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Hello all. Welcome back to another episode of Southern Demonology. As always, I'm your host, JJM. This week we are wrapping up a two-part interview with the amazing Christy, who began the last episode by sharing one of three stories. We also got onto multiple other side topics, mostly my fault, and we had a good old time. So I split that into two parts. Today we're finishing that last piece up in which she shares her last two stories, which are really interesting. If you're curious about any part of the Salem Witch trials, about Robert the Doll, about cursed objects, then this one is for you.
I even make a back reference to the author, uh Anna Maria Manello, who I interviewed, who was truly phenomenal, has a new upcoming book coming out in Thanksgiving time, I believe. But anyway, I I hope that you enjoyed it. Talking to Christy is always such a delight. And after you listen to a single episode, I know that you will understand why. So without further ado, let's get back and hear the two other tales that Christy has to share. He must have asked the last Christy lost.
This one comes courtesy of my stepdad's family, who are from Noirsville, Wisconsin, and remain in Noirsville, Wisconsin. And this is the one that I can prove because there are newspaper stories. Uh in fact, I'm looking at one right now. And if you Google it, actually, you'll probably come up with like a blog spot post or something like that. It's this blog post called it like something like the Christmas quilt.
And the only newspaper clipping I could find that wasn't through a paywall, because there are lots of them in like Oshkosh and um Waquiga or whatever, county, whatever times from like different years, but I wasn't gonna pay for them. So if somebody has uh access to newspapers.com or or some kind of archive and wants to like dig those up, fabulous, that'd be great. This newspaper clipping uh is written by a Mr. uh Edward W. Bauman entitled Man, it's real crazy, this crazy all quilt. So in Noirsville, Wisconsin, my stepdad's I guess like auntie or great aunt.
Anyway, so they moved in this house in the 50s at some point, and there was some stuff already in there, and one of them was this quilt that was just you know kept in a box as one would, right? Like no bigs. And they left it in there for a while, and then I guess granny over here she's gonna have some company. And so she takes this quilt out and like lays it out on the bed, and you know, because apparently it's a pretty quilt. I've never seen it up until very recently, nobody would admit to having even like have possession of it. So you know, take that for what it's worth.
And so she takes it out, and I guess this woman's daughter or her granddaughter or both came to visit, and they're laying there, and this quilt just and like they wake up in the middle of the night, and this quilt is so unbelievably hot, but it's heavy. It's like pressing down, and they're like, what? And it like it's trying to wriggle itself off the bed. They're holding it like physically with their hands, and it's like trying to like wriggle itself off the bed. So I'm looking at this at this bit right now on this uh on this article.
It says, um, quote, a little after midnight, uh Florence, whoever Florence is, was awakened by a jerking from the foot end of the old quilt. She was too frightened to yell, and she held on the quilt with both hands, it kept pulling, and she heard a voice say, Give me back my Christmas quilt. And then she like let go and it drug itself off the bed, like onto the floor. And then there are other people that would have slept with it, like that will wake up and it will be hovering above them, and like different weird stuff. Yeah, and like different weird stuff like that.
But my favorite story, my favorite one was my stepdad's uncle Tommy, who I met, he's he's a very nice man. I didn't get talked to him about this, unfortunately. But so Uncle Tommy and his brother or cousin or something, you know, again, like this is like mid to late 50s, early 60s-ish time here we're talking about. And so they're home, and I guess they're they decided that they're gonna be brave, and it's raining and stuff, and and the kids are home alone, you know god, I don't know how old they were like 12, 15, something like that.
And so they're laying there with this quilt and it's raining. They hear a knock on the door, and so I ain't gonna answer the door, and there's a farmer man standing there, which would be normal because they live outside of Oshgosh slash Appleton slash uh Berlin slash Waqiga. If anybody's familiar with that area, I'm not, but I know those places. That was a good accent.
Thank you. That's the only thing I can do. And God bless it when I met his family for the first time. I couldn't understand a word they were saying. Where are you from? Or from Ashgiash, like Ashkiash Bigash, B Appleton? Sorry, what? You from where? That's cool. But anyway. So they go to answer the door, and there's a farmer standing there, which would be normal. Except old bro over here isn't wet, even though it's raining. There are no wet footsteps leading up to the door, and he doesn't have a face. What?
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so that's what happened with that one. And they, I guess, like they closed the door and we were understandably freaked out, and like there weren't any steps like leading away either, so it wasn't like somebody played a trick on them or anything like that. I mean, I guess they could have made it up, but whatever.
So is this related to the quilt in some way?
Yes, yeah. The boys were sorry, snuggling with the quilt, like watching TV or whatever it is that people did in the early mid-sixties. They decided to be like I apparently for a while it was like a joke to see who could sleep with it and like not get scared or like not have something happen to them. And like every single person was like, No, f this, like, I'm out, like, nah. And so like these boys are like, oh no, we can handle it because they're full of piss and vinegar and teenage boys. Right.
And yeah, and so they're both chilling, and like yeah, and so then that happens and they're like and I don't know if somebody else was there, if like one of them was sleeping or what, or if maybe it was a different time, but I do know that at least once like the quilt like would because it would always wriggle itself down like the foot of the bed, like off of the bed and like go down that way, you know, versus like off to the side or anything else. It would like work its way up underneath furniture, like so you couldn't get it back out.
Like it would like go up underneath the dresser or something. And so they're like, Alright, that's cute. So we're gonna put this back in the box and put it back in the attic and never speak of this again. And up until recently, I don't know, probably time is meaningless, and so let me think. Probably about I don't know, till I was 20 or 21 or so, like my stepdad maintained that like no one knew where, like, who had it, like no one would admit to having it.
But I actually messaged him earlier and I asked Oh, Aunt Florence, uh, who actually was mentioned mentioned in that article, the the person that I mentioned. Uh apparently Aunt Flores, stepdad said Aunt Florence had it up to a few years ago. I'm sure one of the her kids have it stashed in a closet, but I don't know who. And so somebody somewhere knows where it is, uh, but apparently they don't like to play with it anymore. But yeah, I don't understand why.
Oh, I'll play with it. I ain't scared. Let's go. I'm not scared at all.
Oh dear lord. That actually reminds me like I interviewed Anna Maria Manello, who is a a horror anthology writer, and she's written a book called Haunted Heirloom. It's all about antique furniture and objects and the misery that they have inflicted upon their owners, and I think that would fit right into that book perfectly. Holy goodness!
Like Robert the Doll. Have you heard of Robert the Doll?
I have. But why don't you elucidate for those who may not?
Okay. Uh so Robert the Doll, um, and I know I'm forgetting loads of details here, so forgive me. This family like got this little boy like a doll. And I want to say they lived in Florida, but anyway, so he'd be playing with this doll, and like weird started happening. Stuff, sorry, weird stuff started happening, and things would get broken and stuff like that, and like, you know, the parents would get angry with the child, and he's like, No, like Robert did it. And they're like, Okay, yeah, yeah, whatever.
And like, I I want to say he ended up with like bruises or like pinch marks or something, like, because I feel like he was an only child, and you know, and he'd be crying and whatever, and like come down to his his mom and daddy, and you know, he's like, Yeah, like Robert did it. And they're like, All right, kid with a little bit of an overactive imagination, it's a doll. And I know he moved away, and I think that like Robert was like kept in the attic. And I I recall at some point, like, they kept him so he could look out the window.
But after the parents died, I believe that the son moved back into the home and like still had this like weird connection with this doll. And after he died, the doll was given to a museum of some kind, like a local museum. And anybody that goes in and makes fun of it, because like the thing's ancient now, it's you know, like a hundred years old, give or take, whatever. And like people that go in, and if they say something like derogatory about Robert the doll, then like they'll go home and like bad shit happens to them. And it will keep happening until they write an apology.
Isn't this the doll that's dressed up in like a little sailor's outfit? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, and it's the creepiest bloody looking thing I have ever laid eyes on.
Yeah, like even without like the aging to it, like just by itself, it's like, oh, alright, that's that's a creepy thing that exists. Exactly.
There's some state park in the southwest somewhere, probably, like a very specific area of the state park, and like obviously you're not supposed to take the you know, the petrif the fossilized wood, petrified wood or like any rocks or whatever from like the area, but people do. The the rangers have said like they get packages like almost every day of people that have taken something from this specific area, and like, yeah, I didn't think it was a big deal, and then like you know, I came home and like my entire life fell apart. Whatever, all these things like randomly started happening to me.
So I'm really sorry, please have the thing back and go put it back where it lives because like having this has is not is not good for my health, essentially. I mean, and so it's like one of those things of like you know, correlation and causation and superstition and possibility and plausibility, but but the Robert the Doll, especially like that one, because it it it I and again, like I'm I'm sure I know other people know more about it than I'm recalling at the moment, but like it seems like such a very niche thing to go see.
And I feel like it only happens if you like talk mess like in front of the doll itself, like not if you're anywhere else. Like if if if he hears you, then that's when like something bad happens. And so I always thought that was like very interesting, like once again, like agnostic about most things. Well, almost everything, really. Like, I I can't tell you what I think is happening because I don't know. But I always thought that was very interesting, like specifically.
Yeah, no, there is such a fantastically rich repertoire of ProFootball is back, and so are the predictions.
Yeah, which is funny because like I'm not like when I was when I was growing up, like being creeped out like by porcelain dolls was a big thing. Clowns weren't the big thing yet. And like they never really creep me out because like they're just a doll. But there's something like you're right, there's something uncanny about certain pieces of art or or artifacts or whatever that you're like, alright, this isn't just creepy because it might be foreign to me. Like there's something like that's like tickling my lizard brain, and I don't really like it that much, you know.
Exactly. All right, so how about story number three?
So number three actually piggybacks off of my stepdad's family. They're real big into genealogy, and my stepdad's sister, her work gives her free access to like basically every genealogy research website database that there is. And so she's been able to do a lot of research. Let's let's step back for a second. So I'm into like weird little like occult-y type things and whatever, and there's this website that I like that just like sells like little knickknacks and whatever, and it's called like memento mori or like memento mori items or goods or something like that.
And I'm not getting any kind of sponsorship, so like if somebody wants to sling something my way, but that said, um, so they have this line that that's sort of like an homage to the folks who were murdered during the Salem witch trials. And I collect enamel pins, like lapel pins that you you stick on, like not writing pins. And there were two that I liked. And one of them says, Oh nasty slut. And then the other one is I told you earlier, I truly hope that someone uses this unironically at me before I die, because that will make my life. And the other one is oh rampant hag. And I love that.
I'm up in Wisconsin for the first time last summer. Uh my mom passed away, and they had her ashes up there, and my stepsister's mom passed away earlier that year, and it just so happened that I was going to make the uh the memorial servers for her mom. So anyway, so we're all chit-chatting and whatever, because I haven't seen any of them since I was probably about 14. So they're talking to me, and they're telling me uh my stepdad's sister is telling me that you know she did all this genealogy and this, that, and the other. And turns out they're related to someone from the Salem witch trials.
And I said, really? And it just so turned out that I had my nasty slap pin on my bag at that point in time, which is what was said to Sarah Good, who was one of the first three or four people who were hanged during the Salem Witch trials. And I was like, Oh, you're joking me. And they're like, No, and I was like, Oh wow, and they they did not think it was nearly as funny as I did that I had the pen, or I guess what it said. Whatever. Not like they knew her, like 400 years. Yeah, like this Yeah, right? I'm like, you don't know who this woman is. Sarah Good.
Like that was yeah, like I I did a a little bit of research into it. I think that she's also featured as a character in the crucible, but I could be wrong because uh I don't even know if I read that in high school.
I did, but that would have been back in what 10th grade, which is effectively infinity plus 20, 30 years, whatever that is.
Right, right after the Big Bang, right? Like time is meaningless. Like I have I have what happened last week, and then everything else is like, yeah, the other day. Um so Sarah Good, like her heel husband, like testified against her. They got her like four or five or six-year-old daughter to testify against her. This is awful stuff, and like the nasty slut came because these children or whatever that were, you know, that were giving testimony that that were also afflicted, or whatever. Like, Sarah Good wasn't even there.
And they said there that they were having visions that she had like appeared in the courtroom or whatever, and somebody else like took a stick and hit the air with it, basically. And this this chick was like, Oh, like you hit her, like, yeah, like good job, or whatever. But basically, she was like, Oh, like there she is, and she's and she's naked and like she's naked and showing her legs and her breast, and oh, you nasty slut. Like, and I was like, All right.
But the best part of it is that they didn't hang her right away because girlfriend was knocked up with her second child, which she had in prison, which then died because you know prison sucks now, but apparently back then, obviously back then it sucked a lot or sucked more or sucked in different ways, really. Because we let's not talk about the the prison industrial complex. Because I'll jump on that. But yeah, and so anyway, so Sarah, you know, Sarah's being interrogated this whole time, you know, and like, you know, who do you serve? And she was like, I serve God.
And they're like, you know, who do you employ to do these things? And she's like, Nobody that I know of. And like, well, you know, why are you hurting the kids? And she's like, I'm not. And so anyway, so they're up on the gallows, Sarah and these three other uh women. And they're up on the gallows, and this this judge, his name was Noyas. N-O-Y-E-S. Uh so I don't know that I'm pronouncing that correctly, but that's how I'm saying it. So he's standing there and he's like read right? Like somebody please correct me. For like for real, that wasn't like a a a challenge.
Or or it is a challenge, whatever makes you happy, I guess. But so homie's standing there and he's reading these chicks the riot act, like they're I mean, they're there on the gallows, like you know, like what else you gonna do? And he keeps trying to get him to confess, you know, and Sarah's like, no. He's like, Yeah, like admit you did it, and whatever, whatever.
And the the few books that that I did read my my little excerpts out of uh control F is the best, had mentioned that the these authors, these historians had mentioned that they think that Sarah's uh obstinence to the judge is like what probably guaranteed that she was gonna hang. But anyway, so she's up there with these other women and everybody else is quiet and she's just like, nah, dude, didn't do it, don't know what you're talking about.
And so when the judges declared her guilty, apparently Sarah Good looked at Judge Noyas and this is this is a quote, this is the part where you can't prove me right or wrong because accounts differ. So there you go. But I like this story, so I'm saying it's right. Apparently she yelled to him, quote, I am no more a witch than you are a wizard, and if you take away my life, God will give you blood to drink. And so then hang her, she's dead. And then, like, I don't know, like 15 years later or something, Noez dies.
And I did find an actual, like, actual document saying that he likely died of something like a like a brain hemorrhage. But the thing is, is if you have some kind of uh an aneurysm or anything like that, then that can lead to you know your your blood leaking out of your orifices. But also it's not uncommon for you to aspirate blood, depending on how long the body has been dead as it goes through the states of rigor. And so it, you know, if someone found him, you know, however many hours after he died, and there was blood on his mouth or on his face.
Like people thought that that's part that's part of where like the vampire myth comes from, is like bodies aspirating blood, and so like, oh like they're drinking blood, right? But yeah, the fact that he may or may not have choked on his own blood to death, I kind of like, and I don't care if it's real or not, because I want to believe because that's pretty badass.
That would be accurate, and of course he would he would thoroughly deserve that.
Right. I mean, like one of my other favorites was uh I think there's only one man that was actually murdered, and he was he was pressed to death. Like they they put something, you know, like a I don't know, like a piece of wood like down the length of your body essentially, and just like keep putting heavy stuff on it over the course of like days. Like it it is I mean, they can do it as they can it they can take as little or as long as they want to. And obviously, you know, it it gets to the point where you can't expand your lungs anymore and you die.
And the only thing that this man would say over days was more weight. Like, what a great f you. More weight. But uh that's all you that's all you got, like more weight, guys. And I was like, and they never got a confession out of him. Never, not not one single thing. But yeah, no, I I especially liked that that bit with Sarah Good, and like my stepdad has kind of like insinuated that like maybe his his grand practiced some tarot or like there's like a crystal ball around her house somewhere in this very tiny Lutheran, very Lutheran town. Very, you know, Midwestern, nice Lutheran area.
And so I'm like, alright, like maybe all got maybe all got something going on here. I don't know why I missed the boat on all the cool stuff. Again, possibilities and probabilities and you know, anecdotes aren't evidence and yada yada yada, but I like and the human brain enjoys a pattern. But yeah, I just like all these things taken together, like all these things taken together. I'm like, if nothing else, aren't they cool stories?
At the end of the day, we crave entertainment, and whether they're true or not, if they elicit a chill down the spine or you know, a hearty chuckle, then really what more can you ask for?
Right? I mean, better and easier than trying to find, you know, I don't know. I'm not gonna say what I was gonna say. That's it. Like for a a while I wanted to do folklore in in instead of like straight up archaeology, just because I think stories are so fascinating and like these these motifs and uh how you know for me outside looking in, like it's so easy to find these different motifs, but even if one is aware of motif like from inside the tradition, it can the same thing can mean so many different things, even in the same time period, in the same cultural context.
And like I just think that's fascinating.
It absolutely is, just so long as you don't study Joseph Campbell. Friends don't like friends study Joseph Campbell. You know what I mean?
I kept meaning to, and I deleted the books off of my Kindle because of you.
So now you have worn the very cockles of my heart, man.
Yeah, man, like it just like archetypes are a thing, and like all of you know the Dying and Virgin God, and like all of these things, but just like aren't stories fun.
Well, you have thoroughly entertained me. I know you have entertained everyone who bothers to listen, and I cannot thank you enough for spending this Halloween regaling us with some of the best tales I could have asked for.
Yeah, no, this was a this was a pleasure. Um I'm really flattered and honored to have been on again. I'm hoping that maybe somebody somewhere gets a little chuckle out of these stories or a little bit of entertainment. If you're gonna play with Ouija boards and uh I guess go for it. Something about salt, I don't know. Um I haven't seen supernatural in a while. JJ, you are awesome. And thanks so much for having me again. And I can't wait to hear more stories.
Thank you for listening to Southern Demonology. Find us online at Southern Demonology.com where you can find all of our social and podcasting links. Also, if you have a moment, please feel free to rate this podcast and leave any encouraging feedbacks that you may have. As always, I am JJ and it has been a pleasure getting to talk to you today.