The Stallings Family Haunting

Summary

Morbid Podcast – "The Stallings Family Haunting"

Hosts: Ash Kelley & Alaina Urquhart
Date: December 4, 2025
Episode Theme:
A lighthearted but chilling deep-dive into the infamous Stallings Family haunting—a tale blending haunted house lore, supernatural encounters, and the realities of being stuck in a home that doesn’t want you there. Ash and Alaina unwrap the entire saga: from the family’s dreamy beginnings to nightmarish hauntings, spectral assaults, and an epic ghost investigation involving mediums and Civil War spirits. Creepy, darkly funny, and jam-packed with memorable moments, this is classic Morbid.

---

1. Opening Banter & Animal Tales

Timestamps: 01:21–06:13

• Ash and Alaina start with personal anecdotes, swapping stories about their pets' latest health debacles.
  • Alaina: Her dog Sydney sprained her tail from being "just so happy she broke her butt" (03:07).
  • Ash: Her cat Remy developed feline acne ("That's the kind of... they're like, yeah, feline acne. $800, please. Yeah. Cool." – Ash, 05:31).
• They joke about the concept of "animals in retrograde" and set a light tone for the episode.

---

2. Episode Transition: Introducing the Haunting

Timestamps: 06:13–07:32

• Ash teases the return to the spooky with the Stallings Family haunting: “I miss the spooky season…We’re gonna talk about the Stallings Family haunting today.”

---

3. The Stallings Story Begins – Divorce, New Love & a Foreboding Dream

Timestamps: 07:32–11:13

• Setting: Nancy Stallings, recently divorced with three kids in 1964, finds new love with Ron at a "Parents without Partners" meeting.
  • "It's literally like the beginning of a rom com." – Ash (08:49)
• After remarrying, Nancy experiences a recurring nightmare: she and Ron buy an old house; in the dream, a heated argument between two men (one looking like Ron) ends in murder with a hatchet in the kitchen.
  • "I would hate that dream." – Alaina (11:05)
• Nancy suspects it's a premonition and swears off buying an old country mansion.

---

4. The House Hunt – Limited Budget, Chilling First Impressions

Timestamps: 11:13–15:40

• The Stallings search for a fixer-upper on a shoestring budget and are laughed at by realtors.
• Nancy finds a “handyman special”—a two-story Baltimore cottage—at a price they can afford.
• The house feels “heavy, stale, depressing” but they attribute it to disrepair.
• The previous elderly owner tells them later she was “pushed to the floor” and left immobile for three days—hinting at malevolent forces.
  • “She felt like she was pushed to the floor, but she was home alone." – Ash (15:34)
• At closing, the previous owner’s son ominously says, “I hope you’re good fighters,” (16:15) which unsettles both hosts and the Stallings.

---

5. Move-in Red Flags & Neighborhood Weirdness

Timestamps: 17:03–20:00

• Kids excitedly claim rooms, but Nancy notices all the neighbors sitting on porches, watching them.
  • “The red flags are piling up here.” – Alaina (17:51)
• Nancy finds all upstairs windows nailed shut with giant construction nails (18:41).
  • Neighbor explains the previous owner was paranoid about break-ins and had her son nail the windows shut.
  • Ash speculates: “Did someone live in the walls? That’s my biggest fear.” (19:40)

---

6. Early Haunting Incidents and Atmosphere

Timestamps: 22:41–24:45

• Family initially dismisses “odd sensations”.
• Nancy’s son Alan: “It was real dreary and had a kind of creepy feeling to it, like something had happened there. Like something might happen there again.” (24:00)
• Nancy’s cousin Bill feels overwhelming dread on the staircase, leaves abruptly, and avoids the house in the future.

---

7. Escalation: Physical Manifestations & Personality Changes

Timestamps: 25:04–27:59

• Faucets, lights, and household objects move on their own.
• Nancy and Ron’s personalities shift; the kids fight more.
  • Compared to Amityville by Alaina (27:40).
• The family explains these as stress and old-house quirks—until events escalate.

---

8. Direct Supernatural Encounters

Timestamps: 28:04–34:14

• Babysitter Janet sees an “angry old bitty” in a bonnet on the stairs, who vanishes. (29:24)
  • “No, I don’t want an angry old biddy on the stairs.” – Alaina (29:30)
• Alan, the eldest son, hears heavy boots and witnesses doors opening while alone at night.
• Clusters of activity with long calm stretches—"false sense of security" (31:05).

---

9. Nancy’s Nightmare: Assault by a Spirit

Timestamps: 34:14–37:33

• Nancy experiences sexual assault by a spirit—initially thinks it’s Ron but realizes otherwise, feeling paralyzed and waking with a head pain.
• The encounter repeats, and Nancy describes seeing the apparition as “semi-solid.”
  • “I could see the bureau through him.” – Nancy via Ash (34:57)
• Ultimately, Nancy chooses not to resist, saying, “Why fight? Whoever this man was, I like him.” (35:45) – a moment the hosts react to with dark comic disbelief.

---

10. Family Haunted—Not Just in the House

Timestamps: 38:00–41:32

• The children experience hauntings (footsteps, being chased, physically pushed).
  • Alan is hurled down the stairs—mirroring the elderly owner’s experience.
• Activity follows Nancy to the hospital after childbirth; she senses ghostly presence beyond the house walls.

---

11. Desperate for Relief: Blessings, Tricycles, and Moving Out

Timestamps: 45:19–47:46

• Ron’s priest uncle blesses the house—but forgets the porch, which leads to poltergeist activity with toys and a self-riding tricycle.
  • “There was a tricycle riding back and forth on its own.” – Ash (46:45)
• The family flees to a cabin, only returning home for practical reasons.

---

12. Dreams as Warnings & Life-Threatening Incidents

Timestamps: 47:49–54:14

• Nancy’s nightmares become more intense and prophetic—ominous dreams of fire, laughed at by the old woman.
• Discovers real-life gas leak after a vivid fire dream; technician says the house could have exploded (53:53).
  • Her dream may have saved the family’s life.

---

13. Bringing in Paranormal Experts

Timestamps: 54:14–58:48

• Nancy contacts parapsychologist Hans Holzer after reading his book.
• Holzer arrives with a medium:
  • Identifies multiple spirits, including Louis Fontanelli, a Civil War soldier, and Eileen Kittinger (“the angry old bitty”)—the original landowner, who sees the family as her servants.
  • The medium senses these spirits still "living" in their era, unaware of the modern house (explains spectral geography).

---

14. Historical Confirmation & Escape

Timestamps: 58:48–60:31

• Cousin Bill finds historical records aligning with the medium’s revelations:
  • Soldier Louis Fontanelli died at an old inn on the property.
  • Eileen Kittinger owned the land in 1797.
• Family is vindicated, puts the house on the market, and finds a buyer: a couple fascinated by the haunting.
• Before leaving, Nancy senses Louis' spirit warns her: "When you leave, don’t ever come back into this house. When you leave, I’m leaving, and I won’t be here to protect you and you won’t be safe." (60:16)
• They finally move out—"I can’t even describe how good I felt... now we would be able to live a normal life." – Nancy (60:31)

---

15. Hosts’ Reflections & Notable Quotes

Timestamps: 60:46–62:46

• Alaina and Ash marvel at the story’s thoroughness and the direct historical links.
  • “Some mediums are legit. They are.” – Ash (61:36)
• Running joke: "Angry old bitty on the stairs with bad views and a bonnet."
  • “Don’t be an angry old bitty on the stairs with bad views and a bonnet.” – Alaina (62:58)

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the haunting’s warning signs:
  • “Why did you choose to say that to me after I already put my John Hancock on the pic on that document?” – Ash (16:28)
• On spectral sexual encounters:
  • “Is it cheating? Yes. Your husband’s in the bed next to you, but it’s a dead man.” – Alaina (36:06)
• On the poltergeist tricycle:
  • “We didn’t bless the porch. And I was like, that’s wild.” – Alaina (62:35)

---

Key Takeaways

• The Stallings haunting is a classic case blending paranormal activity, psychological stress, and dark comedy.
• Personal haunting experiences happened to multiple family members and even followed them outside the house.
• Paranormal investigation by Hans Holzer and a medium provided both spiritual and historical explanations that were later validated.
• Dark humor and a skeptical but curious tone make the chilling content hilarious and relatable, threading through even the scariest experiences.

---

Quick Reference – Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |------------|--------------------------------------------------------| | 01:21–06:13| Hosts’ banter, animal shenanigans | | 06:13–11:13| Stallings’ backstory, Nancy’s recurring prophecy dream | | 15:01–16:15| Ominous warnings from former owner’s son | | 18:41 | Windows nailed shut discovery | | 24:10 | Cousin Bill’s dread on the stairs | | 28:04 | Janet's “angry old bitty” ghost sighting | | 34:14–37:33| Nancy’s sexual haunting encounter | | 40:07 | Alan pushed down the stairs | | 46:45 | Tricycle poltergeist after failed blessing | | 53:53 | House nearly explodes; gas leak found | | 54:14–59:30| Arrival of medium, history given, and validation | | 60:16 | Spirit’s final warning before moving out | | 62:58 | “Don’t be an angry old bitty...” running joke end |

---

Summary

A classic Morbid blend: one unforgettable family, haunted literally and figuratively, their grit and humor shining through. Ghostly warnings, historical twists, and two hilarious hosts make this tale an essential listen, or, thanks to this summary, an enjoyably creepy read. And remember: whatever house you buy, check if the porch is blessed—and watch out for angry old bitties with bad views.

Transcript

[Host/Announcer]

Streaming December 11th on Paramount. It's the new limited series Little Disasters. Based on the book by the author of Anatomy of a Scandal and starring Diane Kruger and Joe Joyner, Little Disasters is a gripping story of unraveling secrets and fractured relationships that will leave you on the edge of your seat. Bella magazine declares, if you loved Big little Lies, then this psychological drama is for you. Little Disasters. BINGE all episodes December 11th on Paramount. Movie night hits different when you plan it with Fandango. Open the app, find what's playing, and grab your seats in seconds. No lines, no stress.

[Ash]

Whether you're meeting up with friends or.

[Host/Announcer]

Flying solo, Fandango makes last minute plans feel effortless. Plus, with fan club, you'll save every time you go to the theater. Download the Fandango app and make movie.

[Ash]

Night happen anytime, anywhere. Adobe Acrobat Studio.

[Host/Announcer]

So brand new.

[Ash]

Show me all the things PDFs can do.

[Host/Announcer]

Do your work with ease and speed. PDF is all you need. Do hours of research in an instant.

[Ash]

With key insights from an AI assistant.

[Host/Announcer]

Take a template with a click. Now your prezo looks super slick.

[Ash]

Close that deal.

[Host/Announcer]

Yeah, you won.

[Ash]

Do that.

[Host/Announcer]

Doing that, did that. Done. Now you can do that, do that with Acrobat. Now you can do that, do that.

[Ash]

With the all new Acrobat. It's time to do your best work with the all new Adobe Acrobat Studio.

[Alaina]

Hey, weirdos. I'm Alaina.

[Ash]

I'm Ash.

[Alaina]

And this is Morbid.

[Ash]

Yeah.

Whoa. I was so confused. Whoa. I was so confused because behind you. Oh. I have a confession. Hold on. So there's like a thing behind Elena. It's Sister Imperator, right?

[Alaina]

Yeah.

[Ash]

I thought that was Sabrina the Teenage witch.

[Alaina]

I love that for a minute. Yeah.

[Ash]

And I saw that there was like, a candle, like, in the reflection of that. So I thought there was a candle behind your head, and I got scared for you.

[Alaina]

Wow.

[Ash]

But it's simply a reflection.

[Alaina]

It's simply a reflection.

[Ash]

And I discovered so much in that moment.

[Alaina]

You did.

[Ash]

You really had a lot of discoveries. Yeah, I did.

[Alaina]

Yeah. It's the comic book. Yeah.

[Ash]

That's cool.

[Alaina]

Yeah.

[Ash]

She looks like Sabrina sort of. A little bit. I'm. I'm also like, I'm not a good. I don't have good sight.

[Alaina]

No, it's true.

[Ash]

I almost said I'm not a good sightseer.

[Alaina]

You're not a good sier.

[Ash]

I'm really tired. I haven't slept very well, actually. No, I think I slept too good last night.

[Alaina]

I did not.

[Ash]

We've talked about it.

[Alaina]

No, I did not sleep well last night because Sydney, one of my dogs, who just really loves a violent booty.

[Ash]

Wiggle, she's so happy.

[Alaina]

She's so happy all the time. So her booty is just constantly wiggling to a point where she, like, creates gravitational pull, truly. And I think she did create gravitational pull because she sprained her tail.

[Ash]

She sprained her tail just for being so happy.

[Alaina]

It's called swimmer's tail.

[Ash]

That's like spraining your face from smiling or, like, spraining your wrist because you're, like, waving at people all the time.

[Alaina]

Happens to labs a lot because they just love being excited and waggling their tails so they can sprain their top. So she sprained her tail, and she's gonna be fine. I love that we brought her to the vet and everything, but she scared us last night.

[Ash]

I don't love that she sprained her tail. I just love how happy she is.

[Alaina]

How happy she is that, like, she sprained it doing something she loves, which is a real big booty shake.

[Ash]

A big old booty shake shake.

[Alaina]

But it was so scary because we were going to sleep, and all of a sudden she just popped up. I don't know. She must have sat on it in a strange way, and that's where it came. But she jumped up squealing, and. And we were, like, panicking. We're like, what is happening? I was like, is she having, like, a. Can she have appendicitis? Like, what is going on?

[Ash]

Is there, like, things that can rupture here?

[Alaina]

John, like, rushed her to the emergency vet, and it was that. So they were able to, like, calm it down, like, the pain. So she was. Because she was. When she got up, she was rushing around, but, like, with her, didn't know where to go. Like, tail tucked and screeching.

[Ash]

Oh, like.

[Alaina]

And it was literally 12:30 in the morning. Like, at night, in the morning.

[Ash]

It's because our animals are retrograde. They are in retrograde. I said to Elena, so my adventure, this probably, like, earlier this weekend, was I woke up to Remy screaming, and I was like, what the? And he opened up this, like, thing that he had on his chin, and I thought one of the other cats had just hit him, and that's what that was. So I was like, we got to bring him in. Like, he keeps opening this, like, little, like, scab on his chin. Have you guys heard that there's a fucking thing called feline acne? I did not know that existed, has feline acne. So then he has to, like, wear a cone. It's like this whole crazy thing. And then this is a thing that's never happened to us before. When one goes to the vet, sometimes the others can, like, think that they smell weird. And I didn't know this. Yeah, it's like a cat thing. They don't recognize that that cat is, like, part of their family when they come back. So Franklin and Lux have just been, like, bullying the out of poor Remy, who's just, like, in a cone and smells bad. So sad, Remy. It's so sad. So we have one animal with feline acne and one who's just so happy she broke her butt.

[Alaina]

Just so happy.

[Ash]

Just the animals.

[Alaina]

One is going through puberty. The other one is just shaking her ass so hard that she breaks it.

[Ash]

When they said feline acne to us, that's the kind of. That they're like, yeah, feline acne 800, please. Yeah. Cool.

[Alaina]

Thanks.

[Ash]

Okay.

[Alaina]

Appreciate that. Sounds good.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Alaina]

Yeah. Awesome.

[Ash]

Animals, man. Animals be crazy. I had a really nice moment last night with Dolo and Franklin. They were both like, did you see? I posted it on Instagram.

[Alaina]

Oh, yeah.

[Ash]

It was so beautiful.

[Alaina]

You said breaking news.

[Ash]

Moments after I posted that, she literally just turned her head back slowly, like she was stretching. Franklin bammed her in the face and ran away. I was like, you're making a liar out of me. She didn't even do anything.

[Alaina]

I love that.

[Ash]

Yeah. So that's animals.

[Alaina]

That's animals. That's our animals in retrograde.

[Ash]

That's our animals retrograde. Yeah. I have a haunting for us today because we've been talking about some crazy lately. We've done some mosas. We've done some listen to tales. We've done some dark spooky.

[Alaina]

Some dark spooky.

[Ash]

And I miss the spooky season.

[Alaina]

Yeah.

[Ash]

And I had a leftover from Gotta.

[Alaina]

Sprinkle it in every once in a while.

[Ash]

So let's go. We're gonna talk about the Stallings family haunting today. So Nancy Stallings got divorced in early 1964, and it seemed like her entire world had ended. Of course, at the time, divorce was still a very taboo subject for a lot of Americans. And after years of marriage and three kids, she was like, how am I just gonna start over with someone else?

[Alaina]

That's rough.

[Ash]

That's rough. But when the initial strangeness of being single wore off after about a month or so and the divorce was official, Nancy could finally see herself getting back out there.

[Alaina]

She's gonna get her groove back.

[Ash]

Yeah. She wants to meet somebody new. She didn't really know who she was going to be interested in, cuz, you know, I like that she's got a new lease on life. She's got to get the partner that fits, but she's ready to go out and mingle. So in December of that year, she signed up for a lecture being put on by the local chapter of Parents without Partners, which is just the saddest club ever.

[Alaina]

That is the saddest club.

[Ash]

Parents without Partners.

[Alaina]

Oh, I want them all to find partners.

[Ash]

That's kind of what they go for. Yeah.

[Alaina]

You know.

[Ash]

So she was fairly new to the group, but Nancy was surprised by how many older men there were. And especially compared to the number of women who were around her age, which was like, probably like late 20s, early 30s. She wasn't opposed to socializing with older men. But yeah, she was in her early 20s, so none of them seemed like they were gonna be potential new romantic partners. Like, she wasn't looking for an older guy. So she chatted briefly with one of the men in the group, and she finally got the courage up to ask him, aren't there any young people here? And the man Frank, laughed. He was like, yeah, there's a lot of older people here, huh? But he took her over to meet a man named Ron Stallings. He said, he's a nice young man. Let me introduce you. So Nancy was, like, really nervous all of a sudden, But Ron turned out to be a very polite man, and they had a ton in common. He was also recently divorced. He also had three young kids from his last marriage.

[Alaina]

Look at that.

[Ash]

Yeah, they were just hitting it off.

[Alaina]

Yeah.

[Ash]

After a brief conversation, Ron said, I'd love to call you sometime. And Nancy was like, hell yeah, brother. I'd love to get called sometime.

[Alaina]

Hell yeah, brother.

[Ash]

But she had just had a new phone put in, and she. She couldn't remember the number. And she was like, I really mean that. Like, it's not an excuse. I do want to talk to you. I just can't remember my phone number.

[Alaina]

She's like, no, legit.

[Ash]

So they went their separate ways, and they hoped they'd run into each other again soon.

[Alaina]

Aw.

[Ash]

It's literally like the beginning of a rom com.

[Alaina]

It really is.

[Ash]

I love it. As luck would have it, just like in the rom coms, they did run into each other.

[Alaina]

Oh, I'm glad. I was worried.

[Ash]

It was at the next Parents without Partners meeting, of course. And at that point, Nancy had made a point. Or by that time, Nancy made a point of Writing down her phone number before she went to the meeting because she was hoping he would be. Oh, I love that. So he was. They exchanged numbers, and Ron ended up calling her a few days later to go on a date. And soon enough, they were exclusively dating. They were seeing each other multiple times a week. Ron proposed at one point. A few months later, they got married. It was beautiful. Now, it wasn't long after their wedding that Nancy started having this really strange, vivid dream that she would repeatedly have over the course of, like, the next several years. In the dream, she and Ron had just bought a really big old house in the country. The house in her dream seemed to be, like, a hundred years old, at least. It was new to them, but it was old. And somehow to Nancy, it felt very familiar. Like, whenever she was in the dream, she knew where she was going in this house.

[Alaina]

I kind of love that.

[Ash]

Yeah, well, you're not going to for a while.

[Alaina]

Oh, no.

[Ash]

So in the dream, she remembered that she was standing in what she thought was the kitchen, and she was watching two people have a heated argument. And she felt like she knew the people who were arguing, but she couldn't quite make out all the details of their faces. But one of them did look a lot like Ron, she thought. So without warning, in the dream, the argument that she was witnessing got explosive, and one of the men struck the other. And so the person getting hit looked like Ron, and he was hit in the head with an ax or a hatchet and was killed instantly.

[Alaina]

What the.

[Ash]

Yeah, I told you you weren't gonna like it for that long.

[Alaina]

Damn.

[Ash]

Nancy said at that point, everything became confused, quote, unquote. And she suddenly was standing in the backyard of the house surrounded by fruit trees, and the ghosts of the two men were standing in the kitchen, looking out at her through the window. And she said, they were laughing at us because they had scared us and caused us so much trouble. Oh, isn't that, like, the scariest?

[Alaina]

This is the spookiest dream.

[Ash]

She couldn't say for sure, but she felt like the ghosts in the house still seemed to take a lot of pleasure in the fact that they scared the shit out of her, like, so badly. And then before she knew it, she was awake again.

[Alaina]

That's frightening.

[Ash]

Yeah, I would hate that dream.

[Alaina]

I would hate that. And it's so vivid.

[Ash]

It's so vivid, and it's recurring for years.

[Alaina]

That's the thing. It keeps coming. That's the thing.

[Ash]

So at that time, she didn't know what to make of the dream. That was like, the first time she had it, she wasn't superstitious, and she figured it was probably just the stress from, like, wedding planning. The actual wedding happened, merging families, house hunting, like, just life. But she still couldn't shake the feeling that the dream was some kind of, like, premonition. So she decided right then and there that they were house hunting. So she was like, I'm not looking at any mansions in the country. Like, well, we'll scratch those off the list.

[Alaina]

Yeah.

[Ash]

So in aug, it was August 1965. By the time they finally, like, seriously started looking at houses with a realtor, Nancy was going to be responsible for the care of six children from the ages 2 to 7.

[Alaina]

Whoa.

[Ash]

And it was on Ron to bring in the income, so that seriously limited their options. Nancy said, we wanted enough space so that we weren't constantly falling over each other and getting in each other's way. So they agreed that they would probably need to find a house that was, like, in need of repairs, because they need a bigger house, but they don't have this crazy big budget.

[Alaina]

Yeah.

[Ash]

And Ron was fairly handy around the house, and Nancy was like, I'm a decent decorator. So a fixer upper was fine for them. It was, like, an exciting challenge, not a headache.

[Alaina]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Even though they were willing to lower their standards, their budget was 8,000 doll dollars, which is, like, not a lot of money at all. It's. It's a lot of money. Today it's $82,000 for a house. For a house that's nothing. So it wasn't going to go a long way in finding a house that would accommodate eight people, because, remember, they have, like, a ton of people.

[Alaina]

I know. That's the thing.

[Ash]

Nancy said, this is so mean. She said several realtors actually laughed at us when we mentioned our budget. Some even refused to help us look, claiming that there was nothing on the market for that low of a price.

[Alaina]

Oh, that makes me sad.

[Ash]

I know.

[Alaina]

But it's a good challenge. That's the thing. Take it on.

[Ash]

And Nancy did. Despite the discouraging reaction from realtors, she said, y', all, I got this, y'.

[Alaina]

All.

[Ash]

And even when their realtor and Ron himself abandoned the search just out of frustration because they couldn't find anything, she carried on. She kept looking. And by the end of the month, she found something that matched their criteria. So the ad in the classifieds. I know you'll be able to believe it by the end. The ad in the classifieds listed the house as a handyman special. Like, oof.

[Alaina]

That's, that's. I wouldn't. It can be a red flag. It's definitely.

[Ash]

It's telling you what it is up front.

[Alaina]

Yellow to orange flag, I would say.

[Ash]

Yeah, yeah. It was a big two story cottage in Baltimore's Hamilton neighborhood, which was like an area of older homes on a quiet tree lined street. Like, very nice, quiet vibes, Good neighborhood. When they pulled up out front, Ron and Nancy weren't exactly impressed, though. The house was big, but it was also badly in need of repair. You could tell that much literally just from the sidewalk.

[Alaina]

Yeah.

[Ash]

But at the same time, it did seem to check all of the boxes that they had and several kind of like bonus things that Nancy hadn't had on her list, like hardwood floors, stained glass windows, just like nice little bonus things like that. And it was in their price range. So when they walked into the house, though, Nancy said she had a feeling of heaviness. She said there was just something odd about the house. From the moment we entered, the atmosphere was heavy, stale, depressing. But we attributed that sensation to the peeling wallpaper, the cracked plaster walls and ceilings, and antique furniture left behind by the elderly lady who lived there. Yeah, I think so too. So according to her son who was managing the sale, the previous owner lived in the house for like decades. Like, she had lived there forever, but she wasn't able to keep up with the maintenance and, you know, just everything that comes with owning a home in her later years. So the house had fallen into disrepair into its previous or into its present state. One afternoon a few months earlier, the gardener arrived to the house and when nobody answered the door, he looked in the windows and he saw the elderly woman sprawled out on the floor.

[Alaina]

Oh.

[Ash]

And that was when her family was like, yeah, like, she can't live in this big house alone anymore. So he said that's why they put it on the market for such a surprisingly low price, that they just needed the COVID the money to cover medical bills after she was hospitalized and like getting her a new place, like that kind of thing. But a few years later, when asked about the incident, the elderly homeowner ended up telling Ron and Nancy that she felt as if she had been pushed to the floor and that she laid there for three days unable to move until the gardener found her.

[Alaina]

This elderly lady was pushed to the floor.

[Ash]

She felt like she was pushed to the floor, but she was home alone.

[Alaina]

Oh, I don't like these ghosts.

[Ash]

So obviously Ron and Nancy didn't find that out until like, much later. But even before they moved into the house. Their new family life together was getting off to a very strange, very ominous start. This would send me on the day of the signing, after everything had been signed and it was now, like, legally official and they were walking out, the owner's son, like the previous owner's son, caught up with Ron and Nancy in the parking lot. He shook their hands and, you know, thanked them for buying the house. And then he kind of, like, looked them over and said, I want to wish you people a lot of luck, and I hope you're good fighters.

[Alaina]

You gotta turn around and you gotta say, nope.

[Ash]

Actually, could you shred those recently signed documents?

[Alaina]

I'm actually not.

[Ash]

I hope you're good fighters.

[Alaina]

I hope you're good fighters. Never enter something that somebody says that.

[Ash]

Why did you choose to say that to me after I already put my John Hancock on the pic on that document?

[Alaina]

That's exactly why. Yeah.

[Ash]

So they were like, what?

[Alaina]

I hate that A lot.

[Ash]

Terrifying. They were like. But he just walked away after that. So they're left to wonder what the fuck that meant. So they wondered maybe if they were walking into, like, a bad neighbor situation, like, if they were gonna have an annoying neighbor or if the neighborhood in general was gonna be an issue.

[Alaina]

Yeah, you don't know what the fuck that meant.

[Ash]

But he just turned around and walked back to his car. So they were just, like, staring, confused at each other. Left to wonder what the. That meant.

[Alaina]

Yeah.

[Ash]

So a few weeks later, as they packed all their belongings into the moving truck, the comment about being good fighters had completely left their mind. For me, that would have stayed in my mind every day for the rest of my life.

[Alaina]

Yep. But who?

[Ash]

They were just excited to be moving into their new house, Though they had been looking for a while. So when they got there and they saw the house for the first time, Ron and Nancy's kids could barely contain their excitement. It was this big house. They were all going to have their own room. Like, they were excited. Yeah. So once they got through the door, they all split up and just, like, looked for a bedroom. As they were unpacking the truck and loading boxes into the house, Nancy noticed that at the houses up and down the streets, all the neighbors seemed to be sitting out on their front porches, like, sitting in chairs angled toward their house, watching them move in.

[Alaina]

Yeah, the. The red flags are piling up here.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Alaina]

But again, there's nothing they can do. You are like, you already signed the papers.

[Ash]

Yeah. And you don't have a ton of money. Like, it was already tough to Find this house as is, you just get.

[Alaina]

To deal with all this creepiness.

[Ash]

Yeah. But in that instant, she flashed back to what that previous owner's son had said. She was like, did we make a huge mistake here?

[Alaina]

But what have we done?

[Ash]

So a few days later, she was upstairs unpacking boxes in one of the kids rooms, and she decided to open the windows to air the room out. And she said, although the house had been aired out and cleaned, it still had that strange feeling. But when she tried to lift the window, it just literally would not move. At first she was like, oh, maybe it was, like painted shut. But then she noticed that it had been nailed shut with giant construction nails. What the fuck the window had been nailed shut for?

[Alaina]

Why?

[Ash]

Not only. That was not the only window that was nailed shut. She went on to discover that all of the windows on the second floor had been nailed shut in exactly the same way.

[Alaina]

I don't like that.

[Ash]

So between the strange feeling and the windows being fucking nailed shut, Ron and Nancy decided to move the kids bedrooms to three large rooms on the first floor. They were like, you know what? Sorry, you don't get your own bedrooms anymore because shit's weird. Upstairs. Sometime later, a neighbor came by to introduce herself. And Nancy was like, hey, do you know anything about the lady that lived here before and why she might have nailed all the upstairs windows shut? Any idea?

[Alaina]

Hey, girl, any insight?

[Ash]

I was just wondering. So the woman just laughed and she said, oh, that crazy old lady who lived here? She thought someone was getting in, moving her stuff and taking her stuff, and she had her son nail those windows shut. So she thought that somebody was, like, breaking in and moving all her stuff around.

[Alaina]

Nailed the windows shut.

[Ash]

Yeah. Damn. That'll stop them.

[Alaina]

I mean, that's going to stop the windows from being open.

[Ash]

It's true that.

[Alaina]

Damn.

[Ash]

But also, I'd be like, why did she think somebody was moving her stuff around? Like, I would hate that. I hate that a lot because it would all. I would also be like, did somebody, like, live in the walls? That's my biggest fear.

You know how in true crime, it's always those little habits that give people away? Well, maybe it's time to ditch one of your own. Fume is here to help with a smarter alternative. It's a flavored air device. Not a vape, not a pipe, but something completely different. Fume lets you satisfy the urge to reach for something without nicotine vapor or batteries. Plus, it comes with amazing flavors, like crisp mint, spearmint ice, orange, vanilla, and mango to Keep things fresh. Once you receive your Fume device, simply insert a flavored core into your fume, adjust the airflow dial to increase or decrease air intake, and breathe in. The Freedom Fume has already helped over 700,000 people take steps toward better habits, and now it's your turn. Use our Code Morbid to get a free gift with your journey Pack head to try fume.com that's trif u m.com and use code morbid to claim this limited time offer.

[Host/Announcer]

Today streaming December 11th on Paramount plus it's the new limited series Little Disasters. Based on the book by the author of Anatomy of a Scandal and starring Diane Kruger and Joe Joyner, Little Disasters is a gripping story of unraveling secrets and fractured relationships that will leave you on the edge of your seat. Bella magazine declares, if you loved Big Little Lies, then this psychological drama is for you. Little Disasters BINGE all episodes December 11th on Paramount Plus.

[Ash]

This show is sponsored by Better Help. The holidays are coming up, and that is a stressful time of year. You have to balance family expectations. Sometimes you're traveling. Traveling is always stressful, and especially now, honey, you're just trying to make everything perfect, and that's a lot of pressure. It can be super easy to forget to take care of yourself in between all of that. But that's why Better Help is encouraging you to rewrite your traditions this season by making time for you. Incorporating therapy into your new or even your existing traditions can help you slow down and take care of yourself during what can be a joyful but sometimes hectic and lonely time of year. The holidays look really different for everybody. Maybe it's baking your aunt's sweet potato pie or starting something new, like a quiet night in with friends. Therapy can be one of those new traditions, too. BetterHelp gives you space to pause, reflect and feel more grounded. They match you with a licensed therapist based on your goals, your preferences, and if it's not the right fit, don't worry, you can switch therapists at any time. With over 30, 000 therapists and more than 5 million people served, BetterHelp helps people close the year with clarity instead of chaos. This December, start a new tradition by taking care of you. Our listeners get 10 off at betterhelp.com morbid that's betterhelp H-E-L-P.com morbid.

So in the first few weeks, Ron and Nancy just, you know, dismissed the odd sensations in the house. They were like, you know, we just have to like, make our make our.

[Alaina]

We're Gonna make it a home.

[Ash]

Yeah, exactly like we're. We're doing it. They just said it'll subside once we get settled in. But what they didn't know at that time was that they weren't the only two who felt things in the house were not right. Nancy's oldest son, Alan, said it was real dreary and had a kind of creepy feeling to it, like something had happened there. Like something might happen there again. Ooh, yeah, yuck. Now, not long after moving in, Nancy's cousin Bill stopped by to see the house, and he was, you know, had, like, a housewarming present. He was really excited. He was cheerful. He was usually this guy was, like, always in a good mood, but he was particularly excited for them today. So he walked around. Nancy was giving him a tour of the first floor, and she was like, oh, you know, we're going to remodel here. We're going to redecorate this. This is our plan. They went through the whole first floor, and then they walked to the stairs. And Nancy was like, oh, go ahead and check out the second floor. Like, I'm just gonna go do something. And she was like, sorry, it's still kind of messy. So Bill, her cousin, started, you know, walking up the stairs, but about halfway up, he stopped dead in his tracks, hesitated there for a moment, and just turned around and came back downstairs. Nancy said he had the strangest, most bewildered look on his face. It seemed like all, like, the happiness had drained from his body. And all of a sudden he was like, oh, I actually have to leave right now because I have to go do something at the bank that I totally forgot about.

[Alaina]

Bye. No.

[Ash]

And then he just turned and left without saying anything else, which was very uncharacteristic.

[Alaina]

Wow.

[Ash]

Years later, Nancy asked her cousin about this, and he explained that when he got halfway up the stairs, he got overwhelmed by a profound feeling of anxiety and dreadful. Nancy said an unexplicable panic overcame him, and he felt as though he couldn't get out of that house fast enough.

[Alaina]

I.

I don't know how you go forward with this so far, with making this, like, a quote unquote home. Yeah, like, I know they're stuck, so there's literally no. But I'm like, where do you go from here?

[Ash]

That's it. What do you. Which room do you decorate first? And how do you decorate it? With crucifixes.

[Alaina]

That's the thing. Like, just spray holy water at all the wall.

[Ash]

You kind of like Hot Topic.

[Alaina]

The he. I can Feel the vibe in this house. I can smell it, and I'm nowhere near it.

[Ash]

Yeah. Oh, so spooky. So, yeah, Bill, like, rarely came back to the house, and if he did, he was very trepidatious and, like, very not himself at the house. So that was one of the first incidents and, you know, indications that something might be wrong with this new house. But it was not the only thing. Not long after moving in, they started noticing, like, small peculiarities, I guess. They said that faucets would turn off and on without anybody moving the knobs house. Nancy said, I didn't understand how that could happen, but we figured must be because it's an old house.

[Alaina]

Yeah, sure. Why not?

[Ash]

Lights would flicker on and off. A few months after moving in, Alan was helping his mom clean up the kitchen after dinner, and he was, like, drying the dishes and putting them away as she was loading them onto the dish rack. And at one point, she turned to say something to him. Nancy did.

[Alaina]

Yeah.

[Ash]

And when she turned back around to, like, continue what she was doing, the dish rack had moved from one side of the sink to the other, and Alan was nowhere near it. And there was nobody else in the kitchen.

[Alaina]

When I become a ghost, I won't do that.

[Ash]

Oh, that's the kind of shit I'm totally doing.

[Alaina]

I don't. I feel like that's such a waste of my time and ability as a ghost. To move the dish like the drying.

[Ash]

Rack, you have to start slow.

[Alaina]

No.

[Ash]

Oh, you're going all ahead. What's your. What's your first move as a ghost? First?

[Alaina]

If there's a fire, if there's a fireplace in the house, I'm gonna do fire. Yeah.

[Ash]

Will you open the flume?

[Alaina]

Maybe.

[Ash]

Oh, diabolical. I wish you had just seen a look at her eyes.

[Alaina]

She said, maybe. Maybe depends on who I'm haunting, doesn't it?

[Ash]

Damn.

[Alaina]

If I'm hunting someone I like, Flume open.

[Ash]

Flume open.

[Alaina]

If I'm haunting someone I don't like, or if closed kids in the house, it will be open. But if I'm haunting someone I don't.

[Ash]

Like with no kids, Flume coast. Oh, no. It's like, clap on. Flume closed. You flumer, you die. We took that to two very different. I'm like the Flumer. You're like. You die.

You are April Ludgate. All right, so it wasn't just physical things going on. Not long after moving into the house, Nancy started to notice, like, very small but noticeable changes in the personalities of the family. Oh, she And Ron seemed to be, like, more irritable and quicker to anger. Like, they were bickering with each other a lot more than they had before. And even the kids behavior seemed worse when they first met. They seemed to get along really well with each other because remember, like, she had three kids and he did. So they're like a brainy bunch. Exactly. So they seem to enjoy each other. But now they were always fighting with each other over, like, really small things at the time.

[Alaina]

This is very amityville.

[Ash]

It is at the time, they chalked it up to just, you know, like, the stress of integrating their families and, you know, the home buying process, the move, everything. They managed to explain away all the odd experiences as just par for the course when it came to adjusting to a new house, especially like a very old one that needed lots of repairs.

[Alaina]

Yeah.

[Ash]

But a month later, they finally experienced something that could not be dismissed so easily.

[Alaina]

What is it? I'm excited.

[Ash]

This is so good. So it was Saturday night. Ron and Nancy had gone out to dinner, had a little date night. They said, we need to get the fuck out of that house and get away from those kids. So they left our mojo back. Yeah, get their mojo. Exactly. So they left the kids at home with Ron's sister Janet, babysitting. And they were relieved when they got home. And Janet said the kids were actually really well behaved. Everybody went to bed with no problem. But Janet seemed a little shaken still. And they were like, if everybody was so good, like, what's your problem? And Janet laughed and she said, something happened earlier that, like, startled and confused me. All the kids had gone to bed, and she was watching TV in the living room, and she suddenly said, got the unmistakable feeling that somebody was watching her. Oh, so she thought it was one of the kids. Yeah, especially babysitting, too. It's the worst. Yeah.

[Alaina]

You always feel like someone's there.

[Ash]

Oh. So she was like, is one of the kids, like, messing with me or they just, like, standing in the corner like a weirdo. So she got up and she looked down the hall toward the stairs, and she saw an elderly woman standing on the landing of the stairs, just looking directly back at her with, like, anger in her, on her face or like, hatred. She said, an angry old bitty straight up on the stairs. Yes, this is the thing. Yes. In fact, this is the thing.

[Alaina]

I don't want that. No, I don't want an angry old biddy on the stairs. No, it's not.

[Ash]

No, it's the last thing you want.

[Alaina]

It's literally the Last thing I want.

[Ash]

So, according to Janet, the woman looked like someone from an era long ago and was wearing a long dress and a bonnet.

A bonnet.

[Alaina]

See, we're all. We're not going to have the same views. And if you're in, you're an angry old bitty with a bonnet with bad views.

[Ash]

A bitty in a bonnet with bad views.

[Alaina]

An angry old biddy in a bonnet with bad views.

[Ash]

It's not good.

[Alaina]

Yeah, I don't want that.

[Ash]

No. So they just, like, looked at each other for.

[Alaina]

What else do you do?

[Ash]

And then Janet said the woman just, like, poofed away. No, she was like, and I'm just to watch TV and be responsible for these children.

[Alaina]

I think I just got angry.

[Ash]

Old video. Yeah. So she said at first she thought she was dreaming, but she was like, oh, wait, I'm not asleep.

[Alaina]

Oh, my Lord.

[Ash]

So she was like, no, I definitely saw that woman. But, like, I don't know why now. Not wanting to make things worse or more tense. Ron was like, oh, that's funny. Like, you're. That's not real.

[Alaina]

But that's not real.

[Ash]

Thanks for watching the kids. But the older children were also hearing and seeing things that they couldn't explain. Explain. Allan, who was Nancy's oldest son, he said, I would lay there at night and I would hear heavy footsteps, heavy boots. I would hear them come up the steps. And I knew it wasn't my parents. I was terrified.

[Alaina]

Oh, yeah. Nope. Nope.

[Ash]

Now, what made it easy for the Stallings to dismiss or explain away their unexplainable experiences at first was that things kind of seemed to happen in clusters. So there would be these long stretches of time where everything was fine and nothing happened.

[Alaina]

That's even worse because you get this false sense of security.

[Ash]

I know. But in a house with six kids and ongoing renovation projects, it was easy for them to get distracted and kind of, like, forget about whatever strange experience they just had. But a few weeks after Janet saw the woman on the stairs, Nancy had her own experience that would not be so easy to forget. This is, like, a little intense, so. Oh, no. It was one morning, it was very early, and Nancy was like. Like deep, deep sleeping. And she said, I was half awakened by someone making love to me.

[Alaina]

I'm sorry, what?

[Ash]

She said, I was half awakened by someone making love to me. Thinking it was her husband. She wasn't alarmed, she was just kind of annoyed because she was like, I'm not a morning person, and he knows that.

[Alaina]

Okay.

[Ash]

So she said she just woke up. Everything Was still kind of blurry, and she wasn't even really fully conscious. And when she tried to, like, rebuff Ron and say, like, not right now, you know, I'm not a morning lady.

[Alaina]

Don'T wake me up with that nonsense.

[Ash]

She felt like it was impossible to move. She couldn't move. And she was like, okay, something's wrong, but like, I don't know what's happening right now. She said, like she, she felt she was drugged or like paralyzed. Like that kind of feeling. And the more she regained consciousness, the more panic she became. She said, through my blurred vision, I could see a dark haired man with a medium build. The figure was the right size and stature as Ron, but she knew that this was not her husband. She says, I was unable to distinguish his facial features or any distinct details about him, but inherently, she knew that this was not Ron. Oh. So the moment of panic and paralysis seemed to drag on for a very long time. And then just as suddenly as the feeling had come on, the whole thing was over. The man vanished, she was able to move again, and she regained full consciousness. She said, aside from being somewhat frightened and confused, I had a terrible pain in my head. Like somebody had hit me over the head with something.

[Alaina]

I hate this so much. Same, like, not only are. Not only are there angry old bitties on the stairs with bad views. Yep. But now there's like sexual assault.

[Ash]

Yep.

[Alaina]

And physical, like all kinds of assault.

[Ash]

There's every assault you could possibly.

[Alaina]

She's waking up like she got bashed over the head. I'm like, maybe you did.

[Ash]

She might have.

[Alaina]

I hate this.

[Ash]

So she calls Ron at work and he came to the phone. So she knew that he would have had to have left home on time in order to make it on to work on time and be able to like, answer the phone because he had like a two hour commute. So she was like, okay, that definitely wasn't Ron.

[Alaina]

Yeah.

[Ash]

So even though she knew the answer, she still asked Ron if he had left late that morning and if he had had sex with her while she was sleeping.

[Alaina]

Yeah, like, let me know.

[Ash]

She was like, hey, did you, did you leave late? And like, did we fook while I was asleep? And he was like, no, I left on time and I didn't have sex with you while you were sleeping, Nance.

[Alaina]

But thank you so much for asking.

[Ash]

Yeah, thank you for thinking I would do that. So his response should have been a little bit reassuring, but in this case, it only confirmed what Nancy knew, that the man in her bed that morning Quote, unquote, making love to her was not her husband.

[Alaina]

That man was not making love to you. That man was raping you.

[Ash]

I know. See, I'm using quotes just so you know. No, I know that, but great clarification.

[Alaina]

Yeah. Just clarifying.

[Ash]

As you should. So in the weeks and months that followed, she kept having the sensation that somebody was watching her, especially when she was alone in her bedroom. Then one night, she was awoken again from a deep sleep with the feeling that somebody was on top of her, trying to engage her sexually again. She thought it was Ron, but when she opened her eyes, Ron was next to her, sound asleep.

[Alaina]

Huh.

[Ash]

So when she mustered the courage to open her eyes fully and look up, she saw her attacker for the first time. She said he was semi solid, and I could see the bureau through him.

So there's an apparition on top of her.

[Alaina]

Now we have a transparent. And it's a man.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Alaina]

And there's a transparent man on top of you while your husband is sleeping.

[Ash]

No.

[Alaina]

Okay.

[Ash]

She said she hadn't seen the man since the last time it happened, but she was sure it was the same person who had assaulted her in her sleep the first time. He was of average height and muscular with dark hair. And she said somewhere in his, like, late 30s, early 40s. Unlike the first time it happened when she felt drugged, this time she felt like she was fully awake. She said she didn't feel scared or confused, though, especially like, as scared and confused as she was the first time. But she said that she actually have the strong sense that this man meant her no harm. And she said with the full knowledge of what was happening, I decided why fight whoever this man was? I like him.

[Alaina]

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

[Ash]

I like. I like him. You know what?

[Alaina]

It's not that bad.

[Ash]

That's just how you. You have to say it.

[Alaina]

Like, I like him.

[Ash]

I think I like that guy. I said, why fight him?

[Alaina]

Why that?

[Ash]

Let's fuck ghosts.

[Alaina]

Who gives a shit? Yeah.

[Ash]

Get a girl. Is it cheating? Yes.

[Alaina]

Your husband's in the bed next to.

[Ash]

You, but it's a dead man.

[Alaina]

But it's still a man. I don't know. This is a person.

[Ash]

I don't know.

[Alaina]

This is one mighty step up from, like, a dream. This is like a sex dream about someone else.

[Ash]

I guess that's like.

[Alaina]

This is a giant leap up from.

[Ash]

Something you have to discuss in your own marriage. What are. Do your parameters also include ghost?

[Alaina]

Yeah. I think today I'm gonna have a discussion with John.

[Ash]

Okay.

[Alaina]

That, that. I think that that's not okay.

[Ash]

Hey, if you wake up in the night to a ghost baby, you can't her.

[Alaina]

Yeah. Do not the ghost babies. Okay.

[Ash]

Okay. And I won't. The ghost well built.

Who I can see my bureau through. You have to establish these things, you guys do.

[Alaina]

Make sure before you enter into illegal binding marriage.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Alaina]

That you have this on lock.

[Ash]

Yeah. Even while you're dating, you don't know.

[Alaina]

When this could come up. That's the thing, you know, like. No.

[Ash]

Especially in New England, no one knows shit's haunted around here.

[Alaina]

Yeah. You don't know if a ghost is gonna want to.

[Ash]

And you need to know if you're. If your husband or your partner, you gotta know cares if you. That ghost. Yeah. If he doesn't care, go crazy. I like them. I like them. Fight them.

[Alaina]

And then just.

[Ash]

Just, you know, go for it. Go about your life.

[Alaina]

Yeah. Do what you got to do.

[Ash]

Well, anyway, since it was the early or the late 60s, early 70s, Nancy and Ron didn't feel super comfortable talking about their paranormal experiences because they worried that people would think they were like cuckoo birds. And they didn't really talk about it at home either. If they had, they might have realized that literally everybody in the house was experiencing weird shit. But they kind of like experience their own things as like a parental unit and like married couple. And then like the kids were experiencing things, but nobody was talking about it.

[Alaina]

Yeah, that makes sense.

[Ash]

So. And several of Ron and Nancy's children were like, too young to know the difference between the, like, what the real world was and whatever was happening in the house. But as the oldest child, Alan frequently encountered things that he couldn't explain. There was always a weird feeling of being watched, he said. But the worst experiences were those that came at night when everybody else was asleep in the house. One night, about a year after they moved in, Alan woke up in the middle of the night and he walked down the hall to get a drink of water in the bathroom. And while he was standing at the sink drinking, he said he started to hear a sound coming from down the hall that sounded like somebody was breaking into the house. So he walked out of the bathroom and he looked down the pitch dark hallway. He took a few steps forward to investigate a little more when the figure of a man stepped out of the darkness and moved towards him. Allen said he ran toward his bedroom, sensing that the man was just behind him. And when he got to the room he shared with his brother, he just swung the door shut and like pulled the blankets over his head.

[Alaina]

What the fuck?

[Ash]

And he said from underneath the blanket, he could hear the sound of heavy boots pacing outside the bedroom door. Then he heard the door handle jiggle, Followed by the sound of the door opening slowly.

[Alaina]

Nope.

[Ash]

So he finally gets the courage to peek above the COVID So. And he heard the footsteps go back down the hall.

[Alaina]

I hate.

[Ash]

So whoever it was chased him to his bedroom until jiggled the handle and then opened the door and dipped.

[Alaina]

It's like, what the fuck was the point of that, bro?

[Ash]

To freak you out.

[Alaina]

Just to be scary.

[Ash]

To freak you out. Finally, he got, like, enough courage to peek down the hallway, and there was nobody there.

[Alaina]

Oh, that's so scary. Yeah, like, that's scary because nothing happened.

[Ash]

Exactly. But it was.

[Alaina]

So everything happened at the same time. Like, I hate that a lot.

[Ash]

So just a few days before that, Alan had actually fallen down the stairs. That afternoon. He was walking down the stairs to just, like, meet up with his parents and go somewhere. And about halfway down the stairs, he said, I felt like somebody grabbed me from behind and literally heaved me down the steps.

[Alaina]

What the.

[Ash]

Which is weird because the old lady who they had bought the house from had the exact same experience. Yep. So it was after those two incidents that Alan finally told his parents about what was going on. So now Nancy and Ron are like, okay, we're not the only people experiencing this.

[Alaina]

Yeah, this isn't great.

[Ash]

So in the first year and a half in the house, the Stallings continue to experience weird, generally harmless incidents that they couldn't explain. But now it seemed like the ghosts or whatever was in the house not only had the ability to interact with them physically in good ways and in bad, Depending on how you look at it, but at least one spirit in the house seemed to want to harm them. Like your child just got thrown down the stairs. Yeah. To make matters worse, after a while, the paranormal incidents Weren't just confined to the house. Apparently, when Nancy gave birth in 1967, she was obviously at the hospital, and she hoped that the few days stay would kind of be like, a reprieve from everything going on in her house. But instead, she found that the spirit seemed to have followed her to the hospital. The night after she gave birth. She was lying in her hospital bed, trying to get some rest, when all of the sudden, she said she got the feeling she was being watched. She said the atmosphere in the room changed. I kept feeling like somebody was there in the room with me. And she knew that she had been alone for most of the night. But all of a sudden, she said she couldn't shake the feeling that somebody was behind a curtain watching her.

[Alaina]

Oh yeah, no.

[Ash]

Holiday celebrations are insane. I'm running to this person's house. I'm going to a cookie swap. I'm going here. I'm eating all kinds of crap that, you know, usually would bloat me. And let's be real, our diets aren't always the most balanced this time of year. But if you're looking for digestive support, Ritual has got your back, or rather your biome with symbiotic plus. It's a 3 in 1 powerhouse of clinically studied pre, pro and postbiotics to support a balanced gut microbiome with daily use. I happen to be a daily user of Symbiotic plus and I love it. I have always been told that I should take a prebiotic and I said let me go two steps above that and take a pre pro and postbiotic. How about that? It's really hard to find vitamins in general. Like the vitamin aisle is so intense. So the fact that I don't even have to take part in it anymore makes me really happy. I just get Ritual mailed right to my door and I love knowing how clean the ingredients are. All of Ritual's products are vegan, GMO free and tested for heavy metals and common allergens. I love that. It makes me feel so much better about taking it and it just makes me feel very good in general. So get your gut going. Support a balanced gut microbiome with Ritual Symbiotic Plus. My listeners get 25 off your first month at ritual.commorbid that's ritual.commorbid for 25% off your first month. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat or cure or prevent any disease.

Here's the thing about being a great gift giver. When you find something truly perfect for everyone on your list, you almost don't want to give it away. Quints pretty much has your whole list covered. Mongolian cashmere sweaters for $50 when you would normally pay like $200 or more for something like that. The Italian wool coats. They look designer, they feel luxurious, and they are made with premium materials. But like everything at Quint, the price won't make you panic. We're talking way less than the other brands charge. So if you have a fashionist on your list, Quint is the place to go. If I'm on your list, Quint is the place to Go. I'm a big, big fan of the Mongolian cashmere sweaters and I also love to pair them with the silk skirts. You do a little tie in the sweater, a little silk skirt, little boot. Oh, good to go. And you pair that with a jacket. Honey, you're living. You're gorgeous, you're beautiful. Find gifts so good that you'll want to keep them with quince. Go to quince.commorbid for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.commorbid to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.commorbid.

If you could stop somebody from breaking in before they got inside, why wouldn't you? Most old school systems go off after somebody's already in your place and that is obviously too late. But Simply Safe is different. It's proactive with a double layer of defense that stops crimes before they even start. First, AI powered cameras spot potential threats outside. Then live agents step in talking to that person through the camera, letting them know that they're on video and police will be dispatched if they don't leave. They can even trigger a loud siren or a spotlight getting that person the heck out of there. There are no long term contracts or hidden fees. I love Simply Safe. I'm a customer. I think the system is super duper easy to set up and I love how loud the sirens are. We tested it time and I was like, oh honey, everybody would hear a break in here and the police would be a coming this month. Only take 50% off any new system. This is one of the best prices you'll ever see with Simplisafe, so don't miss it. Hit simplisafe.commorbid again. That's simply safe.commorbid and lock in your discount. There is no safe like Simply Safe.

So with everything happening on and off like this over the course of two years now, Nancy and Ron started, you know, thinking about looking for a new place to live. But all their money was tied up in the house, so it just didn't seem possible. Since they couldn't really come up with a permanent solution, though, Ron went to visit his uncle, who was a local Catholic priest. And he was like, I just kind of need to fill you in on what's been going on in the house. Ron assumed that his uncle wouldn't believe the story, and he was right. But at the very least he could see that his nephew was, you know, Stressed and anxiety ridden. So he offered to come and bless the house. A few nights later, the priest arrived at the home and blessed each room as he walked from one floor to the next. And when he was finally done with the blessing, he performed a Catholic mass in the living room for good measure, just in case. And he said, you know, hopefully the ritual will like, easier ease your minds. And Allan found the presence comforting. So that night after the priest had left, the kids were all in bed. Ron and Nancy were just sitting together in the living room watching tv. And for the first time in weeks, they said the house felt quiet. And they were like, you know, maybe whatever Uncle Priest did worked. But a few hours later they started hearing this crazy racket come from the porch and they both ran to the window, looked out at the deck and saw that the kids toys were flying around the porch. They said there was a tricycle riding back and forth on its own.

And it was at that moment Ron said he realized his uncle blessed the entire house except for the porch.

So all the ghosties were on the.

[Alaina]

Porch play with the toys.

[Ash]

Ron grabbed a crucifix from the living room, which he just had laying around, I guess, and ran onto the porch and nailed it on the wall. Apparently the presence of the cross stopped the activity for the time being. But they were like, like, we're not taking any more chances.

[Alaina]

Yeah, this is too much, man.

[Ash]

So they packed up their seven children into their Volkswagen bus and drove to Ron's dad's cabin, which was like an hour outside of Baltimore. And they just stayed in one room together for like days.

Instead of going back to that house.

[Alaina]

I was gonna say instead of actually going in the house.

[Ash]

Ron said, I thought I could get enough nerve to come back again and hope it stopped. But what really motivated them to go home a few days later was the fact that the kids had to go to school and he had to go to work. Otherwise they, you know, probably would have just like lived in that cabin and been like, at least it's not haunted in this one room.

[Alaina]

Yeah, this is great. This one room is so cool.

[Ash]

I love this room. It's so noted. So the activity in the house seemed to be affecting everybody in some way or another. But if it had one target that it really preferred over everybody else, it was Nancy. And the years that passed since they moved in, she kept having those like very vivid, disturbing dreams and been really nightmares.

[Alaina]

Yeah.

[Ash]

And some of them she was in the house she saw in her first dream where the man like struck the other one down with the ax. But there were others, and a lot of them involved the old woman that Ron's sister said she saw on the stairs. I guess.

[Alaina]

Bitty. Angry old Bitty.

[Ash]

Angry old bitty on the stairs with bad views.

[Alaina]

Yeah.

[Ash]

So one night after they went to bed, Nancy was having trouble sleeping. And again, she couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched. So finally that tension came to a head when she looked down and. And she saw the elderly woman. Woman. Staring at her from the foot of their bed.

[Alaina]

No. Whenever something's staring at the. From the foot of the bed.

[Ash]

Get out of there.

[Alaina]

That gives me the willies in a way I can't describe.

[Ash]

You gotta get out of there. And Nancy said the way that the woman looked at them both was like not just a look of disapproval, but of hatred.

[Alaina]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Like she was. Like, she looked at us with hatred and bad views and her angry old bitty. She is.

[Alaina]

And she's got bad views. I'm telling you, you.

[Ash]

Oh, I know she does.

[Alaina]

Yeah. She doesn't align.

[Ash]

Just wait. She totally does.

[Alaina]

Yeah.

[Ash]

So between the menacing old woman who had appeared to Nancy Allen's fall down the stairs and everything, the tricycle on the porch riding its own self, everything that was going on, Ron and Nancy had to face the fact that not only were they living in a haunted house, but that even if they could get out, the haunting might follow them.

[Alaina]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Cuz remember, like, she went to the haunted hospital and it was there. Yeah. So they hoped that the blessing would get rid of the ghosts in their house, but it kind of just seemed to make things worse. So now, knowing that they needed to get out before or they needed to do something before somebody got seriously hurt in 1968, they decided to put the house on the market. And they just hoped that they would find an enthusiastic buyer quickly. In the meantime, Ron got the courage to ask a friend at work if he knew anybody who had experience with ghosts that might be able to help them.

[Alaina]

Him.

[Ash]

It's unclear if that co worker believed Ron's story, but either way, he suggested that Ron contact a friend of his who was a reporter for the Baltimore Sun. So Ron took the friend's advice, and he reached out to reporter A.W. gieselman.

[Alaina]

Giselman.

[Ash]

Giselman.

[Alaina]

I trust him.

[Ash]

A.W.

[Alaina]

Gieselman.

[Ash]

Isn't. Isn't A.W.

[Alaina]

Root Beer a w here?

[Ash]

Yeah, that's good root beer.

[Alaina]

That is good root beer.

[Ash]

So AW was immediately interested in the story and went out to the house to interview the fan family. And Ron and Nancy explained Everything that was happening in the house. They were. They also explained that they were desperately looking for somebody who could help them solve this. Now, at the time, they told the reporter in no uncertain terms that they did not want their names published in this story. And the reporter seemed sympathetic. He said he understood. But when they received the newspaper the next day, they discovered that not only had they been named in the article explaining every weird supernatural thing they were experiencing, but it also listed where Ron worked at the time.

[Alaina]

Oh, no, that's not cool.

[Ash]

No. Now, all things considered, the article itself, like what was written, was not malicious. It mostly just relied on quotes from Ron and Nancy. Yeah, they described their experiences. They told the reporter about the knocking sounds, the misplaced objects, other things that they just couldn't explain. And Ron said he considers the possibility that poltergeists are responsible for his. For his problems in the absence of any other explanation. So it kind of made him sound like a crazy person.

[Alaina]

It absolutely does.

[Ash]

Now, today, the article maybe wouldn't be that big of a deal, but in 1968, oh, yeah, this subject was totally taboo. It reflected poorly on both of them. People saw them as, like, silly or naive or cuckoo. To believe in paranormal. Yeah, anything paranormal. And to make matters worse, they had only recently put the house on the market, and they were getting some interest. But now those calls completely stopped. No, and it wasn't just that there were potential buyers who were influenced by the article. It wasn't just those people who were. The neighbors also started acting very cold toward the family. Probably worried that the article would make them look crazy or bad as well for, like, being associated with them.

So during all the stress of the article and trying to sell the house, the paranormal activity continued to plague all the members of the family very much, especially Nancy. Her vivid nightmares only got worse at the time. At that time, she recalled one particularly bad dream where she was in her bedroom, and she could smell smoke coming from the hall. And she said when she went out to see what it was, there was a raging fire at the end of the hall, like, blocking their exit.

[Alaina]

Yep. See, look at that fire.

[Ash]

Yeah. So she gathered up all the kids from their bedrooms, but the fire was, like, in their exit path, so they couldn't get out of there. Oh, no. And she said just beyond the flame, she could see the old woman laughing at their terror.

[Alaina]

This angry old bitty.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Alaina]

What the.

[Ash]

So, to Nancy, she said, what is. She is a. And Nancy said this dream felt more real than any of the other dreams that she had before. So she Was like, I just. This was not an ordinary dream, she said it was like an experience. She was like this. If any dream was a premonition or a warning, this one was it I.

[Alaina]

It's this angry old that's laughing in the corner that is really me up. Like, all this stuff is so scary. And then you have this angry old being, like, it's like, ah, so creepy.

[Ash]

So one afternoon after Nancy had that dream for four nights in a row, Imagine she was in the kitchen, like for real this time, and she started to smell gas. So she told Ron, and he looked over all the appliances in the kitchen, but they couldn't find the source. So they called the gas company, and when the technician came over that afternoon, he discovered that one of the connections to, like, the gas line, I think in the basement had come loose and the house was actually filling with natural gas.

[Alaina]

Awesome.

[Ash]

So if anybody in that house had lit a match at that time, the entire place would have exploded.

[Alaina]

What the.

[Ash]

So her dream was like, literally?

[Alaina]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Now, she didn't know whether the loose connection in the gas line was just an accident or if it was something much more sinister. But either way, it was yet another reminder that they needed to get the out of there and they needed super dangerous. And not only that, they needed to, like, do something to protect themselves in the time that they were having to stay there because they can't just leave. So at the library, Nancy pored over the small number of books on the supernatural, and she came to one that seemed explicitly focused on getting rid of the complex problem of a haunting. The book's author, Hans Holzer, he was a parapsychologist. Of course, I think we've talked about it before. Yeah, he was a parapsychologist who supported the practice of ghost hunting, spirit communication, and just anything supernatural.

[Alaina]

Yeah.

[Ash]

And conveniently, the book also listed the contact information for him. So Nancy reached out, being like, please help us. Several months went by, I guess, and they didn't get any word from him, so they just assumed he wasn't interested. But then one day in early winter, he just showed up at their front door. He said, hello, I am here ready to help.

[Alaina]

He said, hi, I'm Hans.

[Ash]

Hi, I'm Hans and I'm here.

[Alaina]

It's like, hey, Hans, come on in. Why not?

[Ash]

Honestly, they were still being affected.

[Alaina]

Come into the circus.

[Ash]

Come on in. So he brought a medium with him who he had relied on a few times in the past. And he said, you cannot investigate a haunting in ghosts with just Geiger counters and Other technical equipment and wait for things to happen. No, you must use a trance medium. Everything else is useless.

[Alaina]

Wow.

[Ash]

So we've been ghost hunting incorrectly.

[Alaina]

We have.

[Ash]

We only went ghost hunting with mediums one time.

[Alaina]

And you know what, Hans?

[Ash]

All right, I think, man. Tell me.

[Alaina]

Tell me all the ins and outs.

[Ash]

Just get a medium that's just a medium.

[Alaina]

That's it.

[Ash]

So as they walked through the house, the medium sensed an unnatural presence, they said, particularly in the basement. She told Ron and Nancy that there were several spirits in the house, several different ones. But that the more troubling sensations came from the second floor just outside of their bedrooms. Which makes sense because that's where everybody was really experiencing things. Like Alan getting pushed on the stairs. He was, like, in between levels on the second. Nancy in her bedroom, Alan in his bedroom. So in Ron and Nancy's bedroom, the medium sensed the spirit of a man called Louis Fontaneel. The spirit told her that he. Louis Fontaneel. The spirit told her he and his men had been sent to protect the city and that they were waiting on supplies to come into Baltimore Harbor. So given the area that they lived in and the description of the spirit's activities, Holzer suspected that this was the ghost of a Civil War soldier who had gotten, like, trapped here. Basically, he said, they live in the land. If there's now another house, they don't see that. They see what they remember. So this ghost wasn't in a house. He was, like, roaming around the land from Civil War times.

[Alaina]

Oh, okay.

[Ash]

Isn't that crazy?

[Alaina]

Weird as hell.

[Ash]

Right? That's why, like, we've talked about before, like, they don't see, like, the new construction. So we've talked about stories where, like, you'll see, like, people will see apparitions of, like, those halfway through. Yeah, like halfway through a room because they're in the old configuration.

[Alaina]

Yeah. So they're walking off the floor.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Alaina]

That's so weird that me. That happened in the Paul Feig episode. I remember specifically. It was like, a hotel or something.

[Ash]

Yeah, it was. I forget the hotel that we kept, but it was like a Native American guy who was, like, stuck in between two levels.

[Alaina]

That makes sense.

[Ash]

So the medium sense sensed another spirit in Ron and Nancy's bedroom. A lot more intense than the soldier. In her communication with the spirit, she got the name Kittinger and realized that this was the old woman who had been seen by several family members. And that old bitty, the biddy. She was the one from Nancy's dreams or nightmares. The Woman had owned the property way before the Stallings house was even built. And she believed she was in charge of the home and the land. She thought that the members of the family were her servants. So when they didn't do what she expected or commanded them to do because she couldn't communicate with them, but she thought she was trying to, she became enraged and violent. So that's why she was so angry.

[Alaina]

That's why she's pissed.

[Ash]

She was also angry about an incident involving somebody named John Thompson, a man who had supposedly wronged her. But that was all the information.

John Thompson.

[Alaina]

John Thompson, yeah.

[Ash]

That was all the information, though. Just that John Thompson had wronged this woman. According to the medium, the soldier, though, had been trying to protect the family from the old woman because she meant them harmony. With the medium's help, Holzer performed like, this kind of ritual cleansing that was intended to help the spirits move on. And in the days that followed, everything seemed quiet in the house. A few days later, Nancy told cousin Bill what happened. Remember cousin Bill?

[Alaina]

Yeah.

[Ash]

And she gave him the names of that the medium came up with during her session. Bill took this information to the hall of records and started digging through documents related to the property. And he discovered that just prior to the end of the Civil War, a soldier named Louis Fontanelli was killed during a fight that occurred at an inn where the house now stood.

[Alaina]

What?

[Ash]

Isn't that crazy?

[Alaina]

That's crazy.

[Ash]

And then when Bill went back even just a little bit further in the records, he found another name. Eileen Kittinger, the owner of a home that had been located on the property in 1797.

[Alaina]

Damn.

[Ash]

Isn't that crazy?

[Alaina]

That's wild.

[Ash]

So the information that Bill shared kind of supported everything that they knew and everything they had been told, and it completely validated their decision to get the out of that house. Yeah, as soon as they could. Fortunately, a few months later, they got an offer on the house from a young couple who were apparently, like, very enthused about this house. They were paranormal enthusiasts, and they read about the house in that article that got published. So they were like, let's fucking buy that house. House. So it was all theirs now. Damn, Ron. Nancy and the kids were thrilled to finally be moving out of the house. And they got to packing immediately. One night, a few days after they signed all the paperwork, Nancy was upstairs packing some boxes. And she said she got a strange sensation that she wasn't alone. She said, louise came to me, and he said, when you leave, don't ever come back into this house. Because when you leave, I'm leaving, and I won't be here to protect you, and you won't be safe. And that was good enough for me. Nancy said, damn. Yeah. So a few days later, they packed up their moving truck and they left the house for the last night.

[Alaina]

Good for them.

[Ash]

Nancy said, when we left that house, I can't even describe how good I felt we had made it through that terrible experience, and now we would be able to live a normal life. Wow. Yeah. The end. The end, the end.

[Alaina]

There's so much in that.

[Ash]

Isn't that a crazy.

[Alaina]

Like, there's so much much in that.

[Ash]

And just the fact that, like, the medium didn't say, like, honey the land. She was like, here are these specifically the links for you? And if you go to the hall of Deeds, you will be able to confirm everything I just said to you, which, like, that's pretty cool.

[Alaina]

That's pretty rad.

[Ash]

Just saying. I mean, she might have gone there before, but.

[Alaina]

Oh, okay. Thank you. I was like. I was like, do I burst the box?

[Ash]

But you never know.

[Alaina]

Did they go there ahead of time? Get those names?

[Ash]

It's always possible.

[Alaina]

Really, really kind of solidify it by being like, why don't you go check? I mean, because it's like, I. I.

[Ash]

Know they're there, but they didn't even say, go check. Bill was just like, I'm gonna go check. But, I mean, who knows?

[Alaina]

Who knows?

[Ash]

They experience some weird in that house.

[Alaina]

Who can be sure?

[Ash]

Some mediums are legit. They are.

[Alaina]

You know, you gotta be a little sus. But some mediums, I believe, are legit, Period, period.

[Ash]

Honey the land.

[Alaina]

Honey the land.

[Ash]

This is a real case of honey the land because we were stuck on the land.

[Alaina]

It's literally Honey the land.

[Ash]

Yeah, it's. It literally is that.

[Alaina]

And I mean, no matter what, those two people fit the description of these apparitions. So, yeah, it makes sense.

[Ash]

It does. Pretty freaky. That one, like, spooked me for sure.

[Alaina]

That's a spooky one.

[Ash]

It is a sweet.

[Alaina]

I think there's also. We were just saying that we watched. What was that? What is that show?

[Ash]

Is it, like an American Haunting or something?

[Alaina]

It's one of those haunting shows that they dramatize the whole thing. We watched it with Mikey and Dave one night, and we watched this particular one. And I remember vividly the tricycle. The tricycle flying around the porch. And I remember the shocking revelation that they were like, we didn't bless the porch. And I was like, that's wild.

[Ash]

I was going through this entire story and I was like, this sounds like vaguely familiar. And then I got to that part and I was like, oh, I know exactly where we saw this.

[Alaina]

All of a sudden it' like, oh yeah.

[Ash]

So funny. I love it. So crazy. I love it. I love it.

[Alaina]

I love it.

[Ash]

Well, you guys, we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it. But not so weird that you're an old bitty on the stairs with bad views.

[Alaina]

Don't be an angry old bitty on the stairs with bad views and a bonnet.

[Ash]

A happy young bitty on the stairs with good views and and a good blowout. Yeah, no bonnet. Hell yeah.

[Alaina]

Bye.

[Host/Announcer]

Amazon has everything for everyone on your list. Like your sister who refuses to accept that she does not have a face for bangs. Get her a lovely hat. Amazon has a huge selection of fashionable gifts, and with holiday deals, you can save big on hats, home decor, even the hottest toys. Grab some barrettes while you're at it for that oh so awkward, sweep your hair to the side until your bangs grow out. Stage.

Dermatologists have long highlighted the benefits of indoor humidity for healthy, glowing skin. Dry air can start damaging your skin in just 30 minutes. That's where canopy humidifier comes in. Recommended by leading dermatologists, the Canopy humidifier is a completely reimagined humidifier with invisible clean moisture, the best kind for your skin. Go to GetCanopy Co to save $25 on your purchase with Canopy's filter subscription. Even better, use Code Serious to save an additional 10% off your canopy purchase. Your skin will thank you.