Morbid - Episode 673: Random Creepy Things with Nicholas
Episode Date: May 19, 2025As promised, we TRIED to get an episode on Creepy Butts, but the research proved TOO extensive! Instead, we ditched the theme, and dove into Spooky places that spoke to our souls, ESPECIALLY ...our resident PodLab Ghostie, Nicholas.Alaina brings us Forest Haven Asylum where she discusses its dark history, as well tales of inhabitants that never left. Ash transports us to the eighth gate to hell- Spider Gate Cemetery!If you’ve got Spooky place you'd like to recommend with a personal account- send it on over to Morbidpodcast@gmail.com with “Spooky places” somewhere in the subject line- and if you share pictures- please let us know if we can share them with fellow weirdos! :)Stay in the know - wondery.fm/morbid-wondery.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Hey, weirdos, Elena here.
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Lamont Jones is shattered when his cousin dies just weeks after entering prison. podcast. PA on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, weirdos. I'm Ash. And I'm Elena. And this is Morbid.
This is Morbid and it is humid and swampy outside.
Like it's fucking Florida or some shit.
We haven't even been outside today though.
Yeah, but I was told by reputable sources.
Yeah, but I know.
Meaning my husband texted me and said, it's like Florida outside.
It's humid.
No, he's a very reputable source.
Well, the problem, it wasn't even fucking humid in Florida when we were there.
So now we're back home and we have to deal with humidity and guess what?
Not good for my hair.
Yeah, I don't like it.
Not good for my hair that I blow dried this goddamn morning.
One thing I am excited though.
Thanks for caring.
I don't.
Moving on.
Wow.
You guys know I don't love summer, but I've decided to get into it this year.
Because?
Because summer wean and slasher summer.
I'm trying to get in that vibe.
It's going to be fun.
And I'm excited for that.
So I'm trying to like get in a different state of mind for summer.
Because this is usually the time of the year when I say, fuck it, I need fall more than
I need oxygen.
Wow. And it hurts. I want it so I need fall more than I need oxygen. Wow.
And it hurts.
I want it so bad.
No.
Like I'm there now.
Like it's hurting me.
It's pain right now.
Literally May 2nd.
Yeah.
That's, that's my favorite response is whenever I say that somebody just goes checks calendar.
It's this date.
And I say, no, I know that that's what hurts.
It's not October. She's gonna square up right now
She said that is always said a sponge said I know what the fucking date is
It's always the response I say wow, I really want fall and people like it's May 3rd and I'm like I know
If it wasn't May 3rd, I wouldn't be missing fall.
I would be in fall.
I know that.
I think we're going to have to noise regulate this episode because we screaming.
We screaming.
Listen, I like summer.
I'm ready for my birthday, which is in one month.
We're not even in Gemini season yet.
So I'm excited for summer ween and you can feel how you feel and I can feel how I feel
and we can still run a successful podcast together.
Just so you know, it's May 2nd.
It is. I know. Do you know? Listen, I was being mature.
I was being mature. I was being mature right there and you weren't.
Maybe that's why Nicholas has a problem with you.
Oh, we got to talk about that guys. So-
This is a fake fight by the way.
It is.
I think we opened up a few episodes fighting.
Yeah. And I feel like that's gonna start a whole thing
where I'm gonna be chased with pitchforks.
Maybe they'll chase me.
No.
I can't run, so don't do that.
I won't run.
I will not run, so.
No, this is totally fake.
We're totally fine.
Jokes.
We're in a silly, goofy mood.
Help me.
Shut the fuck up. Just shut the Help me. Shut the fuck up.
Shut the fuck up.
But no, on a lighter note, but no, on a little bit of a scary note actually.
Alaina has a problem with the poltergeist.
Okay, so here we are.
Maybe not a poltergeist.
This is a spooky episode.
We started out with a theme and then we said, no.
Are you okay?
Oh, see, he's trying to make it right.
Maybe he asked me if I was okay.
No, I mean, that's like a ghost lyric.
I like that.
Maybe that's fall talking to you.
Mother.
Nicholas.
Mother.
Mother.
Okay, we're back.
Me and Nicholas are back.
He heard me starting to talk about it
and he was like, I'm sorry I hurt you.
I'm sorry. I'm not sold. He's he's responding.
OK, Nicholas, I'm sorry.
I'm going to talk about our fight, but we're fine.
We're totally cool now.
OK, going back, if you guys watched or listened to Listener Tales,
I'm sick, sick, sick.
We had a special guest, Nicholas, on it's the Ghost Tube app.
We're going to have him. we're going to put it up
whenever we do spooky episodes.
Yeah, just spooky episodes, or maybe when we feel like it.
Yeah.
You guys seemed to like it, though.
It was fun.
He doesn't interrupt that much.
And when he does, it's very pertinent information.
It's worth it.
We named him Nicholas because he named himself Nicholas.
That's how that works.
We said, what's your name?
And he said Nicholas.
And we said, OK, Nicholas it is.
Nicholas and I were bro-ies the last time.
I felt a deep connection to him.
So we started off this episode and I was like,
I was like, Nicholas, what's going on?
And he said he was struggling.
And I was like, oh no.
And I said, tell me your woes, Nicholas.
And he responded, you.
And I said, whoa, this is our first fight.
And this is...
Okay, but maybe his woes are you because like he lives here
and he's- Because he can't like-
He can't love you because you're not even
on the same plane and you're married.
Oh my God.
I'm telling John.
I think that's me and Nicholas's dynamic.
I think cause he just-
You're his forbidden love.
He heard that I misunderstood here.
Although he did just call you mother, so...
Yeah, that's weird.
Maybe he thinks you're an icon.
It's not weird, Nicholas, it's okay.
He thinks, yeah, he's like mother.
I'm lost.
I'm lost. He's lost.
He's lost without me.
No, he said, I don't even know how I feel.
Possessed.
What did he say?
Possessed.
I'd like to not be.
Nicholas, we're okay. We're. Alright. Nicholas, we're okay.
We're okay now.
We understand each other, Nicholas. I get it, okay?
Yeah, it's complicated on Facebook.
Some people don't understand our snark, okay?
But this is how we do.
That's right, mother.
So Nicholas is gonna be around,
and Nicholas will chime in when he feels like he has something to say.
When he sees fit.
And again, we were going to make this like a themed spooky episode, but then we just
got crazy with it and Ash chose a cemetery, I chose an institution, like an asylum, and
we're just going with that.
So there's no real theme except spooky.
It's fucking spooky. So Nicholas is the theme
Nicholas serving Nicholas
He said serving Nicholas very much. Okay, I think Nicholas is a gay icon.
I love Nicholas.
Personally, is he gonna be on the season of All Stars?
I'm obsessed with Nicholas.
Maybe.
Maybe?
Oh my God, did he say maybe?
Bitch, we have a full-blown relationship
with a gay paranormal icon.
Get on our goddamn level.
I am literally obsessed with Nicholas.
I've never been, I quite frankly, never been happier.
He said, maybe catch me on RuPaul's Drag Race.
Season 17. Wow.
Oh, my goodness. You bring joy.
Wow. OK, I don't even know how to follow that up, but I don't think you can.
So done. Bye. Thanks for listening.
So I found this. So searching for spooky places, I didn't know what I wanted to do. At first,
I was looking for cemeteries. That's how this did lead me here. Cause Ash had found a cemetery
she wanted to do. And I was like, all right, I will find a cemetery. So the reason I found
this is it's, it's an old asylum. I'm going. I'm gonna get into all the nitty gritty.
It's really horrible, so buckle in.
But there is a cemetery on the site of this place,
but it's like a mass grave.
Oh.
So it's technically a cemetery,
but that's what led me to this.
And then when I found out the history-
Water.
You need some?
I'm empty on water actually.
Are you asking?
Yeah.
So when I got further into like the history of this, that's when I was like I have to include- Are you asking? So when I got further into the history of this,
that's when I was like, I have to include.
Are you literally about to take a sip of your water?
He told me water, okay?
This bitch just yeeted down to her water bottle.
He said hydrate, and I said, okay, Nicholas.
She said, as you wish.
Yeah, as you wish, Nicholas.
So I'm going to...
And then as I got into the background of you know, the background of this place,
and it's like, it's just a horrifying history.
I found that Sam and Colby had gone to this place.
Our bros. And explored it.
So I watched that video
because I wanted to see what that was about.
And they experienced something crazy there.
So I urge you to go look up their video about it.
But yeah, it's a very scary place.
It was a very scary history.
And again, this is gonna be a little upsetting at times.
This is not, it's like an institution.
So that's not great.
Mine will palate cleanse a bit.
Yeah.
So this is Forest Haven Asylum.
It was opened in 1925.
It was opened under a much more offensive, but very of the time name.
It was the, so part of that was the district training school for something that I will
not say now.
It was named Forest Haven Asylum in 1963.
That's better.
That's when they changed it up. I mean, still pretty shitty, but.
Yeah, and somehow it got shittier after that.
So I don't know how that happened.
Oh, it did?
But it was intended initially
to treat children and young adults in Laurel.
Hotel.
It was a really bad hotel.
They were treating children and young adults
in Laurel, Maryland,
and it was serving the people
of the District of Columbia as well.
Like they had a big range.
It was going to be taking in people
who were deemed mentally ill at the time,
like severely mentally ill,
but later it went way far out of those parameters,
far enough to bring in kids and young adults
that were just deemed not quote unquote normal by society or were
just people that did nobody wanted to deal with anymore.
That's horrible.
There was also times when people were taken from their families against their family's
will and put into this place.
Yeah, that was really bad.
It, I mean, there was a time and we'll get to it that an orphanage closed nearby and 20 orphans
were just written down in documentation as being mentally ill to be put into this place
because they didn't have anywhere else to put them.
Holy shit.
So completely, you know, like just like average kids.
Yeah.
Happen to be orphans, don't have any illnesses that we could see.
We're just putting this place to be forgotten about.
Yeah.
So this is huge.
This place is gigantic.
It has 30 structures.
It covers 250 acres.
It's kind of in the middle of nowhere in a forest.
It's definitely pushed off, which a lot of these places usually were. Yeah.
On the entryway into the main building,
and it's still there, there's a bronze plaque that says,
yet while I live, let me not live in vain.
Which is chilling because all of them did.
Yeah.
Like they did not follow that.
Right.
At the height of its operation,
it had over a thousand patients,
which they were referring to as inmates at the time.
Way overcrowded, way overcrowded.
When it initially opened in the 20s, and this is what's wild,
it was initially created as like a progressive farm colony style thing.
They had opened it as an institution, but what they wanted to do
was make it more like a wellness thing.
They wanted to actually help these kids more like a wellness thing. They
wanted to actually help these kids and these young adults grow and thrive and nourish them.
Therapy.
Yeah, truly make it like a wellness thing. In the beginning, they were learning life
skills, farm skills. They were doing work and training for certain things and having
a real feeling of being part of a community. They were providing for the community as well
with the farming stuff.
So they were given purpose.
Like everything there was supposed to be like super chill.
There was a lot there too in the beginning.
There was basketball courts, a baseball fields.
They would publish the scores of the baseball games
in the papers sometimes at first.
Oh, that's cool.
So initially this was like great.
Like a community.
And it was being like held up as like this great place,
like great stories were coming out.
I mean, they had theaters there, they had a gym,
they had all kinds of things to keep the patients busy and active and their minds working.
How did it all go to shit?
Everything is calm and nurturing.
Well, in the 1960s, the funding started to be pulled back.
And once the funding got pulled back,
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They started to take in people outside of the,
way outside of the parameters. Mostly,
like I said, without their family's consent, some of them were like basically kidnapped.
Like people with epilepsy were put here, people with just hearing problems, people with tuberculosis,
oh my God, kids, the kids from the orphanages without any known disabilities, according
to ghost Adventures.
In the 70s, there was a lawsuit about this. But I'll get into these lawsuits too, because
they were wild. But like nothing fixed anything. Even these lawsuits.
Yeah.
Plausible.
It is pretty plausible. But like they didn't fix anything.
Mistress Wednesday.
Okay.
Whoa.
Your leg.
Honey.
I'm sorry, what? Your leg?
He said, Mistress Wednesday, your leg.
You better put your legs back up.
Mine are exposed, god damn.
That's your man.
That's your paltry man.
I think there might be two in there.
Two manses.
So yeah, they kept on taking patients.
You know, like I said, of all different kinds, in there, two manses. So yeah, they kept on taking patients,
like I said, of all different kinds, like people who wouldn't necessarily be
quote unquote institutionalized.
Sure.
And now the recreation programs were being cut,
like it wasn't this nurturing farming community anymore
that they were learning things, it became crazy overcrowded.
They were not being monitored,
they were not being stimulated in any way, shape or form.
They would just leave them
to just like wander around doing nothing.
Monster.
That is my-
Do you like me?
I do like you.
They are monsters.
They would end up being like sexually assaulted,
physically assaulted by staff, by other patients.
Like it was a literal, it was a hell house.
Like it is called a hell house.
It's awful.
And the only attention these patients were receiving
at this point, like they were being totally neglected.
And if they did get attention, it was abuse.
That's all it was.
That's all the attention that they were getting.
And so staff was also being replaced with completely unqualified people.
They were allowing doctors with suspended licenses to continue working there, meaning
the state of Maryland had deemed these people not suitable to practice medicine anymore.
And not.
Yeah.
Oh, what?
I agree. Yeah. It, what? I agree.
Yeah.
It's nuts.
Nicholas gets it.
Again, they were, the abuse was widespread and it was awful.
Aspiration pneumonia was a leading cause of death there.
Which happens when, and especially in this kind of environment, when feeding procedures
are basically not being followed safely, they would force feed patients,
they would feed people laying down oftentimes.
Oh, my God.
They would use improper feeding tubes.
Like, they...
In fact, the laying down while feeding was like a thing.
Like, they were constantly being fed while laying flat on their back.
So stupid.
Yeah, that is stupid.
Nicholas.
This is wild.
How he's like legitimately responding. He's really kind of freaking me out. Yeah, that is stupid. Nicholas. This is wild. He's like legitimately responding.
He's really kind of freaking me out.
Yeah, that is stupid.
But no, like it's also just fucking like diabolical.
It is.
You don't need to do that.
It's senseless.
And it's like, how is nobody training them
to do a better job?
Like to learn feeding procedures.
So it would cost money.
Yeah, exactly.
Now deaths from neglect and torture
were just skyrocketing at this point.
There was also punishments, like they would be thrown into rooms by themselves and left
there for days.
They would be hit with bats.
They would end up with missing teeth.
They would be hit with belts, like horrible shit, horrible shit.
Mayor Vincent Gray, the director of the DC Department of Human Services at
the time. Were there human services at the time? He said he was forever haunted by the
place and the sites that were seen even from the outside there. So he said the place was
inhumane. It was a very negative experience. And he told the Washington Washington Examiner,
his most vivid memory of the place was seeing, and this is very
upsetting just so everyone knows, was seeing nude residents paraded outdoors to be hosed
down by staff members.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
You have to be demonic to do that to somebody.
You have to be demonic.
So Washington Post article, there was a quote in there that said, workers here because of
frustration and lack of help tend to abuse residents of all of our residents.
I'd add some 400 don't belong here.
That's not frustration or lack of help though.
That's lack of humanity.
Exactly.
I don't care over stimulation and frustration like control yourself.
In many incidents, the facilities contributing
to the handicap.
So they're saying like a lot of times these people
aren't coming in here with any issues.
But they are creating issues while they're here.
Medical experiments were happening.
They were putting them naked in freezing cold baths.
What the fuck?
Which often caused the deaths.
Some death certificates would say-
Be quiet.
Some death certificates would say they died from burns,
which is awful.
Tons of patients were crowded into padded rooms together
and left for days with no food, nowhere to sit,
nothing to do.
They also used, they utilized like adult cribs
where they would strap them in there
and they wouldn't be able to leave.
That's really sad.
It was also a morgue in the basement, obviously,
because these places have to have one, that makes sense.
But this one was like one that they could like expedite.
If someone died, they would just rush them on down there
and scoot them out to get buried with no one looking.
And they were buried in unmarked graves
in a big field right on the property.
Mass graves, like tons.
That is so fucked up.
Nothing, and it's very creepy now
because if you look at like aerial shots of this place,
or if you go there, which by the way,
you can't legally go there,
you have to get permission to go there now,
that's like a government area
and it's patrolled by security guards.
Okay, and it's also like highly dangerous. If you watch the Sam and Colby video, they literally had torolled by security guards. Okay. And it's also like highly dangerous.
If you watch the Sam and Colby video,
they literally had to like dodge security guards.
Like don't do that.
Yeah.
But like they, it's, you'll get in big trouble now.
So I don't want to send anyone there.
But if you were to get permission to be on these grounds,
you would see that there's depressions in the field.
That's the cemetery where these people were buried side by side,
like hundreds of them.
It's so difficult.
Sweetie, you keep saying that.
I know.
And they're all like side by side in rows
and it's like erosion is happening.
So it's starting to show where the graves are.
Oh man.
It's very spooky.
A woman named Tina Simmons
from the Laurel Historical Society,
she worked in genealogy.
She has done a ton of research naming these people,
like finding out who these people were.
Wow, good for her.
Finding their graves.
And she had found 16 individuals that,
like there's a monument to these people
that was finally erected.
But she found 16 people who are not listed
on that monument.
That like weren't listed.
So they don't know who they are.
They didn't even do the monument right?
Yeah, like there, I have no idea.
But she found deaths,
cause she found all these death certificates
for these people.
These deaths in this institution
range from three hours old.
So somebody three hours old.
Oh wow.
To 65 years old. What the fuck? And the three hours old, so somebody three hours old. Oh, wow. To 65 years old.
What the fuck?
And the three hours old ones,
they said those are very nefarious
because that means somebody either entered in pregnant,
which was rare, or something happened in there
that they became pregnant.
And it's like, that's scary.
That's like, there was so much sexual abuse in here.
If you are looking it up, sometimes this cemetery,
this makeshift cemetery is called
the District Training School Cemetery.
The first recorded death here,
but it was recorded according to the Laurel Historical Society
was 1928, so three years after they opened.
In 1950, this is just an interesting one
that I found in a newspaper, two boys, Arthur Swan,
who was 16 years old, and Raymond Thorne, who was 17, escaped from the institution after
stealing a rifle from an employee's locker.
Damn.
They left for a night and then Arthur returned the next day without Raymond.
The director said he wasn't super concerned when they ran off because especially Arthur
was a quote, regular absconder.
So he would escape a lot.
When Arthur came back, he started teasing and hinting
that he quote, knew where there was a dead body.
They ignored this for a while,
but then they called the authorities finally
when he started like really ramping these things up
and they were able to locate the murdered body
of Raymond Thorne, who he had run away with.
He had killed him with the rifle,
left the rifle on top of him
and just like dumped him in the woods.
Yeah.
Now, again, in the early 50s,
Geraldine Griggs, who was a 15 year old patient
at the institution was paralyzed.
She had gone in paralyzed.
She will touch you.
I don't like that.
That one wasn't good.
No. Nicholas, I didn't like that one.
Nicholas, stop it.
Take a step back.
That one was upsetting.
This one is horrifying because this nurse
never really faced charges for this.
Oh, would she do?
She was 15 years old, she was paralyzed, she drowned in a bathtub.
So a nurse, Elsie Stambach, put her in the tub and then left her alone to take care of
another patient and Geraldine drowned.
She's paralyzed.
You can't leave her in the bath.
What are you doing putting a paralyzed young girl in a tub and leaving her there?
If something happens, she can't move to get herself
above the water.
What are you doing?
This should be pretty common sense.
Charges were brought, but they were dropped
and she resigned.
So like that kind of shit was pretty regular.
In 1970, and this is really awful, just to tell you, a young eight-year-old girl named
Joy Evans was sent here because she required 24-hour care and her parents had to work and
couldn't provide it.
Her mother, Betty, said when she was first sent there, she almost immediately started
seeing issues happening.
She would find injuries on Joy, like chipped teeth to scratches, lacerations, bruises all over her.
Get her out.
One horrific thing was that Joy's back, she said, was raw because she would be strapped to a rubber sheet.
And her back was raw from urine burns.
Oh.
Because they would just leave her there to lay in it.
How do you do that to anybody, let alone an eight-year-old?
And she, the thing is, her parents couldn't get her out of there.
Because sometimes once
you would institutionalize someone, they like wouldn't give them back to you.
What?
Yeah.
And also like they still couldn't do the 24 hour care.
She died there as a teenager of aspiration, meaning she was fed improperly lying down
and choked to death.
That's horrific.
Yeah.
Betty, the mother wrote in an affidavit, dogwood, the cottage where Joy lived, was
a veritable snake pit.
I once witnessed a nurse open the cottage door only to find 80 half clad screaming women
come running to the door.
The nurse quickly closed the door.
Say Nicholas?
He just said Nicholas again.
That's weird.
No, that's crazy. That was like two, three Nicholas again. That's weird. No, that's crazy.
That was like two, three weeks ago.
That was weird.
That we did that episode.
Yeah, that's really weird.
So they, she just shut the door on 80 women?
They all came running towards the door to try to get out and she just closed the door
and walked away.
Like just like, I'm not dealing with that.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
And a mother later said, once committed to Forest Haven, the only way out is to die.
Oh, that's chilling.
In the mid 70s, this is when the families
filed a class action lawsuit against the institution
for how they were treating their children
and family members.
And the lawsuit said,
Forest Haven intended as a facility for treatment,
education and training,
subjects residents to physical or sexual abuse, provides virtually no treatment, has and training, subjects residents to physical or sexual abuse,
provides virtually no treatment, has no training program,
and neglects basic medical care.
To say the least.
The Department of Justice got involved
and more court cases came in,
but things just got worse for a bit.
The lawsuit stated at one point,
staff members locked dozens of residents,
naked except for adult diapers,
in rooms stripped of furniture other than wooden benches.
Like why?
You have to be like an actual monster to do that.
Like you literally have to find
some kind of something out of that.
You do.
Like you really have to be,
that's not even being like,
you have to either be entirely detached from humanity,
which means you are a monster.
Or you have to find some kind of enjoyment out of it.
Both ends are just the worst kind of person.
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Now, as it went into the eighties,
there was way more deaths occurring very rapidly
in succession and they were really tragic deaths.
They would strap patients to beds
and just leave them to die at times.
Finally, in 1991, the institution shuttered.
Can't believe it was open that long.
Yeah, and it was like during these,
like after the lawsuit in the seventies,
it was like they slowly started moving patients
into different group homes because that was their solution
was like, we got to shut this place down,
but we can't just like move everyone out at once.
Traumatized.
Because there's over a thousand patients in there.
So they were doing it slowly and it's like at the end there was like
15 residents left in there and they were just being
I mean that would be perfect under normal circumstances because you shouldn't have that many people right but they were being neglected too
Right because everything was just like whatever let's forget about it
now Because everything was just like, whatever, let's forget about it. Now in the 80s is when the families of those who died funded that like big stone memorial
marker that I told you about.
And it had 391 names of children and adults who died there.
And this area is called the Garden of Eternal Rest now.
If you were to go there now after getting permission to go there,
everything is left behind.
I mean, suitcases, toys, clothing, paperwork,
medical devices, equipment.
It's all there.
There are photos of people, of kids in the facility.
A ton of shoes, like baby shoes,
kid shoes, slippers, high heels,
like all kinds of shoes.
It's very stressful.
Again, it is patrolled by guards.
Apparently it's all very dense woods around it.
You have to do like hiking through it.
And then you just like come upon it.
Like everyone says it's like all woods, all woods, all woods.
And then you like come to this point where it just appears.
Like it's like a jump scare.
That's scary. Yeah, that is scary.
Now, of course, with a history like this,
it's gonna have haunting.
Yeah, I mean, yeah.
I mean, it's-
Be rife with hauntings.
It is, there's crazy.
I mean, you go in here supposedly,
a lot of people hear screaming and groaning.
Like people say legit people crying
and begging for help out of rooms.
And when they go, and this place is completely.
Experiment.
Experiment.
What the fuck?
That's literally, yeah.
What was happening.
Because of these, they would do medical experiments
on these people.
And they're all.
And that's why they were screaming.
You can hear that shit.
People hear gurneys being pushed down the wall,
like the squeaking of gurneys.
Something about... I literally just got goosebumps from that.
Ugh.
Yep. People often hear the morgue door,
because the morgue's in the basement, obviously.
They hear the morgue door slam.
And when they like, no one else is in there.
Just residual hauntings.
And one of the things people really talk about
is just the intense feeling of dread in that place.
People say it's like sadness is something you can touch in there.
Like it is so depressing in this place.
Like sadness has permeated every part of this place.
Not the kind of place I would want to investigate.
It looks scary.
I want it now.
I want to like hear from people
who have investigated this people.
I want to talk to them.
Yeah, I want to know like what the feeling was here.
Now a lot of people report feeling someone
with very cold hands, grab them
or just touch them in the hallways,
which also like you always think of like
doctors having cold hands.
Like that's like a thing.
And it just makes me think of like doctors and cold hands.
I don't like that.
There's a clinical smell, like a antiseptic kind of smell
that will sometimes happen.
Like a hospital.
Yeah, like a very hospital type,
or that like musty hospital smell, you know, like, yeah.
EVPs from this place go crazy.
I mean, it's like, you look them up,
go ahead and look on YouTube and all that.
There's tons of EVPs. Charm City Paranormal is one in particular. They did a really good,
I've never, I haven't like watched any of their videos, so I know nothing about them.
But I do know this one video I watched was very well put together and they did like a very deep
dive on the history and stuff, which makes me think that they like really care about these places they go to.
Yeah, of course.
So they visited this place and when they were there, they caught like crazy EVPs and they
were like voices when they'd walk through hallways of things like one was I wanted you
to find me Michael.
And one of them was please take John, which makes me think of like somebody bringing their
family member in and saying like, please take John, which makes me think of like somebody bringing their family
member in and saying like, please take him.
Which like, I just got full chills from that.
But Nicholas, I don't know what you think, but that freaked me out.
And I highly recommend looking up those kind of like investigations that people have done
here.
Look up the Sam and Colby one and look up the charm city paranormal one. Those
are the ones I took a peek at. Damn. But yeah, it's a wild, just knowing that there is a
makeshift graveyard, mass grave on site that they have proven like it is 100% there. This
is not like rumor. This isn't one of those things that they're like, they think there's
bodies and nope, they know there's bodies there. They're all listed out. And on the marker, they are listed
in the order of when they died and they're listed in the order of where they are buried.
How do they know? They were able to go through. And I guess they had like, some of them have markers,
but they're like buried in the ground
and they're just like a little marker
with like a number on it or like an initial.
Don't leave me.
Oh, so don't leave me.
You said don't leave me.
Oh, yeah.
Nicholas.
I was just thinking it's sad that they had to stay there.
Like it's sad that they couldn't,
obviously there's way too many bodies to exhum
and that's like a whole thing. It's awful to think about. It's just sad that they couldn't, obviously there's way too many bodies to exhumed and that's like a whole thing.
It's awful to think about.
It's just sad that they're stuck there.
Yeah.
Like that's their resting place is this awful nightmare.
And like the building where all that stuff happened to them is right there.
Yeah.
It makes me want to cry.
It is.
It's awful.
Very sad.
I know.
I'm sorry.
It was just, it was one of those that I looked at and I was like, I have to tell this story
because this is a horrific story and it's one that I'd never heard of.
Thank goodness it closed. Fuck that place. Yeah. It always closed. 1991. It was officially
closed for like 70 years. Yeah. And it's, it's really sad to think about like the people's
intention who got together and wanted to make that a great place and had the baseball games and had,
you know, let's teach people how to farm
and get back to the community.
Like, it started with such pure intentions.
That's the thing. It seemed like they really wanted that place
to be like a place where people could thrive and get better.
It just shows you when you take away funding
from things that matter.
Yeah.
Things get real fucked up.
It's true.
It's just so sad.
Ugh, I hate that.
Yeah, that is Forest Haven asylum.
Damn. Well, I'm taking us back to Massachusetts. Cool. Bring us here. We're going to Lester.
Lester. Lester. In Lester, Mass, there is a Quaker cemetery that dates all the way back to the 1700s.
Whoa. Officially, the cemetery is known as Friends Cemetery, and still to this day it's actually
run by the local Quaker community, who are now called Worcester Friends Meeting.
Worcester?
Worcester!
But, too many.
It's better known as Spider Gates Cemetery.
I knew I've heard of this one!
Spider Gates Cemetery, and it's said not only to be haunted as fuck but also to be the eighth gate to hell.
Oh shit. Ghost Hades. Apparently the other seven are at various locations spread throughout the
country. I don't know where they are. Oh I want to know where that is. But this here cemetery is
kind of like the final boss. Oh shit. Yeah, once you get to this one, eighth, boom.
Hell.
You're on your way.
Yeah.
I don't understand why you would want that.
Yeah, I don't know.
Right?
That's, I mean, yeah.
I mean, maybe like shit's tough.
You're curious.
Yeah, you know?
First things first, the cemetery got its nickname,
Spider Gates, if you can imagine, from its gates.
From the gates.
Yes.
The design that repeats through each panel was actually designed to be sun rays done in kind of
like an art deco style, but people think that they look like spiders more than anything else,
and I kind of agree if you look up a picture.
Yeah, I think so too.
Unfortunately though, the original gates aren't actually even there anymore because they got
stolen.
Oh shit.
Which is fake as fuck.
Who would steal those?
Me.
No, I wouldn't.
I don't steal things.
But I don't want those.
I don't want those.
They're gorge.
They are.
But don't steal.
They're a cemetery gate.
Exactly.
Towel ground.
That's f**ked up.
You don't steal from there.
Yeah, you can't do that.
Well, and the thing that sucks even more is that when they got replaced, people vandalized them and graffitied them so often
that the Lester Historical Society said, OK, fine, you don't get them anymore.
And now they're safely storing the gates.
They had them removed in, I think it was back in 2022.
I was just going to say it was it must have been recent.
It was. Yeah.
But they've been working out a plan on how to properly display
the gates somewhere else, most likely, as they should. Yeah. So they're working working out a plan on how to properly display the gates somewhere else,
most likely.
Oh, nice. As they should.
Yeah. So they're working on something like a big project right now that's supposed to
be done in spring of this year. And then I think that's their next project is figuring
out the gates.
Figuring out those fucking gates.
Just in case you were worried. But anyway, when you first walk into the cemetery, this
is really sad. There's an oak tree off to the side. And legend has it that
a young boy hanged himself on that tree back in the forties. And for a while, people said that if
you visited the cemetery, you would still see a line of rope hanging from the tree, which is like
fucked. But people who have visited recently say they don't see the rope anymore. Okay. But people do claim to hear voices in that particular area and see shadows.
Damn.
Yeah.
That's scary.
Now in the center, there's a whole section...
You're welcome.
You said that's scary.
Nicholas said, you're welcome.
Thanks, bro.
In the center, there's a whole section of land that just never grows grass.
Oh, those are always the scary things.
Like what the fuck's up there, Kyle? Why? Why, Kyle? What's going on? of land that just never grows grass. Oh, those are always the scary things.
Like what the fuck's up there, Kyle?
Why, why Kyle?
Like what's going on?
Well, apparently the old Quaker meeting house
used to stand on this exact area, which is interesting.
But now it's just surrounded by four posts made from stone
and like a ton of large trees,
which like maybe it has something to do with the trees,
like blocking the sun?
I don't know.
I think it's pretty fucking scary.
I think that's scary.
Plenty of places have trees that are blocking.
It's true.
They still grow grass.
It's true.
This place, not so much.
But like I said, people call it the altar and they say it's a place where some seriously
nefarious people have come throughout the years to perform satanic sacrifices and rituals.
Dearly!
You know, my personal favorite legend connected to this cemetery
is that of Marmaduke Earl.
Which I'm probably gonna name my future child.
Let's go.
Mr. Earl, if you nasty, was buried all the way back in 1839.
Legend has it that if you find his grave at midnight on the dot, circle it 10 times, then
say aloud, Mama Duke, speak to me.
And then you press your ear to his tombstone, he will speak to you.
Oh no!
I don't know what he says, because every account I saw, they said they didn't hear anything.
But people have said they have, but they won't say what Marmaduke told them.
I'm not kidding.
I'm not going to lie.
I want to know what he has to say.
I do as well.
I desperately want to know what he has to say.
Well, you're not a lone girlfriend because people do this so often that the area around
his grave also has no grass.
Cause it's just like trampled down. Yeah. It's literally.
There's also a river on the property and that a lot of people think is the river
sticks. Of course, of course, of course.
That river comes from Greek mythology. If you didn't know.
And actually it's very interesting. Oh, I love this. Like tail. It's cool.
Yeah. Sticks is not just a river, but a goddess. Yeah. Get you a girl who could do both. Be a river and a goddess.
Hello. She was the daughter of Oceania, Oceanus and was said to be given one
tenth of his water and that water became a portal to hell. To Hades. So that river
being on this property pretty much lends itself to the fact that people
think it's a portal or gate to hell.
Hell yeah.
Let's go River Stiff.
I see what you did there.
Hell yeah.
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A lot of people who visit Spider Gate Cemetery will leave coins in or near the river to pay another figure from Greek mythology,
Charon, who it's like kind of caring
if you're nasty as well.
Oh, yeah.
He's the ferryman.
Yeah, I love that tale.
I think Greek mythology is cool.
Greek mythology super cool.
We spent a lot of time on it in like seventh grade.
And I remember just getting like interested as fuck.
It's fascinating.
It is.
But so he's the ferryman who will guide you to hell.
But only if you give him a coin, he does not guide for free.
No way.
And if you show up with the intention of heading to hell
and you don't have payment,
I don't recommend that personally,
because they say that if you do that to the ferryman,
he will fuck you up and you will have to wander
around the river, the shore of the river.
All of it.
I'm all fucked up right now.
For over- He didn't bring up right now. For over.
For over a hundred years.
No!
Just wandering the shore of the river
and the river shore.
Oh no, the shore river.
No.
I mean, I don't blame him because it's like,
he provides a service that you cannot provide yourself.
Yeah, and it's not like you can-
So don't expect him to do it for free.
He can't contact a local lawyer.
Yeah. So. It's like, come on. I just want to say it's not like you don't expect him to do it for free. He can't contact a local lawyer. Yeah. So it's like, come on.
I just want to say it's a little bit fake that Nicholas was like commenting a lot on your story, but not on mine.
I'm telling you, we are.
We have a connection.
Yeah, I just wanted you to know that, Nicholas.
Okay.
I'm feeling a little bit left out.
Are you sure you turned it back on?
Nicholas, do you like me better?
Oh, honey, put him up. Anyways, a woman named April spoke with the Worcester Telegram and Gazette about an experience she had while poking around the cemetery.
And she told them, I would definitely say the feel of the cemetery and surrounding area was spookier in the evening compared with midday.
Of course, April.
She said, maybe it was because that time it was just my daughter and me alone.
Maybe it was the failing light.
She said, Maybe it was because that time it was just my daughter and me alone.
Maybe it was the failing light.
Lots of sounds in the woods.
Both of us thought we saw another cemetery area down the path that leads to the river,
but we didn't go down there.
The next day we did walk the path and there was no second cemetery, only a path and a
river.
I later read some lore for Spider Gates that says you will see a second cemetery once,
but never again.
Oh, that's cool.
Isn't that fucking rad?
I love that.
And that is something that is reported on a lot.
A ton of people say they go, they will see like another cemetery in the distance, but
it's hard to get to.
And then they'll go back to be like, oh my God, no, I'm like, I'm telling you, I saw
that and it's not there.
Oh, that's cool. I wonder what the significance of that is. I think it's just like hellacious.
It's just shenanigans. Yeah, it's just fun. Just hellish shenanigans. It's just like Hades
being Hades. Yeah. She also said that the second day they went back, because I think
she went back to be like, am I going to see this again? Yeah. And when they were by the
river, she said she swore she heard a woman's voice. Oh, which is another thing that's reported on a lot. A lot of people say that they hear
a woman's voice and I couldn't mind anything to substantiate this. It's really sad though.
People say that a woman was murdered in a cave nearby and dismembered. Oh, like way back
when. But again, couldn't find anything on it. Okay. But people do hear a woman screaming a lot.
Damn. When they visit here.
That's scary. Yeah.
And then honorable mention goes to the mysterious rock formations
that people will see with runes on them.
That is so Massachusetts. I can't even stand it.
We love a rock wall. We love stones here.
Stones. We just love rocks.
Do you know that I was literally thinking about putting a stone wall up in my, home? Yeah. Yeah. Stones are our thing. I like stones. It also affects the uh...
Did he just say idiotic? I sure did. I will not have this. I will not have this.
He said that stupidest thought. He doesn't like stones.
Okay, he didn't like your idea. No, he doesn't like stones. Listen, i'm not gonna be bullied in my
Help. Yeah
You're gonna need it
So nicolas i'm on your side
No, but um stones fuck up like isn't it like the radon levels or something like that?
Isn't that why the radon levels are so high in like Massachusetts?
Yeah, because we have like a lot of stone in the ground.
Yeah, exactly. Stones.
Stones.
Honorable mention also goes to the white ooze that visitors have seen
emerging from random spots in the earth.
I don't like that.
In the cemetery. I don't like that.
It's pretty gross.
And of course, the demon creature said to be living in the surrounding forest.
Failure. Yeah. Turn him off. And of course, the demon creature said to be living in the surrounding forest.
Failure.
Yeah.
Turn him off.
Why am I being bullied?
Nicholas, just call me a failure. He said the meanest shit during the year.
He literally has.
Why are you being so mean to Ash?
Nicholas, why are you being mean to me?
Nicholas, don't be mean to Ash.
Okay, that won't work.
It won't endear you to, Elena.
Yeah, it's not gonna work. And I'm also gonna have to like revisit this in therapy. Okay
But anyway, don't make fun of anything when I say this Nicholas because this is a listener tale that I found from one of our
Good ass precious listeners
So one of our listeners went here and had some crazy experiences
So one of our listeners went here and had some crazy experiences. Oh, girl.
Okay. It says, Hey, weirdos, I'm so in love with your podcast. My name is Dee. You can use it.
Thanks, Dee.
Hey, Dee. I'm a true crime enthusiast. And I have to say out of all the podcasts I've listened to,
yours is by far the best.
Oh, thanks.
Thank you.
You're beautiful.
Dee says, and I'm saying that with my whole chest, ass, tits, everything.
Thank you.
I'm a fellow mass hole. And I feel connected when y'all talk about spooky references or
locations and mass. However, there is one place I haven't heard you mention yet until now.
I'm still catching up on the pod. So if you have, please forgive me. You're forgiven.
Spider gate cemetery was built in the 1700s, also known as the gate to hell. This place is known
to be haunted and has super weird happenings.
She shared some spooky facts, but I already told them.
So let me get to the story.
He says, I am a full out spooky bitch all year round.
I absolutely love fall.
Yes. Halloween and supernatural phenomena.
I love you, D. We love you.
I've run into some demons back in my day, but that's a story for another time.
I feel you. What a casual sentence. Haven't we all? So, Dee. We love you. I run into some demons back in my day, but that's a story for another time. I feel you.
What a casual sentence.
Haven't we all?
So yeah, so here we go.
I'm in my single ho phase
because a literal garbage human did me dirty.
Oh, fuck that.
I found nudes of another girl on his Nintendo DS.
Shut the fuck up.
You dodged a motherfucking bullet, my friend.
Solid.
Solid.
That's a beep, see?
Nicholas is like, yup, yup. I
agree with you Nicholas. Yes, you read that right. Pick. I am getting angry. I am getting
angry Nicholas. You can't make this shit up. He's being so mean. You're friends with a bully.
Your Poltergeist mans is a bully.
Oh.
All right.
Yes, you read that right.
Nicholas is having a bad day.
Maybe, no, maybe he meant stop.
Like that's crazy that she found nudes on a DS.
Like stop.
That's nuts.
Yes, you read that right.
Pixelated pictures of a girl's bare ass on a fucking DS.
A grown ass man.
So yeah, I was done trying to find love and I hopped on Tinder.
What can I say? I was having a moment. That's where I met my date. We were supposed to be
a hookup, but eventually my hopeless romantic tendencies started to creep up. But I fell
for this guy and the voice of that GTA character. Oh shit. Here we go again. I don't know that
guy's voice. I'm sorry. At this point, we've been dating for about a month and he knows
how much I love spooky shit. So he suggested we have a date at night in Spider Gate Cemetery. Wow. That's a keeper.
I know. I hope he was good to you. Oh, just wait. Okay. Y'all are probably thinking you
dumb bitch. You just met this guy and you're letting him take you to a cemetery in the
woods. I'm like, nailed it. You should gone. Looking back, I realized how dangerous that
was. But at the end of the story, it will make it all okay, I promise.
I didn't know much about Spider Gates, only that it was a haunted cemetery.
But of course, I agreed to go there as any spooky bitch would.
Keep in mind, it's super dark outside, 1 a.m.
The only light came from the moon.
We arrive at the trail that leads to Spider Gates.
I had to use a flashlight on my phone to see where we were stepping.
We eventually reach the gates, and as soon as I saw them, I got goosebumps. My date opens them
and gestures for me to walk in. It seemed like the moon shined the brightest within the field of
tombstones. Then he walked in and shut the gate behind him and told me, you have to make sure the
gates are closed when you enter and when you leave so that the spirits don't escape."
Oh, I love that he knew that.
Yeah.
He's just out here spitting knowledge
about the cemeteries, like just so you know.
He said from one spooky bitch to another.
Yeah, he said contain them.
Yeah.
He said, girls, I could feel poop knocking
on the back door, I was so fucking scared.
We both walked together toward the center of the cemetery
where the grass seemed to stop growing.
The altar.
It was dead quiet.
I could feel the wind blowing,
but I didn't hear trees rustling.
Even as we walked, I could not hear our footsteps.
It was such a strange feeling.
We stood in the center
and looked up at the moon and stars.
Not gonna lie, that shit was scary as fuck,
but also super romantic at the time.
Yeah.
We stood in a quiet.
Please go.
What did he say?
Please go.
Please go.
He doesn't want them to get hurt.
He's like leave.
Yeah.
We stood in the quiet embrace for what seemed like an hour.
As I was hugging him, I looked over his shoulder to the tree line and I saw it.
A foggy mist lingering among the trees resembling a human form.
Oh.
A bitch has a stigmatism, so I didn't want to react right away.
I don't.
I closed my eyes and opened them again and the mist was gone.
I brushed it off considering I can't read the license plate of a car that's in front of me
when I'm sitting in traffic. We let go of each other and started walking around to look at the
tombstones. My date is now on the other side of the cemetery exploring, and as I bent down to read
a name, I felt a hand go across my lower back softly. I jumped up expecting to see my date,
but he was still on the other side.
Oh.
Goodbye.
Yeah, literally, goodbye.
Honestly, same.
Goodbye.
A shiver went down my back, through my crack, and around the corner.
I had never in my life been touched by a spirit, and it was the most natural yet unnatural
feeling ever.
That's when I ran over to my date and told him what happened, with the mist and with
the touch.
He was so amused while I was just shitting myself.
So we took one last walk around the tombstones
and decided it was time to leave.
As we were heading toward the exit,
I heard a scream coming from the forest.
Oh.
From what sounded like a little girl.
I looked at my date with eyes popping out of my head
and said, did you fucking hear that?
And he looked at me dead in my eyes and chuckles,
saying, stop trying to scare me, it's not gonna to work. She said, I swear on my life, I just heard a girl
scream. He got serious and promised me that he didn't hear it though. We both agreed it must have
been some kind of spirit. If we had both heard it, I would have called the police, obviously,
because a girl screaming in the woods is cause for concern. As we left, I made sure those damn
gates were shut. I said a small prayer to the spirit
so that the spirits wouldn't stick to me and we were out. Five years later, my date is now my husband.
Oh, I knew it. I felt that in my bones. I knew it because I read it, but I just knew it.
Oh, I just knew it. It was beautiful. I got pregnant on our honeymoon and my due date is
December, 2022. So this was written like a while ago. Oh my goodness. Congratulations.
So congratulations.
To this day, I talk about that experience with my husband
and he still laughs at how freaked out I got.
But it's OK.
I get him back with my constant jump scares
and by hiding his video game controller.
Hope you all enjoyed my story.
I love it.
D.
D.
And Spider Gate Cemetery.
I want to go to Spider Gate Cemetery.
I do too, because I need to talk to Marmadue Girl.
Yeah, I need to.
And I need to hear what he has to say to me.
I do too, I gotta know.
And I don't think I'll pay the ferryman
because I'm not trying to go to hell.
I'm not trying to go to hell right now.
Right now, she's saying.
She just wanted to clarify.
She's iconic.
Well, thanks Nicholas for joining us.
Period.
Thanks, Alena's friend, Nicholas.
Thanks, Nicholas.
Do you have anything, any last comments
that you want to leave everybody with, Nicholas?
Do you have anything nice to say?
Understand.
Understand? Do you understand that I'm say? Understand. Understand.
Do you understand that I'm mad at you?
I do not understand.
Do you have anything else you want to say?
No? Okay.
Alright. We love you, Nicholas.
Alaina loves you.
I love you.
I tolerate you.
Oh, wow.
You speak really mean to me.
Mikey's face was like, whoa.
I'm happy that he's here. It was a... you had a rough day.
I'm tolerant.
You know, it was your first fight too.
It was, yeah.
It went a little deeper.
Yeah.
Anyway, thanks for listening.
We hope you keep listening.
And we hope you keep it weird.
But not so weird that you get bullied by a paranormal ghost.
Thanks.
Love you, Nicholas.
Stannick.
What did you say? Stannick? Stannick? Stannick? paranormal ghost thanks love you Nicholas Stanek?
Stanek?
It's a surname.
Nicholas Stanek?
Bad.
What was bad?
I mean more Nicholas.
What is, who's bad or what's bad?
Are you done telling us?
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