Stuff You Should Know - Short Stuff: Two Scary True Shorties!

Episode Date: October 30, 2024

Josh and Chuck dive into two spooky true stories in today's Short Stuff.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey everyone, it's Jay Shetty and I am so excited to let you know that my latest podcast interview is with the one and only Tom Hanks. I have left many wonderful atmosphere or a loving atmosphere without thinking, oh things were really wonderful back then, I wish I was back there. Jay, I don't think I've ever thought that. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Trust me, you won't want to miss this one. Hey, and welcome to The Short Stuff. I should say, hey, and welcome to The Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck, and Jerry's here too, skulking around like a real ghoul who just wants to dig up a grave and eat the corpse inside. That's what Jerry does around this time of year. And this is short stuff, so let's get going because it's basically Halloween.

That's right. The day before Halloween, we're going to talk about two scary stories. Big thanks to Medium, People, Magazine, Cult of Weird, and The Cut, and other places for these two scary stories. The first one about the Brizzius family of Auburn, Pennsylvania, who moved into a home for their family of six. They were like, let's renovate a little bit. Let's take down this wall in the living room.

And oh my God, what is that? Eee, eee, eee, eee. Basically, because what they found within the walls of the home were dead animal carcasses, bones and skeletons. Yes, and very quizzically they were wrapped in newspaper that dated from the 1930s and 40s. And apparently every wall that they opened up to put insulation in in they found it packed

With not only like dead animals, but also some spices Artifacts and by God I searched high and low for an example of what the artifacts were But everybody just followed the example of whoever first wrote artifacts and that's all you can get. So I have no idea what the artifacts are. Maybe that was the newspapers. I guess those qualify as artifacts. Yeah? Yeah, all right, we'll just say that. So spices, newspapers, and dead animals.

And they're like, I don't know what's going on here. So let's ask some locals what they think is happening. And it turns out that these people bought their house smack dab in the middle of Pennsylvania Dutch country. what they think is happening. And it turns out that these people bought their house smack-dab in the middle of Pennsylvania Dutch country, and it turns out what had happened is they discovered that their house was being protected via a kind of Dutch magic, Pennsylvania Dutch magic called powwow. That's right. It has its roots in Pennsylvania there. And it's sort of like, I mean, Christianity

is part of it because they do use the Christian, or I don't know if they're still around, or maybe did use the Christian Bible. I think it is still around. Okay. But there's definitely folk magic, healing remedies, stuff like that. Powwow refers to, or it actually came from this German book called The Long-Lost Friends by John George Homan, published in 1820. And they believe that it wasn't called Powwow at first, but it was renamed that later after the Algonquin word for, you know, powwow, a gathering of medicine men.

And that was it. It was this book, basically, that also has kind of a creepy backstory there, right? Well, yeah, so just a little more about the book. It's a bunch of folk remedies and spells and recipes and hey, use this cat's paw to ward off this thing. And very importantly to me, nothing in the book is for casting spells against somebody or for hexing somebody.

It's all protective or defensive to undo some hex somebody did on you. So it's basically all positive. And powwow doctors who again are still around today, they don't take a cent for what they're doing. If you wanna give them something as a token of thanks, they'll accept it, but they do not charge for their services or else it won't work.

And to the people that they're working with and themselves, they are a conduit through from God to this person who needs healing, and that's what they're serving as, which is where the Christianity part comes in. That's right. And I mentioned the creepy backstory of that book. Here is that, because in 1928, it was found in the possession of a guy, a murderer named John Blymeyer. And there was a

local witch in this story named Nellie Knoll. Great name. And what? Great name? Nellie Knoll? Yeah, for a witch? Yeah, absolutely. John Blymeyer was convinced that he was cursed by one of his neighbors. And so he went to break into that neighbor's house to find the spell book and try and reverse this curse. But when he broke in, his neighbor was actually there. So they just killed him. They mutilated him and they thought maybe that will lift the curse. So that has nothing to do with actually what's in the book,

because like you said, it's a positive book of protection spells mainly, but it is Halloween, so I thought it was worth mentioning. Yeah, and also, reverse the curse sounds like a Cubs t-shirt from the 90s. You know? Yeah, yeah, totally, or Red Sox maybe. So yeah, it turns out that the house of Nelson Riemier,

the neighbor who was killed by John Blymire, it's still around and his great-grandson lives there. And the part of the floor where Riemier was burned alive is still singed and the guy has cut it out and put plexiglass over it and gives tours of the house. That's right. And again, has nothing to do with this home or the dead animals in the wall. They're just dead animals in the wall and by all appearances, it was part of a powwow

protection ritual. They don't know what that house might have been trying to be protected from. That's kind of creepy. Yeah. But they took care of everything to the tune of about $20,000 because insurance would not cover it. Nope. They said this existed before your policy, so T.S. for you.

The spookiest part of the story. Exactly. So, let's take a break and we'll come back and talk about a second real-life horror story. How about that? Let's do it. Hey everyone, it's Jay Shetty and I am so excited to let you know that my latest podcast interview is with the one and only Tom Hanks. Tom rarely does long form interviews, so I was so grateful to have the time to dive deep into family, mental health and the mindset behind his long successful career.

Dude, I travel light and I can travel light emotionally. I'm done. There's stuff that I cannot control. a light emotionally, I'm done. There's stuff that I cannot control. I have left many a wonderful atmosphere or a loving atmosphere or a friendly atmosphere and like Ernie Banks, you know, the ballplayer for the Chicago Cubs without ever looking back, without thinking, oh, things were really wonderful back then. I wish I was back there. Jay, I don't think I've ever thought that. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Trust me, you won't want to miss this one. Once again, we find ourselves in an unprecedented election. And with all that's happening in the lead up to the big day, a weekly podcast just won't cut it. Get a better grasp of where we stand as a nation every weekday on the MPR Politics podcast. Here our seasoned reporters dig into the issues that are shaping voters' decisions and understand how the latest updates play into the bigger picture. Listen to the on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Music Music

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Music Music Music Music Music Music Music You should know. You should know. You should know. Stuff you should know. Stuff you should know. Okay, Chuck. So for this second real life scary story, we're going to talk about the saga of Derek and Maria Brodus, who bought a dream home essentially in Westfield, New Jersey in 2014. They paid over asking for it, which is also very scary. They paid 1.4 million for it. And this house was a four-bathroom,

six-bedroom Dutch colonial, which should be the opposite. It was built in 1905. And they loved the house. They thought it was amazing. What they didn't know is that there was a stalker watching the house who called themself appropriately The Watcher. That's right. This is of course the basis of the Netflix show, The Watcher, and we should also say we're gonna cover this in about six or seven minutes, and this is a very dense story. So there is a lot more out there about The Watcher, and this is the broadest of overviews

about the broadest family. You like that? But this house was originally built in 1905. About a month before closing, the Woods family, who was selling it, got a letter from someone that called themselves the Watcher. It was hand-typed and they claimed to be watching the house and one of a long line of people in their family that had been watching the house since 1905. Yeah and one little note about the letters. The letters were typed, but the envelopes

were handwritten in a block of script. Yes. And that, to me, suggests strongly that the watcher couldn't figure out how to type onto an envelope, which I find hilarious. Yeah, that's pretty funny. So 657 Boulevard is where this house is, and the Woods family had lived there for 23 years. They were like, this letter's kind of weird, it's a little creepy, but we're selling it,

and let's just not tell anybody that. Right, so yeah, apparently it was the first letter they ever got. No one ever seems to have intimated that they got one prior to this. So they just kind of threw it away and were just like, whatever. And then over the course of the next month, as the Broduses started moving their stuff in, three days after closing in June, they received a letter, their first letter, and it was essentially the Watcher introducing themselves to this new family who'd moved into this house at 657 Boulevard, that the Watcher was the third generation to watch this house. Hey, Dave, maybe we could, Dave, producer Dave for the Shorties, maybe we could have

some scary music when we read these letters. Oh, great idea. Great idea. All right, so cue the scary music and here we go with letter two. My grandfather watched the house in the 1920s and my father watched in the 1960s. It is have B, and of course, put the little parenthetical S-I-C in there. Which means I'm not the dummy, they're the dummy. Yeah. It is have B put in charge of watching and waiting for its second coming. You don't want to make Unhappy talking about the house. Mm-hmm. Do you need to fill the house with the young blood? I requested

I asked the previous owners to bring me young blood So this is not the kind of letter you would want to get when you're moving into your new house. Especially because you have kids and this person is this anonymous letter writer is mentioning young blood that you apparently brought to them. And they the the watcher said that the woods had sold the house because the watcher asked them to and they were doing the watchers bidding something that the watcher asked them to when they were doing the watcher's bidding, something that the watcher liked to apparently think about themselves, that they were in control of everything that happened with this house.

And two weeks later another letter arrived. It was addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Braddus. They left the O out this time. And it got even more detailed about the kids. Yeah, I was talking about their birth order, their nicknames, and this is very creepy, but it asked who would be in the street facing rooms and said it will help me to know who is in which bedroom. Then I can plan better.

Man, don't forget the music there, Dave. So Derek Brodus did what every normal father and husband would do in 2014. He set up webcams in the house. Yeah. Yeah. And they hadn't moved in, by the way. In fact, never moved in.

They had moved some of their stuff in. But given what was happening, they were slow rolling, I think. Yeah. So weeks after the second letter, so this is a couple months after they closed on the house, they got another letter that said, where have you gone to? 657 Boulevard is missing you. And that's fairly creepy, but at least it wasn't a threatening letter this time. But it also showed that the watcher was clearly watching the house.

And so a year went by, a year, Chuck, where these people who paid almost one and a half million dollars for their house never moved into it because they were too scared of whoever this person was. And they also grew very paranoid. I don't think the Netflix special took any liberties with that. I think it was like an actual depiction of like how this family, especially the dad, kind of descended into paranoia and suspecting anyone and everyone of being the watcher. They just couldn't take this at all. So they just never moved in the house and they tried to sell it and it did not go very well. I thought a second ago you were going to say these people didn't move into their one point

for me on the dollar house for a year because they were gonna say these people didn't move into their 1.4 million dollar house for a year because they were too scared and privileged. Yeah. Yeah. We just won't move in. So one other thing too, I called it a Netflix special, which I think kind of outed me as almost 50. Right.

You know. A program. It was the Netflix movie of the week. You watching your program? So they went to court and said, hey, these woods people got this, they knew about this, they didn't disclose this, now we've got this scary haunted house, or maybe not haunted, maybe being stalked by a real dangerous person. And the woods were like, no, no, no, that's not true.

That didn't happen. And so news started getting a hold of this they started reporting it they actually did DNA testing and found that woman's DNA on the envelopes and letters and that they had Kearney postmarks on them. Yeah that's 20 miles away and closer to New York I don't know if if we said this whole thing takes place in, what is it, Westfield, New Jersey, right? Yeah, of course, New Jersey. Okay, so the cops are involved now. The prosecutor's office is actually involved.

They're spending money testing this stuff for DNA, like you said, and they started theorizing of who it could be, and they thought maybe it was one of the other prospective buyers who was mad that they'd been outbid by the Broduses. Maybe they'd get them out of there. Yeah, exactly. Could have been one of the neighbors, like the watcher essentially intimated. And then there was a lot of suspicion on the Brodus family, too,

that they were essentially like the, um, the family from the Amityville horror that they had, they were trying to basically create a, a sellable story, which is what turned out to be the case actually. Yeah. Or buyer's remorse too. That's another one too. Um, but they, uh, that would, that would be a terrible, terrible thing to do if you just wanted to sell the house and there were other people who had offered over asking why would you like saddle it with a now famous stalker rather than just being like we're gonna sell it and we'll

try to sell it at least breakeven. Yeah yeah for sure that didn't make much sense. Yeah. So in 2016 they tried to subdivide the property into a couple of lots get rid of that house, build two more. The zoning board in the town said no. Big slap in the face. And they rented the place, and the renter was like, yeah, I mean, I know about this watcher thing,

but I wasn't too freaked out. It was fine, it was a good house to rent. And I did have a clause, an out clause in my lease in case another letter popped up. And another letter did pop up, and this was a really creepy one, and I think you should read this one. Oh, the whole thing, okay.

Violent winds and bitter cold. To the vile and spiteful Derek and his wench of a wife, Maria, you wonder who the watcher is? Turn around, idiots. Maybe you even spoke to me, one of the so-called neighbors who has no idea who the watcher could be. Or maybe you do know, and are too scared to tell anyone. Good move. I walked by the news trucks.

Remember, this whole thing had become like a media circus by now. When they took over my neighborhood and mocked me, I watched as you watched from the dark house in an attempt to find me. Telescopes and binoculars are wonderful inventions. 657 Boulevard survived your attempted assault and stood strong with its army of supporters barricading its gates. My soldiers of the Boulevard followed my orders to a tee. They carried out their mission and saved the soul of 657 Boulevard with my orders.

All hail the Watcher! Pretty full of themselves, right? Yeah, he kind of came across as a smarmy a-hole in that one, whoever this Watcher is. He or she, don't forget they found female DNA on the envelope. Oh, yeah, that's true. It sounds like something a guy would do, though. They did mention the renter in that letter. The renter was a little bit spooked, but was like, but I'll stay here, you know? I like this place, get some of those cameras in there

and I'll be fine. And then there was one last spooky tag on this letter about the revenge that might befall them. Maybe a car accident, maybe a fire, maybe something as simple as a mild illness that never seems to go away, but makes you feel sick day after day after day after day after day. Maybe the mysterious death of a pet. Loved ones suddenly die, planes and cars and bicycles crash, bones break. They threaten to make a plane

crash. Hey, that's pretty scary. So how'd the whole thing end up? The Brodus family finally did sell the house about five years after they bought it right? Yeah at a $400,000 loss and that is the end of the story. What I don't know is how the Netflix show that surely it just doesn't wrap up that way. There's... Oh you haven't seen seen it? No, have you? Yeah, it's good. Oh, is it good? You watched the whole thing? Yeah.

How does it end? Well, don't tell me how it ends, I guess, on air. I honestly don't remember how it ends, but I don't. It didn't seem to be like a succinct ending like everything was wrapped up, if I remember correctly. Oh, it's got a- But it gets nuts, man.

It's off the rails. It's got, and you know, I'm sure they fictionalized a lot of it. But it's got, what's his name, the guy I like, Rose Byrne's husband, Bobby Cannavale. Oh, he's married to Rose Byrne, I didn't know that. Yeah, one of my favorite couples. And I sat next to him in a lounge at LaGuardia Airport one time. And he smiled at me. So I think we got something brewing there, friendship wise.

I think we got something brewing there, friendship-wise. I think so, too. Well, then you should definitely watch the Netflix special on the Watcher because you need something to talk about with him. That's right. And thanks to everyone for indulging this extra long two-part shorty. And be safe tomorrow. Happy Halloween, everybody. Happy Halloween, everybody.

Short Stuff's out. Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.