Latest / The Mind of a Man / (1898_ Arkansas) The Macabre History of the Dunham Sisters _ What They Hid Under the Floorboards

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(1898_ Arkansas) The Macabre History of the Dunham Sisters _ What They Hid Under the Floorboards · The Mind of a Man

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to this journey of one of the most disturbing
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: cases in recorded history from Wickersham County, Arkansas. Before we begin,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: I invite you to leave a comment about where you're
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: watching from and the exact time you heard this story.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: We're interested in knowing where and at what times of
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: day or night these documented accounts arrive. The summer of
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: 1898 in rural Arkansas seemed more oppressive than usual, The
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: humid heat hung over Wickersham County like a damp sheet
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: permeating the walls of the wooden houses scattered across the
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: rolling hills and dense forests. It was the kind of
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: heat that made people slow down, that made conversations quieter,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: more measured. But for those living in the house at
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: the end of Oak Ridge Trail, the silence came from
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: something deeper than the heat. The property belonged to the
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Dunham sisters, Josephine and Adelaide, both in their sixties, descendants
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: of one of the founding families of the county. The
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: house stood out among other structures in the area due
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: to its imposing size, with a front porch supported by
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: weathered columns, tall windows protected by intricate wooden lattices, and
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: a garden in the back, that neighbors said, had once
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: been lush in other times. Now, however, weeds invaded the
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: abandoned flower beds, and vines climbed up the peeling walls
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: of creating shadows that seemed to shift at dusk. County
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: records from that era described the residence as having been
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: built in 1857 by Bartholomew Dunham, father of the sisters'
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: father Montgomery, during the prosperous years before the Civil War.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: The architecture blended European elements brought back from Bartholomew's travels
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: to England and France with adaptations to the southern climate.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: According to documents of the period, the house occupied approximately
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: two acres of land and had two main floors, in
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: addition to an attic and an extensive cellar that curiously
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: occupied only half of the total area of the construction.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: It was common for passers-by to quicken their pace when
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: walking past the residence, especially after sunset. There wasn't a
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: specific reason for this, at least not one that could
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: be clearly articulated. It was more of a sensation, a
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: subtle discomfort, as if the house were watching those who
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: passed by it. Interviews conducted by historian Archibald Harmon in
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: 1958 with former residents of the region reveal that even
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: before the disappearance of the Dunham sisters, the house already
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: had a peculiar reputation. Mathilda Jenkins, a washerwoman who worked
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: for several wealthy families in the area, reported, that house
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: was always different. even when Mr. Montgomery Dunham was still alive,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: there was something strange there. The clothes I washed for
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: them always had a smell. Not of common dirt, but
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: something like damp earth and dried herbs, even the clean pieces.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: And the Dunham ladies always handed me the clothes personally,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: never allowed me past the service door. The official story,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: the one that appeared in county records, was simple— Josephine
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: and Adelaide Dunham lived alone after the death of their father,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Montgomery Dunham, which occurred in 1877. Without husbands or heirs,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: they dedicated themselves to managing the assets left by their
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: father and were rarely seen in town. Their public appearances
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: were limited to Sunday services at the Methodist Church. All
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: was dressed in dark clothing. All was seated in the
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: same pew. All was alone. The details surrounding Montgomery Dunham's death,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: though apparently well-documented, present intriguing inconsistencies. According to the official
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: death certificate signed by Dr. Jeremiah Crawford on January 12, 1877,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: the cause of death was listed as cardiac arrest resulting
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: from tropical fever. However, a more detailed medical report found
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: in the archives of the old Wickersham County Hospital describes
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: symptoms that hardly correspond to a simple fever. The patient
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: exhibits periods of extreme agitation alternating with profound lethargy. He
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: reports disturbing visions and insists there is something inside the
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: walls watching him. The pupils remain dilated even under strong light,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: and the skin exhibits an abnormal pallor. Most disturbing is
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: the fact that during episodes of delirium, He occasionally speaks
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: in a language unknown to this physician. On March 14, 1898,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: the Dunham sisters did not appear at church service. Initially,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: no one gave much importance to this fact. Elderly people
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: occasionally fall ill or simply decide to stay home. But
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: when their absence extended to three consecutive Sundays, Reverend Thaddeus
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Whitmore decided to send his housekeeper, Martha Belmont, to check
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: on the well-being of the sisters. Reverend Whitmore was not
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: a man who easily intruded into the affairs of his parishioners,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: especially those belonging to the traditional families of the county.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: According to his personal diaries, kept in the diocesan library,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: he nurtured a peculiar respect for the Dunham sisters, mixed
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: with something that could be described as apprehension. In an
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: entry dated February 1896, he writes, I spoke with Miss
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Josephine D. today. As always, her conversation was formal and contained,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: almost rehearsed. However, today I noticed something different in her eyes,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: a feverish gleam that does not match her usual composure.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: When I inquired about her health, she replied only that
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: the nights have been long. At the end she asked
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: me something unusual. She wanted to know if I believed
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: that the dead could return not by divine work, but
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: by force of an earthly promise. I answered with Scripture, naturally,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: but the question disturbed me for the rest of the day.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: What Martha found, or, more precisely, what she did not find,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: would initiate a series of events that would profoundly mark
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: the memory of the county, though, with the passing years,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: many would prefer to forget. As recorded in the Sheriff's
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Report of April 4, 1898, filed at the Wickersham County
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Sheriff's Office and later transferred to the State Historical Archive,
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Martha knocked at the door of the house at the
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: end of Oak Ridge Trail for long minutes without receiving
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: a response. Noticing that the door was not locked, merely ajar,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: the housekeeper decided to enter, calling out the names of
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: the Dunham sisters. The interior of the house was impeccably
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: clean and organized. as if it had been prepared to
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: receive visitors. In the sitting room, on a side table,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: there was a half-empty teacup, already cold. No sign of
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: struggle or disorder. No sign of the Dunham sisters. The
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: sheriff's report, written by Deputy Clerk Hammond Pierce, under the
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: dictation of Sheriff Zachariah Thornton, describes the scene with an
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: almost clinical objectivity, but includes a curious detail. The housekeeper
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: reports that, upon entering the residence, she noticed that all
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: the clocks in the house had stopped at exactly 3.17,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: including the wall clock in the sitting room, the pocket
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: watch on the desk in the study, and even the
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: small clock in the main bedroom. Mrs. Bellman states that
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: this detail caused her particular discomfort, though she could not
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: explain why. Martha walked through all the rooms of the
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: house— sitting room, kitchen, four-bedroom study, without finding the owners. As
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: she later reported to the sheriff, it was in the
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: cellar that she noticed something unusual. An old trunk of
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: dark wood, the kind used to store clothing or keepsakes,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: was open, something uncommon considering that the Dunham sisters were
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: known to keep all their belongings carefully stored and locked away.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: The cellar of the residence deserves a more detailed description,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: as its unusual configuration would later become an object of
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: interest for investigators of the case. Unlike typical cellars of
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: colonial homes of the time, generally simple storage spaces with
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: dirt floors, the cellar of the Dunham House, had been
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: constructed with evident attention to detail. The floor was of
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: carved stone, the walls coated with a type of mortar that,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: according to specialists consulted years later, contained unusual components that
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: made it exceptionally resistant to moisture. Illumination was provided by
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: small barred windows at ground level, positioned in such a
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: way that, even on cloudy days, the environment received sufficient light.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Most curious, however, was the division of space. Although the
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: house occupied a considerable area, the accessible cellar corresponded to
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: only about half of that area. The other half, according
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: to architectural plans of the time, would simply be compacted earth. However,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: the wall that separated the two sections was not aligned
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: with any upper wall of the house, creating an asymmetric
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: layout that intrigued architects who later studied the case. Even
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: more intriguing was the small door of dark wood, almost imperceptible,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: installed in the dividing wall. All was kept locked by
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: the Dunham sisters. Inside the trunk, Martha found only a
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: notebook with a black cover, apparently a diary. leafing through
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: it quickly. she noticed that the pages were filled with
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: an elegant and precise handwriting, undoubtedly that of Josephine Dunham. However,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: something caught her attention. In the last written pages the
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: handwriting became progressively more tremulous, almost illegible, as if it
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: had been recorded by someone under extreme stress or fear.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: The housekeeper took the notebook with her and went immediately
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: to the sheriff's office where she reported the disappearance of
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  Speaker 1: the elderly sisters to Sheriff Thornton. Sheriff Zachariah Thornton was
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: not known for his investigative zeal. At 58 years old,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: he occupied the position more due to his political connections
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: than professional competence. A former military man of intermediate rank,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: he had been appointed sheriff in 1892 after supporting the
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: winning faction in a local electoral dispute. His record of
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: solved cases was mediocre, especially when they involved influential families
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: of the region. A journalist of the time, Tobias Steele,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: described him in a column as a man who prefers
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: the comfort of his armchair to the discomfort of truth.
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  Speaker 1: The official investigation into the disappearance of the Dunham sisters
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: was superficial and brief. After three days of searching the
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: property and surroundings, without finding any trace of the elderly women,
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  Speaker 1: Sheriff Thornton concluded that they had probably traveled to visit
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: relatives in Memphis without telling anyone. The case was filed
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: and the house at the end of Oak Ridge Trail
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: was closed, awaiting the return of the owners. The investigation reports,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: although succinct, mention a detail that did not receive due
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: attention at the time. During the inspection of the property,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: deputies found all the clothes and personal belongings of the
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Dunham sisters intact in the wardrobes. Their jewelry box contained
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: all the pieces cataloged in their personal inventory, including valuable
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: items such as a pearl necklace and a set of
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: sapphire earrings that, according to witnesses, they highly valued as
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: they had been gifts from their late father. In the
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: drawer of the desk, a wallet containing a considerable amount
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: of money remained untouched. If the elderly women had really
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: traveled of their own free will, they had departed without
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: taking any belongings or resources. However, the diary found by
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: Martha was never annexed to the official process. Sheriff Thornton
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: claimed to have returned it to the reverend's housekeeper, who
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: in turn claimed never to have received it back. For decades,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: the whereabouts of this document remained unknown, until in 1964
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: during the renovation of an old parsonage in Wickersham County,
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: a carpenter named Sullivan Reed found a wooden box embedded
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: in a false wall. Inside the box, wrapped in a
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: black silk cloth, was the diary of Josephine Dunham. The
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: discovery was initially kept secret by the carpenter, who, superstitious,
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: feared that the object might be related to some unorthodox
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: religious practice. It was only three months later, upon overhearing
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: a casual conversation about the old mystery of the disappeared sisters,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: that Sullivan decided to reveal his discovery to his employer,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: the engineer Morris Blackwell, who in turn informed the ecclesiastical authorities.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Reverend Julius Kensington, responsible for the parish at that time,
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: took possession of the document and, after reading its contents,
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: decided to turn it over to the History Department of
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: Arkansas State University. However, for reasons never officially clarified, the
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: diary was filed in the restricted documents section of the
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: University Library, where it remained inaccessible to the public for
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: another five years. Reverend Kensington, a cultured and methodical man,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: educated in theology at Princeton University, was not given to
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: superstitions or unnecessary alarms. This makes all the more intriguing
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: the content of a letter he sent to the Bishop
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: of Little Rock, along with his request to transfer the
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: diary to the University. In the letter, partially preserved in
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: diocesan archives, he writes, Your Excellency will understand my hesitation
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: in deciding the appropriate destination for this document. Its content,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: especially in the final pages, raises questions that transcend the
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: scope of our common theological understanding. I suggest nothing of
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: a supernatural nature. I am, as you know, averse to
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: such explanations. But there is in these pages a testimony
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: of something profoundly disturbing that I believe should be studied
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: by minds prepared for deeper psychological and historical analyses. What
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: concerns me is not so much what is written, but
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: the evident transformation in the person who wrote it. In 1969,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: Professor Wesley Montgomery, during research on the social history of
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: Arkansas in the early 20th century, obtained authorization to consult
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: the document. What he found in the yellowed pages of
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: Josephine Dunham's diary disturbed him deeply, leading him to abandon
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: his original research and dedicate himself exclusively to the study
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: of this case. Wesley Montgomery was not just a competent historian,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: but also a meticulous researcher with secondary training in psychology.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: Born in 1921 in Little Rock, he had served briefly
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: in the Army during World War II before dedicating himself
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: to academic life. His specialty was documenting oral histories and
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: analyzing personal documents, such as letters and diaries. to reconstruct
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: social and psychological aspects of historical periods. When he gained
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: access to Josephine Dunham's diary, he was working on an
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: extensive study of social transformations in rural Arkansas at the
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: turn of the century. The first entries in the diary
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: dated from January 1877, shortly after the death of Montgomery Dunham.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: They were mundane notes about the day-to-day life of the sisters.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: lists of tasks, expense records, occasionally reflections on loneliness and loss.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: The handwriting was firm, organized, reflecting the methodical personality that
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: acquaintances attributed to Josephine Dunham. An entry from March 1877
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: offers a glimpse of the routine and mental state of
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: the sisters at that time. March 17, 1877 Today we
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: received a visit from Mr. Hargreaves' solicitor to deal with
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: pending matters of the inventory. The papers are in order,
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: as Father always kept them. The house, the lands in
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: Wickersham County, and the shares in the cotton company remain
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: as solid assets, sufficient to maintain Adelaide and myself comfortably
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: for the rest of our days. I feel grateful for this,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: but would trade all this material security for a few
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: more years with him, The nights are especially difficult. The
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: house seems larger and emptier. Sometimes I wake, thinking I
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: have heard his voice calling me from the study, as
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: he did when he worked until late. The doctor recommended
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: that I take valerian drops to help with sleep, but
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: I hesitate. I prefer the lucidity of pain to the
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: confusion induced by medicines. Over the following months, the entries
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: follow a similar pattern, documenting the gradual adaptation of the
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Dunham sisters to their new reality. Josephine mentions occasional visits
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: from acquaintances, decisions about the administration of their assets, and
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: reflections on mourning. A recurring theme is her reluctance to
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: modify any aspect of the house or dispose of their
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: father's belongings, as if preserving the physical environment could, somehow,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: keep his presence alive. A curious entry from August 1877
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: mentions the cellar of the house for the first time.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: August 22, 1877. I needed to go down to the
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: cellar to-day to fetch some bottles of wine for dinner
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: with Judge Harrington. I had not entered there since Father's death.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: He always insisted on being the only one to handle
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: that particular wine cellar. Strangely, I found the small door
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: at the back ajar, though I am certain it should
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: have been locked The key, which Father always carried with him,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: was in the lock. I did not dare to look
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: at what lies beyond it. I never entered that compartment.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: Father said it was merely a storage space for old
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: family objects, things without value, but that he did not
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: have the heart to discard. I closed the door, removed
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: the key, and now keep it with me. Tomorrow I
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: will ask our groundskeeper to check if there is any
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: external entrance that might explain how that door came to
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: be opened. However, from November 1897, the tone of the
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: entries began to subtly change. Josephine began to record strange sensations,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: nocturnal noises that she could not identify, a persistent sensation
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: of being watched, objects that seemed to change place when
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: she wasn't looking. November 16, 1897. Again that sound, like
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: nails scratching wood coming from the walls. I asked our
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: groundskeeper to check for possible rats, but he found no trace.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: Perhaps it is just the old house settling, as he suggested,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: but why all was at midnight? Jefferson Powell was the
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: gardener and handyman who worked for the Dunham sisters three
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: times a week. According to county employment records, he left
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: service at the house on Oak Ridge Trail in December, 1897,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: claiming to have found a better position at a farm
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: on the outskirts of the county. However, when Professor Montgomery
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: managed to locate a relative of Jefferson, Harriet Powell, in 1969,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: she told a different story. Jefferson never spoke about that house,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: nor about the old ladies. When we asked why he
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: had left a stable job in the county to work
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: so far away, he would only say that there were
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: things that money couldn't compensate for. The night before leaving
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: for the farm, I heard him tell his wife that
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: the walls of that house had eyes and ears. Mom,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: we never understood what he meant by that. Harriet also
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: revealed to Professor Montgomery a disturbing detail that does not
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: appear in any official record. Her brother, a previously healthy
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: and robust man, began to waste away shortly after leaving
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: employment at the Dunham house. It was as if something
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: were consuming him from within, she described. He lost weight,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: lost his appetite, and at night suffered from nightmares so
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: intense that he would scream until hoarse. Before dying, just
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: six months after leaving that house, he raved about something
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: that lived between the walls, and repeated, I shouldn't have looked,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: shouldn't have opened that door. The entries in the diary
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: became more disturbing as December advanced. Josephine reported having seen
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: a dark figure standing at the foot of her bed
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: during the night, which disappeared when she lit the lamp.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: She mentioned whispering voices that seemed to come from within
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: the walls, speaking words she could not understand, but which
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: somehow seemed directed at her. On January 2, 1898, she wrote,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: I found that photograph again at the bottom of the
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: dresser drawer, although I am certain I burned it three
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: days ago. How is this possible? The image seems different now.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: His eyes seem to follow me around the room. Tomorrow
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: I will burn it again, and this time I will
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: scatter the ashes in the garden. The photograph in question
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: was never found, and the diary does not specify whose
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: image it was. Considering that Josephine refers to the person
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: in the photograph as HE in capital letters, Professor Montgomery
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: initially assumed it to be her late father. However, Later
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: entries cast doubt on this interpretation. On January 5th, she writes,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: I did not sleep again. The sounds in the walls continue,
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: louder now, more insistent. They no longer seem like scratches,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: but rhythmic knocks. As if someone, or something, were trying
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: to communicate through a code. I have made the decision
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: to check the cellar tomorrow, the small door in the back,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: which has remained locked all these years. Perhaps there is
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: something there that explains these phenomena. The key is still
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: with me, kept in the jewelry box since that day
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: in 1877. Father made me promise never to open it.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: But he is no longer here to protect me from
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: whatever might be on the other side. What if what
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: torments me is precisely there? On January 6th, the entry
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: is brief and disturbing. I went down to the cellar today.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: The key was no longer in the jewelry box, although—
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: I am certain I left it there last night. I
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: found it in the lock of the small door, as
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: if someone had placed it there. The door was ajar.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: The smell that came from inside. I cannot describe it adequately.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: A mixture of damp earth, mold, and something else. Something metallic,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: like old blood or rusted iron. I did not have
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: the courage to open the door completely or enter. I
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: locked it again and brought the key with me. Tonight
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: I will sleep with it under my pillow. On January 15th,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Josephine reports a recurring dream. The same dream, for the
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: third consecutive night. I am standing before that door in
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: the cellar, the one I always keep locked. In the dream,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: I know I should not open it, but my hands
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: move against my will. When the door opens, I see
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: only darkness, and feel an intense cold coming from within. Then,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: From the depths of that darkness I hear that voice,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: not Father's, but the other, the one that promised to return.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: I am fulfilling my promise, and says the voice. And
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: then I wake up, always at 3.17 in the morning,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: with the sensation that someone is sitting on the edge
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: of my bed. The reference to the other voice and
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: the promise of return is particularly intriguing, as there is
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: no previous mention in the diary of such a promise
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: or who might have made it. Professor Montgomery dedicated considerable
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: time trying to discover if there might be some secret
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: door or hidden room in the cellar of the house
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: on Oak Ridge Trail. But when he finally obtained permission
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: to examine the property in May 1969, he discovered that
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: the cellar had been completely cemented over during a renovation
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: carried out in 1926, when the house was briefly occupied
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: by a family of merchants from St. Louis. This family,
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: the Vaughans, remained on the property for just seven months,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: a notably short period considering the substantial investment they had
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: made in renovating the house. Leopold Vaughn, patriarch of the family,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: was a successful merchant who had built a prosperous import business.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: In 1926, at 52 years old, he decided to acquire
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: a residence that reflected his social status, and the old
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: Dunham house, which had remained closed for years, presented itself
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: as an opportunity. Records of the time show that Vaughn
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: contracted the architect, Frederick Hartman, to supervise an extensive renovation
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: of the property, including modernizations such as electrical installation and
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: internal plumbing. A curious detail appears in the architect's notes
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: preserved in the county public archive. Client insisted on completely
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: cementing over the cellar after incident with the workers. I
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: suggested keeping at least one section as a wine cellar,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: given the favorable climate, but Mr. Vaughn was adamant. I
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: want that space permanently sealed, were his exact words. Lee.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: The incident mentioned is not detailed in the official notes,
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: but Professor Montgomery managed to get some information through an
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: assistant of Frederick Hartman, who worked on the project. According
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: to this assistant, who accompanied the project, two workers who
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: were removing rubble from the cellar discovered a small door
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: embedded in the back wall. Curious, they forced the lock
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: and found a narrow compartment, no larger than a closet.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: What they saw inside was never fully clarified, but both
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: men abandoned the job the same day, refusing to return,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: even when offered double pay. One of them, according to reports,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: moved away from the county the following week. As the
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: end of January approached, the entries in the diary became
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: more spaced out and fragmented. The handwriting began to show
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: signs of deterioration, with words crossed out, and spots that
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: could be tears or spilled ink. On January 27th, there
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: is a particularly disturbing entry. I can no longer sleep.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: When I close my eyes, I feel his presence in
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: the room. The walls are damp now, though it has
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: not rained. The dampness forms patterns that look like watching faces.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: The smell, That same smell of wet earth and something else,
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: something I recognize but cannot name. I should have burned
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: all those objects when I had the chance. Now it
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: is too late. Father knew. He tried to warn me.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: An entry from January 29th contains an even more unsettling account. Someone,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: or something, has been walking through the house during the night.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: I hear the footsteps above my room, in the attic
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: that has remained locked for years. The creaking of the
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: floorboards is unmistakable. Last night I gathered the courage to
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: go up and check. The attic door was locked, as always.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: The key kept in the drawer of my desk. But
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: upon placing my ear against the wood, I distinctly heard
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: breathing on the other side, heavy and irregular. Even more
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: disturbing was that, as I moved away, the breathing abruptly
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: stopped as if whatever was inside knew I was listening.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: I returned to my room and locked the door. In
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: the early morning I woke to the sound of scratching
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: at my door. It was not like an animal trying
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: to enter, but something deliberate. Three slow scratches, followed by
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: three quicker ones, then a pause, and the pattern repeated.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: I remained motionless in a bed, without the courage to check.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: The scratching continued for almost an hour, then ceased. In
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: the morning I examined the door. There were no visible
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: marks on the wood. On January 31, Josephine makes a
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: cryptic reference to an event from the past. I have
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: thought much about that night, the last when Father seemed
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: truly lucid before the illness consumed him completely. He called
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: me to his study late at night and handed me
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: the key to that door in the cellar, making me
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: swear never to open it.' What we did was wrong, Josephine,'
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: he said.' I should not have brought that into our house.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: I should not have made that agreement.' I never knew
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: what agreement he referred to. Father always dealt with his
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: business privately. But I remember that in 1874, after returning
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: from a trip to New Orleans, he changed. He became
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: more reserved, spent hours alone in the cellar, and occasionally
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: I heard him conversing down there, though I never saw
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: anyone enter or leave. It was after this trip that
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: the compartment in the back of the cellar was constructed
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: officially to store important documents. Now I wonder, what is
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: really kept in there? The last regular entry dates from
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: February 9, 1898. I found marks on the cellar floor today,
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: as if something heavy had been dragged toward that door.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: I did not enter. I cannot. But I know I
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: must face him eventually. The voices are louder now, almost
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: distinct enough to understand what they say. I think they
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: are calling my name, or perhaps it is just the wind.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: Tomorrow I will go to the church to speak with
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: Reverend Whitmore. Perhaps he can help. There is no record
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: that Josephine did in fact seek out Reverend Whitmore. According
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: to the parish visitation book preserved in the diocesan archives,
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: her last confession occurred on January 26, 1898. However, there
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: exists an intriguing document in the reverend's personal archives. A
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: handwritten note on high-quality paper, signed by Josephine Dunham, and
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: dated February 10, 1898. Reverend Whitmore, I beg your forgiveness
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: for not attending our scheduled meeting today. Unforeseen circumstances require
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: my presence at home. The matter about which I intended
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: to consult you has become more urgent than I imagined.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: I ask for your prayers. as I fear I am
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: facing something that transcends my understanding and, perhaps, the very
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: doctrine of the Church. If we do not see each
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: other again in this world, know that I departed in
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: peace with my conscience, though not necessarily in peace with
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: what inhabits between these walls. May God protect you, Josephine Dunham.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: Reverend Whitmore never mentioned this note publicly, and it was
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: only discovered after his death in 1925, Among his personal documents,
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: after the entry of February 9th, there is an interval
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: of almost a month without annotations. Then, on March 10th,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: four days before her absence was first noticed, there is
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: a final entry. The handwriting is almost unrecognizable, trembling and hasty,
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: as if written by someone on the verge of collapse.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: It is here, in the house, with me. It is
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: not father, it never was. The cellar door is open now.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: It was not I who opened it. The sounds it
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: makes as it moves through the walls. I cannot stay
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: any longer. But where to go when he is everywhere?
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: The photographs, all of them, even those I burned, have returned.
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: The faces in the photos have changed. They all have
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: his eyes now. I need to end this. There is
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: only one way. This is the last clearly legible entry
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: in the diary— In the final pages there are only
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: incoherent scribbles and what appear to be frustrated attempts to
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: draw something, perhaps a face or a symbol. On the
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: last page there is a single phrase, written in a
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: surprisingly clear and firm handwriting, so different from the previous
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: text that it raised questions about whether it had been
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: written by the same person. I finally understood what he
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: wanted from the beginning. Professor Wesley Montgomery spent the following
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: years trying to construct a clearer chronology of events and
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: determine what really happened to the Dunham sisters. In his
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: research notebooks, found after his death in 1975, he raises
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: several hypotheses from supernatural explanations, which he himself dismissed as
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: products of the feverish imagination of lonely elderly women, to
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: more mundane possibilities. an intruder who tormented the sisters, some
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: distant relative, with interest in their inheritance, or even a
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: case of progressive mental deterioration that culminated in escape or suicide.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: One of the aspects that most intrigued the professor was
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: the coincidence between the recurring time in Josephine's dreams, 317,
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: and the fact that all the clocks in the house
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: were found stopped at this same time. This coincidence suggested
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: that something significant had occurred at that specific moment, possibly
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: on the night before her disappearance. Another disturbing element that
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: Montgomery highlighted in his notes was the final phrase of
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: the diary. The handwriting of that last entry, so different
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: from the rest, raised questions about its authenticity. Would it
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: be possible that someone else had written that line? And
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: if so, who? and what would be the meaning of
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: that understanding mentioned. One of the most intriguing aspects that
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: Montgomery discovered during his investigation were the death records of
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: Montgomery Dunham. According to the official document, he died of
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: natural causes on January 12, 1877. However, upon examining the
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: archives of the old Wickersham County Hospital, the professor found
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: a medical report that offered additional details. the father had
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: suffered from mysterious ailment that caused severe hallucinations in the
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: weeks prior to his death. The responsible physician, Dr. Vincent Holloway,
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: described that the patient frequently spoke about something that lived
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: inside the walls and insisted that he had made an
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: agreement that he could not fulfill. This medical report, dated
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: January 10, 1877, includes additional observations that Montgomery considered particularly relevant.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: The patient alternates between periods of lucidity and episodes of
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: extreme agitation. During moments of mental clarity, he expresses a
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: rational and consistent fear related to an agreement that he
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: supposedly made during his trip to New Orleans in 1874.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: Although reluctant to provide specific details... He mentioned having acquired
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: an ancient object from a merchant in the French Quarter,
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: an object which he now keeps stored in a special
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: compartment in his residence. More concerning is his insistence that
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: this object is not inanimate. Mr. Dunham, a man of
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: education and respectable social position, does not seem given to superstitions. However,
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: he describes with disturbing conviction that the object changed after
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: being brought to his home. and that it now communicates
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: with him through the walls. When questioned about the nature
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: of these communications, the patient becomes extremely agitated, refusing to elaborate.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: In the last 48 hours, his physical state has deteriorated significantly.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: He presents permanently dilated pupils, even under intense light, abnormally
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: low body temperature. and a peculiar odor emanating from the
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: skin that does not correspond to any pathological condition known
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: to this physician. There are also inexplicable marks on the
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: forearms and neck, similar to bruises, but with a regular
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: pattern that suggests more a deliberate contact than accidental injuries.
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: As a physician, I must record only observable facts, but
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: I confess that this case defies my scientific understanding entirely.
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: If I were a man of lesser education, I might
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: suggest that Mr. Dunham is under some kind of malevolent influence.
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: As I am not, I limit myself to documenting his
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: condition and administering the prescribed sedatives to alleviate his suffering,
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: though I fear the outcome is inevitably fatal. Montgomery Dunham
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: passed away two days after the drafting of this report.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: The death certificate, signed by the same Dr. Vincent Holloway,
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: lists cardiac arrest as the cause of death, omitting all
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: the disturbing details documented in the hospital report. During his research,
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: Professor Montgomery also interviewed several old residents of the county,
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: including Cordelia Hayes, who in 1898 was a young woman
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: of 19 who lived two houses down from the Dunham residence.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: According to Cordelia's testimony, recorded in 1969, At that time
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: nobody spoke openly about the house of the old ladies,
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: but everyone knew there was something strange there. My mother
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: forbade me from passing in front of that house alone.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: On full moon nights sometimes we heard sounds coming from there.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: They weren't screams nor voices exactly, but a kind of
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: low lament, like someone humming a sad melody. On the
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: morning they discovered the sisters had disappeared, I was returning
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: from the bakery and saw something I never told the authorities.
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: I saw a man leaving the house very early, even
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: before the sunrise. He wore a hat that covered his face,
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: and carried something in his arms, wrapped in a dark cloth,
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: at the time I thought it might be a doctor, perhaps,
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: who had been called during the night. But now, thinking
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: about it, why would a doctor leave carrying something like that?
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: instead of simply doing his work and leaving. This testimony
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: raises disturbing questions about the events of that morning. Who
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: would the man seen by Cordelia be? What was he carrying?
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: And why did this information never reach official authorities? In
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: a note following the interview with Cordelia, Professor Montgomery writes,
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: The description of the man seen by C.H. curiously corresponds
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: to reports of a stranger who was occasionally seen visiting
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: Montgomery Dunham in the months preceding his death. According to
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: Martha Belmont, this visitor never identified himself. All was arrived
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: after sunset, and Mr. Dunham insisted on receiving him alone
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: in the study or in the cellar. The housekeeper described
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: him as a thin man, very pale, of considerable height,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: always dressed in dark clothes and a wide-brimmed hat that
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: shadowed his face. coincidence? Or would it be possible that
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: the same individual was somehow connected to both the death
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: of the father and the disappearance of his daughters, eleven
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: years later? The house on Oak Ridge Trail remained closed
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: for many years after the disappearance of the Dunham sisters.
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: In 1926 it was acquired by the merchant Leopold Vaughan,
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: who carried out extensive renovations before moving in with his family. Curiously,
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: The Vaughans occupied the property for only seven months before
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: suddenly moving away, selling the house for a value well
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: below market. When questioned about the reasons for the move,
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: Leopold Vaughan is said to have stated only that the
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: house was not suitable for a family with peace of mind.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: On the day during the interview he gave to Professor
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: Montgomery in 1969, Leopold Vaughan, then 95 years old and
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: residing in Chicago, showed himself extremely reluctant to discuss his
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: brief occupation of the house on Oak Ridge Trail. Only
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: after much insistence did he agree to provide some details,
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: with the express condition that the conversation not be recorded.
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: According to Montgomery's notes, Vaughn reported that, in the first
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: weeks after the move, the family was enthusiastic about the
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: new residence. The renovation had been extensive, modernizing the house
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: without compromising its historic character. However, after approximately one month,
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: inexplicable events began to occur. At first they were small things,
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: Vaughn supposedly said, objects that disappeared and reappeared in different places.
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: Strange sounds in the walls, like scratches or rhythmic knocks.
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: My wife complained of a persistent odor in the main bedroom,
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: a smell of damp earth and something metallic that No
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: cleaning could eliminate. We replaced the floorboards, checked plumbing, even
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: removed part of the wall coverings, but the smell always returned.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: The incident that finally motivated the move, according to Vaughn,
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: occurred one night in July 1926. His wife woke up screaming,
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: claiming to have seen a dark figure standing at the
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: foot of the bed. When Vaughn turned on the light,
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: there was no one there. However, on the dresser, they
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: found an object that did not belong to them, a
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: small carved wooden box containing a single photograph.' It was
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: a photograph of an elderly woman seated in a chair,'
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: said Vaughan.' Behind her there was something like a shadow,
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: but with a vaguely human shape. Most disturbing were the
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: woman's eyes. They were completely black, like holes in the image.
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: I immediately recognized her as one of the former owners,
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: Miss Josephine Dunham, whose portrait I had seen at the
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: county clerk's office when we signed the purchase papers.' On
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: the back of the photograph was a phrase written, He
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: lives in the walls and wants company. The following morning,
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: Vaughn contracted workers to completely cement over the cellar, especially
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: the hidden compartment that had been discovered during renovation. A
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: week later, the family left the house, never returning even
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: to retrieve many of the personal objects they left behind.
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: In the years that followed, the property passed through several owners,
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: none remaining for more than two years. In 1952, after
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: standing empty for almost a decade, it was finally demolished
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: to make way for a small commercial building, which initially
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: housed a pharmacy and, later, a fabric store. During the demolition,
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: as reported in the Wickersham Gazette of July 17, 1952,
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: the workers made a macabre discovery. Upon removing the cemented
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: floor of the cellar, they found a small wooden door
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: sealed with what appeared to be black wax. The foreman
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: of the work, Jeremiah Watkins, decided to open the door,
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: revealing a small compartment no larger than a closet. Inside,
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: there were only three items, an old box of matches,
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: a broken perfume bottle, and a faded photograph. The report
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: does not offer details about the content of the photograph,
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: mentioning only that it was handed over to the authorities. However,
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: there is no record of this photograph in the police
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: archives of the time. The only indication of its possible
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: content comes from an interview given by Jeremiah Watkins himself
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: to Professor Montgomery in 1968. I will never forget that
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: image as long as I live. It was a photograph
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: of an elderly woman, probably Miss Josephine Dunham, seated in
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: a chair. Behind her there was an obscure figure, like
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: a shadow with human form. Most disturbing were the eyes
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: of the woman in the photo. They were completely black.
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: as if someone had covered them with ink, and there
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: was a message written on the back of the photograph,
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: but it was so faded that I could distinguish only
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: a few words. Fulfilled. Promise. Inside. Walls. Watkins also revealed
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: a detail that he omitted from the press at the time.
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: Beside the photograph they found what appeared to be a
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: small carved bone box, similar to an ancient reliquary. The
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: box was empty except for a thin layer of dark
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: dust at the bottom. When questioned about what happened to
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: this object, Watkins confessed to having been disturbed by the
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: discovery and decided to burn it that same night, along
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: with the box of matches. The photograph being potentially relevant
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: to the old case of the disappearance was the only
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: thing he handed over to the authorities. Professor Wesley Montgomery
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: died in September 1975, before concluding his research on the
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: case of the Dunham sisters. His notes and collected materials
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: were donated to the university library, but inexplicably, a large
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: part of this collection disappeared during a reorganization of the
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: archive in 1968, leaving only some field notebooks and correspondence.
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: The inexplicable loss of these documents, ironically similar to the
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: disappearance of Josephine Dunham's original diary from Police Records, was
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: attributed to an administrative error by the library management. However,
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: Penelope Stewart, the professor's assistant who helped him catalog the
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: material before donation, expressed doubts about this explanation. We meticulously
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: organized all the collection related to the case. There were
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: more than twelve notebooks of annotations, photographs of the house
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: before demolition, copies of official documents, transcriptions of interviews— all
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: catalogued in three file boxes with clear labels. The professor
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: was extremely methodical. It is simply impossible that all this
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: material was lost through a common bureaucratic error. In one
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: of these remaining notebooks, dated August 1969, Montgomery records a
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: disturbing personal experience. After months investigating the case, he began
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: to suffer from insomnia and and to hear strange sounds
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: in his own home. Scratches on the walls, footsteps in
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: the corridor when he was alone, the creaking of a
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: rocking chair in his study, although he did not possess
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: such furniture. In his last known annotation about the case,
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: he writes, I dreamed of her last night. Josephine Dunham
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: was standing in the cellar of the house on Oak
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: Ridge Trail, before that door. She looked directly at me
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: and said, You too made a promise, Professor. When I
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: woke up, I found a box of matches identical to
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: the one described in the demolition report on my desk.
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: I don't know how it got there. My house was locked. Tomorrow,
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: I will end this research. There are questions that should
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: not be answered, mysteries that should remain buried. Josephine Dunham
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: understood this too late. I still have time. Professor Montgomery
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: formally abandoned his research on the case of the Dunham
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: sisters shortly after this incident, returning to his previous studies
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: on the social history of Arkansas. He rarely mentioned the subject,
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: and when questioned, would say only that he had lost
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: interest in the story. A curious detail documented by his
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: assistant professor, is that the professor insisted on burning all
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: his notebooks of annotations related to the case that were
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: still in his personal possession. The assistant also reported a
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: change in his behavior after abandoning the research. He began
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: to avoid working after nightfall, installed additional lighting in his home,
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: and developed an almost phobic aversion to enclosed spaces such
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: as cellars and attics. The truth about what happened to
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: Josephine and Adelaide Dunham in March 1898 remains a mystery.
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: Their bodies were never found. No concrete evidence of crime
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: was established. Official records continue to list their case as disappearance.
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: In 1960, a journalist from the Arkansas Gazette named Howard
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: Spencer attempted to reopen the investigation, fascinated by the urban
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: legend that had formed around the sisters' house, as it
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: was known locally. He managed to locate and interview Martha Belmont,
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: the reverend's housekeeper who had found the house empty in 1898. Martha,
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: then 83 years old, showed signs of senile dementia, but
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: in moments of lucidity told Spencer something she had never
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: officially mentioned. When I entered that house, I immediately felt
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: that something was wrong. It wasn't just the silence or
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: the absence of the ladies. It was as if the
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: house were breathing. The walls seemed to pulse subtly, like
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: a heart beating, very slowly. And there was a smell,
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: not of decomposition or illness, but of freshly dug earth
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: and candle wax. Most strange was what I found in
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: the bedroom. The bed was perfectly made, as if no
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: one had slept in it. On the pillow there was
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: a single object, an old key, large probably to the cellar,
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: and beside the key, almost imperceptible against the white of
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: the sheet, small stains of a dark liquid that I
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: preferred to believe was ink. Martha also revealed to the
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: journalist a detail that she had omitted from the police
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: in 1898, for fear of being considered superstitious or mentally unstable.
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: When I went down to the cellar to check if
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: the Dunham sisters might be there, I noticed that the
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: small door at the back, the one they always kept locked,
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: was ajar. The strong smell of wet earth came from there.
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: I approached with trepidation, but something impelled me to look.
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: The compartment beyond the door was small, like a closet
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: built into the wall, but it seemed to extend deeper
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: than the structure of the house would allow. The inner
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: walls were of compacted earth. not masonry like the rest
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: of the cellar. In the center there was an object
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: that I could not immediately identify. It appeared to be
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: a small carved box made of some material that was
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: neither wood nor metal. Beside it a photograph turned face down.
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: I touched nothing. Something in that place caused me an
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: instinctive dread, something I cannot explain. I closed the door,
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: ran up the stairs, and never returned to that house.
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: Howard Spencer's article about the case was published in a
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: Sunday edition of the Arkansas Gazette in July 1960, but
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: did not generate the interest he had hoped for. The
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: story had become just another urban legend among so many
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: others that populated the imagination of the county. Spencer himself
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: soon moved on to other subjects, and the mystery of
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: the Dunham sisters was again relegated to oblivion. A disturbing coincidence,
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: not publicly recorded, was the sudden death of Howard Spencer
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: just three months after the publication of his article. According
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: to the death certificate, he died in his sleep, victim
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: of a heart attack, at 42 years of age. A
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: colleague from the newsroom, however, confided to Professor Montgomery that
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: in the weeks prior to his death, Spencer had become
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: increasingly paranoid. claiming to hear strange sounds in his apartment
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: and to feel constantly watched. He also mentioned having found,
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: without explanation, an old box of matches on his desk,
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: similar to the one described in the demolition report of
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: the house. Today, the site where the house at the
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: end of Oak Ridge Trail once stood houses a small
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: department store. The older employees sometimes comment on strange nocturnal occurrences,
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: merchandise that changes place, sounds of footsteps on the upper
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: floor when the establishment is empty, and occasionally the persistent
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: aroma of old perfume that seems to emanate from the walls.
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: The current manager, Ruth Simmons, who has worked at the
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: location since 1968, reports that these occurrences intensify in certain
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: periods of the year, particularly in March, the month of
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: the disappearance of the Dunham sisters. It's something that everyone
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: who works here for some time ends up noticing. It's
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: not frightening. It's more uncomfortable, as if you were never
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: really alone in the building, even when you clearly are.
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: Some employees refuse to close the store alone, especially on Mondays.
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: I don't know why specifically on Mondays, but that's when
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: the strange things seem to happen most frequently. The air
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: gets heavier, like before a storm, and that smell of
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: old perfume appears. a sweet aroma but with an underlying
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: note of damp earth. And sometimes, just for an instant,
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: you have the sensation of seeing someone from the corner
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: of your eye, usually near the staircase that used to
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: lead to the cellar. When you turn, no one is there. Recently,
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: in 1968, during a renovation of the store's floor, workers found,
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: embedded in the concrete, a small silver medallion with the inscription, J.D. 1898.
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: The object was donated to the County Historical Museum. Where
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: it remains on display, a silent reminder that some secrets
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: resist the passage of time. Curiously, the museum employee responsible
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: for cataloging the piece, Bartholomew Hayes, reported a strange incident
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: related to the medallion. According to him, on the first
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: night after the item was placed on exhibition... The museum's
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: security cameras recorded an inexplicable failure precisely at three. Seventeen
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: in the morning, lasting exactly seven minutes. When the system
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: began functioning again, the medallion had moved inside the display case,
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: rotating 180 degrees. Technicians examined the system and found no
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: explanation for the failure. What really happened to Josephine and
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: Adelaide Dunham in that house on Oak Ridge Trail? Were
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: they victims of a common crime? Committed by someone interested
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: in their fortune? Did they succumb to madness and isolation,
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: fleeing or taking their own lives? Or is there something
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: darker in the story, something that official records and rational
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: explanations cannot completely capture? Perhaps the answer lies in the
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: last legible words of Josephine's diary. I finally understood what
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: he wanted from the beginnings. What would this late understanding be?
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: And who, or what, was he? Professor Montgomery, in his
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: final notes on the case, offers an intriguing perspective. After
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: months of investigation, I find myself contemplating possibilities that my
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: academic training hesitates to accept. The patterns are undeniable. The
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: black eyes in the photographs, the persistent smell of damp
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: earth and metal, the sounds in the walls, the specific time. 3.17.
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: That appears repeatedly, the sensation of being watched, the progressive
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: mental deterioration of people who delve into the mystery, and,
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: most disturbing, the obscure figure consistently described by witnesses separated
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: by decades. There is an element in this case that
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: resists conventional explanations, something that seems to persist beyond the
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: demolition of the house, beyond the death of the original witnesses,
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: beyond even time itself, like an echo that refuses to dissipate,
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: or a presence that has found a way to transcend
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: the physical limits that should contain it. I dare not
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: fully articulate what I suspect. But the last phrase in
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: Josephine Dunham's diary, I finally understood what he wanted from
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: the beginning, continues to resonate. What did she comprehend? And
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: why did this understanding coincide with her disappearance? There exists
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: an old concept in Southern folklore, rarely discussed openly, called
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: the soul buyer. A being that is not exactly human,
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: that makes agreements, grants wishes, but eventually returns to collect
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: a payment much more valuable than the beneficiary initially realizes.
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: Would it be possible that Montgomery Dunham, during his mysterious
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: trip to New Orleans, encountered something of this nature, something
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: that he brought home, confining it in that sealed compartment
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: in the cellar, only to discover too late that some
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: entities cannot be truly contained. Pure speculation, naturally. The most
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: probable explanation remains being a conventional crime or a tragic
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: case of mental instability. However, I cannot ignore the chill
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: I feel when re-reading the accounts, nor the persistent sensation that,
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: in investigating this mystery, I have attracted some kind of
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: unwanted attention. Some stories have no definitive conclusion, only echoes
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: that resonate through the decades, reminding us that not all
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: mysteries were meant to be unraveled. The case of the
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: Dunham sisters is one of those echoes, a whisper from
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: the past, that, even after more than a century, still
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: makes us look with suspicion at old walls and dark cellars,
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: wondering what might be hidden beyond appearances. And if, by chance,
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: you find yourself walking through the historic streets of Wickersham
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: County at dusk, and feel a sudden chill, as if
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: being watched, if you perceive a vague aroma of old
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: perfume in the air, Perhaps it is just coincidence. Or
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: perhaps it is a reminder that some presences never really leave.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: Some promises once made are impossible to break. There is
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: an old saying in Arkansas, not all stories end when
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: a person dies. In the case of the Dunham sisters,
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: it seems the story only began with their disappearance. And perhaps,
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: in some sense, we do not completely understand still continues
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: to this day. And you, who now know this story.
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: Have you checked the walls of your house today? Have
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: you paid attention to the sounds that come from them
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: when all is silent? And if, by chance, you wake
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: at 3.17 in the morning, perhaps it would be prudent
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: to avoid looking at the dark corners of the room.
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: Some things, once seen, cannot be forgotten. Some stories, once known,
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: become part of us. As the ancients said, Knowledge is power,
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: but some knowledge is also a burden, and some doors,
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: once opened, can never truly be closed again.