MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - Blood Is Thicker Than Water

Episode Date: October 20, 2022

Today’s podcast features 3 separate, unique stories that all involve highly dysfunctional families. The audio from all three stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and they have all been remastered for today's podcast.Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos:#3 -- “Amityville Horror" -- A man does something horrible to his family (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM3r8GC2P3s)#2 -- “Crossbow" -- A story about a person who couldn't stop lying (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUxAsyLN4yI)#1 -- "Daddy" -- An entire family loses their mind all at once (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjxBndqU0kM)For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallenIf you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballenSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today's podcast features three separate unique stories that all involve highly dysfunctional families. The audio from all of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called Amityville Horror and it's about a man who did something horrible to his family. The second story you'll hear is called Crossbow and it's about a man who did something horrible to his family. The second story you'll hear is called Crossbow, and it's a story about someone who just could not stop lying. And the third and final story you'll hear is called Daddy, and it's about an entire family who more or less lost their minds all at once.

But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Delivered in Story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, please invite the five-star review button to come over to your house to play Call of Duty, but when they arrive, give them the NES Duck Hunt remote as their controller. Also, please subscribe to the Mr. Ballin Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts

so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into our first story called Amityville Horror. I'm Peter Frankopan. And I'm Afua Hirsch. And we're here to tell you about our new season of Legacy, covering the iconic, troubled musical genius that was Nina Simone. Full disclosure, this is a big one for me. Nina Simone, one of my favourite artists of all time.

Somebody who's had a huge impact on me, who I think objectively stands apart for the level of her talent, the audacity of her message. If I was a first year at university, the first time I sat down and really listened to her and engaged with her message, it totally floored me. And the truth and pain and messiness of her struggle, that's all captured in unforgettable music that has stood the test of time. Do you think that's fair, Peter? I mean, the way in which her music comes across is so powerful, no matter what song it is.

So join us on Legacy for Nina Simone. Hello, I'm Emily and I'm one of the hosts of Terribly Famous, the show that takes you inside the lives of our biggest celebrities. And they don't get much bigger than the man who made badminton sexy. OK, maybe that's a stretch, but if I say pop star and shuttlecocks, you know who I'm talking about. No? Short shorts? Free cocktails? Careless whispers? OK, last one. It's not Andrew Ridgely.

Yep, that's right, it's Stone Cold icon George Michael. From teen pop sensation to one of the biggest solo artists on the planet, join us for our new series george michaels fight for freedom from the outside it looks like he has it all but behind the trademark dark sunglasses is a man in turmoil george is trapped in a lie of his own making with a secret he feels would ruin him if the truth ever came out. Follow Terribly Famous wherever you listen to your podcasts or listen early and ad-free on Wondery Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app. On the morning of November 13th, 1974,

six members of the DeFeo family were asleep in their home in Amityville, New York. The seventh member of the family, Ron, was asleep in their home in Amityville, New York. The seventh member of the family, Ron, was sitting on his bed in the basement. At around 1 a.m., he gets up off his bed, he grabs a rifle, and he starts walking up the stairs. He goes across the first floor, goes up the second floor stairs, and he gets to the second floor landing, and he walks right into his parents' bedroom, which was totally dark besides this little candle that had been lit next to his father's bedside and he raises his rifle and he puts two rounds into his father's back and then as soon as his father is still he aims at his mother and he shoots her two times then he puts the gun down and he walks out and he goes across the hall into his brother's room

he raises his rifle and he fires one shot into his 12 year old brother mark and then he aims at his nine-year-old brother john and he fires one shot into him 12-year-old brother, Mark, and then he aims at his nine-year-old brother, John, and he fires one shot into him as well. Then he leaves their bedroom and he walks down the hall to another bedroom where he finds his 13-year-old sister, Allison. He raises his rifle and he fires one shot. He leaves her room.

He goes up the third set of stairs, up onto the third floor, finds his 18-year-old sister, Dawn, and he fires one shot into her, and then he was done. Altogether, it took Ron about 15 minutes to massacre his family. At no point was he panicked or running around or acting crazy. He was just walking calmly room to room, taking very well-aimed shots to ensure they didn't get up again. He put the rifle down, and he went outside, and he jogged to a bar where he went inside, and he put on this big facade that he had just found his family and they were hurt and could you come help him?

And when they got to the house, he refused to go inside, but the people from the bar went inside and they discovered this horrible scene. And when the police show up, Ron goes over to them and he actually confesses and says, I killed my family. and he actually confesses and says, I killed my family. Even though the DeFeo family had a reputation for being very dysfunctional, it was Ron who had the worst reputation. He was known around Amityville for heavy drug use, for being a total alcoholic, and for getting really aggressive and confrontational with people. He was just a guy no one wanted to be around. And so when news got out in Amityville that this horrible thing has happened and it looks like Ron is the one who did it, no one was really that shocked. But when details of the crime scene, specifically the way the bodies were positioned, made people wonder, is there more

to this case that we don't know about? All of the DeFeo family members had been found lying face down in their beds and none of them showed any signs of putting up a struggle against their attacker, which led investigators initially to think that they must have been sedated, that Ron must have drugged them somehow before he carried out this attack. But when the toxicology reports came back, no one in the family had any substance in their system. At first, the police did not think that was a very big deal. They figured, you know what, the family just must not have heard the different gunshots. He wasn't shooting lots of rounds. It was, you know, one single round here, one single round here, that perhaps they just didn't hear it and that's why no one tried to escape. But it

turns out the rifle Ron was using, the.35 caliber Marlin, is one of the loudest rifles you can own. And in fact, investigators went out and did a test with it, and they fired it indoors, and you could easily hear it a mile away. And so investigators said, well, then it looks like they must have heard these gunshots, but for some reason didn't get out of their beds. They didn't try to fight back in any way. They just kind of took it. And then you have the weirdness of Ron's confession. On the night of the attack, when Ron is sitting on his bed and he can't sleep and everybody else is asleep upstairs, he starts hearing a voice in his head that's saying, catch them, kill them.

And he thinks he's just losing his mind. But then out of the shadows, straight across from him, from underneath the steps in the basement, this shadowy figure emerges and starts walking towards him and he can see what looks like its mouth moving and saying the words, catch them, kill them. And Ron's looking up at it as this figure walks all the way up to him and bends down and gets right next to his ear and he says right into his ear, catch them, kill them. And then Ron said involuntarily he reached over to the rifle that was on the bed with him and he stood up and he began walking towards the steps and he knew what was going to happen he was going to go kill his family and he didn't want to do it but he felt like he didn't have any more

control over his body and that's when he realized he was being possessed by this demon in the basement while ron's confession terrified everybody in Amityville, the idea that there was a demon living in the basement of this house that possessed someone to go kill their family, I mean, that terrified everybody, but it didn't hold up in court, and ultimately Ron was sent to jail for life. One year after the attacks, another family, the Lutz family, moved into the house in Amityville, but they left 28 days later because they were hearing voices coming from the basement. After hearing about the mass murder that occurred in the house, and now the Lutz family saying there's something in the basement, world-renowned

demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren, they descend on the property and very quickly Ed and Lorraine say, yes, this house is definitely haunted. And in fact, to this day, the Amityville house is considered one of the most haunted places in the entire world. Today, the house still stands and it's been bought and sold a number of times over the years because apparently no one likes to live in this house for a very long time. The End But there is a problem, as there always is in this show. The man in question hadn't actually sailed before. Oh, and his boat wasn't seaworthy. Oh, and also tiny little detail almost didn't mention it.

He bet his family home on making it to the finish line. What ensued was one of the most complex cheating plots in British sporting history. To find out the full story, follow British Scandal wherever you listen to podcasts. Or listen early and ad-free on Wondery Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app. on Amazon Music with your Prime membership? That's right. All your favorite Mr. Ballin episodes can be heard on Amazon Music ad-free, and you'll always be the first one to catch our new episodes. But that's not all. You get access to other amazing shows like Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries,

Morbid, 48 Hours, and 2020, all ad-free too. And you know what that means. Uninterrupted listening, so no more cliffhangers. Amazon Music is your home for all things true crime and offers the most ad-free top podcasts, means uninterrupted listening, so no more cliffhangers. Amazon Music is your home for all things true crime and offers the most ad-free top podcasts, so we definitely have something for

you. And it's already included in your Prime membership. To listen now, all you need to do is go to amazon.com slash ballin. That's amazon.com slash ballin, or download the free Amazon Music app. It's just that easy. Our next story is called Crossbow. In 2007, Brett Ryan was a charming 26-year-old man living in Toronto, Canada. He was known as an extremely friendly guy who was always smiling ear to ear with his trademark grin. In his spare time, he could be found at children's hospitals reading to sick kids or at the community center volunteering as an umpire for Little League baseball games. But behind his seemingly perfect exterior, behind the scenes, Brett was struggling. He had to move back in with his parents after dropping out of college and racking up over $60,000 of debt. While his friends graduated college and went on to begin their careers in medicine and finance and education,

Brett was only able to get a job as a part-time house painter. Brett felt like he had a lot of potential that he was squandering, but he felt like the debt that he had racked up was really his roadblock between him and the life he was supposed to have. And so instead of working hard and making some money to pay down his debt, he decided to come up with an absurd get-rich-quick scheme that actually kind of worked. On October 20th of that year, Brett walked into a bank near his home, and he had hospital bandages wrapped around his head and his face and his left arm was in a sling. Then he walked up to one of the tellers and he handed her a note that just said, I have a gun underneath this sling, give me $2,000. And the teller very

quickly complied and she gave him a little over $1,000. That was all the money she had. And Brett took the money, turned around and calmly walked out of the bank and he got in his car and he got home and he was totally exhilarated and he's half expecting the police to just show up at his front door, but they never did. He was never caught. And after that, he was hooked. For the next eight months, Brett robbed a dozen other banks in the area, stealing almost $30,000. He became so confident in his ability to steal without getting caught that he began dressing up in these ridiculous outfits that included this huge, obviously fake beard. And in fact, the media dubbed him the fake bearded bandit.

The reason Brett wasn't getting caught is because the police would get his fingerprints at the crime scene, but because he did not have a criminal record, his prints were not in the database. And so the police basically just had to set up and hope to catch this guy in the act. And in the summer of 2008 they finally would catch the fake bearded bandit. At Brett's trial, dozens of his friends wrote letters of support to the judge saying that Brett was actually a great guy, that this was a product of desperation, and a total break from his normal character. And some of the organizations that he volunteered with did the same thing, writing letters to the judge saying what a meaningful contributor Brett was to the community. When Brett spoke at his trial, he was incredibly remorseful

and said he had allowed his debt to get totally out of control and that admittedly he had not handled it well. And so the judge took all of this into account, all the letters of support and Brett's overall appearance in court, and he decided that this was indeed a break from character and that Brett was actually a very promising young man and that he did not deserve the harshest penalty. And so Brett was sentenced to just under four years, which, considering the crime, was a very lenient sentence. And so Brett went to jail, but then less than two years later, in 2010, he was granted parole and allowed to move back in with his parents. And his parents would say he was a changed man ready for a fresh start. But Brett would find life outside of jail was exponentially harder now that he was an ex-con. It was extremely hard to get a job, which meant he had no income.

And without an income, he couldn't pay down all those debts he had. And so he had to declare bankruptcy. As for he couldn't pay down all those debts he had and so he had to declare bankruptcy. As for life at home it was very difficult. Brett's family was very embarrassed about what he had done and when Brett moved back home it was obvious that all the neighbors were gossiping constantly about their family and so Brett and his family actually moved to another Toronto neighborhood just to get away from all of that. But once they settled into this new neighborhood, Brett really knuckled down and decided he was going to get his life together and he was going to do it all on his own. And so he applied to dozens and dozens of jobs all over the place and finally he was able to get some low-paying work in retail. It wasn't great, but it

was a start. And so Brett began working countless hours at this really low-paying job and his parents noticed how hard he was working to try to get his life back together and so they decided they would help him out financially so he could re-enroll in college and finish his degree in biophysics. While Brett was in school he met a woman named Kristen who had a full-time job and lived in this beautiful home and by and large she had the life that he wished he could have. And the two of them quickly fell in love. And Brett told her about his criminal past as the fake bearded bandit. And she accepted him and she didn't judge him.

And she said, I still love you. I still want to be with you. Two years later, Brett moved out of his parents' house and into Kristen's house. And for once in his life, he felt like his life was going the way it should be. Then a year later, tragedy struck when Brett's father passed away and suddenly Brett had to go to his mother's house all the time to try to help her out. And his mother was very appreciative of the time he was spending with her and so she actually began paying him for the work he was doing around the home. And considering Brett was a broke college

student this was a huge help and in many ways it really brought Brett and his mother together. A year later in 2015 Brett proposed to Kristen and she said yes but at the same time school was getting overwhelming for Brett and he dropped out but he was too embarrassed to tell his fiancee or his family because everybody thought he was on the right path and he didn't want to explain why he had dropped out and so he just pretended to still be in school. Then in the spring of 2016 when Brett should have been graduating he got a very lucky break when a big tech firm in Toronto offered him a job. On paper Brett should not have gotten this job. He wasn't qualified. He didn't have a degree.

But in getting this job Brett was able to tell his fiancee and his family that he had just graduated college and that was how he was getting this job. His family and his fiance were a little confused why they weren't invited to his graduation ceremony, but nonetheless they were very excited for him and they took him out and they celebrated. Then a week after Brett accepted this job, the tech firm rescinded their offer when they discovered Brett was in fact the fake bearded bandit. Now Brett panicked because this job represented this perfect piece to his web of lies that allowed him to pretend he had his degree and that everything was so great and so he couldn't possibly tell his fiance and his family that he didn't get this job

and so he decided he would just lie and pretend to go to this job every day. Meanwhile Brett's mom began bragging to all of her new neighbors about her son Brett who had really turned his life around. He graduated from college, he got this great job, he's got a beautiful fiance, he's got this wonderful home. Everything is just going great for Brett. At first, Brett was able to push the guilt out of his subconscious and just live this ridiculous lie.

But as his wedding day approached, the weight of all these lies and the guilt he felt, it became overwhelming. And practically speaking, he was worried about how he would explain to his new wife why he had no income despite having this full-time job. And so he went to his mother and he told her the truth about dropping out of college, about not getting that job offer. And then he said, can you keep all of this a secret? And can you give me a whole bunch of money so I can keep living this lie? And she said, no. And in fact, you need to tell your fiance that you're lying or I will. This was the worst case scenario for Brett and one that he was not prepared for. He really thought his mom would be like, yep, let's do it. Let's keep this thing going. But

when she didn't, he didn't really know what to do. He believed if Kristen found out the truth, she would leave him and that would ruin his perfect life. And so he decided he would not tell Kristen, instead he would kill his mother. Because he was an ex-con he couldn't buy a firearm, however he could buy a crossbow. And so he ordered his crossbow, he watched a couple youtube videos about how to operate it, and then on one of his trips to his mother's house to help out he stashed the crossbow and some arrows on a shelf in her garage. Then when he got home, he began designing these bizarre contraptions that were built out of fans and pulleys and broomsticks that when turned on, would move around the room and click on his keyboard and turn his phone off and on. It was

designed to help him build an alibi when he was out committing murder, his devices would be turning on and off again, giving the impression that he was at home the whole time. On August 25th, 2017, all his preparations were done. He woke up early that morning and he began getting ready for his fake job. At the same time, Kristen was also getting ready for her real job. And then at 7.30, when they were both ready to go, they hopped in their respective cars and headed out for the day. But Brett slowed down at the end of the street and waited for Kristen to disappear around the corner. Brett turned back, went back into his house. He went up to his room and turned on all of his bizarre alibi contraptions that he made sure were turning off and on his devices correctly.

And after a while, once he was confident these devices would work, he hopped in his car and he drove over to his mother's house. He got there around 10 a.m., he walked inside, and his mother was sitting in the kitchen, and he approached her about changing her mind about telling the truth to Kristen. But his mother was staunch, and she said, no, I'm going to tell her before your wedding, unless you do. And so their exchange got really heated. And before long, his mother actually called one of his older brothers, Chris, to come to her house and talk to Brett to diffuse this situation. Brett was furious and stormed out of the kitchen. He grabbed the door that led into the garage and he stormed in to try to get his crossbow off the shelf. But his mother followed after him. Now, the crossbow had not been loaded when he put it up on that shelf

and Brett was not very good at loading it and it would take several seconds to actually do it. So he's thinking to himself when I pull that down and begin loading it she's going to see the weapon and she's going to run outside before I can get to her. And so when he reached up he didn't grab the crossbow he grabbed the arrows and in a swift motion he pulled them down re-gripped them like a knife faced his mother and began attacking her viciously. She fell backwards and a shelf actually landed on top of her pinning her to the ground. At which point Brett seized the opportunity, he got up, grabbed a piece of nylon, he wrapped it around her neck and he suffocated her. As soon as she was dead Brett pulled her out from under the shelf and dragged her to the side of the

garage. He put the shelf back up and then he began loading his crossbow because he knew Chris, his older brother that his mother had called, was going to be here soon. And so he hid behind the door inside of the garage and just waited. And at some point he heard Chris's car pull into the driveway. Chris walked into the house. He yelled for his mom. He yelled for Brett, but he didn't get a response. And eventually Chris made his way to the open door leading into the garage. He stepped inside and as soon as he did Brett silently got up behind him and he fired one shot directly into the back of his neck killing him instantly. Brett took Chris's body and piled it on top of his mother's and as he was putting a tarp over top of them he heard another car pulling into the driveway. It was his younger brother AJ.. Now at this point, Brett knows he is in too deep and he has to finish the job. And so he doesn't have time to load his

crossbow. And so again, he just grabs one of the arrows and he walks outside and he sees AJ getting out of his car and he runs up to him and he jabs the arrow into his brother's neck. And so they're fighting in the driveway. Meanwhile, Brett's other brother, Lee, who's actually in the house sleeping, he wakes up to the sound of this commotion outside in the driveway. He looks out the window and he sees his brother's fighting. And so he runs downstairs and he comes outside. And at this point, AJ is laying on the ground and he's basically motionless. And Brett is standing over him. And Brett turns and he sees Lee in the doorway and he runs off after him. Lee sees his brother running at him and just turns

and runs into the house but he only gets a few feet before Brett jumps on top of them and then the two of them have this vicious fight where Brett is trying to stab him with the arrows and they're basically both fighting for their lives and at some point after Lee suffered several very deep cuts he manages to throw Brett off of him and he runs outside to his brother AJ who's now crawled all the way to the street. And in fact AJ had managed to flag down a neighbor and got his neighbor to call the police. As for Brett, after Lee had managed to fight him off and ran outside, he knew he was done. And so instead of chasing his brother outside, he put his arrow down and he walked into the kitchen.

He opened up the fridge, he took a bottle of water out, he left the fridge door open and just walked out to the front steps and sat down and drank his water while he waited for police to show up. When they did arrive, his brother AJ died before they could save him. As police were arresting Brett, he kind of casually said, yeah, I should have taken AJ to the hospital, I could have saved him, and the other guys in the garage are dead, crossbow to the head. It was me. In court, Brett was extremely remorseful and pled guilty to all of his charges. The judge told Brett that he was appreciative of the fact that he was taking full ownership of his heinous crimes, and that in many ways he was a victim too, a victim of this huge web of lies that Brett just couldn't get out from under. But nonetheless, Brett was given three consecutive life terms, one for each of the murders he committed. The only surviving family member, Lee, the brother who was attacked last and managed to run outside and escape Brett, he said that his life was

shattered that day and that he can barely go outside because of his extreme post-traumatic stress. The next and final story of today's episode is called Daddy. The Chindawatts were a big, tight-knit, middle-class family who lived in a cramped city in northern Delhi, India. For generations, their family had been farmers living and working out in the desert, but in 1989, their beloved patriarch, Bhopal Singh, decided it was time for a change. That year, he sold all of his farmlands

and then used the money from that sale to move with his wife and his youngest son to the city. And over the next couple of decades, one by one, the rest of Bhopal's children and their families followed him out there to the city and moved in with him. By 2007, there were 12 Chandawats all living under one roof. They made their living by running a grocery slash plywood shop on the first floor of their house. The store was quite prosperous, not only because the goods they sold were top-notch,

but also because the locals just really liked being around the Chandawatts. Bhopal was this big, friendly personality that took on a sort of fatherly role in the neighborhood, and so locals began calling him daddy just like his family did. Bhopal's wife, Narayan, took on a motherly role in the neighborhood and so naturally was nicknamed Mommy. When she wasn't taking care of her own family, she'd be outside handing out tea to workers on the street or looking after neighborhood kids. The rest of Bhopal's family, which included his three adult children, two of their wives, and five grandchildren, were also often seen down at the store and they were highly regarded and respected as well. By all accounts, the Chandwats seemed like very successful and happy people that kind of had a perfect life.

But in 2007, they would face a crisis when Bhopal died. Knowing how much he meant to that family, neighbors were concerned that the family would fall apart without him. But surprisingly, immediately following his death, it was like the family started improving in all aspects of their life. It was like an already perfect family got even better. They began working extra long hours at their store, and before long they had earned enough money to open another store and put an addition on their house. They improved their health by changing their diet and cutting alcohol and tobacco out of their lives. Their children, who were already very gifted students, began studying even more and did even better in school. And the whole family, from the youngest to the oldest, became exponentially more devout. While neighbors

certainly noticed these changes in the Chandawats, none of them raised any eyebrows. In fact, people were impressed. This incredible family has managed to come out of a huge crisis better off and happier for it. Little did they know that behind the scenes, something totally sinister was driving these changes. Fast forward 11 years to July 1st, 2018. That morning, like every other morning, locals began lining up outside of the Chandawat's grocery store waiting for them to open their doors. The Chandawat's were known to be extremely punctual and at 6 a.m sharp every day they opened those doors. But this morning 6 a.m came and went and the store stayed dark and the doors stayed closed. People began calling the Chandawat's but none of them had their phone on and so eventually a 79 year

old neighbor decided they would just walk up the steps to the Chandawat's house and check on them themselves. And so up they went, they knocked on the door, they yelled out for the family, but nobody came to the door, everything was off. And so eventually, they just tried the doorknob and twisted it, and it turned. He swings it open, and he yells out the family's name,

and as soon as the door flings open, and he can see inside, he nearly faints. He backpedals, he screams, he runs down to the street and he yells for someone to call the police. Luckily, there was a police officer in the area. And so very quickly they came over and they cleared the crowd out of the way that was forming at the base of the Chandawat steps. They were all looking up to see whatever this neighbor had seen. And before the officer actually ascended the stairs, someone told him what was seen inside of the house. And so he's mentally preparing himself for what he's about to walk into. He walks up the stairs and he pauses right before turning

the corner when he's going to actually see inside the house. He takes a deep breath. He knows what he's going to see. He turns the corner, he walks inside, and he's still completely shocked at what he's seeing. He would only be able to stay inside of the house that first trip for about 10 seconds before he too turned around and ran out of there. He would say it was just too much, it was one of the worst things he had ever seen, and that he hopes he never has to see anything like that ever again in his career. Eventually, the police would go back inside the Chandawat's house, and after looking around, they would find 11 hidden diaries.

And in these diaries would be the full, awful story of what happened to that family. In the first few days following Bhopal's death in 2007, the family called a priest to lead them in a prayer honoring their lost loved one. And during this prayer, Lalit, who was Bhopal's youngest son at the time he was in his 30s, he began chanting. And as soon as he did, the rest of his family stopped what they were doing and just stared at him. They couldn't believe what they were hearing. A few years earlier, Lalit had been in this horrible accident where plywood had fallen off of a shelf and hit him in the head, nearly killing him. He survived the ordeal,

but the damage to his head left him unable to speak. But now, here he is, chanting and speaking. And so as his voice grew stronger and stronger as he was doing this chant, the other family members just continued to watch him and listen to him, and then they began whispering to each other, Daddy has returned. Following this prayer session, Lalit kept his voice and he began keeping a diary, the first of the 11 he would ultimately fill. The first few entries in that first diary were fairly normal. They were just reflections on his day or on his life, but pretty quickly, the entries took a major turn. The first strange entry occurred on September 7, 2007. To that point, Lalit had been writing in

kind of narrative format about his life and whatever it was he was writing about, but it just kind of abruptly stopped, and in its place was this really deliberate instruction for his family. It said they all needed to get a black and white photo of Bhopal, their patriarch, and put it in front of them, and then pray they're able to rid themselves of their old habits. From this point onward, the diary entries became more frequent and they stayed in this kind of strange instruction format for the family. It was like it was a growing list of rules for the family to follow. And the tone of these instructions that Lalit is writing out in this diary became more and more aggressive

and punitive and hectoring. It was like the family was being punished. But the family appeared to obey all of these instructions. And this was because Lalit told his family that Bhopal had come back from the dead, he had given Lalit his voice back, and he had spoken to Lalit and explained to him that the reason he was back is because he wanted to save his family's souls. Lalit explained that at night, Bhopal would possess his body, and then using Lalit's body, he would write these instructions in the diary for his family to follow. And the idea was, if you follow these instructions, that will set you on the path to saving your soul. His instructions were at first just simple ways to honor Bhopal,

but quickly they became really specific directives of how each of the family members needed to live their life on a day-to-day basis. There were instructions about which food they were allowed to eat and when they were allowed to eat it. There were instructions about which things they could sell in their store. And there were instructions on how to invest their profits, and there were countless instructions on how they should be praying and when they should be praying. Every night just before 9 p.m., the family was instructed to stop whatever they were

doing and head back to the house, and if anybody asked them what they were doing, they were supposed to tell them that grandfather was coming. And so they would all convene in a room inside of their house, and they would wait, and then at some point Lalit would walk into the room he would sit down in front and then right at 9 pm he would become possessed by Bhopal and then Bhopal would lead a 15 to 30 minute long prayer. Eventually Lalit began observing a vow of silence and he told his family that if and when you hear my voice again, it's not Lalit, you're only hearing Bhopal. In the eyes of his family, Lalit was no longer Lalit. Lalit had become Bhopal, or I guess Bhopal had become Lalit. But either way, Bhopal was back, and so with the

exception of Lalit's mother, everyone in his family began referring to him as Daddy. Over the years this went on, the neighbors did pick up on the family's strange behavior, specifically Lalit's strange behavior. But no one ever said anything about it, because despite the weirdness, the family seemed like they were really flourishing. They looked healthier, they were making more money, the grandchildren were excelling in school, and they just generally looked really happy. And so fast forward to June

of 2018, which is the month before the neighbor and then police officer sees this horrible thing in the Chandawat household. That month, June, was an especially happy time for the Chandawat family because one of the grandchildren had announced they were going to get married. And so on June 17th, they have this huge engagement party, the whole family's there, they're dancing for joy about this incredible announcement, and then they began shifting their focus to planning this wedding that everyone is so excited about. A couple of weeks later, on June 29th, the Chundawatts had their neighbor over for dinner, and that neighbor would later say that nothing seemed amiss, and over dinner all the family wanted to talk about was this incredible

wedding they were planning and how excited they were to go to it. This wedding was several months away. Less than 48 hours after this dinner, the Chandawatts failed to open their grocery store, and so the neighbor goes up the stairs, he opens the door, and he sees 10 members of the 11-person Chandawatt family dangling from nooses in the front hallway. They were hanging very close together in a circular pattern that looked very intentional. Their hands and their feet were bound, they were blindfolded with strips of cloth, their mouths were taped shut, and their ears were packed

with cotton balls. On the ground underneath them were black stools that had toppled over. The 11th and final member of the Chandawat family, which was the 77-year-old widow of Bhopal, was found dead laying in a bed nearby with a belt right next to her. The initial thought by police is this was a mass murder, but after reading the last few entries of Lalit's final diary, they realized it wasn't. Lalit had convinced his family that just abiding by Bhopal's strict instructions that he gave them in the diary, that was not enough to save their souls. What they needed to do was participate in a ritual he was calling Vat Tapasya, which

means worship at the hanging roots of the banyan tree. Eight days before their bodies were found, the family who agreed to do this ritual began practicing for it, and every night they'd work on binding their hands and their feet and then unbinding themselves. And they would tie nooses and put it around their neck and they would tighten them. And then they'd loosen them and take them off and they'd do it to each other until they were very good at doing all of those things. The day before their bodies were found, the family performed what's called a hawan, which is a ceremony of burnt offerings. And then afterwards they ordered food and then tied their dog up outside. At 10 p.m., one of the grandchildren and her mother left the house and went to a store and then were caught on camera walking back to the house carrying these

black stools that they would later use in the ritual. Just after midnight, it was time for the family to get in position. The parents helped their children put on their bindings, they got them up on their stool, and they put their nooses around their neck and cinched it down tight and told them to wait. And then afterwards they did the same thing to themselves. At this point Lalit's mother most likely realized she was not able to climb up onto the stool because she was hurting or she was tired, and so a decision was made to move her into the bedroom. And so she, along with Lalit and Lalit's wife, Tina, walked into the bedroom. And once she was laying down on the bed, Lalit put a belt around her neck.

And then he and Tina pulled on it until his mother went still. And then afterwards, he took the belt off, put it next to her. And then Lalit and Tina casually walked back towards the front hallway, where the eight other family members were now in position. They're blindfolded with cotton in their ear. They have their noose on. They're just waiting. And Lalit and Tina walk around the room, kicking their stools out from underneath them. And while their family slowly asphyxiates all around them, Lalit and Tina bind up their wrists and their ankles. They get on their stool. They blindfold themselves. They tape their mouth. They put cotton in their

ears. They put their nooses on. They cinch them down, and then they both jump. The very last line in the final diary that Lalit kept, it says, keep water in a cup. I will appear and save when color changes. This ritual was supposed to allow the family to see Bhopal in person. Lalit told them that as soon as they were hanging, the skies would open up, the earth would tremble, and Bhopal would walk right into the room and save them from their death. And they were going to be able to prove that he was there, because not only would they have lived through this ritual, but also Bhopal was going to change the color of the water in the cup that was left out near their bodies. The family had even left the front door unlocked to make it even easier for Bhopal to come in and save them. The Chandawatts were not committing suicide.

They believed they were going to survive this ritual. This is why, just two days earlier, at that dinner with the neighbor, they were eagerly talking about this wedding that was off in the future they were planning because they believed they would get to attend it, even though they knew in two days they'd be performing this thought-to-passure ritual. Ultimately, investigators closed the case as a mass suicide, citing the cause as shared delusion. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast. If you got something out of this episode and you haven't done this already, please invite the five-star review button to come over to your house to play Call of Duty,

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