MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - Defies Explanation Vol. II

Episode Date: June 18, 2026

Today’s podcast will feature 2 stories about unexplainable phenomena. The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast. Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos: #2 -- "Two Faced" -- A man is filled with a deep sense of foreboding after a ghastly sight in his mirror (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6m1ImVG1MQ) #1 -- "Make It Rain" -- An inmate has an incredibly weird ability (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXd2m_4oBuY)   You can WATCH all new & exclusive MrBallen podcast episodes on my YouTube channel, just called "MrBallen" - https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallen If 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 @mrballen Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today's podcast will feature two stories about unexplainable phenomena. The audio from both 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 Two-Faced, and it's about a man who's filled with this deep sense of foreboding after a ghastly sight in his mirror. And the second and final story you'll hear is called Make It Rain.

And it's about an inmate who has a truly unbelievable, ability. 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 place because that's all we do, and we upload two, three, even four times every week. So, if that's of interest to you, please invite the follow button to come with you to a big costume party. But don't tell them, you're actually going to a funeral. Okay, let's get into our first story called Two-Faced. On the night of November 7, 1860, a 51-year-old American politician walked inside of his modest two-story home in Springfield, Illinois. This politician was totally exhausted, but he was also really happy because in his hand he had a telegram that confirmed he had won an election that he had worked so hard for and he wasn't sure he was going to get.

And so earlier that night, this politician had been out basically partying and celebrating this huge victory. But now he was totally beat and ready for bed. Once the politician was inside his house, he picked up an oil lamp to light the way, and he walked through his house to his study where he put the lamp down on his desk, he put the telegram saying he had won the selection next to the lamp, and then the politician just collapsed into his sofa to fall asleep. But before he closed his eyes, this politician looked over at a mirror on the wall, and what he saw in the mirror made him gasp, and he sat upright and looked at it,

like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. In this mirror, this politician was seeing his own face, reflected as it should be, but then next to it was another face, and it was not his. It kind of looked like him, but it actually looked more like a corpse, like a dead person was looking out at him from this mirror. And so the politician, he stood up and began walking over to the mirror to get a closer look, but as he got closer, the dead person's face disappeared and all was left was his own reflection. And so he's like, okay, I must have been dreaming that, you know, that can't have been real.

And so feeling very unsettled, this politician just went back over to the couch, and he laid back down thinking, okay, just forget about that, go to sleep. But again, he glanced over at the mirror, and now that he was laying down again, he saw the two faces again, his own and this dead person's face, and at this point he stood up and rushed out of the room into his bedroom where his wife was. Now, his wife was a very devoted spiritualist, and so the politician thought maybe he could tell her about what he saw in the mirror, and she could interpret it and tell him what it meant. And so he sat down and he told his wife about what he had just seen, and she would sit there for a minute pondering what her husband had just said, and then her expression on her face just totally changed.

She went from intrigued to very upset, and in a quivering voice, she would tell her husband that what this meant was he would serve honorably in the office that he had just been elected to for one term. He would get re-elected, but he would not survive the second term. Now, when the politician heard this, he immediately rejected it. And he said to his wife, you know, there's no way that's true. You know, I probably didn't even see a face in the mirror. I'm probably just so tired I imagined what I saw. So let's just forget about it. But his wife was not consoled and she fell into his arm sobbing

as if he had just been diagnosed with some fatal illness. And over the next several days and weeks and months, this politician's wife continued to be so upset about this potential death omen that the politician had apparently had, even though again the politician is constantly telling his wife, come on, like, there's no way that's actually going to happen. And sure enough, over time, the politician's wife did sort of stop being so scared all the time that her husband was going to die, and the politician himself, he just kind of forgot about what he had seen in the mirror that night.

So he would go on to serve his first term in this elected office, he would be re-elected for a second term, and then during his second term, on April 14, 1865, this politician and his wife were out at a play in Washington, D.C., and during the last act of the play, a man named John Wilkes Booth famously snuck up behind Abraham Lincoln, who was this elected politician, he was the president of the United States, in his second term, and John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln in the back of the head, killing him. And so Abraham Lincoln would indeed not survive his second term, just like the mirror death omen had predicted.

The next and final story of today's episode is called Make It Rain. On February 24th, 1983, a 21-year-old man named Don Decker walked into a funeral home in the tiny rural town of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, where Don's grandfather's funeral was being helped. And as soon as Don walked inside, he saw his grandfather's casket open for viewing at the front of the room. And then he also saw lots of his family members and friends and friends of his grandfather kind of kneeled around the casket and sitting in the front seats of this funeral home. And everybody is quietly crying and kind of consoling each other. But Don, you know, he walks in and he doesn't talk to anybody in his family, doesn't talk to any of the friends, he doesn't go up to his grandfather's casket. Instead, Don sat down in the very last row of seats, he folded his arms and just scowled angrily as he looked around the room. Unlike everybody else inside of this funeral home, Don was not remotely sad.

He was instead just totally angry. In fact, as he was sitting there, he was clenching his fists so hard out of fury that his fingernails were practically cutting into his skin. Don had come to this funeral home directly from the Monroe County Correctional Facility where he was serving a four to 12 months sentence for receiving stolen property. The jail had granted Don a furlough, which is a temporary leave of absence, so he could go to his grandfather's funeral. And Don had jumped at the opportunity, mostly just to get out of jail for a minute, but now that he was actually at the funeral, he kind of regretted going.

Eventually, the actual funeral began, and one by one, Don's family members would go up to the podium and say something nice about the grandfather and then sit back down. And at first, Don, you know, he put up with it. But after a couple people had spoken, Don was just livid. He just couldn't hear any more. And so he tried to focus his attention just on his grandfather's casket, where he could literally see his grandfather's face as he was laying there. And as he was staring at his grandfather's face, suddenly Don saw something and he stood up really suddenly in his seat. And in fact, when he stood up, it immediately caught the attention of the speaker, which was Don's cousin and the cousin just stopped and stared at Don and at that point the rest of the people

in the funeral also turned around and looked at Don and Don he knew people were looking at him but he didn't care anymore. He was now so focused on his grandfather because a second ago he could have sworn he saw his grandfather's lips moving like he was still alive. But as Don continued to stare at his grandfather expecting his lips to move again, they didn't and so finally Don didn't say a word to all these people who were still staring at him and he just turned and stalked out of the funeral home. Once Don was outside, he thought for a second about heading to the home where he knew his whole family would be going after the funeral, but Don just could not face being around that crowd again, and so instead he headed to his friend's home. It was this couple named Bob and Jeannie Kie

Kiefer, and the reason Don wanted to see them is he knew they were just kind of laid back people who would not ask him a lot of questions, and they would just kind of let him have some peace and quiet. And really all Don wanted between now and two days from now when he had to go back to jail when his furlough ended was just to have some peace and quiet. And so Don made his way to their house and when he got there, Bob and Jeannie were so excited to see him. They called him inside and said, hey, you know, we're going to make dinner, you know, go wash up and relax and we'll eat together. Don didn't say much, but, you know, he nodded a thank you, he went inside. And right away, he went upstairs to the bathroom and splashed some cold water on his face because still, you know, Don just could not shake that anger he was feeling when he was inside the funeral home. And for a second, the splashing of water

on his face seemed to be working. He felt like his whole body was getting cooler. In fact, the whole bathroom seemed to have this coolness descend on it. But a weird thing started to happen. You know, Don, as he's feeling this kind of cool come over him, he realized it was actually getting so cold in the bathroom, literally, like physically cold in the bathroom, that it was becoming uncomfortable, like he was cold. And then when Don just happened to look up at the mirror, right in front of him, he could have sworn for a second he saw on the edge of the mirror the face of an old man wearing a gold crown. And immediately Don, he kind of freaked out and turned around, but there was nothing there. And as he's like shivering from the cold from being in this bathroom, he began looking all around him,

you know, trying to find this old man with a crown on his head, but obviously there was nothing in the bathroom with him. And so Don felt totally unsettled by this. He didn't understand why it was so cold. He didn't know what he had just seen. And then, Don happened to look down to look down his wrists and he saw there were these deep scratches all over both of his wrists and so kind of in a panic Don just rolled his sleeves down to cover up whatever was on his wrists he didn't want to think about it he turned off the water and sprinted out of that freezing cold bathroom and just made his way downstairs where Bob and Jeannie were just sitting down for dinner so Don he took his seat he got his food and he didn't tell Bob or Jeannie about anything that had just happened up in the bathroom he just sat there and

ate in silence. Now, Bob and Jeannie could clearly tell something was on Don's mind, but they'd known him for years, and they knew he was just not the type to come out and talk about anything personal. He basically completely kept to himself, and then when he spoke, he was kind of oddly flat and monotone and emotionless. You know, that was just who he was. But, you know, he didn't cause any problems. He was a very nice guy. And so, for this entire meal, Bob and Jeannie just kind of looked at Don, but didn't ask him any questions and just let him eat in peace. After the trio was done eating, Jeannie gathered up their dishes and headed to the kitchen to wash up, and Bob and Don headed to the living room where they sat down and Bob turned on the TV,

and for a few minutes the two friends just watched TV. But at some point, Bob realized when he looked over at Dawn that Don was not really looking at the TV. He was actually looking down at the ground. It was like he was just sitting there motionless, just staring off into space. And Bob thought to himself, wow, you know, Don must be catatonic with grief here from losing his grandfather. But Bob, you know, You know, he felt really bad for Don, but he had no idea what to say to him. He knew Dawn was not about to launch into some deep story about how he was feeling. And so Bob just sat there and said nothing, hoping that, you know, just his physical presence next to Dawn was comforting in some way to Dawn during this really difficult time.

And so a few minutes goes by and the two men are still silently sitting in their seats when Bob begins to hear what sounds like running water. And at first, he looked over at Dawn thinking maybe Dawn had spilled a drink on the ground, but Dawn. but Don didn't have a drink. Dawn was still just sitting there, catatonic, staring at the ground in front of him. And then, you know, Bobby turned and looked towards the kitchen thinking maybe Jeannie had spilled a drink. But she didn't appear to have done that. And then Bob felt a drop of water land on his head. And so he looked up and he saw water was coming through the ceiling.

And so right away Bob stood up and he yelled to his wife that a pipe it burst. And then Bob, he grabbed his phone and he called his landlord who lived right nearby and said, you've got to get over here. You know, there's a pipe that's burst in your house. And just a couple of minutes later, the landlord and his wife arrived at the house. The landlord ran inside and he and Bob rushed upstairs to try to find the origin of this leak. And when they got up there, they looked everywhere and there was no obvious sign of where water could be leaking from. The toilet wasn't overflowing, neither was the sink.

You know, they couldn't hear the sound of running water anywhere. And then they also realized as they're walking around upstairs that where the leak was coming through the ceiling above the living room, They went to that rough area above the living room, and the landlord was like, there's no plumbing over this area. There should be absolutely no water anywhere near where the water was coming through. And so Bob and the landlord were very confused, and they began walking downstairs to try to figure out what else they could do, and when they walked downstairs, two things happened very quickly. The first was, as they came down the stairs, they were entering the living room,

where the leak had originally been noticed. And when they walked back into the living room, they saw right away that this leak had grown, and it was now not just coming out of the ceiling of the living room, but it was also now leaking out of the walls of the living room. Basically, all the different walls and surfaces in the living room were leaking water. And then the second thing they noticed was Dawn. Dawn was still sitting on the couch, still just totally catatonic, staring at the ground, not doing anything, which made no sense.

Everybody else in the house is running around trying to figure out this leak, And there's Don just staring at the ground. And so Bob, who at this point is pretty overwhelmed with what's happening here, but he thought, I got to make sure Don's okay. And so he just walked through the leaking living room right over to Dawn, and he said, Don, are you okay? And Don, he didn't say anything, he didn't move, but his mouth kind of contorted into this weird smile with his lips

kind of pulling away from his teeth, and all the tendons on the top of his hands began to tense as he wiggled his fingers. And Bob, at this point, he realized there's something wrong with Don, and they needed to call the police. A couple of minutes later, two police officers named John Bosion and Richard Wolbert, arrived at Bob and Jeannie's house. And so they came inside, and Bob quickly tried to explain what was going on.

But John and Richard, I mean, they walked inside and immediately saw, okay, something totally weird is happening here, because they looked into the living room, and they saw water coming down from the ceiling, coming out of the walls, it was even bubbling up all over the floor, and in the middle of all this chaos was one person. Don, who's just sitting there totally erect, not moving, wiggling his fingers with this weird expression on his face, and the police very quickly said to Bob that, we don't know what this is.

We don't even know how to help, so we're going to get our police chief. And as soon as those officers left, it was like Bob, Jeannie, the landlord, the landlord's wife, they were now scared to be in this house. Before, it was just baffling. But now, with Don sitting there tapping his fingers with that weird grimace on his face and water coming out of everywhere for no reason, it was like terrifying. And so the four of them just kind of huddled in the dining room, staring at dawn and the living room, until finally the two officers came back with their police chief. But once the chief came inside, things did not get any better. Because the chief walked inside and he saw how totally weird this was,

but his reaction was, this is not a police problem. You clearly have some sort of totally weird plumbing issue that seems very extensive, and your friend, he seems okay, he's just acting really weird. And so the chief told his two officers, John and Richard to not talk about what they saw in this house and just leave, don't report it, get out of here, we're done with this. And just like that, John, Richard, the police chief, they said, okay, guys, your problem, and they left. And then Bob and Jeannie's landlord was like, okay, we're going to get a plumber over here right away, you know, and you can deal with this. And then they left. And so Bob and Jeannie at this point are totally unsettled, and they just stood in the dining room, staring over at the living room where Don was just sitting there, tapping his fingers,

you know, water's leaking all around him. And then finally, a plumber came to the house, and they searched the whole house, and they could not find anywhere where there was a leak. It literally didn't make sense that the living room was still leaking water. And so Bob, you know, he contacted his landlord and said, you know, what do you want me to do? And the landlord said, you know what? I don't know. We'll send out more plumbers tomorrow.

We'll figure it out. And so Bob and Jeannie, they just put out as many towels and blankets as they could all over the living room, doing their best to kind of soft up the water. The whole time they're glancing over at dawn. who's still not moving, tapping his fingers sitting on the couch. And then finally, after Bob and Jeannie had exhausted their towel and blanket supply trying to sop up all this water, they're like, you know, what can we even do? It's still leaking.

We can't stop it. We don't know what's going on with Dawn. And so the couple just sat in the dining room, staring into the living room, basically at Dawn, just kind of waiting for him to maybe break out of his trance. And eventually, Don would, you know, break out of his trance, kind of. Instead of, you know, suddenly standing up and talking to Bob and Jeannie, he just eventually kind of dozed off, still in the upright sitting position. And so at this point, Bob walked over to Don just to check on him and make sure he was breathing and that he was okay. And so he checked and,

you know, he was, you know, Don was okay. But Bob noticed that on Don's neck were all these dark red scratches and marks, like someone had been strangling him. And then also on the inside of Don's collar was a little bit of blood. And so Bob, you know, he calls over Jeannie and he's like, what do you make of this? And she's like, I don't know. This whole thing. I don't know. I don't know. what's going on here. And so the couple decided they would just go to bed. You know, Don seems like he's okay. He's sleeping on the couch. You know, we can't fix the water, so that's all we can do. And so the couple, they went upstairs, they went to bed. And the next morning, when they came back down, the living room was still leaking, and Don was wide awake again, back in that sitting position,

tapping his fingers with this bizarre grimace on his face. And all day that day, and all day the next day, that's where Don would stay, in that position, only stopping to fall asleep, still in that position. And over those two days, all these plumbers and different people came over the house, and nobody could figure out where this leak was coming from, and so the water just continued to pool inside of the living room. And then finally, on February 26th, so two days after Don had arrived at Bob and Jeannie's house, Don suddenly stood up. He didn't say word to Bob or Jeannie. He just walked out the house. And as soon as he did, all the water that was leaking out of the ceiling and the walls stopped. Don would go back to prison, and when he walked into his cell, his cellmate took one look at

Don, and apparently the look on Don's face was so unsettling that the cellmate immediately called over one of the guards and said, you've got to get me out of the cell. I can't be in here with this guy. And so this cellmate and the guard, they both turned and looked at Don, and Don, he was at the back of the cell and he was facing both of them. And when they looked at Dawn, that totally weird grimace came across his face, the same one he had on as he sat in Bob and Jeannie's house for those two days. It was the same expression. And with that expression on his face, in this totally creepy kind of hollow voice, he says to the two men, I can make it rain. Now, the cellmate was terrified of Don and was practically screaming for the guard to let him leave the cell. But the guard, who was definitely

unsettled by Don and his behavior, he was less scared and more just kind of intrigued with what Don had just said, and he said, okay, Don, if you can make it rain, then, uh, why don't you make it rain in the warden's office? And after the guard said this, Don's expression, that kind of creepy, weird smile he had, it grew larger and larger until he had this totally bizarre smile on his face, exposing all of his teeth. At this point, the guard now felt totally terrified of Don and understood why the cellmate was so scared of him. And kind of instinctively, the guard just turned and ran into the warden's office to tell the warden what was going on with this guy.

But when he got into the warden's office, he looked at the warden, Dave Keenhold was his name, and he was sitting at his desk doing some paperwork. And Dave looked up at the guard, and the guard realized on Dave's chest, his shirt. There was this wet spot that was growing slowly all over his chest. And it was almost like the warden didn't realize it was happening. And so Dave looks up at the guard and he's like, what? what's going on. And the guard, he just points at Dave's chest and says, look, look! And so the guard told the warden about what he had just witnessed in the jail cell and how he had kind of jokingly told Don to make it rain

in the warden's office and now there's this wet patch on your shirt. You know, what's going on here? And the warden, you know, he looked down and he was just as caught off guard by this wet spot on his shirt. And so he leapt up and he and the guard ran back to Don's jail cell. And when they got there, they couldn't believe what they saw. Water was pouring out of the ceiling. It was coming out of the ground. Even the bars were leaking water. And there was Don in the back of the jail cell, standing there with that terrible smile on his face, and his fingers were contorting,

all the tendons were all tight in his hand, and his cellmate was practically crying, huddled in the corner. And so right away, Warden Keenhold moved the cellmate out of that cell, put him in another cell, and then shut the cell where Dawn was, and then the warden called a plumber to come out here and stop this leak from wherever it was coming from. But the plumber came to the jail,

and no matter where he looked, He could not find anything that would cause this leak inside of this jail cell. It just didn't make sense. And in fact, the plumber was so scared of Don, who the whole time this inspection is happening, he's standing in the back, wiggling his fingers with this bizarre look on his face, the plumber was so scared of Don that after he told the warden that he couldn't find a leak, he just left without even being paid. He just had to get away from Dawn.

Now, Warden Keenhold had no idea what was happening with Don, but he could tell it was well beyond his own expertise. and frankly, he had no idea who he should call about what was going on. And so he just called the jail's minister and asked him to come over and see what was going on. But when the Reverend got there and saw Dawn and saw all the water in the cell, he too had no idea what to do. But when the Reverend walked up to the bars to get a closer look at Don, Dawn began to move in the cell as well towards the Reverend.

And Don, he would stop about halfway through the cell. And when he did, the Reverend stopped as well. And they were kind of looking at each other. and then Don, he raised up his right arm into the air. And when he did, more and more water began pouring into the cell, and also this terrible rotting smell filled the entire jail. It smelled like death. And the reverend, he was horrified by it,

and Don, he was just grinning with his arm up. And then he brought his arm down and began rubbing his hands together and just staring at the reverend. At this point, the reverend grabbed his Bible and began reading passages, accusing Don of being possessed by Satan, and he was reading all these passages from the Bible to try to banish this evil spirit from Dawn. And then suddenly, Dawn just let out this horrible, guttural scream that was so loud.

The Reverend had to stop and cover his ears, and so did the warden and the guard and the cellmate. And then after he let out this horrible scream, it was like Don snapped back to reality, and he just collapsed on the ground and began sobbing. It would take Don a long time to finally open up about what the heck had just happened to him, but he would eventually open up to his friends, Bob and Jeannie. And while his explanation for what he went through did explain some aspects of what occurred between February 24th and 26th of 1983, it did not explain everything. Don and his grandfather had been very close.

However, when Don was just seven years old, his grandfather began abusing him physically. Don had kept the violence a secret for his entire life, but he had come to view his grandfather as the human embodiment of evil. And so when his grandfather passed away, Don frankly was relieved to find out his grandfather was dead. But when he went to the funeral and he saw all of his loved ones talking about his grandfather as being this incredible person so loving, so kind, it totally infuriated Don. And as he felt this anger growing inside of him, Don could have sworn he saw his dead grandfather's lips move. And at the time, Don had no idea what to make of it, but he would later say that he believes that was the moment that his evil grandfather's spirit basically possessed him. And Don would say when he got to Bob and Jeannie's house, he began to feel like there was something wrong with him, but he couldn't stop

whatever it was. It was like there was somebody else in his brain making him do and say things that he didn't want to do, but he just couldn't stop it. And so he had gone upstairs to the bathroom in Bob and Jeannie's house, hoping to splash some water on his face and make himself feel better. And that was when he saw that old man's face, well, that face was his grandfather's face, he was wearing that crown, and Don would say he thinks the reason he was wearing a crown is because it signified he had all the power over Don. And then also Don had those scratches on his wrists, which he thought was his grandfather as well.

He went downstairs and tried to tell himself that everything was okay. But after Don sat down on the couch, he said he couldn't move anymore. It was like his grandfather had totally took over and he locked him on the couch with that bizarre contorted expression and he kept moving Don's hands around. and then obviously the water began leaking in the room for no reason, which Don says was entirely his grandfather. He was just trying to scare all of Don's friends and Don himself. It was his way of tormenting Don a little bit more.

And then again, at the jail, when the same scene kind of unfolded, Don believed it was his evil grandfather inflicting just a little bit more pain and torment. For almost a decade after this happened, everybody involved in this didn't really talk about it publicly, Especially the police and the jailers, they did not talk about what they witnessed because they were worried talking about it publicly would make them look like crazy people and they'd get fired. But eventually in the 90s, nine people, including four police officers and the jail warden, would officially go on the record and testify to what they saw happening. And it would include Dawn seeming totally deranged and in a trance-like state as water just poured into these rooms that he was in. To this day, we do not have an explanation for what happened to Don.

The only explanation that seems to make sense is that Don really was possessed by his evil grandfather. Also, it should be noted that Don never made it rain again. The only times that happened were in Bob and Jeannie's house and in that jail cell from February 24th to February 26th, 1983. After that, Don lived a totally normal life. A quick note about our stories. They are all based on true events. But we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved,

and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes. The Mr. Ballin podcast, Strange, Dark and Mysterious Stories, is hosted and executive produced by me, Mr. Ballin. Our head of writing is Evan Allen, produced by Jeremy Bone and Cole Ocasio, research and fact-checking by Shelley Shoe, Samantha Van Hoose, Evan Beamer, Abigail Schumway, Camille Callahan, Alex Paul, Ben Fasiano. Research and fact-checking supervision by Stephen Ear. Audio editing and post-produced by Whit Lacosio and Jordan Stidham.

Production support by Antonio Manada and Delana Corley. Artwork by Jessica Clogston Kiner, theme song Something Wicked by Ross Bugden. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast. And just a reminder, every new and exclusive episode we put out on the Mr. Ballin podcast, you can also now watch on the Mr. Ballin YouTube channel that very same day. And trust me, some of these stories you truly have to see to believe. Again, my YouTube channel is just called Mr. Ballin. If you want to listen to episodes one week early and ad free,

you can subscribe to SiriusXM Podcast Plus on Apple Podcasts or visit seriousxm.com slash podcast plus to listen with Spotify or another app of your choice. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see you.