Shownotes
Live from the Milwaukee Paranormal Conference
The Devil in Milwaukee w/ Allison Jornlin (American Ghost Walks- Milwaukee)
Allison joins Mike and Jeff to discuss three curious cases from her hometown.
Recorded live at the Irish Cultural and Heritage Center in downtown Milwaukee, October 14th, 2023.
Outro: Halloween Pumpkin by PurplePlanetMusic
Wisconsin Rapids native, Jeff Finup is the mind behind Badgerland Legends, which explores Wisconsin's mysteries and fascinating history, a post at a time. Legends, lore, history, cryptids ,and more from the Badger State. Find his work on Instagram and Facebook.
Mike Huberty, hailing from the town of Big Bend, near Milwaukee, is the owner of American Ghost Walks, a haunted history tour company with locations in Maine, California, Illinois, Minnesota, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and started in our very own Badger State of Wisconsin - with tours in Lake Geneva, Milwaukee, Madison, Waukesha, Bayfield, and the Wisconsin Dells. Find out more at AmericanGhostWalks.Com.
Transcripts
Wisconsin, a paranormal paradise with lake
Speaker:monsters, dogmen haunted hotels, famous ghosts, and
Speaker:deadly killers. It's a lot more than just America's
Speaker:dairyland. It's time for a deep dive into the weird,
Speaker:wonderful and terrifying that's lying just below the surface of
Speaker:reality. From American ghostwalks and Badgerland
Speaker:Legends. This is the Wisconsin Legends
Speaker:podcast.
Speaker:Welcome to the Wisconsin Legends Podcast, live from Milwaukee,
Speaker:paracon 2023 to prove to the people
Speaker:who are listening later that we are in front of a live audience. Can I
Speaker:hear everybody give a clap and a woo.
Speaker:Okay, I'm feeling the love. Mike, we totally
Speaker:didn't edit that in post. All right. Coming up
Speaker:with Jeff Finnab pageantland legends. And we are
Speaker:joined today by my sister and Milwaukee
Speaker:hauntings, I'm going to say expert, even though it's hard to say anybody in the
Speaker:paranormal is an expert because we're dealing with the unknown. But you're the closest thing
Speaker:we have to it in Milwaukee. Well, I like to call myself the
Speaker:Milwaukee's Fordian Historian, because,
Speaker:as Mike said, a lot of the paranormal is very speculative.
Speaker:But when you look at the documents, you'll find that
Speaker:there are a lot of amazing stories that were recorded. And
Speaker:that's what we're going to talk to you about today. Some stories of incursions
Speaker:by what really looks like demonic forces in the Milwaukee
Speaker:area. They're all vetted stories. They're not just in the
Speaker:newspapers, but these people did exist and you can find
Speaker:them in census records. And these were real
Speaker:people. So I'm not trying to make light of this. And some of these
Speaker:stories are very scary, and I'll try to keep it kid
Speaker:friendly, but there is murder involved. Just be warned. Just be
Speaker:warned. Okay. And so also for the recording, your name is
Speaker:Allison Jordlin. Yes. My name is Allison Jordan. I didn't say
Speaker:that. Allison Jordlin from American Ghostwalk. Okay, perfect.
Speaker:All right, well, let's get started with talking about tales of the
Speaker:devil in Milwaukee. So how many of my ex girlfriends are you talking about today,
Speaker:Allison? Oh, so many. Hey. All right. And here is
Speaker:your litany of terror, otherwise known as a table of
Speaker:contents. The itinerary of terror. Yes, that's
Speaker:right. This is a list of the
Speaker:cases we're going to talk about today. So we start
Speaker:chronologically with 1854 and a convent
Speaker:infestation that occurred in Milwaukee's.
Speaker:Motherhouse. And then number
Speaker:two is there's a strange death that occurred
Speaker:in 1920 to a little nine year old boy
Speaker:called Raymond Nats. And it's very frightening. I would
Speaker:say it's probably the most scary story that I've ever
Speaker:found. And he was real and his family members
Speaker:were real. Number three is Milwaukee
Speaker:exorcisms. We had our own exorcist in
Speaker:Wisconsin that was ordained here right at St.
Speaker:Francis Seminary. And
Speaker:he's been involved in high profile exorcism that you may
Speaker:have heard of, the 1928 Earling Iowa case.
Speaker:But he was from Wisconsin, and
Speaker:possibly the possessed woman was from
Speaker:Milwaukee, although I'll talk about some problems with that
Speaker:assertion, but they don't talk about
Speaker:what happened in 1926. She was
Speaker:exercised here first in Milwaukee at
Speaker:your house. Then we're going to talk
Speaker:about some conclusions and maybe take your questions and
Speaker:stories or comments. All right,
Speaker:the convent infestation. So anybody out there
Speaker:remember that we had a motherhouse here in
Speaker:Milwaukee? It was on Milwaukee
Speaker:Street. And it's right where the Convent
Speaker:Hill Apartments are located today. The
Speaker:building is much smaller than you'll see. The convent. Was it's
Speaker:called Convent Hill? It's called Convent Hill Apartments for
Speaker:a reason. And the bells from the old convent
Speaker:are in the back of the building, so you can still go visit those and
Speaker:they still work very loud. But that's right on
Speaker:Milwaukee Street and Ogden. Now, the Mother
Speaker:Superior called mother Caroline. Was Caroline Freis?
Speaker:And she's significant because this was
Speaker:the first American convent of
Speaker:the odor of Notre Dame. So maybe
Speaker:or Notre Dame, as we sometimes say in the States.
Speaker:But you might be more familiar with all these Notre Dame
Speaker:schools all over the country. Well, this is
Speaker:where they came from, from this woman who came to
Speaker:establish the order in the United States
Speaker:and also to establish these schools.
Speaker:I think that's 500 some schools across the country.
Speaker:But the headquarters was right here in Milwaukee. So that's
Speaker:Caroline Fryce, and better known
Speaker:as Mother Caroline. Well, Mother Caroline came
Speaker:over in the 1850s. And
Speaker:while we think of Milwaukee now as a
Speaker:very, I would say Catholic
Speaker:friendly city when it was first established,
Speaker:they were facing a lot of anti Catholic
Speaker:sentiment in the city at the time. In fact,
Speaker:some of the German population that had come over were part
Speaker:of this German revolution of the late 1840s.
Speaker:And they hated Catholics in particular. Yes. And it was a
Speaker:movement, and they were called the Know Nothings. And I think
Speaker:something that they did might have led to the
Speaker:demonic infestation. Yeah, so the German
Speaker:48 ers were what they were called, and they weren't
Speaker:minors or anything like that. They were people that hated Catholics
Speaker:and were in an Irish place. So I guess it's supposed to be
Speaker:fairly Catholic friendly. But in 1854, it
Speaker:was not quite so friendly to nuns. Yeah, they
Speaker:couldn't go out on the street. People would members of the Know Nothing
Speaker:party would throw stones at them and actually
Speaker:broke windows at the beautiful
Speaker:Motherhouse, which, as you can see, was quite
Speaker:large. There's the original building, but then it became
Speaker:a whole city block. There's
Speaker:a better depiction of it where you can see it's almost like
Speaker:a citadel. And there's many buildings
Speaker:where the nuns were housed.
Speaker:And all the women that were thinking of becoming nuns
Speaker:called the novices or postulates. That's my
Speaker:favorite nun word. That's right. So I'm
Speaker:glad that Mike mentioned the no Nothings, because not only
Speaker:were they protesting outside the
Speaker:convent throwing stones when the
Speaker:nuns dared to leave and physically accosting
Speaker:them or drawing negative signs on their
Speaker:back with chalk when they could. There was also a
Speaker:procession that they led through the streets
Speaker:to the nunnery, and they were all
Speaker:dressed in black cloaks and they had a goat with them,
Speaker:never a good sign. And they also
Speaker:had a book that they had made up to
Speaker:look like the black book of the devil.
Speaker:And they did a ceremony
Speaker:out in front of the nunnery
Speaker:and soon after is when all the
Speaker:disturbances started. So I think there might be a connection there that
Speaker:they were cursed. Malediction, it's called. You're going to hear that word a lot today,
Speaker:probably. And that's interesting too, because they're performing.
Speaker:They bring out the goat as you do when you're doing some
Speaker:devil. You know, we think of these were the no
Speaker:nothings devil worshippers. No, in fact, they were atheists.
Speaker:So they're more like, if you think of that, the Satanic temple
Speaker:today, the people that put up that like the statue of Ball in the
Speaker:Oklahoma courthouse and everything. So it's the idea that
Speaker:they're not particularly like they don't really think the devil's
Speaker:going to show up when they do these things. They're doing it to show
Speaker:that they hate the nuns. And it's like the Freedom from Religion
Speaker:Foundation, which is based in Madison. It's their idea, like, hey, we're not
Speaker:interested in getting the religion here. So I don't think the no
Speaker:Nothings were particularly satanic or this idea that they really thought the devil would
Speaker:come. They're doing something symbolic, right. But that doesn't mean
Speaker:it still couldn't call in dark forces. Right.
Speaker:So I've got a little timeline. It began
Speaker:rather innocuously. It's
Speaker:hard to say when a bunch of
Speaker:novices were in their dorms and started
Speaker:recognizing all this strange activity.
Speaker:They couldn't get any of the candles to light that night on
Speaker:December eigth, 1854. And so they
Speaker:called for Mother Caroline, and
Speaker:she took a very rational approach. These were young
Speaker:girls thinking of becoming nuns. And she
Speaker:thought, like many people at the time, they were prone to
Speaker:hysteria and flights of imagination.
Speaker:But when she entered, she saw that she
Speaker:couldn't get any of the candles to light either.
Speaker:And they were able to get some light in there
Speaker:from the windows because it's moonlit night. And they saw
Speaker:that there were all these night caps
Speaker:that the sisters wore and they were lined
Speaker:up on a table and they started
Speaker:to dance, which is not very scary in
Speaker:my Disney movie or whatever. Yeah, it's like
Speaker:Beauty and the Beast, the Magician's Apprentice, where you see the broom start to
Speaker:dance. Well, she said that she observed these
Speaker:nightcaps dancing around and that
Speaker:caused a lot of fear in everyone
Speaker:involved. And also not being
Speaker:able to shed significant light on the situation
Speaker:made them very worried. So from
Speaker:then on, over a period of 13 months,
Speaker:the activity only got worse.
Speaker:And they witnessed all kinds of extraordinary
Speaker:things and also
Speaker:abuse. Not only were the nuns complaining
Speaker:of being physically assaulted by unseen
Speaker:hands, one of the postulates
Speaker:said that her ears were boxed. She was
Speaker:hit about the ears violently. And their poor
Speaker:dog, I hope he ran away. But
Speaker:he was also a victim of this unseen force. And this is
Speaker:what Carolyn Frice said herself. It was blood curdling the way
Speaker:the poor dog yelped. He was being beaten
Speaker:by something unseen, but she
Speaker:distinctly heard the cracks of a whip. But as usual, I
Speaker:saw nothing. And then she said,
Speaker:the dog disappeared. He just ran away
Speaker:after this attack and was never seen again.
Speaker:So hopefully, he did just get somewhere safe.
Speaker:There's many other alleged
Speaker:paranormal events that took place.
Speaker:So one night in the middle of the night, they had
Speaker:call bells which would there was a
Speaker:room and these bells, you could make them ring, in
Speaker:particular sister's rooms. And so
Speaker:one night, all the call bells rang at
Speaker:once and they wouldn't stop ringing. And
Speaker:so Mother Caroline didn't know what was the matter
Speaker:and was especially concerned because she was the only one with a key
Speaker:to the room where the call bell
Speaker:apparatus was kept. So she ran in there.
Speaker:There's no one there. But she saw that as she
Speaker:approached, some of the bells were still moving.
Speaker:Also, during Mass, there was a candle
Speaker:that was lit on the altar and everyone
Speaker:assembled watched this candle just blink
Speaker:out of existence. And then later, it was found still
Speaker:burning in a closed closet.
Speaker:So in psychical research, we call that an
Speaker:apport. There's also another apport where some
Speaker:nuns were baking bread in the kitchen and they had
Speaker:just put it into the oven and they went
Speaker:back. They'd been working on something else in the kitchen and they just went
Speaker:back to take a look and all the lobes were
Speaker:missing. And they were found later
Speaker:floating around in the cistern. And then shadowy
Speaker:figures were seen in the church after
Speaker:dark. And also howling was heard at night
Speaker:throughout the echoing halls of the very
Speaker:big convent. And as I said before,
Speaker:sisters complained of being battered by unseen hands.
Speaker:These events were eventually resolved. Not in a
Speaker:very nice way, I don't think we'll talk about that in a second. But then
Speaker:after these events, about a year later, after the
Speaker:secession of these events, a choir of
Speaker:angels was heard to
Speaker:be singing in the chapel. So instead of
Speaker:being awakened by these
Speaker:horrible screams and howls in the middle of the
Speaker:night, as they had become accustomed to over those
Speaker:13 months of harassment, they
Speaker:were, one night a year later, awoken
Speaker:by sweet singing of what they assumed was a
Speaker:choir of angels. And they went to the chapel and they saw
Speaker:heavenly light emanating. And
Speaker:from then on until modern
Speaker:times, so this was 1854. This went on till
Speaker:1859. When the convent was raised, mother
Speaker:Caroline actually established a sacrament
Speaker:of perpetual adoration,
Speaker:which means that in the chapel 24/7
Speaker:there were nuns praying. They would take shifts to make
Speaker:sure that the Virgin Mary and other people that
Speaker:are mother religious figures like Jesus and the angels
Speaker:who they felt had now blessed the convent and
Speaker:were protecting them from demonic forces, they would
Speaker:have these sisters come and pray.
Speaker:And they were there 24/7
Speaker:for almost 100 years doing that around the clock.
Speaker:That's called the sacrament of perpetual adoration.
Speaker:Now, speaking of Mary, though, real quick. So one
Speaker:reason that Mother Caroline thought that this demonic
Speaker:infestation was happening, and this
Speaker:goes back to the fact that they felt like they were under attack, not just
Speaker:from the devil, but by the Know Nothings and the
Speaker:other people in Milwaukee who were hostile to them. And this is from the
Speaker:book as a Magnet the Life of Mother Caroline
Speaker:by Sister Mary Thule Zimmerman.
Speaker:So it's a book by a nun. So there's just a little bit of
Speaker:vulgarity. Anyway,
Speaker:so why did Mother Caroline think it happens? The state of affairs began
Speaker:on the date that Pope Pius IX declared the Immaculate
Speaker:Conception a dogma of faith. December 1854.
Speaker:So the idea of the Immaculate Conception is that
Speaker:Mary Jesus's Ma was born without sin.
Speaker:And so that's a very particularly Catholic thing. And it came out
Speaker:December 1854. It seems Mother
Speaker:Carolyn reflected that just at the time, a new outburst of
Speaker:hatred, our lady, manifests itself to the world. The devil
Speaker:emerges with one of the older girls thoroughly disturbed by the
Speaker:strangeness. And so Mother Caroline's talking to one of the girls who's
Speaker:disturbed, and the girl says, it's all so frightening. She said, you
Speaker:never know what's going to happen next. I didn't think the devil was real. I
Speaker:thought he was just a myth or a fairy tale. Mother Caroline
Speaker:looked at the girl calmly, but the attitude expressed made her feel anything
Speaker:but calm. You didn't think he existed.
Speaker:A few days later, she gathered the community together and spoke to them of what
Speaker:was happening. Perhaps the girl who came to her was not the only one who
Speaker:did not understand the reality of the devil.
Speaker:There is no doubt about the origin of these happenings. Mother Caroline told
Speaker:them, and if some of you are still doubtful regarding the existence of the
Speaker:devil, it is time you learned that he exists.
Speaker:So they had an idea why it happened, and then they had an idea who
Speaker:was doing it. And this time it
Speaker:wasn't the Know nothings. This time it was the
Speaker:man downstairs. Okay, so how did
Speaker:they stop all this harassment that they felt was
Speaker:coming from the devil? Well, there was
Speaker:one of the novices that
Speaker:had come to the convent to escape a
Speaker:marriage, so her name was Henrika. And
Speaker:apparently there was a very persistent suitor that wouldn't take
Speaker:no for an answer, but she didn't want to marry him, so she ran away
Speaker:to the convent. Now, the
Speaker:sisters began to believe that through
Speaker:malediction or cursing, that's what had brought
Speaker:the demonic influences into the convent, because
Speaker:he was upset about losing this woman he wanted to
Speaker:marry. Now, they also found
Speaker:that strange pranks like this weird
Speaker:slush that didn't act quite like water, was
Speaker:found that initial night on the pillows
Speaker:of all the novices except for this girl. And
Speaker:then they found that she
Speaker:acted strangely at certain times when approaching
Speaker:religious objects inappropriately laughing
Speaker:or being repelled by them. From that.
Speaker:Sister Caroline was talking to the parish
Speaker:priest and he said he felt that she
Speaker:might be under demonic
Speaker:influence or even possession. When we think of all
Speaker:these hijinks that went on, I think of her more
Speaker:as like a poltergeist agent as we would think of
Speaker:poltergeist today, where they
Speaker:manifest with these strange antics.
Speaker:Anyway, they felt that she was
Speaker:the reason for the activity. So did they give her a
Speaker:sanctuary or an exorcism? Well, they made her go
Speaker:back home. Yeah, they kicked her out. And that
Speaker:guy who wouldn't take no for an answer, he had been lurking by the
Speaker:convent. So as soon as she walked out the door, he
Speaker:scooped her up. But after
Speaker:she left, all the problems ceased.
Speaker:So she was in some way connected, but I feel was an
Speaker:innocent victim of a channel
Speaker:for this activity, but not willingly.
Speaker:And she suffered in an unhappy
Speaker:marriage so that the convent could be freed
Speaker:from this demonic infestation. And it's just sad
Speaker:because I thought you could go to the church for asylum. And
Speaker:I feel like they failed her in this case and they don't even acknowledge it
Speaker:in the works that are written. So if you want to read more about this
Speaker:case as a magnet is the one
Speaker:source from the 60s that Mike mentioned. There's also
Speaker:a longer account in a book called Running
Speaker:Waters by Colon Lukum, and
Speaker:you can find both of those at St. Francis Seminary in their
Speaker:Salzman Library. So, I mean, it's kind of a sad story for the
Speaker:girl. Ended up pretty good for the convent, where they had this
Speaker:sight of perpetual adoration for over 100 years.
Speaker:But in the end, the devil went home and
Speaker:maybe he went back to their house or whatever.
Speaker:So story number two involves a strange death.
Speaker:And we're going to talk about the victim,
Speaker:which was poor little Raymond Nance, who I've
Speaker:talked about before, because this is possibly the scariest story,
Speaker:in my opinion, that I ever found, because it's just a straight
Speaker:newspaper. It's a couple of straight newspaper articles,
Speaker:and it involves little Raymond Nash.
Speaker:Nats. He's nine years old. This is a picture of him from
Speaker:one of the newspaper articles in the local papers. And he seemed
Speaker:like a regular nine year old boy. This was May
Speaker:of 1920 that this happened. And there
Speaker:was an epidemic going through the schools at the time of
Speaker:Measles, and he had just recovered from
Speaker:measles. But on this beautiful May
Speaker:Day, he decided to go fishing. And that
Speaker:would have tragic results. Previous to this day that
Speaker:we're going to talk about, he had been seeing things that only he
Speaker:could see. And this isn't an exact quote from him all
Speaker:the way home, that white shadow crept right along behind me.
Speaker:Something is going to happen. I can feel it. So he
Speaker:felt that his death was
Speaker:imminent and that this creature, whatever
Speaker:it was he described it as a white shadow, had been
Speaker:following him for reasons unknown. Now, here's the
Speaker:Milwaukee Sentinel article which gives the most details.
Speaker:I just gave the headline. It's super long, but it talks
Speaker:about what had happened. Now,
Speaker:as you may have seen on the slide, raymond's
Speaker:parents were estranged, and they were
Speaker:separated and about to go through a
Speaker:divorce. But he had bigger problems because this
Speaker:strange thing was following him. So
Speaker:the scariest night was the night before his
Speaker:death, where his parents noticed him acting
Speaker:strangely. He had first gone to his mother's
Speaker:house, which was in the neighborhood of Lincoln Village.
Speaker:So although, according to census records, the
Speaker:family was German, they were living in a Polish
Speaker:neighborhood. Anyway, he lived right
Speaker:near Fourth or Fifth Street, where that
Speaker:is today. And he
Speaker:went down the street to visit his mom. And she
Speaker:said that all night he just seemed terrified. He
Speaker:wouldn't talk about it, but he was following something around the
Speaker:room and just seemed
Speaker:white, knuckled, frozen in fear. And so, of course, she
Speaker:noticed something was wrong. And he would just sit in the corner
Speaker:and his eyes darted about as if following
Speaker:some imminent threat. And then his father came and picked him
Speaker:up. And for some reason, he maintained a distance
Speaker:between him and his father. And that's when he said, this
Speaker:white shadow is following me. So he was in some way
Speaker:protecting his father, not wanting to be too close,
Speaker:because that white thing would be close to his father as well.
Speaker:And the same thing, when he got home, just sat
Speaker:dejected in the corner looking around at whatever
Speaker:thing this was and wanted to just
Speaker:stay up all night. But of course, his dad had work in the morning.
Speaker:He was a woodworker at a local sawmill. And
Speaker:so he made Raymond go to bed. But in the
Speaker:night, Raymond woke his dad up because he was talking in his
Speaker:sleep and screaming loudly. And
Speaker:then his mother came to his bedside and shook him
Speaker:awake. And he was saying,
Speaker:oh, Daddy, I was in the
Speaker:water with the fishes. And it was so beautiful. But before
Speaker:that, he had been screaming at something and
Speaker:saying to something, that an unseen forest that, you're just
Speaker:fooling me. You can't get me. And
Speaker:then he had this strange attitude about playing with the
Speaker:fishes. So then that morning, Herman
Speaker:Nance had to go back, had to go out to work, and
Speaker:he left Raymond with a neighbor lady.
Speaker:But he slipped away early that morning to go fishing at
Speaker:Lake Michigan. Lake Michigan
Speaker:is about an hour
Speaker:away, walking wise from where he was
Speaker:later found in the lake. So he had to walk
Speaker:for an hour, and then,
Speaker:sadly, he disappeared and they had to drag the
Speaker:lake, and he wasn't found
Speaker:until that Friday afternoon. So
Speaker:it was Wednesday, the evening of Wednesday that
Speaker:we were talking about. And then
Speaker:after midnight is when he awakened his
Speaker:father. And then the
Speaker:drowning happened around
Speaker:845, because little Raymond had a pocket watch.
Speaker:So although when he got to the lake, it looks like he just
Speaker:dropped his pole, his fishing rod,
Speaker:and his hat, his cap on the ground, he still had
Speaker:his pocket watch. So from the time the
Speaker:police only came to one conclusion, that Raymond hadn't
Speaker:intended to go fishing at all, he'd walked for an
Speaker:hour and then kept walking straight into
Speaker:Lake Michigan until the water was over his head
Speaker:and he could walk no more. Now, what nine year
Speaker:old is capable that kind of
Speaker:behavior? So when we talk
Speaker:about the activity here, yeah, we
Speaker:don't have multiple witnesses seeing the
Speaker:shadow. Only Raymond sees that. And
Speaker:only Raymond is aware of this harassment. But he's got
Speaker:this incredible sense of foreboding. Perhaps he was
Speaker:foretelling his own death. And it's just
Speaker:shocking, though, to think of just think of you
Speaker:as an adult. Could you walk into the water? I mean, they often show that
Speaker:on TV and movies where somebody just walks
Speaker:into the water and they just keep walking. But could a nine year
Speaker:old do that? And why would he do that? And Lake
Speaker:Michigan's cold. Let's be real. Nobody just jumps
Speaker:in, like, especially in May. But that's why he wasn't in school, because of this
Speaker:measle epidemic. It had closed down schools. He was
Speaker:just recovering from it himself. But this was
Speaker:me in the middle of the week, and he was out
Speaker:there because nobody was in school to
Speaker:quell that epidemic. Now, I see several different
Speaker:connections for different things.
Speaker:What happened to Raymond, to mother. Paranormal
Speaker:activity number one is the
Speaker:nokniche, which is the Polish night.
Speaker:Hag. So you guys ever had a sleep
Speaker:paralysis? Can I get a round of applause? If anybody's ever had sleep
Speaker:paralysis, I. Don'T want to cheer for that. I've had it.
Speaker:Terrifying. Sleep paralysis is terrible, and
Speaker:especially when you're in the hypnagogic state, which is as you're
Speaker:falling asleep, sometimes you see things, or if you ever have the
Speaker:experience where that falling
Speaker:or that kind of trip or whatever, then you wake yourself up.
Speaker:It's a physical experience. It's happening to you.
Speaker:Or you wake up and you feel that someone's sitting on your chest and
Speaker:you can't move. That's the night hag, and every
Speaker:culture seems to have it. The Slavic culture, which would have
Speaker:been Lincoln village of the nocnitsa, is from the Wikipedia
Speaker:article. In Russian and Slavic folklore,
Speaker:nocnitsa is known to torment children at night, and a
Speaker:stone with a hole in the center is said to be the protection. Mothers
Speaker:in some regions will place a knife in their children's cradles
Speaker:or draw a circle around the cradles with a knife for protection. This
Speaker:is possibly based on the belief that supernatural beings cannot
Speaker:touch iron. Nocnitsa is known to sit on one's chest
Speaker:drawing life energy. Because of this, many refer to the
Speaker:nocnitsa as a type of vampire. They will often continue
Speaker:visiting, and according to some folklore night hags visit while
Speaker:one sleeps on one's back with the hands on the chest, a
Speaker:position allegedly called sleeping with the dead.
Speaker:Accordingly to some folklore, night hags are made of
Speaker:shadow, just like what Raymond saw. She might also have a
Speaker:horrible screeching voice, just like my ex
Speaker:girlfriends. She might allegedly also
Speaker:smell of moss and dirt from her forest of origin.
Speaker:So these are obviously villages we're talking about. Like your ex girlfriend,
Speaker:right? They smell bad. No. Okay.
Speaker:This idea of the night hag, though, he's talking to something, and he says, you
Speaker:can't get me, you just fool, and you can't get me, until eventually
Speaker:he kind of accepts what's going to happen to him. We all talk
Speaker:about if you think about nightmare on Elm Street or think
Speaker:about the movie dreamscape. Remember that classic? Oh, yeah. It's the
Speaker:idea though. In those movies, they say if you die in your sleep, you die
Speaker:in real life, right? And everybody's like, nah, that's not true.
Speaker:What if it was sudden unexplained
Speaker:nocturnal death syndrome? We got an
Speaker:article here talking about
Speaker:from the 2018 journal of the American
Speaker:Heart association. It's called Lie Thai. In
Speaker:Thailand, the word lie in leotian means a loud
Speaker:groan occurring during sleep or a loud noise made while frightened.
Speaker:And thai is a Thai word meaning death.
Speaker:It's called bangagut in the Philippines, and that's
Speaker:a tagalog word meaning to rise and moan in your sleep.
Speaker:Bakuri death syndrome. In Japan, Bakuri means suddenly and
Speaker:unexpectedly. This is a Los Angeles times article from July
Speaker:10, 1981. Night deaths of Asian men.
Speaker:Unexplained Tokyo. Each year, hundreds of apparently
Speaker:healthy young Japanese die suddenly in their sleep, sometimes with
Speaker:a gasp or a shout, and doctors do not know why.
Speaker:Reports of similar deaths in the Philippines and among indochinese refugees
Speaker:in the United States have given rise to speculation by medical experts
Speaker:that the disease might be common to ethnic groups throughout Asia. Okay?
Speaker:Obviously not. Raymond nantz. It's not a matter of the heart being good or bad,
Speaker:said Dr. Michio Inui of the Tokyo Metropolitan Medical examiner's
Speaker:office, which studies pokiri. They seem to be dying of heart
Speaker:failure, but we can only guess the cause. So
Speaker:this comes through and these articles in the La times,
Speaker:when they came out, when it happened to the hng population after
Speaker:the Vietnam War, that's what inspired Wes Craven to
Speaker:create Nightmare on Elm Street. And we could actually do a whole podcast on
Speaker:that, just that now who's. Going to have a hard time falling asleep
Speaker:tonight, right? Yeah. Well, we didn't want you to fall
Speaker:asleep during the presentation. And I'd say take your
Speaker:Ambien to help. But what does Ambien do
Speaker:to people? Makes them sleepwalk. Yeah.
Speaker:So go on. So here's another thing that could have happened to
Speaker:Raymond. This is from the Toronto Star. In the wake of the Chris
Speaker:Heinman tragedy, experts say death by sleepwalking is
Speaker:possible. This is from August 6, 2015.
Speaker:It's rare, but experts say it's definitely possible to die while
Speaker:sleepwalking. Of course it's dangerous, said Dr. Colin
Speaker:Shapiro, a University Toronto professor. People can essentially do
Speaker:anything. They can walk in their sleep. They can talk in their sleep. They can
Speaker:eat in their sleep. They can drive their car in their sleep. They can have
Speaker:sex in their sleep. I didn't make that up.
Speaker:He said that and to fall and injure yourself or
Speaker:die, it's definitely possible. Shapiro said. The
Speaker:plausibility of such a demise has come up in the wake of Chris Heinman's
Speaker:death. The popular television personality it's Canada. Who knows who
Speaker:this guy is? The popular television personality was found dead in
Speaker:an alleyway next to the East End apartment where he lived with his on screen
Speaker:partner and spouse, Stephen Sabados. Heinman's mother told
Speaker:the Star she believed her son died in an unfortunate
Speaker:accident while sleepwalking. So,
Speaker:okay, people can die in their sleep. Now,
Speaker:why is that happening? This is from Scientific American in 2012.
Speaker:And this is about sleepwalking
Speaker:killers. And this is by people that have done the research on
Speaker:it. For as long as we have recognized walking and talking in our sleep,
Speaker:we have also been aware of more extreme nighttime behaviors.
Speaker:Homer's epics mention, a sleeper's tragic suicide. In
Speaker:1313, a church led council concluded that a
Speaker:sleepwalking killer was not culpable for his
Speaker:crimes. We have no way of knowing the truth of these matters.
Speaker:Nonetheless, the medical literature reflects many complex
Speaker:actions occurring during sleep. The first brain
Speaker:imaging study to observe this state was led by
Speaker:one of the authors. A 16 year old sleepwalker was monitored for
Speaker:two nights with electrodes placed on his scalp to produce
Speaker:a polysomnogram of his brain activity. So what they found,
Speaker:when he rose from his deep sleep, walked around, opened
Speaker:his eyes, even had a scared expression on his face, they
Speaker:put a little radioactive tracer in him while he was sleepwalking.
Speaker:And so then they scanned it and they compared the boy's brain activity
Speaker:when sleepwalking and when in deep sleep and his sleepwalking state. The
Speaker:scans revealed greater activity in areas of the brain involved in motor
Speaker:control. So walking and then compared with. The brain of a
Speaker:healthy, awake subject. They had a lot less engagement in the
Speaker:regions necessary for higher cognitive functions thinking,
Speaker:planning, insight. So basically,
Speaker:sleepwalking, it's activating your motor part of your body
Speaker:and your part of your body that thinks and that knows what's going on is
Speaker:off. Yeah. So did you find also a connection to
Speaker:measles? I did. Early onset. Sorry, this is
Speaker:a word I'm going to butcher subacute sclerosing
Speaker:pancephalitis. And this is something that happens to people,
Speaker:especially children, after they have measles. And because
Speaker:not everybody's vaccinated in India. This is an article from the Indian
Speaker:Journal of Psychological Medicine, 2017. Now, the
Speaker:cases are normally fatal. The symptoms can range from altered
Speaker:behavior, alienation and personality my, clonic
Speaker:jerks, which is an epilepsy type thing,
Speaker:cognitive decline, gradual behavior changes, an
Speaker:unsteady gait, photosensitivity. And
Speaker:the average latent period is seven to ten years. So often people,
Speaker:this happens to them ten years after they get measles, but it's happened
Speaker:up to one month after they've gotten measles. And what happens
Speaker:as a result? Well, sometimes they get a
Speaker:paranoid, hallucinatory psychosis. Oh, wow.
Speaker:There might be a medical explanation for what happened to Raymond. Right, so this is
Speaker:a different this is a 2003 article, and they reported
Speaker:a case of a 19 year old man who was first diagnosed with
Speaker:schizophrenia, which is hearing voices,
Speaker:but finally shown to have subacute sclerosing
Speaker:panencephalitis. And he had hallucinations
Speaker:and negative symptoms with the onset, and he had seizures. So they thought that he
Speaker:was schizophrenic, but really he had this disease which results from people
Speaker:getting measles. So while I do probably think it was the
Speaker:nighthag that got him, we. Have to
Speaker:entertain other explanations. So we're going to go a little bit long.
Speaker:Is that okay? That's okay. We can go into a couple of Father Reesinger's
Speaker:greatest hits, because I think. You got to hear about
Speaker:Milwaukee's exorcist Father Theophilus
Speaker:Reesinger, and that's who we're going to talk about next. Because we could do a
Speaker:whole thing on sudden death in the
Speaker:night, because one of those instances in Asia
Speaker:occurred in the Singapore where 400 men died as a
Speaker:result. So there's a lot to be talked about there. But anyway, let's
Speaker:get back to Milwaukee and Milwaukee exorcisms. So
Speaker:has anybody here heard of the 1928
Speaker:Earling exorcism in
Speaker:Earling, Iowa? Yeah. Okay. There's a couple
Speaker:of people. All right. This is quite a famous case because in
Speaker:addition to the Roland Doe 1949
Speaker:case in St. Louis that you hear a
Speaker:lot about, this 1928 case
Speaker:also influenced William Peter Blatty
Speaker:and the writing of the book and then later the movie
Speaker:The Exorcist. He read these accounts
Speaker:of exorcisms and the dramatic
Speaker:things that were said to happen. So as far as the body
Speaker:contortion and the pea soup, projectile
Speaker:vomiting, that comes from the 1928 case
Speaker:in which a 40 year old woman
Speaker:was exorcised by a Milwaukee ordained
Speaker:priest called theophilus Re singer.
Speaker:But they don't talk about 1926,
Speaker:when that woman was first exorcised in
Speaker:Milwaukee. Yes,
Speaker:like the devil right here. And I also want to mention
Speaker:that the Archdiocese actually had a press
Speaker:conference in 1926 to
Speaker:announce two exorcisms that year by Father
Speaker:Theo. One was of a
Speaker:mechanic, a male mechanic from
Speaker:Milwaukee, and I don't have many details about that
Speaker:one, but I do know that Father
Speaker:Reesinger was quoted saying that as
Speaker:he released the demons from this man, it
Speaker:shook the seminary. So we think that
Speaker:that went on in Milwaukee at
Speaker:the Capuchin Monastery on
Speaker:Fourth and Harmon streets. And again,
Speaker:as the devils were released, the whole building shook.
Speaker:That's all I know about that one. They should have press releases now.
Speaker:Yeah, I know. This was actually a press
Speaker:conference where two top officials from the Catholic
Speaker:Church came out to say that there were these two
Speaker:exorcisms that were performed locally and
Speaker:this news went national. Can you imagine the reporters, though? It's like the
Speaker:1920s, like, talking, like, okay, so did you vomit pea soup
Speaker:out of it? Just think about 1920s reporters talking to these
Speaker:priests about an exorcism. I would have liked to be there.
Speaker:So we know the most about the woman,
Speaker:although there's a lot of things that still
Speaker:need to be sorted out because there's two different stories of how she
Speaker:became possessed. She was given the pseudonym
Speaker:Anna Ekland. So if you search for that online,
Speaker:you'll find a lot about the 1928 exorcism because there's
Speaker:a book that's popularly available
Speaker:called Begone Satan, which is all about the
Speaker:1928 exorcisms. And you can read it for free
Speaker:online. Some people say that her real name was
Speaker:Emma Smith, but finding her census
Speaker:records has proved difficult for me
Speaker:because some of the details just don't match up. But this
Speaker:guy was definitely real. Theophilus
Speaker:Reesinger. He was ordained here in Milwaukee at St. Francis
Speaker:Seminary and he moved to the Appleton area. But he came back to
Speaker:Milwaukee often whenever he was needed. And he wasn't afraid to take
Speaker:people out of state like he did with
Speaker:Emma. That's what I'm going to call her, because he
Speaker:felt that they needed to be taken away
Speaker:from their local area so that the
Speaker:community wouldn't be talking about them first. He took her
Speaker:in 1926 to St. Joseph's
Speaker:Hospital, which was located on Fourth Street and
Speaker:Reservoir Avenue. So she was admitted as a
Speaker:patient, and then he underwent a three day
Speaker:fast and then performed the rites of
Speaker:exorcism in the church chapel. Now, he was known
Speaker:to be an extraordinarily strong man. He said
Speaker:that most people, most exorcists
Speaker:didn't live long after their first exorcism. Now,
Speaker:I can't support that through documentation, but this is what he
Speaker:believed. And he said he was
Speaker:gifted with extraordinary strengths from
Speaker:the Lord and was able to successfully
Speaker:exercise 22 people
Speaker:in his long career, but by extraordinary strength. Do you
Speaker:mean, like, strength of character, or do you mean, like, spiritual?
Speaker:Okay. I was just saying, like, if he could, like, airplane spin. Well,
Speaker:he did have a very athletic physique. He was known
Speaker:to work long hours and have big
Speaker:muscles. You got a picture of him? What was that? I said,
Speaker:you got a picture of him? He looks like a badass. Yeah, he is kind
Speaker:of a badass. I would say. Look at that. Really tall and really built.
Speaker:But he had this spiritual strength that
Speaker:he could withstand the onslaughts of the
Speaker:devil. And then the 1928 exorcism that he
Speaker:performed for 23 days, not
Speaker:consecutively. There were breaks in between, so it was over a period of several
Speaker:months. But the whole exorcism of Emma
Speaker:in Caroline, Iowa, at the convent there lasted
Speaker:for 23 days. And
Speaker:it's a really physical work. Apparently, his
Speaker:cassocks would get sweated through and he would
Speaker:have to change his clothes sometimes three times a day. And
Speaker:also there was the projectile vomiting. Don't forget about that.
Speaker:That could have something to do with it. He did have help in the
Speaker:1928 exorcism by Father
Speaker:Joseph Steiger, and that was his local parish in
Speaker:Caroline, Iowa. This
Speaker:guy actually reported that
Speaker:the spirits were, like, after him, and he had a hard
Speaker:time staying in the exorcisms because they would say terrible
Speaker:things to him and accuse him of terrible things. And
Speaker:then one day they said, well, just wait till Friday.
Speaker:And he's like, okay. On Friday he was called away because
Speaker:one of his parishioners needed last rites. And so
Speaker:he drove to their house and administered last rites. And
Speaker:then on the way back, he said that as he was
Speaker:crossing this treacherous bridge, this black
Speaker:cloud descended in front of his face and
Speaker:blinded him. So he crashed into the rails.
Speaker:Now, thankfully, he
Speaker:survived. His car didn't, but he survived. And a nearby
Speaker:farmer had heard the crash and ran to his aid. And
Speaker:when he returned to the exorcism, he hadn't told anybody
Speaker:about that, but the demon knew right away. So how did you like
Speaker:that, Father Steiger? And so Father
Speaker:Steiger was surprised that the demon knew about his
Speaker:accident. And the demon also acknowledged that if he hadn't been protected by one
Speaker:of the saints, he would have been dead. As I said,
Speaker:these 1926 exorcisms made national
Speaker:news. But you won't find information about the press
Speaker:conference in the Milwaukee papers, but what you will
Speaker:find is in depth accounts
Speaker:of the exorcisms at the
Speaker:hospital chapel. This is the most amazing one, I think,
Speaker:from February 18, after the rites, which took
Speaker:place around the end of January.
Speaker:The woman was still in the hospital, and
Speaker:they interviewed a nun named Sister Blanche,
Speaker:and she talked about how this little
Speaker:woman exhibited extraordinary strength
Speaker:and had to be dragged into the chapel
Speaker:by four big men. And the howling and animal
Speaker:sounds that came from her just seemed unnatural.
Speaker:Now this is interesting, something that
Speaker:Mother Theophilus Reesinger said in a later
Speaker:interview which, when begun, Satan came out in
Speaker:1936. He was interviewed in the Milwaukee
Speaker:papers and then his interview
Speaker:went national and then Time magazine actually featured
Speaker:him. Can you imagine opening up Time magazine today and
Speaker:seeing them profiling an exorcist and talking
Speaker:about details of exorcisms?
Speaker:Well, this is interesting to me because I always thought you had to
Speaker:give yourself to the devil, like verbally or at least in the
Speaker:exorcist films, like play with the Ouija board or something naughty that you're not supposed
Speaker:to do that allows you entrance. But he said
Speaker:that sometimes there is diabolical material
Speaker:in the body and this must be expelled. And
Speaker:as long as it is there, the devil can always come
Speaker:back. You might like to pick up the sensational book about
Speaker:the case of Emma's exorcism called The
Speaker:Devil Rocked Her Cradle. Anyway, in here you find
Speaker:out that her aunt, who was having
Speaker:infidelity with her father, was said to have cursed her
Speaker:along with her father cursing her for various abuse
Speaker:ridden reasons that I won't mention. The
Speaker:Aunt Mina cursed her by putting some strange
Speaker:herbs in her tea and performing malediction, which is
Speaker:essentially putting a spell on her. Father Theo is
Speaker:acknowledging that that you could have some tainted food
Speaker:that has some cursed herbs in it and that
Speaker:could make you a swinging door for all manner of
Speaker:devils and demons. But he would later come to believe that
Speaker:Anna, or Emma, as I'm going to call her, that
Speaker:she was actually a vessel of the
Speaker:Lord and she was the swinging door.
Speaker:And this is why he had to exercise her so
Speaker:often. There are sources that claim that Father Theo
Speaker:his first rite with Emma when she was a teenager in
Speaker:1912. And then in 1926
Speaker:he brings her to Milwaukee and exercises her here.
Speaker:And then in 1928 he takes her
Speaker:to Caroline, Iowa to the convent there and
Speaker:the nuns there helped by holding her down and doing
Speaker:Mother various services. But I think most importantly,
Speaker:what he wanted is just like we were talking, the rite
Speaker:of perpetual adoration. They could assist with the
Speaker:exorcism by constantly praying
Speaker:during that 23 day period, praying around the clock.
Speaker:And that's what I think happened real quick. Alzheimer, we're running out of
Speaker:time. So how did it end up? So let's just how did how did what
Speaker:happened to poor Emily and how did it end up? So we can let everybody
Speaker:know. We can't leave on a cliffhanger. So in 1936,
Speaker:he admitted in Time magazine and in local
Speaker:interviews that Emma would have to be exercised
Speaker:for the rest of her life, that she wasn't so much a
Speaker:victim of these spirits anymore. But
Speaker:they were trapped in her body. And then they could be exercised by
Speaker:Father Theo and then locked up in hell for a
Speaker:long time. So they wouldn't be set anyone else on Earth. And she
Speaker:also at one point felt that she was having communications
Speaker:with holy figures, like the Virgin Mary was possessing her.
Speaker:So she became like a vehicle for the faith. Interesting.
Speaker:So it was not a really happy ending for Emma?
Speaker:Well, it depends on how you look at it, because
Speaker:she was more in control of her actions. But she always
Speaker:performed that service of taking in the devil into her
Speaker:own body. And then Father Theo would come along and
Speaker:take those devil and throw them back into
Speaker:so he said that she literally freed this world
Speaker:from billions and billions of demonic
Speaker:beings. All right, well okay. Well, thanks, Emma. We appreciate that
Speaker:today. Yeah. So I know we're wrapping up, but I wanted to just take
Speaker:a minute to see if anybody had any questions or comments
Speaker:or their own stories to. Share, because what do
Speaker:we can definitely do the stories to share at the Ghost
Speaker:Story open mic. Oh, that's right. We're ending the day with that.
Speaker:Yeah. So we'll talk about that more later. But any questions, though? Will you
Speaker:take one or two? Yes, go ahead.
Speaker:Oh, 59. Yeah. So she didn't live a very long
Speaker:life, unfortunately. How old did Father Theo
Speaker:live? He lived to 73. He died in
Speaker:1941. Okay. I know we talked about Theo, but
Speaker:the Earling Exorcism case is one of the most monumental. It
Speaker:was a lot of the inspiration for, obviously, the Exorcist.
Speaker:But just inside the Calvary Cemetery here in Milwaukee,
Speaker:there's a grave that you can visit interred. There are the remains of
Speaker:clergyman Walter Halloran. Now, Halloran, he attended a
Speaker:Jesuit boarding school in Pradusheen before joining the Society of
Speaker:Jesus, better known as the Jesuits. As Halloran worked towards his
Speaker:ordination, he participated in one of the most bizarre and notable events in
Speaker:American paranormal history. He assisted Father Raymond Bishop
Speaker:in the exorcism of Roland Doe. So it was 1949,
Speaker:the notes of which inspired the exorcist novel, as well as the monumental film
Speaker:adaptation. Halloran was the last living witness of the possession,
Speaker:and it said that he later expressed
Speaker:skepticism of the supernatural claims of Bladdy's
Speaker:novel and also the directorial work. But Halloran, he'd
Speaker:go on to teach at Marquette. He served as a chaplain in Vietnam, and
Speaker:he directed campus ministry at St. Louis before retiring
Speaker:at St. Camillas here. He died in
Speaker:Wawatosa, and he's buried here at the Calvary
Speaker:Cemetery. Yes. Actually, two witnesses to the
Speaker:Rolando Exorcism died here in Milwaukee at St.
Speaker:Camillas, which is a retirement home for
Speaker:priests. So they ended their life here in
Speaker:Milwaukee. And you can go and see
Speaker:Halloran's Gravestone at
Speaker:Calvary Cemetery on Jesuit Hill. And
Speaker:if you need exorcism yourself, you might want to check out
Speaker:this seminary, which is really beautiful.
Speaker:It's called the University of St. Mary of the Lake. The
Speaker:Mundaline Seminary. It's 1 hour from
Speaker:Milwaukee, and I thought you had to go to Rome
Speaker:to get exorcism training, but they have a
Speaker:yearly cohort there where they train exorcists from
Speaker:all over the world. And they also have an annual
Speaker:conference for exorcists. They actually come to Mundeline,
Speaker:Illinois, and talk shop. But you can't
Speaker:get in because you have to be a clergyman
Speaker:or you have to be okayed by the bishop. So if you want
Speaker:to go get that bishop for your letter going, and then you'll be able to
Speaker:go to the conference next summer. All right? So that's
Speaker:right. Milwaukee, home of beer brats, the violent
Speaker:stems and exorcism, and, of course, the
Speaker:devil. So we'll see you next time on Wisconsin Legends
Speaker:Podcast.
Speaker:Sam.
Speaker:Sam.
Speaker:Sam.
