← Heart Starts Pounding: Horrors, Hauntings and Mysteries
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- [00:00]
Kayla Moore
This episode is brought to you by Cash App. All right, let's be real for a second. How are you sending and receiving money if you're still using those other apps? It's time for an upgrade. I'm talking about Cash App. It's so quick to sign up and within minutes you're ready to send money, get paid, or split a bill with no hassle. Plus, you don't even need a bank account to get started. I mean, seriously, Cash App just makes life easier. No more awkward. I'll pay you back next time. Moments how many times have you gone to dinner and one person puts their card down and then everyone has to figure out how they're going to pay them back? I mean, I've been to dinners where two people have their wallets out and they're counting dollar bills. Someone else has their bank account open on their phone trying to figure out how to wire money, and the person who put their card down basically knows they're not going to get paid back. 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Well, my go to place for audiobooks, for research or just for pleasure is audible. Currently, my sibling Leo and I are listening through all of the Harry Potter audiobooks. I just finished number four this year, but I think Leo's absolutely destroying me and has already gotten through six. I've also listened to Sheri Franke's audiobook version of the House of My Mother on Audible, which I've already recommended on this show. I cannot recommend it enough. With a vast selection of thousands of audiobooks exclusive Audible originals, and immersive podcasts. Audible offers something for every listener, from best sellers to highly anticipated new releases. The options are endless. And the best part? The included selection just keeps growing, giving every member access to incredible titles at no extra cost, including the Words and Music series, where storytelling and music come together in an unforgettable way. Audible members can keep one title a month to keep from the entire catalog. New members can try Audible now free for 30 days, and dive into a world of new thrills. Visit audible.com HSP or you can text HSP to 500500 that's audible.com HSP or text HSP to 500500 to try audible free for 30 days the Internet freaked out last month when the haunted doll Annabelle was taken on tour around the country. I got so many messages from you guys about buildings that were burning down in her wake, prisoners that were escaping, and how she may or may not have gone missing at one point during the tour. But what was really going on? Why was the Annabelle tour such a disaster? I have been obsessively reading everything I can about it and the experiences people had with her, and I wanted to put all of that into one big deep dive episode today for you. And before we get into it, you know I love hearing about your morbid little hobbies and jobs and interests. And in this episode I specifically wanted to shout out Adam, who reached out to me. Adam owns the Three Cranes, a pub in Rotherham, England from 1470. He says it's popular, possibly haunted, and they're actually going to do a seance there this July probably to find out for good. If you find yourself in the area, please check it out. And say hello to the medieval ghosts for me. We're off next week, but we'll be coming back strong with the start of our Dark Summer series, Volume two. I know that a lot of you are going to be on the road, traveling, camping, visiting family for the fourth of July, so it's an extra good time to binge on episodes you haven't caught up on yet. Make sure you check out the free trials on Patreon and Apple podcasts, where you're also able to listen to the back catalog of bonus episodes. Last month we covered Secrets of the Vatican, and this week we're going to be exploring when psychological experiments go wrong throughout history. So check out those free trials. And do you know what makes it an even better time to subscribe? We are dropping all new Heart starts pounding and rogue detecting society merch. Today we've got hoodies, our Jinx Disco Tee, and my personal favorite, a Rogue Detecting Society journal. Patreon subscribers get 10% off and Patreon High Council tier subscribers will get 20% off their purchases. I'm very excited about these. I've been wearing the samples around for weeks now and I've been keeping all of my notes in my RDS notebook. Also Apple subscribers, make sure you listen through the end of the episode to find out how you can get your very own secret 10% discount. Okay, just to reiterate, next week heart starts pounding Binge week. So try out a subscription, try to catch up on content, get ready for Dark summer, and make sure you go check out our merch at shop.heartstarts pounding.com Links to everything are going to be in the description all right, now let's get to it. Before we get into the tour, let's do a quick little refresher on who Annabelle is. The story, as Ed and Lorraine Warren would tell it, is as follows. In 1970, a 28 year old nurse in Hartford, Connecticut was gifted a Raggedy Ann doll by her mother. It was a cute little birthday gift that she didn't really think much of, but pretty much immediately the doll started exhibiting strange behavior. For instance, she would place the doll on her bed neatly, only to find that it had switched positions while she wasn't looking. Soon the doll started appearing in different rooms of the house mysteriously, like some invisible force was carrying her around. The woman and her friends would also find scraps of parchment paper lying on the floor with scribbled handwriting that read Help me. Help us. It was particularly strange because the woman didn't have any parchment paper in her home at the time. So where were these notes even coming from? She and her friends thought maybe an intruder was sneaking in and leaving them, though they could never find any sign someone had broken in other than the notes, and the notes persisted even when the house was fully locked down. Then one day one of her friends woke from a nap to see the Raggedy Ann doll staring at him and he got the overwhelming feeling of hands on his throat starting to choke him. After that, the friends called a medium who told them that the spirit of a young girl named Annabelle Higgins was trapped inside the doll. Annabelle had lived on the property previously, but died when she was just seven years old. They were told that this young girl just wanted to be loved and they could give her permission to stay inside the dollar, which they did, and that made things much, much worse. It's now believed that that was not the spirit of a young girl inside the doll, but in fact, something much more sinister. And by inviting it to inhabit the doll, it was basically given permission to stay. The name Annabelle stuck despite not being the ghost of the little girl, and she is still referred to as that to this day. Eventually, demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren came to own the doll, and they kept her locked in a glass case inside their museum of Haunted objects in Monroe, Connecticut. Here's Lorraine talking about her museum and the Annabelle doll.
- [07:39]
Lorraine Warren
Everything in here has been taken from some place where people are either killed or maimed or so many ways. So it's tragic for me, you know, to even go. People are very, very interested in the museum. Don't ever touch anything. And if you do, let me know. This is the worst thing in here, that doll. I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna stare at it, though. And that's the one that sort of depicted a little bit in this movie.
- [08:15]
Kayla Moore
Cry.
- [08:16]
Lorraine Warren
Yes, it is. That's the Annabelle dial.
- [08:20]
Kayla Moore
The couple always made it clear whatever is in Annabelle is evil, and it's probably something we'll never understand. So it's important that she always stays inside of her case and never moves. So you can understand why the Internet was shocked, to say the least, when it was announced earlier this year that she would be going on tour across America. The tour was going to be organized by the New England Society of Psychic Research, or NESPER for short. Now, Nesper was founded in 1952 by Ed and Lorraine Warren, and the organization tried to assure everyone that this tour was always part of Ed and Lorraine's plan. They said that the couple knew that not everyone would be able to come visit their home in Connecticut, and they wanted to give more people a chance to see the haunted objects they'd collected over their career. So the idea was always that some of these objects would go on tour. But out of everything in their museum, Annabelle appears to be the only object that constantly needs to be locked up. She's always in her little wooden box with the little glass window, because bad stuff happens when she's not. So people naturally were nervous, especially because some people mentioned that Annabelle had already been brought to events in the past, and those didn't necessarily go very well. So this story happened to a woman named Katrina Despotovich, though I first heard it told by an Instagram user named Spooks and ghouls. In 2019, Katrina attended a dinner that Nesper threw called An Evening With Annabelle. At the dinner, Nesper was going to bring a few haunted objects from The Warren Museum for people to be able to see, including Annabelle and her protective casing. Katrina actually showed a picture of the waiver she had to sign, and it absolved Nesper of all traumatic influence associated with viewing the items or being in the presence of Annabelle and or items which I thought that was kind of funny. Now, other items that were at the dinner included a very eerie satanic idol that the Warrens collected from a man in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, just north of the Warrens home. The figure is tall, lanky, and completely black. It almost looks like it's made out of sticks. It also has these big uneven black eyes and two tall horns. The story goes that the man was a hunter who was out in the woods when he noticed this very figure. There was also a man in black robes walking away from the scene, but the hunter didn't get a very good look at him. The Warrens brought the figure to their museum and Lorraine immediately fell ill. Ed thought it was probably because this object had a curse placed on it by a satanic priestess that once owned it. He had mentioned before that Satanism was much more common in Connecticut than people realized. Which, you know, me being from there, that doesn't really surprise me. The vibes are off in some parts of Connecticut if you know, you know. Another haunted object that was there is known as the shadow doll. And it's said to kill people in their dre. The doll is covered in these black bird feathers, and it also has this black shawl wrapped around it. On top of that, it has a real human tooth lodged in its mouth. To send the evil of the shadow doll to someone, you're supposed to take a picture of it and write a curse on the back of the photo. And then you mail that image to the person you would like to curse. And finally, at this dinner, there was of course, Annabelle herself, the woman of the hour. Katrina was very careful while she was at this event. Mind you, she's a darkly curious person, just like us, and she wanted to see the doll up close, but she also wanted to be safe. So she had holy water sprinkled on her before the event. And she made sure to be very respectful towards Annabelle when approaching her and taking a photo. But after the event, she noticed that she had multiple strange bruises on her arms and legs. The one on her arm looked like something the size of a doll opened up its mouth and bit down on her. Almost like teeth marks. Not really breaking or indenting the skin, but hard enough to leave a bruise. She also had these weird dark bruises on her legs, like something was grabbing at her. Katrina was completely shaken by this experience and her stories started circulating around the Internet once it was announced that Annabelle was going on a much larger tour. Because what Katrina had attended was just a dinner nearby the Warrens home in Connecticut. What was going to happen when Annabelle was brought all around the country? There used to be an old house on Maple Avenue. It had been abandoned for decades until a few years ago when a couple named Megan and Chris bought it. Now they were young, adventurous, total DIY types. They saw that rundown house and thought, we could fix it up. The neighbors tried to warn them. Of course that place is haunted. It's cursed. But Megan. Megan didn't believe in ghosts and. And plus she got that house for a steal. So the two moved in. The first night everything was fine. A couple of creaks, a little cold draft, but nothing they couldn't handle. But then night two hit around 3am Megan woke up to this clinking sound coming from down the hallway like coins. She looked through her open door down the pitch black hallway and the sound got louder and closer, eventually waking Chris up. Then suddenly, from the hallway, a figure appeared. Pale, translucent, tattered and worn clothes, with wild white hair. The ghost of an old man holding a rusty key in one hand and a crumpled map in the other. He looked at them, eyes hollow, and said, where is my treasure? Naturally, they freaked out. Who wouldn't? The two cowered in their bed as the figure walked over to their closet, the floorboards creaking beneath him. They watched as the door popped open by itself. And then the figure started pulling up the floorboards. Shortly after, he stopped and slowly reached down, pulling something to the surface. It was an old rusty box. It looked older than the house itself. The figure held it to its chest and said, my treasure. At this point, Megan and Chris were more curious to know what treasure was before them in the box than they were scared. The figure then popped open the lid of the box and revealed it was full of old, dusty and rusted coins. How much is in there? Chris asked. It's my life savings, the figure said. It's worth $100. Chris and Megan looked at each other. Yeah, $100 won't really get you far these days. Megan got up and crouched next to the figure and put her hand on his back. Honestly, you should have kept that money in a high yield savings account. If you'd put it in cash app back then with a decent interest rate now, that would have been some treasure. Just then, the figure let out a horrible wail and vaporized poof. Gone. Since then, no one's seen the ghost again. Moral of the don't bury your money in the floorboards. Let it grow in a High Yield Savings Account Cash App makes savings simple. If you direct deposit at least $300 in paychecks each month, you can unlock up to 4% interest on your savings and watch your account grow. Plus, getting started is simple. No extra hoops to jump through. No extra stress. All of the tools are right there to help you cash in. Download the Cash app and start your high yield savings journey today. Terms apply. Save See this episode's description for important product disclaimers. That's money. That's Cash App. Hey, what's up flies? This is David Spade.
- [16:36]
Lorraine Warren
Dana Carvey.
- [16:37]
Kayla Moore
Okay, I know we never actually left.
- [16:39]
Lorraine Warren
But I'll just say it.
- [16:40]
Kayla Moore
We are back with another season of Fly on the Wall.
- [16:43]
Lorraine Warren
Every episode, including ones with guests while now be on video. Every Thursday you'll hear us and see us chatting with big name celebrities.
- [16:53]
Kayla Moore
And every Monday you're stuck with just me and Dana. We react to news, what's trending, viral.
- [16:58]
Lorraine Warren
Clips follow and listen to Fly on the Wall everywhere you get your podcasts.
- [17:03]
Kayla Moore
This episode is brought to you by Hedley and Bennett, Calling all sourdough tamers, souffle whisperers and jammy egg savants. Whether you're a professional chef or just whipping up something delicious on a weeknight, there's one brand that can uplevel your kitchen style and functionality. Hedley and Bennett. Hedley and Bennett makes premium kitchen gear that blends style, durability and function. From their signature aprons to razor sharp Japanese steel knives. And they're the real deal. They've sold over a million aprons worn by some of the best chefs in the world. From top restaurants to the biggest cooking competitions on tv. Designed by chefs for chefs, every product is made with the highest quality materials and backed by a lifetime guarantee. So you know you're investing in kitchen essentials that last. And if you're looking for the perfect gift, check out their new collaborations with the NFL, Star Wars, Disney and more. There's something for every cook and every fan. Ready to upgrade your kitchen? Head over to Hedley and Bennett.com and use code podcast15 at checkout for 15% off your order. That's podcast15 for 15% off. Elevate your cooking experience with Headley and Bennett today. That brings us to our first stop on the Annabelle tour. West Virginia State Penitentiary. So it seems like the idea was to bring Annabelle to various haunted locations around the United States. The first one being the very haunted West Virginia state penitentiary. This massive gothic style jail opened in 1866 and ran until 1995 and today functions mostly as a museum and tourist attraction. It has an incredibly dark past. Lots of hangings happened on the grounds, and actually Bud Peterson, who was the last man ever executed at the prison, Is still buried in the back because his family didn't want to come collect his remains. It's said that his ghost still stalks the area most nights. Back in the day, executions were actually all carried out in public and people in town could gather to watch. That is, until the hanging of Frank Heyer. Frank was in the prison for killing his wife and was set to be hanged on June 19, 1931. The Virginia Chronicle reported that that day Frank walked up to the gallows, Loudly proclaimed to the crowd, I am guilty. And the whiskey was the cause of it. Jesus has saved my soul and I'm not afraid to die. And then the lever was pulled and the trapdoor below his feet swung open. The only problem was Frank was a heavyset guy and the wrong rope had been selected for the hanging. By the time his body fell through the trapdoor, the rope had sliced his head clean off. Apparently, the crowd could handle regular hangings, but beheadings were far too much for them. And after that, capital punishment was all performed in private. Aside from all the executions, botched and otherwise, 36 murders also happened within the prison, the most famous being the butchering of a man named Artie Wall. Wall was caught snitching on his fellow inmates in 1929, and three other inmates slashed him with dull homemade shivs in a hallway. By the 1980s, conditions in the prison had totally deteriorated. It had not been kept up at all Due to lack of funding. Rats and flies were everywhere. They were infecting inmates with diseases and eating their flesh. The plumbing hadn't been repaired in years, and sewage leaked out into the hallways and smeared onto the walls. On new Year's Day in 1986, the prisoners had enough and they rioted, Overtaking the guards and the kitchen staff. They held knives to their throats and handcuffed them to each other. Three inmates died in the process, but they were able to get a meeting with the mayor, and he did agree to a new list of standards within the prison. The penitentiary did eventually close in 1995, and pretty much to no one's surprise, People started reporting that the prison was haunted. Basically immediately after it closed, stories started surfacing of disembodied voices being heard throughout the building. Security guards would see figures out of the corners of their eyes, and visitors reported feeling like they were being touched and grabbed by invisible hands. And so Nesper thought that this was the perfect place to bring Annabelle for her first stop of the tour. I saw a lot of comments from locals about her being brought to the penitentiary. Mind you, it is located in Appalachia. So a lot of people were basically like, appalachia has a lot going on as is. We do not need Annabelle here running amok. Thank you very much. Hey, what the.
- [21:53]
Lorraine Warren
Why did I just see a video.
- [21:55]
Kayla Moore
Of Annabelle being brought to the West Virginia State Penitentiary?
- [22:00]
Lorraine Warren
Let me tell you something. It's haunted as hell here. We can't even go in the woods past 8pm at night.
- [22:09]
Kayla Moore
Actually, we can't even look in that direction.
- [22:13]
Lorraine Warren
Why would you do that? What the. Why would you take a cursed Raggedy Ann doll that's known for drop kicking souls into the shadow realm to a facility that's already 97% ghost? And one underpaid janitor named Earl?
- [22:25]
Kayla Moore
But then when Annabelle arrived, something really unexpected happened. After Annabelle's night at the penitentiary, Ryan Buell, who worked for the Warrens organization and seemed to be organizing the whole tour, took to TikTok to explain that when they brought Annabelle into the building, all of the paranormal activity quieted. It was like someone turned the dial on all the ghosts down. He said that Annabelle herself was quiet as well, and not much really happened around her. And he seemed to be pretty surprised by this, as if bringing Annabelle into an already paranormal hotspot was like adding fuel to a fire. Everything should amplify. Annabelle would be kind of like the maestro conducting the ghost choir. But no, Everyone watched in confusion as everything got quiet that night once she was wheeled in. And then apparently when she was wheeled out of the jail the next day, all of the ghost activity resumed. So people started thinking Annabelle was maybe more like a shark in the water. Like once she comes around, spirits go into survival mode and hide. And if that's the case, then they were in for a really boring next few weeks on this tour. At least that's what they thought. But then after this, they brought Annabelle to New Orleans. Now for her New Orleans stop, Annabelle was brought to the French Quarter as part of an event thrown by Ghost City Tours. New Orleans is a very, very haunted place. We did a whole episode on some of the most famous ghost stories from New Orleans. I'll actually link that in the description for those that are interested. But think modern Day vampires. Big above ground cemeteries with ghosts that stalk the aisles. And a long, rich history of voodoo and other forms of folk magic. There's ghosts all about. But after Annabelle's quiet stop in West Virginia, it seemed like Nesper was feeling pretty calm about her visit. Like it would just be another quiet evening. But it became very clear very quickly that some of the locals did not want her there.
- [24:44]
Lorraine Warren
Go to hell, Annabelle. Go to hell, Annabelle. Don't you come to New Orleans for that no more. I put my holy water down on you. I rebuke you in the name of New Orleans voodoo. Annabelle. I rebuke you. I rebuke you.
- [24:59]
Kayla Moore
This is a woman known as the Bone lady shaking a tambourine at Annabelle and telling her to go back to hell. The Bone lady is a fifth generation voodoo priestess who lives in New Orleans and owns the Voodoo Bone Lady Voodoo shop. Apparently when Annabelle arrived, the van carrying her was parked directly in front of the Bone Lady's store. And weird things started happening immediately.
- [25:25]
Lorraine Warren
When I tell you this is weird, this is getting weird. It is 80 something degrees outside in New Orleans today and it is ice cold cold in this shop. As soon as they brought Annabelle next door, it temperature drops. I'm putting on two hoodies. Did you hear what I said? Two hoodies in May in New Orleans. It's 80 something degrees outside. Oh my gosh. I told y' all all kind of crazy stuff was happening. Look, the lights are flickering. This has been happening on and off ever since they brought that demon doll next door. Oh my gosh.
- [25:55]
Kayla Moore
The Bone lady also stopped some people who were coming out from seeing Annabelle to get their reaction. And. And people were really all over the map. One woman was excited because she saw the doll's hand move on its own. And maybe she caught it on camera. Another man had that look you get on your face after a really intense roller coaster ride, like he was in shock from the intensity of the experience. And another man refused to speak about what he had seen until he was standing outside of a cathedral.
- [26:25]
Lorraine Warren
Okay, this man right here, he went to go see Annabelle and he gonna tell us what he saw, but he's so spooked about it that he don't comfortable telling unless he came over here in front of the cathedral. Now what did you see? I went and played. I saw the dog. The dog eye was black. Then the dog eye turned red. The dog eye turned red. I left out the place and ran around the mother corner. When I look back at the dog, still gave me the red eye. That was on fire. I'm have to come to your place and you have to teach me something to get this voodoo off me or whatever it is on me.
- [26:58]
Kayla Moore
It's a little hard to hear him, but he says that Annabelle's eyes turned from black to red and then he ran out of the building. By this point, it was becoming very clear to Ryan and Nesper that New Orleans was not going to be as quiet as West Virginia was if the West Virginia State Penitentiary went dark. To avoid antagonizing her, New Orleans was on full attack mode, sending the living and the dead to get get the doll out of the city. After one night in town, though, Annabelle was whisked away to her next spot. And maybe the people of New Orleans all collectively exhaled because they thought that this nightmare was over. But it seemed like the mayhem was only just beginning. The next morning, as Annabelle was being loaded into Nesper's black van to be transported to her next stop in Texas, residents of Louisiana woke to the news that the largest antebellum plantation in the South, Louisiana's own Nottoway plantation, had burned to the ground. People were shocked at the news. How did a house that lasted 165 years, that had continually been maintained, that had grants given to it specifically for renovation and upkeep, suddenly burned to ash in the night? And I mean ash. When you look at videos and pictures of the event, you'd be hard pressed to find a square inch of this place that was not engulfed in flames. It's like hell opened up and swallowed it whole. And a lot of people in Louisiana started pointing fingers at Annabelle because if, let's say, the ghosts of New Orleans were on high alert the night before waging a spiritual war with the dollar. Well, there was one place in Louisiana that was also incredibly spiritually dark. The exact type of place that Annabelle would have wanted to attack, at least according to some people in Louisiana. Let me start by giving you a brief history of the Nottoway plantation. Nottoway was built in 1859 by enslaved people for a man named John Randolph, who was one of the most prominent slave owners in the South. John was a farmer of both cotton and sugar, which made him incredibly rich. At its Height, Nottoway held 155 enslaved people, many of which are still believed to be buried on the grounds in unmarked graves. One of these people was Alice Thompson, a woman who would go on to bear the children of John Randolph's son. One of her descendants is a woman named Judy Whitney Davis, and she was leads tours at Nadway. So one thing that Judy noticed about Nadway when she started working there is that the website calls it a resort and a mansion, and it's mostly marketed as a wedding venue. The small houses in the back of the property are now referred to as cottages instead of what they most likely originally were slave quarters. And when Judy went to the history section of the website, it only mentioned the trees on the property. No, seriously, it's still up to this day. In the history tab, there is one section that reads, Nottoway's grounds feature 16 majestic oak trees spread across the 31 acre property. And that's it. There's no other history of the place mentioned on the website at all. They don't even really talk about when the house was originally built or what it was built for before it seems like the whole website had scrubbed its dark history and even the word plantation. But we've discussed this a lot here at Heart starts pounding, but it bears repeating. Just because your website is neatly designed with italic 4 0, rounded font, just because the photos are all of smiling couples on their wedding day, and just because you've swapped out some of the original furniture doesn't change the history of what happened there. It doesn't remove the hundreds of unnamed bodies that are buried in shallow graves by the levee in the backyard. It doesn't eradicate the spirits of those who can't ever find rest, who still patrol the halls, no matter how hard the new management tries to ignore them. And so, the day after Annabelle left Louisiana, a fire broke out in the attic of the Nottoway plantation. And for 17 hours, it demolished the structure of the house, wrecking the silk curtains, the antique family portraits, the remaining original furniture, and other valuables still left in the home. And immediately, social media exploded. There were memes I saw right away of Annabelle standing in front of the plantation while it burned, her wicked grin taking on a whole new meaning. It actually became such a viral thing on social media that Ghost City Tours, who hosted Annabelle in New Orleans, issued a statement saying, quote, we've seen the comments blaming us and Annabelle's visit to our store in New Orleans for the fire. Ha. We realize people are joking. We hope. No, Annabelle didn't burn down Nottaway Plantation. Don't go giving Hollywood any more ideas for horrible movies. The official report said the damage was caused by an electrical fire, but that it was a total loss. There was no hope of any sort of recovery for the plantation's main building. And some people felt like this whole thing was too spiritual. To just be an electrical fire. They pointed to images of the fire where it looked like figures were on the second floor while everything burned around them. Other people said they could see faces in the flames, as if the fire was releasing all all of the spiritual energy of the place in a sort of cleansing. And I did see one quote in all of this that I still think about it read In a city built on spirits, nothing burns without reason. And it seems like a lot of people in Louisiana agree with that statement. Especially because not long after the Nottoway fire, another historical building, this time back in New Orleans is would also go on to suffer a catastrophic fire. 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That's C-Y-M-B-I-O-T-I K A.com heartstartspounding for 20% off Symbiotica's new ShilAjit Liquid Complex this episode is brought to you by Zola My wedding was the best weekend of my life, but it wasn't without a few hiccups. For one, there was another wedding in the area that same day. Except that wedding had 500 people and ours had 30. That wedding had also booked all of the vendors all around the small town before we even had a chance to, so no one was really available to help us. One fun memory I have from the morning of my wedding is watching a woman drop off a box of decorations in our driveway and then zoom off to go set up for the big wedding that would not have happened if we had used Zola. Zola makes wedding planning so much easier. Everything you need is in one place, from finding venues and vendors to creating a wedding website and building an instant registry. Seriously, you can do it in one click. Zola has your back every step of the way. Zola is modern wedding planning for modern couples. There's no denying that we're now at that age where everyone's either getting married, just got married is a pro wedding guest, you name it. So no matter what stage you're in, Zola is the ultimate tool for modern wedding planning. Start planning@zola.com that's z o l a.com the day after the Nottoway fire, May 16. Maybe everyone thought that day would be a chill day in the area. Maybe they were finally reaching some equilibrium after Annabelle's departure. But no. Once again, the people of New Orleans woke up to a very shocking notification that night at 12:23am 10 inmates from the New Orleans Parish Prison had managed to escape and were currently on the run. So security footage shows the men running out of the prison in the dead of night with their orange and white uniforms on, using blankets to protect themselves from the barbed wire fence, and then running across an interstate into a neighborhood. And these seem to be particularly scary inmates, I should add. The men all ranged in age from 19 to 42 years old and had been imprisoned for a variety of different offenses, from domestic abuse, battery to rape to murder. A few of them were imprisoned for life without parole. Not necessarily the people you would hope would be fleeing through the woods in your backyard. Initially, it seemed like faulty locks Were the source of the escape, Especially after it came out that days before the prisoners were able to flee, the Orleans Parish Sheriff's office asked for money to fix faulty locks on the cells. But those who were familiar with the prison knew that it would have been nearly impossible to escape without help. And that's when a little bit more about the escape started coming to light. So one of the escapees, Derek Groves, was there for a 2018 Mardi Gras shooting that earned him a life sentence without parole. He actually is still currently on the run, but he was dating a woman named Dariana Burton, who used to work for the Orleans Parish Sheriff's office. But she was let go for smuggling contraband into the prison for inmates. It's now believed that she aided in the escape plan by helping the prisoners communicate with people outside of the jail that could help them. A janitor was also discovered to have cut the water supply to a toilet so that it could be removed. And it seems like the prison wasn't aware that the escape had taken place until a routine headcount in the morning when a guard finally realized that 10 people were missing. Eventually, a hole in the prison was found with the words too easy lol scrawled above it. I will add here that while 8 of the prisoners who escape have been recaptured, There are still two people that are on the run and people in the area are still on high alert. Was this back to back mayhem the work of Annabelle, or was it just mere coincidence? Why was all of this happening was so soon after her visit to the area? Well, people didn't really have a chance to even think about that question because that's when the next fire erupted. On May 19, just days after the nottoway fire and prison escape, Judy Boudreau awoke to the smell of smoke and popping sounds coming from her kitchen. Immediately, she rose from her bed and her heart sank because she was living on one of the the most spiritual sites in all of New Orleans. A site that is a stop on every single voodoo tour that goes through the city. Judy lived in a cottage that was built on top of Marie Lavo's original home. Now, Marie Lavo was the most famous voodoo priestess to ever live in New Orleans. She was known for appearing to never age and for carrying a snake named zombie around her neck at all times. Born in 1801, Marie grew up to be what some people called the most powerful figure in New Orleans society. People both feared and respected her like she was a Machiavellian prince. She made such an impact that The New York Times actually ran her obituary when she died in 1881. And there are so many stories of how Marie could use voodoo to help people in New Orleans. Like the time that a wealthy businessman approached her. His son had been accused of murdering a Creole girl, and his father begged Marie to use her powers to help exonerate him of the crime. Marie agreed, but only if the man would sign over all of his land to her. The businessman agreed to it, and she got to work. According to the legend, Marie went to the St. Louis Cathedral with zombie her snake wrapped around her neck, and she prayed at the altar as she held three spicy guinea peppers in her mouth. She asked that the pain she felt from these peppers be penance for the crime committed. And then she took those three guinea peppers and placed one under the judge's seat, one under the jury, and one under the seat of the businessman's son. He was eventually acquitted of the crime, and the land was all signed over to Marie. To this day, her house has remained a pillar of New Orleans spiritual history. But that almost all changed on May 19. Luckily, the fire department was able to put out the fire in about two and a half hours, but that didn't stop it from creeping up the walls, damaging the kitchen and other parts of the house with fire and smoke damage. And once again, the Internet, cried Annabelle. All of this mayhem started just after she left. It seemed like she somehow changed the spiritual makeup of the area, and now everything was going haywire. After New Orleans, Annabelle was sent to the psychic and spirit fest in San Antonio, Texas. The event, which was put on by curious twins Paranormal at Victoria's Black Swan Inn, was a festival of booths that included tarot card readers, psychics, mediums, crystals, potions, as well as day long programs of speakers, paranormal investigators, and even a demonologist. But the main event was being able to see Annabelle, and it was actually here that we had some members of the heartstarts pounding community go and see her. Though no one reported any bite marks or bruises. I trust that's because you guys went to lengths to make sure you'd be okay in her presence. It was at this stop, though, that rumors started swirling that she had gone missing. A TikTok that has since been debunked claimed that after Annabelle left San Antonio, she was on her way to Chicago for another stop on her tour when she somehow vanished. Ryan, with Nesper, did jump onto TikTok pretty much right away, and he debunked this. He let everyone know that she was never going to Chicago and she never got lost along the way. After San Antonio, she went straight back to the Warren Museum in Connecticut and that's where she is right now. And so it seems like this leg of her tour ended on a much calmer note considering how chaotic it had become. But I will add, this tour is far from over. Annabelle does have some more stops this year should you be brave enough to go see her. She'll be at an orphanage in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania from July 11th to July 13th, and then she's going to be in Rock Island, Illinois from October 4th through October 5th. After that, I believe she's ending her tour at scarefest in Lexington, Kentucky October 17th through 19th, just in time for spooky season. But what do you guys think? Will the second leg of her tour be as spiritually chaotic as the first? Can anywhere in the US truly top New Orleans when it comes to spirits? I'm honestly not sure myself, but let me know wherever you listen if you plan on seeing Annabelle while you can. Or is she better off left alone? That's all I have for you this week. We're off next week, but we'll be back with the start of our Dark Summer series kicking off the second week of July, starting with terrifying camping stories. Until then, stay curious. OO Heart Starts Pounding is written and produced by me, Kayla Moore. Heartstarts Pounding is also produced by Matt Brown, Sound Designer Mix by Peachtree Sound. Special thanks to Travis Dunlap, Grayson Jernigan, the team at WME and Ben Jaffe have a heart pounding story or a case request. Check out heartstartspounding.com.