Ding Dong Darkness Time

Twas the night before Christmas in 1945, and the Sodder family was settling in for the night at their Fayetteville, West Virginia home. However, in the wee hours of the night, a fire broke out, and five of the nine Sodder children were never accounted for after the blaze.

Over the decades, speculation raged as the family continued to believe that the children were taken, and there were plenty of suspicious events leading up to the fire that caused them to believe that way. After the fire, things only got weirder with the investigation, including sightings of the children and a mysterious photograph sent to the family more than twenty years later.

But what really happened to the missing Sodder kids? Allison does all her best to break it all down and comes up with a theory, but she realizes there are many who may not agree. This one is a bit of a head-scratcher, to say the least.

Additional Info:

Unresolved Mysteries Link on Reddit (Lots of links within)
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/cpvxde/the_sodder_children_new_leads/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

Stacy Horn's NPR Article
https://www.npr.org/2005/12/23/5067563/mystery-of-missing-children-haunts-w-va-town

Smithsonian Magazine Article:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-children-who-went-up-in-smoke-172429802/

Show Credits:
Graphics -- Nathaniel Dickson: http://ndickson.com
Intro and Background Music -- Spencer Morelock

Ding Dong Darkness Time Media:
Twitter: @dddarknesstime
Instagram: dddarknesstime
Gmail: [email protected]

Show Credits:
Graphics -- Nathaniel Dickson: http://ndickson.com
Music -- Spencer Morelock, Ken Dickson

Ding Dong Darkness Time Media:
Twitter: @dddarknesstime
Instagram: dddarknesstime
Gmail: [email protected]

Queen Elizabeth II has died, so this seems a great time to talk about incest in royal bloodlines.

Focus is mainly on the Habsburg Dynasty of the 1600s, a family whose interbreeding was so severe, the most powerful monarchy since Charlemagne eventually extinguished itself. We're gonna talk a little about that infamous jaw too.

Also... was the incestuous bloodline of Queen Victoria ultimately responsible for the fall of the Romanov family in Russia? Give a listen and let me know what you think.

Finally, I wrap up with some American takes on the whole inbreeding thing, and the cultural differences between that and royalty. This all but guarantees I have to talk about the blue people of Kentucky.

So come on in and take a short ride on a few twisted bloodlines. This ain't an Olive Garden, but when you're here, you're family.

Additional Info:

That Habsburg Jaw:
https://allthatsinteresting.com/habsburg-jaw
King Charles II:
https://allthatsinteresting.com/charles-ii-of-spain
The Habsburg Family Tree:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBOnjhEbqTM
The Blue Fugates of Kentucky
https://allthatsinteresting.com/fugate-family-blue-people-of-kentucky
The Whitaker Family
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkGiFpJC9LM

Show Credits:
Show Credits:

Show Credits:
Graphics -- Nathaniel Dickson: http://ndickson.com
Intro Music -- Spencer Morelock
Background Music -- "Division" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Ding Dong Darkness Time Media:
Twitter: @dddarknesstime
Instagram: dddarknesstime
Gmail: [email protected]

Show Credits:
Graphics -- Nathaniel Dickson: http://ndickson.com
Music -- Spencer Morelock, Ken Dickson

Ding Dong Darkness Time Media:
Twitter: @dddarknesstime
Instagram: dddarknesstime
Gmail: [email protected]

Let's talk about cannibalism! Specifically medical cannibalism.

Humans have been using corpses medicinally for centuries. A little ground up skull for a headache. A sip of blood for the spirit. A slather of human fat for a wound. But around the 12th century, they went particularly nuts for Egyptian mummies, and for the next 500 years, it was available at any town apothecary.

Learn all about ground up mummies, whether unearthed from Egyptian tombs, or locally sourced from the neighborhood executioner and made in-house, and how people used them to treat various ailments, and even made paint pigment out of their ground-up remains.

And that's only a little of what's packed into this 20-something minutes. Come for the primer on curative cannibalism and cultural exploitation. Stay for the always timely reminder as to why incest is bad.

Additional Info:

Smithsonian Magazine Article on Corpse Medicine
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-gruesome-history-of-eating-corpses-as-medicine-82360284/

Modern Antiquities Smuggling
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-21/egypts-3-billion-dollar-smuggling-problem/10388394

Peruvian Gang Harvesting Human Fat
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/nov/20/peru-gang-killing-human-fat

Mummy Brown Pigment Wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummy_brown

History of Consuming Human Remains
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/mumia-the-strange-history-of-human-remains-as-medicine#A-controversial-practice

Mummia Wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummia

Mummy Craze of the Victorian Era
https://theconversation.com/why-did-people-start-eating-egyptian-mummies-the-weird-and-wild-ways-mummy-fever-swept-through-europe-177551

Show Credits:

Show Credits:
Graphics -- Nathaniel Dickson: http://ndickson.com
Intro Music -- Spencer Morelock
Background Music -- Ken Dickson: https://soundcloud.com/kenjamd

Ding Dong Darkness Time Media:
Twitter: @dddarknesstime
Instagram: dddarknesstime
Gmail: [email protected]

Show Credits:
Graphics -- Nathaniel Dickson: http://ndickson.com
Music -- Spencer Morelock, Ken Dickson

Ding Dong Darkness Time Media:
Twitter: @dddarknesstime
Instagram: dddarknesstime
Gmail: [email protected]

There are countless examples in true crime of the psychiatric phenomenon Folie à Deux, also known as shared delusion or shared psychosis. In this short episode, Allison goes into three very distinct cases.

In 2016, an Australian family, the Tromps, took an extremely bizarre impromptu road trip that ended with all of them separated and in various states of mental agitation and catatonia.

In the late 1970s, two men were incarcerated together and spent all their spare time feeding a shared fantasy of raping young girls. Once paroled, they set about putting their plans to work. Only it soon escalated to murder. Eventually becoming known as the Toolbox Killers, Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris were eventually arrested, but not before raping, maiming, and killing upwards of a half dozen young women and girls.

Finally, learn about Mr and Mrs A, a couple who became entrapped in one of the partners' psychotic states, feeding a series of delusions that eventually led to the death of their infant son.

Additional Info:

Folie à Deux Wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folie_%C3%A0_deux

Excerpt on Folie à Deux re: Toolbox Killers:
https://books.google.com/books?id=uM5SDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA198&lpg=PA198&dq=lawrence+bittaker+and+roy+norris+folie+%C3%A0+deux&source=bl&ots=gKeolktW3s&sig=ACfU3U0NHI1d8VSCrUmTd3TCm9nDTGeEfQ&hl=en&ppis=_c&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjS68Xx_LDoAhVZCc0KHSjoARkQ6AEwAnoECAsQAQ#v=onepage&q=lawrence%20bittaker%20and%20roy%20norris%20folie%20%C3%A0%20deux&f=false

The Story of Mr and Mrs A:
https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.2013.13010027

The Mystery of the Tromp Family:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-37293494

https://www.mamamia.com.au/tromp-family/

Famous Folie à Deux Murder Cases:
https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/folie-a-deux-murders

Show Credits:
Graphics -- Nathaniel Dickson: http://ndickson.com
Intro Music -- Spencer Morelock
Background Music -- Ken Dickson: https://soundcloud.com/kenjamd

Ding Dong Darkness Time Media:
Twitter: @dddarknesstime
Instagram: dddarknesstime
Gmail: [email protected]

Show Credits:
Graphics -- Nathaniel Dickson: http://ndickson.com
Music -- Spencer Morelock, Ken Dickson

Ding Dong Darkness Time Media:
Twitter: @dddarknesstime
Instagram: dddarknesstime
Gmail: [email protected]

Show Credits:
Graphics -- Nathaniel Dickson: http://ndickson.com
Music -- Spencer Morelock, Ken Dickson

Ding Dong Darkness Time Media:
Twitter: @dddarknesstime
Instagram: dddarknesstime
Gmail: [email protected]

All war is hell, but World War I was a rare breed of nightmarish, thanks in large part to the advances of the Industrial Revolution, and in particular, the advances in chemistry. In this short episode, Allison lays down a basic primer of the development of chlorine, phosgene, and other gases used on the battlefront, and then she tells a harrowing story of a Russian fortress to which the Germans laid siege with a balloon of chlorine destruction. What happened next is like something out of a George Romero flick.

But the man who created these weapons, Fritz Haber, revolutionized the world in other key ways. So stick around and learn a little about that too!

Additional Info:

Attack of the Dead Men Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_of_the_Dead_Men
Technology of WWI: https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/240-artist-soldiers-technology
Gas in the Great War: https://www.kumc.edu/school-of-medicine/academics/departments/history-and-philosophy-of-medicine/archives/wwi/essays/medicine/gas-in-the-great-war

Show Credits:
Graphics -- Nathaniel Dickson: http://ndickson.com
Intro Music -- Spencer Morelock
Background Music -- Ken Dickson

Ding Dong Darkness Time Media:
Twitter: @dddarknesstime
Instagram: dddarknesstime
Gmail: [email protected]

Show Credits:
Graphics -- Nathaniel Dickson: http://ndickson.com
Music -- Spencer Morelock, Ken Dickson

Ding Dong Darkness Time Media:
Twitter: @dddarknesstime
Instagram: dddarknesstime
Gmail: [email protected]

A Norwegian man died in 1989 and his grandson had his cryogenically frozen corpse placed into a shed up in Nederland, Colorado. Hijinks ensued, and today an annual festival called Frozen Dead Guy Days is held to celebrate Grandpa Bredo. Learn about this odd American legend and more about the legitimacy (or lack thereof) of human cryonics. There's also a brief dovetail into death aversion. Will we ever be able to successfully resurrect a frozen corpse? Do we want to? Or would it be better to simply upload our consciousness into a simulation?

OR HAVE WE ALREADY?

Allison covers as many bases as possible in this short episode, but leaves plenty of room for future episodes!

Additional Info:
Cryonics Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryonics
Frozen Dead Guy Days: https://frozendeadguydays.com
Legends of America Frozen Dead Guy Days article: https://www.legendsofamerica.com/co-frozendeadguy/
Crestone End of Life Project: https://informedfinalchoices.org/crestone/about-ceolp/ceolp-history/
Nectome brain and memory preservation website: https://nectome.com/https://nectome.com/

Show Credits:
Graphics -- Nathaniel Dickson: http://ndickson.com
Intro Music -- Spencer Morelock
Background Music -- Ken Dickson

Ding Dong Darkness Time Media:
Twitter: @dddarknesstime
Instagram: dddarknesstime
Gmail: [email protected]

Show Credits:
Graphics -- Nathaniel Dickson: http://ndickson.com
Music -- Spencer Morelock, Ken Dickson

Ding Dong Darkness Time Media:
Twitter: @dddarknesstime
Instagram: dddarknesstime
Gmail: [email protected]

Ah, Light as a Feather. That childhood slumber party staple that some would swear has some kind of actual sorcery involved. But what are its origins? Can it open a door to the spirit world? Is it even actually possible to lift a whole person with only a couple of your fingers? This short episode goes into it all. Allison even takes a moment to talk about what creepy little weirdos kids are in general, as well as how human memory works (and doesn't). You'll even get instructions on how to play a game that will apparently allow a spirit to stalk you for a few hours. Have fun!

Additional Info:
Light as a Feather Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_as_a_feather,_stiff_as_a_board
How to play Light as a Feather: https://www.wikihow.com/Play-Light-as-a-Feather
How to play MASH: https://www.wikihow.com/Play-M.A.S.H
How to play The Midnight Game https://theghostinmymachine.com/2014/03/31/the-most-dangerous-games-the-midnight-game/

Show Credits:
Graphics -- Nathaniel Dickson: http://ndickson.com
Intro Music -- Spencer Morelock
Background Music -- Ken Dickson

Ding Dong Darkness Time Media:
Twitter: @dddarknesstime
Instagram: dddarknesstime
Gmail: [email protected]

Show Credits:
Graphics -- Nathaniel Dickson: http://ndickson.com
Music -- Spencer Morelock, Ken Dickson

Ding Dong Darkness Time Media:
Twitter: @dddarknesstime
Instagram: dddarknesstime
Gmail: [email protected]

Karaoke is a harmless enough pastime, but sometimes it can get you killed. This is especially true if you try to sing Frank Sinatra's classic tune "My Way" in the Philippines, where upwards of a dozen deaths can be attributed to people singing this song in one of the country's ubiquitous karaoke establishments. But in this episode of Ding Dong Ditch, Allison goes into even more incidents of karaoke rage and what combination of factors could inspire spectators or sometimes even the singers themselves, to get violent.

Additional Info:

Sinatra Tune Strikes Deadly Chord: https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/world/asia/07karaoke.html

Karaoke Turned Deadly Pastime
https://www.avclub.com/karaoke-turned-deadly-in-the-my-way-killings-1845312562

My Way Killings Wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Way_killings

Wojtek the Polish Soldier Bear
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wojtek_(bear)

Show Credits:
Graphics -- Nathaniel Dickson: http://ndickson.com
Intro Music -- Spencer Morelock
Background Music -- Ken Dickson

Ding Dong Darkness Time Media:
Twitter: @dddarknesstime
Instagram: dddarknesstime
Gmail: [email protected]

Show Credits:
Graphics -- Nathaniel Dickson: http://ndickson.com
Music -- Spencer Morelock, Ken Dickson

Ding Dong Darkness Time Media:
Twitter: @dddarknesstime
Instagram: dddarknesstime
Gmail: [email protected]

In 1944, a Finnish ski patrol soldier named Aimo Koivunen outran a Soviet platoon after this unit was besieged in the Laplands. It was a testament of extreme human will and endurance, and it wouldn't have been possible without... methamphetamine.

Yes, you read that right. Listen on to learn more about Aimo's harrowing journey, and how meth and other amphetamines have played a vital role in militaries and wars across the globe.

This is the first episode of the show-within-the-show, and we hope you enjoy these strange and/or interesting tales as they upload weekly, both between and during regular seasons of Ding Dong Darkness Time!

Additional Info:
The Crazy Crystal Meth Adventure of a Finnish Soldier: https://medium.com/exploring-history/the-crazy-crystal-meth-adventure-of-a-finnish-soldier-1cae54a1238f

Show Credits:

Graphics -- Nathaniel Dickson: http://ndickson.com
Intro Music -- Spencer Morelock
Background Music -- Ken Dickson

Ding Dong Darkness Time Media:
Twitter: @dddarknesstime
Instagram: dddarknesstime
Gmail: [email protected]

Show Credits:
Graphics -- Nathaniel Dickson: http://ndickson.com
Music -- Spencer Morelock, Ken Dickson

Ding Dong Darkness Time Media:
Twitter: @dddarknesstime
Instagram: dddarknesstime
Gmail: [email protected]