This Paranormal Life - #373 The Ghost Workers of Alabama’s Deadly Haunted Furnace

Episode Date: July 1, 2024

We've all had a horrible boss in our lives, normally you can just quit your job and escape them. But what if that boss followed you into DEATH? For the poor sods who worked in Alabama's notorious Sloss Furnace that's exactly what happened when the evil shift master James 'Scum' Wormwood mysteriously died and then continued to haunt the deadly factory!Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTubeJoin our Secret Society Facebook CommunitySupport us on Patreon.com/ThisParanormalLife to get access to weekly bonus episodes!Buy Official TPL Merch! - thisparanormallife.com/storeIntro music by www.purple-planet.comResearch by Ewen Friers Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is there a night vision but for seeing ghosts? We have sun cream, but why not moon cream? Answers to these questions and more on this episode of This Paranormal Life! Hello! And welcome back to This Paranormal Life, the weekly comedy podcast where every week myself, Kit Grimm-O'Venna, and this guy sitting across from me, Mr. Rory Pars, dive into a different paranormal tale

and decide by the end of that episode whether we think it's really paranormal or not. How you doing today, Rory? We have sun cream, but we don't have moon cream. We have sunglasses, but we don't have moon glasses. There's a conspiracy going on here, people. We are living in the sun realm. This is a kind of Legend of Zelda between worlds thing.

We need some kind of magical device that is going to flip us from the sun world to the moon world. We didn't land on the moon, but we faked it and said we did. And the flip of that is we did land on the sun and didn't tell anyone about it. Wow.

My third eye is open right now. You're talking about this. Neil Armwe third eye is open right now. Neil Arm- Neil Arm- weak landed on the sun. Standing leg weak. Standing leg weak. Standing leg weak. Landed on the sun. Didn't land on the sun. Is it a Neil Armstrong? Stuntsy Leggo! Ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha! Fellas, is it leg week? Ha ha ha! That got me good. No, hey, I'm excited to be back here.

Excited to be back for another week, another paranormal tale. Because, you know, we get comments all the time, Kit, from people saying, I love the show, but but hey it's hard after a Tuesday to wait another week to listen to another episode of the podcast get a life huh well no that's you don't have sorry you don't have enough things to fill your week weird I think they mean it like a nice way like I love the show

so much I'm dying don't you have a job they have a job to go to they do because a lot of them support us on Patreon monetarily, so. They do have jobs, and they love the show, and they're here to support us. So let's not bad mouth them. But they say, you know, it's hard to wait that long to listen to the podcast. To those people, I say, how do you think it feels to be us?

Because I have to wait six more days to talk about the paranormal. Yeah. And that's hard for me. It's a hard thing to kind of bottle up. Well, you don't achieve it whatsoever. I've been with you in a Starbucks at 9 a.m. Wednesday morning. Just like, yeah, can I get a tall frappin'?

Go away, talk about the chupacabra. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they're like, sir, what milk do you want? Oat, of course, but this thing has six inch long nails. And they do not care. They're trying to move you along. They're like, I just need a name for the cup. Big.

Just big. Foot. Okay. That's your second name is Foot. It's hard. It's really hard. I remember I was at a restaurant the other day and I'm trying to talk to them about the paranormal and they always have the same response

Sir, I just watched you hit custom tip and enter negative five dollars into the machine I've never seen that done before, you know, so they clearly don't want to talk to me, which is weird You can do that. By the way, they don't want you to know about it, but you can do it You can just debit them. Yeah, they have to tip you. There's a tip as well, cook your eggs better. They're like, so the bill is 24 pounds. And you're like, for sure.

Can I leave a tip though? They're like, no. You actually can't. A custom tip minus 24 pounds. So, hey, I'm so glad that I'm back and I don't have to bother the general public. I get to bother the listeners of this podcast with my paranormal knowledge. Yeah, not a lot of people know that, but when the podcast is delivered every Tuesday, on

time as always, we're a bit like Woody or Buzz. We get put in a box, just away on the shelf again until next Tuesday. We don't really do anything. Yeah. We're put on ice. We're in a state of just eternal frozenness until we come back. But Rory, despite the state of eternal frozenness and the upside down, sounding like two potential episodes of this paranormal life, it's actually not what we're here to talk about today.

All right. As always, I have a brand new paranormal tale for us to discuss. That was cool that rhymed. Today's story takes place in Alabama. All right. Rory, have you ever been? Never been to Alabama. Yeah, I haven't either. I think a place we probably have made fun of a lot, but not actually

even really ventured too far into in the podcast. Yeah, I don't know why. We really haven't done a lot of cases there. All I know is that it is sweet home. But aside from that, not more, not much more knowledge. Well, we're going to be kicking off our investigations into Alabama pretty dramatically with a very disturbing haunting case. Whoa. When we're getting right into after a couple of words from today's sponsors,

with a quick reminder that every single episode of This Paranormal Life is available ad-free right now over at patreon.com forward slash This Paranormal Life Sounds like it's gonna be a crazy one, brother. And if you're listening in the moon realm, Don't, don't, don't try to flip it. You're probably now getting the ad-free ones,

but if you went to dot com patreon, No, don't, don't try to flip it. You're probably now getting the ad free ones, but if you went to.com, Patreon. No you're, this is way too complicated. You would get the ones with ads. No. Yeah. Don't. Yeah. You would get not free bonus.

Okay. I can't figure it out. To get to this- Moon people figure out your own way. To get to this website you need to close your laptop, unplug the internet and put it in a toilet and you'll arrive there somehow. Uhhh, the link is in the description of this podcast and or video. It is the late 1800s in Birmingham, Alabama aka Magic City. Wow, that's a cool name for a place.

Not to be confused with the legendary Atlanta Strip Club, Birmingham, Alabama was known as Magic City because it sprang into existence out of nowhere in 1873 when 4,000 people made it their home there. Hmm, all right, that's disappointingly not paranormal. If you're kicking off an episode of this podcast in Magic City and the reason it's called that is because it was built quick, that's a little disappointing. It wasn't like a western scene where there were like wizards hiding behind barrels jumping out to shoot each other with spells. That's what I was assuming, yeah. Sadly no, not why it was called Magic City. Fine.

This was an industrial city. The whole place was basically a Rammstein music video. Just men in tight-fitting dungarees, mining ore, coal and minerals for steel making. Okay. And if you needed work, there was only one place to get it in the 1880s. Down at the furnace. The Sloss Furnace was an industrial giant. Countless men metal forging and freighting steel around the country using the brand new railroads in and out of Alabama.

Uh, Rory, this is, just to set the scene, a picture of the kind of factory we were working with back in this place and time. Oh, hell yeah! Alright, this is a Call of Duty map. I was glad you brought it up. This is, yeah, this is just a factory. Giant chimneys emitting smoke, piles of rubble, trucks and trains dragging dirt from one corner to the other. Yeah, very generic, intense looking black and white factory.

But inside the factory was a dark and disturbing picture. You've heard of the American dream, Rory. This was the American nightmare. As the furnace made its owners and directors rich, the workers suffered. Conditions were famously grim. Laborers worked 12 hourhour shifts without a break in searingly hot temperatures.

The men were regularly paid late and sometimes paid in furnace tokens. What's a furnace token? Which you could only spend at the company store. And the only product on offer was more hours at the furnace. I was like, I won't spend the tokens then. I was like, oh shit, we really would appreciate appreciate if you spent the tokens because we need more hours. It's like boss, boss, I'm done for the week. You know, I need to collect my wages. Oh, yes, your wages. They're just inside that bunker. It's like, sir, that's the furnace. If I crawl in there, I'll die. No, no, no, your wages are back there. They're just ready waiting for you. Without protections or a union, the workers were trapped in this miserable situation.

It was basically Elon Musk's dream. To say the furnace was a health and safety nightmare is like saying World War II was a little bit of an inconvenience for all involved. You're underselling it. There were enormous vats of molten metal, noxious gases, and violent blasts of scorching steam exploding from pipes all around. And we're talking no guardrails, no protective clothing,

no safety equipment. And some days, no lunch. The worst of all. It's no surprise then that injury and death was rife. Many lost their lives in this hellscape. They said that on one occasion a worker was enjoying his lunch, sitting a little too close to one of the giant flywheels in the boiler. Suddenly the wheel caught his clothing and dragged him into the gears. Witnesses said that every time the wheel went around, there was a little less of old Frampton.

Oh God. That's awful. Yeah, it's pretty bad. Yeah, because it sounds like they had ample time to help him. They're like, every time there was a little bit less. I'd say, why'd you let it go on so long? Help him the first time he comes around.

Yeah, Frank's like, whoa, whoa. So guys, it's only cut off a couple of centimeters from my hair so far. If you free me, I should get away unscathed. No, old Frank's, whoa, he's gone all right. He's like, it's slowing down. Guys, this is really taking the piss now. I've been going around for about 25 minutes. They're like, we're on lunch.

We're all on lunch, Frank. Does this talk of a brutal conditions workplace remind you of any of your own kind of worst jobs you had over the years, Rory? Not particularly. I've worked a lot of jobs in my lifetime, all terrible jobs, mostly because I was terrible at them.

But I can't say that I had a job that was ever really as dangerous as this before. But that was just the olden days. This was your choice. Do you wanna work in a lava volcano, a dynamite factory, some sort of bomb creation store? I have no idea. But all the jobs were just pretty treacherous.

Yeah, you are absolutely right. There really was a kind of level of danger that was involved in all jobs back then. Also, old people back in the day loved to exaggerate how dangerous and sketchy shit was. Like I know in this part of the world, it's kind of a running joke that like our parents' generation will be like, we had to walk barefoot to school

in three foot of snow. And it's like, you definitely didn't. Yeah. But I do like that approach and I will probably use that on my children, whenever I'm older, to kind of make my life sound more bad ass than it actually was. Right. Cause you've had a relatively cushy life in general. Oh yeah.

They're not going to respect me for shit if I tell them how easy my life has actually been up to this point. It also makes you wonder, you know, does that mean the further back you go, the more exaggerated the stories actually are? Because it could turn out something like the medieval black plague. Really wasn't that bad after all.

Okay. It was like a hangover or something. Like people kind of woke up and they didn't feel great. Yeah. But because it's been so exaggerated over the years, they were like, millions died. The humanity was almost wiped off the face of the earth. Old Frank was far from the only person to meet a grisly end. According to the Travel Channel's investigation into this place, on September

9th, 1887, Richard Jowers was working at furnace number one. Standing near the top of the furnace, he slipped and fell into the molten steel below. Oh, shit. There was nothing anyone could do to help. It's rumored that they were able to remove his head and several bones before his remains were lost completely. All right, that's a bad way to go. This isn't super important, but it might just be a helpful reference later

when people start inevitably wandering around this furnace for us to get an idea of what these guys might look like. Okay, this is less of what I had in mind. These just look like cowboys and like dungarees with hats on. Yeah. I was expecting more like blacksmith big beefy dudes. Yeah, I mean that's another thing about history you do forget. Again, because people lived such kind of brutal, intense lives in some places back in the day, we do think of them as beefcakes.

Those men were five foot two. Yeah, this made it a lot sadder immediately. I didn't need to see any pictures today. But just to paint the picture, we're talking guys in... yeah, it was back when the only clothing available was a suit. That was the only clothing that existed for men. It was like, like in cartoons, you either wore a suit or you were just in your long johns with a butt flap.

Now while conditions improved slightly throughout the years, the furnace finally closed in the 1970s and the stories and tragedies would live on infamy. But Rory, after all that misery, pain and death, is it any surprise that Sloss Furnace began to be haunted? Just like clockwork, visitors have reported hearing strange voices and seeing shadowy figures lurking around the old foundry equipment or in the furnace's many tunnels. Some people have even reported being shoved violently by unseen hands. So random visitors just showing up to this factory are getting pushed around by ghosts? Yes. Why? Are the ghosts that lonely that they're trying to create more ghosts?

Trying to get up close and personal? Yeah. I think it's because the vibes here were so dreadful and we're about to see even more of that. The ghosts are like shoving people into vats being like, and now you shall burn like I did all those years ago. And the visitors are like, there hasn't been lava in this shit for like 80 years, dude.

What? Yeah, it's empty. No, I've just twisted my ankle. Yeah, I'm actually gonna be fine. This barely really even hurt. Yeah, I'm gonna leave by the way, cause my car is outside. Yeah, we all have cars now.

It's not a luxury. You can't leave, I'm gonna block you. Oh, you can walk right through me. Oh. The Center for Paranormal Events in St. Petersburg, Florida says quote due to its violent Disregard for life and loss of life sloth furnaces is considered a location rife with restless souls This is pretty textbook haunting material. I think isn't it? I mean this one is almost interesting to a

degree because the furnace, yes, it did open kind of a long time ago, like 150 years ago, but of course, in this part of the world that we're in, that's not even that old. It was built new in 1870s. So I think just the sheer amount of bad shit and people dying in those 100 years that it was open from 1870 to 1970 Meant that ghosts have started appearing. Okay. I see. What did this factory make? What was the point of it like steel heavy kind of metal forging? Okay, it's like it created just enough steel to make the rivets on the coffins of everyone who worked at the factory By the end. It was just it was just a completely self-sustaining community. Yeah It's like after 20 years of production

We finally have enough steel to build a factory because this one's being shut down because so many people died here Anyway, if you'll join us at your new job just across the road. After a 12-hour shift shoveling coal into a furnace, one of the workers says to the other, what are we making here anyway? It's like, we're making furnace tokens. What? Why don't they just pay us money? We got to make a hundred thousand more furnace tokens today just to pay all these workers. Yeah. The furnace tokens are like the size of bowling balls. Why do we do this?

It's like we're burning all this metal in a giant furnace. What do we make, boss? And the boss is like, this is the furnace company. We make furnaces. It's like we make more furnaces? Couldn't we just use the furnaces we're using to make furnaces as the furnace company. We make furnaces. It's like, we make more furnaces? Couldn't we just use the furnaces we're using to make furnaces as the furnace we're about to make? He was like, no, we can't do that.

We need that furnace to make more furnaces. And it's like, I'm just gonna jump in the lava. I gotta jump in the lava. Like, but you have to understand, if every furnace is only to make more furnaces, what is the point in furnaces at all? You're fired. What?

This guy has too many questions. Get him out of here. Put him in the furnace. Yeah. The whole thing is a reminder, I will say, of what America used to be, which was, hey, we joked earlier, our lives have been cushy. Okay, we're kind of joking,

but there is a little bit of truth to that, that since we've been alive in the 90s, the country we grew up in, Ireland and the UK, or if you're listening in America, these nations have undergone a crazy change in the last 100 years where they've transferred from being these kind of manufacturing nations where places like America and Britain made cars. Yeah, sure, things like steel, mined for coal, et cetera, to then around the 70s, 80s and so on. Ironically, exactly the time that this furnace closed down, they had to transition, well, maybe they didn't have to,

but they transitioned into being like, quote unquote, modern economies, service economies. And now I think all Britain does now is moves number around and exports racism. We don't really do anything anymore. Sure. Yeah. Banking, I think, is what Britain runs on today.

Right. But back in the day, they were building railroads. They were building, they had to build absolutely everything. They were building cars, factories and so on. So this was kind of what life was like for a long time. They had to build absolutely everything. They were building cars, factories and so on. So this was kind of what life was like for a long time. They also had a real disregard for worker safety, which meant productivity was at an all time high.

Cause you didn't have to kind of jump through all the hoops to get stuff across the line. You can just kind of tell people to do it. Yeah, when your workers die at the start of their lunch break, productivity looks real high because they don't take any breaks. They just die. And then you hire someone else to work the afternoon shift. Right. There's not many options.

I feel like stories like this are always a good reminder. Oh, like whenever I worked at the Tate Modern, we had a pretty active union. That was my first experience of being around a union. They were like, hey, you want to come to the union meetings? I was like, not really, sounds boring. But then once I saw that they were able to get us paid more, I was like, okay, turns out unions are dope.

But these stories of people having absolutely no rights back in the day remind me of the fact that, did you know the weekend didn't exist before 1843? What does that mean? It was just seven days of work a week? Uh, the present day concept of the weekend first arose in the industrial north of Britain in the early 19th century. In 1843, a Manchester workers' rights activist, Robert Lowe campaigned to win workers the right to Saturday's off.

That's crazy. Like that's not that long ago. It really isn't, that's worrying. So like, yeah, 180 or so years ago, we didn't even have a weekend. So next time you're lying in on a Saturday, you can thank old Robert Lowe for that. Now you would be forgiven for assuming

that these ghosts in poltergeist are most likely factory workers. Scorned and forgotten, bitter about how they were treated. But the story is a little more complicated. Maybe the most important ghost in Sloss Furnace is known as Wormwood. I don't like where this is going. Legend has it that a night shift chief by the name of James Wormwood ruled over the workers with an iron fist. Wormwood's cruelty was the stuff of legend. On his shift, he forced the workers to

take extreme risks. He was a humorless and cruel foreman, earning him the nickname James Scum Wormwood. All right, I like creative a nickname. Earning him the nickname Bastard Man. Like his name already has a worm in it. You probably could have done something creative there, like dirt worm or something, you know, earthworm. Tiny Dick Wormwood. Under his watch, 47 men died in accidents.

Oh my god! So many! And in 1888, six men were blinded in one explosion, but Wormwood always showed no sympathy or remorse. So he wasn't too popular with the workers. Wormwood's reign of terror lasted until 1906, when he was on top of the tallest furnace in the factory, Big Alice, when he met the same fate as so many of his victims. I guess he must have slipped at the top and fell to his death in the molten core below. And when word spread among the men,

the mystery remained. Had it really been a tragic accident, or had the workers finally had enough and taken matters into their own hands. Yeah, listen here, Mr. Wormwood. With the kind of public reputation you have, I wouldn't be standing at the top of anything. Remain on the surface, Mr. Wormwood. Yeah, you don't wanna be the guy who's like, you know what, if I actually go right to the top,

it'll be easier for me to whip people on the ground. He's like, don't do that. He's got a hundred foot whip. He can whip everybody in the inter, it's like a panopticon. He feels like Zeus throwing thunderbolts at the humans. He's like, this is actually great. I could probably whip him with my eyes closed.

Yeah, this is awesome. Hey, let's get the furnaces making an automatic whipping machine. I really think that's what we need to keep these workers in line. Yeah, that's not a smart move. Yeah, I would completely agree with that. It's like going to a restaurant and insulting the head chef to his face before dining there. It's like, bro has pretty much complete control over

your fate right now. Yeah, not a smart move. If you don't want someone to spit in your soup, it's not the right person to piss off. And this story has fascinated paranormal investigators over the years because many believe that it's the ghost of James Scum, or sometimes Slag Wyrmwood. Slag? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha It must have an American or an old-timey American relevance. It said, His soul can't rest because he was the victim of a murder, and he's damned to roam the furnace forever, tormented. Indeed, while the furnace was open, after Wormwood's death, the workers began complaining about an unnatural presence on site, particularly during the night shift. In 1926, a night watchman was injured when he was

ordered to get back to work and shoved on his stairwell. Get back to work, slag! Why would a ghost say that? But when he turned to see his attacker, no one was there. Ah, okay. So, I mean, it could be anyone, but it feels like it must have been the boss man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're hearing a lot of his familiar dialogue in the night. Kind of funny that he can't really push anyone around anymore. He's like trying his best from the afterlife,

but he just, it has no effect on people. Yeah. I've all met people like this before. I think you call them jobsworth, people who make their job kind of really entirely their personality and take it to a ridiculous extreme. But this really takes the biscuit, which is even after death, someone not giving up the role of boss. Yeah, give it up, man.

Go whip some angels in heaven at the very least. I also need him to get his messaging in order, like saying, get back to work, and then shoving him down a set of stairs. It's like, bro, he's not gonna be able to work after he falls down a 25 set of stairs. Just the idea of some of these workers passing on and going through the pearly gates,

and then just seeing Wormwood up there, just whipping people. Get back to praying angels. It's like, why did you let him in? He's clearly a bad person. He's whipping angels. Jesus is like, he whipped me. He whipped me at the pearly gate.

St. Paul's at the gates like he gave so much money to the church, weirdly. So we, we just want that technicality. We have to let him in. We really have to let him in. Big donor. Yeah. Big donor.

The pearly gate, I came from the furnace. Yeah, you all made that. Good work. Half of your buddies are fused in the steel. It feels like the sound of a whip is one of those... You know the way they say like, oh, Gen Z don't know what a floppy disk is anymore, like the image of a floppy one of those, you know the way they say like, Oh, Gen Z don't know what a floppy disk is anymore. Like the image of a floppy disk. Right. As I feel like the sound of a whip is even like that will eventually maybe the next generation will be like, what is that? It's like, well, people used to whip each other. So it's this big, long bit of

leather and you crack it. It sounds so prehistoric. Yeah. It's a string we use to kill each other. Jesus. Yeah. It was pretty cool. A really heavy string. I learned how to crack a whip properly, weirdly as part of a promotional event for Kingsman 2, I was taken to a training facility and taught how to properly crack a bullwhip by a cowboy.

Was it hard? I imagine it's harder than you think. It is harder than you think. And it's what you think, how you crack a whip is not how you crack a whip. The motion is super different. It's more of like a, it's like a big thing, right? And it's not like a, like a flick of the wrist. It's more of like this movement. I think when you're trying to do it, you're like, oh, this is gonna be fun, because you could whip someone and it would sting them. And then you see one of these professional guys do it. And it's like if that hits someone, their skin would explode. Yeah, it's like a gunshot. Like there's like, gunpowder shooting off. It's genuinely terrifying. You would get killed immediately if you were hit by this thing. It would smash a pane of glass type stuff. Yeah, you could take down a brick wall with some of these whips.

Damn. It's intense stuff. And in Alabama? Alabama? These cowboy ass m******s, they're hog tying people on their lunch break. It's gonna be crazy there. You ate two puddings in the canteen? Yeah, that's a whipping. Roy, did you know that the sound of a crack of a whip is actually a sonic boom?

I didn't, but yeah, I can believe that for sure. According to Wikipedia, the crack of a whip is produced when this, the little section of the whip at the end moves faster than the speed of sound, creating a small sonic boom. It was confirmed in 1958 by doing high speed photography. That is nuts. Back to the furnace though. Even on the very last night that the furnace was open, in 1971, the night shift chief Samuel Blumenthal took one last nostalgic stroll around for sentimental reasons until he found himself face to face with quote the most terrifying thing he'd ever seen. Blumenthal

described encountering a half man half demon who was horribly disfigured. This being grabbed Blumenthal, demanding he get back to work. And he tried to force him up one of the furnace ladders. When Blumenthal resisted, the demon man savagely attacked him, beating him unconscious. When he was found, Blumenthal was rushed to Dr. Jack Barlow. The doctor was perplexed. Blumenthal was covered in fist. Jack Barlow. The doctor was perplexed. Blumenthal was covered in fist marks, consistent with a beating, but it was as if they'd been burned into the skin. Ooh, I don't like that. Blumenthal actually died of his injuries a few days later.

What the hell? But maintained until the end that he had encountered something paranormal that night. How bad were these injuries? Had the spirit of Wormwood been behind the attack? That's too far Wormwood. I can't believe he died one day from retirement. Yeah, that's crazy. The furnace was about to shut down.

That is a mad story, isn't it? That is genuinely very insane. I mean, that's very recent. What did you say, 1979? 1971. 1971? He was killed by a ghost? I mean, that's very recent. What'd you say, 1979? 1971. 1971? He was killed by a ghost?

Is that the first time that's ever happened in a story? A half demon, half ghost? What the hell? Yeah, I do like that this, I mean, sad for Samuel here, but pretty fascinating for us that we've got, I mean, normally ghosts are pretty ineffectual. They're like, ooh. Right, they kind of pass by.

Like that's the most they say is they're, like the ghosts are back in their ghost pub, before they head out to go haunting. And they're like, tonight's the night, I'm gonna tell them. I'm gonna tell them to get out. It's like, you should do it, Terry. I'm gonna do it. And then they build themselves up and then they go

Barely, yeah, people are like is that the wind? Yeah, I didn't hear anything. Whereas this guy Isn't around he's filling a backpack up with like a bat with a nail through it and nunchucks Knuckle-dusters. He is ready to do some damage. Yeah again stuff. You really really shouldn't equip a ghost with. That's a bit much. And it's strange that this guy, you said he was a security guard? This was apparently the night shift chief, which I think is the same job that Wormwood had. So I guess, I mean, that is a pretty big job at the factory.

I'm just trying to work out whether or not this individual would have an incentive to say that he hadn't hurt himself at the factory, you know? But if this thing's being shut down anyway, they know it's dangerous, so. Oh, you're going conspiracy mode. You're saying was Samuel mangled by a machine

caught up in the gears, but he's saying it was the ghost. Yeah, like the owners of the factory are like in the hospital with him, and he's like, what happened, Samuel? Was it a ghost? I think it was. And Samuel was like, what happened, Samuel? Was it a ghost? I think it was. And Samuel was like, ah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was, yeah, oh, for sure.

I definitely didn't. Right, they're like, hey, we'll make your pension pot a bit bigger. We already know a lot of people died at this factory, so. I like that your third eye is open, Rory. We are gonna talk about some more close encounters at the furnace, right after a couple words from today's sponsor.

The team behind the True Crime Comedy podcast, Who Shat on the Floor at My Wedding, are back. And we've just launched a brand new season where we investigate a bizarre new mystery. This one has it all. Twists, turns, lie detector machines worth 99 euros, and leading criminal and forensic experts. In a real undercover operation where we infiltrate a party full of suspects. Season 2, The Case of the Tiny Suitcase is now live and can be found in the Who Shat on the Floor at My Wedding and Other Crimes podcast feed. The strange happenings have been reported and continued into recent times.

Here we go. In 2004, a Sloss Furnace tour guide, Josh Thomas, caught fire. It shut down. Yes. There's no fire in the building. I agree. Just as he had spotted a strange shape moving through the site. That is crazy!

What do you mean? So he was like, yo, what is a- Whoa! His trouser leg caught on fire. What the hell? Quite extreme. In fact, there are over 100 cases of unexplained events filed with the Birmingham police. Annoyingly though, on this show, we would love to get our hands on some physical evidence.

Even a photo of a ghost spotted at the furnace. But like with so many hunting cases we've covered, it's bloody hard to get. Almost every encounter here is anecdotal. And every paranormal investigator that goes there with a camera to try and get evidence is told to get back to work and shove down a set of stairs. I pushed it down a chimney and turned into steel. Yeah.

Just imagine you're a paranormal investigator being like, you know what? I know no one's been able to do it before, but I really think that today's gonna be the day I got all my gear and yeah, I think I might be able to capture a little bit of paranoid. I'm on fire. I'm on fire now. How did that happen? And even though there have been countless ghost TV show investigations here, they've pretty much come up with no hard proof. But I will say, in 2022, YouTuber Antonio Marco Escobar, better known as Omar Gosh, visited the site. Good name.

At first glance, his footage just is a little turrer, gives us a sense of what this place looks and feels like. Other than the occasional strange noise or drop in temperature, nothing really jumps out as paranormal proof. It wasn't until Omar posted the video to his channel that a number of viewers began commenting on a certain section. Omar hadn't noticed at the time, but many of his millions of subscribers spotted something at the 10 minutes, 50 second timestamp. And after a lot of conversation back and forth, Omar finally spoke out and commented, a few have messaged me about 10 51 in this video.

That is not my shadow. Shocked emoji. Oh, okay. Rory, let's check it out. All right, yeah, before we dive into this, a little disappointed because we've, you know, talked a lot today about an ancient factory where people just burst into flames as they so much as enter the doors.

And this big piece of groundbreaking evidence is the fact that there's a second shadow. There's a bit of dark on the ground that isn't caused by me. You know, just a little disappointing. Just a tiny bit disappointing. You know, I was hoping maybe the video would have a far off in the distance, get back to work, you know, or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. But you're saying that there's a bit of dark that's a strange thing. Hey, I haven't seen it yet. I don't wanna jump to conclusions.

It could be great. So it could be, actually, this thing could have eyes. It could speak. We don't know. Yeah, well, it wouldn't say that. No, it could though, right? Because Omar did miss it the first time when he edited the video.

And he spent a lot of time editing it as well. And he did miss it. All right, so it's subtle. So I don't wanna, yeah, it is quite subtle. Let's just watch it. And then how about we react then, because I feel like you are really getting people to tune out, like you're saying,

don't even bother listening to this bit. No, no, I'm excited. You said there was over probably two, 300 souls lost in this factory. I didn't say that. I think I said 46 people died under Wyrmwood. You said over 200. No, I'm only, I'm thinking to check the record.

So I'm assuming that this dark shadow, yeah, may look like a shadow, but it's every soul that's been lost over the time this factory was open. And it's beyond dark. It's Vantablack. It's the void. It's been, I will say,

the place has been there now for 150 years. Right. So it's had time to grow stronger and become even more powerful. I'm actually a little freaked out. I feel like I might burst into flames just looking at this video. I hope that you do, to be quite honest. I hope you're blinded by the footage you're about to see. Let's just check it out, why don't we?

Alright. Okay, we're cruising up to the 10 minute 51 point. That looks pretty cool. Hey, this place is really cool looking. It looks more like an industrial prison. Okay. 3, 2, 1, here we go. I wish we could go in there.

I worrying you had to count it down. Did you see it? Because it was so subtle you were afraid I would miss it if there wasn't a countdown to the point it appeared. You're like- We already missed it. Let's go for the replay. I didn't miss it. Let's go for that one more time.

Three, two, one, and there it is right there in the top corner. Hey, you could miss it! You could miss it. Yeah. Looks like maybe... Alright. Damn! Yeah. Damn!

Okay. Okay. Yeah, okay. Okay. Damn! Damn! Okay! Okay! Okay! Alright, so, hey, this all wasn't for nothing. This wasn't a mistake. This was... That was satisfying. Okay, well, hey, let me explain.

This was great stuff. He was walking on the floor of the factory, and there was a doorway that had bars up it, Okay, well, hey, let me explain. Great stuff. He was walking on the floor of the factory and there was a doorway that had bars up it so we couldn't get through. So we put the camera through the bars to kind of look around. And it seemed like there was a shadow moving

from behind him that he could see through the light in the bars. And like, am I crazy that I think I heard like, Get back to work. No, you didn't. You for sure didn't. No, no, I wasn't there. His trousers might've been cinched.

Like it could have been, like imagine someone held a match to it, but then it blew out. Embers, right? Yeah. This is not great in terms of paranormal evidence. Sure. Because we're not even seeing the thing.

We're seeing a shadow that could be caused from the thing, you know? So we're not even, what we're seeing isn't even up for debate. I mean, I would argue where it is unfortunate, but hey, this is ghost cases, right? I mean, we're totally in line with pretty much every other ghost case we've ever investigated.

It's just so hard to get evidence. Ugh, so hard to get anything. This is like a paranormal investigator showing you a video where they smelt a ghost. And it's like- Oh, now that would be good. It's like, all right, buddy, well, it's not on camera. We can't really trust you, so.

But this is cool. I assume this is like the first of like six, seven pieces we have today, so on to piece number two. Get back to evidence. One, don't whip me. Two, you've never produced seven pieces of evidence in your life. Don't need to, because one is enough in my cases,

because it's so groundbreaking. Oh yeah, we're really on the edge of our seat with the devil baby evidence. I know we were. Okay, I will say, no physical evidence. But interestingly, we do have an inside man on this case. Because Ewan Friars helped research this very case that we're talking about. And he went to Slough's Furnace last year. He is sadly no longer with us. Immediately destroyed. Burst into flames. He was working at an event there, and he said he asked one of the staff members if it was

haunted. They said, yes, I'd be willing to bet that it is. They went on. In fact, I've seen and heard strange things over the years myself. At night when you're the last one on the site, it gets creepy man. I've seen figures, heard voices hollering. I reckon it's Wyrmwood, the notorious foreman who died here in 1906.

Now, instead of iron ore, the only metal you and saw at the furnace last year was thrash metal and a bunch of terrible hardcore bands because they regularly have concerts and shows there now. In the factory? Yeah. Terrible idea. But he did say because he was working,

he got to access areas that are off limits to the public. He said that as he was leaving the furnace at the end of the night, he could swear he spotted a silhouette strolling along a gangway high above the foundry in what appeared to be old timey clothes. The figure surveyed the site before disappearing into the shadows. Wow.

As Ewan says, okay, not a close encounter, and could have been exhaustion, but that it was chilling all the same. Had Wyrmwood been checking out some of the bands that night? Right, this is a paranormal sighting from our very own researcher. Yeah. That's pretty cool.

That's about as close as firsthand evidence can get. Now, I suppose we do have to entertain the possibility that both then in the factory's heyday and now when it's used for events and things, this is a place with lots of people in it. Of course, more back in the factory days. There was a lot of people around and about. Probably harder to say then,

whether you saw a ghost somewhere, because A, they were already wearing old-timey clothing, but B, there was just a lot of people. So if you saw someone on a gangway, you didn't know whether it was a ghost or not. Yeah, back then, old-timey clothing was current day clothing. Yeah. They didn't call it that.

Old-timey clothing was the freshest new threads on the street because nothing had changed in a hundred years. Yeah, I mean this is, if this place really is either haunted or as dangerous as it seems, they shouldn't be hosting any events in this building. It seems like a really terrible idea. This does seem like one of those things that happens in like Europe, continental Europe or America, but just wouldn't be allowed to happen in the UK for some reason. Yeah. I mean, don't they hold like raves and cinema screenings in the Paris catacombs? Maybe they're illegal, to be fair.

So that would explain it. But yeah, there is a pattern. It's worth pointing out that this place is pretty well known locally. For 20 years, from the mid-90s to 2019, they were running a Halloween haunted house style production. So you could go to the furnace and get chased by zombies, ghosts, and have kind of people wielding chainsaws. That doesn't help. Blood everywhere.

But that shouldn't color! Because our witnesses today didn't necessarily go to the haunted house. Okay. Okay. Yeah. That really doesn't help. That just muddies the waters for what's real and what isn't. I should know. Mentioned it. But no, because the original sightings go all the way back to the 1800s. Rory, we have been talking about the Slough's Furnace, a pretty historic little slice of America and the site of a lot of gruesome deaths but is it haunted? I don't know man the

most convincing case we heard was the guy who got beat up by a ghost so badly he died. Pretty good stuff. But there was really we just kind of moved on from that. RIP but very good stuff. Do we know who, we just kind of moved on from that. I mean, RIP, but pretty good stuff. Very fast. Do we know who he is? What happened to him? Is there a doctor's report? I feel like we could have done a whole story just about this dude who was beaten

down by a ghost so hard he passed on. Which is not what you want, by the way. If you get beaten up by a ghost so bad that you turn into a ghost. Cause guess who's going gonna be waiting for you in the afterlife? Yeah, right. It's like, ready for round two, big boy? You're like, oh God, no!

Dude, you killed me! Let me die! Yeah, for all the ghost cases we've ever done, don't know how many people who've been killed by ghosts we've had. Maybe zero. Maybe zero. I think often they can't really interact with us physically.

You know, I'm sure with enough time, I could find a record of Samuel Blumenthal's existence. But right now? But right now, it is coming up short, Googling that, you know, but the story is everywhere on lots of Alabama history pages. So I believe it. All right.

Okay. You believe that he was punched to death by a ghost with flaming hands. Why not? That shouldn't be the conclusion for a podcast. Why wouldn't he be? I like this story and I like the setting of it, but I think if this many people do die in a factory

you know we'd like to see more evidence of ghosts and spirits walking about and also you know I know this wasn't the point of it but it's not like the factory's cursed or something it's just a really dangerous place to work you could probably look at the factory next door and they'd be like oh just as many people died in this one as well. And they made fucking mattresses. They just, the work ethics were so bad back then that it was just tragic to work at any job. You could work at a candy store in Alabama in the 1700s and a Gobstopper would probably explode and take down both your eyes.

So, you know, it was a dangerous time. I think a lot of people died in a lot of jobs. Where do you think James Worm would learn to whip people? The mattress factory. He worked for Casper.com. So I would say, I'm going to give it a no. Oh, yeah. Sorry. Rough stuff.

Wow. Don't think I deserve that, but I do think it is fair. I mean, I think, you know, I've kind of been being devil's avocado here by likening it to other ghost cases, but it's not much of a defense to say that all ghost cases don't have evidence in explaining why I also don't have evidence. Right. Some of them have had evidence as well. Not good evidence. Photographs and pictures and videos. Barely any of them. I'm like, I had no remorse. I'm like, well, so I think I do have to, oh,

not put my hand on Hart and admit that there really isn't too much to go on here. I don't know if researcher Ewan in this case is even 100% sure of what he saw. Right. So hard to say. I did see that our friends over at Homespun know if researcher Ewan in this case is even 100% sure of what he saw. Right. Hard to say. I did see that our friends over at Homespun Hints, they have a whole blog

post on their website about this, about going and checking it out. Cool. Would be a cool one to see seeing as they do tours of a ghostly nature. Hey, add it to the big fat laundry list, Roy, places we need to go. Alabama. Let's do it. Alabama. Siri, play Sweet Home Alabama.

No, Siri, we're going to get copyright struck. You told her to do it. We kind of, it was a joke. It was a joke, Siri. You should have a sense of humor. All right. This has been the investigation into the Sloss Furnace. Thank you. If you have suggested that one over the years, I think we're just getting around to sense of humour. All right, this has been the investigation into the Sloth's furnace.

Thank you if you have suggested that one over the years. I think we're just getting around to it. But a really interesting little ghost case. You know, if you want a ghost case with a bit more meat on the bones, they are out there in our back catalog. Can't think of any off the top of my head, but we have many others.

I like the white lady of Connecticut. That's one of my favorites. Great example with absolutely no physical evidence either. There was physical evidence. I don't think there was. Get back to work, you! Find me some evidence for your case. Then you can come at mine.

So please go check out that episode if you are so inclined. And of course, if you've got better, if you've got one that is the silver bullet for proving ghosts to exist, please send it in to thisparanormallifepodcast at gmail.com. Maybe you've got a photo in your iPhone photo camera roll.

The funny thing is I think my favorite story of all time involving Sweet Home Alabama is actually the one that you told me about the time that you came home and your dad was listening to the radio and you heard the riff of Sweet Home Alabama playing and your dad was like tapping his leg. He was cranking up the radio.

Yeah, and he was like, this, this right here, they don't make music like this anymore. He was like, that shit you listen to, son, he's like, you need to listen to this, turns out the radio, no, this right here, they don't make music like this anymore. It was like, that shit you listen to, Sonny's like, you need to listen to this, turns out the radio, now this is real music. And then the vocals started and you were like, this is the Kid Rock version, released like four years ago, it's terrible. It was like, sipping whiskey from the bottle, not thinking about tomorrow.

And he's like patting his leg, nodding his head. Fully convinced this was the original. He's like, I remember when this came out in 88. I'm like, it wasn't out in 88. It came out this summer. He's talking about smoking funny things, Dad. It's like I can hear a DJ scratching in the drum fill. Hey, it's a great riff.

And that is sadly a good song. Maybe I'm getting old, but many of these songs that you're not supposed to like, between you and, I might cut this from the episode, but between you and me, brother, they slap. I don't wanna know what songs you're talking about. I was in a restaurant recently. Sure.

And they were playing Nickelback. You're allowed to like Nickelback? Not really, not online. That's fine. I think we might have to take it out of the podcast, but like they have a few slappers, brother. Oh yeah. You know, what's that one? Bvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv Hey, they've also got that other one. Um, hey, hey, I want to be a rock star.

Oh, actually, to be fair, that's great. And also hero, which I think popped off. It was included in the Spider-Man 2 soundtrack. This is the dad rock section. Let's go. As I say, send in your own suggestions for cases. And if you have explored some of those ghost cases and maybe you can't get enough, You know where you can get more is over

at patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life. We mentioned before the link is simply in the description of this podcast. Whether you're on your podcast app, whether you're on YouTube, it is one click away. A world of entertainment awaits. If you want to dive headfirst into the world of this paranormal life, you can

emerge earbuds in pods playing this paranormal life t-shirt on limited edition night of the commune coin in your pocket, which guarantees entry to the paranormal commune upon completion in 2045. Listen to the podcast. Did you never make it as a wise man? Could you never make it as a wise man? Could you never make it as a poor man stealing? Well, this is how I remind you of the best way to support this paranormal life. Patreon.com.

Worst ad ever. Add on over there. Kit gave it the good sell. I just gave it a little nickel back twist. But yeah, it is the best place to support the show. Sipping whiskey from the bottle, not thinking about tomorrow. Listening to many, many bonus episodes of this Paranormal Life all summer long. Oh, yeah. We are dropping monthly bonus episodes, which are full-length versions of what we do here,

but they're exclusive to Patreon. There's loads of those, almost a hundred. Yeah. Then we do weekly Friday after parties, behind the scenes, chit chats with me and Rory, again, exclusive only to Patreon. You're gonna wanna check it out. And this isn't some newfangled weird thing. You can sign up, pay just five bucks, get access to pretty much everything.

And those episodes just sync up in your podcast player of choice. It's crazy. Super handy. They're all there. They're hand delivered for you. As well as the ad free episodes. God, all to be, all to be got over at Patreon. And of course, at the end of episodes, we like to shout out people who support us on that shout out tier at Patreon.

Let's round out with a couple of those. Hell yeah. So a special thank you to Swervels. It's great to hear from the swervel corporation So not everyone knows what swervel it's a it's kind of a new shape that's been invented. They've kind of copyrighted It's it's a circle and a square put together. That doesn't even make sense Swervel what yeah, it's pretty rare pretty pretty brand spanking new and it's having some pretty great biomedical technology So it just looks cool more than anything he invented pretty brand spanking new and it's having some pretty great biomedical technology applications. What does it do? What is it?

So it just looks cool, more than anything. Just the shape he invented? Yeah. On the back of a napkin? Swirl. He took three 10 milligram edibles one night, cracked a couple kombuchas and invented the swirl. Alright. In between Rounds of Call of Duty.

Glad to see it's going well. Thanks to Porig McGinley. Porig in the Commune is responsible for making the Porridge, which is a big responsibility, because between you and me, brother, there ain't much more to go around than that. But honestly, what does the human body need more than Porridge? Oh, I mean, brother, you're preaching to the choir as an Irishman. I am. Yeah, I I am a porridge truther.

Oh yeah. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, savory porridge. Nah, I don't really go that far, but sweet porridge. Sweet porridge, a little bit of sugar in that thing. Tremendous. You don't need anything else. You don't need really vitamins or anything. We are out of oats.

So the porridge is kind of currently being made out of dirt meal. Mm, well don't tell them that. Dirt meal. It's a new... We designed it on the back of a napkin next to the swirvel. It's kind of dirt. It's dirt.

It's dirt. Okay. But it is technically a meal because it's on a plate. So, bon appétit. Porrig is a real chef. He really is. Thanks lastly today to Andy Patel. Well if it isn't Randy Andy.

No. Don't come to the commune. I don't want a Randy Andy in the commune. Andy's harmless. Andy is more, it's not even that they are so Randy. they're more just about bringing back, bringing back randiness. I don't want that. No one's ever, I don't like that. People really randy, they talk about being randy all through

criminals. The 90s and 2000s. No one's ever randy anymore. I don't like this. I think, Randy, just continue to do your work in the commune. Don't bring back randiness. Just dig the trenches,

harvest the trenches, harvest the fields, you know. Randy Patel, I'm not going to tell you again. Get back to work! And to everyone who supported us on Patreon, thank you so much. This has been the Sloss Furnace investigation. It's a double no, sad but true. We will be back hopefully with a double yes from next week. Oh yeah! On no, sad but true. We will be back hopefully with a double yes from next week. Oh yeah. On Tuesday with another paranormal tale and back before then on Friday on Patreon with the after party. Remember to live fast, investigate and die young baby. The team behind the True Crime Comedy podcast who sh Shat on the Floor at My Wedding, are back.

And we've just launched a brand new season where we investigate a bizarre new mystery. This one has it all. Twists, turns, lie detector machines worth 99 euros and leading criminal and forensic experts. And a real undercover operation where we infiltrate a party full of suspects. Season two, The Case of the Tiny Suitcase, is now live and can be found in the Who Shat on the Floor at My Wedding

and Other Crimes podcast feed.