Whispers in the Cemetery

This week, Amanda, Dayelle, and Deena tread lightly on the haunting grounds of Sleepy Hollow’s Cemetery, unearthing macabre tales of past residents. From the tragic life of athlete Malcolm Webster Ford to the unsettling Strong family massacre, the trio dives deep into the gloomy abyss of Sleepy Hollow’s dark history.

This season, Folktown visits Sleepy Hollow, NY. Most well-known for the stories of the Headless Horseman, there are far more stories of mystery and folklore that cover the town that’s anything but sleepy.

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Dina, Dale, we’ve talked about witches, we’ve talked about the town of Sleepy

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Hollow, have you guys heard about all of the horrific murders that have happened

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in the area of Sleepy Hollow?

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I’ve heard far too many to count.

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I’ve definitely heard my fair share, but I’m very curious.

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Well, we’re going to investigate those stories today on Folk Town.

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This week on Folktown, Sleepy Hollow, a town that’s anything but sleepy.

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Welcome to Folktown. Welcome back, residents of Folktown. On today’s episode,

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we’re going to be talking about a little bit of a sensitive topic.

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This episode is going to mention some murders that have taken place in the area,

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as well as victims and both perpetrators that are buried in the cemetery of Sleepy Hollow.

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So up top, we just want to make sure that we are letting you guys know that

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we are cognizant of the fact that these acts are awful and still affecting the family members.

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And we just want to let you know that we’re not glorifying the act or the people

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that committed them. We are here more to honor the victims and tell their stories.

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I do just wanna say that last week’s episode was a lot of fun about the witches.

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I don’t know how you guys felt, but I really loved that episode.

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This episode is definitely in my wheelhouse because we are gonna be talking about murders.

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Definitely a lot darker tonight.

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Again, that’s kind of why we put that disclaimer up front. We are recognizing

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that sometimes these things should come with trigger warnings and they don’t.

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And sometimes people glorify the murderers and that’s not what we’re trying to do.

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We just wanna tell the stories, especially for this area, which we did not realize

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until we started researching how many murders have occurred in the area or how

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many people that have been murdered or committed murders are married in the cemetery.

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I don’t know about you guys, but I was pretty shocked to find all these stories.

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It was hard to dwindle it down.

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Yeah, there’s so many.

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I mean, the further you go back, it really does get a little wild.

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You know, that it’s just like, wait a minute, wait a minute.

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Okay, this sounds like it could have happened within the past 20 years.

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Oh wait, there’s still like 50 years back. Oh wait, we can keep going back to

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like 1700s, 1800s, yeah.

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Absolutely, and this is not for, you know, like sometimes when we’re doing episode

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research, not that we’re having to look hard for reputable sources or reputable

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stories, this one was the opposite.

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It was like dwindling down, even right before we hit record,

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we’re like, ooh, I just found this one. Ooh, I just found this one.

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And so kind of dwindling it down to,

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the three larger stories we’re going to tell up front before our story, it was really hard.

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So, I think all of our stories kind of take place pre-2000, guys.

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We tried to go back much further, especially to be sensitive of newer stories,

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but I’m going to go ahead and start. So, this one is about Malcolm- How far

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back are we starting with?

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We’re starting back, my friends. So, we’re starting with Malcolm Webster Ford.

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He was born just a couple years ago in Brooklyn, February 7th of 1862.

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So just a couple, couple years ago, just fresh, you know.

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He was an athlete and he was a journalist and he was the son of Gordon Lester

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Ford and Emily Webster Ford.

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Emily Webster Ford was actually the granddaughter of Noah Webster who was a

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lifelong friend of Emily Dickinson, which us book nerds love.

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But during the 1800s, he won the American National Champion as the all-around

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athlete in what would be equivalent today as a decathlon.

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He won that three times and it had 10 events.

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This just makes me tired thinking of this, but three of which are different than what are run today.

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He ran a lot of races and he was very well known for that.

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He ended up marrying an heiress. Her name was Jeanette Graves.

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They got married in 1893 and they had one child who was also named Malcolm Webster Ford.

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So the couple divorced in 1898 and oddly enough,

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which is very strange for this time period, it’s I mean honestly even strange

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for the current time period, but the couple divorced in 1898 and Ford,

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he was granted custody of their child and that’s not normally how it goes.

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So during this time period, he was like a businessman.

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He was a journalist, I would say. He’s a journalist, maybe self-proclaimed.

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Do you know what I’m saying? He wrote articles about track and field,

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obviously, because that’s what he was known for in his heyday.

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He published them in a magazine called The Outing. He tried to launch his own

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publications twice, both of them,

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were failures. They plummeted. And then on May 8th in 1902,

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so before I get to the bad part of the story, he was asking his brother for

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a lot of money because he just kept having these business ventures that kept

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failing and failing and failing.

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So I think his brother just kept, his brother Paul kept bailing him out,

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right? So he’s like, I’m going to create this magazine and I’m going to be able

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to publish all of my works in it. And kind of, I think he was like touting himself.

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And well, that did not work. And then he tried it a second time.

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That did not work. And both times, his brother, Paul, was the person who was bailing him out.

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His wife’s sister, Marie, she actually married Henry Herman Harjes.

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Wow. That’s a tongue twister.

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It is.

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It was not a good time. And I’m about to marry a Henry, so I better get that

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right. But he was a partner of JP Morgan in Paris.

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So, like, the family just married money. They found money, they married money,

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and it sounds like he was, like, the brother-in-law that the daughters,

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like, did not marry the successful guy.

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Like, once his athletic career kind of crapped to the bed, that was all he had going for him.

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So, he asked his brother again for money, his brother Paul, and his brother

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Paul was like, sorry, bro, I am not continuing to bail you out.

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And he did not like that So, May 8th, yeah, yeah, that’s how it always goes.

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On May 8th, 1902, he went to East 77th Street to his brother Paul’s apartment

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in Manhattan and just walked into his brother’s library and unfortunately shot his brother.

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And then he turned the gun on himself.

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The creepy part here is, of course, that story’s awful. Like,

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you couldn’t hack it so your brother wouldn’t bail you out yet again,

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and so you’re you’re going to kill him for it, and then realizing what you’ve

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done, there’s no way out now, so he turned the gun on himself.

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An inquest into this all ruled that it was temporary insanity.

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This just did not go with who he was. It was kind of like he snapped at the end.

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And that’s kind of creepy because a lot of the stories that we looked into,

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it seems to be across the board. People just kind of lost it out of nowhere and just went insane.

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Yeah, it’s a common theme throughout.

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Sure, stories like this happen still to this day, right? When it comes to money,

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there’s always going to be some awful backhanded situation.

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This was tying back into, of course, the temporary insanity,

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but both brothers are now buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. Both of them.

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I would be so mad if my brother killed me and I have to be buried next to him.

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Yeah.

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Or at least in the same cemetery.

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That also seems to be a theme that you will see throughout this story,

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that what is it that even if there is some sort of…

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Not even some sort of, just like, if something like that happens,

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that they’re still in the same plot Like, is that how the way this,

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is that the way this works? Because…

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I don’t know, but I know that Dale’s got a doozy of a story for us now that

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kind of follows the same insanity. So, if you want to go ahead and tell us that one, Dale.

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To jump right in, it’s a shortened version of the story,

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but the story is about the Strong family, and it revolves around the gentleman

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by the name of Mason R Strong.

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He was a 50 year old engineer and architect on Wall Street.

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He was very wealthy and he was married. He had a wife and four children and

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the children age ranges were 8 to 16.

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And the story goes that one day in December of the early 1900s,

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Strong attacked his entire family with an axe and then killed himself with a

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razor blade across his throat.

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What’s crazy is the youngest two of the four children, the 14-year-old and the 8-year-old, survived.

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And when they were finally found, two days after the murders had occurred,

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and speculation is that the entire family had been drugged, and that’s why they

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hadn’t been found until two days after.

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And when they arrived at the house, the kids just said, everybody’s sick.

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And so when they went in and discovered this massacre, these two kids were still alive.

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And also, kind of a fun fact, this house still stands, and it’s in,

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so the house itself is not in Sleepy Hollow.

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It’s on the Passaic in New Jersey, but the victims, as well as the father who

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killed them, they are all buried in the cemetery.

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And even more interesting, they all share a single plot, so a single headstone

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bearing all of their names and a single death year, which is wild.

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Like, how does that happen? Like, a father of a family just one day kills three

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of the people in his family.

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But wanted to kill them all.

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I think intended to kill them all, but the two children were just injured and

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not killed, and then kills himself, and then they are all buried.

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in the same family plot?

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I, no words, no words.

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That one doesn’t entirely blow, I mean, like, it doesn’t blow my mind because they were children.

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I could see them still being buried with their parents.

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I mean, Amanda and I have actually seen the monument or the headstone,

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whichever it is, on this plot. And it is all of their names like listed, single file in a row.

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And when we heard that story, we were kind of like, why?

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Why isn’t this father, you know, buried in an unmarked grave like he deserves?

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That’s the thing is, okay, so whatever you may believe, and we are clearly people

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who believe that there is, you know, a ghost, a soul, whatever it may be afterwards

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that can haunt the crap out of you.

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If I had to be buried next to my husband, who not only killed all of us,

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and now I’m stuck next to him for eternity?

00:11:39.974 –> 00:11:42.225
Are you kidding me? Yeah.

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Like, what? Also, can you imagine the brutality of that murder?

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Like, walking into that house, he killed them with an ax.

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And in December, which we’ve kind of talked about, and I don’t remember if this

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is something that I had learned on another podcast I listened to,

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or what it may be about the story, but they had the heat turned on really high

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in the house because it was winter and it was cold.

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So I do just want to point out something very disgusting.

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Yes.

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But when the heat is on that high and you have bodies there,

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for lack of a more appropriate term, rotting in high heat, those poor babies waking up in that.

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And I do just want to play, not devil’s advocate, of course,

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because this guy is the worst, But the fact that he drugged them beforehand

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leads me to believe that like.

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This may be one of those situations in that temporary insanity bracket where

00:12:40.689 –> 00:12:45.553
he, maybe he owed people a bunch of money, maybe he had done something and he

00:12:45.553 –> 00:12:48.515
felt like these people are going to kill my family so brutally,

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I want to do it so that there’s no pain.

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There’s something there in that drugging that kind of suggests that he did not

00:12:56.321 –> 00:13:01.405
want them to know what was happening to them. Or I might be reading too much into that, but.

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And the fact that he also killed himself. Like clearly there was some type of,

00:13:05.908 –> 00:13:10.512
I mean, you would hope that there was some type of remorse in what he had just

00:13:10.512 –> 00:13:15.255
done for him to then slit his throat. Like he very much wanted to not be there anymore.

00:13:16.256 –> 00:13:23.542
So I, not to continue this depression spiral, but the story that now Deena’s

00:13:23.542 –> 00:13:26.524
gonna tell us, she’s promised to blow our minds with it.

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I am about to blow your mind.

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I’m pumped.

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Okay, we’re ready. We’re ready.

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I do not mean that literally as the story I am about to tell you does involve a gunshot.

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Many people may have heard of a very famous street called Buckout,

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or I’m sorry, very famous road called Buckout Road.

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Are either of you familiar with that?

00:13:51.242 –> 00:13:52.502
I have heard of that, yes.

00:13:52.502 –> 00:13:53.343
Yes, it’s us.

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And it’s spelt as it sounds, B-U-C-K-O-U-T, okay?

00:13:58.126 –> 00:14:03.890
But there was actually a person with the last name Buckout, except it was spelt B-U-C-K-H-O-U-T.

00:14:06.193 –> 00:14:12.257
That to me is like Paris Hilton, like buck hot. It was so hot. A buck hot.

00:14:15.139 –> 00:14:18.282
Now that I’ve ruined the seriousness, let’s bring it back to murder. Yeah.

00:14:19.683 –> 00:14:22.284
Hey, you know, we don’t laugh, we cry, right?

00:14:22.284 –> 00:14:22.885
We have to have fun, right?

00:14:22.885 –> 00:14:25.667
That’s true. And he wasn’t a great guy.

00:14:25.667 –> 00:14:29.931
So very different than the stories you guys shared where I would like to think

00:14:29.931 –> 00:14:35.982
they had a shred of humanity, decency in them at one point, and maybe something

00:14:35.982 –> 00:14:38.978
sinister turned that in their brains.

00:14:40.359 –> 00:14:44.322
Buckout, however, was not a man of a strong repute.

00:14:44.963 –> 00:14:50.066
I shall say, he was said to have been an alcoholic, not really much of a worker.

00:14:50.066 –> 00:14:52.929
I think the money came from more the wife’s side of the family.

00:14:54.640 –> 00:15:00.855
And with that bit of alcoholism, apparently he also couldn’t help but believe

00:15:00.855 –> 00:15:06.246
that his wife was cheating on him and having several indiscretions,

00:15:06.246 –> 00:15:10.402
which I’m just seeing the spiral down of this man, right?

00:15:11.683 –> 00:15:15.766
And very similarly to what we’re hearing, again, around the holidays,

00:15:15.766 –> 00:15:19.712
which we all know is a very testy kind of time, right?

00:15:19.712 –> 00:15:22.636
You know, there’s a lot of stress amongst people because it’s the holidays,

00:15:22.636 –> 00:15:26.862
spending money, being with family, all the things. So technically the story

00:15:26.862 –> 00:15:28.724
starts right around Christmas because…

00:15:31.786 –> 00:15:35.649
Isaac, I believe his first name was, Isaac Buckout, went to go play a game of cards.

00:15:36.470 –> 00:15:41.053
And he was, he did not win, which, I mean, makes no surprise to me.

00:15:41.053 –> 00:15:41.533
Loser. Right?

00:15:42.915 –> 00:15:46.617
And yes, he was, you know, so immediately he goes to the bad,

00:15:46.617 –> 00:15:49.440
like, right, I must have been cheated. I must, something must have happened

00:15:49.440 –> 00:15:51.021
because how could I lose this money, right?

00:15:51.682 –> 00:15:57.366
And he’s playing this game with some neighbors that he hasn’t isolated yet because

00:15:57.366 –> 00:15:59.688
most of the people in the area did not like him.

00:16:00.789 –> 00:16:06.512
And he’s at the house of the Rendles. And after dinner, they sit around for

00:16:06.512 –> 00:16:07.653
this game of cards, right?

00:16:08.414 –> 00:16:14.518
Well, he loses. So he decides to invite them over to his house on New Year’s Day, okay?

00:16:17.230 –> 00:16:21.703
Well, when he gets, has them there, it’s Alfred Rendle, his son,

00:16:21.703 –> 00:16:24.765
Charles, Buckout’s wife, okay?

00:16:24.765 –> 00:16:28.088
And they’re all like sitting down and he’s treating them like royalty.

00:16:28.088 –> 00:16:32.771
He’s being oh so kind and then excuses himself from the room.

00:16:33.892 –> 00:16:38.155
And when he comes back, he has a double-barreled shotgun with him.

00:16:38.856 –> 00:16:42.759
Where he. Fantastic. Yes, he immediately kills Alfred Rendell.

00:16:43.980 –> 00:16:48.743
He shoots the son Charles in the, when what winds up being his eye,

00:16:48.743 –> 00:16:54.307
that Charles actually survives and then turn it even more brutal,

00:16:54.307 –> 00:16:57.209
he crushes his wife’s skull with the butt of the gun.

00:16:57.209 –> 00:16:57.590
Jesus.

00:16:57.590 –> 00:16:59.211
What?

00:16:59.211 –> 00:16:59.691
Okay, yep.

00:16:59.691 –> 00:17:01.212
The shift.

00:17:01.212 –> 00:17:04.735
Because again, his wife could have been cheating on him.

00:17:04.735 –> 00:17:06.236
Right. No proof, just.

00:17:06.236 –> 00:17:13.822
Exactly. He is arrested. He winds up going through three separate trials though

00:17:13.822 –> 00:17:18.025
before he is actually convicted of murder and then hanged.

00:17:19.026 –> 00:17:22.408
Can you explain to me why it took three trials?

00:17:22.989 –> 00:17:23.469
That’s wild.

00:17:23.469 –> 00:17:27.371
Quick question. Is this the one that’s considered the Sleepy Hollow Massacre, Dina?

00:17:27.371 –> 00:17:33.616
Yes, yes. So this is very well known, and it is printed in the New Yorker,

00:17:33.616 –> 00:17:39.640
which has an extremely detailed article, including all the different trials.

00:17:39.640 –> 00:17:45.143
So to connect it back to your story, Amanda, and it’s the New Yorker that came

00:17:45.143 –> 00:17:47.175
out in September of 1935.

00:17:48.306 –> 00:17:55.331
So much later after the actual events, but they do a really great job to really

00:17:55.331 –> 00:17:59.894
detail the questions that we’re at. Like how could it have taken three trials?

00:18:00.235 –> 00:18:06.579
And one of the reasons was the same thing, right? He tried to plead insanity.

00:18:07.100 –> 00:18:10.682
In all three trials, there was the usual conflict of evidence.

00:18:11.403 –> 00:18:16.889
Two or three doctors and experts from asylums testified that he was sane,

00:18:16.889 –> 00:18:24.261
but still the first jury disagreed, standing eight to four for conviction.

00:18:24.261 –> 00:18:24.762
What?

00:18:24.762 –> 00:18:27.607
I also think like this makes me.

00:18:28.659 –> 00:18:37.486
like I think about the women who were put on trial as witches and how like immediately

00:18:37.486 –> 00:18:41.649
were hung or burned at the stake.

00:18:42.410 –> 00:18:49.655
No trial, one guy saying that they were a witch and that was it.

00:18:50.876 –> 00:18:56.721
And they were tried for, you know, healing people or putting spells on people

00:18:56.721 –> 00:19:00.323
or little things like that. And now we have three stories of men.

00:19:01.444 –> 00:19:03.946
Pretty horrific, pretty horrific too.

00:19:04.327 –> 00:19:06.208
Who just lose it a little bit.

00:19:06.208 –> 00:19:10.471
To bring it back to something Dayelle said, this is where I’m gonna blow your minds right now.

00:19:10.471 –> 00:19:15.475
So we hear this story, and now we have this Buckout Road in White Plains.

00:19:15.475 –> 00:19:20.599
So again, it’s not Sleepy Hollow, but the Buckout, I believe the family are

00:19:20.599 –> 00:19:22.841
buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, so there’s our connection.

00:19:22.841 –> 00:19:24.542
But Buckout Road is in White Plains.

00:19:24.542 –> 00:19:30.386
and it is considered to be one of the most haunted roads in the US.

00:19:30.386 –> 00:19:36.150
Like it’s a two mile stretch, but there are tons of stories that literally tie

00:19:36.150 –> 00:19:38.432
back to everything we’ve already talked about.

00:19:38.432 –> 00:19:45.437
There is a lady in white apparition on this road of Mary Buckout,

00:19:45.437 –> 00:19:50.060
who was the wife of Captain John Buckout, different people than we’re talking

00:19:50.060 –> 00:19:55.905
about here, but still where they lived to the age of 130 while Mary passed away 30 years prior.

00:19:55.905 –> 00:20:02.079
I can’t believe that somebody during this time period lived to the age of 130.

00:20:02.079 –> 00:20:04.771
130 in that time is 200, that’s 200 in today’s era. Jeez.

00:20:07.434 –> 00:20:09.295
She truly was a lady in white then.

00:20:09.295 –> 00:20:13.178
Yeah, yeah. But this is the even best, the chilling history.

00:20:13.178 –> 00:20:16.060
That’s because her skin was see-through. I’m just like, oh my God.

00:20:17.681 –> 00:20:20.624
There were apparently witchcraft trials in this area.

00:20:21.044 –> 00:20:27.139
So in the 1600s, there were three women who were accused of practicing witchcraft

00:20:27.139 –> 00:20:30.512
and burned at the stake near this road.

00:20:30.512 –> 00:20:35.816
So here we have a lady in white, we have three women accused of being witches,

00:20:35.816 –> 00:20:40.058
and now my all-time favorite, the curse of albino cannibals.

00:20:43.292 –> 00:20:43.773
Yeah.

00:20:43.773 –> 00:20:44.463
What?

00:20:44.463 –> 00:20:45.154
Right.

00:20:45.154 –> 00:20:45.834
Oh yeah.

00:20:45.834 –> 00:20:46.355
Okay.

00:20:46.355 –> 00:20:49.217
So apparently there was this house that they lived in.

00:20:49.217 –> 00:20:50.597
I was not ready for that sentence.

00:20:50.597 –> 00:20:50.818
No, no.

00:20:50.818 –> 00:20:53.680
I just wanted to let you know. I was not prepared for that sentence.

00:20:53.680 –> 00:20:54.460
But I am very intrigued.

00:20:54.460 –> 00:20:58.323
Okay. I’m shuffling my booty in my chair. I’m ready, go.

00:20:59.304 –> 00:21:02.846
So there was this house. It was, I think, literally called the Red House.

00:21:02.846 –> 00:21:08.190
It looks almost like a red barn that was converted into a house that these albino

00:21:08.190 –> 00:21:10.912
cannibals allegedly lived in.

00:21:11.392 –> 00:21:17.377
And it is said that if you were to park your car or even drive by and you honked

00:21:17.377 –> 00:21:21.490
your horn three times, the family would emerge and attack you,

00:21:21.490 –> 00:21:22.781
tearing you limb from limb.

00:21:24.443 –> 00:21:29.306
And personally, I think that’s just myth to get you not to honk your horn while

00:21:29.306 –> 00:21:30.167
driving on these streets.

00:21:30.968 –> 00:21:34.370
But the house was destroyed by a fire, so it does not stand anymore.

00:21:34.370 –> 00:21:38.514
But kids at these local high schools, right? White Plains, Sleepy Hollow,

00:21:38.514 –> 00:21:44.358
they apparently really like to play pranks and honk their horns and bang on the doors.

00:21:45.239 –> 00:21:54.186
And one night a teen apparently even attempted to put an M-80 in their mailbox, but- Well, that’s rude.

00:21:55.947 –> 00:22:00.090
Allegedly found a decapitated head of a child inside said mailbox.

00:22:00.090 –> 00:22:00.450
Great.

00:22:00.450 –> 00:22:01.391
I’m sorry.

00:22:01.391 –> 00:22:04.193
I mean, that’s where you put- What? That’s where you put heads,

00:22:04.193 –> 00:22:06.135
right? That’s a good spot.

00:22:06.776 –> 00:22:14.782
So I feel like the buck outs kind of started all of this legends of hauntings

00:22:14.782 –> 00:22:18.004
and things like that and it’s all tying back to this road.

00:22:18.004 –> 00:22:21.607
And I feel like it really does connect Sleepy Hollow with White Plains,

00:22:21.607 –> 00:22:24.069
which really kind of brings that Westchester County area together.

00:22:24.069 –> 00:22:25.510
Totally, agree. So spooky.

00:22:26.391 –> 00:22:27.672
In such a happy way.

00:22:27.972 –> 00:22:28.853
Yeah, great.

00:22:29.153 –> 00:22:33.536
I just didn’t think like one story could tie together our past episodes like

00:22:33.536 –> 00:22:35.437
that. I was like, you’re joking. That’s beautiful.

00:22:35.998 –> 00:22:39.940
That’s incredible. And, you know, back to what we spoke to up top,

00:22:39.940 –> 00:22:46.644
and I think we’ll speak more on this after our story time, is there is a…

00:22:47.800 –> 00:22:53.605
so many hauntings and stories of hauntings and crazy stories of people that

00:22:53.605 –> 00:22:55.867
are buried in the cemetery or lived around the area.

00:22:56.968 –> 00:23:02.212
And you can look up a much larger city or town in New York and you are not going

00:23:02.212 –> 00:23:06.215
to get a third of the creepiness that you can get when looking up Sleepy Hollow.

00:23:06.215 –> 00:23:11.559
But to tie these all together just to, again, like, we’re not just here like,

00:23:11.559 –> 00:23:13.861
oh, and hey, did you hear about this? Hey, did you hear about that?

00:23:13.861 –> 00:23:20.306
Right? How do these things keep happening? in such a gruesome fashion.

00:23:20.306 –> 00:23:21.887
It’s like a pool, something’s pulling it.

00:23:22.368 –> 00:23:25.910
And with Sleepy Hollow being such a small town,

00:23:25.910 –> 00:23:33.896
it seems hard to believe that these things would keep happening in such a small

00:23:33.896 –> 00:23:39.080
town over and over without some sort of- Transcending centuries, that’s the crazy part.

00:23:39.360 –> 00:23:42.523
This is not like this all happened in a 50-year period.

00:23:42.983 –> 00:23:47.126
We’re dating back to the 1600s and we just keep going. And we haven’t talked

00:23:47.126 –> 00:23:51.670
about more modern stories, you know, out of respect for the families.

00:23:51.670 –> 00:23:55.652
And some of them are really quite gruesome and horrific.

00:23:56.413 –> 00:24:03.018
And if you want to look up, there’s a great website that we stumbled upon. He does a great article.

00:24:03.659 –> 00:24:08.763
The website’s called Odd Things I’ve Seen. And the article was written by J.W.

00:24:08.763 –> 00:24:13.627
Auker. He writes macabre travelogues and some spooky kids’ books.

00:24:13.627 –> 00:24:18.390
But the website’s all about spooky things he finds in his travels and he kind

00:24:18.390 –> 00:24:21.773
of says like it’s palpable like you go to this place it is palpable there is

00:24:21.773 –> 00:24:25.236
an energy there and this kind of proves it.

00:24:25.236 –> 00:24:29.039
There definitely is something about it and you know as someone who frequents

00:24:29.039 –> 00:24:32.142
it every weekend as of right now I mean,

00:24:33.151 –> 00:24:36.614
I like to put a positive spin on it because I love going there.

00:24:37.235 –> 00:24:41.158
I’ve now infected Dayelle and kidnapped her.

00:24:41.158 –> 00:24:42.960
Yes.

00:24:42.960 –> 00:24:44.160
And dragged her there.

00:24:44.160 –> 00:24:45.221
And I can’t wait to go back.

00:24:46.122 –> 00:24:51.646
See, so like for people like us, it’s almost like we want to remember the dead.

00:24:51.646 –> 00:24:56.550
We want to know what really did happen, as Amanda said at the beginning,

00:24:56.550 –> 00:24:58.431
to honor these memories. So.

00:24:58.771 –> 00:24:59.712
Telling their stories.

00:24:59.712 –> 00:25:04.436
Yeah, so our facts might be off-base at certain times, because unfortunately,

00:25:04.436 –> 00:25:09.459
we’re kind of at the mercy of the internet, you know, to find and discover.

00:25:10.200 –> 00:25:13.282
God bless people like, you know, the New York Times and The New Yorker that

00:25:13.282 –> 00:25:14.402
really archive their publications.

00:25:16.805 –> 00:25:21.608
But it’s very hard to fact-check this stuff and to really dive deep.

00:25:21.608 –> 00:25:25.370
I mean, hello, something in, what’d I say, 1870, right?

00:25:26.131 –> 00:25:29.414
I mean, they didn’t have the kind of records that we have now.

00:25:29.414 –> 00:25:34.087
So it’s very hard to figure this out. And that’s why we definitely encourage

00:25:34.087 –> 00:25:37.900
people to give us that information. Let us know what you hear.

00:25:37.900 –> 00:25:41.203
And do your own research, too. Look into it.

00:25:41.203 –> 00:25:43.824
And tell us if you’ve experienced these things.

00:25:44.145 –> 00:25:46.467
And share it with us. Yeah, we want to hear these things.

00:25:46.467 –> 00:25:49.589
I want to know if somebody has traveled down Buckout Road and seen anything creepy.

00:25:49.929 –> 00:25:53.657
OK, dear listeners, we are going to take a quick break. And when we get back,

00:25:53.657 –> 00:25:56.331
our favorite part of the podcast, story time.

00:26:06.680 –> 00:26:12.404
Welcome back, residents of Folktown, are Dale and Dina, are you guys ready for our favorite part?

00:26:12.404 –> 00:26:13.385
Yes.

00:26:13.385 –> 00:26:14.246
Yes, I am.

00:26:14.246 –> 00:26:14.726
All right.

00:26:16.468 –> 00:26:20.090
So, cozy up, dear listener, because once again, it’s story time.

00:26:26.314 –> 00:26:33.559
Deep within the heart of Sleepy Hollow, an enigmatic tale wafts through the cool evening air.

00:26:34.240 –> 00:26:39.124
It is a tale of the Whitmore family, once vibrant and full of life,

00:26:39.124 –> 00:26:44.007
but who vanished on a night drenched in fog and mystery.

00:26:48.491 –> 00:26:52.794
The Whitmores were the picture of happiness. Charles, the family patriarch,

00:26:52.794 –> 00:26:58.918
his radiant wife Isabel and their two children, young Nathaniel and the ever-curious Eleanor.

00:27:00.760 –> 00:27:04.843
They resided in a stately manor, nestled close to the woods,

00:27:04.843 –> 00:27:09.406
a stone’s throw away from the town’s hauntingly beautiful cemetery.

00:27:10.487 –> 00:27:16.512
On a particular Hollow’s Eve, with the moon at its fullest, they held a grand

00:27:16.512 –> 00:27:17.953
celebration of their residence.

00:27:19.675 –> 00:27:25.819
Songs, laughter, and tales of old echoed across rooms, but as midnight approached,

00:27:25.819 –> 00:27:29.262
a mysterious fog crept upon the land.

00:27:35.407 –> 00:27:38.969
The ever-thickening mist seemed to have a life of its own.

00:27:39.710 –> 00:27:43.773
As tales of ancient spirits and legends of the hollow were traded,

00:27:43.773 –> 00:27:49.837
a chilling breeze swept through, extinguishing every flame in the Whitmore Manor.

00:27:51.779 –> 00:27:58.334
Chaos erupted. The guests, blinded by the dense fog and gripped by fear, scrambled for an exit.

00:28:04.256 –> 00:28:11.661
fog had finally lifted, a grim realization set in. The Whitmore family was nowhere to be found.

00:28:13.883 –> 00:28:18.786
Decades turned into centuries, and tales of spectral figures began to emerge.

00:28:19.767 –> 00:28:25.311
On Hallow’s Eve, under the silvery glow of the moon, shadows resembling the

00:28:25.311 –> 00:28:28.853
Whitmore family could be seen meandering through the cemetery,

00:28:28.853 –> 00:28:33.757
their laughter soft and distant carried with the wind.

00:28:35.538 –> 00:28:40.982
Curious adventurers, who dared to venture close, spoke of otherworldly encounters.

00:28:42.924 –> 00:28:48.226
Nathaniel playing with a ghostly dog. Eleanor holding a bouquet of luminous wildflowers.

00:28:49.868 –> 00:28:55.232
Charles and Isabel dancing silently to a tune only they could hear.

00:28:56.703 –> 00:29:03.477
A lingering aroma of lavender and a sensation of coldness marked their spectral presence.

00:29:04.378 –> 00:29:08.261
Hushed voices from the mist seemed to plead with the living,

00:29:08.261 –> 00:29:13.485
unveil our tale and release our souls.

00:29:15.286 –> 00:29:20.369
The Whitmoor Enigma remains. Were they ensnared by the spirits of old?

00:29:21.550 –> 00:29:24.432
Transported to another realm by forces beyond comprehension?

00:29:26.214 –> 00:29:29.336
Or does a more earthly mystery await its revelation?

00:29:30.497 –> 00:29:35.661
In the folds of Sleepy Hollow’s history, the Whitmoors are an enigmatic chapter.

00:29:36.501 –> 00:29:42.926
If you ever wander the cemetery on an eve such as theirs, tune your ears to the wind.

00:29:43.967 –> 00:29:49.451
Amongst the rustling leaves and the night’s whispers, you might catch a fragment

00:29:49.451 –> 00:29:54.354
of their timeless story, a story yearning for an end.

00:29:56.256 –> 00:30:03.467
well, dear listener, and may the tales of Sleepy Hollow not disturb your peaceful slumber.

00:30:08.986 –> 00:30:15.291
That was another great spooky story. I love it. I feel like they’re getting scarier for me.

00:30:15.291 –> 00:30:18.093
Because it’s real. And more mysterious.

00:30:19.474 –> 00:30:23.958
Do you think any of these people are haunting the cemetery today?

00:30:23.958 –> 00:30:27.500
I absolutely. Because these are horrific, horrific murders. Yes.

00:30:27.500 –> 00:30:29.142
So there’s got to be some hauntings.

00:30:29.142 –> 00:30:33.705
This movie has nothing to do with what we’re talking about, like plot wise,

00:30:33.705 –> 00:30:37.448
but the grudge, did you ever see the grudge back in the day?

00:30:37.869 –> 00:30:41.631
Yes, but that, that’s an old, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:30:42.292 –> 00:30:46.414
But there was something in that movie that always really stuck with me,

00:30:46.414 –> 00:30:49.116
right? Because it’s a Japanese legend, right?

00:30:49.717 –> 00:30:54.300
A folktale, and I love, or based on a folktale, which is kind of what we’re talking about now.

00:30:54.300 –> 00:30:59.290
And it basically is saying that if you die in a rage, right,

00:30:59.290 –> 00:31:02.906
you have all of this anger, your soul can’t rest.

00:31:02.906 –> 00:31:06.829
True. So look at the people that we’ve spoken about, the Strongs,

00:31:06.829 –> 00:31:10.772
the Buckouts, what was the, the Fords, right? That Amanda spoke about.

00:31:10.772 –> 00:31:16.215
I don’t believe for a second that they have been able to cross over.

00:31:16.215 –> 00:31:17.837
Yeah.

00:31:17.837 –> 00:31:25.141
Because what they did was so malicious. Yeah. That they have to pay one way or another, right?

00:31:25.141 –> 00:31:27.443
Well, and I think like, they have unfinished business, right?

00:31:27.724 –> 00:31:33.207
Like, especially the families that we’ve talked about, there were kids,

00:31:33.207 –> 00:31:39.933
you know, like how, how one minute you are living your life and the next it’s, you’re gone.

00:31:39.933 –> 00:31:49.040
And so I can only imagine being tied to a place because of that and wanting more and then staying.

00:31:49.981 –> 00:31:54.244
And if you think about how many residents are in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery

00:31:54.244 –> 00:31:58.678
on top of the old Dutch church burying ground, which has been there since 1695.

00:32:01.492 –> 00:32:03.052
I mean, that’s a lot of people.

00:32:03.052 –> 00:32:08.418
That is a lot of people. And like probably even more than we know or have records

00:32:08.418 –> 00:32:11.281
for. I think that’s another thing is we don’t necessarily have.

00:32:12.767 –> 00:32:15.629
all the records of who’s even buried there.

00:32:16.030 –> 00:32:18.291
Right, because there are unmarked graves.

00:32:18.291 –> 00:32:21.333
Yeah, which is even more interesting.

00:32:21.333 –> 00:32:28.358
And a lot of woods in the Rockefeller Preserve that could lead to more.

00:32:28.738 –> 00:32:32.360
Okay, Dale, don’t you have a really creepy, weird story?

00:32:32.761 –> 00:32:37.704
Yeah, I do. So basically, this is a special from the New York Times,

00:32:37.704 –> 00:32:43.968
and it goes as this woman, who is a Slavic woman, She delivers milk.

00:32:43.968 –> 00:32:50.653
She is driving down a road and she comes across a body. A body that has been stabbed.

00:32:51.013 –> 00:32:55.256
She also notices that the knife is laying right next to the body.

00:32:56.758 –> 00:33:00.119
She obviously continues on her way. She goes into the town.

00:33:01.100 –> 00:33:06.204
She finds a butcher that she knows, tells the butcher that she found this body.

00:33:06.204 –> 00:33:10.206
The butcher then goes to the police and tells the police.

00:33:10.206 –> 00:33:15.969
The police then go back to the woman and try to convince her to take them to

00:33:15.969 –> 00:33:17.390
where she found this body.

00:33:17.390 –> 00:33:23.332
Where was the body? So the body was at a farm, the front of a farm,

00:33:23.332 –> 00:33:27.514
or the entrance of a farm, duck farm, on John D.

00:33:27.514 –> 00:33:33.977
Rockefeller’s estate. So they go back to where said body is supposed to be,

00:33:33.977 –> 00:33:35.438
however the body’s not there.

00:33:36.251 –> 00:33:37.272
Of course it’s not.

00:33:37.272 –> 00:33:43.137
Oh, right. It’s not there. So she obviously is like, well, the body was there.

00:33:43.137 –> 00:33:48.341
And also he was very well dressed and had a brand new pair of shoes on. So where is this body?

00:33:48.341 –> 00:33:49.422
That’s an important fact.

00:33:49.422 –> 00:33:56.968
Where is his body? And the police believe that the body had been taken and thrown

00:33:56.968 –> 00:34:01.391
into the fields somewhere on the Rockefeller’s estate, never to be found again.

00:34:01.391 –> 00:34:07.736
There’s no stories, there’s no case, file, nothing. Like literally there’s nothing

00:34:07.736 –> 00:34:09.617
out there. Except for this article.

00:34:11.420 –> 00:34:15.462
What happens to her? She just goes back to delivering milk.

00:34:16.273 –> 00:34:21.227
Except an even weirder twist to this story is one day she’s on the same road

00:34:21.227 –> 00:34:28.052
again and a random guy jumps out at her and tries to attack her but she fights

00:34:28.052 –> 00:34:32.436
back and gets away And then from that day forward,

00:34:32.436 –> 00:34:35.838
she carries a revolver. And that’s the end of the story.

00:34:35.838 –> 00:34:37.680
My girl, my girl.

00:34:37.680 –> 00:34:42.643
You know what I’m picturing? Because you said he was well-dressed and new shoes.

00:34:42.643 –> 00:34:46.926
First off, I don’t understand how this woman could have figured out these shoes were new.

00:34:46.926 –> 00:34:47.987
Picked up on that.

00:34:47.987 –> 00:34:52.671
Okay, but I mean, it’s the Rockefeller estate. So what if it was someone that

00:34:52.671 –> 00:34:57.194
was like stumbling out of this area, like a friend? I guess it wouldn’t be a

00:34:57.194 –> 00:35:01.618
friend because then they would have reported him missing. There would have been some sort of…

00:35:02.499 –> 00:35:06.522
Wait, hold on. I’m making up a story. Yeah. I’m making up a story,

00:35:06.522 –> 00:35:09.644
guys. Yeah, that’s what I’m trying to do. He’s at a party at the Rockefeller

00:35:09.644 –> 00:35:11.606
Estate, right? That’s what I’m picturing. Shit’s getting wild.

00:35:12.457 –> 00:35:16.550
Maybe some illegal drugs are going around. Something’s getting a little crazy, you know?

00:35:16.550 –> 00:35:18.011
The hooch is flowing.

00:35:18.071 –> 00:35:23.941
It’s flowing. And he trips and falls and hits his head and dies.

00:35:23.941 –> 00:35:28.228
And they’re like, yeah, we can’t have this here. Like, we’re big people.

00:35:28.228 –> 00:35:29.108
We’re the Rockefellers. So.

00:35:31.629 –> 00:35:35.212
we think he’s dead, we’re just gonna go dump his body because we can’t be having

00:35:35.212 –> 00:35:38.114
people dying at this party that’s illegal with all these illegal things.

00:35:38.434 –> 00:35:41.437
And so they go to dump his body, but then the motherfucker wakes up.

00:35:41.437 –> 00:35:43.999
And they’re like, ah! And they kill him.

00:35:45.140 –> 00:35:46.681
But they just had a knife on them?

00:35:47.582 –> 00:35:50.263
Sure, it’s the 1900s, maybe too.

00:35:50.263 –> 00:35:54.767
To bring it back to that point, how do you leave the murder weapon?

00:35:55.568 –> 00:35:56.748
Yeah, that’s real dumb.

00:35:56.748 –> 00:35:57.689
You left in a hurry.

00:35:58.370 –> 00:35:59.251
Somebody messed up.

00:35:59.751 –> 00:36:03.614
But then when the police show up, the body is gone, the murder weapon is gone,

00:36:03.614 –> 00:36:07.457
it’s almost like, did it say something like maybe there’s like blood or something?

00:36:07.457 –> 00:36:12.001
Yeah, there was obvious signs of blood. So like there was a body there.

00:36:12.001 –> 00:36:14.603
Okay, so they know she wasn’t crazy.

00:36:14.603 –> 00:36:21.648
But then also here’s another like twist maybe is who was the guy that attacked her?

00:36:21.648 –> 00:36:24.631
What? I don’t mean to laugh.

00:36:24.631 –> 00:36:25.831
Was he involved?

00:36:26.172 –> 00:36:27.733
This woman’s a magnet for this.

00:36:27.733 –> 00:36:33.237
And didn’t want her to say anything. Because she’s the only witness to the body.

00:36:33.237 –> 00:36:36.399
She’s the one that found the body. She was the only one that saw the body.

00:36:36.399 –> 00:36:40.702
The police officers saw the blood, but they did not see the body.

00:36:41.023 –> 00:36:45.986
Maybe he was somebody of power, and that’s why there was no follow-up articles

00:36:45.986 –> 00:36:48.208
and things like that. And they tried to take her out.

00:36:49.090 –> 00:36:50.992
Thank you for coming to this episode of Dateline.

00:36:53.417 –> 00:36:53.958
1900s edition.

00:36:54.659 –> 00:36:58.826
I am so glad she got away and you know, but still you know talking about the

00:36:58.826 –> 00:37:00.749
hauntings. I mean just yet another body.

00:37:02.346 –> 00:37:03.927
That’s never been explained.

00:37:04.688 –> 00:37:10.973
Another one that, this one’s actually kind of awful, but there’s the Armour

00:37:10.973 –> 00:37:13.335
Steiner’s house of Oedipus.

00:37:13.415 –> 00:37:14.616
Oh, I’ve been there.

00:37:15.477 –> 00:37:20.360
Okay, have you heard about this? There’s a ghost that exudes an exquisite and

00:37:20.360 –> 00:37:25.204
unidentifiable fragrance according to a passage in a book written by a poet

00:37:25.204 –> 00:37:26.705
and historian, Carl Carmer.

00:37:26.986 –> 00:37:31.909
The ghost’s identity is unknown, but they think it might be Aliko Lilius,

00:37:31.909 –> 00:37:38.354
a Finnish writer, or the woman who he lived with, who was a 20th century lady

00:37:38.354 –> 00:37:41.516
pirate who made a fortune plundering the vessels of the China seas.

00:37:41.516 –> 00:37:46.600
Get it, girl. What? The theories have also arisen that the ghost is Paul J.

00:37:46.600 –> 00:37:50.042
Armour, the New York banker who built the house in 1860, or Joseph Steiner.

00:37:50.763 –> 00:37:53.785
I think they’re just really throwing anything at the wall to see where it sticks.

00:37:54.146 –> 00:38:00.510
But the whole thing is the ghost has this very intense fragrance that people

00:38:00.510 –> 00:38:04.774
don’t really see anything or hear anything, but they are smelling the scent

00:38:04.774 –> 00:38:07.115
for what? This was 1860s, so…

00:38:07.896 –> 00:38:11.839
I did hear that on the tour that I had went on.

00:38:12.199 –> 00:38:17.403
First off, that house is pretty incredible to go look at because it’s the octagon

00:38:17.403 –> 00:38:20.265
house. It’s in the shape of an octagon, first off.

00:38:22.007 –> 00:38:24.869
That’s wild. It is. You can’t go like all the way to the top,

00:38:24.869 –> 00:38:30.953
but you can go very, very high. And they also have a white lady that haunts that area.

00:38:30.953 –> 00:38:31.833
Bum, bum, bum.

00:38:31.833 –> 00:38:33.535
Yeah.

00:38:33.535 –> 00:38:38.038
Dina, can you tell us about the bronze lady of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery?

00:38:38.038 –> 00:38:42.842
Oh, I sure can. Because, you know, bringing up everything that is Sleepy Hollow

00:38:42.842 –> 00:38:45.364
really ties back to the cemetery.

00:38:45.364 –> 00:38:50.487
But it’s strange though, because we’re talking about so many things that,

00:38:50.487 –> 00:38:56.712
and probably leaving so many things out from the 1600s, the 1700s, 1800s.

00:38:57.272 –> 00:39:01.165
The Sleepy Hollow Cemetery wasn’t even built until 1849.

00:39:01.165 –> 00:39:06.839
But like many of these things predate the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery actually for me.

00:39:06.839 –> 00:39:12.463
Right? Now the Strongs, the Rendles, they are in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery,

00:39:12.463 –> 00:39:17.246
but no one said that that’s when the hauntings began. Right?

00:39:18.207 –> 00:39:25.210
You know, with Washington Irving having written the legend of Sleepy Hollow in 1819, right?

00:39:26.892 –> 00:39:32.274
There’s still all of these Irish lore and German lore and of course the Native

00:39:32.274 –> 00:39:37.838
Americans that were there first that had their own stories and legends, right?

00:39:37.838 –> 00:39:38.478
Oh, totally.

00:39:38.478 –> 00:39:42.880
So now we have the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery that forms and then we have,

00:39:44.084 –> 00:39:49.468
these elaborate mausoleums being built, right, in the northern part of the cemetery.

00:39:49.468 –> 00:39:52.631
In the northern part of the cemetery we have the Rockefellers,

00:39:52.631 –> 00:39:55.473
then across the way is the Archibalds,

00:39:55.473 –> 00:40:02.628
and then kind of next to them, semi behind them, is the mausoleum for the Civil

00:40:02.628 –> 00:40:04.670
War General Samuel Thomas.

00:40:04.670 –> 00:40:11.365
Now his mausoleum is very plain, I’d say for the most part, not to knock You

00:40:11.365 –> 00:40:14.347
know, like, everything doesn’t have to always be elaborate. It’s not like you’re

00:40:14.347 –> 00:40:19.610
gonna look at it. But he decided, actually, his wife decided to have this statue commissioned.

00:40:21.932 –> 00:40:25.955
And she is now known as the Bronze Lady. And she’s kind of gotten,

00:40:25.955 –> 00:40:29.558
she’s, we saw, referred to as another legend…

00:40:29.558 –> 00:40:30.318
Yes. …of.

00:40:30.318 –> 00:40:36.947
Sleepy Hollow because of all of these things. So, when General Thomas’ wife

00:40:36.947 –> 00:40:41.987
commissioned the, uh, the sculptor Andrew O’Connor Jr.

00:40:41.987 –> 00:40:47.531
to create this. It kind of has a funny story that still could kind of tie into

00:40:47.531 –> 00:40:53.356
this whole unhappiness feeling as to why curses or hauntings happen.

00:40:55.118 –> 00:40:58.840
Because she had it, I’m sorry, I can’t help but laugh because it’s kind of ridiculous.

00:40:58.840 –> 00:41:03.664
But she had it built almost to kind of like look over his mausoleum, right?

00:41:03.744 –> 00:41:04.405
Watch him.

00:41:04.925 –> 00:41:08.047
Yeah, but I think also to mourn for him, right?

00:41:08.428 –> 00:41:16.434
So O’Connor makes this beautiful statue and gives it even a name that is,

00:41:16.434 –> 00:41:21.197
in my opinion, possibly French, I can’t pronounce it because I will probably

00:41:21.197 –> 00:41:24.240
ruin it, but it means grief. And so she seems sad.

00:41:24.860 –> 00:41:29.123
Well, the wife didn’t like that. She wanted her to be happier.

00:41:30.024 –> 00:41:35.348
And I kid you not, the story goes that Andrew O’Connor decided to make a new

00:41:35.348 –> 00:41:43.575
head that was more appealing to the wife and she liked it.

00:41:43.575 –> 00:41:49.059
And then he smashed it on the ground and was like, no, that will never be on the statue.

00:41:49.900 –> 00:41:50.600
That’s wild.

00:41:53.643 –> 00:41:57.186
So, I mean, I’m with him. I think it’s supposed to show grief.

00:41:57.186 –> 00:42:02.069
Many angels are usually crying or sad, melancholy, right?

00:42:03.191 –> 00:42:08.414
So the statues across the way, back in the 60s and 70s before obviously the

00:42:08.414 –> 00:42:13.318
cemetery got locked, because of all of this, right? People got to ruin it for everybody.

00:42:13.619 –> 00:42:17.021
The cemetery was actually a big kind of a party spot.

00:42:17.021 –> 00:42:17.742
Hangout.

00:42:17.742 –> 00:42:18.943
Yeah, it was a hangout.

00:42:19.343 –> 00:42:22.984
I totally would have done that. I just want to point that out.

00:42:22.898 –> 00:42:26.180
I totally would have hung out in the cemetery. I don’t know.

00:42:26.721 –> 00:42:27.501
I’ve done it.

00:42:27.501 –> 00:42:28.482
Are there streetlights?

00:42:28.482 –> 00:42:31.485
No.

00:42:31.485 –> 00:42:33.356
Yeah, we’ve talked about that kind of dark.

00:42:33.706 –> 00:42:36.068
Super dark and creepy. The best.

00:42:36.788 –> 00:42:42.793
So I feel like, Dale, you had found some of the stories from real people who

00:42:42.793 –> 00:42:45.585
had messed with this statue.

00:42:45.585 –> 00:42:51.920
Yes, the bronze lady and the creepy ghost stories that kind of go along with the bronze lady.

00:42:51.920 –> 00:42:55.682
A lot of them are like little kids and then different generations of those kids

00:42:55.682 –> 00:42:58.664
coming back to the cemetery and doing the same thing,

00:42:58.664 –> 00:43:05.149
but it goes that there was, if you go into the cemetery, if you wander into

00:43:05.149 –> 00:43:11.073
the cemetery at night and you creep amongst the tombstones and the mausoleums,

00:43:11.073 –> 00:43:12.594
you’ll find the bronze lady, obviously.

00:43:13.054 –> 00:43:20.619
What is said is if you climb onto the bronze lady’s lap and you slap her face.

00:43:21.020 –> 00:43:22.260
Why? I hate that.

00:43:23.701 –> 00:43:31.065
I don’t know why. Every story that I could find is either someone hitting her

00:43:31.065 –> 00:43:33.147
in the face or slapping her in the face.

00:43:33.467 –> 00:43:41.051
And then after doing that, you go over and you look into the mausoleum door people’s door.

00:43:41.051 –> 00:43:44.733
Yeah, uh-huh.

00:43:44.733 –> 00:43:54.499
If you see somebody, it is said to be the bronze lady and you’ll be cursed with bad luck.

00:43:55.120 –> 00:44:01.935
And what’s crazy about that is there was a woman who actually experienced going

00:44:01.935 –> 00:44:03.306
and sitting on the bronze lady.

00:44:03.306 –> 00:44:12.013
She not only slapped the bronze lady’s face, but She also kicked the bronze lady’s shins.

00:44:13.394 –> 00:44:15.836
She deserves everything bad that’s about to happen to her.

00:44:15.996 –> 00:44:20.029
Then went over and continued on and did the whole looking through.

00:44:20.029 –> 00:44:27.825
She believed that it was just a stupid little kid’s tale, didn’t think anything of it.

00:44:29.627 –> 00:44:37.893
However, two or three days later, there was a crazy storm and her car was hit

00:44:37.893 –> 00:44:41.496
was hit and crushed by a tree limb falling on it.

00:44:41.496 –> 00:44:44.928
And so she, from that moment, was like, mm-mm.

00:44:46.497 –> 00:44:47.197
That is…

00:44:47.197 –> 00:44:52.501
Just because it wasn’t the same day or like the moment she left the cemetery, I think coincidental.

00:44:52.501 –> 00:44:56.665
But I also found it interesting that in her story, she was very much like,

00:44:56.665 –> 00:45:03.730
she didn’t, she automatically was like, oh no, that was because I did that. Like, that is from that.

00:45:03.730 –> 00:45:09.194
Bad luck is bad luck. I’ll add to that and say that I had read that if you knock

00:45:09.194 –> 00:45:10.595
on the door, like you had said.

00:45:10.595 –> 00:45:12.457
Yes, like three times.

00:45:12.457 –> 00:45:16.660
Right, like it’s either once or three times. And that three number,

00:45:16.660 –> 00:45:21.083
I feel like very much comes up when we’re talking about like the devil,

00:45:21.083 –> 00:45:21.924
things like that, right?

00:45:21.924 –> 00:45:23.445
Like three AM, blah, blah, blah, right?

00:45:23.905 –> 00:45:29.469
And that you’ll have bad dreams that night. And I find that funny because I

00:45:29.469 –> 00:45:32.211
can have bad dreams no matter what, but that comes with stress,

00:45:32.211 –> 00:45:32.592
right? I don’t need help.

00:45:32.592 –> 00:45:33.432
Yeah, I don’t need help.

00:45:33.432 –> 00:45:38.816
I don’t need help, yeah, exactly. But the idea of like hearing the bronze lady

00:45:38.816 –> 00:45:43.580
crying or that she’d cry tears of blood,

00:45:43.580 –> 00:45:49.484
I want to relate that back again to the wife, Anne Thomas.

00:45:49.945 –> 00:45:55.909
So she had passed away in 1944 and joined her husband in the mausoleum.

00:45:55.909 –> 00:45:58.851
She was a hundred years old when she passed, okay?

00:45:59.772 –> 00:46:00.873
Basically 700, yeah, got it.

00:46:01.474 –> 00:46:06.777
People said that it was because she insulted the bronze lady,

00:46:06.777 –> 00:46:09.519
originally saying that she should have been like happier, right?

00:46:09.519 –> 00:46:16.164
That that is why this spookiness started and then when she was entombed,

00:46:16.164 –> 00:46:23.149
now that she’s kind of facing the bronze lady, it was like adding insult to injury almost.

00:46:23.149 –> 00:46:28.893
I mean, I just, I thought, I thought that was like insane to hear that.

00:46:28.893 –> 00:46:33.356
Yeah, and you know, I will say that this is the thing.

00:46:33.717 –> 00:46:39.643
So this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to these types of stories,

00:46:39.643 –> 00:46:44.449
when it comes to Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown, That whole area, literally the tip of the iceberg.

00:46:45.392 –> 00:46:50.056
When we tell you we could not pick just a couple stories, I highly recommend

00:46:50.056 –> 00:46:53.639
you do your own research because we’ll keep saying it again and again,

00:46:53.639 –> 00:46:57.962
go visit the town, go check out the cemetery, go check out the octagon house,

00:46:57.962 –> 00:46:59.103
go check out the old Dutch church.

00:46:59.804 –> 00:47:02.826
These places, we can’t describe to you how it feels to be there,

00:47:02.826 –> 00:47:05.929
but if you go, especially if you go on this recommendation you’ve never been,

00:47:05.929 –> 00:47:09.812
please, please tell us because I want to hear all of your stories.

00:47:09.812 –> 00:47:11.613
Yeah, we want to know. Yeah, absolutely.

00:47:11.613 –> 00:47:12.754
We’re just scratching at the surface.

00:47:14.095 –> 00:47:16.597
Barely, barely scratching at the surface this one.

00:47:16.597 –> 00:47:17.357
It’s a tickle.

00:47:17.357 –> 00:47:20.099
I think the Bronze Lady is a beautiful spot to end this episode.

00:47:20.099 –> 00:47:22.941
It’s also a beautiful spot to see, like the view is phenomenal.

00:47:22.941 –> 00:47:27.444
It’s so beautiful. It’s a beautiful view, and honestly the statue’s quite impressive.

00:47:27.444 –> 00:47:30.306
It’s gorgeous. The fact that it’s, yeah, it’s really beautiful.

00:47:30.306 –> 00:47:32.327
We’ll post some pictures of it on our socials.

00:47:32.748 –> 00:47:38.051
So do you just want to say head over to Folktown Podcast on Instagram,

00:47:38.051 –> 00:47:43.675
Facebook, follow us, share your creepy stories with us. Like I said, we want to hear them.

00:47:44.276 –> 00:47:48.799
And head over to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Amazon, wherever you listen

00:47:48.799 –> 00:47:52.522
to your podcasts, and give us a follow, rate us, review us, we love it.

00:47:52.522 –> 00:47:57.405
We want to hear your feedback, and we’re really excited for next week.

00:47:57.405 –> 00:48:01.848
It’s a little bit of a sad episode because it is the final episode of Folktown

00:48:01.848 –> 00:48:06.962
Chapter One, Sleepy Hollow, but we are bringing the heat next week.

00:48:07.052 –> 00:48:13.006
It is all about Washington Irving, and of course, the legend of the Headless Horseman.

00:48:13.497 –> 00:48:19.541
The reason we all even started here. Looking into this little sleepy town.

00:48:20.182 –> 00:48:26.426
Okay, residents of Folktown, we will see you next week with the legend of Sleepy Hollow.

00:48:27.067 –> 00:48:27.687
Stay safe.

00:48:27.687 –> 00:48:28.188
Bye.

00:48:28.188 –> 00:48:28.488
Bye.