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[Assistant] Isabel's response was to suggest he speak with the ghost of Robert Elliot himself and leave her out of it. But when she presented this idea to Robert, the ghost refused to leave the house and talk with the man.


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[Assistant] The only option, according to the ghost, was that Crompton would come to him to visit him in the dark house between the hours of 8 and 9 p.m.


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[Assistant] Ultimately though, the trail would come to a dead end. None of the women accused by the ghost had been located, or even placed in the town at the right time. It was beginning to look like all the information was incorrect, or possibly even faked on purpose. But Isabelle wouldn't back down.


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[Assistant] She knew what she'd been told, and she was going to stand by it.


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[Assistant] So she told Crompton about the other spirits that the ghost had mentioned. There were four other victims, she told them, buried right beneath her kitchen. So Crompton brought in two of the wardens from the church in town and tasked them with digging for the proof. Over the course of two separate explorations, they pulled up more floorboards and dug through the dirt beneath them.


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[Assistant] But try as they might, nothing was found. No graves. No bones. Nothing that hinted at old forgotten burials. Nothing of course, other than the few fragments of bone and teeth that Isabelle had provided as proof of her original story.


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[Assistant] It's not a satisfying ending, I know. Because people tend to be hopeful. All tales like this offer a chance to believe, no matter how far-fetched the reasons might be. Still, Isabelle's story does teach us one important lesson that's still relevant today. No matter how much digging we do,


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[Assistant] Some cold cases will always stay that way.


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[Assistant] It's human to want to dig into things. Whether it's the ground beneath our feet or a mystery from the past, we've always been fascinated with digging. And true crime is one of the biggest examples of that passion.


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[Assistant] For centuries now, anytime a new medium has appeared in the public space, it's quickly become home to stories about unsolved crimes. In the Victorian era, for example, when penny newspapers were all the rage, dozens of crime-related publications popped up in London alone. A century later, they filled the radio waves, and then television.


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[Assistant] Even today, we're popping in our earbuds so we can hear the latest story of unsolved crimes.


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[Assistant] But through it all, we've learned to deal with disappointment. Some cases will never be solved. And while that's not ideal, it's certainly a harsh reality. Yes, stories like Isabelle's have a way of leaving us feeling unsettled. After all, we prefer neat and tidy endings. But that's life, isn't it?


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[Assistant] Isabel Bennington never got to see her mystery solved by the authorities. In fact, there are no higher court documents to prove that it ever moved on from the investigation stage.


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[Assistant] And that sort of leaves us wondering what the final verdict was in the minds of men like Thomas Crompton. Because from his point of view, it probably felt like a lot of running around for nothing.


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[Assistant] It's possible that everyone believed Isabelle about the ghost, but because of their new protestant views on the potential evil of such spirits, they chalked it up to her being tricked by a mischievous demon. Or they looked at the lack of confirmation in the names and dates and simply wrote it all off as fantasy. Either way, the matter was left unresolved.


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[Assistant] Interestingly enough, centuries later, historians did a bit of digging in an unlikely place, the household records of King Charles II, and when they did, they uncovered something surprising.


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[Assistant] Right there, in the records of promotions among the staff, were a father and son pair. One, the clerk of the bakehouse, and the other serving as a page of the cellar. And their names?


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[Assistant] Robert and Philip Perkins. Exactly what the ghost of Robert Elliot had revealed to Isabelle all those years before. Oh, and one last thing.


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[Assistant] Crompton might very well have been the sort of person who has a difficult time letting go of unsolved puzzles. We know this because many weeks after the events of the murder mystery came and went, he was still documenting new revelations and discoveries. And one of them seems to put an end to the speculation that Isabelle had been making it all up. How do we know?


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[Assistant] Because Crompton himself wrote down a note that Robert Elliot's ghost was seen again on October 3rd of 1662.


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[Assistant] More importantly, he makes it clear that the ghost was witnessed by a number of people in town, all of whom swore that their statements were true. And the most surprising aspect of the report


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[Assistant] Is one small detail that Crompton felt compelled to include. Isabel Bennington wasn't present at the time.


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[Assistant] Everyone loves a good ghost story. And for lovers of true crime, it's always fun when those stories cross over into the world of murder mysteries. But the story of Isabelle Bennington and her conversations with Robert Elliott's ghost do something else. They bring spirits into the legal system.


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[Assistant] And surprisingly, it's not the last time that's happened. In fact, I've tracked down one last amazing story that I think you're going to love, where spectral events become the centerpiece for courtroom drama. Stick around after this brief sponsor break to hear all about it.


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[Assistant] The ship's log started off simple enough. Tuesday, May the 13th, it began. This day the wind was south by southwest, and a little before four in the afternoon we anchored in Manser Road to Lode, where lay Captains Bristo, Brian, and Barnaby, all of them bound for Lucera.


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[Assistant] It would have been a welcome sight. Four English vessels traveling east of Gibraltar, somewhere in the Mediterranean, and arriving at a port in Italy at the same time. We don't know if the men knew each other prior to this moment, but they all certainly welcomed the company. I have to imagine they had a few drinks together that evening, and shared stories of their adventures.


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[Assistant] It was 1687. The open sea was a busy place, with European exploration and settlement in full swing from a number of countries. But there was also the constant threat of pirates. So when these four captains prepared to set sail the next day, they decided to do so together. Safety in numbers, and all that.


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[Assistant] It seems they were all headed back to England, but planned to make a small detour first to the volcanic island of Stromboli. After anchoring offshore, each of the four ships sent a rowboat toward land, including the four captains. Their plan was to harvest some sulfur, which was a valuable resource used to make gunpowder and antiseptic, among many other things.


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[Assistant] While the sailors marched off in search of the yellow substance, the four captains stood on the shore near their boats and talked. But around the time they were ready to leave, two figures came running through the trees and undergrowth, one seemingly chasing the other.


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[Assistant] The figure in the rear was dressed all in black and almost resembled the stereotypical figure of the Grim Reaper. The man in front, the one being chased, was running for his life, dressed in grey clothing with ornate buttons clearly visible.


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[Assistant] As the captains watched, the pair of running figures dashed past them, heading straight up the hillside toward the volcano's peak, a peak that they claimed was on fire. And as they vanished into the flames, all of the captains noted a terrifying noise that was too horrible to be described.


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[Assistant] Lord bless me, cried out Captain Barnaby. The foremost man looks like my next door neighbor, Old Booty.


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[Assistant] And yes, the old neighbor's name was Booty. It's funny, I know. I think we can all have a good laugh and enjoy the wordplay. But it's also memorable, and that's important, as we'll soon see.


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[Assistant] It was such a strange sight that one of the captains urged the others to pull out their pocketbooks and jot down the time of day so they could enter it into their ship's logs accurately once they were back on board. An hour or so later, once the Sulphur had been transported to the ships, they pulled anchor and set off.


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[Assistant] It would take them some time to cross the rest of the Mediterranean, pass through the strait of Gibraltar, and then make their way north to England. So when they finally pulled into port in October of 1687, they were ready to be home. And right there waiting for them was Captain Barnaby's wife.


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[Assistant] They probably kissed. They certainly smiled and caught up on everything he missed at home. And at some point in their conversation, she looked at him with sadness in her eyes and said, My dear, I have got some news to tell you. Old booty is dead.


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[Assistant] At which point, Captain Barnaby cursed and then told her what they had all seen back on Stromboli. We all saw him run into hell.


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[Assistant] What happened next might even sound at home today. Mrs. Barnaby, of course, told many of her friends about this amazing coincidence. And those friends told others. And it wasn't long before Old Booty's widow, Mrs. Booty, heard the rumor that her husband ran straight to hell and took offense at the insinuation.


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[Assistant] So, she took Captain Barnaby to court, looking for a thousand pounds in damages, roughly $300,000 today.


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[Assistant] The trial was a circus of coincidence. All four of the captains showed up and testified to what they witnessed on that volcanic island. They noted the exact time and day and described the man's gray clothing and ornate buttons. And when Mrs. Booty's defense was asked to describe her husband's time of death and the clothing he was wearing, all of it matched up right down to the minute.


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[Assistant] It said that the judge was so overwhelmed by the sheer unexplainableness of the coincidences that he closed the case immediately in favor of Barnaby. A normal case of slander had been brought to the courts against the captain, and yet it had been settled and put to an end by a ghostly vision from thousands of miles away.


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[Assistant] All these years later, historians have become understandably intrigued by this story and have tried to chase it down to its original source. And while many inaccuracies and mistakes have been added to it over the centuries, it's become clear that the core of the tale appears to be true. As far as anyone can prove, at least.


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[Assistant] Sometimes our digging can uncover something new, a fresh mystery or adventure that awaits our determination and hard work with the promise of resolution or definitive answers. Our search will build the story, helping it come to life.


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[Assistant] And other times, the full adventure is already there, and digging is the only way to know for certain if it's actually true. By looking closer, we might be forced to toss out whole portions of the story, all in an effort to find the truth at its center.


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[Assistant] This episode of Lore was written and produced by me, Aaron Manke, with research by Carl Nellis, and music by Chad Lawson. Lore is much more than just a podcast. There's a book series available in bookstores and online, and two seasons of the television show on Amazon Prime Video. Check them both out if you want more Lore in your life.


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[Assistant] I also make and executive produce a whole bunch of other podcasts, all of which I think you'd enjoy. My production company, Grim and Mild, specializes in shows that sit at the intersection of the dark and the historical. You can learn more about all of those shows and everything else going on over in one central place. Grimandmild.com


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[Assistant] And you can also follow this 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 listening.


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[Assistant] Happily ever after. It's a promise we all cling to. It gives us hope and courage. It tells us things will get better. At least that's what we'd like to believe.


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[Assistant] The original Beauty and the Beast legend is a story about a young woman whose family has lost everything, only to be sent to live in a castle of a strange reclusive monster as punishment for her father's theft. Through the tale we learn that both Beauty and the Beast have challenges to overcome, and together they find hope.


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[Assistant] In the Native American folktale called The Bird Lover, we meet a widow at the end of her proverbial rope. She's lost her husband and is raising her two children through sickness and poverty, wondering if hope is something she will ever feel again.


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[Assistant] After meeting a strange talking bird that turns out to be a powerful spirit, the widow's daughter Minda falls in love with him and the pair eventually fly off into the sunset, with Minda transforming into a bird rather than the bird becoming human. But despite the differences, it's the hopeful ending we've all come to expect.


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[Assistant] And while most of us have heard of James and the Giant Peach, few in Western culture know about the older Japanese folktale of Momotaro the Peach Boy.


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[Assistant] In the story, Momotaro is discovered as an infant floating down a river inside a peach. But as he grows up, he gathers a party of faithful friends, and together they kill Japanese demons known as Oni, before returning home to live happily ever after. Of course.


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[Assistant] Fairy tales help us dream of a better life, teaching us that brighter days lay ahead. But where there is light, there are also shadows. Where there are people, there are problems. And wherever there are stories of happiness, there are also tales of the darker sides of life.


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[Assistant] Because the deeper you delve into history, the more it reveals a painful truth.


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[Assistant] I mentioned fairy tales, and most people will conjure up images of gallant princes on white horses wielding long shimmering swords. They'll imagine tall towers topped with waving banners jutting from the sprawling fortress below. They think of royal intrigue, supernatural forces, and monarchy gone bad.


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[Assistant] And just about all of those images come to us from one place. Europe.


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[Assistant] Because for as diverse as its cultures and languages might be, one of the things that unites much of Europe is the centerpiece of so many famous fairy tales, the stereotypical castle. And the best way to understand it, and its influence it's had over the stories we tell, is to do a little storytelling of our own.


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[Assistant] In the crown of picturesque European fortresses, northern Italy's Castle Bardi is a prominent jewel. Seated on a tall hill that overlooks the vast countryside, the 9th century castle's stone walls and red tile roof immediately draws old fairy tales to mind.


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[Assistant] And rightly so, because it's the site of its own fair share of stories.


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[Assistant] The most popular one involves, like so many seem to do, the daughter of the lord of the castle and a lover she was forbidden to marry. It seems that this young woman, Celeste, fell in love with one of her father's knights, a man named Maruello.


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[Assistant] But it was a romance that was never meant to be because her father had already promised her hand in marriage to a rich landowner, a marriage that would have greatly increased the Lord's wealth.


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[Assistant] But Celeste never gave up on her love for Moroello, and would watch for his return from each battle from the castle high above. According to the legend though, Moroello took longer than normal to return, which caused her to worry. When shapes did appear on the horizon, her heart sank.


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[Assistant] All of the writers were dressed in the colors of the enemy, convincing her that Maroello and his fellow knights had all perished in battle. Heartbroken over her loss, Celeste was said to have thrown herself from one of the high windows, plummeting to her death.


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[Assistant] The death, it turns out, that was in vain. Because the riders that approached were indeed her father's knights, who had put on the colors of the enemy in order to slip to safety and return home. And riding among them was Celeste's lover, Moroela.


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[Assistant] Centuries later, there are still reports from visitors to the castle of ghostly sightings. Perhaps true love has kept echoes of Celeste within the walls, as the stories of a woman in white suggest. And some modern ghost hunters have claimed to see a mysterious image on their thermal camera. The image of a man dressed in armor.


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[Assistant] Hundreds of miles to the north, along the southern border of modern Germany, sits another castle with its own tale of love and lust. Wolfsegg Castle was built back in the 13th century by a man named Ulrich von Laber to serve two purposes. To be a stronghold for the region, and to be a home for his family.


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[Assistant] And as a side note, sometime in 1507, a very special map was produced right there in that castle. Measuring roughly 8 feet by 4 feet, it was designed to hang on a wall, and it showed off the entire known world at the time.


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[Assistant] And it was the first known map to use the name America, although that label was placed over South America, not North.


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[Assistant] But centuries before that map was created, the castle's builder Ulrich von Laber was having some personal problems. It seems that he left home for months at a time to lead his troops in battle. And while he was gone, his lonely wife Clara was welcoming, uh, visitors of her own.


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[Assistant] One of which was actually one of her husband's sworn enemies, George Muller.


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[Assistant] Upon discovering his wife's betrayal, it's said that Ulrich hired two servants to capture her while traveling and then assassinate her. Whether or not that decision haunted Ulrich, we do know that Clara herself seems to have left her mark on the castle.


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[Assistant] For centuries, people have reported unusual activity there, including strange lights, objects that move on their own, and the occasional sighting of a ghostly woman dressed in white.


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[Assistant] And what tour of European castles would be complete without a visit to Romania? And the fortress that's long been associated with a popular fictional vampire?


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[Assistant] The first fortification to stand in the village of Bran was a wooden one built back in the early 11th century. But it was replaced 150 years later by a stone version on orders of the Hungarian king Louis the Great.


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[Assistant] And it's a castle you really have to look up to see its true haunting beauty for yourself. Those tall towers and crumbling stone walls practically scream for a fantasy story to be written about it. And that's one of the reasons why most people outside of Romania call it Dracula's Castle. But there are a couple of problems with that.


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[Assistant] First, although most people agree that the fictional Dracula character was partly inspired by Vlad the Impaler, the 15th century ruler of what is now Romania, there's no evidence that he ever lived in Bran Castle.


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[Assistant] And second, Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula, never stepped foot in Romania. In fact, he did all of his research for the novel from the comforts of the reading room in the British Museum in London.


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[Assistant] So in a lot of ways, Bran Castle is a fortress devoted to folklore itself. It carries the weight of a story it never played host to. And yet each year, thousands of starry-eyed tourists snap photos of it, assuming the rumors are true.


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[Assistant] All they would have to do is read the book and Stoker's description of Dracula's castle to see the truth for themselves.


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[Assistant] But there are other castles in Europe that take the association game a bit further. Places that might not have inspired popular novels, but have still left people whispering about what lurks in the shadows.


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[Assistant] They might not be connected to the creation of monsters, but they've been affiliated with something worse. They have played host to them.


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[Assistant] They say home is where the heart is. It's where we create memories and share special occasions. It's where we feel safe and where we retreat when the world around us becomes a little too stormy. It's fair to say that just about everyone wants a place to call their own.


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[Assistant] But when that place is a massive stone fortress that towers over the surrounding countryside, and has been doing so through countless owners and centuries, it becomes a very different sort of home. And a great place to see what I mean is Vikov Castle in the Czech Republic.


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[Assistant] As picturesque fortresses go, Vikov Castle doesn't disappoint. It's built on the rocky spine of a tall peninsula that jets out into the confluence of two rivers about 60 miles south of the city of Prague.


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[Assistant] Seriously, make a mental note to go look up photos of this place when the episode is over and you'll see why so many people call it the King of Castles.


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[Assistant] The structure we see today is the product of centuries of building. The earliest parts of the castle were constructed over 2000 years ago, but the enormous tower came many years later.


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[Assistant] And as you might imagine, the castle was used by people to defend their land, guard the rivers, and all the other benefits that castles typically provided.


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[Assistant] But for centuries, there have been rumors of something else living in Vikov Castle. Back in the late 1500s, a new family took over the fortress and began the task of settling in. Part of that involved some renovations. You don't just move into a place that's a millennia and a half old and call it a day. No, things needed fixing.


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[Assistant] Local legend says that as the workers were going about their job, bad luck began to follow them around.


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[Assistant] The buckets of paint would be knocked over, tools would go missing, and projects they had just completed would fall apart right before their eyes.


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[Assistant] It's whispered that these pranks were all the work of the trickster imps that live within the castle walls. Some say these are supernatural creatures that have moved in and made the place their home, while others believe they are the spirits of the countless soldiers who have died in or near the castle.


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[Assistant] Either way, they still make their presence known from time to time, much to the concern of the people who visit. Tourists still encounter unusual problems with their electronics, animals behave oddly, and there's a general sense that someone or something is hiding in the shadows, ready to cause more trouble.


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[Assistant] Less than 200 miles to the south, however, is another ancient fortress that's played home to a different sort of resident. Musham Castle stands in southern Austria, about 50 miles outside Salzburg. And it's that connection that led to the stories that are still haunting the castle today.


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[Assistant] In the late 1600s, Mushim Castle became a key location in the Salzburg witch trials. A decade and a half long social frenzy that saw the accusation of thousands and the execution of well over a hundred victims.


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[Assistant] As most historians will point out, one of the things that made the Salzburg witch trials so unusual was that most of the victims were men, and it was a horror that left a lasting mark on the castle. Today, we know why those trials happened.


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[Assistant] The region had just experienced the effects of war, leaving the community in poverty with threat of disease and starvation hanging over their heads. And nearly all of the witch trial victims were homeless individuals. People who were seen by the locals as less clean, and therefore more prone to spread disease.


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[Assistant] Like so many witch trials before, the Salzburg trials were less about witchcraft, and more about our ongoing fear of outsiders and social outcasts. And that's important to remember as the history of the castle unfolds from there, because a century after those trials, something darker moved in.


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[Assistant] Around 1790, the castle's funding was cut off by the local archbishop, leaving its walls undefended and in disrepair, and leaving the area around it less secure. And not long after that, people started finding dead animals in the fields.


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[Assistant] Sometimes it was cattle from their own herd, while other times it was local deer that the hunters depended on. Either way, I hope you can see why the people would have been frightened by this.


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[Assistant] The reason for the killings they believed was a pack of werewolves that had taken up residence inside the castle, coming out at night to hunt for food.


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[Assistant] With memories of the witch trials still part of a community's whispered history, they immediately began hunting for townsfolk who they could try and execute. And those who were arrested were held in the old dungeon beneath the castle.


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[Assistant] In the end, at least two people confessed. Under torture, of course. And I doubt it would surprise you that these people were poor beggars, much like their homeless counterparts from a century before.


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[Assistant] Both men confessed to rubbing a black salve on their bodies to cause their transformations. A salve they acquired from the devil himself.


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[Assistant] Amazingly, both men escaped execution in town, but the records do show that they were sentenced to something called galley punishment. It sounds like forced labor on a ship, such as being forced to work the oars until they died from exhaustion.


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[Assistant] But galley punishment was something else entirely. It actually meant that they were each chained to the rudder of a ship, where they either died from drowning or from exposure to the harsh elements over time.


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[Assistant] Clearly, some castles have become home to stories of evil over the years. From their creation as tools of dominion to their transition to ruins or relics, many European castles have also slowly shifted from benign dwellings to dark abodes.


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[Assistant] None of it made any sense. When they first built the castle, its location defied all the logical reasons for doing so. There was no source of fresh water. No one moved in to call it home.


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[Assistant] Even more unusual than that, it was simply too far from any real location of strategic value to make its construction worthwhile. It was, in a lot of ways, a waste of time and resources. And yet they built it, which left a lot of unanswered questions, and more than a bit of mystery.


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[Assistant] Of course, humans love to fill in the gaps in our world. Tales of undiscovered creatures and lost civilizations are just two subjects where we can see that tendency at work. When people lack information or a solid explanation for something mysterious, we tend to flesh it out with story.


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[Assistant] The castle was built by the King of Bohemia, a man named Autokar II, although many refer to him by a much more fantastic sounding title, the Iron and Golden King.


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[Assistant] His reign lasted for 25 years, beginning in the year 1253, and at some point while he was in power, he ordered construction of a castle that would leave so many people scratching their heads.


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[Assistant] It was built near the community of Husqa and is roughly square-shaped with an open courtyard in the middle. But Husqa Castle isn't known for its architecture. It's famous for what the building sits on top of. A cave.


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[Assistant] And not just any cave, either. Local legend tells us that the castle sits atop an opening that leads straight to hell. By building the structure there, the king's workers built a barrier over this gateway in an effort to stop the demons that spilled out at night.


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[Assistant] And while I realize this sounds like something out of an episode of Supernatural, there is no magic cult revolver or circle of salt to be found. Just an enormous castle with no kitchen, and a cover story that it was an administrative building.


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[Assistant] Here's the best part though. There really is a pit in the basement of this castle. It's dark and deep and easily looks like the sort of opening that legions and demons might crawl out of. And when the original builders started their work, the first thing they did was build a Christian chapel directly on top of it.


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[Assistant] One early story about the castle tells of how all of their protections and barriers seemed to be failing. Monstrous creatures were so common that they were sometimes even seen during the daytime, so they demanded that the authorities do something about it. What they got, it seems, was a cruel experiment.


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[Assistant] It said that they offered a deal to a local prisoner. If he would consent to be lowered into the dark pit on a rope, they would set him free. And considering how he was facing the death penalty, he took the deal. A short while later, he was seated on a board at the end of the rope, while a group of soldiers lowered him down into the darkness.


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[Assistant] For a while, there was no sound, just the hard breathing of the men as they let out more and more rope. But after a while, a terrifying scream could be heard deep down in the pit, so they quickly began to pull the prisoner back up.


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[Assistant] When he appeared at the mouth of the pit, they say that his hair had turned white and his mind had been broken by whatever it was that he experienced.


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[Assistant] As the centuries ticked by, ownership of the castle changed hands a number of times. And as it did, the stories piled up like refuse at the bottom of a pit. Some previous owners have seen objects levitate inside the castle, while others have heard unexplainable sounds and cries of torment emanating from the floor of the chapel.


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[Assistant] Others claim to see demonic creatures with the body of a man with the head of an animal roaming through the courtyard at night.


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[Assistant] But it wasn't until the late 1930s when those local legends took on a new flavor. That was when the growing forces of Nazi Germany began to grab hold of locations all around Europe. And Husqa Castle was no exception.


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[Assistant] The most common story told about that era is that the head of the SS, a man named Heinrich Himmler, moved a large portion of his occult library to the castle, and he used the location to conduct unusual experiments.


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[Assistant] We don't know if this was actually the case, but we do know that Himmler was obsessed with the occult and owned over 13,000 books on magic and the supernatural.


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[Assistant] So you can see how tempting it is to believe that he'd be interested in Husqa Castle, thanks to those rumors of a gateway to hell directly beneath it.


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[Assistant] What those experiments were, there's no record. But in recent years, researchers have located a number of skeletons in the courtyard at the center of the castle. Nazi soldiers who had been killed by their own superiors for some unknown reason.


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[Assistant] At the end of the day though, Husqa Castle shows us just how insignificant all that folklore can be in the face of humanity. Visitors today might still go looking for ghosts or demonic creatures, but just 80 years ago, actual Nazis lived and worked there.


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[Assistant] It seems that we don't really need the stories about monsters to be true, because we humans have enough potential for darkness all on our own.


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[Assistant] Everyone dreams of a fairy tale ending. We all have challenges that stand in our way and look forward to a day when those barriers are broken to pieces. A day when we can, as the saying goes, live happily ever after.


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[Assistant] But however inspirational fairy tales can be, they are nothing more than fantasy painted against a stylized background. And for a very long time, many of those stories have been set in a utopian version of medieval Europe. The towers, and high walls, and knights on horseback. All of it just pulls us in. But it's fiction, and nothing more.


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[Assistant] No, it seems that, in reality, European castles make an easy setting for tales of the unexplainable. They were viewed as mysterious and threatening, and they were out of reach for most people for a very long time. What better way to fill those ancient walls than with frightening stories?


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[Assistant] But after taking a tour through a few of them with me today, I hope it's clear just how far those stories are from fact. After all, how many tales of ghostly women in white does one continent need? Well, it turns out there's at least one more. And it's a doozy.


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[Assistant] Dragsalm Castle is an 800-year-old Danish building that has exactly the sort of history you'd expect from an old castle. It was built in the 1200s as a palace, but converted into a fortress about three centuries later. Since then, it's had a long list of owners, mostly passed down through family lines.


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[Assistant] But it's an early episode in the castle's history that's of interest to me.


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[Assistant] But the man's newfound peace was shattered weeks later when he discovered that his daughter was pregnant. Now there were many things that could have been done, of course. He could have allowed the lovers to reunite and live happily ever after, perhaps. But that's not the sort of man her father was.


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[Assistant] No, instead he locked her away in her room in the castle, hoping that, with enough time, she would forget the young man and change her ways.


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[Assistant] A century ago, new owners of Drag's Home Castle were doing some small renovations to bring the building into the 20th century. From what I can tell, they were installing a new toilet, which, if you know anything about medieval bathrooms, was probably a fantastic idea.


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[Assistant] Medieval castles have certainly become important characters in many beloved fairy tales over the centuries. But at the top of that list is a fortress built by a very unusual man, and its impact is a lot closer to home than you might realize. Stick around after this brief sponsor break to hear all about it.


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[Assistant] They were a family pulled straight out of some coming of age after school special. Mom hated dad, and dad hated mom. Their two sons, Otto and Ludwig, hated each other too. And to make matters worse, mom and dad hated the kids. It was a cold home life, for sure.


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[Assistant] So it should come as no surprise to anyone that Ludwig became interested early on in anything related to fantasy worlds and make-believe. His reality was hostile and a breeding ground for anxiety, after all.


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[Assistant] So it made sense that he spent his days creating alternate worlds, places where people lived happily ever after.


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[Assistant] And of course, those fantasies were all built around the idea of kings and queens in their mighty castles. After all, his father had been born a prince and his mother a princess. Monarchy and power were part of the family language, and Ludwig grew up around all of that. And then, at the age of 19, his world changed.


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[Assistant] His father, King Maximilian, died from an infection in 1864, leaving Ludwig in control of Bavaria. But he didn't inherit a kingdom at peace. Tensions had been growing throughout his part of Europe for years, and in 1866, all of that erupted into what's called the Austro-Prussian War.


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[Assistant] Now, I won't bore you with the political chess game that was going on, but the most important thing to know is that Ludwig, being rather new to the job of king, ended up backing the wrong neighboring country. And they lost hard. As a result, his kingdom of Bavaria became absorbed into Prussia as sort of a sub-nation.


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[Assistant] And it was this loss of power and autonomy that really pushed him over the edge.


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[Assistant] Two years later, he decided to build the perfect world around himself. He chose a spot in the foothills of the Alps, down at the very southern edge of modern Germany, and began construction of his dream castle. All of those years as a child, daydreaming of his fantasy world, were about to be poured into this new structure. A castle he called Neuschwanstein.


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[Assistant] It took his workers two decades to complete it, but even before it was done, Ludwig was there, enjoying its tall towers and high stone walls.


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[Assistant] Being a more modern castle though, it also incorporated modern comforts. There was a private theater, an artificial lake with a swan boat, and a hydroelectric plant that he used to animate many of its outdoor features.


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[Assistant] But all of this came at a cost. Over the years of construction, Ludwig burned through his family fortune and then began to borrow from family and friends. As time went by, he became more and more indebted to other powerful people all across Europe, and that made his advisors and administrators very nervous. After all, how could he make sound decisions for his kingdom if others pulled his strings?


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[Assistant] So they plotted a way to remove him. They hired a man named Dr. Bernhard von Guten, who specialized in the new and growing field of psychology, to come and perform some evaluations of Ludwig's mental state.


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[Assistant] Instead of learning about the king by speaking with him directly, he limited himself to conversations with the same people who hired him. So of course, he concluded that Ludwig was unfit.


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[Assistant] As a result, the king was removed from the throne in 1886 and taken to Berg Castle, near Munich, where he would live out the rest of his days as a political prisoner. And it's there, far from the glorious halls of his beloved Neuschwanstein Castle, that the final chapter of his troubled life played out.


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[Assistant] On June 13th of 1886, Dr. Gooden, the reason for his imprisonment, joined him at Bird Castle for dinner. After their meal, the pair stepped outside for a walk in the rain. Seeing as how they were safe on castle grounds, the only guard was waved away, and the two men walked and talked as the sun began to set.


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[Assistant] After a number of hours passed without their return though, the servants and guards began to go looking for them. For a while, no clue could be found as to where they had gone. Perhaps Ludwig had escaped, or maybe Gudin had experienced a change of heart and had snuck him out himself. And then the guards found them.


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[Assistant] At the back of the property where the manicured lawn ran west to the shore of a lake, they could see two shapes at the water's edge. When they approached, their hearts sank. Both men were dead, floating face down in the cold water.


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[Assistant] There are a lot of articles and books about that mystery. Were the two men murdered? Or was it a murder-suicide? And if so, who was the last to die?


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[Assistant] But thanks to time and messy record keeping, it's a puzzle that might never have a chance to be solved.


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[Assistant] Neuschwanstein Castle is still there. It was completed the same year King Ludwig died, and today it's a popular tourist attraction, drawing in well over a million visitors each year.


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[Assistant] And it's easy to understand why. The surrounding landscape is breathtaking, and the castle itself is a stunning example of what happens when someone builds for idealism rather than practicality.


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[Assistant] More amazing of all though is just how influential those tall, narrow towers have become in our world today. In a rare example of happily ever after, Neuschwanstein Castle became the centerpiece of another man's construction project, this one wrapping up in 1955.


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[Assistant] He had built a career out of telling stories, many of which, it turns out, were fairy tales.


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[Assistant] And his new project, an entire fantasy world that people could visit and enjoy, was built around a small castle modeled after the one King Ludwig had built eight decades earlier. It's amazing to consider.


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[Assistant] But without the wild ideas of a 19th century Bavarian king, we might not have one of the most iconic buildings in the world.


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[Assistant] This episode of Lore was written and produced by me, Aaron Manke, with research by Robin Minniter and music by Chad Lawson. Lore is much more than just a podcast. There's a book series available in bookstores and online, and two seasons of the television show on Amazon Prime Video. Check them both out if you want more Lore in your life.


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[Assistant] I also make and executive produce a whole bunch of other podcasts, all of which I think you'd enjoy.


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[Assistant] My production company Grim and Mild specializes in shows that sit at the intersection of the dark and the historical.


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[Assistant] You can learn about all of the shows we make and everything else going on over at GrimAndMild.com. And you can also follow this 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 listening.


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[Assistant] We've all seen enough depictions in television and film to know what they look like, and while those practices and traditions have changed over the millennia and differ from one culture to another, those changes happen slowly, making it easy to define what normal was at any given point.


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[Assistant] But there are always exceptions. In the world of archaeology, they are referred to as deviant burials, when the grave of a long-dead human is found but doesn't fit the expected conditions. The skeleton might be arranged in a particular way, or missing parts, or both.


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[Assistant] And it's believed burials like this were designed as a sign of disrespect.


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[Assistant] Some deviant burials in ancient times were performed because the person died by suicide, while other times it was one last punishment for a convicted criminal. If society viewed their life or death with suspicion and disdain, a deviant burial was a likely choice.


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[Assistant] But sometimes, those unusual burials happened for other reasons.


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[Assistant] One grave site that was excavated in the 1980s in the Czech Republic revealed a stone-aged man who had been pinned in the grave with a large post. In a 2,000-year-old Greek burial on the coast of Sicily, two skeletons were found with great weights on top of them. And in medieval England, some were buried with millstones on top of their grave.


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[Assistant] The most common deviation from the norm in burials around the world is a simple yet obvious change in body position. In most cases, these skeletons are found face down, rather than on their backs, as one might expect.


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[Assistant] Archaeologists call them prone burials, and the reason behind them is much less rational. These were burials driven by fear. Fear that the person might come back to life.


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[Assistant] Not the TV show, mind you, but the larger concept behind it.


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[Assistant] And not only that, but the notion that the dead can somehow return to the land of the living is a truly global one too. No matter where you go in the world, there is a very good chance that the people there have stories about the dead who return.


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[Assistant] And because of that, there's no way I could possibly discuss them all right now. These are stories that span history from ancient Babylon and Egypt to the countries of Europe and the UK. But a great place to start would be China.


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[Assistant] Stories of the Changxi have been around for centuries in print, but probably date back much further in oral tradition. And what I love about the folklore surrounding this creature is just how much of our modern concept of the undead it seems to shatter. And that all starts with how they are created.


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[Assistant] Legend says that a Changxi is given life when a cat jumps over a dead body. But it's also possible to find stories of travelers who die too far from home for a proper burial and therefore become cursed to return from the dead.


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[Assistant] No matter the cause of their creation though, it's easy to spot them with their glowing red eyes, long claws, and pale green skin and hair.


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[Assistant] The feature that I think I love the most about the Changxi is how their bodies are often described as rather stiff, leaving them unable to move most of their joints.


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[Assistant] They apparently get around by hopping, with their arms held out straight in front of them in case they trip and fall.


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[Assistant] I have to imagine this makes them pretty easy to see or hear coming. In nearby India, there are stories of the Vitala.


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[Assistant] These stories are of evil spirits that have the power to slip inside a dead body and reanimate it. Like a person changing clothing over and over.


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[Assistant] Oddly enough, the bodies they inhabit are often described as taking on a greenish tint, and they hunt for victims among the most vulnerable in the community. The very young, the sleeping, and the drunk.


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[Assistant] In Western Africa, along the Atlantic coast, the people of Ghana tell stories about the ads. A creature that typically has multiple shapes.


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[Assistant] In most situations, the ads hunts for blood in the form of a firefly or a glowing beetle, similar to the European stories of fairy lights. But if lured with coconut milk and palm oil and then captured, they will transform into their human shape, revealing them to be the dead returned.


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[Assistant] Some of the most creative undead stories, though, come to us from the Emerald Isle. It seems that Ireland has no shortage of legends involving creatures connected to death, although I need to offer a caveat before we talk about them.


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[Assistant] You see, many of the stories told about them today attempt to attach specific origin stories to them, with persons' names and dates and places, but no real evidence to back it all up.


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[Assistant] So while the names and fear of these creatures are clearly old and traditional, their modern origin stories should be read with a few grains of salt on hand.


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[Assistant] One common Irish undead creature is the Darug Dua. It's often described as a pale woman who is spotted in graveyards at night. Like the siren of Greek mythology, these creatures lure men with their beauty, and when they kiss, they drain their victim of all his blood.


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[Assistant] It's said that the only way to get rid of them is to find their gravesite and then pile stones on top of it. Which sounds a lot like many deviant burials found in the UK.


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[Assistant] Another Irish creature has taken on a false reputation as being the inspiration behind Brom Stoker's Dracula, all thanks to its name.


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[Assistant] The Drak-Ola is supposed to haunt a castle in County Kerry, although there's no actual evidence to back up this belief. There are not a lot of details about this creature, but I've seen it described as a sort of blood-drinking fairy.


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[Assistant] Over in Scotland, there are stories of the Bhavan Sith. Like in other tales, this creature is usually described as a woman and, again, said to have pale green skin and clothing. Legend says that they are the reanimated corpses of women who died in childbirth and have a strong taste for blood.


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[Assistant] And finally, in the cold waters between Ireland and England, the Isle of Man is home to tales of the Leonchí. These fairy women, like their cousins in Ireland, use their beauty to lure men to their death, but it's said that they drain their victims much more slowly than other creatures. And this delay gives their human prisoners time to escape, but only if they can find someone to take their place.


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[Assistant] And like I said before, I could go on and on. It seems that no matter where you go in the world, stories of the undead are lurking in the shadows, ready to cause fear and panic.


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[Assistant] Which makes sense, I suppose. If there's one thing every human culture throughout history has had to deal with, it's death. And it's only natural that stories have risen up to explain all that suffering and lust.


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[Assistant] But they're just stories, after all. Legends whispered in the dead of night to entertain children and thrill an audience. Oral folklore that kept the idea alive that the dead could return to haunt the living. But no one actually took them seriously, right? Well that's not entirely true.


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[Assistant] Because for one man, at least, there were some stories that couldn't be dismissed.


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[Assistant] And because of that, they were preserved in the public record.


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[Assistant] Stories that come with a claim of truth and accuracy, no matter how frightening they are.


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[Assistant] He stood out among his peers. William Parvis was born in the early days of the 12th century, at a time when England was still adapting to the arrival of William the Conqueror a few decades earlier. And unlike most people of his day, William was highly educated.


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[Assistant] Although he was born in Yorkshire, he spent most of his life in Newborough, where he received a deep and comprehensive classical education. We're talking history, theology, literature, the classics, you name it, William of Newborough studied it.


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[Assistant] A local Abbot had asked him to write a history book and William responded by creating a massive work known as the History of English Affairs. It spans five big volumes, beginning with the Norman invasion in 1066 and covers English events up until 1198.


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[Assistant] And William really tried to make sure his readers knew he was there to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.


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[Assistant] He even dismisses common entries from other history books as pure fantasy. Stories like the legend of King Arthur, for example, before detailing actual history as he sought. It's a not-so-subtle way of saying what you're about to read is entirely true.


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[Assistant] And that's what makes some of the stories included in his work so amazing. Because there are a number of tales that involve a particular topic. The Undead.


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[Assistant] Now, William's original Latin uses the word prodigio, which means wonders, but scholars are united in the use of revenants as a better term, because they are stories of the dead who returned.


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[Assistant] According to William of Newburgh, there were actually too many to include in his book. If he were to write down all the instances of this kind, which I have ascertained to have befallen in our times, he explained, the undertaking would be beyond measure laborious and troublesome.


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[Assistant] Thankfully though, he included some, like this one passed on to him by Stephen, the Archbishop of Buckingham.


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[Assistant] According to the story, a local Buckingham man had recently passed away, but the night after his funeral, he returned to visit his wife. The undead man apparently climbed into bed with her, and I quote, nearly crushed her by the insupportable weight of his body.


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[Assistant] For two more nights, the man returned to see his wife, but she eventually drove him away. So after that, he paid a visit to his brothers.


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[Assistant] Thankfully, they had been warned ahead of time and quickly fought him off.


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[Assistant] After that, the dead man resorted to terrorizing the livestock.


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[Assistant] At this point, the people in town were terrified of leaving their homes. The dead man was said to even roam the streets in broad daylight. Desperate, the archbishop asked the bishop for advice, and he was told that such things had often befallen in England, and the best way proven to stop the attacks was to dig up the man's body and burn it.


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[Assistant] Steven, though, was apparently afraid of desecrating a corpse, so instead, he wrote an official letter of absolution from the church, and then laid it on the dead man's body. And, oddly enough, that did the trick.


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[Assistant] If only things were as easy for another community described in William's book, The Village of Berwick.


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[Assistant] Around the same time that the dead man was terrorizing Buckingham, another, the body of a man described as a great rogue, was seen wandering through Berwick at night. And everywhere he went, he was chased by a large pack of dogs. And that combination of the walking dead and the constant barking was enough to drive the townsfolk crazy. So the people took matters into their own hands.


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[Assistant] They found ten young men renowned for boldness and gave them the task of digging up the man's body, cutting it into pieces, and then tossing it all into a fire.


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[Assistant] After that, the dead man never returned to bother them again.


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[Assistant] But few stories recorded by William of Newborough are as terrifying as the tale of the Hound Priest. He was called that because, one, he was a priest, and two, he enjoyed hunting with the help of dogs. Honestly, Hound Priest wasn't the most creative of nicknames, but it does the job.


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[Assistant] We are told by William that this priest was very much not the typical man of the cloth. He enjoyed the finer things in life and rubbed shoulders with all the nobles in the area around his community of Melrose, in what is now southern Scotland. In fact, thanks to a friendship with one noblewoman in particular, this priest became quite wealthy during his lifetime.


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[Assistant] But the priest eventually passed away, and his body was soon laid to rest in a grave at his own church. And not long after, that noblewoman was visited by his dead body, which moaned and mumbled in the darkness of her bedroom. And it happened more than once, putting this woman into a state of panic and despair. So she asked the other local priests for help.


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[Assistant] And these guys were smart. They knew that this woman's donations kept the church well-funded, which would continue as long as she was happy. So they assembled a team of men to watch over the dead priest's grave. Two local strongmen and two priests. And that night, the men gathered in the churchyard, sitting in a tight circle near the priest's grave.


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[Assistant] From sunset to midnight, nothing happened. And it wasn't a warm night either, so they decided to leave one man guarding the grave while the other three went inside to get warm.


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[Assistant] And that's the moment when the corpse of the priest decided to break free from the grave, startling the lone watchman.


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[Assistant] Grabbing his hand axe, the man struck out at the dead body walking toward him, cutting a vicious wound in its chest. After a short struggle, the dead priest was said to have fallen back into the grave, which closed up around him, bringing an end to the commotion. But not before the other three watchmen arrived to see what was going on.


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[Assistant] After hearing the man's story, the rest of the group decided that something more needed to be done. So they set about digging the grave open, partly to make sure that the priest was still in there, but also to stop the undead for good. But after removing all the soil and opening the coffin, what they found, left unreeling.


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[Assistant] The priest's body was right where it should be, but all of them could tell that something was very wrong with it. Blood covered the front of the dead man's clothing and had spilled around the body.


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[Assistant] The older the story, the easier it is to dismiss. Think of the level of trust you feel about the accuracy of Greek mythology compared to accounts of the Civil War. The wider that gulf of time becomes, the harder it is to trust that all the details are factual and true.


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[Assistant] So while the stories written down by William of Newborough are frightening, there's a certain level of safety thanks to how old they are. But even in modern times, there have been stories that make us stop and wonder. Like the one that took place in 1875, preserved thanks to the work of a man named Augustus Hare.


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[Assistant] He was a writer in the latter part of the 19th century, focusing mostly on travel guides, family histories, and biographies of prominent figures. But one story he shared cannot be ignored. And it took place in the Northwest of England, in the County of Cumberland. And while his friends say that he shared the story often among them, it was finally published by him years later.


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[Assistant] The story tells of a family of siblings who rented a cottage in Cumberland in the early months of 1875. They were a trio, two brothers and a sister, all in their early adulthood. But despite the additions and edits that have taken place over the century and a half since the story was first published, we don't actually know their names.


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[Assistant] So what we do know is that the cottage was small, just one story tall with a pair of bedrooms. And after settling in, the siblings spent the winter getting to know the people of the village. They were outsiders, but everyone seemed to welcome them in and said that these newcomers were kind and well mannered. So life was good.


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[Assistant] Winter soon gave way to spring, and then the heat of summer arrived. One day, according to the story, the brothers spent most of their day reading books in the shade of trees in the yard, while their sister set up camp on the small veranda overlooking the property. You know those sorts of sweltering summer days, and how easy it is to get nothing done. This was one of those days.


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[Assistant] As night fell, the sister retreated to her bedroom. In an effort to keep the heat out of the house, she closed the glass windows but left the shutters wide open so that she could see the night sky. But as she rested on the bed, staring off toward the dark tree line that separated the cottage from the nearby churchyard, two lights appeared near the ground and then started to slowly make their way toward her.


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[Assistant] As she watched, the light seemed to move up and down the low hills of the property, disappearing behind trees only to reappear a moment later. But what was certain was that it was drawing nearer. And then, when she was sure that it was headed straight toward her window, it seemed to vanish to one side of the house. A traveler. Nothing more, she told herself.


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[Assistant] But in the silence of her room she began to hear an eerie sound. It was the sound of scratching, slow and deliberate from somewhere nearby.


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[Assistant] For a short while, the sister took comfort in the fact that the window was locked, but soon a new sound began to come from the creature. It was more rough, and it shook the glass. To her horror, she realized that whatever the creature was outside, it was scratching away at the lead between the glass panes. It was making a way inside.


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[Assistant] And soon enough, the glass pane fell free, and that same brown bony hand reached inside and turned the lock.


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[Assistant] And before she knew it the window was opened and the thing, whatever it was,


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[Assistant] Was climbing in and walking toward the bed where she lay, toward her.


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[Assistant] Crossing the room in a matter of seconds, the creature grabbed the sister by the head, tangling its bony, twisted fingers in her hair, and then dragged her to the edge of the bed. Then, with her neck exposed, it leaned down and bit into the flesh of her throat. And at that onset of pain, she finally screamed out for help.


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[Assistant] Within moments her brothers had both rushed to her locked bedroom door and broken in to respond to her cry. As they did, they saw the dark shape of the creature slipping out the window, with their sister thrashing on the bed, blood pouring from her neck. One of the brothers agreed to stay and help, while the other leapt out the window and gave chase to the invader.


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[Assistant] But after following it across the property, it vanished into the trees at the edge of the churchyard.


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[Assistant] But understanding that she was traumatized by what happened, he recommended that she get a change of scenery. So despite having a seven-year lease on the cottage there in Kroglengrange, the siblings packed up and headed to Europe, spending the remainder of 1875 in Switzerland.


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[Assistant] They say that time can heal all wounds, and maybe that was true for the young woman. But in the century and a half since the events took place, many have wondered how they could possibly be true. And with a world view that says that the dead always stay dead, I can see how that's a natural response to the story.


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[Assistant] We expect the dead to stay in the grave. Cultures around the world have developed intricate rituals and traditions around the act of burial, and they are a source of peace and comfort for many. But there have always been stories of those who break the rules.


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[Assistant] Some cultural anthropologists see a layer of social commentary beneath the tales of the undead. These stories, they say, were meant to warn against anti-social behavior.


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[Assistant] Naturally, the people who were feared in life must also be feared in death.


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[Assistant] If they couldn't follow the rules of morality and piety, they certainly weren't about to let the grave hold them back.


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[Assistant] And of course, this is where a lot of those deviant burial practices come in.


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[Assistant] The prone burials I mentioned earlier, where bodies were buried face down, had an almost comical rationale behind them.


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[Assistant] It was believed that reanimated corpses dug their way forward, and if they were on their backs they would eventually exit the grave.


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[Assistant] So a prone burial was the safer bet. If they did come back to life, they would just dig themselves deeper.


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[Assistant] But not all stories have that humorous element, and I think the tale of the siblings of Croglin Grange is one of them. Although, let me address one thing first. There's been debate for decades about whether this story is even true. In the late 1800s, there wasn't a village by that name, and the churchyard mentioned was in ruins.


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[Assistant] But others have pointed out that the story may actually be two centuries older.


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[Assistant] Because prior to 1700, the church was still standing, and one of the local farmhouses was a one-story cottage known as Croglin Low Hall. And if we approach these sorts of tales as remnants of something true, the legend of Croglin Grange has all the telltale signs.


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[Assistant] The young woman began to feel much better and had come to terms with the attack.


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[Assistant] She was nervous, for sure, but she also knew that they had enjoyed their time at Crockland Grange.


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[Assistant] The house and property were a wonderful retreat, and the community was warm and welcoming. It didn't help that her brothers reminded her that it was highly unlikely that another escaped lunatic, as they called him, would find her bedroom window again. So they packed up once more and returned to the cottage in the spring of 1876.


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[Assistant] That didn't mean that they didn't take precautions, though. The brothers both kept loaded pistols with them at all times, and they swapped rooms with their sister, hoping that on the astronomically rare chance that it happened again, they would be the ones to experience the invasion, not her.


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[Assistant] Sometime in March, as the winter snow was disappearing and new life was emerging from the ground, they retired to sleep for the night. But despite moving to a new room, the sister was awoken by that unforgettable sound of dry fingers scratching on the window.


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[Assistant] She risked the glance outside, and to her horror, she saw the same ancient undead face staring back at her.


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[Assistant] And this time, she did not give the creature time to find a way inside. She cried out for help, and almost immediately her brothers arrived, guns at the ready.


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[Assistant] Both of the young men ran from the house, chasing the creature out across the property and back toward the trees it had come from. One of them even managed to fire a shot, hitting it directly in the leg.


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[Assistant] Just as before, the undead creature vanished into the trees, but this time the brothers followed. When they emerged on the other side, they found themselves in an old graveyard, with the church looming tall nearby.


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[Assistant] They had just enough time to see the creature slip inside an old vault and watch the door close, and were left wondering what to do next.


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[Assistant] In the center of the room rested a single, untouched coffin, and while it looked undisturbed, the brothers noticed that the lid was not closed tightly, so both young men approached it, cautiously, of course, and slowly lifted the lid to peer inside.


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[Assistant] It was the undead creature they had chased the night before. Its ancient brown shriveled body lay motionless in the coffin, but both men were almost certain that this was the thing that had attacked their sister and had returned just hours before.


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[Assistant] But the final clue that settled the matter, the clue that justified pulling the body out of the coffin and burning it there in the churchyard in front of all the villagers, was a small wound on one of the body's legs. It was a hole. A bullet hole.


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[Assistant] Stories of the undead returning to the land of the living are nearly as old as humanity itself. And hopefully our tour today through some of the more memorable tales in history have given you a better grasp of their true power.


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[Assistant] But I'm not done just yet. I have one more historical account that I think you're going to love. And if you stick around after this brief sponsor break, I'll tell you all about it.


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[Assistant] It turns out William of Newborough was onto something. The 12th century was filled with stories about the walking dead. If there had been some sort of medieval equivalent to trending topics, you can guarantee that revenants were on the list. People, if you'll forgive the pun, were dying to read more about them.


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[Assistant] And another William of the time, William of Malmesbury, wrote about a local bishop who had passed away around the year 1010. And in the days after his burial, it's said that the wardens of the churchyard were haunted by shadowy shapes that refused to leave them alone.


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[Assistant] So they exhumed the bishop's body, carted it outside of town, and deposited it in the marsh. After the body sank into the wet mud and disappeared, the hauntings went away.


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[Assistant] That same William recorded another local legend, one about a woman known as the Witch of Berkeley. He doesn't give us a date for this story, so it probably falls deeper into the realm of folklore than history, but it's fascinating nonetheless. And it involves a woman who is known far and wide as a witch, someone who had sold her soul to the devil for great power.


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[Assistant] As her death approached though, she plotted a way to avoid paying her end of the bargain. It's said that she told her children that when she finally passed away, they should guard her body carefully because the devil was coming back for it.


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[Assistant] Following her orders, they were said to have wrapped her corpse in deerskin, sewed it shut, and then placed her in a locked coffin wrapped in chains.


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[Assistant] But the devil sent demons to remove the chains in the dead of night, and once all of them had fallen away, the biggest demon of all came to pull the witch's body from the grave, dooming her to ride through the countryside as the undead.


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[Assistant] Another writer from that period was Geoffrey of Burton. In his book, The Life and Miracles of St. Medwina, from around 1144, he recorded that a group of townsfolk in Burton decided to toss off the leadership of the local abbots and march to the next town over to swear loyalty to a great lord there.


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[Assistant] But when the abbot caught wind of it, he prayed to St. Medwina for help.


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[Assistant] Almost immediately, the rebellious town folk were struck dead, and were soon buried. Later that night though, their undead corpses rose from the graveyard and began their march to the next town all over again. And as they passed through the village, a wave of sickness followed them like a cloud.


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[Assistant] To stop them, the rest of the village was said to have cut off their heads and then given them a second burial. This time of the Deviant Sword. Their heads were placed between their legs and their hearts were removed and burned. After that, the revenants were seen no more.


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[Assistant] One final story, this one from a 12th century writer named Walter Mapp. He was a Welshman who wrote mostly historical accounts of kings, clergy, and the politics of England at the time, but he also wrote about the undead.


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[Assistant] According to MAP, the story took place in Hereford, a city close to the border between Wales and England. Sometime in the 1150s, an English knight named William Lawdon rode into town and headed straight for the cathedral, asking to see the bishop there. He had a problem, and he needed some advice.


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[Assistant] It seems that a local man had recently died, and as far as local guys went, this one wasn't the nicest. He was described as having lived an evil life, although I know that's pretty subjective given the nine centuries that separate his story from us today. But it was enough to frighten people, and to justify what happened next.


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[Assistant] The knight told the bishop that this dead man had risen from the grave and for four nights in a row had walked through the village harassing people. Walter Mapp's story actually makes it sound like the dead man was going door to door and every house he visited soon found themselves dealing with an outbreak of deadly disease.


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[Assistant] After less than a week of this, a large portion of the village had passed away, and those that survived were becoming desperate. So they had called upon Sir William to save them, and his first step was to ask the bishop for advice.


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[Assistant] That advice, according to the story, was for Sir William to return to the village, have the dead man exhumed, and then sprinkle his body and the surrounding grave with holy water, which he immediately did, but sadly, it didn't help.


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[Assistant] The dead man still rose from the grave at night and still tormented the people of the village. Only, this time, thanks to the Holy Water incident, he seemed to have taken notice of Sir William.


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[Assistant] The following night, as William was patrolling the streets to protect the community, the undead man appeared again, and this time, it called out to him. Not knowing what else to do, William gave chase, drawing his sword to handle the situation in the only way he knew.


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[Assistant] Frightened, the dead man was said to have started running back to his grave and whatever protection it might have offered. But the night was faster. In typical horror movie fashion, just when the revenant was almost safe, it tripped. And that's when Sir William sprang on it.


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[Assistant] Swinging his sword in a wide arc, he cut the dead man's head clean off, and the body fell limp as a ragdoll, right there on the street.


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[Assistant] True or not, it's certainly a frightening tale, and one that feels both ancient and modern all at the same time, thanks to our current obsession with the undead. And that's probably what I love the most about stories like these, because they prove how entertaining our past can be.


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[Assistant] Why look for horror on the big screen when we have frightening tales like this waiting for us in the pages of history? It seems that the past, just like the dead, will always rise to the occasion.


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[Assistant] This episode of Lore was written and produced by me, Aaron Manke, with research by Megan de Roche, and music by Chad Lawson. Lore is much more than just a podcast. There's a book series available in bookstores and online, and two seasons of the television show on Amazon Prime Video. Check them both out if you want more Lore in your life.


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[Assistant] I also make and executive produce a whole bunch of other podcasts, all of which I think you'd enjoy. My production company, Grim and Mild, specializes in shows that sit at the intersection of the dark and the historical. You can learn more about all of our shows and everything else going on over in one central place, grimandmild.com.


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[Assistant] And you can also follow this 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 listening.


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[Assistant] His was one of the most brilliant minds of the past five millennia, and yet for centuries, his notebooks had remained locked away in private hands.


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[Assistant] It wasn't until an auction in 1936 that many of the notebooks, annotations, and papers of Sir Isaac Newton were finally made available to the world, helping us to better understand how the man worked and thought. But there was more.


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[Assistant] Among those papers auctioned off in 1936 were a collection of items pertaining to alchemy, that ancient predecessor to modern chemistry.


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[Assistant] Notes about his experiments to transform base elements into gold through arcane methods. A blending of science and magic that was the primary goal of so many medieval researchers.


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[Assistant] Now remember, Newton wasn't some random guy with a chemistry set. He was a professor of mathematics at Trinity College in Cambridge. He put to paper the laws of motion and gravity that became the core of pre-modern science all the way until Einstein's theory of relativity. He wasn't a slouch, or a hack, or a crackpot.


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[Assistant] Despite all of those credentials, Newton spent years dabbling with alchemy, attempting to transform one thing into another.


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[Assistant] He experimented with all sorts of metals, including mercury and lead. Often running his equipment for days at a time with little food and no sleep. And when he did rest, it was in a bedroom set up in the adjoining room.


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[Assistant] And while he never managed to succeed, he did manage to change his own body. He had a full head of gray hair by the age of 32 and was riddled with health problems like insomnia and indigestion.


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[Assistant] He suffered from violent mood swings and an argumentative personality. Never enough to cost him his job overseeing the royal mint, but certainly noticeable by close friends.


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[Assistant] And scientists today are pretty sure why.


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[Assistant] At some point in the past, one of Newton's actual hairs was discovered between two pages in one of his notebooks. And back in 1979, a team of researchers were given permission to test it. What they found was shocking, and at the same time, it made perfect sense.


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[Assistant] While the typical person has a parts per million lead measurement of roughly 24, Newton's was 191. And although most people have a parts per million for mercury of 5, Newton's hair contained 197.


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[Assistant] That's nearly 40 times the normal levels. And of course, mercury and lead are both highly toxic.


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[Assistant] Even centuries later, in this modern world of cleaner air and safer work conditions, there are invisible forces that can contaminate us, infect us, and even harm us.


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[Assistant] But what's even more frightening than that is the theme that pops up so often in horror films and suspenseful thrillers.


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[Assistant] The notion that someone without our knowledge or permission might actually use that process against us.


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[Assistant] While everyone is busy looking for death from the most obvious places, history is full of individuals who took the more invisible approach.


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[Assistant] Their ingenuity and creativity allowed them to slip under the radar and deliver pain and suffering in a way that few would have suspected.


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[Assistant] Like mother, like son. At least, that's what they say. And in the case of Barbara and Herman, it was more than a little accurate. But we're probably getting ahead of ourselves, aren't we? Let's back up, and start from the real beginning.


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[Assistant] Barbara hadn't always lived in Cleveland. She'd actually been born in the area of Europe that we call the Czech Republic today. I'll be honest and tell you that I don't know when she was born, but my best guess is around 1820. It was about 50 years later though that she packed up and moved across the Atlantic to the United States.


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[Assistant] She wasn't alone either. The 1870s was a decade of massive immigration from Central Europe. And thanks to the culture of that area, these immigrants were highly educated, religiously diverse, and skilled in a wide range of traits.


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[Assistant] But while many of Barbara's fellow travelers were trained in medicine or law, she had a unique set of skills. Something that helped her stand out from all the rest. She was a charmer.


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[Assistant] The services she offered ranged the spectrum, from fortune telling to predictions to charms and potions. It was a fringe occupation to be sure, but it also fit neatly into the personality of her community. These were thinkers and planners, and they wanted all the help and guidance they could get.


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[Assistant] Barbara only offered them what they were already looking for.


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[Assistant] In the 1880s, her adult children finally left Europe to come join her in America. Daughter Elsa and son Herman were both unmarried. But for Herman, that was a new thing, having recently divorced his wife. He was looking for a fresh start. And the land of opportunity his mother had discovered seemed like the perfect place to find it.


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[Assistant] He also found true love again, and in 1890, he married his second wife, Mary. The trouble was, Mary's family didn't care for Herman.


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[Assistant] Maybe it was his family connections to the occult. Or his previous marriage. Or perhaps they thought he looked a bit too rough. He was a tall, heavy set man with a big mustache and a bigger belly. Whatever the reason, they warned the couple not to go through with it. And after they did anyway, the family essentially disowned them.


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[Assistant] But that was alright, because Herman had settled in near his mother and had begun to work as her apprentice.


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[Assistant] Now, working for Mom didn't pay the bills though, so Herman also dabbled in other endeavors. He worked for a local tailor for a while, and as a butler in a wealthy home. He even put enough funds together to purchase a bar, but it was clear that he wasn't cut out for any of those pursuits. No, he had magic in his blood thanks to his mother, and he wanted to use it to help others.


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[Assistant] In the late 1890s, he and Mary moved from the Cleveland area to the growing Czech community in Chicago.


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[Assistant] Their destination was a small but thriving neighborhood known as Pilsen, situated between the modern highways of 290 and 55, where a large number of Czech immigrants had already settled down.


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[Assistant] It was a tiny vision of the real America we often forget about. A collection of diverse languages, cultures, skills, and dreams. All working together to build better lives than the ones they left behind. And right there in the middle of it all was Herman.


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[Assistant] Applying his services as a charmer and a fortune teller.


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[Assistant] When he opened his first storefront, he dropped his last name in favor of his mother's new married name, Billik. He felt it was easier to say out loud and to spell, making it a sort of branding decision that any modern marketing company might approve of. Folks in the area took to calling him Professor Billik.


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[Assistant] And turn to him for all sorts of occult services.


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[Assistant] It was an odd occupation, to be honest. Herman was sort of a hybrid of an herbalist and a spiritualist. He used a magic box in many of his spells, placing the ingredients inside and mixing them with water.


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[Assistant] When they were ready, those ingredients might be ingested or sprinkled in special locations or carried on their person like a charm.


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[Assistant] It was the sort of stage dressing that believing clients found attractive. A mysterious black cube with powers to alter whatever Herman put into it. But it also served as his excuse when things didn't work out right. The box, he told them, just didn't want to help them. It was out of his hands.


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[Assistant] And with that, he fell into a sort of rhythm with his work.


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[Assistant] People came to him for love charms, medical cures, and questions about their future, and Herman provided solutions.


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[Assistant] For most of the year he worked out of his shop in Pilsen within a rough neighborhood. But during the summer months, he would pack up the family and travel west toward the Desplains River, where they lived out in a tent and served the tourists that came each year. It wasn't glamorous for sure, but it also wasn't permanent.


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[Assistant] Thanks to his special skills, life was about to change for Herman Billick. Whether or not that was a good thing though, was yet to be seen.


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[Assistant] Martin and Rosa were the typical American success story. A year after their wedding in 1880, they packed up and left Europe, hoping for a better life in the United States. And Martin really did try to build that new life for them. In fact, he struggled for nearly two decades as a skilled carpenter. But it just wasn't enough.


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[Assistant] So in 1900, he and Rosa took their meager savings and used it to purchase a milk depot. Now, let's walk through what that is because it sits outside our realm of modern experience.


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[Assistant] You see, back in 1900, there were no refrigerators and 7-elevens. You couldn't just stroll down to the local grocery store and pull a gallon of cold milk off the shelf.


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[Assistant] No, the milk needed to be brought into the city on a daily basis, where it was sold out of milk depots that the local folks could go to to get their daily supply.


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[Assistant] And that's the business Martin and Rosa purchased. It was a whole building, in fact, and came with two apartments above the shop, as well as a small yard out back where they could raise chickens and pigs for the family. And that family was big.


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[Assistant] By the time they bought the Milk Depot, Martin and Rosa had seven children. Six daughters and a son. That ranged from early childhood to late teens. That was a lot of hungry bellies. And a lot of clothing and necessities. So, Martin and Rosa worked hard to make sure they had everything they needed.


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[Assistant] But the real hope, the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, was marriage. If they could marry off their daughters to good men, they would be able to sleep well and know their family was cared for. And their oldest daughter, Emma, even had a love interest, a young man named Albert Russ.


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[Assistant] The trouble was, just when things were looking hopeful, Albert broke it off.


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[Assistant] Desperate to make it work, her parents stepped in and tried to mend the relationship, but nothing helped.


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[Assistant] So they looked across the neighborhood for a less orthodox solution and found it in that local charmer, Professor Herman Billich. Billich agreed to help.


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[Assistant] He would craft them a love charm, but it would require special ingredients and that was expensive. He charged them $50 to get started, roughly $1,500 in modern American currency, and then he got to work.


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[Assistant] And his first task was to travel west to San Francisco, where the best arcane ingredients could be found.


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[Assistant] Over the following weeks, Martin and Rosa waited as patiently as they could, but Herman was slow to deliver the goods. He was quick, however, to ask for more money.


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[Assistant] First it was a hundred, and then another hundred. Soon enough, Martin and Rosa were in deep, but it was impossible to back out then. Emma's future depended on Herman's work, which was unfortunate, because a few months into the job, Albert made it clear he would never take Emma back when he married another woman.


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[Assistant] Now, you'd think that would have soured them against Herman Billich. Martin and Rosa Verzal had just had their hopes dashed by an occult herbalist with powerful marketing skills, after all. But instead, they found other projects for him to tackle.


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[Assistant] Little jobs at first, but soon enough, Herman worked his way into the family like a tick, and he was gorging himself on their finances.


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[Assistant] At one point, the Versals hired him to curse a rival Milk Depot owner, and they actually saw their own revenue increase, a sure sign of Billik's power.


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[Assistant] And that was good, because trouble was coming down the river toward them. And they would need every ounce of Herman's supernatural charm. Emma, you see, was in trouble.


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[Assistant] She had started dating a new man in the fall of 1904, a fellow by the name of Joe Cooney. But there were issues with that. First, Cooney was a bit of a rough guy. He drank a lot, fought almost as often, and cursed like a sailor.


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[Assistant] Worse than that in their eyes was the biggest problem of all. Rumor had it that Cooney was a married man with a house full of young children. Emma, though, didn't believe it.


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[Assistant] Herman represented Martin and Rose's only hope of stopping Emma's road to ruin. The trouble was, no one ever stopped to ask Emma what she wanted.


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[Assistant] It turns out she had never wanted to get back together with Albert and she wanted to be with Joe Cooney more than anything else. It seemed that her family was constantly trying to force her to do things she didn't want to do. And that was about to get worse.


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[Assistant] Sometime in February of 1905, three things happened.


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[Assistant] First, Herman confronted Cooney at his home where he revealed the affair to Cooney's wife. That was the push that Martin and Rosa had been looking for and it ended Emma's relationship with the married man.


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[Assistant] Second, Emma revealed that she was pregnant with Cooney's child, and her parents were livid. They had just gone through hell trying to extricate her from that man's orbit. And here she was carrying his child.


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[Assistant] So, against her wishes, and against the law in Chicago at the time, Rosa called for a midwife to perform an abortion. When it was over, they made up a story about illness and kept Emma indoors for a long while.