MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - The Best Laid Plans (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

Today’s stories are about people who try to control fate… and end up causing historic levels of destruction. You can WATCH all new & exclusive MrBallen podcast episodes on my 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 @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 stories are about real people who try to control fate. And what they end up doing is just causing historic levels of destruction. 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 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 offer to rearrange the Follow Button's pantry. But instead of actually doing that, just remove all the labels from their canned goods. Okay, let's get into our first story, which is called The Inn. On the morning of June 26, 1826, 1826,

38-year-old Samuel Willie Jr., stepped out of his house in a remote area of New Hampshire's White Mountain Range called The Notch. His wife, Polly, was at his side, and together, they looked around in shock because the land surrounding their home was almost completely destroyed. There had been a huge storm the previous previous night, and so Sam and Polly had been expecting some damage. But what they were seeing now was far worse than they had imagined. The heavy rain had caused the river in front of their home to completely overflow, so half of their property was now completely submerged in water. The deluge had also triggered a rock slide from one side of the mountain slopes behind them,

so there were also rocks and mud and entire trees that were now kind of littering their yard and adjacent fields. Sam saw, luckily, the slide had missed their house, and the slide had missed their house in the barn where they kept their livestock, but only barely. And there was damage to those structures from the storm itself that he would have to repair. So Sam began calculating how much time and money it was going to take to clean all this up. And next to him, he heard Polly kind of mumbled to herself that this had all been a really bad idea. Sam sighed because he knew that Polly was referring to their decision to move to the notch in the first place. And right now, staring at all this awful destruction right in front of him, he had to agree with her. This might have been a terrible idea.

So up until about a year ago, Sam and Polly and their five kids had lived on a farm about 20 miles away from where they were right now, and it had been a very quiet, cozy life. But Sam had always had this feeling that he wanted to do something more exciting than just be a regular old farmer. And with this house in The Notch, he'd seen an opportunity for adventure and also an opportunity to make some money. So in this part of the White Mountain Range, there was a 12-mile-long road that cut through the range from one side to the other,

and the notch house was right in the middle of that road. But since this was the year 1826, this road was more like a glorified trail. It was mountainous and rocky, and neither horses nor wagons could make it all the way through. So as a result, travelers were typically on foot, and there was literally nowhere to stop on this whole 12-mile road, except for the Willys Natch House. So Sam had realized how valuable

this Natch house could be if he converted it into an inn. But he also had bigger aspirations for the place, like beyond it just being a pit stop. He wanted to turn it into a destination. After all, the White Mountains were incredibly beautiful, and where the Willys lived in the notch was no exception. Their house was right on a riverbank in a mountain valley, surrounded on all sides by the woods and towering, mist-covered peaks. It was all honestly breathtaking. And as soon as Sam had seen it, he knew that it could be a famous destination for poets and authors and artists. Because it was the kind of place people would write songs and books about. I mean, it was perfect.

But so far, his dream, you know, of coming out here to the notch house had been a lot of work. The house was large, but really old. and it had been abandoned for a while before he and his family got there, so it was in really bad shape and quite dilapidated. Sam had hired two men to live on the property and help him fix it up, and they'd already done some work to expand the house and the barn to accommodate more travelers, but Sam knew he still had a lot to do before the notch house became some kind of artist's retreat. And now, with this extensive damage from the most recent storm,

he had even more things to fix, which he also had to admit was actually the least of his problems. because as he and his wife Polly looked around at the aftermath of the storm, he knew, really, he was lucky that their house was even still standing, and that he and his family were even still alive. I mean, that storm was catastrophic. And as Sam thought about how close they'd come to death, his heart began to race. I mean, he wondered if Polly was right,

and they should really, at this point, just pack the family up and go back to simple farming because it was safer. But leaving meant sort of admitting failure. This big dream would be over. There would be no artist's retreat, no tourist mecca. You know, he would not be some creative benefactor. He'd just be a farmer. So he took a deep breath and then he asked his wife to please give this place one more chance.

He promised he would do everything he possibly could to not just repair the property, but also make it safe and secure so it could withstand whatever the mountain threw at them. And Polly hesitated, but ultimately she believed in her husband and she nodded in agreement. For the next two months, Sam and his two hired workers worked practically around the clock repairing the damage from the storm. They fixed up windows and shingles and cleared away all the debris, which took forever. And then once all the repairs were done, Sam continued working, but now he focused on improving the property. As the weeks passed by, he worked very hard to build his family a very secure home so they'd be much safer against future storms. He reinforced walls and built a

a whole new roof and mapped out disaster scenarios so that he and his family would always be prepared. One disaster scenario that he was especially concerned about was the large boulder that was right behind their house. He was worried that if there was another big rock slide, that boulder might just topple onto them and crush them. And he and his workers soon realized that they couldn't actually move the boulder. It was just way too big. But in the end, they found a very creative way to make sure it would not be dangerous. And while Sam did all this work, he started to feel a lot better about everything. Each security measure he put in place was proof that he didn't have to sacrifice his ambitions

for his family's safety. He could have both. A few weeks later, on the night of August 28th, Sam Willie stood by a downstairs window watching another wild storm rage outside. Heavy rain pummeled the glass and Sam could hear powerful wind battering the sides of the house. It was pitch blackout, but every now and this, then there was a burst of lightning that would light the whole valley up for a few seconds before it went dark again. Each time this happened, a crash of thunder would follow that was so loud, it shook the house down to its foundation. Behind Sam, Polly, along with their five kids and the two men that were working on the property, were all sitting at the kitchen table.

And Polly and the kids in particular were very scared, and the whole group were reading Bible verses, you know, in these kind of frantic hushed tones. They were trying to will the storm to be over and to cling on to their faith to pray that they'd be okay. Sam could hear the fear in his wife's voice, and he really couldn't blame her, because this was quite possibly the strongest storm that either of them had ever seen out here. It was even bigger than that one that completely destroyed their property over the summer. The rain seemed impossibly powerful, coming down so hard and so fast that the river had already overflowed. And each time there was a burst of lightning, Sam could see. the water levels were getting higher and higher almost by the second. And so Sam was admittedly quite

scared himself. He tried to keep that in, but his heart was racing and he was really anxious. But he told himself that this was the moment he'd prepared for all summer long. I mean, this was it. He had done so much work to make sure this was a safe place during storms. And he felt like they'd be okay. But at the same time, the deafening sounds outside and the terrified voices of Polly and his kids were making it really hard to believe that was actually true, that they were really okay here. So for a little while, Sam just kept looking out the window, listening to his family behind him, but then eventually he turned around, and as calm as he could, he told them all to go to bed. It was going to be fine. He would stay up and keep watch.

Polly, who was visibly still very scared, nodded and got up and went off with the kids. And for the next few hours, Sam stayed at his post by the window and watched the storm. And for the most part, there wasn't a whole lot of drama. I mean, it was very loud and windy. It was obvious. The river was flooding. I mean, there was going to be damaged tomorrow. But Sam was thinking that, you know, maybe we're going to get through this thing.

But a little after midnight, Sam heard this sudden, extremely loud, banging sound outside. And he froze. Because he knew it was not thunder. It sounded more like an explosion. Almost immediately, Sam knew what it had to have been. The barn must have collapsed. and thinking that this storm had just taken out an entire building that he had reinforced for a storm turned Sam's worry into outright panic.

And so Sam screams for his wife and the workers and his kids to wake up that it's not safe. Get away from the windows. We have to find cover. And so for the next few seconds, the family and the workers, everyone's frantically scrambling around trying to find a safe spot, but they don't know where it is. But as they're sort of navigating trying to find the right place, to go to weather the storm, Sam heard an even louder bang, and then there were screams all around him, and then he felt himself go airborne as a heavy object slammed into his back.

The following evening, an exhausted traveler named John Barker walked down that road in the direction of the notch house where the Willys lived. So John was a merchant, and he was passing through the White Mountains on his way home after a business trip. And he had made this trip many times before. he knew the road, but the road currently was flooded and there was rock slides and damage everywhere, so it was quite slow going and pretty miserable. But he knew at the halfway point was this house, the notch house, where Sam Willie and his family lived and they were looking to convert their house into an inn for travelers. And even though it wasn't fully established yet, John knew he could very likely get into that house, have a hot meal, rest a little bit before he made the rest of his journey.

But when he finally rounded the corner into the valley where the house was, was. He just froze because the area was a complete disaster. The river had clearly completely flooded and now half the land in front of him was just underwater. There had also been clearly a huge rock slide. The barn was only half standing and the field in front of the Willys was completely buried in rocks and mountain debris. But the truly astonishing thing was that in the middle of all this destruction and ruin, the Willys' house was still standing. And as John maneuvered his way closer to it, he realized it was more than just intact. The house was pristine. There wasn't a single thing broken or out of place, not even a window.

Relieved and a little amazed, John hurried right up to the entrance and knocked. But no one answered. So eventually he just opened the door and poked his head in and called out to Sam. But he didn't hear anything. No sound of a reply and nobody moving around inside. So John tentatively stepped all the way into the house and just kept calling out to the family as he walked from room to room. But he quickly realized the house was completely empty. It was also a mess. There were clothes scattered all over the floor and beds and sheets had been yanked around and were messy and the Bible was wide open on the kitchen table. John stood in the middle of the home trying to work out what could have happened here. The mess suggested that, you know, clearly the family had been

here somewhat recently, but had left in a hurry. So John guessed, they must have gone down the mountain to wait out the storm somewhere else, either at a neighbor's or the tavern miles away at the end of the road. And since the Willies were not here to allow him to stay, John needed to figure out what he was going to do. I mean, he didn't really like the idea of still sleeping in the home without them here. But he really had nowhere else to go. And it was almost nighttime,

and he could barely manage the ruin road during the daylight, let alone during the dark. So even though he felt kind of bad about it, he picked to bed and tried to get some rest. But just as he began to drift off, he heard a deep, guttural moaning sound coming from somewhere outside the house. John immediately woke up and rushed over to a window. But he couldn't see anything. Night came really fast in the White Mountains, and it was almost completely dark outside.

He waited to see if he would hear anything else, but he didn't. So he decided he must have imagined the sound and turned to go back to bed. But as he did, the moaning started again, and this time it was louder. gasped as a terrible thought occurred to him. He wondered if maybe the sound was one of the willies and that they hadn't actually left the property but were maybe outside, injured, or in trouble because of the storm. So John sprinted outside, but again, it was pitch black outside and he didn't have any kind of light to help guide his way. And so once he was out there, he just began shouting out, you know, calling out to whoever it was, asking if they needed help.

And eventually, the horrible moaning answered him. But the moaning kind of echoed all over the valley, so John couldn't pinpoint where it was actually coming from, other than it clearly being outside somewhere. After frantically looking around and not finding whoever it was, John realized that finding the injured person was going to be impossible right now. It was just too dark, and he would unfortunately have to wait until the morning. So, very reluctantly, John went back inside the house, and for hours he just sat in bed and listened to the moaning continue outside. Finally, in the morning, when the first bit of sun peaked over the mountain ridge, John hurried right outside to look around. And this time, he quickly found the source of that moaning sound.

It was one of the Willie's oxen, moaning in pain from being trapped under some debris near the ruins of their barn. John immediately rushed forward and began hauling the wooden planks and rocks off the ox, and after he had freed the animal, it amazingly staggered to its feet and hobbled away into the woods. It was basically okay. But after it was gone, John felt the source of the source of the sword. of sick uneasiness, even though the sound had been from an ox and he had saved it. He just felt like there was something wrong here, and so he decided that he had to go and see the willies with his own eyes just to make sure they really were okay. So even though it was

really early and John was still very tired, he immediately gathered up his things and set off down the road. Hours later, around noon that same day, John Barker finally staggered out of the mostly destroyed pass and made his way towards the tavern and the bottom of the road. When John stepped inside, he was exhausted, he was drenched, you know, from this awful journey he had just taken again on this road. But more than that, he was really worried about the Willys, because as he made that trip down the road, he saw neighbors' homes along the way and kind of expected to see the Willys in one of them. But no, the Willies were not in any of the neighbor's homes, and in fact, basically none of the neighbors were in their houses either.

They were all basically in this tavern. It was like everybody who was like everybody who was lived on this road had come to this tavern because of this storm. But when John looked around the tavern, he could tell the willies were not in there either. And this made John's stomach drop. Because if they weren't at their house, and they weren't in any of the neighbor's homes, and now they were not in this tavern with the rest of their neighbors, that had to mean something was wrong. And so John actually called out to the entire room and asked if anyone had seen the willies since the storm. And the tavern got really quiet, as its occupants all began looking around at each other, seeing if anybody had, but eventually everyone just shook their head

and said, no, we don't know where they are. And that's when John said to the crowd that, well, the Willys are missing. A few hours later, a 12-man search party left that tavern and headed right back up the road towards the notch. They were led by one of the Willie's neighbors, a man named Edward Melcher, who lived at the base of the mountain on a farm with his family. The recent storm had done quite a bit of damage to Edward's property. And so he and his family, like most other people that lived in this area, had gone to the tavern to seek shelter. Edward and his family, much like the Willys, were good people who were just trying to carve out a living in this part of the world. And there were not a lot of people doing that. I mean, this was a very small community. And so they

always helped each other out whenever they could. And so this was no exception. But as desperately as Edward and the rest of the search party wanted to get to the Willey's property and find these people, it took so long to navigate the road that by the time they actually got to the property, it was after midnight and really too dark to look for anything. So they just went right into the Willie's house to wait until morning. Once he was inside, Edward could see, you know, the home really was just as John described. You know, it was sort of a mess, but there was absolutely no damage to it from the storm. Edward had heard that Sam was really freaked out about a storm that they had earlier that summer,

and because of that storm and because of the damage it had done, he had gone way out of his way to really develop his property to prepare it for the next storm. And it seemed like all his preparations and reinforcements on his land had paid off because here his house was standing tall. But that was also kind of confusing. It's like, if you prepared this house for a storm and clearly it was able to withstand the storm, why did the willies leave? As Edward continued to walk around the house,

He saw that the willies Bible was still lying on the kitchen table wide open, and when he leaned over and read the passage that was on the page, he couldn't help but, you know, kind of shiver when he saw what it said. It said, The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the highest gave his voice, hailstones and coals of fire. Hours later, when the sun finally began to come up, Edward and the others went outside

and began searching the property for signs of the Willys. And over the next few hours, the original party of 12 grew as more and more people showed up to assist in the search. By this point, word had spread pretty far about the family's disappearance, and so residents from all over the White Mountains had come here to help. And eventually, hundreds of people were combing the mountainside to find the willies, or at least to find a clue about where they might have gone. At around noon, when still there had been nothing found,

Edward decided he would go search closer to the river, since by this point the water levels had gone down some. And when he got to the water's edge, he began to hear this strange buzzing sound. And so he followed it. And eventually, he saw something poking out from behind some debris. And when he saw what it was, Edward began to scream for help. So the thing that Sam Willie was most afraid of happening in a large storm was a rock slide, especially with that huge boulder positioned right behind his house.

But when Sam realized it was going to be impossible to move, said boulder, or otherwise shield his family from falling mountain rocks, he came up with a pretty creative solution. He built a whole second shelter that he and his family could run to if there was a bad storm. And when that second storm hit, you know, the one that had caused all this damage and had led to the Willie's disappearance, well, during that storm, Sam's screaming for his family to, you know, take cover, get away from the windows, you know, he's heard this crashing sound outside that he is convinced is the sound of his barn collapsing and, you know, his house is his name. Next, he's yelling for them to take cover. Well, the family listened to him and together they did seek

cover. They left the main house and went into that second shelter that they believed was better protected from a potential rock slide. But unfortunately, this would be a catastrophic mistake. Because that humongous boulder right behind the house was not actually a safety risk. In many ways, it was like a protective barrier. When there was an actual rock slide during this horrible storm, while the rubble actually piled up on the backside of that boulder and did not strike the house at all. And so, in essence, this boulder basically made the Willy's original home

the single safest place to be on the whole property. But unfortunately, Sam and his family did not stay there long enough to realize that. They ran out of the main house as a big group, and as soon as they were outside, they were overtaken by the rock slide and killed. Eventually, the residents of the White Mountains would find the family. The buzzing that Edward heard was actually a group of flies gathered around a single human hand reached out from underneath the rubble. Ultimately, because of this tragedy, the area became a famous tourist destination,

just like the Willys had hoped it would. People from all over the country heard about the family and what happened, and before long, artists and authors were coming to the White Mountains in droves to see the site of the tragedy. And some even wrote books about it. And so in a sort of cruel twist of fate, Sam's dream did come true, just not in the way he hoped. Our next story is called The Burning Room. On one of the last nights in December of 1678, Marie Boss sat at a large table at a friend's dinner party in the city of Paris, France. The table was crowded with other party guests, and they were all listening to Marie as she told story after story

about her life and her career. So Marie was a fortune teller, which meant, at least according to her, that she could read people's futures, usually by reading their palms or using crystals. And Marie was actually quite good at doing this in the sense that whenever she told someone what their future was going to be, she typically was right. Which was why, out of the 400-something fortune tellers in Paris at the time, she had some of the best. and most important clients in the whole city. People like royalty and wives of very high up government members and other very wealthy people of high society. And it was a big deal for Marie to even be in the same room as some of these kinds of people because she did not come for money. Actually, there was a time

where she almost had to live out on the streets because years ago when her husband died, she was left alone with her three kids and really no way to provide for them. But she'd worked very hard and actually ended up thriving. Her kids again. grown up and she turned her fortune-telling talents into a real business. She'd been so successful that she really was maybe about three clients away from being able to retire. And Murray was not one to just sit back and let those clients magically find her. She was a self-made woman and knew it was very important to go out and find those clients herself. And so that's why she was at this party now. It was being hosted by a friend of hers who was also in the fortune-telling scene,

and so many of the guests at this table were new potential clients that Marie really hoped to impress. So that's what Marie was trying to do now, to try to be very impressive. She was telling the other guests all these incredible tales about working with the rich and the famous. But the problem was, in addition to these fabulous stories she was telling, what was also coming through very clearly to the audience was that Marie was very drunk. So Marie was loud and talkative in general, and that extroverted attitude really helped her get clients typically. But when she got drunk, she was even more talkative than normal.

And sometimes it also made her a bit inappropriate. Right now, though, she felt like she was on a roll because her stories were drawing gasps and laughs and the guests were pushing her to tell them more and more. But there was at least one person in the crowd that seemed bothered by what Marie was saying, the hostess of the party. The hostess kept silently glaring at Marie from the other

end of the table. It was like she was silently trying to tell her to shut up. But Marie figured she knew why she was acting that way. I mean, the hostess was also a fortune teller, and so she must just be jealous. You know, Marie is getting all this attention and potential new clients. And this wasn't even her party. Like, she'd just got to be jealous. So Marie ignored the glares and just kept on talking until dinner was over. And then after that, the party ended and Marie staggered off to bed. When Marie woke up the next day, her head was absolutely pounding and her stomach was in knots. I mean, she was severely hung over from drinking the night before. She didn't remember a whole lot about what had happened the night before, but she did remember telling a lot of stories.

And she remembered that while she was telling these stories, the hostess was angrily glaring at her the whole time. And now that she was sober, a terrible thought popped into her head. She wondered if she'd said or done something that was embarrassing. You know, what if the table wasn't laughing with her? What if they were laughing at her? And what if, you know, the hostess glaring at her was some sort of signal to stop because she was hurting herself? And so this thought that, you know, somehow she had done real damage to her reputation,

her career, you know, from being too drunk, continued to weigh on her throughout the entire day and into the following evening until that night when she was in her kitchen making some dinner with her adult daughter and there was a knock at her door. Marie hurried to open it up, and when she did, she found a young woman standing on her front steps. The woman seemed incredibly nervous and kept fidgeting and smoothing her hair, and she told Marie that she had gotten her name from someone Marie had met at that dinner party and was hoping that Marie could help her. And when she heard this, Marie smiled and exhaled out all the tension she'd been holding up over the last day.

You know, this was a huge relief to Marie. It was proof that the dinner party had not been a total embarrassment, you know, despite the hostess glaring at her the whole time, that clearly, you know, here she is getting a new client. She must have impressed at least this woman and maybe there were more, like it had been a success. So very excitedly, she invited the young woman inside and led her to the area of her home where Marie conducted her business and read people's fortunes. This room had lots of strange objects placed all around it, like jars and crystals and bottles of potions and decks of cards to make the area feel mystical and authentic.

The two of them eventually sat down at Marie's small table in the middle of this room, and once they were sitting, the woman told Marie that she did want her fortune told, because she had a terribly abusive husband, and she wanted to know how much longer she would have to put up with this cruelty. This didn't surprise Marie. She'd seen a lot of nervous, frail women like this one, who were completely trapped in their marriages.

In France at this time, divorce wasn't even legal, which meant you were stuck with your boyfriend, partner, even if they were abusive. And so a lot of these women that were in this position turned to Marie, desperate to be told what the rest of their lives looked like, and if their lives would continue to be terrible and hard because of their partner. Marie knew that really what these women were looking for was control. They hoped that if they just knew what their future looked like, even if it was bad, they could somehow do something to change it. And so Marie, she reached out and she grabbed this woman's hand and she turned it around and she began to

study her palm. Marie was trying to get a sense of what the future held for this woman by reading her palm. And pretty soon, Marie got this feeling in her gut. She felt sure that this woman actually was going to be okay. And Marie told the woman that her husband's abuse would end soon. Then she gave her some tips on what to do in the meantime. The woman was visibly relieved and thanked Marie profusely. And then when she was gone, Marie smiled. Not just because she had helped this woman, but also because After this job, Marie would only need two more clients before she had enough money to retire. A few days later, on January 4th, Marie woke up to somebody banging on her door. She figured it must be a very desperate client, so she rolled out of bed and started walking to go answer it.

But before she could get there, the door flew open and the Parisian police poured inside. Marie staggered back and just stared at them in complete shock. She had no idea what they were doing there. but they immediately just grabbed her and said she was under arrest. Marie screamed in protest and said there had to be some mistake here. She hadn't done anything wrong. And when they didn't listen to her, she got furious and demanded to be released. She told them that she was Marie boss,

and she had friends in high places like Parliament and Noble Circles. They could vouch for her and say that she was an honest person who just worked hard and was good for her clients and good for the city. But as she was ranting and raving, one of the officers stepped in front of her, and without reacting to what she was saying, they just showed her an object that Marie instantly recognized as having come from her fortune-telling room. And at this, her heart sank and she stopped struggling. Because Marie knew that she was now in very, very big trouble. And if she was in trouble, then so were many, many other people in Paris.

After Marie was arrested, she was brought to a prison in Paris called the Bastille. where she was interrogated by torture. And since Marie was already a talker, she quickly told the police everything they wanted to know. And after Marie did that, all hell broke loose. Hordes of police officers fanned out through the whole city, charging into homes and businesses all around Paris, arresting civilians, business owners, and housewives. Then they flooded the hall of the city's government and demanded high-ranking officials in parliament surrender their wives to authorities, throwing the Parisian government into absolute case.

And even after all of that, the authorities still weren't finished. They left the city and began forcing the French nobility out of their castles to go face charges in the city. Months turned into years and the arrests continued to pile up and each one was more shocking than the last, until the investigation led authorities to the actual royal palace in Paris and to the king's favorite mistress. By the time the police finished their investigation, hundreds of people all across France ranging from commoners to literal royalty were either facing charges or sitting in jail cells. And screams filled the halls of these prisons as the arrested were tortured for whatever information they might have. Scores of people fled the country. And then eventually, all around Paris,

these enormous pyres were built in the public squares. And one by one, dozens and dozens of people were led out to these pires, strapped to the poles in the middle of them, and then burned to death in front of thousands of Parisian spectators. And it was all because of Marie. So Marie Boss was not just a fortune teller. She made her real money by making and selling poison. And it would turn out that she was not the only one. In fact, at the time, you could say Paris basically ran on poison. Since the late 1660s, according to one estimate, around half of the people who lived in that city from housewives to literal royalty, had poisoned someone, or been poisoned by someone. It had become absurdly common for people, especially rich people, to buy poison from Marie and the network of

400 or so other poisoners around the city, and use it to quietly commit murder so that the victim's deaths looked natural. But poison was not just used to kill people. It was sort of used like a solution for many kinds of problems, like people who wanted their romantic interests to be easier to seduce, well, they'd buy poison and poison them. Or people that had abusive or unappealing partners, they would use poison to make them sick and bedridden, because remember, they can't get divorced. So if you're stuck with somebody and you don't like him, well, just poison them. It was also alleged that King Louis XIV, himself, was poisoned in non-fatal doses by his mistress who wanted to make him easier to manipulate. Poison was even used for entertainment.

One duo of poisoners baked deadly substances into cakes and handed them out to unsuspecting patients at a local hospital just to see what would happen. The poison affair, as it came to be called, was without a doubt at the time Paris's biggest and best kept secret until Marie went to that dinner party, got really drunk, and let it slip. That night, Marie told stories of poisoning people, and people thought they were so funny because they didn't believe they were true. But one of the guests saw that the hostess of the party looked furious at Marie, the whole time Marie was telling these stories.

And so he wondered if maybe what Marie was talking about might actually be real, and the hostess is kind of trying to signal her to stop talking about it, but Marie was not taking the hint. So the following day, that dinner guest went to the police, and the police sent a woman to Marie's house to act as an undercover spy. to see if maybe she could get proof that the poisonings were real. And lo and behold, when this woman told Marie that her husband was abusive and she just wanted to know how long this was going to go on for,

Marie, you know, read her palm and read her future, but then also gave her some tips about what to do in the meantime, which included handing her a vial of poison and saying, just go ahead and kill your husband, poison him. The object that that officer had shown Marie when she was arrested was that poison. The investigation into the poison of, affair lasted for three years, and during that time, there were over 300 people who got arrested,

from commoners to royalty. Twenty-three of those people were banished, and 34 people were executed, including Marie Boss. She was actually the first person to be burned alive on one of those pires. 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, our head of production is Zach Levitt, produced by Jeremy Bone, story editing by Evan Allen, research and fact-checking by Shelley Scho, Samantha Van Hoose, Evan Beamer, Abigail Schumway, and Camille Callahan. Research and fact-checking supervision by Stephen Ear. Audio editing and post-produced by Whit Lacasio and Cole Lacasio, Perry Crowell, and, Jordan Stidham.

Mixed and mastered by Brendan Cain. Production Coordination by Samantha Collins. Production support by Antonio Manata and Delana Corley. Artwork by Jessica Clogston Kiner. Theme song called 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 SiriusXM.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 ya.