Our final Dave's Faves with the (not)Normal podcast from Randy Streu and Aaron Armstrong! On their very first episode, they discuss an urban legend of a blood oozing gravestone at Riverside Cemetary here in Appleton. Is it true? Maybe... Do Randy and Aaron make good jokes? Probably. Listen now to find out the truth.

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• twitter.com/randystreu

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• https://anchor.fm/notnormal-podcast
• Aaron Armstrong on Facebook

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David Kalsow 0:00

This episode is brought to you by envision podcasting. Find out how Randy and envision can put more than 20 years of radio and podcasting experience to work for your next podcast. Email Randy at Randy Streu veoh.com for more. That's ra nd y STR eu vo.com onto the show.

David Kalsow 0:25

I'm David Kalsow. And you're listening to APC Presents Bri showcase independent podcasters from Northeast Wisconsin. For our final week of Dave's faves, we're turning back the clock a few holidays to Halloween again, we're tuning into the not normal podcast with Randy Streu and Aaron Armstrong, both guests that we've had before the deep voice duo examine paranormal myths and legends locally and beyond. Their first episode is an Appleton legend where a gravestone at Riverside cemetery is rumored to lose blood. Is that true? We'll just have to listen. I'm pleased to present Kate blood and the birth of an urban legend from not normal.

Randy Streu 1:20

On this episode of not normal, and on the night in question, she would also become a

Aaron Armstrong 1:25

murderous I'm the reactionary personality on the John Madden. No, when

Randy Streu 1:29

they buried her they dug her grave away from the land of the main cemetery where it sits to this

Aaron Armstrong 1:34

day, but then we're gonna actually be able to monetize all those stoner Goths that are sitting there outside Kate bloods grave

Randy Streu 1:40

Yeah, I feel like maybe the burning people alive and hangings and covering people with rocks maybe had the opposite effect of what the Puritans

Aaron Armstrong 1:50

do that would be a twist

Unknown Speaker 1:52

Hello.

Unknown Speaker 1:56

Me so not afraid of ghosts paranormal is that what they're calling your kind these days?

Unknown Speaker 2:06

Well, I mean, let's face it. You're not exactly normal. Are you? I myself am strange and unusual.

Randy Streu 2:19

Exactly a normal world is envisioned by podcasting in association with the venture project presents, not normal. Eight Show. Welcome to not normal, your podcast home for the weird, the uncanny and the supernatural. We're your hosts Randy Streu.

Aaron Armstrong 2:42

And I'm AJ Armstrong.

Randy Streu 2:44

And you know, this being our inaugural episode, I thought it might be appropriate to begin with something that's in our own backyard. It's part paranormal encounter part urban legend. Oh, yeah. Today's case, I think is the perfect way to kind of give people the overview of what we're about.

Aaron Armstrong 2:59

Yeah, yeah. I'm going to need that too. I think that's right. I have no idea. We're gonna talk about it.

Randy Streu 3:05

I don't know what I'm just here. I don't know what the hell's going on. Oh,

Unknown Speaker 3:07

yeah. Do Dad I'm the reactionary personality. I'm the the John man. Touchdown over. Brett Farber, the quarterback. I think I think my impersonation of John batten was closer to being then

Aaron Armstrong 3:21

perhaps was wondering why Superman. Come off of a player.

Randy Streu 3:26

You know, that's that's a good point. Maybe John Madden has

Aaron Armstrong 3:28

been through that. Wouldn't that be a twist?

Randy Streu 3:31

But wasn't there a whole scene at the football at a football game?

Aaron Armstrong 3:33

Oh my gosh, you're right. Wow, this is all coming together. Oh, man. What did we just discover

Randy Streu 3:37

Aaron Armstrong 4:45

Can I kind of tell you a quick story about Salem Massachusetts? Sure. I was just there like four weeks ago. That place is freakin weird. There's just a bunch of randos practicing witchcraft out in like public and I thought you know if it wasn't for the the lobster rolls or the lab The rolls as they call it, right? It definitely probably would have not even made my top 500 places to visit. And I'm telling you, man, I'm, I was think I was expecting so much more. And but you know, the witchcraft and public thing was a little bit off for me. Right, right. You know, you just have people sitting there kind of like doing like weird satanic rituals and dancing in the middle of a street. Just a random street.

Randy Streu 5:23

Yeah, I feel like maybe the burning people alive and hangings and covering people with rocks maybe had the opposite effect of what the Puritans had.

Aaron Armstrong 5:37

Yeah, it's like, yeah, this is uh, I mean, you just know a number of those kids from high school. I don't know if you're one of them, you know, they dress in all black and these are checking out, you know, Gothic pants, and then they paint their skin white or maybe they just wear that white. I'm not quite sure. Right. Right. All of them. That Salem, Massachusetts, just just a whole city of them. And that that was my experience. They're pretty wild. So just just Goths in Salem, Massachusetts God's just dancing by themselves worshiping thing why not right? Why not? You know, I didn't know how that all tied together. But that you said Salem, Massachusetts. I'm like that. That's my experience. That was three weeks ago and I'm probably not going to go back for a while you know? Sure. I think I thought all

Randy Streu 6:19

sound sounds about right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, there are a lot of great places in Massachusetts and also Salem.

Aaron Armstrong 6:25

Yeah, St. Louis down there now after my after my encounter with the gods no offense to the gods out there in the paranormal community. But you know, that's kind of weird. Let's just be real here. You know, there's what's the point of this you know, wearing parachute freakin black pants and you know, gold jeans and then in the context that make your eyes completely white.

Randy Streu 6:45

So what do you think about the K blood story is just like this Riverside,

Aaron Armstrong 6:48

right here.

Randy Streu 6:49

Yeah. Riverside in Appleton, Wisconsin. Lord.

Aaron Armstrong 6:52

That's pretty wild. Yeah, you

Randy Streu 6:53

know what the craziest thing is? It's bullshit. No, whole story. No,

Aaron Armstrong 6:58

no, no, Randy. Randy. Listen, there's no false ghost stories out there. Okay.

Randy Streu 7:03

Aaron Armstrong 8:03

Yeah. I don't know if I'm believing your tip on this. No, Randy, you're gonna have to sell me on this.

Randy Streu 8:08

Aaron Armstrong 9:14

Let me just let me just get this straight. Randy, let me just get this straight. This lady just died of tuberculosis, just like everybody frickin died.

Randy Streu 9:20

Aaron Armstrong 9:24

through just a massive game of telephone. It turned into Yeah, she forgot and murdered her children and killed herself.

Randy Streu 9:30

The there is an alternate to the myth, which is that her husband killed her.

Aaron Armstrong 9:36

Yeah, that's, I mean, think about that. Tuberculosis is probably the greatest scapegoat of all time, you know, up until like the 20s. Or whenever they got that vaccine. I mean, you could have just murdered whoever suffocate them on your pillow or some crap. And then tuberculosis and everyone. Yeah, yeah, you're right.

Randy Streu 9:51

I'm not sure you could use tuberculosis to alibi out of an Axe Murder though.

Aaron Armstrong 9:55

Right? That's what I don't understand. That might be is how did this like it It's just Oh yeah, she died of tuberculosis. Well, she was coughing a lot and then there was blood and then there was just an x in her lung and all of a sudden, we get this urban myths story. I mean, that is one hell of a game of telephone.

It really is. And I I tried to trace where the urban legend actually came from how local legend kind of got it so wrong. You know this suppose it haunting and Riverside cemetery with the tombstone bleeding, with the white lady haunting the haunting the cemetery. The myth has persisted for at least 25 years, probably longer, but nobody seems to know when or how it began. This was just

some high school kids that went over there smoke weed, and then they were in the cemetery and they saw this lady's tombstone, and hey, dude, Hey, Blood. Hey, badger. Listen, I got I know this Kate blood. I know. Athan, she was probably, you know, gonna kill her kids with an axe and then hang herself. And then you're just sitting there, like, all our friends like to That's right. And they came back. They're like, Hey, was that real? Or? Nah? Now, they didn't even bother asking because they're kids. Yeah, that's true. There's a bunch of middle schoolers that were just pumped. They said like, really? Oh, man. Yeah. And they're probably got in there just sitting. That's a and I'm curious brandy. You know, as we as we discuss more of these stories on the show, how we just get stories that wrong. And people think there's no such thing as fake news, Randy. I mean, come on. Look at this. This is this is 150 years of of lore. That just compiled that just did you could go to the library at any time and just figure this out.

Here's what's fun. You can literally look at the actual tombstone, the bleeding tombstone that people go to, fueled by this legend, you could just look at the tombstone, and it literally debunks the myth by itself. Because here's Kate blood died in what year did I say she died 1874. Her husband died 40 years later. His name is on the tombstone on the same face as hers is right underneath hers died 40 years later, so clearly, not killed with an axe by Kate blood. Not only that, but he got remarried. His wife's name was on the other side of the tubes. It's second wife's name is on the other side of that tombstone.

That'd be friggin hilarious. Like, how does that work?

So So you literally look at the tube so did you like she must have murdered her husband? Wow.

I'm really curious Randy how how do you get the story? Where did this or like where did the legend come from then?

The theory that I believe the one that I tend to believe is that the story was at least fueled by both the placement of Kate's grave which is in fact away from the main body of the cemetery. It's in the cemetery but it's it's a way from from from what you would consider the main part of the cemetery. Yep. And of course her name Kate blood. I believe that this is these are the two factors that sorted it

smelled them just like normal blood isn't like he had like British crap we got I don't know. Or any blood or blued Yeah, no, French translation and American had that origin you know, is it like you know, my my family surname goes back generations to where we just murdered the crap out of people. And that's how we got this name of blood.

Hello, probably Anglo doctors. I don't know. I mean, my last name comes from comes from the German word for straw.

Imagine how many stories we could get with just that just dangerous. Just Kate blood and where the heck that name camera. Let's find that guy. Maybe that's where this all started from. That's kind of like weird, you know, paranormal, like transcendental, timeless being that just keeps possessing individuals and his blood line no pun intended.

Or maybe maybe maybe it is pun intended. Maybe that's the whole point.

That is the point. We could we just came up with a frickin mind effing frickin Kubrick film right now.

That's right. That what's interesting is so the myth, like I said, bullshit. 100% not true. But what about the hauntings? That's

Yes, that's the first question that's the first question to me is my question is what's the most recent haunting because that would be more telling I think

you know, I don't know I do know I work and I'm going to find it here. There is a video of somebody going to the K blood tombstone and and watching it bleed

Was it raining out? Was it like the gardener just forgot to get some mud off of the side of the grave or something?

I do have a theory about this and I've looked it up I have I have actually undertaken a bit of a study of bleeding tombstones of which there are several The first thing to note is most bleeding tombstone stories. The tombstone in question is bleeding because according to legend, there was some wrong done and the tombstone is bleeding so the until the the the actual killer is caught or to let people know hey there, there was an injustice here. In case case kiddies case obviously there was no injustice done. I mean she died of tuberculosis like

probably unless there was some like version of a Wu Han lab back then with some guide drafted up tuberculosis, say actually invented tuberculosis. That's son of a bitch. Imagine how many friggin people dropped because of that guy. I mean, the basically everyone that died 1800s Is this guy of all you bastard. Yeah, yeah, maybe that's every that that could that could solve every bleeding gravestone case in the entire world.

Every single TB patient because this guy, this guy. Good Lord, frickin Kyle.

Kyle Guy over in Wuhan. You know, just mess with his tuberculosis crap. He was just he was a centuries ahead of us in virology.

There's a guy who knew what he was doing. Good Lord.

Oh, good, Kyle.

That that tends to be the origin of bleeding tombstones. White ladies who haunt cemeteries. There's actually a number of those as well.

We're talking about like, white Caucasian ladies. Or we're talking about like ghosts that look white ladies dressed in white. I got you okay, like a night gown? Kind of look?

Yeah, that's it just sort in paranormal lore. In ghost hunting lore. The women are usually identified and I don't know why. But female ghosts are usually identified by the color of their dress. So for example, there's a Borley Rectory has the famous brown lady. Because her dresses Brown. There are ghosts known as the Gray Lady because their dresses are gray. Cemetery hauntings are very often done by white ladies or ladies dressed in white. It's really hard to say why. But there are a few famous cases of white ladies, ladies and white, haunting cemetery.

Is there a different symbolism based on the color of the dress? Or is it just a way of describing the ghosts? It tends

to be a way of describing the ghost. But white ladies According to Wikipedia, at least which we all know that that is the fountain of all truth. Yes.

This is without question. Yes. This suggests that we're gonna change the Wikipedia page on this lady, because we got it right.

Well, I'm pretty sure it's finally been changed. It used to be when I first got here. And I heard about that I heard about cable Ed. And I did the basic Google searching and found the

truth. Because Google is also the source of all truth.

Well, local newspapers that actually were the reporters have actually talked to historians and actually Oh, really? Yeah, like reporting. Yeah, like the reporting back in the day? Well, because it makes such a good Halloween story. You know, it was one of those Halloween features where, you know, they said, Okay, well, there's this legend, but let's talk about the reality right kind of thing. So they actually looked into the records and talked to historians and things like that. But what I was when I was looking into this I lost my train of thought

about this Kate blood.

Positive we were talking about Kate blood. Maybe we shouldn't do these in the morning.

We should do that for two cups of coffee. Yeah. Well, so we were talking about, you know, this different dress like the different dresses meaning Right, right, right. Right. Right. And then it got into, you know, kind of the history of blood and her being this white ghost. Right.

Yeah. Which, okay, so yeah, so So the Wikipedia page suggests that ladies and white are usually looking for somebody. a lost child, a lost love. That sort of thing. I didn't really look up any brown ladies or great ladies, because the story's about a white lady. Damn it.

Yeah, it seems like that's every movie. They're always in white dress. Well, isn't he like little girls or something that are wearing a little nightgown as White

won't even allow law Your Honor. Liahona which we can we can discuss on a later episode is supposedly a woman who was jilted by the father of her children. And in rage and depression she drowned her children. And now her spirit is said to haunt dressed in white looking for her lost children. She's she haunts South America.

Yeah, she just screams her ghost just has some serious, you know, buyer's remorse on that decision. Yeah.

screams and cries and yeah, so So but again, oh, Lady and white. So it's even cross cultural.

That's interesting. As you can see, we cannot unify behind the color of the ghost dress.

Yeah. Which what's weird though, is that like one of the most famous is Marie Laveau. I think I'm getting that name, right, who haunts one of the one of the largest cemeteries in New Orleans. And she was actually a voodoo priestess. The big voodoo priestess at the time. And her ghost is said to haunt that cemetery dressed in white.

So what I'm curious about is her husband died 40 years later, right? So she's, she's got to be sleeping around or something. You know, like what's she What is she looking for out there? If her husband's is right there, yeah, her

husband's there her kids are their kids are there. Well, and you know, that brings up an interesting point too, because I think people when people assume that the ghost you know if people have seen the way A lady in white, which I haven't really heard of any actual encounters, I just hear of people who know people who've heard encounters. So the lady in white of Riverside might be an urban legend itself. But if it's not if people are actually witnessing something out there and calling it a lady in white, who's to say it's even kitty Miller.

Yeah. How do you identify this as kitty Miller?

I mean, there are how many 1000s? How many hundreds or 1000s of people are buried in Riverside cemetery. It couldn't be one of them.

They're just like, gotta be Listen, I know what she looks like. It's 1874. She's got to be this one. It's clear. Nobody else we're at 74 Diamond cemetery. That's for sure. That's, that's right. And I know, fashion. And I know the fashion trends of 1874. Especially the ones wearing white. Right. Right. And that is how you can identify? Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, I see people I know quite regularly and have no idea what their name is. Right? All the time. Right. So how are you going to do this now? Going back a century and a half long, long dead? Yeah, you must be a blood why this is this is obviously capelet. How do you know this? homie? I miss you stand on the gravestone every time or something? She like in a specific location pointing at it. Hey, this is this is maybe credit do and I'm trying to haunt you guys. It's great. Yeah. But how does do this she's seen in different places, or is she seen in the same place all the time? From from

what I understand she she roams the cemetery. So it's not in the same place every time just

like, just like a male lion? You know, just marking their territory or?

Yeah, just. Yeah. So it's, it's, you know, I kind of have this theory, like, if it is Kitty Miller, you know, I mean, if she really was like this, this person who just loves her community, and took care of the people in her community, maybe she's haunting the cemetery now, as her way of keeping an eye on the community that she loved.

Yeah. Right. Back then. That was probably all of Appleton was that cemetery, right? Yeah. There's like probably a farmers market and the guy that frickin makes the blacksmith. The college there was a college. It was a college. That's right. Lawrence was established back then, right? Yep. Yeah. So they would just, you know, make blacksmith and farm corn and then they go to college, and then bury them. And then they'd bury him in the cemetery. And that was life really back in 1874. Right. Oh, there were two newspapers. Two newspapers. Wow. Yeah, the post and the crescent. Wow. That's one newspaper today. Yes. Look at that, man. They must have been like huge rivals. You think it was back like CNN and Fox back then where one would just post something polar opposite of the other. Right? And they just people get all pissed off and news. Hirsch. Kate Blad really did kill the frickin man. The other day and then I was like, no, she died of tuberculosis.

Yeah, well again her husband was the was was the editor of the post so he got they got the crescent going

now we're doing now we're under an interesting theories right and he perhaps

you got the crested going on. Okay, blood murdered her husband and the editor of the crescents or the editor of the post is like, hello. George Miller right here.

That's right. What a great strategy is that we're going to take down the post, how can we do this? We're going to craft a narrative that we're going to end up saying that her husband is dead is dead. And then we're going to take the newspaper over I'm not sure how this is business strategy, but we're gonna do it dammit. Where the ledger board.

I don't know how this is gonna play out. But we're gonna. We're gonna figure it out. Yeah,

they're just playing checkers. Not chess. You know? That's, that's right. It's like, I don't know who it is gonna go, but we're gonna just try it out.

Yeah, we talk about people who play 40 Chess, these guys are playing one D checkers. We got we got that new

intern. They really got some ideas. Their suit and tie and giant top hat, you know, cane or whatever they used to dress like back then. That's right. And then all white dresses. What was Kate bloods profession? I mean, I hear like, what when did you have any hobbies? I mean, I understand there. She might not have had a full time job, but it seems like a gardener perhaps. She was like, just gardening around the friggin cemetery.

I don't know. I really don't know. I think that she was she was again. She was young, a young woman. She was married to the editor of a paper they had a small child. And it was the 1800s My hunch is that she stayed at home with the kid.

Yeah. Yeah. But she wasn't like really into like knitting or reading a fiction back I guess. I weren't allowed to read back then. Probably there's some shit

so as recent as seven months ago, there's a video posted titled we went to a serial killers grave. Kate blood. And the image in the video is literally Kate Bloods, Tombstone.

Serial killers, a bit of a stretch there it is. Not a question. It is a bit of a impulsively just pass it by a husband and kid and just kill him. That's not really serial killer. So killers of weirdos like Ted Bundy and you know Jeffrey Dahmer like that one guy, just got one guy I saw this article he collected 30 He was a mortician out of like Texas somewhere and collected 3100 penises off of the dead bodies and kept him. Oh, yeah. And he looked you should if you if this is going to video somewhere you got to put this guy's picture up because he looks like someone that would collect 3100 penises.

I don't know what a guy who collects 3100 penises would look like but if you get this, I don't even need

to describe him. Yeah, you know? Definitely a god.

Yeah, yeah. Like Ted Bundy that famous that famous goth.

Ted Bundy was so Gothic dude.

Yeah, what was great about Ted Bundy is a serial killer. And this is the this is that sort of serial killer thing is like the guy was such a nebbish in life, you know, that's, that's that's the real thing about serial killers like guys who look scary. You're gonna really gotta be worried about them going on a rampage?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, just like, like Christian Bale from American Psycho. Real Polish little Wall Street chap. Right? Just collecting people's heads in his fridge, you know,

like his business cards, right? Got his business cards in the cupboard and heads in the heads in the fridge.

That's pretty much you know, every guy in Wall Street, I think, pretty much just metaphorically. Or is it? Really under some Americans like goes way ahead of its time?

That's right. Yeah, they shot for social commentary. And instead, they reveal the dark dark secret of Wall Street.

Oh, yeah. They're like, though, those those peons out there in middle America. We'll never catch our references. They'll teach me to think this is some crazy entertaining mind twist film.

You think The Wolf of Wall Street was metaphorical? No. That's son of a bitch was eaten people. That's

right. Everybody knows that. He's a cannibal.

Welcome to the Podcast Fast Class. Look at you, a little graduate.So proud of us grow up so fast. I'm not actually crying. But I am actually very proud of you. You've launched your own podcast, and I am so thankful to have been a part of that. So now you're moving in to the post Podcast Fast Class grad era of your podcast? No, that doesn't mean you're alone that happened. The podcast is still there to be a community for you to answer questions and anything else you need. But you know, you've got the reins, you are guiding the horse that is your podcast down this rough road. That is the adventure of podcasting. And it's gonna be rough sometimes. But you don't keep at it. Cuz maybe you find your voice. And that's what we're here for. We hope you find your voice. We know you get. It's gonna take some experimentation, some hard work, long hours of editing. But eventually, you'll figure it out. And when you do, we'll be there to celebrate with you. So, congratulations.

So yeah, here's here's the video of the Kate blood grave. A few moments later. It's such a weird video, because it it's really just people reacting to nothing happened and

it wasn't really I would say Randy as official statement right on normal. That this was a bruised grave stout. This was not a bleeding gravestone, right? It looked bruised. It looked like somebody had just bumped into their frickin knee, you know, playing a game or roller derby. And then they just were like, This is gotta be a bleeding. Am I getting anything internal bleeding tombstone? Terribly. Because it looks bruise. It doesn't look like it's bleeding. I was picturing like, seven has tuberculosis. Bruised along tombstone? Maybe that's really? That's it? That's how she's haunting us. I didn't kill anyone. I just want people to know.

Maybe that's the thing. Like maybe that's the if there is a haunting and if it is Kitty Miller, maybe that's the reason. She's just pointing at her tombstone. Go and look at this you idiots. And look, look, look how my husband is buried after me. Like by 40 years. 40 years, please. That's That's all. That's all. That's all it is.

She's just she's just trying to correct this false narrative by the crescent. Crescent. Yeah, she's just she's she's trying to do real journalism. That's right. That's right. That's all she's trying to do. Try and try to try and make Jesus a truth seeker. That's right. She's like, folks, you don't understand. I don't know why they made up this fake crap about me. I had nothing to do with it. I was just barking up frickin blood for like three years and then just tipped over somewhere in Florida. Kitty Miller needs a Twitter account. She that's the only way to officially correct the wreck. That's if Donald Trump has taught us anything. It's that you get shit done by posting weird crap on Twitter that maybe that's it, maybe she's like, Hey, I gotta re circulate in a time that's a little bit more friendly towards real official communication strategies.

So she so she chose 2021 That was a that was a bit of a misstep there cat.

She's like I can post anything. And that will be a community of people that will believe this crap. In 2018 Buddy, one I can play. All I got to do is I could, I could say there's a hollow earth or something and we'll find a nice little niche of people that are totally into this.

Yeah, maybe that was it. Because if she was because if she was hoping to, to come back at a time that really valued the truth, I would say she overshot. That's right. Or undershot? I don't know No,

she's like, I'm really at a disadvantage. Imagine 50 years from now, Kate, imagine that 50 years from now she could just say anything and that's probably true. Because then there'll be a you know, there's gonna be absolutely no truth by that. We just keep getting further and further away from facts. And you know, that's I guess what her strategy

was to be like Kate blood aka kitty Miller was actually not only beloved by her community but was considered by most to be a great beauty

that's the only thing maybe they just saw very attractive you know, white walking ghost and just assume this is just got to be blood or Guinea baby one of our many freakin nicknames this lady's got,

maybe it was just you know, one of the one of the neighbors just wandering around it or night gown and everybody's like

that ghost and maybe like the apartment across the street just has a really bad sleep Walker. Right? And they just stumble out because it's Wisconsin and there's no like Bellman there something to make sure that you know, you're staying in your rooms. Maybe is there like a nursing home nearby? Maybe it's like some dementia patient just all clueless?

Ah, you know, that's that's a good question. I don't think so. There's a residential area.

Yeah, asleep walking theory must be way more likely than

Yeah, yeah, sleep Walker, or somebody just wants to go check out a cemetery,

which is probably some stoner Goths just sitting in there like taking mushrooms thinking they're seeing frickin kitty Miller walking around well,

and what's interesting is, if you go to the cemetery, which I've been there a number of times, you could actually go back into the woods that's still technically owned by the cemetery. And they still have a bunch of, they used to have stations, like Stations of the Cross, set up church in stone shrines. And some of stone shrines are actually still standing there completely unused and overgrown, and there's trees all over the place. But you could actually go through and some of those stone shrines are still standing in the woods behind the this the official cemetery. That's pretty weird. It's beautiful out there. Now, you used to be able to get there from the back way, but they seal that up the bastards. And I've decided, side of the claim

that it's the postgres and was responsible for that, wasn't it? It's, you know, just centuries of trying to cover up their, their last start of journalism. We're gonna stick to this damn story. We can't lose credibility. Can you imagine that coming out the corrective statement now. So, by the way, folks, you know, we're now coming on the record officially to say that we fabricated this whole myth and ruin this lady's legacy for essentially eternity. That's right, for no reason for no reason at all, other than we just didn't like that dam has been she had run in the post over there. That's a batch. Guy just keeps making more money. And he's competing with us, dammit.

That's right. Now, lest anybody think we're serious, I do want to mention again, that the crescent did run condolences on their in their paper.

I got it. I do have a new theory, though. Randy. All right. What if her husband was faking his own death to cash out on an insurance policy? And he just disappeared? Do we have any evidence on this guy?

Well, yeah, I mean, he didn't die till like 40 years later,

who's he like, still editor over again, remarried, kept his name, obviously. So theories just immediately just thrown out the window,

which, which, like, the K blood story means that it could get some traction, we could

get some traction. 50 years from now in a world of even more social media.

That's right. Yeah. So this will get some traction and get picked up. And then and then and then Miller faked his own death and went on the lam and, you know, because obviously, evidence doesn't matter. Absolutely not. In fact, and this is a name that's going to come up a lot in in the not normal podcast, Yan Bruin Yan, Harold Rubin. Okay. He is a he's a folklorist who specializes in urban mythology. And what he calls the first rule or the the cardinal rule of the urban legend is that the truth never gets in the way of a good story.

Oh, yeah. Everybody knows that. Yeah. I want to know how you get to name yourself a folklorist. Did you have like a PhD in folklore and eventually become a folklorist? You know, I'm not sure dissertation about

that. I don't know if there's actually like a folk like a doctorate in folklore. Or if like, there's like a bunch of different classes. You imagine

how that frickin thesis would go? This is folklore. I can literally make up anything I want for this dissertation. Yeah, there has to be absolutely that maybe that's the whole thing just grounded in evidence. There has been no evidence for that then. Right. You know, now we're starting to make my whole

idea of a folklorist is that they they trace where legends came from and how they mature matriculate, and yeah, all of that. So I like Brunon like his his big thing is he likes to collect urban legends and then try and trace their origins and find out where they came from and or at least figure out, you know, kind of where the seeds are and when word spreads and how it's spreading and the different variations on them and things like that.

How disappointing would that job be like you hear a really cool story at some point and find out this just didn't happen? Yeah, I

think the poor guy like literally, like every time he hears a new story, he's just like, Yep, it's bullshit. Yeah, it's got to be even have to.

It's gotta be like, he's got to have a personality of one of those true crime detective, you know, in a movie, just like, there's just no way I believe anything that you're saying. really skeptical investigative type guy.

I bet he's fun at parties. Like Like, like, he's that right? Like, like, he's that guy. Everyone's like, oh, man, did you hear about this cool thing that Pepsi is doing? And he's like, yeah, it's crap.

Imagine how good this guy would be. You know, like, you know, picking up girls just. Oh, yeah. You know about Bigfoot. Yeah. I studied Bigfoot for some time. And turns out it's not what everybody thinks it's cracked up to be. Wow, you study Bigfoot. Yeah, remarkable. Beasts. Remarkable.

Nothing. Nothing gets some hot like Bigfoot.

And then all his friends over there in the corners is going for the Bigfoot story again, yeah, that's

Can you can you imagine if that was actually like some secret kind of thing? Like, like, like, you know, cuz you know, guys were guys. We don't we don't understand women. No, we lucked into them. That's what happens, right? That's I lucked into my wife. That's exactly that's, you know,

I was like, I'm never gonna find a girl this hot ever again. Right? So I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna do this. And then and then I got married.

Yeah, like I like to tell people like I married I married the head cheerleader. Not at my school, but different school, but But I married the head cheerleader. i That's I looked into that crap. Yeah. So So yeah, maybe maybe that's like the secret like, like girls secretly want to hear about folklore. That's, that's, that's probably true. That's got to be guys. I need you to try this out. In fact,

I think there's actually one thing that just completely dominates folklore, though, when it comes to pick up women who got drunk calling at three in the morning. And leaving voicemails is the fastest way to pick up a girl. Oh, yeah. Women love the booty call, man. And women just love when a guy strikes out at a bar. And then he comes home and just goes through his phone and starts calling them. I mean, guaranteed success right there. Right? Guaranteed Absolutely. Any young singles out there listening. If you try that it's just 100% Slam Dunk. Yeah.

And you only love it when you call them females.

The X X chromosome.

Yeah, we're just gonna, we're just gonna start spreading fertilizer here. Just see what sticks. That's right.

Let's spread fertilizer and see what sticks No pun intended.

So how do you? So we've got the the myth of cabling. We've got reports of hauntings, which again, there are reports of hauntings all over the place, but we're focused on Riverside, do you think that Riverside might be haunted maybe by Kate maybe by somebody else entirely.

I think without just from what we've talked about today, there's no way you can tie this back to Kate. Because there's just I think there's just no real way you can positively identify her as Kate. Now what I think is possibly plausible, and this is why I think it'd be good even if we need to do a follow up on this at some point is figure out what more about these haunting stories? Because who's the last person that's seen? Or are these just these God stoners that just want to see it go so badly that they just have this confirmation bias? And or they've heard the story too many times? Or is this just some, you know, random, you know, child in a stroller with their mom and dad going for a walk through the cemetery on a beautiful fall afternoon I was in Oh, my goodness, I don't believe in any of this. But now I do it like that. And I think that would help me a lot better figure out? Is there really something going on here? Because it sounds like the the paranormal communities is trying really hard to make this work. Instead of Yeah. Is this just something that's interrupting randos and making converts out of them? Now that was

that actually reminded me of the thing that I was going to talk about earlier, but I completely forgot about? Oh, nice. Yeah. So when I was first researching this, and I found all this information like, a couple of years ago, I decided because I've worked with I've worked with paranormal groups, I've worked inside the paranormal community. I've done field research and all that good stuff. And I decided like the way that I'm going to judge whether or not a local paranormal group is worth a crap, is how they present the K blood story or if they present the K blood story. Because the information exists, it's out there, it's easy to find. So if you're a paranormal investigator, and you're still out there investigating the haunting of the witch Cade blood, you're automatically full of crap.

It sounds like there's virtually no evidence as well to to point to her as a witch No, none

00 I

mean, it's just like clearly somebody

very much the opposite right beloved button not shunned by her community at all or community loved her. Right. And in fact, the the the the theory, which seems to bear itself out is that actually the reason that she was placed in the plot that she was placed in, which is yes, away from everybody else was because it was such a beautiful location. At the time it was it was a bluff overlooking the river, and it was just such a nice bought that that's where the community wanted to lay her down lay her to rest, you know, so she was very much the opposite of the shun the witch of Appleton. Yeah,

maybe it's just oh yeah that that thing that happened in Salem you guys remember that? Let's just make a story up about this lady of the last name of blood or we'll just call her blood. Oh

wait her to her father's name was blood and it does take a blood on the tombstone

married into Miller she married in the mill Yeah, maybe that's just where it came from. Maybe we're just like, hey, some guys just walking by the tombstone is says Cape lies as Kate blood and there's like this bruise looking tombstone over here. They just gotta she gotta be a witch. And then as buddy's like, oh, yeah, that's a good idea. Let's just go with that.

Let's just, we'll just go with it. Let's go that other they're like, yeah, there was a woman in cable. I bet she was a witch. And then before you know it, this person is telling this person Oh, there was a witch named Kate blood. Then somebody else telling Oh, there was witch named Kayla who murdered her children with an axe. Yeah. And then the crescent

picked up the story and it was as the rest is history.

Frickin crescent.

We are friendly with the postgres and but you know, it's all good. Yeah, we're, we're teasing Postgres and Please don't get angry and read piece on me. That's right.

We have businesses to run here. Let's not just let's let's alienate the local paper right off on right. That's an excellent idea. Good. Good strategy. Armstrong. Great way to get.

No, there's no such thing as bad publicity, Randy.

That's right. That's right. Five months later, the hippies comes out.

Yeah. These guys talking just have no respect for the dead. Can you believe it? They're just mocking the deaths of some point young maiden when she had tuberculosis, even though she wasn't a maiden. She was technically a maid. But nonsense. Yeah. So

again, we're being very nice to the kitty Miller to the actual kitty Miller. It's the it's the legend makers that were mocking.

Yeah, yeah. That's a great point. We are actually trying to correct history right here. That's right. And get things right. That's right. And hopefully make peace. Yes. And then hopefully not get haunted to shit to try to get the story corrected. Like what she's obviously trying to do out there.

Maybe Maybe this podcast will be the thing that finally lets her soul rest.

This is what she's been.

She's been waiting for. Oh, thank god, somebody finally made a podcast about me.

I'm done. All right. I knew I had to wait till 2021 That's right.

I mean, sure. The newspaper published the whole not very nice story. And it's all over the web now. But there's finally a podcast.

That's really interesting. You know, what, what do you think? As far as like, as being a paranormal investigator? What kind of properties do you think you retain? My like, as a spirit versus as a ghost or as a body? That's, that's something I thought about a lot. You know? What, like you okay, you obviously keep generally what you look like, right? You keep some of your personality, I imagine and some of that gets all messed up because you're freakin pissed off and dead. Right? But then

you just gotta gotta it's got to play a little bit of hell on your psyche. Like, yeah, wake it up, dad. And then like walking around, people like walking through you and right. And

people always like when they're dead. They seem like they're really pissed off. They're dead and stuff. But it's like, well, I don't know, you retained most of your attributes. As far as your personality. Clearly, you have some memories and, and you look about right, just you're wearing a white dress instead. And that's, that seems like so why are you that pissed off? Like, if anything, you should be kind of happy. You've got now immortality in a way.

Right? Right. And nobody you know, I mean, there's nothing saying that the necessarily the ghost that haunts Riverside, if she exists in whoever it might be is angry. She might be sad. Like most ladies and white as I mentioned her sad. I don't know why. Well, I do know why kitty would be sad. If it's kitty.

She's just upset that she won't be able to see her husband and child anymore.

Son of a bitch got remarried. I

mean, yeah, but that's what it is. Do you imagine I know if that have I told Marissa in my living well, you cannot get remarried. She's like, why not? Like cuz that pissed me off. I mean, how do you like you know, you talk about all this stuff at your wedding day like Oh, my one love and all this stuff and then you get remarried? Maybe that's what it is. She's like, Hey, listen, I

till death do us part is a pretty solid out clause, man. That's right.

Maybe Maybe Kate blood is just sitting there saying I knew it was gonna be that Jessica down the street. I knew that. Well, I knew you had an eye on her from the very beginning right? Damn it. I'm going to start haunting your ass the rest of my life.

You chose that hussy?

She can't even make brownies the way I can. She can give you nothing. I did everything for you. She's just really jealous. Just super jealous. Maybe and that's explains the white dress. That's right. Just a really jealous ghost. That's one kind of ghosts you do not want to mess with is a jealous ghost white.

The white dress is actually a bridal gown. She's like the she's like the the paranormal version of your crazy ex girlfriend. shows up at your wedding dress in a wedding dress.

Hey, you said I was the only Why'd all those midnight whispers where?

You belong to me?

Yeah, that would explain the motive. Almost certainly. that would

that would definitely. Yeah, if it is. Yeah, I don't know. I it's just it's such a. I love this story because it's just so weird. Yeah. You know, like most urban legends. I mean, they're, they're strange themselves. And we'll probably explore a bunch of them on this show. But this one is just so weird because the evidence is like sitting right there. And in the face of just clear evidence that contradicts the urban legend, the urban legend persists, and you still get ghost hunters and tourists out to this cemetery at night, which, by the way, the cemetery has recently changed things a little bit so that it technically closes at dusk you're taking. So if we do if we do decide to do a we can't incriminate ourselves. Yeah. So if we do decide to do an investigation out there, we'll probably have to ask permission. Yeah, to go out there and do it. Because it is trespassing after dusk, just to let our listeners know. Yes, you have an interest in going out there. Don't go trespassing. That's bad. That's bad. Yeah,

we do not condone illegal activities. Even though we talk about being murdered with an axe. We don't say that's a good thing.

We're sorry. We're certainly not condoning Axe Murder.

That's right. For anything. We're trying to deter it to just be more like Kate blood, except

for that son of a bitch. Kyle, who started tuberculosis.

Bastard. Over move on. Good Lord Randy. No, that's, it's really an interesting story. And I think, you know, we're gonna have to really figure out where some of these stories come from and how they get, you know, the evolve. So interestingly, because what we're really trying to get at is, is what is what is the truth here? Where are those sites coming from? And what is the motive of these people? Why they are why are they returning? Or are we just having this giant confirmation bias where we just assume we just really need it to happen? Because people are like, where they're just running out of content. And they say, Hey, right, her this place, Appleton, Wisconsin. There's got to be this lady who's got a bleeding grave. And then really, it's just some dirt kicked up from the lawn mower that stuck on the frickin wall of it.

So, some homeless guy just wandered through and just brushed against it or something.

Yeah, just the homeless people just carry dirt with them ever.

Oh, man, bitlord Now we're now we're going off the rails. That's, we've been off the rails for a while. It's true. So yeah, that's the that's the story of K blood, the real story of K blood and the fake story of K blood, the fake news.

We still don't know. We still don't know people are actually seeing Kate or people actually seeing anything. And I think that's where the mystery lies.

I think so. I think I think you know, eventually I would like to pick this up again and and explore you know, is there is there in fact that ghost at at Riverside cemetery, but to me because of the reasons we've talked about, because we don't even know if it's K blood. To me, it's a that's why we didn't really explore it too deeply on this episode, is because it really is a different story. It's a separate thing. Right? You have the legend of of the witch Kate blood, which isn't true. And then you have the haunting the bleeding tombstone, I think, you know, we've seen the we've seen the video evidence, I happen to know that that if there is iron there, there are certain irons that will be present in rocks, and certain other minerals that we present in rocks, that once they oxidize and by the way, I mean rocks are porous. Yeah. So they get moist fairly easily. Whatever minerals are in there will oxidize fairly easily. Right? So the the tombstone is bullshit. The witch story is nonsense. So all that's really left is the the the white lady of Riverside cemetery, which I think is a is almost a separate issue. Yeah,

I think there can't be that many ghosts in Riverside center cemetery, either. You know what I mean? So maybe you can it could almost be relatively quick investigation.

I think so because from everything that I've seen, it's literally just the one I've not heard of any others in Riverside.

They just see any ghosts and it's just assuming Kate blood right? Which is also incorrect. Unless she's just standing on top of the gravestone with like a Las Vegas lineup sign. Look, give me some attention here. Looks

like Damn it like like Beetlejuice with a big Vegas sign.

Yeah, that's exactly what I was figuring it out.

Yeah.

No, I think you're absolutely right. And and I'm just gonna put my official stance is that the grave was definitely bruised. It's not bleeding or not bleeding. That's, that's gonna be my stance on it. Yeah.

Wow, that's what was the kind of stance that I'm gonna

go. I'm gonna go right down the middle here. I'm gonna get bleeding. It's interactive. It's bleeding. I'm right. If it's not bleeding. I'm also right. That's right.

Yeah, my official stance is that there there is no bleeding tombstone. Yeah, it is. The markings on there Look, rock marble. These things get this colored these things like I said rust but

when you're describing the bleeding tombstone I was really picturing like dripping dripping blood on the top of it, you know?

Well, that was yeah, that was the what I kept picturing. The video is hugely disappointing for a number of reasons. Right? But yeah, like the biggest reason was like the tombstone just you know, played a game a high school football, there's no weeping it's not weeping blood or anything like that, right? Just sort of, there's just a mark there.

And there wasn't there should be like another thing like, you know, you should if you say Kate bloods name three times on a full moon at midnight, it will bleed.

Yeah. Now how the hell did that not get into the legend. I mean, since we're just making stuff out. We had some stuff in there, right? Yeah. Yeah. Like how did that not not not get into the legend? And then

we're gonna do Randy, we're gonna sell tickets outside of the cemetery and do ghost tours to capelet cemetery. And, you know, you could do the narration history stuff, and then I'll just, you know, collect the paycheck, Ryan, and then we'll do that work the mechanism that makes it bleed? That's right. Oh, look at that. You know that it's bleeding. Like those little Hollywood like bleeding things when they get shot. It's bleeding blood.

Real blood.

This time? It's a more ketchup packets. We're running low. That's right.

Oh, yeah, you're gonna get that one psychopath that dips his fries in it, and then the game's over.

That's right. But then we're gonna actually be able to monetize all those stoner Goths that are sitting there outside of K bloods grave. We're gonna get a piece of that. I think we're onto something. Hey, if Hot Topic can do it. We are at the venture project where business ideas come to life. And this This seems like a giant market opportunity. That's right goes tours with Randy and AJ.

That's right. We're, we're the we're the hot topic of ghost tours.

We'll sell tickets right outside a hot topic at the mall. And Spencer's Gifts. Sell branded J NCOs. That's right. We'll have a little hand a little coasters of their faces on them and stuff. Have a great time.

I like it. Let's do it. All right. Well, that's I think that I think that with with that we kind of wrap up. The Kate bloods story, the kitty the true story of Kitty Miller. And maybe she can rest in peace now. Because we're here now because 2021

corrected the record and this is going to go viral. Clearly, clearly,

obviously. Y'all are going to tell your friends every time somebody says, Hey, do you hear about the bleeding tombstone? You get to be that guy at the party that spoils all the fun actually.

Well, actually. Yes to this fantastic podcast was proud to be an HJ

that was actually like, like my whole thing. When I when we started talking about doing this podcast. I'm like, that's, that's awesome. Like my entire podcast career now is going to be just me being that guy.

Yeah, like the folklorist like,

Whoa, I actually. Yeah, that's great. And then

I'm going to be the guy that fabricates additional story for profit. Yeah, one of us is going to be really the trend these days. One of us is going to be invited to all the parties clearly it's gonna be me. Randy, I am the cynic in the group, and I am the one that just adds crap to it like oh, no, the cable had three times at midnight, and lots of ketchup packets, and we're gonna sell tickets at Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum,

right. Yeah. I like that. I don't know how that didn't get. I kept looking for stuff like that, too. Yeah, like maybe it happens at midnight. Or maybe if you do this, nothing

just happens to one youtuber that decided to you know, find a little rust oxidation going on?

Yeah, like no. Okay. Well, that's, that's massively disappointing legend makers. I mean, you got the legend of the hook man, where a woman hears a scraping and are with her boyfriend and her boyfriend goes out to check it out. And then she hears a different sound on the roof of her car and she goes out, and her boyfriend is hanging above the car, his feet dragging across the the roof of his body. He's dissembled. I mean, that's a great frickin story. It couldn't give us something like that. Right. Right. That's and that's what happens when you go to the drunkest city in America for an urban legend, but

the only truth either the only thing that was true and consistent throughout this whole story is the fact that she just died. Yeah, like that, like nothing else in any

thing was alive. She existed. She was married, and she died. The right yeah, that's it. Young have tuberculosis?

No, but that was not a new math, which was out of the mess. Yeah. Which would have been the most believable story anyway. Right. That's how everybody died back then. Yeah. That are gunshot wounds. That a corral Yeah,

I don't know. I don't know why dying of TB is not as sexy as going out. By first murdering your entire family with an axe. Yeah, like, I guess I guess axe murderer is more exciting.

I'm more on the theory that she's just haunting. Kyle. That's right. Dr. Kyle from the Wuhan lab from from the lab. And we're gonna go with that.

That's that's a very useless haunting. So she's, she's, she's angry at Kyle out in Wuhan, or whatever the hell he is. So she's just gonna stick around Riverside cemetery,

right? Yeah. Yeah.

Take that Kyle.

She's like, I think that'll get to Randy and AJ and 2021 and they'll make it public.

And then they'll add Kyle's family. No.

Then cows family will be cursed for generations.

All right, we'll see you next time. We're getting out of here before it goes too far off the rails. I'm Randy Streu. And I'm AJ Armstrong. Not normal was recorded at the venture project by AJ Armstrong and edited by Randy Streu for Envision podcasting audio clips downloaded courtesy movie sounds.org. And music was from infinity tunes dot c o not normal is copyright to Randy Streu and AJ arms.

So it was all made up I guess, maybe not. You can debate about the gravestone with Randy and Aaron on socials link in the description. And be sure to follow the not normal podcast wherever you're listening right now, that parentheses and OT parentheses normal just to get you pointed in the right direction. And this is our penultimate episode of season one. Thank you so much for listening this far. Our finale is going to be a recording of our live stream where Eric and I will show off some of the entries the Podcast Fast Class and randomly decide our winner. That live stream will be Wednesday, December 15. That's two weeks from today, starting at 6:30pm. If you want to enter, you've got to be pretty quick because you have until the end of Friday, December 3 to enter the giveaway. All you got to do is fill out the official signup form to be entered but you have to fill out that signup form so we can know who's participating. Check out the link in the show notes. If you missed it, don't worry, we're going to be doing more giveaways in the future. Now for the regular stuff. If you know someone in Northeast Wisconsin who likes podcasts, share the show with them. If you've made it this far, please rate and review the show on pod chaser or go to your bathroom. Look at your reflection in the mirror and say great pod three times fast. Absolutely nothing will happen. Then go to your pod chaser and review this podcast. I'm David Kalsow, your neighborly podcast nerd and from the bottom of my lungs. Thanks for listening

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