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They were TRAPPED in these cursed mountains · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Today's stories are about real people who try to control
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Speaker 1: fate and what they end up doing is just causing
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Speaker 1: historic levels of destruction. 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: don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get
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Speaker 1: into today's stories. On the morning of June twenty sixth
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Speaker 1: eighteen twenty six, thirty eight year old Samuel Willie Junior
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Speaker 1: stepped out of his house in a remote area of
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Speaker 1: New Hampshire's White Mountain Range called the Notch. His wife
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Speaker 1: Polly was at his side, and together they looked around
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Speaker 1: in shock because the land surrounding their home was almost
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Speaker 1: completely destroyed. There had been a huge storm the previous night,
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Speaker 1: and so Sam and Paully had been expecting some damage,
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Speaker 1: but what they were seeing now was far worse than
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Speaker 1: they had imagined. The heavy rain had caused the river
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Speaker 1: in front of their home to completely overflow, so half
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Speaker 1: of their property was now completely submerged in water. The
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Speaker 1: deluge had also triggered a rock slide from one side
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Speaker 1: of the mountain slopes behind them, so there were also
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Speaker 1: rocks and mud and entire trees that were now kind
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Speaker 1: of littering their yard and adjacent fields. Sam saw luckily
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Speaker 1: the slide had missed their house in the barn where
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Speaker 1: they kept their livestock, but only barely, and there was
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Speaker 1: damage to those structures from the storm itself that he
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Speaker 1: would have to repair. So Sam beganulating how much time
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Speaker 1: and money it was going to take to clean all
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Speaker 1: this up, and next to him he heard Polly kind
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Speaker 1: of mumble to herself that this had all been a
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Speaker 1: really bad idea. Sam sighed because he knew that Polly
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Speaker 1: was referring to their decision to move to the notch
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Speaker 1: in the first place, and right now, staring at all
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Speaker 1: this awful destruction right in front of him, he had
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Speaker 1: to agree with her. This might have been a terrible idea.
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Speaker 1: So up until about a year ago, Sam and Polly
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Speaker 1: and their five kids had lived on a farm about
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Speaker 1: twenty miles away from where they were right now, and
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Speaker 1: it had been a very quiet, cozy life. But Sam
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Speaker 1: had always had this feeling that he wanted to do
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Speaker 1: something more exciting than just be a regular old farmer,
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Speaker 1: and with this house in the Notch, he'd seen an
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Speaker 1: opportunity for adventure and also an opportunity to make some money.
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Speaker 1: So in this part of the White Mountain Range, there
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Speaker 1: was a twelve mile long road that cut through the
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Speaker 1: range from one side to the other, and the Notch
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Speaker 1: House was right in the middle of that road. But
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Speaker 1: since this was the year eighteen twenty six, this road
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Speaker 1: was more like a glorified trail. It was mountainous and rocky,
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Speaker 1: and neither horses nor wagons could make it all the
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Speaker 1: way through, so as a result, travelers were typically on
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Speaker 1: foot and there was literally nowhere to stop on this
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Speaker 1: whole twelve mile road except for the Willy's Notch House.
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Speaker 1: So Sam had realized how valuable this Notch House could
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Speaker 1: be if he converted it into an inn, But he
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Speaker 1: also had bigger aspirations for the place, like beyond it
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Speaker 1: just being a pit stop, he wanted to turn it
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Speaker 1: into a destination. After all, the White Mountains were incredibly beautiful,
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Speaker 1: and where the Willies lived in the Notch was no exception.
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Speaker 1: Their house was right on a riverbank in a mountain valley,
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Speaker 1: surrounded on all sides by the woods and towering mist
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Speaker 1: covered peaks. It was all honestly breathtaking, and as soon
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Speaker 1: as Sam had seen it, he knew that it could
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Speaker 1: be a famous destination for poets and authors and artists
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Speaker 1: because it was the kind of place people would write
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Speaker 1: songs and books about. I mean, it was perfect. But
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Speaker 1: so far his dream, you know, of coming out here
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Speaker 1: to the Notch House had been a lot of work.
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Speaker 1: The house was large, but really old, and it had
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Speaker 1: been abandoned for a while before he and his family
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Speaker 1: got there, so it was in really bad shape and
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Speaker 1: quite dilapidated. Sam had hired two men to live on
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Speaker 1: the property and help him fix it up, and they'd
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Speaker 1: already done some work to expand the house and the
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Speaker 1: barn to accommodate more travelers. But Sam knew he still
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Speaker 1: had a lot to do before the Notch House became
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Speaker 1: some kind of artist's retreat. And now with this extensive
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Speaker 1: damage from the most recent storm, he had even more
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Speaker 1: things to fix, which he also had to admit was
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Speaker 1: actually the least of his problems, because as he and
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Speaker 1: his wife Paully looked around at the aftermath of the storm,
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Speaker 1: he knew really he was lucky that their house was
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Speaker 1: even still standing, and that he and his family were
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Speaker 1: even still alive. I mean, that storm was catastrophic, and
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Speaker 1: as Sam thought about how close they'd come to death,
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Speaker 1: his heart began to race. I mean, he wondered if
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Speaker 1: if Polly was right and they should really at this
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Speaker 1: point just pack the family up and go back to
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Speaker 1: sin Bole Farming because it was safer. But leaving meant
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Speaker 1: sort of admitting failure. His big dream would be over.
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Speaker 1: There would be no artist's retreat, no tourist mecca. You know,
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Speaker 1: he would not be some creative benefactor. He'd just be
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Speaker 1: a farmer. So he took a deep breath, and then
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Speaker 1: he asked his wife to please give this place one
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Speaker 1: more chance. He promised he would do everything he possibly
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Speaker 1: could to not just repair the property, but also make
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Speaker 1: it safe and secure so it could withstand whatever the
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Speaker 1: mountain threw at them. And Polly hesitated, but ultimately she
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Speaker 1: believed in her husband, and she nodded in agreement. For
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Speaker 1: the next two months, Sam and his two hired workers
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Speaker 1: worked practically around the clock repairing the damage from the storm.
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Speaker 1: They fixed up windows and shingles and cleared away all
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Speaker 1: the debris, which took forever. And then once all the
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Speaker 1: repairs were done, Sam continued working, but now he focused
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Speaker 1: on improving the property. As the weeks passed by, he
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Speaker 1: worked very hard to build his family a very secure
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Speaker 1: home so they'd be much safer against few storms. He
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Speaker 1: reinforced walls and built a whole new roof, and mapped
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Speaker 1: out disaster scenarios so that he and his family would
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Speaker 1: always be prepared. One disaster scenario that he was especially
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Speaker 1: concerned about was the large boulder that was right behind
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Speaker 1: their house. He was worried that if there was another
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Speaker 1: big rock slide, that boulder might just top onto them
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Speaker 1: and crush them, and he and his workers soon realized
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Speaker 1: that they couldn't actually move the boulder. It was just
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Speaker 1: way too big. But in the end they found a
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Speaker 1: very creative way to make sure it would not be dangerous.
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Speaker 1: And while Sam did all this work, he started to
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Speaker 1: feel a lot better about everything. Each security measure he
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Speaker 1: put in place was proof that he didn't have to
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Speaker 1: sacrifice his ambitions for his family's safety. He could have both.
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Speaker 1: A few weeks later, on the night of August twenty eighth,
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Speaker 1: Sam Willie stood by a downstairs window watching another wild
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Speaker 1: storm rage outside. Heavy rain pummeled the glass, and Sam
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Speaker 1: could hear powerful wind battering the sides of the house.
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Speaker 1: It was pitch blackout, but every now and then there
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Speaker 1: was a burst of lightning that would light the whole
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Speaker 1: valley up for a few seconds before it went dark again.
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Speaker 1: Each time this happened, a crash of thunder would follow
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Speaker 1: that was so loud had shook the house down to
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Speaker 1: its foundation. Behind Sam, Polly, along with their five kids,
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Speaker 1: and the two men that were working on the property
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Speaker 1: were all sitting at the kitchen table, and Polly and
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Speaker 1: the kids in particular were very scared, and the whole
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Speaker 1: group were reading Bible verses, you know, in these kind
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Speaker 1: of frantic, hushed tones, like they were trying to, you know,
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Speaker 1: will the storm to be over and to cling onto
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Speaker 1: their faith, to pray that they'd be okay. Sam could
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Speaker 1: hear the fear in his wife's voice, and he really
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Speaker 1: couldn't blame her, because this was quite possibly the strongest
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Speaker 1: storm that either of them had ever seen out here.
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Speaker 1: It was even bigger than that one that completely destroyed
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Speaker 1: their property over the summer. The rain seemed impossibly powerful,
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Speaker 1: coming down so hard and so fast that the river
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Speaker 1: had already overflowed, and each time there was a burst
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Speaker 1: of lightning, Sam could see the water levels were getting
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Speaker 1: higher and higher almost by the second, and so Sam
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Speaker 1: was admittedly quite scared himself. You know, he tried to
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Speaker 1: keep that in, but you know, his heart was racing,
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Speaker 1: and he was really anxious. But he told himself that
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Speaker 1: this was the moment he'd prepared for all summer long.
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Speaker 1: I mean, this was it. He had done so much
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Speaker 1: work to make sure this was a safe place during storms,
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Speaker 1: and he felt like they'd be okay. But at the
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Speaker 1: same time, the deafening sounds outside and the terrified voices
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Speaker 1: of Polly and his kids were making it really hard
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Speaker 1: to believe that was actually true, that they were really
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Speaker 1: okay here. So for a little while, Sam just kept
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Speaker 1: looking out the window, listening to his family behind him.
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Speaker 1: But then eventually he turned around and as calm as
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Speaker 1: he could, he told them all to go to bed,
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Speaker 1: it was going to be fine. He would stay up
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Speaker 1: and keep watch. Polly, who was visibly still very scared,
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Speaker 1: nodded and got up and went off with the kids.
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Speaker 1: And for the next few hours, Sam stayed at his
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Speaker 1: post by the window and watched the storm, and for
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Speaker 1: the most part, there wasn't a whole lot of drama.
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Speaker 1: I mean, it was very loud and windy. It was
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Speaker 1: obvious the river was flo I mean, there was going
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Speaker 1: to be damage tomorrow. But Sam was thinking that, you know,
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Speaker 1: maybe we're going to get through this thing. But a
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Speaker 1: little after midnight, Sam heard this sudden, extremely loud, banging
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Speaker 1: sound outside and he froze because he knew it was
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Speaker 1: not thunder. It sounded more like an explosion. Almost immediately
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Speaker 1: Sam knew what it had to have been. The barn
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Speaker 1: must have collapsed, and thinking that this storm had just
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Speaker 1: taken out an entire building that he had reinforced for
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Speaker 1: a storm turned Sam's worry into outright panic, and so
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Speaker 1: Sam screams for his wife and the workers and his
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Speaker 1: kids to wake up that it's not safe. Get away
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Speaker 1: from the windows. We have to find cover. And so
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Speaker 1: for the next few seconds, the family and the workers,
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Speaker 1: everyone's frantically scrambling around trying to find a safe spot,
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Speaker 1: but they don't know where it is. But as they're
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Speaker 1: sort of navigating trying to find the right place to
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Speaker 1: go to whether the storm, Sam heard an even louder bang,
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Speaker 1: and then there were screams all around him, and then
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Speaker 1: he felt himsel go airborne as a heavy object slammed
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Speaker 1: into his back. The following evening, an exhausted traveler named
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Speaker 1: John Barker walked down that road in the direction of
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Speaker 1: the Notch House where the Willies lived. So John was
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Speaker 1: a merchant and he was passing through the White Mountains
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Speaker 1: on his way home after a business trip, and he
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Speaker 1: had made this trip many times before he knew the road,
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Speaker 1: but the road currently was flooded and there was rock
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Speaker 1: slides and damage everywhere, so it was quite slow going
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Speaker 1: and pretty miserable. But he knew at the halfway point
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Speaker 1: was this house, the Notch House, where Sam Willie and
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Speaker 1: his family lived, and they were looking to convert their
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Speaker 1: house into an inn for travelers, And even though it
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Speaker 1: wasn't fully established yet, John knew he could very likely
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Speaker 1: get into that house, have a hot meal, rest a
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Speaker 1: little bit before he made the rest of his journey,
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Speaker 1: But when he finally rounded the corner into the valley
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Speaker 1: where the house was, he just froze because the area
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Speaker 1: was a complete disaster. The river had clearly completely flooded
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Speaker 1: and now half the land in front of him was
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Speaker 1: just underwater. There had also been clearly a huge rock slide.
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Speaker 1: The barn was only half standing, and the field in
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Speaker 1: front of the Willis was completely buried in rocks and
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Speaker 1: mountain debris. But the truly astonishing thing was that in
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Speaker 1: the middle of all this destruction and ruin, the Willy's
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Speaker 1: house was still standing, and as John maneuvered his way
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Speaker 1: closer to it, he realized it was more than just intact.
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Speaker 1: The house was pristine. There wasn't a single thing broken
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Speaker 1: or out of place, not even a window. Relieved and
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Speaker 1: a little amazed, John hurried right up to the entrance
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Speaker 1: and knocked, but no one answered, so eventually he just
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Speaker 1: opened the door and poked his head in and called
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Speaker 1: out to Sam, but he didn't hear anything, no sound
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Speaker 1: of a reply, and nobody moving around inside. So John
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Speaker 1: tentatively stepped all the way into the house and just
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Speaker 1: kept calling out to the family as he walked from
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Speaker 1: room to room, but he quickly realized that the house
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Speaker 1: was completely empty. It was also a mess. There were
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Speaker 1: clothes scattered all over the floor, and beds and sheets
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Speaker 1: had been yanked around and were messy, and the Bible
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Speaker 1: was wide open on the kitchen table. John stood in
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Speaker 1: the middle of the home trying to work out what
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Speaker 1: could have happened here. The mess suggested that, you know,
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Speaker 1: clearly the family had been here somewhat recently, but had
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Speaker 1: left in a hurry. So John guessed they must have
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Speaker 1: gone down the mountain to wait out the storm somewhere else,
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Speaker 1: either at a neighbor's or the tavern miles away at
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Speaker 1: the end of the road, And since the Willies were
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Speaker 1: not here to allow him to stay, John needed to
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Speaker 1: figure out what he was going to do. I mean,
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Speaker 1: he didn't really like the idea of still sleeping in
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Speaker 1: the home without them here, but he really had nowhere
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Speaker 1: else to go, and it was almost nighttime and he
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Speaker 1: could barely manage the ruined road during the daylight, let
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Speaker 1: alone during the dark. So even though he felt kind
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Speaker 1: of bad about it, he picked a bed and tried
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Speaker 1: to get some rest, But just as he began to
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Speaker 1: drift off, he heard a deep guttural moaning sound coming
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Speaker 1: from somewhere outside the house. John immediately woke up and
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Speaker 1: rushed over to a window, but he couldn't see anything.
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Speaker 1: Night came really fast in the White Mountains and it
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Speaker 1: was almost completely dark outside. He waited to see if
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Speaker 1: he would hear anything else, but he didn't, so he
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Speaker 1: decided he must have imagined the sound and turned to
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Speaker 1: go back to bed, But as he did, the moaning
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Speaker 1: started again, and this time it was louder. John gasped
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Speaker 1: as a terrible thought occurred to him. He wondered if
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Speaker 1: maybe the sound was one of the willies, and that
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Speaker 1: they hadn't actually left the property, but were maybe outside
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Speaker 1: injured or in trouble because of the storm. So John
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Speaker 1: sprinted outside, but again it was pitch black outside and
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Speaker 1: he didn't have any kind of light to help guide
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Speaker 1: his way, and so once he was out there, he
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Speaker 1: just began shouting out, you know, calling out to whoever
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Speaker 1: it was, asking if they needed help, and eventually the
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Speaker 1: horrible moaning answered him. But the moaning kind of echoed
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Speaker 1: all over the valley, so John couldn't pinpoint where it
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Speaker 1: was actually coming from, other than it clearly being outside somewhere.
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Speaker 1: After frantically looking around and not finding whoever it was,
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Speaker 1: John realized that finding the injured person was going to
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Speaker 1: be impossible right now. It was just too dark and
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Speaker 1: he would unfortunately have to wait until the morning. So
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Speaker 1: very reluctantly, John went back inside the house and for
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Speaker 1: hours he just sat in bed and listened to the
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Speaker 1: moaning continue outside. Finally, in the morning, when the first
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Speaker 1: bit of sun peeked over the mountain ridge, John hurried
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Speaker 1: right outside to look around, and this time he quickly
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Speaker 1: found the source of that moaning sound. It was one
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Speaker 1: of the Willie's oxen, moaning in pain from being trapped
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Speaker 1: under some debris near the ruins of their barn. John
14:44
Speaker 1: immediately rushed forward and began hauling the wooden planks and
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Speaker 1: rocks off the ox and after he had freed the animal,
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Speaker 1: it amazingly staggered to its feet and hobbled away into
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Speaker 1: the woods. It was basically okay, but after it was gone,
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Speaker 1: John felt the sort of sick uneasiness. Even though the
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Speaker 1: sound had been from an ox and he had saved it,
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Speaker 1: he just felt like there was something wrong here, and
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Speaker 1: so he decided that he had to go and see
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Speaker 1: the willies with his own eyes, just to make sure
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Speaker 1: they really were okay. So, even though it was really
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Speaker 1: early and John was still very tired, he immediately gathered
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Speaker 1: up his things and set off down the road. Hours later,
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Speaker 1: around noon that same day, John Barker finally staggered out
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Speaker 1: of the mostly destroyed pass and made his way towards
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Speaker 1: the tavern at the bottom of the road. When John
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Speaker 1: stepped inside, he was exhausted. He was drenched, you know,
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Speaker 1: from this awful journey he had just taken again on
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Speaker 1: this road. But more than that, he was really worried
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Speaker 1: about the willies because as he made that trip down
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Speaker 1: the road, he saw neighbors homes along the way and
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Speaker 1: kind of expected to see the willies in one of them.
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Speaker 1: But no, the willies were not in any of the
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Speaker 1: neighbor's homes, and in fact, basically none of the neighbors
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Speaker 1: were in their houses either. They were all basically in
15:56
Speaker 1: this tavern. It was like everybody who lived on this
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Speaker 1: road had come to this tavern because of the storm.
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Speaker 1: But when John looked around the tavern, he could tell
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Speaker 1: the willies were not in there either, and this made
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Speaker 1: John's stomach drop because if they weren't at their house,
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Speaker 1: and they weren't in any of the neighbor's homes, and
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Speaker 1: now they were not in this tavern with the rest
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Speaker 1: of their neighbors. That had to mean something was wrong,
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Speaker 1: and so John actually called out to the entire room
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Speaker 1: and asked if anyone had seen the Willies since the storm,
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Speaker 1: and the tavern got really quiet as its occupants all
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Speaker 1: began looking around at each other seeing if anybody had,
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Speaker 1: but eventually everyone just shook their head and said, no,
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Speaker 1: we don't know where they are. And that's when John
16:36
Speaker 1: said to the crowd that, well, the Willies are missing.
16:41
Speaker 1: A few hours later, a twelve men search party left
16:43
Speaker 1: that tavern and headed right back up the road towards
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Speaker 1: the notch. They were led by one of the Willy's neighbors,
16:49
Speaker 1: a man named Edward Melcher, who lived at the base
16:52
Speaker 1: of the mountain on a farm with his family. The
16:54
Speaker 1: recent storm had done quite a bit of damage to
16:56
Speaker 1: Edward's property, and so he and his family, like most
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Speaker 1: other people that lived in this area, had gone to
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Speaker 1: the tavern to seek shelter. Edward and his family, much
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Speaker 1: like the Willies, were good people who were just trying
17:07
Speaker 1: to carve out a living in this part of the world,
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Speaker 1: and there were not a lot of people doing that.
17:11
Speaker 1: I mean, this was a very small community, and so
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Speaker 1: they always helped each other out whenever they could, and
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Speaker 1: so this was no exception. But as desperately as Edward
17:19
Speaker 1: and the rest of the search party wanted to get
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Speaker 1: to the Willy's property and find these people, it took
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Speaker 1: so long to navigate the road that by the time
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Speaker 1: they actually got to the property, it was after midnight
17:31
Speaker 1: and really too dark to look for anything, so they
17:33
Speaker 1: just went right into the Willy's house to wait until morning.
17:36
Speaker 1: Once he was inside, Edward could see the home really
17:39
Speaker 1: was just as John described, you know, it was sort
17:41
Speaker 1: of a mess, but there was absolutely no damage to
17:44
Speaker 1: it from the storm. Edward had heard that Sam was
17:48
Speaker 1: really freaked out about a storm that they had had
17:50
Speaker 1: earlier that summer, and because of that storm and because
17:53
Speaker 1: of the damage it had done, he had gone way
17:56
Speaker 1: out of his way to really develop his property to
17:59
Speaker 1: prepare it for the next storm. And it seemed like
18:02
Speaker 1: all his preparations and reinforcements on his land had paid off,
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Speaker 1: because here his house was standing tall. But that was
18:09
Speaker 1: also kind of confusing. It's like, if you've prepared this
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Speaker 1: house for a storm, and clearly it was able to
18:14
Speaker 1: withstand the storm, why did the Willies leave? As Edward
18:18
Speaker 1: continued to walk around the house, he saw that the
18:21
Speaker 1: Willy's Bible was still lying on the kitchen table, wide open,
18:24
Speaker 1: and when he leaned over and read the passage that
18:27
Speaker 1: was on the page, he couldn't help but, you know,
18:30
Speaker 1: kind of shiver when he saw what it said. It
18:32
Speaker 1: said the Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the
18:35
Speaker 1: Highest gave his voice hailstones and coals of fire. Hours later,
18:39
Speaker 1: when the sun finally began to come up, Edward and
18:42
Speaker 1: the others went outside and began searching the property for
18:45
Speaker 1: signs of the Willies, and over the next few hours,
18:48
Speaker 1: the original party of twelve grew as more and more
18:51
Speaker 1: people showed up to assist in the search. By this point,
18:54
Speaker 1: word had spread pretty far about the family's disappearance, and
18:58
Speaker 1: so residents from all over the White Mountains had come
19:00
Speaker 1: here to help, and eventually hundreds of people were combing
19:04
Speaker 1: the mountain side to find the Willy's or at least
19:06
Speaker 1: to find a clue about where they might have gone.
19:08
Speaker 1: At around noon, when still there had been nothing found.
19:12
Speaker 1: Edward decided he would go search closer to the river,
19:14
Speaker 1: since by this point the water levels had gone down some.
19:18
Speaker 1: And when he got to the water's edge, he began
19:20
Speaker 1: to hear this strange buzzing sound, and so he followed it,
19:24
Speaker 1: and eventually he saw something poking out from behind some debris,
19:28
Speaker 1: and when he saw what it was, Edward began to
19:31
Speaker 1: scream for help. So the thing that Sam Willie was
19:34
Speaker 1: most afraid of happening in a large storm was a
19:37
Speaker 1: rock slide, especially with that huge boulder positioned right behind
19:41
Speaker 1: his house. But when Sam realized it was going to
19:44
Speaker 1: be impossible to move said boulder or otherwise shield his
19:48
Speaker 1: family from falling mountain rocks, he came up with a
19:51
Speaker 1: pretty creative solution. He built a whole second shelter that
19:55
Speaker 1: he and his family could run to if there was
19:58
Speaker 1: a bad storm. And when and that second storm hit,
20:01
Speaker 1: you know, the one that had caused all this damage
20:03
Speaker 1: and had led to the Willy's disappearance, Well, during that storm,
20:07
Speaker 1: Sam's screaming for his family to you know, take cover,
20:10
Speaker 1: get away from the windows. You know, He's heard this
20:12
Speaker 1: crashing sound outside that he is convinced is the sound
20:15
Speaker 1: of his barn collapsing, and you know his house is next.
20:18
Speaker 1: He's yelling for them to take cover. Well, the family
20:21
Speaker 1: listened to him, and together they did seek cover. They
20:25
Speaker 1: left the main house and went into that second shelter
20:29
Speaker 1: that they believed was better protected from a potential rock slide.
20:34
Speaker 1: But unfortunately this would be a catastrophic mistake, because that
20:39
Speaker 1: humongous boulder right behind the house was not actually a
20:43
Speaker 1: safety risk. In many ways, it was like a protective
20:46
Speaker 1: barrier when there was an actual rock slide during this
20:49
Speaker 1: horrible storm, while the rubble actually piled up on the
20:53
Speaker 1: backside of that boulder and did not strike the house
20:56
Speaker 1: at all, and so in essence, this boulder basically made
21:00
Speaker 1: the Willy's original home the single safest place to be
21:03
Speaker 1: on the whole property. But unfortunately, Sam and his family
21:07
Speaker 1: did not stay there long enough to realize that. They
21:09
Speaker 1: ran out of the main house as a big group,
21:12
Speaker 1: and as soon as they were outside they were overtaken
21:15
Speaker 1: by the rock slide and killed. Eventually, the residents of
21:18
Speaker 1: the White Mountains would find the family. The buzzing that
21:21
Speaker 1: Edward heard was actually a group of flies gathered around
21:25
Speaker 1: a single human hand reached out from underneath the rubble. Ultimately,
21:29
Speaker 1: because of this tragedy, the area became a famous tourist destination,
21:34
Speaker 1: just like the Willies had hoped it would. People from
21:36
Speaker 1: all over the country heard about the family and what happened,
21:39
Speaker 1: and before long, artists and authors were coming to the
21:42
Speaker 1: White Mountains in droves to see the site of the tragedy,
21:46
Speaker 1: and some even wrote books about it. And so, in
21:49
Speaker 1: a sort of cruel twist of fate, Sam's dream did
21:52
Speaker 1: come true, just not in the way he hoped. On
22:13
Speaker 1: one of the last nights in December of sixteen seventy eight,
22:17
Speaker 1: Marie Boss sat at a large table at a friend's
22:19
Speaker 1: dinner party in the city of Paris, France. The table
22:22
Speaker 1: was crowded with other party guests and they were all
22:25
Speaker 1: listening to Marie as she told story after story about
22:28
Speaker 1: her life and her career. So Marie was a fortune teller,
22:32
Speaker 1: which meant, at least according to her, that she could
22:34
Speaker 1: read people's futures, usually by reading their palms or using crystals.
22:39
Speaker 1: And Marie was actually quite good at doing this in
22:42
Speaker 1: the sense that whenever she told someone what their future
22:44
Speaker 1: was going to be, she typically was right, which was
22:47
Speaker 1: why out of the four hundred something fortune tellers in
22:50
Speaker 1: Paris at the time. She had some of the best
22:53
Speaker 1: and most important clients in the whole city, people like
22:55
Speaker 1: royalty and wives of very high up government members and
22:59
Speaker 1: other very wealthy people of high society. And it was
23:01
Speaker 1: a big deal for Marie to even be in the
23:03
Speaker 1: same room as some of these kinds of people, because
23:06
Speaker 1: she did not come for money. Actually, there was a
23:09
Speaker 1: time where she almost had to live out on the
23:11
Speaker 1: streets because years ago, when her husband died, she was
23:14
Speaker 1: left alone with her three kids and really no way
23:17
Speaker 1: to provide for them. But she'd worked very hard and
23:20
Speaker 1: actually ended up thriving. Her kids had grown up, and
23:23
Speaker 1: she turned her fortune telling talents into a real business.
23:27
Speaker 1: She'd been so successful that she really was maybe about
23:30
Speaker 1: three clients away from being able to retire. And Marie
23:33
Speaker 1: was not one to just sit back and let those
23:35
Speaker 1: clients magically find her. She was a self made woman
23:39
Speaker 1: and knew it was very important to go out and
23:41
Speaker 1: find those clients herself, and so that's why she was
23:44
Speaker 1: at this party now. It was being hosted by a
23:47
Speaker 1: friend of hers who was also in the fortune telling scene,
23:49
Speaker 1: and so many of the guests at this table were
23:52
Speaker 1: new potential clients that Marie really hoped to impress. So
23:57
Speaker 1: that's what Marie was trying to do now, to try
23:59
Speaker 1: to be very impressive. She was telling the other guests
24:02
Speaker 1: all these incredible tales about working with the rich and
24:05
Speaker 1: the famous. But the problem was, in addition to these
24:08
Speaker 1: fabulous stories she was telling, what was also coming through
24:12
Speaker 1: very clearly to the audience was that Marie was very drunk.
24:16
Speaker 1: So Marie was loud and talkative in general, and that
24:19
Speaker 1: extroverted attitude really helped her get clients typically, but when
24:23
Speaker 1: she got drunk, she was even more talkative than normal,
24:27
Speaker 1: and sometimes it also made her a bit inappropriate. Right now, though,
24:31
Speaker 1: she felt like she was on a roll because her
24:32
Speaker 1: stories were drawing gasps and laughs, and the guests were
24:36
Speaker 1: pushing her to tell them more and more. But there
24:39
Speaker 1: was at least one person in the crowd that seemed
24:42
Speaker 1: bothered by what Marie was saying, the hostess of the party.
24:45
Speaker 1: The hostess kept silently glaring at Marie from the other
24:49
Speaker 1: end of the table. It was like she was silently
24:51
Speaker 1: trying to tell her to shut up. But Marie figured
24:54
Speaker 1: she knew why she was acting that way. I mean,
24:56
Speaker 1: the hostess was also a fortune teller, and so she
24:59
Speaker 1: must just be jealous. You know, Marie's getting all this
25:02
Speaker 1: attention and potential new clients and this wasn't even her party, like,
25:06
Speaker 1: she just got to be jealous. So Marie ignored the
25:09
Speaker 1: glares and just kept on talking until dinner was over.
25:12
Speaker 1: And then after that the party ended and Marie staggered
25:15
Speaker 1: off to bed. When Marie woke up the next day,
25:19
Speaker 1: her head was absolutely pounding and her stomach was in knots.
25:22
Speaker 1: I mean, she was severely hung over from drinking the
25:25
Speaker 1: night before. She didn't remember a whole lot about what
25:28
Speaker 1: had happened the night before, but she did remember telling
25:30
Speaker 1: a lot of stories, and she remembered that while she
25:33
Speaker 1: was telling these stories, the hostess was angrily glaring at
25:37
Speaker 1: her the whole time. And now that she was sober,
25:39
Speaker 1: a terrible thought popped into her head. She wondered if
25:43
Speaker 1: she'd said or done something that was embarrassing. You know,
25:45
Speaker 1: what if the table wasn't laughing with her, what if
25:48
Speaker 1: they were laughing at her? And what if, you know,
25:50
Speaker 1: the hostess glaring at her was some sort of signal
25:53
Speaker 1: to stop because she was hurting herself, and so this
25:56
Speaker 1: thought that you know, somehow she had done real damage
25:58
Speaker 1: to her her reputation in her career, you know, from
26:01
Speaker 1: being too drunk, continued to weigh on her throughout the
26:04
Speaker 1: entire day and into the following evening, until that night,
26:09
Speaker 1: when she was in her kitchen making some dinner with
26:11
Speaker 1: her adult daughter and there was a knock at door.
26:13
Speaker 1: Marie hurried to open it up, and when she did,
26:16
Speaker 1: she found a young woman standing on her front steps.
26:18
Speaker 1: The woman seemed incredibly nervous and kept fidgeting and smoothing
26:21
Speaker 1: her hair, and she told Marie that she had gotten
26:24
Speaker 1: her name from someone Marie had met at that dinner party,
26:28
Speaker 1: and was hoping that Marie could help her. And when
26:30
Speaker 1: she heard this, Marie smiled and exhaled out all the
26:33
Speaker 1: tension she'd been holding up over the last day. You know,
26:36
Speaker 1: this was a huge relief to Marie. It was proof
26:39
Speaker 1: that the dinner party had not been a total embarrassment,
26:42
Speaker 1: you know, despite the hostess glaring at her the whole
26:45
Speaker 1: time that clearly, you know, here she is getting a
26:48
Speaker 1: new client. She must have impressed at least this woman,
26:51
Speaker 1: and maybe there were more like it had been a success.
26:54
Speaker 1: So very excitedly. She invited the young woman inside and
26:57
Speaker 1: led her to the area of her home where Marie
26:59
Speaker 1: kN to her business and read people's fortunes. This room
27:02
Speaker 1: had lots of strange objects placed all around it, like
27:05
Speaker 1: jars and crystals, and bottles of potions and decks of
27:08
Speaker 1: cards to make the area feel mystical and authentic. The
27:12
Speaker 1: two of them eventually sat down at Marie's small table
27:14
Speaker 1: in the middle of this room, and once they were sitting,
27:17
Speaker 1: the woman told Marie that she did want her fortune
27:20
Speaker 1: told because she had a terribly abusive husband and she
27:24
Speaker 1: wanted to know how much longer she would have to
27:26
Speaker 1: put up with its cruelty. This didn't surprise Marie. She'd
27:29
Speaker 1: seen a lot of nervous, frail women like this one
27:32
Speaker 1: who were completely trapped in their marriages. In France at
27:35
Speaker 1: this time, divorce wasn't even legal, which meant you were
27:38
Speaker 1: stuck with your partner, even if they were abusive, and
27:41
Speaker 1: so a lot of these women that were in this
27:43
Speaker 1: position turned to Marie, desperate to be told what the
27:46
Speaker 1: rest of their lives looked like and if their lives
27:49
Speaker 1: would continue to be terrible and hard because of their partner.
27:52
Speaker 1: Marie knew that really what these women were looking for
27:55
Speaker 1: was control. They hoped that if they just knew what
27:58
Speaker 1: their future looked like, even if it was bad, they
28:01
Speaker 1: could somehow do something to change it. And so Marie
28:04
Speaker 1: she reached out and she grabbed this woman's hand and
28:06
Speaker 1: she turned it around and she began to study her pom.
28:09
Speaker 1: Marie was trying to get a sense of what the
28:12
Speaker 1: future held for this woman by reading her pomp, and
28:14
Speaker 1: pretty soon Marie got this feeling in her gut. She
28:17
Speaker 1: felt sure that this woman actually was going to be okay.
28:22
Speaker 1: And Marie told the woman that her husband's abuse would
28:25
Speaker 1: end soon. Then she gave her some tips on what
28:28
Speaker 1: to do in the meantime. The woman was visibly relieved
28:31
Speaker 1: and thanked Marie profusely, and then when she was gone,
28:34
Speaker 1: Marie smiled, not just because she had helped this woman,
28:37
Speaker 1: but also because after this job, Marie would only need
28:41
Speaker 1: two more clients before she had enough money to retire.
28:45
Speaker 1: A few days later, on January fourth, Marie woke up
28:48
Speaker 1: to somebody banging on her door. She figured it must
28:51
Speaker 1: be a very desperate client, so she rolled out of
28:53
Speaker 1: bed and started walking to go answer it. But before
28:57
Speaker 1: she could get there, the door flew open and the
29:00
Speaker 1: Parisian police poured inside. Marie staggered back and just stared
29:03
Speaker 1: at them in complete shock. She had no idea what
29:06
Speaker 1: they were doing there, but they immediately just grabbed her
29:09
Speaker 1: and said she was under arrest. Marie screamed in protest
29:13
Speaker 1: and said there had to be some mistake here. She
29:15
Speaker 1: hadn't done anything wrong, and when they didn't listen to her,
29:18
Speaker 1: she got furious and demanded to be released. She told
29:21
Speaker 1: them that she was Marie Boss, and she had friends
29:24
Speaker 1: in high places like parliament and noble circles. They could
29:28
Speaker 1: vouch for her and say that she was an honest
29:30
Speaker 1: person who just worked hard and was good for her
29:32
Speaker 1: clients and good for the city. But as she was
29:35
Speaker 1: ranting and raving, one of the officers stepped in front
29:38
Speaker 1: of her, and without reacting to what she was saying,
29:41
Speaker 1: they just showed her an object that Marie instantly recognized
29:44
Speaker 1: as having come from her fortune telling room. And at
29:47
Speaker 1: this her heart sank and she stopped struggling. Because Marie
29:51
Speaker 1: knew that she was now in very, very big trouble,
29:55
Speaker 1: and if she was in trouble, then so were many
29:59
Speaker 1: many other people in Paris. After Marie was arrested, she
30:03
Speaker 1: was brought to a prison in Paris called the Bestille,
30:06
Speaker 1: where she was interrogated by torture, and since Marie was
30:09
Speaker 1: already a talker, she quickly told the police everything they
30:12
Speaker 1: wanted to know. And after Marie did that, all hell
30:15
Speaker 1: broke loose. Hordes of police officers fanned out through the
30:18
Speaker 1: whole city, charging into homes and businesses all around Paris,
30:22
Speaker 1: arresting civilians, business owners, and housewives. Then they flooded the
30:26
Speaker 1: hall of the city's government and demanded high ranking officials
30:30
Speaker 1: in parliament surrender their wives to authorities, throwing the Parisian
30:34
Speaker 1: government into absolute chaos. And even after all of that,
30:38
Speaker 1: the authorities still weren't finished. They left the city and
30:41
Speaker 1: began forcing the French nobility out of their castles to
30:45
Speaker 1: go face charges in the city. Months turned into years,
30:48
Speaker 1: and the arrests continued to pile up, and each one
30:51
Speaker 1: was more shocking than the last, until the investigation led
30:54
Speaker 1: authorities to the actual royal palace in Paris and to
30:58
Speaker 1: the King's favorite mistress. By the time the police finished
31:01
Speaker 1: their investigation, hundreds of people all across France, ranging from
31:05
Speaker 1: commoners to literal royalty were either facing charges or sitting
31:10
Speaker 1: in jail cells, and screams filled the halls of these
31:13
Speaker 1: prisons as the arrested were tortured for whatever information they
31:18
Speaker 1: might have. Scores of people fled the country, and then eventually,
31:21
Speaker 1: all around Paris, these enormous pires were built in the
31:25
Speaker 1: public squares, and one by one, dozens and dozens of
31:29
Speaker 1: people were let out to these pires, strapped to the
31:32
Speaker 1: poles in the middle of them, and then burned to
31:35
Speaker 1: death in front of thousands of Parisian spectators. And it
31:40
Speaker 1: was all because of Marie. So Marie Boss was not
31:44
Speaker 1: just a fortune teller. She made her real money by
31:47
Speaker 1: making and selling poison, and it would turn out that
31:50
Speaker 1: she was not the only one. In fact, at the time,
31:53
Speaker 1: you could say Paris basically ran on poison. Since the
31:56
Speaker 1: late sixteen sixties. According to one estimate, around half of
32:00
Speaker 1: the people who lived in that city, from housewives to
32:03
Speaker 1: literal royalty, had poisoned someone or been poisoned by someone.
32:09
Speaker 1: It had become absurdly common for people, especially rich people,
32:13
Speaker 1: to buy poison from re and the network of four
32:16
Speaker 1: hundred or so other poisoners around the city and use
32:20
Speaker 1: it to quietly commit murder so that the victim's deaths
32:23
Speaker 1: looked natural. But poison was not just used to kill people.
32:28
Speaker 1: It was sort of used like a solution for many
32:31
Speaker 1: kinds of problems, like people who wanted their romantic interests
32:34
Speaker 1: to be easier to seduce, so well, they'd buy poison
32:37
Speaker 1: and poison them, or people that had abusive or unappealing partners.
32:42
Speaker 1: They would use poison to make them sick and bedridden,
32:44
Speaker 1: because remember, they can't get divorced, So if you're stuck
32:47
Speaker 1: with somebody and you don't like them, well, just poison them.
32:50
Speaker 1: It was also alleged that King Louis the fourteenth himself
32:53
Speaker 1: was poisoned in non fatal doses by his mistress, who
32:57
Speaker 1: wanted to make him easier to manipulate. Poison was even
33:00
Speaker 1: used for entertainment. One duo of poisoners baked deadly substances
33:04
Speaker 1: into cakes and handed them out to unsuspecting patients at
33:08
Speaker 1: a local hospital just to see what would happen. The
33:11
Speaker 1: poison affair, as it came to be called, was, without
33:14
Speaker 1: a doubt at the time, Paris's biggest and best kept
33:17
Speaker 1: secret until Marie went to that dinner party got really
33:21
Speaker 1: drunk and let it slip. That night, Marie told stories
33:25
Speaker 1: of poisoning people, and people thought they were so funny
33:29
Speaker 1: because they didn't believe they were true. But one of
33:32
Speaker 1: the guests saw that the hostess of the party looked
33:35
Speaker 1: furious at Marie the whole time Marie was telling these stories,
33:39
Speaker 1: and so he wondered if maybe what Marie was talking
33:42
Speaker 1: about might actually be real. And the hostess is kind
33:45
Speaker 1: of trying to signal her to stop talking about it,
33:48
Speaker 1: but Marie was not taking the hint. So the following
33:51
Speaker 1: day that dinner, guest went to the police, and the
33:54
Speaker 1: police sent a woman to Marie's house to act as
33:57
Speaker 1: an undercover spy to see if maybe she could get
34:00
Speaker 1: proof that the poisonings were real. And lo and behold
34:03
Speaker 1: when this woman told Marie that her husband was abusive
34:06
Speaker 1: and she just wanted to know how long this was
34:08
Speaker 1: going to go on for Marie, you know, read her
34:10
Speaker 1: palm and read her future. But then also gave her
34:14
Speaker 1: some tips about what to do in the meantime, which
34:16
Speaker 1: included handing her a vial of poison and saying, just
34:19
Speaker 1: go ahead and kill your husband, poison him. The object
34:22
Speaker 1: that that officer had shown Marie when she was arrested,
34:25
Speaker 1: was that poison. The investigation into the poison affair lasted
34:29
Speaker 1: for three years, and during that time there were over
34:32
Speaker 1: three hundred people who got arrested, from commoners to royalty.
34:36
Speaker 1: Twenty three of those people were banished, and thirty four
34:39
Speaker 1: people were executed, including Marie Boss. She was actually the
34:43
Speaker 1: first person to be burned alive on one of those pires.
34:51
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for watching today's episode. Let me
34:54
Speaker 1: know what you thought of it in the comments below,
34:56
Speaker 1: and remember, we have a whole playlist of places you
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Speaker 1: can't go episodes ready for you to binge right now,
35:03
Speaker 1: So go ahead and click here and give them a watch.
35:05
Speaker 1: All right, until next time, see it