Astonishing Legends

Where's the one place in the world you'd like to feel the safest? Your bed, right? And in a secure home that surrounds that bed. We also become nostalgic for what we think was a simpler and more wholesome time. The atrocities we've become accustomed to hearing about on our current nightly news, we imagine inconceivable in bygone eras. But the truth is, we've always been vulnerable to the brutality of the waking world, no matter the times or the place. The darkest evil can come to find us wherever we lay our heads. One average family in America's Heartland at the turn of the century would experience this as their peaceful dreams turned into a nightmare. On the evening of June 9, or early morning hours of June 10, 1912, a depraved murderer had entered the home of the Moore family in Villisca, Iowa.  He savagely crushed the skulls of Josiah Moore, his wife Sarah, and their four children with an ax as they slept.  Also killed in the same fashion were Lena and Ina Stillinger, young sisters who just happened to be spending the night. The memories of this gruesome crime and the spirits who endured it would remain with the house.  This horrific act of violence would leave its mark on the town and the Moore home, forever branding it the "Villisca Ax Murder House."

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The interview you’re about to hear is one of the most compelling, fascinating, and terrifying personal accounts we’ve ever come across.  We realize it may also be one of the most controversial subjects we’ve ever discussed.  Our guest tonight knows these sensations all too well. The wonder, terror, decades of trauma, and the consequences from coming forward after a lifetime of these experiences are all part of his story.  In June of 1977, Terry Lovelace was in the U.S. Air Force working as a medic and EMT while stationed at Whiteman AFB.  He and his EMT partner and close friend felt compelled to take a weekend camping to Devil’s Den State Park in Arkansas.  What started out as a carefree trip to the great outdoors would end in a night of horror and pain as they encountered a massive unknown craft about five stories tall.  This experience would lead to not only nightmares and inexplicable panic attacks for Terry along with an intense investigation by the USAF Office of Special Investigations, but the tragic and premature death of his friend.  Terry would go on to a successful career in law as a felony prosecutor, eventually becoming an Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Territory of American Samoa and a State’s Attorney for Vermont’s Board of Medical Practice.  After retirement, a trip to the Emergency Room for a fall in 2012 would bring all those suppressed memories to the surface once again, memories that began in his childhood.  The radiologist had discovered an anomalous piece of square metal about the size of a fingernail with two wires attached, just above his right knee.  In the calf muscle below, a strange, flower petal-shaped object with the density of bone was also discovered.  To add to the mystery, there were no incision marks anywhere to be found.  This discovery and the objects’ purpose were enough to convince Terry that it was time to tell his story.  He believes we all have a right to know what’s really going on.  Some may find his account frightening or at least alarming, while others will dismiss it as fantasy.  Many won’t know what to think about it.  But consider this: if you don’t believe any of it, then you don’t have to worry, you and your rationale are safe.  If you do believe his story, even just some of it, then it may provide a glimpse into one of the biggest mysteries and threats humanity has ever faced.

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The Astonishing Legends podcast is proud to invite you to The Midnight Library, -Not just a show, but a place you can go-. For your listening pleasure, tonight’s reading will be about The Paris Catacombs.  Once you’re inside, your Hosts, Miranda Merrick & Mr. Darling will do everything in their power to make you believe that you’re safe, so you can relax and hear the fascinating story of how 6 million skeletons made their way beneath the streets of Paris.

(The Midnight Library cannot be held responsible for those who choose to visit of their own free will)

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Many of us have seen all the ghost hunting shows on cable television and elsewhere, but are those accurate representations of what goes on during a paranormal investigation?  After all, TV shows, have to deliver as many instances of spooky "evidence" as possible, because we, the viewing audience, demand it.  In reality, like any hunting or fishing expedition, the experience is usually long stretches of waiting patiently and hopefully for brief moments of high excitement.  Well, tonight we're going to find out in detail what it's like to actually go on a ghost hunt as we welcome back the previous episode's guest, author and paranormal investigator James A. Willis.  We'll also be joined by our good friends Jill and Roger Pingleton, who are seasoned paranormal investigators themselves.  On July 22, 2019, during a "lockdown" from 8:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. we had the privilege of following along with them as they investigated one of the most notoriously haunted buildings in the United States, if not the world, the Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville, KY.  From 1910 to 1961, this massive and formerly abandoned medical facility saw more than its share of misery and death as it served as a treatment hospital for those suffering from the scourge of tuberculosis as it plagued the Louisville and Jefferson County area.  The building then witnessed another era of dwindling and death from 1962 to 1982 when it served as Woodhaven Medical Services, a nursing home for the elderly and those with severe mental disabilities.  Fortunately, however, this historic edifice has been undergoing restoration since 2001 when it was taken over by caring and dedicated new owners.  It's currently open for tours, investigations, and events.  Regardless of Waverly Hills' past, the future looks bright for this special place, a special place that's also especially haunted.

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The ideal qualities of a paranormal investigator should include objectivity, a grasp of the relevant history and science, and a skeptical and inquisitive nature that’s balanced with a fair and open mind. Tonight’s guest has all of those traits and more. Author and paranormal researcher James A. Willis originally hails from the Hudson Highlands of upstate New York, the stomping grounds of the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow. After spending 15 of his formative years being intrigued by macabre media and all things ghostly, strange and spooky, Willis moved to Ohio to found the nationally recognized research organization, The Ghosts of Ohio. He has since grown the organization to over 35 members, representing the regions anchored by the cities of Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati. In 2004, the founders of the popular line of Weird US books invited Willis to contribute and he has since collaborated on 6 volumes in the series. In 2012, Willis struck out on his own with the publication of Haunted Indiana. For 2013’s The Big Book Of Ohio Ghost Stories, Willis crisscrossed Ohio to bring readers over 75 of the Buckeye state’s most famous (and infamous) ghosts. In 2015, Willis released Ohio’s Historic Haunts: Investigating the Paranormal in the Buckeye State. Willis’ latest project, 2017’s Central Ohio Legends & Lore, had him chasing down some of the Buckeye State’s most legendary characters, including Johnny Appleseed, Annie Oakley, and Chief Leatherlips. Along the way, Willis took the time to explore some of central Ohio’s stranger legends, such as the Ohio Grassman and even UFOs. A sought-after public speaker, Willis has given presentations throughout the United States, during which he has educated and entertained tens of thousands of people of all ages in crowd sizes ranging from 10 to well over 600. He has also been featured in more than 75 media sources, including CNN, USA Today, Columbus Business First, Midwest Living, The Canadian Press, and even the Kuwait Times. Please join us as we hear about James’ approach to paranormal research and delve into some of his most weird and eerie cases.

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Since its modern discovery, no other medieval manuscript has seen as much media attention or scholarly scrutiny as the Voynich Manuscript.  No doubt this is due to the fantastical strangeness of its mystery, which is also the same reason it continually captures the imagination of the public.  Because it would seem, the bigger the mystery, the bigger the reward for its solving.  Like with any enduring enigma, the manuscript has attracted its share of sleuths who have claimed they've been the ones to at least gain an insight into a solution.  Their confidence may be due to another mystical property of the manuscript.  If one looks hard enough for evidence to make their preconceived hypothesis work, they will find some within its pages.  However, why such interest and debate over this old book?  Other than as a specimen of 600-year-old "folk art," what is the worth of a book no one can read?  Because the Voynich Manuscript still holds the promise of revealing secret knowledge that could help humanity, and it has always been extremely satisfying to discover that which has been lost.

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At the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, there is a book with the catalog call number, MS 408. It is one of the most examined and researched manuscripts to date because it is one of the most enigmatic documents ever discovered. It was purchased in 1912 at Villa Mondragone in Italy by an antiquities dealer named Wilfrid Voynich, and since there is no discernible title for the book, it is more commonly known as the Voynich Manuscript. The text is written on around 240 pages of vellum and is comprised of over 170,000 characters in the form of a code that no cryptographer has yet been able to decipher from a known language. Equally puzzling are the illustrations which accompany the writing. Most seem to be botanical in content but mostly show no identifiable plants. Along with the drawings of strange flora are diagrams of astrological charts and primitive caricatures of nude women in ceremonial displays. However, is the purpose of this manual merely medicinal or could its secrets be of a more magical instruction? And who could be the author of such a baffling work, one who thought its knowledge was so precious or dangerous enough that it needed to remain secret to all but the truly enlightened, or only to themselves? Until a solution to the Voynich Manuscript is found, it contends for the title of the most mysterious book in the world.

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Podcasters share a special bond, and this is especially true of those engaged with the pursuit of covering stories about the paranormal and unimaginable events.  It is perhaps because we know our pursuit of the truth behind these ineffable events will take us beyond the fringes of belief and acceptance.  It leaves us and our subjects vulnerable.  But those that manage to tell these stories well have also managed to capture and relay the vulnerability and humanity and behind them.  Because without it, there is little context to our own lives and therefore little empathy or meaning, and they may well remain as nothing but improbable tales.  One such storyteller is tonight’s guest, Jim Perry.  Jim and his critically acclaimed audio documentary podcast Euphomet, have explored the strange and our relationship to it.  The result is an intimate and fascinating look at how these encounters affect us on a personal level.  Tonight we talk with Jim about the stories and his own experiences that have shaped his perspective and his show.

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As we often say on the show, if you haven't had a strange, paranormal experience, it's likely someone you know has.  This happens to be the case with two college friends of Forrest, Dan Povenmire and Susan Lambert.  In the mid-1980s, Susan was working as a reporter for the student newspaper of The University of Southern California, The Daily Trojan.  She had asked Dan if he wanted to accompany her to an interview with a movie director.  They set out on a drive that should only have taken no more than 40 minutes to complete.  But upon arriving at the hotel where the director was giving interviews, learned that they were somehow almost two hours late.  This seeming impossibility has baffled Dan ever since and fueled a search for answers.  But to add to the mystery, this wouldn't be the only unexplainable experience of missing time, as the pair would encounter another episode during a subsequent car ride together.  And like with the first trip, each would remember a few odd sights during it that the other didn't recall.  While unexplainable disruptions in time are rare, many people have reported experiencing a disturbing wrinkle in the fabric of time which we trust should always be smooth.  Just what is going on when something so seemingly fixed and unalterable as the passage of time fluctuates?  In the latter portion of the show, writer, field researcher, and podcaster Micah Hanks joins us for a discussion on some possible theories as to what might be happening scientifically with the phenomenon of Missing Time.

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We love to hate our villains as much as we love to love our heroes.  And many of us have a morbid fascination with some of history's most sinister characters, perhaps as a means of understanding the darkest aspects of human behavior.  But as is regularly the case, the truth behind the real nature and actions of historical figures we can only glean from the reporting of others in that age and often many years after.  Even official accounts are just a widely agreed upon set of assessments by a group of people, each with their own biases and personal opinions.  In other words, one person's villain can be another's hero, or at least grossly misunderstood.  In the case of Elizabeth Báthory, the authorities finally took action against one of their own, leveling upon her a judgment that could appear both lenient and harsh, but in either case, revealing an investigation that would forever brand her as one of the evilest people in antiquity with her name living on in infamy.  Whether or not the testimony against her had any truth to it at all or what the real motivation for her incarceration was, is still debated by historians and researchers.  What is clear is that misery, violence, and torture were part of the norm for her time.  Some would argue that the stories about her were exaggerations, and her deeds merely accepted practice by the aristocracy of the day.  But does normalcy justify a person's acts of any era?  Where is the unacceptable line of behavior, regardless of the epoch or social status?  History has judged Elizabeth Báthory. How will you?

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