Morbid - Morbid Book Club : Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell

Episode Date: March 31, 2026

We are THRILLED to invite to you join our Morbid Book Club in this bonus episode that is #sponsored by our friends at @ashleyofficial. This quarter, we are serving up forensic chills with a side of culinary chaos as we dive into Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell! And the best part? We’re joined our new best friend Chef Reilly Meehan who helps us break it all down! #Morbidbookclub #ashleypartner We’re unpacking the very first Dr. Kay Scarpetta novel that basically launched a thousand forensic obsessions, chatting about ALL of the gritty details, and some of the wild theories we came up with while reading! (I’m looking at you Lucy!) Chef Reilly brings a totally unique perspective (and some top-tier vibes), as we somehow manage to connect the worlds of food, storytelling, and forensic science. Expect hot takes, a little dark humor, and some truly unhinged tangents, because you know we can’t stay on track for too long. So keep it weird… and keep turning those pages! Mentioned in this Episode Visit your local Ashley store or head to Ashley.com to find your style! We are SO excited to share Ash's Podlab on the next MORBID Book Club Episode  coming in the summer! The pieces from Ashley are GORGEOUS! Grab your copy of A Little Bit Extra by Chef Reilly Meehan  Want more of Patricia Cornwell's body of work? Check out her other books, and preorder her upcoming memoir!  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 Elena. I'm Caleb. And this is morbid. With a twist. With a twist. It's a special morbid. I don't know if you guys noticed, but that was not Ash. I was going to say I'm Ash, but then I decided not to. I decided to use my actual name.

We have Caleb. You might think I had an explanation for that, but I didn't. Hello, guys. I'm Caleb. It's Caleb from Scream and Horror Soup and all things that are good. Yeah, if you guys don't know, I do horror movie podcast, one of them kind of like with myself and my buds and other people, my guy and my buddy James. But I also do a horror movie podcast with Elena right here and Ash, which Ash is sans Ash at the moment. But Ash is usually here and there. Yeah, that's it.

And go listen to Scream if you haven't because it's, fun and we're doing the hellrazers right now. Yeah, we're on the very religious hellraiser right now. It's a very interesting one. We've entered into a real world and I love it. But, you know, Ash isn't here today because she's dealing with some personal stuff and but she'll be back. Don't worry. She's going to be right back. And because I've been super sick and my voice is kind of shit. This is actually the best it's been all day. We decided that instead of doing like, a full case episode because I'm honestly not sure my voice would handle all the way through that. We were going to do a cryptid episode. And who better to have on for a cryptid episode than

Khalib? Yeah, I'm very interested in frogs. So I think this is going to be great. So there you go. And we're going to be covering the Pope Lick Monster from Kentucky. And then after the Pope Lick Monster, again, very religious, it seems. I know. I'm on theme. I don't know why we're licking the Pope this time around, but... I'm not sure either, to be quite honest. After we get done licking some popes, we're going to get into some lovely frogs from the Loveland. They're Loveland Frogmen.

From the Loveland. So, yeah, this is going to be great. Mine's like, it's kind of twofold to mine, because it's definitely a crypted, but it's also a place in Kentucky that just has a lot of tragedy associated with it that's connected to the cryptid in a way okay i got you um my my frog people they are from loveland ohio so it is from a place that's where the lovelin comes from but um a place i don't know if there's like frog tragedies really i have some stories no no no frog no amphibious tragedies to be heard i mean you could call them that in a way but yours sound different i feel mine are definitely different okay okay okay we're on the same thing yeah i feel like they're

little different. So I'll get right into mine. Mine is in eastern Jefferson County, which is just outside of Louisville. And I'm pretty sure that's how you say it. Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville, Kentucky. Did I say it right, guys? I know you'll tell me. It's Louisville, right? Yeah, it's not Louisville. It's not Louisville. It's Louisville. It's Louisville. Yeah. No, to my understanding, that's what it is. That feels right in my soul. So I'm going to go with it. I would agree. But in this area in Jefferson County, there's a railroad trestle. That's like one of those big, really tall bridges that the train goes over that would be terrifying to go over. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't even like freeways that have like bridges that go over them.

I don't like being on the top of that freeway and I don't like being on the bottom. I don't like even looking at them from afar. Like it stresses me out. I don't. This one would just this one would send me because in parts of this railroad trestle, it's 110 feet off the ground. Okay. No. Well, I will say that I do like the word trussle. Tressel. Feels right.

Good word. But you know what? This particular railroad trestle is supposed to house one of the scariest and honestly the most destructive cryptids out there. And that is the Pope Lick monster. Okay. Can I just like, I know you have a whole story going on, but can I just immediately, I need to know why Pope Lick, why the town Pope Lick? Why is the Pope? I'm honestly not sure why it's called Poplick. Okay. The place. There's, um, I, I would like to know, though. Maybe we should look it up and see exactly where Poplick comes from.

Because there had to be a reason that they named it that. I feel like there has to be. seems like people don't know but there are some guesses, educated guesses. Lick has to do with naturally occurring mineral licks and these occur with some regularity in the vicinity of the Ohio River and since they attract wildlife

they become landmarks of a sort. Anyway, Pope is a relatively common family name in Kentucky. A certain William Pope was one of the founders of Louisville, the city in which we find Pope Lick Creek. so Pope Lick Creek likely got its name because it was a creek on or near

a natural mineral lick on a property owned by the Pope family. I love that. Interesting. Yeah, because I found one that says Samuel and Nathan Pope. I think I saw something about that too, so it's...

Yeah. Okay. All right, so there you go. Somewhere in that vicinity. So it's less, you know, it's less salacious. Something to do with minerals and something to do with Pope as a name. surnames and minerals. Yeah.

So that's interesting. Standard stuff. Yeah. Like it definitely sounds like more like, whoa, what's going on there? Yeah. Then when you hear the actual reason, you're like, all right, that's just a reason. That's an explanation. Whatever.

But you know what? The Populik monster is also known as the goat man. Also known as the sheep man, which we're going to get into because those are two very different things. I was going to say those are very different things. Yeah. And I thought that too. I was like, are we sure? But before I begin, I just want to say if you're interested in this story or things like this, there's this podcast called the Southern Gothic podcast.

Tell me more. And it's really awesome. And they did one on this legend and it has like cool music to it. And it's just really well done. And I just suggest you go listen to that after this because they do a really good job. So there's that. I just enjoy their show. So go listen to them.

Oh, yeah. But, you know, and there, and I think it's like a brother and a sister, I'm pretty sure, that do the podcast. It's just really good. But there are a couple of different origin stories for the Poplik monster. And I kind of love when there are various and really, like, very varied and very terrifying origins for a cryptid. Like I love, but when we just, like, they're, like, these come from all over the place. They don't disappoint at all. Like one of them is that he's a skinwalker, a flesh pedestrian.

Okay. The other one is that he's an escaped goat human, quote unquote, freak from a circus side show that crashed when a circus train crashed on the trestle. I'm into that. That one's kind of fun. Also that he could be a farmer who is like deranged and has been sacrificing and or fucking sheep and goats to make himself into a sheep or a goat.

Why wouldn't he? That's an interesting one. There's also one that just goes completely outside of that and says it's just like a headless horseman vibe. And he's just riding around on that trestle scaring people making him fall to their deaths. I mean, I like most of those.

Those all sound like very good tales. They're all scary. So there's that. And that's really all you need with the cryptid. Do I get to pick one or? Choose your own adventure. Okay, okay, cool, cool, cool. I'm going to go with the headless horseman.

So he's possibly, like I said, he's part man, part goat, goat, and or part sheep. And this is where the legend deviates into two halves, because a lot of people call him goat man and a lot of people call him sheep man. And I think it's probably to do with when you heard the last. legend and by whom? Because recently it has turned more towards like goat man. But I found a short study done on the legend of the poplic trestle and the poplick monster legend by someone at Ohio State University. And they kind of pondered whether the sheep slash goat distinction has to do with

how we view goats and sheep in popular culture and legends. So sheep are usually always seen as like innocent, you know, lambs, cute, gentle, docile. But goats can be associated with like a more sinister devilish vibe to them. So as the legend took hold, as these tragedies happened that were kind of associated with the legend and the trestle itself, it went more towards the sinister of the two. So I think it kind of began a sheep, but it turned into this, which is interesting. What once was a goat from Nantucket? Exactly.

You guys can finish that. You got it. You got it. But he's supposed to lure people out onto the trestle or lure them to jump off to their deaths. Like he somehow, he has some kind of magical pull where he can lure you out there, either just by you get this feeling and you feel like you have. have to go out on the trestle and then you get this uncontrollable feeling of jumping off or people say he does this by using almost like a siren song kind of thing or by doing like a flesh pedestrian

thing where he uses like a familiar voice to you to call out to you you're telling me this guy is calling out to you and you were just walking to the end of a bridge and jumping off of it according to legend according to legend okay yeah i mean We should definitely. We'll say allegedly. Allegedly, yes. That's crazy. Yeah, it's a lot because there's that.

Or they say that you go out onto the trestle to summon him. Ah, yes. To summon the goat. Which I believe more. I mean, that makes sense. I'm sure. There's definitely like some teenagers sitting in their room, like doing some witchcraft and whatnot.

And then they're like, yeah, I got to go out to this bridge and summon this goat man in Populik. You know, that makes sense. Exactly. And that's the thing. And then if you go out there, he's either going to make you jump off, something bad's going to happen. Or there's a variation of this that says he'll just,

if he can't make you jump off, he'll just rush at you with a bloody axe and try to kill you that way. Now, where do you get the axe? I'm not really sure. But it's always bloody. Where do you get the blood? He never cleans it.

Where do you get, I don't know, his victims, I assume, you get the last one on you, I guess. Like, he's, it's right above a creek. I don't know why he doesn't just wash it off between, between these situations, but that's what I hear. You think you got the axe from the creek, too? Maybe. The creek is just giving up axes. Like, here you go. One of those axe creeks, I've heard of them.

Yeah, just producing murder weapons. Like, you know those creeks. You've heard of them. You've been there. But he's also, he sounds pretty terrifying because he's supposed to be very tall and he stands on two legs. He has a very pale face, big giant horns that come out of his forehead. And his hair is supposed to be long and greasy and dark. And he has hooves.

Okay. I mean, that is, I'm not going to lie. That's what I imagined when you, when you mentioned a goat man. That sounds like you're very, very standard goat man. Yeah, standard goat man shit. I wouldn't want to see that And I definitely wouldn't want to see that With a bloody axe

I mean I don't want to have like a beer with the guy But well maybe I do Maybe he has some stories I was gonna say honestly I'd rather just sit down and have a drink with him Rather than him just like surprise me on a trestle Yeah you know as even as I said it I wanted to take it back because he seems like a cool guy

Like as I live and breathe I would like to sit down and have a beer with him I'd want to know how he gets people to walk off the bridge You know, what does he do? What does he say? What's so enticing about this furry man? Exactly. Tell me about that creek that's producing murder weapons. Will you explain the magic behind it? I mean, the creek. The creek. Come on. Poplick Creek. I'm saying. Now, he's also known to stock and protect the Poplick trestle. That's like his place. It was built sometime in the 1800s. The trestle was. Not the goat man. Not the man himself.

Yeah, he was probably born at some point. I don't know. Yeah, what was the man built? Let's get into that. I don't think he was really built until, I want to say the first mention of him is not until, it's definitely not until the 1900s sometime. Oh, okay.

So he came after. He's a fairly modern man. He's a fairly modern hybrid, I would say. Yeah, he came after the trestle. He's a young goat. He's a young goat. He's a kid. Yeah.

Isn't that what a baby goat is? Is it a kid? I have no idea. Yeah. Sounds right. Yeah, I'll take it. I'll take it. He's a kid.

That's all. But the trestle itself was built in the 1800s. Like I said, it was just outside of Louisville and Jefferson County. It runs over Poplick Creek. And below it is also walking trails that lead into Poplick Park. Okay. And according to Bear Grass Thunder, which has a podcast as well. Oh, okay.

I didn't know if you were naming a person, another place adjacent to Populet Creek, if this was a statement. Yeah, I was going to verify. I'd clarify what was going on here. It's actually a great resource. Go check it out on the internet. They have a really good story about this, too. Shout out, Glass, Blue Thunder. They said on Bear Grass Thunder.

Oh, okay. I like how you added blue though Colors everywhere You know Like you're missing an adjective But they said that there's actually a haunted trail There too called Legend of Poplik The Legend of Poplik

See this is where things are just getting They need to They need to reassess how they word The name of this town They certainly do The Legend of Populik just sounds like like a really bad article. It really does.

Like something terrible happened and they're like, oh, well, here's a legend of Poplik. Like, it sounds like a true crime case. It really does. Like, Poplik is quite a name. It's quite a name. But you know what, they committed to it. It sounds salacious. Is it just me?

It absolutely sounds salacious. It's not right. But then when you hear where it actually comes from, you're like, oh. Yeah. That's not as salacious. So maybe we ruined the, the, I'm trying to think of the word. They ruined it themselves, Elena. Let's be completely honest.

This was not either of us. It wasn't. That's true. Much before our time. That is very true, to be honest. But you know what? There's that, don't go on this trestle. Let me tell you that, first of all.

Because this trestle is 800 feet long almost. And like I said, in parts, it's 110 feet above the ground. Don't go on it. People still go on it. Don't go on it. I'm going to be completely honest. I'm not going anywhere near the entire city of public. Yeah, don't do it.

And because the other thing is it's still in use, like this trestle. And a lot of people believe it isn't because if you look at it, like if you look it up, it's super rusted and old as fuck looking. Like I assumed when I saw it that there's no way this isn't serving. anymore like no railroad is going over this. Yeah. But it's very active. It's an active trestle.

So people will walk out on this unknowingly thinking there's no chance of an oncoming train coming at them. But, and then they get stuck in the middle of the trestle and there's nowhere for them to go if a train is coming. And there can be up to from 15 to 25 trains going through there daily. Wow. So it's very active. I mean, I'm surprised that the city is.

even active. Yeah. I'm saying. That's crazy. Like I said, there's no escaping either if you're caught. Like you would, there's no platforms on either side. The railroad, you know, planks are super far apart so you can't run. If a train comes, you wouldn't really be able to run away from it without potentially

falling through. So if you did get caught by a train, the only way you could get out of there was by hanging by your arms off of, like by railroad ties as the train went through and if you've watched Lost Boys, you know that's a difficult task. We need like a left or right option here.

Yeah, absolutely. I think this is a build default or this is a build effect. It really is. I guess they used to have platforms on either side of the trestle but they removed them because they thought they were encouraging people

to come on to the trestle, which is like a double-edged sword there. Yeah, now you just have people getting splattered under train. Exactly. Now it's like this is bad. But a lot of teenagers used to, especially teenagers, and still do use the tracks

as like either a place to party, they bring their friends there. It's become one of those well-known, like, dare you to go out on the trestle kind of thing. you know, they'd still bring in the poplic monster thing, like go out on the trestle and see if the pop like monster comes out. So it's really tied to this legend. But the problem is, you know, your real worry here is a train.

Like that's like, you might be going out there being like, let's get the public monster, but it's like, no, a train's going to come. Honestly, at this point, now that we've gotten farther into the story, I think the goat man is trying to help people. Honestly, he might be trying to be like, guys, stay off the trestle. Yeah, stop walking onto this. He's trying to scare people and they're like, oh, let me go hang out with this goat.

And he's like, no, don't. I'm trying to warn you, stay away from the trussle. And then they're jumping off the side because of trains coming. He's literally like, I look revolting. And I'm holding a bloody axe for the very reason of keeping you away from this place. Maybe he is the good guy here. But like I said, at first, I thought it was teenagers like six. in their rooms just like summoning

you know demons and stuff like that and they find a goat man now that I found out it's just teenagers partying on a goddamn trussle these kids are just drunk or high or something they're fucking wasted and they see a goat and they're like oh I'm gonna go hang out with this goat and he's like no

dude stop but they're blasted no yeah stay off the trestle everyone this is my message to you if you live near this tressel do not go on this stressful. It is bad. I mean, if you've ever seen any horror movie, if there's like, you know, drunk teenagers partying and they see a goat man with an axe, they're like, oh, let me go hang out

with this guy. And it's always the wrong decision. But I feel like that's what's happening here in Pupolik. 100%. It's really bad. And again, the trains are the real risk here. And in an article by the Courier Journal from 1989, this is like, so a senior in the high school, the local high school. Her name was Bridget Bacchanowski. She was quoted as saying, it's just a challenge to cross it without a train hitting you. And it's like, that's a bad challenge. Like, don't do that. It's a stupid challenge. That was like a meme at the time before we had like actual like memes that were like pictures online and it's always been dumb. Exactly. Like don't do it. But like I said before, they used to have platforms on either side, but they removed it. And now it's really like

removing a big safety net from the trestle, but I kind of also understand why they did it in the first place because they thought it would maybe keep people from coming on if they had nowhere to go if a train came, but it definitely hasn't. There has been some hemming and hawing over whether they should put those platforms back on, but they really aren't sure what to do yet. I'm going to go ahead and say that they should. I know at this point. I'm like, I feel like you might as well because people are not stopping going on this thing. They put up a big, like a really tall chain link fence with barbed wire, signs saying like keep out,

don't go on the trestle. But we all know that like if people are determined to go, they're going to go. That's what drunk people want. They want signs that say keep out. You're basically challenging. Yeah, you're like challenging them. Yeah.

To go in the trussle. And you know. Yes. It's not going to work out in your favor. Yeah. And you know what? I will say that that podcast from that website I was talking about the Bear Grass Thunder podcast, they came up with actually a really good idea that could possibly take people's attention away from the trestle.

Okay. Because like I said, a lot of people go up there because of the Populik monster, legend. That's what's really drawing them out to that trestle. So they talked about whether they should make a statue or some kind of monument of the... the public monster and put it in the trail in the woods that's under the trestle and maybe that would become like a photo opportunity you know what I mean like a thing people want to go to and take people away from going on the trestle which I was like that's actually a pretty good idea as long as yeah no we could do that because I feel like people are always looking for Instagram realness here so

maybe it'll take them away from trying to get Instagram photos on a big giant trestle and you can get one with a Pope like monster statue. That'd be pretty cool. Or we could build the monster, send him out into the wilderness, let him do his thing. Just build the actual monster. That might be a better idea, to be honest.

I'm into it. Yeah, I like that. But the Pope like monster legends are terrifying and thinking of this scary ass cryptid chasing people to their deaths or like siren songing them to their deaths is pretty horrible. But the reality of

this is that there really is a super tragic history to this trestle because of this monster legend. So kids will mostly go out there, like I said, to find the monster or to scare their friends, or it's the whole thing like, I'm going to prove my bravery, I'm going to go out there and summon him kind of thing, and this is what happens. So that same website I just talked about, they posted a really long list of tragic deaths that have occurred on this trestle. And here are some of the most wild ones and really tragic ones. So they date back to 1984. In 1984, 20-year-old Sean Fleischman, he actually survived injuries when he fell from the trestle. Somehow he survived, but sustained a lot of injuries. In 1985, 21-year-old John K. List actually ended up passing

away, him and his friend Randall Graves were shooting crows on the trestle. Okay. That's an activity. Wow. That is an activity. You're like that. I can say that. And while they were there, a Southern Railroad Company train came around the bend unexpectedly. And a lot of times you can't hear the train coming until it's too late. Yeah. And Randall actually fell, but was able to grab onto and hold the cross tie. And somehow he was able to stay on there. But unfortunately, John ran. and was struck and killed only 30 feet away from the end of the trestle.

Jesus. Yeah. It's really sad. And I found a newspaper article from the Courier Journal in 1988 where it was talking about this case and that his parents had actually filed a wrongful death suit saying the train didn't pull the emergency break. But I'm not quite sure what came of that case, but it was interesting.

Wow. Yeah. And in 1986, 19-year-old David Wayne Bryant was walking on. onto the trestle and jumped off when the oncoming train came like barreling at him. The jump was 110 feet and he lived initially but passed away

from his injuries later. What's at the bottom of this trestle that you're able to live after jumping 110 feet? I don't know. But honestly I wonder if they I don't know if they fall into the creek or what happens but there's like ground under there too. That's insane.

And the Courier Journal from 1987 had an article about his mother also filing a wrongful death suit against the railroad. So there was a lot of these happening. In 1987, 17-year-old Jack, J.C. Charles Baum the second. He was struck and killed by a train February 18th while crossing across the trestle. There's actually, and it's like really eerie, somebody spray painted under the trestle, like, we miss you, J.C.

So it's just like an eerie monument on there. I am. Shut on, J.C. Yeah. In 1993, 19-year-old Christina, I think her last name is Butz. Butts? She was, yeah, I think it's Butts. I don't think it's Butts. I'm pretty sure it's Butts. Rest in peace, Mrs. Butz. No, she actually lived. Oh, shit. Yep. So Christina was walking the trestle with two other young women and three other young men.

They had done it because of the lure of the legend and the spookiness of the trestle. and they were almost at the end when suddenly the lights of a train were coming at them, like in front of them, not behind them. So they had to turn around and try to run back across the trestle, but it was pitch black.

So they're all falling and tripping all over the place, and Christina's foot got caught. She said her friend Paul came back to help her, which like, what a gentleman move, Paul. Yeah, that's crazy. Back to try to get her.

That's pretty iconic. Turning around when a train is coming at you. Yeah. Like going toward a train? That's wild. That's what I thought. I was like, wow, Paul. Like, that was pretty impressive.

Yeah, because I don't know. I'm just, look, maybe it's not the right thing to do. But if the train's coming at me, I don't know that I'm turning around for anything. Well, it's just like basic human survival instinct. Like, your body is telling you do not turn back towards the train. Like, that's some real. that's some real impressive shit. I was like, good on you, Paul.

If I turn around... You shouldn't have been out there, but... Yeah, if I turn around and I'm looking dead at a train, I feel like my body would just turn me right back around, go, oh, no. I think mine would probably do that too, to be honest. I would do a full 360 very fast. Well, and what's even scarier is Paul was able to free her foot. Holy shit.

But when they looked up, the train was like feet away from them. So they both just rolled to the side, which they rolled off the side of the trestle. Oh, shit. He ended up rolling off the side. And then they ended up both grabbing onto the railroad ties before they fell. This is a movie. Yeah. And this is real.

There's like newspaper articles about this. And Paul said in the article I read, quote, we were swinging there, but the train kept coming and coming and the track was shaking and I started to lose my grip. I couldn't hold on any longer, so I just let go. But luckily, he happened to be at the perfect spot where he was able to grab onto another metal ledge before he fell. Am was able to get Christina onto this metal ledge with him. And they all just kind of held onto ties or ledges or whatever. They all lived.

But they had to be rescued by firefighters because Christina was so scared she couldn't even move. So they had to use like a huge ladder to get her down. and this ladder was like up to 100 feet and they said the firefighters were like we could barely reach her with that 100 foot ladder which whoa and then I feel bad for the train engineer because he was sure that he had hit at least three of those kids

so he radioed saying I think I just killed three kids oh my gosh he was like in a panic yeah and he hadn't and that's terrifying and you like that sucks being a train conductor You can't do anything You know If there's people on a track When you were in the train

It's like well shit And it sucks because I get why He'd be like Oh fuck like I feel terrible This is on me And it is terrible But like it's not on you You know

If you are a train conductor And some crazy Like that happened Like it's not on you Because sometimes you need Like up to like a mile and a half To stop a train Yeah

At a certain point So it's like There's really nothing That can be done They can pull that emergency break, but that also puts the entire crew in danger. So, it's crazy. This is all just rough.

So that was a crazy one. And I will say, Christina was quoted as saying, like, that was the stupidest thing I've ever done. Like, she was very aware of the fact that they shouldn't have been on there was like, I regret doing that. Now, in 1994, Michael Wells, who was 14 years old, he was walking the trails with his cousin and another man, and he convinced them to let him go on the the tracks. They actually didn't want him to. They tried to stop him, but he ended up going anyways.

And a train came. He fell down as he was running away. And as he fell, he managed to tuck his body under the track to avoid being hit. But it went right over him. And he was like under the tracks. Again, the poor engineer thought he hit this little boy. And so he radioed being like, I just hit a boy. He didn't. So actually, criminal charges were pressed against the adults there for trespassing and for putting the train crew in danger by forcing them into an emergency stop. Wow, that's a lot. Yeah.

In 1994, a man named James Raderman, who was 35 years old, he was riding his ATV across the trestle, and it flipped over on top of him, and then a train came and ran him over, and he died, which that's just a series of really bad events. In 2000, 19-year-old Nicholas Jewell was on the trestle at 12.30 a.m. with four friends, and they were crossing the tracks. And according to friends, they were looking for an adventure that night. And he was about halfway across when the train came. And the engineer saw Nicholas try to hold on to the railroad trot ties, but he fell. And the engineer said he saw him fall.

And he passed away. And two more. There's a lot of bad things. one in, right? There's like a lot of tragedy associated with this. In 2016, 26-year-old Raquel Bain was with her boyfriend David Ney and they were actively out there looking for the Poplik monster. They said they didn't know it was an active railroad trestle. They thought it was abandoned. And when the train came, David hung on to the ties and was able to. But Raquel was hit and thrown off the trestle. He survived and she died.

Damn. And the last one that I could find that the Bear Grass Thunder podcast mentioned was in 2019, 15-year-old Savannah Bright was killed. When she and another friend were walking on the tracks, both of them were hit by the train. Savannah was pronounced dead at the scene. Wow. So this is all kind of tied into the idea that like this trestle has become a place where people go because of this Pope Blanche. monster legend. So the legend has actually caused a lot of tragedy. But it's all connected to don't go on the trestle. Yeah, stop going on the trestle. Don't go on the trestle. Everybody.

Yeah. Stop getting drunk on a trestle. Stop running out in the middle of a trussle. Just maybe hang out next to the trussle or something. I don't know. You don't have to go on the trussle. Now there's like a trail underneath it There's a park There's all that stuff Go to those things Yeah you don't you don't need to go directly on the trussle Yeah and I feel bad because some of these people

Truly believed it was an inactive Tressel Which like I get It looks like it's very inactive If you look at it it doesn't look like a new or usable Tressel but it is And but at the same time I'm like That's a very dangerous thing to do anyways.

Yeah, you shouldn't go on a trussle unless you can confirm that the trussle is inactive. You don't just assume that something that a train goes on is inactive. Yeah, you don't want to get stuck on that. Yeah, that's fucked up, dude. And it's just so high above the ground. I'm like, that's just scary anyways. Just don't do that. I don't want you getting hurt.

Don't do it. I mean, look, people like me, me personally, I'm not going on it either way. No way. It's just not happening. It's not an option. No way. No. So you know what?

The Populik monster lives on. People still believe it. And people are still going out there looking for the Populik monster or evidence of it. But I say stay on the ground. I say record from a distance with a camera with a very good zoom lens. Exactly. There you go. So that's the legend of the Populik monster in the really tragic Populik.

trestle associated with it. Yeah, well, rest and peace to everyone who has passed away due to trussle and the poplic monster. That sounds like a crazy place to be. Yeah. Imagine like the vibes on that thing? I mean, yeah.

Or near that thing now, knowing everything that's happened on it. People are very diehard about their goats, goat people. Yeah. Seriously. Um, but with that, we will move into my cryptid, which is very frog-centric, very frog-oriented, very Ohio-oriented, so it's basically Kentucky.

It's less tragic. Less tragic, more frogs. I love that. We're ending on, I think, a slightly better note. I like that. The Loveland Frogmen, you can find their origins in the year of 1955 in a little town called Loveland in Ohio. It's cute. Loveland is located in the Claremont County.

in Ohio. I'd said Ohio like three times and we're going to move past that. Roughly 30 minutes from Cincinnati. Ohio. The frogmen, men, because there is not simply one singular loveland frogman. Ooh. These frog people hybrids are known to congregate with other frogmen and women and they stand on two legs, very human-like. Well, this frog women too?

There are also frog women. The name would make you think they're just frog men, but it would seem that they're a frogman and frogwomen. I love that. And as I just mentioned, frogmen are unlike other frogs because they stand tall in their hind legs. They're known as bipedal creatures and are the only frogs known to stand on two legs

and hide around bridges. That's adorable. And as for their build, these frogmen boast the height of your average seven-year-old and have frog hands. They're completely hairless with leathery skin and human-like wrinkles atop of the standard webbed frog hand.

Oh, we're not as adorable anymore. That's a little much. What if I told you they have bright glowing eyes? Okay, okay. So these are possibly attributed to them only seeing at night. I'd equate them to possum eyeballs, if you look at them. You know, like, you know how you see a possum's eyeballs when they're standing on top of your fence?

Yeah. Like when you shine a flashlight, and you see the little glowing eyes. Yeah, yeah. It's like one of those things. Not right. These frogmen are very crafty, and they make use of the common household stick as tools

and are even rumored to emit sparks with these sticks, mimicking a wand of sorts. Oh! Oh, they're whimsical. I like that. Tell me why I was just about to say whimsical. You took the words from my mouth. Because how else do you describe

making wands out of sticks when you are a frog person hybrid that's whimsical as fuck It's very whimsical, incredibly fancy, and... Oh, magical. Yeah, they're beautiful. Some think that this means

that the frogs can control electricity or that they're a type of alien or possibly the frog human cross breed. Breed? Maybe they're Harry Potter. I don't know. I like that.

They went to hogworts. So this specific cryptid was introduced in the year of 1955, and I'll go ahead and set the scene for you, all right? Ooh, set it. You're a businessman driving on a road adjacent of the Miami River in Claremont County. Claremont. It's 3.30 a.m., and you're right by a little town called Lovellano, Ohio. At the witchen hour.

And you, being the businessman that you are. That's right. Decide to pull your car over when you notice that there are three large frogs standing upward speaking to each other, congregating, if you will.

I would absolutely pull my car over. What do they look like, you ask? Well, you should have listened when I explained them a few minutes ago because nothing has changed.

They're wrinkly. They have webbed hands, glowing eyes, and a wand. All right, I'm back in. Even though that's kind of weird looking I'm in. So you, being the man of business that you are.

You watch these frog people discuss their what have you's for about three minutes until you decide to get going. You go, you know what? I've seen enough. I've seen these frog men discuss. They're just talking. I don't have anything else,

but you studied them. You're familiar with them now. You like these frog people. I love this. See? So, right as you get going, and the going was getting. One of these frog people,

whip out their wand because they have ones I mentioned them but you didn't see the wand yet all right you didn't see it yet no but they whipped it out

maybe you saw you know he could have added his hand but like they weren't moving it they weren't doing it he's olding it but now he activated it

it sounds like now he's pulling this wand out and then fucking sparks are flying out you you being the business man you are yeah you run away

you get the fuck out of there I run away I don't know about that okay well I'm sorry, look. You're taking the place of this businessman, all right, all right, but maybe in your story, you don't run away. But.

Yeah, but this guy. You being the businessman you are at this moment. You run away. Get out of there. He's terrified. I'm sorry, you're terrified of what you've witnessed. Hell yeah, I am. There's frog people, sparks, wands.

You don't know if he's laying a spell on you. Is this the only? The cult? I don't know. You never know. The fricult? The for cults? You never know. And this is where the lore of the Loveland Frogmen was born.

I love that. Continuing on. Unfortunately, there are hundreds or even really dozens of somewhat relevant sightings. Some people say hundreds. I feel like it's more like dozens is why I said that. That makes sense. But, I'm sorry. I lost my place.

for a second. But we can head forward nearly 20 years to 1972 to discuss the next reported siding, because that was a sighting. That was something that... That was it. That was it. You being the businessman you are. In 1972, an anonymous police officer was nearing Loveland when he nearly hit what he assumed was a dog with his motor vehicle. Oh no. He quickly tapped his brakes, and thankfully he didn't hit a dog.

Good. Well, turns out it wasn't a dog. He hit a large frog. This large frog was found in a crouching position. Is he okay? I think that was before he hit it. It's probably laying down when he hit it. I was going to say he just crouched.

I think it was crouched and then he hit it and then, you know, some of these stories. Yeah, you know. Here's the thing. It wouldn't stay in the crouching position too long. No. Because, so it wasn't the crouching position. Because the officer said that the frog stood up on its legs, looked back at him, and ran over the guardrail,

and headed straight for the river before ultimately vanishing. I love that the frog was like, you son of a bitch, and then just ran away. Like, he was like, God damn it. You know, he wasn't going to stand for that. Yeah, no, he wasn't. He said, you know what, you people and your cars. You people in your car.

I'm not going to exchange insurance information with you. I'm not doing this with you. You hit me. Me. And if I want to leave, I'm going to leave because I have frog things to do. Yeah, I got wands to make. Wands to make, sparks to fly. You know, I have ribbits to rib. I have whimsy. Ribs?

To create. I'm just saying, there's so many things going on in my frog life. Yeah. You wouldn't even know about it. I couldn't even begin to know what I'd do in my frog life. So when questioned about this creature, the officer explained exactly what we've previously mentioned. The wrinkles? three to four feet tall, and very frog-like. And while another officer didn't find any such creature,

they did report scratches on the guardrails in the area that the frog supposedly was because this frog, you know, he didn't just leave quietly. He had to do a little, you know, had to ruffle some feathers, and those feathers being a bridge's feathers. Hell yeah, he did. He doesn't mess with any bridges, all right?

Good for him. He does mess with bridges. He scratches him. Only a few... Just kidding, he does. Only a few weeks later, a police officer named Mark Matthews passed by what he at first thought was an injured animal when it suddenly crouched up.

And this is when Mark Matthews decided to pull out his gun and start bussing off shots like a madman, which really... What? Yeah, the story takes a turn here because... What's the meaning of this? What are you doing, Mark Matthews? Mark, what are you doing? What are you thinking?

He goes, oh, animal, injured. and it moved. Let me just start firing at it. Let me just blast bullets at this poor suffering animal. Pretty insane. Mark Matthews, you sound like a piece of shit. You got some explaining to do, Mark. Go on with the story, I guess. You scumbag. So what he says about this is that he hit it. It wobbled over to the guardrail, wobbled because you fucking shot it, Mark, you asshole.

Damn it. And then it left the premises all while. staring him down because it's probably pretty pissed because you shot it, Mark. I would also wobble away pretty angry if you shot me. Mr. Matthews. So when asked for an account of the whole situation, again, the description was the same. The only difference being this one supposedly had a tail, which the last one did not. Oh, so he's like a tadpoley kind of situation.

Yeah, because I thought they kind of get rid of them. I feel like, I don't know. this Mark Matthew guys he's kind of off the rail so I'm starting to feel like he shot a dog yeah he's not a credible source no not at all I think he saw an injured

dog and this madman just decided to start blasting and then now he's just like oh well it's okay because I didn't shoot a dog it was a frog guy with a tail with a tail so because you know frogs in their tails

yeah this guy knows nothing about frogs tails or what to and what not to shoot, when to shoot, when not to shoot, really. Proper usage of your firearm. Yeah, no, this guy is... Why are you bearing arms against an injured animal? Against an injured frog with a wand.

Crazy. Yeah, just let him live. In a tail. So if you're wondering why he shot him, he says it was because he wanted to back up the previous frogman story that his fellow officer had reported weeks earlier. So he's like, I'll just shoot this thing.

He said, you know what, this is that frog that other guy was talking about. I'm just going to blast it. I'm going to shoot the shit out of it. Sounds right. Full proof plan, really. Yeah, seemed to work out for him. So, this guy's insane. So we'll soon finish up Mark's story.

But until then, there's one final story we need to get to. We're in 2016 now. And what was the biggest thing to come to 2016? Pokemon Go. Yep. And a man named Sam Jacobs and his girlfriend were playing Pokemon Go in Cincinnati, Ohio, when they claimed to have seen the Frog Man.

And you know what Sam did? In 2016. In 2016, and you know what Sam did? What did he do? Sam took a video, which you can find on YouTube. Hell yeah, he did. When you find this video, you got some little glowing eyes. Elaine is going to look at this right now.

and moving on again, in the years after the Mark Matthews incident, about 30 years after that is, Mark has since withdrew his claims down to basically every last detail. Huh. Yeah, I can't say, I didn't expect this from Mr. Matthews.

Yeah, this doesn't surprise me about Mark. No, not in the slightest. So, so Mr. Matthews said the dude wasn't wet. wasn't leathery, didn't stand on its legs, wasn't a frog of height, and certainly wasn't a frog man in general.

He also says it was all blown out of proportion. But if anything, he seems to be the one bit blue. Wow. He blew himself, basically, is what I'm saying. So it's like you said you wanted to back up your fellow officers' claims. Yeah, he's just an asshole blasting at anything.

So why are you backing off now? And also Sam playing Pokemon Go Definitely got a video of a frog man You see it, right? And they're cuter than I thought that you can barely see it But it's fucking cute from what I've seen Pretty cool frog man, huh? I happily would hang with a frogman

You want to like have a beer with a guy? Yeah, I just want to hang out And you know what? From all the stories, I really, like they say that there's frog women, but I really haven't seen any stories about it They don't talk about anything gender specific, so I think it's just like, hey, there's frog men and women. So, like, I want to have a beer with both of them. Yeah.

I want to have a beer with a frog family. I would love to have a beer with a frog family. The three that were congregating. Yeah, there you go. Yeah. All those pals. I just want to hear what they were talking about. Yeah, I'm into that.

What's the 4-1-1? What are the cool jams? What's going on, guys? Ribbon. Ribit. So, unfortunately, the video evidence go very far because according to this Wikipedia quote, it was later revealed to be

a local student from Archbishop Moeller Moeller. Oh, Moeller. Yeah. High school and a homemade frog costume. You know, whatever, man.

You know, people want to lie, but it's fine. But it's fine. That's fine. So, sadly, the Loveland Frog doesn't have much evidence to back it up. Multiple hoaxes have been discovered. people went back on their stories, and to be fair, I mean, it's a little strange for a four-foot-tall bipedal frogman to live exclusively in one small town in Ohio.

Yeah, I would say so, but maybe we have one. I don't know. I think it should venture to other places, but you know what? Loveland is about three hours from me, so I think I'm going to take a trip to Loveland and then, you know, do some frog hunting. I think you should. Why not? I hope they have statues and like Loveland Frog like merchandise or like

I went to Loveland Ohio and all I got was this frog man kind of sure I think that would be amazing Yeah I want that Like the Flatlands or the Flatwoods monster Yeah I'm very into that

They have like a whole museum for him Exactly that's what I want I want frog merchandise Oh hell yeah So Gretchen and Bob Kessler created a short TV movie called The Legend of the Loveland Frogmen And while I can't praise the quality of the film,

I've watched it two or three times now, I can praise the very odd entertainment it gave me. It is the most TV movie I've ever seen. It's the most Ohio movie I've ever seen. It's the most fra. I wouldn't say that. It is a very movie. It's the most movie that I've...

It's the most movie. that I experienced. And I loved it. I loved it. It's a movie. And I also want to give a couple shoutouts to Hot Diggity Dog.

It's the Loveland Frog, which is a 2014 musical based on, you guessed it, our favorite four-foot-tall by your frogman. That is amazing. Hot Diggity Dog. It's the Lovelin Frog.

This is the best cryptid ever. And I also want to give a shout out to How Comes to Frog. which isn't technically related, but it's a 1998 movie starring Rowdy-Rotty Piper that I feel like is very Star Wars-like, but if it was like frog people instead,

and it's amazing, and I love it. And I would also like to give a shout-out to the Mexican staring frog of southern Sri Lanka. If you stare into its eyes, bad things happen. It's just good frog stuff, you know? Shout out to frog shit. Love me some frogs. You know?

Love me some frogs. I love that legend. It's a very interesting one, and I suggest everyone watch that little movie that I mentioned by Gretchen and Bob because it's a hoot. It's on YouTube, and it's a little weird to find, like, if you just search it up, it's not the first one that you see, which is weird. You've got to search up The Legend of the Loveland Frogman, and I feel like I saw it maybe like, I think I got to, I had to scroll down for a while, like 10 or 12 videos down. But then eventually you'll see it by, it's by Utah 4444. I was uploaded 12 years ago. It has, it's in three parts.

So it's the legend of the Loveland Frogman part one out of three. And then after that, you know, you'll be able to find the other two. But yeah, the first part only has like 7,000 views. And I think it should be ran up. And everyone should watch the Legend of the Loveland Frogman because it's kind of fucking hilarious. Like, think of just weird movies that you would be shown in like your high school science class. It's like the equivalent of that. And it's about the Loveland Frogman.

And it's fucking hilarious. I love that. I want to watch this. Let's get those views up. It's good stuff. Maybe we'll do it on screen. There you go. There's actually, you know, there's actually a film for the public monster, too.

Is there? Yeah, it's only like 16 minutes long. Interesting. Yeah, I think the whole Loveland Frogman thing together, because the first part is 10 minutes, but I think if I remember right, like, in total, it's about like 40-ish minutes, but anywhere between like 30 and 40 something minutes. Yeah, we could cover him on screen. That'd be some fun stuff, man.

I love that. I love the Loveland Frogman movie. You know what? I think it was good to end on the Loveland Frogman. You know, it's pretty good. He's a good frog, and, you know, that Pope-licking one was just, like, putting me in a dark place, you know? A lot of people falling off of bridges. That one's rough. Yeah, that one's really rough. And it's really, I think in the, um, I think the movie,

is called the legend of the poplic monster but they put a warning before it I think it was done in like 1988 they put a warning before it that was like don't go on the fucking trestle damn this guy like they literally were like stop going on the trestle because it got that bad so what's the movie about

like people falling off the trestle I mean they have to they had to have done something with those people that were like on the edge holding onto it right because that was a movie that wrote itself yeah they definitely did I think part of the movie has people holding onto the ties.

Damn. While a train came, which is really sad because one of the, one of the moms of one of the victims was saying that she saw the movie. And she said that it kind of made her realize what her son, what his last moments were. Damn. Which I don't know if it was comforting or not to her to like know that. But she said it was something that she knows now. Yeah.

That's crazy. It's just sad. Because all these parents, I mean, there's nothing they could do. Like, the teenagers decided to do this. They didn't, you know, we've all been teenagers. We've all done stupid shit that we shouldn't have done. But usually it's not stupid shit that gets you killed, unfortunately. Yeah.

Well, that's crazy. But you know what? Again, Loveland Frogmen, they have wands. That's delightful. Let's stick with that. They just seem like beautiful creatures. They do. I'm into it. I don't know if you've seen those, that Instagram account, this lady, I'm going to have to shout it out because I love it.

It's this lady who paints like frogs and they're always wearing like high-heeled boots and like a mushroom hat. And it always says like some quote next to it. And it's the funniest shit I've ever seen. I've never seen that because I'm usually on a very different side of TikTok, but also I got banned. off of TikTok recently, and I made a new one, but I think I already added you on the new one. I think we're already on that new train, but really my algorithm has just not been the same anymore, so I haven't really been on TikTok that much lately. We'll change your algorithm for you.

Yeah, we need something going because it's just, it's not for me lately. We need to get you on to Sinister Pond, Babe. Who is this? One of the funniest TikToks ever. She literally just goes, like people mention random cities in the United States mostly. And she will just Google Earth it and like zoom in and just like tore around and be like, it's just the way she talks and like jokes about these towns. It makes me fucking die laughing. Okay.

Because she has this way of speaking and she calls everything. It's sinister vibe. She always ends it with babe. and she'll be like, oh, this town is sinister bipe. It's dark-satted. And I, it's like, I'm like, you are providing a service to me because you make me fucking die laughing. Anytime I see your video. So I'm constantly telling everybody to go follow because I'm like, make her make money off of her TikToks because she deserves it.

Yeah. Heck yeah, dude. Well, send me a sinister babe talk or two. Hell yeah. Heck yeah, doggy. Well, this was good stuff, man. You're the best. And thank you for doing this with me today. Of course, bud. You're the best. Thanks for, I guess, thanks for doing a show with me like every two weeks for the past like two years now. Three years, two, three years now. I don't know.

It's a happy place. It's good stuff. I'm always, you know, whenever you want me to come and talk about frogs, I'll talk about frogs whenever you want me to talk about frogs, whenever you want me to talk about frogs, man. hell yeah i'm gonna have you on a million more times to talk about frogs so get ready i'll look up some frog stuff you want to do a frog frog frog frag you want to do a frog you want to do a frog tasic episode i'll just look up frog things we'll just talk about frogs yeah welcome to morbid frog takeover yeah i'm here for the frog takeover if anyone wants the frog takeover let us know Well, dude, I love your guts. And we hope you keep listening, and we hope you keep it weird, but not so weird that you go on this railroad trestle.

And not so weird that a pope licks you, and not so weird that a frog appears to you in the middle of the night with a wand that sparks all over, and then you shoot the frog, because you probably shouldn't shoot that frog. No, don't shoot that frog. Don't shoot the frog. Don't do it.