Spooked - Skinwalker - Classic

Episode Date: December 5, 2025

Lee’s great grandfather, his grandfather, and his father have all seen him: the shapeshifter. They know this man has the power to curse them, to hurt them. Lee wonders: is this man coming for him too?BIG thanks to, Lee, and his entire family for sharing their story with us!Produced by Annie Nguyen, original score by Leon Morimoto, artwork by Teo Ducot.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Once upon a midnight scary, demons, ghouls, ghost, and fairies gathered round the sacred tree. I saw them, and they saw me. At first, I thought to steal their rights was their sacrifice. You've passed over to spout. Stay tuned. Okay, so, I'm 12 years old. Sit next to my little brother in church. My pastor worked himself up to a head of the same.

steam, wipes away the mop of his brown, blondeish hair, waves his hand in front of the congregation. Brother, you think you know the story of the flood? Well, today, I'm going to tell you the secret history, the truth that's been hitting from you. I'm thinking, secret history, huh? The Lord sees the evil doers inhabiting his land, and he tells Noah, the only good man he can find to build a an ark. Noel bays. Takes Noah a hundred years of hard labor, but he does it. But God's command, all the animals and all the world start filing into the boat two by two. They somber, slither, crawl, hopping past, right past all the wickedness onto this strange

vessel. It erected miles from any water. And Noah, with the three sons and their wives, Follow the animals inside, and the Lord pulls shut the door behind them, and then, finally, brother, the rains come. For 40 days and 40 nights, the skies open up, washing away every single soul whose evil heart hath offended the Lord Almighty, and Noah's art floats above their wretched corpses, a cleansing of sin, brother. Grant Noah and his children the chance for a new Eden after sailing for a full year. They walk off the ark onto a reborn world, untanked, unsullinged. Noah dances in joy at the good Lord's grace,

whooping and hollered before collapsing into a deep slum. But then, Brandon, rather than the unthinkable happens, horror of horrors in his sleep. This good man is defiled, violated, sodomized by one of his own sons. In sin, re-enters the word. And raised the Lord Almighty. He smites Noah's offending son Ham with a curse. A curse, a curse so powerful, we still see the stain, the mark, burn into the skin of Ham's descendants today.

You wonder where neid-skinned. and came from, brother? From that evil deed perpetrated by Noah's own child, make no mistake! From that day forward, he and all his children, and all his children's children, the African race were cursed

by the very hand of God. I looked down at my skin and I don't feel cursed. Feel angry, I feel furious, certain that either he's lying about that book or that book is full of lies either or.

I know the beauty of my grandmother's unlined ebony skin. I sit hours under the summertime sun, hoping to darken my tone to match hers cursed. And I wonder, as I snatched my little brother's hand and pull him down the aisle out of the door, past the people pretending very, very hard not to see us, I wonder. Why are they so afraid? My name is from Washington.

Lies are curses. And curses are lies. Spook starts. Here's the deal. When we started making spook those many years ago, I wanted to find one certain kind of story. I wanted to tell you about skinwalkers, indigenous warlocks, witches, shape-shifters.

I've heard whispers around campfires, around back rooms, dark conversation, and I told my producers, we've got to nail this down. We have to. But sometimes, we've scoured the country, the globe, our community, the internet, and it seemed like we'd never find someone willing to tell us their story, because sometimes just speaking about this kind of magic,

this sacred mystery, it's forbidden. And that's why I am so excited to, introduce you to our storyteller. You probably want to hold on to a loved one's hand right about now. So she would tell us stories that it scared the crap out of us, to be honest. There would be a fire going. We turned the TV off. And of course, we're already full from dinner and we're having other snacks. As any native would say, their grandmother makes the best fried bread. Guess what? My grandmother did make the best fried bread. and I would ask her to tell us true ghost stories. Her reply is they're all true.

When I asked about more of what a Skinwalker was, my grandma would tell me stories of my grandfather. One in particular was when he was out in the mountains. Up in the hills, not too far from where we were currently at that time. My great-grandfather, he was a sheepherter, and there was always somebody that was willing to buy that, wool. It was a way to survive, way to live. At this time, he did have issue with one of his neighbors down the way. I don't know how it started, but there were sheep that were either missing or that

were killed. And my great-grandfather would take his sheep out to the mountains, the grays. And it was evening. He was getting ready to head home. Something caught his attention. It was a noise, almost like a drumbeat, somebody chanting or singing. And so he crawled up over this hill, and he was able to see that there was a fire. He saw one person sitting next to the fire. My grandfather recognized him right away, a neighbor down the road. I think there were accusations of stealing sheep and things like that. I think as he went over the ridge and he saw his neighbor,

naked sitting around a fire. I don't know if he understood the words that were being said, but he knew in his head that it was bad. And no, it was not a common sight to see that. But he knew that his neighbor was what we call a witch. Although my grandfather never saw him shape-shift, he never saw anything, he was supernatural, you would say.

He knew that his neighbor was involved in that black magic. How he came up with that conclusion, I don't know, but in his head, his neighbor had something to do with his sheep. He left pretty quick, hoping that he wasn't seen. He was worried that his neighbor would maybe get to him first somehow. So he was scared. He was scared because he knew the power or the abilities that his neighbor had. But I guess he felt empowered because he had that knowledge of what he was doing.

He could later on confront him, which he did. And so my grandfather approached this neighbor, and he said to him, I know what you do. And as he did that, his neighbor's eyes just grew, just huge. He was scared because he knew that my grandfather knew that he was involved in black magic. And so his neighbor was very surprised, very scared because it is said that if somebody knows who you are, they've also known what you've done because in order to be a skinwalker apparently you have to kill somebody close

to you. This neighbor asked my grandfather, begs my grandfather. Please don't tell anybody I will give you sheep, I will give you this, I will give you what I have. My grandfather, I just, I don't know why he made this decision, but he told people.

He told neighbors, he told his wife, my grandma. He told people in the community, and according to my grandmother, that neighbor, he got very sick right after that, and he ended up passing away. Well, I think every culture has what they consider the boogeyman. I would hear different things from different people, but one thing that was always consistent was that they are real,

and that there were people that used black magic and for me that was scarier than a ghost because a ghost I was always told couldn't hurt me whereas a skinwalker could actually physically hurt you after dinner we're pulling our mattresses out

we would lay and have our mattresses set up on trampoline and make it as comfortable as possible because you're going to be out there all night although it was summertime it would get cold sometimes So you made sure you had your blanket or your sleeping bag, and you're just laying there and it's silent. There's no traffic, there's no train, there's no airplanes that you hear.

Just the big black sky and tons of stars. More stars I've seen in my entire life. It's a perfect spot to tell ghost stories. My dad would come out, and he'd like, lay down with us. My dad told us about one of his experience that happened to him when he was 19 years old. And he was in the Midwest, actually. It was not even on a reservation. He was serving a church mission. And he was there in the wintertime, in the snow. My dad goes on and tells a story that he was driving from one town to another and his companion, his partner, was asleep. And it was actually in the middle of the day. He said it was cold. It was gloomy. And as he was driving,

He recalls having this feeling of just fear and dread. Now something was wrong. At that moment, he said from the right side of the road he saw a man jump over the fence on the side of the road and run right to the middle of the road. My dad slammed on the brake, slid, stopped the right where this man was. And this man, who he describes of being covered in fur, and he put his hands right on the hood

and looked at my dad right in the eyes. And my dad said that he looked very sad, very tired. Just in the moments of looking eye to eye, he could tell that. That man was not a normal man. The man, after looking at my dad in the eye, I ran away and jumped over the fence and took off again. And he didn't know what to think of that,

but he said it really messed him up because it wasn't just some bum That was the middle of the road. He said they were out in the middle of nowhere. So my dad finishes telling us about his experience. And of course, we're scared because my dad telling us, we believe every word that he says. And we ask, is there anything else?

Has anything, have you seen anything else? And so he goes into telling his dad's story, grandpa's story. He goes on to tell us that our grandpa, when he was younger, probably his early teens, when he's about to perform a ceremony, a ritual, a rite of passage for a young man to become a man. My grandfather was outside of what we call a kiva, made out of Adobe, and it has a big ladder coming out of the top

where you enter and exit, and he was going to perform this ceremony in there. But for some reason, he was outside of it. All of a sudden he feels this same feeling that my dad describes to us. Just overwhelming sense of fear and dread. He didn't know what it was, but he felt this feeling that something was wrong. And that's where this man just came out of nowhere who was dressed in hides, animal fur. He approached my grandfather.

And this man was tall. He was very dark. His hair was very messed up. He was dirty. But what he describes that... I still think about when he tells me this. It's the man's eyes and his face. Oh, just looking at him, you could tell this man was miserable.

He was sad. He said something in my grandpa's language about wanting to die. they exchanged looks and the grandfather left. He ran away. I don't know what happened after that, neither does my dad. But it did change my grandfather because he knew that person was, in his words, he was evil.

And he felt like he was a witch. And he felt that he needed to get out of there as soon as possible. What scares me the most about hearing my grandpa's story is my dad is his belief that it was not just somebody that looked like the man that he saw but that my dad in his head he believes that it was the same person

but how was that possible from somebody from the early 1900s to meet my dad across the country in the 70s he told us that story because he was wondered if something like that would happen to us What I've always been told is stay clear of them

Meaning don't try to conjure them or call them by whistling at night Don't walk alone at night on the reservation Don't drive at night alone on the reservation Because if you do A skin walker will make itself known It'll chase you It'll follow you home Stay as far as you can away from anybody that you think

Maybe you're working in black magic A couple summers later I was 14 years old. This summer I spent with my grandma helping her around the yard, planting things, watering her plants. Ernie would be the one working the hardest. He was a neighbor.

When I say a neighbor, he lived about three or four or five miles away. My grandma would always pay him to do things around the house. Grandma would call out, hey, can you take Ernie home? And, of course, I didn't have a license. I didn't have a permit. However, I did have experience. So I step inside and I'd grab the keys, load it up. My dog jumps back with Ernie, the bed of the truck.

My brother's right there in the front seat with me. Off we went, take him home. So it was getting dark. It wasn't dark yet, but the sun was going to be setting soon. So we dropped him off, a different route home, one that would be faster. And we're on the dirt road, very covered in washboards. I mean, nobody really maintained those roads. but perfect weather

75 degrees just enjoying the evening windows roll down put my hand out and enjoying the air you're driving and you put your hand out the window and just the wind in your hair grandma's old truck and listening to the only radio station that comes in

from Holbrook, Arizona and a lot of times they'd be playing oldies my brother was next to me he was just enjoying the same thing as well my dog in the back, although it was the most travel road in that area, there was nobody else out. And as we were driving, I recall seeing something on the side of the road that caught my attention, possibly a sheep, because out there's a lot of different sheep, a lot of free roaming.

He's better be safe than sorry and slow down and not hit a sheep. And so I do slow down. All of a sudden, I feel this feeling of trouble. red. It just, I don't know how it was to explain it. It's just dark, empty feeling that something was wrong. When I look in the mirror, I see what I thought was a sheep. So it was like uncurling, crouching, stretch out and just stand up straight. It was tall and it was very thin. And it had long arms, it had long legs. They had fur on its shoulder, had fur on its arms, head and front his legs.

And I see whatever this was running towards us. It was running towards the truck. And I'm already going 30 miles an hour. And I see its arms swinging these long arms and long legs,

taking big strides. At this point I was speeding up. I was going to the point where I was like 65 miles an hour on a dirt washboard road. So I was fish tailing. and this thing is keeping up this thing has the pace so so strong so long that it's able to keep up

and I was thinking that because I could see it come into view every once in a while because I was fish tailing trying to keep control of the truck I've never been so scared in my life where so many things are going through my head and thinking is this real

I'm thinking is this really happening is this thing going to kill us my dog was barking And I've never heard my dog bark that way, the pitch in his bark. It can tell he was scared or he was angry. He was everything. My brother also is crying and he's saying, it's coming up on your side. I looked in the mirror and it was very close.

And I didn't know what was going to happen. I sped up. And I went as fast as I could in that old truck. At that moment, we were going around a bend. car was coming towards us and had his lights on. As we passed each other, I felt this just instant relief, like, whoo, like I could breathe again. Like, whatever was chasing us was gone. I don't know if it was, if it hid, I don't know if it went to go chase after the other vehicle. I have no idea. I just know that I didn't see it in my mirror, and I felt just this relief that it was gone.

and I was still speeding towards Grandma's house because I knew I had to get home. I couldn't be out there. There was whatever was out there was out there still. We drove back to my grandma's house as fast as we could and I told my brother as soon as we park you run out and get into the house. Jump out, slam the door shut,

past the porch, into the house. And so we all got inside and slammed the door shut, locked it, made sure it was locked, double-checked it, closed the windows. As we get back, my grandmother there, she's attending to the fire. She saw how scared we were, and she said, what's wrong? What happened?

We told her briefly what had happened, and grandma said, yeah, stuff like that happens around here. My brother and I looked at each other like, oh my gosh, this is real. So all those stories that we heard growing up of the boogeyman or skinwalkers, for us it became a reality. And it messed me up for a bit. I'll be honest, I was scared to go back out there and see grandma. I was so scared to just step foot outside at night. We used to sleep on a trampoline at night with the dogs out there.

Those days were over. It was four or five years later my dad came home. I'm already in bed. I am laying down, but my room is next to the living room. So I hear everything. And something was wrong. He was talking to my mom, crying and telling her about what had happened to him as he was coming back from Phoenix. That he was driving on Interstate 17 between Phoenix and Flagstaff.

And it was right when he got to the pine tree. So he had made it up higher altitude. and he saw on his right side up on a little ledge or a hill the same man that he saw when he was a missionary. He said it almost made him crash. And he described him as being the exact same. And being able to see him with enough light in his headlights to know that, wearing the same animal skins or hides, having no shoes, being tall, dark, dirty. But one thing he did mention, he mentioned those eyes again. He mentioned how

tired they looked and how sad they looked. And that's how he knew it was the same person by looking in his eyes. And to hear your dad crying in another room, it scared me. I didn't go out there. I didn't know what to do. It was a new experience hearing my dad cry and thinking how your dad is this big tough guy and has gone through a lot. You don't ever see him cry. And for him to be crying. I didn't want to see that. I didn't know how to react to it. I don't know how what I could do to help him. So I just stay there in my room. I wonder if it is the same person, if it is the same thing. If what I saw, what my dad saw twice, and what my grandpa saw,

I wonder if it's the same person. There's a trend here, not a good one. and I have three sons. I wonder if or when they'll have their experience. Thanks and big love to our storyteller Lee. And thanks to your granny and your grandfather and your dad and your great-grandfather for sharing your stories with us to

stay safe out there. Drop us in line if anybody ever comes back. The original score for that story was by Leon Morimoto by Annie. Yes, yes. heard from other folk, but if you have a personal story that spooked you, where you touched a force, a power, a being that was not supposed to be there, where you have a relationship with the mystery, send us your story. Spook at snapjudgment.org. There is nothing better than a spook story from a

spook listener. But don't tell me you saw a ghost. Everybody saw a ghost. Yet if you have a real story, let us know. Spooked at snapjudgment.org. And again, you can't tell you. like your storytelling and the bright light of the day subscribe to the amazing snapdutch of the podcast because it might just change your life. Spook was brought to you by the amazing team that never

assumes a shape that is not their own except, of course, from Mark Ristich. Mark has many, many forms. There's Anna Sussman, our chief spookster is Eliza Smith, Chris Hambrick, Annie Nguyen, Nguyen, Lauren Newsom, Leon Morimoto, Lenzogorio,

Taylor de Kott, Marissa, Marissa, to Dodge. Alia Yates, Zoe Frigna. Greta Weber, Jacob Winick, Son of Khan, Tiffany Deleezza, Ann Ford. Fernando Hernandez and Flo Wiley. The Spook theme song is by Pat Massey Miller. My name is from Washington.

Follow me on the Twitter, the Instagram for a whole different type of story. Different shapes and sizes. There is no foolproof method for keeping the dark-sided bay, but you don't need to throw out the welcome mat either. My advice My recommendation is simple

It goes like this here Never Never ever, never, never, never Never, ever, never, ever, never, ever Turn out