dark night, Headley wrote, the workman began at the feet and with his mortar and trowel built up with the same carelessness as he would exhibit in filling any broken wall.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In both cases, the men in question were of high rank, and looking at the language of the letter next to the cask of Amontillado, descriptions feel eerily similar. As the final stone is sealed into place in Headley's writing, for example, the victim lets out a groan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How do we know that Poe would even have seen this letter?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, the issue of the Colombian magazine where the letter appeared happens to be the very same one that contained Poe's article on Mesmeric Revelation. In fact, Poe even mailed copies of the magazine to a few of his friends.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And hey, I'm sure it's possible that he missed it that time, but the letter just so happened to be published again in 1845 in the New York Evening Mirror.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we know that Poe read The Mirror, especially in 1845, because that same year, he trusted The Mirror to publish a work of his own. A work that had never been released before. A little poem called The Raven.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It seems that truth really is stranger than fiction, and while Headley's letter has been largely forgotten, Poe's story sure hasn't. Thanks to him, one unidentified man who met a grisly end in a small Italian town has, for lack of a better term, forever been cemented in history.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As always folks, thank you so much for watching. Credits for today's episode are in the description below.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Lore has been a podcast since 2015 with over 415 million downloads to date. You can learn more about this show, plus the book series and television adaptation over at lorepodcast.com. And of course, be sure to click the subscribe button and the bell icon so that you don't miss future episodes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, and if you enjoyed this episode, click the thumbs up too. And you can also follow the show on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Just search for Lore Podcast, all one word, and then click that follow button. And when you do, say hi. I like it when people say hi. And as always, thanks for watching.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Welcome to Lore Legends, a subset of lore episodes that explore the strange tales we whisper in the dark, even if they can't always be proven by the history books. So if you're ready, let's begin.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Deep in the woods of Huntington Long Island is a place that, at first, seems peaceful.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The poet Walt Whitman, who was born just down the road, used to wander among the trees, no doubt gathering inspiration for his odes to the natural world.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And walking among its leaf-covered trails, hearing the sharp chitter of a downy woodpecker overhead, you might get the sense that this is a place of reflection and solitude. But beneath its tranquility and beauty is a dark history, one that is built on a foundation of loss. The loss of home, loss of innocence, and loss of life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's known as Mount Misery, a name it has earned thanks to the tragic stories that dot its trails like thousands of autumn leaves.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But to get to the truth about Mount Misery, one must navigate a forest of myths and legends. Careful not to trip over the tales with roots so thick and deep you can find yourself swallowed up by them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Some of these stories seem too far-fetched to believe, while others sound just plausible enough to be true. But no matter how you look at it, there's something about Mount Misery that just doesn't sit right. It's in the way the wind howls through the trees as the sun retreats behind the horizon, like it knows what's coming.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mount Misery is called that for a lot of reasons. So let's grab a flashlight and find out why.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Despite its ambitious moniker, there is no specific peak actually known as Mount Misery in the area. Its highest point, Janes Hill, is only 400 feet tall. Mount Misery actually got its name because local farmers found it difficult to maneuver their wagons over the harsh terrain and steep hills. Well, steep for Long Island, at least.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Although, some claim that it was named Mount Misery after the first home built there burned to the ground. Several times, in fact.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The area has been the subject of numerous tales, some taller than others, but each one adds something new to Mt. Misery's reputation, making this molehill feel a lot more like a mountain that everyone thinks it is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Unsubstantiated rumors say that the local native tribes there considered the area cursed or taboo or the home of the mythical thunderbird. Although this seems to be a misunderstanding of native geography and myth by white residents.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But most of the stories center, unsurprisingly, around death. Whispers wind through its wooded landscape much like two of its thoroughfares, Mount Misery Road and Sweet Hollow Road. They're only a mile apart, but they never intersect.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] These roads have collected many of Mt. Misery's legends along their bends and curves, scaring unsuspecting motorists, especially at night. That's the power of storytelling. It manifests in all kinds of fears and worries within us, even when logic tells us that there's nothing to be afraid of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For example, one legend claims that an old asylum used to exist in the narrow spot between Mt. Misery Road and Sweet Hollow Road before it burned down. Since then, ghosts of former patients have been seen running from the ruins.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Another version claims that it was a schoolhouse, not an asylum, and that the schoolmaster simply snapped one day, murdering his students one by one. The schoolhouse was then burned to the ground by grieving townspeople, and the teacher was hanged for his crimes. They buried his body where the schoolhouse used to be, as a reminder of what happened.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The only problem is that there is no intersection where the two roads meet, nor is there proof that a schoolhouse or asylum had ever existed on Mount Misery. Although, there used to be a military hospital in nearby Deer Park that was closed down, possibly lending to the creation of these macabre myths.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sprinkle among the dark fables are true stories of death and tragedy. There was a carbon monoxide suicide in 1946 followed by the discovery of a murdered girl who was dumped there in 1976.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One person also took their own life with a shotgun on Mount Misery in 2000. And although none of those incidents appeared to be related to the supernatural, it's hard not to believe that the location had some kind of influence on them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Throughout the years, numerous reports have come out regarding strange sightings and happenings in the woods of Long Island.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People have detected the odor of blood and burned flesh from out of nowhere. Invisible animals have been heard growling from among the trees. And in an even eerier turn of events, visitors have also noticed a sudden absence of all sound.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the legends extend beyond the woods as well. It's said that if you stop your car underneath a certain bridge on Sweet Hollow Road, a mysterious force will push your vehicle uphill.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This force could be the spirit of a woman who died in a head-on collision there, or another woman who was struck and killed by a car while she was changing her tire on the side of the road.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And because legends often have to take on many different flavors, a different version of the story claims that it's actually a group of spectral schoolchildren whose bus skidded off the bridge in icy conditions a long, long time ago.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In fact, this bridge has become something of a landmark in and of itself. Two teenage boys allegedly made a suicide pact and hanged themselves from it in the 1970s. It's believed that if you honk or flash your headlights three times as you approach the bridge, you'll see their bodies dangling from above.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And no haunted road would be complete without legends of an eccentric stranger who lives alone in the surrounding woods. Someone not to be trifled with, lest you want to lose your head. Rumor has it that there is an old man on Mount Misery who wears a checkered shirt, carrying an axe and a basket with him wherever he goes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you ask him what's inside the baskets, he'll happily pull back the lid and let you peer inside. At the pile of severed heads he collects. He purportedly lives in a little cabin somewhere in the area all by himself. Well, him and his collection of heads.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Many of these stories and legends, it turns out, were first reported in 1969 by a Long Island radio host named Jay Parrow.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Pero's name might be familiar to both cryptid fans and avid readers alike. She appeared in John Keel's popular 1975 book, The Mothman Prophecies. He called Pero a dark-haired, dark-eyed young lady with a soft, haunting voice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which sounds like the perfect person to tell these kinds of stories. Perhaps in the middle of the woods, on a clear, moonlit night.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Long before axe-wielding loners roamed the Long Island woodlands, there was Mary. Mary lived during the American Revolution, and her grave is said to reside on or around Mount Misery.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now some say it's in the small Millville Cemetery off of Sweet Hollow Road, while others claim it's deep in the woods, near the ruins of an abandoned house alleged to have belonged to her once upon a time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mary's grave has been described as minimal in appearance, with only her name and birthdate etched in the stone. There's no date of death, and if you do stumble across it and shine your flashlight on it, they say Mary's face may appear.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Others who have visited her grave have found that their cars no longer start, and photographs of the stone come out blank when they've been developed. One legend claims that if you relieve yourself on her gravestone, you may witness a vision of a girl wearing a white dress on the way home, a startling sight that has caused car accidents before.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Mary is not known for being fond of kids. She's been said to kill any children who venture to her burial site at night. But why would anyone want to desecrate her grave? And what might have caused her animosity towards children? According to one story, it's because of the crime Mary was accused of when she was alive.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Local legend claims that she murdered her husband and her two children in cold blood, presumably with a hatchet. The incident earned her the nickname Hatchet Mary, or Mary Hatchet, depending on how the story is told. After this horrible act, her home was consumed by the earth on which it stood, with only the chimney left behind. And now her soul can never rest in peace.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of course, as time passed, Mary's story has changed and evolved with each retelling. Some say she was actually a witch who would kidnap and kill the local children. She was then caught and burned at the stake by the townspeople. Her ashes were then buried in a potter's field.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Another version of the story states that Mary wasn't burned, but hanged instead. And the day after her execution, she was seen walking around town with a noose around her neck as though the previous day events had never happened.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mary's legend is a cauldron swirling with different ingredients inside. Among the rumors of witchcraft and unprovoked homicide is also a tale of possession. In yet another variation of her story, Mary was actually a wealthy landowner's daughter who didn't have any friends.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She lived far from town, so her father built her a clubhouse made of stone where she could play with the animals on the property, as they were the closest thing to friends that she had.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Until one day, when Mary became possessed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now, depending on who you talk to, they might say that Mary's father beat her inside that clubhouse because he blamed her for killing her mother during childbirth.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Regardless of how the story is told though, one detail always comes through. Mary started mutilating her animal friends on the stone table in the clubhouse. When she had finished killing these defenseless creatures that had once trusted her, she picked up an axe and did the same thing to her father and her brother.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Soon after her father's associates grew concerned, they decided to trek over to the house to see what was going on. It was there that they came upon a gruesome sight. Mary, sleeping in a bed beside her father, both of them covered in blood, his cleaved flesh torn open by the blows of her axe.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mary was taken by the townspeople and hanged from a tree. A tree that still stands to this day, despite it having been dead for some time. And the branch from which she was hanged still bears the mark of the rope they used.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As for the clubhouse, its ruins are said to be somewhere in Stony Brook, near where she is buried. And on her gravesite, a statue of an angel has been erected. Some people have observed it crying under the belief that it's really Mary shedding tears for all the other girls that she was unable to protect.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mary's life, whichever version of it you wish to believe, was one filled with horror and sadness. The poor woman never stood a chance of leading a happy, fulfilling life. And now...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just a bit north of Mt. Misery is a museum. But it wasn't always that. When it was first built in 1738, the modest white building stood as a home, with two rooms on each floor and a chimney in the center.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's known as Raynham Hall, and it sits on Main Street in the town of Oyster Bay. The home was purchased in 1740 by Samuel Townsend, who began adding rooms to accommodate his large family. After all, he and his wife had eight children to house, and about twenty enslaved people on the property as well.