A (0:00)

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home in auto policies. Try it@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states.

B (0:20)

What they did to your family. You're lucky to make it out alive.

A (0:24)

Streaming on Peacock.

B (0:25)

These men are going to come after me. Taking them out. It's my only chance. Put a bullet in their head. From the co creator of Ozark. Looks like a family was running drugs Execution style killing. It's rare for the Keys. Any leads on who they might have been running for? The cartel killed my family. I'm gonna kill them. All of them. MIA Streaming now only on Peacock. Hello and welcome to My Victorian Nightmare. I'm your host Genevieve Manion, and I'm here to talk about mysterious deaths, morbid fascinations, disturbing stories and otherwise spooky events from the Victorian era. Because to me, there's just something especially intriguing, creepy and oddly comforting about horror and mayhem from the 19th century. So listener discretion is adv foreign. And welcome to this, my 93rd episode. And goodness, do I have a particularly spooky episode for you today. It is midnight, April 24, St Mark's Eve in England, and neighbors wait outside a church for the arrival of of wraiths. Spirits of those destined to die within the year will soon glide past them and enter the church as if already dead and returned from the grave. They come to see who will soon die and hope not to see themselves. And not too far away, a haunted ancient sapphire destroys fortunes. A painting inspired by the lost Franklin exhibition destroys feature futures. And across the sea, a chest of drawers murders 18 people in a single Kentucky family. What do these stories have in common? A chilling question. Can objects or rituals predict deadly or disturbing events? And once they do, is there anything that we can do to stop them? For you today, dear listener, we will discuss the terrifying Victorian St Mark's Eve Wraith watching tradition, as well as three different allegedly cursed objects. The Delhi Purple Sapphire, the Conjured Chest and the deeply unsettling painting Man Proposes, God Disposes. But first, thank you to those of you who have joined the Patreon this week who receive the show ad free a day early. Some receive Victorian true crime extras and some enjoy weekly witchy content. And those who sign up May 25th will be receiving in the mail something special from Toby, my sweet little Pomeranian. Just go to myvictorianightmare.com to find out how to join or just click the Patreon link in the show Notes. Now before we get to the particularly creepy stuff that I have for you today, this episode is great. I had so much fun putting this together. I just want to mention that I put a photograph of the funeral of little baby Auckland on the Instagram. The baby who was found in the floorboards of a home wrapped in a 1910 newspaper. The photo is. It's just so beautiful. The lead detective on the case carried the beautiful little coffin. It doesn't seem that their inquiries have led to any DNA matches. They're still trying to determine who the baby was. If anyone has any information about how he ended up in the floorboards of a house, it's quite lovely to see how much care and compassion has surrounded this case. So I just wanted to share the photo. It is quite touching. You'll find the image in the link in the Instagram in the Show Notes May is Mental Health Awareness Month, so I'm making sure that I'm getting enough sleep, I'm checking in with my friends, I'm reducing my doom scrolling significantly and sharing Rula with as many folks as I can. Talking with friends and family is great when you're trying to work through difficult times, but having a professional to guide you through a difficult breakup, the loss of a loved one, or just day to day difficulties that you may not share with friends is a great way to really find your way through. Luckily, Rula makes this easy. Rula is a mental healthcare provider group that pairs you with psychologists and psychiatrists based on your needs, not just who's next available in a queue. They also work with over 120 insurance plans, making them the average copay, just $15 a session. Rula also sticks with you through your entire mental health care journey. First, they find you the best fit based on your needs and preferences. They help you schedule appointments and even help monitor your progress. Their professionals are carefully screened, vetted and if you require medication, they have doctors that can work with you to find what you need to feel like you again. When I finally found the right medication for me, I remember that was my first realization. I felt like me again and I really missed that girl. This Mental Health Awareness Month, don't just think about your mental health, actually take the step to care for it. Visit rula.comVictorian to get started. That's R U L A.comVictorian. you deserve mental health care that works with you, not against your budget. Now speaking of cemeteries, won't you follow me through this lovely cemetery here to the Crypt of Corrections. It's been a while, well since we made our way here. I just want to make a correction and add some more detail to the Curse of Petronia story that I spoke about last week and make a correction to pretty much all of the info that is out there about this story. I mentioned that it is believed that Petronia who allegedly cursed the land that is now Griffith park in California may not have even been a real person. This detail you will see in numerous sources. It's believed by numerous historians, but a descendant of Don Feliz reached out and sent me her entire family tree with arrows and everything showing that not only was she a real person, but the way the legend of the curse is told. She is always described as the niece of Daunvalese who owned the land. But she wasn't his niece, she was his daughter. Her full name was Maria Martina Petronia Feliz. I couldn't find records of her because I was looking in the wrong place and maybe that's the issue other historians were having. I thought she was a niece. This gal named Wendy said she herself can't know if the curse itself was real, but her family tells the story as they the land having been stolen and not simply willed over to Don Antonio in an above board manner. So that was awesome. I love when folks give me information that I can't find through my own researching. Thank you Wendy. Okay, watch your step. I'm sure we will make our way back here to the Crypt of Corrections again. Now let us have our first segment with their own eyes where we discuss the personal haunting accounts of petrified Victorians or sometimes the personal haunting accounts of people petrified by the ghosts of Victorians. In this case we are talking about Victorians petrifying themselves with very interesting kinds of ghosts that I had never heard of before. A listener recommended that I dig into this topic and I'm so happy and terrified that I did. St. Mark's Eve, April 24th. I'm sorry we're a little late to the party. Can all celebrate it together. Next year was a night that some English folks would celebrate by going to their local church at 11 o' clock at night and staying until 1 o' clock in the morning. They would open the doors of the church, stand upon the porch steps and await wraiths, ghosts of those who were not yet dead but would be soon. In fact, they would die within the year. These particular ghosts spirits are also referred to as fetches, a supernatural double, a projection of a future Dead person that was still currently living rad. Now, this ritual event was practiced before the 19th century, but it was practiced all throughout the 19th century. This event commonly included, like I said, getting to the church by 11 o' clock at night. But it would be at the stroke of midnight that these fetches would be seen. However, only some people could see them and exactly what you would see dependent depended on your locality. In Yorkshire, for example, you would have to do this for three nights in a row, starting on the 22nd, and only on the third night would you be able to witness the dead souls of people who lived within the parish who were soon to die. Some accounts of the custom state that watchers would have to be fasting for a day or they must circle the church first before taking their place on the church steps. The ghosts who were most soon to die would be the ones first seen. The ones who were to die later the year might not show up until 1am and get this, this is the best. Some variations of the superstition say that people waiting on the church steps would see headless rotting corpses or even floating coffins approaching and flying into the church. I wonder how they would know whose headless corpse or coffin it was. I found a quote from a dictionary of English folklore that said, if the person is to be drowned, his representative will come as if struggling and splashing in, and so on. For other cases of premature death, jumping a Jehoshaphat. This practice was fairly prevalent in the 1800s, but it had been recorded as early as the 1600s when it was considered more witchcrafty. It certainly sounds witchcrafty. In a 1608 record of a church in Walesby, Nottinghamshire, a woman was excommunicated for, quote, watching upon St. Mark's Eve at night in a church porch by devilish demonstration the death of some neighbors within the year. In Lincolnshire, it was also believed that you would not only see the ghosts of those who would die within the year, but also those who would be married. How folks would be able to tell the difference is not clear. Imagine you're planning a wedding and you see you and your fiance walking up with all the other spooky dead ghosts. Like, should we be spending all this money on this wedding? Or go to Tahiti while we still can? And oh, check out this poem about St. Mark's Eve. It has a creepy twist ending. It is called St. Mark's a fragment by Mary Ann Brown. Twas the eve of St. Mark and she stood by the church and gazed with undaunted eye on the ruined form of the ancient porch to mark what shades would pass by. Twice before she had tried the spell, and twice had she said the prayer. And now the third and decisive time, that lady was watching there. For whoever will watch on the eve of St. Mark without a tremble or fear shall see the forms pass through the church porch of those who shall die in that year. The moon was rising above the hill, and her soft beam pensively smiled. And she looked o' er the world that lay sleeping below like a mother that hangs or her child. The distant dog howled long and loud and shrilly whistled the blast, and the lady steadfastly looked around to mark each omen that passed. Pale was her cheek in the pale moonlight, and her lily brow lay bare. And many a jewel and many a gem was sparkling amidst her hair. The chill dew fell on the lady's brow as she sat on a broken stone, and she whispered again the midnight spell. And she feared not to sit there alone. Not mine to tell what tale she heard, nor to open the scroll of fate. But the lady was found at the blush of the morn, a clay cold corpse at the gate. So one can assume she saw her own dead spirit walk into the church. Another tradition not only includes the dead headless corpses or wraiths of your neighbors or fiances appearing before you, but that a woman would be able to see the face of her future husband on her smock if she held it before the light of a fire on St. Mark's Eve. I wonder if that would just happen without you being aware it was St. Mark's Eve. Like you're up till midnight making a tasty stew over a fire and all of a sudden you look down and some. Some dude's face is looking up at you from your own clothes. Kill me. I would have a heart attack. Now, it is unclear what St. Mark has to do with any of this. He is the patron saint of lions, lawyers, notaries, opticians, pharmacists, painters, secretaries, interpreters, prisoners, and anyone bitten by a bug. So, yeah, not sure what he has to do with all of this, but I would imagine it because of the halfway mark to Halloween or All Hallows Eve or Samhain, when we are supposed to see the ghosts of those already passed. It may simply be the placement of the day that was already St. Mark's Eve that worked as like a good ying to the yang of Halloween. That's just what I would assume. Now, just like that church record of the woman who was excommunicated for holding a St. Mark's vigil, there are other later records from when the practice was more favorably adopted that are terrifying. And it's unclear if these are true or just like second hand accounts. But one record stated that in Lancashire a clergyman came to view the wraiths. And as the clock struck midnight, he saw several of them with differing ages slowly making their way toward the doors of the church. But he also saw the ghost of himself walking toward him. From then on his sermons became black and full of doom and he was dead within a few months. There's another similar incident of not a clergyman, but like a skeptic who went to watch for the wraiths for fun, but he also saw his dead spirit walking toward him and he was dead within a month. This was listed in a record from the church of All Saints in Devonshire. And this incident was documented by a man named Gervase Hollis, who heard it from his minister. So second third hand account here. But this is great. He said that two men from the parish went to observe St Mark's Eve, and this is exactly what they saw. About midnight, upon a sudden, as if the moon had been eclipsed, they were environed with a black darkness. Immediately after a kind of light, as if it had been a resultancy from torches, then appears, coming toward the church porch, the minister of the place with a book in his hand. And after him, one in a world winding sheet, whom they both knew to resemble one of their neighbors. The church doors immediately flew open and threw past the apparitions. And then the doors clapped to again. They then seemed to hear muttering as if it were the burial service, with a rattling of bones and noise of earth, as in the filling up of a grave. Suddenly a still silence and a meeting immediately after the apparitions of the curate, again with another of their neighbors following in a winding sheet. And so a third, fourth and fifth every one attended with the same circumstances as the first. So spooky now as you can imagine being it, that not everyone can see the wraiths. Only some folks, con men and women of course, saw a lucrative racket in St. Mark's Eve. In Yorkshire there is a record of a woman named Old Peg Dew who watched for the wraiths and sold information about what she saw to her neighbors. There were also those who sold spells and enchantments to prevent deaths from happening. They would claim to have seen a given person's dead form, enter the church and then of course offer the remedy to change their fate for a reasonable fee. Washington Irving, who wrote Sleepy Hollow, has a short story called St. Mark's Eve. It's a fictional conversation at a dinner table between a visitor to a with that town's experience of St. Mark's Eve. This is from his story. It says, a superstition was of a strange and melancholy kind, which, however, is chiefly confined to whales. It is respecting what are called corpse candles, little wandering fires of a pale bluish light that move around like tapers in the open air and are supposed to designate the way some corpse is to go. Go. One was seen late last night hovering up and down along the bank and was watched by the neighbors until they were tired and went to bed. Not long afterwards, there came a comely country lass from Montgomeryshire to see her friends who dwelt on the opposite side of the river. She thought to ford the stream at the very place where the light had been first seen, but was dissuaded on account of the height of the flood. She walked to and fro along the bank just where the candle had moved. Waiting for the subsiding of the water, she at length endeavored to cross, but the poor girl was drowned in the attempt. End quote. There may be some truth to that particular incarnation of the future. Dead in Wales. Again, different locations had different beliefs about what may be seen on St Mark's Eve. He may have taken inspiration from a real belief around how these spirits would appear. Oh, Irving's story begins with a very short poem by John Dryden, and I need to read it because it will chill you to your bones. This poem, in just a few lines, describes what I think my biggest fear is, which is to become a ghost. I don't know if I've ever mentioned that or if I've already mentioned it a million times. For all I know, I have. Dying and then being dead. But still here it is, my very biggest fear. And the poem. Poem reads, oh, tis a fearful thing to be no more. Or if to be to wander after death, to walk as spirits do in brakes all day, and when the darkness comes, to glide in paths that lead to graves, and in the silent vault where lies your own pale shroud to hover o' er it, striving to enter your forbidden, forbidden corpse. And that's just a little bit about St. Mark's Eve. This episode of my Victorian nightmare is brought to you by Alloy Health. If there is anything positive about perimenopause, it is that there are so many other women out there going through exactly the same thing. Just when you think you're going crazy, you realize we all are. It's not. Not just me. But luckily now there is something that we can actually do about it. Your perimenopause and menopause symptoms are treatable. Almost half of women go at least three years before even considering treating their symptoms. And it makes sense why 43% of women say that their doctors dismiss their symptoms and never even mention hrt. Luckily, Alloy can help. They offer unlimited access to expert physicians and safe science backed treatments for your symptoms. Whether you're dealing with high hot flashes, night sweats or maybe you're interested in osteoporosis prevention. All you have to do is complete the intake form. Then you'll be paired with a doctor to create a specialized treatment plan just for you. You'll get a three month supply and prescriptions delivered to your door with automatic refills. I cannot recommend Alloy enough join the 95% of women who tried ALOI and saw relief in the first two weeks. Head to myalloid.com and use code Victorian and tell them all about your symptoms and you'll get a fully customized treatment plan and unlimited messaging with your doctor. Plus you'll get $20 off your first order today. Head to my a l l o y.com and use code Victorian to get $20 off your first order. Okay, let's talk about some cursed Victorian objects or ancient objects that allegedly cursed Victorians. I had to dig deeper into cursed objects after episode 91 where I talked about the Curse of Cleopatra' in London, I fell down a rabbit hole. Let's begin with the cursed amethyst, otherwise known incorrectly as the Delhi Purple Sapphire. It apparently was not from Delhi. This beautiful gemstone was stolen from India during the Rebellion of 1857, and those who stole it suffered endless calamity, despair and devastation. And not only them, but just about everyone else who came in contact with it afterwards. In fact, its last owner had it sealed in seven steel boxes inside a bank safe, and he left specific instructions not to remove it until three years after he died. He didn't even want his corpse subjected to its cursed terrors for at least three years. Impressive. Now, the first owners of the stolen stone are a bit murky, but it is said that a Bengal cavalryman named Colonel W. Ferris brought it to England after it was stolen out of the Temple of Indra in Khenpur. And in in not too much time, he lost just about everything he owned, and he got sick and he died. Then when his son inherited the stone, he also lost everything that he owned, and it's not clear if this was the point where it Was first determined to be cursed. But this guy was like, everything sure went downhill when my dad stole this from India and brought it home. So he gave it to a friend of his. But this friend soon died by suicide. And in. In a wild twist, this guy willed the stone back to this guy again. And he was like, oh, God damn it. Everything up until now is kind of a legend. In other words, I can't substantiate it, but in 1890, a man named Edward Heron Allen somehow got his hands on this stone. He was a very successful, inquisitive and brilliant gentleman. He had written books on violin making, palmistry, that is palm reading. He was multilingual and wrote translations of Arabic and Turk Turkish books. He also knew astrology and created horoscopes for some famous and well known people, among many other things. But he created a horoscope for one of the sons of Oscar Wilde, a son named Cyril. And terrifyingly, he predicted that something terrible, likely deadly, would happen to him that year. And that year he was killed in France by a German sniper during the first world war. Goodness. This man came into possession of this stone and quickly began to experience a series of disasters and bizarre experiences, which I will get to. But the Heron Allen society, the man has his own society, Confirms that in this era he made many detailed correspondence with gemologists of the time, attempting to create a scientific approach to studying what he called the stone's malevolent influence. Letters were found that he did indeed attempt to establish protocols for the scientific study of allegedly cursed objects in general, not just this stone. So he was deeply concerned about this object. He gave it away to a friend who was quote, unquote, thereupon overwhelmed by every possible disaster. She was a singer, and shortly after receiving the stone, her voice was dead and gone, and she never sang again. Again. How horrifying. So she gave it back to him, and he was like, get this thing away from me. So he threw it into Regent's Canal, and he must have thought, that'll do it. But it got dug up by a dredger who somehow ended up giving it to a dealer who was a friend of this guy who was like, hey, I know who this belongs to. And he gave it back to him. Damn it. At this point, Edward decided it would be best to lock the stone in seven Russian nesting doll like boxes and to lock it in a safe in a box bank. This is the guy who then said not to open the damn thing until he'd been dead for three years, which it was opened by his daughter three years later, who gave it to a museum, the Natural History Museum, along with a letter that was inside describing the torments and haunting experiences that her father had while in possession of this stone. The letter began, to whomsoever shall be the future possessor of this amethyst, these lines are addressed in mourning before he or she shall assume responsibility of owning it. End quote. He mentions that it was stolen from India and everyone who has been unlucky enough to possess it has seen great misfortune in his experience. From the moment I had it, misfortunes attacked me until I had it bound round with a double headed snake that had been a finger ring of Hadon the astrologer, looped up with zodiacal plaques and neutralized between Hayden's magic Tao and two amethyst scarabs of Queen Hatasu's period. It remained thus quietly until 1902, though not only I, but my wife frequently saw in my library a Hindu yogi who haunts the stone, trying to get it back. He sits on his heels in a corner of the room, digging in the the floor with his hands as of searching for it. I feel that it is exerting a baleful influence over my newborn daughter. So I am now packing it in seven boxes and depositing it at my banker's with directions that it is not to see the light again until I have been dead three years. Whoever shall open it shall first read this warning and then do so as he pleases with the jewel. My advice is to him or her is to cast it into the sea. I am forbidden by the Rosecution oath to do this, or I would have done it long ago, not return it from where it was stolen from, which would most likely prevent more misfortunes and Hindu yogi ghosts. But throw it in the ocean. It also sounds like he found even more jewelry pieces that likely also didn't belong to him to add to the already cursed stone. Although he was a very intelligent man in some respects, even I understand you're probably not supposed to use other stolen, perhaps cursed, ancient artifacts to counteract the curse of your already cursed objects. But who can say this guy was into some wild stuff. The Rosicutians are a worldwide philosophical and spiritual movement rooted in 17th century European manifestos that promised a universal reformation of humanity. So like a secret, supernatural philosophical society, he was initiated into this society. So he was allowed to throw it into a canal, but not the ocean. I can only imagine there are very specific rules for how to dispose of cursed objects in that secret Society. So, yeah, his daughter was like, here's a very important ancient amethyst for your museum. It is evil, cursed, and haunted. Feel free free to read all about it in my dead father's letter. Apparently, the stone was moved in 2007 to be put on display at a symposium. And the curator, Richard Seven, said, quote, we drove through the most amazing storm we'd ever witnessed. Lightning was flashing on both sides of the car, and my wife was shouting at me, throw that damn jewel away. You shouldn't have brought it. End quote. He also said that anytime he's tried to view this stone again, he's gotten violently ill. He also says, of course, it could all just be a coincidence. Okay, our next object currently resides in the Kentucky Historical Society Museum. And I love how this object is introduced on their website. It says, quote, when you work in a museum, people often ask if there are any scary or haunted artifacts in your museum. The Kentucky Historical Society has plenty of them. The graveyard quilt, the cursed beads, a hangman's noose, and the suit that Governor Goble was wearing when he was shot. But perhaps the most unique of our eerie artifacts is a chest of drawers known as the conjured chest. Oh, I really want to know what's up with that graveyard quilt. But let's dig into what is up with this conjured chest. This unsuspecting chest of drawers is associated with 18 deaths. Allegedly, a woman by the name of Virginia Carey Hudson donated the chest to the historical society in 1976. And she told the society that that dang chest tormented her family for generations. It's believed that it was created in Kentucky around 1830, likely in Meade County. The chest was featured on season one of the Travel Channel's Deadly Possessions. And the daughter of the woman who donated it to the museum said when asked why her mother didn't just throw it away, she said, quote, I don't think she would turn it loose. I mean, imagine putting it out on the curb knowing that someone might put items in it and then die. She felt that it needed to be preserved, but to be kept away from innocent people in a place that would make it very clear that it wasn't meant to be used. So what is up with this chest of drawers? This is the story told through letters and some first hand accounts of this woman's family dating back to 1830. And it's quite a disturbing, horrifying origin story. It begins when a man named Jeremiah Graham was preparing for the birth of his firstborn son. The chest was hand carved by an enslaved man named Remus. Jeremiah wasn't happy with the chest that this man was forced to make for free for him, so he beat the man so hard that he died. According to this story, other enslaved people sprinkled dried owl blood inside the drawers to put a curse on it. Despite the fact that this chest made this man so angry that he murdered the man who made it, he still placed it in the baby's nursery. The baby died in infancy. And allegedly everyone who has put clothes in the chest has had something awful or deadly happened to them. So the first was the baby. Then Jeremiah's brother also had a baby, and that baby's clothes were placed in the chest. And when this baby grew to be 21, he was stabbed to death by a servant. The chest was then given to other family members and likely didn't think it was cursed. Yet these two family members, John and Catherine, both died not too long after John was killed in an accident. And Catherine died of an illness. The child of John. Two more family members who used the chest. A little girl named Louise died at 10 years old. The son of that family, whose clothes were not stored in the chest, put his wife's wedding dress in the chest. He was married in 1895, and she died within two years of the wedding. There's a long list of people who died and died and died after placing clothes in this chest. I'll just list some standouts. Gloves and a scarf that were knitted as a Christmas present were stored in the chest and given to a man named Emmett. And on the evening of 19, he stepped off a train and fell 30ft through a train trestle. Did he not wait till it got to the station? Christ. Shortly after, a woman named Eliza moved the chest into another room. She died by suicide. Goodness. A man named Wilbur, whose clothes went into the chest, was shortly thereafter rushed to the hospital for an appendectomy. Those are awful. And a few weeks later, died of an overdose of ether. There was Herbert H. Moore, who put his hunting clothes in the chest and then was shot in the head shortly thereafter. And finally, a boy named Richard put his clothes in the chest and got stabbed through the hand at school. Now, this is all extraordinarily tragic for any family to endure, but to me, this just sounds like pretty standard Kentucky family living between the early 1800s and 1940s. My family is primarily from Ireland and England, but I've got some that snakes deep through the south for at least five or six generations. And these are the kinds of stories my grandparents would tell about what happened to our relatives. So not that I'm saying I don't believe that it was cursed. It sounds like it should have been if its origin story is true, but just saying, we've got a host of similar calamities in my family that came out of Kentucky as well. For sure, by the time the child was stabbed through the hand, the family put together some dots and realized it could be that dang chest of drawers. So before they decided to give it to the museum, they actually tried to break the curse. The mother of the stabbed boy allegedly asked a maid in the house named Sally if she knew how to break the curse. Sally told this woman named Virginia that she needed a dead owl brought by a friend. The poor owls in this story. She then needed to take the leaves of a willow tree planted by a friend and boil them for one day in sight of the dead, dead owl. Then she needed to put the boiled willow leaves in a jug and bury it with the handle facing east under a flowering bush. But here's the thing. If it worked, one of them meaning Virginia or Sally, the woman telling her how to do this would die before all of the leaves fell off the bush in the fall. Which begs the question, why did Sally tell her this at all? Because she allegedly died the following September. Sally what a tragic story all around. In the 20th top drawer of the chest, owl feathers from the curse breaking spell still remain to keep the curse from returning to the chest.