Aaron Manke (0:00)

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Aaron Manke (1:08)

On a warm summer night in 1754, the people of Windom, Connecticut awoke to a terrifying noise. It sounded like thousands of voices, all wailing in unison. And what's worse, the cries seemed to come from all around and and even above the village, and they were only growing louder. The people were terrified. Mind you, the French and Indian War had broken out only a couple of months prior, and the threat of ambush was on everyone's mind. So when they heard that terrible cacophony, the locals figured that there were only two possible explanations. Either the Apocalypse had finally arrived, as the Bible promised it would, or they were being attacked. Now, if it was the first option, there wasn't much they could do about it. But the second? Well, they had a bit of say over that. And so, fearing that the noise came from descending Wabanaki or Algonquin warriors, a scouting party was sent out to investigate. They searched all night, until at last, as the morning sun crested over the horizon, the scouts discovered the cause of the racket. But it wasn't a military attack. It was bullfrogs. Hundreds upon hundreds, perhaps even thousands of screaming, dying bullfrogs whose tiny corpses now filled a dried up mill pond. And whether done in by drought or disease, they certainly weren't a threat to the poor people of Windom. It wasn't long before the story of the town's big scare got out. The incident came to be known as the Battle of the Frogs, and for years, Windham was the butt of countless amphibian centric jokes and a number of comical ballads to boot camp. It just goes to show, sometimes the smallest characters can stir up the biggest trouble. I'm Aaron Manke and this is Lore, the twins from the Shining, the children of the Damien from the Omen. Creepy kids are one of the most common tropes in horror movies. And it makes sense. After all, what could be more frightening than childhood innocence giving way to evil? And if world folklore proves anything, we've been afraid of child shaped monsters for a very long time. Take for example, this terrifying tyke from the Philippines called the Chanak. If a baby dies before being baptized, they say the infant just might become one of these subterranean demons that crawl up out of the ground, creeping upon sleeping women and drinking their blood. As for other hobbies, Chanak are also known to abduct living children. But don't worry. You can protect your kids from this tiny vampire by giving them simple names, draping them in garlic, or most powerful of all, adorning them in a necklace of alligator teeth. Meanwhile, in Jewish folklore, there is the Banim Shovavim. These cuties are the love children born of the unholy union between humans and demons. They have a tendency to hang around funerals where they'll try steal the dead's inheritance, which was apparently such a problem that entire burial rituals cropped up to prevent it. Circling the dead in the cemetery, for example, and forbidding surviving sons from accompanying their father's body to the grave were both put in place to ward off the Benim Shovavim. Now, if there's one country that goes above and beyond when it comes to child monsters, it's Japan. They have not one, not two, but honestly, countless terrible toddlers in their supernatural folklore. Some of these yokai, or demon spirits are pretty benign. Like the makuragai eshi, or pillow swapper, which will simply mess up your sleeping by twisting up your pillows during the night. Or the zashiki warashi, which translates to guest room child, a domestic scamp who plays evil pranks around the house. Not so bad, right? But others aren't so harmless. Take the kappa who swim around in rivers hunting for their two favorite snacks and cucumbers and human anuses. Or the flabby child shaped paro ritaro, which eats greedy human children and whose name translates to I kid you not, licky boy. Oh, and speaking of eating children, there's plenty more where that came from. Folklore contains an unnerving number of creatures specifically known to devour kids. We all remember checking under the bed and behind closet doors for the boogeyman. But did you know that children have been doing this same thing for literally thousands of years? Heck, in ancient Mesopotamia, there were legends of a winged lion headed beast called the Lamashtu, who, when she wasn't busy causing epidemics, had the pesky little Habit of feasting on children's flesh and blood. Meanwhile, in Greek mythology, there is Lamia, a demon with the body of a snake and the head of a woman. Back when she was still fully human, she slept with Zeus. And when his wife Hera found out, Hera murdered Lamia's children. Grief stricken, Lamia transformed into a monster and developed a thirst for blood. Bent on stealing babies from the cribs, and even in utero, the way that her own children were taken from her. Now, the most famous Slavic child stealer is without a doubt Baba Yaga of Chicken Legged Hutt fame. Not the John Wick movies, but she's far from the only one. Snakes and lion heads are one thing, but how about wild swamp ladies with little red hats? They call her Dziva Zona. She comes from Slavic folklore and is a bog dwell demon with long unkempt hair and yes, a cheeky red cap festooned with a fern leaf. And meanwhile, the rest of her clothes, if she's wearing any, that is, are always in tatters. Her favorite pastime, why? Kidnapping newborns, of course. But don't accuse her of taking something for nothing. She's always careful to replace any stolen babies with a changeling. English children were warned of Black Agnes, an old crone with a blue face, yellow fangs and long sharp claws, who stole away children who stayed out playing after sundown. What does Black Agnes do with her victims, you might ask? Well, that's easy. She flays them alive, devours their flesh, and then scatters their bones across the land. And reflecting on this VIP list, it may seem obvious why they exist at all. A monster who eats kids that stay out late or wander into the woods are clear cautionary tales that parents would tell their children to keep them safe. After all, what's a kid more likely to avoid? Supposedly dangerous swamps? Or a terrifying swamp demon who will rip their skin off of their body? But the truth is, these stories didn't only exist for the sake of children. They also helped adults feel safe. And to understand why, we have to dig a little deeper into the places in which these stories were born. Because, as it turns out, most of these cultures share one tragic trait. An uncommonly high infant mortality rate. In the Philippines, 29 out of every thousand children will die before their first birthday. 40 before the age of five in Mesopotamia. Giving birth before the age of modern medicine was exceedingly dangerous, leading women to desperately turn not to medicine, but to magic to keep them and their babies safe. While in ancient Greece, 40% of all babies did not survive childhood. And the list goes on and on. By telling tales of child killing monsters, adults were able to anticipate and discuss the pain of losing a child through the soft veil of metaphor. And slowly, ever so slowly, begin to heal. And yet, sometimes telling stories of magic and mayhem doesn't keep children safe at all. In fact, every now and then, it can actually do the opposite. We like to think of progress as forward moving, to trust that with each passing year, we can be wiser and more sensible than the people in the past. But unfortunately, as we've seen in our own time, that isn't always how it shakes out. And for the people of the late 16th century, they were forced to learn that lesson the hard way. Witch trials have never been grounded in, let's just say, rational thinking. But you might be surprised to learn that in the early days of the practice, there were some pretty firm rules in place for keeping things from getting out of hand. One of the most important being no children were allowed to testify in court. And look, everyone knows that kids are prone to superstition. Sometimes it can be hard for them to tell the difference between stories and real life. And so, knowing this, those early courts absolutely forbid the testimonies of children when it came to condemning people for witchcraft. Their reports simply weren't reliable and could put innocent people in danger. In Jewish courts, for example, witnesses had to be 13 years of age or older. In England, that age was probably lower, around 7. But still, the law was firm, at least until it wasn't. Because by the time the late 16th century rolled around, all that common sense went right out the window. The laws were dropped. And not only were children allowed to testify, they became star witnesses. In fact, by the 17th and 18th centuries, children were responsible for starting most of the witch panics across Europe and the colonies. Remember, the most famous witch hysteria of all, the Salem witch trials happened because kids cried witch. And I know I'm not the only one who still gets chills when I think of those scenes in the Crucible where Abigail and her fellow girls chant in unison as if possessed. Oh, and by the way, over in Europe, children weren't just being called as witnesses. They were actually being employed as professional witch hunters. In the Basque province of Navarre, two young girls were hired to do just that. In 1525, at only 9 and 11 years of age, they had been accused of witchcraft themselves. And in exchange for a pardon, they were basically used as the witch finding equivalent of metal detectors. Essentially, one by one, villagers would be brought before the girls who would stare Deep into their eyes, searching for a witch's mark. And let's just say, you better pray they didn't find one. Because by the end of August of that same year, they had led 50 people to the gallows. In hearing this story, I can't help but think about what it must have been like for these children to grow up and realize what they had done. Did they continue to believe in the lies they were told? Or was there a horrible moment of clarity when they realized that their game of make believe was in fact, all too real? Well, for one 9 year old girl named Janet Device, this question must have been all the more horrifying, because by the time she had finished her accusations, her entire family was dead. It all started on March 21st of 1612, when Janet's older sister Alison, bumped into a peddler on the road and asked if he would sell her some pins. The peddler said no, and allegedly, Alizin, frustrated with being refused, cursed the man. Which was not a great idea, especially given the fact that shortly after, that very same peddler suffered a stroke and announced that Alizon Device was to blame. Add to that the fact that pins were known witches tools, and Alizon was starting to look pretty guilty. So she did what any terrified young woman might do. She accused a whole bunch of other people of witchcraft to save her own skin. These included her own grandmother, as well as a bunch of folks from another family called the Chadoxes, with whom her own family had been feuding for years. Who knows, maybe she saw it as a chance to shoot two birds with one stone, avoid the noose, and take down her Chadox rivals while she was at it. One thing led to another, and it wasn't long before the jail was stuffed with Devizes and Chattoxes alike. With everyone pointing fingers at each other. The court needed answers, and they needed them fast. Which is when, on April 27th of 1612, Alison's two younger siblings would change the course of history. First, her 12 or 13 year old brother, James, insisted that even before the incident with the peddler, Allison had cursed a local child. And that's not all. He told the court that there had been a witch meeting hosted at his house. A meeting where not only insidious magic was discussed, but also a plan to blow up Lancaster Castle. And I know that escalated pretty quickly right now. This was only seven years after Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Parliament in the Gunpowder Plot. So let's just say authorities were not taking these allegations lightly. But it was Jennet's testimony that sealed the family's fate because she, at only nine years old, told the entire courtroom that not only was Alizon a witch, but so was her brother James and their mother, Elizabeth. The courtroom was wrapped as little Janet laid out point after point, promising that she lived among witches. At some point in this testimony, her mother erupted into hysterics, screaming and pleading for her daughter to save her. But the woman's cries fell on deaf ears because on August 18, Janet climbed up on a table, clasped her hands and calmly denounced her mother as a sorceress once and for all. Just two days later, Janet's mother, brother, sister and grandmother, along with six more victims, were hanged at the Lancaster gallows. So tell me, Janet, did you finally realize the consequences of your stories? Did you spend the rest of your life atoning? As you grew up, reached womanhood, had children of your own? Or with a truth too painful to admit, did you choose to continue hiding inside a fairy tale? Today is not your lucky day. One minute you're scampering through the streets of Salzburg with other boys your age, roughhousing, telling jokes, maybe picking a few pockets as you wend your way through the square. And the next minute you've been arrested and dragged into a dark room. And you know what happens next. You've heard stories from the other boys, terrible rumors of interrogation and torture. And you know, too, the very first question the inquisitor will ask. After all, it's the same thing he's demanded of every other young beggar he has held here. And so when it comes, you're ready, do you know, the inquisitor says, the Wizard Jackal? It's a question that requires us to back up a bit and cover some context. The year is 1675 in Salzburg, Austria, and there is no such person yet as the Wizard Jackal. Instead, there's Simply an ordinary 20 something year old man named Jacob Kohler. He lives in a German empire split somewhat in two. On one hand there are the archbishops who police Salzburg with an iron fist. And on the other hand, are ordinary citizens like Jacob. Now, Jacob was no stranger to blood. His father was an animal slaughterer and executioner's assistant, after all, while his mother worked in the animal skinning business. And I'll admit, knowing what we do know now, it's tempting to view all of this as a bit of an ill omen, because the truth is, Jacob would end up with a lot of blood on his hands. His mother, you see, wasn't only an animal skinner. Barbara was also an Accomplished thief. And she raised her boy to be a thief as well as. And they were good at what they did, at least until they weren't right. Because in 1675, an offertory box was stolen from a church, leaving the archbishops none too pleased. And who was accused for this crime but the Queen thief herself, Barbara Kohler. After her arrest, she and an accomplice were tortured, during which she admitted to not only thievery, but practicing sorcery as well. And it was under this duress that Jacob's mother threw another name into the ring that is her sons. Now, she didn't only accuse Jacob of theft, she also claimed that her son had recruited and trained up a gang of child thieves who did his bidding. Basically think Fagin from Oliver Twist, but set in 17th century Austria. And all of this led the authorities to a deadly conclusion. If Barbara, a sorceress, had taught her son to steal, she had probably taught him witchcraft too. And if the rumors about Jacob's young acolytes were also true, then it was safe to assume that he wasn't only training a gang of thieves, he was building an army of child witches. And with that, the hunt began. Jacob, or Jackal, as he was called, was on the run with a price on his head. And meanwhile, authorities began arresting his supposed child prodigies to squeeze them for info. At first, only one child, a 12 year old homeless boy named Dionys Feldner, claimed to work for the Jackal. Then a second boy named Mathias, who affirmed that, yes, Jackal was indeed a sorcerer, and yes, he'd been teaching them the dark arts. And from there, the authorities began sweeping more and more children off the streets. And the more boys they interrogated, the wilder the rumors became. These kids claimed that Jackal could become invisible. A useful skill for a thief, if I do say so myself. But that's not all. He could also shapeshift into a wolf, transform chunks of wood into mice, and even bring on great calamities like wildfires and storms. He could ruin harvests and cause animals to miscarry. And on top of all of that, some insisted the wizard Jackal would lead evil initiation rituals to bring more and more street kids into the fold. It was even worse than the archbishops had feared. Jacob Kohler had officially transformed into something far more dangerous than a mere beggar thief. He had become Jackal the sorcerer. Not just a man, but a legend. A legend who, for what it's worth, still had not been found. Between the years 1677 and 1690, Salzburg authorities arrested countless Tiny witches off the street. And by tiny witches, I mean homeless and impoverished young people, primarily boys between the ages of 15 and 25. Imagine how horrible that must have felt. Being vulnerable and just trying to get by, but haunted by the reality that at any moment you could be kidnapped off the street with no hope for justice or freedom. No one should have to live like that. And still, one by one, the young beggars were tried for witchcraft. And one by one, they admitted to performing black magic. Never mind the fact that, like Barbara before them, these children's confessions were made under duress of torture. None of that mattered to the prosecution. By the time the smoke had cleared, between one and 200 children had been executed. The youngest was only 10 years old. And as for the wizard Jackal himself, he was never found. The Salzburg Witch Trials have gone down in history as the most horrendous massacre of accused witches in Salzburg's entire history. But the truth is, this isn't a story about witches. Not really. If you strip away the big fish stories and the rumors, the shape shifting and the invisibility spells, what you're left with is a moneyed class waging a bloody campaign against those they deem undesirable. In short, the Archbishop was sick of seeing poor people and beggar children on his public streets. And so, with a noose woven of superstition and fear, he killed them. Through torture and brainwashing, officials were able to force testimonies out of these kids to back up their obscene claims. Whether those testimonies were true or not, the courts needed a larger than life villain. And so they made sure the children they interrogated created one in the form of the Wizard Jackal and his merry band of proteges. But you know, there might be another layer to all of this. Because some scholars believe that the children didn't only speak of Jackal in the interrogation room, but secretly among themselves as well. And it makes me wonder. Perhaps the children needed the Wizard Jackal just as much as the courts did. Not as a scapegoat, mind you, but as a hero. Think about it. Here we have a group of completely powerless children. Already they are hungry and sick, pushed to the furthest margins of society and abandoned by the powers that be. And now they're being locked away, terrified and alone in some awful city prison. What these kids needed was something to believe in. And what could be a more empowering figure than a beggar boy just like them, lofted to the status of folk hero? To the authorities, the Wizard Jackal was a monster in need of vanquishing. But for the street kids of Salzburg, Jackal represented a more powerful version of themselves. He had magic. He was wily and impossible to catch. He was more than just a street kid. He was a sorcerer. But most vitally, he possessed the one thing that these children longed for the most. As they sat there in the dark, silent hollows of the torture chamber, the wizard Jackal was never alone. While today's subject may have been sweet faced, barefoot and barely tall enough to reach the altar, to their neighbors they were harbingers of storms, sickness and sin. But what happens when a child accused of witchcraft fully and entirely believes in their own dark powers? Well, I have one more story for you that answers that question. Stick around through this brief sponsor break to hear all about it. This is an ad for BetterHelp. These days it feels like there's advice for everything. 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