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Episode 34 - Quijamaniacs
10 Plays7 days ago
Nylene takes over this episode in a continuation from last episode's Ouija-mania.
Enter the Nightmare for show notes, sources, transcripts, and more!
Music: Ghosts I-IV by Nine Inch Nails, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Theme
00:00:29
Speaker
Welcome to Nim and Nyleen's Nightmare Cottage, where we explore history, mysteries, and other tales of the macabre. I'm Nim. And I'm Nyleen. Let the nightmare begin.
Holiday Stress and Nostalgia
00:00:48
Speaker
How's life? Life is And... if you dare
00:00:54
Speaker
was like
00:00:59
Speaker
life is chaos and I don't really know what else to say about that. As we get closer to the holidays, I just like, I literally cannot. I cannot. i can't.
00:01:14
Speaker
But this is your time. i know, but I'm like so tired. Like, I feel so old saying that. Like, this you're right. This used to be my time. And I used to live by the fire and fuel of all of the all of the lights everywhere. But man, oh man, i am.
00:01:31
Speaker
and I just want a nap. Like, I wish I could stop time and just take a nap. Yeah. Yeah, that would be pretty awesome. That would be pretty awesome. i ah I don't have near as much going on as you do. I mean, I don't have to, you know, make Christmas for a child. so Yes.
Thanksgiving and Upcoming Episode
00:01:52
Speaker
And then depending on When this launches, I'm not really sure. It's it's going to be right around ah Thanksgiving, but we're in November. That's all I know.
00:02:03
Speaker
No, this will be coming out in December. Yeah. Let me verify. Yes, this will be coming out in December. Well, happy Turkey Day hasn't happened yet for us, but it will soon. And I'm I'm ready for that to be done.
00:02:16
Speaker
the The great gluttoning. The Great Gluttoning. Yeah. ah I feel like that's better than what it's known for. Yes. The original origins. We're just going to call it the Great the great American Gluttoning. Right. Well, I mean, as we've once learned from a previous episode is that it was really just kind of fabricated anyways and applied to a historical event that didn't have a lot to do with the whole purpose purpose in the first place. but Yeah. Yeah.
00:02:44
Speaker
You can go back and listen to the Thanksgiving episode from last year if you want the
Recording Setup in Caravan
00:02:48
Speaker
details on that. So we have a different recording situation today. Nyleen had some serious ingenuity to make it work for us. I made a travel. No, no, let's not hit escape. The escape button. Yeah, that's great. He's trying to escape us from his. He wants to take over the cottage, to be completely honest with you.
00:03:08
Speaker
I mean, like he's not already in charge. That's true. But I gave you a little window. You can peek. Oh, my gosh. Shadow looks so scary. Like in our logo. Yes. Oh, how cute. Oh, I can see him.
00:03:21
Speaker
Distractions. Yeah. So tell us where we are. Yeah. So we are in the travel cottage, um the travel caravan, if you will. um And we have made a nice little tent for ourselves that we can record and it's very, very comfy and cozy and um it's pretty nice. i yeah I needed to get out of
Christmas Decorations and Cultural Differences
00:03:38
Speaker
the house because, you know, it's... think we're gearing up for Christmas and um things are in full chaos over there where you normally hear whining and crying and... Well, not crying. It's usually the dogs crying and right the kid screaming glee. But...
00:03:59
Speaker
I needed a break and so did the microphone. So we elsewhere. We are elsewhere. We are in in in Nim's cottage and now Grim is joining us and it is quieter here.
00:04:14
Speaker
it's so nice. But I don't have a good compact space for us that isn't. don't know. It doesn't work. So we have a tent, more or less. It's actually Bash's tent. Yes. Yes, I may have pilfered my child's little play tent ah so that we can sit and here and record. And it was really fun because it's one of the wooden ones with like the sheet that you like pin. And it's really fun. There will probably be a picture either in the show notes or on my blog or in the ever elusive social media that we will eventually maybe listen again. No, hey, you know, you aren't going to get any kind of actual shit from me. Oh, my gosh.
00:04:56
Speaker
But yes, I have started ah pulling out. Sorry. So have you started decorating for Christmas yet at all? No. Okay. So we are recording this right before Thanksgiving. And out of respect for my marriage, I wait for Thanksgiving. I don't think he would really give me too much of a hard time if I did it earlier.
00:05:15
Speaker
But I know I like it more than he does. Really? Like, what is there not to like? Like, it's nice. It's so pretty. Well, and I definitely make it cool. Like I make it to, you know, have similar tastes, right? That's part of why we're married. We both love the black and red stuff. We have kind of the Krampus stuff going on and the house lights are, they're icicles, but we can set them to red. So they like bloody icicles coming off the house.
00:05:41
Speaker
um And we'll, you know, and we set the skeletons up with, you know, some kind of shenanigans happening. That's festive on the like on the yard. You know, we, I try to make it,
00:05:54
Speaker
We worked retail for so long. Yeah. That it's, you know, I've always loved Christmas. It's always been something that was a great, happy thing for me. And I don't know that his upbringing was super great about that. You know, like, I don't think that they really focused on holidays and and that's fine.
00:06:12
Speaker
But it's not, it's not nostalgic like it is for us. It's not that reprieve from the mundane of adult. He didn't have the the happy memories, you know, the extreme happy to, to balance out the extreme hell that is working in retail for yeah decades, you know, and um in, in specialty retail that gets extremely hit during the holidays and your life when you're in one of those salaried positions, you know, you,
00:06:37
Speaker
It sucks. it It just drains your essence. and so I have always taken it upon myself to like make Christmas awesome for him. And like, don't know. So but I don't want to like, overdo it for him. So I wait till Thanksgiving.
00:06:54
Speaker
Yeah, I've slowly been um creeping up. Well, like Ace had mentioned, I was like, oh, you know, it'd be nice if I could start because, you know, Sebastian keeps asking me to.
00:07:06
Speaker
And he really was. He has been asking. And so you can't say no to the little kid who wants Christmas, right? You absolutely can't. I've slowly been um pulling out the lights. It started with some fall lights because like it's fall. That's fine. And then, oh, those lights needed to move. Let's just pull out this tinsel. It's fine. like Not tinsel. um The garland. The garland. Yeah. And so currently my hallway looks like a reindeer unicorn threw up in it because, listen, I know what it looks like. It's chaos. But... I love it. There's lights around every door. Sebastian so excited. Yeah, he the whole time I was doing it, he came home right in the middle of it. I was like i was hoping I would have had it done. But i was setting it up and he was like, hey, mom, hey, mom, are you put it over my door? Are you putting it over my door? Are you putting it And I was like, Sebastian, I guess I will put it over door. I already answered this question. I've already answered this question. he had to make sure. oh my gosh. The whole time because he even like went to the bathroom, sat on the potty for a little while, took his shower the whole time. Hey mom.
00:08:17
Speaker
You putting them over my door? Like, yes. if You want to make sure you don't forget. It's important. It's just cute. And it's just. he has to make sure that you know it's important to him. Yeah. But it's so funny to have that, that reminder of like, what is you know, those little important things that we all start with. Yeah.
00:08:40
Speaker
The default settings. Damn. Yeah. I know it's deep. No, i ah you no, no, that was not deep at all. No, no, no That, that way. Sure. But no, but where my brain was that that twist of my head actually was just like, no, you can't buy him more things. You've already, I've got more stuff for him for Christmas than anybody else. But now I know he likes lights.
00:09:02
Speaker
Yes. So. Wait. Shit. Well, no, just like there's so many cool things. There's like the projection things that like put space on the ceiling or like, you know, like little neons or whatever that are in like shapes of dinosaurs. You know, I'm not an asshole. Yeah, no, no, no. No. So yeah, I've just been slowly been making it throw up Christmas because it's just been...
00:09:25
Speaker
really actually kind of nice to see it through like his eyes it's just so this is this is kind of the first year he was really able to appreciate it right yes oh my gosh I don't know if I told you i caught him well I don't know if caught him is right word i don't know I caught him in the right mood but he came home and he went potty and we were washing his hands and he started singing a song and dancing in the mirror while singing and doing the dance and I started singing with him I think I don't know what it was But he has like a little like Christmas carol thing that he's doing soon. like
00:09:58
Speaker
Oh, the thing that the thing that's on Monday? Yeah. so he has he's doing this thing where he's you know singing a song. And this is like the first year he's participated where I think he actually knows like what's happening and what the song is. And he's participating he's moving. And he's not just like waving at people. And it was so cute. But yesterday he was really mad at me.
00:10:18
Speaker
And I asked him. I was like, hey, Sebastian, do you know this song? Can you sing me any Christmas songs? And he said, I don't want to do that right now. And I was like, oh, okay. It was just one of those like, no, you don't get that.
Ouija Madness Episode Format
00:10:36
Speaker
so um So we have mentioned that we have been extraordinarily busy as we are some busy bitches. And because of that, as we have done before, we are going to each take an episode to ourselves and hog the time and give each other a little bit of a break. Yes, please. So the first of that is today, Nyleen. I get to go first. Yeah. So kind of how i told you guys...
00:11:06
Speaker
last what was it well the last episode yeah we did the whole yeah the preamble the set of a Ouija introduced Ouija so we are going to kind of delve into a very specific case today Ouija madness um so we're gonna get right into that
00:11:28
Speaker
Time has been so fucked. So absolutely fucked for me. I am like 97% sure I'm in another timeline, another dimension, another... i shifted. Typically, i feel like I shift to the left.
00:11:40
Speaker
that's That's where my, when I keep shifting to my dimensions, it goes to the left. This is my theory. and Anytime I get a migraine or a really bad headache, when I wake up, I'm in the next dimension. What hurts is the the shift. wow So um now that I'm in this dimension, i have learned that, um hey guys, I'm only half
Story of Jenny Morrow's Death
00:11:58
Speaker
choking. um I've learned that Ouija is spelled very wrong in your your dimension, guys. Where i come from, it's spelled with a Q and that makes sense.
00:12:09
Speaker
I have. Literally never seen it spelled with a Q. That's because you're you were intended for this one. Apparently so. I'm a floater between different dimensions. Yeah, guys, Nyleen texted me about this.
00:12:22
Speaker
And I thought for sure... That Ace was trying to convince her that it was spelled with a Q to like be a dick. Because he does that. Because he does that. So I was very clear. No, it has never started with a Q. It is only with an O and she got mad at me. so Yes. so No, I have written it many times with a Q. And I specifically remember the movie called Ouija and it is spelled with a Q. And i remember because it had the little tail at the end of like the Q where it strikes through. you know what I mean? I know what you mean, but I don't know that I've seen that. Okay, well, that's because in your world, you're wrong.
00:13:02
Speaker
See, look, so this word, I remember it having like a little line with a Q. Are you talking about the subtitle that's underneath That's kind of like if... No!
00:13:16
Speaker
No, I'm not! you're You're wrong! Anyways, so i know I should be talking about a different dimension, but instead I'm going to talk about Ouija madness.
00:13:28
Speaker
So I think what makes the story so great for me is that it's so old and few records outside of newspaper clippings exist of the event. Sorry. Newspaper clippings. Yeah. hello yeah So because of this, a few of the following events of slight variations here and there, um even some of the reports of people of of like the things people said that were involved in the events that we're taught about to talk about, and they seem to contradict each other a little bit. So it's almost like There was, i she is so upset.
00:13:59
Speaker
I'm so sorry. They're howling together. It's actually kind of cute. Oh, are they? I'm so proud of Doji for playing into that. So because of this, there's a few of the following events have slight variations here and there. um These events took place right across the water from the San Francisco Bay Area in the early nineteen twenty s Nice. These events have become a small part of American folklore, with the details getting fuzzier along the way.
00:14:28
Speaker
Some of the names of the people involved did change over time due to anglicization of their Italian names to blend in a little better in their new American surroundings. I will try to mention them as I come across them, but will mainly refer to them under their anglicized names as they were reported in newspapers and census information at the time.
00:14:46
Speaker
Our story begins with a tragic ending. Jenny Morrow, age 19, was born into an Italian family that emigrated in the early 1900s to El Cerrito, California.
00:14:58
Speaker
While they did leave family behind in Italy, Jenny was surrounded by family and friends in her little town. On December 26th, 1919, Jenny Morrow was struck by a speeding vehicle at the intersection of San Pablo and San Potero Avenues near Richmond, California. Right after Christmas. That's sad. I know. She was one of the 3,808 traffic fatalities reported that year. Wow. And I mean, keep in mind, this was right when cars were starting to be a thing. and Yeah, right at the beginning of Yes, yes. When the assembly line really started being a thing and cars were being readily produced and there weren't really a lot of traffic laws and what you're supposed to do when you hit people, you know, right Great Gatsby style.
00:15:41
Speaker
but The driver never even stopped and was going so fast that Jenny's hat would be found 60 feet away from her body due to the impact. Wow. Yes. Unfortunately, Jenny Morrow would succumb to her injuries shortly after with little to go on.
00:15:56
Speaker
The investigation grew cold. Jenny's close-knit family did not take the loss well. Jenny's father had died earlier that year from a sickness, so her death hit the family extra hard.
00:16:08
Speaker
Jenny was survived by her mother, Maria Morrow, aged 56, and her sister, Josephine Giuseppina Morrow-Soldavini, aged 29. We will refer to her as Josie from here on.
00:16:22
Speaker
Josie was married to Charles Soldavini and had three young children. They all lived together in a small house, which unfortunately happened to be right down the street from where her sister Jenny was killed.
00:16:33
Speaker
So they were constantly being reminded of the loss. They wished for closure in Jenny's case and hoped to find the owner of the car that struck her to hopefully bring her soul to rest. After the authorities weren't able to help, Josie and Maria decided to get a bit creative, as you do in the 1920s as a woman.
00:16:50
Speaker
Surprisingly enough, the family had owned a Ouija board, spelled incorrectly, since the year before. The family seemed to be highly religious, but with the 1892 patenting of the Ouija board and the craze of the mass-produced board, they really didn't take much stock into the quote, other world it could contain. Right. I mean, it was a manufactured toy. Yeah, a toy. Exactly.
00:17:18
Speaker
With every seance they held, they grew more hopeful that they were coming closer to finding the killer. Josie and Maria claimed to have received messages from the other side through the board and in their dreams.
00:17:29
Speaker
At one point, Josie approached the police with a jumble of numbers, claiming it came to her in a dream and must correspond with the registration number of the car that hit her sister. No car was ever found to match these numbers.
Seances and Supernatural Events
00:17:42
Speaker
Like for VIN number? Yeah, like something. Or some whatever that was back then, yeah. In response, they seanced even harder. Of course. Yes. And they started looking for spiritual meaning in everything around them. And I mean everything.
00:17:56
Speaker
Around two months after Jenny's death, the neighbors started reporting odd things happening around Maria and Josie's house. One neighbor, Tony Bena, specifically reported that Maria came to his house and was crying in his arms.
00:18:10
Speaker
She was just being really odd and told him she would take it upon herself to save him and his family from the demons and spirits that were coming for them. Oh, so she... saw or heard something that made her think that they were in trouble. They were in danger. Yeah.
00:18:26
Speaker
A few days later, neighbors noticed. Yeah. A few days later, neighbors noticed that a quote, grave sized hole appeared where the whole period is a little fuzzy, there but it appeared either in Maria and Josie's yard or about a block away from their house, depending on which newspaper at the time you read.
00:18:47
Speaker
That's a very different. Okay. Either way, it was super not great because every day there would be a different amount of dirt in the hole. Sometimes dirt would be taken out. Other times dirt added.
00:19:00
Speaker
Maria would claim that this was the work of the spirits. And in this little house, they now were holding regular seances with about 10 people participating. This included Josie's husband and children, as well as some neighbors and their children.
00:19:14
Speaker
Children? Yes. Great. Yes. We're just involving and we're making this a family Hasbro event. I mean, it is a board game, Don't sue me, Hasbro. The neighbors that were now heavily involved were the Bottinis. They were a family of five. The parents, John Giovanni and Santina Bottini.
00:19:30
Speaker
The three children, Rosa, age 12, Adeline, age 15, and a three-year-old whose name was not noted. A three-year-old? Yes. I think she was more just there, existing. Okay. In their lives, you know? I don't know as ah As a preteen or teen, I would have been all about participating in something like that, I think. Yeah.
00:19:49
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I could see that. But as a little one, I think that might be a bit much. I i agree. When I say heavily involved, I mean, things are getting out of control. Like they they were getting pretty bad and the children should not have been involved. The 15-year-old neighbor, Adeline, claims she is a clairvoyant, a trans medium, and is now very much possessed by the spirit of Jenny Morrow, who Adeline claims is now in full control of her body and mind. Oh.
00:20:16
Speaker
Yes. So they are involved. Apparently. Adeline, the 15 year old neighbor, who is again fully possessed by the neighbor's deceased 19 year old daughter, has decided that even though they've made contact with the other side, they've completely abandoned the original plan to find Jenny's hit run driver.
00:20:33
Speaker
They're still doing seances, but have a new goal, a grand finale of sorts. What they called, quote, a passion display. A passion display. Is that a Christ thing? That's what I was wondering at first. And I will let you find out like I did. Okay.
00:20:50
Speaker
This was planned to take place on March 3rd of 1920 at 5pm. They had a time and date. This display would cast out the evil in all of them through the influence of Jenny Morrow's spirit.
00:21:02
Speaker
And as part of the grand finale, the true purpose of the hole in the yard would be revealed for everyone. Oh, good. But first... They needed to prepare for the display. The spirits had a lot of odd requests.
00:21:15
Speaker
Adeline claimed the spirits needed a comb to brush their hair, I guess. But not just any comb. No, they needed to bring her a comb that was decorated with six stones of a different hue.
00:21:25
Speaker
But they couldn't find that, so they got her a six-colored corset instead. Yes. kids you Not anything at all like a comb? No. ok The spirits really, really liked jewelry and clothes, though. I bet they did. Yes. So Miss Bettini bought her daughter Adeline, I mean, um bought the spirits a $150 diamond ring. $150 then. Yes. And an expensive new dress. Unfortunately for Miss Bettini, Adeline had a dream that the evil spirits got into her clothes. So she ripped them off and burned them along with money and possibly one of the many Ouija boards in the house.
00:22:03
Speaker
Ooh. Yeah. Sucks. The spirits just... They didn't like those clothes, apparently. Well, you said she burned the Ouija board? One of them. Yes. Okay.
00:22:14
Speaker
So I am going to read a a footnote. ah Footnote 8 from the book that a lot of this information came from. The book is titled Miss Wakeman vs. the Antichrist. It is a a mix of a lot of short stories. Their descriptions and references for this footnote were just...
00:22:31
Speaker
Perfect. So I was. She's doing the chef kiss. Yes. Chef kiss. um All right. So footnote eight, the Oakland Tribune reported that the group burned any bill with a seven in its serial numbers. Oh, wow. Other newspapers claimed that as much as $700 was destroyed.
00:22:48
Speaker
But Rosa Bottini, the 12 year old, said that only small change went into the fire. Richmond Independent, March 4th, 1920. Newspaper accounts claim that there were several Ouija boards in that house, but Rosa said, quote, It is queer that people should say there were four. One is enough to give the messages.
00:23:08
Speaker
End quote. I mean, yes. She's like, um, why would we need more? Right. That was Oakland Tribune, March 4th, 1920. If the board was incinerated on March 1st or 2nd, it might reveal something about how the group was evolving with four psychics in one seance room.
00:23:26
Speaker
Miss Morrow was, quote, chief invoker of the power of the Ouija board. Josephine had psychic dreams. Miss Bottini was a trans visionary and Adeline, the spirit medium.
00:23:39
Speaker
Perhaps they had become competitive. If so, what did the board's destruction represent? Adeline's emergence as the leader. She was often described as their, quote, high priestess. So you have these four chicks that want each other to believe that they are the most powerful medium or psychic or yeah whatever.
00:23:59
Speaker
And it's the worst part is it's two moms and they're two children. Oh my God. Two girls, right? The husbands are there. Their kids are there. Everyone's there just following along on this. And these mothers are competing for which of their daughters is the most clairvoyant of all. This is unhinged as fuck. It is. it's it It's a lot.
Authorities and Asylum Commitments
00:24:21
Speaker
So as they were nearing the date of the passion display, things were getting even more intense. The neighbors had basically taken permanent residence in the Mauro Soldovini house and seances were being performed 24 hours a day.
00:24:37
Speaker
Miss Benna, the wife of the neighbor who had been visited earlier by Miss Morrow, was now being held in the house against her will. In the Morrow house. Great. They threatened to harm her if she tried to leave.
00:24:48
Speaker
Rosa Bettini, the 12-year-old neighbor... was at a point of struggling to keep food down and had to be revived several times with, quote, holy water. Adeline delivered the order that Rosa's hair and that of the two-year-old neighbor they had kidnapped should be cut off and burned to dispel the evil spirits and save all of their lives.
00:25:07
Speaker
Her hair is containing the evil? Yes. And the two-year-old that they kidnapped. Great. Awesome. Yes. After 12 of a Miss Benna being held hostage, the Ouija board demanded that Miss Benna's daughter should be the next one kidnapped to join in on all of this fun.
00:25:25
Speaker
Luckily, Miss Benna's door was locked, like her house door, so the child was safe from the group. But... they started beating at the door with hammers to try to get into the house. Mr. Benna was growing concerned about his wife's absence, and now the neighbors were beating his doors down with hammers. So he ran away with his child, of course, to find help. Sure. As you do. As you do.
00:25:47
Speaker
As a reminder, it's 1920. It's a small town. So they didn't exactly have a police department. They had one town marshal. And his name was A.W.
00:25:58
Speaker
McKinnon. Because that's what you do when you're a marshal. You abbreviate the first two letters of your name. Okay. Now, remember, they said that the culmination of all of this would be on March 3rd of 1920 5 p.m. Right.
00:26:12
Speaker
Well, on March 3rd of 1920 at 3 p.m., the Marshal McKinnon calls in Chief Wood from the town of Richmond for backup. He says, we have two hours. Let's get to it.
00:26:23
Speaker
Together, along with six officers, they looked upon the Maro Soldomini house where they had been informed the families were barricaded in the house with curtains drawn and acting very oddly. Okay. Okay.
00:26:37
Speaker
The people inside were well known by the neighbors and they were, quote, highly spoken for by the neighbors as law abiding, hardworking Italian people. Instead of breaking down the door, they decided to get the pastor of the nearby church, St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Berkeley, and request his help in getting these people to just open the door. So they're trying to reduce the amount of violence these these people are experiencing, right?
00:27:03
Speaker
So Father J.J. Hennessy emerges, and somehow he convinces these people to let him and the police in. What they find is Adeline, half naked, maybe in her torn and burnt new dress.
00:27:15
Speaker
The five kids that got dragged into this, they're sitting there exhausted, hungry, and basically hairless. The worst part about the kids is for them, this probably started out as a game of pretend that they did not understand was like on a whole nother level for the adults in the group.
00:27:33
Speaker
As for the rest of the group, they were described as being quote, in a state of high nervous excitement and nearing exhaustion from lack of food and sleep. The police are trying to arrest everyone. And it is quoted that a lively tussle ensued. Yeah.
00:27:49
Speaker
Miss Morrow, the mother of Jenny and Josie, she started screaming that her late husband was present um in the house and would kill them all. um Apparently he had come to visit and was protecting them. Miss Bettini, the mother of Adeline, who claims she is possessed by her dead neighbor.
00:28:05
Speaker
Miss Bettini goes into a trance and she tells officers, quote, she has gone through the torment of the crucifixion and then being addressed by the deity through her daughter, she has been brought back to earth. Oh, yes.
00:28:20
Speaker
They're all transported to the hospital after this yeah um for treatment. good John Bettini is released and he is allowed to take his children home with him, even though he was a part of this. They let him go home with his children.
00:28:32
Speaker
He just has to come back the next day and appear before the judge. Miss Morrow's cousin took the other three children and the one that was kidnapped just was returned to his parents. And they just called that a day, apparently.
00:28:43
Speaker
The rest of them are all detained and they all have to meet with the judge the next day and the County Lunacy Commission. Which I didn't know that was a thing, but there's a thing called the County Lunacy Commission. I've never heard that. Yeah, it's um I don't know if they still have it.
00:28:59
Speaker
That might be something to look into. The meeting with the Lunacy Commission happens and they interview everyone that was involved. Rosa Bettini, the 12 year old that was almost passing out around the end.
00:29:12
Speaker
Well, she wasn't really a co-conspirator in the chaos, but she was swept up in the event, right? Like, she wasn't guiding it, but she was just, like, there. Right. um So, otherwise, she seemed to be really credible and reliable in her accounts of what happened. Right.
00:29:27
Speaker
She mentioned that the family was doing whatever they felt the board was telling them and whatever they interpreted the board was saying, including once throwing a brick through a jewelry store window because the board told them to do it. So they weren't just doing things within the house and in their neighborhood. They were leaving the house and doing crazy things, too, that they just had didn't happen to get caught for.
00:29:49
Speaker
at the time first rule of project mayhem yeah pretty much yeah yeah she did mention ah what the ultimate purpose of the hole was her and her father corroborated that the intent was that evil spirits would disappear through the hole um at the culmination of this in the morrow's backyard and then the good spirits would emerge from the hole so basically a spiritual exchange of bad and good energy and that displaced the dirt i guess On the other hand, Miss Morrow, Josie Saldovini, Miss Bottini, and Adelaine Bottini, they were all judged to be insane by their own testimony. Well, yeah. Yeah. Anytime the board or their judgment, the board's judgment would be brought up, the four women would quite literally crash out. They would just and start talking wildly and saying crazy things. They were dubbed the, quote, Ouija Maniacs, which was spelled with a Q, by the way. Was it? Yes. Well, see, you found a real life example. That is also an amazing band name. Yeah, it is. Yeah. Yeah.
00:30:57
Speaker
They were dubbed the Ouija maniacs by the media. Judge R.H. Latimer ruled that all four women should be committed. Adeline Bettini and Miss Morrow. So not the related ones, but the opposite. So one daughter and the other mother. Yeah, they would be sent to the state mental hospital at Stockton. And Miss Bettini and the other daughter, Josephine Saldivini, they were sent to a Napa asylum.
00:31:21
Speaker
Did they explain why they separated them like that I don't, I don't know. They didn't. And I'm assuming it might've had something to do with one level of mania and involvement because one seemed to be a state hospital and the other one was an asylum. Okay. And it could be, you know the actions or the way they were acting at the time. It seemed to be the level of psychosis they were experiencing. Some were more acute than others. Yes. I think it was less an intentional split of families.
00:31:45
Speaker
As for the husbands, they were released after they, quote, disavowed their belief in the alleged messages of the board and said they took part in the seances in an effort to dissipate the hallucinations of Okay.
00:32:01
Speaker
So basically, they were hysterical and on their periods. What was I supposed to do? is what that translates to. But funny enough, shortly after saying this to the media, Miss Bettini's husband would later tell reporters, quote, We believe in the Ouija board and our faith is unshaken. The board will drive away evil spirits. Do you think we look like maniacs?
00:32:31
Speaker
i'm sorry What do you think, Mr. Bettini? Legend has it that Charles Soldovini attempted to burn the board that night and rid himself of the madness once and for all. The women were freed before the end of April and from their graves, it seems that Josephine died in February of 1924, just four years after her sister, but she was free.
00:32:53
Speaker
They have a shared gravestone in the shape of a tree trunk with sisters inscribed on it. um And I will show you a picture. This was the the ladies involved.
00:33:05
Speaker
Wow. Josephine is the one in the middle. Okay. They definitely look like some crones, man. Oh, no Josephine is this one. Yes. I think that one is Adelaine. And that is one of the mothers. Nice. Yes. They do look like witches. And then their graves are really pretty. Behind grave. Oh, that's really pretty. Yeah. So they share a gravestone. That's in San Francisco?
00:33:30
Speaker
um It is in El Cerrito, and it is in the St. John, it' the same um church as the father who helped them, the St. Joseph's Catholic Church. Gotcha. Yeah.
00:33:48
Speaker
The house reported in the media as quote, the house of mystery is long gone. And in its place now stands a target superstore. Oh no. Okay. What I find so fascinating about these events is that as outlandish as they are,
00:34:03
Speaker
They aren't completely out of the realm of possibility in terms of how intense everything got and how it was handled.
Cultural Narrative Reflections
00:34:09
Speaker
I could see that going very differently nowadays, um especially with police presence and lack of mental health resources, which is saying something for that point in time.
00:34:20
Speaker
But whether these events are true or just a whole lot of sensationalized media, it is now an American folktale recorded in print. To me, this is a reminder that we need to keep recording these tales before they're lost in the digital space.
00:34:38
Speaker
So this story actually inspired a movie that I want to add to the Nightmare
Holiday Horror Anthology Recommendation
00:34:42
Speaker
Fuel. The Invited. Yes. The Invited or The Uninvited? The Invited. invited The Invited. Because they were invited by the Ouija board. true. Yeah. All right. This movie was released in 2010. It was written and directed by Ryan McKinney. In the movie, a family moves into an old Victorian house and finds Miss Morrow's twice-burned Ouija board in the attic, and they start playing with it. Awesome. yeah so they just they're not trying to recreate that story. They're just pulling from the lore. Yes, exactly. ah love that actually. It's just a nice little touch. So did you have any nightmare feel for this? Yeah.
00:35:14
Speaker
My Nightmare Fuel is a anthology. It's called, and for the spirit of the season, Hark the Herald Angels Scream. Edited by Christopher Golden. So it's several Christmas horror stories. What? um I listen to this at some point, like almost every year since I found it initially. oh it's an audible? You can get it in regular book, normal book, ebook.com.
00:35:36
Speaker
And audible. Yeah. And i kind of have a fun memory of listening to it when I was listening to it the first time. It was in Christmas of 2020. And it was pre vaccine time of of COVID. So we were all hyper isolating.
00:35:50
Speaker
And I absolutely loved the team that I worked with at the time. So I baked a whole bunch of stuff. And I made treat boxes to drive out to all of their houses. no And all in all, this was like a six-hour round trip. They don't live close. yeah like were it was It was a pretty pretty broad thing. So I was listening to this book. Well, one of my coworkers lived in this new townhouse development.
00:36:13
Speaker
So when I went to deliver to him, there were these Like multiple real estate agents walking around with families and that. So I was in the middle of listening to this one about, it was called Love Me. That's about this guy trying to rob an old lady to have something to give his kid for Christmas.
00:36:28
Speaker
So as I'm pulling up to his house, I tried to pause the story because because I was just going to leave the car running and run up in like ding dong ditch. Yeah. But my water bottle, my condensating water bottle had been sitting on my phone and I couldn't like, i it wouldn't let me pause because the, the, is wet it was wet and my brain was not thinking, turn it down.
00:36:48
Speaker
So anyway, I like ran, i opened my car door, ran with his treat box to his front door, dropped it off, rang the bell. booked it back to my car and immediately drove away like two blocks away before I texted him to let him know there. But while I was doing that, the part that was very loudly portraying to all of these very nice families was about this fucking goblin monster that was shooting an old lady in the face. Oh my gosh. Spoilers.
00:37:14
Speaker
So, um yeah. Yeah. that was that was uh my memory to go with listening to this but anyways uh i there's some of the the short stories in particular that i really enjoy and like most anthologies there's usually something for everybody in there but it's it's a fun horror mix and all of them are fairly and you know they're they're quick so yeah
00:37:36
Speaker
how are we going to cleanse palates Well, you don't know how close this is going to be, to be really honest with you.
Survival Scenario Discussion
00:37:43
Speaker
Today we're going to pretend that you have been captured by Sawdude Guy, right? Okay. you have Jigsaw. You are now in Saw 84.
00:37:54
Speaker
eighty four Oh, okay. I must be pretty frail at this point. I don't know how many there are at this point. don't either. But I know it got out of control for that. But...
00:38:05
Speaker
but You ended up in this saw scenario and you need to pick a card. And that is what you have to do to survive. Do you think you would survive? Okay. Draw card, any card. You have four cards to choose from.
00:38:24
Speaker
my god ah Remove one of your eyeballs with a spoon. That is some legit saw shit. Okay. Okay.
00:38:34
Speaker
whoo
00:38:36
Speaker
If we're talking to return to the life I have as it is right now and not to some horrific landscape where this is actually happening. um Like I could live without an eye if it meant I could continue having my love dreams and shit. And I don't think that would necessarily kill you.
00:38:55
Speaker
i actually just saw this. Yeah. I was watching this crime show and like apparently like this guy was running away from the cops in his car and he crashed and his eye like somehow came out and he was like sitting there on the curb and they had him cuffed and like they were trying like waiting on EMS and he was like, uh, officer, ah be, be straight with me. Is my, is my eye hanging out? And he goes, yes, son. Yes. Your eye is fully out of your face.
00:39:26
Speaker
And he goes, okay. And he just sat there and he was like, okay. Like, I fully out. So, sorry, that got really graphic. But but what I'm saying is I don't think the process of doing that, I think there's a way to do that, that it wouldn't kill you at least. Right. You know what I mean?
00:39:45
Speaker
There's a whole lot of horror where that's just part of the torture is scooping their eyeball out with a spoon. Exactly. Are you going to pick one of these horror scenarios? Yes, I am I have three left. I was going to let you shuffle them if you wanted to. Because you're going to, there's some, some scenario in here that doesn't suck. um I mean, that was the least sucky one. That was the one I was hoping for.
00:40:08
Speaker
ah Stick a nail in your own foot. oh ah I think if I had something.
00:40:19
Speaker
i actually think that would be easier than the eyeball. Yeah, I think I wouldn't mind doing it, especially if I had something to like drive it in with. You didn't even say rusty nail. You just said a nail. Yeah, just a nail. So it isn't even necessarily like a tetanus situation.
00:40:31
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, that's not so bad. Yeah. I mean, it's not great. No, but I would do it. Yeah, yeah. yeah just Yeah. That was an easy one. Have someone snip your Achilles tendon with garden shears.
00:40:46
Speaker
This is Ace's like, this is what what like his this is his nightmares. Oh my God, he cannot watch Hostel then. This is what what has him waking up in a cold sweat. is it's it's If you just say Achilles, he goes, ah.
00:41:01
Speaker
Oh, I cannot wait to do that to him. He goes, ah, he can't. He can't do it. Can't can't deal. Love that. So, um' no, if I don't think I could either. oh Actually, if someone else is doing it, oh I mean, I would deal, right? Because I'm just trying to live at the end of the day. Like, i i just want to live. Yeah. All right.
00:41:24
Speaker
um Well, time to get back to Christmas, I guess. Thank you for joining our Nightmare There's a kitty. Sweet dreams.
00:41:34
Speaker
Good night.
Listener Engagement and Topic Requests
00:41:35
Speaker
If you have topic requests, book or movie recommendations, or just want to say hi, email us at nightmarecottage at gmail.com or visit our website at nightmarecottage.com. Sweet dreams.