We Would Be Dead

It's hard to wrap our head around a complete stranger wanting to invade our safe space and do us bodily harm for no reason. Violent home invasions that occur completely at random are among everyone's worst fear. They seem terrifyingly possible, and yet impossible at the same time. 

This week, WWBD takes a look into one of the most horrific home invasions the United States has ever seen. On July 23, 2007, Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes invaded the home of the Petit family in idyllic Cheshire, Connecticut. The events that followed are so terrifying that it leaves us to wonder if and when we are ever really safe.  Linked below is the full poem used in this week's opening, all the charges against Joshua Komisarjevsky and Stephen Hayes, and a YouTube link to the documentary mentioned for those of us who do not have HBO... and it does, in fact, start with trees.

• Joshua Komisarjevsky journal (Humanity's Social Hypocrisy)

This week the girls dig into the chilling world of cursed objects. Holly exploits everyone's inexplainable (well kind of explainable) fear of creepy dolls with the tales of Annabelle, the doll that launched a thousand nightmares with her series of films, and Robert the Doll. Leslie dips into the weirder side of cursed object with the Dibbuk Box and the painting that haunted Ebay "The hands Resist Him".  This is a fun one, fiends; we hope you enjoy! Special guest appearance by Post Malone!  (Well, he's mentioned; the girls don't actually speak to him.) 

* WWBD regrets to inform you that Warren's Occult Museum is currently closed due to structural issues with the building, which would seem to be the price of doing business with roughly 200 demons. Owners of the estate are looking for a new building to house all of their cursed objects. We hope none of them escape in the intrim. Sleep tight fiends. 

• Post Malone Cursed! 

On April 22 2020, PFC Vanessa Guillen disappeared. She was last seen in the parking lot of her unit, The Regimental Engineer Squadron headquarters of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, Fort Hood, Killeen Texas. The investigation, or lack there of, that followed would expose the seedy underbelly of military sexual harassment, sexual abuse, rape and murder. Vanessa Guillen's disappearance and ultimately, her murder, raise the questions "How much do we really know?" and "who can we trust". 

In the wake of Vanessa's Murder many military women have come forward with their own stories of sexual harassment, sharing them with the world under the twitter hashtag #IAmVanessaGuillen. We encourage you to bear witness to these women, their bravery and all that they have been through in an effort to serve their country. We also encourage you to click the link below to hear Vanessa's sister speak. 

• Jhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E503ZeIuRAg oin

 This week WWBD revisits Urban Legends with a full length deep dive into two bizarre legendary stories that hve surprising roots in true events. Holly tells us about "Cropsey" the child snatching asylum escapee who snatches children in the Staten Island woods. Leslie ventures a little farther out into the woods with the story of the Melon Heads, large headed, diminutive, clan of people, who dwell deeply off the grid and are known to terrorize anyone they encounter.

*We have included a link to Geraldo Rivera's piece on the Willowbrook State School, it is extremely hard to watch and includes nudity. Viewer Discretion is more than advised.

• Cropsey Documentary 

Society spends a lot of time talking about the mind of a killer, about the ways their brains are different, about the mental illness that can manifest in a violent explosion if left unchecked, but that's not the only factor driving people to kill. Sometimes the killing is just a means to a different end. This week WWBD examines internet killer Luka Magnotta and how an obsession with fame can evolve into desperation more quickly than any of us would like to admit. If you haven't seen the groundbreaking Netflix Documentary "Don't F*ck with Cats", it is very highly recommended viewing in concert with this week's podcast; we can't add a link in the show notes, but we're going to go ahead and assume that most of you have Netflix at this point.  

On August 28th, 2008, at 11:50 am, Kanika Powell was shot to death in a hail of bullets, right outside her own front door. Kanika's killer remains at large to this day. This episodes explores the bizarre events that lead up to this completely senseless tragedy, and how it is that a person can do everything right, and still end up dead. Are we ever truly safe? It's hard to say.

• Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory - for those who would like to further explore.

Dr. Henry Howard Holmes was one of America's most prolific serial killers. Amidst the festivities of The Chicago World's Fair, he erected a three story hotel, that was perfectly designed for undetectable murder. This week WWBD explores the life and crimes of the infamous H.H. Holmes. and it is a wild ride. This is a story so sensational, that discerning fact from fiction became a bigger task than simply telling the story. 

"I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing — I was born with the 'Evil One' standing as my sponsor beside the bed where I was ushered into the world, and he has been with me since."

– H. H. Holmes

• The Devil In the White City on Amazon - Not completely factual but great further reading:

On February 19th, 2013 the body of 21 year old Elisa Lam was found floating in a water tank on top of Los Angeles infamous Cecil Hotel. To this day authorities are not sure how she got there or what the events were that led to her death. There are breadcrumbs spread all over the internet that reveal Elisa to be a complex woman who suffered profoundly, in her last hours CCTV captured a bizarre video of Elisa riding the elevator in the Cecil Hotel. This week WWBD tries to shed some light on the life and death of the woman who's last hours captured the minds of so many. Below we have linked the video of Elisa as well as her blog, tumblr, autopsy report and an extremely informative video explaining Elisa's brain chemistry and the medications she took. If you feel so inclined, please explore these additional sources and let us know what you think!

“You’re always haunted by the idea you’re wasting your life.” — Chuck Palahniuk 

 Click to Learn More

• Elevator Video on YouTube