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This-demon-still-lives-among-us · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: This video is brought to you by Hello Fresh. Sometimes
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Speaker 1: the truth is stranger than fiction, and today we're going
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Speaker 1: to look at three stories that demonstrate that. But before
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Speaker 1: we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of
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Speaker 1: the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then
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Speaker 1: any of our weekly uploads. All right, let's get into
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Speaker 1: today's stories. In nineteen fifty seven, thirty one year old
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Speaker 1: Larry Vader was living with his wife, Mary Lou and
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Speaker 1: their three kids in Akron, Ohio. Larry was a good
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Speaker 1: father and good husband, but he was a terrible businessman.
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Speaker 1: Over the past several years, he had launched several new
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Speaker 1: business ventures and they had all failed, throwing the family
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Speaker 1: into fairly significant debt. And so, even though Larry desperately
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Speaker 1: wanted to be an entrepreneur and eventually start a quality business.
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Speaker 1: They didn't have the money to do that, and so
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Speaker 1: he had to just take some job in order to
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Speaker 1: pay the bills. And so the job he got was
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Speaker 1: a cookware salesman for a local company, and it did
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Speaker 1: pay the bills, but it did not make Larry happy.
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Speaker 1: And so on the weekends when Larry was not working,
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Speaker 1: and if it was okay with his wife, he would
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Speaker 1: basically just disappear and go fishing on Lake Erie, which
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Speaker 1: is about an hour north of where they lived. And
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Speaker 1: that was his way of kind of disconnecting from reality
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Speaker 1: and kind of disconnecting from his somewhat crappy life. And
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Speaker 1: so on Friday, March fifteenth, Larry approached his wife and said, hey,
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Speaker 1: you know, I'd like to head up to Lake Erie
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Speaker 1: and go fishing for the weekend. And she would tell him,
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Speaker 1: you know, I got the kids. It's fine, you can
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Speaker 1: go do that. But I heard the weather was going
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Speaker 1: to be really bad. Are you sure that's such a
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Speaker 1: good idea, And Larry would tell her, you know what,
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Speaker 1: don't worry about it. These storms they always hype them up.
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Speaker 1: They're never a big deal. I'll be fine, And so
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Speaker 1: he kissed his wife, he kissed his kids, he grabbed
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Speaker 1: his stuff, he hopped in his truck, and he left
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Speaker 1: and headed up to Lake Erie. That night, Lake Erie
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Speaker 1: was hit with a massive thunderstorm, way bigger than the
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Speaker 1: one that the news was predicting. And then the following morning,
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Speaker 1: the Coastguard discovered Larry's boat floating around on Lake Erie.
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Speaker 1: There was minor damage to it, and it was missing
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Speaker 1: an ore, and it was missing Larry. Larry was nowhere
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Speaker 1: to be found, and so a search was launched for Larry,
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Speaker 1: but he was never found and he was eventually declared dead.
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Speaker 1: And so even though the family did not have Larry's body,
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Speaker 1: they would hold a funeral for him, and his wife
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Speaker 1: was able to actually cash his life insurance policy, which
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Speaker 1: was enough to pay for her and the kids. Eight
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Speaker 1: years later, in nineteen sixty five, Larry Bader's niece, a
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Speaker 1: twenty one year old woman named Suzanne Peka, was in
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Speaker 1: Chicago at a sporting goods show with a friend of
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Speaker 1: hers and as they're walking through the different exhibits looking
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Speaker 1: at different sporting goods equipment, they noticed over on the
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Speaker 1: side of the building there was a fairly large group
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Speaker 1: of people gathered around this one particular exhibit, and so
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Speaker 1: she and her friend she was with walked over to
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Speaker 1: the group and they kind of pushed their way through,
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Speaker 1: and in the middle of this group was this man
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Speaker 1: with an eye patch and a big mustache doing an
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Speaker 1: archery demonstration. Basically, he was shooting arrows into a target
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Speaker 1: about thirty feet away, and so Suzanne and her friend
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Speaker 1: just kind of watched this guy for a couple of minutes,
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Speaker 1: and very quickly they could see why he was attracting
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Speaker 1: this big crowd because he was just an incredible archer.
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Speaker 1: He was hitting the bullseye over and over and over again.
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Speaker 1: But as they continued to watch the sky, Suzanne's friend
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Speaker 1: started to notice something unique about him, and he eventually
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Speaker 1: turned to Suzanne and said, Hey, doesn't this guy look
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Speaker 1: exactly like your uncle who went missing on Lake Erie?
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Speaker 1: And Suzanne was kind of surprised to hear him talking
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Speaker 1: about her missing uncle, but she turned and looked at
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Speaker 1: this guy, and all of a sudden she saw it too.
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Speaker 1: He was a spitting image of Larry Bader, her uncle.
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Speaker 1: Although this guy had an eyepatch and a mustache, but
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Speaker 1: even with that, he looked exactly like Larry, and as
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Speaker 1: Suzanne is watching him, she's thinking, you know, Larry was
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Speaker 1: known for being this incredible archer, and here this guy
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Speaker 1: is who looks just like him, and he's an incredible archer.
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Speaker 1: And so after this demonstration was over, Suzanne and the
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Speaker 1: friend ran over to this guy with the eyepatch on,
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Speaker 1: and Suzanne says to him, hey, I know this sounds
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Speaker 1: totally crazy, but you look exactly like my uncle Larry Bater,
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Speaker 1: who went missing on Lake Erie eight years ago. And
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Speaker 1: so the guy he hears her, and he kind of
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Speaker 1: smiles and says, you know, I'm sorry, I don't know
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Speaker 1: Larry Bater. My name is John Johnson. People call me Fritz.
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Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I don't know who your uncle is. I
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Speaker 1: can't help you. But Suzanne, as she stood there staring
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Speaker 1: at this guy, she was becoming more and more convinced
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Speaker 1: this was Larry Bater, despite the fact this guy is
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Speaker 1: saying he is not Larry Batter, and so she says
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Speaker 1: to him, no, you are Larry Bater. I'm positive you're
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Speaker 1: my uncle. Now at this Fritz would be polite but firm,
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Speaker 1: and he would reiterate that, look, your uncle, I don't
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Speaker 1: know who Larry Beater is I don't go to Lake Erie.
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Speaker 1: I just don't understand why you think i'm him. I
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Speaker 1: live in Omaha, Nebraska with my wife and my kids,
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Speaker 1: and I'm on TV. I do sports journalism in Omaha,
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Speaker 1: and i advise archery companies and that's why i'm here.
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Speaker 1: So I don't know why you think i'm your uncle,
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Speaker 1: but I'm not. I'm sorry. And with that, Fritz turned
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Speaker 1: around and he walked away. And after this discussion, Suzanne
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Speaker 1: and her friend were not remotely deterred from what Fritz
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Speaker 1: was saying. They were completely convinced this was Larry bad
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Speaker 1: and so they ran to a phone and Suzanne called
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Speaker 1: her two other uncles, so Larry Bater's brothers, and she
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Speaker 1: explained how she met this guy that is the spitting
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Speaker 1: image of their brother. And they immediately hopped in a
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Speaker 1: flight that night and flew to Chicago. And the following morning,
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Speaker 1: the two uncles, along with Suzanne and her friend, they
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Speaker 1: went back to the Sporting Goods show. They went over
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Speaker 1: to the archery exhibit and sure enough, there was Fritz
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Speaker 1: doing his archery demonstration, and as soon as there was
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Speaker 1: a break, Suzanne, her friend and now the two uncles,
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Speaker 1: So Larry Bater's brothers they walk over, and the two uncles,
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Speaker 1: as soon as they see this guy, despite the eye patch,
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Speaker 1: despite the mustache, they too would say, this is our brother.
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Speaker 1: And so they approached him and they said, look, I
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Speaker 1: know you're saying you are not our brother. I don't
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Speaker 1: know what's going on here, but you look exactly like
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Speaker 1: our brother, and we have his military paperwork right here
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Speaker 1: with fingerprints. Will you please just humor us and go
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Speaker 1: to the police station with us and get fingerprinted. That
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Speaker 1: way you can prove you really are not our brother. Please,
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Speaker 1: We've been looking for our brother for a long time.
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Speaker 1: This would be a huge favor to us. And so
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Speaker 1: Fritz was annoyed. He didn't want to do it, but
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Speaker 1: he's like, okay, fine, I'll go to the police station
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Speaker 1: with you. I'll get my fingerprints taken and we can
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Speaker 1: put this behind us. And so that day they left
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Speaker 1: the Sporting Good Show, they went to a police station
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Speaker 1: and Fritz had his fingerprints taken and afterwards the police
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Speaker 1: would tell him you are Larry Batter. When Fritz heard this,
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Speaker 1: he could not believe it. I mean he literally did
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Speaker 1: not believe he was Larry Batter. It wasn't like this
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Speaker 1: revelation prompted new memories and suddenly he recalled it all.
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Speaker 1: It was really the opposite. Fritz immediately is trying to
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Speaker 1: rack his brain to figure out, like, is my whole
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Speaker 1: life a lie? But there was nothing. All he had
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Speaker 1: was a contiguous stretch of memories from when he was
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Speaker 1: a very young child as Fritz Johnson all the way
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Speaker 1: to the present. But we now know that the bulk
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Speaker 1: of his memories are all not real. He was never
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Speaker 1: a child as Fritz Johnson. He was Larry Batter and
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Speaker 1: then became Fritz Johnson only eight years earlier. The timeline
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Speaker 1: of what happened to Larry Batter is rough at best,
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Speaker 1: but as far as we understand it, Fritz Johnson showed
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Speaker 1: up in Omaha, Nebraska, a couple of days or a
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Speaker 1: couple of months after Larry Batter went missing on Lake Erie.
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Speaker 1: And when Fritz showed up in Omaha, he just walked
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Speaker 1: into a restaurant and asked for a job there, and
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Speaker 1: he had provided a documentation that showed he was in
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Speaker 1: fact Fritz Johnson, and nobody thought anything of it. He
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Speaker 1: was completely normal, There was nothing unusual about his behavior,
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Speaker 1: and over time, Fritz just kind of thread himself into
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Speaker 1: the Omaha community. I mean, he got married, he had
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Speaker 1: a child, he adopted another child, he left his job
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Speaker 1: as a bartender at a restaurant, and eventually got this
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Speaker 1: amazing job as a sports TV broadcaster for their local channel.
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Speaker 1: I mean, he was like a minor celebrity in Omaha.
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Speaker 1: Everybody recognized, Oh, there's Fritz Johnson. He's on Tvay, Fritz,
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Speaker 1: how you doing. I mean, he had a full blown life.
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Speaker 1: But as soon as the news broke that he was
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Speaker 1: not Fritz Johnson he was Larry Batter. Right away, the
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Speaker 1: TV station he worked for fired him. His second wife
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Speaker 1: left him because in reality, he actually was still legally
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Speaker 1: married to his first wife, and so his marriage to
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Speaker 1: his second wife was never actually real to begin with,
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Speaker 1: and so she leaves him. And then also because Larry
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Speaker 1: Batter was no longer dead, the insurance company that had
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Speaker 1: paid out all that money to his first wife as
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Speaker 1: part of his life insurance policy, they demanded that he
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Speaker 1: repay them. And throughout all this drama of Fritz finding
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Speaker 1: out he's Larry Batter, Fritz continued to say he was
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Speaker 1: not Larry Batter, that this was all a big mistake.
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Speaker 1: He just could not understand how this could have happened.
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Speaker 1: None of it made sense, and so eventually a team
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Speaker 1: of experts, doctor's, psychologists, you name it. They came out
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Speaker 1: to Omaha and they ran Fritz aka Larry Batter through
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Speaker 1: a battery of tests over almost two weeks, and at
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Speaker 1: the end of all their testing they concluded that one
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Speaker 1: Fritz definitely is Larry Batter, so there's no debate there.
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Speaker 1: He is Larry Batter, and two he is almost certainly
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Speaker 1: suffering from an extreme case of amnesia, which is memory loss.
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Speaker 1: But the doctors and experts had no idea how he
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Speaker 1: developed this case of amnesia, and of course Fritz, he
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Speaker 1: too had no idea how he did developed this case
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Speaker 1: of amnesia. And it's unlikely we'll ever get any more
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Speaker 1: clarity on exactly what happened to Larry Baier slash Fritz,
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Speaker 1: because unfortunately, just one year after it was discovered Fritz
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Speaker 1: was Larry Bader, Fritz would die. He had cancer in
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Speaker 1: one of his eyes and that was actually why he
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Speaker 1: wore that eyepatch, and the cancer had come back and
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Speaker 1: it took his life. Today, his case is considered to
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Speaker 1: be one of the most believable and baffling cases of
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Speaker 1: amnesia on record. Before we get into our next story,
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Speaker 1: and three surprise gifts. Okay, back to the stories. Just
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Speaker 1: outside of the popular tourist town of AMaGA in northern
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Speaker 1: Colombia lies this thick green jungle, And if you know
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Speaker 1: where to look, there is actually a walking path that
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Speaker 1: leads you from AMaGA deep into this jungle, and if
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Speaker 1: you keep going, it will bring you all the way
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Speaker 1: to this terrifying, enormous old railroad bridge that spans this
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Speaker 1: huge ravine. Now, this bridge is no longer used by trains.
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Speaker 1: It's been decommissioned. However, since it's decommissioning, there's actually been
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Speaker 1: ironically more traffic on this bridge, although it is the
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Speaker 1: foot traffic variety. People come out to this bridge to
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Speaker 1: go bungee jumping. Bungee jumping is a thrill seeking activity
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Speaker 1: where people will leap off of high places like this bridge,
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Speaker 1: and they'll jump with an elastic rope tied to their ankles.
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Speaker 1: And so this rope has been very carefully measured so
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Speaker 1: that when it is fully stretched all the way out,
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Speaker 1: it ensures whoever has jumped will still not impact the ground.
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Speaker 1: Back in early July of twenty twenty one, a twenty
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Speaker 1: five year old Columbian lawyer named Yasinia Gomez who lived
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Speaker 1: about an hour north of AMaGA in the larger city
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Speaker 1: of Mede Yine. She told her boyfriend that she wanted
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Speaker 1: to go bungee jumping. This was something Yasinia had talked
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Speaker 1: about for a long time, wanting to go bungee jumping,
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Speaker 1: but every time it became a real thing and they
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Speaker 1: were actually going to go do it, she would back
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Speaker 1: down because she was just too scared. But for whatever reason,
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Speaker 1: in July of twenty twenty one, Yasinia had the confidence
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Speaker 1: and the courage to actually see this thing through, and
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Speaker 1: so her boyfriend, when he heard how serious she was,
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Speaker 1: he capitalized on the opportunity because he had never bungee
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Speaker 1: jumped before, and he really wanted to, but he couldn't
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Speaker 1: without his girlfriend. And so now it seemed like she
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Speaker 1: was serious, and so right away he called the AMaGA
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Speaker 1: bungee Jumping Company to book a slot for he and
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Speaker 1: Yasinya to jump off of their bridge. So on the
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Speaker 1: day they were supposed to jump, which was Sunday, July eighteenth,
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Speaker 1: Yasinia and her boyfriend hopped in their car and they
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Speaker 1: drove an hour south to AMaGA, and when they got there,
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Speaker 1: they found the walking trail and they made their way
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Speaker 1: out to this bridge. And when they get out to
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Speaker 1: this bridge, they are amazed at the number of people
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Speaker 1: who were already in line on this bridge waiting to
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Speaker 1: jump off of it. They knew this was a popular spot,
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Speaker 1: but perhaps they didn't realize just how popular it was.
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Speaker 1: And so Yasinia and her boyfriend they get in line
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Speaker 1: behind the nearly one hundred other jumpers ahead of them,
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Speaker 1: and they proceed to wait, and over the next several hours,
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Speaker 1: Yasina and her boyfriend would have front row seats to
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Speaker 1: all of the jumpers ahead of them jumping off the bridge.
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Speaker 1: Now it seems like Yasina in her mind believed she
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Speaker 1: would arrive at this bridge and very quickly she and
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Speaker 1: her boyfriend would leap off and it would be great
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Speaker 1: and so much fun. But now they've been forced to
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Speaker 1: wait for a really long time, and this whole time,
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Speaker 1: they're watching other people jump, and Yasinia is starting to panic. Suddenly,
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Speaker 1: bungee jumping looked terrifying. It did not look like something
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Speaker 1: she wanted to do, and so she was beginning to
14:48
Speaker 1: second guess her decision. And so her boyfriend he's trying
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Speaker 1: to calm her down, and he's telling her, oh, it's
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Speaker 1: totally safe. Look at all these people who have jumped.
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Speaker 1: They're all fine, they're all smiling, they're so happy. You're
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Speaker 1: gonna be so proud of yourself. But despite his best
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Speaker 1: ass first to calm his girlfriend down, Yasinia just could
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Speaker 1: not calm down. But she did tell her boyfriend that
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Speaker 1: she's not about to back down. She's gonna go through
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Speaker 1: with this. And so several hours went by, this totally
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Speaker 1: high stress, anxious waiting period, and then finally Yasina and
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Speaker 1: her boyfriend reached the front of the line, at which
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Speaker 1: point the staff members have been doing this all day long.
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Speaker 1: They signaled the two to step forward and get their
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Speaker 1: harnesses on, and so Yasina and her boyfriend they make
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Speaker 1: their way to the edge of the platform, so they're
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Speaker 1: looking out over this ravine and the staff members are
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Speaker 1: putting on their harnesses and getting them ready, and the
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Speaker 1: whole time, Yasinya she's starting to get tunnel vision, her
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Speaker 1: hardest racing. She's totally panicked. She doesn't think this is
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Speaker 1: fun at all. She just wants to get this over with.
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Speaker 1: And then at some point one of the staff members
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Speaker 1: finally says okay, jump, and so Yasinia jumps, except it
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Speaker 1: would turn out Yasinia had made a mistake. That staff
15:52
Speaker 1: member who had said okay, jump was talking to her boyfriend,
15:56
Speaker 1: not Yasina. However, Yasinia, in her totally panic state, had
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Speaker 1: just not understood and had leapt believing they were telling
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Speaker 1: her to jump. However, the staff members had only put
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Speaker 1: her harness on, they had not attached the actual elastic
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Speaker 1: rope to her ankles, and so when Yasinia jumped, there
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Speaker 1: was nothing stopping her from smashing into the ground. And
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Speaker 1: so as soon as she leapt off the bridge, her
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Speaker 1: boyfriend ripped off all of his gear and he ran
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Speaker 1: down the bridge. He leapt over the railing and he
16:26
Speaker 1: ran down the hillside all the way to the bottom
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Speaker 1: of this ravine. But when he finally got to his girlfriend,
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Speaker 1: it was already too late. She was already gone. It
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Speaker 1: would later be determined Yasinia did not die from impacting
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Speaker 1: the ground. She actually died from a heart attack she
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Speaker 1: suffered on the fall down, which means she must have
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Speaker 1: realized after she jumped that she jumped too early, that
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Speaker 1: she did not have the bungee cord attached to her legs,
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Speaker 1: and so literally the fear of what was about to
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Speaker 1: happen to her killed her. In early nineteen seventy four,
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Speaker 1: thirty one year old Michael Taylor was living happily with
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Speaker 1: his wife Christine and their five children in Ossit, which
17:08
Speaker 1: is a small town in central England. Michael was described
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Speaker 1: as a great father and a great husband who had
17:14
Speaker 1: an excellent sense of humor. In fact, neighbors, whenever they
17:17
Speaker 1: would walk past the Tailor household, would say you could
17:20
Speaker 1: often hear the sound of Michael laughing, or the sound
17:23
Speaker 1: of him telling jokes to his family. But in April
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Speaker 1: of that year, everything changed for the Taylor family. Michael
17:28
Speaker 1: had been doing some home repairs when he fell off
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Speaker 1: of the ladder and he heard his back. The injury
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Speaker 1: itself was fairly minor, but it resulted in chronic pain,
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Speaker 1: and this chronic pain quickly changed how Michael behaved. Michael
17:41
Speaker 1: went from being this cheerful, funny, happy guy to being
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Speaker 1: sad and depressed, and he was so irritable that his
17:48
Speaker 1: family could barely be around him because he would lash
17:50
Speaker 1: out at them. Now, the Taylor family was not a
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Speaker 1: religious family, however, most families who lived in Ossit at
17:57
Speaker 1: that time were, and so when one of Michael's friends
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Speaker 1: found doubt about how poorly Michael was doing, they approached
18:03
Speaker 1: Michael and said, you know, you really ought to turn
18:05
Speaker 1: to religion for help and for guidance in this difficult time.
18:08
Speaker 1: And they also told him specifically that he really ought
18:11
Speaker 1: to check out this one particular Christian group. It was
18:14
Speaker 1: called the Christian Fellowship Group, and all it was was
18:17
Speaker 1: a prayer group for Christians who wanted more religious support
18:21
Speaker 1: beyond just going to church on Sundays. But this friend
18:24
Speaker 1: of Michael's told him that the real draw of this
18:28
Speaker 1: group was the group's leader. Her name was Marie Robinson
18:32
Speaker 1: and she was this twenty one year old, extremely friendly
18:35
Speaker 1: and energetic and charismatic person who just had this incredible
18:38
Speaker 1: way of making all of her members really feel like
18:41
Speaker 1: they belonged. And so Michael's friend was telling him that
18:44
Speaker 1: he really thought Marie could be the difference maker for him,
18:47
Speaker 1: that she could help him get back to normal. And
18:50
Speaker 1: so Michael, you know, he trusted this friend and he
18:52
Speaker 1: really didn't have much to lose at this point. He
18:54
Speaker 1: was already at rock bottom, and so he agrees to
18:56
Speaker 1: go check this group out. So on September twelfth of
18:59
Speaker 1: that year, Michael makes his way to the church where
19:01
Speaker 1: this fellowship group is held. He goes inside, and he
19:04
Speaker 1: makes his way to one of the back rooms in
19:06
Speaker 1: the church, and when he goes inside, he sees there's
19:09
Speaker 1: a ring of people sitting in a circle, about twenty people,
19:12
Speaker 1: and as soon as they see Michael coming in the room,
19:14
Speaker 1: they all stand up and they open their arms up
19:16
Speaker 1: and they say, come on, come sit down with us. Welcome,
19:19
Speaker 1: Welcome to the group. And then the woman who had
19:21
Speaker 1: to be Marie, she stands up and she looks at Michael,
19:24
Speaker 1: huge smile on her face, and she encourages him to
19:26
Speaker 1: come over and sit right next to me, welcome, We'd
19:28
Speaker 1: love to have you join our group. And so Michael,
19:30
Speaker 1: for the first time in ages, is smiling as he
19:33
Speaker 1: strides across the room and sits down right next to Marie.
19:36
Speaker 1: And then as Marie began to lead the group in prayer,
19:39
Speaker 1: Michael did not feel his chronic pain. He just felt
19:42
Speaker 1: happy again. But when the meeting was over and Michael
19:45
Speaker 1: went back home again, the pain and depression came flooding back.
19:49
Speaker 1: It was like the only place he could be happy
19:51
Speaker 1: was inside of the church, at this fellowship group. And
19:55
Speaker 1: so over the next couple of weeks, Michael completely prioritized
19:58
Speaker 1: this group. He went to all of their meetings, and
20:01
Speaker 1: over the course of these couple of weeks, Michael became
20:04
Speaker 1: very close with Marie, and apparently Marie became very close
20:08
Speaker 1: with Michael, to the point where the two of them
20:10
Speaker 1: would stay after the meetings were over and just those
20:14
Speaker 1: two would sequester themselves in quiet prayer. No one knew
20:17
Speaker 1: what they did in there, but it just seemed like
20:19
Speaker 1: they were developing a real relationship. And in fact, many
20:22
Speaker 1: people in this group suspected they were having an affair,
20:25
Speaker 1: and before long the rumors in the church had spread
20:28
Speaker 1: outside and were all over Osset, And then before long, Christine,
20:32
Speaker 1: Michael's wife, was hearing from a friend or a neighbor
20:35
Speaker 1: that apparently Michael was having an affair with Marie. Now
20:38
Speaker 1: Christine had already suspected her husband was having an affair
20:41
Speaker 1: with Marie because Marie was the only thing Michael talked
20:44
Speaker 1: about when he got home. So on October first of
20:47
Speaker 1: that year, only a couple of weeks after Michael had
20:49
Speaker 1: first attended this group, Christine waited until Michael had left
20:54
Speaker 1: the house to head out to one of the group meetings.
20:56
Speaker 1: And then Christine hopped in her car and she followed
20:59
Speaker 1: him to the church. And when she got there, she
21:01
Speaker 1: parked her car, she took a deep breath, and then
21:03
Speaker 1: she got out. She made her way to the front
21:05
Speaker 1: doors of the church and she stormed inside and she
21:08
Speaker 1: found the room where these meetings were held. She barges
21:10
Speaker 1: in and she points at her husband and she says,
21:13
Speaker 1: I know you're having an affair with Marie. Then you're
21:16
Speaker 1: gonna admit it in front of this whole group. And Michael,
21:18
Speaker 1: who's sitting with his back to his wife in one
21:20
Speaker 1: of the chairs, he stands up and instead of addressing
21:24
Speaker 1: his wife who's accused him of infidelity. He turns and
21:28
Speaker 1: looks at Marie on the other side of the room,
21:30
Speaker 1: and when Marie made eye contact with Michael, she screamed.
21:34
Speaker 1: She would later say Michael did not look human. He
21:37
Speaker 1: looked like a beast, and he had wild eyes. And
21:40
Speaker 1: so as Michael is standing there staring at Marie with
21:43
Speaker 1: this very aggressive face, he began breaking out in tongues.
21:47
Speaker 1: Speaking in tongues is where the speaker will be saying
21:50
Speaker 1: or uttering words or sounds that sound like language, but
21:53
Speaker 1: the speaker doesn't know what they mean. The idea is
21:57
Speaker 1: some entity has come inside of their boxy and this
22:01
Speaker 1: entity is dictating their speech. And so Michael is broken
22:04
Speaker 1: out in tongues. He's barking these words and sounds at Marie,
22:08
Speaker 1: and everyone inside of the room has no idea what
22:11
Speaker 1: to make of this. Everything has happened so suddenly, and
22:14
Speaker 1: it's so surprising. You have the wife suddenly coming in
22:17
Speaker 1: and aggressively accusing her husband of cheating, and Michael is
22:20
Speaker 1: not responding to it, and he's acting totally crazy. And
22:23
Speaker 1: then before anyone can do anything, Michael goes from just
22:26
Speaker 1: barking in strange languages at Marie to suddenly rushing across
22:30
Speaker 1: the room as if he's going to attack her. And
22:32
Speaker 1: when he does that, the rest of the members jump
22:35
Speaker 1: on top of him and hold him down. And despite
22:37
Speaker 1: there being like ten or fifteen people holding him down,
22:41
Speaker 1: Michael is still trying to get up, and he's screaming
22:44
Speaker 1: and snarling and yelling at Marie. And then Marie suddenly
22:47
Speaker 1: breaks out into tongues too, and it's only then that
22:50
Speaker 1: Michael stops trying to force himself up out of this
22:53
Speaker 1: pig pilot's on top of him, and instead he just
22:56
Speaker 1: continues to speak in tongues to her, and so the
22:58
Speaker 1: two of them are looking at he speaking in tongues,
23:01
Speaker 1: and the rest of the group is just totally dumbfounded,
23:04
Speaker 1: and so they just begin praying, and then after about
23:07
Speaker 1: an hour, Michael just collapses. It's like he went unconscious,
23:10
Speaker 1: and at that point, everybody in the room just goes
23:12
Speaker 1: silent and they look at Michael, and then Michael kind
23:15
Speaker 1: of opens his eyes and it's almost like he's waking up,
23:17
Speaker 1: and he begins looking around frantically trying to figure out
23:19
Speaker 1: what had just happened. Michael would claim he had no
23:22
Speaker 1: memory of what had just happened to him, and so
23:24
Speaker 1: at this point Marie would tell him and Christine that
23:27
Speaker 1: she believed Michael was possessed by a demonic force and
23:31
Speaker 1: the only thing they could do at this point would
23:33
Speaker 1: be to perform an exorcism, and exorcism is an expulsion
23:37
Speaker 1: or attempted expulsion of a supposedly evil spirit inside of
23:41
Speaker 1: a person or a place. Michael and Christine were at
23:44
Speaker 1: a loss. They had no idea what to do in
23:46
Speaker 1: this situation. They were both kind of in shock for
23:49
Speaker 1: very different reasons, and so they just kind of deferred
23:52
Speaker 1: to Marie's judgment and said, yeah, you know, I think
23:54
Speaker 1: an exorcism is the way to go. So Christine and
23:56
Speaker 1: Michael just leave the church and go home. And then
23:59
Speaker 1: the next morning, Marie would get in touch with the
24:02
Speaker 1: Anglican Church of England and would request an exorcism, and
24:05
Speaker 1: after hearing about what was going on with Michael, the
24:08
Speaker 1: Anglican Church would say, yeah, that does sound like he
24:11
Speaker 1: needs an exorcism, and so the following day they would
24:14
Speaker 1: send out two of their best exorcists named Peter and Raymond.
24:17
Speaker 1: And so Peter and Raymond they get to Asset, they
24:20
Speaker 1: go to Michael's house and they observe him, and very
24:22
Speaker 1: quickly they determined that it does seem like Michael is
24:26
Speaker 1: possessed by at least one demonic force, and so they
24:29
Speaker 1: tell Michael the only thing we can do here is
24:31
Speaker 1: perform this exorcism, but we need you to agree to it.
24:35
Speaker 1: And so Michael says, okay, yeah, I agreed to this exorcism,
24:38
Speaker 1: and so would his wife, because she at this point
24:40
Speaker 1: is just completely unsure what to do. She's just going
24:43
Speaker 1: along for the ride. So a day later, on October fourth,
24:46
Speaker 1: at ten pm, Michael, his wife, and the rest of
24:49
Speaker 1: the members of the Spellowship group, along with Peter and Raymond,
24:53
Speaker 1: they would all meet at this other church in a
24:55
Speaker 1: neighboring town. And as soon as Michael had been positioned
24:58
Speaker 1: in the middle of this group in this Peter and
25:01
Speaker 1: Raymond began the ritual by praying, and as soon as
25:04
Speaker 1: they did, Michael began streaming out in tongues, and he
25:08
Speaker 1: began writhing around, and he fell to the ground, and
25:11
Speaker 1: he began contorting his body in grotesque positions, as if
25:14
Speaker 1: the words Peter and Raymond were saying were physically harming Michael.
25:19
Speaker 1: And so after eight hours of this, during which they
25:22
Speaker 1: had to actually tie Michael down to prevent him from
25:25
Speaker 1: hurting other members or hurting himself. After eight hours, they
25:29
Speaker 1: finally just came to a stop. Peter and Raymond were exhausted.
25:32
Speaker 1: It looked very much like Michael too, was exhausted, and
25:36
Speaker 1: as soon as they stopped the ritual, Michael just kind
25:39
Speaker 1: of collapsed on the ground as if he had fallen unconscious.
25:43
Speaker 1: And then at some point he kind of wakes up
25:44
Speaker 1: and he's looking around wildly. He's still tied down to
25:47
Speaker 1: the ground, and he's acting like he has no idea
25:49
Speaker 1: what's just happened. And at this point, Peter and Raymond
25:52
Speaker 1: they tell him that, you know, the exorcism was mostly successful.
25:56
Speaker 1: We identified forty demons inside of you, and this exorcism
26:01
Speaker 1: was able to expel thirty seven of them. So that
26:04
Speaker 1: means there's still three demons inside of you. Now we
26:07
Speaker 1: can't do it right now. We're too tired, you're too exhausted.
26:10
Speaker 1: So go home, get some rest, and tomorrow we will
26:13
Speaker 1: finish this exorcism. We will get rid of those three demons,
26:16
Speaker 1: and you will be just fine. And so Michael and
26:18
Speaker 1: Christine they get their things and they leave the church
26:21
Speaker 1: and they head home. A few hours later, around noon,
26:24
Speaker 1: a woman who lived near where Michael Taylor and his
26:27
Speaker 1: family lived thought she heard something strange outside of her house.
26:31
Speaker 1: It sounded like someone yelling, and so she went to
26:33
Speaker 1: the front of the house and she pulled the curtain
26:34
Speaker 1: aside on one of her windows, and outside, walking down
26:38
Speaker 1: the street, completely naked, covered in blood, was Michael Taylor,
26:42
Speaker 1: and he was saying something about Satan, and so this
26:44
Speaker 1: woman she calls the police. The police show up and
26:46
Speaker 1: they find Michael. He had curled up on the sidewalk
26:49
Speaker 1: outside of this woman's house and he was giggling like
26:51
Speaker 1: a child in the fetal position, and so the police
26:54
Speaker 1: approach him and at some point Michael apparently snaps out
26:56
Speaker 1: of it and he starts looking up at the police
26:58
Speaker 1: like he has no idea what's going on, And eventually
27:01
Speaker 1: they would get him to tell them his name and
27:03
Speaker 1: where he lived. And so, after calling in back up
27:05
Speaker 1: to deal with Michael, the responding officers made their way
27:09
Speaker 1: to Michael's residence and so they go inside and immediately
27:13
Speaker 1: as soon as they see what's in there, one of
27:15
Speaker 1: the officers just turns around and runs outside and begins
27:19
Speaker 1: dry heaping. The inside of the Taylor family home would
27:22
Speaker 1: become one of the most infamous crime scenes in English history.
27:26
Speaker 1: A few hours earlier, when Michael and his wife had
27:28
Speaker 1: come home from the exorcism, they had gone inside and
27:32
Speaker 1: then Michael had fallen into one of his trances and
27:35
Speaker 1: began beating his wife, and then at some point she
27:38
Speaker 1: fell to the ground and either was dead or was
27:41
Speaker 1: in the process of dying, at which point Michael jumped
27:44
Speaker 1: on top of her and using only his hands, he
27:47
Speaker 1: ripped her face off and flung it across the room,
27:50
Speaker 1: and then as she's laying there bleeding to death, he
27:52
Speaker 1: began rubbing her blood all over his body, and then
27:56
Speaker 1: after she had finally died, he tracked down the family
27:59
Speaker 1: dog killed the dog as well. Fortunately, their five children
28:03
Speaker 1: were not home at the time of this attack and
28:05
Speaker 1: so they were unharmed. During Michael's trial, the prosecution and
28:09
Speaker 1: the defense blamed the Anglican Church of England and Marie
28:14
Speaker 1: and her religious group for effectively convincing Michael he was
28:18
Speaker 1: possessed with demons, which caused him to act out violently
28:21
Speaker 1: and kill his wife, and so ultimately Michael would be
28:25
Speaker 1: found not guilty by reason of insanity and after only
28:28
Speaker 1: four years of psychiatric care, he was released and today
28:32
Speaker 1: he is still living free in Auset. But despite the
28:35
Speaker 1: legal outcomes of this case, there are many people, both
28:39
Speaker 1: religious and not religious, who believe the Michael Taylor case
28:43
Speaker 1: is one of the only true demonic possession cases in
28:47
Speaker 1: modern history. Also, just to close the loop, we don't
28:49
Speaker 1: know for sure if Michael and Marie were having an affair,
28:53
Speaker 1: but it is assumed they were, and so that's going
28:55
Speaker 1: to do it. Guys. If you found the secret in
28:57
Speaker 1: today's episode, let us know in the comments section what
28:59
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29:02
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