Morbid - Bobby Mackey's Music World

Episode Date: July 13, 2023

When musician Bobby Mackey opened Bobby Mackey’s Music World in 1978, he had hoped for nothing more than to open a small nightclub where audiences could enjoy the traditional country music he had devoted his life to for decades. Yet before the club was even opened, it was apparent to Bobby, his wife Janet, and manager Carl that whatever the new night club was going to be, it would be anything but normal.In the decades since it opened, Bobby Mackey’s Music World has gained a reputation, not just as a one of Kentucky’s enduring country western clubs, but as one of America’s supposedly most haunted locations. Indeed, Bobby Mackey’s is said to be the home of several spirits whose lives revolved around, and in some cases ended on the property, including the ghosts of a lovesick showgirl, a headless pregnant woman, and the two Satan-worshipping men who took her head.Thank you to the glorious David White for research assistance :)ReferencesAssociated Press. 1978. "State to probe fire at club near Newport." Courier-Journal, July 10: 6.—. 1993. "Legality of lawsuit blaming bar for ghost antics to be decided." Messenger-Inquirer, October 23: 17.Caraway, Robin. 2006. "Wilder nightclub site has storied past." Cincinnati Post, July 17: 14.Chicago Chronicle. 1896. "Pearl Bryan's story." Chicago Chronicle, May 10: 33.Cincinnati Enquirer. 1979. "Kentucky closes Mackey's club, citing faulty wiriing, sprinkler." Cincinnati Enquirer, December 16: 26.—. 1978. "Wilder police chief wants state to close Hard Rock Cafe." Cincinnati Enquirer, January 17: 17.Hensley, Douglas. 2005. Hell's Gate: Terror at Bobby Mackey's Music World. Denver, CO: Outskirts Press.Moores, Lew. 1993. "Court filing by club's lawyer is poetry in motion." Cincinnati Enquirer, October 22: 26.2005. A Haunting. Television. Directed by Joe Wiecha. Performed by New Dominion Pictures.Wecker, David. 1991. "Bobby Mackey demon story: truth or bull." Cincinnati Post, July 9: 11.Wolfson, Andrew. 2022. "A twisted tale: A failed abortion, a beheading and pennies left heads up at a grave." Courier Journal, May 4. Cowritten by Alaina Urquhart, Ash Kelley & Dave White (Since 10/2022)Produced & Edited by Mikie Sirois (Since 2023)Research by Dave White (Since 10/2022), Alaina Urquhart & Ash KelleyListener Correspondence & Collaboration by Debra LallyListener Tale Video Edited by Aidan McElman (Since 6/2025) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, weirdos, I'm Ash. And I'm Elena. And this is Mobud. It's Elena Centrac. I'm actually really excited about this one. You know, I asked you what this was, and then I was getting ready to come over here, and I was like, what the fuck are we recording today? I decided to go, I'm not going to say this as light, because it's certainly not.

I decided to go in a light direction. I needed to get, after Myra and Ian, I just needed to go in a little different direction. Okay. You know, I just needed like not a straight-up case for a week. Yeah. I needed like a something dark and twisted in a different way. Yeah, dark and twisted in a different way. That's a good way to put it.

Because I was going to say, it's not light, it's not jaunty, it's not anything. It's just a different kind of dark and twisted. On the other side of the spectrum. Exactly. It involves ghosties. Oh. You know, that's always fun. That is fun.

I think we don't really have a whole lot of business to get to this week. But one thing I wanted to mention that's really exciting is that they are going to be looking back into the Tamla-Horseford case. So many people have been tweeting at me and I, I like woke up either yesterday or the day before to like so many mentions on the morbid Twitter. And I was like, oh my God, like that's like one that I was really excited about. This one has been bothering me since I started researching. I mean, I heard about it a long time ago and it bothered me then, but it really bothered me when I started researching it. So they must have found something new, right? I don't know. I don't know what the reason for it is.

I don't know if it's like the outcry. It's just very clear that she was murdered. Yeah. I mean, I'm ready to hear some new stuff. I'm ready for them to take another look at it. I'm ready for them to talk to those women again and the men at that party. Yeah. I'm ready for all of it.

Let's do it. Something is real shady there. Something is sinister at that party, man. I will stick by that. And I'm happy for her family too and her best friend. I'm happy for everybody involved. Who has, like, fought for that. And literally got sued.

Yeah. And I think her family. actually spoke for the first time in a long time about it and said they were like, yeah, something happened at that party. We want to know what. Good. And they deserve to know. Yeah, her children and her husband. She had like five children, right? Yeah, she had, I mean, she was, and she was like a mom. Like a dedicated mom. Like it's such a good mom. It's like they deserve to know. Right. So yeah. So that's exciting true crime news. That's exciting true crime news. We also have exciting morbid news. We have the merch that we already, that's already up on shop.

morbidpodcast.com and we're actually hopefully going to be adding some new stuff within the next couple of weeks. So keep your eyes peeled and it's going to be really cool. And we're really excited about these new designs because we specifically came up with these. Yes, these are like our designs. So we're very, very excited. Not like ours were like we made them, but like the ideas were coming from our beautifully morbid minds. Exactly. And then some beautiful artists just did it for us. Exactly. So we're excited about that and we'll keep you up. on that. Other than that, oh, I have an exciting Patreon episode that I can't wait to do. Oh, that's exciting. And it's inspired by one of, by my youngest. Oh. Yeah. What? Oh, wait. Yeah. Yeah.

No, I was like, I was like, I don't get where we're going here. Yes, it's inspired by my littlest daughter. And this month, we're also going to be doing a pasta dinner on Patreon. So if you want to know what that means, all you have to donate is minimum $3 to the Patreon. And there's some cool-ass episodes. other cool-ass shit. We're working on more Patreon goodies. They are literally being produced at this very moment. Yes, literally as we speak. We promise those will be going out soon. And the pasta dinner, make sure you send in your pasta dinners. We've gotten a ton of pasta dinners. And I'm very excited for them. So guys, sign up and bring the garlic bread. Yes. All right. So let's get into this dark, twisted spectrum. Dark twisty situation. Remind me what the fuck we're recording today. So what we're going to be

talking about is the Lake Shawnee amusement park. That's what you texted me. Yes, I remember. Now, I say, this is one of those cases that I started out. I did all my research. I like really, I hit kind of a wall at one point and was like, well, I think I have all the information I can get. Like, you know how you found something? And then it was, and it was like maybe like four pages. And for me, that's just, yeah, that's a no go. For me, that's a mini morbid. So when I hit the four page mark and I was like, done, I was like, do I even want to do this? I don't even know. I was like, that's not enough information. I started getting mad. And then I was like, you know what, I'm just going to keep looking for this one little detail that I couldn't get enough information about.

Yeah. And I kept digging and I got it. And then it just spidered into a bunch more information. And I got like way more pages out of it. Sweet. And that is one of my favorite things. The feeling of suddenly it opening up and you have this whole other realm of information. Yeah. Like, guys, I fucking love research. Well, that's what happened to me with the Brenda Sue Schaefer case. Because I was online, I found two articles, and I was like, oh, this would be so good, but, like,

there's just not enough. And then I found the book, and I was like, oh, hell yeah. Here it is. And it's like when you're digging, dig and digging, you find, like, I found, like, old newspaper clippings and shit. It's like, jackpot. Oh, it's just, I love research, guys. You're really good out of too.

Thank you. You're welcome. I just love it. It just made me happy. So the Lake Shawnee Amusement Park. We're going to take it way back. To like 1,600? 1700.

So close. Yeah. So where this is is this is in West Virginia. Okay. This amusement park that, well, this defunct amusement park now. Yelikes. So in the 1700s where this was, which is current day Mercer County, was a Native American village, the Shawnee tribe. And I believe it was one other tribe.

I couldn't find an exact which tribe also inhabited this land at one point. But the Shanis, obviously, it's named after their tribe. They're like the more prevalent one here. Gotcha. So in 1775, a guy named Mitchell Clay was one of the first English settlers in what is now presently Mercer County, originally Cloverbottom, West Virginia. They should have kept Cloverbottom. Cloverbottom.

I like that. I think it's pretty funny. The year before, so in 1774, he had received a crown grant from Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, for his participation in Dunmore. Moore's War. Okay. So we got a grant and with this grant, he was able to get somewhere between 800 and 1200 acres of land. Shit. Yeah. And this was on both sides of the Bluestone River, which is between what is now Princeton, Virginia and Matoka. Okay. And I'm just saying it so anybody who lives in that area can kind of get an idea of where this is. Because it's like,

back then it was called this, but now it's called this. Yeah. It's in there. So he moved on to this land. He moved on to it with his wife, Phoebe. Her maiden name was Belcher. And they had 14 children. Jesus Christ. Yeah. So they needed all that acreage. Yeah.

You got a lot of kids. Yeah, one per acre. Yeah. And then a lot more. And then some. They were just leaving the door open to have 1,200 more children. Well, you know, like grandkids and shit. Yeah, you know, it's kind of happens.

Cousins, uncles, brothers, sisters. You'll fill it. It's a village. I'm not worried about it, Clay. It's cool. So they took. that land and they made it a farmland because there's a lot of land. Because what the fuck else are you going to do with it? They also built like a farmhouse here, all that good stuff. And an amusement

park? Not yet. Okay. So unfortunately, this isn't, I mean, this is like 1700. So I don't think everybody died. Everybody died. But they're like slow down. There was a pretty bitter battle going on for this land. Okay. Because the surrounding Shawnee tribes were pretty pissed that. That It was just straight up taken from that. Because that was their land. Because that is the narrative of the 1700s. It's like, hey, that was mine. You can't just have it.

No, that's not how that works. But alas, the settlers were like, no, we can. And they just did. Good. Good people. Again, after all, no agreements had been made. It was just, you know, they just came in. They surveyed the land and built it up for themselves.

They want it, they got it. They want it, they got it. That's fucked up. No, the Shawnee tribesmen had, they had, they had worn. born to the Clay family many times. Like, we're pissed. We're going to curse you. You got to get out of here. And nothing happened. Now, it's important to note that anthropologists, this is going to come back later, anthropologists determine later that the two different tribes that once lived on this land had actually not been inhabiting it for a number of years, like decades before the Clay family came

to claim it. Okay. But just because they weren't actively living there when the clays settled there? grid. You're taking my thunder. Sorry. You really are. I'll stop talking. Just because the clays weren't actively living there when they settled there, it didn't mean they weren't using it. Okay. So they were using this land. They weren't living on this land. But at this time, they were like, you can't live here because we're using it. Okay. Stay tuned. I will explain what they were using it for.

I'm not going to guess. It's like you're taking my crescendo. So August 1783, Mitchell Clay asked two of his sons, two of his 14 children, Bartley and Ezekiel. He asked them to build a fence around some grain that he had recently purchased. And one of his daughters, Tabitha, I think it was the eldest daughter, was doing some of the washing nearby. Okay. You know, because they didn't have washing machines in 1700s. I don't know if anybody knows that.

No? No. Those came a little bit later. Like 17 and 5? Yeah, you know. Okay. So they're out there doing all that good stuff. And then 11 Shawnee Native Americans attacked the boys.

Okay. They killed Bartley with a single shot. Uh-huh. And they grabbed Ezekiel. Now, Tabitha was with some other girls while she was doing the washing, and she heard the shot and came running. She was going to be running back to her house, but she happened to go by where it happened.

Uh-oh. She sees her brother, and she sees that he's on the ground, that something bad is happening, so she goes and rushes to him without even thinking just to try to save him because she's the eldest, she's trying to be helpful. And in the process, she was stabbed to death on site. Oh, wow. Yes. So two of the kids have now been murdered on this site.

Yes. While this was happening, a neighbor named Liggin Blakenship. Same. Yep. Liggin Blakenship. Liggin breakenship. He witnessed it because. he was also out hunting, and I believe he was, there's stories that he was either out hunting

or he was coming to the Clay residents to, like, visit them. But it was the 1700, so it's a little shaky. So information has been, you know, titter tattered a little. The telephone game has gotten a little shaky. He was actually, like, buying a new house that day or something. He was just buying a new house. He was like, I'll take this shack, thank you. According to Kentucky Clay, 11 generations of a Southern Dynasty by Catherine R. Bateman,

It's a book. Okay. I don't think there's a whole lot else in there that, like, pertains to any of this, but this one chapter did. Phoebe had begged Ligon, and I think it's Liggin. It's Liggin. It's Ligon. Ligon. Who cares? Ligon.

So Phoebe, the mother, is begging this guy. She's like, you have to save Tabitha. Like this was while she was being stabbed. She was like, save Tabitha, shoot them. Like, help me. Yeah. And Baitman. It says that, now Bateman, who wrote the book,

Okay. Is one of the Clay children's great, great, great granddaughter. So just so you know, this information is like in her family. That's how she knows it. So instead of saving Tabitha or shooting her killer, Liggin just ran away back into the woods. I don't blame him. I'd be like, I'm not getting involved in that shit. Well, unfortunately, he and his family were kind of saddled with this reputation of cowardice after this decision.

Well, it's like, do you want to get involved in a property battle? Well, and in fact, a newspaper clipping from 1977 about the massacre said that Liggin, it said about him, quote, this cowardly behavior of Blakenship had been handed down from generation to generation and perhaps will be until the end of time. Wow. So they're literally just like, yeah, you and your family are all going to be cowards until the end of time. That's actually where Courage the cowardly dog came from. It's like real, real, real rough. I feel bad for Liggen. That's sad. The Blakenships. I feel real bad.

But personally, I think it's kind of harsh because he likely only had like one shot. It's not like he had like a semi-automatic rifle. And there's probably like multiple people like involved in this obviously. There were 11. Yeah. There were 11 Native Americans and then the three kids. And this one one Blakenship. So he has he probably has one shot.

And if he happens to shoot one of them, what happens now? And even if he had like five shots still. Yeah. Right. It's like there's 10 others now. He's screwed no matter what. He's not going to win. And what a lot of people do think when they try to defend his actions is that they say, like, he probably made that decision as a distraction to let Phoebe get the rest of the kids and go another way.

Yeah. He gets a bad rap. I feel bad. I agree with you. So it was Phoebe who ran out there. So once they had killed Tabitha, they had killed Bartley. Ezekiel was the third one, obviously. And they just took Ezekiel.

Right. He was alive. Okay. So Phoebe runs out there with her younger. children, she drags Tabitha and Bartley's bodies back into their home, lies them in bed together. Oh. And she was determined to keep her other children safe. So she had them all run with her six miles through the woods to a man named John Bailey's house for safety.

Jesus. That was their closest neighbor. Six miles away. Six miles away. Now Mitchell, Clay, the father, had returned home from hunting to find the scene of the massacre on the property and his children dead in bed. Right. And he assumed the entire family was massacred or taken. Right. So he runs to John Bailey's to form a search party. Because Phoebe didn't shoot him a text to update him. He didn't shoot him a text to be like going to John B's. Right. Catch you there. Meet me there. Like shit is gone awry. Well, and obviously he found the rest of them there. And Phoebe and Mitchell headed back out to bury Bartley and Tabitha in the sites on the property. Wow. And the sites where they are buried.

They are still buried there. What? Yeah, and it's marked. Now, Mitchell gathered other settlers and went after the Native Americans who now had his son, Ezekiel. Okay. They were led by Captain Matthew Farley. So, unfortunately, Ezekiel was taken to Ohio, and he was burned at the stake. Oh, my God.

He was 16 years old. All killed in, like, brutal ways. And it's like, I wonder why they killed them all in different ways. Yeah, I don't know. It's kind of, like, random. I think initially it was like they shot Bartley. That was probably what was going to happen. And maybe they were going to take Ezekiel.

Who knows? Yeah. But Tabitha kind of inserted herself to help her brother. And I think that was more of a crime of opportunity. Like, we have to get rid of her and this is all I have. Right. So they burned him at the stake. He was 16 years old.

Oh. And in the process, there was tons of bloodshed on both sides. I mean, many Native Americans, as well as settlers died. the non-Indigenous settlers took strips of skin off the dead Native Americans' backs and ended up using them as razor straps. What? Yeah. And then those skin strips were passed down to several members of the family for years and years and years. They became like family animals.

How fucked is that? What? Yeah. And that's like a fact. Like that family. That's a fact. Like that's not like just bullshitting. Fact time with Elena.

The fan of the clay. family like passed those strips of skin from Native Americans backs. It's like very edgain of them. Barry. It just, it's real fucked. The whole thing is fucked. It's just fucked from beginning to end. Now, Bartley and Tabitha, like I said, were buried on the site where the amusement park

was later built. I was like, wait, so the amusement park had built over them? Yes. Okay. So after Ezekiel's burning at the stake, the chief of the Shawnee tribe actually let Mitchell take his body back to be properly buried. That's surprising. And he lent him a horse to do so.

What the fuck? Shit was wild. That is weird. Shit was wild. I mean, that's very noble? Question mark? Sure is. Noble?

I mean, the whole thing is like, question mark? What? What? What if this makes sense? Okay. So he did. And one of the stories I saw was that we don't know where Ezekiel is buried. And the other one says that they exhumed his other children and then buried them all together.

Still on the property. Okay. Either way, we know Bartley and Tabitha are buried on the property, and there is an exact marker for where they are. Okay. But Ezekiel, we're not quite sure. Question mark. So the marker is a stone monument on the site that states that they were murdered in

that fields. Yeah. Like the stone marker says it. And that the stone was, quote, erected August 14th, 1937 on an exact site of the graves. Wow. Yeah. And then it's like one. to go ride the swirly twirley? Yeah, let's go. Phoebe refused to ever go back to the farm. I can't say

I blame her. But some members of the Clay family did go back and lived there for a while. I mean, it's different for the mom. Yeah, for sure. I wouldn't want to be anywhere neither. No. Now, 144 years later, just a casual 144. Just shoot forward really quick. In 1927, a guy named Conley Snydo, I think it is, decided to be a cunning businessman. And he was like, I'm going to buy up this land. Because during this time in the area in West Virginia, coal mining was like exploding in the area and families were moving in. It was a booming business, you know, so like Snydo saw an opportunity to really make some money. He saw that he could provide entertainment for these families that are moving in here and he was like, you know what, let's do this. Let's get it. So initially he had the

swings erected, these like giant, we're definitely going to post photos of this. I know, I'm excited to see it. Hell, it's creepy. I want to go here. It's all my body. the list. Can I ask a dumb question? Is it, it's not still an amusement park, right? Or it is. It's a defunct amusement park, like, abandoned. That's so cool. And the swings are like these giant, I mean, you see them in music parts now. They're the big giant swings that like fly around. I love those. But these ones are like wooden planks with chains. You should not be swinging in the air from them in the 1800s. They're no good. Well, and this is in 1927. Oh, shit, okay. But so he initially had those swings erected. He had a water slide going into like a man-made pond.

Fun. He had a ferris wheel, a dance hall. He had pools made. There was a speakeasy. People were gambling, dancing. There was all kinds of cool stuff. That sounds really fun. It was really hopping in the 20s. I'm saying. They rented out, they would rent out wool bathing suits for the pools for 15 cents. Wool bathing suits. Twenties. Yucco. And they were there were driving boards going into all the pools. I mean, It was all very wholesome and fun and very 20s. Come 1934. We're just going to pop forward a little bit.

Everything's going fine at the amusement park, you know, whatever. Nobody's falling off the swings yet. Not quite yet. James Craft Belcher is 25 years old. And if you remember the name Belcher from Bob's Burgers. No. He was one of the great grandchildren of the original family who owned the property. Veeb's maiden name was Belcher.

Ah, you had said that. Now, he grew up on the property. Yeah. He was married, but he was having an affair with a 19-year-old woman named Mertl Taylor. No good. Which, like, Myrtle, I'm like, what is with that name? I think of Greg Gatsby. And it's immediately what I thought of.

Murdells out there, are you all like? And then, like, moaning Mertl, she was a little bit of a biotch. There you go. What's with Mertles? I'm just saying. So he was estranged from his wife because he was a drunk cheating asshole. Correct. They weren't divorced.

And he was still, like, well, because it's like the 30s at this point you said. I don't think like divorce was very prevalent back then. No, it definitely wasn't like, but they should have been. Yeah. For sure. Because he sounded like an ass. No, it will be sounded. He definitely is an ass. May 11th, 1934, he finds Mertl having dinner with another man. It's like she doesn't belong to you, bro. You're still married. He doesn't. I mean, no one belongs to anybody. I'm just like, no. You know what I mean? No, it's exactly. Well, it's like, that's the thing. You're literally cheating on your wife with her. She can't go to anything. Like, I'm your side ho, but I'm your side ho, but I'm, but I'm, you know what I mean? I'm just saying. I'm just saying. I'm just. Well, it's like, well, it's like, I'm your side ho. I'm her. I'm her. I'm her. I'm her. I can't have a side hoe. What? What you say? Excuse me? I don't understand. Well, he lost it.

And he literally forced her out of the place and into his car. Now, he essentially, he kidnapped her. Good, good, good, good. Essentially in like broad daylight. He stops the car along the road that borders the Lake Shawnee property. So right next to the amusement park. Okay. Gets out of the car.

And there in the road, he shoots her in the head twice. What? Yep. she initially lived and he drove her to the hospital, but she did die very shortly afterwards. He claimed insanity, but he didn't get it. Because he's not insane. He's just horrible. He's just a dick.

And he ended up going to prison. He lived to be 83 years old and died in like 1993. Oh, shit. That's crazy. So that's a weird thing that happened literally right on the property. Right outside. Just another one. And after this, six deaths happened in the amusement park between.

the time it opened and when it closed later in 1966. Because it's cursed. Now, in a hotel where Conley Snydo's family was living, Conley Snydo's the guy who bought the amusement park, his three-year-old daughter, Eloise, ran for the elevator and was crushed in between the floor and the door going up. Oh, my God. Yep. And obviously was killed.

So July 3rd, 1966, a little boy of 11 years old named John Richard Tiley drowned in the swimming pool on the property. Oh, no. The ponds were lined with cement. Like, they had lined them to make them, like, natural pools, basically. Yeah. And this boy got his arm, his arm or his clothing stuck in the drain at the bottom and drowned. Oh, my God. The workers filled the pond with sand afterwards, and it was just kind of like swept away. They're like, oh, sorry about that. They're like, whoops. Another little boy, six years old, named Wayne Harmon drowned in the lake on the property. His mother and brothers were there swimming with him. Several other swimmers were as well, and lifeguards were on duty, but no one noticed it until it was too late. Oh my God. I wonder what happened. And what they said was

somebody just happened to brush up against his body on the bottom. And we're like, oh shit, and then they just pulled him out. Jesus. Yeah. Now, there is a theory about what happens. So in 1966, this one's crazy and probably the most well-known of the deaths on here. A little girl around 10 years old died on the giant swings. What happened was a truck delivering drinks to the park was turning around, backed into the path of the swings, and the little girl on the swing met the truck at a high speed and was killed gruesomely. Oh my God. I'm literally splattered against the side of a moving vehicle. What the hell? Witnesses said she was wearing a ruffled pink dress and it was absolutely soaked in blood. Obviously. That's all anybody remembers. Oh my God. Now,

I know. It's crazy. So it was closed in 1966 as a direct result of these deaths. Conley Snydo knew that losing children's lives was just not worth the money. He was making shit tons of money, but he was like, it's not worth it. Because at this point, after Eloise's death, he was like, I can relate to this. I'm not doing this. So he really did the right thing. That's good. Like good for Conley Snydo. Yeah. Because a lot of other dudes or women who like are business people would have been like, well, you know, the bottom line, you know, like, when he was like, no, I owe it to these parents to shut this down. That's good. So, 1960s it closes. There are a few, a couple of other deaths that are listed in a book called Haunted America by Dave Thompson. Because it said

six deaths, those are only like three. So it was like, what else happened? Where are the others? I could only find two more. And one little girl was, another little girl was on the swing. and she fell out of the swings. I was going to say there had to have been more on the swings. Because when you see these swings, you're like, how did everybody not die? Because you see the swings now even, and you're like, obviously they're fine, but you're like, are they? You're like, that doesn't look right. But like in the 30s, I can't imagine that they were doing good.

No, and when you see these, it's literally just like a rotted piece of wood with chains. Right. Like, just the fact that the, like, a truck was able to back up right there. Like, not funny. No, but like, not good. What the fuck? Not a good thing. So one was the little girl falling off the swings and perishing, and the other one was a gambler on site who was killed over money.

Oh, no. Yeah. So there's a lot of shit going on. Fast forward to the 1980s, because it's closed in 66. So it was open for like 30 years. It was open for a long time, yeah. So in the 1980s, a guy named Gaylord White, a local businessman and someone who actually worked at the original amusement park when he was younger. Yeah.

He bought the land. And he was like, you know what? I want to redo this. I want to make it an amusement park again, make it fresh, four kids. The swings actually weren't there when he acquired the land. But he was like, I want to make it as like original as I can. So he's like, I'm going to buy some like older, those same swings. I want to do it.

It's like, no, there's a reason that they're not there, bro. This is so weird. He went to New Jersey to an antique dealer and he got the same kind of swings. And he brought them there. They put them together. And he said, you know, I was very curious about them. I like to know the history of the things I buy. So I looked up the serial numbers.

They were the original swales. I knew it. I wanted to cut in so bad, but I was like, I can't. I can't steal the thunder. They came back. I knew it. I knew it. The cat came back the very next day.

So creepy. So creepy. I remember reading that poem in school. Isn't that? I know. That poem's really creepy. Does everybody know that poem? The cat came back.

Yeah. I thought he was going or but, ugh. I hate it. Okay. So it really seems like cursed to be so. No, it does. I've said it like four times. I just going, because it's cursed.

Because it's cursed. And it is. Well, they also said that, you know, they were like, cool. The original swings. Wait, because objects have a home. Like, and they like get connected to something. So those swings were connected to that place and they found their way back. Call me crazy.

You're crazy. No, I'm just kidding. I mean, I told you. But it's so true. You know what I mean? That's too weird. No, like that shit happens. That's real weird.

Annie wanted to go antiquing the other day and I was like literally no. Oh, no, I love antiques. No, we'll never have an antique in this house. I have so many old-ass cameras and like an old-ass typewriter. Yeah, I know. I have old-ass skulls. You're asking for a haunting. I love a good antique.

We will never own a fucking antique. Because, you know, I'll take care of it. So everybody will be fine. They're beautiful, but I don't know what the fuck is attached to that fucking cabinet. Raise your hand if you love antiques. See, I see you. So he got the original swings. He also added paddle boats and bumper cars, stages for entertainment.

They were only charging a dollar for admission at first because he was just trying to make it like just fun. Just imagine going to Six Flags for a dollar. I'm saying. And then there was like the big Ferris wheel, you know, all that fun stuff. Fun. And it was booming for like three years. And then insurance rates became unmanageable. And with the money, he was bringing in good money like in the sense of people were coming.

Right. But he wasn't charging a lot, so it was not happening with the insurance. And for a place like that, can you imagine what the fucking insurance must be insane? And so he had to close the park. Now, so not wanting to just get rid of the place because they bought this land and they know- They brought the swings back. And it was really important to them to do something with it. So the family just decided they were like, you know, we have a ton of water on the property, like

lakes and ponds. Why don't we do like fishing tournaments and shit? Like really make it something. Yeah. They were finding some success with that. And they were thinking of clearing some land to start mud bogging, which I was like, what is mud bogging? Is that like racing? Mud bogging.

It's like that offroading in the mud kind of thing. And you have to like clear out mud paths or something. Like little like divvets. I don't know. Massachusetts, we have no idea what that is. So I'm sure some of our like southern listeners can probably tell us more about that because I think that's like more of a southern thing. I would say because I've never heard of mud boggings. But no.

Sounds kind of fun, I guess. But they were clearing, like, land out for mud bogging. Okay. And according to Chris White, who is Gaylord Sr.'s grandson, or son, excuse me. Got it. Because there's Gaylord Senior, Gaylord, and then Chris. Okay. Chris and Gaylord Jr. are brothers.

See, I know it's hard when this, like... I was like, wait, I thought they were dad and son. So this is Gaylord's son, Chris. He told the Register Herald, quote, we were bulldozing, and we started finding artifacts. Nope. No, thank you. We found arrowheads, pottery, and pots. So we stopped. Good. We said, this is pretty interesting. Let's get someone out here and see what we can do. So in 1988, they brought an entire team of anthropologists from Marshall University and Concord College, and they extensively dug up the property. And what they found was insane. Oh, my God, what they find.

So in the same article, Chris White says, quote, they stopped digging when they started finding when they started finding kids graves. He said that they thought there had the experts at the end said they thought there was probably around 3,000 graves. Shut the fuck up. This property. Three, I thought you were going to say like 150 and even then I was going to tell you to shut the fuck up. What? And he said, quote, the only thing they can figure out happened was they got some kind of flu or something and to protect the rest of their tribe, everyone except for the kids and the elderly left. It's sad, but Marshall thinks that that's what wiped out the Shawnee tribe back in the 1700s. Holy cow. So it's insane. So what was happening was when the Shawnee tribe was trying to keep the Clay family off this land,

it wasn't because they were living on it. It was because it was a sacred burial ground. Of their, like, great-grandparents and grandparents and children. Like a mass sacred burial ground. Like 3,000, they knew that this was, they were like, you can't build on this. I wonder if they told them to and the family still did it. Maybe. Who knows? Well, they were able to get, they were able to get 13 complete bodies out before they were like, we need to stop because we don't want to desecrate this place. Right.

The bodies were buried back again in the same graves that they were taken from. Good. But they were observed and like aged and looked at first. Most of them were children and elderly. That's so sad. After discovering this, Chris White and his family, like Gaylord, Senior and Junior and the wife's name is Jewel, I think. All the white families. They were like, nope.

And he left everything exactly the way it is because they were like, we're not going to further disturb this. We're not going to start like doing mudding competitions on here. Like that's fucked up. Like driving over bodies of thousands. Yeah. So they were like, you know what? They were like, this made it pretty clear why they didn't want the clays to settle on this land. so we are not going to do any more.

Try to respect this. So in the mid-1990s, Gaylord Sr. and his wife, Jewel and his son Gaylord Jr., like lived on the property in a house. Okay. Because again, it's a huge property. This is when they were like, we got to do something. We have all this land and we don't know what to do with it.

So they were like, you know what? People want to see this place. It has a ton of history. Why don't we open up for the spooky factor of it. It's an old, because they also just, they let the land reclaim the amusement park rides. Like, they were just like, we just let the nature take over and just whatever they wanted to do to it. We were just going to let it happen. That's cool. And so they offered special haunting tours during the weeks leading up to Halloween. They do like history tours and everything and they still do it.

I love how spooky this is. When are we going? I want to go so bad. Can Rona get the fuck out of here? I have so much to do. I guess. they're still doing the tours even through Rona, like in a socially distant, like, you know, you come at a certain time way. Let's do it. Virginia's not that far. West Virginia, it would be like, we could drive. Nine hours or something.

I want to go so bad. Let's go. Let's fucking go. Because these sites, wait until I show you the photos. No, like, I'm dead ass. Let's go. I'm dead ass as well because these photos. I am dead ass as well.

I too am dead ass. If that didn't just show our personalities perfectly. I am also dead ass. You're like, no, I'm dead ass. I'm like, I too am dead ass. Wow. Anyways, back to the show. Oh, I really am.

I'm dead ass. So, yeah, so they do these tours. And people from all over the world come. They get people from Europe coming. Exactly. Like, it's crazy. Now, they never say during these tours, which swing the little girl. was hit by the truck on.

Good. But they said people always know which one it is. Is there like drive one? And they said they're always drawn to it. They also, they always feel something weird about that. They'll be like this one swing is like freaking me out. Like I don't want to be near it. Paranormal groups go there all the time.

Look at YouTube. There's so many. I fell in a rabbit hole of watching me. I like have chills just thinking about it. Discovery, travel and Nat Geo have all done shows there. They've been on like the scariest places on Earth. The most terrifying place. places on Earth. A crew member for the Discovery Channel show Ghost Lab was actually locked in the old

abandoned ticket booth, but it didn't have any locks. She just couldn't get out. What the fuck? And they said the door was just a push door. You just push it open. There was no lock. There was like a force. And she was pushing and couldn't get out. That's so scary. When they finally were able to get her out, she was such a wreck. They had to bring her to the hospital. Oh my God. Like she was that panic. Like she almost had a heart attack probably. And everyone who goes. here says that the vibe at this place is sickening. Okay, wait, so maybe let's not go because I'm a magnet for like ghost children. Do you remember? And I want to go. We're still going. Oh, I'm glad that you're like

going to just hold me out as a fucking force field. Yeah. We definitely. Do you remember when we did that thing with Tina, my friend? Yeah. We were in the, um, in the car and she was like, oh, like there's like a ghost girl hugging you, right? Like a little, like a little girl's ghost hugging you. And I was like, I don't love it. And my entire body was like tingling and like I could tell something was going on. You're going to get hugged by many ghost children here. As long as they hug me. I hope that's all they did. I don't know if there's a lot of hugging going on here.

Well, there's a lot of shit going down. So scariest places on Earth filmed there in 2005. But no one, including the crew and the psychic that they bring along with them, would work on the grounds at night because they said the energy was so dark it was making them sick. Wow. Yeah. So let's go during the day. I want to go at night. Of course you do, you psychopath. You absolute psycho. Now, the senior Gaylord Dwight, he drove a tractor on the property to, like, you know, cut the grass and do all kinds of things for four years. And he said he always felt on those, like the whole four years, he said he felt like someone was always watching him. He felt he could feel like pressure on his back and his shoulders a lot while he was driving the tractor. And he said he would see a little girl out of the corner of his eye a lot. And then she would just disappear. Oh, I just got chills.

Then one day he kept seeing her out of the corner of his eye and he said suddenly she appeared right behind him on the back of the tractor. He immediately jumped off the tracker, turned it off, jumped off the tractor. I was like, I should say he turned it off. And he was like, okay, you can have the tractor if you want it. Like he literally was like, do you want the tractor? It's all you. And he got off, left it in the middle of the property and it still stays there today. I knew it.

This was from the 90s. and he even moved a giant boulder in front of it and a barrel next to it to it to make sure it never got moved. Incredible. Because he was like, and he said he was like, she seemed like she liked the tractor so she can have it. That's her. I feel like I love this family. Isn't it amazing? Yeah.

People will hear children laughing. On these YouTube videos of the paranormal investigations, you often hear giggles in the video. Oh, no, no. That gives me so many Blair Witch vibes. Oh, fuck. People will hear Native American chanting often. people who people do swim there sometimes like they're not supposed to it's not recommended because you'll literally drown yeah but when they do people say they feel like someone's trying to drown

them like pull them down and there's another story about that later I just like sorry for the silence I literally just stared at Elena with my mouth a gape I wish you could see the visual that just happened she was like what no thanks people will smell like concession stand food like the concession stands are still operating and everybody sees shadow figures. Of course. Shadow figures are everywhere and especially one riding the Ferris wheel. They see that a lot. I mean, it just likes to have a good time.

Yeah, you know. Music will play from the rides. Like music will just suddenly turn on. You and Carnival music is so fucking creepy. In fact, I am going to put our creepy Patreon music. You have to. Because it just fits the vibe so much. And sometimes people will hear voices having conversations.

with each other and no one's around. Weird. A local historian, this is where the drowning thing comes back. She was the one who was the one who found out about the, I think, the two drownings that I discussed earlier. She was the one who told during, I think it's the Dead files that show. I'm not quite positive, but she found out about those two, found the, like, newspaper clippings and all that.

She said she went to the amusement park, the original one, when she was younger. Oh, shit. And she said she remembers being in. one of the ponds, like the pools, and she said she remembers vividly a hand grabbing her leg and trying to drown her. And she said she could feel it. No one was down there. She couldn't see anyone, but she said she was being dragged under the water and her dad had to literally pull her out by her hair. No. And she said, like, she was like, I almost drowned. I would have drowned if my dad wasn't there. Oh my God. And she said when she heard about the drownings, she, her first thought was what grabbed them and pulled them under.

Who? Yeah. Didn't that deal? That got the chilly willies. Yeah. Now, several psychics and mediums also say that when they go near the water around this place, that it just repels them or makes them sick. Wow. Like, they immediately get like, and I don't know how much I believe about that stuff.

Like, I'm one of those people that like, I don't know. But I'm willing to give it a benefit of the doubt. Think of like how we felt at Lizzie Borden's house in that one room. I literally was like, I need to get the fuck out of here right now. I believe in feeling the darker, because I felt it in the Lizzie Borden house for sure. And it was that one specific room that made us feel even worse. And this is one of those scenarios when they say they feel like repelled by that water and like sick by it. Yeah.

I believe that. Yeah. Like I definitely believe that. Some of it. I'm like, I agree with you. Something is sinister in the water. Yeah. For sure.

Something's going on there. Gaylord Jr. said it was common to see the swings, especially just like creaking and moving on their own, like with no wind. Okay, wait. So now that you say, I feel like I feel like I. seen this place on one of the like scariest shows. Probably. Like, feel like I can picture it now. Yeah, you probably can. He told the travel channel, uh, quote, sometimes the seat will start to move underneath your hand until you feel cold air blowing through the seat. And when you get to the

middle, you feel something warm. And we believe that's that little girl's spirit who died on the swings. Oh, good. Yeah. He also said he saw a full body apparition of a girl covered in blood wearing a pink, uh, roughly dress. Oh, see, that makes me so sad. And he said she just stared at him and he was like paralyzed, didn't know what to do, didn't move, didn't say a thing. And then she just walked away. What the fuck? And he said it was like the scariest thing he's ever seen. Oh my God. One YouTube video that I got like really sucked into was this person called Chris Starr. And she seems to have like a lot of cool like paranormal videos. I was just like, oh, she's kind of fun. Cool. So go check her out. I know nothing about her. So it was a cool. It was a cool.

video and I was like she sounds fun. She did a paranormal investigation of this site and they got a ton of weird shit on film and audio. Little kids giggling, faces in windows. You could clearly hear mumbling and talking on the tapes. Yeah. Like they would be talking and you could hear somebody be like, hey,

next to the thing. It was so creepy. That's what I'm going to do when we go. At one point in the video, they're like looking at this weird decoration. Someone put up and they were laughing at it because they were like, this is weird. Don't do that. And they started laughing and you hear a little girl giggle with them. Oh, okay. You can hear it. She's like, oh, well, that's funny. She's like, girl, yeah. I wouldn't laugh at shit there. Yeah, it's really creepy. Now, like I said, all the rides are still up. They're all decrepit and creepy. That's so cool.

The earth is reclaiming them. Like, there's vines and just like all this stuff. Like, it's, it looks like it would be breathtaking to see in real life. No, I think you told me about this a long, long, long time ago and showed me pictures. I probably did because I've been like obsessed with this for a while. I think it was you. I wanted to make sure it was like a full-blown episode. So Gaylord Senior and Junior both passed away while they were living on the property. R-A-P.

Senior died of colon cancer and he died like old. I think he was like in his 80s. Not that that's okay, but it's like, you know, I see what I mean. Junior died of a massive heart attack in his early 50s. Jewel the mother. So Gaylord Sr.'s wife. Yes. She said he had suffered. Are you ready? Uh-uh. 26 heart attacks while living there.

Holy shit. And he died of one massive one. But I believe that though, because you're probably just getting scared constantly. Because she says they have all this weird shit happening. And, you know, they're on a fucking Native American burial ground. Yeah, like, of course some shit's going to happen. They're probably so pissed. They are not happy. spirits. These are pissed off spirits. Right. Now, psychics visiting the property did say that sinister spirits there could, they said they've been known to cause health issues in people. Oh, so like, maybe let's not go. Well,

they said heart problems, like living on the property, maybe. And so they said heart problems from someone living on the property didn't surprise them. Yeah. Like it's awful. It makes sense. Now, in 2014, Jewel and her son Chris decided they were going to start running the dark carnival attraction. Oh. Now, and it's called that. It's like a haunted ghost tour with history and, you know, like a campfire kind of feel to it. Yeah, yeah, fun. You get to see the rides and you also get to see the clay's children's graves. And they basically said they wanted to keep going in the like in the same vein of like Gaylord Senior and Junior's like passion for this. Right. That they wanted to keep it going, but they wanted to keep the history alive while also trying to be respectful in a way. It's so weird though that when you're going on these tours, like, yeah, you get to go see the grave,

but you're also, like, walking on graves. You're walking on a mass grave. Like, you're probably walking on multiple bodies at once. Oh, 100, no matter what. Yes, you definitely are. That's nuts. Visitors say that they will be, like, shoved sometimes. Oh, my God.

They're touched. They'll hear things a lot in their ear. This is a real ass haunted house. It really is. And Jule said that, and this was so, I was like, oh, Jewel said that at first she was worried that after her husband died, that she wasn't running the property how he would want her to. She was very concerned about keeping it how he would want it. But she says the one thing that made her feel like, okay, he's like gave me a sign was as she saw a security video. And you can find

the video somewhere. I'll have to find it. And it's the ferris wheel in the middle of the night. And in the video, you can see the safety lock. I know that's scared the shit out of me. I know that's skin the shit on me too. What was it? Was that the door? The front door, yeah. But it must have been John because he like angrily slams it even when he's not at all angry. Yeah, like whenever John walks out of our back onto the patio, like the whole house shakes. Like, yeah, he can jauntily walk out onto the patio and it's like he's so loud. I just shot essentially. Yeah, it's really scary.

So in the middle of the night, the security video shows the Ferris wheel and it shows the safety lock on one of the carts like open by itself. Yeah. Like close and open like somebody got on it and somebody got off it. Yeah. And she said her husband was so obsessed when they were running the amusement park that that particularly about the Ferris wheel and making sure the locks were always working properly. So was him. Because she was like he was so concerned about safety. He always really wanted to make sure that Ferris wheel was okay.

And so she was like, I feel like that was him like hanging out on the Ferris wheel and being like, oh, it works. It still works. I love that. She still lives on the property by herself. No, girl. And her son, Chris, says he'll come down there in the middle of the house. the night because she'll like call with some scary shit. Obviously. He said his father wanted to keep the land safe for the living and for the dead and he wants to keep this going with his mother.

Wow. Jewel told the dead files that she once saw a full body apparition of a Native American warrior in her home. I believe that. She doesn't want you to be there. Well, she said she weirdly didn't feel threatened or scared by him. So maybe he was appreciative. Maybe he was appreciative. Appreciative. appreciative of them keeping the land life. And like going. And I don't know. And Chris says he still sees shadows and shit in his peripheral while he's working on the site. He says that he'll feel touched a lot on his back and his shoulders.

And he says it can't be explained away because no one's allowed on the site without permission. So it's not like you're seeing people just walking around. Like no one's walking around these acres. Right. And his son, Jules' grandson, who is adorable, by the way. He's like got to be like 12 or 13. He said he often feels like someone's following him on the property when he works with his dad. And he said when he stops, he always hears two steps behind him.

Oh shit. And he said once he was by the swings and he felt someone like grab both his arms like to his sides. Like they were stopping him in his tracks like a big person stopping him. And he said he didn't feel threatened by that. He said he felt like he believed it was someone stopping. him because there was a bad spirit in front of him. Oh, wow. Like he said the overwhelming feeling was this person was grabbing me by the arms to be like,

stop in your tracks because something bad is up there. And he said he felt like protected by it. Which just like gives me the goosey bumps. And then as a last thing I just wanted to know it was I saw this weird news segment about it while I was researching. Of course. We love the weird news segment. They called it a happy haunt. And I thought, I don't know about that.

I was like, yeah. Yeah, totally. Everything we've talked about today, it seems like a sad haunt. Like a massacre and tragic deaths of several innocent children really doesn't result. It's like on Chronicle later. It's like soul-crushing darkness and sadness. But okay, yeah. The happy hunt.

The soul-crushing and darkness haunt. Because like sometimes the news is silly. So that is the amusement park at Lake Shawnee in West Virginia. I want to go, but I don't want to go, but I do want to go. We are going. We are going to go. We are going to film that shit. going to be

legendary. And I can't wait. It looks amazing. If you guys have been there, totally let us know. Damn. Because shit looks awesome. Or if you live near there.

Yeah, exactly. Go on YouTube. You can find all those paranormal videos. They're really fun to watch. And if you can find like the, all the, there's been many shows that have gone there, all the ghost hunting shows.

I love it. Yeah. So now it was it. Good job. Woo. Thanks. Well, as always, you can follow us on Instagram.

you're going to want to see these pictures. Yes. At Morbid Podcast. Hit us up on Twitter. A morbid podcast. Send us at Gmail. Morbid Podcast at gmail.com. If you become a Patreon, you can check out the Patreon email there to send your pasta dinners.

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Keep it weird. But it's where you buy all this land and it's like not your land and you shouldn't have bought it back in the day. And then it's like, oh, your kids are all dead and that's not good. And then they're buried on an amusement park around like, yikes, don't love that. And then everybody dies at this amusement park, RAP, all of little children. But then keep it so weird that you go and you keep the land safe for everybody. Yeah. Bye.

Do that.