As The Raven Dreams Podcast - State By State Ep 03 - Strange & Scary Things In VIRGINIA

Episode Date: December 15, 2025

Today's episode was written by Tom K, Find his other works here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DBVX81W7 Today, on this episode of the As The Raven Dreams podcast, we will be diving into the strange and... scary things of Virginia! Also The Outro Mentions "Liking the Video" and "Subscribing" because this was used for the YouTube Side as well. That's on me, I didn't record a new outro for the podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like or rate the podcast, and leave me a comment with your thoughts if the platform your on supports it! I upload episodes every 3 days, so there are 2 days between new uploads. The podcast consists of new scary story collections, Glitch in the matrix collections, and also what I call the "Dark Dreams" collections (which are older stories, remastered and layered with rain sounds). If you have a story to submit, would like to find where to listen to the podcast, or want to find me on social media platforms, all of that info can be found at https://www.astheravendreams.com You can also send stories into my subreddit (r/theravensdream) or email them to me at AsTheRavenDreams@gmail.com Want to check out some ATRD Podcast Merch? ➤ https://teechip.com/stores/astheravendreams Or for signed merch ➤ https://ko-fi.com/AsTheRavenDreams I wrote a novel, "The Insomniac's Experiment" by Raven Adams! Check it out on amazon (Or you can email me for a signed copy!) Join Patreon to get early access and support the Podcast! ➤ https://www.patreon.com/AsTheRavenDreams Check out my gaming channel with my pal Ghost_Ink ➤ @superNefariousBros On YouTube TimeStamps… Ad break after Write up 2! 1:04 ➤ The Richmond Vampire/Hollywood Cemetary 6:17 ➤ The Exchange Hotel 13:04 ➤ The Route 29 Corridor 24:52 ➤ The Snallygaster 30:10 ➤ The Witch Of Pungo ----- Disclaimer ➤ Episodes include a content warning for language and sensitive/disturbing content. Listener discretion is always advised. ALL Audio and visuals on this podcast are copyright of AS THE RAVEN DREAMS / RAVEN ADAMS and may not be duplicated, in any format. Bless This Mess. None of my audio is AI Generated, I am a real person reading real stories into a real microphone. Note: The podcast nor the host endorses any advertisements played during the podcast, ads are not chosen by ATRD or Raven Adams, they are chosen automatically by the advertisement systems by the platforms that host the podcast. I do not endorse, support, or promote any opinions or statements made in any adverts played during the show. #ScaryStories #UnexplainedMysteries #VirginiaHorror Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:26 2006 with Visa. It's just to have a card of credit visa BMO for participate. When you think of Virginia, what's the first thing that comes to mind? Maybe it's the birth of a nation. The hallowed halls of colonial Williamsburg or the somber battlefields of the Civil War. It's a state steeped in American history, the mother of presidents. But beneath that polished historical veneer lies a shadowy world. A Virginia whispered about in hushed tone.
Starting point is 00:01:03 phones, full of stories that don't make it into the history books. Today, we're peeling back that veneer to look at the chilling folklore and dark history that haunts the old dominion. We'll delve into legends, uncover some ghastly tales, and even unravel some terrifying true crime legacy. From witches to cryptids to real-life killers, Virginia's dark side is calling. So turn down the lights, and let's dive in to the strange and scary stories. hiding in plain sight.
Starting point is 00:01:44 The Richmond Vampire slash Hollywood Cemetery This particular section is the definition of a tufer. It would be almost impossible to talk about one of these subjects without invariably having to talk about the other. So we shall begin with the place, Hollywood Cemetery. The cemetery itself is very long at 135 acres, with the view of the James River. The site originally intended to be called Mount Vernon Cemetery was founded in 1847.
Starting point is 00:02:18 It was when John Notman, the landscape architect for the project, suggested the name Hollywood due to the abundant holly trees in the area. The site was so scenic that it became something of a tourist attraction, and was so popular that the city implemented an omnibus that would deliver visitors every afternoon by the 1850s, and by the 1860s a streetcar had been added. Today the cemetery has the distinction of being one of only three places to house the remains of two former presidents. The other two being Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., and United First Parish Church in Quincy, Massachusetts. The site is also considered the unofficial National Confederate Cemetery due to the number of Confederate soldiers, generals, and state officials that are buried within its quency. rounds. This includes the remains of over 11,000 rebel soldiers, 25 Confederate State Army officers,
Starting point is 00:03:18 two presidents, and a partridge in a pear tree. That's a joke. I guess you could say that there are three presidents interred at the cemetery, as the list of those buried in the section known as President's Circle would go. James Monroe, who was originally buried in New York at Marble Cemetery, President John Tyler was buried there in 1862, but due to his allegiance to the Confederacy, his death was not recognized in Washington, though a monument was dedicated in 1915 by Congress. Jefferson Davis,
Starting point is 00:03:52 president of the Confederacy who died in 1889 and was buried in New Orleans, but was relocated and buried in the president's circle in 1893. So, all said, there are quite a few notable, some nefarious men buried here. With so many defeated rebels laying in this ground, it would not be a stretch to maybe equate the energy of the place to somewhere like Gettysburg. Undoubtedly, there are many restless soldiers that wander the grounds.
Starting point is 00:04:20 Eternal rest, eluding them, and the cemetery is considered very, very haunted. Controversial presidents aside, there's actually a pretty cool story about what's come to be known as the Richmond vampire that is tied to the cemetery. Yes, as if having three presidents wasn't enough of a claim to fame, two of them being very nefarious of reputation,
Starting point is 00:04:45 Hollywood Cemetery is also home to a terrifying creature that lives inside one of the mausoleums. The story itself is tied to a very real tragedy that happened back in 1925, when the Church Hill Tunnel collapsed. The tunnel was well known for being unstable and even dangerous. and on October 2nd, 1925, the tunnel collapsed entirely and buried several workers under tons of dirt and debris. But here would be where the story takes its most gruesome turn yet, and where the legend is actually born. Out of the flaming rubble crawled an unearthly figure covered in dirt.
Starting point is 00:05:25 The descriptions given by witnesses tell of a terrifying monster with jagged and wicked-looking teeth. lips peeled back as if to make the teeth themselves more dangerous, and bloody skin hanging off in patches. Allegedly the creature was witnessed fleeing into the Hollywood Cemetery, where it managed to enter the mausoleum of one William Watham Pool. Mr. Poole had been dead and interred there for 40 years. Some people believe that the W.W. Pool connection is simply because the 2Ws carved in the stones resembled fangs.
Starting point is 00:06:01 The more rational story would say that what or rather who the surviving workers and witnesses saw was none other than Benjamin F. Mosby. Mosby was shoveling coal on a locomotive at the time and the tunnel collapsed, and he was badly scalded by steam from the engine. In excruciating pain and dying, Mosby managed to escape the rubble but ultimately died of his injuries later at the hospital. So Hollywood Cemetery may or may not have a famous fourth member residing within its grounds. Or maybe the creature spotted coming out of the ruined tunnel really was just a fireman that died in the tragic collapse of the Churchill Tunnel. The Exchange Hotel. There are many places in the world where people say things like, if these walls could talk, the Exchange Hotel would be one of those places.
Starting point is 00:07:08 It was first built as a railroad hotel in 1860. That bustling railroad community that sprung up in Gordonsville earned the place the auspicious title of the crossroad of the Confederacy. But I digress. And speaking of the Civil War, it was during that time that the exchange was remodeled into a hospital for the wounded soldiers. During its time as the hospital, over 25,000 troops, both northern and southern, would be treated under its roof. Of those, thousands of men would die. Many of those men would find themselves buried in unmarked shallow graves nearby.
Starting point is 00:07:49 After a time, it was converted again into a Freedman's Bureau Hospital, which served the recently freed African Americans, although ultimately the exchange would come full circle and once more be serving as a hotel, before being refurbished yet again as a museum. Now we get to the juicier bits of the story. The staff and guest of the exchange will probably tell you that in some strange way,
Starting point is 00:08:18 the building seems to be stuck in the past. Given the sheer nature of the suffering and misfortune that has happened within its walls, perhaps it's no surprise that various stories of hauntings and eerie occurrences, ranging from full-bodied apparitions and phantom noises, with no visible source, exists. A few examples of these.
Starting point is 00:08:40 The Lady in White or Gray. The Lady in White is one of the most often seen slash reported specters that still roams the halls of the exchange. Most people believe that she is the spirit of a nurse that still carries out her duties even in the afterlife. It's said that she gives off no aura of malice, but instead one of warmth and comfort. She's most often seen in patient's rooms
Starting point is 00:09:06 or sometimes moving quickly through the halls, as if rushing to tend to a dying patient. The operating room. In the ward that once served as the surgical ward, where the most serious cases inevitably ended up, staff and guests alike report the sounds of disembodied pained moans, the sound of surgical equipment clinking together as if still being used. Sometimes there are shadowy figures spotted, slumped on the floor.
Starting point is 00:09:36 But if someone approaches them, they vanish as if they never existed. Being a Civil War-era hospital, amputations were some of the most commonly performed surgeries. As such, I think most of us can imagine just what kind of pain and horror might linger in the wake of such tragedy. The children's spirits. What would a good haunted place be without stories of the creepy spirits of children running around? They're also tied to the Civil War era, or the immediate post-Civil War era when the exchange was serving as the Freedman's Hospital, and the building was housing entire families that had been freed and had nowhere to go. They seemed to be less frequently spotted than the Lady in White, and there are a few stories of encounters with them that I was able to find.
Starting point is 00:10:29 And the main stairway. The main stairway in the now museum has been reported by many people, staff and guests alike, to have a very oppressive and negative vibe to it. Sometimes cold spots will manifest as well. Perhaps that is because of the many soldiers that were heavily wounded both physically and mentally, and had to climb up and down the stairs. Not to mention people who may have just received heart-wrenching news that passed through that place. supernatural hunters have also recorded spikes of electromagnetic energy in the stairway.
Starting point is 00:11:05 Maybe a bit of tangible proof of the strange activity within the exchange. And there are even more tales that really only make the strange stories about the place feel even more macabre than they already are. Stories of bloodstains on the wooden walls. Probably the last evidence of the amputations that were performed in the dozens, if not hunting. They say the stains will not wash away no matter how much the spots are cleaned. And of course, the unmarked graves that litter the grounds add to the strange atmosphere as hundreds of soldiers that did not survive their time at the hospital were put into shallow graves, instead of being buried in the Confederate cemetery.
Starting point is 00:11:49 Perhaps this was done out of haste, or perhaps the soldiers there made it to the unmarked and shallow graves on site were the Union soldiers that were treated and died. The last bit is certainly my own personal speculation, as I consider this site and even look at the pictures of it. The building is absolutely beautiful. The grounds look very serene. The interior has been kept pretty authentic with period decorations, low dim lighting, and, of course, the always amazing creaky floorboards just to help unsettle you a bit more.
Starting point is 00:12:22 One of the truly interesting things about the exchange, especially for a history lover and supernatural junkie like myself, is that you can get your fix for either of those things, or maybe even both. History and the supernatural are so intertwined here that I don't think you could ever talk about one without having to talk about the other. At least, to some degree that is. Like, even when you think about the historical fact that Gordon'sville had said, was hailed as the crossroads of the Confederacy, and all that entails, you could almost imagine what it was like at the time. This country at war with itself, the trains rolling a constant reminder of the fighting
Starting point is 00:13:06 going on, the loads of soldiers wounded and dying in the hundreds, this sense of urgency in the air as people tried to rush the men to the hospital, where hopefully, maybe, their lives could be saved. Then, that air of tragedy as men died in droves, and were then buried in shallow, unmarked graves while the next patients arrived on the next train. Lazzang sur-gillet, puissance-molyne, for 15 minutes.
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Starting point is 00:14:21 operation gratite, no amount of minimum and nocule. You're made for for new And the TD is there to you help. The Route 29 Corridor. There's hauntings, there's history,
Starting point is 00:14:39 and any number of variations you can think of. But oftentimes, those two things are so intertwined that you can't really tell a story about the place without mentioning the often creepy history associated with it. Ask any local of any town about the most historic site around, and you'll probably get a brief if exaggerated history lesson for your trouble. Then they'll probably tell you at least one scary or creepy story about it.
Starting point is 00:15:09 People will weave the history and the folklore of a place into one, and will undeniably make it a far more interesting story. Context, my friends, is king. Now, imagine a place with not necessarily hauntings associated with it, but a place actually haunted by its own history. Then think of it not as a single place, but a 1,000 mile stretch of highway. That very equation, the combination of a haunted history,
Starting point is 00:15:47 plus a 1,000 mile stretch of road, would definitely end up equaling the Route 29 corridor, or, as it is often called, the corridor of tragedy. This stretch of highway is, if anything, proof that hauntings aren't always limited to ghostly apparitions, strange sounds, creepy shadows, or disembodied voices, even if there are those kinds of stories about the place too. Route 29's legacy has been defined by all kinds of tragedy,
Starting point is 00:16:23 from abductions and murders to fatal car accidents. The history of this road has definitely been written in its share of blood. Much of the highway's bloody reputation is rooted in the 90s and early 2000s. This period was when numerous crimes and accidents began to build an image of Route 29 as a cursed road. So, now, we'll have a quick look at some of the more prominent cases that have contributed to the dark history of the corridor of tragedy. For instance, Alicia Showalter Reynolds. This is probably the case that cemented the idea that Route 29 is a cursed road.
Starting point is 00:17:05 Alicia was a 25-year-old grad student living in Baltimore, and on March 2nd of 1996, the young woman left Baltimore to travel to Charlottesville to join her mother for a shopping trip. However, she would never make it to her destination. For a quick bit of that all-important context, let's zoom out for a moment, and take a look at what was going on along the corridor at this time. There were numerous stories and reports of a man along the highway that was flagging women down, sometimes flashing lights that made him appear to be a law enforcement officer.
Starting point is 00:17:44 He would often use the guise of trying to be helpful, telling them something was wrong with their car, offering assistance. Standard creep playbook to get someone to lower their guard. Most of the women that he had attempted to assault got away. Unfortunately, Alicia was not one of those women. To their credit, once concerns about Alicia arose, law enforcement quickly found her car, the same day she vanished.
Starting point is 00:18:14 It appeared that she had pulled over voluntarily, but there was no trace of her to be found. The immediate search didn't turn up anything solid enough to pursue, but two months after she vanished on May 7th of 1996, Alicia's body was found in a field not far from where her abandoned vehicle had been located. All we know for certain is that she had been murdered. However, due to the advanced decomposition, no definitive cause of death has ever been determined.
Starting point is 00:18:45 So, we know that she was murdered. We know that she was likely killed within a short time of being abducted. there's evidence that suggests that where her body was found is where she had been for quite a long time. But then, there are so many things we don't know. Who murdered her? How exactly did she die? Examiners said that while they found no obvious signs of SA,
Starting point is 00:19:14 that because of the state of her body, they couldn't rule it out. So, who did kill Alicia Reynolds? Well, I unfortunately cannot answer that because her case is still unsolved. There have been a couple of suspects that people like to throw around. One of them was Richard Mark Ivonitz, a known serial killer that was prowling in Virginia at the time. However, there has never been enough evidence to say one way or the other. The other, most likely suspect, would be the next topic of this little segment, and that is the Route 29 stalker.
Starting point is 00:19:52 The mid and late 90s were a particularly weird time around the Route 29 corridor. Police had been receiving numerous reports of an individual along Route 29 that was flagging women down or even running blinking lights to appear like law enforcement. His approach was the same every time someone would stop for him. Hey, something is wrong with your car, I can help you. Most of the people that stopped either took off before he could approach the car, or after they talked to him and got a bad feeling they would pull away in a rush. One woman even claimed that he tried to open her passenger side door, which prompted her to speed away. And let's remember that context I mentioned before.
Starting point is 00:20:34 These reports were coming in around the time that Alicia met her horrible fate. The details that we know of her case line up perfectly with the documented M.O. of the Route 29 stalker. Or maybe they line up too perfectly. Did someone else do something to make it look as if the stalker had done it? I can't tell you for sure because no person has ever been connected to or identifying as the stalker. Catch-all boogeyman or actual predator, the legacy left by the Route 29 stalker is one that we can feel even today. In 2025, people will tell their children or loved ones, do not pull over for anyone on Route 29, no matter what kind of like. you see. That is the legacy of the Route 29 stalker, still living on and shaping the world that we
Starting point is 00:21:26 live in today. Then, it all happened again. That's the case of Anne McDaniel. Just two months after the discovery of Alicia Reynolds' body, a young woman named Anne McDaniel vanished near the same stretch as Alicia. September 18th of 1996 was the last time she was the last time she was. seen alive. Even though her remains were found two days later on September 20th, we are still left with a lot of questions about just what happened to her. Her remains had been set on fire, and were so destroyed when she was found that examiners were unable to ever determine just what her cause of death was. While no evidence was found to suggest a direct link with either the Route 29 stalker or to the Elishel Reynolds case, it didn't stop, it didn't stop,
Starting point is 00:22:18 the locals from conflating them and drawing their own parallels and conclusions. Once more, we're left with infinitely more questions than answers to the case of another young woman that had her life so brutally snatched from her. Moving forward a little bit, we now have the case of the monster of Route 29. That would be the cases of Morgan Harrington and Hannah Graham. So far, we've been dealing with unsolved cases and mysterious, unidentified figures lurking along the highway. And I'm sorry to say that if you thought we were at the end of this 1,000-mile road trip of horror,
Starting point is 00:22:55 you'd be wrong. However, we are very near the end of it now, I promise. But what if I told you that there are two cases associated with the corridor of tragedy that actually have been solved? And the monster that took their lives is not some nameless and faceless figure that got away with what he did. No, this monster actually was caught, and he paid for his crimes. But we're getting a little bit ahead of ourselves, aren't we? It's October 17th of 2009.
Starting point is 00:23:30 The 20-year-old Morgan Harrington was at a Metallica concert in Charlottesville, with her friends when the Virginia Tech Jr. stepped outside for reasons known only to her. When she tried to reenter the venue, she was denied entry as they had a very strict paulets. policy against it. Morgan was frustrated, but she called her friends and told them that she would find her own way home. Then she vanished into the night. Fast forwarding just a few short years to September 13th of 2014, an 18-year-old Hannah Graham has just left a party in Charlottesville when around 1 a.m. she became separated from her friends. At 1.20 a.m., she texted one of her friends and said she was lost.
Starting point is 00:24:15 Hannah would never make it home. The last sighting we have of her are from the surveillance cameras that spotted her walking through the downtown area in the company of a man, who was walking with his arm around her. I latered out this way because these two cases, while separated by years, are connected by a very all-important thread. That thread, dear listener, is DNA. You see, while Morgan's body wasn't found for months, and when it was, it was discovered on a farm just off of Route 29, and her case did go cold fairly quick, when Hannah disappeared in 2014, and her body had been found just over a month later, only 11 miles from where Morgan's body had been found, they found that all-important DNA evidence. It factored this in with the fact that the man that was last seen with Hannah was identified as one Jesse Matthew Jr.
Starting point is 00:25:15 With DNA evidence in hand, and an identification on the last person to see Hannah alive, the case moved forward in earnest. It was only a matter of time until the DNA found on Hannah linked back to the 2009 case of Morgan Harrington. Plus, it linked to an even earlier essay from 2005. This trifecta of DNA discoveries has ensured that Jesse Matthew will never hurt another woman. In 2015, Matthew pleaded guilty to the abduction and murder of both Morgan and Hannah, and he's going to be in prison for the rest of his life. It's tragic that this whole thing had to come full circle from the unsolved cases of Alicia and Anne in 1996, all the way to the 2009 and 2014 cases of Morgan and Hannah.
Starting point is 00:26:04 But, at least we finally have a name in a face to put with the corridor of tragedy. The Staligaster. And now it's back to something a bit more lighthearted than murder highway. Though it's still going to be just as weird. Instead of human monsters, let's look into the lore of something a bit more supernatural and unexplained. Our story would start circa 1700, when German immigrants began telling stories. stories of the Schnellergeist, or the Quick Spirit. Over time, this name was gradually changed to the Snalligaster,
Starting point is 00:26:52 which is just some fun etymology to think about. The creature itself is often described as a flying beast with massive wings, claws of steel, and the beak of a bird. Often it is described as having only a single large crimson eye. In other times, still, the descriptions get really weird and mention things like tentacles coming from the mouth of the beast. However, if we really want to get a look at the version of the snallygaster that most persists today, we have to factor in some of the lost lore of the beast and talk about that period post-Civil War
Starting point is 00:27:27 when the freedmen were setting up communities in places they had once been forbidden from living. This period definitely helped build the reputation of the Schnethergeist, and almost certainly helped morph the name into the modern, snaligaster. But we still have just a ways to go in this little slice of Virginia culture pie. Because the snelligaster isn't just something that exists way back when. The creature actually has a legacy that stretches into the 20th century. In 1909, the snaligaster found itself newspaper famous,
Starting point is 00:28:05 when papers in Frederick County, Maryland, various papers in Virginia, and even one in D.C. began to run stories about the creature. They ran with the whole monster-flying creature with huge wings, sharp beak, and crimson red eye description. Depending on which article you read from what newspaper, you could be told that the creature screeched like a locomotive whistle while another article would talk about the beast draining blood from the livestock in the area. And the stories only got more and more sensational as more newspapers printed them.
Starting point is 00:28:39 and more people began sharing their own stories about the creature. People reported seeing it flying over railroad tracks, perching on barns, and even allegedly laying eggs the size of perils. There was even a story that someone had watched it snatch up a man and drain him of blood. The stories ultimately ended up being spread so far and wide that it was even rumored that President Teddy Roosevelt
Starting point is 00:29:04 was going to postpone an African safari in order to go hunt the creature himself. And I know what you're all thinking, probably even Raven at this point, possibly. Tom, these all sound like made up daily news tabloid level stuff. And you would be absolutely correct, because they are.
Starting point is 00:29:27 Much later on, an editor at the Frederick County Register and a reporter, George Roderick and Ralph Wolf, respectively, admitted that they had completely cooked up the stories on their own in order to increase circulation of their paper. And it worked. Sales skyrocketed. And they not only helped their own paper, but multiple others in the process. For the freedmen, that creature was less a huntable, tangible creature
Starting point is 00:29:53 than it was a dark spirit that haunted their communities, and disappeared people in the night. For German immigrants, it was old world terror that had followed them to the frontier of civilization. For certain enterprising journalists, it was opportunity. Be it the Snalligaster or the Schnellergeist, each version of the winged monster represented the same thing. Fear of the night. But why end yet another section on such a dark and existential note?
Starting point is 00:30:25 We're here to have fun. So let's look at some of the more modern functions of this cryptid. Indeed, much like the mothman of the lizard man of Lee County, This cryptid has transcended the lore that gave birth to it. No longer is it a terrifying dragon bird of prey that feeds on livestock and children. Now, the citizens of Virginia and Maryland have come to define their own local cryptid on their terms. Now, instead of spending nights draining life from hapless farm animals or unwary humans, this cryptid actually breathes life into the local communities.
Starting point is 00:31:02 The snallygaster has become something of a celebrity mascot for Virginia and Maryland. From beer festivals to quirky ice cream flavors, I think it can be said that the snallygaster is definitely fully rooted in American culture now. Because, like so many, the snagaster has moved into the greatest American pastime of all. Merchandising, of course. The Witch of Pungo Well, this is it, my friends. The end of our road trip through Virginia.
Starting point is 00:31:48 We explored a haunted cemetery. We've talked about controversial presidents of a rebel army, and even a vampire. Not really sure how we got both of those into the same section, but that's pretty impressive storytelling. You have to admit. Way to patch yourself on the back there, Tom. We even journeyed through time to a Civil War hospital, rode down the infamous Route 29 and explored the famously cursed highway.
Starting point is 00:32:13 Then we made a stop for snallygaster beer and ice cream, and now we've arrived at the bittersweet place where history and myth converge for one final story. This time, we're going to stop in Tidewater, Virginia, circa the 1600s. At the time, of course, it was known as Princess Anne County, although today it would be better known as Virginia Beach. Here there lived a woman named Grace Sherwood. And as any at the time modern woman would do, she wore a good many hats. She was a farmer, an herbalist, and a midwife.
Starting point is 00:32:55 But depending on who you asked, she was rumored to wear one other hat. A tall and pointy one. Let's say. The accusations started small at first, but they were leveled at her multiple times during her life. Stories that she could shape-shift into a black cat, original. That she could cause crops to wither in animals to die, also known as the Circle of Life. But yes, I am hinting at the fact that they accused Grace of Witchcraft, and each time the claims became more and more sensationalized.
Starting point is 00:33:33 By 1607, the claims against her had become so prevalent that the county stepped in and decided that there was only one fair way to decide innocence or guilt. Was that by presenting logical, well-reasoned testimonies and evidence to a jury of her peers? Why, I guess it was, now we can all go home. No, it wasn't. I jest, of course. That's not what happened. Instead, they went with the...
Starting point is 00:34:03 I guess next, most logical way of determining her guilt, at least two people of the time, they rode her out into the Linhaven River and they threw her into the water. I think we've all heard the stories of the so-called ducking test. For those unfamiliar, the absolute flawless logic of our forebearers, that was a joke, was that if she sank and drowned, then she was innocent, and if she floated, then the water was rejecting her as a witch. Now, if that's not just some kind of astounding mental gymnastics, I don't know what is. Our dear friend Grace, however, well, of course, she floated.
Starting point is 00:34:43 And once more we have fate and irony doing a fantastic little dance all over this story, because she was alive, but in the eyes of the law, she was guilty as sin. Of course, Grace was imprisoned for a few years, probably not the greatest time of her life, but at least she was alive. And our friend Grace, well, once she was freed from prison, she returned to her little farm, where she lived to be 80 years old.
Starting point is 00:35:10 And that is just the chef's kiss on the story, because that meant that she outlived many of the people that once condemned her as a witch. Although her unnaturally long lifespan probably would have just confirmed to them that she truly was a witch. But why stop there? I mean, she was a witch, after all.
Starting point is 00:35:32 And so there must be some kind of twisted supernatural legacy, right? Well, of course there is, my friends. This wouldn't be as strange things in Virginia if we wrapped up with a sweet little old lady living just long enough to rub it in her detractor's faces, would it? Even long after her death, the stories persisted. The spirit of Grace Sherwood is haunting the marshes around Linhaven as a black cat. Did you hear?
Starting point is 00:35:57 someone saw Grace Sherwood lurking in the fog. In death, she was even blamed any time storms began to blow in off the Atlantic. Grace is extracting her vengeance with rain and fury. Well, at least all things considered, that's a pretty awesome legacy. Outlived her enemies and is still feared and revered enough that any time there's a storm, people think of the witch of Pungo. Oh, then, before we all say our guys, goodbyes, one final cherry on the story, the hat on the hat, if you will.
Starting point is 00:36:35 300 years after her death, in the year of our Lord 2006, the governor of Virginia, Tim Kane, issued Grace Sherwood a formal pardon. So, while our dear friend Grace will always be known as the Witch of Pungo, it's now less of a slight and almost a glorious middle finger to the people that once condemned her, and threw her into a river to decide if she were innocent or guilty. And there you have it. A tour through the legends and tragedies that lie just beneath the surface of the old dominion. From the Richmond vampire to the witch of Pungo,
Starting point is 00:37:23 these stories show us that history isn't just a collection of dates and facts. It's alive. It breathes in the folklore. It mourns in the haunted places. And it bleeds through in the true crime cases that refuse to be. forgotten. Whether it's a ghost, a monster, or the all too real horror of a human predator, these tales prove that every town, every road, and every cemetery has a second, darker story to tell. If you just know where to look, and hopefully, we help you look with these strange and scary things
Starting point is 00:38:00 state by state. This has been a fun project. It's not over. I made it sound like it was over. It's not. We have more coming. And of course, I mean, there's what, 50 states. We've done four, I think. Three? How many have we done, Tom? I don't even know anymore. I think this is three, and I think we have the fourth one done and ready to go.
Starting point is 00:38:21 So four, so we have 46 more to go. And if we do one of these a month, that's only going to be like, what, five years almost. So we'll get them done. We'll get there. But which one of these Virginia Tales chilled you the most? I just want to know. Do you have a local legend from your state that you think we should cover in one of these? Let me know on that as well.
Starting point is 00:38:45 Put it all in the comments, please. I'd love to read what you guys have to say. I know a few of you're like, oh, do this state, and we plan to. Don't worry. We've kind of collected lists of people who have mentioned what states to do, and we want to move on to those as well. But if you have a specific legend that you think should be included, please do let me know.
Starting point is 00:39:04 And if you enjoyed exploring the strange and scary things, and Virginia with us, please do not forget to like the video. Subscribe to the channel if you're new and liked what you heard. Hit the notification bell so you never miss another investigation into the unknown, which was such a cheesy thing to say, but I said it. He didn't write that. That was all me. I wrote it and now I'm saying it. Anyways, I don't know. Have a great day, guys. Hope I see you again here very soon. But until then, remember that you are loved. You are valid. You are important.
Starting point is 00:39:34 Be the best of you can be. Don't forget it. and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Until next time, my friends, much love and sleep well.

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