Spooked - Restless

Episode Date: August 9, 2018

The Curse of Mr. Smith:  Every time Randi’s grandma looked out her kitchen window, she’d see him, standing on the lawn: Mr. Smith. Who was Mr. Smith? What did he want? And why was he so sad? The Angel of Death: When Ron was working at Overbrook, one of New Jersey’s oldest and most notorious asylums, he knew the place was… off. Little did he know that he would see something there that would change his life forever. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Sometimes, in some places, we feel a presence simply by standing where they stood. Walking, where they walk, even seeing what they saw. It could be an underpass, a road, a bedroom. The place seems to have absorbed an echo. And even if we can't articulate it, we know this. We know this. but what if whatever it is refuses to stay confined to any single spot

and attaches instead to someone someone's still walking around from Snap Judgment's Underground Layer you're listening to Spoot. Stay. As a kid, living in rural Michigan, I spent most of my summers in the woods. Running, climbing trees, tracking deer, that electric insect buzz of the deep forest

becomes a soundtrack of my childhood. I imagine that I'm the first person leaping these streams, carving these trees until one day I see three weathered pieces of rock, tombstones. Solem, remembering centuries, reminding me I am but the late. under this sky. And before, I've never mind wandering alone. Neither sun, nor rain, nor thunder could chase me back inside the house, but I feel something here, something restless, something hungry, and somehow, even as a little kid,

I know that some things just aren't for the touching. Some things are for the running away, and I run, and I run, And 30 years later, I'm absolutely certain that whatever waited in our woods was best left in the snap judgment's underground layer. Please know that my name is Gunn Washington, and I hope who starts. You may have heard of ghost of people who've already died and can't cross over. What if we told you that living people can sometimes haunt a place? When Randy's grandparents moved into their new house, they soon realized they had a flesh and blood haunting.

A ghost who is still very much alive. Brandy's grandparents lived at the edge of a tiny town in rural Kentucky. They had a house on a hill with a big yard. There were no street lights. At night, you could barely make anything out in the darkness. A man started coming around the property and just sort of lurking. A thin, tall man, you know, just sort of gaunt, not trying to break in, not saying. saying anything to them, just standing at the edge of the yard and staring.

This was Mr. Smith. He'd been married to Mrs. Smith, and they had lived in that little house on the hill. They didn't have kids. She was his whole life. And then one day, Mrs. Smith was out in the front yard when... She was struck and killed by a car out, like right in front of the home. He pretty much was not able to cope. and he got into some financial ruin and was no longer able to keep the house.

Mr. Smith lost his home, but he wouldn't go away. When Randy's grandparents rented the house, he started coming by every day. He stood in the yard. He didn't move. He didn't talk. He just stared blankly at his former home. It's scary to have some strange man. lurking around your property.

This is a real problem. One day, Randy's grandma decided she couldn't take it anymore. And she stormed out the back door, and he was standing at the corner of the yard, and she began to scream at him to leave. My grandmother was vicious and insulting him and calling him crazy,

but he just stood there staring. And the fact that he stood there staring and didn't do anything was scarier in a way than if he had reacted. She was afraid he would break in and try to hurt or kill them. They had taken his home away. What if he does something to my daughter? It felt too dangerous, too out of control. They packed up all their things in a hurry and moved out.

Mr. Smith was standing on the lawn, watching them leave. They stayed closer to town, but, They thought about that house, about Mr. Smith. And then they heard that Mr. Smith was gone. He'd finally passed away. And that house on the hill was up for rent again. Randy was five at the time. She spent a lot of time with her grandparents,

and they all moved into the house. We were sitting around the TV, and it was night. And I remember it used to get really dark because this property was set alone by itself. There wasn't a lot around it. And we just heard like a thump upstairs, and it sounded like something fell. When it's pitch black and cold outside

and you feel trapped, you can't turn your mind off of what is this? What is the scary thing that I'm hearing? And it really sounded like someone was coming downstairs from this attic. And I looked at my memo, and I said, what was that? Well, let's go up there.

there and see. And I distinctly remember my grandmother very firmly saying, no, you can't go up there. It's dangerous. And I remember that because it was so unusual for her to say no, ever. Like, that word did not come out of her mouth. Up in the attic were boxes and boxes of hairbrushes, dresses, old tubes of lipstick, untouched for decades, all belonging to Mrs. Smith. Even though Mr. Smith had died and his house was sold off. No one had ever been able to bring themselves to clear out Mrs. Smith's things. My grandmother knew from day one that Mrs. Smith's stuff was in the attic, which is why she was adamant that we not go up there.

It sounded very much like somebody was up there rooting around the belongings. This is Mr. Smith. He was visiting with his wife's things in the attic. One night, the family is coming home. Randy's grandpa pulls into the driveway. And as he drives up, I can see his shoulders tens up. And he kind of abruptly stops the car. And he says, don't get out.

Y'all wait here. And I can see my grandmother's freaked out. My mom's freaked out. And she says, Lester, Lester, let's go, let's go. And suddenly I look and I see that the basement door is ajar. He's like, just, I'll be right. back. I'll be right back. Don't worry. And he gets out of the car. And even though he told us to stay in the car, we all got out of the car. And we're just kind of inching toward the house. And at some point, my grandmother can't take it anymore. She's just, Lester, Lester, what is it? And he comes upstairs, and he is as white as a sheet, and he is shaking. And I have never seen him vulnerable like that. I've never seen that. And he says, don't go down there. Just don't go down. and so my grandmother sighs and pushes him aside and I follow right behind her.

Before my grandmother gets to the bottom of stairs, she stops. I just felt like something evil was in the room, just evil. There are these footprints coming down the stairs next to us, and they go across the cement floor to the other end of the basement, and they actually walk up the cement wall, and they stop at the furnace. They are dark red, and it looks like blood when blood has dried. Every chill in the world went down my spine. It seems like the anger emanated from the basement, almost like this is the foundation of my home,

and I want you pushed out of my space from the bottom up. You know, his presence was so angry. angry. Maybe he thought when he died he would finally be reunited with her. The feeling we got was that he was there and she wasn't. And he did not understand why he wasn't with his wife. He was furious. Finally, he'd left this world and she was still nowhere to be found. Mr. Smith, he might not have found his wife in the afterlife, but he'd run Randy's family off the property for the second time. No one would talk about it while Memma and Peppa were alive. But after they died, when Randy was grown, one night she and her aunt and her baby cousin were driving by the little

house on the hill. And so they pulled into the driveway to snoop around. We were trying to peek in the house and it's really dark and we can't see anything. And, um, My little cousin, who was three or four at the time, she stands at the basement window, and she goes, who's that bad man? And we say, wait, what? She goes, there's the bad man down there. He's got blood on him. So my aunt picks her up and walks away from the basement. And we actually don't even really say anything.

We just kind of look at each other. And then we're getting ready to go. And we're standing there. We're looking at the porch swing. And it just starts swinging. And my aunt's like, do you see that? Do you see that? And then it just starts getting bigger and bigger. And it looks like somebody is swinging in the board swing. And my aunt says, Mr. Smith, is that you? And it just stops. It just stops in mid-track. And then it very slowly starts to swing again. And it gets higher and higher and higher and higher. And then my aunt, who just is way braver than, I will ever be. He goes, Mr. Smith, that's you, isn't it? And again, it stops. The feeling that came over me when I saw that swing stop, it was like a rock in my stomach. It made me kind of sick.

We left, and I have never driven past that house again, and I never wanted to. Thank you, Randy. Spook listener, for sharing your story to Spook. And if you have a spook story that walks a supernatural path do what Randy did drop us a line and scare the bejes out of us we want to hear it go to spook podcast dot o'artgee

now when Spook returns we're going to give you unthinkable we're walking into an insane asylum that some people never walked out of stay in the States we've got these crumbling old asylums

you know the ones They were built back on the day out of red brick. They looked like big grand houses with lots of windows. They stood far away from town back in the woods. They're isolated, gated off because they want to keep everyone from getting out. And now a lot of them are closed. But maybe you know some kids who snuck into them at night. Maybe they've even come back.

Wide-eyed, saying they heard voices, saying they're saying, They saw something, someone, moving around one of those dark, empty hallways. So we're going to take you to one of America's most famous asylums, Overbrook in New Jersey. It's closed now, but back in the 70s, Ron used to work there as an attendant. And Ron, he was pretty popular with the patients. Because I would pick up coffee and cigarettes, which I would basically hand out to the patients and that. in the newspaper. Yes, after a while, you become friends with them.

There was one patient in particular. This guy, Mark, and Ron felt like they had a connection. I would look out for him. I would get him like, if he wanted something, I'll say, Mark, you want anything? You know, because I'm going to get stuff here. You want a cheeseburger or anything? And I would buy him a hamburger or something like that. You know, just basic things, cigarettes, if he needed a soda,

or if he needed something that he didn't have the money for. you know, we had a lot of stuff in common. We came from the same neighborhood, the same ward in Newark and stuff, and, you know, we went to the same movies as a kid, the same area, and everybody else we knew. So, you know, yes, he did trust me a lot, yeah. And when I would see him in the morning, at the times, you go, Ron, how's it going, what are you doing today?

How many patience are you going? When are you coming back over here again? You know, when's the last time you've been down to the church? when the last time you've been here, you know, how was it last night? What were you doing last night? Did you watch TV? Did you do this? And that's it.

That's what you get. Mark suffered from schizophrenia and had been a patient at Overbrook for over 20 years. Mark was pretty ill. Mark was there for quite a long time at Overbrook. He was, no, he was, he was, they'd sometimes call him life or he was, he'd be there for the rest of his life. And I guess on the outside, too, his parents would ever had to put him in a long time ago so he couldn't control him. Mark was prone to outburst, but Ron could calm him down. They had this ritual.

Some mornings when Ron first got in, Mark would meet him. They'd have a cigarette on a porch outside the ward that looked over a field. They talked about Newark, about church, and about Ron's day. And then Mark would go back to his room, and Ron would be. punch in and start work. It was spring. It was like May. It was really nice. And I remember getting up that morning, heading out to work. And I always stop off at a convenience store to pick up the coffee and some cigarettes and newspaper. And like any other day, I headed to work. I pulled in the

entranceway to the ward where I work at, got out of my car, walked on to the ward. And then there's a patient standing there with his back towards me. And then I got it closer to him, he turned around and was Mark. And he just said to me, he goes, oh, hi, Ron. He goes, hey, do you have a cigarette? I said, sure, I got one. I said, what's the way in the middle? Let me put my bag inside my room here, and we'll go on the porch.

I took my keys out, opened up the door, and we're walking out. I said, come on, let's go on to the porch. And when we stood there, I gave him a cigarette, I lit it for him, and I had one. I said, to Mark, on today's paper, they had in Branchbrook Park, New Jersey, the cherry blossoms are blowing. You know, he goes, oh, I remember that when I was a kid growing up out there. I said, yeah, that's where I learned to go fishing. He was relaxed.

He was calm. He wasn't his normal, jumpy little self. You know, like, you know, what's going on and everything? But, you know, I wasn't about to ask him what the change was, you know. So as we're chatting away there, you know, I looked down on my watch because I always like to be on time punching in. And it was like about eight of around there. And I said to him, well, more.

Mark, listen, I have to go in now and stuff, put out the cigarette, come on, and come inside. And so, as I went to die out my cigarette and pulled the keys out of my pocket, I put my head up. And I was right by the staircase, and that's when I seen it. And you didn't have any time to move or do anything. It just, that was it. It was there. You put my head up, it was there. There's a figure.

It was dark and thick, mist. and I couldn't see through it. Well, I'm only like about 5-11, but it towered over me. Came right upon me with his arms reached out. And before I can even say anything or do anything, it just went right through me. And I felt cold. Cold, because it was a warm morning, and it was very cold.

I felt the severe pain in my chest. And I fell down to my knees. knees, hold down to the railing there, and I couldn't breathe. I felt my left arm go numb, felt pain in my jaw, and I thought right away, I'm having a heart attack. I'm dying of a heart attack. Like they say many times, people say, oh, well, if you're dying, how your life goes past you, well, I found out that's not true. There is no time to look back on things. It's just like, you're scared. You're so scared that you, this is it. And you're trying your damnedest to breathe and whatever and you're going down and you can't stop it.

You have no control what's happening to you. You've lost all that. Next thing I know, as fast as it came into me, as it went out, I suddenly could feel my breath come back slowly. And I started to breathe again. As my breath came back, you know, I was totally shaken up. You're like in a haze. You can't figure out what happened. happened. You know what happened, but you just can't piece it all together. I started to lift myself up

on the railing. And as I got up, I stood there with both hands on the railing there, and I was shaking, and I looked over to Mark, and he was gone. I thought he might have went to get help. I looked down, and the cigarette he was smoking was still on the ground there. So I just reached down and just died out my cigarette and then reach over to his and put my foot on it. And then took my keys out, walked inside the ward,

headed right to the area there to punch in, and I just sat down in the chair, just taking a deep breath. And just then the nurse came over when I was sitting there, and she asked me, go, Ron, are you okay? Another attendant

came running up to her and said to her, We have a patient down up in the dorm upstairs, and she said, what is it? And he said, a cold blue, which means they're downed. It's emergency. So she just ran and called the doctor and then said, Ron, can you come and help us for short-handed. And when I knocked on the door, I opened it up, and the doctor was there.

Then he had me a clipboard. He says, I can need your signature, if you wouldn't mind, just sign right here. I need a witness. So I looked down and it said time of demise or deceased at 6.30 a.m. And I just signed underneath there. And he goes, you need to see the body. The patient was lying down on the floor, covered with a sheet. The doctor didn't get him in the morning.

He just flung back that sheet. His jaw was crooked. His tongue was in between his teeth. You can see the blood. And his hands were both and were clutched right by his chest. chest and they were frozen in that position. And when I looked down, I noticed it was Mark lying there. I just was with him.

That was it. I just fell down onto the bed and put my head down. I felt like I was going to pass out, you know. And the doctor then put his hand to my shoulder, tell me, put my head down and started breathing. That's why I try to explain to him that I just had a cigarette. with him. We had a cigarette on the porch. It was at 6.45.

And at the clipboard, it said right there, time of death, 6.30. When he pieced it all together, the mark at that time was already passed. How can it be possible? You can't be two places at one time. You can't be down or having a cigarette at me, and yet be up in the dorm

passing away at the same time. And when I left there, I went and I called the priest, I do down in Newark. And I explained to him what happened. And he said

that what you experience was the, we call on the Catholic religion, which I'm Catholic, he goes, the angel of death. It just has the one main job to do, and that's what it does. Nothing else. And they're sent down to collect.

And they collect the bodies, and set them off. And they're gone. He said, you just happened to be there at the right time. It was coming to pick up Mark. And he said that you were talking with Mark's spirit. That's why Mark seemed different to you.

He wasn't the same Mark as before. He was now once whole again. And he said Mark was going through a transformation from being a patient that was suffering from schizophrenia to going back to being a whole spirit. He said, you experience this Mark. I asked him, why would it be me? He says, that's you, Ron.

That's you, is how you are. How you are. Years later, after Ron retired from Overbrook, he started to have some health problems. He was hospitalized and sent to intensive care. I was there for three days, three days. I think if I slept for two hours, that was a lot. kind of had my eye open

and constantly looking at the door and around looking for the angel of death. I didn't see it. I was scared as all hell, but I didn't see it. Thank you, Ron, for sharing your story of the Spooot. Now, folks, Ron shared some photos of Overbrook with us. Make sure to hit up the Spook podcast on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram to check out Ron Snacks.

episodes of Spooked. Download or stream the show right now where you got this one. I'll go to spookpodcast.org. If we count down to all-hallowed Eve, the Spook, Ghostbuster Crew, includes Mark Ristich, Anna Sussman, Jody Colley, Jasmine Aguilera. Both of our story today,

produced by Eliza Smith and scored by Liam Murimoto. Our original Spook theme was by Pat McCasie Miller. If you like real stories, from real people with no ghost around, subscribe to the amazing Snap Judgment podcast, and despite our

continual admonition, news reports worldwide continue to chronicle people making the same mistake when confronted with the supernatural forces. Friends, please remember the darkness is not your

that's why I beg you. I plead with you to never, ever, never, never, ever, never, ever, never, never, Never, ever, never, never.