Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 28: Bodie California & The Case of Jorge Porto-Sierra
83 Plays1 year ago
Happy Monday Everyone!
AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELLIE!!!!
Today Lana tells Ellie the History and ghost stories associated with Bodie, California. Then get ready for Ellie to tell Lana a case out of Florida that you have to hear to believe!
Sources:
Bodie: Ghost Stories From a Ghost Town - Amy's Crypt (amyscrypt.com)
Florida Man Arrested For Attempting To 'Barbecue' Child Molesters
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Weekend Recap
00:00:04
Speaker
Hey guys, I'm Lana. And I'm Ellie. And welcome to Scared But Curious. Happy Monday. Happy Monday, how are you? I'm doing pretty good. Honestly, nothing really to report. Yeah. Yeah, nothing really. How was your weekend?
00:00:34
Speaker
Um, honestly it's been pretty, pretty chill.
00:00:37
Speaker
I've been gaming, you know, living my best life. For those of you who know what's going on in my life, you know that I'm just hanging in there. And those of you who don't know what's going on in my life, just know that I'm fucking hanging in there. You're just going to be that little cat poster. Just keep hanging in there. Just keep hanging in there and just holding on for your life.
Reflection on Mary Vincent Story
00:01:05
Speaker
But I am very glad to be done with Mary Vincent, because that was both a amazing badass story, but at the same time, just no one should do that. No one should ever go through what she had to go through. And the fact that we did like Steven Steiner, Zazil, and then this one, I'm like, I'm sorry, guys. I'm sorry. Yeah, it was a bit rough.
00:01:30
Speaker
You really were going for the J. Blaine Lana. It's her fault. It's me. I'm the problem. It's me. Yeah, I'm glad you're aware of it though. So what are you going to traumatize us with today?
Introduction to Bodhi, California's Ghosts
00:01:47
Speaker
Actually, today is a spooky story from me.
00:01:53
Speaker
It's not that traumatizing. Okay, good. But yeah, it's a it's a spooky one today because you know, I decided I'll be nice. You know, I'll stop traumatizing you guys. Yeah, there we go. Yeah, yeah. But no, this one is about Bodhi, California. What about you heard of it? Like the location? Yeah. Or
00:02:15
Speaker
through you, yes, but you haven't given me much to go off of yet. I'm super excited. I also didn't know that there's also a boaty in Washington that is also a ghost town. Okay, wait, I think I know that one. Because when you when you first said California, I was like, okay, maybe I'm just remembering things incorrectly.
00:02:40
Speaker
I did some research when I was still living in Washington. I remember seeing Bodhi. And I think that that's where my brain connected that. So every time you'd say California, it was like, wait, no, no, wait a second. Where am I going? There happens to be two Bodhis, one in California and one in Washington. They're both ghost towns. But as far as I can see, only one of them is very haunted. So and that's the one in California. And yes, thankfully.
00:03:10
Speaker
I do want to actually, my in-laws have been up to Bodhi, Washington, and they say it's so cool because there's still farm equipment out and preserved. There are still cars out, still well preserved. It's super cool, and you can just walk into buildings. Same thing with Bodhi, but Bodhi, as you'll learn, only has a couple buildings still up, but the one in Washington is actually still kind of a town.
History and Decline of Bodhi
00:03:40
Speaker
That's crazy. You know, I can't wait for us to actually go over, um, like, yes. Isn't it? Is it Lake linear?
00:03:48
Speaker
Is that the one where there's like an entire preserved town in it? Underwater. A lot of fucking racism, yeah. Well, yeah. A lot of racism. Wasn't it like a black town? I think it was like. Because they. Because they wanted to make a lake, yeah. Yeah, something like that. Yeah, that is definitely something that we can definitely cover.
00:04:14
Speaker
Yeah, I'm pretty sure they like like their graveyards under there like they didn't know it's not ideal not ideal at all. No, no. America do better. Do better. Exactly. Do better. This one is Bodhi, California. And have you ever heard of the body curse?
00:04:34
Speaker
No. No. This is actually how I know about it was the Bodhi curse. And I've always kind of wanted to look up what it really entailed. And so yeah, that's what really intrigued me is because I had heard of the Bodhi curse. I mean, as long as I've really been like into the occult stuff. So okay. Yeah. All right. I'm ready because I'm excited that you don't really know about it. I'm excited. So yeah, let's just get going.
00:05:00
Speaker
are you comfy i was just about to get situated that's why i was muted because my chair is turning into your chair and it makes noise now so no oh no yeah sorry guys you can hear my chair i definitely know you can it's uh i need to wd 40 it but
00:05:17
Speaker
I was thinking maybe I need to do the same, but what do I WD-40? I don't know where to spray it. I'll let you know when I do mine, because I'm going to have my husband do mine, so he's smarter than me. I'll let you know if he WD-40s, so that I'll let you know. It's the entire chair, just all of it. Just dump it on. Just the whole seat and everything.
00:05:43
Speaker
You you can't you can't still squeak once you dump it in exactly just yeah
00:05:52
Speaker
So like I said, we're gonna talk about Bodhi, California. So Bodhi is nestled in Mono County near the Nevada border and it's like 75 miles from Lake Tahoe. So Bodhi started as a mining camp in 1859 from a group of gold prospectors and one of these prospectors was a W.S. Bodhi
00:06:17
Speaker
which, as you can tell, they named the town after him. Crazy. But they spelled it wrong, though. They did. His name was B-O-D-E-Y, and the town is B-O-D-I-E. So they're like, no, copy my homework, but do it a little different. That's what I was just thinking. I was literally just thinking like, so they had no copyright infringement. We're fine. It's Bodhi off Wish.
00:06:47
Speaker
Exactly. The Bodhi EY had a TM, so they had to go with IE. Actually, I read that the name itself, how they spelled the name itself actually came from these horse stables that had spelled Bodhi's name wrong. So they went with the one that was incorrect? Yeah, yeah.
00:07:16
Speaker
Yeah. So that almost sounds like a fuck you to Mr. WS Bodhi. That doesn't seem like a was WS Bodhi here on dick. Well, actually, um,
00:07:28
Speaker
he would actually never see the town that was named after him. So he actually had no idea that the town was even named after him because he actually died. So they founded that camp in 1859 or whatever. And that November he actually died in a blizzard. And so he would actually never know that there was even a town named after him.
00:07:52
Speaker
I don't know if that makes it better or not. He's gone. That's rude. If you go to name it after, there had to have been something. There has to be a reason that someone somewhere knows. Or nobody actually knew. Nobody actually knew how to spell his name. And so the person on the horse stables just did it the best way they could. And everyone else was like, oh, is that how you spell it? Oh, I just got it wrong this whole time.
00:08:19
Speaker
So there would be a huge gold discovery in Bodhi in 1876, which was, there would be a huge gold discovery in Bodhi in 1876, which is what turned Bodhi from just a small little mining camp into a boomtown. So Bodhi attracted a lot of people, of course, it's a new
00:08:42
Speaker
Gold just got discovered, so it attracted a lot of people. It was a new town with a lot of promise for gold. By 1879, Bodhi had a population of 7,000 to 10,000 people.
00:08:57
Speaker
and 2000 buildings, which was huge at the time, that is ginormous for a boom town. Like my town now has 2000 people in it. And it's technically I'm pretty sure that's bigger than your town now. It's like more than double my town. Wow. Yeah.
00:09:18
Speaker
So from 1860 to 1941, the mines in Bodhi produced gold and silver valued at 34 million. Back then it was 34 million.
00:09:30
Speaker
So that would be 85 million in 2021. Bodhi had amenities of larger towns, including a Wells Fargo bank, four volunteer firefighter agencies, I guess. I thought this was funny. A brass band, because you go to the big city to go see a brass band. I thought that was kind of adorable. I mean, why not, I guess. Where else would you go? Yeah.
00:09:59
Speaker
So Bodhi had a railroad, miners, and mechanics unions all the way back in like the 1800s to like 1900s. I'm like, okay. So along with the union, they also had several daily newspapers because the town was so big that they had multiple, which is cool, and a jail at its peak.
00:10:23
Speaker
65 saloons lined Main Street. You guys can't see her face, but it's great. 65? 65. Even Stella can't believe this. Do you hear that? I do. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So there was one jail
00:10:48
Speaker
and 65 saloons. What? What? I'm trying to do the math and I'm really confused. There are more newspapers than there are jails and there are 65 saloons and only one jail. That many drunk people and only one jail. Okay, I'm sorry. All right, carry on.
00:11:16
Speaker
So Bodhi also had a popular red light district to the north end of town, along with a Chinatown. At one point, Bodhi had several hundred Chinese residents. There were opium dens. Again, remember, that says opium dens, but yet only one jail.
00:11:37
Speaker
Bro.
Hauntings and Curse of Bodhi
00:11:39
Speaker
What? opium dens. And they even had multiple dens. Yeah multiple saloons. One jail. One jail. What? A red light district. One jail. One jail.
00:11:57
Speaker
the red light district's not even the problem it's just you got 65 saloons of potential clientele going to the red light district no exactly everyone had a gun back then so i guess the problems took care of themselves right true true
00:12:15
Speaker
What was interesting is that I actually read that there was a Taoist temple in Bodhi. I was like, OK, that's actually super cool, especially back then. That's super cool. And on Main Street, there was a Miners Union Hall, which was the meeting place for labor unions. And it also served as the entertainment center that hosted dances and concerts and plays and school recitals. So this is just a cute little town, you know?
00:12:44
Speaker
with 65 fucking spoons on Main Street alone. But yeah, it's great. Oh, God. So Bodhi's real big boom was from 1877 till about late 1880s. So not really that long at all. But they kind of so it boomed and they kind of held that
00:13:11
Speaker
that the number, the population for a little bit, but slowly it started to decline. And at the end of about 1800, other boom towns had opened like Butte, Montana and Tombstone, Arizona. And so the people in Bodhi, a lot of them were just men that were chasing the money and they would just go from one boom town to another. And so a lot of the people in Bodhi,
00:13:41
Speaker
kind of left for these other boom towns and to go seek their riches somewhere else. And so- I mean, yeah, isn't that how most of the- Yeah, kind of- Most mining towns I feel like end up for the most part- Yeah. Except the selection of yours and a couple others, right? The selection of yours, yeah. I mean, mine's still mine. Just kidding. But yeah. Yeah. There's actually quite a few, like, Butte is still fucking huge.
00:14:11
Speaker
Oh yeah. It's like some of these actually became mainstay areas. Like they became big towns. Bodhi just wasn't one of them. Which is interesting, I wonder. Will you tell me why? I will tell you why.
00:14:28
Speaker
Fantastic. I'll shut up. Fantastic. So while like places like Butte and Tombstone and kind of like other places, other boom towns and gold mining places kind of focused in on the like lawlessness of the time, Bodhi actually tried to focus more into a family oriented community with the 65 saloons.
00:14:59
Speaker
So what, did each one have a daycare in it? That's so many saloons for a tile. Oh my, whatever. So in 1882, residents decided to build a Methodist church, which is actually still standing today. It's one of the few buildings that are still standing. Where's the temple? Not standing anymore.
00:15:23
Speaker
Well, they did build also a Roman Catholic Church, but that burnt down in 1929. So there were other churches, but a lot of them either just like crumbled into ruin, stuff like that. And so this Methodist Church just happened to be the one that still stood. So despite the population decline, the mind were still going pretty strong.
00:15:48
Speaker
And in 1890, the town had a little bit of a spark when mining technologies advanced. But by 1910, there were only about 698 people living in Bodhi. So it went from seven to 10,000 to under one. I was going to say, I think our graduating class was bigger than that. That is insane to me. Yeah. Wow.
00:16:18
Speaker
Okay, maybe not that big. Actually, I think we were in the 400s. But still, that's very small. No, I think we were five. Maybe, I don't remember. But either way. Yeah, no, very small. 698. Yeah, crazy. In 1912, the printing of The Last Bodhi newspaper signaled kind of the first signs of the official decline, like on paper,
00:16:42
Speaker
Ha, no pun intended, because I just said that the newspaper, it was the final printing. Anyway. You knew what you were doing. I actually couldn't. So soon in 1913, so the next year, the mind that made Bodhi actually closed for good.
00:17:01
Speaker
But the last mine that closed was in 1942, due to World War II, shutting down all non-essential gold mines. And mining just kind of never resumed after the war.
00:17:17
Speaker
How do they consider what's considered essential and what's not? I'm guessing it's like how much they're producing. So if they're producing a lot of it, yeah, if they're producing a lot, then it's like, yeah, you're kind of essential. But if you're just kind of getting some here and there, it's like, well, you're not really doing much. We're going to use the men that you guys were going to be mining to go kill people instead. Exactly. One bad job to another bad job.
00:17:44
Speaker
By 1920, Bodhi's population was recorded by the U.S. federal census as a total of 120 people. In the 1940s, the threat of vandalism was facing the ghost town, and the Kane family, who owned much of Bodhi,
00:18:01
Speaker
hired caretakers to protect and to maintain the town structure. And that's actually why the Methodist Church still stands is because they had people to maintain it and the
00:18:17
Speaker
the Roman Catholic Church had already burned down by that time. So one of the last people living in Bodhi was Martin Gianna Toni. And he was one of the last three people living in Bodhi. And the last three people were all just caretakers. Could you imagine only having three people living in your entire town that once had 2000 buildings. So it's a big town. And there's only three people living there. That is that would be so weird. I feel like
00:18:46
Speaker
I recently read about a town that that actually is like there's one woman left in the entire town. Yeah, I know exactly what town that is. Um, yeah, I can't remember. It's like somewhere in the Midwest. I want to say it's the one with the
00:19:02
Speaker
things going off feel like toxic. Oh, you think it's in Pennsylvania? I think so. So I don't know, I could be wrong. We probably shouldn't talk about it since we don't know what the fuck we're talking about. We just know that there's a woman in a town somewhere, and she's literally like the bread and butter of it.
00:19:22
Speaker
Bodhi, as of 1943, like I said, when there was only three caretakers at that point, it was now considered a authentic Wild West ghost town. And so in 1961, Bodhi was designated as a National Historic Landmark. And in 1962, the state legislator authorized the creation of the Bodhi State Historic Park.
00:19:50
Speaker
And out of the 2000 buildings, only 170 buildings remain. Well, and that was in 1962. And that was in 1962, and there's even less now. Damn. How many are there? Oh, you'll tell me. Sorry, I'll stop asking questions. So Bodhi has been named as California's official state gold rush ghost town, which
00:20:16
Speaker
I'm like, you have official ghost towns? You have official ghosts? Wait, do we? Or you? Wait, what's considered me?
Exploring Bodhi's Hauntings
00:20:26
Speaker
Yeah, no, you. What's considered me? What's considered me? No, I say what's considered we. Am I the ghost town? Am I? Sometimes I forget that I'm not in Washington anymore. I know.
00:20:43
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know if we have one. It's Bodhi. So today, Bodhi is preserved in what they the technical term is a state of arrested decay. So buildings are
00:21:02
Speaker
are still falling apart, but they don't fix them up. They just fix what's wrong at the moment and they just make it so it doesn't keep falling apart. So the buildings are still not very good to go inside because they're falling apart, but
00:21:20
Speaker
Yeah, they don't have paint on them. All that kind of stuff. It's recommended that you don't. But if you do, it's at your own risk. Yes, exactly. Got you. And also probably not a good idea because you're going to take out the whole freaking building all because you wanted to look at the inside.
00:21:37
Speaker
Yeah, and you can still go inside. I'll tell you about that in just a little bit. So only a small part of the town survived, which I think this is funny that it says only a small part of the town survived. So only about 110 structures still stand where I think that's my entire town is 110 structures. Like, what do you mean? That's literally my including houses.
00:22:04
Speaker
Exactly. You just made me die. So you can walk down the deserted streets and you can look inside homes. The interiors remain as they were left. Like the store and stuff like that is still stocked with goods like they would have been back then. There are Wait, the fuck do you mean? Like, like flower get restocked.
00:22:31
Speaker
I don't know. That's where I was wondering. I don't know. I don't know if it's fake. I don't know if it's real. I don't know if they're like, oh, come look, this is what it would have looked like. I don't know. That's all I could find.
00:22:49
Speaker
was that okay but also you can also find like throughout the park um you can find like plates and dishes like china dishes nails um glassware bottles okay i was joking about the fallout 76 thing i know i know but like now this is really starting to give me some fallout vibes really walking down the street there's a fucking plate like why
00:23:17
Speaker
Like it makes it seem like something like catastrophic happened, but it's not. Yeah, except for just fucking shit's wild. But Bodhi, so like I was telling you, Bodhi is more than a technical ghost town. It's also supposedly a real ghost town. There are so many ghost stories from Bodhi along with the Bodhi curse. And I'm going to tell you about some of the houses that are
00:23:47
Speaker
said to be haunted. So the John S. Kane house is one of the biggest houses in Bodhi. John was a very wealthy man. And he hired a Chinese woman to maintain the house and to help care for his family. But rumors spread that John and this woman were having an affair. And because she's
00:24:08
Speaker
not white. How scandalous. Yeah. Oh my gosh. It led to her losing her job. And it led to her becoming an outcast in the community. Bro, make that make sense. A white guy picks you and you're the outcast because he picked you, bruh. Yep. Oh, wait, I guess not much has changed.
00:24:32
Speaker
I was not gonna say anything, you said it. You were thinking it. Because she became an outcast in her community, she actually would end up taking her own life. And since then, her ghost has been seen at the John Cain house. Poltergeist activity has been reported and she has been seen staring out of windows and people also report being attacked by unseen forces. And so what I think is weird
00:25:02
Speaker
is that since she committed suicide, people say that like, since then, people have seen her ghost, but like, literally since then, people have seen her ghost, like since the, or since the 1800s, people have seen her ghost.
00:25:17
Speaker
It's been like a reoccurring, consistent story. Yeah. Got you. Okay. It's not just like, oh, you know, people in the 2000s or in the 90s saw her ghost. No, no, no, it's like, ever since even John Cain reported seeing her ghost at her out his house. I'm like, damn, that's how you know you fucked up, bitch.
00:25:39
Speaker
She's like, fine, you're gonna outcast me? Well, then I'm gonna haunt all y'all bitches. Fuck you, yeah. So the next house is the Gregory House. The Gregory House claims to have a ghost of an older woman, but her name and her story have been lost to time. But she's usually seen sitting in a chair, just knitting, just minding her own business. And I feel like if I were to ever live in a haunted house again, that's the type of ghost I would want, along with the next house that I'm gonna tell you about.
00:26:10
Speaker
Oh, oh, like, these are my favorite ghosts. So this next house is my absolute favorite one. I love it. I would live here. Like, let's go tomorrow. I love it. So the next house is the Mendocini house.
00:26:27
Speaker
And apparently you can hear children playing and laughing and there's an actual, the ranger in the park actually lives in that house. Like that's their house that they live in and take care of the, take care of Bodhi.
00:26:44
Speaker
And this ranger says that the children like to play tricks on him. And they will pull off his bedsheets when he's like, hey, I'm going to bed now. Good night. And they'll pull off his bedsheets and stuff or move his shoes and stuff like that. And they're just playing. And he knows it. OK. I would be so pissed about the sheets. Let me fucking sleep, you little assholes. But also leave it to a kid to just be like, heh, heh.
00:27:15
Speaker
This is funny for the next 300 years. Could they have picked any house? And he's like, I want the one with the kids. Like what? I don't know. Well, okay. And also my favorite part of this is that you will randomly smell homemade Italian food cooking. And it just wafts through the house. Wait, I remember this part.
00:27:40
Speaker
Yes. And I'm like- You told me about this specific part. I would totally live there. That would be so great. Like you would just walk into your house and you're like, oh man, that smells so good. And you're like, like, honestly, I hope that when I'm a ghost, that's what I do. I either just sit in my chair knitting- Smells. Or cook good food. Like that is so wholesome to me. I honestly love it. You just do the same things you did in life.
00:28:06
Speaker
Yeah, it's so, okay, what people don't know about me is I'm actually a 90 year old lady and that sounds like a great day to me, is knitting, except I don't know how to knit. What, you don't know how to knit? No, I used to, like when I was a little, little kid, but it kind of just got lost. Like I know the movements and I know the like roughly what you're supposed to do, but I don't really remember. Like as soon as I get into my hand, I'm like, what am I doing?
00:28:34
Speaker
I never got that muscle memory built up. Yeah, you know, honestly, I don't think I've knit. I've never not wait. Hold on. Whoa. Wow. I have knit. I just haven't hit knit in a really long time. So I don't know if I would. Yeah, I don't know if it's I don't know. Fourth and fifth grade. And then I kind of just stop. Okay, we got to get back on. I'm sorry. No, you're fine.
00:28:59
Speaker
What is not wholesome is that Bodhi was still your typical gold rush mining town during its lifetime. And Bodhi was a rough and tumble area, even though they tried to make it this like family oriented place later on. It was still the time in history where
00:29:18
Speaker
a person could kill someone if they liked their homestead or if they were finding more gold than the other person or if they looked at the other person wrong. Exactly. Then they only had one jail. And I mean, and you could just at that point, like kind of what we were talking about in all the way back in our second episode with Edward Krause is that
00:29:43
Speaker
they could they could kill you. And just tell people, oh, he went back home, or the elements got to you, or he went to this boom town. And no one Yeah, would a rattlesnake got him. Exactly. And no one would ever think have a second thought they'd be like, Oh, okay, well, that sucks. You know, um, exactly. That's a bummer.
00:30:05
Speaker
And because the town featured so many opium dens, a large red light district and saloons. And one jail.
00:30:17
Speaker
and only one jail. There are countless brawls and shootings and holdups that are recorded. They have a whole stack of incidents. Okay, hold on. So they didn't do anything about it because again, only one jail, but they at least kept track of how much was going on. Because they only have one jail, but they have countless amount of paper. So
00:30:41
Speaker
I was gonna say they just have like a lot of people documenting shit, but they only have like one sheriff. It's just little tally marks. Yeah, every time. We've had this many days since incident. You changed the day they got to put it back to zero. God damn it. I love that. And they wanted this to be kid friendly? Yeah, I know. Yeah, right. So the town of Bodhi had so many deaths.
00:31:10
Speaker
that the town required a very large cemetery. I was gonna say, where's the hospital? Is there a clinic somewhere? Like we got 65 saloons. Where's the hospital? Well, the thing is, is that probably one of the store owners was probably the dentist, the doctor, the barber.
00:31:29
Speaker
You know, you're totally right. Jack of all trades. It was actually, it was one of those 65 saloons was actually also the clinic. Was actually also the doctors. Exactly. Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. Oh God. Could you imagine going into the wrong one? Doctor, I need you. I don't know. I can't help you, but here's some vodka. That's Tim down the road. Yeah. Wrong. Wrong saloon. 50 feet that way. Okay.
00:31:58
Speaker
because there's so fucking many of us. You're not wrong. So the Bodhi Cemetery, of course, has its own ghost story. So little Evelyn Myers died under tragic circumstances at only the age of three when she was actually victim of a freak accident and she was struck in the head with a pickaxe.
00:32:25
Speaker
Nobody knows how it happened. Like it's lost time. How do you accidentally hit a child with a pickaxe? Well, like, were you mining and then she walked behind you and you were like, I wonder back like I'm thinking like freak accident. I wonder if it was like it was propped up against a wall or something and she was playing and it slipped or like down and got her. Yeah, I don't know. I honestly don't know. It's just sad. But she's not a good situation. That's sad. Yeah.
00:32:55
Speaker
But she is known to haunt the area around her angel-shaped tombstone. And her ghost has actually been seen by many children who visit Bodhi. Her ghost is seen by many children within the cemetery, and they inform their parents of a little girl who wants to play with them. Yeah. God damn it.
00:33:16
Speaker
I know. So I have to be ovulating because that shit really fucking hurts my heart right now. Oh, well, this one isn't going to be much better. Great. OK.
00:33:30
Speaker
So this one isn't going to be much better. It's not as sad as a kid dying, of course, but a haunted mining town wouldn't be complete without a haunted mine. Duh. Just because it's a mining town with no mine. 65 saloons, no mine. Their actual boom was like agriculture.
00:33:54
Speaker
Yeah, it's just a bunch of wheat. So because it was a mining town, accidental deaths were very common, of course. And Rangers have reported hearing voices and screams coming from within the mines. There is also said to be an entity of a white mule and the donkey actually died within the mines. It's reported that there was a donkey that died within the mines on like on the on the job.
00:34:23
Speaker
Yeah, I know I'm like I don't
00:34:26
Speaker
Need to hear that. That's sad. Oh, yeah. I mean, like, good working boy. Yeah, I know. I'm like your good boy. That's a good boy. Or good girl. Either one. Good job. Proud of you. Yeah. So now on to what makes Bodhi really Bodhi California. Bodhi really wouldn't be that much to kind of talk about without the Bodhi curse. The Bodhi curse is very interesting. I have opinions about it, but I want to know your opinion on it.
00:34:56
Speaker
Okay. So there are hundreds, and I mean hundreds of letters in a binder at the ranger station. And when the rangers get these letters, there's usually like a rock or a little trinket from one of the houses. And the letters will talk about how a person's life went to utter shit
00:35:17
Speaker
after they took memorabilia from Bodhi. And usually it's them being like, I want to give this back. I want my life to return back to normal, all of this stuff. Like I said, there's a lot of them. And then there's other letters saying that once they came back and put the trinket back or sent it back, that their lives went back to normal. Um, okay.
00:35:40
Speaker
See, and so this was the first one that I had ever heard of this type of curse before. And I've heard it a lot. Like I've heard this type of curse a lot, like in different places. And I don't know which one came first. Like I've heard about it. I mean, you always hear about like Robert the doll, I think also has the curse, like that type of like if you take a picture of him.
00:36:00
Speaker
Yeah, or you talk negatively about him or something along those lines. Yeah. And then there was another place too that I just listened to was like some sort of castle in England that has that same type of curse. And so but it's like this was the first one I ever heard about was Bodhi, California's curse. But now I think of like Hawaiian and native lands. That's another thing.
00:36:25
Speaker
Yeah, which is California. So is it native land? Are we? Who do you think we're fucking with right now? People might be choosing the wrong, wrong people here. Yeah. But also, um, the other part of this, my little skeptical brain, because I will say yes, we have a true crime and spooky podcast. But growing up in a haunted house, I am still a very skeptical person.
00:36:48
Speaker
But also the kind of skeptical side of my brain goes to, okay, a lot of these places are very old. They are now historic districts. They want to keep them as nice as they can. And if people are just taking stuff from this area,
00:37:06
Speaker
maybe the curse was quote-unquote invented by these people or whatever and like maybe it all started because you know somebody went to Bodhi or whatever picked up a cool rock or picked up a thing from this house or whatever and then their life did go to shit but it wasn't because of Bodhi but maybe that was the like only thing that they had done recently I don't know so
00:37:32
Speaker
It gave a little bit more credence when it was only this one place. It was only Bodhi that I had ever heard of. But a lot of old places kind of have this curse, I'm realizing. And I'm like, huh, it would make sense that they want to keep it as nice as possible. They don't want you taking stuff, like little trinkets and stuff.
00:37:55
Speaker
But then at the other side, it's like, well, what if there is this curse? Also, what if you're walking? I've always thought this. What if you're walking and your shoes pick up a rock? Is your life just cursed now? You don't even realize it? Okay. But like, why do we think the same thing? Because when I was in Hawaii, the amount of times that I would just make sure I didn't accidentally pick up a rock just in case because I wasn't trying to fuck with that shit. I wasn't trying to. No.
00:38:22
Speaker
but yeah what if you just what if you just are in hiking boots and you pick up a rock are you just cursed now even though you didn't even mean to maybe it's intention based like oh i want to keep this i yeah exactly i feel like a lot of it has to if if if there is something like that i feel like it would tremendously depend on
00:38:44
Speaker
Like, oh, I like this rock.
Conclusion of Bodhi Story
00:38:46
Speaker
I'm going to take it as opposed to asking if they can. Yeah. As or it being like an accidental thing. Mm hmm. So it must be bigger than a quarter. Yeah. There's actually a. Yeah. They have they have a little sizing kit. Yeah. It's like a ring. It's like one of those ring measures. Exactly. If it fits into this hole. Too big. Too big. Yeah.
00:39:11
Speaker
Yeah. And so that's the spooky story of Bodhi. Well, damn, don't your moral of the story is don't take something that's not yours. Exactly. Leave. I mean, as I was always taught, leave it better than you found it and only take your grace. Welcome. Exactly. Because you grew up in the P&W. Yeah.
Introduction to Florida Man Incident
00:39:36
Speaker
And that's our that's our motto, man. Oh, man. Okay, I'm
00:39:40
Speaker
Excited to tell you my story now, so All right, we just finished your story Yeah about haunted ass places, but now I'm gonna tell you about a Florida man
00:39:56
Speaker
Oh, no. And I don't know how how many of you guys have ever done the Google search of different Florida man headlines in the news. But that's funny shit right there. OK, that's funny. Leave it to like we were talking about in the Mary Vincent case because I was saying how he came from Florida, the Lawrence guy. He came from Florida and we were like, just get ready for this case. Great.
00:40:25
Speaker
because Florida great yeah as my husband says is it there's something in the water yeah air there's something going on out there i don't as my husband just says oh florida oh florida i only had a good time in one part of you and then it was it was good until it was not good anymore and then it was really bad yeah so so that sounded really weird i had a good plan i had a good time in one part of you
00:40:55
Speaker
Sounds really weird. If I wasn't talking about a state, that would sound fucking gross. Okay, anyway though. Goodness gracious. Okay, I'm back. So it is one of those insane stories, kind of. I'm not gonna lie. It's one that, when I read it, I was like, oh my God, I gotta tell everybody about this one. This one's fun. Okay. It's not that old. It's actually from pretty recent. Oh.
00:41:24
Speaker
2018. So I consider that recent. Yeah, right. So for real, like my brain just stopped adding date like it's I'm still processing that. So I think I just kind of stopped realizing that we're still I'm like, Oh, that was two years ago. No, it wasn't. That was six.
00:41:41
Speaker
Yeah, like, we're in 2024 right now. Yeah, I hate it. Thanks. I hate it. Anyway, yeah. Oh, God, I suck so bad. Why is time like this? Okay, I digress. Let's have existential crises after recording. After recording. Thank you.
00:41:59
Speaker
So you, I'm not gonna tell you what I felt about this story. I'm just gonna, I wanna know what you think about this story as we go. Oh no, okay. It's gonna be a conflicting one, for sure. Oh, you really want me? Who doesn't know how to shut up? Okay, we're gonna get canceled. Okay. I don't even know what's gonna happen, but I feel like we're gonna get canceled. No, maybe. No, no, no.
00:42:29
Speaker
like you really want my opinion okay well who else am i going to ask well what if yeah yeah but i don't really want my opinion on a florida case
00:42:42
Speaker
Well, yeah, this one actually I know your opinion on some of these things. Okay, so this is gonna be prepare guys. She's about to get heated. Okay. Oh, no. Oh, no. So we are going to March 7 of 2018. So it like just became 2018 is like way back there. Yeah. And of course, we're in Florida, right? Okay.
00:43:06
Speaker
And a friendly village inn, which is like a motel for those of you who don't know what inns are.
Jorge Porto Sierra's Crime
00:43:13
Speaker
It is located in Osceola County. I hope I said that right. I think that is right. Hell yeah then. Yeah.
00:43:25
Speaker
And this place apparently is not really the best place. Well, yeah, it's in Florida, specifically called. We'll think about it. The bar is where it's at. Okay. And also, to all of our Florida listeners, we do we love your time. Yeah, but we really do appreciate and love you. Like we really do. Yes. Yes. No, no actual hard feelings.
00:43:50
Speaker
just there's no actual hard feelings. Florida must have a lot of shit going on to where the things that make news really make news. Exactly. Yeah, if we hear about it where we are, then we're like, Oh, yeah. So this is not a great place. It's actually called even by Florida standard yet. It's called Okay.
00:44:15
Speaker
Kissimme is the location, specifically the city. Oh, I thought that was the hotel. Okay. Nope, the hotel is Friendly Village Inn. Oh, yeah. Okay. Okay. So this county, though, is known for being somewhat of kind of like a refuge for sex offenders because it's not too close to any playgrounds, or schools, or churches.
00:44:38
Speaker
etc. So offenders can kind of live there without the worries of the laws restrictions, right? I'm finding it spot. I know, I know. I haven't even gotten there yet. Anyway, I know. I'm finding it. Because we don't want our sex offenders worrying, right? Yeah, of course. No, not at all. Can someone just plop a fucking playground in the middle of that fucking place? Every town, every town has a playground.
00:45:06
Speaker
Yes. I love that idea. I would be so fucking petty. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Make them make it the playground, like put a playground in the motel area. Make them make it. No, they put creepy cameras. We don't trust them. No, I say make the motel make the motel the playground into the playground. I see the thing. Yes. Just demolish it. So it's a parkour playground.
00:45:35
Speaker
Oh my gosh, that'd be great. Sorry. No, that was a joke. That'd be so bad. That'd be so bad. I'm standing up thinking like for me, like, Oh, that sounds really fun. That sounds like so much fun. Yeah, no, they're little two year olds just like
00:45:49
Speaker
right off the edge. Just fall. Anyway, anyway. Now this friendly village Inn is actually also a haven for these shits. There's roughly 20 sex offenders listed this Inn as their home address according to the Inquisitor.
00:46:13
Speaker
There has been roughly 430 sex offenders living in the Kissimmee area at this time in 2018. I'm speechless because 430 sex offenders in one location. What the fuck? Okay, anyway. I'm finding it.
00:46:34
Speaker
Mm hmm. So was Jorge. And that's who we're gonna be meeting. We're gonna meet this man named Jorge. Okay, well, I'm gonna love Jorge. I'm gonna hate Jorge. So okay, you're gonna love Jorge, I think. Okay. So he gets this idea. He knows the area he knows the place the location of these
00:46:54
Speaker
gross human beings that don't know how to control their stuff. I was gonna say shit and I went with stuff so it came out stuff. So I'm sure a lot of the surrounding areas of this place probably also knew what Kissimmee was because I'm sure you can't be around 430 freaking sex offenders and not be aware of it. I think, as I say recently, looking up my own area and regretting it tremendously.
00:47:23
Speaker
Yeah, I'm sorry I did that. Yeah, I looked up my area and if my area had some I was like, Oh, hey, buddy. So got some bad news. Yeah.
00:47:37
Speaker
Now, we're going to meet this Jorge Porto Sierra. Okay, this man knew this was a problem. And he felt that he knew how he was going to handle this problem. Okay. He was like, you know, the government or the town that I don't know who was like blaming, to be honest, but someone was not taking care of the issue. So he's going to do something about it. Do you have any guesses what he's going to do about this? No, I don't know. Is he just gonna like
00:48:06
Speaker
I know what I would do. I don't well, I don't know. Well, he decided that he's going to go to this inn. Okay, there's that we went to the location. Okay, you just started shooting up the place matters. That would be very 2024 of it all. Yeah, 2023 even.
00:48:28
Speaker
So taking matters into his own hands, he decided that he is going to quote, barbecue all of the child molesters on fire and kill them, end quote. And he would have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for the pesky police. So. What? Yeah. I'm sorry, what?
00:48:57
Speaker
What? I love that that is his, he wasn't like, okay, I'm going to, again, guns. Yes, like, they're bad. They're, you know, people, a lot of people should not have guns. I get it. But it wasn't even like, oh, I'm gonna just do a rampage. I'm not gonna, I'm going to barbecue them.
00:49:20
Speaker
What? Perfect you, yeah. Yeah. Did you plan on eating them? I'm concerned, sir. Yeah! What? According to the police report, a man was standing outside of his room when Jorge jumped out of his car and began screaming at him.
00:49:38
Speaker
This terrified man runs back into his room, which results in Mr. Jorge here. He goes to break one of the windows of the motel, because that's what you do, right? Yeah, of course. Yeah, exactly. So this is where Jorge starts to pour gasoline all over the premise, into the window, because he's going to barbecue these guys, right?
00:50:01
Speaker
How much gasoline do you have? And he's doing all of this. You know, I don't know. I don't think you need much. I mean, true. Rest in pieces. So he's pouring gasoline all over the place, all right? And all of this while having a cigarette in his hand. Okay. What in the Zoolander is going on right now? You don't do this. Okay, anyway. Those of you who get it will get it.
00:50:31
Speaker
I mean, you say we don't do this. Okay, no, with a cigarette in your hand, like you wait to like, wait to introduce the fire. Oh, yes. Yes. I thought you meant a whole thing. I was like, well,
00:50:52
Speaker
We're finding it. I'm finding it. The man that ran back in that was, you know, under attack. Screaming. So to speak. Yeah. Losing his shit. Not the one that was screaming, but the one that was being screamed at. Oh, yes. Sorry. Yes. That's what I meant. Yeah. He got into his room. He told his roommate and they jumped out another window that was in the back. So they dipped out like fuck right off the get go. Now don't worry. The rampage is not over though.
00:51:21
Speaker
We're not, we're not over. We're still going. So, excuse me. Jorge then reported, sorry, let me try that again. Jorge has then reported to have attacked two more individuals that were inside their car in the parking lot of the hotel or motel. It's just a little like family from Iowa. So like it's not even like. What do you think he did do this attack?
00:51:49
Speaker
He rammed his Black Ford Focus into their car, and then he decided that he's going to pour gasoline into that open window of the car, right? I'm having PTSD from my car accident. I'm like, no! No gasoline. So police arrived on the scene at this point, thankfully. Thank God. And Jorge surrendered actually pretty quickly. He even waved his Miranda rights.
00:52:17
Speaker
He said, you know, it's fine. You don't have to Mirandize me. I'll still tell you what I'm doing. Okay. Which. Okay. Okay. He was arrested. And later it was confirmed that this 50 year old man did indeed try to barbecue for people.
Critique of Justice System
00:52:34
Speaker
Two of them were in fact registered sex offenders though. So.
00:52:38
Speaker
When there's so many, you're bound to have one. Just kind of throw a rock and knock one of them out. At least he's in the right group of people. No, I'm just kidding. Murder is bad. Don't kill people. I mean, child my last years though.
00:52:58
Speaker
Okay, maybe I'm sorry. No, we're not condoning murder. It's a different can of worms that we're not able to pay for right now. Yes. Yes. Child molesters. The thing is, is that he was just doing what all of us want to do, but our conscience says to not do it. Yes. But also don't kill people. Murder is wrong. Don't do it. Let the law take care of it.
00:53:26
Speaker
Oh, sorry. When Porto Sierra, though, confessed his plan to the authorities, he says, quote, they raped kids. They are child molesters that all live here and deserve to die. End quote. I mean, he has a valid argument.
00:53:48
Speaker
I mean, okay, but again, we can't. Okay, here, here's my take on it. Okay, so this podcast is for us to talk about, you know, maybe not some good things. And also, this is just our opinions. So I know crazy, right? This is just our opinions. And also you have to realize there are things in our life that have definitely influenced these opinions. Yes, yes. I,
00:54:16
Speaker
Yes. And we have both had shit happen in our lives. And so personally, my opinion, you guys can come for me. I don't care. You're like, I will die on this hill. I will die on this hill because
00:54:36
Speaker
especially pedophiles, if you are willing to take, not take the life, cause you know, it doesn't always mean they took the life of the person, but you in a way, fuck that cat, that kid's life up for the rest of their lives. And sometimes like you, because of your decisions, yes, like, yeah, because of their decisions, this child now has to deal with the repercussions
00:55:03
Speaker
of your decisions. Of your decisions. And children are a part of the population in our society that we are supposed to protect. We're not supposed to do harm to them. So the fact that you took the most vulnerable population and took advantage of them and didn't protect them, but instead harmed them. Yes. Because you couldn't keep your shit in your pants.
00:55:28
Speaker
that's that's that exactly it's one thing to harm them physically but yeah you yeah so it's been it's been tried for how many years to rehabilitate to try and fix these things and it's also been proven for many many years that it doesn't work yes and so so it's not the fact that I say oh yes kill all the pedophiles or whatever
00:55:55
Speaker
But, and again, I will die on this hill. Our justice system needs a better way of controlling said pedophiles. So again, and that is a, that is, and again, murder is wrong. I am not, I am not saying that that's not a thing, but
00:56:18
Speaker
The amount of lack of protection in our society may be physical or sexual. And when I say physical, I think we all know what I'm referencing when I say physical and child protection. Yes. So I will die on that hill. You all can hate me if you want to. I really don't care. This is one thing that I will die on this hill for.
00:56:43
Speaker
Just a friendly reminder that if you do come for us, you're truly trying to defend a pedophile. Yes, exactly. And think about that for a second. But again, murder is wrong. I do understand that murder is completely wrong. But I think the justice system needs to be fixed, not by murder. For example, if
00:57:10
Speaker
a man is put in for this is just a hypothetical not saying all pedophiles are men don't come yeah, but if a man, let's say was having problems with his everything and wanted children and sexually assaulted children and then they go to jail, but then they get released because
00:57:33
Speaker
they had good behavior because there's not children just wandering around in prison. It's a bunch of other men. So I don't understand how can you gauge that they're better because they know what to tell you. When exactly, exactly when you're asking questions, because like you said, we have had, we both have had traumatic experiences with that. And there is not enough stuff put in place. There's no checks and balances.
00:58:02
Speaker
There are checks and balances as in you have to register, but you don't go to jail for not registering. You get something put on your record, but you don't get put back in jail. It's like the one we just talked about, Lawrence Singleton, where he got released because he didn't kill the person. That doesn't make sense.
00:58:31
Speaker
It's you get you ruined this person's life. Yes, you didn't kill them, but you can try to kill them. And because they're stronger than you and was able to survive your bullshit, or you're not getting punished as much or even just let's say they didn't even try to kill this kid because I'm talking about pedophiles. They didn't even try to kill this kid. They just fucked them up for life. And because it wasn't murder, they're giving these pedophiles and
00:59:01
Speaker
um, sexual predators, time to they're like, Oh, well, they changed. What about these kids that now need therapy or these adults that now need therapy? You're really just say hypothetically,
00:59:17
Speaker
You're one of the kids. Let's say everybody put yourself in the situation of being one of those kids where you have grown up now with an established lack of trust with someone who is supposed to protect you. So now you're not going to be able to develop relationships like you should because of obvious reasons. And all of these things that you're now going to have to learn to get through and to manage. And now the person that puts you through this trauma and puts you through all of this
00:59:46
Speaker
can possibly be right back out on the streets to do it again. Would that not send you into a panic? Would you not feel like you're living in a state of fear? Because at least when they were in prison, they were in one location and they're not coming out. But now they're out free.
01:00:02
Speaker
Now what? Well, the thing is, is that like, I will be completely brutally honest, like, I will share a big part of my life is that when I was a kid, I got sexually assaulted by a man, like, it wasn't an 18 year old, it was a man.
01:00:18
Speaker
And he never went to jail. He never even, it wasn't even an option because I was young enough that I thought that I was in the wrong. Well, I was old enough, but yet young enough. You know what I mean? I was 14, 15 years old. With an established authority and you trusted them. Yes. And it's that thing of you realize, you don't realize how much it hurts.
01:00:47
Speaker
until they pop up on your Facebook one day saying people you might know. And you look at their profile and you realize that they are just having the time of their of their life and they don't realize that they hurt you. And it's the same thing of they you have to live with that every single day. Yep. And you have to learn this trauma. Uh huh.
01:01:11
Speaker
every day. Yes. And it sucks. So being a kid and having that happen to you
01:01:19
Speaker
It really sucks that there is not more put in place for the safety of the children, or even just the well-being of the children. Of like, okay, yeah, so you can't be around schools or parks or whatever. But there was another case that I was reading, I think I already brought this up, the one in Canada, where they
01:01:44
Speaker
in Canada, their records get expunged after a year of not doing anything to a kid or whatever. And this guy was allowed to live right next door to a 16 month old and a woman, even though before his record got expunged, he was
01:02:03
Speaker
not allowed to be around women, children, parks, anything like that. And they actually set up an emergency thing saying this man is going to be let out. This is where he's going to be living. But nothing happened for a year and his whole record was expunged. And then he ended up killing the mom and the kid because they didn't know that there was a pedophile living right next door.
01:02:27
Speaker
And so that's what I mean by there is not enough, and then this is Canada. So I will say the US is a little bit better about that. Of the US, the US will, like I said, I'm allowed to look up who is next to me, who is registered sex offenders and stuff like that. But if they don't register, again, they don't get put back in jail. They just get a little tick on their record saying they did not
01:02:52
Speaker
I believe. Yeah, and they did not they did not register where they live now. That doesn't mean anything. And so yeah, it's like you could be living right next door to a pedophile. And if they don't register their address, you would never know. Yeah, we're gonna make our pedophile scared again, man. Exactly. Yeah, that's what it should be make pedophile scared again.
01:03:20
Speaker
Yeah, the victim shouldn't be scared. The pedophile should be. Yes, exactly. So thank you for coming to our Ted Talk.
Episode Conclusion and Listener Engagement
01:03:28
Speaker
Yeah, this turned into a completely different thing that's going to have to be edited because, oh! Yeah. I have very hard feelings about this story. Very hard feelings. Now, police, of course, asked him why he didn't go through with his plan. Why didn't you set everything ablaze? What happened?
01:03:50
Speaker
And he literally said it was the fact that they got there too soon. He was on the way to do it. They just arrived to shoot him. So he was placed in the Osceola County Jail without bond and eventually charged with four counts of attempted murder. Dang. Dang. Dang.
01:04:18
Speaker
I mean, I just love that. Sorry, I'm not gonna lie. I love that. You guys got there too soon. You guys got there too soon. Damn it. I wonder what the cops felt when they like actually okay, so I watched a lot of interrogation videos, because like I said, I think I said that in another episode to where I watch interrogation videos for fun. So yeah, anyway, so but there are times where the you know, the police will have interviews afterwards. And they're like, man,
01:04:48
Speaker
it was really hard because like this whole thing where they're bound by a law, and you're not. They're like, we wish we didn't get there soon enough or you know, we wish we didn't get there or man, that really, you know, I, I applaud you. But also, it's bad. It's like when your kid does something and you're trying not to laugh. Like, like, ooh, that was bad. But that was hilarious.
01:05:17
Speaker
Exactly. I feel like that's probably what they felt. Honestly. Honestly, and that is the story of Jorge Porto Sierra, the man. That was quick. The Florida man. The Florida man. Who tried to take the problem of the child molesters out with his own hands, right? And I want to also add the fact that when I was reading this story and scrolling down
01:05:42
Speaker
There was a related but unrelated story at the very bottom, right, of this article. And this is on all things interesting that I was reading this article. And don't worry, as always, Link will be in the bio. But there was a link afterward that said, 11-year-old pregnant Florida girl who was forced to marry her rapist.
01:06:10
Speaker
which I'm going to probably have to record. Yeah. I'm going to have to go over that story at another time for sure. But the fact that this was the story. Just every word in that headline, every word in that headline made me what? Not happy. Yeah. It just got worse. Mm hmm. Yes. 11 year old. Mm hmm.
01:06:40
Speaker
was forced to marry her rapist. So we're going to go over this. And what the fuck is going on, Florida? How many pedophiles do you got going on there? How many pregnant 11-year-olds? Sorry. I am fucking heated right now. I am fucking heated right now.
01:07:03
Speaker
Okay, so that means SBC about to be out. Oh god. We will see you next week guys. I gotta go hug my dog. She's gonna punch a hole in the wall. I'm gonna punch a hole in a pedo. That too. Yeah, that too. Okay guys. SBC out. SBC out.
01:07:31
Speaker
All right. Thank you so much for listening. And remember to follow us on Instagram at Scared But Curious Pod. And we have a Twitter. Follow us at Scared Curious on Twitter X and join our Scared But Curious Facebook group. And if you're listening on Spotify, please rate us. Five stars, please. And if there are any stories or cases you would love to hear us cover or anything you don't hear enough about, please don't hesitate. Email us at Scared But Curious Pod at gmail.com.