Latest / Crime and Horror / What happened inside this church will SHOCK you

Transcript

What happened inside this church will SHOCK you · Crime and Horror

0:00
Speaker 1: Hey guys, today we have a really special video for you,
0:03
Speaker 1: So if you haven't already heard, we just released our
0:05
Speaker 1: second graphic novel, Where Nightmares Live, and it's available wherever
0:09
Speaker 1: books or audio books are sold. And what better way
0:12
Speaker 1: to get you guys a little sneak peek of this
0:14
Speaker 1: incredible piece of art than to tell you one of
0:17
Speaker 1: the new stories that is in this book. Again, our
0:20
Speaker 1: second graphic novel, Where Nightmares Live, is out right now
0:23
Speaker 1: wherever books are sold, So grab your copy today and
0:26
Speaker 1: follow along, and remember your nightmares are waiting. We've covered
0:31
Speaker 1: lots of bizarre stories on this channel, but I can
0:34
Speaker 1: say with confidence that today's story is easily one of
0:37
Speaker 1: the weirdest.
0:38
Speaker 2: In fact, it could even be the most.
0:39
Speaker 1: Weird, because you'll get to the end of the story
0:42
Speaker 1: and hear what happens the big reveal, and you're going
0:44
Speaker 1: to be like, wait, what happened?
0:47
Speaker 2: So buckle up. It's a good one.
0:48
Speaker 1: But before we get into today's story, if you're a
0:51
Speaker 1: fan of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format,
0:54
Speaker 1: then you've come to the right place because that's all
0:56
Speaker 1: we do, and we upload once a week. So if
0:59
Speaker 1: that's of interest, to you. Please offer to clean the
1:01
Speaker 1: like button's house, but instead of cleaning it, just go
1:04
Speaker 1: ahead and bring a wrecking crew to their property then
1:07
Speaker 1: level it. Also, please subscribe to our channel and turn
1:10
Speaker 1: on all notifications so you don't miss any of our
1:13
Speaker 1: weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's story. On the
1:32
Speaker 1: afternoon of January fifth, nineteen oh nine, a fifty six
1:35
Speaker 1: year old reverend named John Carmichael kissed his wife and
1:38
Speaker 1: kids goodbye, and then stepped out of his cottage into
1:41
Speaker 1: the cold and wrapped his cloak around his black suit,
1:43
Speaker 1: and then he hopped on his horse and he galloped
1:45
Speaker 1: out onto the road. Reverend Carmichael lived in a rural
1:48
Speaker 1: part of Michigan, and on this day he was making
1:51
Speaker 1: his way to another town about nine miles away called Columbus,
1:54
Speaker 1: where he was going to host this big religious revival.
1:56
Speaker 2: Basically, he was going to.
1:57
Speaker 1: Hold this big sermon and try to get new people
2:00
Speaker 1: to join his church. And so as the reverend galloped
2:02
Speaker 1: his way down the road, he saw all these kids
2:04
Speaker 1: outside having snowball fights and making snowmen, and it was
2:08
Speaker 1: just really nice. But also in virtue of being the reverend,
2:11
Speaker 1: basically everybody in town knew him, and so either the
2:14
Speaker 1: kids wanted to say hi to him or their parents did.
2:16
Speaker 1: And so, as the reverend is really just trying to
2:18
Speaker 1: hustle his way to Columbus, he kept having to stop
2:21
Speaker 1: over and over again to.
2:22
Speaker 2: Have small talk and play nice.
2:24
Speaker 1: But after about thirty minutes, he had reached a point
2:26
Speaker 1: in the journey where all the houses were kind of
2:29
Speaker 1: behind him, and he had this kind of nice, quiet
2:31
Speaker 1: stretch where he knew he.
2:32
Speaker 2: Wouldn't be bothered by anybody.
2:34
Speaker 1: He had made this journey many times to Columbus and
2:36
Speaker 1: he always looked forward to this stretch of the road.
2:38
Speaker 1: It was just very peaceful and gave him a chance
2:40
Speaker 1: to kind of just be left with his own thoughts
2:42
Speaker 1: and think about his upcoming sermon and what he wanted
2:45
Speaker 1: to say. And so as the reverend was having this
2:47
Speaker 1: sort of peaceful time trotting his way down the snowy road,
2:50
Speaker 1: he heard the sound of hoofs fast approaching him, and
2:53
Speaker 1: so the reverend turned around and he saw there was
2:55
Speaker 1: this very rough looking guy wearing this brown stained shirt
2:58
Speaker 1: with a long overcoat over. And the guy's hair was
3:01
Speaker 1: slipped back and greasy, and he had this big, weird
3:03
Speaker 1: grin in his face, and he was waving wildly at
3:06
Speaker 1: the reverend, obviously.
3:07
Speaker 2: Trying to flag him down.
3:09
Speaker 1: Now, inside, the Reverend did not want to talk to
3:12
Speaker 1: this guy because he knew who this guy was. His
3:14
Speaker 1: name was Gideon Browning, and he lived in the town
3:16
Speaker 1: where the reverend lived, and he was known for being
3:19
Speaker 1: kind of erratic and had a horrible drinking problem. And frankly,
3:22
Speaker 1: you know, the reverend just wanted to be left alone.
3:24
Speaker 2: Here.
3:24
Speaker 1: He was enjoying his ride and here comes the town drunk.
3:27
Speaker 1: You know, he doesn't want to be around the guy.
3:30
Speaker 1: But also the reverend understood that he was the reverend
3:33
Speaker 1: in town. People knew who he was. He couldn't just
3:35
Speaker 1: be a jerk to people. He had to be kind,
3:38
Speaker 1: and so he smiled at Gideon and waved to him
3:40
Speaker 1: to be polite, but was dreading this interaction with Gideon.
3:43
Speaker 1: And in fact, weirdly enough, the Reverend over the past
3:46
Speaker 1: several weeks, had been running into Gideon all over town,
3:50
Speaker 1: to the point where it was becoming weird that he
3:52
Speaker 1: just kept seeing Gideon. And every time he interacted with Gideon,
3:56
Speaker 1: it was just awful because Gideon was.
3:58
Speaker 2: Just totally an unpleasant person.
4:00
Speaker 1: But here he was once again having to have yet
4:02
Speaker 1: another interaction with Gideon. And as soon as Gideon came
4:05
Speaker 1: right up alongside the reverend, his first question was, hey, Reverend,
4:08
Speaker 1: can I ride with you? And the Reverend again is like,
4:11
Speaker 1: my goodness, I don't want to do this right now,
4:13
Speaker 1: but he was like, of course, we can ride together,
4:16
Speaker 1: and pretty much immediately the Reverend regretted this decision because
4:20
Speaker 1: Gideon would just not shut up. He just talked the
4:23
Speaker 1: entire time they were supposed to be in this peaceful
4:26
Speaker 1: part of the reverend's journey. But not only that, the
4:29
Speaker 1: questions Gideon was asking Reverend the whole time they were
4:32
Speaker 1: riding together were sort of invasive. Gideon wanted to know
4:35
Speaker 1: exactly where the reverend was going and what he was
4:37
Speaker 1: doing there, and you know how many churches did the
4:39
Speaker 1: reverend own, and just all these personal questions, and sort
4:43
Speaker 1: of against his better judgment, the Reverend was being.
4:46
Speaker 2: Truthful with Gideon.
4:47
Speaker 1: He told Gideon that he was going to Columbus to
4:49
Speaker 1: have this big revival, and he also told Gideon about
4:52
Speaker 1: one of the churches that he owned in a town
4:54
Speaker 1: called Rattle Run. And as the Reverend was again kind
4:57
Speaker 1: of giving up this information that he kind of wished
4:59
Speaker 1: he wasn't. He noticed Gideon began doing something strange. As
5:03
Speaker 1: Gideon was galloping along, keeping a fixed gaze on the Reverend,
5:07
Speaker 1: Gideon reached into his pocket and pulled out a sober
5:09
Speaker 1: coin and began flipping the coin into the air and
5:12
Speaker 1: catching it and flipping it and catching it over and
5:14
Speaker 1: over and over again.
5:16
Speaker 2: Never affecting his riding.
5:17
Speaker 1: I mean, it was like Gideon wasn't even aware he
5:19
Speaker 1: was flicking this coin, and the Reverend, you know, he's
5:21
Speaker 1: kind of watching Gideon do this, and it was sort
5:23
Speaker 1: of impressive, like Gideon was just able to flick this
5:26
Speaker 1: coin over and over and never drop it and just
5:28
Speaker 1: keep on stride. But more than just being impressed with
5:31
Speaker 1: Gideon's hand eye coordination, the Reverend began to notice that
5:35
Speaker 1: he really liked what Gideon was.
5:37
Speaker 2: Doing with this coin.
5:38
Speaker 1: It was kind of soothing in a way, not so
5:40
Speaker 1: much the actual coin flipping in the air, but the
5:43
Speaker 1: sound it was making.
5:44
Speaker 2: The sound of it spinning in the air and slapping
5:46
Speaker 2: into his palm over and over again.
5:48
Speaker 1: It just kind of put the Reverend at ease, and
5:49
Speaker 1: he didn't know why. And so after a while the
5:52
Speaker 1: Reverend just kind of stopped answering Gideon's questions and just
5:55
Speaker 1: kind of stared at the coin and listened to that sound,
5:59
Speaker 1: and he just felt himself, I'll drift into this weird
6:01
Speaker 1: relaxed state, almost like he felt asleep, and so as
6:04
Speaker 1: this weird thing is going on with this coin. The
6:07
Speaker 1: two men eventually reached this crossroads where there's a general store,
6:10
Speaker 1: and at this point, Gideon catches his coin, puts it
6:12
Speaker 1: back in his pocket, and the two men they come
6:14
Speaker 1: to a stop at this general store. Even though the
6:17
Speaker 1: reverend did not want to go to this general store,
6:19
Speaker 1: he just kind of followed Gideon up to the hitching post.
6:22
Speaker 2: They both got off their horses.
6:24
Speaker 1: They tied their horses to the post, and again the
6:26
Speaker 1: Reverend's thinking, I can't stop here.
6:27
Speaker 2: I gotta go to Columbus. I gotta get to this revival.
6:30
Speaker 1: But Gideon just turns to the reverend and says, hey,
6:33
Speaker 1: we got to make a stop here. We need to
6:34
Speaker 1: get something. And the Reverend found himself saying, okay, what
6:37
Speaker 1: are we going to get? And the Reverence thinking what
6:39
Speaker 1: am I saying? I don't want to do this, I
6:41
Speaker 1: don't want to stop here. I gotta go, but he
6:43
Speaker 1: just stood there, just waiting for Gideon to tell him
6:46
Speaker 1: what they were going to buy.
6:47
Speaker 2: And Gideon, who had that big grin.
6:49
Speaker 1: On his face again, he said, well, actually, I'm not
6:51
Speaker 1: going to go into the store.
6:53
Speaker 2: You are.
6:53
Speaker 1: You're going to go in there. You're going to buy
6:55
Speaker 1: me a new hatchet, and you're going to bring it
6:57
Speaker 1: out here and give it to me. And now everything
6:59
Speaker 1: about this was totally weird to the reverend. He did
7:01
Speaker 1: not feel like this was a normal request, nor did
7:04
Speaker 1: he want to go in the store. He wanted to leave,
7:07
Speaker 1: but for some reason he just said okay. Then he
7:10
Speaker 1: turned and shuffled in the store, found a new hatchet,
7:13
Speaker 1: paid for it with his own money, walked outside, handed
7:16
Speaker 1: it over to Gideon.
7:17
Speaker 2: And then at this.
7:17
Speaker 1: Point the reverend just wanted to get on his horse
7:19
Speaker 1: and get away from Gideon. But the second the reverend
7:23
Speaker 1: got back in his horse to do that, Gideon hopped
7:26
Speaker 1: on his horse and said, hold on a.
7:27
Speaker 2: Minute, reverend, we're not done yet.
7:30
Speaker 1: Now we're going to go to your church and rattle
7:32
Speaker 1: run because I'm getting married soon and I'm thinking about
7:35
Speaker 1: maybe getting married in your church, and I want to
7:37
Speaker 1: scope it out and so the reverend at this who
7:39
Speaker 1: again just wants to go to Columbus. He doesn't want
7:42
Speaker 1: to be around Gideon at all, but for some reason
7:45
Speaker 1: he just said, okay, yeah, we'll go to my.
7:48
Speaker 2: Church and Rattle Run.
7:49
Speaker 1: And so at this point, Gideon pulled out his coin
7:51
Speaker 1: and started flipping it again and again, and the two
7:53
Speaker 1: men rode side by side in the direction of Rattle Run,
7:57
Speaker 1: and the whole time the reverence thinking what am I doing?
8:00
Speaker 1: So why are we doing this? And also, in addition
8:02
Speaker 1: to just brain fog and confusion, the reverend also realized
8:07
Speaker 1: that Gideon was clearly lying to him because he knew
8:10
Speaker 1: Gideon was married, So what's he talking about needing to
8:12
Speaker 1: scope out his church to see about potentially getting married there.
8:16
Speaker 1: That didn't make sense, Like why was Gideon actually wanting to.
8:19
Speaker 2: Go to his church?
8:21
Speaker 1: The reverend didn't know, but he was really starting to
8:23
Speaker 1: feel scared. But again, he just couldn't stop agreeing to
8:26
Speaker 1: the things Gideon wanted to do, and so the two
8:29
Speaker 1: men galloped their way to Rattle Run. The whole time
8:32
Speaker 1: Gideon's flipping that coin and staring at the reverend, and
8:35
Speaker 1: the Reverend's just totally transfixed on the coin, and then
8:38
Speaker 1: they get to the church. Gideon puts the coin in
8:41
Speaker 1: his pocket. The two men hitch their horses to the
8:43
Speaker 1: post outside.
8:44
Speaker 2: They go up to the.
8:44
Speaker 1: Front door, the reverend unlocks it. They go inside, and
8:47
Speaker 1: sort of automatically, the reverend walked to the back of
8:50
Speaker 1: the church and he lit the stove, and then as
8:52
Speaker 1: he was walking back towards the front, where Gideon was
8:54
Speaker 1: still standing right in front of the doorway, Gideon suddenly.
8:57
Speaker 2: Told the reverend to stop where he was.
8:59
Speaker 1: So the reverend stopped in the middle of the church
9:01
Speaker 1: and he's just looking at Gideon, who's got that coin
9:04
Speaker 1: back out and he's flipping it up and down again.
9:06
Speaker 1: And at this point, the reverend just looks at Gideon
9:08
Speaker 1: and says, well, do you want to look around? And Gideon,
9:11
Speaker 1: who's flipping that coin up and down, just says, no,
9:14
Speaker 1: I don't need to look around. There is no wedding. Hey, reverend,
9:18
Speaker 1: go ahead and lift up your left arm. And at
9:20
Speaker 1: this point the reverend is terrified. He's confused, and his
9:24
Speaker 1: left arm just suddenly raised up into the air.
9:26
Speaker 2: He had no control over it.
9:27
Speaker 1: And then a second later, Gideon says, hey, go ahead
9:30
Speaker 1: and raise your other arm.
9:31
Speaker 2: And so the reverend, who's.
9:32
Speaker 1: Still got his left arm out to one side, felt
9:34
Speaker 1: his right arm come up to the other side. And
9:36
Speaker 1: so at this point the Reverend's just standing there with
9:38
Speaker 1: his arms out.
9:38
Speaker 2: To the side.
9:39
Speaker 1: And it was at this point that the reverend understood
9:42
Speaker 1: what was going on. Clearly Gideon had hypnotized him that
9:45
Speaker 1: could be the only explanation for what was going on here.
9:49
Speaker 1: But before the Reverend could say or do anything about
9:51
Speaker 1: how totally weird the situation was Gideon, who was flipping
9:55
Speaker 1: that coin and had a big grin on his face
9:57
Speaker 1: the whole time he was making the reverend raise his
9:59
Speaker 1: arms up. Suddenly Gideon's face completely changed and he became
10:03
Speaker 1: deadly serious, and he was staring at the reverend, and
10:06
Speaker 1: then he dropped the coin to the ground and began
10:08
Speaker 1: moving towards the reverend. The following day, around noon, the
10:11
Speaker 1: caretaker for Reverend Carmichael's Rattle Run church made his way
10:15
Speaker 1: to that church to check in on the building. He
10:17
Speaker 1: knew Reverend Carmichael was going to be in Columbus for
10:20
Speaker 1: a few days, and so we just wanted to make sure,
10:21
Speaker 1: you know, nothing was out of the ordinary. And as
10:24
Speaker 1: this caretaker galloped up to this small, white steepled church.
10:28
Speaker 1: He noticed right away there was a column of smoke
10:31
Speaker 1: coming up out of the chimney. Clearly there was a
10:33
Speaker 1: firelight inside of the church. And the caretaker's thinking, that
10:36
Speaker 1: doesn't make any sense. The reverend is not supposed to
10:39
Speaker 1: be here, so who could possibly be in the church
10:41
Speaker 1: right now? And then after the caretaker got up to
10:43
Speaker 1: the front door, he was about to put his key
10:45
Speaker 1: in the lock when he discovered the door was already unlocked,
10:48
Speaker 1: and so instinctively he put his hand on.
10:50
Speaker 2: His pistol on his hip, and then he grabbed the handle.
10:53
Speaker 1: And he flung the door open, and when he looked
10:55
Speaker 1: inside the church, he just froze because the entire interior
10:59
Speaker 1: of the church was drenched in blood.
11:01
Speaker 2: There was blood on.
11:02
Speaker 1: The pews, the walls, on the altar, and then also
11:05
Speaker 1: amongst all this blood, the caretaker also noticed there were
11:09
Speaker 1: little pieces of ripped up fabric all over the place,
11:12
Speaker 1: and he saw one of them had a unique button
11:14
Speaker 1: sewn into it, a button he recognized as belonging on
11:17
Speaker 1: Reverend Carmichael's suit.
11:19
Speaker 2: And so the caretaker is horrified. He's looking around.
11:22
Speaker 1: He doesn't see anybody, but he sees there's a drag
11:25
Speaker 1: trail right down the center aisle, all the way up
11:27
Speaker 1: to the altar, and it curves around to the right
11:29
Speaker 1: out of view. Now, the caretaker wanted to turn and
11:32
Speaker 1: run away, but he was worried that maybe Reverend Carmichael
11:35
Speaker 1: was in here somewhere and was maybe still alive and
11:38
Speaker 1: he could help him. And so the caretaker felt like
11:40
Speaker 1: it was his responsibility to investigate, and so he drew
11:43
Speaker 1: his pistol and he began walking down this bloody aisle,
11:47
Speaker 1: kind of looking around for any sign of anybody inside
11:49
Speaker 1: the church, but it was deadly silent, and he eventually
11:52
Speaker 1: got about halfway down the aisle when he spotted a
11:54
Speaker 1: silver coin sitting in the middle of the aisle, covered
11:57
Speaker 1: in blood, and he kept on walking to where the
11:59
Speaker 1: blood trailed turned around the pew and it led right
12:02
Speaker 1: up to that stove that was obviously still smoldering, and
12:04
Speaker 1: the door to the stove was shut, so the caretaker
12:07
Speaker 1: couldn't see what was inside of it, And so the
12:09
Speaker 1: caretaker just walked up to the stove, and after looking
12:11
Speaker 1: around one more time to make sure nobody else was
12:13
Speaker 1: in here, he opened up.
12:15
Speaker 2: The stove, and inside the stove was a human skull.
12:19
Speaker 1: News of Reverend Carmichael's horrific murder very quickly spread all
12:22
Speaker 1: around town and beyond.
12:24
Speaker 2: Just that town.
12:25
Speaker 1: I mean, this was all over the place, and within
12:27
Speaker 1: twenty four hours there was this huge police investigation that
12:30
Speaker 1: was launched to try to figure out who killed him.
12:32
Speaker 1: And very quickly the police and Rattle Run spoke to
12:35
Speaker 1: the sheriff of the town where the reverend lived, and
12:38
Speaker 1: they learned that on the same day that Reverend Carmichael
12:41
Speaker 1: had left to go to Columbus and then obviously was
12:43
Speaker 1: killed inside of his church. While on that same day,
12:46
Speaker 1: a man named Gideon Browning had had this really big
12:49
Speaker 1: blow up public fight in town, same town as Reverend
12:53
Speaker 1: Carmichael with his brother in law, and this fight was
12:56
Speaker 1: so explosive, lots of people saw it and heard it,
12:59
Speaker 1: and people said after this big fight with his brother
13:01
Speaker 1: in law, Gideon had hopped on his horse and rode
13:03
Speaker 1: off angrily. And the kids in that town who were
13:06
Speaker 1: outside that day have snowball fights and building snowmen. They
13:09
Speaker 1: would say that they saw Reverend Carmichael traveling down this
13:12
Speaker 1: road because he talked to all the kids and their parents,
13:14
Speaker 1: and not long after Reverend Carmichael had kind of disappeared
13:17
Speaker 1: down the road, they also reported seeing Gideon Browning coming
13:21
Speaker 1: down the same road, heading in the same direction as
13:24
Speaker 1: Reverend Carmichael. And after that, nobody had seen Gideon since,
13:28
Speaker 1: and so very quickly Gideon became the number one suspect
13:31
Speaker 1: in this murder. And basically the thought was, you know,
13:34
Speaker 1: Gideon was so angry from this fight with his brother
13:37
Speaker 1: in law that he must have just taken out his
13:39
Speaker 1: anger on the reverend. Basically, the reverend was in the
13:41
Speaker 1: wrong place at the wrong time and got killed. Now
13:44
Speaker 1: the police knew this was a flimsy theory at best,
13:47
Speaker 1: but Gideon had a reputation for being totally erratic and
13:50
Speaker 1: a total drunk, and so it kind of fit with
13:53
Speaker 1: who he was that this was something maybe he would do.
13:56
Speaker 2: And so within twenty.
13:57
Speaker 1: Four hours of the murder there was this huge, multi
14:00
Speaker 1: state wide manhunt for Gideon. Three days later, and five
14:04
Speaker 1: hundred miles away from the town of Rattle Run, in
14:06
Speaker 1: a city in Illinois, a man opened the door to
14:09
Speaker 1: a boarding house and stepped inside, and the owner of
14:12
Speaker 1: the boarding house, her name was Miranda Hughes. She was
14:15
Speaker 1: sitting behind the front desk, and when she looked up
14:17
Speaker 1: and saw this man, she had to stifle a gasp
14:20
Speaker 1: because this man looked absolutely horrible. He was wearing this
14:24
Speaker 1: really dark stained brown shirt with a long overcoat over it.
14:27
Speaker 2: He was shivering and skinny and.
14:29
Speaker 1: Pale, and just looked like he was about to die basically.
14:32
Speaker 1: But the man just walked up to her and said
14:34
Speaker 1: his name was John Elder and he wanted to rent
14:36
Speaker 1: a room. Now, Miranda for a second thought about refusing
14:39
Speaker 1: this guy's service, just because honestly, he kind of frightened her.
14:43
Speaker 1: But then again, Miranda thought, you know what, a lot
14:45
Speaker 1: of my guests are pretty rough these days, and this
14:47
Speaker 1: guy's got money and he wants a room, So there
14:49
Speaker 1: you go. I'll give him a room. So she brought
14:51
Speaker 1: him upstairs to a room on the second floor.
14:53
Speaker 2: She opened it up.
14:54
Speaker 1: John stepped inside, and Miranda, as a courtesy, said hey, do.
14:58
Speaker 2: You want me to make you some food?
14:59
Speaker 1: And John, with not even turning around, just says no,
15:01
Speaker 1: I'm fasting, and then he shut the door in her face.
15:04
Speaker 1: For the rest of the weekend, despite what John told Miranda,
15:07
Speaker 1: Miranda would come up to his room and leave food
15:10
Speaker 1: outside of his door at every meal time with something
15:12
Speaker 1: she did for her guests, but.
15:13
Speaker 2: John never came out to get the food.
15:15
Speaker 1: And for a little while, Miranda was actually kind of
15:17
Speaker 1: concerned about this guy, considering how terrible he looked and
15:21
Speaker 1: now he's fasting that didn't seem healthy. But at the
15:24
Speaker 1: same time, Miranda was kind of happy to not have
15:26
Speaker 1: to deal with this guy, and so she basically ignored him.
15:29
Speaker 1: But on the morning of January twelfth, so one week
15:32
Speaker 1: after the murder and three days after John Elder had
15:35
Speaker 1: checked into this spoarding house, Miranda was walking across the
15:37
Speaker 1: back lawn of the boarding house when she heard what
15:40
Speaker 1: sounded like somebody moaning in pain coming from the outhouse. Now,
15:44
Speaker 1: normally Miranda would never even think of going to the
15:47
Speaker 1: outhouse and seeing if somebody was okay in there, but
15:50
Speaker 1: the sound this person was making sounded so obviously like
15:53
Speaker 1: they were in pain that she just couldn't help herself.
15:56
Speaker 1: And so Miranda ran to the door of this outhouse
15:58
Speaker 1: and she yelled inside, hey, are you okay there? And
16:00
Speaker 1: the only sound she heard coming out was more moaning
16:03
Speaker 1: and whimpering, and so, acting on a gut instinct, Miranda
16:06
Speaker 1: grabbed the door and flung it open, and what she
16:09
Speaker 1: saw made her scream. It was John Elder, and he
16:12
Speaker 1: was sitting on the toilet looking up at her with wide,
16:15
Speaker 1: panicked eyes, and his throat had been slashed from ear
16:18
Speaker 1: to ear.
16:18
Speaker 2: She could basically see deep into his neck.
16:21
Speaker 1: This was a fatal wound and he was bleeding everywhere,
16:24
Speaker 1: and so Miranda stumbled backwards, turned around and ran to
16:27
Speaker 1: go find police. By the time the police arrived at
16:30
Speaker 1: the boarding house and went to the outhouse, John Elder
16:33
Speaker 1: was already dead from this horrible wound. And at first
16:36
Speaker 1: the police did not connect the death of John Elder
16:39
Speaker 1: to what had happened in Radle Run, five hundred miles away.
16:42
Speaker 1: They were totally disconnected, that is until police searched John
16:46
Speaker 1: Elder and they found in one of his pockets was
16:49
Speaker 1: a bloodstained letter addressed to the sheriff of Raddle Run,
16:52
Speaker 1: And as soon as the police read it, they knew
16:55
Speaker 1: they had something huge on their hands because John Elder
16:58
Speaker 1: was not who he said he was. To understand who
17:01
Speaker 1: John Elder was, and to even begin to understand what
17:04
Speaker 1: happened in Rattle Run, we need to go back to
17:07
Speaker 1: January sixth, the day that Reverend Carmichael left his house
17:11
Speaker 1: and began making the journey to Columbus for this big revival.
17:14
Speaker 1: During that journey, Reverend Carmichael did come in contact with
17:18
Speaker 1: Gideon Browning. Gideon Browning came up alongside him. They rode together,
17:22
Speaker 1: you know. They went to that general store, and Reverend
17:24
Speaker 1: Carmichael did buy that hatchet for Gideon, and they did
17:27
Speaker 1: go to the Rattle Run Church. But the reason they
17:30
Speaker 1: did all these strange activities together is not because Gideon
17:34
Speaker 1: had hypnotized Reverend Carmichael. The actual reason for why they
17:38
Speaker 1: did these things together is even more bizarre. In the
17:41
Speaker 1: weeks leading up to that fateful day, January sixth, Reverend
17:45
Speaker 1: Carmichael was running into Gideon Browning all the time all
17:48
Speaker 1: over town. It was like everywhere the reverend went, there
17:51
Speaker 1: was Gideon. And then on January sixth, when the Reverend
17:54
Speaker 1: is making his way down the road, then he turns
17:57
Speaker 1: and sees Gideon Browning coming up alongside him.
17:59
Speaker 2: He's like, oh my goodness, it's happening again.
18:01
Speaker 1: But the way the Reverend handled this was not to say, Wow,
18:04
Speaker 1: what a strange coincidence.
18:06
Speaker 2: I keep running into this guy everywhere. I go instead.
18:09
Speaker 1: The Reverend believed that Gideon must have some sort of
18:12
Speaker 1: special power that he's able to know where I am
18:15
Speaker 1: at all times, and he's using that power to try
18:18
Speaker 1: to intimidate me by spying on me. And so on
18:21
Speaker 1: January sixth, when Gideon came galloping up alongside of the Reverend,
18:25
Speaker 1: the Reverend's already completely paranoid and on edge about Gideon,
18:29
Speaker 1: fearing this guy has magical powers, basically, and then when
18:32
Speaker 1: Gideon pulled out that coin and began flipping it into
18:35
Speaker 1: the air, which apparently was just something he did, the
18:38
Speaker 1: Reverend took that as, Oh, my goodness. In addition to
18:41
Speaker 1: having magical powers to always know where I am, Gideon
18:44
Speaker 1: also has the power of hypnosis. And that coin that
18:48
Speaker 1: I can't take my eyes off. That sounds so incredible
18:50
Speaker 1: and it's soothing me. Well, that is hypnotizing me. Gideon
18:54
Speaker 1: is now controlling me and my thoughts and my body.
18:57
Speaker 1: And so at this point the Reverend actually believe he
19:00
Speaker 1: was hypnotized, and so he just kind of began going
19:03
Speaker 1: along with anything Gideon wanted. And so it's assumed that
19:06
Speaker 1: Gideon did want to stop at the general store and
19:09
Speaker 1: just kind of said, hey, do you want to stop
19:10
Speaker 1: at the general store, And the Reverend's like, yes, I'll
19:12
Speaker 1: stop at the general store. And then maybe Gideon asked
19:15
Speaker 1: the reverend, Hey, do you mind buying me a new hatchet?
19:17
Speaker 1: And the Reverend's like, yes, I'll buy you a new hatchet.
19:19
Speaker 1: And he goes in, gets the hatchet, comes back out, and.
19:22
Speaker 2: Then apparently, you know, Gideon said, hey.
19:24
Speaker 1: I want to go check out your church and Rattle run,
19:26
Speaker 1: and the reverend was like, okay, let's go check it out.
19:28
Speaker 1: And then when they got to the church, at some point,
19:31
Speaker 1: the reverend just went to the middle of the church
19:33
Speaker 1: and put his arms out to either side like he
19:35
Speaker 1: was Jesus Christ nailed to the cross, even though you know,
19:39
Speaker 1: Gideon had not made him do that. This is the
19:41
Speaker 1: reverend like caught up in his own delusion as he's
19:43
Speaker 1: standing there like this.
19:44
Speaker 2: Gideon, who's flipping.
19:45
Speaker 1: The coin, fumbles it and it falls to the ground,
19:48
Speaker 1: and the reverend, who believes that coin has full control
19:51
Speaker 1: over what he's doing, he thought, oh my gosh, the
19:54
Speaker 1: spell is now broken.
19:55
Speaker 2: I need to save myself. And so the reverend ran
19:58
Speaker 2: and grabbed that hatchet.
20:00
Speaker 1: He forced Gideon to take off all his clothes, and
20:02
Speaker 1: then he made Gideon hand the clothes over, and once
20:05
Speaker 1: the reverend had those clothes, he hacked Gideon to pieces
20:09
Speaker 1: and then burned his body in that stove. And then
20:12
Speaker 1: after this horrific murder, the reverend took his own suit
20:15
Speaker 1: and basically ripped it off and shredded it to bits,
20:18
Speaker 1: and then kind of threw it all around the church
20:20
Speaker 1: to make it seem like he had been the one
20:22
Speaker 1: who was killed, and that was his skull inside of
20:24
Speaker 1: the stove. And then he put on all of Gideon
20:27
Speaker 1: Browning's clothes, the brown dirty shirt and the long coat,
20:29
Speaker 1: and then he traveled five hundred miles to Miranda Hughes's
20:32
Speaker 1: boarding house, where he went inside and booked a room
20:35
Speaker 1: under the pseudonym John Elder. And while the reverend was
20:38
Speaker 1: hiding out inside of the boarding house, the police in
20:41
Speaker 1: Rattle Run very quickly figured out that the body inside
20:45
Speaker 1: of the church, the skull inside of the stove, and
20:47
Speaker 1: the remains that were in there did not belong to
20:49
Speaker 1: Reverend Carmichael. They belonged to Gideon Browning, And so immediately
20:53
Speaker 1: it went from you know, Gideon Browning must have done
20:55
Speaker 1: it to no, no, no, Reverend Carmichael is the killer
20:58
Speaker 1: and he killed Gideon.
21:00
Speaker 2: But before they could track the.
21:01
Speaker 1: Reverend down, Reverend Carmichael aka John Elder had gone into
21:05
Speaker 1: that outhouse and slit his own throat. However, when the
21:09
Speaker 1: police searched John Elder's body, so Reverend Carmichael's body, they
21:13
Speaker 1: would find that bloodstained letter addressed to the sheriff in
21:16
Speaker 1: Rattle Run. And basically it was a confession. Now, granted,
21:19
Speaker 1: it was the confession of Reverend Carmichael, who genuinely believed
21:23
Speaker 1: Gideon had hypnotized him and had all these special powers,
21:26
Speaker 1: and he basically was acting in self defense, but nonetheless
21:29
Speaker 1: it was still.
21:30
Speaker 2: A confession to murder.
21:31
Speaker 1: Now, of course, there's lots of details in the story
21:34
Speaker 1: that we can't be totally sure of, Like we don't
21:36
Speaker 1: really know what the discussions were like between Reverend Carmichael
21:40
Speaker 1: and Gideon Browning when they met on that road and
21:42
Speaker 1: then eventually made their way to the church and the
21:44
Speaker 1: murder happened. This is basically just the best theory around
21:47
Speaker 1: what happened. Also, it's worth noting that there was a
21:50
Speaker 1: history of mental illness in Reverend Carmichael's family, but this
21:54
Speaker 1: story happened at a time when nobody took mental health seriously,
21:57
Speaker 1: and so it's very unlikely that even if I already
22:00
Speaker 1: had known about that, that this crime could have been prevented.
22:09
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for watching. Let me know what
22:12
Speaker 1: you thought of today's episode in the comments. And remember,
22:15
Speaker 1: we have hundreds of videos for you to binge right now.
22:18
Speaker 1: But if you're looking for a recommendation for me of
22:21
Speaker 1: that one video that's worth your time, well it's this
22:24
Speaker 1: one right here, So give it a watch. All right,
22:27
Speaker 1: until next time, see ya,