Chambers of the Occult - EP# 24 Dark Paths and Hollow Eyes: The horrors of Israel Keyes and the Black-Eyed Kids

Episode Date: December 19, 2024

In this episode of Chambers of the Occult, Kai delves into the twisted mind of Israel Keyes, a serial killer whose meticulous planning and nomadic lifestyle left a trail of terror across the United States. From his hidden "murder kits" to his shocking confessions, explore the darkness that fueled one of the most calculated killers in modern history.Then, J takes you into the eerie world of the Black-Eyed Kids, a mysterious and spine-chilling phenomenon that has haunted countless witnesses. Are they lost souls, alien visitors, or something even more sinister? These shadowy figures with pitch-black eyes knock on doors, seeking entry—but letting them in might come with horrifying consequences.Join us as we uncover the shadows of humanity’s darkest depths and the paranormal’s most unsettling mysteries.Send us a text

Chambers of the Occult may contain content that might not be suitable for all listeners. Listener discretion is advised. Yeah, you sound fine. Hi, welcome back, y'all. That, welcome back y'all. That's how we're starting it. Yeah, no one's freezing. Yeah, no one's freezing, but now we're like, not making sure we sound fine before we start the episode. Yeah, we're just bringing you like, raw content.

Yeah, yeah, unedited. Exactly. Maybe a little bit of editing. Here and there, you know know here in the worst parts Are you won't hear them? Yeah, we definitely had to cut some stuff out um Don't worry. It's nothing like crazy. It's just like addresses and phone numbers and stuff that we probably yeah not ours I have said not yeah, but you know what you guys didn't see it

But one time part of a case, there was a phone number, like for something, and I actually called the phone number on recording. But we realized that probably was not a good thing. It also didn't go to the right person anymore. No, it didn't go to the person that I like it said it it would belong to but it went to an actual establishment an actual business it's like a lady answered it was like 8 p.m. she's like hello this is the so and

so it was like later but I was like like in the East Coast or something it was like eight or nine p.m. or something yeah yeah so anyway. So, anyway. I'm Jay. Chambers of the occult lore. Hello, that's Jay, I'm Kai. I was about to say I'm Kai, no I'm not. No you're not. I'm a liar. Oh man.

Episode 24. Yeah. Two dozens. Isn't this the beauty of not having like scripted episodes or scripted starts or anything like that? Yeah. It's pretty great. I think it's great. People get to actually see who we are rather than just hear words. Yeah.

Now real quick before we start, I do have an update. I know that we just saw each other last night, but like I have a life update already. Okay. So remember how we grabbed some coffee before D&D? Innocent enough, we're just grabbing coffee before like getting caffeinated before we roll some dice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's not your fault, it's my fault

that I completely forgot. That I had taken, I had finished a Celsius right before we went to grab coffee. Oh. So while I was doing some shopping, I was just drinking a Celsius and it's like, cool, let's go grab some coffee. So this morning I walked to my car and what do I see staring back at me from the cup holder? Celsius. It was just there like, hey, like, do you regret having me yet? Because I could not sleep last night. Damn. Like, yeah, we had like a large coffee, but that's normally fine with me. Celsius and coffee late at night, not a good combination.

Is not a good combination. Is not a good combination. No, no. That's just too much. Yeah, no, no. So the whole calum trying to break a window, that was like... It was caffeine-induced? That was like prophecy-inducing because turns out that caffeine, a double overdose of caffeine, it basically equals real life while magic surges because I could not sleep.

I kept tossing and turning. And then this morning I got to work and surprise, surprise, everything is moving at this like pace of molasses, just super slow. Nothing's going as it's meant to go. And then at some point, like my fingers just start like tingling. And I'm like, that's not good. So that's how work went today for you.

Yeah, no, it was really long because caffeine. So because I couldn't help myself, I put my symptoms into chat GPT to see what was happening to me Okay, did it say you're gonna die? No, well Well, huh, I said that my fingers had been tingling my brain felt like static and like there was heartburn Which was just like a little bonus thing thrown in there diabetes Now this was just like hey, these are my symptoms. Blood sugar. What is happening? Yeah.

And I got roasted harder than that light roast last night. Because let me tell you what it said. It said, sounds like you're running on pure adrenaline, a pure adrenaline and questionable life choices. Your one chaotic dance move away from unlocking a new plane of existence. I just wanted to know if this was normal after being over caffeinated and sleep deprived. Bravo chat. And I was like, Bravo.

Thanks for calling me out. But I just needed to know that I'm not died. I mean, I think it gave you your answer. So it did. So next time, I will just verify with me that I haven't double caffeinated before coffee. Or let's just go to like a tea shop. Sounds good. Yeah. So it wasn't until like probably like 130 or two that my fingers finally stopped tingling Yeah Came home took a nap and now I'm good to go. But yeah, I'm glad you're fine now

Yeah, glad you're fine now And not caffeine induced hopefully no no no, I, if like something crazy comes out of my mouth, I'll blame the caffeine. To some extent, cause I'm kind of scared now. No, no, fair. I mean, you can't just say anything and then blame it on the caffeine, right?

So, hey, I can't say anything and blame it on the caffeine. Is that gonna be reasonable? Is that gonna be acceptable? English is hard. Anyway, anyway, Kai, what's up? What's happening? What's crack-a-lacking?

I don't know anymore. Um, uh, I, we're recording a podcast. That is what's crack-a-lacking. Yeah. Um, hello, folks. Thank you for tuning in. Um, yeah. Don't even know how to transition from here back to the case. No, not at all. I was just like, do I text you what's happening or do I tell you on the podcast? And I'm like, I'll tell you and the listeners what's happening. I think telling me was a good call.

Yeah. But yeah, what do you have for us? Hopefully not Catherine and Deuce. Yeah, I'm gonna get us started off. I'm gonna get us started off with a true crime case. Because we always start our podcast with a true crime case. So it'd be kind of weird if I didn't. Unless it was like Campfire Stories, which you know, aren't cases.

If you haven't listened to Campfire stories, please do we love recording those? They're fun, and we would love it if you loved it, too. Yeah, let us know what you think about them because so far there's only two episodes for campfire stories, but Let us know we'll make more if you'll request them All right, take us away. Let's get started, shall we? Now, as is customary chambers of the occult fashion, I have a question for you. Ooh.

What do you think about soldiers? Like in the army? Oh, okay. Thank you for your service. I think that's all I really have to say. I mean, I know it takes a lot of work, a lot of commitment. It's a huge commitment.

So once again, thank you for your service. Yeah. I guess like what kind of person comes to mind in a way? You imagine. The typical cis white male. Yeah, okay. Yeah, okay, maybe there's some generalizations. Yeah, yeah, I mean,

well, you said- There's some stereotypes for sure. That's definitely like the first one that pops in my head. There's a bunch, you know, but like- No, yeah, for me as well, I get it. Like, you know, rough around the edges, cough cough white men, as we, as previously mentioned. Maybe something like that, right?

Yeah. But besides all of that, do you generally regard people in the military to be like honorable or trustworthy? Normally, yes. Yeah. Okay. Normally, there's something that inherently makes you like trust them a little bit more than the average person. I agree. I agree. Or like at least, at least for the ones who like have literally fought in combat zones, then yeah,

I have at least some respect for them. Right? Like how could you not? Especially because my dad was in the Navy. My cousin was in the Navy. I dated a girl who is in the Navy. I think I've talked to you about you have mentioned her briefly. All Navy. That's kind of weird. Anyway, I almost joined the Navy, but I didn't, because I realized I didn't want to live on a ship for a long time. And then I considered joining the Coast Guard, but then I realized I don't want a military lifestyle. Anyway...

Were you... I don't know how to word it, but like... Were you... Like, were they people trying to recruit you? you try were you I don't know how to like word it but like were you recruit like were they people tried to recruit you like well no cuz like you had a weird high school experience cuz in my high school like at some point like there was like Marines there and there were just like questioning people and they're like same okay I did actually have a Marine try to talk to me one time but I was like I don't want to join the Marines, man.

I'm like, sorry, you can get out of here. No, the fastest and easiest way to get them to be like, oh, was like, yeah, what are you thinking of studying? And I was like, theater. And they're like, oh, yeah. Like not science, not math, not like engineering. I was like, nope. Theater. Yeah. Anyway. We're not gonna... Not like engineering is like, nope. Theater?

Yeah. Anyway, I do have respect for people that serve, right? Thank you for your service. If anyone's watching who's in the military, thank you for your service. We're not trying to shit on you. However, I hope you recognize that you are going to be stereotyped

and you're with a lot of stereotypical people. I'm sorry. Yeah, you're also not going to be treated the best. Yeah. Which is unfortunate. Yeah. But anyway, I do have respect for people that serve.

Not all of them though. Right? Not the bad ones. I'm assuming there is a reason you're saying this? Yeah, not the bad ones, not the ones that commit crimes so heinous, it's almost inconceivable that they were even considered honorable at some point. Not the ones that murder and rape so many innocent people. Not Israel Keyes. The name is very familiar.

So Keyes was a serial killer, get right into it. Okay. Among many other things. He was active from the late 1990s to February of 2012. It's a long time. Yeah. But before this, he was an army soldier. So what led him up to this point? Right. Now, Keyes was born on

January 7th, 1978 in Richmond, Utah. He was the second of 10 children. 10 children. That's insane. That's a lot. That's a lot. And my dad comes from a's insane. That's a lot. That's a lot. And my dad comes from a big family. That's a lot. So his parents were Heidi and John Keys. And I guess the army, the strict military lifestyle, it wasn't all too unfamiliar to him. His parents were members of the Church of Jesus

Christ of Latter-day Saints. They were Mormons. They were pretty devout Mormons from what I've gathered as well. Is there any other kind? This is true. Maybe some more intense than others because I have some family members that are Mormons and they're really not too bad. But anyway. At least his family was. At least his family, yeah. But maybe Mormonism was actually the least intense denomination that Keyes and his nine other siblings were subjected to. They were all homeschooled until 1983, and then the family moved to Colville, Washington. But here's the kicker. They were alone, isolated from any society. They didn't even have electricity or running water in the one-room cabin they all shared on the remote plot of land that they purchased. So a family of twelve.

Yep. Okay. Um, yeah, I can see why there would be issues. The only interaction with society was a church in Colville called the ARC, A-R-K. Okay. But this wasn't Mormonism. It pretty much was a cult. White supremacist Christian cult, essentially. Okay. You know, who would have guessed that that's what they transitioned to, right? In later interviews, Keyes actually described it as an Amish-like environment. You know, no outside interaction. No technology. Like it was very like country living

solitude type of thing. They also went to another church during that time. Don't have the name of that, couldn't find it. But this one was of course also racist, you know? Spreading doctrine that said it was a sin to marry anyone of a different race. Okay. And that the Anglo-Saxons were to roll over all of the other inferior races. So you get to join the cult, or you get to join the racists?

Yeah, and then he was a part of both. So, you know, that's... Okay, okay. Anyway, yeah, so he, his adolescence was like being part of a militia, right? Yeah. Maybe that's why the army called to him. Yeah, that could make sense.

You think this is all his parents doing though? You know, all the environment that he was subjected to, it, you know, changed him. Nature versus nurture and all of that. I would say no, because he was one out of ten. Good. I agree, because no, I am not exonerating him by telling all of this. Because this is where his murderous tendencies began to show, right? They lived in solitude, alone.

One room cabin, no electricity, no water. So how'd they get their food? They had to hunt for it. Okay, yeah. The kids sometimes had to hunt for their own food a lot of the time actually. Though Keyes admitted that it actually became a hobby for him to hunt anything with a heartbeat. End quote. Okay. I don't like where this is going. Even going as far as skinning animals alive in the process.

Okay. Deer, rabbit. This is a weird morbid fact that I learned. That if, like, you were to be skinned alive you would die from hypothermia before you lose enough blood. Yeah. Wait that's crazy. Yeah yeah anyway just yeah. Morbid fact. Okay cool. Um I lost my dock where is it? All right, so yeah. You know, he would skin animals alive in the process, like I mentioned. He would shoot at people's houses with his BB gun.

He would start fires in the woods. You see where I'm going with this? Yeah, so right off the bat, he was never the well-behaved kid. Was he? He was the second child, right? Yes. He was second of the ten. Interesting. Okay. Now, Keyes became very, he became very antisocial, right? Because of how ostracized he felt from everyone else around him, which, duh,

of course you're gonna feel that way, bro. You're like murdering shit and skinning animals alive and people are scared of you. Like, they don't like you because of this. Yeah. Yeah. And he especially realized this, like how ostracized he felt.

When one day he tied a cat to a tree. Okay, we're back to the animals. Tortured it, shooting it with a revolver, a 22 revolver, gore-ing it. The cat ran around the tree, was described as having crashed into it and eventually succumbed to the wounds. But a daughter and son, so two children of a personal friend of the Keys family, were actually there to witness it. And everyone ran away from him when they saw this because who would have? That's violent.

Right. Yes, it is. There's animal cruelty when like he would have kicked an animal. And then like this is a completely different level of animal cruelty. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Now by the time Keyes was a teenager, the family had moved again to Smyrna, Maine. S-M-Y-R-N-A. Okay. From what I gather, they really only live there for a while. Like, Keyes himself, Israel, he probably lived there for maybe a year or so, I'm not sure. But Keyes and his siblings,

they felt so much religious guilt, right? Living in this strict family, they were constantly documenting their sins in journals and whatnot. Oh, okay. Stuff like that. But Keyes was sick of it, right? Yeah, he wanted something else.

So, yeah. In his late teens, somewhere around, I believe, 17 or 18, around 17, I believe, he entirely renounced religion. He declared himself an atheist, which his parents, of course, did not like. Of course. If they're Mormons, they're not going to be okay with any other children leaving at any point for any reason. Mm-hmm. No, exactly. And so, they evicted him. They shunned him. They instructed all of his siblings to never have contact with him ever. That's how it goes. They're so family-oriented

that, yeah, it's just how it goes. So this was sometime around late 1997, early 1998, somewhere around there, I believe. Yeah. So, um, so Keys is out on his own now, right? He was shunned, he was gone, kicked out. Um, he didn't really know what to do or where to go. From what I researched, he traveled around a bit. He went kind of all across the country,

like they were in Maine, but he went back to the West Coast where he grew up at, you know, Oregon, Washington, traveled through those areas. He eventually left to go to New York more permanently. So he did a bit of traveling, yeah. Mm-hmm, yeah. And New York is where he enlisted into the military. Ah, okay. So it was right after he got kicked out essentially. It was July 9th, 1998 is when Keyes once again, although this time willingly, you know, signed himself over to a militia-like living. You know, it probably felt right.

It was something that made sense to him. I was going to say it was either one of two things either it's something he would be comfortable with because this is what I know or something he would be tired of because this is all I know. Yeah. Maybe it was a bit of both but it was the only option you know? He was 19. He was 19. Yeah, so he joined the military, he got in. He is actually kind of excelled, which is really fucking scary because of what we know about his past.

Yep. The whole going hunting. They didn't know that, of course. The whole... Right? Yeah. Yeah. So, that's pretty insane, I would say.

He was actually on track to become an army ranger. Like he got through the preliminary tests and everything. So he was doing really well. He was... Yes. Which... Really well, he was well respected, all that jazz. You know, if that's where the story ended, great. But we know that's not where it ends. I know. Yeah, he was doing really good. He got stationed all over. He actually was back in Washington

at some point at one of the forts there, in Texas, one of the forts there. He also spent some time in Egypt and overseas. Apparently he was in Egypt or something. He was on the mortar team, I believe. And he just met a lot of people. But during his time in the military, lots of fellow soldiers described him as being very reserved and just keeping to himself, really the quiet, determined type is what it seems like. So he spent his time in the military.

Eventually, Keyes was honorably discharged in 2001. Do we know the reason? He was given... I think it was just time for him to... Okay. I think he just wanted to leave. His four years was up, because typically it's like a three or four year. Okay. So it wasn't like anything bad. It was just his time. So an honorable discharge is just the standard good you're leaving them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah

Yeah, okay So nothing bad happened at all He was given an honorable discharge. He was also given an army achievement medal for his time spent as a gunner Okay, which was yeah, and then he moved to Naya Bay Washington so he went back to Washington, back to the West Coast. I mentioned earlier how I am definitely not exonerating Keyes from his crimes. No, yeah.

We'll get into those in just a second. For now, I just wanted to paint a better picture of who he was. You know, someone that was almost trustworthy for a time. Someone you could almost feel bad for because of the way that he grew up. I also mentioned earlier how he became active in his murder and whatnot after he left the military. Well, I guess that kind of was a lie because his first victim was sometime in the summer of 1997 or summer of 1998 before he joined the military. Yeah. Oh.

Now this was back in Oregon. I'm not entirely sure why he was in Oregon at the time, because I don't think he and his family were living there. Was it when he was traveling? Actually, I think it was. Okay. Yeah, it was during his traveling time. Before he came back to New York to enlist. Yeah, to go, yeah.

So he was traveling, he was in Oregon. He was at the Deschutes River. Just a river, like somewhat in the woods type of thing where people would hang out sometimes. And at this time it was a teenage girl and her group of friends. They were going tubing down the river, like water tubing, one of those. Yeah were going tubing down the river, like water tubing.

Yeah, one of those. Yeah, I've seen it. Pretty fun, actually. Lo and behold, Keys was stalking them from just beyond the tree line before what he described as, quote, Quote, very violently sexually assaulting, end quote, the girl. No. She was believed to be between 14 and 18 at the time. I was going to ask about her age. And Keys was about 18 at the time. 13, 18, somewhere around there.

He actually held her at knife point. Originally he wanted to perform a satanic ritual that involved murdering her because, oh yeah, I forgot to mention, after he denounced religion and became an atheist, he actually became a Satanist for a time. Okay, so I'm going to leave the Mormon church, I'm going to become an atheist, and now I'm a Satanist Yes complete 180 this man but yeah, he

He needed to murder her for a satanic ritual, but he couldn't do it. He said quote I was too timid. I wasn't violent enough and quote if you're holding someone at gunpoint. I think you're violent enough Mm-hmm Keys then said he told investigate there's lots of his interviews online actually which are pretty cool to see But he's told investigators quote. I made up my mind that I was never going to let that happen again and quote Spoiler! It did. It did happen again. Okay. Let me pull this over. So that was his first crime in a way. Like of course, you know, it wasn't a murder, which is good, but it was still a very violent crime.

It was still assaulting someone, nonetheless. Yes. Very violent crime and that is not good. So sorry, let me get this situated. So that first victim happens and then he joins the. And for the next three, almost four years, he really, you know, he just spends his time being a upstanding soldier and, and whatnot. Fuck this guy. Anyway. So, at least that we're aware of that incident happened and then four years and then nothing

happened those four years until after he was discharged, honorably discharged. No murders. Later on, he did actually confess that during his time in the army, actually while he was in Egypt, he did try to rape a sex worker and also a college student that he met while he was in Israel, actually, visiting there. So he did try to commit crimes. Not surprising. Not surprising. Not okay.

Yeah, not surprising at all. Now, he was discharged in 2001, and that's when he is believed to really start beginning his killings, his murders. He has three confessed victims, three convicted for three different murders. So, are a 49 year old man named William Bill Scott Courier and a 55 year old woman named Lorraine Courier. So husband and wife, old husband and wife. Now his third confessed and convict, confess and convicted victim. It was an 18 year old girl named Samantha Koenig. No, the first murder of the husband and wife was in Vermont. It was an Essex, Vermont. It happened on the night of June 8th, 2011. But yeah, 2011. And then the second, the third girl, Samantha, the 18-year-old,

that happened in Anchorage, Alaska. What was this man doing in Alaska? And he initially kidnapped her in 2012. And that's the thing, right? Two completely different profiles, two completely different locations. Well, that's because he just targeted random people. There was no method to his map. He just threw a dart on the map and just said, that's where I'm going. Exactly. He knew that it would help him avoid detection. And it was never just like out of the blue. It was never a random impulsive thing. He always planned for months before he wanted to commit his crime.

That's scary. And then he would just find that random person who really fit in. A lot of the time he would like hide at campgrounds and like in the woods, other isolated areas, and his preferred method to kill was actually not using guns, right? He was in the army, he was a soldier, you'd think he'd like to shoot people. It's not what it was. It was strangulation. Oh, that's not what I was thinking either. What did you think? I was thinking like knife.

That's valid. That is valid as well, actually. Because you did talk about the whole skinning of an animal and then like holding a girl at gun like knife point. So that's kind of where I thought it was going, but not strangulation. This is true. Yeah, the reason he said it is because he really didn't care about the victim and he didn't really want to leave a mess type of thing. The only thing that mattered was the pleasure that he got from witnessing his victim's struggle. Lose consciousness and actively taking their breath away. So he chose victims at random, essentially. Now, those were the only three that he was

convicted for, right? Yes. Okay. Was there more that they suspected him of? Yes, and I'll get into that too a bit. First, I do want to... But the reason they were able to learn about this in the first place and the reason why they're able... They think that there's more, lots more that he's suspected, is because they were able to catch him at all. So the murder of Samantha Koenig, the 18-year-old girl from Alaska in 2012, is ultimately what led to his arrest. So after Samantha was kidnapped, abducted by keys, he actually demanded ransom money from her parents.

The police were able to track withdrawals from the accounts moving throughout the US. Exactly. So they eventually located him. They located him in Texas, so Texas Highway Patrol and a Texas Ranger. Yeah, go ahead. No, once again, the fact that there's no prime reason to his locations, Vermont, Alaska, and when he asked for money, he was in Texas. Yep. Yep. Okay.

But he kept traveling. He kept moving to avoid detection, to whatever the reason may have been. But yeah, he was actually at a cafe in Texas when he was arrested on the morning of March 13th, 2012. There was a big search for him. They knew he was traveling, so there was huge bulletins, there was warnings sent out. Did they have his picture? I think they did have a picture at this point, right? So they knew who they were looking for? I believe so, yeah. At the the very least they had like his car

that he was traveling in. Got it, okay. And so that helped out a whole lot. So I think the police actually did a really good job with this, with, you know, there were all these other murders that happened, but after this abduction happened and Key has got a little sloppy with his ransom demands. They act the police actually got on it

So I mentioned, you know, they they knew his car So there was lots of bulletins postings and so all like local law enforcement everywhere Yeah, we're just monitoring different hotel parking lots and all of that They were able to locate him in his car, they pulled him over, they found some evidence in his car, but they also, the thing that they found that really meant the most was Samantha, the girl he abducted, her ATM card and her phone were in the car. So there was evidence to tie him directly to her. Yeah. Okay. There was. And so because of this, they got him into custody, they shipped him back to Alaska. Good. Because that's where the crime took place. Yeah. And he initially actually was only charged with fraud because what he claimed was that

the card and whatnot was just tossed into his car. Okay. And that's how it ended up there. So he was only charged with fraud because they really didn't have full evidence. It was just circumstantial. Right? How could they actually place him? So he was only charged with fraud because they really didn't have full evidence. It was just circumstantial. Right? How could they actually place him? Yeah. What they didn't expect was for Keys to confess to the murder.

Oh. Oh, okay. So they were tracking him on a charge of like fraud, not murder. No. Because they only had circumstantial evidence. Just because you're in possession of a card and a phone doesn't mean that you killed somebody, right? Yeah, but the fact that you confessed. That's probably what the defender tried to argue, the public defender. Yeah. But yeah, he eventually confessed. He was indicted. His trial was supposed to happen in March of 2013. Now, while he was awaiting trial, he was an incarcerated, you know, he was interviewed a He was a waiting trial.

He was an incarcerated, you know, he was interviewed a lot of times, like I mentioned, and there's a lot of those interviews online. I did watch a bit of them. He actually seemed to be like semi-friendly to the investigators. He cooperated pretty well. Like in one of the interviews, it starts off, he's in his orange jumpsuit, he's sitting in the office and the video starts with an investigator saying something to him and then leaving.

And he's just sat in the room alone for almost 15 minutes because they're gonna make him wait, right? And he's just waiting around the whole time, like all whatever, and then as soon as an investigator comes in 15 minutes later, he's just waiting around the whole time, all whatever. And then as soon as an investigator comes in 15 minutes later, he's like, hey. And the cop, the investigator is like, ah, rough night. And they're just semi-joking with each other,

just talking about keys he mentioned, something about waking up and seeing those late night ads of like the electric shock things you put on your stomach to give you abs. Okay. This was 2012. Random banter conversation, which I thought was kind of insane. Yeah. Because you know this man murdered this girl.

So at this point, he had already confessed or he was about to confess? At this point, he had already confessed. Yeah. That's so strange. So he confessed to the murder of Samantha. He confessed to some of his other crimes, other robberies, thefts he was involved in. And eventually, you know, he confessed to the murders of the husband and wife, Bill and Lorraine. The police kept the investigation under wraps for a lot of it. They refused to release a lot of the

surveillance footage of Samantha's abduction, of coverage. Eventually, he stopped cooperating because the media finally got a hold of it. The reason why he really stopped cooperating was because of his daughter. He had a daughter. He did have a daughter. After the army, when he moved to Washington, he met a woman and he had a child with her. And he actually said himself, he never targeted children or the parents of children because he never wanted his daughter to be in fear or figure out who he was. The investigators did not believe that. The investigators were like, this is bullshit. You're just saying that. But that's why he stopped cooperating eventually.

He got through his trial. He was then being held, after he was sentenced, he was actually held at the Anchorage Correctional Complex in Anchorage, Alaska. It's a state prison there. And that's where he did spend a good chunk of his sentence, not his entire sentence. And I'll get back into that in just a second. So there were the two. Before I talk about what was found after he was locked up, after all of that happened, I wanna go into just a bit into his confessed victims,

Bill, Lorraine, Samantha. So first we'll start with Samantha, because that's what led to his arrest in the first place. She was kidnapped from a coffee booth that she worked at on February 1st, 2012. He keys took her credit card, a lot of her belongings, sexually assaulted her and then killed her the following day. So this was Alaska, right? But he was caught in Texas.

Well, that's because he just dumped her body. He went to New Orleans. And then from New Orleans, he got on a two week cruise to the Gulf of Mexico. Okay. So he just started traveling. Also. He eventually, yeah. Where did this man get this money

to do all this traveling? So he started working pretty young. When he was young, he actually got really good carpentry. Okay. So he worked in like at a construction company in like when he was 16 and 17. And so he just had worked but also he probably got a lot from the army. Yeah. Right. So, okay. Yeah. Yeah, he went on a cruise we said to the Gulf of Mexico. Eventually he came back to Alaska. He dismembered Samantha's body disposed of it at a lake. He dismembered Samantha's body, disposed of it at a lake.

So there was a two-week gap where, like, her body was just sitting out there in the cold. And then he came back. Mm-hmm. But it was, like, perfectly preserved, because it's Alaska. Yeah, but at the same time, I'm like, why would you come back to the scene of the crime?

He, he, he like, he hid it in a shed in his backyard. So I guess it was his house. Oh, yeah, like it was connected to him already. It was already there. Fair. Anyway, yeah. So there was that, um, the couple in Vermont, um, it was the night of June 8th, 2011 when he broke into their house, tied them up, drove them to an abandoned farmhouse, shot Bill, sexually assaulted, and then strangled Lorraine. Okay. And still to this day, their bodies have never been found. No. I'm just thinking about that situation. I mentioned earlier how he planned his crimes. Right, he had, they weren't just out of the way.

So, in order to, for him to complete, or for him to murder Bill and Lorraine, two years prior to it, so in 2009, he actually hid a murder kit near their house. And then he recovered it and he used it to kill Bill and Lorraine. And then he took the murder kit and then he moved it to New York. And that's where he left it, planning to use it again in the future. Do you know what was in the murder kit? No clue. Just a murder kit. Probably like a knife, maybe a gun. Maybe some rope or something. A string ball. Gloves, stuff like that.

Now that's. So that's like a look into his, I guess, sort of psyche of what he did to add on to that. When investigators searched his home, they found tons of books about murder. Serial killers, other things like that. He studied, you know, FBI profiling. As you say that, I'm looking on my bookshelf and I'm like, yep. Same here, but not for the same reason.

Yeah. Hopefully not. No. He idolized Ted Bundy, right? Okay. He felt he was super similar to him. So he really idolized this people. He even went as far as recreating Ted Bundy's attempt at escaping court. So when he was in trial, he like, in 2020, in 2012, he tried to get up and escape, but then the guards, you know, tased him. Good. Good. Yeah. Yeah. This man. Unbelievable. Anyway, he was charged, convicted for the murder of Sanantha, I believe for Bill and Lorraine as well. He

was held in the Anchorage Correctional Complex, like I said, and everyone kind of thought that was the end of it. You know, there was always this feeling that he had more victims that he wasn't letting on about, but there was never anything to suggest it really. There was never anything. Like he only confessed to the ones that they were aware of. Yeah, I see that. Something else I said was that he only served part of his sentence.

Yeah, yeah, care to elaborate? Yeah. That's because on December 2nd, 2012, he actually committed suicide inside of his jail cell. He brought in a razor that he had concealed, which nobody knows how he got it because he was under strict security. He actually attempted to strangle himself. Before that? But that didn't, no like to kill himself but that didn't really work out so he cut his wrists. Everyone was like holy shit like what? But when they searched the cell,

they found a suicide note under the bed, or under his body, sorry. It was a message, it was an ode to murder, quote, as it was called. But nothing else. So a lot of time went by. How long did he serve before he committed suicide? Do you know? Like six months, barely. Okay. And what was, what was and what was he sentenced to? Do you know? I'm not entirely sure, no.

Because anytime that someone gets caught for murder or anything, anything, and then they commit suicide in jail, I'm like, no, no. Like, you need to, like, serve your time. This is true. Everyone thought that was the end of it. Once more, he killed himself. But in 2020, pretty recently, the FBI actually released something that they've to the public, they released something they found in his cell.

It was a drawing, a drawing painted in his own blood underneath his bed in his cell. And this was the drawing of 11 skulls surrounding a pentagram. Did he have 11 victims? That's exactly what the investigators believe. But there's no way to prove it. And they only know of three. They've never been able to. They only know of three. There is a list of lots of suspected possible victims that

they think and I'll go through them. They always thought he murdered more people because he always sort of hinted at it, but he never gave them. It's almost like I'm not going to tell you unless you know the... I know you think I'm more and more people, you're right, but I'm not going to tell you until you name... I'm not going to tell you unless you name them, you know, type of thing. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

That's probably what it was. Something like that. Who knows? Anyway. Anyway From earliest I guess to more recent I Think one of his his first or his first victim could have been a 12 year old girl named Julie Marie Harris She disappeared on March 2nd of

1996 in Colville, Washington, where he grew up. So, Keyes grew up in Colville. What year was this? Her 1996. So, he was still living. Oh, so she would have been like one of the very first ones. This is likely believed to be his first victim. Yeah.

Okay. to be his first victim. Her body was found a year later, April 26, 1997, in the woods a while away. Keys actually was questioned by the authorities because he just lived in the area, but nothing was ever confirmed nor denied, I guess. So there's another, actually another 12 year old girl from Colville as well. Her name was Cassandra Emerson. She was reported missing after the body of her mom was discovered. Her mom's name was Marlene K. Emerson. And those remains were discovered on June 27th, 1997. So like about a year after the first girl. So Marlene was sort of the second victim would have been, I guess. And then Cassie would have been the third because her remains were found in 1998. One thing that the reason they really strongly believe this is tied to him is because in some of their questioning, Keys actually did admit that his first arson was a trailer in Colville.

And that's exactly where these remains were, this burned down trailer, right? So there's that connection. Keys that actually admit that he killed five people in Washington state, but they could never find anything. um, they could never find anything. Um, lots of the, um, so between, you know, 2001, 2005 is when they believe these all have happened. Um, he has said he, you know, beat a man to death. He strangled a woman. Um, in 2012, they identified one lady who could have been a possible victim of his. Her name was, they didn't actually know her.

So of course they called her Jane Doe, right? Yeah. Lewis County Jane Doe. So actually in, yeah, they called her Jane Doe. They didn't really know, but that is one of the victims. Five in Washington state, so like I mentioned. Then he's also confessed to one murder in New York. And then also he's a suspect in three murders in Florida.

So all around, like I mentioned. Yeah, there's no consistency. It's just random. Yeah. Another lady, a 48-year-old woman named Deborah Feldman and also a 58-year-old man named James Lamar Tidwell Jr. James disappeared in Texas. The lady before this, Deborah, she disappeared in New Jersey.

So it was so random and they can never be found. But they do think that these could possibly be his 11. Yeah, it's what makes it difficult because there was no consistency. There was no MO, there was nothing. Yeah. There was no MO, there was nothing. Yeah.

Anyway, I'm not sure if this is still like something that's being investigated. I doubt it like actively is. It's probably sort of a cold case with the FBI and whatnot. But that's the serial killer case of Israel Keyes. Some of his backstory, a look into what he did. And I hope that all of those families are able to one day get some closure. Same. Especially the ones that just don't have answers. Yeah. Wow. Thank you.

Welcome. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure that they might be cold cases until like some new evidence shows up. You're tying him to keys or to someone else, but yeah. How many documentaries do you have to watch about this man? Jay. I actually didn't watch any documentaries. It was just lots of articles. Fair.

And then looking through some of his interviews as well. Nice. Well, let's move on from this- Serial murder. Monster, this son of a gun. Yeah. And let's switch to the paranormal. Okay, sounds good.

Now, we're going to a state that you've already mentioned. I mentioned a lot. Yeah, you mentioned a lot. Yeah. We're gonna start off in Texas. Okay. But it kinda evolves and we'll get into it. Okay. We're gonna start off in Texas and we're going to meet Brian Bethel. Brian Bethel. Now Brian Bethel, he is just a journalist. He's based in Abilene, Texas. He's known for his work with the Abilene Reporter News.

He's still, last I checked, he's still alive, he's still a journalist. And there's a little bit of overlap between your case and my case when it comes to the years. Interesting. Oh, okay. Yeah. So the year is 1996. Got it.

And Brian would come across something that would change him for the rest of his life, but he wouldn't report on it until two years later. Weird. OK. So it was actually 1980, 1998, which I think it's when he left his family. So like, I was like, there's some there's some overlaps there, here and there. There's a lot of overlap.

And he posted something on an online thread. A chain mail, which is what they had in 1998. And I was able to track down, I don't know if this is the original or someone copy-pasted, but I was able to track down I don't know if this is like the original or like someone copy paste it but I was able to find what he wrote so I'll write it back to you I took out the things that didn't really that were not really relevant to this so it's a little shorter than it was then when I read but this was the title on this chain link or whatever it was. It's called Evil Kids.

Okay. Um, and he posted this on Friday, January 16th, 1998 at 712. Um, and it's, it says from Brian Bethel and then it has this email. And then it says 2 which is ghost dash discuss at lindo.com. And then the subject, those darn black-eyed kids. What? Have you ever heard of the black-eyed kids? No. Well you're about to hear about them now. Okay I'm excited but creeped out. Fair. Go for it. So yeah. Go ahead. You're really quiet now. I think your mic might have unplugged or something. Am I good?

Okay. Can we speak again? How's this? Okay, now you're like a... Can we speak again? How's this? Okay, that's good. Okay, cool.

I wasn't sure what happened, but we're good. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, listeners, you're good. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, listeners, you're getting the raw footage right here. Woo! We're the best podcasters. Yeah, fixing it, fixing the technical issues on... Yeah, yeah, anyway.

Live. Yes, thank you. So I'm going to read what he wrote on the thread. I'll take a pause here and there so you can like chime in. Okay. So he started by saying, as so many things do, it all started out innocently. It was about 9.30 p.m. when I left from my relatively isolated apartments. It's about 10 to 15 minutes or so depth to downtown. Avaline has a population

of about a hundred and ten thousand people. Right next to Camelot Communications' old location, there is a one dollar fifty movie theater. At the time, yeah, at the time, the place was featuring the masterwork of modern film, Mortal Kombat. Okay, love the game. 1998. It says, I drove to the theater on the way into the center proper and pulled into an empty parking space. Using the glow of the marquee to write up my check, I was startled to hear a knock on the driver's side window of my car. I looked over and I saw two children staring at me from the street.

I need to describe them with one feature, you can guess what it was, that I didn't realize until halfway through the conversation cleverly omitted. Both appear to be in that semi-mystical stage of life children get into where you can't exactly tell their age. Both boys, my initial impression is that they were somewhere between 10 and 14 years old. Boy number one was the spokesman. Boy number two didn't speak during the entire conversation, at least not in words. Huh? Yeah. And it continues by saying, Boy Number One was slightly taller than his companion, wearing a pullover hoodie, a

pullover hooded shirt with a sort of gray checkered pattern on the jeans. I couldn't see his shoes, his skin was olive colored, and had curly medium-length brown hair. He exuded an air of quiet confidence. Boy number two had pale skin with a trace of freckles. His primary characteristics seemed to be looking around nervously. He was dressed in a similar manner to his companion, but over his pullover was a light green color. His hair was a sort of pale orange. They didn't appear to be related at least directly. Oh great, I thought. They're gonna hit me up for money. And then the air changed. I've explained this before, but for the benefit of any new lurkers out there,

right before I experienced something strange, there's a change in perception that comes about, which I describe as the man or above. It's basically enough time to know it's too late. So there I was, filling out my check in my car, which was still running at the time, and in a sudden panic over the appearance of two little boys, I was confused. But an overwhelming sense of fear and unearthliness

rushed nonetheless. Boy number one smiled at the sight for some inexplicable reason, and it just chilled my blood. Okay. I could feel a fight or flight response kicking in. Something I knew instinctively was not right, but I didn't know what it could possibly be. I rolled down my window very, very slightly and asked, yes. Boy number one smiled again, broader this time. His teeth were very, very white.

Hey, mister, what's up? We have a problem, he said. His voice was that of a young man, but in his diction, quiet, calm, quite calm, and something I couldn't put my finger on. Made my desire to flee even greater. You see, my friend and I want to see the films, but we forgot our money, he continued. We need to go to our house to get it. Wanna help us out?

No. Okay. Journalists are required to talk to lots of people, and that includes children. I've spoken to lots of them. Here's how it usually goes. Mr. Can I see that camera? I won't break it or anything. I promise my dad has a camera and he lets me hold it sometimes. I guess. And I took a picture of my dog. It wasn't very good because my finger got in the way and something like that. It's the interaction that he normally has with children. And in some feet, and there's some feet shuffling and the body

swaying, you got a typical kid talking to a stranger. In short, they're usually very apologetic. People generally teach children that when they talk to adults, they're usually bothering them for one reason or another, and they should at least be polite. This kid was in no way fitting the mold. Go ahead. No, no, I'm just laughing. Yeah, yeah. This kid was in no way fitting the mold. No, no, I'm just laughing. Yeah, yeah. This kid was a no-way-fit-in-the-mold. His command of language was incredible, and he showed no signs of fear.

He spoke as if my help was a far-gone conclusion. When he grinned, it was as if he was trying to say, I know something, and you're not going to like it. But the only way you're going to find out is if you do what I say. Well what? The bet well was the best reply I could offer to the kids. Now here's where it gets a little strange. Boy number two looked at boy number one with a mixture of confusion and guilt on his face. He seemed in some way shocked,

not with his friends, like, breast manner, but that I just didn't immediately open the door for them. Boy number two eyed me nervously, and then boy number one seemed a bit perturbed too. I still was registering something wrong with both of them. Come on, mister," boy number one said again, smooth as silk. A car salesman could learn something from this kid. Now we just want to go to our house, and we're just two little boys. That really scared me.

Something in the tone and diction again set off an alarm. My mind was frantically trying to process what it was perceiving about the two figures that was quote unquote wrong. I was all I could manage. I felt myself digging my fingernails into the steering wheel. What movie were you going to see? I asked finally. Mortal Kombat, of course, boy number one said. The silent one nodded in affirmation, stead in a few paces behind. Oh, I said.

I saw a quick glance at the marquee and the clock in my car. Mortal Kombat had been playing for an hour, the last showing of the evening. The Silent One looked increasingly nervous. I think he saw my glances and suspected that I might be detecting something was not up off board. Come on, mister, let us in. We can't get in your car until you do, you know." The spokesman said smoothly, "'Just let us in and we'll be gone before you know it. We'll go to our mother's house.' We locked eyes to my horror.

I realized my hand had swayed towards the door." No. Yep. Which was locked, but he was like reaching for the door and I was in the process of opening it. I pulled away probably a bit too violently, but it did force me to look away from the children. I turned back, uh, I offered weekly, and then my mind snapped into sharp focus. For the first time, I noticed their eyes. They were cold black, no pupils, no iris, just two staring orbs reflecting the red and white lights of the marquee. At that point, I know my expression betrayed me. The Silent One had a look of horror in his face in a combination that seemed to indicate

A, the impossible had just happened, and B, we've been found out. Boy Number One, on the other hand, wore a mask of anger. His eyes glittered brightly in the half light. Come on mister, he said. We won't hurt you. Just let us in. We don't have a gun. What? Yep. That last statement scared the living hell out of me because at that point by this tone of voice he was plainly saying we don't need a gun. He noticed my hands shoot shoot down towards the gear shift. Boy number one's final words contain an anger that was complete and whole and yet contain in some respect a tone of panic. We can't come in unless you tell us it's okay.

Let us in. I ripped the car into reverse, thank goodness that no one was coming up behind me, and I tore out of the parking lot. I noticed the boys in my peripheral vision and I stole a quick glance back. They were gone. The sidewalk by the theater was deserted. I drove home in a heightened state of panic. Had anyone attempted to stop me, I would have run through and faced the consequences later.

I bolted into my house, scanning all around including the sky. What did I see? Maybe nothing more than some kids looking for a ride. And some really funky contacts. Yeah right. A friend suggested that they were vampires. What with the old let us in bit and my compelled response to open the door. And that we'll go see our mother thing.

I'm still not sure that they were what they were, but here's the epilogue I find chilling. I talk to Chad a lot he's still my best friend my best ghost hunting companion and an all-around cool guy. That's cool. He recently moved to Amarillo but at the time of this happening he was still living in San Angelo of rampage fame. I called him and I talked to him briefly he He had two female friends with him at the time, both professing some type of psychic ability. I started telling him the story, leaving out the part about the black eyes for the kicker. One of the women, we were on the speakerphone, stopped me.

This children had black eyes, right? She asked, I mean, all black eyes. Yes, I said, taking a bit back. She said, one night last week, I had a dream about children with black eyes. They were outside my house wanting to be let in. But there was something wrong with them. Took me a while to realize it was their eyes. I haven't even gotten as far as them wanting to come in. What did you do, I ask. I kept the doors and windows locked, she said.

I knew if they came in, they would kill me, she paused. And they would have killed you too if you had let them into your car. So the reason I had this story to share with you is because this is one of the first cases reported of black-eyed children. Or black-eyed kids. Okay. Yeah. So, Brian Bethel...

Where is that story from again? So this took place in Texas. And Brian Bethel is the person that reported this. Now the reason that there's so much weight behind this story is because Brian Bethel, he's a journalist. And this was out of the normal for him to write. And even after this, he still continued working as a journalist. Now, there is there are typical reports for black eyed kids, they're known as BK or black eyed children. They are

typically reported to appear at night. They are seeking assistance or entering to homes or vehicles. And the encounters with them are usually associated with intense feelings of fear and uneasiness. Now this started, or at least it was first reported in Texas. Pretty soon, because this was 19, what was the year again? 1998, the internet was just a thing. People all over started to report black-eyed kids from Texas to the UK. That's crazy.

Yeah, in the UK there's- Everywhere. everywhere witnesses that claim to see black-eyed children wandering the woods. So, of course, this just led to an extensive like social media coverage and like paranormal investigations. So, black-eyed children, the way that they're described, their characteristics, is that their ages range from six years to 16 years old. They usually have a pale or sallow skin tone. Their eyes are completely black without the scleria or iris. And usually they have outdated or unusual clothing styles.

So this encounters with children often involved just the kids asking for help, such as, can I use your phone? I need a ride or just to let them in your house. So I would not do any of that. Good. Good. Yeah. I mean, neither was Brian until he felt compelled to like open the door for them. And then he's like, no. That's true. Glad he stopped. Yeah.

So there's a couple theories of what they might be and we'll get into them later as well. But there's plenty of stories out there of people encountering them on the side of the road, at their house, or just driving by. Some people have let them in. Some people have not let them in. Um, the people that tend to let them in, um, usually they're like the day after or something, their plans start to die or they're usually diagnosed with cancer or something crazy like that. Oh shit

That's crazy. Yeah, and the people that just turn them away A lot of them start to like develop this fear of being in like in close locations So yeah, so there's interesting they. They became a huge sensational thing. There's a lot of movies and documentaries and like televisions where they mention them. There's a horror film called Black Eye Kids that came out in 2012. That's cool. It was produced with a Kickstarter funding. Oh, that's awesome.

Yeah. Love that. Love Kickstarter. There is documentaries, several documentaries such as Black Eye Children, Let Me In. In television, there is a PBS series called Monstrum. And I did get to watch that episode, which was really cool how they describe them. There's also Don't Let Them In, The Urban Legend of Black Eyed Children, which just once again analyzes the origin. There's also lots of interviews out there. Many individuals have shared their personal accounts with Black Eyed Children.

There's Brian Bethel. I think there's two interviews with him on YouTube about his experience with Black Eyed Kids. There's also Lee Brickley, UK paranormal based investigator who has documented sightings in the UK area as well and once again, they all have the same commonality that like it's a young child from Either six years to somewhere in the 16 years old. And they usually come in pairs. It's never one child, it's usually two at a time.

Now I was able to get two shorter stories to share with you from people experiencing the Black Eyed Kids. Okay. This one is from Reddit, from Hammerhands. Okay. And this one just, it's just called Encounter with a Black Eyed Kid. It starts by saying, "'I recently read a story about Black Eyed Kids. "'This story felt like a twisted tale of deja vu.

"'I believed I encounter a B.E.K., black eyed kid. I've never mentioned this particular detail about the eyes to anyone for fear that they would think I was fabricating the story or going crazy. The incident took place about 13 years ago. So this was posted 13 years ago and it took 13 years ago so around 1998. I had just moved to a new city with my wife. We were we were small town newlyweds from Midwest. We moved across the country to one of the bigger cities in Southwest so I could attend graduate school. Being naive and new to the city living, I habitually answered

the door without a second thought. Never again am I doing this. The first thing that should have tipped me off of this peculiarity of the situation was the fact that someone was knocking at six in the morning. The second thing that should have dawned on me is this kid had to reach over a rather tall patio gate to unlatch it and open it. The knock at the door was startling. My wife and I were getting ready for work, a pretty normal routine. The moment I opened the door, I was overtaken with an inexplicable sense of fear. To this day, I can picture him. A teenager, average height, average built, knee-length black leather coat, short black hair and sunglasses. The sunglasses at 6am struck me as odd. Yes. Yep. He was eating an apple and he was very polite. He asked

if he could come in and warm up. I said no, closed the door and slipped the security chain into place. A moment later, another knock. I opened the now chained door and before I could speak he asked again if he could come in to warm up. No, I replied and attempted to close the door. But before I could close the door shut, he put his hand out stopping the door on its hinges. He looked directly into my eyes still wearing his sunglasses and said, can I at least get some ketchup for my apple? What? Fuck that. I replied a little confused. Get the hell out of here.

My wife is calling the police. He takes a moment to let this information sink in. He lowers his glasses, revealing eyes as black as obsidian and says, no, you won't be calling anybody. At that moment, I forced the door closed, locked it, and called out to my wife. She is scare shitless hiding in the bedroom. All jacked up on adrenaline, I ripped out the curtains to take a look through the back window, through the side window. He's gone, absolutely no trace of him.

I go out to the patio to check the gate. It's still latched from the inside. That was fucked up. That was fucked up. I think to myself, as I turn and enter the house, I notice a half-eaten apple lying on the ground. Eww. Yeah. So that's another person. See, this is a story that's just like one Black Eyed Kids. Normally they come in pairs. The ketchup for the apple, I thought that was really fun, so I was like, I'm going to share this one. Now, there is an author whose name is Jason Oflet.

He teaches journalism at Northwestern Missouri State University. And he has been researching black-eyed children for more than 10 years. Wow. So he has interviewed plenty of people around the world who claim that they've encountered the children. And he has a quote that says, their eyes are like a rat's eyes, just black. There's no pupil, there's no white, there's no iris, just totally black. And there is one more encounter that I will read for you. This is a more recent one compared to the previous ones.

And this is an encounter from a child. So it says on March... Child meeting the black eyed kids. Yes. Which I found also interesting because normally it's... I mean at least adults are the people that report them. So on March 17th, 2008, I had my one and only encounter with black-eyed kids. Before my experience, I have never heard of anything having to do with black-eyed kids. I was 12.

I was sitting outside of a hairdresser in an old Chevy pickup waiting for my mom to get her hair cut. About 15 minutes had passed when I saw some kid walking back and forth along the sidewalk in front of the parked car. At first I thought I recognized him as one of my school friends, so I banged on the door, so I banged on the front windshield until he looked my way. It was not anyone I knew.

At this point I was not scared at all. Not yet. The boy walked over to the side of the... The boy walked over to the side of my car and just stares. I think... I think to let me get a... Sorry, I copied and pasted this from like the Reddit. Valid. I think to let me get a good look at his eyes, to freak me out, let me tell you, if you have never seen a black eyed kid, you have no idea what

to imagine. Pupils as black as the night sky, the boy whispers, you must let me in. And then I locked the car doors and ducked down into the space below the seats. Five minutes later he was gone. When my mother got into the car, she told me a boy with black eyes had come into the hairdresser and insisted for my mother to give him the keys. She refused. Thank God she did. Good. And that's the... Thank God people are not letting these kids in.

No. Like, once again, these are all stories of people that have refused to let them in. They're like, no, I'm calling the cops or just no, walk away, something. People have let them in. People have had their plants start to die. Unexplicably, people have been diagnosed with things. People have started to suffer from multiple or like different types of phobias after letting them into the house. So now it's where we get into some of the theories.

So, now it's where we get into some of the theories. Okay, there's theories, that's cool. So the most, well, I wouldn't say the most common because I don't know what the most common is to be honest. One of the big theories out there, it's that they have extra terrestrial origins. The grays are a common depiction of like aliens and like UFO lore. Yeah. So they're described as like humanoids with smooth skin, black eyes, and like unsettling calmness.

The black eyed kids have a similar appearance. They're just unnaturally like they have smooth skin, pale skin, featureless black eyes. So some people out there have theories that the black-eyed kids are a type of a hybrid. Like an alien-human hybrid. Yeah, that's what their theories are. Okay. Because often, in like alien abduction narratives, hybrids are like children with both human and like alien DNA.

So they think that maybe black-eyed kids were created through like genetic experiments. They have like the inability to like imitate human behavior and like manners that seem convincingly. But at the same time, that they're a little incomplete at understanding humanity because they're always so calm for quote unquote children.

A lot of the people that have interacted with Black Eye Kids say that it seems that the kids have like a script that has been rehearsed ahead of time and that they just like rephrase the questions in different ways. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're like, can you let us in? We have to come in. Things like that.

Now some of the quote unquote evidence is that eyewitnesses often report feeling, a feeling of missing time or headaches or confusion, which are normally related to like UFO abduction cases. Okay. But the sudden appearance and disappearance of black eyed children seems to like mirror alien contact with the loss of time, headaches, and like confusion. It does, yeah. So that's why one of the theories is that they might be aliens or alien hybrids at least. Theory number two. They're vampires. Or like a demonic entity.

I know. The theories go all over the place. So the reason people think that they're a type of vampire or like a demonic entity is because of the invitation rule. One of the most significant clues, yeah, supporting the theory of the Black Eyed Kids is that they have to be invited in. As they're saying, can I come in to warm up? Can you have to let me in? Like you have to say it. Can you give me a ride to my mother's to collect my money?

So once again, like a home or a car without like explicit permission, they're not allowed to cross that threshold. Just like old folk vampire movies. All for old folk lore. That's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because once again, permission could represent surrendering power and allowing like the entity and to like take control. This is true.

Yeah. Yeah. And once again, the appearance is pale, lifeless skin, jet black eyes that align with like the description of like both demons and like vampire creatures. And vampires. Yeah, I guess I see that. Yep. There's also like another thing that falls under

this theory is that they're like energy vampires because many witnesses just claim to report like dread or sick or just drained of energy following the encounters with the Black Eyed Kids. Energy vampires, like they, instead of draining your blood, they drain your energy. Yeah, like they're like psychic vampires that like feed on a person's life force and like emotions and energy. Okay. Yeah, because a lot of people like after talking to black eyed kids or encountering them, they feel fatigued.

They feel like depressed or they just like that lingering uneasiness. Yeah, and then in many religion, religious and paranormal traditions, black eyes are a sign of demonic possession, which is why some people think that they're demons. Yeah. Or at least possessed by like a malevolent spirit. No, I can see all of those theories, yeah. Now, theory number three. They're ghosts.

Or just spirits of lost children. Yeah. Yeah. Because the Black Eyed Kids are just like restless spirits of like deceased children who died under like traumatic or violent circumstances. Honestly, I can see that and they're just trying to find like connection or be invited in. Yeah. Or something like that. They're just unable to pass through the afterlife. Yeah.

There's historical parallel, historical parallel exist with children ghosts that haunt locations who just sit companionship or help. ghost that haunt locations who just sit companionship or help. However, for this theory, like the black eye kids are like, they're set apart because they seem to be something darker and a bit more unnatural compared to the typical ghost stories of kids. They do. Um, yeah. So their persistence and like asking to be let in, maybe tied to like spiritual barriers that they can't overcome without like human help. Something like that.

Yeah. There's also like connection to poltergeist because some people, like some witnesses report strange phenomena like electronics malfunctioning, pets over reacting violently, or like objects moving after an encounter with a black eyed kid. Now, in folklore, ghostly encounters usually happen in haunted roads, but now it seems to happen, like, in deserted locations, like parking lots and like rural areas, or, you know, just at your house because, you know, like no one really is walking the outside of your house at night. I we both know, like, I don't know, I'm not jumping on like believing this. Yeah.

You know, like paranormal, whatever, but as far as those theories go, they are all very plausible theories, like assuming the black eyed children are actually real and it's an actual paranormal phenomenon that happens. I mean, I've never encountered a black eyed kid. I don't want to encounter a black eyed happens. I mean I've never encountered black-eyed kid I don't want to encounter a black-eyed kid. I don't want to But assuming that you know like people are encountering them and if they had to have like a theory of what they are This theories have like logic behind them at least in a paranormal aspect They do yeah, and I actually appreciate that yeah

So so another theory is that their shadow people or like a manifestation of a shadow person. But unlike Black Eyed Kids, shadow people are like dark humanoid figures that, you know, often just invoke like a sense of like fear and dread. So okay. Shadow people are typically described as dark voids or like silhouettes. Black-eyed kids, not the same. These different variations, sizes, heights, voices, people talk to them. I'd consider them to be more like spirits, like ghosts. Yeah. Because shadow people

aren't really even like people. They're just kind of like there. They blend into the shadows and stuff, you know? Yeah, yeah. I mean, some people think that the black-eyed kids are like an incomplete manifestation that's just like struggling to imitate human behavior. Yeah, I can see that. Which can explain why they don't look like full human.

Like there's something unsettling about them and the black eyes and like the way they talk. And our theory, it's now where we get into the more... Logical maybe, quote unquote, psychological or like it's mass hysteria. Okay. Okay. It's like a cultural paranoia because the black eye kids emerged during the late 20th century, gaining just like a viral momentum with the like spread of the internet and platforms like creepy pasta and like Slender Man and like other urban legends. Yeah, that makes sense.

So the stories just thrive like on a mix of like shared experiences and like fear and online storytelling. So it leads to the power of suggestion. I think I believe that the most. No, honestly, it leads to the power of suggestion. Because once people became aware of the black-eyed kids, their minds became like they were primed to notice or create similar experiences. A normal child in dim lighting, for example, might appear to have black eyes when viewed through the lens of paranoia. Or like earlier this year when we did the paranormal investigation, how we were told not to tell guests what we saw in the rooms. Yeah.

Once again- Because it would suggest to them what they could see. Yes, that was the next thing I was gonna talk about. Confirmation bias. Confirmation bias, there we go, that's the trick for it. Yeah, because people who believe in black-eyed kids are more likely to interpret encounters with strangers or children as paranormal.

Which is true. So yeah. So yeah, it's a neuro-theory mass hysteria similar to other paranormal phenomena. Black-eyed kids' encounters may just reflect a modern form of mass hysteria. People are collectively amplifying each other's fears through shared stories and experiences. Now, there is another theory that's going to take us back into the supernatural or the folklore. People think that they could be fairy folk or trickster spirits. There is a lot of theories out there. I kind of like that. Yeah, there are a lot of theories out there. I kind of like that.

Yeah. There are a lot of theories. So the Celtic folklore connection is that in traditional like Celtic and European folklore, fairies or fae folk are supernatural beings who interact with the humans in both like mischievous and sinister purposes. So while modern depictions of fairies portray them as whimsical and old, wise fairies, older lore, like the original lore, paints them as unpredictable and dangerous. It's always a cautionary tale. So like the Black Eye Kids maybe challenging, maybe

changelings. Changelings are fairy imposters that were replaced, that have replaced human children. So once again that could explain why like they look like kids but they're not full-on kids. Maybe they're like a changeling. They're like an unnatural version of the original child. The black eyes in this theory is that in fairy lore, fairies' glamour or their illusion magic might fail under certain circumstances, revealing their true inhuman nature, such as black eyes or like a void like eyes. Now, there's also the invitation rule that applies to the folk theory.

Because fairies are often bound by like rules or limitations, including the need for explicit consent to enter someone's home. Once again, this just mirrors like the black eyed kids like persistent to be let in. It does as their powers like really does my only work when you give them permission. And then their tricks are the nature fairy and tricks or spirits are often exploiting emotions to manipulate humans, appearing as a lost child. Always, yep. It's a calculated move to trigger sympathy, or like that parental instinct.

So, if granted access, black eyed children might cause harm, confusion, chaos. All of those fall in line with tricks or spirits who enjoy tormenting their victims. I love all these theories. Yeah, I mean they all have... I don't know, there's more than I thought there was. And they all have like solid ground in the paranormal world. They do, yeah.

Like, of course if you don't believe them you're not gonna believe them but like if you actually are looking at from sort of an open mind in a logic point of view logical point of view like they actually make sense. Yeah I mean if you don't believe them it makes sense you're gonna be like it's mass hysteria everyone is like confirmation bias everyone. Another theory which is something we haven't talked about and at some point like I would love to do a deep dive in this because there's so many things not just the black-eyed kids that fall under this They're called tulpas. So what is tulpa?

Tulpas originate from Tibetan mysticism and they are thought to be manifestations of thought brought to life through intense concentration and belief. So modern, yeah, so modern paranormal circles theorize that like a shared belief, like a collective belief can give shape to supernatural entities. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. That's something I've thought of before, but I've never like, I didn't know there was a name for it.

Yeah, no, it's actually really cool. I was like, at some point we'll have to like a deep dive on Toolbus. Because Black Eye Kids are just like the tip of the iceberg when it comes to like Toolbus. Because the more stories you share of like Black Eye Kids, the more stories that circulate. The more are gonna show up. Exactly, the more like, powerful, the more real that they become. And the whole internet culture just feeling this collective belief is just creating a feedback loop where like, the story's just strengthening the myth. Contributing to like, the physical manifestation of like, black-eyed kids.

Okay, I could see that as well, you know, yeah Because human fear and like attention are believed to like feed tool posts just giving them the presence and influence It's the digital manifestation theory which is something that I was not aware that there was a name to it. As technology connects people, collective thoughts have become easier to propagate. Black Eyed Kids or like the Slenderman may represent a digital age of tool bus. So like myths brought to life through a shared belief. like myths brought to life through a shared belief. And then there is two more theories to go through.

Number nine says that they are time travelers. What the fuck? This is where you lose. No fair. You know, I'm glad that I had you until now. Like all of those, I was like, okay, that's plausible. Okay, I see the vision. I respect the logic behind it. This one is just like, what the fuck? No, fair.

I am completely on board with that. Everything else had some like solid ground. This ones are more of the far-fetched theories. Okay. Black-eyed kids often appear out of place. They're wearing outdated or strange clothing, which feels the theories that they're time travelers from like the past or the future. Even though most stories say that they have like old clothing, not like futuristic clothing.

So like their childlike forms may be an attempt to blend in, but fail because they don't fully understand the contemporary norms. It says that the black eyes might be a mutation. You know, if they're far into the future and they're coming back in time, their black eyes could reflect like an evolutionary trait, or like we adapted for some reason to have black eyes. Maybe to see like dim light or like radiation or maybe we went on under like genetic alterations or something like that. Yeah, this is where you lose me.

No, I know this is a far-ffetched theory. I completely agree with you. The whole asking for permission might just be related to the rules or ethical considerations surrounding time travel. So maybe in the future, far into the future, it's like, I cannot come in unless you explicitly give me your consent. And it also has part that they're like mission orientated, like they have mission orientated behavior. I see. Because they appear singularly focused on gaining access to a location or information and this just

aligns with theories that time travelers have specific objectives, like gathering data or observing historical events. And their emotional demeanor may just reflect that detachment from our timeline or a lack of understanding of human emotions during our time. And then they're like, yeah, and there's like the temporal anomalies, because people have the time distortion. They forget how much time has gone by. Once again, this is one of the most out there theories. Definitely.

And then theory number 10 says that they might be... I don't know how far fetched this will be to time travelers, parasitic entities. What does that mean? What is a parasitic entity? Thank you. Like a demon? Like what?

Nope, we covered demons already. This is... Exactly, I know, but like, what would it be? So in esoteric and paranormal traditions, some entities are believed to feed off human energy, which we kind of covered a little bit earlier, like particularly emotions like fear, sadness, or anger. And the black eyed kids seem to be a sort of like parasitic entity that just takes on a childlike form, lowers its victims, and then just siphons off their energy. Now, there's the whole emotional manipulation.

Black Eyed Kids just appear as children on purpose because they exploit the human sympathy or compassion and then see that something I can understand yeah and like that in situ protective urge once the victim opens the door both literally and you know metaphorically the entity can drain their energy and then there's the overwhelming sense of dread that just comes with the black eye kids. It's the body's like natural defense mechanism warning against something being wrong against the energy like being drained or something. Yeah.

And like I said, many people just feel that after they interact with black eye kids, their energies just like drain, they feel fatigue, they feel paranoia, they feel like they're being watched. All symptoms that are you know consistent with like energy drain or like psychic attacks. But yeah so those are the theories surrounding black-eyed kids. The future theory, time traveler theory, says that part of the reasons some people might have cancer or like their plants start to die or their animals get sick after they let the black-eyed kids in,

it's because if they are time travelers, they could be contaminated with like radiation. Radiation and stuff, yeah. Yeah, those are the black-eyed kids. That kind of fits with it, okay. Yeah. The black- the black eye kids. Okay. Yeah The black-eyed kids. Okay some plausible theories some that I like you said could you know have some logic to them? Yeah, others that are I'm not too sure so and the thing about this black-eyed kids is that I

Don't know there's not they're not technically like urban legend but they're not cryptids it's like a merge between both yeah yeah because it's like well some people have seen them but like people say that they've seen like the Sasquatch or like the Loch Ness monster so like what do black eye kids fall under? Honestly? Who knows? Both? None?

I was thinking like if we still had bonus episodes, this would have been our bonus stories. This would have been a really good bonus story to cover. Well, I mean the thing is like, we can still go more into depth if we needed to. There's plenty of stories out there. Listeners, if you guys want us to cover more, just an episode of encounters with Black Eye Kids, let us know. We'll find stories.

There's plenty of stories. There was a ton. So we are not short finding Black Eye Kids stories. Something real quick that I want to mention with the Black Eye Kids. There, so I mentioned that Brian Bethel had the first documented encounter with the Black Eye Kid. There are other stories of Black Eye children from an era before the internet. I'm not sure how much I believe this, but I'll still put it out there just so you can like make your own conclusion and listeners as well.

The oldest story is shown in a form of a carving. A 13,500 year old carving to be more precise. Holy shit. It is of an Ufra man found at Gobelek Tepe and it's depicted with obsidian eyes, just black eyes. And viewers who have seen this artifact in person have often reported that it causes them to feel like unsettled. So I'm sending you the link right now so you can check that picture out and I'll put it like on our post as well so people can check it out. Sounds good. And it's honestly just, it doesn't look like a child. It just looks like a person, but it has, it doesn't have hollow eyes. There's a obsidian stone in there to make it to give it black eyes

oh and if you scroll down there's two more pictures of that statue with the obsidian stones in the eye sockets oh I see okay yeah once again just something that I came across through doing the research and I was like I don't know how much I believe this but, you know, it's- Yeah, I don't think it really, I think it's just coincidence. It's just coincidence to be honest. It's still creepy. Yeah, I came across it and I'm like, might as well mention it because, you know, I guess I read about it.

Yeah, no, that's pretty cool. Yeah, I'm not one to give strangers rights. So. Oh, I'm definitely not either. So, I choose, I plan on keeping it that way. Yeah, no same. I'm not too worried about, you know, bump, I mean, I'm not too worried about letting them into my car or into my home because I don't let strangers into my car or home Yeah, but we will not just gonna let some kids in because yeah, oh you need it no Need to call your mom. What's her phone number? Yeah, what's her phone number? Yeah, let me call you need some money for the movies here you go

Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna hear something take this money. Yeah, the movie's already playing kids. You missed it You want some food? Let me go grab you it and I'll bring it back. Yeah. Yeah, let me call the cops They can help you find your mom type of thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway listeners let us know what you would do and Let us know what theories you believe or don't believe or if you've had a black-eyed kids experience of your own. Who knows? Yep. But other than that...

All for today. Is that it? Yeah, I mean that was it for Black Eyed Kids. Cool. Yeah, so thank you listeners. Like always, we'll be back next week and We've made it to episode 24 two dozens one if I you know, it's better than 24 25 25 We'll be back next week for that. I would say so yeah as who would say soon

Patrick Oh or spongebob? Both of them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. As someone under the sea would say. Yeah. Not like Little Mermaid under the sea, but Bikini Bottom under the sea. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Well, cool. See you guys later. And to wrap it all up, smurf. Ahh! Good night. Bye guys.

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