This Paranormal Life - The Shadow Man of Provincetown - The Black Flash

Episode Date: April 7, 2026

In 1938, the small community of Provincetown began to notice a tall, dark figure watching them from afar. Women and children reported these sightings to the police, describing a an 8-foot, humanoid shadow man with glowing eyes and a dark hat. The local cops assumed it was all just a hoax, until the creature started attacking the residents of P-town… Become a commune member to get access to bonus episodes: https://thisparanormallife.com Follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join our Secret Society Facebook Community⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Buy Official TPL Merch!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Edited by Philip Shacklady Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In 1938, the small community of Provincetown began noticing a strange figure watching them from afar. It seemed like every time they looked away, he was getting closer. And they didn't want to find out what happened when he reached them. But who was this mysterious figure? Was it some kind of monster or specter of death? Why do they call it candy floss when that shit gave my teeth seven cavities? All these questions you can find the answer to on this episode of this. Hello, everyone.

And welcome back to this paranormal life, the comedy paranormal podcast. We every week we investigate a brand new paranormal case and come down on a conclusion as to whether or not we believe it truly is paranormal. It may be April, but we are no fools. We are here in our X-Files office, ready to dive into a paranormal case so chilling that no one's going to be giggling by the end of this episode. Wow. You're on a real role there. That was bars, by the way, about the candy floss and the tea. It's like there's only two things in the world that are called floss.

Yeah. Dental floss and candy floss. And they do the opposite. That's like insane irony. Candy floss should be called antifloss. It's like the opposite of what floss should do. That's amazing. I know.

Call it something normal like ghost sugar. Can I have a little bit of ghost sugar please? Then everyone knows what we're getting ourselves into. But when the dentist tells me to floss and I tell him, look, the carnival's only in town for the summer. I can't floss for another three months. He looks at me like I'm insane. It's like, haven't you been flossing? You're like, I've very trying. You've got no teeth left. I'm very tired, but I can't phrase this stuff anywhere. I'm like, I dot an apple a day, kept the doctor away. It's like, you've been eating candy apples. Come on, we meant normal ones.

Uh, guys, welcome back to the podcast. My name is Roy Powers. This guy's name is Kit Greer Mulvena, and we are here today to dive into a terrifying paranormal case. of a creature, we're not sure what the heck this thing is. That's what we're here today to find out. But before we dive in, how about heading over to www.w.com? That's right. If you want to support the show and get a bunch of cool extra stuff,

that's the best place to do it. Head on over there and check out some of the awesome rewards that we have and listen to some of the top secret episodes that aren't fit for the public. That's right. Link is in the description of this here podcast, or if you're on YouTube, open up that Descrippington. Check this paranormal life.com.

We are doing, I believe, a seven-day trial at the moment. So you can try before you buy. We are so confident that you're going to love it over there. You can sign up for free, seven days. Check out all those bonus episodes, all those after parties, giveaways, the whole gamut. Check it out, this paranormal life.com. All right, let's dive into today's case.

This episode is brought to you by Tell Us Online Security. Oh, tag season is the worst. You mean hack season? Sorry, what? Yeah, cybercriminals love tax forms. But I've got Telos online security. It helps protect against identity theft and financial fraud so I can stress less during tax season or any season.

Plans start at just $12 a month. Learn more at Talis.com slash online security. No one can prevent all cybercrime or identity theft. Conditions apply. Our story today begins in the fall of 1938. We're in Provincetown, a small and close-knit community at the tip of Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Usually a quiet town, especially back in 1938.

They'd just finished the World War, and there was no way that shit was going to happen again. So residents were happily setting back into their normal lives. But little did they know. Their small town was about to get a new resident, one that would stalk locals in the night and turn this sleepy town into a paranormal hellhole. It all started when a group of children were running around in the sand dunes down by the ocean front. My mom says I don't have to be back for another hour. Why don't we head over to the Race Point Lighthouse?

We could take a shortcut through the dunes. I don't think that's a good idea. Why? One of the children pointed up towards the sandy hills. There, standing among the reeds, was a man dressed in all black with a long cape and a hat that hid his face. The children said that even though he was far away, he looked like he was at least eight foot tall. The kid said, he's been following us for the last ten minutes. Maybe we should just go home now.

The children went back to their parents, and each one told the same story, the dark cloaked man that seemingly floated behind them as they walked. But the parents didn't seem worried. It was the 1930s. Pedophiles hadn't been invented yet. I forgot I wrote that. Plus, people were rocking some crazy fits in the 1930s. You'd probably bump into at least three dudes with capes just heading to work in the morning.

The children did say, though, that whoever this man was, he followed them for long enough that they did notice something unusual. He had long silver ears and glowing eyes. No, come on, no. Yeah. I'm not a historian, but I don't think people were rocking that look in the 30s. That's getting a little teen wolfy. We are dealing today with a borderline continental soldier.

The ears hang low, do they wobble to and fro? Can you tie them in a row? Can you tie them in the boat style? Is that what the song is about? Can you throw them over your shoulder like a continental soldier? Wow. Now, I assumed the rhyme was saying, well, you know, a continental soldier might have a rifle over the shoulder or something. You know, I don't know what it is.

But now I'm starting to wonder, maybe the continental soldier is some kind of crypted with long silver. years. Now this is interesting to me because I'm realizing growing up I had only heard the seemingly parody version of this song. Do your balls hang low? And I was under the impression that was the original. Am I crazy? Can you furnish us with the rest of that parody? Do your balls hang low? Yeah. Do they waggle to and fro? It's really just swapping out that word. I had no idea it was yours, honestly, this entire time. Can you throw your balls over your shoulder like a continental soldier okay yeah as we know on this podcast kit children don't make the best paranormal witnesses in fact after one particular episode we actually banned evidence from anyone under six i still contest that

ban but go on and it does make sense if you still think the tooth fairy is real you're not allowed to tell me you saw an alien that just that checks out to me but it wasn't just the children that had seen this bizarre figure the entire town was about to be stalked by the strange shadow of death. In October that same year, an adult woman, great, named Maria Costa, was walking home by the old town hall when she spotted something rustling in the bushes just in front of her. Thinking was possibly some kind of animal, her walk slowed to a stop. It's probably a lost cat, scared and hiding in the bushes. Here, kitty, kitty, kitty. As she approached the bush, out stepped an eight-foot man dressed in all black.

Lord knows how he was hiding in that bush. He must have been crouched down. Maria screamed and took off running in the other direction. The figure floated behind her at impossible speeds, allegedly while making a strange buzzing noise like a giant bug. Whoa. When Maria realized there was no use in running, she quickly darted into the nearest shop she could find.

find. Help me for the love of God! There's something out there! The patrons of the store ran out to see what the commotion was, but the street was completely empty. This tall flash of black shadow was nowhere to be seen. The figure that Maria had seen perfectly matched the ones spotted by the boys at the beach, a figure that would soon become known to the locals as the black flash.

Black being because of his shadowy demeanor, and Flash because of the sheer impossible speeds that it's known to reach. Right. I mean, you know, my little kid brain is kicking in. One of my favorite superheroes growing up was The Flash. Yeah. Who was white, I seem to remember. Racially?

Yes. Color suit-wise, he was red. Yes. Yeah, I would have probably given this person a different name. Given the context of 1930s America as well. I don't think we were, I don't think we've earned that right yet. to start throwing around this as a name for a cryptid. Sure.

But maybe it comes from a place of innocence. I don't know. Side note, when I was growing up, I used to love making my own comic books. So I would create my own superheroes and comic book characters. And I did once create a superhero who was kind of like this cool guy who hid in the shadows. He had a cool, like, dark uniform on. And when I was cleaning my room back in Ireland recently, I found that comic.

No way. And realized that the title of the superhero, he was called Black Man. Yeah. Honestly, there's nothing that a child can make today that would capture the magic of Black Man. It really, and he had blonde hair, for sure. Blonde hair, blue eyes, Black Man in the comics. I love that your creations as a child were like, had the cultural sensitivity of like what people were doing. in the 1930s, but you were in like the year 2000.

Can you imagine being my parents when I was telling them about this hero? And I was like, he's a hero, he's an everyday kind of person, but he looks like me. He's got blonde hair, blue eyes, but he just does what's right in this world and fights for people who can't stand up for himself. They're like, this is amazing. Like, he's obviously created a version of himself that he wants to be a hero and stand up for other people. His name?

Black man. They're like, okay, we got to change the name. We do have to change the name. You're going to get in trouble at school. Kit, this is only the start of a rampage that terrorized a small community for years. We have lots more stories, evidence, and twists in our tale. But before we go any further, do you want to see what the black flash looks like? Yes. Phil, can we queue up the evidence, please? here it is

Ooh Yeah I want to shout out to Jonathan Morrill for this amazing painting of the Black Flash who is crouched on a fence post and seemingly jump-scaring an old woman

as she comes home at night Right, I'm trying to get a set I'm not dissing the image at all It's quite lovely But I'm trying to get a sense of scale I assume that was absolutely a small child Phil, punch in on the old lady.

Oh, yeah, okay. So now that I'm punched in, I'm seeing very, very clearly, this is an old lady. But what height is the old lady? I mean, I understand. Or how big is the flash? Yeah, well, we, is that a boner? Is that a, hold on. It does look like in this particular.

Phil zoom out. Phil's zoom out. I got to zoom out to see the scale. In this certain depiction of the cryptid, it does appear that Jonathan Morrill gave him an erection. Yeah, because otherwise, because like your brain is kind of like, no, that's his, guys, that's his, there's no explanation. He really likes scaring people. He really does.

Yeah, it's also worth saying it's not really, I mean, it's human shaped in the way that it has like kind of arms and legs, doesn't have hands or feet. That looks like a dolphins flipper coming out the side of him. It's more like a wispy, smoky. You're right. He looks like he's inside of a lava lamp. Yeah, a little bit. Like kind of made of goo a little.

bit. He's just kind of a flash of black, you could say. But bricked up? But he's, yes, he has an erection for sure in this particular picture. Okay. The common description of the black flash is an eight-foot-tall humanoid figure with pointy ears, glowing eyes, a black cape and a hat. But as you can tell from our picture, descriptions do change from witness to witness. Unfortunately, or fortunately, if you're a a paranormal investigator, the black flash wasn't done wreaking havoc on the town. In one encounter, a young boy, super weird he's going after so many young boys, ran into a

police station panting and out of breath with tears in his eyes. When they finally managed to calm him down, he said that the creature had jumped out of him on his way home from the library and followed him down the street, shooting fire from his mouth. This is not okay. No, no. Jumping out at picking on a little... Why do you pick on someone your own size? Yeah.

You eight foot bastard? I know. Also, going after another kid again. Yeah. With a full-blown erection? There's more than just one thing that's wrong with this kind of creature. I was artist's interpretation. That's the crazy thing about an art's interpretation.

Is if the artist depicts a boner, who's aroused here? Is it really the creature or is it the artist? You know what I'm saying? Anyway. Yeah. It's not okay. No, it's not. It's not.

I assume the police were like shooting fire? Wow. It sounds like you've got the wrong department, buddy. Let us know if you need someone to shoot a normal guy. But if he's breathing fire, you need the guys with a big red truck, all right? Like patting him on the head. Except in 1930s, Massachusetts. He's like, no, no, no, you have to listen to me.

his description. He was black. Sorry, he said he was black. All right, no, we're listening again. All right. Let's get this motherfucker on this time. He was what? He was what? In another encounter, a man named Charles Farley woke up late at night to strange noises

coming from his garden. When he opened his back door, he spotted the tall, dark figure lurking in the shadows. Charles said he quickly grabbed his shotgun and fired at the black flash, spraying bullets directly at the creature. Everything around it was hit, but the black flash didn't even flinch. It's like its shadowy body absorbed the bullets.

Charles stood in fear as the figure began to laugh before turning and leaping over an eight-foot fence, disappearing into the night. Whoa. Yeah, now that's wild. This guy just absorbed a gunshot. That is nuts. Like goddamn liquid Terminator. Yeah.

Either that or he was just really locked in when he got shot and he kind of like chuckles and smirks and jumps away. And then he is here on the other side of the fence. Yeah. You're calling his friend. You gotta come get me. The corner of third and Lexington.

Yep. Yeah. Hurry. Hurry. I'm on a corner. He can't miss me. A foot tall cape hat. As autumn slowly turned into winter, encounters with the Black Flash increased, and maybe most

worrying of all, they were becoming more and more aggressive. Several individuals reported that the Black Flash emitted a strange and unsettling laugh, which was often described as piercing or unnatural, echoing through the dark streets where it stalked its victims. I'm imagining the Joker. Yeah, a cackle or a screech or something that it echoes unnaturally for a prolonged period of time. Phil, slap a big old echo on this one. Something like that.

Yeah. You know? That was slightly towed in Mario Kart, but I understand. Yeah. You're, shh, shh. Now he just got hit with a banana. He got hit with a blue shell. Yeah.

Yeah, I don't think I'm doing justice how creepy this laugh. Or maybe it's, yeah, as you said, a joker, more of like a cackle. This does surprisingly narrow down the possibilities of what we could be dealing with today. Because I don't think Bigfoot laughs. I don't think the Chupacabra laughs. Oh. You know. You're saying, does this, is it a guy?

Nope. Never said that. No, no, never said that. Because you know who does love guys. It is way too early in this podcast for you to be telling me this as a guy. You teed me up. You were like, they laugh. So what are we doing here?

I have a note here in the script that's just for me that says, at this point, Kit's going to say that this is just a guy. That was four pages away. We're not there yet. We're not there yet. I'm not saying as a guy. I thought you were leading me there. No, no.

You led the horse to water and I went, I was ready to drink. I went, ooh, yummy. Let me have a sip of that. You led the horse to water and then went, don't drink. I was like, what are you doing? You took the horse, you took me the horse to the water, and then like, did I, like, eyebrows? Like, you're gonna put two and two together here, Chief?

I brought you down. I was like, so the creature did laugh, and cryptids don't laugh, but guys laugh. So I guess this must be a... Guy? What are you talking about? It's clearly not a guy. You fucking idiot.

I will just say No, I obviously meant a ghost I obviously meant a ghost or some kind of phantom or poltergeist or something Right, which is what I'm in a guy in the afterlife Yes, a dead guy I will just say we are pretty soon off The heels of the Mad Gasser of Mattoon

Yeah There's some similarities here I'm gonna leave it at that I'm gonna leave it at that I'm gonna leave it at that What? Yeah but hey look at least in this case we are seeing a couple more characteristics

that would be linked with ghosts Shadow Man A dude kind of floating Impervious to bullets Impervious to bullets He can move in impossible speeds He can also disappear Weirdly attracted to children

Yeah he puts the purve and impervious Nice dude That's the thing with poltergeis They always come for the kids That's like a big thing So you know Hold up Why did I agree to that?

Hell yeah I've learned that if I just talk fast enough I can get kids Kids always come for the kids Isn't that right buddy? Isn't that right buddy? WS this week? WS this week?

You want me $200? You want me $200? Give me your wallet? It's not the currency we use. Give you one. Give you one. They do actually kind of come for the kids. Yeah.

Because they're susceptible to possession or something. Yeah. We're weak little bones. So you can kind of like throw them around and shit. They're trusting. Yeah. baby brain. Baby brain's easy to get into.

Yeah. Whereas like, yeah, they can kind of be like, pst, hey, hey, hey,

hey, hey, hey, go over to, there's a, there's a little amulet. There's a little amulet. It's in the garden outside,

so I need you to go get your daddy shovel. Go get the shovel. Yeah, daddy told me not to dig up the amulet. It was like the first thing he told me. Well, your daddy's a little bit of a deadbeat.

So ignore Daddy for five freaking minutes and go dig up. It sounds like you're getting kind of angry that I'm not digging up the ambulance. Because you said we're friends. You said we're friends. I'll get you sweeties. I'll get you candies. What kind of sweeties?

What kind of sweeties? I don't know. Just hurry out. He's got to be back in like five minutes. We've got to go. You can't keep his cool for two seconds. Jimmy you break my boys. You're doing.

Yeah, clearly what I'm trying to say is what we're dealing with here as a poultry. Not a man. All right. So let's, without being a mind, without being established. Let's move on. Let's move on. Okay, don't drink. A province town local named 8 Ball Eddie said that he encountered the black flash while walking. Move on. We don't want to hear of May Ball Eddie. We don't want to warn everyone. After this paragraph is the note that says, at this point, Kit's going to say it's just a guy. I'm going to have. I'm going to assume that 8 Ball Eddie isn't called that because he's really good at snooker. I'm going to guess. I think he's a pool shark.

He's a local pool shark. I think he's addicted to drugs. I think that's why he's called 8 Ball Eddie. A local province town man named 8 Ball Eddie said he encountered the black flash while walking home one evening. As he turned a corner, he discovered the black flash in the middle of his path, standing there motionless.

Eddie told the thing to get out of his way, but the figure didn't respond. Instead, it lunged it, Eddie, and slapped him on the face so hard that he was knocked to the ground. Not a ghost then. Not a ghost. Smacked him upside the head.

Eddie scrambled to his feet and bolted it all the way home with the black flash on his tail the entire time. He chased him. He ran him on the time. The next morning, Hedy checked himself. The black flashed,

he said, Hey, get back here. The next morning, I'm not done with you. Heady checked his face in the bathroom mirror, realized he'd been slapped so hard.

He still had a handprints on his face. You told me, oh, there's no hands. Do you see in the image? It's a wisp. He just even, you specifically said he doesn't have hands or feet.

He's a wisp. But now there's a hand print. Objection. Physical evidence of our hand. Objection, Your Honor. Leading the audience. Leading the listener. I don't appreciate.

Okay. So, this does make things difficult. It really does. Because obviously, Ghost was a leading theory up until the point where he slapped a guy. Yeah.

Have we covered cases where ghosts have been able to physically interact with the human world? Yes, for sure. Do they usually just slap dudes? No. It's usually a little bit more poetic or subtle than that than backhanding a man across the face.

It's usually a shove. It's usually a cold, cold fingers around someone's neck. It's something a little more, I don't know, a little more paranormal, a little more sexy, a little more subtle. Maybe at worst. scratch. Oh, that's a great, great point. But I agree. It's normally, they're, polter guys seem to be better at moving objects than people for some reason. Yeah, well, he moved Eddie off the sidewalk. Yeah. Apparently. Oh, yeah, he thought Eddie was a,

gend wardrobe. Let me shove this real quick. Now, sure, you can slap a couple of women and kids around, but as soon as you start attacking the stand-up male citizens of this great town, Like Eddie A-Ball? Something needs to be done. So the police finally, officially started their investigation. Whether it was paranormal or not, something was wandering around in the night attacking citizens. So the police began patrolling the streets

and waiting by the phone, hoping it would ring with news of another attack. The only problem was, the police didn't even know what they were really searching for. Was it just a man in a cloak? Silence. Was it a ghostly figure floating around the town? A cryptid-like creature capable of jumping 10 feet in the air?

Or did the Black Flash even exist at all? Was it just a hoax created by children and senile old people? One theory was that the Black Flash was like the antagonist Ghost Face from the Scream franchise. Not just one perpetrator, but several all using the same disguise. Hmm. I forgot that was the premise of Scream. Yeah.

Spoilers for scream. You should have seen it by now. But it's a, it's a, ghost face is the symbol of killers throughout the franchise, I believe. It's different people. Gotcha. Yeah. I didn't like how you soft lunch that it all just might not be happening at all. It could, well, sure.

Well, sure. It could just be a hoax. Because no one, it's 1930s. We don't have. You said he had a red handprint on his face. Yeah, that's true. That is true. And there are a ton of witnesses and people who have claimed to encounter him. But, you know, we have to take it with a grain of salt. Some of them are children. Some of them are old.

Yeah, because you told me, you reminded me on a recent episode, that we do have a technically a moratorium on evidence from humans under the age of six. Yeah, that was this episode, by the way. That's how long this one's been going on. Like, what do we think happens when they turn seven or six? We're like, it all clicks into place, yeah. Yeah. 100%. However, even if it was just a group of people wearing a mask, that doesn't explain its alleged supernatural abilities.

It wasn't just the speed and that 10 foot vertical that this thing was capable of. It was lightning fast. You just went from like 8 foot to 10 foot, I'm pretty sure. Can jump 10 feet. That's historically documented. Yeah, it did a Mr. Beast challenge, and it won a Lamborghini. It jumped 10 feet in the air. I will say I follow a lot of jump fluencers on Instagram.

People, guys can jump high. What's a jump fluencer? Just a guy who's really good at jumping. It sounds like you are someone who is trying to influence people to kill themselves. Yeah, yeah. I'm a jump fluencer. Yeah, what's up, guys? Just coming on IG Live as morning to say, do it.

No, it's mostly guys, just, as you say, working on that vertical. Damn. And like, you think you don't want to see that until you see it. Yeah. Hey, I learned from learning to do a backflip that I cannot jump. I cannot jump. And that is, unfortunately, a big part of the flip is having a high jump. and I do not have that.

I am a sack of potatoes with two little potatoes for legs. I feel like I have potential. You do for sure. But, you know, because, you know, I've done nothing with my life other than sometimes do stuff with my legs, like skateboarding, right? It's just like jumping all the time. If you feel like you've done nothing with your life, you shouldn't be watching jump fluencers.

I'm going to tell you that right now, bud. It was a great place to jump. Yeah. Does you think this could be your calling? is jumping. I feel like I have potential. Like, you know, whenever you turn your hand to something, you're like, this isn't for me.

Yeah. I feel like if I entered a good jump academy, a jump program. I think so too. I think, you know, some people are just listening to this podcast. Maybe you've never even seen us before. But for context, Kit has roughly the body mass of a grasshopper. So I think, like sometimes he jumps and I don't think he'll come down. I commute, like one of the motherfucking from Crouching Tiber.

or Hidden Dragon. I like run along the top of trees. Jumping. Sometimes when we go outside, I tie a string to his shoe because he's like a kite. We can just walk to the store and gets just behind us in the sky. So I'm saying you have, I think you have a chance. I think what we're trying to say is I, because I don't hit the gym, like he does, I just have slightly less body mass. I'm not a grass over. But yeah, yeah, you know, we all have our strengths and weaknesses.

I walk around this earth like I'm wearing the iron boots from Ocarina of Time. Lifting every foot is a struggle for me. I'm not built to jump. So if you're telling me that there's someone capable of jumping, no one can jump 10 feet. No. That's beyond human ability. Do you know what was one of the dopest jumps I've ever seen? This didn't even come from a jump fluencer.

Okay. Was I think it was like a star like UFC guy. Yeah. Like athletes, some trained killer. And he was trying to show off how strong his legs are, I guess for like kicking to be like, you don't want to get a kick from me, pal. And he put up a video of him. It's stuck with me ever since.

It's like a video of him like standing in a swimming pool where the water is about waist high. And he just jumps out of the pool. I've seen this. It's the sickest thing. But once, next time you're in a swimming pool, like just like think about it just give it a little like Twitch see if you we've all tried it I think at one point we've all had that universal experience of trying to jump out of the pool and immediately losing our swimming trunks ass out for the whole pool maybe dive in the pool and then they they go whoa

oh dude nothing worse you've been undressed by water it's humiliated water's yeah kinky that one frankly is it really is crazy we've all had that Freaky ass. When West Jet first took flight in 1996, the vibes were a bit different. People thought denim on denim was peak fashion. Inline skates were everywhere, and two out of three women rocked, the Rachel.

While those things stayed in the 90s, one thing that hasn't is that fuzzy feeling you get when West Jet welcomes you on board. Here's to West Jetting since 96. Travel back in time with us and actually travel with us at westjet.com slash 30 years. All right, let's get back to our case. We're listing off the abilities

of the black flash. As I said, impossible speed, 10 foot vertical, lightning fast. It can disappear in an instant and when people tried to grab it, it was impossible to restrain. Speaking about the shape of water, you're trying to grab a hold of this thing and it's just slipping out of you. No one can capture the black flash. Local newspapers began reporting on the sightings, adding fuel to the fire that only served to scare the community even more. It didn't help, that the police were coming up empty-handed. No matter how quickly they responded, the Black Flash was always one step ahead of them. That was until one night, when they received a call from someone saying that they had spotted the Black Flash floating around a school playground.

Officers grabbed weapons and jumped into their cars. This is it boys. We're going to get this good for nothing once and for all. When they arrived at the school playground, four officers let from their vehicles, Flashlights in one hand, loaded pistol in the other. Rogers, Stevens, you take the jungle gym. We'll go to the swings, and if they're taken, we'll use the slide for a bit until they're free. Chief, wait, there it is! The men turned their heads and couldn't believe their eyes. Scambling towards the end of the playground was a shadowy, dark figure,

running like a cornered animal. One of the officers pointed his flashlight at the figure, illuminating the dark flash for the first time. His body remained dark and shadowy, but what did light up under the glow of the flashlight was a shiny silver mask. The officer said, We've got you cornered!

Don't move or we'll shoot! And in classic black flash style, the figure drew back his head and laughed. Before turning and leaping over the 10-foot fence that surrounded the school. So it's not a ghost. Because ghosts don't need to jump over fences. Like, that's their whole thing is they can just float through anything.

Yeah. And it's not a cryptid, and it's not a cryptid because they don't laugh. Yeah. But it's not a guy, because guys can't jump over 10 feet fences. I mean, that is the most interesting bit, arguably. You know, weirdly, and I'm not. I don't want to get into it too much because I have a feeling that Kit won't let me get into it. But the Dublin Gorilla Man actually did, I saw a jump up to and over a fence that I would say is around 10.

It wasn't 10 feet. It would definitely open up. 10 feet is so high. It was unbelievably high. I'm trying to think. To the point where when I went to go see where the Dublin Gorilla Man had gone, I had to run and jump and climb up the fence to reach the top to just about peak over it. So what the fuck happened there? Yeah, but as much as it devastates me to say,

your story makes more sense because it just is accrupted. That is literally the best I'm ever going to get. Kit just gave the Dublin Gorilla Man a yes. That's how bad this story is. This story's so bad I brought up the Dublin Gorilla Man and Kit didn't interrupt. No, please. He's like, say more.

Please say more. God damn. So sorry, but just to. Oh, I'm going to jump. I'm going to jump. You had to jump over the fence. And he's also wearing a mask. You've jumped flounced me.

It's wearing a mask. Listen, maybe the ghost didn't want to float through the fence because, yes, he could have floated through the fence, but he was using a physical mask, and the mask would have hit and then fallen and they'd see his face. But it's just everything. the whole, okay, we can kind of pick apart any individual aspect of this, but it's just the creeping around a kid's playground, wearing a mask, laughing just like a human, which

Polter guys don't generally do. They do sometimes. They have been known to do that. They talk. In some cases, maybe they're heard, but we have to state that in most cases, ghosts are not heard audibly, maybe through EMF, maybe through EVP or something. they don't generally just go, yo.

He didn't do that. But he went, you said he went, ha, ha, ha. I think we can agree ghosts don't normally do that. Maybe he did like a cackle, like one of the ones from Mario.

Like a, I don't know. I don't know. Let me just keep telling the story. All right, because it doesn't get better. So, the officers got a good look

at the black flash. One officer swore his face was just a silver painted mask. That was the closest encounter from any law enforcement. The Black Flash did continue to terrorize the town, but the police did stop responding quite so intensely to the calls. Sightings started to die down, becoming less and less frequent until 1945, seven years after the Flash first appeared. And that is when he was seen for the last time. It was December of 1945, and four children

from the Janard family, were playing in their yard on Standish Street, when out of nowhere, a strange fog began to roll towards the house. The children looked at each other with panicked faces. They knew exactly what was coming. In the heart of the fog was a shadowy figure slowly creeping towards them. It was the black flash. The children ran into the house, locking every door behind them. Don't make a sound.

Maybe he didn't see him. Yes. The boys watched as a shadow passed over the curtains of the window heading towards the front door. They held their breath as the doorknob began to rattle. The youngest children hid behind the chairs, but the oldest boy, Alan, filled a bucket with boiling hot water. Smart lot. Ran up to the second floor and threw it out the window directly on top of the black floor. I hope it was the black flash. I really hope it wasn't a Jehovah's witness or something. The flash let out a startled scream and then ran away into the night.

They disfigured someone, a postman. They almost killed a guy. Yeah, you, you for sure created a monster. if this wasn't the Black Flash If he didn't hate children before he hates him now Your local theater just got a Phantom of the Opera He'll be in the rafters with a white mask That was the last time the black flash

Was ever seen in Provincetown It's just like Hey guys, we're just doing a charity drive Down at the old school hall And I was like going I do love that If this was just a person pranking a town this was clearly the last straw.

They threw boiling water over him. It was like, Black Flash was never seen again. He was like, I'm not doing this anymore. Hell no. Fafo, f*** about, find out. Yeah. Hey, shout out to the kids in this case. That is a great way to deal with paranormal entities

or unwanted strangers in your life. Man, a bit of hot water. Wartime kids were built different. They were like, we're trained for combat. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Listen, there's not a ton of great evidence to support today's case. Most of the claims of paranormal abilities

come from witnesses and individuals who obviously have no physical evidence. The only thing that this case has going for it is the amount of sightings, the amount of people who have come forward and claim to have witness, something supernatural. And I know, sure, this does just sound like

possibly a guy if this individual is not doing anything supernatural. But once again, Kit, just like I brought up in the Mad Gasser case, do I have to remind you of the crypted, quote unquote, known as Springheel Jack? You know, for those who don't know about Springheel Jack, he was kind of a guy, kind of a devil, also known for his incredible leaping ability. He could jump over fences and over buildings. He also breathed fire, and I think did have glowing eyes. Was he also a double no? I think so.

Yeah. But, you know, there's a world. In between crypted ghost and man, there's a little sweet spot where all of these creatures live. You know? So this isn't unheard of, this genre of monster. And I know that this might sound like just a silly urban legend, but there is evidence that something really paranormal occurred. And this was an actual important thing happening in Provincetown. On October 26th, in 1939, the Provincetown advocate newspaper printed a front

page article titled Fall Brings Out the Black Flash. The article says, it ain't usually until cabin fever time that the balmy stories start, after folks have been penned up for too long, in too little space, with just the same faces to look at every morning, afternoon, and evening. Then the crazy yarns begin circulating. But winter seems to be shutting in early this year. Here, it is only October, and the black flash. has been prowling, scaring kids so they won't go out at night and won't go to bed, grabbing women, jumping over 10-foot hedges with no trouble at all. Chair springs on his feet is the only explanation.

Hmm, kind of Dennis the Manus style. Yeah, so while this isn't great supporting evidence, it is kind of cool to see that the people of the time, you know, were taking this seriously to the point where it was being written about in newspapers. Now, interestingly, according to the Provincetown advocate, the Flash was only active for a few weeks, not several years. A lot of the more dramatic encounters didn't appear in the papers, but have been collected since, mostly by the writer Robert Ellis Cahill for a book that he wrote called New England's Mad and Mysterious Men. Man?

Yeah. Yeah. Men. Just saying. Look, Kit clearly wants to do it. Hey, hey, I'm just, you can't dangle that one in front of me. I don't expect me to, you damn dangled a pinata and you spun me around and give me a stick. All right?

And got angry when you hit it. And got angry when I hit it. This is the watered horse thing all over again. Kit clearly wants to talk about this part of the podcast, so let's do it. All the evidence for this is mostly composed. in a book called New England's maddest bastards. The very real human men who spent the longest behind bars. Yeah, a lot of this evidence is from the book,

Grandpa's Rib Ticklers and Knee Slappers. Let's move on to Kit's favorite section of the podcast, Non-Parormal Theories. Francis Marshall. It's bad when you start with just the name of a man. It's Francis. Hold on a second. Shut the F up.

Francis Marshall, a retired Provincetown police chief, said the Black Flash was actually four men who terrorized the town as a hoax. Marshall refused to divulge their names, but when asked about it, he said that two of them were already dead. One, presumably, by boiling water. I think another one was shot in a garden.

And the other two, decided to give it up for good. Others thought the Black Flash could have been a local teenager named John Williams. Not to be confused with Hollywood composer John Williams, this John was quote unquote, quite fast and a weightlifter. So he was the prime local suspect. Interesting. However, Williams was a sailor and he was often at sea when the Flash appeared, so most people did rule him out as a suspect.

Good alibi. Yeah. Can you imagine being a weightlifter in the 1930s? That's crazy. Yeah. That's at the time where I assume, you know, the old-timey weight lifters where they just wore like the one-piece kind of gym suit and they had like comically large dumbbells. And then weirdly looking back, they were all like five, eight. Yeah. And unbelievably overweight. Like really not in shape at all. Like, yeah, you're not a beacon of health at all, buddy. They're like smoking cigarettes, curling dumbbells. No, that's not good.

Yeah. Sports nutrition. Well, I have a couple teaspoons of lard every morning to get me souped up for the day. Interestingly, that's really the only main non-paranormal theories. I like and I'm intrigued by how specific the policeman's explanation for the whole thing is. like that he's like that really feels like the explanation you'd get from the local

police chief at the pub he's you know you'd be like what's all this I'm hearing about the black flash and him being like we know who it is yeah I know who it is we can't prove it the dogs in the street know who it is

right you know I like it's interesting that he's like it's four and we know who they are it's four we know who they are two of them dead interesting but what's the motive I mean he said a hoax. So it's, so generally a hoax, the motive is to prank people. To prank you, to have fun,

it's silly. It's to, yeah, it's the satisfaction of tricking. Yeah. Well, population. I mean, this is, this was the weird thing about the mad gasser case. We did a few weeks back, an individual who gassed people in the night with a mysterious substance that left them paralyzed and vomiting and screaming. It was horrible. You know, that's strange because that individual also then didn't steal anything. Didn't kill anyone. There was no motive. Whereas the black flash, the hoax thing is actually kind of a strong lead. Because aside from slapping a guy, all it ever did was kind of like stand there ominously

chase after kids and old people, just kind of terrorize the town, but not in an immediately threatening way. So, yeah, I could see why in a board, a small town in the 1930s, a board group of kids or teens, would think this is a fun thing to do. Yeah, that's very true. It is a different time. So, wow, I can't believe you might have called it with the scream analogy.

Yeah, I think that is maybe the most accurate kind of comparison. This is the, this guy's like the bankruptcy of being a pervert. Kind of an anonymous hallion running around the town. Most perverts kind of approach the career with that goal.

I don't think you want to be a face. famous pervert. Oh no, Kevin Specy, but anyway. Hey. Listen, we've reached kind of the end of the investigation. I don't think we need to deliberate on this one too much. You know, I knew going in that this case didn't have the strongest evidence, but I love it. I thought it was so cool.

I think this individual, this ominous figure, this specter of death, haunting individuals in town is so cool. And even if there isn't enough evidence today to convince us, that is... it is a double yes. I think it's a story worth telling and I'm glad that the Black Flash had its moment on the podcast today. Wow. And I wonder, you know, we heard about Rory's childhood comic book and the star protagonist of Black Man. Yeah. Did you, you know, tune in to some kind of like American hive mind? You tapped back into some great ancient knowledge and it's almost as if you channel that into your own comic book. Into my own, yeah, creative designs. Make sure you join Patreon.

This month, our monthly Raffle Prize is going to be the one original copy of the Black Man comic book. I have to find it back home, but it does exist somewhere. Yeah, look, I think we've reached our conclusions today. I'm happy to start it off to know from me this week. Love the case, but I cannot say that this is definitively paranormal. Yeah, I don't have, I don't have utmost confidence that this was a cryptid or some kind of poltergeaster beast. I think this is more likely to be a hoaxing man or man. Yeah.

It's a no. It's a double no this week. But hey, a great case, super fun. Always cool to go to Massachusetts. I don't know how much you remember about Massachusetts, but they got some wild paranormal shit over there. Yeah. Some real monsters.

A lot of history. You know, some crazy paranormal stuff like the cop slide. Oh, yeah. The viral cop slide, which we visited when we went on tour. And ironically, these three guys, we looked a little bit like the Black Flash. We were a bunch of guys hanging out at a kid's play park for unknown reasons, except the reason was we were trying to go down the slide, but there's too many kids so we couldn't go in the play park.

Yeah, so we just kind of stood there watching the scene, which made it even weirder. Yeah. To be fair. Because then I wanted a photo of the slide to put on Instagram. Yeah. I was like, I got to wait until there's a minimum amount of kids there. And I kept saying to Roy, I was like, you think if I just bolt?

it in there? Could I get up the slide on time? I was like a thousand times worse. Do not sprint into a children's play park. And also, I think this was a couple days into tour. So we were presumably hung over all wearing sunglasses, looking like shit, just hanging out at the edge of a children's play park. Bad vibes. I got to go back to America just to do that. No. No, no. I'm saying we should not do that again. I got to go back. Because it's really sucks. I didn't get to do it. You know? Yeah. That is a moment. So Massachusetts, scary place.

Do you know something is going wrong at this company? The other day I was like looking at photos on my phone, looking at pictures from tour that we did last year, the American tour. And I was like, we got to go again, man. We got to let it ride, brother. And I'm usually the one person on the team that is like, no, we can't, we literally cannot do that. Really?

It's so hard. It costs so much money. It takes a month out of everyone's life. We have to like torture with like waterboard worry to get them to agree to go on tour normally just because it's so much work. Yeah, I'm ready to be heard again. Oh my god. I think so. But we're going to make Australia happen, man. I want to go hang out with the Aussies. I want to go down under. We're trying. We're trying hard. Guys, thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of the podcast. Hey, there might not be a tour coming up anytime directly soon, but don't

worry. You can get a ton of extra awesome this paranormal life in your life by another easy way, by going to www. this paranormal life.com. Head over there. That's how you get access to the Patreon. That's how you get access to everything. All the extra cool bonuses and weird shit that we do behind a paywall

that's only available to the people that support us on Patreon. That's right. You can become a member. Support the show. Get so much in return. And I think I mentioned earlier, we are doing seven-day trial right now. You can try before you buy. Go check out those.

episodes it is totally free of charge to sign up. And even after a week of checking out some episodes, you can stay there. You can drop down to the free tier. You will at least get to hear all the newest updates, everything that's going on behind the scenes. And yeah, just hear first what's going on in the world of TPL. Because I will say, I'll drop as a teaser. Roy's mentioned tour. We might have one live announcement coming up soon. Oh, good point. And patrons always get first dibs on tickets. It's one of the things we promise our members at this paranormal life.com. Yeah.

So by signing up, you will always get to hear first and also get an access code anytime tickets do go on sale. So you'll be able to get those before anyone else. Yeah. That's a great reason to go check it out. Seven-day trial just gets you guys in the door. It gets you guys in the room. And I know from playing Sims a lot growing up that at any. moment, I could delete the door.

You're stuck in there forever. Right. It's like trying to cancel your Amazon Prime subscription. You're like, we're going to make y'all jump through so many hoops to deactivate that trial. It's like, oh, I've had a lot of fun, but I'd like to cancel my subscription. Well, that's no problem. I don't, I don't see it. Subscription? I don't see it. I don't see shit. Yeah. Well, that's crazy. You want to deactivate the trial? Yeah, of course. It's a

simple method where we'll email you a QR code scan that with your iPhone that takes you to a portal that will give you a 16 digit code relink that with your account that gives you a geolocation point on Google Maps where you can come and fight me because I ain't losing that subscription it's very thanks so much for it's very straightforward it's very straightforward come and listen come and hang out it's best place to support the show. It's the only reason that we've been able to make this show for eight years. We love it and we appreciate everyone. We'll show the people what they're, show the people flash up some cool shit here, Phil, flash it all up, do some explosions and stuff, Phil. It's just pictures of your comic book. We can't show that. That's all. That's on the page. Check it out. We really appreciate all of the support. Thank you so much to everyone that support us over the years. We're very, very, very grateful. And of course, one of those things that you get as a reward for supporting us on

Patreon is a shout out at the end of an episode of This Paranormal Life. And that's what we're going to do right now. So a special thank you to Anna flocking. People are flocking over to Thisparnomalif.com to support the show. And Anna is no exception. Nice. That's because Anna is a bird. Oh.

Anna arrived in a flock. Oh, she's flocking. Yeah, part of a flock and they've been flocking over. I thought you were doing a bit of word substitution. Like Anna's flocking crazy. You know? You'd be flocking not to subscribe to the Patreon. You know, I thought you're doing it.

But it's a bird. Well, yeah, it's both. Yeah, yeah. People have been flocking to support the show. But there's also flocks. Anna, I'm sorry, food is proportionate to the individual. So it might sound like you're a bird. You will have plenty of food.

You get a seed. You get to one seed. because that's just, that's big to you. Yeah, because humans are on bird portions currently in the commune. So birds are on like ant portions. Right. Yeah. Worm portions.

You get seed. Thank you so much for your support. If it's any consolation, human portions like five seeds. So it ain't that much either. Thanks also to Alyssa Huff. Alyssa's in a huff. Because she planted her seeds. her dinner seeds

and nothing grew right and you're saying shame on you you should have eaten the seeds you should have just yeah there's like a there's like a parable yeah he's like Alyssa's the person who

The parables don't hope Don't hope for anything more than we gave you the seeds Just eat the seeds now instead of planning on things getting better because they won't Each seed contains 0.8 of a calorie

Alyssa, hey, you live and you learn. Thanks also to Stephen Sidillo. Stephen Sidillo is stealing se pillows. That's right, we have a bed bandit on our hands. What? He's been rummaging around the commune, taking everyone's pillows, hoping that he'll be able to exchange them for seats. Yeah, I mean, one pillow should be able to buy you in any normal economy.

He should be able to buy you a lot of seats. A lot of seeds. Not in this one. It's one seat per pillow. he's not getting much he's not getting much he can't have my because how many pillows do you sleep with

two yeah kind of one I just up against my thing but then I use the other one but what do you mean up against your thing like I have a headboard so I have like a pillow up against the headboard and then I have a pillow down here

but then what if it like flops over and hits you in there which had done many times I freak out and think someone's attacking me in the night someone's trying to so I was trying to take my seeds I think the seed bandits are back You think your brother's trying to smother you again? Not again?

Yeah, because I only do one. I only do one. That's fine. And it's like, I need it to be so paper thin. Has to have absolutely no comfort to it at all. You could honestly use a seed. I could use that. I could swap for the seed.

Like a mouse sleeping on a seed pillow. Stephen, I want my pillow. Don't even think about it. You know things are going bad in the commune when we used to just give people one egg. And now we've swapped to an even smaller tear-dropped item of food. We just shrunk it down. So thank you, Stephen. Please give me back my pillow.

And remember everyone in the commune, a friend with seed is a friend indeed. We hope you guys are having a great time in the commune. And all across the world, listening to this paranormal life, we couldn't make this show without you. And it's been an absolute blast as it is every week. We've got another banger for you next week, so look forward to that. We will see you next Tuesday for another episode of This Paranormal Live.

In 1938. Already laughing because you're like, it won't take.