Latest / Crime and Horror / She had a DEADLY sixth sense - MrBallen

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She had a DEADLY sixth sense - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Today, I have three really good stories that all, in
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Speaker 1: their own way, demonstrate that sometimes the truth really is
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Speaker 1: stranger than fiction. But before we get into today's stories,
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Speaker 1: if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious
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Speaker 1: Deliberated Story format, then you've come to the right place
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Speaker 1: because that's all we do, and we upload two, three,
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Speaker 1: even four times every week. So, if that's of interest
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Speaker 1: to you, please steal the like button's car and drive
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Speaker 1: simply park it in the middle, and then leave. Also,
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Speaker 1: so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay,
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Speaker 1: let's get into today's stories. On the night of September 11, 1899,
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Speaker 1: a 23-year-old student named Alice Knott sat in her bedroom
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Speaker 1: in the Washington, D.C. boarding house where she lived, doing
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Speaker 1: what she did every single night, which was to study.
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Speaker 1: So Alice rarely left her room. She'd spent the last
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Speaker 1: few months preparing to take this really important civil service exam,
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Speaker 1: which she had to pass if she wanted to land
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Speaker 1: the stable government job that she desperately wanted. But studying
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Speaker 1: was not the only reason that Alice seemingly never went out.
1:29
Speaker 1: Alice was also sort of naturally a recluse, in part
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Speaker 1: because she had a lot of health issues, like a
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Speaker 1: weak heart and poor circulation, and she just generally got
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Speaker 1: sick a lot. So being out in the world was
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Speaker 1: really tiring for her, and also sort of scary. It
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Speaker 1: was just easier and safer to stay inside. Now, it
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Speaker 1: was getting late in the night, and there was some
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Speaker 1: cold air coming in through her open bedroom window, and
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Speaker 1: it was actually unusually cold outside tonight. And since she
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Speaker 1: got sick pretty easily, she didn't want to risk This
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Speaker 1: draft coming in, giving her a cold or something. So
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Speaker 1: she set her work down for a moment, and she
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Speaker 1: went up to close the window. And then on her
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Speaker 1: way back to her desk, she smiled at the other
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Speaker 1: very important reason that she spent so much time in
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Speaker 1: her room. Her beloved pet parrot, Polly. And Polly was
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Speaker 1: sitting on his typical perch, one of the room's light fixtures.
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Speaker 1: And as he saw Alice approaching, he got really excited
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Speaker 1: and began squawking really loudly. Now, Alice knew that basically
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Speaker 1: any minute now, she was very likely going to hear
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Speaker 1: a loud knock at her door about the loud noise,
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Speaker 1: because most of the people who lived in this boarding
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Speaker 1: house with her hated Polly. And Polly, admittedly, was kind
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Speaker 1: of a mean bird. Not only was he really loud,
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Speaker 1: but he bit people and made really threatening noises and
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Speaker 1: had some bad disruptive habits that pretty much drove everybody
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Speaker 1: who lived in the building crazy. Like right now, Polly,
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Speaker 1: in addition to squawking really loudly... was also pecking the
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Speaker 1: metal frame of the light fixture that it was on,
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Speaker 1: which not only made additional noise, but it also damaged
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Speaker 1: the light fixture. Which, you know, to most people in
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Speaker 1: the building, they didn't care so much about the light fixture,
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Speaker 1: but the landlord did. And so it was just this
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Speaker 1: general consensus that Polly is sort of nasty and loud
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Speaker 1: and also damages stuff. So like nobody liked Polly and
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Speaker 1: they really told Alice that she needed to get rid
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Speaker 1: of Polly and soon, because he is a real problem.
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Speaker 1: But Alice would not get rid of Polly. she loved Polly.
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Speaker 1: And Polly loved Alice. He wasn't mean to Alice. He
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Speaker 1: followed her around everywhere and was very sweet to her.
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Speaker 1: And so Alice just, she felt very attached to this bird.
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Speaker 1: In fact, in many ways, she viewed Polly as being
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Speaker 1: sort of like her only family. You know, the only
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Speaker 1: reason she was in this boarding house to begin with
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Speaker 1: is because her brother and both her parents had passed away.
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Speaker 1: And so a lot of time, it was just Alice
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Speaker 1: and Polly in this room together. And so it was
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Speaker 1: just a very important relationship. It was like the only
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Speaker 1: relationship that Alice really had. And so Alice just walked
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Speaker 1: over to Polly, who was still squawking loudly and pecking
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Speaker 1: at this light fixture. And she just told him to
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Speaker 1: stop what he was doing. And he listened. He went
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Speaker 1: completely quiet. And, you know, she pet him for a second.
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Speaker 1: And then a moment later, she was back at her desk,
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Speaker 1: back to studying. And for the next few hours, that's
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Speaker 1: what she did until her eyes got too tired to
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Speaker 1: stay open. And she went to bed. Hours later, in
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Speaker 1: the middle of the night, Alice suddenly stirred awake and
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Speaker 1: she sat up in her bed. And she had no
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Speaker 1: idea what caused her to wake up. But what she
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Speaker 1: did know is something just felt wrong. Her chest felt
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Speaker 1: incredibly tight and she actually felt kind of dizzy. And
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Speaker 1: so she got out of bed and she stumbled her
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Speaker 1: way over to the door to get help. But she
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Speaker 1: didn't get there. After taking only a few steps, her
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Speaker 1: legs suddenly gave out from under her and she fell
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Speaker 1: to the ground. The next day, just before 1 p.m.,
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Speaker 1: The landlord of the boarding house bustled around the kitchen,
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Speaker 1: putting some lunch on the table. And then when he
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Speaker 1: was done and all the food was laid out for
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Speaker 1: his guests, he called out to the house to let
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Speaker 1: everybody know that lunch was ready and to come on down.
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Speaker 1: And a few moments later, all the guests appeared at
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Speaker 1: the table, except for Alice. Now, the landlord immediately noticed this,
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Speaker 1: and it did bother them. I mean, they hadn't seen
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Speaker 1: Alice all morning. However, you know, they did know that
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Speaker 1: Alice typically stayed up late studying, so it wasn't all
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Speaker 1: that unusual for her to sleep in. But even by
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Speaker 1: her standards, 1 p.m. was very late, and so the
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Speaker 1: landlord decided they would just go up to her room
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Speaker 1: and make sure she was okay. And so the landlord
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Speaker 1: went down the hallway to the last door, which was Alice's,
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Speaker 1: and they knocked, but there was no answer. So after
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Speaker 1: trying a few more times and still not getting an answer,
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Speaker 1: they just reached down, turned the knob, it was unlocked,
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Speaker 1: and they opened the door. And immediately as soon as
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Speaker 1: that door opened, the landlord began to gag. So there
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Speaker 1: were a lot of things about Alice's pet parrot, Polly,
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Speaker 1: that really concerned people. And Alice, who loved her bird
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Speaker 1: and considered it the only thing saving her from total
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Speaker 1: awful loneliness, sort of looked the other way when it
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Speaker 1: came to all those concerns. However, there was one thing
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Speaker 1: that Alice should not have ignored. And that was her
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Speaker 1: parrot's drug problem. So in 1899, interior lighting inside of
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Speaker 1: homes was almost exclusively open flames. And those flames were
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Speaker 1: powered by gas. And it would turn out, Polly regularly
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Speaker 1: liked to inhale that gas. He would basically get high.
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Speaker 1: When he was pecking at the light fixture, he wasn't
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Speaker 1: doing it just to make noise or to damage it.
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Speaker 1: He was doing it to turn the valve in order
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Speaker 1: to suck on this gas until he basically passed out. Now,
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Speaker 1: Alice did know Polly did this. But she would typically
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Speaker 1: stop him while he was in the process of trying
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Speaker 1: to get high and just kind of keep him from
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Speaker 1: doing it. If after he had turned the valve and
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Speaker 1: passed out, she would just move her parrot and then
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Speaker 1: close the valve. Or she would keep her window open
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Speaker 1: to ensure that the gas wouldn't get trapped in her room.
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Speaker 1: But on this night, it was so cold outside, she
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Speaker 1: shut the window. And then she fell asleep because she
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Speaker 1: was so exhausted from all the studying. And it was
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Speaker 1: after she had fallen asleep that Polly pecked the valve open,
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Speaker 1: got high on the gas, passed out. And then the
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Speaker 1: room continued to fill with this poisonous gas. So when
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Speaker 1: the landlord opened up the door, the reason they gagged
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Speaker 1: is they were hit by this surge of gas that
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Speaker 1: had been trapped inside the room for hours. And then
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Speaker 1: when they looked inside, they saw Alice's body lying on
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Speaker 1: the ground by the bed, not moving. And then at
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Speaker 1: the landlord's feet, flattened on the ground with their beak
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Speaker 1: wedged under the crack at the bottom of the door,
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Speaker 1: was the parrot. Alice would die from inhaling the gas,
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Speaker 1: but the parrot survived because he was able to make
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Speaker 1: its way over to the door and breathe in that
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Speaker 1: fresh air. And so the parrot recovered and would continue
7:46
Speaker 1: to huff gas whenever it got the chance. When you're
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Speaker 1: neighborhood Sherwin-Williams store to get started today. Late one night
8:40
Speaker 1: in September of 1993, 43-year-old Linda Gowdy suddenly startled awake
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Speaker 1: inside of her bed in her home in Stoneham, Massachusetts.
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Speaker 1: She had just had this really horrible nightmare about how
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Speaker 1: she was going to die. So in a few weeks,
8:55
Speaker 1: Linda and her boyfriend, whose name was Tim, were planning
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Speaker 1: to go on a Caribbean cruise. And in Linda's dream
9:01
Speaker 1: that she just had, she had been on that vacation,
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Speaker 1: and during that trip, She had basically seen herself dying
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Speaker 1: in a car. And this dream, I mean, it was
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Speaker 1: no ordinary dream. It had been so vivid, so awful
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Speaker 1: that even now, you know, she knew she was awake,
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Speaker 1: but her heart was still racing. She was still dripping sweat.
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Speaker 1: It was like she couldn't fully escape from this nightmare.
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Speaker 1: And as she's just kind of sitting there with these
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Speaker 1: horrible thoughts in her mind, she began to realize that
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Speaker 1: this was no ordinary dream. This was a premonition. So
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Speaker 1: Linda was a doctor. She was an obstetrician and gynecologist
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Speaker 1: who worked at a hospital in Stoneham, Massachusetts. And by
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Speaker 1: all accounts, she was excellent at her job, not just
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Speaker 1: because she was smart and experienced, but also because she
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Speaker 1: was just naturally intuitive and had this sort of like
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Speaker 1: sixth sense when it came to her work. In a
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Speaker 1: lot of cases, trusting her gut and going off of
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Speaker 1: her intuition had actually saved the lie of her patients
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Speaker 1: and their babies. And so she had sort of developed
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Speaker 1: a reputation for being this way and it had led
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Speaker 1: to many patients actually traveling to her from all over
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Speaker 1: the region to have their babies or just to see
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Speaker 1: her in general because it just sort of seemed like
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Speaker 1: she was the person who could handle any problem and
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Speaker 1: mostly because she would get ahead of it and sort
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Speaker 1: of predict complications and treat them before they became complications.
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Speaker 1: But this sixth sense that she had did not just
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Speaker 1: pertain to work. She also would have, you know, these
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Speaker 1: sort of gut feelings or premonitions, like the dream she
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Speaker 1: had just had, about her personal life. And almost always,
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Speaker 1: you know, her intuition on these things or her visions
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Speaker 1: of the future would pan out to be right. So
10:42
Speaker 1: Linda knew that in order to literally protect herself, She
10:46
Speaker 1: needed to cancel her trip to the Caribbean. And even
10:49
Speaker 1: though she knew this was the right call, it didn't
10:51
Speaker 1: stop it from being hugely disappointing. She'd planned this whole trip.
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Speaker 1: She'd been really looking forward to it, as was her boyfriend, Tim.
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Speaker 1: And also, she sort of felt like this was an
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Speaker 1: important trip for her relationship with Tim. She had been
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Speaker 1: with Tim now for four years, and he too was
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Speaker 1: a doctor, and they spent all their time together at
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Speaker 1: the hospital. They both worked at the same hospital. But lately,
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Speaker 1: they'd been struggling and fighting a little bit more. Tim
11:15
Speaker 1: had sort of become pretty overprotective of her, like he
11:17
Speaker 1: was becoming sort of like controlling. And so it was
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Speaker 1: just sort of exhausting dealing with their relationship issues. And
11:23
Speaker 1: this trip to the Caribbean, she saw as like this
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Speaker 1: easy way to like get out of their normal lives
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Speaker 1: and work on their issues, but in a happy sort
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Speaker 1: of fun environment. It felt like they needed it for
11:35
Speaker 1: their relationship. But now Linda knew she would not only
11:38
Speaker 1: have to break the news to Tim that they were
11:40
Speaker 1: going to go ahead and cancel this trip, but also
11:42
Speaker 1: she would need to go find something else, some other
11:45
Speaker 1: way for her and Tim to reconcile, you know, call
11:49
Speaker 1: it a different vacation or some other outing or something
11:52
Speaker 1: to like break the norm, which had become sort of toxic.
11:55
Speaker 1: So on this night, eventually Linda calmed down from the
11:58
Speaker 1: shock of waking up to this horrible nightmare and she
12:01
Speaker 1: laid back down and she just told herself that she
12:04
Speaker 1: would figure it out in the morning, like this was
12:06
Speaker 1: obviously bad, but at least she wasn't going to die
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Speaker 1: in a car crash in the Caribbean. A few weeks later,
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Speaker 1: on the night of September 30th, Linda stormed down the
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Speaker 1: hallway of the hospital where she worked towards her office.
12:18
Speaker 1: Linda was fuming. So she should have been leaving for
12:22
Speaker 1: her trip to the Caribbean with Tim in just a
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Speaker 1: few days, but she had gone ahead and canceled the
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Speaker 1: cruise because of her dream, which Tim was very annoyed
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Speaker 1: with her about. He'd been vocal about the fact that
12:32
Speaker 1: her reason for canceling this trip was ridiculous, and it
12:36
Speaker 1: had made things really tense between them, and it was
12:38
Speaker 1: already tense between them, so this is like doubly bad.
12:42
Speaker 1: And now, just a few minutes ago, they had actually
12:44
Speaker 1: run into each other in the hospital hallway because they
12:46
Speaker 1: both worked there together. And they had gotten into this
12:49
Speaker 1: huge fight about the cancellation of this trip. And other
12:52
Speaker 1: co-workers had actually overheard it. And so now Linda was
12:55
Speaker 1: not only mad, but also embarrassed, you know, that other
12:59
Speaker 1: people saw her fighting. And so as soon as she
13:01
Speaker 1: got into her office, she just slammed the door behind
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Speaker 1: her and sat down and tried to focus on her work,
13:06
Speaker 1: reviewing patient charts and other things like that. But she
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Speaker 1: just couldn't. Now, Linda knew that canceling this trip was
13:13
Speaker 1: the right thing to do. She was sure that if
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Speaker 1: she had gone to the Caribbean, she and maybe even
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Speaker 1: Tim would have died in a car. Like she knew
13:21
Speaker 1: that she was preventing that. But at the same time,
13:24
Speaker 1: she also just hated how this premonition was now further
13:28
Speaker 1: complicating her relationship. And so now Linda just told herself
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Speaker 1: to calm down. She took a few deep breaths and
13:34
Speaker 1: told herself, you know, you have other things that are
13:36
Speaker 1: coming up that will helped distract her from the drama
13:39
Speaker 1: of her relationship and this trip, like she had a
13:42
Speaker 1: massage she had booked for herself on her day off tomorrow,
13:45
Speaker 1: and she also had her college reunion this weekend, two
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Speaker 1: things she was definitely looking forward to that, so far anyway,
13:51
Speaker 1: she had not had a premonition about, so she had
13:53
Speaker 1: not canceled. Finally, around 8.15 p.m., when Linda's shift finally
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Speaker 1: came to an end and she had left the hospital
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Speaker 1: to make her way home, She actually was in pretty
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Speaker 1: good spirits, you know, even though she had certainly not
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Speaker 1: resolved things with Tim, they were still very much fighting,
14:07
Speaker 1: you know, this Caribbean trip really had become a pain
14:09
Speaker 1: in both of their sides. Despite all that, Linda was
14:13
Speaker 1: determined that, you know what, she's not going to let
14:15
Speaker 1: this be just a constant drag on her life. She
14:18
Speaker 1: needs to just live her life and just go forward,
14:21
Speaker 1: and in time, things will sort themselves out. Four days later,
14:25
Speaker 1: on the afternoon of Monday, October 4th, one of Linda's
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Speaker 1: friends was driving towards the hospital where Linda worked. And
14:32
Speaker 1: this friend was very worried about Linda since she hadn't
14:36
Speaker 1: heard from Linda since they spoke on the phone last Thursday,
14:39
Speaker 1: which in and of itself was not a particularly big
14:41
Speaker 1: deal since they didn't speak every day. But this friend
14:45
Speaker 1: had also spoken to one of Linda's coworkers that morning
14:49
Speaker 1: who was also worried about Linda because Linda apparently didn't
14:52
Speaker 1: show up for work that morning and the staff at
14:54
Speaker 1: the hospital were very worried and they had even sent
14:57
Speaker 1: someone to Linda's house to check on her to make
14:59
Speaker 1: sure she was okay, but she wasn't home. And Linda,
15:03
Speaker 1: she rarely missed work. And if she did, she called in.
15:07
Speaker 1: And so to find out that she hadn't called in
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Speaker 1: and nobody knew where she was, combined with the fact
15:11
Speaker 1: that this friend has not heard from her, like the
15:13
Speaker 1: friend is thinking something's wrong here. And so they were
15:16
Speaker 1: going to the hospital to basically get together with their
15:19
Speaker 1: co-workers to just get to the bottom of this, to
15:21
Speaker 1: figure out what happened to Linda. But now, as the
15:24
Speaker 1: friend turned into the hospital's parking lot, she could immediately
15:27
Speaker 1: see that something was terribly wrong here. Because the lot
15:31
Speaker 1: was crawling with police officers. They'd completely roped off the
15:35
Speaker 1: whole area, and then there was this one big group
15:37
Speaker 1: of people sort of standing over at the perimeter. And
15:40
Speaker 1: so when the friend pulled up and parked their car,
15:42
Speaker 1: she got out, and she rushed over to this group
15:45
Speaker 1: to see what they were all looking at. And when
15:48
Speaker 1: she saw, she just gasped. It would turn out, Linda's
15:52
Speaker 1: premonition was eerily accurate. But Linda... had misinterpreted it. So
15:58
Speaker 1: on the previous Thursday, when she had left work after
16:01
Speaker 1: that long shift and she's looking forward to her massage
16:03
Speaker 1: the next day and the college reunion that weekend, she's
16:06
Speaker 1: trying not to think about the toxicity with her boyfriend, Tim.
16:10
Speaker 1: She heads out, you know, to head back home and
16:12
Speaker 1: just be done for the weekend. But she never makes
16:15
Speaker 1: it home. In fact, she never leaves the hospital grounds
16:19
Speaker 1: because shortly after leaving the hospital, Linda was attacked and
16:24
Speaker 1: strangled to death. inside of her car. Linda had been
16:28
Speaker 1: convinced that the death in the car was going to
16:31
Speaker 1: take place in the Caribbean, and so avoid the Caribbean.
16:35
Speaker 1: What she didn't realize is that it had nothing to
16:37
Speaker 1: do with the Caribbean. It was simply that she was
16:39
Speaker 1: going to die in a car, and she did. Meaning
16:42
Speaker 1: the premonition she had was right. She did die in
16:46
Speaker 1: a car. The location was just wrong. So Linda's boyfriend,
16:50
Speaker 1: Tim Stryker, was the only suspect in her murder. He
16:53
Speaker 1: had no alibi and And he still went on that
16:56
Speaker 1: cruise to the Caribbean without Linda, right after her body
17:00
Speaker 1: was found. And he was later caught paying a witness
17:03
Speaker 1: to give the police false information about seeing Linda with
17:06
Speaker 1: another man at the time of her death. However, Tim
17:10
Speaker 1: was never officially charged with Linda's murder and denied all involvement. However,
17:16
Speaker 1: he was convicted of perjury and was sentenced to four
17:19
Speaker 1: years in prison, where he would die in 2011. On
17:43
Speaker 1: a spring evening in 1705, a middle-aged man named John
17:46
Speaker 1: McCall sat by his wife's bedside in Lurgan, Ireland, crying
17:51
Speaker 1: so hard he could barely catch his breath. His wife, Marjorie,
17:54
Speaker 1: had unfortunately just passed away minutes ago from what appeared
17:57
Speaker 1: to be a horrible fever. So John was actually a doctor,
18:01
Speaker 1: and a few days ago when his wife came down
18:04
Speaker 1: with this fever, even though John had not been able
18:07
Speaker 1: to actually diagnose what was causing her fever... What he
18:10
Speaker 1: did know is that the fever was just ravaging her
18:13
Speaker 1: body and it was going to kill her. And so
18:16
Speaker 1: over the next couple of days, John just had to
18:18
Speaker 1: watch in horror as his wife basically just shut down.
18:22
Speaker 1: And now in some ways her death was like a mercy,
18:25
Speaker 1: but it was still devastating for John. In part because
18:28
Speaker 1: he felt so helpless, like he's a doctor and he
18:30
Speaker 1: couldn't save his wife. But now, you know, despite how
18:33
Speaker 1: unfair this whole thing seemed, John had to kind of
18:36
Speaker 1: like pick up the pieces. I mean, his wife in
18:39
Speaker 1: many ways was like his whole world. You know, they
18:41
Speaker 1: had kids, they had grandkids, you know, they were only
18:44
Speaker 1: in their fifties, but much of those 50 years have
18:46
Speaker 1: been spent together. And so now it's like he was
18:49
Speaker 1: this lost soul. And so he just looked down at
18:52
Speaker 1: his wife and he just reached out and he grabbed
18:55
Speaker 1: her hand, you know, the hand that he was so
18:57
Speaker 1: familiar with and he squeezed it and it was just limp.
19:01
Speaker 1: And it made it even more upsetting that like she
19:03
Speaker 1: was really gone. And then he, He looked at her
19:05
Speaker 1: actual hand and he saw the beautiful gold wedding ring
19:08
Speaker 1: that he had saved all this money for, that they
19:10
Speaker 1: both had loved so much. Just seeing that ring on
19:14
Speaker 1: her finger, on that limp hand of hers, it just
19:16
Speaker 1: sort of really reinforced the finality of this moment. You know,
19:20
Speaker 1: he couldn't believe this had happened, but it was real.
19:22
Speaker 1: His wife really was gone. And so now, as John
19:26
Speaker 1: continued to cry and squeeze his wife's hand and just
19:29
Speaker 1: sort of reflect on this horrible situation... He also, in tandem,
19:34
Speaker 1: knew that he had to start thinking about her funeral.
19:36
Speaker 1: He would have to plan it really quickly so they
19:38
Speaker 1: could bury her really quickly. So at this time in Ireland,
19:42
Speaker 1: it was traditional to hold a multi-day wake when somebody
19:45
Speaker 1: died so that friends and relatives could have time to
19:48
Speaker 1: pay their respects before the actual burial. took place. But
19:51
Speaker 1: if somebody died from disease, like obviously John's wife had,
19:55
Speaker 1: something had caused the fever, he didn't know what, but
19:58
Speaker 1: it had to be some sort of disease. If that
20:00
Speaker 1: was the case, the wake was off the table and
20:03
Speaker 1: the person was buried pretty much right away just to
20:06
Speaker 1: prevent the sickness from spreading further. But even though John
20:09
Speaker 1: knew this, he couldn't quite bring himself to face that reality,
20:14
Speaker 1: the idea that his wife would be in the ground
20:16
Speaker 1: as soon as like tomorrow. But for right this second,
20:18
Speaker 1: John did not get up and, you know, start making
20:21
Speaker 1: arrangements here. He just wanted to soak up the last
20:24
Speaker 1: few moments he had with his wife before she was
20:27
Speaker 1: in the ground. The following day, John stood beside his
20:31
Speaker 1: wife's casket as it was lowered into the ground at
20:33
Speaker 1: their local cemetery in front of a crowd of other mourners.
20:36
Speaker 1: Even though Marjorie, because of the disease factor, had not
20:40
Speaker 1: had a wake, John had still expected to spend this
20:43
Speaker 1: day focused primarily on grieving and thinking about all the
20:47
Speaker 1: things he loved about his wife. But instead, he found
20:51
Speaker 1: himself on this particular day very fixated on something else.
20:55
Speaker 1: His wife's wedding ring. So John really wanted his wife's
20:59
Speaker 1: wedding ring just to have something to remind him of Marjorie.
21:03
Speaker 1: You know, and he loved that ring. It was something
21:04
Speaker 1: that meant a lot to him. But pretty much right
21:07
Speaker 1: after Marjorie had died, as part of the decomposition process,
21:11
Speaker 1: her fingers had begun to swell really badly, and he
21:15
Speaker 1: could not remove the ring from his wife's finger. Nobody could.
21:18
Speaker 1: Other people tried. They couldn't do it. And so ultimately,
21:21
Speaker 1: the decision was made to just bury her with the ring.
21:24
Speaker 1: And so, of course, that in and of itself was
21:26
Speaker 1: sad for John. He really wanted that ring. But also,
21:30
Speaker 1: as John stood there watching her casket get lowered into
21:32
Speaker 1: the ground with this ring inside, he was worried that
21:36
Speaker 1: now her grave site could potentially become a target for
21:39
Speaker 1: grave robbers. Now, grave robbing has been a thing as
21:43
Speaker 1: long as there have been graves, but it was especially
21:46
Speaker 1: common in Ireland in the early 1700s when this story
21:50
Speaker 1: took place because the country at the time was experiencing
21:54
Speaker 1: widespread famine and poverty and people were desperate. And so
21:58
Speaker 1: things like gold wedding rings inside of graves became things
22:02
Speaker 1: worth taking. And so John just felt like Am I
22:05
Speaker 1: always going to be worried that my wife's final resting
22:08
Speaker 1: place is going to at some point be disturbed? But,
22:11
Speaker 1: you know, by the time Marjorie was actually buried that
22:14
Speaker 1: day and people had sort of moved on, you know,
22:17
Speaker 1: as much as John really wished that ring wasn't in there,
22:19
Speaker 1: that he had it, you know, there was nothing he
22:21
Speaker 1: could do. And so he decided he would just try
22:24
Speaker 1: to honor his wife's memory in other ways. That night,
22:27
Speaker 1: John was back in his home in front of the
22:29
Speaker 1: fire with his kids and his relatives all around him.
22:33
Speaker 1: And they were all crying and laughing and sharing their
22:36
Speaker 1: favorite memories of Marjorie. And then every time someone told
22:39
Speaker 1: a story about Marjorie, they would all lift their drinks
22:42
Speaker 1: and they would toast to her. Now, for John, this
22:44
Speaker 1: was very cathartic. I mean, this definitely was helping him grieve.
22:49
Speaker 1: But John was also just exhausted from his grief and
22:53
Speaker 1: also the whirlwind of the last few days and just
22:56
Speaker 1: how wretched they had been. And so even though people
22:58
Speaker 1: definitely were intending to stay up for quite a while here, John,
23:02
Speaker 1: at some point, in a lull in all the stories
23:05
Speaker 1: and laughter and crying, he stood up to head off
23:08
Speaker 1: to bed. But as soon as he did, as he
23:10
Speaker 1: began leaving the crowd and they're all kind of watching him,
23:14
Speaker 1: he heard a knock at the door. And so John
23:15
Speaker 1: sighed and headed towards the door, assuming it had to be,
23:18
Speaker 1: you know, one or more mourners who want to come
23:21
Speaker 1: in and pay their respects and just sort of be
23:23
Speaker 1: there for him. But when he opened the door, it
23:27
Speaker 1: was not a mourner. It was something else entirely. And
23:31
Speaker 1: when he saw what was out there, it made his
23:33
Speaker 1: breath catch in his chest. And then suddenly he felt
23:36
Speaker 1: this shooting pain rocketing through his chest. Then he felt
23:40
Speaker 1: his legs buckle underneath him. And before he knew it,
23:43
Speaker 1: he was falling to the ground. It would turn out
23:46
Speaker 1: John had been right to be worried about the fact
23:48
Speaker 1: that his wife was buried with her wedding ring. Because
23:51
Speaker 1: not long after she was laid to rest, word had
23:54
Speaker 1: gotten out that there was this ring inside of her grave.
23:58
Speaker 1: And grave robbers, they dug her up. But just like
24:01
Speaker 1: John and everybody else who tried, the grave robbers also
24:05
Speaker 1: could not get the ring to come off of Marjorie's
24:08
Speaker 1: swollen finger. So they had to cut off her finger
24:11
Speaker 1: to get the ring. But when they did that, a
24:15
Speaker 1: very unexpected thing happened. Marjorie sat up and started screaming.
24:22
Speaker 1: So even though John was a doctor, he had been
24:25
Speaker 1: wrong when he thought she had died. I mean, he
24:28
Speaker 1: wasn't the only one. Lots of people thought she had died. However,
24:31
Speaker 1: nobody caught it, and they were so quick to bury
24:34
Speaker 1: her because they were fearful of whatever had caused her fever,
24:37
Speaker 1: that disease, that it would continue to spread, that they
24:40
Speaker 1: buried her while she was alive. Just nobody knew. And
24:45
Speaker 1: then those grave robbers, when they cut off her finger, well,
24:47
Speaker 1: the pain of having her finger lopped off... basically jolted
24:51
Speaker 1: her out of this catatonic state she was in, and
24:54
Speaker 1: she sat up and she was fully alive again. But
24:57
Speaker 1: when Marjorie basically stumbled from the cemetery, fresh from her grave,
25:02
Speaker 1: back to her home to tell her husband that, hey,
25:04
Speaker 1: I'm still here, when John opened the door and he
25:07
Speaker 1: saw his wife standing there covered in dirt and missing
25:10
Speaker 1: a finger and looking horrible, he was so shocked and
25:14
Speaker 1: so scared that he had a heart attack and he
25:18
Speaker 1: actually died. John was buried in the same plot that
25:22
Speaker 1: Marjorie had just been dug out of. Marjorie, you know,
25:25
Speaker 1: despite what happened to her, she went on to live
25:27
Speaker 1: for many more years just without her ring finger. And
25:31
Speaker 1: then when she finally did die, she was buried in
25:33
Speaker 1: the same cemetery and was given a headstone with the inscription,
25:37
Speaker 1: lived once, buried twice. That headstone is still at Shankill
25:42
Speaker 1: Cemetery in Ireland today. Thank you so much for watching
25:53
Speaker 1: today's episode. Let me know what you thought of it
25:55
Speaker 1: in the comments below. And remember, we have a whole
25:58
Speaker 1: playlist of Places You Can't Go episodes ready for you
26:02
Speaker 1: to binge right now. So go ahead and click here
26:05
Speaker 1: and give them a watch. All right, until next time,
26:08
Speaker 1: see ya.