Culture
Smoke, Salt, and Shadows: Moll Dyer's Curse
In this episode of Smoke, Salt, and Shadows, hosts Ellen and the Teet Sisters delve into the haunting tale of Moll Dyer, a healer accused of witchcraft in 17th-century Maryland. Explore the chilling e...
Smoke, Salt, and Shadows: Moll Dyer's Curse
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Interactive Transcript
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Welcome to the other side. I am Ellen and I'm a Vangeline and we are the
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Teet Sisters, your hosts of Smoke and Salt. And we are a new podcast. We are a
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baby podcast and we wanted to, well we wanted to introduce ourselves really
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quick before we got into our story for the day. We're a brand new podcast, a
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witchy podcast and we want to bring our information to you guys with what we
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have done in the past or how you can even get started. We have a lot of fun
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things for that and you guys can even put your stuff that you do on our
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TikToks on our Instagram because we're gonna be doing them. It's kind of like a
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sharing sharing of information. We just wanted to build a community. A little
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witchy community with our podcast. So we hope that you guys enjoy it. If you have
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small children that listen, they are absolutely welcome to. That's your call.
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But it is sort of a rated R if you will. We some of the things that we talk
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about are are gonna be a little on the risqué side. It's a little more than
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the craft too. We're talking a cult. We're talking folklore, probably some
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murder. Yeah, it's probably a lot of murder honestly. It's gonna have a lot of
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things in it because along with crafting, we are going to do like short stories.
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We're gonna do ghost stories. We'll do all kinds of things. So we hope that you
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enjoy and you continue to listen and tell your other witchy friends or even if
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they're not witchy and they're they're thinking about it. They want to get into
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it. Maybe we can help them get started. So we hope you guys enjoy. All right.
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So today, tonight, right now, this hour of time, this exact hour of time, right now,
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we're going to tell you the story of the inspiration for the Blair Witch Project.
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Sweet. Do you remember that movie? Do I? I remember watching it with my mom in
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the night, like the late 90s early 2000s. Yeah. And I'm like, I'm a little kid,
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right? So I didn't sleep for like, I'm just one time to yeah. Yeah. Just one.
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I was a small child just one day, just one whole day. But I remember, I remember
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hoping in the woods and like, I don't know, it was, it was one of those movies where
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it was like a fake documentary. Like, what are they called? Their, um, fan footage.
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Yes, fan footage, yes. And she's like, hiking through the Appalachians and they're
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going to hold documentary and everything. And this story is the inspiration for that.
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Okay. We need to back up a little bit and talk about kind of what was going on around
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the time period. We're talking like late 1600s, early 1700s time period that the actual
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story took place in. So witchcraft was, was not a good thing. Really was. People just didn't
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understand it. No, people didn't understand it. And it was a felony in Maryland.
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Well, yeah. This takes place. So you could be convicted of witchcraft if there were two
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witnesses or you confess, which who's confessing? You know, I don't know, I have a lot of
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questions because I'd be like, uh, it's not me. And it was during this too, you know, the
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mass hysteria started because religion was changing and people just didn't know up from
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down. And so, you know, the witchcraft act of 1604 said that making a pact with a devil
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was punchable by death. But I'm not entirely sure how they knew you made a pact with the
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devil. Yeah, how would you know that? All right. So now that we've talked about kind
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of what's going on around that time period and people were choosing everybody witchcraft
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and signing packs with a devil and so on and so forth, we can talk about who the story
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is actually about. Okay. Okay. All right. We are talking about Maul Dyer. She was born
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Mary Dyer. She was born February 19th of 1634 in Devon, England. You could be Devon or
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Devon. I'm not sure. Okay. De-V-O-N. I'm assuming it's Devon. Are going with Devon. Devon.
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Devon, England. And she, there's not a lot known about her early life. We just know that
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she had two brothers and that all of them were indentured servants. So I don't know if something
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happened that maybe her parents or or what, but they were first indentured servants in the
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West Indies before they are moving to Maryland in 1677. Okay. And when Maul was in the West Indies,
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she was serving on the Mevis plantation and that's where they think she picked up kind
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of her healing remedies and her herbs and things like that. And she brought that with her when
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they moved to Maryland. Okay. And they moved to St. Mary's County, Maryland. St. Mary's is very
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pretty. I like St. Mary's. So it's 1677 and they're in Maryland. And then there's not a whole
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lot about that either. You can still trace the line through today. I don't know if maybe her
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brothers had kids. They did a 23 me. They did a 23 me. So that's all I know. Yeah, definitely.
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But you can still trace her line there today. That's awesome. She was known as a healer who
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aided the community. So like someone's like, oh, my throat hurts. And Maul's like, I have a
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tea for that. Who's one of those? That's awesome. I mean, I'll do that. Well, it was awesome
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until it wasn't. Well, of course, all good things come to an end. But if I were sick, I would want a
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more natural remedy. Exactly. That's just me personally. And she was there for that for her
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peeves. And she lived in like a little shack in the woods. And I can just imagine her with like
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her mortar and pestle like they can pull to sys and things like that. Yeah. Or you know, cuts and
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infections because you're thinking about a period in time where most of the work is hard labor.
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Right. So people are getting hurt and they're getting sick because they're out in the elements. So
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someone like Maul was needed really. And then comes the plague.
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The darn plague. So the plague hits in the winter of 1697. And everything was dying.
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Crops, the land, people. This might be a dumb question, but does the plague affect crops like that?
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I don't think so. Okay. So they just piss them out of your off.
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Probably, but also it was winter. So I feel like. Yeah. So I was one of the things too when I was
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doing the research. I was like, well, yeah, there's no crops. It's winter. No, that makes
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it around. Yeah. You know, you know, but it didn't matter. We saw little keybrains.
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It didn't matter. They needed somebody to blame for what was going on. And who did they pick?
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The healer. Yeah. Maul's dire. Maul's dire. They picked her. My girl, Maul. They're like this,
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the Tesla lavender. She did it. This bitch. This bitch has lavender. She's responsible.
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So people started accusing her of being the one to cause the plague via witchcraft. Probably
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wasn't going really well for a moment. Yeah, but also she's healing you. Why would she pick now?
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Right. Like decided not to like you. I mean, I don't know. It's well, you also have to think about it too.
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So she arrived in 1677 and the plague is happening in 1697. So why? You're right. She's why now.
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She has spent 10 years of her life. Oh, 20 Maryland. Yeah. Or was it 20 years? Okay. I just
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want to bring his mashed potatoes. That's right. But she spent this 20 years in Maryland. And that's
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what she has done with her time is. Sorry, if you were being herbalist and, you know, and she's
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probably really spent the time to perfect her craft, if you will. And why would she pick now
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to fuck shit up? It just it doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense. No. But it makes sense
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enough to them. So that brings us to February of 1698. Okay. A mob of 10 men decided it was a brilliant
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idea to go take them all out. Maybe you should discuss that with other people before you. Maybe
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ideas. Someone else instead of your buddies at the gentleman's club. Yeah. Maybe ask a wife. I don't
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know a sister. Yeah. Somebody. But they decide that she's got to go. But she's the reason for it.
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So she has to go. So they get their little torches and their pitchforks and they head out to the
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woods to her shack. The middle of the night, she's probably sleeping in her bed and they light her
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house on fire. Because what else are you gonna do? She manages to escape. She gets out even though
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her house is on fire. She was in bed. She manages to get out and she still succumbs to the elements.
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So she's found several days later by a little boy who's walking in the woods, which there's your
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mother. What are we doing? She'll be in. And she's found with one hand frozen to a rock and an arm
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reaching for the sky. And that is how they find her. Did people freeze that fast? You know, I don't know.
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I mean, I guess if she was wet, yeah. She was walking through the snow and probably didn't have
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anything to eat her drink. And she definitely wasn't in warm clothes either. And she didn't have
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those plans. Yeah, she had to leave her house in 2.5. And they were like, we did it. We saved the town,
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but later it then turned into when she died, she cursed the land. The weather, right? The weather
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wasn't right. The crops wouldn't grow. Had to have been something in the soil. If this is an
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ongoing issue. Yeah, right. But because of that, they then said that she placed a curse
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over the town and the land that happened. And they have the rock. And when are we going to go see it?
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Oh, tomorrow. Okay. No one knew where the rock was until an author by the name of
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Philip H. Love went in search for it. In 1968, and then by 1970, they had moved the rock
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to the old jail museum in the center of town. And you can like see her handprint on it.
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That's what I want to see. I want to see her handprint. Yeah, because it's crazy. I'm not
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going to touch it because my life is already fucked. Right. So I don't need it more fucked. But
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no, I would love to see the hand. There is a woman that said she touched it. And immediately
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after touching it, she said, like, her chest started to hurt. Her legs got tight. She started
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coughing up blood in the last 45 minutes. I'm not it. I'm all set. But I would like to see the
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rock. I would like to see it too. They've moved it to the historical society and people can visit
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and leave a little trinket and things like that. That's fun in honor of mall. Because why did you
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have to kill her? Yeah. If I would honor mall, she did nothing to you. They even have a mall
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dire day now. The mayor proclaimed February 26th as mall dire day. I guess because she died in
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February. Also her birthday is like February 19th. It is. Yes. So everything happened in February.
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Which is crazy. That is wild. That's really weird. I didn't think about that. Yeah. I didn't
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put it together till you just said that. That all of this kind of yeah, everything happened.
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There's something with February. Yeah, there has to be. That's weird. That's a lot of coincidences.
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She was 63 when she died. And now there is a road that leaves out to where her house would have been
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in. It's named after her. Okay. And there are still accounts of like whether being weird and people
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crashing because they see an affolition of her. I want to see her. I want to see her too. I want to
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go say, Hey, I don't want to crash a car. But I want to see her. Yeah. I just want to say, Hey,
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girl, I know you were probably just doing your thing. We support you. We wouldn't have burnt
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for an Indian man. And there's just like another little thing that I want to add that I found
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when I was looking all of this stuff up. Okay. So on the same land that mall lived on and died on.
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In 1940s, another woman by the name of Mary and her husband, John Thomas Thompson. Okay. So we
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have Mary Bell Thompson and John Thomas Thompson moved to the same woods to escape prejudice.
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He was a divorced white man. She was a widow. Black woman. It wasn't except they were from
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South Carolina. So they moved north where people were more tolerant. And they decided to
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settle in that same area that mall lived in. And John built a house and he also built a tomb
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for the both of them out there. So there's that. Love. Love is building tombs. Yeah. Two tombs.
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And then in 1942, so Mary didn't live there very long. In 1942, she died of kidney disease.
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And then he put her, John, Thompson, put her in the tomb. So he puts her in the tomb and then
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people started hearing whispers and like rumors that John was so distraught over her death that he
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would then go into the tomb and bring her body back out with him into his house. Listen, that's
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the kind of love that I need. Like even after I die, you go get my body and you bring it back to
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the house because you miss me so much. I can't even get a text back. I could and this guy like a
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taxidermy. Dude, so he could have me forever. Forever. And then other women will be so deterred
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because they're like, who the fuck is this on your couch? Oh, that's my taxidermied wife.
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X wife. I think it's a great idea. Please come into my home and they're like, actually, I'm all good.
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So taxidermy aside, this man was going to get his dead wife and bring her into the house with him.
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I just love that for him. I love that for him too. Until somebody figured out that he was doing that
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and he was sent to Crownsville State Mental Hospital where he lived until he died in 1969.
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Probably don't bring your dead spouse. I can see why people put him there. Yeah, it's a little
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concerning. There were a couple of other slightly. Only slightly. There were a couple of other little
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things that happened in 1964, some teenage boys robbed her grave. They took her skull and
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like paraded it around town. And how do you find the skull? I guess so. It says they were
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prosecuted and then supposedly the skull was put back. Right? Okay. And the tomb closed. And then
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the next year, another group of teenagers opened the tomb and left it open. They didn't take anything
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but her body was opened to the elements. I wouldn't think it would be her body at this point.
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It would be her bones. Right? Yeah. She would have been deteriorated. It would have just been her
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skeleton for skeletal remains. And then now the current owner of the land says that the tomb has
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been opened since he bought the property in 1979 and the skull has never been there. So what happened
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to her school? Yeah, because if you don't have anybody saying definitively that it was put back,
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they just said that it was put back. Yeah. Where did it go? Where did it go? Oh, I don't know if I
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were her. I'd be pissed. Someone stole my head. I don't have head anyway. Oh, okay. All right,
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sleepy hollow. Thinking about that now, you had mall die on the land in a very tragic way.
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So her energy has to be restless. And then now the second Mary, I mean, she died of kidney
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disease, but then people were stealing her bones and her husband was taking her dead body
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back and forth with him. Yeah, I'm like, he's like, he's blanky down. Just a little long. Also,
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look how was she embalmed? Was she like, because wouldn't she smell? I feel like that didn't matter
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to him. Probably not. Because if it did, and she was a smelly Ellie, he wouldn't be messing with her
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anyway. If it truly bothered him. Right. And I also wonder how they figured it out. Right?
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Because if they're in the woods and they built their home and they have the tombs back there,
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who was just like out and about seeing him carry her body back and forth? Yeah, I'm sure they had
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some, they're not even some other people. Maybe out there. We don't we don't know the layout. So
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now I don't know. It could be something to where people watch that way a lot or, you know, there may
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have been other people that live close or yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I have no idea there, but I know
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that I want to go and I want to feel the land and I want to see the town and I want to drive on the
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road. Yeah. And I want to throw my cat out the window. She's just trying to be involved in the
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story. Yeah, she's doing a great job. Everyone say great job, Salon. Great job, Salon. You're doing
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great. Yay. You're doing great, sweetie. Your black cat is black catting. Yeah, she is. In the living room.
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It's because her name's say it's coming up. Yeah. Mm-hmm. But that's the end of what I have for you
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today. What was pretty interesting. I think that in the future we'll have more in-depth stories. We
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just kind of wanted to get our feet wet and go ahead and get ourselves out there. So I hope
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you guys enjoy it. Enjoy our story. I hope that you loved it. I am so sorry for the background noise
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from the from the kitty cat and the dog and the dog. You know, everybody just wants to be in on
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the podcast. It's fine. Everyone just wants to tell spooky stories. Happy spooky season. Yeah,
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spooky season's coming up. So make sure to drink your water. Touch some grass. Thank your spirit
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and turn the page.