So Supernatural - HAUNTED: The Watseka Wonder

Episode Date: May 26, 2021

In 1877, a 13-year-old girl named Lurancy Vennum developed mysterious symptoms. Her doctors couldn't determine what was wrong with her, until a spiritualist suggested Lurancy's illness was due to her ability to speak to the dead.

It's always painful when a loved one dies, but it's particularly hard when you don't get a chance to say a proper goodbye. You just have to come to grips with everything that went unsaid and undone. But what if you could see your loved one again? What if their spirit could come back? But to do so, they had to take over the body of a harmless 13-year-old girl. This is the story of Rancy Venom. For 10 months and 10 days, she allegedly contacted several ghosts and proved it by telling their loved ones information she couldn't possibly have known.

This is Supernatural. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. This week, I'm discussing the Watsika Wonder, a story that spans two decades and connects two families. It features a pair of girls who both develop the same strange physical symptoms for no apparent reason. When doctors can't figure out what's wrong with them, a spiritualist proposes a theory. They're in communication with the dead. I have all that and more coming up. Stay with us.

Okay, so most of what I'm about to tell you comes from one source, a pamphlet called The Watsika Wonder by Dr. E.W. Stevens. Unfortunately, a lot of the details are pretty vague, but the information we do have is wild. And luckily, the author, Dr. Stevens, was an eyewitness to a lot of the events, so we can at least assume it's pretty accurate. Like the title implies, today's story takes place in Watsika, Illinois, a small rural town, the kind of place where everyone knows each other. And in the 19th century, Watsika's just filled with traditional Midwest values, like church on Sunday, families eating dinner together every single night. You know, the kind of place you wouldn't expect horrific otherworldly events to take root. But that's exactly what happens.

In the spring of 1847, a six-month-old baby girl named Mary Roth has some kind of strange physical fit. One minute she's perfectly healthy, laughing and playing, and the next she's totally unconscious and will not wake up, no matter what anyone tries. After a few hours, she comes out of it. But even then, she still seems lethargic and out of sorts. And it takes a few weeks before she's fully herself again. Now, I imagine her parents are freaking out the whole time, wondering what's wrong with their baby. But they don't seem to get any real answers about what triggered the fit. Which would be one thing if this episode was just some weird one-off event. But it's not. It happens again.

And again. And again. For years. Eventually, Mary's having these spells every couple of weeks without any end in sight. And with each one, they become more intense and even seizure-like. Desperate to help, Mary's parents try everything they can think of to fix whatever's misfiring in her brain, including having doctors apply leeches to her head. They even send her off for a year and a half to this alternative care

center in Peoria, Illinois, where they practice things like hydrotherapy. But nothing helps. And by the time she's a teenager, Mary's condition is only getting worse. Sometimes she'll wake up from her episodes and all she can do is scream and thrash around and threaten people. It's like she doesn't have control over her body, and it's exhausting, both physically and mentally. Before long, it takes a toll on her mental wellness. When she's not coming in or out of a fit, Mary's despondent all the time. Now, keep in mind, this is the mid-19th century. Doctors are only just beginning to understand depression, so she never

gets diagnosed with any kind of mental health condition, but she definitely starts exhibiting signs of depression, including engaging in self-harm. Now, I'll do my best to keep this part of the story brief, but if you're someone who might find discussions of self-harm upsetting, maybe jump ahead about a minute or so. I'll even give you a second. Okay, so in July 1864, when Mary's 17 years old, she wakes up in the morning, grabs a knife, and sneaks out of the house. She creeps into the backyard, finds a quiet place, and then cuts her arm open. The cut's bad enough that she passes out from the blood loss. Luckily, I don't know who, but someone realizes she's missing from the house and finds her before it's too late. When she regains consciousness later that day, Mary insists she doesn't want treatment. She wants to be left alone. But obviously,

her family doesn't want to leave her alone at this point. When they don't, though, she gets very upset. She screams and yells and literally tries to run out of the house. Her parents have to call some friends over to the house to help get her under control. And it ends up taking five people to pin her down in bed. So clearly, Mary's not well. Something needs to give and it needs to happen fast. Otherwise, Mary's going to seriously hurt herself or someone else. Her parents are told to send her to an asylum, but they seriously don't want to. At this point in time, asylums are terrible places. I mean, even cruel. Patients are typically locked up, whipped, and starved, and that's like the best case scenario. Some facilities literally put their patients on display for tourists, like animals in a zoo. The Roths just don't have any better ideas,

though. So they end up committing her. One year after the knife incident, while her parents are visiting her at the asylum in Peoria, a scream erupts from Mary's bedroom. Mr. and Mrs. Roth run to check on their daughter, expecting to find the usual. But this time, Mary's symptoms are worse than they've ever seen. I don't know exactly what's wrong with her because the records are vague, but whatever's going on, it's too much for Mary to handle. Shortly after her parents arrive at her bedside, Mary dies. Naturally, the loss of their daughter devastates the Roths. Sure, she'd been struggling with her health for basically her entire life, but I don't think they ever really believed that they were going to lose Mary at just 18 years old. Nobody expects to lose their child so young. To make matters worse, because of

the stigma around mental health, people are super insensitive about the Roths' loss. Like, this local paper, the Danville Times, runs an obituary for Mary that reads, quote, disease dethroned her reason and maddened her brain, and the modest young lady was transformed into a screaming maniac, end quote. So yeah, people aren't exactly showing any compassion, and Mary's parents probably have to cope with their grief alone, however they can. Mr. Roth turns to spiritualism and religion. I'm not sure what he's looking for exactly.

Maybe he wants reassurance that his daughter's spirit is still alive somewhere, or maybe believing in a higher power comforts him. Whatever the case, he's searching. And eventually, he connects with other people who dabble in the supernatural. People like psychics and mediums who communicate with the dead. And six years after Mary's death, this new family moves to town. The Venoms.

Mr. Venom is also really into the occult, so there's definitely a growing spiritualist community in Watsika. But the Venoms have a lot more in common with the Roths than just a passing interest in the supernatural. A few years after they move to town, their daughter also starts having inexplicable fits, and hers come with voices in her head. Coming up, spirits take over a girl's body. Now back to the story. By July of 1877, it's been 12 years since Mary Roth's death, and Watsika hasn't changed much.

It's the same town with the same values. The Venom family has been in Watsika for six years now, and they're settling into the swing of things. Laurency Venom, or Rancy as her friends call her, is only 13, but she's had a pretty rough go at things. After losing her brother and sister, she's the only surviving Venom child, which, I mean, is sad for obvious reasons, but it also means she's personally responsible for a decent chunk of the work around the house. She spends most of her time sewing and taking care of chores in their modest home. Tonight, she's exhausted. She's alone in her room, trying to get some rest despite the sweltering summer heat. But just as she's finally about to fall asleep, she hears these voices. Like there's a bunch of men and women and children in her room. They're all saying her name in different tones, like Rancy, Rancy, Rancy. And when she opens her eyes to see what the F is happening, she feels this warm burst of air hit her face, like, almost like someone's standing a

few inches over her, breathing on her. But there's no one in her room. It is completely empty. I don't know about you, but I would be freaking the f*** out at this point. Rancy, on the other hand, she figures she must be imagining things and goes back to sleep. But the next night, she hears the same voices again. This time, she takes action. She walks over to her parents' bedroom,

knocks on their door, and kind of calmly is like, um, hey, can you do something about the strange disembodied voices in my room, please? Now, I'm not sure what her parents' reactions are. I mean, at this point, it appears to be all mental. I mean, there's no signs of people in their house. So maybe they agree that something weird is going on, or maybe they just chalk this up to an overactive imagination. Regardless, Ransi's parents don't do anything until a few days later when their daughter's symptoms turn

physical. One evening around dinner time, Ransi's wrapping up a sewing project when suddenly she gets this intense pain right near her heart. She drops her needle and thread, puts a hand to her chest, and without warning, collapses to the ground, as if she's having a heart attack or something. But this is a 13-year-old girl who's never had any serious medical problems before. She's the last person you'd expect to see this kind of thing happen to. Her parents immediately rush over and start shaking her and screaming her name, but no matter what they do, Rancy just lies there, motionless. Like, her parents can't even move her arms and legs.

It's almost like she's a corpse and rigor mortis has set in. And her situation, for lack of a better word, doesn't change until 11 p.m., five full hours later. Now, it's not super clear whether her parents call a doctor, but even if they do, it's not like they'd be able to do anything. As far as anyone can tell, there's nothing physically wrong with her. She comes out of the fit feeling perfectly fine. A little weird or out of sorts, but that's it. Sound familiar? It should, because Rancy's

symptoms almost perfectly mirror Mary Roth's, to a T. And like Mary, Rancy's episodes keep coming back. Her second fit hits the very next day, and things get even weirder. Up until this point, everyone has pretty much assumed Mary and Ransi's fits are linked to some undiagnosed medical condition. But then, in the middle of an episode, Ransi starts to talk. Out of the blue, she says she can see the spirits of her dead loved ones in heaven, including her deceased brother and sister. She tells her parents they don't need to worry

because both have transformed into these beautiful angels. And okay, on the one hand, it's a lovely sentiment and a touching moment. On the other, everyone has to be losing their minds. Regardless of their personal beliefs, nobody expects an ordinary preteen girl to faint and then suddenly connect to the afterlife. But apparently, that's what happens. And eventually, she just stops mumbling about heaven, sits up, and is fine. Like nothing

happened. Like it's completely normal. And well, the fits she's having kind of become just that. Normal. These otherworldly fainting spells become a huge part of Rancy's day-to-day life. They happen up to a dozen times a day, every day. Some episodes last for as many as eight hours. I mean, it's a wonder Rancy manages to get anything else done. From what I can tell, she spends more time unconscious than she does awake.

And her parents? They don't know what to make of it. They have a steady stream of doctors, clergymen, and spiritual healers dropping by to try and figure out what's wrong with her. But other than the insensitive outsiders claiming insanity, nobody comes up with a theory for months. Then, on January 31st, at around 4 p.m., Mr. Roth drops by for a visit, as in Mary's dad, Mr. Roth. And he's brought along a spiritualist friend of his named Dr. E.W. Stevens. They heard about what's happening and were like, we know what's wrong with your daughter. Now, I can't even imagine the Venom's excitement,

but before Mr. Roth can even tell them this theory, Rancy immediately, almost on cue, hunches over in her chair like she's suddenly much older. Then she starts making these rude comments to her parents that she'd normally never dream of saying. It's like Rancy isn't Rancy anymore, like she completely turned into someone else, or someone else is controlling her body. And as bizarre as that sounds, that's apparently what's happening. After a few minutes, Rancy alludes to the fact that she's a 63-year-old German woman named Katrina. Naturally, Rancy's parents have no idea what to make of any of this.

But Mr. Roth's friend, E.W. Stevens, starts asking follow-up questions like, how did Katrina get from Germany to Illinois? And Rancy, or Katrina rather, says she traveled through the air and that she's been staying at the Venom household for three days, which is vague but creepy nonetheless. Ultimately, everyone in the room is in agreement. Some kind of mysterious presence is affecting Ransi's body. And this Katrina spirit or person is maybe what's making Ransi sick. Dr. Stevens certainly agrees. According to him, they're witnessing evidence of the theory Mr. Ruff had been trying to explain when he arrived. He thinks Rancy may be channeling the dead,

and those voices she's been hearing at night are ghosts trying to break through. The problem is, he says, some spirits are bad. Take Katrina, for example. She's so sullen and argumentative because her intentions aren't good. Rancy's weird fits and seizures are actually her trying to ward off more malevolent spirits. But it's exhausting and she can't keep it up forever. Now, the Venoms must be equal parts terrified

and just baffled at this point. It's a lot to take on faith. But Dr. Stevens and Mr. Roth are the first people who've been able to give them any explanation for what's been happening. And given everything they've seen so far, it kind of makes sense to them. The good news? Dr. Stevens says he knows how to fix her. All Rancy has to do is let a good spirit take control. So he asks Rancy if she can sense any ghost

that might want to help her. And she says, yeah. Then, after a few minutes, Rancy breaks the uncomfortable stillness in the room and says that she's no longer Rancy. She's Mary. Coming up, Mary's second stay in Watsika. Now back to the story.

On January 31st, 1878, Rancy Venom starts channeling the dead spirit of Mary Roth. And at first, everything seems fine. Dr. Stevens sees Mary as a good spirit and believes that, quote, a new fountain of light and source of help had been reached, end quote. Eventually, Dr. Stevens and Mr. Roth decide to go home. But as soon as they leave, everything immediately descends into chaos. Rancy starts uncontrollably sobbing. She's completely inconsolable. When her parents ask what's wrong, she starts telling them about how hard it is to come back to Earth after spending more than a decade in Heaven. But she doesn't

elaborate any further. Rancy continues her fit, saying she doesn't recognize her parents or her house. Everything is unfamiliar and unpleasant. Now, this is exactly what you might expect her to say if it's actually Mary speaking from Rancy's body, which is what everyone says and believes is happening. Mary Roth's spirit literally seems to be inhabiting Rancy. Like, she doesn't seem to have any access to any of Rancy's memories, only Mary's. But for clarity, I'm going to keep referring to whoever is inhabiting this little girl's body as the original owner, Rancy. Okay, so now that we got that out of the way,

when members of the Roth family drop by for a visit a few days later, Rancy immediately recognizes them, all of them, even the ones she's never met before. Like, Mary had a sister named Minerva, and Minerva doesn't even make it to the house before Rancy throws open a window and shouts, and I'm quoting, there comes my ma and my sister Nervy. Now, this is especially striking because Nervy is a nickname Mary used with Minerva before she died, and there is no reason Rancy should know about it. Once they're inside, Rancy bursts into tears and starts giving the Roths giant hugs like she hasn't seen any of them in, oh, I don't know, 12 years? And soon, Rancy says she wants to go home, as in

Mary's home. Weird? Yes. But weirder? The Roths are like, yeah, she should come back with us. That's a great idea. Seriously, they insist Rancy is now their daughter and thus deserves to live with them. Now, I don't know. I think most parents would have a problem with some new family stepping in and trying to take custody of their only surviving child. Especially if she's got serious medical problems and just started hearing voices and apparently turning into different people. But the Roths aren't the only ones asking. Rancy is literally begging them to go live at the Roths' place. And at this point, the Venoms are probably second-guessing their whole concept of reality. Like, maybe our daughter is channeling their dead daughter's spirit. Maybe she should

go stay with these strangers. At the very least, it's hard for them to know the right move. And eventually, believe it or not, they give in. They agree to let Ransi go stay with the Roths, temporarily. A little under two weeks after Mary took control, the Roths come over to pick Ransi up. They mingle for a second, and then they start heading home. They live on the opposite side of Watsika, so it's a long walk. But along the way, Rancy becomes incredibly confused. See, at some point, the Roths moved out of the house they lived in when Mary was alive. But when they start to pass it, Rancy breaks off and runs right up to it, acting like this is where they're all going to stay together. Of course, Mr. and Mrs. Roth tell her they don't live there anymore.

They even argue about it. But Rancy insists, saying, quote, I know that I live here. But here's the thing. The Venoms didn't move to town until after the Roths moved out of that house. So there's no way Rancy would have known that Mary ever even lived there. So after the Roths convince her to keep walking to their new home, their minds are made up. They're convinced their daughter is still alive in Rancy's body. And the evidence keeps

piling up. Over the course of her stay with the Roths, Rancy will repeat things that Mary used to say word for word, things she couldn't possibly know. The Roths leave Mary's old clothes and personal belongings laying around the house, and without fail, Rancy recognizes them as her own. This one time, she even picks up an old hat and says she used to love the way it looked with her, Mary's, old haircut. Another time, Dr. Stevens asks Rancy a question about the time she cut her arm. Not only does Rancy remember, she tries to show him the scar. Of course, when she rolls up her sleeve, nothing's there because Rancy hasn't engaged in any self-harm.

But she seems genuinely surprised to not have a scar, as if she forgot she's not in Mary's body. Now, this lack of awareness isn't always the case. Sometimes a person will ask what Rancy's up to while Mary's in control, and she'll respond like, she's in heaven visiting the angels. But she insists the switch isn't for fun or pleasure. I mean, I'm sure Mary's excited to see her family again, but eventually she says that Rancy's in heaven to learn how to get better, presumably to fight off the bad spirits. Once that happens, Mary will return to the afterlife and Rancy will come back to earth. Which, I mean, that has to be hard for the Roths to hear.

I mean, they just got their daughter back. Obviously, they don't want anything bad to happen to Rancy, but they don't want to lose Mary again either. But they do. About three months into her stay, Mrs. Roth ducks into Rancy's room to check on her daughter, and she immediately realizes it's no longer Mary living under their roof. Rancy's scrambling around the bedroom, wide-eyed and panic-stricken, demanding to know where she is. And well, Mrs. Roth sets aside any grief she may be feeling for losing her daughter a second time and puts on a brave face. She promises to have Ransi's parents come over, and it works. Ransi calms down. Then, about five minutes later, the roller coaster continues. She's Mary again, back in charge of the body, but she's only back for a limited time, something like two weeks. Then, one day, Ransi

just suddenly tells Mary's parents it's time. Her work is done. Rancy needs her life back. And Mary? She only has one day left on Earth. Rancy spends the day giving the goodbyes Mary wasn't able to the first time around. According to friends, she looks sad. But for the most part, she spends the morning lifting up the spirits of those around her,

treating her departure like a celebration. Leaving is for the best, she says. Just before 11 a.m., Rancy and a group of her loved ones gather together to sing hymns and pray. When they finish, Rancy kisses her mother and Minerva goodbye, and then she's Rancy again. There are no fireworks. Mary doesn't vanish in a puff of smoke or a beam of light. From what I can tell, Rancy doesn't even flinch when Mary's spirit leaves her body. It just happens. Which, admittedly, is a pretty anticlimactic way for this all to end. But the good news is, Rancy says her old illness, with the fainting spells and the seizures, is now cured.

It is a miracle. And Watsika's back to normal again, for the most part. Over the next few years, Rancy still sees spirits. Sometimes they appear to her with messages from the afterlife. Mary even comes back and visits a few times. But Rancy seems to be able to talk to these ghosts without becoming unconscious now. She has more control, and she uses her abilities for a while, until she gets married. Her husband apparently doesn't believe in spirits. Maybe that has something to do with why the encounters stop, or maybe they don't.

Maybe she just keeps them to herself as not to upset her husband. But as far as records go, she never has a ghost occupying her body again. Now, by this point, Rancy's a bit of a local celebrity, so she doesn't quite live out the rest of her life in peace. Doctors, spiritualists, and ministers keep coming around asking questions, including E.W. Stevens, the spiritualist who basically started it all by telling Rancy to let Mary in. After it's all over, he publishes the pamphlet I mentioned at the start of this episode, the Watsika Wonder.

The Roths back up his claims. They say every detail in Stevens' account is absolutely true. And that may be the case. But even at the time, there are just as many people who think the story smells like a hoax. You might be one of them. But in fairness to those involved, as far as scams go, it's hard to see a motive here. There's nothing that suggests the Roths gave Rancy any money or anything of value. I guess Rancy, the Roths, the Venoms, and Dr. Stevens could have faked everything to serve

some other agenda, but it's not clear what that agenda would have been. And if the account is true, it's hard to think of any rational explanation for what happened to Rancy. Like, Rancy knew so many specific details about Mary's life. And sure, she could be a good guesser, I guess. But the hat, the scar, the old address, her sister's nickname? We're talking about minutiae from a stranger's life who died more than a decade earlier. There's no good reason for Rancy to know any of this. Unless she's hearing about it firsthand from Mary's spirit or ghost, right?

I don't know. What I do know is this. That what Seeker wonder changed lives. And maybe that's more important than whether or not it was real. The Roths got an extra three months with what they believed to be their daughter's ghost. Even if Rancy was some sort of liar or con artist, she still genuinely helped a grieving family find closure with the greatest tragedy of their lives. So if you ask me, Rancy Venom was a miracle worker.

Thanks for listening. I'll be back next week with another episode. To hear more stories hosted by me, check out Crime Junkie and all Audiochuck originals.