Chambers of the Occult - Episode #6 The Polaroid Mystery and a Farmhouse Witch: The Disappearance of Tara Calico and The Bell Witch's Haunting

Episode Date: March 21, 2024

In this episode, we delve into a disappearance and the inexplicable forces of the paranormal.First, we journey to New Mexico, where the disappearance of Tara Calico in 1988 presents a baffling mystery. On a sunny September morning, the 19-year-old embarked on her routine bike ride and vanished without a trace. We explore the chilling circumstances surrounding her disappearance, including mysterious clues and an unsettling photograph that surfaced a year later hundreds of miles from her hometown, sparking theories and leaving more questions than answers.Then, we travel to the landscapes of Tennessee into the chilling tale of the Bell Witch, one of the most well-documented paranormal cases in American history. Originating in early 19th-century Tennessee, this haunting revolves around the Bell family, who experienced an array of supernatural disturbances attributed to a malevolent entity. From physical attacks by unseen forces to voices that mimicked human and animal sounds.Through the lens of historical accounts and the personal diaries of those who experienced the phenomena firsthand, we examine the legacy of this paranormal mystery And for our listeners who crave the extraordinary, be sure to stick around for the bonus story at the end of the episode. We're heading to Australia in the early 1930s for an unexpected chapter of history. Here, a seemingly mundane problem escalated into an all-out, somewhat bizarre battle.  let's just say it's a story where nature's resilience challenges human ingenuity in the most unexpected ways. This tale of feathers, folly, and firepower is a quirky slice of history that might just redefine your view of the animal kingdom.

Chambers of the occult may contain content that might not be suitable for all listeners. Welcome back! Welcome back! Welcome back! Welcome! Episode 6! To our podcast! Yaaaaaay! Chambers of the occult!

Woo, that's us! I'm Alexis. I'm Jay. I'm Kai. And welcome! And welcome. That was not planned. Improv, you know, if you guys know us, we're big on that. I'm actually Jay, not Alexis, if you're listening for the first time. Oh yeah, that's so true.

Oh, I'm Alexis. I'm Kai. And we've made it to half a dozen. We have! That's so crazy. Yay! I know. We could have a chicken. What? Chicken? What are we going to name it? What? Peckers? Why Peckers? No, no, no. Where did the term dozen come from? Like, why did I think that goes beyond my degree.

Like, like, like, like, isn't it logical for like us you like we go by fives a lot of like wouldn't a dozen being like 10 just make more sense for things? Well, I mean, we have decade which is like 10 and then we have dozen which is like 12. Yeah but like who decided like you go to the donut shop right and you're like you'll get a dozen donuts who decided that that was 12 would it 10 like be more sensible of a number? I mean yeah. Honestly it is weird to be like let me get a dozen donuts. But can you imagine going well, because we're so used to it nowadays, but could you imagine going is that can I get a decade donuts? But that's time wise, though, that's for time. That's

10 years ago. Yeah, exactly. So you you get a 10 year long supply of donuts. The subscription service to your local donut shop. Subscribe to our dozen donut tour. That should be our next business endeavor. Yeah, I was going to say. Decade memberships. Yeah.

Yeah, that's an amazing start to our pod. Are you tired of those yearly commitments? You don't want to subscribe to them yearly? Try our dozen. No, shoot. I can't. Oh my god. Are you tired of going to the donut shop and buying a dozen donuts every week?

Well, we've got a solution for you. A decade plan. Check out our new decade plan for our donuts. Yeah, you heard it right. For the next 10 years, you have a membership. I'd pay for it. I'd make everything. I don't know.

Honestly, if it was like a set price that would not go up, that'd be competing with inflation. How much, like, okay, would it be like a monthly payment, like a yearly payment, or would it be like a 10- like a yearly payment or what I was gonna ask like a 10 year long payment? I think like, it could be either way like nowadays, you can either like pay for your membership for the full year or like month for month. I want that. That's a lot of money.

Yeah, yeah. 10 years. Yeah. Yeah. 10 years. You give anyway. Anyway, episode six chambers of the. If you want to hear most talk more about our decade endeavor, let us know. But as of now, we'll start another podcast. All that does call the decade endeavor. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's actually kind of kind of cool. I don't know. Yeah, it is actually.

Um, anyway, um, hope you guys are doing well, everyone listening. Jay, Alexis, hope you guys are good. I am doing well. Cool. I have water. I have coffee because I was feeling sleepy. And I am ready. Don't fall asleep. I will not. Not with this story.

Fall asleep in the middle of your story. Oh wow. You're just gonna hear me snoring. Dramatic effect. Unrespectfully. Yeah. Alright. So where do you guys feel like going today?

Uh, To bed. Shoot. Romania. I don't have a bed story planned today. I also don't have a Romanian story planned today. I sort of have a bed story. Like there's a bed element. Okay. Ah, okay.

Send me a lullaby. Mine doesn't. Interesting. A lullaby. Mine doesn't. Interesting. A lullaby? Cool. So, I'll be telling you a true crime story. And we're not heading to Romania. We're not heading to the bed. We're heading to... Sorry. Maybe next time. If you want us to tell bedtime stories, send us an email.

Yeah, email me directly. I take commission for reading bedtime stories. Why did you say it like that? That's such a lie. Please don't email me. You don't take commissions yet. Not yet, at least. Yeah, I still get it all set up and everything. Like those ASMR and stuff? Yeah, exactly. Bye.

Once upon a time. No way. Alright, yeah, let's stop that. Let's stop that right now. I'm taking you to New Mexico. Before we lose listeners. Ooh, New Mexico, okay. Yeah, I'm gonna take you away from

Bedtime Stories and taking you to New Mexico. Guess you picked me away. What? So, we're gonna go back in time. And we're gonna go back in time. Yes. Whoa. And we're gonna go to back in time. Whoa. Because that's very specific.

I love that place. That's crazy. So, we're going to Belen, New Mexico. Okay. And that's where Terra Calico was born. Have you heard of Terra? No, but I know what a Calico is. Her last name too. I have not heard of her. So she was born on November, sorry, whoa, February, big difference.

Oh, Jesus. She was born on February 28, 1969. She's a Pisces if you're interested. And she lived in Belen, New Mexico with her mom, Patty Dole, and her stepdad, John, and her stepsister, Michelle. And that's it for the family. They live in the Rio Grande suburb community. So Tara was very active. She was very active in high school. She did track, cheering. And at this point she had already graduated and she was attending the University of New Mexico in Valencia.

And she was still active after high school. She liked to play tennis and she liked to go on bike rides. Okay. Yeah, so it was on the morning of Tuesday, September 20th of 1988 when she told her mom Patty that she was gonna go on for a bike ride and this wasn't out of the normal. She was a very active girl. But Tara's bike had a flat tire from a few days ago so Tara just asked her mom if she could

take her her hot pink Huffy 10 speed bike and the mom said yeah take it sure go ahead so Patty tells her mom that she well Patty starts getting ready Patty Patty's the mom sorry Patty agrees to let Tara take the bike and around 9 30 in the morning Tara is getting ready to head out and she tells her mom Patty that she'll be back around 11 30 and that's because Tara already had plans laid out for that day after her back bike ride she had plans to go meet with her boyfriend and after that she was going to have a tennis game followed by some college classes. Okay. So it was a busy day. Also, Tara told her mom that if she wasn't back by noon, that she should come get her. And that wasn't out of the normal just because in case

Tara lost track of time, she still had plans. So she had to be places. And she was good at timekeeping but in case, you know, she missed, you know, missed time her bike ride or something she still wanted to be able to make it so she told her mom like, hey keep an eye on the time if I'm late. Come get me cause I have plans. So she says goodbye to her mom. She turns on her walkman and she sets off on her usual route. Now Tara was a very active cyclist who went on lots of bike rides. It was almost daily that she went on bike rides, and sometimes her mom would join her.

But this time she was just going on her own. So this route that she took included, it was a long stretch of the New Mexico State Road 47, and it was near her home, so it wasn't too far. But this rights were a part of her regular exercise regimen, and she was known to be very disciplined about her cycling. Okay, so she was she was big on cycling. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I don't know if she was she was big on cycling. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah

My brother used to be a cyclist. Ah What happened are you talking about? He still is like he's still yeah, like he still loves to ride bikes and has like a bike collection But he's not as into it anymore Okay, he'll collect them. He just won't write them. Yeah That wasn't that wasn't Tara. Yeah, so, um, Patty didn't actually like the route that Tara was taking because, um, it was kind of isolated once you get outside of the neighborhood. Plus one of the days that Patty was biking with Tara, um, she swears that they were being followed by a driver and that kind of

freaked Patty. Patty's the mom and that kind of freaked Patty. Patty's the mom. Kind of freaked her out. And it freaked her out enough to not go on a bike ride. I mean, completely valid. Yeah. Yeah. So she brought it up to her daughter.

She's like, hey, Tara, at least carry mace and don't take that route if you can avoid it. But Tara was already an adult. She was 19 at the time. And she told her mom that she was overthinking things, that it was a safe community, it was a safe place, and she felt comfortable, and that she was 19, not 9. So Patty, the mom, of course, didn't like her response from her daughter. But she said that she already voiced her concerns and that there's not much that she could do because her daughter's an adult.

Yeah. So that morning, 1130 comes around. And that's the time that Tara told her mom that she would be home and she's not home. So Patty's not too worried yet because, you know, maybe she'll be five minutes late and, you know, everything's fine. Fifteen minutes late, like things like that happen. It's not until noon, just half an hour after 1030, where she was originally supposed to show up that like Patty starts to worry.

So this was also before like phones. So Patty decides to just go look for Tara, just like her. Yeah. And Patty knew exactly where to look because like I said before, they had biked that route often together. And it was a simple route. They took it every day was a 17 mile stretch along the road 47 heading southeast out to the railroad tracks away from the community. And then 17 miles back. So Patty drives up there hoping to get a glimpse of the pink bike or maybe she got a flat tire but there's no sign. So she starts driving back hoping that when she gets home, Tara's already home. But by this time when Patty gets home, she becomes even more worried because Tara's not there,

there's no sign of that pink bike. So together with her husband, John, they call the police to report her missing. And right off the bat, law enforcement takes this very seriously and search efforts begin that very Tuesday that she went missing. When was all all this again? So this was in 1988. Okay.

All right. So there was definitely like, concern, lots of concern about safety and things. What did the police like end up doing, I guess? So, no, that's a good question. Because after I told the police, the family, I mean, they told them what happened and the police took the family's word right off the bat that this was really out of character for her. That's good. That's good. Yeah. Yeah. Especially because, I mean, I'm sure the family explains like, hey, it's not just like her

usual bike ride. She has school, a tennis match, and she has plans to meet with her boyfriend. It's not like it was the only thing she had planned for the day. So the first, I don't know how much you know when someone goes missing, but the first 48 hours are really crucial to locate the missing person. They are. Because after those 48 hours, the chance of finding the person just dramatically drops. Yeah.

So it was actually really great that the police got on the case right off the bat. And they're like, she's missing. Tell us what happened. They explain the story. They're like, OK, we're going to start searching. So the Valencia County Sheriff, yeah, they called help from other departments across New Mexico, which right off the bat is something that's great because that's not normally the response the average person gets has with police when someone goes missing.

So they had a bloodhounds, they had a search and rescue team, they had ATVs and it actually pays off. Oh, that's really good. Yeah. So that's what, again, why the first 48 hours are super important. Because the first day, like the very first day, the very same day that she goes missing, they find some vital clues. They find some bicycle tracks. So they follow the bicycle tracks, but unfortunately they don't lead to Tara or her bike. Now they also find

tire marks from a car. And that seems to... They find tire marks and then they find a broken tape player that matches the color of Taurus cassette tape. I hope that's an interesting find. Yeah. So it's not like just tire tracks. It's like this is the cassette tape from her. The band was called Boston. I don't know if you've heard of that band before or not.

I don't think so. Maybe. Look into them, because that kind of just got entreated by the story. I mean, Tara liked them. So that's how they know that they're connecting some dots. They're already finding some crucial information the first day that she went missing. The police talk to people around.

They get a couple of witnesses that they do say that they saw a woman cycling witnesses that they do say that they saw a woman cycling that matched Tara's description. There was also a pair of ranch hands who said that they saw her heading north around 10.30 a.m. And that would have been around the time that she would actually be cycling on her way home. So Tara's family works to collect volunteers for the search party. But unfortunately, because she went missing on Tuesday, on Wednesday, the next day, the weather is actually really bad. And the air search had to be grounded. Yes, So they no longer had eyes on the sky. It was also rainy and windy.

Yeah. And because it was rainy and windy weather, it made it even more difficult because all the evidence that they've been trying to find could have been washed away or blown away. They did keep collecting more people for search parties. She went missing on Tuesday. By Friday, they had over 200 people helping find Tara. Damn, that's really good.

Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. So, everyone in the neighborhood and people that, you know, friends, family started to come forward and help out. Now, the police kept doing their like come forward and help out. Now the police kept doing their job and talking to more people. And several more witnesses came along that they say they saw Tara being followed by an older model pickup truck with a shell camper.

Um, the same witnesses say that they saw Tara with her headphones on, on. So she wasn't aware that she was being followed by whoever was in that truck. So, okay. So they came to that conclusion that like she was being followed and everything. Yeah, I mean, at least that's what the witnesses said. Yeah.

And because that's the only thing they have. So they keep searching, but unfortunately, months would go on with the search parties coming out empty-handed. And the grace, in the case, grows cold. Did it? I know you're going to get into it, but did it stay cold for a while or? Great question. No. So she disappeared in September of 1988.

By 1989, there was already new leads. Oh, okay. So a year. Oh, okay. Oh. So a year. Yeah, so on, wait, I think that was a type on my part. I am so sorry. Oh, that's okay. She would miss it in 1988.

There's no leads until 1989. Oh. Oh, 10 years. Yes. Okay, so it did kind of go cold for a while. Yes, for 10 years. However, this is not what you would expect. 10, what am I saying? Whoa whoa whoa hold on. We're not going back in time. I'm like 19 and now I'm going 18. I did a type away with the numbers. 1989. It was the following year. Wow, talk about poor note taking. So, no, it was one year, it was one year. It was one year.

The year after, yes. Um, there's this one... Okay, so, remember how she went missing in New Mexico? Yeah. Yeah? We're taking a trip now. We're going to North Florida. What? Oh, wow! Yeah! That's like across the country. It really is. So on June 12, 1989, there's this woman in

a convenience store that's all the way in Port St. Joe in North Florida. And she's in the parking lot of this convenience store and she sees a white van with the guy in the driver's seat, no one in the passenger side. So the woman goes inside, she buys the stuff that she needs. And when she comes out of the store, the van is gone. And she sees that where the van used to be, there's now a Polaroid picture laying on the ground.

Oh. So this woman picks up the picture and she took a look at it and what she found in that picture was so shocking, she had it reported to the police right away. Uh-huh. Oh, God. Yeah. So... Ah! Okay. So, ah, okay. So I want to tell you what's in the picture, but I'd rather just show you.

Okay. Okay. So I'm going to send you that Polaroid picture. Okay. I sent it to the group chat, so feel free to take a look at it. Like a phone. Oh. Yeah, so that Polaroid picture showed two people, a young woman and a young boy, who are both bound and seemingly gagged, lying in the back of a van or a similar enclosed

space with a dark interior. The woman is seen with a duct tape over her mouth suggesting that she's been gagged and her hands are behind her back, which could indicate that they're tied or bound and her expression and her position in her body language are kind of like just a little bit of in distress. I mean, you can see the picture. The woman who found the picture described the man that was in the van and she said that he was like a 30-year-old man with a mustache. It was very vague.

It was the only thing they had. So they set up a roadblock, but there were no clues. And after six weeks with the police having no answers about this Polaroid picture in Florida, they asked the public for help. So they released the picture. they were asking for help. And back in New Mexico, John and his family hear from one of John's friends about the picture, because a friend told John that's like, hey, I just saw your daughter in the news. And John is kind of like, what do you mean you saw my daughter in the news? So as soon as the family sees the picture, they rushed down to Florida. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And when this happens, this is where the FBI gets involved. Oh, shit. Yeah. Because now Yeah, because now it's she's across if it's her it's across state lines. Oh, yeah. So the FBI steps in as the lead and the FBI sent the picture back to the lab for analysis. Now the authorities were not sure if this was Tara in the picture. But Patty's, Patty, Tara's mom, she was convinced that this girl in the Polaroid is her daughter. She said that this is what Tara looks like without makeup. And when it's been a couple, when it's been a while since she hasn't gotten a perm. In addition to that, she also points to like a scar in the girl's leg that matches the scar that Tara has.

Wow, so like a lot's matching up. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sending you a picture right now that's the picture of the Polaroid and a picture of Tara as well. Oh yeah, definitely. Oh, yeah. Definitely see that that resemblance.

Yeah. So the FBI also sees that there's a book in the picture and they try to blow it up just to see what the book next to the girl is. And the family immediately recognizes the book because the book next to what people believe it's Tara, it's called My Sweet Audrina by V.C. Andrews. And it turns out that according to the family, that was Tara's favorite book. Oh. So now there's just like a few more things connecting because there's a picture, the

family says it's her without makeup, without having her hair done in a while, there's a scar, and now both things pointing to it next to her. Yes. So they also notice that there's like a phone number scratched into the book, but not all the numbers were visible in the Polaroid because they got cut off. So the FBI just tries to figure out how many combinations they can be with that phone number. And it's not helpful because there's over 300 combinations with those missing numbers. I'm looking at the picture right now and there's a phone number etched into the book.

Yeah, it's hard to see. I couldn't find it either. But like, I know. I mean, probably easier to see like on the actual Polaroid. Yeah it's also hard to see in the picture the name of the book you can make it out now that I said it but the FBI blew it up so they could get a better look and that's when they noticed the phone number. I see. But with the couple numbers that were cut off from that phone number, it could have been up to 300 combinations possible. Yeah. Yeah. So the law enforcers reached out to the Polaroid companies to get information about the film

they used since Polaroids were still relatively new during this time. And they wanted to track down where this Polaroid was distributed. So they were able to find out the film for this specific Polaroid only became available in May of 1989. So a month before the picture had been taken. Wow. So there, yeah, that's already like a huge narrow down. It is. So during that whole time, the picture was sent back to the labs and the labs was Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, which was like a renowned institute. But the reports varied of what they came up with.

Because according to the Albuquerque Tribune back in 2003, John and Patty were told by the lab that based on the girl's ears and Journal reports that the lab said it's not her. What? Yeah. So, like, five years after they told them, yes, it's your daughter, five years later, this journal decides to say it's not her. No, like, one, like, why are you still looking into who that person is? That's true.

Yeah. They didn't really say why it's not. They just said that the lab said it wasn't her. But in 2003, John and Patty were told that it was her. that the lab said it wasn't her, but in 2003 John and Patty were told that it was her. Now there was other labs that were also like running like analysis on the Polaroid. And the Scotland Yard and the United Kingdom got involved and they did their own analysis of the Polaroid. Whoa. Yeah. So Scotland Yard said in 2006 that this is definitely Tara. Which is it? I'm going to go with what the lab said just because the lab said yes and then the journal said no and the journal didn't do their analysis.

Also like the family said yes. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. That's true. Yeah. Unfortunately, there would be like no sign of like Tara or no leads and unfortunately in 2006, Patty, Tara's mom, passed away. Okay. So she passed away without knowing what happened to her daughter, where she was. And in 2008, two years after Patty's death, it's where things get more interesting. So the new Valencia County Sheriff goes on record with a shocking announcement in an interview with the Valencia County News Bulletin that was published 20 years after the terrorist kidnapping. The Valencia County Sheriff, his name is Renee, whoa. I was able to say this earlier,

and it's not even that hard to believe. Say it to me, I'll say it. Renee, there we go. Renee Rivera. He says that he knows exactly what happened to Tara. Oh, what? Yeah. How is that even known? So 20 years after he goes missing, this new sheriff says, I know exactly what happened to her. And he knows exactly who's responsible.

Renee also says that the two suspects were teenagers back in 1988 when Terram vanished and that they had help. Okay. How long? Okay. It sounds kind of sounds like he's known this for a long time. Why didn't he speak up before? Well he was at this point it's when he became the new sheriff. So he wasn't a sheriff when it first went down.

So he ends up telling that he says that the teenagers had help when Tara vanished because they needed help when they got rid of the body. Oh. Yeah. He says that didn't work alone. And he believes that Terra Calico never left New Mexico alive, not even Valencia County. Wow. And why do you know this, sir? Yeah. sir. No, it's, it's a whole 360. Because a year later, you're like, Oh my God, like she was maybe in Florida. Also, there's never any clues of who the boy in that Polaroid is. Yeah, like they haven't been able to like identify him or like have a matching suspect or like a mass missing person case that matches the description of this kid. That's so sad.

So the theory of the sheriff is that he clarifies that he doesn't think of the sheriff is that he clarifies that he doesn't think uh he he doesn't think uh Tara is in the Polaroid even though the picture of the girl in the Polaroid has never been linked to anyone else's case just Tara's um he said he's been on the case for a long time since like 96 um And that he's been used to all kinds of wild goose chases from like tipsters and sidekicks and everything in between. He said that he followed a ton of leads and that he dug up multiple places where Tara was rumored to be buried, only to come up empty handed. But that he's now ready to lay out what he believed happened to Tyra. So what did he believe and when did he eventually come out with more of the information? I mean, he didn't speak of it publicly until two years after her mother

passed away. Okay. And according to according to the sheriff, Renee, this two teenagers were driving along with an, you know, an old pickup, just how the witnesses have described that they saw a pickup. And they said that when they saw Tara riding her bike down State Road 47, they decided to follow her. Rene goes to say that this guy is in the truck actually knew Tara. And that there were kind of maybe catcalling her or harassing her, just being jerks. But things took a really bad turn because as they were doing all that, they actually hit Tara's bike with the truck. And Renes says that he thinks that it was an accident. They weren't trying to run her over or anything. They were just, you know, like, man harassing

her. Okay, but like, come on. What did you expect to happen? Man harassing. Okay, but like, come on. What did you expect to happen? Was that just a straight up accident? I don't know. No. So that's, René says that he doesn't think, that he thinks it was an accident. But when Tara falls off her bike, that's when the two teenagers get off the pickup truck and they kind of panic. Because, oh my god, we just hit this

girl and we know her, she knows us. So they picked her up with her bike and they put them in the truck. So technically they kind of, they abducted her. The sheriff said that they dumped the bike somewhere along the way. And the sheriff says that he thinks maybe they saw Tara hurt from the fall and that maybe she was threatening to call the police. So the teenagers, their brains started to like, their heads started to spiral. They panicked and they were afraid that they were going to go to jail. And that's why they put her in the truck. That is a very logical way to handle the situation.

I would be the same. I guess so. You want to put it? No, so according to Renee, um, in the same interview, um, he says that when the boys got rid of Tara's body, um, again, remember I said they didn't do it alone. Um, yeah. So I don't think he has a theory of exactly what happens. He thinks that this guy's had help from at least two more people. He thinks he know who they are, but he won't name them formally. And after his interview goes to the press, Tara's surviving family waits with this horrible anticipation.

You know, they're desperate to see who these two mysterious guys are going to who are going to be arrested are so the family can finally learn what happened in and they can fill in all those pieces. They can get that closure after 20 long years. But the thing is that even the sheriff says that he has a solid case ready. He has it put together but that he won't name them until he says that he has hard concrete evidence, like the body or the bike or a piece of clothing. So, you can imagine this would just make the family more mad. Of course.

Because how are you the sheriff going to go public and drop this bombshell on us? Yeah. And then just let it fizzle? How does this guy even know? You know, like where did he get this information from? Yeah, so sorry to tell you, but nothing comes of this. What the fuck? Tara's family. I know, I know. What the fuck? So, sorry to tell you, but nothing comes of this. Tara's family, I know, I know.

What the fuck? Tara's family is just again left to wait and watch. No arrests happen, no information got released to the public, Tara's disappearance just cools off again. And the investigation continues for a bit as well. The 20th anniversary of her missing, the 20th anniversary of the Polaroid comes and goes, nothing happens. So it was when that 20th anniversary came of the Polaroid being found, um, that thing started to move again because we're going to go back to Florida now.

We're jumping back and forth. I know that place. Um, and Port St. Joe in Florida, the chief of the police himself, he was named David Barnes. He got a pair of images in the mail. So it's actually a pair of images of a boy with a marker drawn over his mouth to look like a duct tape. And they were trying to imitate the boy from the original Polaroid.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So now the law investigators, they reported these photos that they were postmarked on June 10, 2009, which was two days before the anniversary when the photo was found. So they think it's some kind of like joke or they're just trying to be like have a gag or something like that. But the local newspaper gets the same photo as well. But the local newspaper gets the same photo as well. So it's not only Florida that got it, but the local newspapers in Albuquerque also got the photo.

And that's when they turned it over to police. And the thing is that the girl in the Polaroid and the boy, the girl was never 100% positively ID'd as Tara. And after 20 years, the boy has still gone unidentified. So the law enforcement enforcers do take it seriously. And at least for a little while, because they're pretty sure that it's just like a joke. Yeah. Oh, what if it's connected? Exactly.

You have to take that thing. Those things seriously. Yeah. Yeah. So unfortunately, nothing happens. The case grows cold. And they close the case. These poor kids, man. Yeah. So, like, why? Why though? I, like, I don't get how some of this information can just be glossed over and then never, like,

investigated again. It's actually crazy. They never, I mean, if the sheriff is going to say she never left the county, she died here, work with the labs or something. I don't know. Because the pictures, the Polaroid, two labs, Scotland Yard, and the one that the FBI sent it to said, this is definitely Tara. But it's not over yet. Because I'm gonna give you another turn. Okay. So five years later, October 2013, 25 years after Tara vanished.

25 years. Jesus Christ. That's so long. Yeah. So little answers. Oh, yeah. I mean, what confusing answers at that point. Yeah. Law enforcers announced that they were reopening the case, which had fizzled out after Renee's announcement. I can't even imagine what the families are feeling and going through. Oh, yeah. It's a roller coaster. I mean, it was a year before the Polaroid shows up. The Polaroid shows up.

They say it's your daughter. They see the picture. They have hope because, oh my gosh, she's alive, but where is she? And then years go by before anything else happens. But there was a task force made up of both federal and local officials, which were being assembled to try and finally get an answer. And the Albuquerque Journal's article says that they were not really interested in solving just this case, but they were interested in solving generally just cold cases. They were looking to reopen them, look at old evidence and try to get new evidence with

modern technology. Because they had been 25 years. Exactly. Like there's so much at this point. So later that same October, the case reopened, members of the task force start conducting more interviews in the county, in the Valencia County. And then the county sheriff deputy named Frank, he tells them about a pretty much a deathbed confession. So according to the police report, Frank tells the task force that a man named Henry Brown wanted to confess some things before he died. Oh, yeah. Wanted to confess some things before he died. Oh Yeah, and That Henry Brown knew exactly what happened to Tara and who killed her. Okay, what the fuck?

What is wrong with people? What is wrong with people? They're like, yeah, let me 20 years until I give evidence that would help solve a discipline. Yeah, so Frank just tells the task force that Henry, the man that had the deathbed confession back in 1988, this is in early 2000s, and this confession happened in 1988. My god. He said, Henry told him that in 1988 he used to live down a street from a trailer where this other guy lived, and he said that the other guy liked to have his buddies over to get high and party in the basement that he had built. And Henry would go over to actually party with them. And it all sounds just like fun and games.

But the guy who lived in the trailer was named Lawrence Romero, Romero Jr. And this was the the old sheriff's son. Oh, I literally just processed for me. No, we both know at the same time. Yeah, I know. There's a lot of names. There's been multiple sheriffs that have gone through the county during this whole missing person process. And it's like they know something. So Lawrence Romero Jr. was the old sheriff's son. And Frank tells the task force that Henry,

the man in the deathbed, said that he was down in the basement one night, right around the time that Tara disappeared, and that he saw what could be called like a grave wrapped up in blue tarp, basically the size of like a human body. Yeah, and that there were three guys, Lawrence and his buddies, Leroy and David, and one more unnamed man with like red hair. And that they kind of start talking about how they knew Tara because she used to date a friend of theirs and how they knew that she took the same bike ride every day and how they have seen her on State Road 47 on her usual route. So they were... they knew. Like, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. This was planned. And that they were driving this old pickup truck and that they knocked her off her bike. But according to Henry, it doesn't stop there. Because Henry, the man in the deathbed, making his deathbed confession, he tells Frank that Lawrence Leroy and the redhead and David, they kidnapped Tara. They took her out to some gravel pits nearby and sexually assaulted her. Oh.

Yeah. Fuck people. Yeah. Yeah. Like fuck evil people. Yeah, no, so, he says that she fought and that even though she had just been like brutalized,

Lawrence told Henry that she threatened to go to the police. So Lawrence got a knife and stabbed her. Wow, and what's the point? Like, why do you need to even do that? People are sick. There's no logic. I mean, I'm glad that I don't know why they did what the things they do. Yeah, me too. But then he says that they put her body in the basement. And that, and later they took it out of the Redhead's house, dumping it in a nearby pond. So here's the thing. Here's the thing.

Lawrence liked to brag that since his dad was the sheriff, he could pretty much get away with committing crimes. Yeah. Yeah, so Lawrence was known to brag about it to people. And as for the pink bike, the group said that they took it to a junkyard where it would never be found. Now, unfortunately, by the time that the task force hears this, this is years later, this took place literally when Tara went missing. And at this point, Frank has already resigned from the department. And Lawrence Romero Jr. has already been dead for 20 years. Got it. And Henry, the man in the death of

confession, he had already died as well. So there really wasn't a way to prove or disprove any of this. Yeah. Because everyone who like had like knowledge of it was just dead, basically. Yeah. And it's what's so unfortunate in cases like this. It's like, oh, we have new knowledge now 20 years, but everyone involved 20 years ago is dead. Yeah. Yeah. So, remember how we talked about that report in 2008? The one where the sheriff, Renee comes out and he's like, I sold it.

So there's some connections between them. He said that there were teenage boys, that they had assistant, that Tara's bike got hit and that they put her in the truck. Now, also Tara, like, writing to, like, tell the law enforcement is also, like tell the law enforcement is also could also contribute to an idea of like a cover-up. Because of course, like the dad's not going to want his son to go to jail for murder because like I have a reputation to upkeep. Yes. So it feels like we're kind of seeing like a cover-up maybe. It's not, it's not always necessarily about like justice, like because she got killed,

like there's not gonna be justice. Maybe the sheriff was like, it's more about politics. Like I have to like save my image. You just gotta stop being like a dick of a son and stop like stabbing people. No, literally. Yeah. But even with this story, we really don't have actual evidence of this.

I mean, we don't have evidence of anything. We don't know. We don't even know if the law enforcement did confirm this story. So it's So it sucks. The most recent update is from 2018. It's from the Albuquerque Journal and it was just unclear what steps the law enforcement took after this story. And it's unknown whether they searched the pond or the house, it was said that she was kept in. Yeah. So we just have no idea. There's still that photograph.

Is it really Tara? If it's not, who is that woman gagged in the back of the truck and who is that boy next to her? It kind of just... Yes. Like, I know that there was more happening behind the scenes, but it just seems like they don't care about the little boy. Yeah, I mean, I didn't want to get too much into it, because we can definitely cover this. There's a different story. Okay, I'm another missing child that they

think it's the boy in the picture. But it's never confirmed once again. Oh, okay, I see. Yeah, but once again, even with this Polaroid, they can't confirm it's Tara, they can't confirm who that kid is. It just feels unknown. Yeah. Michelle, her sister, is still alive, and she still wants to get the truth.

Like she still wants to know what happened to her sister. Yeah, of course. She's actually teamed up with one of Tara's old classmates named Melinda. And if you're interested or you know, you listeners, they, Melinda and Tara's sister, they have started an investigative podcast dedicated to solving the terrorist case. Yes. So I think that's really cool. Yeah.

Yeah. So the sister and the old classmate, they started this podcast. And in April 2019, Melinda did say that she's gotten some new information that she has turned over to the law enforcement. Unfortunately, we don't know what this information is, but it could potentially help solve the case. And back in the... Yeah, I hope so. So it's good to know that, you know, there's still, at least her sister's still searching. And back in October 2019, the FBI posted that they were offering a $20,000 reward

for information about this case and that they can ask, and that they ask anyone with information to please contact them. So if you're a listener and you have some information, just contact them at tips.tips.fbi.gov or by calling them at 505-889-1300. So again, like, if... Did we just plug the FBI?

Yeah. We did. I mean, if there's I mean, because it's still an open case, like, that's true. It went cold, it got closed, it got reopened. New information came out. And now like her sister and her old classmate, Melinda are working on it. Like, I believe podcasting about it. Yeah. So that is the story of Terra Calico Thank you for sharing the story you for sharing I Would be so pissed off if I was the family oh They were righteously

upset Yeah Yeah, yeah, I Mean they went through a lot. They did. They really did. I can't even imagine what they went through and what they're going through. Yeah. I mean, I, when it comes to stories of missing people, the thing that gets me the most is when someone passes away without having an answer like the mom did. She passed away not knowing whether her daughter was still alive or not. I guess the only kind of twisted bright side was that because she passed away, two later, she didn't have to deal with the story of how Tara never left New Mexico and she died. So I guess the mom still kind of had that hope that her daughter was out there somewhere. But it's still unfortunate.

Yeah. It is. It's like such a terrible thing to learn how many cold cases there are out there about things exactly like this or very similar. And it's just such like a morbid reality that there's so much evil out there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I did want to give you guys some stats about missing people and all that stuff, but honestly, I couldn't find the stats that I wanted.

I found a lot of them, but not necessarily once related to cases like this. Yeah, that's okay. It was all more of like nowadays and like technology and like yeah but there's a lot of stats out there and you know a lot of people are found but unfortunately that small percentage of people they still have families they still have a story to tell they still had a future. Yeah. Well thank you. That's Tara Calico. Tara, you're welcome. Sorry to bring down the mood already.

No, no, you're fine because we're going to pick back up again. Well, because we're going to, okay, we're going to be like, that's going to be up to Kai and then Alexis could either decide to bring it down or up. Oh my God. I have. I can't even tell you. Anyways, we're going from New Mexico to where? Are we? Where are we going?

We are going. Today's paranormal case takes us to Adams, Tennessee. Whoa, Tennessee. Whoa, Tennessee. Whoa. Tennessee, yeah. Where actually the most, it's said to be, it's the most infamous and well-documented haunting in American history did occur. Yeah.

Wait. Which is kind of ironic because I had never heard about it until I chose it and started doing research on it. I feel like because it's well documented, you're going to have a lot of info for us. Yes, yes. Well documented in, I guess, two types of context. As in, there's lots of documents back from when it happened, which is over 200 years ago now. What? Yeah, so lots of documentation from back then, but also lots of coverage now in our modern times.

Okay. So, I'll be talking about the Belle Witch haunting and the torment of the bell family from um 1817 to 1821. Yeah. Yeah. I mean I don't know if I've heard of it. It sounds familiar but okay I definitely don't know as much as you do right now. Perfect. That's the point. No, no. Perfect. That's the point. Okay, well, firstly, I do want to talk about the Bell family themselves because this is who it kind of set the story centers around. But specifically, a lot of the story does center around John Bell. He was the father of the Bell family. So he was born in Halifax County, North Carolina in 1750. His parents are William

Bell and Anne Jones. So he's from North Carolina, so not originally from Tennessee. In 1782, John would marry Lucy Williams from Edgecombe County, North Carolina. So different counties, but still both from North Carolina. Her father was John Williams. He was a, he was a respected farmer out in Edgecombe County. So. Yeah. I feel like being called a respected farmer was like, was a huge compliment. I was also going to say that that but also it was 1782. What else

was there to do besides farm? Fair. Fish maybe. He were either a farmer or fisherman. But I also don't think I've ever heard anyone being called on, what's the opposite of respected? A disrespected farmer. Disrespected, a hated farmer. Yeah, like I don't think I've ever heard someone being called that. That's me. Yeah. So John and Lucy, they bought a farm in Edgecombe County, and they began to make themselves

known. They gathered wealth and respect throughout the community. They were dedicated, reliable farmers as well. They sound so cute. John and Lucy, they sound cute until you realize that it's like the 1700s when everyone owned slaves. Oh yeah, you're so right. Yeah. So John and Lucy... I brought that up.

I was going to be like, Alexis. I'm sorry. I get it. I get it. All right. So John and Lucy, they would eventually have nine children. Jesse, John Jr., Drury, Benjamin, Esther, Zadok, Betsy, Richard, and Joel. So they had nine children. Okay. Yes? No, no, no. I was just counting in my fingers and I count at eight, but there's nine. Yeah. So I believe this is it, but like I couldn't find anything quite confirmed. I

do believe the first six of their children they had were born in North Carolina, but then their last three children were born in Tennessee after they moved. Not quite. Okay. born in Tennessee after they moved. Not quite. But yeah, in 1804 is when the Bell family would uproot and they'd start a farm on lots of acres of land on the Red River in Robertson County, Tennessee. So they moved from North Carolina to Tennessee to purchase lots of acres of land, close to I believe 400 acres of land. Do you know how much I purchased it for? No, I'm honestly not sure, but I imagine a lot of money.

They probably had their farmers. So their children, they eventually grow up, begin to live their own lives, which I can get into in a little bit. But for now, let's talk about the hauntings. So the first sightings of the Belle Witch began in 1817, so 13 years after the Bell family had actually moved to Tennessee and moved to the farm. Spooky. 13 years after? Yeah. No, so like they they you know built a relatively fine life there and and their kids who were who were born in Tennessee they were kind of growing up already, starting

to live their lives. But yeah, so it was one day when John Bell, the father, he was out in his cornfield just checking out his crops. And that's when he spotted a very strange looking animal. It was described as having the body of a dog and the head of a rabbit. I'm trying to picture that in my head. Okay. Does it look right? Hold on. I know it's a stupid question, but was it like the body of a dog and then a tiny rabbit

head size? Or was it like a dog-sized rabbit head? I'm not sure. There's, there's, that's one of actually the least documented things about it. About what exactly, what exactly like the dog looked like. But I don't know, I don't find it really funny. Such a well documented case, except for what the creature that was spotted is. Exactly. Well, because it's all based on interpretation on like the, their,

their drawings and things like that afterwards. Okay. But yeah, so body of a dog, head of a rabbit, um, Bell fired at the animal with his rifle, but instead of like it being hit, it's simply just vanished. Just like out of thin air. Yeah. Like, like not into like sand or dust, just like... No, it just disappeared. Like that's, that's what it documented. It simply vanished with no trace. They were on drugs. Oh yeah, yeah they were. Yeah, they were. Bell moved on.

He didn't think much about what had happened, even though an animal vanished in front of his eyes. He didn't think much of what had happened until later that night. And that's when things really started to begin. The Bell family began to hear something beating on the outside of their log home, trying to get in, something beating on the outside. The sounds kept getting more and more intense and forceful every night. But every time Bell and his sons ran outside to catch the culprit, there was of course nothing there that they

could ever find. Now some of these sounds potentially make their way inside the home with ports of the children waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of rats gnawing at their bed posts. I know exactly what that sounds like. Invisible dogs fighting inside the house outside and even like chains dragging on the floor. Okay, this escalated quickly. Yes. Yeah. It's also been kind of documented that apparently they heard the sounds of choking

and strangling as well. Heavy objects hitting the floor, sounds coming from the bedrooms as if the beds were being ripped apart. But nothing to actually cause any of this noise was ever found inside of the house. And at this point, this started reminding me of Jeff the Talking Mongoose. I was going to bring it up. I wanted to bring it up from the very first moment you said they went banished.

Yeah, no, like getting inside their house and like... Chains rattling. ...doing all these things. Yeah. I will help you with chains rattling. Exactly. Like you can imagine how terrified off right and the children were, especially when their bedsheets started flying off in the middle of the night.

No, if that happens, I'm out. Yeah. And not like their hair was getting pulled. They were scratched randomly by like an invisible entity. Again, nothing was really ever found. So like I mentioned earlier, the Bell family did have slaves. And one of their slaves, a man named Dean, had reported that he was being followed by a large black dog or wolf-like creature when he would walk home at night to go visit his wife. And this dog was described as sometimes having two heads or no head at all. That's a big difference. Yes. And I'm not sure if it's either or or if both would

happen. I imagine maybe it was both. Sometimes it would just have two heads or sometimes it would have no head at all. I feel like that's more concerning than a dog with two heads. I feel like a dog with two heads is like, it's natural. Like it's not common. It's not common, but like it happens in animals. Animals have two heads sometimes. But yeah, what I'm trying to imagine is that you see a dog with like no head and then like a week later you see the same dog, but it has now two heads. Yeah, no, that's... And then like you might see it again without same dog, but it has now two heads. Yeah, no that's...

And then like you might see it again without a head. I think that's more concerning. If it keeps like switching back and forth. But also, now that I'm thinking about it, if it was the early 1800s and I saw a dog with two heads, I would think that's witchcraft. Oh yeah, it's so cute. Did someone get burned? They tried eventually. I'll get into that a little bit later on. Okay, I'm gonna keep letting you go.

No, no, no. Good question. Good question. Good question. Um, so Dean the slave, he eventually had even claimed that he was turned into a mule and attacked by the witch. And there's actually like a, there's like drawings of like Dean confronting the witch or Dean being turned into a mule, like, yeah, little drawings depicting it sort of. They're kind of interesting to look at. But... Was it like, he was, I don't know if you know but like was he turned into a mule multiple times or just one time? I think just one time but he was attacked several times by the witch. He said like he encountered the witch several times and would follow him a lot. Apparently he he after that, Dean at all

times carried an axe and a witch ball that his wife made him as protection from the witch. What's the witch ball? I have no clue. Okay. No, just some sort of protection from a witch. I'm looking at her. There. I was going to be like, because I want one. some sort of protection from a witch but I'm looking at here I'm looking like because I want one honestly same it's a hollow sphere of plane or

strided glass hung in cottage windows in the 18th century to ward off evil spirits but later on those on top of a vase. Question. Wow. Do I need a cottage for them? Yes. I honestly didn't look it up because I just assumed it was like something that the wife made specifically rather than like a rather than like an actual thing that was kind of known back then.

No fair fair. I mean that's what was curious I was like, do we know what it was? Apparently was Okay, cool So yeah like different encounters and stories like this But honestly, this is all pretty tame To what would happen after this

to what would happen after this. The witch- People are getting scratched, people are getting turned into a mule, and you tell me this is tame? Yeah, like at least in terms of violence, I guess. Oh no. Yeah. The witch slowly began to manifest itself. The family started to hear faint whispers that sometimes sounded like an old woman singing hymns in the house. And the encounters with the children, especially Betsy, got much, much more violent. Betsy would be the target of most of the witch's torment over those couple of years.

Um, Betsy was the... She was the youngest daughter. And so I do believe she was... Their ages aren't actually quite documented, but she was probably anywhere from like 13 to 16, somewhere like that. Okay, I'd kind of imagine her as like 13 or 14. Not fair. And she was the youngest out of nine, right? She was the youngest daughter. Yeah. And there was two, there were two boys after her, but they came very soon after. So they're all around the same age. Okay. Yeah, so Betsy was the target of most of the witch's, you know, violence and things like that. She just

seemed to sort of hate her. The witch did. Poor Betsy. Betsy would be... I'm sure Betsy hated the witch too. Oh yeah, no. They definitely... it was a mutual hatred going on there. Betsy would be brutally slapped, beaten, her hair would be violently pulled, even dragged a bit, and like very, very often there would be so many welts and bruises and found on her face, on her body, and it was all from this invisible entity that they couldn't figure out what it was yet. Poor Betsy. Yeah. Yeah. Things got bad. Like, could you imagine doing that? I'm surprised she didn't try to run or something like that. Yeah. No, yeah. I mean, where would she run? It was like the 1800s. Exactly. There was there was no where she really could have gone.

But it's actually she sort of did try to leave. She she tried to escape a bit. She sometimes would be sent over to, or her parents would send Betsy over to like a neighbor's house to rest sometimes. It said that it was documented and she says, or like a description from Betsy after an incident actually does say, quote, like my first night away from home was spent with any Thorne. They, so she did go away.

They slept for the nights and apparently there was like a loud knocking outside of the door. The door flew open. There was a big gust of wind But then when they sprung up from the bed the door wasn't open But then they heard a Betsy heard a soft voice. It said Quote Betsy you should not have come here. You know, I can follow you anywhere now get a good night's sleep end quote what oh my god no was betsy the only one that heard this um so betsy heard this voice specifically yes um

it's not said that the other person heard it but there have been people who heard other things from the witch too. No, I'm- what do you want? Leave me alone! Betsy said that a soft hand patted her cheek, and then the voice again assured her that she would be okay for the night. For the night. For the night. Okay, so you're a- should a bad witch? the night. For the night. Okay, so should a bad witch? Yeah. It sounds like something is trying to take care of her or like make her feel better. No, that's the thing. It's like, it's literally said that at times the witch had even like displayed sort of bits of kindness, like to the people in the family. It's documented that the Bell

Witch really liked Lucy, John Bell's wife, so the mom of the family. It's said that the witch said, quote, or called Lucy,y quote the most perfect woman to walk the earth oh my gosh that's so sweet though is it my children are getting harassed and i'm getting called the most perfect woman in the world yeah yeah i don't know about that um what are you trying to... If I'm the most perfect woman in the world, are you telling me I got the most not perfect children? I guess so. I don't know. Apparently, the witch would give Lucy fresh fruit and sing to her.

What? And also later on, later on in the years, John, John Jr. and the witch would have like deep conversations with each other. This is not a pet. You should not be talking to them. This is Jeff the mongoose but unhinged. Jeff the mongoose if he actually followed through with his threats. Yeah. Kill the poultry.

Yeah. I will find you wherever you go, literally. Yeah. No, so I did jump ahead a little bit saying some of that, but like it just, it, no, so so I did jump ahead a little bit saying some of that but like it just it Dude, no, it's actually kind of crazy that This witch is like all over the place. Yeah Yeah, I wonder if it's like The witch just kind of grew accustomed to them and kind of gave up torturing them

Quite So and kind of gave up torturing them? Uh, not quite. So things got so bad that things got so bad that John, the father, he like broke his vow to keep it secret. And he let his neighbor and his close friend, James Johnston, know about what was happening to the family. Of course, Johnston and his wife were very skeptical about it. So they stayed the night one night. It was relatively OK. It was relatively OK at the start. But once they went to sleep that night, of course, their sheets were yanked off of their bed.

that night, of course, their sheets were yanked off of their bed. But then Johnston, he jumped out of bed and yelled, in the name of the Lord, who are you and what do you want? Yes! Did he get a response? The witch didn't respond. But it was said that the rest of the night was peaceful. So the witch did not do anything else after that. Not sure why. But then the next day, yeah, she got, the witch got scared. She was like, okay, I'm gonna, okay, I'll take a little break. Could you imagine if it was like, you rip the sheets off, he says that line, and then

the witch is just like, okay, we got a crazy one in here, I'm gonna go away. Yeah, she's like, you mentioned the Lord, I'm gonna... No, it's not him. Yeah, he wouldn't like what I'm doing right now. He wouldn't like you using his name in vain. Exactly. I'll let him take care of you tonight, not me. The next day, Johnston talked with the Bell family and he said, quote, it was likely an

evil spirit, the kind that the Bible talks about. Oh my God. So that's what Johnston believed about this. And like this, it definitely is not where it ended, not for the witch and not for the exposure that this family would get from it as well. More time went on, but the witch gets stronger. She's able to manifest herself more, her voice, her presence. The witch more

fully sings hymns. She is hard quoting scriptures. She held conversations, like I mentioned. She even managed to quote two different sermons that were preached by reverends on the same day at the same time miles apart, which implies that the witch could be in multiple places at once. I don't like that. Yeah. Multiple places and once. It's even documented that she even had super speed, superhuman speed, and she can move quickly. No. This is going to a different, different level. No, this witch is insane.

Alexis, were you going to say something? No. I'm just going to shut up. I don't want her to hear me. All right. Fair, fair. Yeah, so there was, it's even said that the witch like gossips about other households and she'd like this is jeff as a witch this is jeff as a witch she'd like leave and then she'd come back in a bit to like to visit a home or something like that and she brings the gossip yeah yeah it's crazy it's actually crazy. I want to hate her, but kind of.

Hold on. I'm sure you're going to tell us, but is there a name to this witch? Um, sort of. There's been documents that her name could have been Kate. So at one point, there's an author, his name is M. V. Ingram. He wrote what's called An Authenticated History of the Famous Bell Witch. It was in 1894. And so this is the first full length recording of the Bell Witch hauntings. 1894. That's so long ago. Yeah, that's great.

And that's why like it is a full on book. And that's where a lot of this information is being drawn from. I'm glad that like someone wrote it down. Yes. So he actually said that in his published book, Ingram says that the ghost, the witch's name was Kate after like the entity, like it claimed to be old Kate Batts witch. And so Kate was like a, I forget exactly, but Kate was definitely involved in the community. It was said that at one point, maybe Kate and John Bell, the father, had sort of a disagreement about some purchase for land and something bad could have happened to that. There could have been bad blood there and that's why this spirit of Kate came back to haunt the family. Oh, oh, oh.

Yeah. So that's not confirmed. And the thing is with how much documentation there is about this case, there's so many different viewpoints and perspectives of it as well. But it's not necessarily widely accepted that the witch is the spirit of Kate, but sometimes she is known as Kate. Okay, no, that's... Yeah. but sometimes she is known as Kate. Okay, no, that's... Yeah. I can't argue with that because it's been like 200 years. Yeah.

So, okay, sure. Yeah, right? There's not much we can really do about it. You know, sometimes she identifies as Kate. Yeah. Oh, there's times she doesn't. It's because, like, over the years, there's there's been the, you know, the authenticated history that Martin Ingram wrote, but there's been other writings that have came after that as well. And they all have different sort of interpretations here and there.

Yeah. But yeah, so like I did mention, Betsy was really the most abused by the witch. And for like unknown reasons, apparently the witch really hated, uh, Betsy's childhood sweetheart. His name was Joshua Gardner. Um, oh, I'm sorry. If you're not going to let Betsy date, go find her a man then. If he's not good enough for Betsy, who is? No, for real. So yeah, they were they were childhood sweethearts. They loved each other. They were wanting to you know, be married but The witch would you know taunt her would abuse Betsy to stop her from marrying Joshua

But so they did they did stay together for a bit, but eventually they kept putting off the marriage because they were scared of the witch. But yeah, the witch was just so much that Betsy began to have, you know, fainting smells or spells. Smells. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 1800s. It was fainting smells. Exactly. Fainting smells. Yeah. Fainting smells or spells. Leave me alone. That thing spells, Betsy would be tired and exhausted and even looking lifeless sometimes. And yeah, you're being tormented by a spirit. I don't blame you.

I mean, he did stick around for a while and then it got to much to be too much for him. Yeah, so I don't blame him Yeah, so They stayed together for a bit Betsy and Joshua but eventually Betsy couldn't take it anymore she she broke it off with Joshua and That's what the witch kind of started to leave her alone a bit more. Not quite as much. Oh yeah, give her a broken heart. Yep.

Oh. Broken heart, but I guess not for long because Betsy eventually married her former teacher. I'm sorry? Richard Cole. Yeah. Yeah, so apparently he, Richard was actually Joshua and Betsy's like former teacher back when they were school kids. He was like 11 years older than her or something like that. No, no, no, no. And he said that he had, it was just documented that like he had a fondness for her even while she was with Joshua. He was waiting for the breakup.

He waited for the breakup. He was very disappointed, disappointed with her, like, you know, her union with Joshua yeah but eventually in 1820 Betsy and Richard like left the area and they settled in Mississippi and so that's why the the spirit started to leave leave her alone a bit more. I don't like that, though. Yeah. After this, though, Betsy was not quite the focus of the witch anymore. It turned to John, the father. Oh. John, the father. One of the central, like, one of the goals of the

Bell Witch throughout the entire course of these years was wanting the death of John, John Sr., the father. So the witch hated him for some reason. She called him old Jack Bell and she constantly, you know, put curses on him, threatened him, abused him physically, just like Betsy as well. Throughout the years, it just got and worse and the witch really intended on on killing him and eventually she would so John senior is actually his death is the only death in American history to be attributed to the paranormal. Oh wow. Wait, what? Yeah, so the Tennessee government recognized his death as paranormal.

It's one of the only investigations that, like paranormal investigations that was done by a government. The Tennessee government actually take this very seriously. What did they do though? Not much. There wasn't really anything for them to do. There was a lot of knowledge, a lot of intrigue about what had happened, even extending out to the likes of like Andrew Jackson. So-

I'm sorry? Yeah, Andrew Jackson took a great interest in the Bell Witch. So it's said that, you know, he was the major, the general major back during that time. He was to be future president. But apparently Jackson, he owned property on the Red River as well, so not far off. And he heard of the hauntings of the Bell Witch. So he proceeded to go over there one day with a few of his men, some horses and those horses were drawing a wagon.

But on their way to the bell farm, their wagon suddenly got stuck and it couldn't be moved. They examined it, they tried to get it out, but that wagon just would not move. Almost like there was unseen forces that were stopping it from doing so. Damn. And so Andrew Jackson, it's documented that he exclaimed, by the eternal boys, this is the witch. He was so excited.

And apparently the witch replied and said, all right, general, let the wagon move on. I will see you again tonight. Oh. And the wagon started to move again. Oh my god. Yeah. This witch is talkative. I don't know.

I kind of like her. No, literally. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. That's what I was thinking. This. This man and her $20 bill. I'm just trying to process this man yelling out into like... He was just a silly guy. By the eternal, boys. This is the witch. And then she just shows up. Sure. Cool.

I'll take it. Yeah. Okay. But yeah, so later that evening, they basically made their way over to the Bell Farm and they camped out that night, Jackson and his men. One of his men essentially was like a... He proclaimed himself as a witch hunter and he said he had a silver bullet in his gun. And that silver bullet is the reason why the witch wasn't showing up.

She was scared. Wait, what? Yeah. Apparently, Jackson, like, whispered to one of his other men and said, I'll bet this fellow is an errant coward. By the eternals, I do wish the thing would come. I want to see him run. And after that, after a brief moment of silence, footsteps started to be heard, light footsteps on the floor and a disembodied voice said, all right, General, I am on hand and ready for business.

Oh my God. Okay, it seems like it's full enough to be a showdown. It almost was. The Bell Witch apparently like taunted the hunter and told him to shoot her. But uh, but apparently it said that that hunter, he was, you know, like kicked, like kicked in the butt essentially, probably by the ennene scene force. He exclaimed that he felt the pain of being stuck by needles all throughout his body. And he was like kicked out of the tent and he just fled. He ran. And that was the witch is doing

apparently. Apparently the witch did say, apparently the witch said, how the devil did run and beg. I'll bet he won't come through here again with his old horse pistol to shoot me. I guess that's fun enough for tonight, General, and you can go to bed now. I will come tomorrow night and show you another rascal in this crowd. Oh my god. This witch. I kind of love her. I am so intrigued by her.

She's a character. It's like the only way I can... Yeah, she's a character. So Jackson and his men, they got scared and they ran away and went back to Nashville. Yeah. I know I'm not supposed to like her because she's abusing people. Yeah, yeah, definitely. But it's hard not to kind of like her sometimes. Yeah.

Yeah. Um, anyway, that was a bit of a tangent. Uh, because I, because I was, we were making our way towards John, John Senior and his death. Um. Yeah. Yeah, so, like I said, said, that's one of the most like interesting parts about the story to me is that like the Tennessee government, like this is the only death that is actually attributed to a

paranormal source. And I think that's crazy. The story goes is that after everything happened to John, he was in his old age, old age, you know, old Jack Bell, as the witch called him, old age, he was also being tormented by that witch. And of course, he just couldn't really carry on. Bell, he got sick and he basically was bedridden. He was cared for by John Jr., his son. So on December 19th, it said, the night of December 19th, John, of course, didn't get up to bed, so his son, John Jr., went to retrieve some medicine for him, um, but in the cupboard, instead of finding the regular medicine vials, he only found one vial, and it was full of a dark, like, smoky, black liquid, um, but he just, just like he didn't know what it was The voice seen though, yeah, yeah

The voice the voice of the witch appeared and said it's loose useless for you to try to relieve old Jack I have got him this time. He will never get up from that bed again She said that she gave old Jack a big dose of it last night while he was fast asleep, which fixed him. No. John Jr. I'm sorry. John Jr. then did pass away the next day on December 20th, 1820.

How old was he? He was born... Math time. He was born 1750, died 1820. So... 70? 70 years, yeah. Wow. Still, I mean, he could be killed by a witch.

That's a story. He's honestly still pretty young too, in my opinion. So it's said that John Jr. he like threw the vial into the fire and it erupted into like a huge blue blaze. So, yeah. See, this is all before like movies. So I kind of like how like they were so descriptive of things that happened. Yeah, but it also begs the question of like, are they so descriptive because they're making it up? You know? True. I don't know. But yeah, John Senior's funeral was actually huge. People all over, you know, heard of his passing passing they had known of the bell witch hauntings So that was a huge funeral service for him and apparently of course the witch

Disrupted like the funeral also no Leave the poor man alone Yeah He was a respected farmer, can you not respect him? He literally was. He was. I'm sorry. If some witch comes to bother my funeral, I'm getting up and fighting her. What exactly did she do? You know, let me ask him. What if you know? What did she do? Yeah, I think she was just acting like a like a drunk person and singing like drinking songs. What? If you know. What did she do? At the funeral? Yeah. I think she was just acting like a drunk person and singing drinking songs.

Oh my god. This girl is witch. But yeah. So I wonder if she knows Jeff. He probably created Jeff. He probably does. Jeff was her pet. Oh my god. Honestly yeah, Jeff was conjured by the the bellwitch.

Yeah. Honestly, it's just wild. This poor man didn't even get respect once he was dead. Yeah. It's kind of crazy. So I do, like, yeah, I jumped kind of forward earlier talking about Kate a bit, but I will talk about like the actual Kate a little bit now. So a lady named Mary Catherine Kate Batts. So she was the wife of Frederick Batts, who people sort of kind of thought that he could have been the culprit behind a lot

of the disturbances of the Bell Witch. So Kate, she was kind of like seen around the Red River, like settlement community. People thought she was like practicing black magic or was involved in other forms of the occult because she was just kind of strange and she had words used improperly, things like that. Because she was just kind of strange and she had words used improperly, things like that. Because she was a Madison woman. No, literally. But yeah, like I mentioned, there was sort of a dispute between Benjamin Batt's, Kate's older brother, and John Senior. And so it was actually over the sale of a slave, not property. I guess a slave was property back then. So yeah, the dispute just kind of turned a little nasty.

And it said that maybe the Bell Witch was created by Kate to kind of get revenge on the Bell family. Yeah, it's not very clear. Like, it is sort of just writings. It's not sure how true that actually is. If, you know, Kate was alive and she was culprit behind the hauntings or if the Bell Witch herself was just the spirit of Kate. Again, not too sure. So I didn't really include that too much. No, that's fine. I mean, I would imagine over 200 years, there's a lot of information to

go through. There really is. So after John Senior died, though, that was not where it ended. That's right. There's still more family members to torture. Exactly. So Belle died December 20th, 1820. But the hauntings lasted honestly through April of 1821, the next year. Well, that's sort of when Betsy had, you know, finally broken off the engagement. She moved away with her former teacher. That's a whole story on its own. Yeah, and so apparently the witch had visited Lucy, the mom, the mom that she loved, and she told Lucy that the witch told Lucy that she loved and she told Lucy that the witch told Lucy that she would be leaving but she would return in seven years so in 1828 and

true to form The witch showed back up in 1828 She's a woman of a word Yeah You know how I mentioned earlier how like John Jr. and the witch would have conversations? Oh, yeah. This is sort of what would happen in 1828. Oh. Apparently, they had like deep philosophical conversations about like the origin of like religion, life, civilization, things like that. Apparently, the Belwich even predicted like the Civil War and other events.

Yeah. But after that, the Belwich left just a few weeks later, but did promise to visit John Bell's most direct descendant in exactly 107 years. Wait, okay. Yes. So, can you take us now to 107 years from this? Yes, I can. 107 years later, yeah.

I was gonna be like, how do you pass that knowledge on to your, like, descendants? I know, it's crazy. Yeah. I feel like it would become like a legend. Like, oh yeah, according to your grandpa, like in 30 years, your children are gonna be visited by a witch. No, that's kind of what happened. Okay, 107 years later would be 1935. 1935, the closest direct descendant was a doctor. His name was Dr. Charles Bailey Bell. He was

a neurologist and he was John Senior's great-grandson. So he was already great, like 107 years had passed, it was his great-grandson. In 1934, Dr. Bell, the living descendant, he published a book about the Bell Witch. And so it brought more awareness to the return of the witch. And this is also another reason why it's one of the most documented cases because the book apparently contained the first accounts of the conversations that John Jr. and the witch would have in 1828. So when they had those deep conversations together, that's what these accounts held in that book. And so there was notes that

were taken and they were just being passed down generation by generation to keep in the family. I like that. At the same time, it's like your first victim was like a farmer and now you're going to like a man of science. Yeah, this witch is all over the place. I don't know. I mean, it's not like she had to pick him. That's true. She could be what she wanted. I mean, she just shows up and say, Oh, you're a doctor. Yeah. So 1934 that was published 1935 comes around. There's really no sighting of the witch. Some people don't know if she returned, or maybe she even never left in the first place. But there really was no sign of the witch that happened in 1935.

Wow. So that's basically when it kind of ended, at least for the family. No. Yeah. Oh, I kind of wanted her return. Well, maybe she's still here. There actually is the Bell Witch Cave, which is currently still in operation, and you can still take tours there. It's the original cave that the Bell family would have gone into as well. It's mostly unchanged. The actual like

house and land itself is kind of different. The house was torn down afterwards so it doesn't exist anymore but yeah the Belwich Cave still exists pretty much in its original state but it's made to be like a little bit more I guess museum-y in a way. Yeah, I was gonna ask, do you know, do we know why farmers would go into a cave? Apparently, they used it for like storage. Like, storage and stuff, because it stayed naturally cool. Smart. Okay.

stayed naturally cool. Smart. Okay. So now you can take tours of the cave today, there's guides and things. And people have, you know, reported that they've reported things like, you know, whispers people talking, lights like dancing through apparently taking pictures is very hard in the cave. They don't come out well or there's mist, orbs of lights, other things like that. The cave was never directly tied to any of the hauntings but it's still on the property and it's still there. So, you know, who knows,

it could still be part of it. Okay. So do we know if, do you know if the doctor descendant lived near, like if he lived in the same state or like in the same county as the farm? So he lived in, he lived in Nashville. He was a Nashville physician. So he was still in Tennessee. Nashville. He was a Nashville physician. So he was still in Tennessee. But I do believe, let me see how far Nashville is from like, Adams. Yeah, because I was just wondering, I was like, maybe it wasn't close enough 45 minutes. Oh, I think that's close enough. Yeah, exactly. She could easily go there. So yeah, he was not far. I don't know, the doctor, Dr. Bell, eventually did pass away in 1945. So whoever the descendants are, give it, I don't know, 107 years. Yeah, maybe she'll come back.

Maybe they misheard of 107 and it's some other number. Yeah, when she came back but they weren't expecting it, so she was just like, okay, what the fuck? And then she got back. She gave you a warning. There. Daniel Mourning. Yeah. Claire.

But yeah, that's the story of the Belle Witch hauntings. The most famous haunting in American history. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Actually on our list of places to travel. Yeah. No, I've been, I was gonna say, like, I knew about the Bellwitch Cave. I didn't really know much about the hauntings or anything like that. So,

like, this was all new information to me. But I knew about the cave. And that was, like, a place I wanted to go to for a while. Hell yeah. Did you say that you went to? I want, no, no, no, no, I want to go. Okay. I wanted to go there for a while. I don't travel like that. No, I was the opposite. I knew of the case. I didn't knew many, actually I didn't knew any details. Like I knew of the name. That was it. Thank you. Yeah, thank you for sharing. Thank you guys for listening. Made me feel better for my case. I tried to bring it bring up the energy a bit I guess. Now we're gonna find out what Alexis is going to do with the

energy. You guys aren't prepared. Oh, we're not? For a laugh or for like depression? Um, whoa. Um, actually. Either one? Actually, a little bit of both, but um, or more of the funny, to me at least. Kind of. of but um where are you taking us we're not we're not we're not in the US anymore Romania no we're actually not in Romania we are in Australia yeah I'm tired today stick okay yeah let's see it let's hear it we're going to Western Australia. I tried to look up specifically where in Australia it was. All I know is that's in the Campion. I don't

know if I'm pronouncing that right. Campion County. But this is a story of the Great Emu War. Let's go! Yeah! Don't know details, but I'm so glad you're doing it. Yes. I was like looking up cases for me to do and I was like, no, I have to do this. Okay. So this happened in Western Australia in 1932. It was a military operation created

to address the great emu population. So, emus are mainly found in Australia. There were so many emus and they were damaging literally so much of the crops within Western Australia that there was a whole campaign created to basically start a war against the emus. So it lasted from November 2nd of 1932 until December 10th of 1932. So a month, a month, a week and a day to be exact. A month, a week and a day. I like that. Yeah. The Royal Australian Artillery kind of organization kind of, they help maximize weapons to their full potential and everything. They have three members attempt to call roughly around 20,000 the emus. God damn.

20,000? 20,000. No, when I saw that number I was like, there's no way there's that many emus. That's a claim. I would love to witness that. Yeah. So, at the time... Dude, how did they even fit there?

Like... No, seriously. Okay, do you know that scene from The Lion King when, like... Yes. ...Dimba falls down and, like, he's dying? He's just... And then there's this... That's what I picture of the emus, just this stampede emu.

Yeah, stampede emus. The... Yeah. Honestly, that's what I picture of the emus, just as stampede emus. Stampede emus. Yeah, honestly, that's what happened. This is the lion king before it came out. Who's dying? Well, so local farmers at the time were struggling to keep their crops since the emus were like destroying them. So they signed a petition making complaints about the emus. There was a confirmation that after like two months, maybe less, that they had killed a thousand emus. Damn, so funny.

How many days yes Well for the amount of time that they were trying to kill the emus Well, I mean I'm just saying Okay, two months for a thousand at that point or 19,000 left Yeah, yeah. So like although a thousand is a lot It actually wasn't a lot compared to the rest of the population they had still. So, but, but overall this campaign, it caused some embarrassment, because they did not succeed very much. So, emus have been found within Australia for literally thousands of years As long as they've been living in this country

Some still weren't too fond of them including the government and the Australian government. I know emu's are cute the Australian government Yeah, they're the second largest flightless bird. First largest is ostrich. Ostrich. I love ostriches. And then we have the emus. But in Australia, their status was under protected native species. Eventually the government changed it to vermin. Vermin?

What the fuck? This is... Yep. No. The Australian government are the vermin. Vermin. So, I did mention this took place in 1932, which had not only followed World War I, but also the Great Depression.

And so that's why these crops were so vital. They literally needed all of this in order to survive. They were specifically growing wheat at the time. They'd been growing large amounts of wheat. And whenever the emus would try to get to the crops, they would break through the farmers fences dig holes big enough for other critters to get in. And if they were to try to eat the crops, they would literally destroy everything around it. And so of course, that screwed them over bedtime.

They needed that they needed those crops in order to live, you know. So understandably, they were a little bit of sin, but what they did is not justified. So there was a drought in Australia of 1932. And that actually caused a large migration in emus. So that also caused more damage to the crops. Some farmers were actually given permission to shoot the emus themselves. No. Yeah, but a lot of the farmers at the time had also been veterans and were in a military program that actually led them to be settled on that land, which they were helping out farm. So the farmers that actually had very limited resources, they wanted to have the emus on their own, but they requested assistance from the government instead.

So at the time. And I think it's kind of hard to kill an emu, to be honest. I'm so glad you mentioned that. And I know it's kind of hard to kill an emu to be honest. I'm so glad you mentioned that. I was also going to say that the emus fight back. I'm going to. I like those questions. I like those questions.

I'm going to ask them in just a moment. Cool. I thought you were going to be like, I'm going to take all questions at the end of the story. No. No. So at the end of the story. No, so at the time, George Purce, he was the minister for defense. He had actually decided to help the veterans feel more at ease. He wanted to kind of let them know that these concerns were being taken seriously. So he dispatched a bunch of professionals, professional soldiers to help. Yeah. So at the time, major, she has a long name, by the way, Gwynedd Purves, Gwyn Aubrey Meredith. She was a major in command,

and then Sergeant S McMurray, and then Gunner J.O. Halloran, the three members of the Royal Australian Artillery in November 1932, went to travel to where these emus were, which was in the Campion District, to address the issues. So the group, the group actually had a cinematographer with them too, which is kind of funny, and had two Lewis automatic machine guns with 10,000 rounds of ammunition. They really wanted to kill them. Yeah, they really wanted to kill these heroes. I understand that they're treating them like a vermin, but is there no other way? Yeah. So they had officially made like three different teams on November 2 to rally against around 50 emus, which of course it scared the emus, you know, or like, they basically just were running for their lives, which

actually made it harder for them to shoot them. So that was a big fail. Soldiers are not gonna stand still. No, literally. Yeah. Yeah, they're not going to stand still. No, literally, yeah. Oh, literally. Soldiers had planned an ambush on the emus on November 4th, and they began to fire once they noticed that thousands of emus were in their range. But one of the guns had jammed after a few rounds Which of course gave the emus opportunity to escape

They tried So many different ways to kill these emus and they all failed They tried a peaceful negotiation no but they did try to kill their herds of emus by using trucks with a gunner inside no way I'm sorry No way. As horrible as this is, I would love to see that just driving towards the emus. Okay, is it just me or is this giving the same energy as whales, as blowing up whales? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It is, it is, it is. That's why I chose it. I've known about the Great Emu War for like forever, but I've never known the details of it. I haven't known the details either.

What? They brought up a whole fucking like- I literally never heard of it. Dude, it's insane. I was literally doing research and I was like, no, this is too crazy. I need to, like I was going to take a this is too crazy. I need to like I was gonna take a break but I needed to continue. Don't you just love humanity? Love humans. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Greatest creature ever. I just imagine if like, aliens come down and like they ask us about the great emu war and they're like

how do you explain it to them? I got him. You got it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My dad, he goes outside every night to see if there's aliens in this game. Oh, here is the emu. Yeah, he does he does you know he literally just goes and yeah that too well he'll come back inside and he'll be like you guys i saw a saucer right now in the sky it was crazy like i saw the lights and everything and he uses the smoke as an excuse to go to smoke signal He uses the smoke as an excuse to go search for the aliens. It's a smoke signal for the aliens. Bruh. I think it's a bruh out there. Anyway. We're gonna go back on track onto emus.

So, you know, they tried using trucks with a gunner inside to shoot them. That didn't work because the emus were so much faster than them because they were on a rough terrain. Yeah. Yeah. So that didn't work. And also, another thing that made it difficult, I'm so glad you guys asked, it's kind of hard to kill emus because they're hide. It's really tough. So even if a bullet grazes it, it's not going to cause any injury to it, at least not a face. But also like they're a big animal. Yes, they're huge and they're fat.

One bullet unless like properly placed into like their heart or like a lung, like it's not going to kill it. So I don't know if you know about what, how was, what was the cleanup of the corpses? Oh, great. That's a good question. They ate the meat. I don't know. Yes, they did. They blew them up. We're not doing this. No, moving away from whales. But yeah, their hide literally makes it really hard for them to even kill them with like bullets you know but three

days into the operation 30 emus had been killed and then the news at the time had widely publicized on November 8th that the emu war had failed. Some tried to make a light of the situation, like members of the Australian House of Representatives, by jokingly saying that if anyone deserved medals from this conflict, it would be the emus who'd, quote, I did mention Meredith, well, the major Gwynedd pervs when Aubrey Meredith, we're just going to call her Meredith, she, as well as the soldiers, had withdrawn from the campaign. And while they withdrew, the local farmers had demanded that they return. Of course. Yeah.

Four days later, on November 12th, Peirce had decided to redeploy machine gunners for the program after seeing a report of 300 emus being killed. Later on November 12th, injuries. Still, the numbers weren't enough to continue, so they had noticed a pattern and they decided to stop. They also noticed that one of the emus would be a lookout for the rest of the herd. That's so cool. And they would like basically warn them. And so that would give them an opportunity to run to. So that's why they weren't able to kill as many emails as well, because someone was always looking out for them. These emails were so tough that Meredith had publicly stated

that they could quote face machine guns with the invulnerability of tanks. Let's go dude, I love you. It was more meant for war. Yes, no, literally. They're invincible. So the statements that were made during this time about the war had increasingly made the military act against the emus widely unpopular, which yeah, should have been like that. So despite everything the emus had gone through, at the end of this war, they were declared the victors, you know? Still had 19,000. The Austrian government had supplied farmers with ammunition and even created bounties

for hunting emus, like for emu hunters. That's insane. In 1934. Can you imagine? It's like, where's daddy? Or like, what does daddy do for a living? It's like, oh, he's an emu hunter. Emu hunter. And, okay, so this happened. That became official in 1934, and within six months,

approximately 57,000 bounties for dead emus had been claimed. Oh my god. Holy moly. People were jumping on it. I mean hey I probably would too like shit. If you provided the ammunition. I tried to see like what the like reward was for it but I literally could not find anything but I'm assuming it was a good reward concerning how many people have made these claims yeah but this

this one is this you know the great emo war as wonderful as it is and horrible as it is at the same time, it is a little short story. So, I think that's perfect. Yeah. But it does end off good for the emus. In 1999, wild emus in Australia became formally protected by the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. So yeah, they're not protected and hopefully they're not destroying crops. Good, emus are cool. Yeah, I actually looked up a bunch

of fun facts about emus too. What's your favorite? They have, I don't, you guys probably know this though. I think this is pretty well known. Maybe the listeners do have. Yeah, in case anybody doesn't know. In case anybody doesn't know, they have two sets of eyelets, one for blinking and the other for keeping dust up. Whoa, what? Yeah.

I didn't know that. Is it is one is the dust one like a it's it's like thin and see-through or like um yeah well the the the one that's for blinking is for kind of kind of but you need that thick skin to get all the dust out. Yeah, I did not know that. That's cool. Don't assume that we know this fun facts. You're right. My fault. They also are. They from 10 to 20 years in the wild, they can grow up to two meters tall. For us Americans, how much is that? Americans how much is that? Oh yeah you're so right. Six feet. Oh okay yeah. That's too tall for a bird. That's pretty tall for a bird. Well, they have long ass necks. So yeah, I feel like half of their height is like their neck and their legs.

Or most, half of their height is their neck. Yeah. Yep. But yeah, that's, that's the story of the Great Emu War of Australia. Hell yeah. Thank you for educating us. Thank you for listening. I know, sure. It was a story and it was a war. Yes, it was.

So did any like people get hurt or injured during the emo war? Good question. Oh, and she disconnected. She had no answer. She's like, goodbye. Yeah, she's like, no, I'm done. I'm finished. Yeah. Okay, she's back. Hello? Hello? I was just asking if you knew how many, if any people got injured during the Emu War? There's no reports of people getting injured, but there are reports of like when they use the trucks that they go to crash in them. Okay, not sure.

They just run over the Emus. Oh my god. Yeah, but there's no reports of anybody like being killed or injured. Which is good. I guess the emus have the most casualties. Yeah, those poor emus. They're just trying to live la vida loca, you know what I'm saying? There is this trying to live la vida loca, you know what I'm saying? Well, thank you. Just like Josh Hutcherson. Okay. Emo wars in the books. Yeah, emo war.

No, that's still yet to come. The great emo war. Yeah, I literally loved researching this. That's so fun. It was so fun. I knew that it was going to get pretty dark and so I was like I need to find like a case that's like respectfully funny, you know? Ah, okay.

Yeah. Wow, you really didn't have hope for us having a good story that was not dark. Well it's a good story. You know. It's just, you really didn't have hope for us having a good story that was not dark. Well, it's a good story. I mean, you know. It's just, you know. I feel like mine was a good buffer. It was. Yours was like in the middle.

It was a good buffer story. I liked yours. I didn't like the teacher marrying the student. Yeah, that's the worst part about it. Yeah. Well, mm-hmm. I feel like that's the crime on its own. No, definitely not the crime on its own.

Definitely not the worst part about it. But yeah, that sucks. Yeah. Wow. Weird. Well, episode six in the books. Episode six! Woo!

If you're listening and you're here at the end after two hours, thank you for sticking around. Yeah. Follow our socials. What are our socials. What are our socials? Plug what? The socials. Yeah, check our socials, our Instagram, Facebook page, TikTok at Chambers of the Occult. If you have stories you would like to check, if you have stories you'd like to recommend, email us at chambersoftheoccult.gmail.com or feel free to check out our website.

We have two forms there. You can submit your listener stories if you've ever had something paranormal or a brush with true crime and you would like to talk about it. You would like to share it with us. Feel free to send it in. We'll read them for you. Or if you'd like to suggest a story, like last week, Kai did, let's make a story recommended. The anthill kids. What if we get like, if we start to get like little suggestions of like quick stories that

people have had, like their own experiences, we could like read them in between our stories that we say. Oh, like that. I was thinking we could do like a bonus episode for those. Oh, that'd be cool too. Like at the start of the month or at the end of the month, we'll just read like three or four stories each. Let us know what y'all think.

Like how we should format that once we do get enough suggestions. So make sure to send them in please. We need you guys. Please send them in. We know you have them. We know you're holding back. Yeah. No hold back. Well thank you for listening and we'll be back next episode with more stories. Thank you guys. Episode six in the books. Yes. Have a good night. Or take your time here on earth. Make it worthwhile. Have a great one. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. See you