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(1872_ Nevada) The Forbidden Sexual Practices of the O_Connor Family_ A Wild West Macabre History · The Mind of a Man

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to this journey through one of the most unsettling
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: cases recorded in the history of Nevada. Before we begin,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I invite you to leave in the comments where you're
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: watching from and the exact time at which you're hearing
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: this narration. We're interested in knowing which places and what
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: times of day or night these documented accounts reach. In
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: the harsh winter of 1872, when the silver mines of
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Virginia City were still promising fortunes to those brave, or
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: desperate enough to seek them, a discovery was made in
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: the remote outskirts of Elko County that would perplex authorities
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: for decades to come. The O'Connor homestead, situated approximately 17
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: miles northeast of the settlement that would later become Wells,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: stood abandoned, its doors left wide open despite the biting
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: cold that had settled over the high desert that December.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Local records indicate that the family, consisting of Patrick O'Connor,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: his wife Margaret, and their five children, aged between seven
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: and nineteen, had arrived from Boston three years prior, establishing
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: themselves as cattle ranchers on land purchased from the Central
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Pacific Railroad. The O'Connors were known to keep to themselves,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: rarely venturing into town except for supplies and occasional church
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: services at the makeshift wooden chapel that served the growing community.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: It was a mail carrier, Joseph Blackwood, who first noticed
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: something amiss. His monthly route took him to the isolated
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: homesteads that dotted the northeastern Nevada Territory. According to his
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: written statement, preserved in the Elko County Historical Society archives,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: the chimney showed no smoke, though it was near freezing.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: The front door swung open and shut with the wind.
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  Speaker 1: No one answered my calls. What Blackwood found inside would
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: become the foundation of a mystery that would never truly
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: be solved. only buried, both literally and figuratively, in the
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: vast expansion of the American West. The interior of the
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: O'Connor home appeared to have been abandoned in haste. A
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: meal lay half-eaten on the wooden table. Clothes remained hanging
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: on hooks near the door. The family Bible lay open
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: to the book of Leviticus. But of the seven members
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: of the O'Connor family, there was no trace. Blackwood wrote
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: immediately to Wells, where he alerted the local authorities. Sheriff
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Thomas McCall, whose journal provides much of what we know
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: about the initial investigation, arrived at the property the following day.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: His writings, later collected by the Nevada Historical Society, reveal
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: a man disturbed by what he encountered. The homestead appears
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: normal at first glance, yet something is deeply wrong. The
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: livestock remains untended, but alive. Inside, I found evidence of
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: peculiar arrangements in the sleeping quarters. The beds had been
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: positioned in circular patterns. Marks had been scratched into the
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: floorboards beneath them, symbols I do not recognize nor care
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: to contemplate further. McCall's investigation uncovered the first of many
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: disturbing elements that would characterize the O'Connor case. In the
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: master bedroom, a space had been cleared in the center
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: of the floor. A large circular marking, approximately six feet
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: in diameter, had been burned into the wooden planks. Around
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: this circle, small objects, later identified as personal items belonging
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: to each family member, had been carefully arranged. The sheriff's
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: report continues. Mrs. Peterson, the midwife from Wells, who accompanied
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: me to examine the premises, identified a book written in Latin,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: hidden beneath the floorboards. She claims it contains descriptions of
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: rituals meant to alter the natural state of mankind. I
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: have confiscated this volume and and will consult with Reverend
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Holloway regarding its contents. This book, which would later disappear
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: from the evidence collected, was described by Reverend Holloway in
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: a letter to the territorial governor as containing practices of
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: a nature so unnatural that they defy Christian understanding. The
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Reverend refused to elaborate further, requesting that the book be
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: destroyed immediately. The initial assumption was that the family had
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: been victims of an Indian attack or bandit raid, quickly
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: dissolved as the investigation proceeded. No signs of violence were
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: found within the home, no blood, no indication of struggle.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: The family's modest savings, kept in a metal box beneath
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: a loose floorboard in the pantry, remained untouched. Their horses
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: were still in the stable, though visibly undernourished from days
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: without proper care. What began to emerge instead? was a
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: picture of a family engaged in activities that the local
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: community found difficult to comprehend or discuss openly. Neighbors, interviewed
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: by Sheriff McCall, spoke of strange sounds emanating from the
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: property at night. Mary Wilkins, whose homestead was located three
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: miles south of the O'Connors, reported hearing, Wailing unlike any
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: I have known, neither man nor beast, but something that
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: raised the hairs on my neck. on several occasions in
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: the months preceding the disappearance. By February 1873, the case
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: had drawn attention from as far as Sacramento. A special investigator,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: James Morgan, was dispatched by the territorial authorities. Morgan's background,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: having previously worked with the Pinkerton Detective Agency on several
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: cases involving religious cults in the eastern states, suggests the
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: authorities suspected something beyond ordinary criminal activity. Morgan's report, filed
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: in March 1873, and later partially redacted before being archived,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: offers the most comprehensive analysis of the evidence. The O'Connor
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: family appears to have been engaged in practices derived from
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: obscure European traditions, he wrote. Patrick O'Connor's personal correspondence, recovered
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: from a locked drawer in his desk, reveals communication with
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: an individual identified only as the professor based in New
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: York City. These letters reference experiments of a physiological nature,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: promising transformations that defy medical science. The correspondence, dated throughout
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: 1871 and early 1872, becomes increasingly erratic in tone. In
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: one of the final letters, dated November 1872, Patrick writes,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: the preparations are nearly complete. Margaret resisted initially, but now
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: sees the wisdom in our approach. The children have been
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: prepared as instructed. We await only the correct alignment, which
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: you assure will occur in December. Morgan's investigation took a
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: crucial turn when he discovered a hidden cellar beneath the barn,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: accessible only through a trapdoor concealed under a pile of hay.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: This space, approximately 12 feet square, contained evidence that would
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: never be fully documented in official records. According to a
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: private journal kept by Morgan, later donated to the Nevada
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Historical Society by his daughter in 1927, under the condition
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: it remained sealed until 1960, the cellar contained implements of
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: restraint and devices of a design I have never encountered,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: apparently constructed for the purpose of manipulating the human form
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: in ways that nature never intended. Most significantly, Morgan discovered
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: a journal belonging to Margaret O'Connor, The contents of this
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: journal were deemed so disturbing that Morgan included only selected
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: excerpts in his official report with the original apparently destroyed
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: by fire in 1875 during the transfer of territorial records
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: to Carson City. The excerpts that survive paint a picture
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: of a woman increasingly enthralled by her husband's obsessions. Patrick
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: speaks of transcendence through the alteration of our mortal forms.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: The professor's teaching suggests that the human body, when subjected
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: to certain pressures and positions over extended periods, can achieve
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: a state beyond our current understanding. I was skeptical, but
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: after witnessing the changes in young William, their eldest son,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: I cannot deny that something is happening. A later entry reads,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: The children now accept the nightly ritual without complaint. Their
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: bodies have become remarkably pliable. Thomas, age 12, can now
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: position himself in ways that should be impossible for human joints.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Patrick says this is merely the beginning. The investigation uncovered
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: additional details about Patrick O'Connor's background that cast the family's
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  Speaker 1: activities in an even more disturbing light. Records obtained from
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Massachusetts revealed that before moving west, Patrick had briefly worked
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: as an assistant to a controversial physician named at Massachusetts
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: General Hospital. This doctor, whose name was redacted from Morgan's report,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: but later identified through independent research as Dr. Harold Westerly,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: had been dismissed from his position following allegations of conducting
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: unauthorized experiments on patients. According to hospital records dated 1868,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Westerly had developed theories about human flexibility and bodily transformation
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: that his colleagues described as beyond the pale of acceptable
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: medical inquiry. These theories apparently centered on the belief that
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: the human form could be permanently altered through systematic manipulation
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: of joints, musculature, and even bone structure, if begun at
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: a young enough age and conducted with scientific precision. This
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: revelation added a dimension of premeditation to the case that
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: troubled even the hardened Morgan, who noted in his private journal,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: The implications of O'Connor's background suggest that the family's relocation
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: to this remote territory was not, as previously believed, motivated
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: by the pursuit of agricultural opportunity, but rather by the
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: desire to conduct his experiments without scrutiny or interference. Morgan's
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: investigation stalled when potential witnesses in the nearby communities suddenly
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: became unwilling to speak. Patrick O'Connor, it seems, had not
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: only embraced these theories, but had determined to put them
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  Speaker 1: into practice using his own family as subjects. Reverend Holloway,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: who had initially been forthcoming with information, abruptly left Wells
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: in April 1873, leaving no forwarding address. The midwife, Mrs. Peterson,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: was found dead in her home, apparently from natural causes,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: though no autopsy was performed. Before her death, however, Mrs.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: Peterson had shared certain observations with Morgan that never appeared
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: in his official report. According to his private journal, the
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: midwife had delivered the O'Connors' youngest child shortly after their
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: arrival in Nevada, and had noticed something unusual about the
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: family even then. The children stood too still, she reportedly
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: told Morgan. When they moved, it was with a grace
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  Speaker 1: that seemed unnatural, their limbs bending at angles that made
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: me look away. And Mrs. O'Connor. During the delivery, her
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: body responded in ways I've never seen in twenty years
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: of midwifery. It was as if her very bones shifted
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: to accommodate the birth. During his examination of the O'Connor property,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: Morgan discovered a series of photographs hidden inside a hollow
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: space in the wall behind the master bedroom. These daguerreotypes,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: crude by modern standards but remarkable for their time, documented
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: what appeared to be progressive stages of the family's transformation.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: The images showed family members in various poses, each more
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: contorted than the last, with dates spanning from their arrival
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  Speaker 1: in Nevada to to just weeks before their disappearance. Most
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: disturbing were the expressions captured on the subjects' faces. As
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: Morgan noted, in the earlier images, one detects expressions of
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: pain or discomfort, particularly among the younger children. In the
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: later photographs, however, these expressions have been replaced by something
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: that can only be described as ecstatic, a rapturous gaze
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: that suggests the subjects had begun to experience their contortions
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: not as torment, but as transcendence. These photographs were confiscated
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: by territorial authorities and reportedly destroyed, though rumors persist that
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: copies were made and circulated among medical researchers with interests
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: in anatomical anomalies. To date, no authenticated copies have surfaced
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: in public collections. By June 1873, with no bodies recovered
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: and no concrete evidence of a crime having been committed,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: The case was officially classified as an unexplained disappearance. Morgan
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: returned to Sacramento, filing a final report that recommended the
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  Speaker 1: O'Connor property be destroyed to prevent any future inhabitants from
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: encountering or continuing the practices that appear to have been
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: conducted therein. This recommendation was carried out in August 1873.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: The O'Connor homestead was burned to the ground by order
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: of the territorial governor. The land remained unclaimed for decades afterward,
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: developing a reputation among locals as a place to be avoided.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Local newspaper accounts from the period described the burning as
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: a somber affair, attended only by official representatives and a
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: small number of witnesses from the community. According to the
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: Elko Independent, dated August 17, 1873, the flames consumed the
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: dwelling with unusual vigor, as if fed by more than
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: mere timber, Those present report hearing strange sounds emanating from
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: the structure as it burned, creaking and popping beyond what
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: would be expected, and at one point what several witnesses
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: described as a chorus of sighs. Following the destruction of
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: the homestead, a period of unusual incidents was reported in
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: the surrounding area. Livestock belonging to neighboring ranchers was found
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: in distorted positions, their bodies contorted, but without any sign
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: of external injury. Several prospectors camping in the vicinity reported
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: waking to find their limbs arranged in uncomfortable positions, as
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: if manipulated during sleep. These accounts were generally dismissed as
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: superstition or the effects of strong drink, common explanations for
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: unusual occurrences in frontier communities. By the end of 1873,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: such reports had dwindled. and the O'Connor case began its
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: long descent into obscurity. The case might have faded entirely
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: from record had it not been for an unusual discovery
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: made in 1896 during the construction of a new rail
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: line connecting Elko to the mining communities further north. Approximately
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: three miles from the former O'Connor property, workers excavating a
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: cut through a low hill uncovered what was initially thought
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: to be a natural cave. Further examination revealed it to
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: be a man-made chamber, carefully constructed and concealed. Inside, workers
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: discovered the remains of what appeared to be seven individuals.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: According to the report filed by Dr. Lawrence Fleming, the
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: county physician called to examine the site. The remains present
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: in a manner unlike any I have encountered in my
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: medical career. The skeletons, while recognizable as human, display modifications
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: that cannot be readily explained. The bones appear to have
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: been systematically altered, with evidence of healed fractures and unusual
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: growth patterns suggesting prolonged manipulation of the living body. Most
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: disturbing was Dr. Fleming's observation that the positions in which
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: the bodies were found suggested they had not been placed
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: there after death, but had apparently arranged themselves in a
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: circular pattern, facing inward. The positioning, he wrote, would have
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: been impossible for living humans to maintain without under normal
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: physiological constraints. The spinal columns show evidence of extreme curvature,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: and the limbs appear to have been contorted in ways
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: that would typically result in dislocation or breakage. Dr. Fleming's
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: examination of the remains yielded additional details that further complicated
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: understanding of the case. The skeletons, while clearly altered, showed
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: no signs of trauma that would indicate a violent death. Instead,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: the modifications appeared methodical and, most disturbingly, conducted over time
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: while the subjects were living. Evidence of healing around deliberately
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: broken and reset bones suggested that the alterations had been
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: performed gradually, perhaps over the course of years. The most
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: extensively modified skeleton, presumed to be that of Patrick O'Connor,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: based on height and estimated age, exhibited an additional anomaly
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: that Dr. Fleming struggled to explain. the skull had been
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: altered in a way that expanded the cranial capacity by
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: approximately 15%, an achievement that should have been impossible without
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: fatal consequences. Even more perplexing was Fleming's observation regarding the
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: positioning of the hands. The phalanges of all seven skeletons
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: were arranged in identical patterns, forming shapes that correspond to
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: no recognizable gesture or natural position. When diagrammed, these arrangements
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: appear to create a complex geometrical pattern that suggests deliberate
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: coordination among the subjects at the time of death, if
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: death is indeed what occurred here. Territorial authorities quickly suppressed Dr.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: Fleming's findings. The site was ordered sealed with no further investigation,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: and the workers were sworn to secrecy under penalty of law.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: An official explanation was circulated that the cave contained only
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: mineral deposits of no significant value. Dr. Fleming, however, preserved
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: his observations and a small collection of photographic plates he
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: had taken of the remains. These materials remained in his
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: private collection until his death in 1917, after which they
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: passed to his colleague, Dr. Edward Montgomery of the University
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: of Nevada. Montgomery became obsessed with the Fleming materials, conducting
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: his own private investigation into the O'Connor case throughout the 1920s.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: His research led him to track down Joseph Blackwood, the
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: mail carrier who had first discovered the abandoned homestead. Blackwood,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: by then an elderly man living in San Francisco, provided
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: additional details that had never been recorded in the official reports.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: According to Montgomery's notes, Blackwood confessed that he had not
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: immediately reported his discovery because he had first spent several
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: hours searching the property. During this search, he claimed to
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: have found a series of detailed anatomical drawings hidden in
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: a compartment beneath the master bed. These drawings, which Blackwood
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: described as more detailed than any medical text I've seen,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: yet focusing on alterations that no doctor would consider, depicted
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: human figures in very stages of physical transformation. Most significantly,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Blackwood told Montgomery that he had found a letter addressed
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: to whoever discovers our absence, signed by Patrick O'Connor. The
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: contents of this letter, which Blackwood claimed to have destroyed
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: after reading, allegedly outlined the family's intention to transcend the
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: limitations of flesh through methodical reconfiguration, and spoke of relocating
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: to a sanctuary prepared for the final phase of our transformation.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: The letter, as Blackwood recalled it, contained passages that suggested
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: the O'Connors viewed their practices not as violations of natural law,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: but as evolutionary advancement. What we undertake is not perversions
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: but acceleration, the hastening of mankind's inevitable transcendence of current form.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: The body is not sacred in its present configuration. It
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: is merely a stage in development, as the caterpillar to
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: the butterfly. Through disciplined reconfiguration, we free ourselves from the
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: prison of conventional anatomy. Blackwood's testimony included one detail that
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: particularly disturbed Montgomery— The mail carrier claimed that, before leaving
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: the property, he had peered down the well located behind
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: the house and had seen, floating on the surface of
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: the water approximately twenty feet below, what appeared to be
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: a human ear, not severed, but somehow detached and functioning independently.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: It turned toward the sound of my breathing, Blackwood reportedly
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: told Montgomery, as if listening, though connected to no head.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: Montgomery understandably questioned the reliability of this account, given Blackwood's
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: advanced age and the decades that had passed since the
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: events described. Yet he was struck by the consistency of
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: certain details with Dr. Fleming's observations of the remains discovered
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: in the chamber. Montgomery's research expanded to include interviews with
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: elderly residents of northeastern Nevada who had lived in the
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: region during the 1870s. From these accounts emerged a consistent
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: pattern of unusual incidents that had occurred in the months
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: following the O'Connors' disappearance, but before the destruction of their homestead.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: Samuel Thompson, who had worked as a ranch hand on
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: a neighboring property, described to Montgomery an encounter that had
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: occurred in February 1873. I was riding fence along the
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: north boundary, not far from where the O'Connor place stood.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: It was near dusk when I saw what I took
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: to be a person, standing on a ridge about a
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: hundred yards distant. I called out, thinking it might be
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: one of the O'Connors returned. The figure turned, or, rather,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: it rearranged itself, parts moving in ways no person should
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: be able to move. I couldn't make out a face,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: just a shape that kept changing as I watched. My
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: horse refused to go any closer, and I admit I
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: didn't press him to. Similar accounts from other witnesses described
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: encounters with figures that moved in uncanny ways, always at
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: a distance. always near dusk or dawn, always in the
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: vicinity of the abandoned O'Connor property. These sightings continued sporadically
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: until the homestead was destroyed, after which they diminished but
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: did not entirely cease. Montgomery's research came to an abrupt
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: end in 1932, when he suffered a nervous breakdown after
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: returning from an expedition to the site of the sealed cave.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: He was institutionalized at the Nevada State Asylum in Reno,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: where he remained until his death in 1941. His papers,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: including his notes on the O'Connor case, were stored in
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: the university archives, where they remained largely unexamined until 1958. Dr.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Lewis Matthews, who treated Montgomery during his institutionalization, later wrote
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: in a confidential medical report that the professor's breakdown appeared
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: to have been triggered by something he had witnessed during
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: his expeditions. The patient repeatedly describes seeing what he terms
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: the result of their work, an entity that he claims
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: was neither fully human nor fully something else, which he
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: encountered near the sealed entrance to the cave. His description
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: of this entity remains consistent despite sedation and treatment, suggesting
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: a genuine traumatic experience rather than mere delusion. Matthews noted
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: that Montgomery would become most agitated when discussing the movement
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: of this entity. He insists that it did not walk
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: or crawl, but rather reassembled itself with each progression forward,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: the components of its form constantly shifting, yet maintaining a
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: coherent whole. Most disturbing is his insistence that he recognized
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: aspects of seven distinct individuals within the entity's composition, yet
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: integrated into a single functioning organism. Whether Montgomery's account represented
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: an actual encounter or or a hallucination born of his
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: obsession with the case, remains impossible to determine. What is
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: clear is that the experience permanently affected his mental stability,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: rendering him unable to continue his academic career or further
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: his investigation. In 1958, Professor James Calloway of the university's
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: newly formed Department of Anthropology discovered Montgomery's materials while researching
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Native American burial practices in the region. Intrigued, Callaway attempted
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: to locate the sealed cave mentioned in Montgomery's notes. Official
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: records indicated that the cave had been dynamited and permanently
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: closed following the discovery of the remains in 1896. However,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: Callaway's investigation of land surveys and railroad construction documents led
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: him to believe that the actual location might have been misreported,
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: possibly intentionally. In the summer of 1959, Callaway organized a
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: small expedition to the area, now largely abandoned following the
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: decline of the mining industry. What they discovered was a
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: landscape significantly altered by decades of erosion and occasional seismic
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: activity common to the region. The original rail line had
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: been rewrote in 1924, and the cutting where the cave
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: had supposedly been found was now partially collapsed. After two
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: weeks of searching, Calloway's team discovered an opening in the
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: hillside approximately half a mile from the location indicated in
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: the historical records. This narrow fissure, barely wide enough for
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: a man to pass through, led to a chamber that
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: Calloway became convinced was the original site described in Dr.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: Fleming's report. The chamber was empty of human remains but
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: contained several artifacts that Calloway documented meticulously. a pocket watch
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: with the initials P.O.C. engraved on the case, a child's
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: shoe remarkably preserved in the dry environment, and, most significantly,
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: a journal, bound in leather, that had nearly disintegrated with age.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: The journal, which Calloway carefully transported back to the University
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: for Preservation and Study, contained entries written in a cramped,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: increasingly unsteady hand. Although many pages were illegible, Those that
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: could be deciphered appeared to document the final days of
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: the O'Connor family's time in their homestead. One entry, dated
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: December 12, 1872, reads, The process has advanced beyond my expectations.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: Margaret's spine has achieved remarkable flexibility. The children's transformations progress
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: at varying rates. William most advanced, young Catherine least so.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: The professor's instructions regarding the maintenance of circulation during extended
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: positioning have proven effective. A later entry, dated December 15th, states,
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: Thomas experienced the integration today. His consciousness initially resisted, but
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: after the alignment was corrected, he reported the sensation we
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: have all come to recognize, the dissolution of boundaries between
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: intention and form. His right arm now responds to mental
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: commands that that would be impossible to convey through conventional
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: nervous pathways. The professor was correct. The body can be
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: taught to exceed its design. The final legible entry, dated
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: December 17th, states, We depart tonight for the sanctuary. The
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: final phase cannot be conducted in our home. I have
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: prepared the chamber as instructed. The alignment approaches. We will
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: position ourselves according to the diagrams. The professor promises that
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: once the reconfiguration is complete, we will no longer be
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: bound by the limitations that constrain ordinary men. We will
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: be as gods, our forms mutable at will. What makes
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: this journal particularly significant is not just its content, but
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: its physical characteristics. Calloway noted that the binding appeared to
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: be made of leather with unusual properties, more pliable than
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: any tanning process should allow. and with patterns that resembled
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: pores or follicles not typically found in processed animal hide.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: Laboratory analysis conducted at the university suggested that the material,
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: while dermatological in nature, could not be conclusively identified as
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: originating from any known animal species. Even more disturbing was
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: Calloway's observation regarding the ink used in the later entries.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: While the earlier pages had been written with conventional iron
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: gall ink common to the period, the final entries appeared
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: to have been written with a substance that, under microscopic examination,
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: contained cellular structures consistent with human blood that had been
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: altered through an unknown process to prevent coagulation. Calloway's find
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: generated brief interest among his academic colleagues, but his attempt
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: to publish a paper on the O'Connor case was rejected
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: by several journals. His application for funding to conduct a
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: more thorough excavation of the site was denied by the
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: university board, citing concerns about the scientific merit of the project. Frustrated,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: Calloway continued his research independently, using his own limited resources.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: In the spring of 1960, he returned to the site
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: accompanied by two graduate students. The three entered the chamber
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: with the intention of conducting a more thorough documentation of
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: the space. They never returned. A search party organized after
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: their disappearance located their vehicle parked near the hillside, their
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: camping equipment still set up. The entrance to the chamber
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: that Calloway had previously documented was found to have collapsed,
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: apparently due to a small landslide. Despite efforts to excavate,
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: no trace of Calloway or his students was ever found.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: What the official report does not mention, but which was
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: documented in the private journal of Sheriff Robert Lawson, who
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: led the search effort, was the discovery of three sets
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: of footprints leading away from the campsite, footprints that Lawson
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: described as beginning normally but gradually becoming distorted, as if
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: the individuals were walking in a manner that human anatomy
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: should not permit. The stride lengthened beyond what would be
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: possible without dislocation of the hip, and the impression of
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: the feet changed, suggesting weight distribution inconsistent with bipedal locomotion.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: These footprints led across terrain where tracking would normally be impossible,
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: bare rock and shale. Yet Lawson reported being able to
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: follow their progress, due to a residue that I can
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: only describe as similar to the trail left by a snail,
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: yet with properties unlike any substance I have, encountered. This residue,
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: initially clear, turned black upon exposure to direct sunlight and
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: emitted a faint odor reminiscent of copper. The trail eventually
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: led to a steep ravine approximately two miles from the campsite,
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: where it abruptly ended. No bodies were found in the ravine,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: despite an extensive search. Following this incident, the university disavowed
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: any connection to Calloway's research. His materials, including the journal
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: recovered from the chamber, were placed in storage and eventually
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: transferred to the Nevada Historical Society in 1965, where they
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: were classified and restricted from public access for 50 years.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: In the decades that followed, the O'Connor case occasionally resurfaced
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: in academic circles, usually as a footnote in studies of
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: frontier-era disappearances or as an example of of the unreliability
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: of historical accounts from isolated communities. Few researchers made the
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: connection between the original disappearance in 1872 and the subsequent discoveries,
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: in part because records had been deliberately obscured or destroyed
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: by authorities at various points. One exception was Dr. Elizabeth Chen,
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: a medical historian who became interested in the case while
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: researching 19th century medical practices in frontier communities. In 1987,
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: Chen managed to gain access to some of Montgomery's papers
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: through a special academic dispensation, though the Calloway materials remained restricted.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: Chen's analysis focused on the medical aspects of the case,
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: particularly the descriptions of the modified remains discovered in 1896.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: In a paper published in the Journal of Historical Medicine,
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: she proposed that the O'Connor family might have been practicing
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: an extreme form of body modification derived from both European
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: and Asian traditions, possibly influenced by Patrick O'Connor's alleged association
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: with Dr. Westerly. The techniques described, Chen wrote, bear similarities
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: to certain practices documented in isolated regions of India and Tibet,
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: where adepts of obscure Tantric traditions were said to achieve
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: states of physical malleability through years of disciplined practice. These
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: traditions maintain that the body, properly conditioned, can transcend its
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: apparent limitations and achieve configurations impossible by conventional anatomical standards.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: Chen's paper attracted little attention outside specialized academic circles, and
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: her attempts to gain access to the restricted Callaway materials
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: were repeatedly denied. She continued her research until 1992 when
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: she abruptly abandoned the project and accepted a position at
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: a university in Singapore. When contacted by subsequent researchers, she
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: refused to discuss her work on the O'Connor case, citing
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: only ethical concerns about the implications of certain findings. The
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: classification period for the Callaway materials expired in 2015, but
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: attempts by researchers to access these materials continued have been
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: met with bureaucratic obstacles. The Historical Society claims that many
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: of the documents were damaged during a basement flooding in
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: 1972 and are currently undergoing restoration. As of the time
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: of this recording, no one has been permitted to examine
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: what remains of Calloway's collection. What makes the O'Connor case
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: particularly disturbing from a historical perspective is not just the
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: nature of the practices allegedly undertaken by the family, but
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: the consistent pattern of official suppression that has surrounded the
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: case from its earliest days. From the territorial authorities' handling
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: of the initial investigation to the university's disavowal of Calloway's
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: research a century later, there appears to have been a
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: persistent institutional reluctance to acknowledge or preserve the full record
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: of these events. This reluctance extends to local histories of
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: northeastern Nevada, which typically omit any mention of the O'Connor
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: family despite the unusual circumstances of their disappearance. In the
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: single local history that does reference the case, Elko County,
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: the first century, published in 1969, the entry is brief
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: and sanitized. The O'Connor family, Irish immigrants who established a
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: small ranch near Wells in 1869, abandoned their property in
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: the winter of 1872-73 for unknown reasons. The property remained
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: unclaimed until 1888. This deliberate historical erasure raises questions about
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: what aspects of the case were deemed too disturbing for
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: public knowledge, questions that remain largely unanswered despite the passage
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: of more than a century. The O'Connor case represents a
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: uniquely disturbing chapter in Nevada's frontier history. one that authorities
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: of the time seemed determined to suppress rather than resolve.
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: What exactly happened to this family in the winter of
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: 1872 remains unknown, but the fragments of evidence that have
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: survived suggest practices far beyond the boundaries of conventional understanding.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: The land where the O'Connor homestead once stood remains undeveloped
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: to this day. Local residents still avoid the area, though
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: few could articulate exactly why. The railroad cutting where the
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: mysterious chamber was discovered has long since been abandoned, the
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: tracks removed during World War II for their metal value.
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: Yet occasionally travelers passing through the remote northeastern corner of
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: Nevada on Highway 93 report unusual sightings in the distance,
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: figures that appear to move in ways that seem unnatural,
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: visible for just moments before disappearing into the landscape. These
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: reports are easily dismissed as mirages, common in the harsh
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: desert environment, where heat distorts perception and isolation plays tricks
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: on the mind. But for those familiar with the O'Connor story,
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: such accounts carry a more disturbing implication. In 1967, the
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: last known person to have had direct connection to the case,
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: a former railroad worker named Henry Jenkins, who had been
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: present at the original discovery of the cave in 1896,
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: gave an interview to a local newspaper in Elko. Jenkins, then,
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: in his nineties, recalled something that had never appeared in
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: any official record.' When we first broke through into that space,
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: before the foreman ordered everyone out, I saw something I've
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: never spoken of. Those bodies weren't just arranged in a circle.
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: They were moving, ever so slightly, but moving all the same.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: And their faces. Their faces were locked in expressions of
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: such ecstasy that I've never been able to forget them, though.'
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: God knows I've tried. Jenkins died three weeks after giving
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: this interview. The newspaper that published his account went out
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: of business the following year, and only a handful of
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: copies of that edition are known to exist today. In 1998,
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: a group of hikers in the area reported finding what
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: they described as a strange arrangement of stones approximately one
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: mile from the site of the former O'Connor homestead. The formation,
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: roughly circular, and about twenty feet in diameter, consisted of
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: flat stones placed on edge and leaning inward, creating a
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: dome-like structure with a small opening at the top. What
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: caught the hikers' attention, and subsequently that of local authorities,
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: was the precision with which the stones had been balanced,
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: a precision that seemed to defy natural explanation. According to
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: the report filed with the Elko County Sheriff's Department, the
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: stones appear to be positioned in a state of tension
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: that should cause them to collapse, yet they remain stable.
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: No mortar or supporting structure is visible. When geologists from
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: the University of Nevada examined the formation, they found that
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: many of the stones showed evidence of tool marks consistent
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: with 19th century quarrying techniques. Carbon dating of lichen growth
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: on the stones suggested that they had been placed in
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: their current positions approximately 120 years earlier, roughly coinciding with
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: the period of the O'Connor disappearance. Most puzzling was the
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: discovery that the ground within the circle showed no evidence
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: of human activity, no fire pit, no artifacts, no indication
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: that the space had been used for any practical purpose. Instead,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: the soil appeared to have been deliberately arranged in a
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: pattern of swirls and spirals that bore a striking resemblance
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: to the markings reported to have been found on the
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: floor of the O'Connor home in 1872. Following this discovery,
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: the Bureau of Land Management designated the area as restricted,
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: citing concerns about the stability of the formation and potential
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: archaeological significance. Public access was prohibited and the location was
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: omitted from updated topographical maps of the region. Marcus Peterson,
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: the geologist who led the university examination of the site,
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: later wrote in a private correspondence that has since been
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: made public, Whatever purpose this structure served, it was not
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: constructed according to any architectural principle I recognize. The stones
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: are arranged in what I can only describe as a
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: state of impossible balance, each piece dependent on the position
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: of every other piece, in a way that should not
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: be stable, yet has endured for over a century of
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: exposure to the elements. Peterson went on to note that
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: his team had observed unusual physical sensations while working within
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: the stone circle. Several members reported a persistent sensation of
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: being watched, while others described feeling as if their bodies
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: were being pulled in multiple directions simultaneously. Most disturbing was
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: the unanimous report of hearing what sounded like whispered conversations
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: just at the edge of audibility. though no source could
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: be identified. The BLM's decision to restrict access to the
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: site has fueled speculation and rumors in local communities, with
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: some residents suggesting that the government is concealing evidence related
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: to the O'Connor case. These rumors gained additional traction in 2007,
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: when a former BLM employee claimed in an anonymous online
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: post that soil samples taken from within the Stone Circle
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: had revealed biological anomalies that defied conventional explanation. This claim
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: has never been officially confirmed or denied, and requests for
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: information under the Freedom of Information Act have been consistently
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: denied on grounds of ongoing investigation. Perhaps the most unsettling
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: aspect of the O'Connor case is not what we know,
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: but what remains hidden, buried in sealed archives, lost in
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: collapsed chambers. or suppressed by those who decided that some
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: discoveries are too disturbing to be acknowledged. As we conclude
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: this account, one final detail bears mention. In 1963, a
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: geological survey team mapping the region reported an anomaly in
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: their readings near the site of the former O'Connor property.
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: Using equipment that was advanced for its time, they detected
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: what appeared to be a cavity approximately 5,000 30 feet
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: below the surface, a space significantly larger than any natural formation,
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: would explain. Their request to investigate further was denied by
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: the Department of Interior without explanation. The anomaly was omitted
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: from their final report, and the matter was never officially pursued.
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: In 2004, a more sophisticated geological survey conducted as part
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: of a groundwater assessment project detected the same anomaly. now
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: estimated to be approximately 40 feet below the surface. The
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: report noted that the cavity appeared to be expanding at
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: a rate of approximately 3 inches per year, a phenomenon
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: that the surveyors could not explain through any known geological process.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: Most recently, in 2018, a team from the University of
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: Nevada equipped with ground-penetrating radar attempted to create a more
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: detailed map of the anomaly as part of a research
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: project on subsurface structures in the Great Basin. Their request
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: for a permit to conduct the survey was initially approved,
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: but abruptly revoked three days before the scheduled expedition. No
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: explanation was provided beyond a form letter citing security concerns.
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: Whatever secrets the O'Connor family took with them into the
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: winter night of 1872 remain buried in the harsh Nevada soil,
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: a testament to the fact that even in the documented
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: history of our nation, There exist dark corners where conventional
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: understanding fails, and where some mysteries perhaps ought to remain unsolved.
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: For those who wish to visit northeastern Nevada, the region
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: offers breathtaking landscapes and a rich mining history worth exploring.
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: But locals still advise travelers to stick to marked roads
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: and established trails, and to pay no mind to any
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: distant figures that might seem to move in ways that
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: defy natural law. Some boundaries, it seems. were never meant
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: to be crossed. Some knowledge was never meant to be obtained.
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: And some transformations, once begun, can never truly be undone.
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: In 2012, an amateur historian named Richard Landers became interested
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: in the O'Connor case after discovering a reference to it
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: in his grandfather's journal. His grandfather, who had worked as
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: a surveyor in northeastern Nevada during the 1930s, had made
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: a brief notation about the family that changed themselves, and
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: referenced a location near the Old Wells Elko Rail Line.
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: Blander's research led him to the Nevada Historical Society, where
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: he encountered the same bureaucratic obstacles that had frustrated previous researchers. Undeterred,
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: he began interviewing elderly residents of the region, hoping to
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: collect oral histories related to the case before they were
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: lost to time. Most of these interviews yielded little, beyond
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: vague recollections and second-hand accounts. However, one conversation with Eleanor Whitman,
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: a 93-year-old former schoolteacher who had spent her entire life
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: in the region, provided a disturbing new detail. According to Whitman,
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: her father had been part of the search party organized
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: after Calloway and his students disappeared in 1960. Although the
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: official report stated that no trace of the missing men
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: had been found, Whitman's father had told her otherwise. Dad
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: came home different after that search, she told Landers. Then,
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: one night, after too much whiskey, he told me they'd
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: found something. Not bodies, exactly, but what he called parts
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: that didn't match up. He said they'd discovered pieces that
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: looked human but couldn't possibly be. Joints that bent the
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: wrong way. Fingers too long and with too many knuckles.
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: A section of spine that moved like a snake. when touched.
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: Most disturbing was Whitman's recollection of her father's description of
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: a partial face they had found, not attached to anything,
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: just lying there on the rocks, but still moving its eyes,
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: still working its jaw as if trying to speak. According
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: to Whitman, the search party had been sworn to secrecy
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: by government officials who arrived the following day and took
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: possession of everything they had found. He wouldn't talk about
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: what they'd found for nearly a year, Her father never
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: spoke of it again, but in the weeks that followed,
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: he boarded up a storage cellar beneath their home, where
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: he had initially placed his muddy clothes from the search,
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: claiming it had become infested with insects that he couldn't
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: identify or eradicate. Blanders attempted to verify Whitman's account through
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: official records, but found that all documentation related to the
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: search for Calloway had been sealed by court order in
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: 1962 and ostensibly to prevent distress to the families of
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: the missing men. In 2014, Landers published a small self-financed
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: book titled The Reconfigured, The True Story of the O'Connor Family,
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: which compiled his research and interviews. The book received little
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: attention outside specialized circles interested in obscure historical mysteries, but
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: it did attract the notice of Dr. Samuel Hayes, a
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: biophysicist at Stanford University with an interest in historical accounts
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: of anatomical anomalies. Hayes contacted Landers and proposed a collaborative
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: investigation that would bring modern scientific methods to bear on
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: the historical evidence. Specifically, Hayes was interested in analyzing the
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: soil from the site of the Stone Circle discovered in 1998,
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: believing it might retain trace evidence of whatever activities had
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: occurred there. In the summer of 2015, Hayes and Landers
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: embarked on what they termed an unofficial research expedition to
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: northeastern Nevada. Without permits for formal excavation, they limited their
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: activities to surface observation and collection of soil samples from
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: public land in the vicinity of the restricted area. The
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: results of Hayes' analysis of these samples, published in the
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: Journal of Anomalous Scientific Phenomena, a peer-reviewed but admittedly fringe publication,
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: describe the presence of protein structures unlike any previously documented.
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: These proteins, Hayes wrote, Exhibit characteristics that should be mutually exclusive.
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: They are simultaneously rigid and flexible, stable at temperatures that
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: would denature conventional proteins and appear to maintain their structure
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: even when the chemical bonds that should hold them together
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: are disrupted. Hayes hypothesized that these proteins might represent the
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: remnants of a substance used in the O'Connor's reconfiguration practices,
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: possibly a compound that altered the POMVIR properties of collagen
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: and other connective tissues to allow for extreme malleability without
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: loss of structural integrity. This hypothesis, while scientifically intriguing, fails
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: to explain the more disturbing aspects of the case, particularly
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: the reports of continued movement in remains that should have
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: been long dead, and the accounts of figures seen in
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: the region that moved in ways that defied natural law.
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: In 2016, Landers disappeared while conducting follow-up research in the area.
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: His vehicle was found parked at a trailhead approximately five
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: miles from the site of the former O'Connor homestead. Despite
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: an extensive search, no trace of Landers was ever found.
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: His laptop, recovered from his motel room in Wells, contained
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: journal entries describing his intention to locate the underground cavity
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: detected by geological surveys. The final entry, dated the day
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: before his disappearance, reads, I believe I've found the entrance.
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: It's not where everyone has been looking. It's much closer
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: to the original homestead site than the cave discovered in 1896.
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: If I'm right, the O'Connors never left their property at all.
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: They simply went beneath it. I'll know tomorrow. Dr. Hayes,
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: upon learning of Landers' disappearance, attempted to continue their joint research.
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: but reported being warned off by federal authorities who questioned
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: him about the nature of their investigations and confiscated his
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: remaining soil samples. In a final publication before abandoning the
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: subject entirely, Hayes wrote, Whatever occurred in that remote corner
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: of Nevada in the winter of 1872 represents either a
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: monumental scientific discovery that has been deliberately suppressed or a
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: human tragedy of unique proportions. In either case, the systematic
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: obstruction of research into these events raises disturbing questions about
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: what certain institutions might be protecting or containing. The most
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: recent development in the O'Connor case occurred in 2019 when
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: a routine highway maintenance project on Route 93 unearthed what
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: initially appeared to be a time capsule buried beside the
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: roadbed approximately eight miles from the site of the former
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: O'Connor homestead. The metal container, badly corroded but still intact,
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: bore an inscription identifying it as the property of Professor
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: James Calloway, dated May 1960, the month of his disappearance.
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: Highway workers, unaware of the significance of the find, delivered
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: the container to the Elko County Historical Society. Before any
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: official examination of the contents could be conducted, representatives from
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: the Bureau of Land Management arrived and confiscated the container,
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: citing federal jurisdiction over artifacts found on or near public lands.
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: No inventory of the contents has ever been made public.
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: A Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Las
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: Vegas Sun regarding this incident was denied on grounds of
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: national security implications, a designation that appears disproportionate for what
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: should have been a simple historical artifact. This pattern of
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: official intervention and information suppression has been consistent throughout the
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: history of the O'Connor case, suggesting that whatever occurred in
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: that remote homestead continues to be regarded as sensitive by
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: authorities nearly 150 years later. For researchers and historians, the
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: case represents a frustrating enigma, a historical mystery deliberately obscured
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: by institutional actions that prevent thorough investigations. For local residents
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: of northeastern Nevada, it remains a disturbing legend, a story
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: told in hushed tones, with significant details often omitted. And
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: for travelers passing through the region, particularly those venturing off
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: the main highways onto the network of dirt roads that
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: crisscross the high desert, it serves as a reminder that
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: the American frontier once harbored secrets darker than the typical
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: tales of outlaws. and Indian conflicts that populate conventional histories.
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: To this day, ranchers in the region report occasional livestock
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: mutilations that defy conventional explanation. Animals found with limbs contorted
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: into impossible positions but no signs of external injury, their
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: bones apparently reshaped while still alive. Such incidents are typically
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: attributed to predators or disease by official investigators But those
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: familiar with the O'Connor case sometimes suggest a different explanation.
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: The region surrounding the former O'Connor property experiences an unusually
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: high number of missing persons cases, hikers, campers, and solitary
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: travelers who vanish without trace. While the harsh desert environment
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: provides a ready explanation for such disappearances, the statistical anomaly
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: has been noted by law enforcement officials. Though rarely discussed publicly.
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: Most telling, perhaps, is the reluctance of long-time local residents
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: to travel certain roads after dark or to venture into
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: particular valleys and canyons under any circumstances. When pressed for explanations,
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: they typically offer vague references to bad air or strange territory,
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: but those who have gained their trust might hear references
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: to the bent ones or those who change themselves As
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: one elderly rancher whose family has occupied the same property
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: since the 1880s told a researcher in 2005, some things
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: you learn to live alongside so long as you don't
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: look too close or wander too far into certain places.
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: They keep to themselves mostly, and we do the same.
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: That's been the arrangement for longer than I've been alive.
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: Whether this arrangement represents mere superstition or a more disturbing
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: accommodation with something that has occupied the region since the
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: winter of 1872, remains unclear. What is certain is that
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: the story of the O'Connor family, their experiments, their disappearance,
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: and the subsequent discoveries, represents one of the most unsettling
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: chapters in the history of the American frontier. A history
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: in which the quest to transcend human limitations led not
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: to enlightenment, but to a transformation so profound that authorities
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: have worked for generations to conceal its nature and implications.
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: As we conclude this narrative, it is worth considering the
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: final passage from Margaret O'Connor's journal, as preserved in James
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: Morgan's private papers. We do not fear what we are becoming.
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: Fear belongs to those who cannot see beyond the prison
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: of their own form. What awaits us is not death,
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: but liberation, a reconfiguration so complete that those who witness
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: it will have no framework to comprehend what they see.
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: We go now to complete what we have begun, to
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: become what we were always meant to be. Whatever the
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: O'Connors became in that winter of 1872, the silence that
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: surrounds their case suggests that some transformations are too profound
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: or too disturbing for conventional history to acknowledge. For those
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: who travel through northeastern Nevada The vast, empty landscape offers
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: no obvious signs of the events described in this account.
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: Though sight of the O'Connor homestead bears no marker, the
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: location of the stone circle remains restricted, and the entrance
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: to whatever lies beneath the surface has never been officially located.
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: Yet local residents still avoid certain areas after sunset. They
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: still speak of figures glimpsed at a distance, moving in
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: ways that human bodies should not be able to move.
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: and they still tell their children to stay on marked
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: trails and established roads, advice that echoes the frontier wisdom
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: that some boundaries were never meant to be crossed, some
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: knowledge was never meant to be obtained, and some transformations,
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: once begun, can never truly be undone.