True Crime Campfire - Patreon Upcycle - No Bones About It: Two True Crime-Ish Tales from the Weird Wide Web

Episode Date: September 24, 2021

This week, we're giving you a sneak peek at another one of our Patreon-exclusive episodes! This was our patrons-only from July. Usually we just do regular TCC episodes for our Patreon extras, but sometimes we like to mix things up and do something different. For this episode, we decided to let Katie take a dive into her very favorite pool--weird internet drama. We bring you two true crime-adjacent stories: Tumblr blogger Sixpenceee, who got into hot water with her fans for an array of reasons, including offering unqualified mental health counseling, and admitting that her family owned child slaves in India. And a dust-up in the online witch community that participants ended up calling Boneghazi--a New Orleans witch picking up actual human remains at a local cemetery and offering to ship the bones to anyone who might be interested in using them for "curse work." Wow.The internet is a mad, mad world, innit?Sources: ●https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/boneghazi-tumblr-witch-arrested-human-bones/●https://www.saveourcemeteries.org/●https://www.nola.com/news/courts/article_c0486bc0-2698-5dae-a810-0713f75d8db3.html●https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/stealing-human-bones-boneghazi●https://softyuri.tumblr.com/post/135415156346/no-i-am-not-digging-up-fucking-graves-jfc●https://www.vice.com/en/article/vv7mk3/tumblr-devolves-into-literal-witchhunt-over-alleged-bone-thief●https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/03/cops-bust-tumblr-witch-over-boneghazi.htmlFollow us, campers!Patreon (join to get all episodes ad-free, at least a day early, an extra episode a month, and a free sticker!): https://patreon.com/TrueCrimeCampfireFacebook: True Crime CampfireInstagram: https://gramha.net/profile/truecrimecampfire/19093397079Twitter: @TCCampfire https://twitter.com/TCCampfireEmail: [e-mail]: https://shop.spreadshirt.com/true-crime-campfire/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-campfire--4251960/support.

Hello, campers. Grab your marshmallows and gather around the true crime campfire. We're your camp counselors. I'm Katie. And I'm Whitney. And we're here to tell you a true story that is way stranger than fiction. We're roasting murderers and marshmallows around the true crime campfire. Hello, Patreon Angels. For your July patrons-only episode, we've decided to let Katie go for a refreshing swim in her very favorite pond. bizarre internet drama and like a lot of our patron exclusive episodes this one will be a little more informal and chatty we like just hanging out with y'all sometimes so we hope you enjoy it this is no bones about it two true crime-ish tales from the weird wide web

This first story is 16 kinds of bananas. I just told Whitney about it the other day, and she kept saying, you have got to be making this shit up. I wish I were, but I am really, really not. I really thought she was punking me for some of this stuff. I promised you, I did. Let's get into it. Sixpence heels and also owns child slaves.

Oh, my God. So there's this Tumblr user who calls herself sixpence with three E's, because I guess regular sixpence was taken, and she couldn't think of anything more creative. She has, yeah, she has like this massive following, which she got by posting creepy pasta and paranormal content. Most of said content was bitten off bad clickbait websites and Reddit. And she's gotten herself into trouble a lot for posting a lot of really questionable ablest content. No. Right. The post you most likely know her for is the one featuring an ibex standing on a sheer cliff. It said, Alpine ibexes climb nearly 90 degree angles to lick salt deposits off of mountainsides. They crave that mineral. So they crave that mineral quickly turned into a meme because it's hilarious, obviously. And now that Katie's told me about it, I can't stop saying it about stuff.

Like, I don't know how I missed this meme before, but now that Katie sent it to me, like, my husband wants pizza for dinner. He craves that mineral. It's just, I'm being obnoxious. I'm not even sure if I'm using it right, but I'm having fun, you know, and isn't that all that matters? It sounds right to me, honestly. It's such a funny. It's such a weird thing phrasing for the, like, what she's trying to get across. Yeah, we'll have to post the meme and people can appreciate or not how hilarious it is.

It's pretty funny. So anyway, Sixth Fence really, really enjoyed posting about mentally ill people in a sort of 19th century freak show way. Like, step right up and look at the freakish schizophrenic. How scary. And, like, it completely disregards the fact that people with mental illnesses are far more likely to be a victim of violence than a perpetrator. Yeah, like, she talks about them like they're the elephant man or something. It's just repulsive. Like, what are you doing? You're not running a side show. What the hell? are you doing it's so gross it's like totally cringe-worthy stuff too like just here's here's a couple

examples from her page on a story about a schizophrenic person she said it's titled horrifying true schizophrenia story and then she said it really gave me the creeps and to know that someone has to go through this every day is horrifying which like You're weirdly, like, romanticizing and infantilizing this person's experience. I don't know. It just, it rubs me wrong, man. It's horrifying. Horrifying.

Like, well, you know, there's lots of people walking around with schizophrenia who have jobs and kids and, you know, lives. I'm sorry, it's so horrifying to you. Jeez. Another post she made about a schizophrenic boy's drawing had a whole breathless description, which seemed more like her own over-dramatized interpretation of the drawing than anything else. The whole tone was schizophrenia, eke! Yeah, she'd often post about people's disabilities or mental illness in this really light-hearted, fascinated tone.

One post about the creepiest places to visit, she listed Aoki Gara Forest, colloquially known as the suicide forest, because so many people have killed themselves there. She said, quote, Aoki Gahara Forest, a forest in Japan, known as the suicide forest. If you walk around, you'll probably find the bodies of many depressed souls. It's like you can just see her sitting there at the middle school slumber party with a frigging flashlight under her chin. Like, ooh, the suicide forest. Isn't this fun? The killer was mentally ill the whole time. It's so tired. Like, why would you

want to find a dead body? right she's posting about people's disabilities and illnesses on a blog dedicated to quote creepy content for god's sakes real sensitive exactly like the suicide forest or whatever it's obviously it's got some creep factor to it but like these are real people jackass real people and enough pain to want to take their own lives that's not for your entertainment what are you Logan Paul, which y'all know about him, right? So he's, oh my God, he's the worst person on the internet. The only thing I know about him is this.

Right. So, like, that's all I know about Logan Paul. He was big on Vine. Remember Vine? I loved Vine. I loved Vine. I missed Vine. Six-second movies. Yeah. TikTok is fine, but, like, there's just something so satisfying about six-second and done, and it was so creative

how many people, like, were able to get so much info in a six-second clip. It's amazing. But anyway. It was delightful. It was delightful. I missed that watermelon guy. He was my favorite. Free chavocado. Anyway,

we could do, we could literally do Vine quotes for this entire episode. But... And the guy who's like, large fries, motherfucker. All-rise, motherfucker. Like with the surprise motherfucker from Dexter, he would do all these different ones where like he would have on a judge's robe and he'd say, all rise, motherfucker.

It's just so funny. It was good. I love that guy. But so Logan and his brother Jake were like bottom of the barrel vine. They relied on like really just, how do I describe this? It's like the lowest common denominator of comedy. so like funny faces and pratfalls. So like just...

And probably fart jokes. Yeah. And they are moderately attractive blonde white men. And they both made the transition to YouTube where Jake and Logan did vlogs. Yeah. You might have seen a clip of Logan. I believe it was Logan. They look, they have the same face.

They are completely unremarkable. They really do have the same. I can't tell them apart at all. I can barely tell them apart. They're both scumbags. But there's another video of Logan with those colorblind glasses on. And he's so overwrought and fake crying about how beautiful. Like he's never seen a sunset before.

And it's just cringe. So anyway, he's not a good person. So he and his buddies went to Japan. And as someone who has been to Japan, they were just, grossly disrespectful the whole time. Gross. So like he bought a game boy

from like a street vendor and threw it on the ground in front of the guy. What the fuck? Yeah and like he was running down the street screaming. He was like they bought a raw fish

and they were carrying it around and putting it in people's faces. And like so. For the love of God. Yeah. So I've been to Japan. You speak English and you feel like you're screaming because, like, our normal English, like, tone is just much louder than a Japanese language tone. It just, it happens. Uh-huh. And so, like, but he was screaming in

people's faces and being just an awful person. So he and his friends decided to go to Aoki Kahara Forest. And when you go, it's like a, it's like a national forest. It's like a, you go there to hike, right? And when you go there, there are signs. And, you go there, there are signs, that say do not go off trail because if you go off trail you're going to encounter a body that's bonkers that that many people do it that's just oh that's so upsetting it's horrible and of course Logan had to go off trail oh i hate to say and it's one thing to just be a stupid like he was like 20 or whatever be a stupid 20 year old and go off trail and you know get what's coming to you in the form of somebody that had committed suicide.

Right, sure. This man filmed it and put it in his, not only put it in his vlog, but for a while, he had it as the thumbnail, the person's body as the thumbnail. Oh my God. Okay, that I didn't, I didn't know that part. Yeah. So, and then when people were like, uh, what the fuck, he switched it to him, like a clearly posed, like he had to think about.

the pose he was doing while he was in the forest waiting for the authorities to come, like looking shocked and surprised. Oh my God, I hate this guy. Yeah, you know how YouTube thumbnails have that, like, they always have that pose, like, but it's like, yeah, where somebody's going, ooh, looking like a dork. So that's what he did it, but his excuse was, oh, I blurt out the body. And it's like, that doesn't fucking matter. So.

Good God, all my. How does a person like this exist? I literally like, the difference in the way that I think. from the way that this guy thinks, he might as well be an alien. Like, I can't fathom behaving that way for any reason. We could do a whole episode on him. He's...

We could indeed. So his dad... So he lives in like a giant mansion because nothing is right in the world. I knew you were going to go off on Logan Paul. We've got one line in the outline briefly explained about Logan Paul. But his dad's... Long story short, his dad's a piece of shit that got accused of like,

So at one point they did like this quote unquote prank video where they blind blindfolded girls and said that like Jake was going to kiss them and they switched Jake out with their dad. And that was the prank. What the hell? Oh. So. Good God. I hate these people so bad.

Oh, just. Oh. That's so much worse than just the suicide forest story apparently. Yeah. I didn't know. Okay, so back to six-pencey, as I like to call her, because, you know, I was hooked on phonics as a kid, and I read words like they're spelled. So when you put 14 E's on the end of the word six-pence, your name is six-pency. I'm sorry.

Actually, it's six-pense-ee, like you're skydiving. So she's also a fan of taking Reddit users real stories about, like, their horrifying childhood sexual abuse and posting them on her Tumblr without the person's permission. and without crediting them. And with that same like, woo-hoo-woo kind of tone. Like really upsetting graphic stuff where people are looking for support, you know, not to educate, not to dig into the issues that surround all this stuff or anything like that, just to kind of go up at, it seems to me like, just another, quote, creepy story.

And when it rubbed people the wrong way, she doubles down. Of course she did. Of course she does. Plus, you know, don't steal people's stories without giving them credit. Oh, my God. Like, people have done that to me before, and it irritates the piss out of me every time. She was notorious for rating the No Sleep subreddit in particular, which is especially bad because that sub is a fiction sub. Like, people are going there to try out their writing.

I mean, people have published books off of the stuff that they wrote there. So that's a big deal to be a content thief, especially on a sub like that where people are posting their creative work. Just, ugh. So basically, six pincey sucks bologna balls and is certainly no mental health advocates. But it gets much, much worse, patron campers, because in May of 2017, she posted the following on her blog. And I quote, introducing six pincey heels. So I noticed how unhappiness can really plague us. Sometimes life throws so many curveballs at us.

It prevents us from being happy and free-spirited. I really want to reach out and help people break free of certain negative patterns in their life, so I've created six pincey heels. I am an extremely intuitive and empathetic individual. I will never judge or disclose any of your problems to anyone. I will help you transcend confusion and self-limiting beliefs so that you can be the very best version of yourself. Here's how it works. You all right over there? I'm just like the transcend confusion.

We could all transcend confusion. Like, what the fuck? Oh, my God. So here's how it works. 1. You shoot me an email at 6 pincey at gmail.com saying you'd like to participate in the 6 pincee Heels program. Please include 6 pincey heels on the title line. 2. I will send you a short survey that you can fill out that will let me know more about you. It'll help me to pick up patterns and habits that may not be so clear to you.

3. You will type up all your major slash minor doubts, anything at all that you want clarity on in the present time. 4. I will take out time to write you an individualized and personal report that will really help and guide you. I will include resources if you need. And five, I will also keep in touch with you and follow up with you. I will do my best to help you with the cards that you've been dealt. Some regulations. The pricing is $30 per person, so cheap. Especially if there's follow up too. Like, you sure you don't want to charge a little more than that? I will only be taking 15, or, sorry, Sorry, 10 to 15 people a month because I will really be spending a lot of time on each person's reports. It's a first-come, first-serve basis. This is not in any way a substitution for mental health or medical treatment. Good to know. Thank you guys for reading. I really hope to be of service to you all.

Bye. I like that she included that line at the end to make sure, like, no one can sue her if she gives bad advice. I know you know it's exactly what that shit was. which that's the don't sue me disclaimer oh how sweet the mental health advocate is selflessly selflessly offering her ear for the low low price of 30 smackeroonies bless her heart so other users were quick to point out that like charging money to life coach people when you're not like a certified or trained anything is probably a bad idea Because not only would you be opening yourself up to liability, but it's also just kind of an asshole thing to do because you have no flipping qualifications to do it.

It's also manipulating the parasycial relationships you get by running such a large blog. And like, don't you think that if someone is desperate enough to get life coached by an anonymous Tumblr blog, they're vulnerable enough to be manipulated? I do think that. And I also think it's a really good way to get a stalker. Mm-hmm. Because now you're having personal contact with these people and they're relying on you. And like, what if somebody writes to you and says, I'm thinking of committing, you know, I'm thinking of killing myself.

Right. Like, then what the hell do you do? You're not trained. Yeah. You know, you're getting in over your head. Well, and also, like, that's happened on Tumblr before where someone said that they were going to harm themselves. Yeah.

And the issue is, is that it's anonymous. No one knows where they live. No one knows who they live. are so you can't call right oh so scary so like you'd be you'd be opening yourself up to PTSD self like guilt that kind of thing too knows absolutely so speaking of vulnerable and manipulated populations all I can say is buckle up for this one y'all because it is gnarly so shortly after she was forced to apologize and give some you know actual mental health resources or followers instead of this $30

bullshit. Another blogger by the name, I think appropriately, of own mistakes, sent her the following question. Did you ever post about the children that worked at your family's home when you were away? Maybe I missed the post. Uh,

do what now? Children working, what? Okay. So I cannot, for the life of me, find the OG post where she talked about the, quote, servants originally, because that's what she called them servants. But just check out her

response, which I think says it all. And what it says, y'all, is that Sixpence's family has children working as indentured servants in their home. Yes, you heard me correctly. Sixpence's family owns child slaves. Oh, my God. So this was her response to the question. I've been meaning to, I used my phone to take pictures and it broke halfway and I had to restart everything and it wiped out the entire memory in like asterisk sobs indefinitely. But to clear up any controversy, let me just write about it. Before I begin, let me just say I do not support child labor. I do not like what's happening. I came to the country to visit my family and witnesses acts. Jesus Christ. In South Asian countries, what happens is that poorer families usually, quote, lend their child to

richer families once the child has reached a certain age, such as 12 or 13. The child does basic housework, such as make the bed, do some cooking, dust furniture, sweep the floors. In return, the poorer families get paid. The child is free to leave at any time and can visit their family whenever they want to. Oh, well, it's fine then. They're not literally put in leg shackles at the end of the day. They can visit their parents if they want to, so what are we worried about, y'all? It's fine. She says, I talked to the girl that worked in my uncle's house. Her name was Priya, and she was the sweetest little thing. When I asked her how she felt about working at my uncle's house, she was, to my surprise, very ecstatic about it. She enjoyed working there,

as she had enough to eat every day, and enjoyed pleasures such as AC, indoor plumbing, and much more. Makes it sound some nice. She said it beats working in a factory where many children are injured daily and work in poor conditions. If you're wondering about education and why she isn't in school, after grade five, education isn't free anymore. It costs a lot of money and many families don't have that. Child labor is a huge problem across the world, and I know writing about this experience isn't doing much to solve an international

problem, but I hope it sheds some light. Here are some links for child labor issues, and then she links to some websites about child labor and what it's like in the garment factory she was talking about and stuff like that. So, she read that whole thing, edited it, thought, mm-hmm, and then

clicked post. Jesus Murphy! Oh, and Before we get much further, I do want to point out that she talks about the kids being 12 or 13 typically. The kid in Priya, in her uncle's house, is 8. Yeah, she's 8. She was trying to cover, like, it's clear that she was trying to cover that up because she was like, oh, they're 12 or 13, not that that makes it better. But this is a, no, it doesn't, but yeah, there is a difference between 8 and 13, but yeah, it's all child labor, it's all awful.

Yeah, like, admitting your family owns a child. child slave is bad enough. I mean, it's not her fault, I guess, if her family are huge, gaping assholes. But still not great. But then she's excusing it by saying, oh, well, Priya says she likes it better than working in a factory. Like, that isn't the craziest fucking sentence in the world. Like, of course, I would prefer to eat dirt over a block of arsenic. It would suck to die. Yeah. Then when everyone was still understandably like, hey, what the actual fuck? In true sixpence form, she doubled down. Of course she did.

Tumblr usernames are always the fucking funniest. I know. This one's McCartney Madness said, I don't care how rich your family is. Why are you condoning child labor? And Sixpence said, trust me, if I had control over anything, I'd prevent it. But ask any of your Asian friends,

whether they are from the Philippines or India, and they will tell you that their families hire these child laborers. That's the custom there. They take underprivileged children to work for them and exchange their families get money. It really sucks. I wish our eight-year-old was in school, but that's what they do here. Not just my family, but every slightly wealthy family. I will document everything and make a post so this issue gets recognition.

Notice what she fucking said. Our eight-year-old. Fucking gross. and when a whole cascade of people responded like you know carrying human beings using their brains and said hey guess what it being common practice don't make it less gross and if your family and their wealthy buddies gave so much of a shit about these kids and their parents maybe they do something to create education and job opportunities for

instead of exploiting the chance for cheap labor our girl's six pencey said do you have any reading comprehension skills I came to this country for a vacation to visit my family, and I'm witnessing these acts. I do not condone child labor. I did not hire this child to work for me. Me, personally, I didn't do this. But my uncle, other families, yes, they have been hiring these children because here in Bangladesh,

that is a popular practice. Now, of course it isn't right. Of course I'm against it. Of course I'm documenting everything to bring some justice. Honestly, this is... What do you mean? you're documenting it to bring justice i'm sorry what the fuck is she talking about how does her blathering about it on tumbler bring justice what are you talking god i hate this bitch

i don't remember i don't remember what year this was but i do know this era of tumblerdom was very much like if you're not posting about some kind of like awful thing happening in the world you're not like you're not standing up against it and like oh god bless the slacktivists yes yep total slackivism my facebook poach will change the world right right oh no and she goes honestly this is why people don't like tumbler anymore because some users take people part this is such an asshole because some users take people's thoughts and actions no matter how much of a good intention they may have and make it seem as if it's the most offensive, grossest thing they have ever seen. Like, like, the child labor is, that she's, that's not gross, Whitney, don't be ridiculous.

Good gravy. You guys need to calm down and think things through before you go around throwing out words about how repulsed you are at something. You clearly didn't understand the meaning behind. Yeah, I'll take pissy entitled rich people behavior for 500, Alex. Oh, you're such a fucking martyr, six-pensy. She talks about child labor so cavalierly and then just shocked when people are disgusted. It's like, if you could only see how cheerily this small child scrubs my auntie's toilets, you'd know what a bunch of mean bullies you are.

This is why nobody likes Tumblr. What hell are you talking about? Also, by the way, it's super gross to imply that all South Asians are okay with this, because as many of them pointed out on her page, they bloody well are not. Even grosser, sixpence sold merch that promoted the end of human trafficking. But only the sexy, taken kind of trafficking that's so rare as to be practically non-existent, like where a pretty blonde girl gets abducted at the mall and sold into sex work. Not the kind of trafficking where a family sells their child into literal slavery.

Don't be ridiculous. So I wish I had a happy ending for this one, but unfortunately the blog is still up. Although we can't be sure if it's still being run by the same woman, but ew, right? Just heck right off, sixpensy. You are gross. So gross. But this next one, if you can believe it, might be even grosser. I don't know.

I'll let y'all decide who's worse when you've listened to post the stories. This one is just bananas. So in December of 2015, someone going by the name of Ender Darling, nerd, posted in a private 2,000 member Facebook group called the Queer Witch Colleen. elective. So for future ref, by the way, this person is non-binary and they use the they pronoun, so we're going to do that too. So the post was as follows. We're just going to read it to you in its entirety. So, okay, take it away. Content warning, graves, bone hunting. Comment if there are added warnings needed. About 20 minutes from my house in New Orleans is what we call

the poor man's graveyard. Most graveyards around here are full of above-ground graves because we live in a fishbowl. But there happens to be a graveyard where it's all in ground graves. For those of us who are too poor to afford above ground burial. And by the way, if it sounds like I'm hesitating, it's because this person abuses periods, like it's their job. It's very badly written. Yes. When it rains, of course, bones wash up. The older the grave, the more you find. You can literally walk around and see femurs, teeth, jaws, skull caps, et cetera, et cetera. This is where I go to find. This is where I go to my human bones for curse work and general spells that require bone. I find human bones are easier for me rather than animal bone. I can relate and work with the energy they carry if that makes

any sense. It doesn't. Thank you. No, that does not make any sense. Sorry. Anyways, I wanted to see if I started selling, basically cover shipping to wherever you happen to be, if people would be interested. I know human bones aren't easy to come by, and I usually have leftovers. I only go once a month, or when it rains here. Okay, so that extraordinary statement was followed by a few little comments. So someone named Dakota says, I'm absolutely interested, but you need to be careful with the state and federal laws. And Ender Darling says, oh, I know, I looked it up, and it's all good. I wouldn't even be offering if there was a chance someone would get in trouble. Me, L-O-L. Someone named Jaden says, yes, I.

I would deaf be interested. And Ender says, you're on New York, right? Can you research your state laws on this? In Louisiana, bone trade isn't illegal, but I know New York, Georgia, and Tennessee have stricter laws. Okay, so bone gathering in a cemetery where poor people are buried because they can't afford being buried above ground. So something, first of all, I mean, obviously that's 17 kinds of bananas to most of us,

but something just feels off about the whole tone of this thing to me. Like, oh, yeah. I went down the aisle and I found some. There's no reverence at all. Yeah, I found some femurs and teeth and skull caps and, like, you know, I could pick up some jaws if you want some, you know, while I'm out. It's very casual. Yeah, exactly. It's really bizarrely casual.

And then the acknowledgement of, like, well, it could be illegal. Yeah. It's just. You know, it's all good. And, I mean, here in Louisiana, it's all good. Yeah. And notice that they're trying to link themselves with the dead by saying those of us who are too poor? Yeah, I noticed that.

So some background on this, despite Ender Darling's protestations, the cemetery they're referring to is most likely the Holt Cemetery in New Orleans. Holt is a pauper cemetery where they bury people who are too poor to be buried above ground. Since New Orleans is below sea level, this puts the bodies at risk for being uninterred by rainfall or flooding. Yeah, and Holt in particular is the resting place of some of the most influential black jazz musicians in New Orleans history and is in general overwhelmingly the resting place of black New Orleans. So, according to Save Our Cemetery, which is a non-profit that aims to preserve and restore cemeteries in Nalans, it has over 60,000 interments. And it's considered to be overcrowded, which I guess it would be with 60,000 bodies. And I guess really that's kind of an understatement, given that bones are literally sticking up out of the ground. Jesus Christ. And years ago, my husband and I, my husband's Scottish and we went to visit

Edinburgh and there's this really old cemetery there and it was the same way. I don't know if it was for the same reason or just because there's so many people buried on top of each other there, but we literally saw like femur bones and stuff. And some of them had probably been there for hundreds and hundreds of years. Wild. The local witch didn't take a. It didn't even occur to me once to pick one up. I don't know. I mean, it's anyway. Just didn't cross my mind. Yeah, and it's not like this was like they came across a bone in the street, which is also suspect, because if you come across a bone in the street, you should call 911. Yeah. But they're specifically going to the cemetery to pick up bones.

That's weird. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Once a month. Yeah. To go trawl for bones. So the initial response to Ender Darling's offering was positive. One of the mods of the group even expressed interest.

Anyone that was like, hey, this scene's fucked up, was immediately shut down. Ender responded to one person's criticism in all caps. Do not shame me for my work. Yeah, I'm going to do that, though. I'm just going to go ahead and do that. And you can't stop me. Do not shame me for shaming you. Fucking dork.

Somebody in the group asked if they were making offerings to the graveyard. And Ender responded in the positive saying, I bring drink and honey and flowers. Me and my goddess have a pact. She provides the bones if I only take what the earth gives and I leave offerings. Okay, full offense, but that doesn't fucking matter. I'm so glad your goddess gave you permission to steal bones from a burial ground. But did you think to fucking ask their families?

Does it not matter what the people buried there wanted to happen to their bodies? No? Just your goddess? Fuck off. Yeah, and at another commenter's criticism, Amad wrote, I'm really sad that someone is acting like this is some kind of grave desecration when it's literally taking what the earth washes up so they don't go into waste treatment. Oh, you're such a fucking hero.

By using parts of another human being for curses that they didn't consent to being used, who are you fucking selfish imbecile? Yeah, one of my friends who's also a patron, Hi Kelly, is actually a practicing witch, and she knows I'm a skeptic about magical stuff and Magic with a K, but she's been really patient with me explaining her beliefs and some of what her practice involves. And, you know, I always like talking to her about it. And when I asked her how she felt about this story, she said, and I quote, For fuck's sake, you don't need to go out to the God's damned cemetery to raid poor people graves to cast an effective curse,

you damp piece of hot topic drywall. So there we have a representative of the witch community weighing in. Thank you, Kelly, for the feedback. Then the harsher comments started coming in in earnest, pointing out, that the residents of New Orleans poor cemeteries overwhelmingly black and overwhelmingly poor. The implications of someone traipsing in and stealing from people that society so badly abused

is staggering, but that didn't seem to matter to Ender or their buds. Finally, after many POC members of the group spoke up, the snotty mod and Ender agreed that they could probably benefit from a discussion about the implications of Ender's actions, but it was a little bit too little. too late at that point. Ender and the mod had spent the majority of the post dismissing everybody's concerns and people were just not having this sudden backpedaling. Like would it be okay if it happened

at a traditional cemetery? No. So why is it okay to disturb the bones just because they're sitting on the ground? What apparently got the controversy really going though was when a Tumblr user by the name of Pastel Prouver, again a wonderful name, wrote a post that read PSA, Tumblr user little fucking monster, which was Ender's account, is stealing human bones from cemeteries in Louisiana. Please don't let them get away with this and spread the word slash signal boost. And when somebody expressed doubt that this was really happening, somebody posted a screenshot of the original post to prove it. And in defense of the second person that was like, what the fuck?

The phrasing of, yeah, it's like, what? The phrasing of PSA Tumblr user little fucking monster is stealing human bones is the funniest set of words in that order that could possibly occur. I think if I ran across that post, I would just be like, nope, does not compute. Like, I know those are all English words, but that makes no sense that I'm scrolling on. And, of course, Tumblr, as it did in the early to mid 2010s, took this and ran with it. I remember seeing posts that winter about bone stealing witches and Bone Gazi all over my desk. board like everyone was talking about it and there's always like a competition of source to see

what is going to be the last meme of the year and bone stealing which of course took the crown all kinds of memes popped up stuff like i laugh every time alas poor yorick little fucking monster stole ye well which i bet pissed off ender d too in Also, my other favorite thing is people would mimic the wording of the original post. That would be like, PSA, Tumblr user, TCCKD, not my real account, is putting out true crime podcasts from a living room in Tennessee. Please don't let them get away with this. So funny.

Anyway. That one's got a lot of potential. So this was probably not the way that Ender Darling wanted to go viral, but nevertheless, now they had the undivided attention of thousands of people on the internet, most of whom thought what they were doing was just toweringly uncool. And here are just some excerpts from Ender's response, which is quite a piece of work, as you can imagine. We're not going to read the whole thing because it is a fucking homeric, epic-linked novel, and we'd be here all night. Just some, let's call them highlights, or low-lights, maybe. So they wrote, No, I am not digging up

fucking Graves, JFC. Long story short, a post that was posted in a queer witch collective where Cell is understood to mean cover shipping, especially when I made that clear, and Curse is understood to mean any spell you cast on another physical person was screenshot.

Just my post, not the massive thread that fucking followed, and removed from the group where it had contacts and posted. What has followed has been extremely racist, especially towards those who still practice indigenous genenuminess craft, because they butcher that word indigenous like they spelled it with like a thousand extra vowels it was bonkers physical harm has been

threatened including towards my child y'all fuckers can cool it on that front before you really start saying shit you can't back up because i swear if any of you actually have the guts to try something my automatic response when it comes to my child is to put your teeth in my altar try me yeah i don't know if that qualifies as a terroristic threat under the law saying you're going to put somebody's teeth on your witch altar but i'm pretty sure it comes close i mean obviously nobody needs to be threatening them or their kid or anything like that that's ridiculous but still just yeeks yeah and for the record most people didn't know they had a child so like yeah that's to a lot of people that was like what and like most people most people will be like yeah

no that's fucked up don't threaten somebody's I would not be surprised if they just made that shit up out a whole cloth too that that happens a lot with these things as people I'm sure because if somebody sent me a death threat first response screenshot it send it to the feds second Second thought. Yeah, exactly. Screenshot it. Show me. Show me where somebody threatened your kid.

Post it on Facebook immediately. Yeah. But when they don't post the screenshot, I'm like, did you though? Yeah. They continue. I was walking into the graveyard like I usually do once a week because it's in fucking disrepair and I try to do what I can with weeding and offerings. And I witnessed an old man digging with a shovel and backhoe tearing into old plots.

You fucks want to threaten me. yet don't actually sit to rationally think about how in-ground cemeteries actually continue to be able to have bodies buried there. I'm in a quick decision when I watched a few bones tumble from the dirt and into the street. I picked them up and went through the graveyard and picked up ones I saw on my path knowing that they were either going to be crushed or swept away. And I'm sorry, but for me, a spiritual person who works with death, seeing a fucking machine tear into graves that like that seemed a lot less respectful to the dead you all are so concerned about than me picking them up and saving them. I did not dig up anything. Okay. First of all, you said you go once a month.

So I know you lying because you just said, oh, it was just a one-time decision. I just saw this. No, you said you go once a month. Shut the fuck up. All right. And now, now they're saying, I was there once a week and I'm actually like helping restore the cemetery and yeah if you care so much about restoring the cemetery maybe try and raise money to have it restored instead of just taking the bones

and then try to send them to people across the country for curse work what the hell I can't with this person I just can't I've also been heavily shamed for my indigenous you can see how they spelled indigenous. It's like they don't know how to stop spelling it. It's just, they just get a few letters

in and just run with it. I've also been heavily shamed for my indigenous practices. Here's the thing, you bunch of fucks. Magic is dark. Magic is bloody. Magic is scary. Magic isn't just fucking white light, fairy dust, bowls of honey on your damn altar. You can all stop touting the threefold rule or wick and read or karma thing. That shit applies to only those who believe in it, fucking stop. I am not Wiccan. I am not fluffy. I work with death and bones. Curses and hexes, the dark, and the things not for the

feign of art. And you ain't about to shame me for it. Fucking y'all want to pretend that I'm not in New Orleans, where I've watched black voodoo priests break into crips and steal random full bodies. Y'all want to be mad at the kid who saves some bones from being crushed because fuck it in the actual story. Let's go with this

screenshot that in no way shows the entire story. Sure. Instead of being angry at the frat parties that actually break into cemeteries and cause fucking damage for stupid college parties, you want to be angry at the kid who literally picked up bones from the ground to save them from getting swept away. The kid who continues to care for the cemeteries they visit, the kid who offers offerings and prayer whenever anything is taken. Cool. Sounds legit. But yeah, I'm knee-deep in bodies with a shovel, eating and selling the bones. Sure, whatever. I've only gotten a little bit of hate mail,

which reads to me as people don't actually care they just wanted something to be pissed about. If you feel the need to send me hate mail Please be aware that I am not actually going to read it Even though I just totally described reading it And what it said, I'm going to delete it. Thanks That magic is dark, magic is bloody Is the funniest fucking thing I've ever heard It's so funny

I'm going to do it as a monologue at my next audition It's so good And no, by the way This person is not a kid That they keep saying that Oh, you're going to be mad at the kid they're 24 years old at the time of posting, a full-grown adult. So, I don't know if they were looking for sympathy or trying to seem less culpable by calling themselves a kid or what, but they're not a kid.

Yeah, also, I didn't know that's what frat guys did. Like, I went to a bunch of frat parties in college, and not once did we ever do any grave robin, like, once, ever. You didn't go to school in Nalins, though. About all that. Let's do a keg stand on this dude's skull. I don't mean, I just never saw anything like that. I also love that they're like, oh, well, I saw a voodoo priest take a full body. And it's like, you didn't call 911?

Okay. You didn't report it. Okay. Yeah. Like, and also just because. That's somebody's body. Like, that's not cool. And also, maybe that person said, okay, that you can have my body after I die.

You don't know. Okay? We're not trying to shit on anybody's religious practices. It's just those people did not give permission for their bones to be used in a fucking curve. Absolutely. I would have a problem with that personally. I think my parents would have a problem with that. Yeah, whatever.

And also, you're desecrating a historic cemetery. Holy shit. I just can't. I can't. I can't. I can't with this person. And just because somebody else does it doesn't mean you should. Would you jump off the Brooklyn Bridge if somebody of a voodoo priest told you to do?

Mom Whitney's coming out. And yeah, I also love that they're insinuating that the only thing they could have conceivably done wrong is selling the bones, not taking them in the first place. Like, God, I hate it. Yeah, really, for me, it's not about the selling at all. It's about the taking in the first place. I hate the scribble. And then for them to be like, well, my goddess said it was kosher. So, like, what's your problem?

All right. That's the best part. And I'm giving offerings. Like, do these people follow your specific religion? No, then fuck off. Offerings to who? Like, who, who are the offerings for? I wouldn't give a shit about that.

No. If you broke into my cemetery where my body ends up, or God forbid, my husband's body someday and took one hair of his head, I don't care what the fuck you leave behind you, you can go and kick yourself down a flight of stairs. That's not okay. Right. Like, straight up, like literally when I die,

just throw my body in the trash because, like, it doesn't matter to me anymore. But, like, cemeteries and graves are not necessarily for the dead, but those people's choices and preferences still matter.

Absolutely. I mean, my God. And my dad always used to say, you know, your rights in where my nose begins. This is a perfect example of that of somebody violating that. You're right.

and where those people's bony, where their noses used to be, begin. Ender darling. Not a darling. God. So as we mentioned earlier, the person that wrote the call-out post did call the police, and because Ender actually did send bones over state lines, the feds got involved. It seemed like Ender really wasn't taking it seriously. Oh, not at all.

During a raid on their home, they were pretty cavalier. At one point, handing over a fishbowl containing bones to the investigator saying, there's probably human bones in there, but I know better than to give you that answer. Well, you're handing them the bones. So, like, they'll still charge you. Like, you took it in your hands, you dumb twat. And I know better than to tell you that there's, I know better than to tell you that there are bones, definitely bones in this jar. You just told them.

Yeah. Investigators found 11 bones and 4 teeth belonging to unidentified individuals. Ender said to the New Orleans advocate, they were coming in seriously expecting to find bodies and human organs. and have me and my roommates arrested for black marketing human remains. I think what upsets me the most about this is that they clearly don't think they did anything wrong. It's not like you got caught with an ounce of weed, you know? You stole body parts belonging to human beings. And also in the article for the advocate, Darling said,

I'm sorry I care more about you're dead than you. Fuck. Oh, what the hell? Off, you absolute ghoul of a human. Oh, my God. Barf. Side note, by the way, investigators did find some weed in the house, and they charged Ender with that, too. All told, they were charged with burglary and marijuana possession.

They got a five-year suspended sentence for the burglary and a 15-day sentence for the marijuana, which, with credit for time served. Not sure where they are now, but hopefully they keep their grubby, gremlin hands to them fucking cells. Amen to that, but you know, magic isn't fluffy, Katie. Magic isn't fluffy. Well, at least we've learned that today, campers. That and to keep a damn padlock on your coffin when they plant you or else your bones might end up on the altar of somebody like Ender Darling alongside the tweezered out teeth of an internet troll who called her a grave robber.

So, I think we'd all agree that that was a little bit of a wild one, right? Patrons, and we're bringing more of this, by the way, because Katie is obsessed with this shit. Like, she's got a whole encyclopedia of knowledge of weird-ass internet drama. So there will be future episodes like this. I'm excited for them. I hope you are, too. You know, we'll have another patrons-only episode for you next month. But for now, lock your doors, light your lights, and stay safe.

Until we get together again around the true crime campfire. We love you. We appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you to the moon and back. Our darling patrons. Goodbye.

Thank you.