Sightings - The Sallie House: Kansas, 1993

Episode Date: June 2, 2025

When a young couple moves into a nineteenth-century home, they quickly discover that it's haunted by a childlike ghost. But does little Sallie only want to play? Or are her motives much, much darker? ... Sightings is a REVERB and QCODE Original. Find us on instagram @sightingspod Shout out to the amazing composer of this week's story music, Jack Stayton! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:52 The trouble with evil is that it doesn't always announce itself with fangs and fire. Sometimes it arrives wearing the face of innocence, a child's laughter, a playful giggle, the patter of tiny feet in an empty hallway. But beneath that youthful mask lies something far more sinister. Something that's been waiting for the perfect family to call its own. Welcome to Sightings, the series that takes you inside the world's most mysterious supernatural events. Each episode brings you a thrilling story that puts you at the center of the action,
Starting point is 00:01:32 followed by a discussion that dives into the accounts that inspired the story and our takes on them. I'm McCloud. And I'm Brian. And before we dive into today's story, I want to let you know that there's a brand new way to listen to sightings, the ad-free version. That's right.
Starting point is 00:01:47 We're part of Q Code Plus, an awesome subscription that brings you episodes of sightings completely ad-free. No breaks, no distractions, the way Brian and I meant for the show to be heard. That is right. And Q Code Plus listeners will also get access to bonus content, like the bonus listener story episode we have planned for later this month. McLeod we know how much you love. You all know how much I love a listener story but I am happy to do it for y'all because I'm a level with you. The revenue from these subscriptions if you listen to
Starting point is 00:02:15 our show really does go to supporting our show so that we can keep on doing these episodes for you which we really do genuinely love doing so much and plus you get all this cool stuff. Absolutely and best of all, you can try out Q Code Plus with a free trial right now. Check out Q Code Plus on Apple Podcasts, or head to QCodeMedia.com for more information. I'm super excited about this.
Starting point is 00:02:36 Well, I hope you're also excited about today's story, though. Of course I am. It is our first June Gloom episode. Ooh, the skies are getting gray. That's right. This month, we're going to bring you the most chilling ghost stories we could find, starting with today's Sally House in Atchison, Kansas. Mm-hmm. Let me tell you, Dorothy's going to wish she never came home. Kansas jokes, here we come.
Starting point is 00:02:59 Kansas jokes, here we come. When one family moves into a new home, they soon find themselves sharing it with the spirit of a little girl. But is she willing to play nice? Find out on this episode of Sightings. This episode is brought to you by Neon's new film, The Life of Chuck, which is coming to theaters. Brian, stop talking. I'm too excited. I'm sorry. I'm going to cut you off. When I found out we were doing a promo for this film, I lost my business because, one,
Starting point is 00:03:47 it is an adaptation of a Stephen King short story, The Master, and it's directed by Mike Flanagan, who is a living legend of typically horror movies, but is always a heart and emotionality to his horror films. And so this one, it was all heart. Yeah, what I loved about it was how it blends fantasy and a haunted house story and even this giant, incredible dance sequence right in the middle of the movie into one awesome narrative. And not to mention, the cast is off the charts bunkers. Oh my goodness.
Starting point is 00:04:19 You've got Tom Hiddleston, Mark Hamill, Matthew Lillard, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan. The entire spot we're doing right now could just be us listing the incredible cast. Oh yeah, but best of all, it is coming to theaters later this week. That's right, and I'm so excited for you all to have the chance to see this movie. Watch The Life of Chuck in select theaters on June 6th and everywhere on June 13th. The life of Chuck in select theaters on June 6th and everywhere on June 13th. My name's Tony Pickman, and I'm not the kind of guy who believed in the supernatural.
Starting point is 00:05:00 Never have been. I was raised Catholic, said my prayers, and never thought twice about ghost stories. To me, they were just that, stories. And I was never one for stories that couldn't be explained with logic or reason. But that was before we moved into that house in Atchison. It was New Year's Eve a few years back, 92. Deborah and I were just starting out. She was four months pregnant with her first, and
Starting point is 00:05:25 we needed a place to call our own. And this place, even though it wasn't much to look at from the outside, was perfect for us. It was a two-story brick number from the 1800s, but had been freshly renovated inside. Three bedrooms, a basement, the kind of place you could raise a family in. So we eagerly unpacked, settled in, and started preparing the nursery. Deborah had all these plans. Pale yellow walls, white trim, a rocking chair by the window, and I was just happy to see her smile. It all felt right, you know?
Starting point is 00:05:57 Well, for the first month it did. Looking back, I think the house was testing us at first, seeing how we'd react to little things before it started showing its true nature. Because it really did start with little things. I'd notice the overhead light slowly dimming before flaring back to full brightness. The oven timer started going haywire, too. You'd set it for ten minutes, look away for a second, and suddenly it'd read six. Look again, twenty. Then Deborah started noticing the cold spots. Parts of the second floor would
Starting point is 00:06:29 feel like ice, even though we didn't have AC. And more than once I'd see the teddy bear mobile above the crib start playing on its own. Just music out of nowhere. But I kept telling myself there had to be explanations. Old house, faulty wiring, drafty windows, all things that made complete sense if you didn't believe in ghosts. And I definitely didn't want to believe in ghosts. By June, our son Taylor was born, and for a while everything felt normal again. We were too busy being new parents and learning to function on minimal sleep to worry about the little things anymore.
Starting point is 00:07:04 But all of that changed one night in early autumn. We'd been at my parents' house for dinner and came home after dark. I carried Taylor upstairs, but the moment we stepped into the nursery, I froze. All the stuffed animals, every single one, had been arranged in a perfect circle on the floor. And I swear it, they'd all been on shelves or chairs that afternoon. And now it looked like they were having a meeting. We found out later that my sister-in-law had stopped by to drop off a highchair
Starting point is 00:07:35 while we'd been gone. But when we called her, she swore everything had been normal when she was there. Or almost everything, because she mentioned this overwhelming feeling of unease in our house, so much so that she left as quickly as possible. Debra and I put the stuffed animals back where they belonged, turned out the light, and went downstairs. But we soon heard Taylor whimpering, and I went back up to find the nursery light on again. And now one of the teddy bears, this little beanbag one, was lying
Starting point is 00:08:05 face up in the middle of the floor. We searched the whole house, thinking someone must have been playing a trick on us, but we found no one hiding anywhere, no sign that anyone other than my sister-in-law had been there at all that day. But twenty minutes later, Deborah went up to use the bathroom and called down to me to come upstairs now. And sure enough, that bear was back on the floor. Same position, same spot.
Starting point is 00:08:36 The next day, my mother made a strange connection. She knew someone whose daughter had lived in the house before us, and after talking to her, she learned there had been issues. Their son's toys would end up scattered everywhere, but he'd insist he wasn't the one doing it. Instead, it was an invisible entity the boy called Sally. Then my brother connected us with a friend who claimed to be a psychic. I wasn't expecting much from the call, of course, but without even visiting our house or hearing about what had happened so far, she told us there was a spirit here, a girl between five and thirteen years old, a girl named Sally. But the psychic insisted
Starting point is 00:09:16 she wasn't harmful. Instead, she was curious and playful. So if we wanted to keep order in our house, we would be wise to set down some ground rules. This is where Deborah and I started seeing things differently. She'd always been fascinated by the paranormal and even admitted that she'd secretly wanted to see a ghost. So to her, all of this Sally stuff was pretty exciting. Even comforting in a way. Better a playful ghost than an intruder, she said.
Starting point is 00:09:45 Me? I wanted nothing to do with it. Spirits, if they existed at all, weren't cute or friendly, and they certainly weren't something you invited into your home. So I started spending more time at church. Not just Sundays, but weekday mornings too. Sitting in the pews trying to make sense of what was happening in my house.
Starting point is 00:10:07 But Deborah embraced the whole thing. I'd catch her talking to Sally, telling her not to touch this thing or that. One night I found her in the nursery rocking chair, telling stories to what she said was a cold spot next to her. And the more she reached out to whatever was in our house, the more I pulled away. And the more she reached out to whatever was in our house, the more I pulled away.
Starting point is 00:10:25 And eventually it really started putting a strain on our marriage. But right then I didn't know how to bridge the gap. How do you compromise when one of you sees a friendly ghost and the other sees something much darker? But I tried to compromise. I sat down with Debra and we talked to the empty rooms, laying down ground rules for Sally. She'd have to put her toys away, leave the baby alone, and always play nice. Remarkably, things got quiet again after that. Normal, almost. And since the baby was healthy and Deborah was happy, I was content. Maybe I'd been wrong about this house the whole time. Maybe my Catholic upbringing had just made me paranoid. So I tried to loosen up and when my brother came over to visit the baby I did something really, really stupid. We were sitting in the living room and that
Starting point is 00:11:18 teddy bear, the one that kept ending up on the floor in the nursery, was now sitting on a shelf above the couch. And trying to show off how relaxed I was trying to be about the whole thing, I picked up my camera, pointed it at the bear, and said the words I'll regret for the rest of my life. Sally, if you're here, say cheese. And the moment I snapped the picture, my brother started yelling, because that bear had completely turned around, a full 180 degrees right in front of our eyes. That was it for me.
Starting point is 00:11:54 I bolted for the stairs, ready to get out of there. And my brother tried to get up, but he said something was physically pushing him backwards, something icy cold that literally froze his body in place before suddenly releasing him. And I could tell from the look in his eyes, this wild, primal fear, I'd never seen before, that whatever was happening here was more than just innocent play. Whatever was in our house was powerful enough to physically restrain a grown man. And if it could do that, what else could it do? So I called for Debra, grabbed the baby,
Starting point is 00:12:29 and ran for the car. I remember my hands shaking so badly I could barely get the keys in the lock. Debra, meanwhile, was outright confused. But as I buckled Taylor into his car seat, I felt this sudden searing pain rip across my back like someone had taken a razor to my skin. I didn't stop to check what it was though. I wanted out of there so bad, so we piled into the car and drove away.
Starting point is 00:12:53 It wasn't until we were safely at my brother's place that Debra lifted my shirt to see what had caused the pain and there, running down my back with three long bloody scratch marks. And that's when I knew for certain that my instincts had been right all along. Sally wasn't just a ghost. And now she was done playing nice. It won't take long to tell you Neutral's ingredients. to tell you Neutral's ingredients? Vodka, soda, natural flavors. So, what should we talk about? No sugar added?
Starting point is 00:13:49 Neutral. Refreshingly simple. The White Chocolate Macadamia Cream Cold Brew from Starbucks is made just the way you like it. Handcrafted cold foam topped with toasted cookie crumble. It's a sweet summer twist on iced coffee. Your cold brew is ready at Starbucks. Those scratches on my back changed everything. Or at least they did for me. But Debra wasn't ready to give up on Sally. She invited that psychic to our house and was eager to get confirmation that everything was in fact fine. And of course the psychic told her exactly what she wanted to hear. She said she could see little Sally
Starting point is 00:14:27 and that she was an adorable, innocent little girl who just wanted to be part of our family. When I asked about the scratches on my back, the psychic didn't flinch. Sally had just been excited, she said. She worried about the baby, since my brother and I were moving so fast and in such an emotional state.
Starting point is 00:14:45 The psychic then suggested we talk to Sally just like we would a real child, set boundaries, give her toys, make her feel welcome. And Debra, she went all in. She bought a special toy box just for Sally and filled it with dolls and things. She'd tell Sally how happy she was to have her in our family. She even left out a crayon and paper for Sally to draw on and wrote questions for Sally to reply to. One day, I went upstairs and noticed something written on the pad. It was a note from my wife in her flowery cursive. Hello, Sally, how old are you? And in shaky green crayon was a child's reply.
Starting point is 00:15:25 Seven. I called for Debra and she was ecstatic. And though she'd only left a red crayon out, somehow Sally had found a green one. It was like she was telling us it was her favorite color. And I didn't find that endearing in the least. Things got much stranger after that. Objects started moving right in front of us, and not just stuffed animals but larger objects. Then my brother was over one afternoon when he noticed the smell of something burning. We ran to the living room to find Sally's favorite teddy bear was on fire, with a six-inch flame shooting straight up from its head. I grabbed it to put it out, but by the time I reached the sink, the flames had vanished.
Starting point is 00:16:06 Deborah didn't seem worried. She told Sally that lighting fires was dangerous and that she must never do that again. She even bought a new doll for Sally, wrapped it in bright paper and left it in the corner of the nursery for her. I expected nothing good to come of it. And sure enough, Deborah was changing Taylor
Starting point is 00:16:24 when she saw the new doll lying in the middle of Taylor's crib. Yet the box it had been in was still on the floor, perfectly wrapped. To Deborah it was just confirmation that Sally was real and wanted to be part of our family. To me, it was terrifying. Around that time, things took an even darker turn. I began hearing voices at night, faint at first, just murmurs from inside the walls. But they grew louder over time, and though I couldn't understand the words, I could tell they felt angry.
Starting point is 00:16:59 Then I started feeling something biting my toes and feet at night. It wasn't painful exactly, just persistent, like a puppy trying to get attention. Then one night when Deborah was in the shower, I felt a sharp pain in my thigh and yelled out. When Deborah came running, I showed her the marks, perfect little teeth impressions like a child had bitten me. I thought that might finally convince Deborah that things weren't right with Sally, but she just set more boundaries with the ghost. Then on Halloween night, I saw Sally for myself. I was in the kitchen getting some orange juice when I turned around to find a little girl standing in the middle of the kitchen. She
Starting point is 00:17:42 had big blue eyes, curly brown hair with a bow and ribbon on top, and an old-fashioned white dress with lace trim. I was so shocked I dropped my glass, and when I looked back up, she was gone. I ran upstairs to tell Deborah what I'd seen, and for the first time, I admitted something I hadn't expected.
Starting point is 00:18:03 The ghost didn't look frightening or evil. She looked like a normal little girl. It was then that Deborah admitted that she'd done some research and learned more about Sally. And her tragic backstory was the reason she was so warm towards the ghostly child. Apparently, our house had been built in 1871 by an Irish immigrant. His son inherited the house and he became a doctor who practiced here at the turn of the century. According to legend, a little girl named Sally was brought here late one night. She was in terrible pain and the doctor suspected appendicitis. He needed to operate immediately and tried to give
Starting point is 00:18:47 her anesthesia, but it didn't work. So when he began to cut her, she woke up screaming before dying right there on the table. I asked if that was why Sally was so afraid of men, and right then something seemed to switch for my wife. Instead of excitement, I saw a glimmer of fear. And for the first time, she seemed to be questioning whether having a traumatized ghost child in our house was actually a good thing. Unsurprisingly, things continued to escalate. I began having vivid dreams, and one night I woke up feeling I was being pulled out of bed by my wrists. When I looked I found small blisters on both my arms in the perfect shape of a child's fingers and then came the night that finally broke us both.
Starting point is 00:19:34 It was a quiet evening, just the three of us at home. Taylor was in his crib sleeping and Deborah and I were watching TV downstairs when a horrible screeching noise started blaring from the baby monitor. We ran upstairs and found the culprit, a toy that could record a baby's voice and play it back, but this thing it was playing? That was no human sound we'd ever heard. Then all of a sudden everything in the nursery began to shake. The crib, the dresser, even the floor beneath our feet. It was like an earthquake concentrated in only that room. It shook so hard that the door slammed shut.
Starting point is 00:20:15 I immediately grabbed Taylor, and Deborah tried to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. So I handed Taylor to her and tried to pry the door open myself. And as I did, I could feel something cold pressing against me Pushing me into the door until I couldn't even breathe Then just as suddenly as it started everything went quiet and the door swung open as if it had never been locked at all I took Taylor back and we ran into the hallway But as I approached the stairs something shoved me from behind And I felt myself pitching forward towards the staircase, my balance completely gone, and
Starting point is 00:20:48 if Debra hadn't grabbed my shirt at the last second, I would have tumbled down with Taylor in my arms. As it was, I crashed into the banister, breaking three rails before catching myself, and I turned to Debra, and I'll never forget the expression on her face. Pure terror mixed with absolute clarity. She finally understood what I'd been trying to tell her all along, that whatever was in this house was no friend at all. It wanted us dead. So I told her we were leaving for good and she didn't argue. Some might call us cowards for running, but they weren't there. They didn't feel that presence in the dark, or hear those voices, or feel that power.
Starting point is 00:21:31 And they don't know what it was like to realize that the sweet little ghost girl we thought we were dealing with was just a mask for something much, much worse. Something they had been playing with us all along. Sightings will be back, just after this. Hey listeners, Brian here. I already know how you love each episode of Sightings diving into your favorite creepy, spooky, and eerie legends. And maybe you wish there was a show that explored the stories behind your favorite sci-fi, horror, and fantasy books, movies, video games, all of it. Well guess what? That show exists. It's called Imaginary Worlds. And in each episode, host Eric Malinsky does a deep dive into your favorite genre stories to figure out what they tell us about ourselves. Honestly, it's pretty much what I imagine it would be like if NPR went to Comic-Con and just lived there permanently. That's imaginary
Starting point is 00:22:30 worlds. I just listened to an episode about the final girls of horror movies, you know, like the ones who survive at the end, like Sydney from Scream and Ripley from Alien, and it made me look at those movies in a whole new way. So if you want to dive deeper into the meaning behind movies, TV shows, and books you only thought you knew, check out Imaginary Worlds right now on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. The Hot Honey McRisbee is so back at McDonald's
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Starting point is 00:23:39 If anything I had to cut some of the true events out because there's just so much going on. Okay well let's just dig in and get it over with. I know how much you love these haunted house stories. I know, and it's always, there's kids and like. I remember that listener story we had at the beginning of the year with the teddy bear that was possessed.
Starting point is 00:23:56 Right, I thought of that one too. Yep. It was Jamie's story. Gosh, you remember the name. And I'm sorry, Jamie, I said I called skeptical gecko on your head spinning teddy bear, but here we are, and I owe you an apology. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:24:10 So let's dig into the Sallie House here. Real house, built in the 1800s in Kansas. Everything that happened in the story happened to this family. Allegedly. Allegedly, yes. There were little things at first, you know, the lights, the electronics, the stuffed animals showing up in a circle having a little powwow on the floor, which would freak me out. You know, it's like all this stuff is, yes, frightening.
Starting point is 00:24:34 Like anything that is a ghost actually demonstrably doing stuff right in front of your eyes is pretty terrifying. It's the character behind it that really makes it chilling and uncomfortable for me. Yeah, because you have a ghost who's terrifying, but then it's this adorable little girl, theoretically. Right, or just a little girl. Like, it doesn't have to be like, like children are children. Whether they're, I don't know, unruly children or pleasant children, they're just kids. Like, they can't sort of be... Melevolent?
Starting point is 00:25:06 Melevolent, yeah. They're not... At least I don't think they're inherently melevolent. Well, Sally might be a special case a little bit. So, Sally, is there any historical record of a girl named Sally in the area? Not a historical record. There's a lot of legend surrounding it, though. Right.
Starting point is 00:25:21 As we mentioned in the story, the house was built in 1871. Apparently, at least three family members of the person who built the house died in that house between 1871 and 1918. Okay. So, a lot of people died in the house. The son of the original owner was, as we heard in the story, a doctor who practiced in the house.
Starting point is 00:25:40 But the legend of Sally itself, as I presented in the story, is the legend of what allegedly happened to Sally. And emergency appendectomy. Yeah, the emergency appendectomy where the anesthesia doesn't work, she wakes up absolutely screaming as he's operating on her, which must have been traumatizing. And unfortunately, she died on the table in that house. That's how the legend goes.
Starting point is 00:26:04 And that Sally is the Sally that lives in the house and does not like men, presumably because the last man she interacted with. Killed her. Not just killed her, but it was a particularly excruciating death. Right. That said, there is no record of a girl named Sally dying in Atchison, Kansas around that time. Okay. Now, if this was right around the turn of the century, is it plausible that there aren't records that have existed until this point? Maybe. But
Starting point is 00:26:30 beyond that, we don't have a ton to go on in terms of corroborating evidence for this particular story. A lot of it's based on what Deborah and Tony have said happened. Like I mentioned, there's a lot that happened in this house that didn't show up in the story. Okay. Where things started escalating in a pretty extreme way. I really wanted to root the story in Sally though, and Tony.
Starting point is 00:26:55 Sure. At one point, Tony woke up and the teddy bear was sitting on his chest staring at him, which would have terrified me. Yeah. His brother started having things happen to him in his own home and thinks that Sally followed him home. Oh, what?
Starting point is 00:27:12 Tony also allegedly started having some really violent thoughts about hurting members of his family. That's creepy. He may have killed his cat. I don't actually know. He claimed later that he didn't. He claimed at one point he maybe did.
Starting point is 00:27:24 Oh, no. But violence seemed to have been festering in this house at that time. I don't actually know. He claimed later that he didn't. He claimed at one point he maybe did. But violence seemed to have been festering in this house at that time. Also not showing up in the story, Tony claims that he saw the figure of a woman in the house. He saw all these specks of dust coalesce into the shape of a woman right in front of him, like a detailed woman,
Starting point is 00:27:41 which would have sent me running for the hills. As happened in the story, they ended up leaving the house like a detailed woman, which would have sent me running for the hills. Right. As happened in the story, they ended up leaving the house when things got too overtly violent for them. But they claim things still have happened to them since then. Tony has had knives fly at him. Oh.
Starting point is 00:27:57 His clothes have caught on fire. So whether Sally followed them or not is a little bit unclear. I should say, disclaimer, they did write a book. Although that book came out in 2010, long after this happened. So it doesn't seem like it was necessarily like a money grab kind of thing. Like, we're going to make a movie of this and do all this stuff. HOFFMAN It's not clear whether it's an Amityville situation. BOWEN It does not seem at all like an Amityville situation.
Starting point is 00:28:20 HOFFMAN And do, so are there records of other people going in there and experiencing a haunting? There are other reports of, oh, I heard this or I saw this. There are a lot of reports of people recording EVP phenomena, which is electronic voice phenomena. You know, like where you, you're picking up electromagnetic signals that sound like voices. Okay. And some team went in there and recorded apparently 18 distinct voices in the house. Hmm. Which doesn't necessarily jive with the actual story.
Starting point is 00:28:48 Yeah. But it seems like something is going on in this house, whether it's a little girl named Sally, or whether it's a woman, or whether it's more entities than that, it seems a little bit undeniable that this house has some spooky ongoing thing happening. I actually, it's funny, I worked with an audio engineer once who was the on-set mixer for a paranormal show at one point. I think he just did one episode working it. And he played for me some clips of the recording he took on.
Starting point is 00:29:20 It was a ship. It was like an army ship that was supposedly haunted by soldiers and such. And he played for me, like, this audio that he had cleaned up kind of to take out the noise or whatever in which he had gone to a corner of the room and asked, 10, hut! And like, he cleaned it up and was like, if you listen closely, you can hear somebody say, you're not the captain. Oh. Ha ha. But I listened and I could hear it. I was like, oh, I could hear what he was saying might be that. But it was also, and he copped to this too,
Starting point is 00:29:53 that he was like, it could just be our brains looking for patterns and trying to make sense of noise. Kind of like seeing faces in clouds, because it was not very clear. So, you know, with all these 18 voices or whatever, it could be an instance of that. Yeah, well, maybe if we ever become a ginormous show and have enough money to go to Kansas,
Starting point is 00:30:15 we can go spend a night in the Sallie house and do an episode there. In the Sallie house. But that's kind of what I've got in terms of the history of this house and this family that had these experiences there. And so Tony and Debra and their family are just still living in Kansas and trying to move on.
Starting point is 00:30:33 Not sure where they're living now, actually. It sounds like they've moved on, but like I said, you know, stuff is still happening to Tony. Yeah. So in your mind, what do you think could be going on here? I think what's actually what I find most fascinating about this is just the story of Sally and this character and the things that she does. I think the tension between Deborah and Tony is also just really like interesting in that being a father, there's nothing, even the push down the stairs, which is very scary, that strikes me as particularly outside of childish behavior.
Starting point is 00:31:08 Let's just forget the ghost part and let's just imagine a traumatized kid who can't talk, who you can't talk with and kids get really frustrated when you don't understand them, when you can't communicate, when they just have these huge wallops of feeling that your job is to teach them how to process it. They don't know how to process it.
Starting point is 00:31:28 They don't know how to deal with these huge feelings. They don't have context for it. They don't understand the consequence of someone falling down the stairs and getting very badly hurt. Or they don't think ahead that far, generally speaking. And then it's your job to be like, so what you just did could lead to this and we need to not behave that way, et cetera, generally speaking. And then it's your job to be like, so what you just did could lead to this, and we need to not behave that way,
Starting point is 00:31:47 and et cetera, et cetera. So I see Deborah's point of view. I see Deborah trying to dig in. I also see Tony being like, this is not our kid. It's a ghost, for crying out loud. You're kind of just expanding my, this is a much more psychologically complex ghost story than I
Starting point is 00:32:05 thought it was originally because so many of these stories is just, the ghost is either hell bent on destruction, you know? Or just making these people's lives miserable. People often view the behavior of children as manipulative or malicious, but that's because they project adult awareness of the world and their emotions onto children. Mm-hmm. Preface all this with, I'm generally skeptical gecko about ghosts. But if there is a ghost.
Starting point is 00:32:32 But if there is a ghost, like, this is a kind of consistent with the story. And you gave a really cool psychological pro, you should be a ghost profiler. There we go. So it's like, if there is a ghost girl in this house, all of the behavior actually tracks consistently with who that ghost girl would be. Interesting. I think my take on it is, clearly I think something is going on in this house because
Starting point is 00:32:56 people who've stayed in the house since have reported weird things happening there. I wonder if that's just because the house is known as a haunted house now. Yes. I think the thing that does jump with me too is that there isn't any record of Sally in the graveyard, in the town books or anywhere really that could corroborate this story. Right. I'm sorry. I feel a little worn out because it's a genuinely freaky story. The backstory of Sally pulls at my heartstrings
Starting point is 00:33:25 and just imagining this kid makes me upset. Yeah, and this is only our first episode of June Gloom Month. And I'm feeling gloomy. Oh no! We've got a rebrand, guys. I'm sorry, we've got to take the gloom out of the June. It's too gloomy, Brian. It's too gloomy. I already wrote the episode, so we're forging ahead. But listeners, if you have been to the Sallie House, let us know. Or if you have any thoughts about ghost children, if you've encountered ghost children of your
Starting point is 00:33:52 own, please let us know. Hit us up on Instagram at SightingsPod or find us on Spotify. Leave us a comment there. We love reading those. Okay. I'm going to try and shake off this gloomy feeling. Until next week, Brian, where are we going? We're heading back to my neck of the woods. We're heading to Colorado.
Starting point is 00:34:10 We're going to the Stanley Hotel. Oh, wait, I'm not supposed to say where we're going. No way! You broke! How many episodes have we made? 35 episodes? This is your first slip-up where you let it slip. Okay. But it's also, I think, holy cow. This is like the mothership of scary ghost haunting stories.
Starting point is 00:34:31 I mean, the Shining. Oh my gosh, Brian. It's old, it's creepy, it's got a lot of fantastic lore, and I'm excited to really dig in with a great story for it. Oh my gosh. Yeah, we gotta wait till next week, everyone. I'm so excited. Same time, same place, right here on Sightings. Okay, okay, okay gotta wait till next week, everyone. I'm so excited. Same time, same place, right here on Sightings.
Starting point is 00:34:47 Okay, okay, okay. See you next week, everybody. Sightings is hosted by McLeod, Andrews, and Brian Sigley. Produced by Brian Sigley, Chase Kinzer, and McLeod, Andrews. Written by Brian Sigley. Story music by Jack Staten. Series music by Mitch Bain. Mixing and mastering by Pat Kickleiter of Sundial Media. Artwork by Nuno Cernatus.
Starting point is 00:35:09 For a list of this episode's sources, check out our website at sightingspodcast.com. Sightings is presented by Reverb and Q-Code. If you like the show, be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, so you're first to hear new episodes every week. And if you know other Supernatural fans, tell them about us. We'd really appreciate it.

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