Last Podcast On The Left - Episode 585: Australian Poltergeists Part I - Polts & Stones

Episode Date: August 9, 2024

This week the boys hit the road and head down under to New Zealand & Australia! So in honor of the occasion, we're taking a look at some of Australia's most infamous Hauntings and Poltergeists beginning with The Large Family Haunting and the story of The Guyra Ghost... Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ on Apple Podcasts to listen to ad-free new episodes and get exclusive access to bonus content.

There's no place to escape to. This is the last hot task. On the left. Why fuck your glades? That's when the cannibalism started. What was that? Was it good to be rox? I'm working on it. I'm working on it. We're here.

I'm steeped in it. Yeah. On the other side of the world. I'm trying to find it again. What have to be rocks? Is that what is that? Is that Australian? It's a vibe

Here you're I mean, I'm just trying to capture but we're not in Australia. Yeah, we're still in New Zealand, but that's a thing I'm trying to get more of the New Zealand vibe New Zealand Yes, that actually is better. I think I'm getting there. All right. Yeah, I would say that you're getting there, but I'm getting there. All right. Yeah, I would say that you're getting there but I feel like no matter if you grew great at it or horrible at it. Everyone's gonna be mad at you no matter what Welcome to last podcast on the left ladies and gentlemen, my name is Marcus Parks. I'm here with I'm'm oh man. Oh man. Am I not jet lagged? That's for certain. Exhausted Henry Zabrowski and.

I just have trails. Surprisingly fine Ed Larson. Are you fine? Yeah. Why? I don't know. I feel like my body's just built differently. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what it is.

Well, it's because you can go to sleep in an instant. You have that. I choose to go to sleep. Yeah. Yeah. And none of the rest of us have that. Last night I woke up at like one thirty and I was like, I should to go to sleep. Yeah, and none of the rest of us have that. Last night I woke up at like 1.30 and I was like, I should go back to sleep, it's a little early. I went to sleep early, I went to sleep at like 10,

and then I woke up again at four, I was like, I should go back to sleep. My God. And then I woke up again at seven and I was like, you know what, back to sleep. One more round. It's incredible that like a fucking, like a giant from a fairy tale,

you can just fucking, me, me, me, me, me, me. For eternity. When I met Ed, he was asleep on a giant cart a fairy tale. You can just duck it for eternity. When I met Ed, he was asleep on a giant cart of melons. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was asleep on it and chickens were running away from him. Surprisingly comfortable. Yeah.

Well, since we are on the continent, since we're on the other side of the world, we are going to devote the next two episodes to Australia Australia But not as we usually devote episodes to Australia It's true because a lot of times when we go out of the country We're largely fascinated with true crime and kind of what like the differences of we you guys all like what are the fun new crimes? Yeah, that's what I like to see and we kind of had a little plan It's like oh one of the proposed projects that we're going to do Ivan Malat. And we're like, you know, the thing about Ivan Malat

is that kind of it's just you go out in the woods, you'll come back. Yeah. You know, like it's a story we met, we might get to it, but we're like, what's spooky in Australia? You never hear about it. I've never heard anything about it. And then I let my fingers do the walking and then I found out that there is like a whole world of paranormal activity that's happened on these island nations that are extremely specific to this world. Not in New Zealand though.

Everyone just, you know, I was talking to our wonderful guest producer, Joe, and yeah, everything's just different. Ghosts are like remembering your family. Yeah, they're like, they have a different. And they just like give you a hug and like, they're like, oh, I hope you're doing well. Oh no, here in all, even over in Australia,

the ghosts are surprisingly friendly. They're more connected to it. Yeah, they're friendly. They're not really violent. Like in, you know, in America and the UK, you get people thrown across the room. You know, you get people that, you know, they get covered in flies like here, it's they they toss things

at you almost in a flirty way. Well, or in a truly, really very interesting examples of what they call the trickster phenomena. Like the idea that it's very trickery, it's hard to pin it down and it's in a bunch of different ways, and it's also very confusing. And I think it's also, which is similar to America, which is some of this, especially when it blends more into the high-strangest world, it does seem to affect those that are

of a certain substrata of the populace, which is in the Australian terminology, you'd call them bogans. We call them white trash in America Stop saying that word I will not stick up for you I'm not gonna say like you know what he really meant was I'm gonna say go ahead. I told him not to

and say like, you know what he really meant was? I'm gonna say, go ahead. I'm gonna say, I told him not to. I'm the renegade. So for the next two episodes, we're gonna be covering stories of Australian poltergeist that span well over a century, from 1887 until 1999. For our source, we used Australian poltergeist, the stone throwing spook of Humpty Doo

and many other cases By Tony Healy and Paul Cropper Healy and Cropper are these I see that pop up in all of the other research I was doing about Australian ghosts like they're there They must be something along the lines of their warrants I feel like they're they're kind of like Maurice Gross and Guy Playfair where they're a nice team They work together and they they like each other and of like Maurice Gross and Guy Playfair where they're a nice team. They work together and they like each other. I hope they like each other. And they embed.

Yes, they very much embed like Playfair and Gross. They sound like Blues Brothers backing band members. But one thing I want to say right up top is that every story we're going to discuss on these episodes, save for the one involving the sex worker, involves stones and or pebbles. And I'm not talking about just a few rocks here. These stories have hundreds, if not thousands of stones, almost as if the stones of Australia are themselves charged with some sort of paranormal energy. Now, am I wrong by assuming that a stone is slightly different than a rock? Like when I think of a stone, it's like smooth.

Yes, exactly. Same. Same. That's how I think. I think stones are fancy rocks. Yeah. Strangely though, neither we nor our research assistants could find not only no explanation for this, but not even a question as to why stones were such a central part of so many Australian poltergeist encounters. It's as if Australians never even thought to question why so many of their cases centered around stones. I honestly wonder if it's just a straight up lack of interest about the sum of this of just the content in general, just the idea of the paranormal where they maybe they don't inherently don't

necessarily believe it all that much to think about it. But it's weird because every one of the stories involves what they call apports. That is like a thing. That's like a term in paranormal work where it's like the idea of something appearing out of nowhere. Think of it in like a poltergeist where shit just kind of falls from the ceiling. Okay, yeah. Yeah, it happens a lot. And I feel like also we talked with Jeff the talking mongoose that was like that. I actually feel weirdly in UK stories, there's a lot of apports. But it's like normally it's all over the place. It's like keys, weird objects, personal things.

Well, why would they care about ghosts if they like got to deal with all the fucking spiders? Problems? What's a problem? If the birds can kill your family, why are you scared of a rock-throwing ghost? However, I must say that the repetition of the chosen poltergeist projectile in these stories does nothing to affect their fascination. Personally, I think they add to the veracity of these stories, especially when we get to the veracity of these stories, especially when we get to the more modern stories where scientific readings can be applied to said

projectiles. And we're only going to be covering a few stories here. I read probably seven or eight different stories that all involve stones. Yes, I don't know why. Well, I have a theory that means nothing. Because there is a fairy character called the Cobalt. From where? It is in a German folklore. But it's the only other thing I could find that's specifically said, it's a wood sprite

that sometimes lives in minerally areas and throws rocks around. Well, I mean, I know, and the only thing that I can think of is that in Australia they have the dream rock like out and where the UFOs hang out. Yeah, the big dream rock, you know, it's a big like aboriginal like place of, you know, very huge place of importance. So maybe that gigantic rock is making all the little rocks go nut. They don't want to be big rock. That's what you think they're all like. Oh man, that's our aspirational rock for Europe.

But if we're going to be talking stones, there's no better place to start than in New South Wales in 1887 with the story of the Large Family. God, great name. Yeah, I'm so happy about this. This story occurred in the town of Coouyall, 180 miles northwest of Sydney, at a farm owned by a family with the surname of LARGE. Bill LARGE. Hey, hey, don't you call me Mr. LARGE.

That's what my son called me. You call me by my first name, VERI. How'd they get to their house? Beanstalk? Very funny. And indeed they did live up to their name, for the wife of the Large family, Mrs. Large, gave birth to 15 children over the course of her life. Holy shit. Oh God. At what point?

I think that if you get to 12 children, that becomes human trafficking. Like, because then you're just a child factory. Yeah. Well, despite having had 15 births under her belt, reporters- Literally. Yeah. Reporters at the time of the haunting were always eager to describe Mrs. Large's, quote,

classical shape, well-formed body, and beautifully formed head I don't think it means it said specifically the shape of her head was beautiful. Okay, like what it look like a parrot it It was also noted that she had excellent powers of description and reporters found her to be credible. Therefore, they deemed the poltergeist experiences of the large family to be legitimate. As most of these stories do, the story of the large family began with a sustained shower of stones, although they did not rain down on the family's roof.

Instead, the stones appeared to fall through the roof and land softly on the family's roof. Instead, the stones appeared to fall through the roof and land softly on the farmhouse floor. Nevertheless, reporters called these stones ghostly missiles, even though the projectiles seemed to float through the walls and ceilings, and they did no harm when they bumped into the family. As the large family put it, it felt as if they were being struck by a bag of feathers. What? That is weird. So like, I'm trying to even imagine what that motion is in my head.

So they're saying they're sitting in the living room and they're just watching rocks slowly fall to the ground? Yeah. Inside the house? Very slowly. Like, it's not necessarily like slowly fall to the ground. It's just it moves at a pace that is slower than you would expect.

Then it's not falling, it's floating. Yeah, it's like floating down, but at a faster, it's faster than a float, but slower than a fall. Is gravity different down here? It is. Have you not noticed? Now the arrival of the poltergeist, or the Pult, as Australians call them,

or at least that's what in the book they use the term Pult a lot. They're good with nicknames here. They are. It came when Mr. Large was riding home in February of 1887. He said that his horse got spooked by something and ran off. Maybe it was how big he was. He just lost it inside of himself.

Mrs. Large blamed the spooking on the local children, whom she said were miffed because she'd refused to host a dance party at her house. That also seems to be a very big constant in all of these stories. Groups of children holding adults hostage. And I don't know why. In every one of these stories, there's some group of rapscallion children run these small towns. They're all scared of them. Why is that? I have no idea. I think it's just the tradition is that like in maybe in Australia, like it's

accepted that like when you're a child, you're allowed to be a monster and you just band together with other children against the adults. Yeah. And then when you become an adult, it's understood that children are allowed to be monsters and you let them be monsters and then when you're an adult, you deal with it just like adults when you were a child dealt with you. Wow. Getting out of their system. Yeah, yeah, because you know, Australians, not violent at all. No, I mean, hey, they're not excitable. But that same night, stones began to fall through the ceiling,

flying in unnatural directions and at odd speeds. Interestingly, from what I can tell, some of the behavior of the stones described by witnesses throughout all these stories closely resembles the movements described during UFO sightings. And I have no idea what that means, but you know how UFOs, they say that they move in directions, like they'll move straight up and then it'll turn

at an angle that doesn't make any sense. That no object could actually turn at that. And if it was piloted, the person inside of it would be smashed to pieces. And the stones sort of move in that same way, but just slower. It seems, well they talk a lot in UFO terms, they use the word display a lot, like the idea is that when you see something, they know you're looking at them, all right?

And so they do a little dance for you. They show you what's going on. A lot of it's to, they say, if you believe the idea of the trickster phenomenon, the idea is to make it so you do sound like an idiot when you describe it. Because they want you to see something that doesn't happen. Yeah, and something that's very difficult to describe.

Yes. It almost sounds like they're coming from a portal from another dimension. That's very interesting. Rather than stones themselves, you know, where are the stones? Do the stones look like the rocks outside? Yeah, well yeah.

Okay. See, that's interesting, but then maybe we can go back through that dimension. We can go where Nelson Mandela died in prison If we deserve the technology we would have invented it ourselves I just think if you crack open the stones, you'll see little aliens in there. That would be incredible. Now the mysterious appearance of stones continued for five days, but that

wasn't the only presence the Larges saw. They also reported to see a sort of levitating black sphere, which, incredibly, will show up again in one of our stories that occur a hundred years later. It does spook me a little bit, like the idea of like, that's the stuff

that always freaks me out, because all of the other stuff is really makes, kind of like you've heard it somewhat before in poltergeist cases, but this idea of like, a lot of these end up having weird UFO stuff attached to them. Well, I also read that in Australia there is, you know in America we do talk about flaps where you know UFOs and poltergeist activity And bigfoot and cryptids and everything yeah. Yeah, but here it seems to be like it's specifically like UFOs and poltergeists

Show up a lot together. The next series I want to do Australian base is talking about the secrecy around the US nuclear bases that are in on Australian soil that have now been decommissioned. So now all the people used to work at those old nuclear bases are all coming forward and saying, oh, you want to hear about UFOs? And some of these stories are fucking nuts. Like weird, again, you know my different shapes. One of my favorite new shapes I've heard, walking legs. Ooh, walking legs is cool.

Just legs, like flappy legs. And where's the rest of them? Don't know. Okay. Yeah, it's flappy legs. Now the authors of Australian Poltergeist speculate that the reason why the Polt briefly made its home with the large family was because there were just so many goddamn kids.

Yeah, it just was another one in there. Yeah, and since many of them were adolescents, their close grouping created a small psychic storm which attracted a paranormal entity or phenomenon. Quite possibly, it might be that the Large family was just too large for the Poltergeist to handle and that's why it dissipated after only five days. Yeah and too large was actually his brother's kid. I'm trying to not. You know what I mean? All in my head. I'm like if I sound distracted it's because I'm just running various large joke puns that I don't wanna do.

No, I know, too large and he was killed by Pufflarge. Yeah. Fuck. See? We're stuck in this shit! We're built like this! Help me God! Why is it like this?

Our next story, however, Yes, yes, next story, please. is far stickier and far more aggressive. This is... Hold on! So what happened? Five days, it went away after five days, is what I just said. They just left?

They just left. And that's also another part of Australian poltergeist that I see again and again. They just sort of leave. They fuck off. At some point, they just sort of leave. They fuck off. At some point they just sort of leave. It's not yeah it's not like in America where they bring in the priests and they start screaming and there are some priests that show up later but they're very lazy. They remind me of the guy from Dead Alive. Yeah they are very much like the guy I think the guy from Dead Alive.

It's of course based here in New Zealand. Yeah, it's very much like that priest. I love that guy! Fly from your grave. Now this story, the next one, is that of the Guyra Ghost, which occurred in New South Wales in 1921. Now the Guyra Ghost is one of Australia's most famous poltergeists, a persistent, wall-bashing, stone-throwing entity that tormented a man named William Bowen, his wife, and their children. Particularly, the poltergeist focused its energies on the Bowen's 12-year-old daughter, Minnie.

Minnie seemed to be a bit of a Lydia Deets, as several journalists described her as strange, odd, dark, sullen, peculiar, introspective, and incredibly observant. Maybe they should look in the fucking mirror. Yeah, they're really paying attention to 12 year olds. She was sultry and sweet. Everything you want. Long legs going all the way up to her ribs. They wrote that she never smiled and had a piercing gaze,

but it was also said that many may have had some psychic powers. It was written that she was capable of answering questions before they were asked. And some reporters speculated that because the haunting was so attached to her, no matter how many dozens of people showed up, she possessed an occult power which gave her the ability to quote, bridge the great gulf between this life and the next. She sounds very interesting.

Very interesting person. But the most incredible claim came from Minnie's half sister. In 2010, she claimed that Minnie had psychokinetic powers and often moved things with her mind. But this was when Minnie's half-sister was 97 years old. So do with that what you will. She'll say anything for attention. Once you're 97 years old, no one's coming around. You're not going to the disco anymore. You're not going to the fuck lounge anymore. You're not three more years before your special again. Yeah, yeah, cuz 97 at this point people like We can't even call the news. How long are we gonna deal with you?

Like whatever grandma, all right, we fit the casket already. We bought the tomb. Yeah, do me a favor, don't get any bigger. Feel the nerlence. But back in 1921, Minie Bowen was the center of one of the most talked about stories in all of Australia. And it all began on what was a seemingly normal April afternoon.

It was just a Tuesday. Just a beautiful Tuesday. Beautiful Tuesday in September. Many said that she was walking home when a strange man began chasing her and he pursued her for a quarter mile, hurling a seemingly endless supply of stones. Interesting. Actually, I think these were more rocks than stones. These are rocks.

These are rocks. These are round. If they hit you, they when many made it home. Later that night, the family heard stones striking the outside walls of the house, and the family assumed that it was the same strange man from that afternoon. They searched the area, but found no one. Now having an unhinged Australian man chasing your daughter and throwing rocks at your house all night is enough to make any family nervous. pull them into the family. In like, well, you better marry her. If you want to hit her with a rock,

you're going to need to marry this little girl. So the Bowen family contacted their local constables and asked them to guard the house the next night. Shortly after the constables arrived though, a pane of glass was smashed with what appeared to be a bullet from a.22 caliber weapon.

But no bullet was found and no one heard a shot. Mysteriously, the appearance of bullets is another frequent appearance in Australian hauntings. And again, no one knows why or even fucking ass about it. I mean, we covered a story about an older gentleman that we did not know. So people were suffering, I guess this town was something like 12 years of random broken windows. They didn't know what was going on until they finally centered in on this 80 something year old man that had a professional slingshot and he used to sit in his backyard

and shoot his slingshot into the sky out of pure rage of being still alive. And the moment he had to stop, what happened? He died. He died, right? Because he had to cut off the one thing he did, like if he took my father's cigarettes away. Yeah. Right, but the problem is,

that has a high population density. So if you shoot a slingshot up, yeah, you're gonna hit a bunch of people. This is more isolated. So I don't know if it's just getting sniped by rocks. See, I think all of Australia's haunted and they just don't give a shit. They're just too busy drinking. Yeah, they're like, this is it. It doesn't bother me.

Yeah. Now the next night, the local sergeant joined the constables along with four civilians to guard the bow and home. But despite them covering every angle they could, stones still managed to hit the house without anyone seeing who threw them. The next night, 10 people came to keep watch, but this seemed to only energize the poltergeist. A window was smashed at 7.30 PM and over the course of half an hour, 20 stones struck the house including one stone half the size of a brick. That's a big stone. That's the biggest stone.

That's a big stone. Now authorities were pretty sure that there was just one or many clever hooligans at work here. This is the game, they're all just saying this. They're just like, there's so many rampant groups of hooligans that they're all just like, oh it's gotta be the hooligans. It's like ten guys sitting outside the house, hitting it with rocks and they're like, ah we don't see nothing. I don't know nothing. I never thought that the call could be coming from inside. Oh yeah. Definitely.

Certainly not. You're haunted again. Go get me some more rocks. On the fifth night, 80 people came out to guard and watched the Bowen house with a battery-powered searchlight that could immediately swing to the direction of a stone's throw. This again was unsuccessful. Furthermore, the house began to fall victim to the tell-tale raps and thumps that accompany almost all poltergeist hauntings.

The noises were similar to what they heard when stones hit the house, but sometimes they'd hear the noise and no stones were found, and many of the sounds centered around where else but whatever room many was in at the moment. These sounds grew progressively louder every day, unabated, to the point where they were shaking the walls and reporters confirmed that the thumps could be heard from as far away as 300 feet. Now unfortunately for the men outside guarding the house after dark, most of the nights were overcast and it was sometimes raining so the volunteers

had a hard time seeing where the stones were coming from. Yeah, like that's the thing, if they're getting thrown at the house, at some point you'd see where they were coming from. We're going to get to a possible explanation in a second. But what's interesting about this is that even though the stone throwing continued in the rain, the stones that were thrown were always dry and always very warm, regardless of the weather. You know when a ghost has handled a rock when it feels like a freshly laid egg? If you can touch it and it's got that heat, but it ain't been in a butt? Yeah, or like

a theater seat after a large man sits in it. Or like a toilet after a large man sits in it or like a toilet after a large man sits on it Ah the comforting warmth nothing. I love better than being at the airport I'm you sit down a big hulk and big swinging butted man with a loose belt comes rolling out Then you get to sit in a literal hot toilet It's weird as I get older. I enjoy a warmer toilet seat But I like a purposely warm toilet seat. It's weird as I get older I enjoy a warmer toilet seat. Well yeah but I like a purposely warm toilet seat. Yeah not a pre-warm toilet seat by another man. Yeah when it just because it's accompanied always with the head. Yeah I'm like you're gonna wanna enjoy some of that later on. Like sir please don't talk to me. Leave me and my family alone. But despite the mysterious temperature of the stone,

some police claimed that the stones were being thrown by a group of local lyricans. This is what I'm saying. Yeah, it's an Australian word for a mischievous, yet good-hearted little boy. They have a word for a piece of shit child. But it has a good heart. It's like the Inuits with like 56 words for snow. The

Australians have 56 words for a little bastard. For so many tiny evil orphans. Honestly, I feel like I was a Lerkin. You definitely were a Lerkin. I think we were all Lerkins. I was a Lerkin in thought. Or a Lerkin. I think it's a Lerkin. L lyrican lyrican. The theory was that the kids were way out in the bush with catapults, which meant that they were too far away to be seen at night. It's very, but that's a lot of organization. But I guess if you're a lyrican, what else are you doing? You're not in school. You don't got a job. You fucking live by the war. All you do is fight the teenage mutant, injured turtles and you and your other rambunctious child criminals.

Yeah, in America they would have made this kid a quarterback. Yeah, yeah, be like field at his shoulder. You got a good arm. Unique protein. Now one of the other interesting and unique phenomena about Australian poltergeists, as opposed to similar stories from America and the UK, is that the poltergeists tend to move to different houses in the area. They don't just stay at the center of activity. They go and visit other places. It's really strange. That is, you really rarely see it in one of these stories. They move around.

I've never heard about it in any other story. around. It's almost like the area, something that's happening to the ground. It's like happening there. That's why I weirdly think it's something almost natural. Like there's something to this besides just child warriors. I know there's some, I know there's some always been incredibly strange things going on with the dream rock. Yeah, it's something going on in there. When I was a kid, we used to have like, we unexplained shit happened into our house in Boca and then we, and then, you know, we didn't really talk about it. Then one day I told my neighbor and he was like, we have weird stuff going on. And they're like, and so does I, and so does like, and so I think, and then we found out,

which could be horseshit, but then we found out it was built on a big plantation. Oh yeah. Whoa. It's all like each house had their own thing going on, but it wasn't like the house was haunted as much as the land was haunted. Was it the original New Jersey cannoli plantation? Florida. We had real fun.

Oh, this is South Florida. Yeah, I thought this was in Jersey and I was like, what would they be growing? Moots-a-dell? It's the garden state, everything. I thought this was in Jersey and I was like, what would they be growing? Mootzadell? It's the garden state, everything. Yeah, but it's like bad fruit. It's great tomatoes. What are you talking about? Neededly got him angry. He's sitting here telling me the Jersey doesn't have good gardens. Well, see, in America or the UK, a poltergeist will mostly move only when the person it attaches itself to moves, although the activity tends to be strongest in one particular location. In Australia, however, a poltergeist will move freely about the region to bother the neighbors as well.

In the case of the gyro ghost, it bombarded two nearby houses in the first week that it was active with stone showers. And one of the neighbors, the Hodder family decided to abandon their home and live with the Bowens because that was the house that was being protected and they had a familial connection. The other family nearby that was affected, however, the McGinnis family, they had all their windows broken, but decided, fuck it, we're not leaving. Oi leaving!

And that's also going to be another feature to these stories is, Oi leaving. Oi leaving! Did anyone talk to the window maker in town? I've got a good idea. Tom Larrickans. I've got business venture for all of us. Now at various points, policemen did find boot tracks outside of the Bowen home and outside

of the homes of the neighbors who also reported stone throwing. The boot tracks, however, did not lead to a culprit or a catapult, and the boot prints could have very well been left by the 80 some odd people milling around these homes. See, I remember, I read one, there was a good comment, I was watching, one of the cases that we covered, a good comment, and I love this, this is from someone out from the Outback. No one needs to fight things in Australia to this extent. We are very well looked after when this happens, especially here.

Australians do not grow up in a celebrity driven culture. It takes each day, it comes. Fame does not dominate us. We have actors that do their own shopping, pay their bills, go for coffee. No one understands Australia, especially a bit Australia, until they actually come here. You know, I actually didn't understand Australia until I came here until the last time and like I describe it as more chill America. Oh, very much so. It's cooler America. Yeah,

you don't gotta worry about as much because not everybody's trying to kill him That was I did I was walking around last night and I was just like I don't think anything's gonna happen to me You're the most dangerous man in this city right now. I said that to Julie. I was like I feel like they're gonna lock me up. Yeah, yeah, I would. If I was one of those police officers I would send six men to come and rescue. Also, haven't seen one cop. Yeah. Actually, I haven't seen any cops either. It's incredible. Yeah. I'm used to seeing six cops. Like, when I leave my house, seeing six cops and then two helicopters. Yeah, I see one in the mirror every morning.

Do you know that the NYPD is larger than the entire Australian Army? Oh, shit. But they're tough fucks the Australian army. They're very fucking tough. So are the NYPD. Don't fight me. Come and see us at the King's Theatre in Brooklyn. Now paradoxically, many people suspected that 12-year-old Minnie Bowen was both the focus

of the poltergeist activity and the person who was causing all this ruckus in one in some way or another. It just depends on whether or not she was having her menarche. So to test the theory, many was taken. You know, it's cool. Like you waited 50 minutes, about 45 minutes to bring up the word menarche. And I'm very happy. I'm very proud of you for that.

I I'm in another country. I'm wizened by my travels. Wizened. I've met and learned and grown in many ways. And I don't always need to talk about a 12 year old's bloody pussy. Jesus. I don't have to, I didn't have to do that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I don't, and I. Seems like just a menarche ago, you're a decent person. I'm sorry Joe. I said right before that it's just it's an alternative show. This is alternative comedy. Yeah. So to test the theory that Minnie was behind all this she was taken from the family home for a night and 70 people surrounded the house. No show. I love the experiment. Yeah. The experiment's like get her the fuck out of here. We're going to go. TV must suck in Australia. This is 1921. Everyone's just

doing it. This is awesome. They don't even have radio probably. Yeah. No, no, no, no. No stones were thrown and no noises were heard on the night. Mini was gone, but just as soon as many returned the next day, a stone passed through her bedroom window and landed on her bed. That was followed by 30 more stones that showered the house as police frantically swung their searchlight around to spot the Larrican behind it all. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

That's gotta be frightening at this point. You're the police. You can't do anything about these ghost Larricans. You are stuck. You're like, you're just watching. You're like, these children gotta be somewhere out there. And it's like, that's, that's crazy. Why they're all afraid of the children? Yeah. I, well, I don't know if they're afraid of the children. I think they just, they want to catch the children. I think it's a game. It's like a cat and mouse thing. Oh, they're not. I'm terrified of children personally.

Yeah. Yeah. Because they could just do whatever you want to them and you can't beat them up. Nothing. You can't do anything and it's a scam, dude. Yeah, yeah, they could just do whatever you want to them and you can't beat them up. Nothing. You can't do anything and it's a scam. Those kids know they know that they can do whatever you want. They can kick you in the nuts. They go, Oh, he's a pedophile. He's a pedophile. And then everybody's going to jail. Five 16 year olds. There's nothing scarier. No, nothing in this world scarier. But that's the things that we keep talking about. Like how like kind of cute Australia, and this is like, we did snow town like three months ago. Yeah, that was not cute.

That was not cute. That was horrific. Yeah, that's not cute. Catherine Knight, not cute. Not cute in any way. But to further test the theory, the searchlight was left off one night and it was found that the stones would follow many

throughout the house instead of focusing on what was going on outside that focused on what was going on inside when Minnie entered a room the walls outside of that room would be bombarded with stones and when she walked to the next the stones would follow her. I know it's not that but I just see every time to talk about the stones falling around. I just see Charlie Watts just fucking Come on this isn't the recording of exile on Main Street Now by week two a skeptic named dr

Harris decided that he was gonna drive out to Gaira and expose this whole story as a hoax he was going to drive out to Gaira and expose this whole story as a hoax. So he and a group of his friends, fellow skeptics all, Yeah, right. surrounded the house all night and at times hung around inside the house and watched the bow and sleep. Go to sleep. Go to sleep. Go to sleep.

I'm so skeptical of you. Sleep now. I can tell your eyeballs aren't moving inside of your little skulls. That's how I know you're dreaming. Harris kept a close eye on Minnie in particular the whole night. And when no stones were thrown, he declared his mission a success and he promptly left, saying that he had somehow, quote, chloroform the spook. Chloroform the Spook is actually my favorite R.E.M. album.

Thank you, HenrysBrowse.com. No, again, and another difference between American and Australian hauntings, and this is a bit of a surprise, I've never heard of an American story in which someone bought a gun to protect themselves from a ghost. But that's what happened in Guyra. Because they already had the gun. It was handed down. You didn't need to go out and buy one. It's in your house. Yeah, this is my ghost gun. This is my dog gun. It was handed down. You didn't need to go out and buy one. It's in your house.

This is my ghost gun. This is my dog gun. This is my cop gun. This is my wife gun. This is my me gun. You're the last one they'll ever use. Two weeks after Minnie was chased by that mysterious man, a neighbor got herself so worked up that she bought a revolver and kept the loaded weapon on a shelf where her two young children could easily reach it.

I think she wanted it to be like an easy reach as well, but you know, when your five-year-old could reach it. Well, I think it sounds like that was what you wanted. She said, in case you need the gun, here's the gun. You can use it anytime. The bullets are in it, only shoot ghosts. Yeah, she's like, alright mommy, which is like the worst thing the Lerikans need is to get armed.

Because then all of a sudden he's going to take the gun, he's going to give it to the Lerikans and now they got a gun. Nah, he just used it to shoot his sister in the face. But she lived! Yay! She's not going to be a model anytime soon, but she lived. As far as the mother went, she became ill soon afterward, which is attributed to a bad case of the nerves.

As far as William Bowen went, he developed a habit of running outside and firing his gun in the air several times whenever the stone throwing or the knocking started, presumably to chase away the Lerikans, but it never once worked. Because I feel like if you're shooting guns at a Lerikan, they're going to stop with the funds and games. But he's only shooting in the air. And look, there's no tittering. Then the bullets are going to come back down on the house and they're going to take your

stone. But you think a Lerikican at some point wants the credit? Like they want to be known! I think Alerican is not going to just do this as a secret. I feel like Alerican does it for the love of the game. Oh yeah, they take it to the grave. I guess so, but then Alerican eventually becomes an adult! Now at one point, it did seem like someone came up with a solution, even if it was temporary.

This is the weirdest part of the story. One day, a small dark man that no one in the area knew suddenly appeared on the Bowen farm and told everyone to gather all the stones that had been thrown in a big pile and burn them. Everyone present excitedly followed the small dark man's instructions. Hey man.

And while it did work for a bit, the stone throwing resumed a couple of days later. Can you burn rocks? You can make them hot. Yeah, you can put them in a fire. Yeah, but I don't think you can. Nothing happens. They get real hot.

Yeah, and then you wait and then a couple days go by and you grab the stones and you start throwing them in the house again. See, that's what happens when Lerkins grow up. That's what this guy is. The Gyra ghost certainly attracted skeptics, but it also brought in its fair share of spiritualists. The one who seemed to make some headway was a spiritualist named Ben Davy, who was also a member of Madame Helena Blavatsky's Theosophical Society. Cool.

Now the point of a spiritualist is that they're supposed to have the ability to communicate with the dead. So after a conversation with each member of the Bowen family, Ben Davy thought that Mrs. Bowen had provided the most promising lead. Davy discovered that Mrs. Bowen's daughter from a previous marriage, 21-year-old Mae Hodder, had died the previous January from a congenital heart defect, leaving behind an infant son named Clifford who was now 18 months old. You never hear of an infant named Clifford anymore. You really don't? Yeah, like Cliff. I haven't heard, I haven't seen a Clifford, I haven't seen a Rodney in so long.

Rodneys are great, but they're all lyricans. All Rodneys are lyricans. All Rodney's are lyricans. A six year old Rodney is going to hold you at 9.5. Stay away from my daughter. He's going to carjack you. My name's Rodney, yeah I'm nine. Clifford, the great Martin Short film. The highly underrated, incredible Martin Short film.

Total lyrican. The biggest lyr film in the world. You know, we're some horrible Eric and was that Dylan Klebold, some of the worst Lerkin societies ever seen. Well, the connection here was that the 12 year old mini had been charged with taking care of little Clifford after May hotter had died, which some believe aggravated her already charged pubescent psychic energy. Furthermore, if you'll remember the hotter family had experienced activity the first week as well. And it moved in with the bow. Oh shit. That's right. Yeah. So they are war like it's all just connecting back to each other.

Now looking at the skeptic side here because I'm not big on spiritualists. No they're mostly full of shit. Yeah. And the idea of spiritual technology we did a thing a long time ago on spiritual technology which is they worked on but. Well the spirit I mean but that's a whole different fucking that's a whole different thing I mean spiritual technology like I mean I did I guess I did use those rods the dowsing rods which is a form of tarot and Ouija boards all that shit sure but I don't

believe in the is there somebody here who had someone who died whose name starts with a B. They're always gonna ask questions until they find the answer always not there that's not real that being said as a skeptic a band of skeptics I don't like them either yeah I'm skeptical of a skeptic that has friends I'm skeptic of a skeptic I'm skeptic of a skeptic who belongs to a skeptic society yeah cuz that sounds like your non-believer church in a way. Yeah, well it could be that when the Hodders moved in, they introduced the idea that the ghost

may be that of May Hodder. And Mrs. Bowen was led to this conclusion by the spiritualist because that's just what spiritualists do. And they create a narrative. They believe that this makes sense. But you know, when it comes down to it, I actually just read a really interesting article from 1972 called Are Poltergeists Living or Are They Dead?

And a lot of their work really just shows it's extremely different than a quote-unquote intelligent haunting or residual haunting. It's something else entirely which I still think is human-based. Yeah, well that's the thing is that spiritualists tend to create scenarios that are a little too good to be true Yes, and they give temporary relief at best because that's what it is. It's emotional closure is what they're trying to give you Yeah, they're trying to give it but it's also you're trying to bypass like processing grief and it don't work Yeah, like you feel better. You feel better for like three or four days and then you feel fucking horrible again Yeah, and they have no life skills and gotta make money somehow. Yeah.

That's the goal once I become a pet psychic. That was what I've always wanted to do. Set up a little pet psychic shop. Be like, this cat is racist. Ma'am, you're gonna have to get rid of this cat. You're gonna have to euthanize him. You just said, hell Hitler. I know it sounded like a meow. Fly from your grave. He just said, hell Hitler. I know it sounded like a meow. Now on the night that the spiritualist was supposed to make contact, 50 people were guarding

the Bowen house. So there's a big crowd as the Bowen family gathered indoors. A heavy knock was heard that sounded like it came from the outside, but strangely the crowd guarding the house said that it sounded as if the heavy knock came from the outside. But strangely, the crowd guarding the house said that it sounded as if the heavy knock came from the inside. They're in on it. Yeah. Oh no, no, that was inside.

That was inside, inside. Yeah. Goddamn Americans. After the knock though, the spiritualist told Minnie that if another knock happened, she should call out and ask if it was her half sister. Ever the cynical goth girl, Minnie flatly said, quote, I can't speak to my sister.

She's dead. Nevertheless, the spiritualist asked again, and when another knock came, Minnie almost sarcastically put her hands up in the air and said, If that's you, my, speak to me. Moments later, though, the hard-shelled Minnie began to cry. She said that May had spoken directly into her mind with a message for their mother. May wanted Mrs. Bowen to know that she was perfectly happy where she was and that she was watching and guarding the mall, and after that the Knox supposedly disappeared, temporary

relief. The Stones, however, went nowhere, nor did the visitors who were curious as to what was happening in this small town halfway between Brisbane and Sydney. On April 18th, an American sugar plantation owner out of Samoa named Harry J. Moores, a friend of writer Arthur Conan Doyle, he arrived in Guyra and demanded full access to the Bowen House for several nights so he could do his own investigation to satisfy his curiosity about the paranormal. Such a fucking shitty American thing to do. I'm going to live here now, alright?

I know how to do this. I'm going to show you fuckers how to do this shit. I'm going to fucking treat you just like I treat all the people on my plantation You're not gonna like it, but it's gonna happen Once he arrived he and his assistants have portions of the Bowen's roof Removed so they could keep watch on all the activities within the house from above fuck this place Get rid of the roof! Get rid of the kitchen! Check in the living room! They also set up an elaborate system of traps to detect hoaxers, but none of our sources

outline what those elaborate traps were. I would dig a hole, put a blanket over it. I would, like, uh, I'd canapate, tie it to the top of the stairs so that it can go down there. You put the, um, the hot clamp on the doorknob oh yeah you know what I think is that I would think that Lerikans I think Lerikans love apples oh sure do is what you do is you put an apple out next to a tree but when the Lerkin grabs. I think I was born to be a Lerkin killer. We gotta go out there man.

Can we do that? Are there still Lerkins? And are there tours that we can join in on Lerkin killing? SideStore's LPL at gmail.com Do you have a Lerkin that needs culling? We're on our way. But even though he had everything set up to disprove the haunting, several walnut-sized stones were thrown and landed inside and outside the house that night.

I feel like a walnut-sized stone is even hard to find. That's a good normal size, I think. I've got a couple of walnut-sized stones at my house. But you passed those two years ago. Well the American stayed for four days and declared that after his quote ceaseless vigil there was no other conclusion to be made other than that this was a true paranormal event. Enjoy your new outside inside home. I'll be off. Here's my plantation. Here's a bag of sugar. Enjoy yourself. All right. Oh, you're going to want to have an umbrella.

There's no roof anymore. You know when they say that umbrellas inside are unlucky? Well, your whole life's unlucky. It's not an umbrella if there's no roof. It's a roof. Now, eventually the authorities in Sydney were for some reason bothered enough about this story where they sent a constable named Hardy 500 kilometers north to prove that this whole thing was a hoax.

This would actually happen quite a bit throughout all of these Australian stories. There's some, but there's always some cop that gets their B in their bonnet. It happens a lot. They're like, we got to go make it. We got to go suss this out. It's very fun. It's cause I got nothing to do It's awesome Well, Constable Hardy was the man Sidney chose to prove that this whole thing was a hoax and when he took a position

Outside the bone cottage. He claimed to see many throw several stones at the house Hardy then confronted her and he claimed that she said that she had been the one throwing stones all along I called bullshit He claimed that she said that she had been the one throwing stones all along. But she had been careful to not be seen by anyone. In Hardy's world, only an expert cop could have caught Minnie. He spread the story that the mystery was over. But weirdly, the same constable outright admitted that he had pressured Minnie into confessing, much like the hypnotist had pressured the girls in the Enfield that he had pressured many into confessing, much like the

hypnotist had pressured the girls in the Enfield Poltergeist case into supposedly confessing to being behind their haunting. You'd be amazed what a 12 year old commits their blives to when you bash their head in with the mop. You get an adult in the room with a 12 year old girl and they just like a cop at that. Oh yeah you're working her? Oh yeah. Work the body and you get in the head and you got the fucking playing slipknot all night. Can't sleep. Kids love sleep. They play live What many had supposedly admitted to was that her method of creating the knocks was leaning out of her window and knocking on the outside of the house. But dozens of people heard Knox when Minnie was in their presence and did not have her

arm hanging out of a window. In response to Hardy's admission, the Sydney Morning Herald released an angry statement listing all the things that had been seen by over 80 people, then accused the constable of fabricating a confession in an attempt to put an end to the story to please his superiors. In fact, several of Constable Hardy's men, who went to Guyra with him, they reported that they'd heard the knocks and seen the stones themselves and couldn't prove where they came from.

Strangely, though, as the story spread across Australia and all the way to the UK, so-called copycat hauntings began popping up. The most impressive was focused around an 11-year-old boy named Gordon Parker in Hornsey, England, in which kitchenware flew off the shelves, cheese, quote, walked from its dish to the floor, and bread jumped on its own accord into the coal scuttle. Leave my food alone, Ghost. Yeah, it's all food-centric. Yeah, that's weird. It's like Weird Al wrote a possession story.

My... never mind. It's hard. It's an extremely hard job. He's very talented. I mean, that's the thing. I was going to say, my possession, but that's the thing is that that's just a play on my baloney. Got the word that he already did. And he already did. And it's just a, fuck me. You don't have a play on my balloon. The word that he already did. He already did. It's just a fuck me. You don't have a

knack for it. Very fucking good. EdiTunes.com Witnesses in Hornsie also heard bomb-like explosions. They saw a copy of Alice in Wonderland dance in the air across the room. And they witnessed candles and ladders

dance as though they were members of a Russian ballet. It's very British. It's very British. With the candles and ladders. Apparently this one was investigated by Charles Ford himself. Oh shit. Of the 40 and times.

Yeah. He thought that this was a legitimate phenomenon. Yeah. But back in Guyra, the haunting was wearing on the Bowen family. So Minnie was sent to stay with her grandmother 40 miles away, and for a few days, all poltergeist activity ceased. From what it seemed though, the poltergeist just had to take a little time to catch up

to Minnie, almost as if it had to walk, because within a few days, the poltergeist had found her and the stone throwing and the knocks continued at her grandma's house. Some of the knocks shook the walls hard enough that tchotchkes fell from the cupboards. And later a neighbor slammed his full weight into the wall on the other side of the cupboard but could not create enough force to even rattle. Oh, jeez. He's fucking, he's fucking gone. Okay, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna run in the walls, how does that get? And we're gonna see if any trustees fall down. Alright, one, two, three.

Tony, Tony, we don't need this. I'll try again. No, Tony, please for the love of God. Stupid, alright? One, two, three. Tony, you just, you've got my God, Tony. Oh They need you at the left! Whaaat? Unbelievable. These are ghost bros. Yeah, they really are. I bet all can do it.

What was most strange about all this is that the activity at Minnie's grandmother's house stopped on May 11th and Minnie was sent home a few days later. The poltergeist didn't follow Minnie back and it was all fucking over. It was it just ended. Yeah. As far as what happened to Minnie Bowen, she gained a reputation as a strange, dark-eyed, haunted person much like Janet Hodgson from the Enfield Poltergeist.

She was also chattered by what fucking happened to her. She was also chattered by what fucking happened to her. Mm-hmm, but Minnie Bowen, she lived until 1989 when she was tragically run over and decapitated by a car. Jesus! Damn! Is that Jane? Like Jane Mansfield. Yeah, just like Jane Mansfield. Now as far as how many chihuahuas were in the car? I mean, I don't know. I don't think they got to Australia.

I'm blown away by that Yeah, I love this. So what was she in her 80s? Yeah. Yeah, dude. Look, she's very she actually was very mysterious and if you're looking at the I'm looking at pictures from the newspaper at the time because they have her father is there with Man, he's got a big hat and he's also posing with his gun. Yeah He's proud Now as far as what actually happened in Gaira, it's often been argued that it was just some sort of local vendetta against the Bowen family. There was Lerikans. But there is no narrative, evidence, or history that

would make this plausible. No one had a problem with the Bowens. My only thing with groups of Lerikans is that I just feel like they leave traces behind. Like candy bar wrappers, skateboard wheels, fish heads. Yeah, why fish heads? I was going to say fish heads. Why do I think about them with a bunch of weird fish skeletons? I just go to Tom Sawyerhawk Fitt. Yeah. Well, another possible explanation was that Minnie a 12 year old raising her recently dead

Half-sisters 18 month old son she was just angry and she put on the two month long Poltergeist show as a way to regain control over her life and have someone else take care of the baby for a while But it was just I mean this is just way too coordinated and way too insane Yeah, for one 12 year old girl to pull off without 80 people noticing. I feel like the same thing with the Enfield Poltergeist It's very similar on that way where it's it's just too coordinated It's too sophisticated a scam for a child to do and every time that the girls tried faking something It was obvious. They were caught immediately Yes, so obvious but the problem is like we'll see with the next episode too is how often you're these people show up?

To catch what is an essentially? Uncatchable phenomena yeah, and so they or they're desperate to prove. It's real So they fake it yeah when the experts show up to get them to pay attention to it and then the whole thing's busted Yep Experts show up to get them to pay attention to it and then the whole thing's busted Yep, but tellingly in the weeks months and years following the guy or a ghost story quite a few people tried Recreating the kind of poltergeist activity that centered around many by throwing stones at people's house What you've gone to is Ruddisfest! Tony! Tony, we don't need any more proof that it can happen! What? Tony, you're broken beyond repair. Most were caught and fine.

One young man in Brisbane got away with it for weeks before he was caught. But to give you an idea of how much this story caught the imagination of the Australian people, an arsonist in Sydney, 500 kilometers away, set seven fires in one day and several more in the days following. And both the public and police were quick to blame the Gaira ghost. I don't know why. I just think they're just like, it wasn't me. Yeah. And a fun coda to this story though, a crew of filmmakers visited Gaira and made a silent movie about the event in 1921 while the haunting was still very active. No copies of the movie survived and it's only known to exist because a promotional

poster was found in the Australian National Film and Sound Archive. The film was actually a comedy directed and starring an actor named John Cosgrove who was described as fat, jolly and Rubicund. Yeah! Do you know Rubicund? Rubicund means fat and jolly. No, it means ruddy. Like both of you are quite Rubicund. What are you saying? That we could have starred in this movie. You're both, you have red faces. Pink. You are more pink and you're more Rubicon. Yeah. No, I'm red now. Well, the character that this guy played, it was named Sherlock Doyle. He was based

off of the sugar plantation owner. The American who figured it out. But it seems like Cosgrove was one of the only actual actors in the movie. The rest of the cast was mostly made up of the actual members of the Bowen family, including the deeply haunted many who, along with the locals, all played themselves. Cosgrove actually asked William Bowen if he could film him throwing a stone. But many's father refused. He rightly believed that if people saw him throwing a stone, but Minnie's father refused. He rightly believed that if people saw him throwing a stone, they would assume that the whole thing had been a hoax,

and that was the last thing he wanted. And that is where we will pick back up next week for more stories of Australian poltergeists, including the story of not a haunted brothel, but a haunted sex worker, and of course, the full story of the haunting at Humpty Doo. Man, we gonna be spending a lot of time at the doo. You are so excited about Humpty Doo.

He just likes the name. You've been talking about it for like a month and a half. Humpty Doo is fun, man. Well, cause it's funny, cause we reached out. We'll talk about, I'm gonna talk about this next episode. Yeah, keep it in the Humpty Doo episode. But I think that there's something sinister afoot in Humpty Doo and it's not just the larrikin they have for president.

Whoa. Humpty Doo has their own president? Yes. It's a child with a giant lollipop and a chain, a length of chain that used to beat people. But he's been he's won the popular boat nine times since he was four you know I think Australia did have a prime minister once who drowned and like nobody gave a shit they just like replaced him so they have like one now but they there's guy that

he drinks a lot right he's prime minister I love that yeah is he friendly is there a guy who drinks big beers? I know nothing. You know what I mean? Joe, you know what I mean? The Australian Prime Minister doesn't drink big coffee beers. They have an awesome president. Prime Minister, Prime Minister. Right, she's great.

Is she still in power? No. No? No. They have a new Lerkin. That's now in charge. It's an 11 year old, they've got a spiked hat. It's got two roller skates with guns on them.

I'm sorry, we're American. We've been very distracted for many years. It's been a lot going on. It's a lot going on. Well, thank you Marcus Goodwork. No, thank you, Henry. And Eddie, thank you. Whatever.

Go and check out our Patreon, patreon.com slash last podcast on the left to see video episodes of this We are filming this as well. So you can see our grimy jet-lagged faces Mm-hmm. You can go look at them the patreon we got twitch.tv slash LPN TV. We're not there No, but I will say apparently They are organizing something. Yeah, they're doing a little thing. Holden is organizing a thing called, he's calling it LPN Fun House.

It's coming on August 13th. It's specifically for us not being there. So the daddies are away. Wow. So the Lerikans will play. And so they are down there. So there's gonna be a show August 13th on the LPN TV Twitch stream that's's going to be very unique and maybe difficult.

All right. Yeah. And I'm excited for it. All right. Let's look forward to that. LastPodGuessInTheLeft.com. Buy tickets. We're in Australia. We're right now we're in New Zealand. By the time this comes out, we will be done with our show in New Zealand. So just know we are in Australia. Come and check us out. Come see us Perth there's still tickets. Humpty-doo. Yeah Sydney and Melbourne and all kinds of places. Really good work. In Brisbane. Yep.

And Adelaide. And Adelaide I love Adelaide. I do. Adelaide's a great fucking town. Well hail Satan we'll see you soon. Hail Gain. Hail Erickans. Yeah fucking every single one of them. I just want to be around guarantee our next fucking show There's just gonna be a bunch of horrible Evil freckled grins