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Halloween 2 Electric Boogaloo
11 Plays2 months ago
Just when you thought it was safe to take down the 12ft Skeleton, it’s time for Halloween Part 2 here at the Nightmare Cottage!
After a lighthearted follow-up lecture on the holiday’s history, the ladies lean back into the lurid for a look at some loathsome Halloween happenings. Tikes tricked into tasting treacherous treats, sex workers savaged for sampling sweets… Sheesh. It’s enough to make even a ghost writer buried beneath the floorboards of some f&@%ed up cottage weep. But hey – you seem like you’re into that kinda stuff, so you’ll probably love it.
Happy Halloween one and all!
Enter the nightmare for transcript and full show notes...if you dare
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Transcript
Introduction to Nightmare Cottage
00:00:29
Speaker
Welcome to Nim and Nyleen's Nightmare Cottage, where we discuss dark locations, sinister media, and other tales of the macabre. I'm Nim. And I'm Nyleen. Let the nightmare begin.
00:00:48
Speaker
The Nightmare Cottage. Another episode in this Nightmare Cottage.
Eileen's Baking and Nightmare Kitty
00:00:54
Speaker
Eileen's just grumpy because we're still moving. And moving is hard. But the cottage is starting to come around. Did some baking. Had the Nightmare Kitty being a nightmare. He was being an absolute nightmare. But he was so cute while doing it. He's super cute.
Origins of Halloween and Trick-or-Treating
00:01:10
Speaker
So what? So what are we talking about today? I'm not done talking about Halloween.
00:01:17
Speaker
Okay. We talked about the kind of origins of Samhain and Halloween last time. So I'm gonna do more of the history bit, but I'm gonna zoom in on the trick-or-treating aspect. aspect before I start because it's one of my favorite things ever. One of my favorite things that I watch every year at Halloween is Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. It is so quintessentially Halloween as far as the trick-or-treating and the pumpkins and the Halloween party. Everything about it makes me feel Halloween, like it it instantly puts me in the right vibe for Halloween. And my favorite quote from it is, you've heard of the fury of a woman's scorn, haven't you?
00:01:53
Speaker
Well, that's nothing compared to the theory of a woman who has been cheated out of trick-or-treats. Lucy, I'm guessing. Litus. Oh. Because Sally stayed with him to wait for the Great Pumpkin, but the Great Pumpkin didn't show up, and so she missed trick-or-treating, and she missed the Halloween party, and she's, uh, I've been robbed! I I know you gave it to me, and I think the first year, I mean, Vash was just born, and then this right now this is the first time, but I need to watch it. Sounds really good.
00:02:23
Speaker
It has that comfy, cozy, nostalgia feeling. Exactly. It is super short. It's like 20 minutes long. So it's not, you know, an intensive thing. But if you're going to show the kiddo for the first time this year, I wouldn't mind being there if it's appropriate. But if not, and you just find a good window, just let me know what he thinks. Definitely.
Trunk-or-Treat Concerns
00:02:42
Speaker
I will say, I'm sorry, I'm a little bit distracted. I'm listening outside and you can hear the cicadas outside and it's giving that extra spooky vibe which i kind of like with halloween you kind of feel the cold through the sound you know what i mean yeah
00:03:02
Speaker
Kind of in reference to that, trick-or-treating to me is like the most Halloween-iest of Halloween things. It just kind of encapsulates the vibe more than anything else for me, you know that. and I'm kind of sad because trunk-or-treating is really a thing. I see the value in it.
00:03:19
Speaker
I've never gone, honestly, I don't see the volume in it. And I know this may be a very unpopular opinion, but I'm just gonna say it. I don't think that it's a good idea to teach children that they should walk up to strangers' cars and pull candy out of the truck. I don't think that that's a good idea. I understand, like, you can explain it to them and be like, oh, well, we're wearing costumes and it's a thing and it's an event. But like, I don't know. I think it sets like a really bad precedent.
00:03:49
Speaker
To them, depending on the age, I feel like having to kind of push apart. Well, in this case, it's okay. In this case, it's not. I don't know. With my two-year-old, I don't feel like I can properly explain that to him. Compartmentalizing doesn't really seem like his bag. Exactly. But I mean, like, he's a really smart kid. Like, he can already count to, like, 20 or 30. He says it's full ABCs. He sings and says a bunch of great sentences. But, like, even trying to explain to him, like, the whole car situation of, you know, daddy's car has a booboo. He's stuck on that.
00:04:18
Speaker
That's, that's as far as he will get. And I'm like, well, daddy's car did have a booboo. Daddy's car went bye-bye. And he's like, it went bye-bye. It has booboo. And we're like, yes. And he goes, where daddy's car? And we're like, this is daddy's car. This is daddy's new car. Oh, we got a new car today. No, we didn't get a new car today. We've had new car, but yes. Well, daddy's car has booboo and it's like, okay, we're starting over. All right. And you keep going, right? Like you keep the pattern going and he's getting better about it, which,
00:04:48
Speaker
I'm just saying, those concepts, you can't really spread them that far for them.
Nyleen's Catholic Halloween Memories
00:04:53
Speaker
What age limit should we do check a Trunk or Treat? You know, i I really legit never thought about it that way. My point of view is that while I understand that people want a contained area rather than going to random people's houses, that would be, I guess, the counter argument to that one. But because of Trunk or Treat, I get fewer Trunk or Treaters.
00:05:12
Speaker
Yeah, because they all just go to the church or something. Right. But, you know, it's probably best, you know, I go all out on my treat bags. If I have too many more trick-or-treaters, I wouldn't be able to afford what I do, but... I just want to show with more fall festivals. I think that's my big thing. We don't have enough fall festivals in this area. Yeah, I think that might just be because of where we're at. I think smaller towns might... Well, we might need to have some of these smaller towns because I need... I i want that vibe, you know? I love the festivals and...
00:05:42
Speaker
But the ones here, it's a million people and you're just like, okay. Right. Well, we just need to drive further away. Even if it's not quite what it used to be, trick-or-treating is just so close to my heart. I love it so much. I haven't gotten to take a kiddo during that. And so I haven't done trick-or-treating since I was a kid, but being the house that makes the kids happy is definitely just one of my favorite things.
History of Trick-or-Treating
00:06:06
Speaker
So on that note, I'm gonna just use some trick-or-treat history directly at your face. Well,
00:06:12
Speaker
Nylene's face, I guess. Everybody else's ears. Let's go. Okay, so on the previous Halloween episode, we talked about the origins of Halloween, and we kind of brushed on the origins of trick-or-treating. I'm going to touch on that bit again and then go a little bit further than where I went before. But before I do, do you have a favorite past Halloween costume or trick-or-treat memory? Oh, gosh. So I grew up very, very Catholic. ah Yeah, so and my parents are first generation. It was a lot. I mean, they came over when they were young, but still, we weren't really allowed to go trick or treating or get dressed up because it was like, evil. Yeah, they felt like you were celebrating evil. Even at my school, because I went to a Catholic school, we used to do
00:06:57
Speaker
actually i think that they just did pumpkins and stuff maybe we had a little like halloween concert but yeah like dressing up wasn't a big thing i think we went once when i was really little and i remember going to so there was this mall that's now closed down and i don't remember what i was dressed up you know when we were younger like really really young and you dress as a there's a video of me dressed as a rabbit and then i have the full face paint and i'm crying my eyes out And I have a carrot in my hand and I was chewing on the carrot. I love carrots to this day. I love, I just loved carrots all my life. But yeah, full white face with the little pink nose, just tears streaming down my face screaming. And then, you know, when I was older, I want to say maybe about five or six when we moved to the area, it was the small and you just went from like department store to department store and got candy.
00:07:53
Speaker
you know, trunk or treat for that time. I guess you can say. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, it was cool, but I don't remember being able to go after that. Really. My dad was just like, why? What's the point? You're just going to get a bunch of candy and they're going to get cavities. And you know, you can't dress up because then you're celebrating evil or something. I don't know if they really believed it or they were just like, listen, this is a dumb holiday. We're not doing this. I don't know. But it was really sad. And so when I got older, I think I was like maybe 15 or 16 the first time I did go with a friend.
00:08:23
Speaker
And me and her just made like little costumes and it wasn't even like, you know, dressing up as anything. It was just, you know, like wear like a tutu, a long one with like purple and orange and black and just, you know, do all your makeup up in your hair and just happen. And it, I mean, that was a lot of fun and it was really my first time getting to go trick or treating that I fully remembered, but which kind of sucked, right? Because there's a lot of that like, you're too old to go trick or treating. Yes.
00:08:51
Speaker
And it's okay, well, I wasn't a allowed to when I was younger and this is my first time and I'm too old, so it sucked. That story right there is, you haven't actually said that to me before, so I didn't know.
00:09:02
Speaker
And now I'm sad for you. Um, but that, but that kind of story is exactly why it does not matter who comes to my house trick or treating on Halloween. They all get a treat back. Like like I love because like the first year that I had bash, he was a preemie. He had just come home. Yes. He was maybe like two or three weeks old so we couldn't go out. Yeah. But I really wanted to still celebrate. And so I, you know, it was giving out candy and It was funny, all the parents in the neighborhood that were coming around with little babies in their stroller, like they obviously can't have candy. They're still on milk, right? Sure, but the parents can't. Exactly. And the parents were still dressed up and some of them even put a lot of detail into the strollers. The candy is not for that kid, but it's still like such a great fun experience, right? The whole thing is about memories and
00:09:52
Speaker
just creating that kind of magic I
Soul Cake Recipe and Halloween Treats
00:09:54
Speaker
guess. And that's why I kind of do like the houses that give you something other than candy so like I love like the little bags you do even if it's like not stuff I would normally play with. Okay but like for one night I i still have those stamps like that was so fun the stamps and the stickers and the fun little pencil. I think one year you had one of the the push pencils, the ones that had the little lid, and you pushed it up. Yeah, I love that pencil. And so like it's things like that that kind of make it more fun as an adult for me too, because I don't eat a lot of candy. Sorry, I went off on a tangent. Yeah, I'm glad you did. That was great.
00:10:29
Speaker
I think the first year I remember trick-or-treating, me and my brother had these early 80s. It was a Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo. A costume? Yeah, but I say costume and like italics, I guess, because it was like a smock with either a picture of the character or the name of the character and then the plastic mask. I'm actually sending you a picture here. That's not exactly what it looked like, but it was this kind of thing.
00:10:58
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that that is what 80s costumes look like. So I'm gonna be real with you. I understand this is your childhood, but that is absolutely this is not my picture. I got this. on I understand that. But yeah, like, that's what all of the smock is cool. But that the mask is that was that real? Like,
00:11:16
Speaker
It's just a plastic, it's one of those cheapy plastic masks with the little elastic that goes around it. Maybe it's because it's blurry for me that it looks extra scary, but like... Yeah, when you enlarge that, it definitely looks much more nightish. I loved Gumby. I know that you're talking about Scooby Doo and Scrabby, but I loved Gumby as a kid. Anyways, we um tell me more about your brother and you and your Scooby Doo costumes. So that's the earliest one I remember. and I couldn't have been more than three. Aww.
00:11:43
Speaker
and then one of my favorite pictures that I've seen and I have a memory of this the scrappy do costume that I had but I don't super remember I kind of remember the hula skirt and it's what I was a hula girl but it was cold. So I had sweatpants on with a hula skirt over top and then like a big white cable sweater on top. And I was maybe four at that point. The picture of it, I was so happy because I had a hula skirt on. I don't have that. I just need to find these pictures. I trick or treat it until kind of late middle school, longer than I should have, but I wasn't really ready to let it go. Do you think it was
00:12:17
Speaker
not as frowned upon to keep going when you were older i feel like up until like the early 90s right well mid 90s i guess i well and that's about when it was and i want to say i was like 2000s is really when things got weird well that's just because that's when it got weird for you because you were like fair enough that's when i was old enough to understand that things just be weird sometimes yes exactly but the last time i went i went with a friend we had just kind of out of her closet in the makeup she had. We kind of did some kind of the crow thing, both of us. And that's awesome and walked door to door and had several people give us the you're too old for this shit kind of thing. And it definitely kind of broke my heart. yeah But I never lost that. I mean, that was actually probably until I started doing my yearly Halloween parties, me and Halloween kind of like lost our relationship. It was so sad.
00:13:11
Speaker
anyways now i'm gonna get into my story now that we've spent a lot of time on this but so we remember the ancient kells doing the dressing up to confuse spirits and the she or the say and then later the church had been doing like the church does and adjusting pagan holidays it's a different dance and stuff like that right well and and you know trying to skew it you know, towards the church instead of towards the pagan revelries and whatnot. And then later on it became tradition for the poor um and then later on just kids in general took a door-to-door exchanging prayers for for the dead.
00:13:44
Speaker
in exchange for soul cakes, which are kind of basically somewhere between like a shortbread and a sugar cookie with spices and dried fruit. We talked about those last time. Yeah. So I have a surprise. Told you I did some baking in the cottage earlier. I was hoping this chocolate would be half. It's not chocolate. I'm so sorry. That's okay. I mean, sugar is... It's a cross between shortbread and a sugar cookie with spices and dried fruit. Oh, yeah. I should have kind of seen that coming. Sorry.
00:14:09
Speaker
um so i made um a traditional soul cake recipe here i'm gonna you said it's shortbread it's not shortbread but it's kind of like because it's not like a super rich indulgent kind of cookie it's kind of more like a tea cookie kind of situation or a biscuit that is powdered sugar on top that is powdered sugar on top oh so it's like almost like i don't want to say a wet cookie because it's not wet but it's like the it's a moist cookie A wet cookie. Oh, the bottom, it looks nice and like in the waist. Well, and see, that's the thing. I just follow the directions and I haven't tried them yet. How is it? Oh, holy crap. So these actually taste like Christmas to me. But, you know, sorry, I probably shouldn't be talking while eating this cookie. I know it's really rude to eat on a podcast. I was going to say, you literally gave me a cookie and you want me to start talking.
00:15:01
Speaker
Yeah, so it kind of has that spice. Last time I made these, I did not do the sugar, the powdered sugar on top. I think it's pretty necessary because it's such a... Not sweet. Yeah, yes, it's not sweet. The only thing I changed from the recipe, which I will link in the show notes, was I used dried cranberries instead of raisins because I had them and I liked them better. I was going to say the dried cranberries are really good.
00:15:26
Speaker
And then I'm going to stop eating while I'm talking. I'll save the rest of mine for your story. I really hope you guys can't hear me today because these are delicious. But yeah. So tell me more about ho cakes. Soul. Soul Soul Soul cakes. Soul cakes. Aren't ho cakes like Louisiana? It's like qua like corn. I'm not familiar. I don't know if anybody can hear the nightmare kitty. He's being a nightmare.
00:15:56
Speaker
but I'm telling you, they're like pancake type things or like, I'm into corn, hold on. Telling them they're real things. I understand these are not hoecakes, they're soul cakes, but I made a mistake, but they're real. Hoecakes! Southern hoecakes. They're Johnny Jack's out of cornmeal and fried bacon grease. So yeah, like a little pancake except it's made out of cornmeal instead of flour. Yes. This is not that. No, but this is still delicious. Yay! Do completely different things.
00:16:24
Speaker
I will say also, if everybody's gonna actually try to make the recipe that I made, that again, I will be linking in the show notes. When you're creaming butter and sugar together for a cookie, you need to do it for at least 20 minutes. I'm not kidding. 20 minutes. It totally turns white. Yes, but like and then longer. like I let these mix for, I don't know, 30 minutes. and ah it just it makes It's what makes that cookie soft. Because the last time I made these, they were not soft. Does it have a lemon in it?
00:16:53
Speaker
No, there is a wee bit of orange juice. That's what I'm tasting. I taste the citrus. Yeah, I wanted to put that in there to go with the cranberry. That also was not called for the recipe, so I guess I did more. But anyways, so that's soul cakes. Sorry everybody that you don't get to taste them, but you can if you make your own. Moving
Post-WWII Trick-or-Treating Evolution
00:17:11
Speaker
on. Later in the 1800s, in England, children would dress up as demons and monsters, knock on doors, and perform tricks of some kind, singing, dancing,
00:17:19
Speaker
do a flip or whatever in exchange for a trick. He will flip. Could you imagine? Yeah, right? But they would do that in exchange for a treat. So they're performing a trick for a treat instead of give me a treat or I will trick you. Another piece of history that may have influenced modern day trick or treating was Guy Fox night or bonfire. Oh, I read something about this. You might want to let that murder him. He is losing his his mind. Good, sir. In or out, dude? Come on. He says,
00:17:47
Speaker
fine. if i must. you must. anyway murder kitty is now in the room. here in em. random notes. yeah murder kitty sounds. sorry why did i call him murder kitty? i don't know nightmare kitty. so guy fox knight is basically a remembrance of the conspiracy of the catholic church to blow up parliament and take the protestant king out of power. and they started doing that instead of a celebrating halloween right? um you're gonna do both. it was just kind of a different thing They would carry around little effigies and dance around the bonfire and bend people for pennies and say, Penny for the guy instead of trick or treat. Oh, that's funny. Yeah. So don't you can't have my soul cake. It's my soul cake. But he wants more souls. Do you see this? He needs more souls. Yeah. As soon as I take off the camera to take a picture of this ridiculous cat, he runs away.
00:18:37
Speaker
Yeah, so Guy Fawkes night is another, they've kind of tied some of the the tradition and into trick-or-treating as well. So in the 1840s and 1850s, we had the Irish potato famine that unfortunately killed over a million Irish, and then over a million also immigrated outside of Ireland, and a lot of those people came to the US. As we know, the United States is very well known for how much we obsess about Halloween these days. So It kind of started for us then. When they immigrated to the U.S., they brought their customs and traditions with them. Over time, the traditions grew and spread, but unfortunately, the mischief aspect of the holiday kind of became more of a thing. It kind of peaked in the Great Depression. They were basically taking that night and using it as a free pass to do whatever pranking and mischief you want to do. So purge light. Yeah, it was it it was totally socially acceptable. Everybody was like, you go. Just go and have some ass up.
00:19:32
Speaker
Yeah, but they but they would like take gates off of their their hinges and and do like little things that weren't really all that bad. Just like real rude. Right, yeah. Yeah, just something really inconvenient. Right, but not so much the permanent damage, but it really did start to ramp up over the over time and then the Great Depression is when it really kind of hit its peak. If you've heard of Black Tuesday, which is the way that the stock market fell for the Great Depression, right? This is was Black Halloween, yeah is what they call it. Across the entire country. It was really getting out of hand. People were flipping cars over. They were sawing down telephone poles. So it did turn into purge, like, for real. Like, real hard. not Not so much the murder bits of that. Yeah, but, like, I mean, if you're, like, bringing down a telephone pole, I mean, doesn't that... I mean... I mean, yes. Super unreasonable amounts of property damage, and this is at a time when nobody had any money, right? Yeah. Like, resources were scarce, and not everybody had extra money for repairs and things like that, so... it really kind of got out of hand. So you would think that, you know, people would be interested in, you know, trying to cancel Halloween. And I think that a lot of people tried to do that. But the smart ones provided something that would be a distraction and and give them something to do other than the mischief.
00:20:44
Speaker
So they created these community events. so yeah So instead of trying to cancel Halloween, they gave them more more options, more community-based things. This is where trick-or-treating really started to get picked up and and supported by communities and neighborhoods, costume parties that were for the entire town, hayrides, and even early haunted houses started popping up around this time too, or or popular were popularized around this time.
00:21:07
Speaker
Moving a little bit further beyond that, once we hit World War II, we're dealing with a sugar ration situation. So the candy companies weren't able to just produce a whole bunch of stuff. Yeah, sugar treating kind of mellowed out for a little bit. I wonder if they try to give something else out instead. Well,
00:21:25
Speaker
like I wonder if maybe that's where giving out like, well, I guess not because people were like really hungry. if They wouldn't be giving out like apple and food. Well, actually, that's exactly what they would do. is Fruits and nuts, you know. Yeah, that too. Yes. So that was a thing. But after World War Two was over. And, you know, everything got so prosperous and in the 50s became the 50s and suburbia was just exploding all over the place. That's really when trick-or-treating as we know it now really kind of took off because the candy companies now realize that, oh, well, now we can make individually wrapped treats that are perfect for trick-or-treating. And that's when they started to kind of overtake
00:22:02
Speaker
it just became more convenient to use the purchased individually wrapped candies instead of doing like fruit and yeah and things like that. This is also around the time that like pre-made costumes could be bought at five and dime stores and instead of just piecing together what you have around, which of course is still a very valid way to put together how many costumes. But I mean, I feel like we have more, I don't know if more tools, yeah, I feel like we have more tools now readily available to us than we did back then. So I mean, I do feel like we can pull off some really impressive stuff now. But I mean, even back at that time, it was pretty cool. We could put together I know Ace's mom i used to make all of his costumes. Like she made him a dinosaur costume once and he had like a full tail, full tail that she sewed together and made. It was so cool. That's pretty rad. I just put some pictures up for you to see of some old ass Halloween costumes. Oh my gosh. This is a horrifying. What? Are they supposed to be gnomes? That is terrifying. Something. I don't know, but they're terrifying. Oh my gosh.
00:22:59
Speaker
so Continuing on. So now I'm going to kind of shift more into modern Halloween. And I say that, I mean, the things that we've done over the last several decades, I mean, we assume that we're following Halloween traditions from hundreds of years ago, but we're also still following Halloween traditions from a decade ago. Yeah. A few years ago, yesterday. Like you said, chocolate treat. I feel like that's a pretty recent one. Right. One thing that was huge when I was growing up was checking your candy.
00:23:25
Speaker
Don't forget to check your candy. I remember standing in line with my mom somewhere. I don't know if it was like the police station or if it was a rec center or what, but we were waiting for candy to be x-rayed. I feel like we only did that a couple of years. I was like, that was a real thing. That was a real thing, yeah. I do advocate checking candy still, but it's super highly, highly unlikely that anything's going to be contaminated or stuck in there.
00:23:47
Speaker
Nobody's gonna be giving your kids drugs because nobody's gonna pay money for drugs and then give them away So you say that but you know not to get too off-topic like wasn't there that guy that said he contaminated a bunch of like children's child haulers or something they like that You're crossing about three stories with what you just said. There's the 1982 Tylenol situation where several people died because of taking Tylenol that had been, I think, injected with cyanide or arsenic. I don't remember which, but they basically were injected into the bottles and went off everywhere and people died. But that's a totally different story. And then you're also thinking about a story that I'm going to tell here in a bit. okay
00:24:25
Speaker
there are real situations that happened, but it's super, super, super rare. Yeah, things do happen. Yeah. And most of the stories you've heard are false. But we'll talk about that in a second.
00:24:37
Speaker
I do advocate for checking through candy still, but it's highly, highly unlikely that you will ever encounter any tampering.
Halloween Candy Tampering Myths
00:24:43
Speaker
It is also unlikely that anyone is going to give out free jugs to kids. I'll be linking in the show notes the Food and Drug Administration's tips for safe trick-or-treat experiences so you can find the rational things that you can do. So very few of these stories are based on any kind of fact, but I did find a few, so those are the ones I'm going to cover. In the November 2nd, 1964 edition of the New York Times, which I can also link there,
00:25:05
Speaker
It was reported that 47-year-old Helen Feel, fail, P-F-E-I-L. P-F-E-I-L? Yeah, like, so Pfizer is P-F, right? so I think it's file, maybe? Fail. File. We'll go with file. Okay.
00:25:19
Speaker
She was committed to a mental hospital for handing out poison to trick-or-treaters. So apparently she made up little packets of ant poison, steel wool, and dog biscuits to hand out. But she swore up and down that it was meant to be a prank for the older kids and said that she told them what she was giving them. Why would you, even as a prank, give them poison? That doesn't make any sense. That's a fantastic question. So Helen was a mother of two in her house. Like I understand being like, I've been salted instead of sugar. Right. Even then, that's rude, but also not poison. Are those Skittles I handed out that one year and you got mad at me? Oh my god yes because I was like what is this? They were like weren't they like oh yeah they were supposed to taste like rot or something like that. So it was like a surprise s Skittle. It was a pack of Skittles that were just like sour or whatever but there was like one in there that tasted like just like death. Why would you do that? You're a bad person. Trick or treat? Jesus.
00:26:15
Speaker
Anyways let's talk about this bitch. Which actually, as I did some more research, I kind of, I don't know. I'm not sure what I feel about it. But apparently, she had two kids. Her husband was adamant that she wasn't a violent and demented person. But they did end up committing her to a mental institution. And the judge at her trial was quoted as saying, it's hard for me to understand how any woman with sense or reason could give this to a child. Correct. Yeah.
00:26:39
Speaker
However, so in my digging, I couldn't find any more information about her or what happened to her after she was committed. So part of me wonders how much of this was a situation of, I don't know, I always kind of feel sideways when a woman gets sent to a mental institution, it makes me wonder. Because you know that they were treated extra bad. Well, also, a lot of them were committed for things they didn't do.
00:27:01
Speaker
Oh, oh, like, oh, yeah, just to like, get them away from the house, right? They would believe the man whatever. I feel like that's one of what one of the horror American horror stories was based off of two. Yeah. So while if she did this, that's totally heinous. And she deserved what she got, then I'll then that's that I just am I do wish I could have found more information. If anybody else has any more information about Helen Feel, I looked her up on Ancestry.com and there was too many and there was a few different ones in New York at that time. So I didn't have any luck. I tried. So moving on.
Ronald Clark O'Brien Case
00:27:31
Speaker
In 1974, 30-year-old Ronald Clark O'Brien, this is the one that I told you that you were switching up before. Ronald Clark O'Brien showed himself to be a complete piece of shit.
00:27:42
Speaker
in general just as a person something to know he'd been fired from like 20 jobs in 10 years he was financially fucked super in debt so he tried to patch a plot to try to study his life back like getting back on track and we'll get back to that so basically even though he never really cared about halloween never made a big deal about taking the kids trick or treating In 1974, he was super jazzed about it. He was really excited to take the kids out. It was drizzling a little bit, but he figured it's a little bit of rain, no big deal. Yeah. And then at one point, he gives a pixie stick to each kid, to each of his kids, the kids, the friend that came with them, and then handed one to a random child or like in their trick or treating later or that night or something like that. But there were five of them. When they got back home, each of his kids, his two kids were um allowed one piece of candy before bed and his son Timothy chose the pixie stick.
00:28:27
Speaker
minutes after he ate it he was convulsing in a lot of pain so they rushed him to the hospital and unfortunately he passed away pretty quickly. O'Brien acted like he was grieving. and tried to assist in the investigation, like going door-to door to door, seeing what he remembered about people handing stuff out. But soon the police discovered that he had taken out large life insurance policies on both of his kids. Oh my gosh. yeah Apparently the amount that they he took out for them equaled out to about what his debt was a little bit more. They also found out that he had been asking around at Lake's chemical supply places about cyanide and jokingly asked how much it would take to kill a person.
00:29:05
Speaker
And someone answered him like a dumb dumb. I don't know, but they did say that there was about an inch of cyanide in the end of the pixie stick in each one. They ended up getting all of them back. His son was the only one that ended up ingesting it. right So the other kids were safe. They didn't end up having that problem, but but there was like an inch of it in there and it was like two to three times as much needed to kill a full grown man.
00:29:28
Speaker
Oh no, so probably they probably didn't actually answer and he just guesstimated. Right is my assumption, yeah. But I wanted to make sure there was enough. But people were able to report that when being questioned by the cops. Yes, in fact, he was doing this thing. So he was arrested for the murder of Timothy O'Brien on November 5th, 1974. So just a few days later. That's horrible. Yes.
00:29:49
Speaker
It's thought that he assumed that the but that poisonings on Halloween happened all the time because it was such a big urban yeah legend. That it wouldn't be questioned. That it would just be assumed it was some random evil person. They would never figure it out. I just, I can't. Yeah.
00:30:03
Speaker
He was executed by lethal injection on March 31st, 1984, 10 years after. Oh my gosh. And just because it was in the research, his last meal, would you like to know? Yes, of course. Okay. I think that's, yeah. Oh good. Cause I did that for something later too. It consisted of T-bone steak, medium to well done, ah French fries and ketchup, whole kernel corn, sweet peats, lettuce and tomato salad with egg and f French dressing, iced tea, sweetener, saltines, Boston cream pie, and rolls.
00:30:31
Speaker
That is insane. I mean, I guess if it's your last one, I mean, but real quick, not to get too off topic. What would, what would be your last meal? I don't know, but I feel like queso would be involved. Yes. I wouldn't need queso man. Some type of talk. Okay. So there's this really good. I'm going to definitely queso some type of taco.
00:30:53
Speaker
Oh, the cheesiest pizza. Just, I just need cheese and pineapple because I'm i'm a horrible person. And some type of chocolate cake. I guess depending on what you're feeling that. but Yeah. I mean, I guess it depends. I mean, if we're talking to, I mean, if we can put together, you know, pizza can be added to tacos. You're right. I would probably just like what, like a little something from all of my favorite cuisines, like some kind of sushi. They have to have like a limit, right? Like of the like cost or amount that they'll give you.
00:31:22
Speaker
I heard on another podcast that there used to not be any kind of a limit and then some asshole asked for something completely ridiculous and now there is a limit, but I don't i don't know the details. I don't remember. Yeah. I wonder where they like draw the line. Well, perhaps that's in another episode. That's true. Yeah. I mean, not fun. Shit. Sorry. Nervous laughter. Oh my God.
00:31:43
Speaker
All right so so yeah there were there were more of those. That'll take a lot of time right now so I'm going to kind of wrap up with a quote from Joel Best who is a professor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Delaware about why society still obsesses over nefarious trick-or-treat practices.
Lendl Peoples Case
00:32:00
Speaker
And that quote is, we've stopped believing in ghosts and goblins but we still believe in criminals. So that's why that's such a terrifying thing and it's so hard to be scared by but things that go bump in the night the more we know about stuff and that still people are terrifying yeah so you never know what they'll do so that's trick-or-treats oddly enough my thing that i went over relates to trick-or-treating and what crazy things people will do and you never know why they'll do it so today we're going to talk about
00:32:40
Speaker
So this is the murder that was done by Lendl Peeples on Halloween in 2011. On the evening of October 31st, 2011, have you heard of Lendl? I haven't. Okay. All right. Sorry. I just needed to ask that. Sure. Okay. So you haven't heard of Lendl Peeples before?
00:33:00
Speaker
On the evening of October 31st, 2011, Chicago Fire Department Ambulance Commander Michael Nolan and his partner were the first to respond to a 911 call at the home of 55-year-old Lendl Peoples. Commander Nolan reported that he and his partner found 49-year-old Maria Adams lying on the ground face down in a pool of blood.
00:33:21
Speaker
They turned Adams over and they noticed multiple actively bleeding lacerations and blood. So it sounds like she's still alive, right? If it's still bleeding, where's this not and i'm sorry Chicago. Okay. yeah Yeah. Upon turning Adams over, they noticed multiple actively bleeding lacerations and puncture wounds to her face, cheeks, and hands.
00:33:43
Speaker
So she's pretty slashed up, right? Commander Nolan stated that Adams was unresponsive, had low blood pressure, a weak pulse, and her eye response was sluggish. So all of this indicates that she has yes, like blunt force trauma to the head. Something happened to her head.
00:33:59
Speaker
another officer at the same time responded right because the first one was the fire department the basically the the people first response right rescue team and this is just a police officer who came just to see what was going on. Sean Davidson was a police officer that reported to the scene and he said that Peoples was just on his front porch he seemed calm collected like Like there wasn't just a half-dead lady laying inside of his house and he said that He asked him what was going on and he responded with that bitch is crazy. Oh, she threw a plate at my head
00:34:37
Speaker
Common collected just that bitch is crazy. Crazy happened. So when the officer went inside the home, he also noticed a lot of blood at the scene, broken dishes. He had three knives that were sitting in the kitchen sink and EMTs at the scene. They said they treated peoples for just a minor cut over his right eye. And he said that that entry was caused by Adams throwing a plate at his head to which he responded by stabbing her multiple times.
00:35:05
Speaker
So detectives noticed that after the altercation took place, people got dressed and then he called 911. So we're going to get more into it. That's just the basics of what happened. This gets very gruesome. So just trigger warning, it's going to be real crazy here in a little bit. I mean, he already stabbed the fuck out of her in response to... You don't know what, do you?
00:35:29
Speaker
her throwing a plate is as far as what he's saying but okay all right so apparently there's more yes so marina adams was untransported by ambulance to the hospital she was examined by a trauma surgeon and they said that she was unconscious she was unable to breathe on her own and she had significant blood loss when they examined her her body they noticed that she had about 20 stab wounds and that it seemed to come from someone who had been holding a knife in each hand at the same time stabbing her So she also suffered blunt force trauma to her head and had internal bleeding under her scalp. And it was noted that her injuries seemed consistent with being stomped or slammed to the floor. She also had defensive wounds to the tops of her hands and fingers as if she put her hands up to defend herself.
00:36:13
Speaker
She ended up being pronounced deceased on November 5th, so a few days later from brain death and cerebral edema. So she struggled for a few days, right? But eventually passed. I actually found the original court case information for this for this case, which was insane. It's like 27 or 30 pages and it is quite a roller coaster from start to finish. So this is just like a condensed version of everything that happened. Is this the bit you had texted me about? About being super fascinated about what you're doing? Yes! And I felt really bad because I was so fascinated by it. Obviously someone died, but they do focus more on the trial of trying to prove that he really is guilty and that he did this on purpose. So upon questioning on November 1st, he agreed to submit a written statement. Following is his summarized statement.
00:37:00
Speaker
So, Landell Peoples stated that he was an ordained minister. Good start. He met Maria Adams, who worked as a prostitute four years earlier. And over the years, he'd given her money and gifts in exchange for sex. And she would often come and spend the night at his home. On the night of October 31st, Peoples noticed that a bag of Halloween candy was missing. And he remembered that items often went missing whenever Adams stayed the night. So he confronted her.
00:37:28
Speaker
And she denied taking the candy. People stated he then found candy in her coat pocket and confronted her again about stealing the candy. In response, he states that Adam threw a glass plate at him, which hit him in the eye. He felt blood dripping from his head. This angered him. So he walked towards her screaming. He stated that Adam's then grabbed two stick knives came at him. And then he stated that he wrestled her to the ground and forced the knives out of her hand.
00:37:57
Speaker
At this point, he's on top of Adam's. He's really angry. He wanted revenge. So he picked up the knives and started swinging at her, aiming for her eye. While swinging the knife at her head, he cut up her head, arms and hands. Peoples then stated he stopped stabbing when Adam's turned over and was no longer fighting back.
00:38:17
Speaker
He then grabbed her by the hair, slammed her head into the floor three times, and he stated that she was still moaning, but he thought she might just be faking it. So he got more angry thinking about how she might be just trying to get away with this and permanently scarred him on purpose from the plate she threw at him. He also thought that maybe like she was being ungrateful for all the kindness he'd given her over the years. Keep in mind, this is his statement. This is what he wrote and stated. how Did it say how long they had been seeing each other?
00:38:46
Speaker
in four years four years four years yeah so yeah he felt like she might have been ungrateful for his kindness over the years so he decided he was going to stomp her on the back and on her head grabbed the largest knife he could find from the kitchen noted she was laying still but still breathing so he poked her with a knife to see if she would move um when she didn't move he stated he thought about putting her outside but he was concerned that the police would trace her back to him as they had sex an hour earlier So he was also concerned that police would get quote, the wrong idea no and suspect it was rape or attempted murder or something. He waited about five to 10 minutes before he decided to get dressed, put the knives in the sink and he called 911. So that's his statement. Just right off the bat, if he read flies with the statement, right? Just a couple, just a couple. I mean, he's a pastor and then he just lost his shit over missing Halloween with a prostitute that he's been employing for God knows how long.
00:39:47
Speaker
I don't know what to do with any of that. ah sex for I apologize. You're right. Sex worker, sex positive. I apologize. I'm so sorry about that. If any of this is true, it does seem like she escalated it a bit by throwing the plates and grabbing the knives, but it should have stopped when he wrestled her to the ground and was like,
00:40:04
Speaker
Hey, you got, don't have anything to stab me with. Let's like not keep going with this. Right. Right. But instead, you know, I feel like at that point it would have been self-defense, but then he just went on and like continuously stabbed her or slammed her head into the floor. It's excessive force. any Anyway, you put it right after the attack, you notice he didn't mention anything about getting her help. He instead decides to just get dressed, call the police only so that it's not traced back to him as something more malicious. Right.
00:40:32
Speaker
I'm not sure how he thought it could have been painted as anything other than the aggressor in the situation, but at least he didn't try to like clean up the scene or crime scene or anything like that. That's that toxic masculinity that that just, you know, I'm in the right no matter how fucked up it is. I just, it's insane to me. It is. So in the testimony of the trial, he started backpedaling a little bit. Okay. He kind of made it seem more like he was trying to defend himself unless like he was maliciously attacking her out of revenge as he wrote in a statement to the police.
00:41:02
Speaker
So just a few things to note from his testimony. He stated that he was just, he was just asking her to let go of the knives and then they slipped in his blood. and ended up on the floor instead of the previous statement of wrestling her to the ground. Yes, he literally tried the, I slipped and fell and I just went into her. Yes, this is this is what he this testimony. And then he also stated that after this, he noticed the blood on his knees from being scraped up because he was just wearing boxer shorts. So that's when he started to defend himself, he says, and that he only grabbed her by the hair to move her out of the way.
00:41:38
Speaker
And they only threatened her with a knife to get her to stop fighting with him. He didn't want to hurt her or kill her, but he was forced to swing knives at her to keep her off of him and prevent her from killing him first. People stated that she was, quote, still moving and didn't look hurt when he called the police. She didn't look hurt. She was just laying in a pool of blood, but she didn't look hurt. It's fine. And that he didn't see any of her blood, just his own. And he didn't see any wounds because, quote, all of her hair and stuff.
00:42:08
Speaker
and I'm not laughing because I think this is funny. I'm laughing because I'm like the absolute absurdity of like going into this courtroom after providing a written statement and being like I slipped and fell and just stabbed her 20 times on accident and there wasn't any blood. She had all her hair in her face. What are you even talking about?
00:42:29
Speaker
When asked specifically if he stomped on her head, he mentioned that he didn't stomp on her head on purpose, that while trying to get her off of him, he might've got her some, quote, but it was just self-defense. Oh my God. When specifically asked if he stomped on her back, he said, quote, he went over her and that his left foot touched her a little bit. I don't understand what he thinks he's saving at this point. I don't either. and And I think that just lends itself to not just the ridiculousness of the crime itself, but also to the way that his, the way he thinks, you know what I mean, and his mentality. And I feel like that plays a big part in this. Again, very obviously it paints a very different picture than what he wrote in a statement. And this was noted in the trial. They asked him about the differences in his signed statement and what he said in court, to which he responded to, quote, he was falling in love with her and he didn't remember saying that he slammed her head into the ground or that he thought about hiding her body.
00:43:29
Speaker
He also denied stopping on her head after calling the police and said he just touched her with his foot to see if she needed help or if she was still trying to do something sneaky.
00:43:41
Speaker
Doing something things sneaky. Yes, that was the only reason he was kicking her at the end. He just wanted to make sure she wasn't doing anything sneaky. And that he didn't act and repent, that he was just defense after she hit him in the head. So pretty much he's at this point realized he's hosed, he's decided to try to claim self-defense to a victim that can't defend themselves anymore. During his trial, it also came up that peoples had three prior felony convictions, two that were drug related, and one for theft.
00:44:08
Speaker
So his defense tried to argue that he was diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 29 and that his felonies were for nonviolent offenses, so it shouldn't even be considered as part of this trial. Oh, yes. So in sentencing, the court stated that it weighed the evidence presenting an aggravation and mitigation. A defendant's allocation, his age, his rehabilitative potential, and nonviolent background, noting that this was, quote, a very violent offense,
00:44:36
Speaker
end quote, with many stab wounds and that the reason for death, quote, certainly was out there as one of the most senseless, ridiculous reasons. So in the end, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for first degree murder of Maria Adams over a supposedly stolen bag of candy. Happy Halloween. So we don't know what any of the real motives were or anything. I mean, that was the real motive.
00:45:03
Speaker
The real motive was that he was mad that she wouldn't admit to the fact that she took his Halloween candy and that he'd noticed other things had gone missing before. Now, like I said, he did have some felonies on his record and they did notice that there was some drug use happening for both of them at that time.
00:45:21
Speaker
So they think that it might have had something to do with it, right? He was just, they were both just very, he didn't very drugged up and got insane. i I don't understand how you go from one to the other, but it's nothing compared to the fury of a man who's been cheated out of tricks or treats. Oh, that's even even worse because she's a sex worker. I... Good. Okay.
00:45:49
Speaker
well
00:45:53
Speaker
I think we should go over nightmare fuel first. And then I have a Halloween horoscope to go. Oh, OK. All right. So I do have some nightmare fuel. OK. So it's really tough for me because I have 11 billion Halloween things I would
Spooky Book and Movie Recommendations
00:46:10
Speaker
love to recommend. It's a good number. Yeah, yeah it's an accurate number. Yeah. Yeah. I believe you. But I'm going to land on a book called All Hallows by Christopher Golden. I think it came out last year.
00:46:23
Speaker
It's set in 1984 on Halloween and it follows like several people in a neighborhood and the various festivities in town and the horror that happens within. But it's very much the Halloween vibe. It's an easy read. It's not like a hardcore literature or anything like that. It's it's a, it's horror. it's It's a fun kind of, I want to say slasher horror. It's not exactly a slasher, but it's small town festivities of Halloween and the murders that go with them.
00:46:49
Speaker
Nice. Is it a long read or a short one? Yeah, it almost sounds like 300 and something pages. its Yeah, it's like just kind of a standard like beat read kind of situation, but like Halloween style. And I'm assuming it's on Kindle. Absolutely. It is on. Yeah, it's it's mass market. So it's available on Audible, on eBooks, everywhere in stores. So you said it's slashery. So it was a little gory. I don't remember it being very gory. I read it last year right when it came out and it was freaking great. Let me just real quick with... Is it nighttime safe? Nighttime safe? Yes.
00:47:24
Speaker
I get spooked easily at night. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It's 325 pages and I don't really think it was gory. The tags on it don't lend it like, like, yeah, there's probably some level of that, but there's families and stuff involved. And I think they kind of, usually when there's kids involved, they keep it pretty mellow. Yeah, that's fair. So that's my nightmare fuel. Awesome. So my nightmare fuel, it was a movie I actually watched recently. I don't know if you've heard of it, Pearl.
00:47:52
Speaker
yes okay so i actually just watched that the other day apparently it was made in 2022 but it has like a really vintage look and feel of like an avian's film yeah it's the it's those a24 films and like all mia goth who is yes she has like a slew of movies that are all fantastic really i'm gonna have to look into that yeah no i loved her as an actress but i would say it's not spooky or scary but it it does have that american psycho feel to it yes very much and minimal gore I would say closer to the end it gets a little more gory. I wouldn't say gory if you're just seeing a lot of things but it's not like it's not like splashing around everywhere. I think there is like a lot of implied violence so it and it takes place I think in the world right I feel like it's more like right around maybe the what the 20s or 30s because it said there was about to you know some people are at war
00:48:45
Speaker
It was probably during the 40s. I don't remember. It's been a bit. Yeah, because there were silent films. So probably around the 40s or 50s. Silent films was actually more in the 20s. It might have been World War One. Oh, maybe that makes sense. I guess I'll have to watch it and see. Yeah, so if you're looking for something fun to watch this Halloween, I think it was on a wire. I think it was on Netflix. Let me double check. But yeah, it's really great. It's a good good movie. It's not too long and it's a fun one.
00:49:15
Speaker
yeah pearl so yeah it's definitely on netflix just watch it when you have time so we've been talking about a lot of really heavy stuff today yes indeed so like i said i think we're going to do a halloween horoscope so you can choose we can either do we can either do an actual halloween horoscope or we can do the halloween costume that each zodiac sign should wear I think we'll do both.
Zodiac Halloween Costumes and Horoscopes
00:49:45
Speaker
Okay. Okay. So let's see. This is really important. So I am a Capricorn. So Capricorn. earn So Capricorn should be the Joker. You've known you're a champion for underdogs and you can't help but want to dominate the world. Enter the Joker, a character who represents every misfit and their desire to take revenge on a world that has largely ignored them. You tend to be a rather controlled and stoic personality.
00:50:14
Speaker
But that doesn't mean you don't have the wild impulses. Dressing up as a joker, whether it be Joaquin Phoenix, Heath Ledger, or even Jared Leto version, will help you express so much latent frustration. I don't know. Dead tracks. You think so? Parts of it that stow it bits and... Interesting. Yeah. I'd love to see how other people see you. You said you are a school of B.O.
00:50:40
Speaker
Okay, so you're Regina George from Mean Girls. but You know that deep down you've always wanted to be the one in control of the situation. Enter Regina George, our favorite 2000s era queen bee, a character that could be none other than a Scorpio at a heart. Thanks to the recent musical Mean Girls, have you seen that? I have not. Oh my gosh, I saw it on Amazon. it was I just stumbled upon it.
00:51:05
Speaker
It was interesting. I liked it. I liked the musical aspect. I'm a sucker for musicals. Same. But it was, it was great. I wouldn't say it was as good as the original, but it it had a fun, different quality to it. worth Worth a look. Yeah. So thanks to the recent musical, Mean Girls has been a resurgence in the latest trends, bringing back millennial aesthetics that could never be forgotten. Capture the moment by dressing up as Regina George and personally victimizing everyone around you. Wow. That sounds nothing like you.
00:51:34
Speaker
It really doesn't feel like me. and Now, I think monkey definitely should dress as Regina George. On two days we wear pink. It would definitely victimize everyone around him at that point.
00:51:49
Speaker
Okay, so let's see. Because Halloween 2024 hasn't quite happened yet. It's a little upset. at trying to find me one, so hold on, read it. And this is how you get a virus. Do I get a virus? This is how you get a virus. Okay, so I'm Capricorn, we'll do Capricorn first. My Halloween horoscope for Capricorn. On Halloween, you will find that your dreams can come true. You didn't see it so clearly before, but the energy of the day is going to encourage you to work much harder so that those internal changes you are making
00:52:26
Speaker
have their result. I like that. You could celebrate Halloween with the people you feel good with, or you could organize a theme party or a fun get together. With the people that you don't feel good with. Yes, exactly. Insist on betting on your happiness because little by little, the toxic is leaving your life. Oh, that's lovely. I love that. Oh my gosh, that feels so good. Okay, let's see. Scorpio, you're a bitch. Pretty much since it happened last time. Okay, so Scorpio on October 30th,
00:52:56
Speaker
Mars enters retrograde. It's always with yours. It's like something entering something. Always entering that gate. Always, yes. So on March 30th, Mars enters retrograde and this phenomenon warns you that you have to do a little on your part to slow down and not go through life without knowing very well what you are doing. I disagree. Make sure that your actions correspond to what your heart feels and do not carry it away by outburst of impulsiveness that you will feel in the field of love. That is hilarious. it's Not a word of that sounds like me. Monkey is also like, I don't feel like he's that impulsive. No, I'm definitely not fucking impulsive. Impulsive is not a word that anybody would use to describe me. On Halloween, you should let yourself be persuaded by the idea of watching movies at home with sweets and more.
00:53:49
Speaker
That's trick-or-treat night. Of course I will be doing that. Me and Monkey will sit on the porch and we'll hand out candy and then we'll watch horror movies and it'll be great. Where you could just come over and watch cute movies with fashion. I'm off that day, so. Interesting. Noted. Yes. We might plot and plan.
00:54:16
Speaker
I believe this is the end to our Halloween series for this one. For now. I really, there was so many other topics I really could have covered. So, but I do think we'll revisit Halloween in future episodes. There's just so much there and, but we can, we'll wait a while. with We have so many cool things to cover. Yes. I have so many ideas already. I'm not excited about the next one for you because I, I think I might know what you're doing to me, but I guess we'll see what happens.
00:54:42
Speaker
Very excited for the next topic. I just feel like every week things get worse for me. Is it your nightmare? Oh my goodness.
Contact Information
00:54:51
Speaker
It is my nightmare in the Nightmare Cottage. Goodnight guys.
00:54:57
Speaker
If you have topic suggestions, movie or book recommendations, questions for the cottage, or just want to say hi, you can email us at nightmarecottage at gmail dot.com. You can find us on Instagram at nightmarecottage and on our website at nightmarecottage.com. Sleep tight, if you dare.