This Paranormal Life - #405 The Watseka Wonder - America's First DEMONIC POSSESSION?

Episode Date: February 11, 2025

In July of 1887, 13 year old Lurancy Vennum started to complain about headaches and stomach pains... but before long she was complaining about a very different problem - she could hear the voices of dead people inside of her head. Today we're investigating the Watseka Wonder, a story that many people believe is the first documented case of possession in American history.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.comEdited by Philip Shacklady Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if the UFOs we see are just humans from the future? Why do the stars only turn on at night? All of these questions you can find the answer to on This Paranormal Life! Hello listeners and welcome back to This Paranormal Life, the comedy paranormal podcast where every week, myself, Rory Powers, and my co-investigator, Kit Grier-Molvena, a loose cannon, a wild man, a psycho. We sit down and we investigate a paranormal case and come to the

conclusion as to whether or not it really is paranormal. They call me the cockerel. You don't know what noise I'm gonna make next. I'm a loose cannon. Why do they call you the cockerel if they never know what noise you'm gonna make next. I'm a loose cannon. Why do they call you the cockerel if they never know what noise you're gonna make next? Wouldn't it be a chicken? Because I wake up at dawn and take everyone with me. They call me the wolf man. Kid, we are back again. It is a Tuesday and we are here to dive into a brand new paranormal tale.

How are you feeling today? Are you ready to experience what I have in store for you? Absolutely, Rory. Yeah, we're kind of, I feel like we're well into 2025 now. I feel like limbered up. I feel like I've- Ooh, yeah, loose. You know what I'm saying?

I feel, my neck is tight. My neck is tight from kind of scrolling and being addicted to my phone. But otherwise, every other way, I feel limbered up. I do feel sad. I do feel sad because I'm coming out of winter. Shouldn't still feel sad because it's February. Shouldn't have felt sad in January, to be fair. But you know, you should at this point, the sun's getting a little brighter.

Other than that, I feel loosey goosey. And I sort of think that's more of a nervous tick at this point. things the sun's getting a little brighter. Other than that, I feel loosey goosey. Buh-kah! And I... I sort of think that's more of a nervous tick at this point. Buh-kuh, buh-kuh, buh-kuh. But, uh, no. But, but, but, but, but, but... But I'm pretty good.

I do, I do feel pretty good. If you have a sense of like, you get to the end of the year and then it's kind of like we, you know, you kind of wind down and then it's kind of, it was like getting the machine up and operational again. Yeah. That's the, the rusty cogs kind of turning in the machine. And then before you know it, we're here. Yeah.

We're kind of chasing our tail at the start of the year. So, uh, yeah, I feel like, I feel like we're just, we're flowing now. Like, I feel like sometimes we talk about the podcast awards. Like, I feel like this is the point we're hitting our stride. This is where the award season entries come from. The paranormal cases that are so good and beautiful sounding. Yeah. That we enter them into award shows around the world.

I like this optimism and I like this energy because, you know, we've investigated quite a few cases so far in 2025. You've got to stop doing that for sure. We're not going to be able to enter it. They call me Goose. That's my nickname. We've had a great variety of cases so far. We've had alien cases, a lot of cryptid cases, but I don't believe in 2025 we have yet covered a case of spirits. Oh, vast negligence, isn't it? It kind of is that we've left it this long, because for some people, that's their favorite part

of the paranormal world. Yeah, it's kind of the most famous bit, isn't it, really? So that's what we're going to do today. Today our story is one of spirits, possession, and the dangers of the occult. One more time. Of the occult. Got it.

I'm hoping there's some cool sound effects layered on top of that. Because if not, we're going to sound like a bloody eejit. It's the tale of the Watsika Wonder, a young woman who against her will started to become possessed with the spirits of the dead. Is Watsika, is that what you said? Watsika. Where's that? That is in Illinois in the States. Okay, got it. We are going to dive right into today's story after a quick word from today's

sponsors and a reminder you can get every episode of this podcast ad free on patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life. Our story today revolves around one woman, Lu Ranci Venom. Lu Ranci was born around 1874 in a small town called Watsika in Illinois. Very little is written about her early childhood, but by her 13th birthday, Lu Ranci was a household name in Watsika, appearing in national newspapers across the country. But what was so special about this girl? Well, as she aged, she began to possess strange occult abilities with otherworldly powers. But the effect they had on her body led many to question, were these gifts from God or the devil?

Were these gifts from God or the devil? Lurancy first appeared in the historical record in July of 1887 when she was only 13 years old. It was at this point in her life where her health took a sudden turn for the worst. She began to complain about being unable to sleep because every night she would wake to the sound of somebody desperately calling her name. to the sound of somebody desperately calling her name. Ooh. The Rancid Venom. We call to you. Let us in.

When she searched her room, no one was there. From that point onward, things only got worse. She started to get severe stomach pains, so intense that they would put her in a trance-like state where she claimed she could see spirits floating around her. Wow. That's one hell of a tummy ache. I don't know if her rene is going to help that. No. When I was a kid, the worst tummy ache I ever got, which I've talked about on the podcast before, was when I accidentally swallowed that Gobstopper whole.

That feels more like a medical emergency than a tummy ache. It's like it wasn't quite a tummy ache. The Gobstopper sort. It feels more like a medical emergency than a tummy ache. It's like, it wasn't quite a tummy ache. The Gobstopper sort of got lodged in my throat and I couldn't breathe for several minutes. And I started seeing spirits and ghosts floating around me. You know, it reminds me of something I was thinking about the other day. There's parts of the world where, you know,

over the last thousands of years, they would have had like religious ceremonies with psychedelic plants and potions. But there's just parts of the world, like specifically regions of Africa, where they just actually don't have access to any mind altering plants. And instead, they just use poison. I think it's called, it's got a phrase, it's like an endurance ritual or something like that.

I don't remember. That's not exactly right, but you would just get a mitt like an oven mitt and fill it full of fire ants And then just kind of put your hand in the mitt until you start tripping. That's not even poison That's just basically the box from Dune. Yeah, you put your hand in and enjoy it. A lot like the box from Dune from Dune. Yeah. Where you put your hand in and enjoy it. A lot like the Box from Dune. That's one example. Another one would be, yeah, just getting bitten by a snake or something and then you'll be so delirious you'll have visions. Right, licking toads. Yeah. All of that kind of stuff. All that kind of stuff. I might start referring to trips to the pub with my friends as poison endurance. That sounds pretty cool because

that is essentially alcohol, which is just drinking a certain amount of poison till your brain gets fuzzy. Yeah, I don't think that's the point of drinking alcohol for your brain to get fuzzy, but I know what you're saying. Yeah, well, the point of eating a Gobstopper is to swallow it too. I didn't do that right either, did I?

I'm lucky I didn't exist in the universe of Willy Wonka. I wouldn't have made it out of the car park. He'd be like, where's the fourth little boy? They're like resuscitating me in the middle of the crowd. They're like, that's not even Wonka chocolate. He brought that from home and it killed him. Rory's a pain in the ass to go to the pub with. On his third pint, he's like, I see a cloud

shaped like an eagle. Oh, he's having visions again. He's having visions. Oh God. After a few pints, I's having visions again. He's having visions. Oh, God. After a few pints, I'm like, I see the golden arches. It's like, he wants to go to McDonald's, apparently. Put him in a taxi. Now, of course, it wasn't long before the community

heard about all these symptoms. It was a small town in 1874. News traveled fast. How fast? Specifically, the speed of horse. Because this was before the use of the telephone. As her symptoms got worse, they also got a lot more paranormal. After suffering some particularly bad epileptic fits,

Lurancie had an interesting update for her family. Are you okay, darling? You had us worried. I am, father. For I have returned from heaven, where I conversed with the angels. Yo. Luarance said that during her trance, she had visited heaven and even spoken with angels. In true old-timey fashion, instead of taking the time to understand her condition and find ways to help, local

doctors advise that the family quietly ship her off to an insane asylum. Oh god. Do you want to hear what the angel said, daddy? Yeah, sure. Can we do it in the car? Let's do it in the car. Where are we going? Tell me more about heaven.

Tell me more about heaven. This sounds really great. Oh god, it really was a different time in human history, wasn't it? I mean, I don't want to... I'm not naive enough to think that maybe that much has changed. I think if you still talk about angels, people will, let's say, not take you very seriously. Yeah. But, um, yeah. It feels cruel to lock up a little girl, doesn't it? Yeah! Th 13 years old?!

I feel like kids who are 13 say all kinds of crazy shit. Right. You know? That isn't a reason to put them in an insane asylum. That's a very dramatic step. But again, this was a long time ago. Parenting was very different. But before the family could make their decision, there was a knock on the door. Knock, knock, knock.

It was a neighbor named Aza Roth. Don't forget that name, Roth. It's gonna be important later in our story. Roth. Roth. Roth. R-O-F-F. Okay. Roth. Aza Roth had heard of LuRance's symptoms and decided personally to visit the family.

My name is Aza B. Roth. I heard the stories about your daughter, the dreams, her visions, and I believe I might be of assistance. Don't worry Mr. Roth, we've got it under control. We're just about to ship her off to the nut house. No! Please, you don't understand what you're dealing with. Oh, and you do? That's right. Because a decade ago, the same thing happened to my daughter.

Kid, what is happening in Watsika, Illinois? Daughters being struck down with paranormal abilities and shift off to nuthouses? Does anyone in this story have a normal name? Watsika Town, Watsikaville, we got Asa B. Roth, who's a man by the way, I think anyone expected He was in the nuthouse from 89 to 91 and then little miss venom and her switchblades or whatever Yeah, there was a different time different names Old-timey names are weird. This case would be less believable if their name was Chuck and Mike, wouldn't it? Yeah, I just would be able to stay focused on the actual beats of the story

This is fine. Okay, got it. No, it's fine. Roth claimed that his daughter Mary Roth suffered from the exact same illness more than a decade ago So he knew exactly what the venom family were going through and how bad it could get My daughter, Mary, her life was complicated. Her trance just started when she was an infant and no doctor could ever find a cause. Of course, they were only the beginning. As she grew older, her powers became stronger.

They allowed her to manifest clairvoyant abilities. Sorry, I'm choking up a little bit. See, I get emotional when I... Is she still alive? Like, did your cure work? She's dead, but you didn't know that yet. I'm gonna tell you that in a second. Shut up now, because you've interrupted my speech. This was actually supposed to be quite a dramatic point in the story. Okay. We believed she had powers. Problem is, no one else believed it. So we shipped her off to the Nuthouse.

That's right. You did exactly what we were planning on doing. And I'm aware that is a term that is insensitive in 2025, but seeing as now we are in 1873, I see nothing wrong with it, frankly. Hell, if you let me keep talking, I'm gonna drop a F bomb, R bomb, all kinds of bombs.

My daughter died in that asylum, and my hope is that your daughter won't suffer the same horrible fate. Aza Roth went on to say that after his daughter Mary's death, he started studying spiritualism to better understand what she was going through. Way too late for a start, buddy. Way too late. Classic dad parenting, by the way, wait till your kids are already dead what she was going through. Way too late for a start, buddy. Way too late. Classic dad parenting, by the way. Wait till your kids are already dead before you're like, all right, crack-snuckles, time to weigh in. Yeah, yeah. The dad is like 50 years old talking to his son and he's like, you know what, I've been thinking about it and

I don't think there's anything wrong with two men loving each other. And it's like, cool, I wish you'd said that at my wedding 25 years ago. It was way too late to come to that realization, dad. After studying, Aza Roth actually went on to becoming a devout spiritualist, and he believed that his daughter, Mary Roth, had not been insane, she had been gifted,

just like Lrancy. So he begged the Venom family not to send Lurancy away to the asylum and instead bring in a spiritualist physician who could help. And believe it or not, they did. Before long, E. Winchester Stevens had arrived at the home. That's a normal name, I will not hear you slander that name. Not super normal, but it's not that weird.

This was apparently still around the time where as a family, you would just invite dudes to come live with you if they could solve problems. That's right, we've seen it a lot over the years. Why does the spiritualist have the most normal name of all? Right? It's like, then, a Satanist preacher who grew up under a rock, under a bridge with many trolls.

He was called Larry. Yeah, he should be called like Cosmo Octavius or something insane. Cosmo, he talks like this. Yeah, but his name is just Winchester Stevens. But as we know, Kit, getting a spiritualist involved can go either way. Sometimes you're poking a sleeping paranormal bear and instead of getting better, things

can get a lot worse. The Venoms decided to put all of their trust in the hands of this spiritualist, who was brought in to examine Loranze's symptoms and see if he could make sense of what was happening. And I'm not going to spoil the ending for you, but he did end up writing a whole book about it. In his book, Stephen said that Lurancy's character would change suddenly from sad and sullen to mystic,

where she described joyous trips to heaven and visits with angels. She would often speak in different voices, launching into different personalities of recently deceased individuals. These deceased individuals included an old woman named Katrina Hogan and a young man named Willie Canning, who Lurancy both disliked and on a number of occasions called them evil. I guess that's the thing, The good spirits, they don't want to come back. They're in a pretty happy place now. So anytime a child is being possessed,

it's really the bad guys that want another chance. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, where are the good spirits? They're fine. They're happy. They had a good life and they're, they don't want to possess a 13 year old girl. It's like, well who does? Freaks? Weirdos? Criminals? Yeah, it's like I've been receiving a lot of really interesting calls from the high security prison. Yeah, a lot of people really want to change their surroundings. During one test, Stevens claimed that Luranci could place her hand over a book and without looking, could open the book and point to any letter that somebody named so if you said if you said K she could with her

eyes closed open the book at a random page and point to a K no no no no no this is the one you have a problem with no no no you're like not impressed you're like possessing the spirit of the dead. Yeah, that checks out. Whoa, she can point to letters? No, we draw the line here. That is some A-grade little kid shit. That is some little kid shit you would do in the playground. What do you mean?

Be like, any there, any there, honestly. You open up the book, here. They're like, that's not you move your finger half a centimeter. Oh shit, yeah, actually. It is pretty close. Look, this is a doctor. Whatever you said, put the hand on the book. Either you're gonna say she was gonna be able

to read the book through the cover by osmosis. No, that's a little much. Well, that'll end you in the nuthouse for sure. Reading books through the cover. Even finding a word would be more impressive. But surely the letter's more impressive because. of any letters are in a given, think of any letters are even just in the footprint of a fingertip. There's like, you could find like ten letters. And then you've also got a little bit of grace because maybe you're pointing just under the one. Yeah, totally. Yeah, that's true. But the voices,

what about the voices? How do you explain that? Like you're saying... Katrina Hogan? Like you're saying she'd be able to open the book and would be able to find a letter. Something which is printed hundreds of times on every single page of any book. Alright, you son of a bitch. I don't deserve this level of skepticism right now. That's not... But one day during a day visit, things went a little bit too far. Stevens was at the Venoms home, working with Lorenzi, But one day during a day visit, things went a little bit too far.

Stevens was at the Venoms home, working with Lorenzi, when suddenly, her eyes rolled backwards and she slipped into a trance. Stevens waited patiently for her to come back to the room. And when she did, he could tell something was different. She had once again become possessed. But by who? When Dr. Stevens asked her to identify herself, she replied, My name is Mary, Mary Roth.

Huh? That's right! Aza Roth's daughter, who had also suffered with the same paranormal afflictions and died in the nuthouse! There is some kind of snake eating its own tail, yeah, like ancestors of nut jobs. Isn't this crazy? Yeah. A very cool twist in the story that I didn't see coming.

All of a sudden, now you gotta be a little bit suspicious of the dad, Asia Roth, who's brought in a spiritualist. And it's like, you should just let the spiritualist do whatever he has to do. Bring back my daughter in the form of this child. You know, is there something sneaky going on? Yeah. Yeah, he's going to be like, well, if you say so, I guess you should come live with us now.

I guess I've got my daughter back. Yeah, sorry. That can't happen. Did we not tell you that could happen? Yeah. Yeah. When the Venom family asked if they could have their daughter back,

the spirit said, no. Yeah, attracts. Unlike the other spirits who had possessed Lurancy, Mary Roth was not keen to give up control. She said that she would retain control of the body until Lurancy's soul was healed. Whatever that means. I feel like as the dad, youRancy's soul was healed. Whatever that means. I feel like as the dad you'd probably be like cool, is there like an ETA on that?

Or I don't know how it works in the spirit world. Soul healing? Is that like taking a car in for a checkup? Or is this more like a home renovation deal? Do I have a daughter still? I was going to say is this like, like teenager saying they're sick? It's like, all right, what will heal you? Xbox 360.

Ice cream. Yeah. Mary doesn't want it, but Lorenzi says I should have ice cream, so I guess maybe yes. I think it would heal the soul a little bit. Yeah, there's really no rules in this situation. I mean, we are kind of joking, but Mary also basically said, you know, while we're waiting for her soul to be healed, I might go see some of my old friends and family.

What? No way. Yeah. The bluff would be called so fast. You'd think, right? You'd think, because the old friends would be like, hey, remember me? And she's like, oh oh yes, Sally Sandrup. Sarah Sandrup, of course, sorry.

Of course. The spirit world makes my memory hazy. Have you seen me pointed letters in a book yet? Check this out. Have you got any ice cream? Well, wanting to see how far this would go, Dr. Stevens and the Venoms decided to tell Aza Roth that essentially his daughter was back.

Okay, don't do that. So irresponsible. Well, yeah, well, when you call them, you gotta make sure you say the whole sentence really quickly. It's like, hey, your daughter is back in the form of a spirit in my daughter. Like, you don't wanna be like, hey,

I got some great news, buddy. It's about your daughter. She's back. Yeah. Oh my God. She didn't die in the nuthouse. Yeah, oh my god. She's alive. Oh Sorry, where is she I can pick her up now. I've got another none. No no. Oh my god more So I'm actually talking about your neighbor Alice no no she's alive All right, prayers have been answered. Alice involve more people. I'm talking about we were right to not redecorate the room Alice miss right to not give up hope She's alive, and she's well we kept everything just as it was when she left I can't believe oh the line

Where's my little girl? Ryan's getting hazy. Where's my little girl? Oh? I'm going through a tunnel. I don't exist. I'm in touch real quick. I've got a move time I gotta move one town over. Bye. When Aza Roth arrived, Laurence, who is now Mary, burst into tears, becoming frantic and overwhelmed like when a dog sees their owner. She demanded that she be allowed to stay with the Roths until Laurence returned to her own body.

Oh God. And surprisingly, her family were like, sure. They just gave up their possessed daughter to live with this man in his house. Yeah, it does feel like owning your children was a different vibe back then. Yeah, you really owned them. You know, like whenever you watch like an old movie,

yeah, a guy would just come to town and he'd be like, I've got to travel in circus. And they'd be like, like whenever you watch like an old movie, yeah a guy would just come to town and he'd be like, I've got to travel in circus and they'd be like, what do you want? Yeah, you can take three of them. Three sons? That's not good? Just for you to stop talking to me, take two sons. They're like, dad, really? Yeah, come on, you need to go to work at some point anyway. Exactly. You send the money back home to your old man. Talk to me when you're 40. Yeah, yes, just so everyone is clear of what is happening right now, Laurencey Venom, this 13-year-old girl.

It is confusing. Has become possessed by the spirit of Mary Roth, another girl who passed away a decade earlier, but who is the daughter of Aza Roth, the man who suggested that the family hire this spiritualist. Yeah. So do you think in the Netflix original of this, I think Aysa, he would be at this point revealed using some lighting and motif music, he would be revealed to be maybe not evil, but he

kind of unmasterminded this whole thing. Do you think he had a sense that there was a possibility he could summon his daughter back? Yeah, in the horror movie version of this, I think the story is a dad who lost his daughter, made a deal with the devil to bring her back and the devil's like, cool, all you need is a vessel. A host. A host.

He's heard about this other child who has kind of clairvoyant and paranormal abilities. She's, yes, her defenses are weakened. She's ready to be taken. Yeah, possessed, taken over. So he's gone in there and kind of incepted the family into thinking that this is their idea. Got it.

And he's hired this essentially dark magician to come in. They're like, he's like, oh, don't worry. This is a, he's a doctor. He's a spiritualist, but he's like, he's a chill guy. He takes things really seriously. He's actually just, he's coming around the corner here and he just like, he's got a cloak. Hello, family.

Show me the child. And they're like, ooh, yeah, we thought he'd be at least have like a lab coat or something, you know, be a bit more professional, but he's like, he has lab coat or something, you know, be a bit more professional, but he's like, he has a wand for sure, you know, and a spell book. When you think about it, the whole thing's really not okay. Like imagine, sorry to be crass,

but imagine that Asa in this case, imagine it was instead of daughters, he had a dog and he didn't take good care of the dog. And one day he let the dog off the leash and it got hit by a car. And then he just walked around to his neighbor, went, how about you give me that dog of yours? Your dog looks a lot like my dog. I think it actually could be my dog reincarnated.

It's like you had your chance. Yeah. You proved yourself to, and I'm sure not trying to victim blame here. No, no. Who knows what the circumstances were, but it's like that is your life and your karma. You can't go around Taking another child and using it as a vessel. Yeah, I will say I believe the assumption here is Like all of these possessions it will eventually wear off and of course

He tells you would come back to her form. Well, once her quote, soul is healed, whatever the f**k that means. Yeah. And then, Laurency would return to her original family. I think that's the unwritten kind of... But as you say, is it like a construction job? Oh, you know, the healing's runnin' over budget

and over time by about 70 years? What? That's her whole lifespan. So, I don't't know there is a lot of trust being put in the rules in today's case. This is the 1800s, just loan your children to other families. Why not? And look I'm as skeptical as you are Kit about this whole ordeal but everyone in this thing really believed that Luranci was possessed by Mary Roth. And you kind of can't blame them. According to both Stevens and the Cincinnati Inquirer, while living in her new home with the Roths,

Luranci was able to remember numerous events and people from Mary's life. Roth's extended family and friends would enter the room, and Luranzi would greet them as if she'd known them for years. For it being the 1800s, this is a very 2025 living situation. It's like a polycule of like, so this is my daughter who's actually inhabiting the spirit of my neighbor's dead child, currently just for the summer.

Yeah. She's coming to stay for a little bit. It's like, who the are all you people to each other? Why can't we just be a normal family? Yeah, and also I do want to point out, you know, we talk here about Laurence being able to greet them and talk to the family and friends as if she'd known them for years. Again, I think that was easier in the olden days.

I think there were like four jobs. A butcher, a baker, and a candlestick maker. Those were all the three jobs you could have. So kind of throw a dart, you could almost guess what anyone was. So being able to know a lot about someone's life probably wasn't as hard. Whereas nowadays, if someone walks in

and you're like, I think you're a blacksmith. And it's like, I run the social media accounts for a multinational corporation. It's like, oh, I was a little off with that one. Yeah. You can get more wrong. Was your father a blacksmith? No, also social media accounts

for a large multinational corporation. I knew I could sense that. The blacksmithing of marketing. Yes Apparently Lorenzi also knew family secrets without being told them. Yeah, okay This is this is like clairvoyancy 101. We're in the proof stage. How do we prove? Yeah, we know without shadow of a doubt some impossible knowledge and it usually requires What could they say that no one else would know it's always some shit like this. Yeah secret, you know secrets, you know, maybe

Such a weird situation. Maybe Asia Roth got home and was like I was like, all right, we're home and Laurency just immediately goes upstairs and walks into her old bedroom. Things like that. That is like, well that was weird. My old bedroom. Oh shit. It's like she knew. Just like I remember it. The bathtub, the toilet.

It's like, that's, you're in the room, you're two over. Of course, my old bedroom. That's our room. My old bedroom. That's the closet. My beautiful siblings. Bitch face. Yeah, they did use to call each other that, to be fair.

I still remember all my old toys. That's daddy's power drill. LuRancy lived in the house for around five months. Yeah, that's longer than you want. Maybe that's not how long it takes for a soul to heal. Until May 5th, where out of nowhere, Mary's voice inside of LuRanCi said, Oh shit, she's coming back.

Yeah. I need to get back to my original family. Which you know was probably right as Asia Roth the dad was like,, you know, if you're gonna be living here for five months, you should maybe start doing some chores around the house. Oh! Oh, she's coming back! She's like, I think it's time! He's like, oh, really? We were just about to have dessert after dinner.

Oh, no, she's gone now. I'm losing her. I'm losing her. What flavor? Oh, we only have vanilla. She's back. She's back, actually. Oh, that's too bad, because we're about to go to Disneyland tomorrow. What flavor? We only have vanilla. She's back. She's back actually. Oh, that's too bad because we're about to go to Disneyland tomorrow. Oh, where the f*** did she go? She's gone without a trace. Alastor! Shit! I guess we go in the teacups. It's a small world. See if I can get her back. That'd be great.

Oh, the teacups are closed this year. She's back. She's back. She's here. Oh, the teacups are closed this year. Cheers back. Cheers. A great excuse to be there. I wish I'd been able to use that as a child claiming to be possessed and it'd be like, you know, my demon loves vegetables, but he's not possessing me right now. So I can't eat them.

I'm sorry. It's a good excuse. I know. I think I just, yeah, I think we all just said tummy bug. Yeah. Yeah. This is really taking it to the next level. Yeah. If I didn't want taking it to the next level.

Yeah, if I didn't want to go to school, you just had to perfect your acting routine and like, oh, oh, holding your stomach. Yeah, I remember when I was young and I would try and pretend to be sick to get off of school. I remember even once not wanting to go to school so much that I was like, you know what I'm gonna do?

I'm gonna open my window and take off the covers of the blanket and I'm gonna sleep in the cold. So I do get sick. I was like, I'm just gonna do this so I don't have to go to school tomorrow. I'm gonna lick a cat on the street to get sick. I ate dirt to try and be ill

and all it did was make me less smart. Ironically, I needed way more school to deal with the damage that I inflicted on myself. I'm going to sniff glue. I'm just going to become a drug addict. It's funny looking back as well because you realize that you like, because we all remember the times we were like, yes yes those suckers bought the alibi yeah um they didn't they obviously knew you were lying the only times you won were when they were too tired to fight with you and they just gave in yeah yeah yeah they they knew obviously they

yeah completely knew yeah my house was i wouldn't say, but our rule was if you were off sick from school, you were only allowed to watch educational television. So it was like, you can be home, but you're not going to enjoy it. Yeah. The only thing was though, they were like, okay, you're only allowed to watch all these channels, which was like the history channel, the discovery channel, and a couple other ones. Parents didn't know it at the time. Those channels were showing some pretty crazy stuff.

I used to watch this show when I was off sick called Air Crash Investigations, where they basically just did dramatic reenactments of famous air crashes throughout history. And very little time was dedicated to the investigation. It was mostly just an action movie about planes exploding. Some of that shit starred Tom Cruise. Yeah, yeah.

That's a good point, yeah. But I had kids that were like allowed to play video games and stuff. I was like, this isn't fair. I think the last time I pulled a sickie successfully was when Halo 2 came out. It arrived in the post and I think I just like, just like really meekly locked eyes with my mom

and she was like, it's fine, you can stay off. That's fine. I don't even want to have a fight about it. Just like, spare me the embarrassing routine of you pretending to be sick while holding a copy of Halo 2 and it's wrapper. You're just holding the copy, looking at her and you go...

It's like, just stay home. Just stay home. Yes! Yes! Hell yes! Thank you, mother! It's true. The spirit of Mary inside of Laurence said to her parent, her soul is returning to her body and will be here, May 22nd, 11 o'clock. But when was this? Was that far away? Mmm, this was set on May 4th. Oh, that's fine. I believe. So a couple weeks.

Okay. It's a good heads up. Yeah. When the time finally arrived, the whole family waited in suspense. The clock struck 11. Luarance's eyes fluttered, and suddenly, she was back. The family half expected her to go back to her normal life of visions and seizures, but she didn't. Mary was right. LuRancy was cured. She lived out the rest of her life as a normal,

happy, healthy woman. Wow, that was it. Simple as. Yeah, which is what I love about this story. I don't love a lot about this story, but I do love this because in so many cases where we talk about someone who's possessed or having these kind of symptoms, typically what happens is there's an exorcism. Right. They bring in a priest and in most cases things get way worse. Yeah, they like die. Or they are sent to an institution. It's usually pretty dark and depressing and the people don't live long and happy lives. Whereas in today's case, I don't know if Dr. Stevens

can actually take credit for doing anything, but this case actually did resolve itself. Laurence, as I said, grew up, got married, I think had 11 children and just spent the rest of her life as a completely normal person, having no more symptoms of the occult and no more kind of paranormal ability. Yes, she got it out of her system, it sounds like. It's like, you know, going to a summer camp or like running off to the circus being like, I don't want to my family anymore after three months you're like I'm good actually I'm gonna stay

with my family forever and be normal now like she just shook it off yeah yeah get it out of your system it's kind of like all those people that are like I want to see the world and then they go to Thailand for a week and then they come back and they were like that's enough I'm ready for a job that pretty much got it out of my system I'm ready to have 11 children I like Scranton I like Scranton just fine Bristol's pretty cool actually yes yeah again a weird story but I'm happy to see that for once someone who had what could have been a very tragic life with the paranormal actually end up having quite a happy one. Now, of course, some psychologists believe that this was a case of quote unquote hysterical impersonation.

Here we go. Oh, 1800s and it's a little girl. Oh, let's just. Yeah. Oh, I don't even a bit like her. I don't even have to open the book to point to the word I know they're gonna use Hysteria. Oh, yeah, but what if it was a little boy? We need to take this thing seriously. He's communicating with the other world. No, sorry Laurency, that's the name of a woman. Oh well

cuckoo! To the nuthouse. Do we have anything stronger than a lobotomy we can do, just right here and now get it over with? They wrote regarding the possession, specifically the part where she was living at the Roth's house, there was no evidence that Lurancy had knowledge that she couldn't have obtained by normal means. Okay.

Fair. More than fair. Um, you know, we talk about her kind of greeting family members and really taking on the personality of Mary, this girl who doesn't exist. But I don't know. The more I investigated this case, it's all talked about quite ambiguously. I don't think Mary in her room had like an access key code to her door and Laurence came in and went beep boop boop boop and punched it in and went, you know, nothing like that.

Yeah, now I've flipped. I was, as I say, in the horror movie Netflix adaptation, I was painting Asa as the villain, the clear villain in all of this. Now I don't know who to feel sorry for, if anyone, because now I'm looking at the Roth family, and you're like, what the fuck? That's traumatizing.

You just get a little girl who presents as your dead child for months. And then you kind of live with them ostensibly, and then they're like, I'm gone now, yeah, bye. I'm back to normal. Yeah, And then you kind of live with them ostensibly. And then they're like, I'm gone now. Yeah. Bye. I'm back to normal. Yeah. That was it. And they're like, okay, back to square one. Well, that sucks. You ate a lot of my food, Mary. And you're actually like, yeah, your parents kind of now they didn't have to deal with you and put up with it was weirdly around the time they wanted to go on holiday. You became my daughter And I had to look after you for five months.

And Ace is like, well, you know, it's sad, but it's been a really meaningful time for me. And maybe you'd like to come visit. She's like, not really, that was Mary, to be clear. Mary, not me. So I don't really want anything to do with you anymore. I'm assuming at some point this year, kind of while we're approaching a big holiday cruise

that you and Danny want to take, you're going to be like, Rory, you need to speak to my daughter Cora. She believes she's been possessed by your daughter. I don't have a daughter. It doesn't matter. We don't know how these things work, but I think you're going to have to look after her for a couple months. This is how I get childcare.

Yeah. Totally. I know, it's such crazy, I think Cora's been possessed by the spirit of your late pet cat. Haven't you, Cora? She's like, meow! You're like, this is so offensive. Cora goes, meow! You hand her a dollar. I saw that!

You're paying her! Cats don't eat lolly. Yeah, look, I appreciate that there's probably a lot of depressing sides to this story, but to focus on the positives, Lorenzi was cured after this insane ordeal. Good. And when Lorenzi slash Mary was leaving Aza Roth by himself, I guess, in his house, I think she left with very kind parting words.

Like, this was nice. Cool to see you again, Dad. Well, we are clinging for straw. Do you even know that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is document. Oh, I'm making up the dialogue. I don't know what she said there. I think the quote was, Mary said, like, thank you.

Even though I'm going, I will always be close. Sure. Very like, you know, if you're, if you are like, if you've lost a loved one, that's the thing you want to hear. Yeah. I may be going, but I'll always be here. Yeah. Not literally though.

Don't put me in another child. Cause this was weird. So you're saying there's a chance. This was really weird. That's not my face. This isn't my face, daddy. Yeah. So, so there are positives, I would say, to today's

case. He says like, before you go, I need to put this Hoovered on your throat. I'm going to trap the soul of my daughter so I can later put her in something else. The kids like, Mary and Lawrencey both think that's f***ed. Absolutely not. Look, we of course know about this story because of the book that was written eventually by the spiritualist Dr. E. Winchester Stevens. He took this thing very seriously. He wrote an entire book called The Watsika Wonder, which is the name that they gave to Lorenzi. In the book he concludes that Lorenzi was quote, the most remarkable

case of spirit return and manifestation ever recorded in history. Wow, big claims. That is a big claim. Granted a lot of the other cases of spirit return hadn't happened yet. Yeah, sure. Because this was what, 1870s or something like that. Yeah, well I'll give it to him.

It's one of the more clear-cut cases of something like this we've ever seen. Yeah, I'm actually, you know, knowing how old this case is, I'm actually surprised at the amount of documentation and the way the situation was approached granted a lot of threatening to ship children off to insane asylums, which is not great. But people really looked at this thing seriously and took it very seriously and explored options and got in specialists.

That seems like something that is a luxury to be able to afford in the late 1800s, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's true. Clearly, the spiritualist fellow Winchester, amongst others, were taking it seriously. Yeah. And obviously it should go without saying, another cool part of the story is, this is

recent enough that even though it's an old story all of these people are real there are photographs of them they all existed you know you can look them up they're like real people they're documented even though this is old i think there's parts of this that feel like it could be a story from like the 1500s but it isn't you can look up pictures of Lurancie and her family and her with her now 11 children. While the events are disputed, the people in the situation isn't, which is kind of cool. Yeah, absolutely. And my mind goes like, yeah, imagine being descended from Lurancie. As you said, she went on to have many children. Imagine being married to that person. Yeah.

Always wondering if someday Mary's just gonna come back for a little visit. Freak you out. It would be a little scary. I have a picture here actually of the Rancy that you can, here you go, you can take a little peek. I like to, she's just like, we're in the middle of a conversation,

she's like, hello. I'm like, okay, it's very, it's like really obvious. Yeah, there you go. Yep. Old-timey photo. That's an old-timey woman, alright. Black and white, sure. But she looks like she has her shit together, her hair is neatly arranged, and she has a frilly old-timey outfit on, she has a serious look on her face. Yeah, and I mean, look, this is a very famous story, more famous than you would even think. Even in modern day, there's been a ton of adaptations of it. People have retold the story in different forms, in movies and TV shows, and even comic books, films.

I'm reading right now that the story was covered on the Travel Channel as recently as 2021. So if we're talking about the paranormal and possession, I think this is a really important case to cover. Why did the Travel Channel just abandon travel? Like, you haven't covered everywhere. That's it, maybe they did. Like, it's not like we're just, like we're done. So ghosts?

Here's a woman who traveled to heaven and back. That's pretty crazy. Why do we accept that for the Travels Army? I don't know. It's like the history channel. They were like, we never said all the history was going to be real. Some of it's dreams and theories. The lies get way better ratings actually than real history.

But that's not the case on this paranormal life. The lies don't make the best stories. At least we stay in our lane. Yeah, at least at the end we'd say, by the way, this was a lie, we think. Yeah. Kit, I don't want to beat around the bush. I think this is a pretty easy case to tackle.

Cut and dry. What are your thoughts today on the Watsika Wonder and Lorenzi's possession? As you say, I appreciate its cut and dry nature. I appreciate how it gets to the point. I appreciate the sources and the documentation. There's no speculation here that this didn't actually happen in a sense, or that everyone involved didn't believe that it happened. The only question is whether it was really paranormal. And we do struggle with things like possessions to this day. That's why whilst mediums,

possessions and exorcisms all take place in the year of Luigi 2025. Not everyone believes in them. Not even we believe in all of them because it's one of those paranormal things that's I guess gone out of fashion. I don't know why that is, I suppose, because it's essentially impossible to prove. Yeah, I think the time that this takes place does it a bit of a disservice

because I think for me personally, what it would take to push this into the realms of a yes would be when Laurencey slash Mary is living with her new home, her old home, appreciate how confusing this is. Original home. Original home. If I know that they said she recognized family members,

there's a few other little parts to the story that people claim, she remembered her favorite toys, etc. etc. I think I would have needed something to happen there that was more otherworldly, more strong in terms of evidence to really suggest that there was some kind of spiritual link. I do really love this idea of these two daughters suffering with the same affliction, and one daughter coming back decades later in the body of another daughter, and these people know each other. I don't know, there's something very cool here.

The fact that they live close by and it's located in this one area, I really like that as well, that this is kind of some paranormal hotspot. There's some explanation that we don't know about. It's a really interesting, cool story. And I think in terms of possessions and this kind of like spiritual, occult genre of story, which we don't cover a lot on the podcast, this is

probably one of my favorites. Yeah. I mean, we said it ourselves, whether we think it's real or not, it's Certainly almost more than any other paranormal story. It's an incredible plot for a movie It just it just jumps off the page as they say Yeah, so hopefully even though presumably today is a double no just to be clear. Yeah, absolutely double no Hopefully you still had a great time. I know I had a great time Researching and writing this episode, trying to make it as cinematic as possible.

I hope that bombshell hit as hard as I wanted it to with the reveal of Mary Roth. This was a great one to just sit back and enjoy and let it unwind before you. But I also wanna know what the listeners of the podcast think. Do you think that there is any truth behind the claims here? That Mary Roth did in fact take residency inside of the Lurancy? What are your thoughts on

possession, exorcisms, all of this? Should we cover more episodes like this on the podcast? Let us know. You can get in touch on Instagram, on Twitter, on YouTube, or you can email us at thisparanormallifepodcast at gmail.com. Right there you can suggest other cases you want us to investigate or you can email in your own stories. Maybe at some point you were possessed by a 13 year old girl. I want to know about it. That sounds insane. Head on over and submit all of your stories. Um, a little sad that our first ghost story of the year was a double no. I agree, but I think we can all take some great lessons from it. Rory. I think we can all learn from Lou Rancie. You know,

you get pulled over by the police. Sir, do you know what speed you were doing back there? No, no, I don't. You're going to the different man. You're going to jail. Pretend to be possessed. What I've learned is if there's any truth to this, if I'm ever hosting a case where I think Kit's going to say no, I just got to find a way to possess him for the conclusions. Right. Just for that one second. Really quick. Yes. and then turned back into me, I give it a yes, and we're laughing. I did think it was, you know it's bad

when at the end of an episode, Rory asks me if it's a no with the same intonation as if we're at the pub, and he's like, pint, pint? He was like, no, no, yeah, okay, we got two nos. Two nos, two nos, can I get two nos please, mate? Two nos, thank you. Unfortunately, it is a no today, but hey, I really enjoyed this story.

As I said, send in your own suggestions, your own paranormal cases, and of course, what you're going to want to do is head on over to a little place called patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life. That is the home of the commune. That is how this podcast is funded. It's funded by the community. It's the reason that we have been able to make this show for the last X many years as classified.

And it's also the reason we've been able to get our own little studio location classified and hire an editor name classified, of course, for his own security. Never ask a woman their age, a man his salary, or a podcast how many years they've been running. All right, it's just not right. Honestly, it's where we get to connect with the community

and we get to release a ton of cool extra bonus content, like extra episodes, cool merchandise. So head on over if you wanna support the show, that's the best place to do it. We really appreciate all the support we get on Patreon. So check it out, head on over, patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life. Yes, maybe our first ghost story slash spiritual story of the year was a no. Does that mean we're not coming back next week with a double yes?

Maybe. It's a bad omen. Alright, don't. I'm going to possess you in a bad omen. Alright. Don't. I'm going to possess you in a second, redo that line. But we will be back, regardless of yeses or nos, next week with another Paranormal Tale. We'll see you then, folks. Ciao!