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The Fearsome Nuckelavee & The Ghosts of the Whaley House
10 Plays4 years ago
This week, Lauren discusses the terrifying Nuckelavee, a horse-like demon from Orcadian mythology sure to haunt your nightmares. Felicia tells the history of the spooky Whaley House in San Diego filled with angry and friendly ghosts alike.
If you have requests for future episodes or just want to hang out follow us on Instagram @sinistersisterspodcast
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Transcript
Introduction and Personal Updates
00:00:12
Speaker
Welcome to the Sinister Sisters podcast. I'm Lauren. I'm Felicia. We're best friends. And we like spooky stuff. And Lauren has a fresh head. I have a fresh Easter egged head, as Felicia calls it. Yes, the Easter egg line from Greece where the sweet old waitress looks at Frenchy and she's like,
00:00:34
Speaker
Your hair looks like an Easter egg. That was really good, Felicia. Thank you. She really wound up for that impression. Because I couldn't remember how she talked, so I just kind of went for something. It was perfect. It was absolutely perfect. But your hair looks fabulous.
00:00:51
Speaker
I literally had pink dye on my forehead that I noticed when I started this. It's okay. It just really proves that you care about your hair. Yeah. And in case you didn't know Felicia, it's not natural. It's a... Oh. No. Impossible. No way. I was born this way. Pink hair. I was just born this
Spooky Movie Reviews and Waterbed Nostalgia
00:01:09
Speaker
way. Got any recommendations for us this week? I do. I actually had a very spooky week. Thanks. I watched The Conjuring 3, which I will say was the worst Conjuring
00:01:23
Speaker
Felicia talked about it a lot last week, so I won't say too much about it, but I was sad with the direction the Conjuring series went, but I still enjoyed it. I'm never going to hate a horror movie, I feel, in the same way that I would hate a bad rom-com. I know what you mean.
00:01:45
Speaker
Yeah, but I agree. There were some parts that I felt spooked by. The little kid possession scenes were a little freaky. Oh yeah, super scary. Yeah. Yeah, and I liked like, okay, we don't have to go into it. I really liked the water bed thing. I thought that was like really random and wild. That's in the trailer, so that's not really a spoiler, but. I also, when I was watching it, I was just thinking about how horrifying water beds are, that like they existed. Oh my God, yeah. I'm like, who's, okay.
00:02:15
Speaker
if you have a waterbed still in 2020, please send us a picture on Twitter, Instagram, or something, because I'm dying to know if anybody in this world still uses a waterbed. It can't be good for your back. And it can't be sanitary, right? It can't be sanitary. I just, I have a lot of questions, but I also watched, in better terms, I watched A Quiet Place 2.
00:02:41
Speaker
which was a fantastic sequel. Have you seen it yet? Okay, no, I won't say anything then, because I don't want you to hear anything. I'll just say that I felt like... I heard it's great, that's all I've heard. Yeah. I was just going to say I felt like it still had a lot of heart, which I thought was really beautiful and important.
00:03:00
Speaker
Yeah. And there's such great actors in that. Such great actors. And I also saw it with my dad in theaters, which was really fun. Nice. Ah, that's so special. Yeah, I definitely want to go see it before it leaves theaters. That is on my list. To do of things in life to do this summer is hurry up and go see it quite a place too.
00:03:19
Speaker
Also,
TV Binges and Mythical Creatures
00:03:20
Speaker
you'll love this. We walked in and there was like a group of like 10, like 12, 13 year olds, like true preteens, boys and girls. And they were like standing in the back row. Like some, the boys were like standing up against like the seats and the girls were sitting. The girls, someone's gonna end up on someone's lap holding hands and it's gonna be the talk of the town.
00:03:44
Speaker
I truly, I could not believe it. I walked in and I was like, this? And then I like, I have to admit, I had a moment where both me and my dad were like, oh, no, is this going to be like a really annoying way to watch this movie? Yeah. Silent. The best movie watchers I have ever been in a movie theater with. That is shocking, because when you put like young boys and girls together to watch a scary movie, usually there's a lot of like screaming, hold me laughing, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:04:13
Speaker
I was so ready. I was like, oh my God, this is going to be so annoying. And they were silent, which to be fair in a quiet place, like either one, it would be pretty rude. But you have to be quiet because they're quiet. You kind of have to be quiet. But they were so well behaved. I was so shook to my core. I was like, good for you guys. Good for you guys. I don't know you. I don't know if you're listening. You're probably not. But good job. Exactly. Exactly. Well, what did you watch this week?
00:04:40
Speaker
I just started and finished, actually kind of two things. Finished? Oh yeah. I stayed up very late last night watching it. It was wild. But before I even talk about that, first I watched season two of Dirty John, which I loved the first season. Did you ever listen to that podcast, Dirty John?
00:05:03
Speaker
No, that's why I was just like, do I know what Dirty John is? It was a very big podcast. It's like a true crime kind of situation about this guy that basically swindles women out of their money. And it's just like a liar and he's just dirty, just dirty John. It's a wild story. And so they made a show about it that was actually quite good.
00:05:22
Speaker
And then now they have a second season that's a different story of a different married couple where there is some... It's like a lot about gaslighting and a lot about Christian Bale's in it. He's playing the husband. And it is just so wild. Just questionable morals all around. It's very exciting.
00:05:45
Speaker
So that was really good. And then the thing that I'm most excited about that I've texted learned about multiple times now is that Netflix show, Ginny and Georgia, which is someone described it to me as Desperate Housewives meets Gilmore Girls. So I'm like thrilled. Like those are like two of my favorite shows of all time. Very excited. So I started watching it and it is so good. Like it has it's so soapy where it's just like
00:06:15
Speaker
things just get crazier and crazier, like you can't believe it. But also like all the relationships, everything feels really genuine, even though it's like basically a soap opera.
00:06:26
Speaker
But it's so good. I love the mom. I love the daughter. The mom and the daughter have various love interests throughout this one season. And they're all just fabulous. It's just... It's so good. It sounds like exactly what you're talking about. I mean, I've really been craving kind of like what we talked about with Jane the Virgin. I've been craving that soap opera thing and I'm going to check it out. Well, here it is, Jenny and Georgia. It's great.
00:06:53
Speaker
It's about a mother who would do anything for her children and sometimes that's crime.
00:07:00
Speaker
Sometimes crime pays. I don't know why when you said, like, I mean, obviously my mother is amazing. But when you said a mother who would do anything for her children, I immediately pictured your mom. And then when you said crime, I was like, maybe. Who would commit crime is for them. That's very sweet though. Yeah. But it's really good. I love it. I watched the whole first season. It was very, it was like number one on Netflix like a while ago. And then I just finally watched it and it's, it deserves it. It deserves to be number one.
00:07:30
Speaker
Well, I will check it out and that will be my recommendation next week. Just love it. We just keep recommending to each other the next week. They recommend it. I think that's good. I'll try to watch it quiet, please. Please, please. Well, I'm very excited about mine this week. I'm going first. I am doing the knuckle of the
00:07:54
Speaker
Spooky, spooky, spooky. You sent me just a screenshot of like the Wikipedia page and whatever that image was, I said that's horrifying. Yes. Yes, here we go. So it is basically a mythical sea creature that appears as a horse like demon when it comes on to land.
00:08:13
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Right? Feels right. It's from Orkadian mythology, which is like one, I guess the Orkney Islands are part of Scotland. What if I just switched into a Scottish accent? Scotland! I was like, why am I making that vow? I never know if making fun of British and Scottish accents is offensive or not, or Irish.
00:08:38
Speaker
Cause I'm not making fun, I'm just yelling in that accent. And also we speak the same language, isn't that closer? Yeah.
Nuklavi in Folklore and Pop Culture
00:08:45
Speaker
I have no idea. Don't tell me. The only way I know how to do a Scottish accent is Shrek, so I can only say those lines. That's true. Like Donke. Donke! What is that?
00:08:57
Speaker
Okay, I can't do it well enough to continue. So horses are a pretty vital role in Scottish folklore, which I thought was cool. But this creature kind of, or the first mention of it in written history is in the late 19th century. But obviously there was a lot of folklore about it before then.
00:09:15
Speaker
It gets its weird name from the Scottish word nougle, which is any water spirit traditionally appearing in the form of a horse. And its full name roughly translates to Devil of the Sea. Perfect name. Yeah. I love that. You are. I'll get Devil of the Sea tattooed on my chest. I love it.
00:09:39
Speaker
With a mermaid. Yes, yes, of course. But it is basically a skinless centaur. So it is a human torso atop a horse, but none of it has any flesh or skin or anything. So creepy.
00:09:57
Speaker
It is a unique and solitary creature. It possesses extensive evil powers, and obviously those powers can influence events throughout the island. Islanders were so terrified of the monster that they would not speak its name without immediately saying a prayer. Well, gotta just bow down immediately. Immediately. Immediately. It feels very like Voldemort to me, right? Yes, exactly. That's what I was just thinking.
00:10:22
Speaker
And it was often found in the vicinity of a beach, but it would never come ashore if it was raining because it has a fear of fresh water, interestingly enough. So lives in the ocean cannot deal with fresh water. Oh, okay. So it's a salty water creature. Salty water creature. But the weirdest part are that there are no tales or like any like information about what it looks like when it's in the water.
00:10:50
Speaker
even though it spends most of its time there. Does it not look the same? I don't know. People think it looks different. Yeah, like a horse underwater. Yeah, I need some fish qualities, I assume. Yes. Well, we get to a little bit of fish quality. So basically, because of its fear of fresh water, the best way to escape it is to cross a river or a stream, and it's stumped. But otherwise... It says, I don't know what to do. I lost them.
00:11:19
Speaker
I'm like, why can't it run to the end of the river? I have a lot of questions. But anyway, can't do it. Can't jump across it. It's literally stumped.
00:11:26
Speaker
So the only other being known to be able to control it is the mythor of the sea, which is another mythical being of Orcadian folklore. And she is kind of like a mother of the sea kind of presence. She battles off evil sea spirits. And she, one of those things is like she confines the knuckle of the during the summer months. So he's only active in winter.
00:11:51
Speaker
So only be afraid in winter when it's not raining. Okay. That's nice and specific at least. I like that. Yeah, right? A specific monster.
00:12:02
Speaker
There is a first-hand account. There was an Islander whose name was Thomas, but it's spelled T-A-M-M-A-S, so maybe I'm pronouncing it incorrectly. Sounds fine. Thomas. He had a first-hand encounter, as I said. He had to be coaxed by this folklorist, I guess is their name.
00:12:24
Speaker
but it was Walter Trail Dennison and Walter was able to transcribe his story. So Thomas was walking along the beach to go home on a moonless night when he suddenly saw a huge unearthly thing moving towards him. He gave the description that the monster appeared to be a man's torso attached to a horse's back. The man's torso had no legs, but its arms could reach the ground from its position on top of the horse's back. So like real long monkey arms. Oh, weird.
00:12:53
Speaker
Yes. And the horse's legs have fin like flippers attached to them. So I guess maybe that's how it swims. I hope it's like a big body tiny flippers.
00:13:07
Speaker
It does the pictures kind of look like that, honestly. They're like little Nemo bad Finn. But yes, they have flippers. The torso has a large head about three feet in diameter that rolls back and forth on its neck, like not fully supported. And the monster has a human head, obviously, and then as well as the horse's head that has a huge gaping mouth
00:13:34
Speaker
that omits a smelly toxic vapor and had a single giant eye like a burning red flame. Wow. What a description. A lot going on there. And again, no skin. No skin! So he could see the black blood coursing through its yellow veins and it's just a bunch of muscle basically. Horrifying.
00:14:00
Speaker
I cannot wait to see someone's artistic version of this on the internet. Yes. Yes. They're very creepy. But Thomas remembered the legend that the Nuchlavy, because he immediately knew what it was because the legend had existed before this first-hand encounter. So he knew that the Nuchlavy couldn't tolerate fresh water. So he ran past a little strip of fresh water, splashed the water onto the creature so that it backed off for a moment.
00:14:27
Speaker
But it continued after him, making a sound as deep and loud as the sea. So the creature tried to grab him, but he narrowly managed to escape it by jumping across a small river, and the knucklevy, as I said, couldn't cross the river after him. Love. And that's how he got away.
00:14:46
Speaker
And that's how we got away. And that's the story of Thomas. But basically, this creature was, in classic folklore way, blamed for a lot of the islander's crop and nature troubles. Its breath was thought to wilt crops and make livestock sick, and also was the cause of droughts and epidemics on the land, despite it living predominantly in the sea, as you will remember.
00:15:13
Speaker
So I guess it just came out at night and breathed on their crops and then ran back into the ocean. In 1722, this is kind of like a weird part of the story. So basically, in 1722, they started burning seaweed to create kelp.
00:15:29
Speaker
to treat the soil. So they started burning seaweed to create kelp. And this smelly smoke that was released was thought to enrage the knucklavy. So it always resulted in a wild rampage of plague, cattle dying, destruction of crops, the whole thing. And specifically- It stinks in here. I'm throwing a fit. I guess so. I guess so. This is what they believed. But he or the knucklavy, I keep using he, why?
00:15:58
Speaker
That sounds like a man to me. Yeah, right? This asshole. The nuclavy was said to have infected horses during this time. So there was this deadly disease called mortiseen. And so the islanders believed that the nuclavy caused this disease that killed all their horses because he was so angry about the burning seaweed. Maybe the horses just got sick from the burning seaweed smell. I don't know. Just musing now.
00:16:27
Speaker
It's possible, it's possible. It's possible, but he was, can he? I can't believe I keep doing that. Okay, the Nuclavee also was blamed for prolonged periods of abnormally low rainfall because obviously fear of the rain.
00:16:43
Speaker
and this led to water shortages and poor harvests. So not a great monster, had no real redeeming qualities, but I think what's kind of interesting about the story is like, if you, I mean, this is through my research, I'm not just speaking like this, but the Scottish people believed that water was deadly and dangerous and something unpredictable and powerful and to be feared, but also kind of on the flip side, it's also, you know,
00:17:12
Speaker
life giving and a necessity so I think it's interesting that like if you if you look into other Scottish legends they kind of believed that the shoreline was the border between the supernatural and the natural. Ooh I love that. Which I thought was cool. I mean I don't really know how that explains like fish.
00:17:33
Speaker
Exactly and i think there is something to be said about like you know anytime i've been to the beach like the ocean is scary and is like this deep unknown place and i mean even when you look into like all the different creatures that live like very deep in the ocean.
00:17:48
Speaker
that are like otherworldly. Terrifying. It does feel like kind of supernatural, but there are several water monsters in Scottish folklore. There's Kelpies and Nijuggles maybe? Nijuggles? Look it up. But there are many of them and so I think it's just interesting that like because I think they lived in the islands and because water was always a presence, it seems like a lot of their folklore
00:18:16
Speaker
is around the ocean and around water. And the cool thing about the nuklavi is, I mean, obviously I did find this one article that at the bottom was like, the nuklavi is not real. And that's how the article ended. Okay, rude. Okay. I was like, rude journalist, but rude. Very rude.
00:18:37
Speaker
The cool thing is that it isn't a lot of like pop culture. It's in video games. Like one of the Final Fantasy video games has the nuklavi as a creature. It looks very different. It looks mostly like a particularly evil horse. There's no man on top, but it's cool that it still persists even in, you know, modern, modern day culture. And I think it's also interesting. It's one of those
00:19:01
Speaker
classic folklore stories where people didn't understand why droughts were happening, why crops were failing, and so they create these incredible monsters to blame it on. Yeah, I just think that's like, I don't know, maybe we would be in a better place if we had something to blame all of our problems on besides each other.
00:19:23
Speaker
I do each other. A mythical creature, please. Yeah, that would help me with COVID if we could just like blame a monster instead of, you know, I don't know, our president blame China. That wasn't very fair. No, that didn't go well. So I also called the water horse because that's like a movie I remembered. And I was like, I bet you that I think that movie was like a Scottish like location. And it was and that movie is about a Kelpie. Apparently.
00:19:50
Speaker
There you go. I remember it was like obviously like a horse in the water, but it looks nothing like how you describe. This is like a nice family movie. Well, maybe Kelpies are kind. I don't know. I don't know. But do you remember this movie? It's like kind of wild, actually. I remember it. I don't know that I ever saw it. Oh, it's OK. Just like this kid with a creature in his bathtub. I was thinking about Free Willy, honestly, when you were talking.
00:20:16
Speaker
Also a great film. Also a great film. We love fish movies. Thirteenth year. Thirteenth year. That one is the bomb. It's so good. We love movies about fish people. But anyway, that is the story of the Nuklavi. He's very scary and I'm giving him a he pronoun officially. Officially. I'm going to try to pronounce it. Can you say it one more time?
00:20:46
Speaker
That is a word I've never heard before today. Very cool. Well, you're learning new things every day. Yes, especially on this podcast. Are you ready to hear about A Very Haunted House? Yes. I hope we don't have any paranormal technical sound issues this time. Y'all, last week
00:21:08
Speaker
So after we had that jump scare moment, we both were just furiously texting after trying to figure out if it had picked up on the recording because it was such a loud thing in my headphones and it just was not there.
00:21:24
Speaker
You know what I figured out what I just thought about so we use we do not get any money from them This so this is not a plug but we use zen caster to do this I wonder if zen caster would even in post-production like editing fix it for us They're like that's almost too loud we're cutting it Hey, baby, I don't know. I don't know how professionals in casters Auto editing is but I'm saying it happened. It was in my ears even if I can't prove it
00:21:54
Speaker
I believe you. I really believe you. Miguel? Since we don't have official ads for the podcast yet, we'll do one for ourselves. We would love if you could subscribe to us and leave a review. Also, if you want some pics to go along with the episodes, follow us on Instagram at sinister sisters podcast. And now on to the next story.
00:22:21
Speaker
So
The Haunted Whaley House History
00:22:22
Speaker
today we're talking about the Whaley House, which is in San Diego. And I keep seeing online everywhere people calling it the most haunted house in America. And I was like, we're like, how do you measure that? But apparently, in 2005, Life magazine called it the most haunted house in America. And so they really capitalized on that ever since.
00:22:44
Speaker
as makes sense. So okay, basically this if you want to go there, it's at 2476 San Diego Avenue. And it was built by a man named Thomas Whaley. So he was a New Yorker who moved to San Diego during the gold rush. And he was a businessman like he had a lot of different businesses thrived was doing great married a lovely woman named Anna. And doesn't Anna just seem like a classic wife name? I don't know why.
00:23:12
Speaker
It is, it is. Just Anna, you know, and her apron and bonnet. What do people wear during the gold rush? Probably not that. Yeah, I think bonnet, like pilgrims. Pilgrims? I don't know. Those are two different times. Okay, so before this house was even built, the Whaley House, I'm trying to think of how to tell you the order events. Actually, I'm going to save what happened on the land for later. But let's just start with he built this house.
00:23:40
Speaker
He built this house on San Diego Avenue with bricks from his own brickyard. And it was the nicest house San Diego had ever seen. It became a social hub. There was a big room in it that ended up being the local courtroom. It had a granary, which is a place to store grains, I guess. He put a general store in it that he eventually moved to the downtown area. At one point, they were even running
00:24:09
Speaker
apparently what is called the San Diego's first commercial theater out of one of the rooms. So there was a lot going on in this house. And a big house. Big house, yeah. So the Whaley family initially lived there from 1857 to 1885. Yes, sorry, I stuttered. Yes. And so by 1858,
00:24:35
Speaker
So pretty early on, they had three children. And this is the year that his general store, Thomas' general store, it burned down by a fire. So they had kind of a big, bad thing that happened. And then they had another big, bad thing that happened, which is one of their children, baby Thomas Jr., died of scarlet fever at only 18 months old.
00:25:04
Speaker
So, yeah, they had a little rough go of it, and so they ended up moving to San Francisco just to kind of, I think, not start over, but just kind of- Get away. Yeah, get away. While they were there, they had three more children, and they finally moved back into the Whaley House in December 1868. Wow. How specific that they went back? Yeah, they went back. They were like, that's our house, I guess.
00:25:31
Speaker
I'm not exactly sure how it all worked. But so after they were back, the house had more tragic events happen. So the biggest one being that one of the daughters named Violet, she had married a man who turned out to be basically a con artist. The Whaley family was very wealthy. And so he married her basically just for her dowry. And
00:25:56
Speaker
Basically, they ended up breaking up, but because of the time period, Violet was the one that was basically shunned from their friends and everything. And so she was basically, she didn't have a husband, she kind of lost her friends, and divorce was just not really a thing back then. So she basically started suffering from severe depression because she was basically publicly humiliated.
00:26:21
Speaker
And then she ended up, this is very sad, committing suicide by shooting herself in the chest with Thomas's .32 caliber on August 18th, 1885. She was only 22, which just breaks my heart.
00:26:38
Speaker
Oh my gosh, that is so devastating. Yes, so that is horrifying. And if you want, I don't know why you would, but it's kind of beautiful, but it's just so it's also horrible. So her suicide note she left had a few lines from a poem by Thomas Hood, and it said, Bridge of Sigh, oh, sorry, the poem's called Bridge of Sighs. It said, Mad from life's history, swift to death's mystery, glad to be hurled,
00:27:06
Speaker
anywhere, anywhere out of this world. I know. Do you hear that? There is like a car going by with the loudest like it's literally shaking my building. That was crazy. I thought you were talking about the noise that my computer is making because it sounds like it's really struggling.
00:27:27
Speaker
Oh no, no, no. Literally it was like something literally just shook my whole apartment building. But if you couldn't hear it, that's great. Maybe they're like, don't talk about the wheelie house. Oh, anyways. So that's really sad.
00:27:44
Speaker
It's very sad. So she she killed herself or she shot herself in somewhere in the backyard. I think like one of there was like an outhouse out there and they heard it. They ran to get her. They brought her inside and then she died in the parlor. So I was going to say there's something romantic and awful. I'm not saying not awful, but like romantic about shooting yourself in the chest instead of the head. Right. I know like she herself in the heart broken. Yeah, horrible.
00:28:14
Speaker
And you don't, I feel like you don't hear that often. Yeah, I was just gonna say that. If you're killing yourself, I don't think you normally do that. Yeah, it's interesting.
00:28:23
Speaker
Okay, so this is now the second Whaley death that's happened in the house. And then they finally, they didn't leave the parents basically left for good. They moved somewhere downtown. They stopped living in the Whaley house. I think the public was still using it for like events and things like that. But the family was no longer living there. And now I'm going to take you back to before the house was built. Why was it so haunted in the first place?
00:28:51
Speaker
Well. On a burial ground? Maybe worse. Oh, no. So it was a gallows. So basically just a piece of land with hanging gallows on there. And Thomas not only knew this, but actually attended hangings there. Oh, no. Well, he knew what it was. I thought you were going to say, and he loved it. He loved that it had the gallows. And he witnessed one
00:29:22
Speaker
death in particular that was very disturbing. And that is Yankee Jim Robinson. Oof. Yes. So right before the house was built, Jim Robinson was convicted of attempted larceny, which I'm just like, so he didn't even actually do it, like it was attempted?
00:29:42
Speaker
And then he was hung for that, which apparently was not normal in this in San Diego. It was not really a hanging area, but that was what his punishment was. So yes. And so what's worse is something went wrong during the hanging. So what's supposed to happen is, you know, they remove the platform and then they fall and their neck breaks and they should be
00:30:08
Speaker
Killed immediately, it's supposed to be somewhat humane. Right. Though not humane at all. No. But something happened, something went wrong. There's a few different accounts of it. Some people say his toes were touching the ground, so he ended up just kind of strangling to death while like barely standing on the ground. And there's some other versions of it, but basically the consensus is that he choked to death in front of everyone instead of his neck breaking. Like his neck did not break. And so he had a slow, painful, horrifying death.
00:30:39
Speaker
Geez. Yes. It's not what you want to hear. Exactly. And so basically, as soon as the Whaley House was built, they started having haunting activity. The family, and this is, you know, before even their first, that infant child had died, they would hear these heavy boots walking around the house and just, you know, general ghostly activity. And the family was very sure that it was
00:31:07
Speaker
Yankee gym. So he's kind of an angry spirit that hunts the house. And then so the parents, you know, they had moved downtown and they did eventually both die pretty much a natural cause. It's nothing, nothing dramatic. But then after they died, Francis Whaley, one of the sons,
00:31:27
Speaker
He, let's see, I think in 1909, yes. So the house was basically vacant, especially the living quarters and kind of fell into disrepair. And in 1909, Francis Whaley decided to restore the building and turn it into a tourist attraction because it had been standing for a long time and had been this really important part of San Diego society.
00:31:49
Speaker
And so he basically had like historical events there, entertained people there, and tried to make it this big thing. And then the family moved back into the house. So over the years, Anna is one of the daughters as well, not just the mother. So Anna the daughter died there, Francis died there, and then George and Karen Whaley.
00:32:16
Speaker
all died there. So in total, that's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven deaths on that property. Oh my gosh. Thus, it's a little bit haunted. So what do people describe as a... Oh, blah, blah, blah. So this basically they've restored the whole place and they now use it basically as a museum.
00:32:42
Speaker
and of course give ghost tours and such. So the haunting-like things people experience there are the smells of perfume, which they believe to be violets, the smell of cigars that Thomas was very well known for smoking, the smell of cooking food, the classic whispers, and a woman crying, a baby crying, all that kind of stuff.
00:33:08
Speaker
And then they actually are pretty often seen as well. So I always love to hear that. And my favorite thing about
00:33:19
Speaker
this place is I, you know, I love when a place capitalizes off of it being haunted. It's just such a bad idea. And so on their website, you can actually encourage you on the ghost tours to take pictures, because they say a lot of times you can catch something in a photo. And so they have a place on their website where you can submit your photos you've taken at Whaley House that have a ghost in them. And so I started to flip through them. So they have like the best ones on the website and
00:33:49
Speaker
Little suspicious. Might be some ghosts. You see some faces. It's a lot of orbs, which of course some people could explain as like flash situations, but lots of floating orbs, things like that. And yeah, there's a lot of, I think ghost hunters went there once. Buzzfeed, Unsolved Mysteries went there. We had a lot of traction of, especially because it's, you know,
00:34:16
Speaker
call it the most haunted house. But what is good is it doesn't seem to be a malevolent. Oh my god. Malevolent? Am I saying that right? Yeah, malevolent. Malevolent.
00:34:29
Speaker
house. It doesn't seem that a lot of it is angry. It almost reminds me of the merchant house, which is one of the first things I covered in New York, where it's just because a lot of people have died there and they've made it such that it looks the same way that it did when those spirits died. And I'm always curious, well, maybe they don't know to move on because you haven't changed the furniture in 100 years.
00:34:57
Speaker
That could be. I mean, that could be. That could be their house. Right. It's more, I'm sure it's more confusing. And instead of like, you know, I feel like it would be really weird if there were like colonial people in my childhood home. It's like, it looks so different. It would be weird. It would be weird. So yeah, that's basically the story of Whaley House. It wasn't as dramatic as I thought for being called the most haunted house in America.
00:35:21
Speaker
But it had some pretty good stuff in it. Basically, it's just a site of a lot of death. So that's just... I was going to say. But if you like to go visit it... I want to look at the website. Yeah. Yes. They have a great website and lots of ghost pics. They give what they call ghost hunting tours and it's pretty fun. Do they give you tools? I want like equipment. I don't know about that. It might be BYOT.
00:35:47
Speaker
B-Y-O-G-T. What if I like made my own, my own ghost tools? I think they all make their own. That's probably true. What am I thinking? I don't know. I can't just like buy it? You probably could. I bet you could. Amazon. Amazon, like a thing where you record voices. Yeah. They had some of that on the Buzzfeed. They caught some whispering on the Buzzfeed on some mysteries. That's pretty cool. That's always freaky. Yeah.
00:36:18
Speaker
It's good stuff. I loved it. Yeah. That's the Whaley House. Amazing. What a fun episode. Two very different stories this week. Very creepy. Yeah, yeah. And I feel like I haven't done it. Have I done a ghost story in a while? What did I do last week? Who knows? It doesn't matter. What did we do last week? I can never remember. We can never remember. No, last week I think you did a creature. You did the Baga Yaga. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Baga Yaga.
00:36:45
Speaker
Yeah. I actually talked to our, my friend Rosie, who Lauren also knows, and she's actually very well versed in the Baba Yaga. That is so cool.
00:36:57
Speaker
That was very funny. I started talking about it and she was like, Oh, I know that Bobby I go. She's, she's my girl. And I was like, Oh my gosh, it was so funny. That's amazing. I actually think I was going to ask you off the podcast and maybe I'll do it on here. So people know to look out for it. I was thinking maybe we should do an Instagram story where we do like, would you rather have a story about ghosts or vampires or witches or this, you know, those like two different things. Yeah. And then we can let people vote based on that.
00:37:26
Speaker
Yeah. I love that idea. That's a great idea. Amazing. Audience interaction, if you will. Hello? Is anyone there? We love feedback. We love it. That's a great idea. We'll do that sometime this week or weekend. Yeah. Whenever. Keep an eye out. Yeah. But thank you all so much. Thanks for listening. We'll talk soon. Yes. We hope you have some sweet, sweet nightmares. Bye.