Stardust Ranch: Arizona, 1996

Summary

Sightings Podcast Episode Summary: "Stardust Ranch: Arizona, 1996"

---

Introduction

In the February 17, 2025 episode of Sightings, hosts McLeod Andrews and Brian Sigley delve into the eerie and unsettling experiences of John Edmonds at Stardust Ranch in Arizona. This episode takes listeners on a harrowing journey through a series of inexplicable supernatural events, blending firsthand accounts with in-depth analysis.

---

John Edmonds' Journey to Stardust Ranch

Moving to the Ranch

John Edmonds, a former counselor from Phoenix, sought solace and simplicity away from the chaos of city life. In 1996, he and his wife Joyce purchased Stardust Ranch in Rainbow Valley, Arizona—a remote 10-acre property boasting expansive landscapes, a spacious modern house, and ample facilities, including a stable for twenty horses. Despite Joyce's apprehensions about the place, John was enchanted by the potential it held.

Initial Signs of Paranormal Activity

Upon moving in, some unusual occurrences began almost immediately. The most baffling incident involved finding the previous owner's furniture intact inside their newly built pool. This bizarre occurrence set the tone for the strange happenings that were to follow. Despite these oddities, John dismissed Joyce's concerns, focusing instead on making the ranch his dream home.

Escalation of Supernatural Events

As isolation took its toll, John began to experience increasing paranormal disturbances:

• Strange Lights: Unusual, conscious-moving lights appeared in the sky, defying natural explanations, often mistaken initially for military exercises from the nearby Air Force range ([07:00]).

• Animal Mutilations: John witnessed his pets, including his beloved Rottweiler, being mysteriously flattened without any signs of blood or gore ([12:45]).

• Doppelgangers: Encounters with perfect copies of his wife Joyce, displaying unsettling features like completely black eyes, further deepened the mystery ([15:30]).

Confrontation with the Supernatural

Determined to protect his home, John armed himself and eventually confronted the unidentified beings haunting his ranch. In a climactic encounter, he successfully decapitated one alien entity with a samurai sword, only to realize that killing them was futile as they continually reappeared, emphasizing their otherworldly resilience ([32:00]).

---

Hosts' Discussion and Analysis

Breakdown of Events

McLeod Andrews and Brian Sigley meticulously dissect John Edmonds' experiences, highlighting the rapid succession of bizarre events that challenge credulity. Brian notes, “He went from being a guy who thought a .357 was plenty for home defense to someone stockpiling assault rifles” ([34:09]).

Insight into John Edmonds' Character

The hosts explore John’s transformation from a city-dwelling counselor to a hardened defender of his ranch. They discuss his motivations, emphasizing his pride and the emotional investment that kept him tethered to Stardust Ranch despite the escalating horrors.

Credibility and Skepticism

While acknowledging the gripping nature of John's story, the hosts adopt a skeptical stance, questioning the plausibility of events such as the presence of multiple alien heads and unexplained phenomena. McLeod remarks, “It's just like a fun house of horrors. He's being tortured. He's being terrorized” ([28:30]).

Psychological Aspects

The discussion delves into the psychological strain of isolation and trauma, considering whether John's experiences could be influenced by his mental state. Brian muses, “Maybe he was pretty well versed in popular culture and could have been cribbing some of these things” ([35:19]).

Conclusion

Ultimately, McLeod and Brian lean towards skepticism, finding the convoluted nature of the events both fascinating and implausible. They reflect on John Edmonds' earnestness and the possibility that the truth behind his story remains elusive.

---

Key Takeaways

• Isolation Amplifies Strangeness: The remoteness of Stardust Ranch exacerbated the unnerving events, making John feel both secluded and vulnerable.

• Escalating Paranormal Activity: From strange lights to animal mutilations and doppelgangers, the escalating nature of the events created a pervasive atmosphere of fear and uncertainty.

• Determination vs. Rationality: John’s unwavering determination to defend his home, despite mounting evidence that something was profoundly wrong, highlights the conflict between personal resolve and rational decision-making.

• Skeptical Perspective: The hosts maintain a critical view, questioning the credibility of the accounts while appreciating the narrative's depth and complexity.

---

Notable Quotes

• John Edmonds: “I should have listened to my wife. That's what keeps me up at night” ([01:56]).

• McLeod Andrews: “Why don't you run? Especially when your wife is doppelgangered on you” ([27:00]).

• Brian Sigley: “He ended up cutting off 18 or 19 aliens heads” ([25:07]).

• McLeod Andrews: “It's just like a fun house of horrors” ([28:30]).

---

Conclusion

"Stardust Ranch: Arizona, 1996" presents a chilling narrative of one man's battle against inexplicable supernatural forces. Through detailed storytelling and thoughtful analysis, McLeod Andrews and Brian Sigley offer listeners a compelling exploration of terror, resilience, and the fine line between reality and the paranormal. Whether viewed through a lens of belief or skepticism, this episode leaves audiences pondering the mysteries that lurk beyond our understanding.

Transcript

[Brian Sigley]

At New Balance, we believe if you run, you're a runner, however you choose to do it. Because when you're not worried about doing things the right way, you're free to discover your way. And that's what running's all about. Run your [e-mail] Running this is a message from sponsor Intuit. TurboTax Taxes was getting frustrated by your forms. Now Taxes is uploading your forms with a snap. And a TurboTax expert will do your taxes for you. One who's backed by the latest tech, which cross checks millions of data points for absolute accuracy. All of which makes it easy for you to get the most money back guaranteed. Get an expert [e-mail] only available with TurboTax Live full service. Seek guaranteed [e-mail] guarantees.

[McLeod Andrews]

There'S something seductive about the desert. Vast stretches of emptiness where a person might carve out their own paradise. But isolation cuts both ways. When the nearest neighbor is miles away, who will hear your screams? And when you realize your dream home came with uninvited guests, what choice do you have but to stand and fight? Welcome to Sightings, the series that takes you inside the world's most mysterious supernatural events. Each week, we bring you a thrilling story that puts you at the center of the action, followed by a discussion that dives into the accounts that inspired the story and our takes on them. I'm McLeod.

[Brian Sigley]

And I'm Brian. And today we're heading to the Arizona desert, where one rancher is about to encounter just about every paranormal event under the sun.

[McLeod Andrews]

So prepare yourself for night visitors, strange lights, and one man who's desperate to defend his piece of paradise. Will he succeed? Find out on this episode of Sightings. Looking back, I should have listened to my wife. That's what keeps me up at night, knowing Joyce had sensed something was wrong from the very beginning. But I was too caught up in my dream. This grand vision of wide open spaces, horses grazing in the distance, and a place to finally call my own. After spending my early years dodging trouble in the rougher parts of Chicago, then building a respectable career as a counselor in Phoenix, I thought I'd earned my slice of paradise. Instead, I bought myself a nightmare. But you probably need more to make sense of any of this, don't you? The name's John Edmonds, and I bought this place in 1996. I was burnt out from life in this city and needed something simpler, something real. And though Joyce and I had only been married a few years, she understood my restlessness. So When I floated the idea of buying a ranch, she didn't shut it down. At least not at first. Our budget wasn't exactly rancher sized, which meant the prime spots around Phoenix were well out of reach. But our realtor kept mentioning this place out in Rainbow Valley. Stardust Ranch, just beyond Buckeye. It's remote, he said, but that's what makes it such a steal. The first time we drove out to see it, I knew something was different. The landscape shifted from suburbs to pure desert, all rust colored earth and scrubbed vegetation beneath a relentless sun. By the time we turned onto the property, we might as well have been on Mars. 10 acres of isolation surrounded by serene mountains. The house itself was a surprise. Modern construction, way bigger than we'd expected for the price. Five bedrooms, massive kitchen, even an in ground pool out back. The kind of place that should have been way outside our means. There was a stable too, big enough for 20 horses. Just sitting there, waiting for someone with vision to bring it back to life. I was already imagining the possibilities before we made it through the front door. A dog breeding operation, horse training. Maybe even a retreat center where I could counsel people in a more natural setting. But Joyce was quiet. Too quiet. I caught her staring at empty corners of rooms, rubbing her arms like she was cold despite the desert heat. When we got back in the car, she finally spoke up and told me something wasn't right about this place and being me. I brushed it off. Of course, the price was incredible, the location perfect for what we wanted. So I emptied our savings account and signed the papers as fast as I could. And within a few weeks we were moving in. We pulled up the long driveway in the U Haul, and I remember feeling like a conquering hero. I even struck a pose for Joyce, who managed a tight smile from behind the wheel of our following car. Then we opened the front door and found every single piece of the previous owner's furniture still exactly where it was during our viewing weeks before. They hadn't bothered to move out at all. I. I was livid. Called the realtor right away, ready to tear him a new one. He seemed genuinely surprised. Insisted he'd take care of it. Told us to go kill some time in town. So we did. Caught a movie, had lunch. Tried to laugh it off as just one of those things that happens during a move. And when we came back that evening, the house was empty. I was impressed the realtor had actually come through. Then I walked out back to survey my new property and found, well, everything. Every single piece of furniture, every appliance the entire contents of the house all stacked in the empty pool like it was a landfill. The realtor denied having anything to do with it and said it wasn't his problem anymore. We'd paid cash. It was our house now. Our problem. So it took weeks to clear that pool. The whole time, I could feel Joyce watching me. That look in her eyes that said I told you so without her having to speak a word. But I wasn't about to let some weird furniture situation spook me off my dream property. So I settled in. We settled in. And soon enough, the house was feeling comfortable. Homey, even. But now that we were living there, I. I started to feel the isolation. It's not something you think about when touring a place in broad daylight, but at night you start to notice things like how far you are from help if something went wrong. How many hiding spots there are on acres of scrubland. How the mountains grow ominous after dark. And though I've never been much for guns, I bought myself a.357 Magnum just to have something solid to hold onto during those long nights when Joyce was working late at her FBI office job in Phoenix. I told myself it was. It was just common sense. Of course, I had no idea I'd be needing that gun and more. Because this house, this land. Well, you'll see. A few weeks after moving in, I saw a man walking up our long dirt driveway like he owned the place. He wore what looked like an old military shirt with the sleeves torn off, and even from a distance, I could see he was carrying something. As he got closer, I realized it was a machete and not some decorative wall hanger either. This thing had seen use. So I pulled my magnum from my waistband and went out to meet him. We squared off halfway up the drive, like something out of an old Western up close, his eyes had that thousand yard stare I recognized from my counseling days. The kind that says someone's not quite anchored to real. I asked if I could help him, and he quietly replied, I live here. I followed his gaze towards a storage shed on the property. A shed that I knew had no sign of anyone ever living in it. So I told him I owned this place now and that whatever agreement he had with the previous owners no longer applied. He considered that for a moment, then said the most unexpected four words I've ever heard. I kill the monsters. And he delivered them with such matter of fact certainty that for a moment, I actually believed him. But there was no way he was living on my land, and I told him so. And he fixed his empty eyes on me and said I'd regret that. Then walked away without another word. So, yeah, that happened. And after that, the strangeness really started ramping up. First was trouble with the phone company. Three separate technicians refused to come out to hook up our landline, and I finally got a supervisor on the phone who hemmed and hawed before admitting that our address had a reputation. They wouldn't say what kind exactly, just that their contractors were afraid. Then we finally did get someone out, Some local guy who'd lived in the area forever. He spent an hour and a half telling me about the property's history, about the illegal gambling operation that had operated here in the 80s, about the violence that had erupted one night, leaving bodies scattered across my front yard. About the previous owner who'd eaten his shotgun on his son's graduation day. He told me to get out while I still could, but I'd sunk everything I had into this place. There was no getting out now. And of course, the next night, I started to see the lights. They appeared most nights after that, hovering in the distance. The Air Force range was just on the other side of the mountains, and at first I told myself that's all they were. Training exercises. Fighter jets, maybe some flares. But these lights, they moved wrong, like they were alive, conscious. The predominant color was orange, but sometimes they'd shift through other hues, dancing across the sky in ways that defied any earthly explanation. Naturally, I called the base, and the official line was always the same, just military drills. But I'd seen plenty of night training exercises, and this was something. Something else entirely. Complicating matters was the fact that I started feeling different on the ranch. Angry, almost the kind of anger I hadn't felt since my days growing up rough in Chicago. And though I tried hiding it from Joyce, it was eating me up inside. Even stranger, I noticed things disappearing around the house and the ranch. Small stuff at first, like keys, but soon everything from bills to tools and more started playing musical chairs when I wasn't looking. Then the temperature started dropping at random pockets of cold air that would appear in rooms for no reason. The pressure would change, too, like the moment before a storm. The horses would get spooked, the dogs would fight among themselves. And since Joyce didn't mention a whiff of experiencing anything strange herself, it took me a long time to accept that anything was wrong at all. And the moment I did, everything escalated. It was like whatever was there decided it didn't need to hide anymore. Plates would crash to the floor, the fridge would rock back and forth. It was like the whole house was trying to drive me insane. And then came the morning I lost my favorite Rottweiler. I was seeing Joyce off to work, feeling normal enough, all things considered. But the moment I walked out to the kennels, I knew something was wrong. One of the crates had been opened, and there, not far from the kennel, I found. Well, I still don't know how to describe it. The carcass was completely flat, like someone had run it over with a steamroller. But there was no blood, no gore, nothing scattered about. Just my favorite dog pressed paper thin into the desert floor. That's when I finally told Joyce everything. All the strange happenings I'd been trying to protect her from. The lights, the moving objects, the oppressive presence that seemed to be growing stronger by the day. She listened quietly, then said what I knew she would. We needed to leave, cut our losses, sell to some other poor fool and get out of Dodge. And thinking back, that would have been the smart play, obviously. But right then, something inside me snapped, like a primal instinct that said running would make me a coward. This was my home. I'd sunk everything I had into it. And whatever this thing was, whatever forces were trying to drive us out, they'd picked the wrong guy to mess with. So I wasn't going to run. I was going to fight.

[Brian Sigley]

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. What do you want your 2025 story to be? It's a new year. New adventures. New challenges, New sightings episodes. And even though we bring you some pretty incredible stories each week, the most important story of all is your own. Maybe you're ready for a plot twist. Or maybe there's part of your story that you've been wanting to revise. So if you want to pick up the pen and become the author of your own life, there's no better partner than the therapists at BetterHelp. BetterHelp is fully online, making therapy affordable and convenient. It has a diverse network of over 30,000 credentialed therapists with a whole range of specialties, and you can easily switch therapists anytime at no extra cost. So look, you don't have to have been abducted by aliens or terrorized by some creature to benefit from talking to someone. So write your story with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com sightings to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp. H E L p.com sightings thanks, BetterHelp, for sponsoring this episode. I can say to my new Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra hey, find a keto friendly restaurant nearby and text it to Beth and Steve.

[McLeod Andrews]

And it does without me lifting a.

[Brian Sigley]

Finger so I can get in more.

[McLeod Andrews]

Squats anywhere I can. 1, 2, 3. Will that be cash or credit? Credit. 4 Galaxy S25 Ultra the AI companion that does the heavy lifting so you can do. You get [e-mail] compatible with select apps. Requires Google Gemini account results may vary based on input. Check responses for accuracy. Have you ever spotted McDonald's hot crispy fries right as they're being scooped into the carton and time just stands still? I started buying guns. Lots of them. Because my flattened dog. That was just the beginning. Soon my horses started dying, gutted with surgical precision. And still no blood. Never any blood. So I went from being a guy who thought a.357 was plenty for home defense to someone stockpiling assault rifles, the kind of firepower that would make the FBI nervous. Probably. But Joyce worked for the FBI, and frankly, I didn't care who got nervous anymore. Something was killing my animals, terrorizing my home, and I was done playing defense. But it turns out guns weren't going to be enough. Because one night, when I least expected it, I learned exactly what kind of enemy I was dealing with. Joyce and I had decided to treat ourselves to dinner at this nice Tex Mex place in the city. She was taking forever to get ready. You know how it is. But then suddenly, there she was, all dolled up in this stunning red dress. I remember thinking she'd gone a bit overboard for Tex Mex, but who was I to judge? We had a nice chat in the car as I drove, then I dropped her at the door while I parked. By the time I got inside, the hostess had already seated her. So we got to ordering, talking, and after several minutes, she excused herself to the ladies room. I took the opportunity to check my cell, one of those old flip phones, and realized I had four messages waiting, all from our home number. The first message started playing, and impossibly, it was Joyce. She was furious, demanding to know where I was, how I could leave without her. I glanced toward the restrooms, then dialed our home number. And wouldn't you know it, Joyce, my actual wife, answered. She was at home, waiting for me to pick her up for dinner. I told her I'd be back in 45 minutes, then sat there, heart pounding, waiting to see what would come back from that bathroom. And sure enough, this copycat Joyce returned and sat down across from me, perfect as could be. Except this time I really looked at her. Really looked. And whatever was wearing my wife's face. Must have sensed that I knew, because its eyes, they went completely black. Not just the pupils, the entire eyes. I left without a word, Just got up and walked out. That wasn't the last time we dealt with these doppelgangers either. They got both of us eventually. Perfect copies that could fool either Joyce or me, at least for a little while. Of all the horrors we've faced here, that might be the worst. Not being able to trust your own eyes when they tell you you're looking at someone you love. But the doppelgangers weren't the least of it, because eventually I started waking up to find Joyce floating. And I don't mean metaphorically, I mean literally. Levitating three feet above our bed. The first time, I thought I was dreaming, I got up on my knees, called her name right in her ear. Nothing. Finally, I had to grab her shoulders and physically pull her down until she woke up, unable to remember anything at all. This kept happening, and the whole thing soon got worse. I'd find her floating down hallways, through rooms. Then one night, I couldn't wake her up at all. I watched, helpless, as some invisible force pulled her straight through the wall of our bedroom, through it, like it wasn't even there. So I ran outside to follow and saw that there was a massive metallic disc hanging over the house and bathing her in this sickly blue white light. She was floating toward it, and I knew if I didn't act fast, I'd never see her again. So I grabbed an AK47 and opened fire on the source of that light. The beam vanished instantly. Joyce dropped to the ground. And this time. This time, she remembered everything clearly. Whatever was tormenting us was getting bolder, more aggressive, like it was done playing games. And soon enough, they'd finally reveal themselves to me. I was lying in bed, not quite asleep, when I felt something cold and clammy stroke my forearm. I kept a baseball bat behind the headboard, and I came up swinging and connected with something solid. There was this weird hissing sound like a soccer ball being punctured. And when I hit the lights, there they were. Three of them. Gray skinned, maybe four feet tall, with these huge, bulbous black eyes like insects. And before I could swing again, they literally phased out of existence, just disappeared into thin air. But they came back again and again as weeks wore on. And naturally, I started shooting at them, but bullets just made them hiss and vanish, so clearly they couldn't be killed, at least not with guns. And every time I drove them off, they'd retaliate by killing another animal. I found my prized stallion gutted in the stable after one particularly nasty firefighter. That's when I knew I needed something different. Something they wouldn't expect. And fate, I suppose, delivered exactly what I needed. I was driving home one day following this overloaded pickup truck when it hit a bump and something flew off the back. The driver didn't notice and kept on going. So I stopped to clear the road. And there, lying in the dust like it had been waiting for me, was a vintage samurai sword, still in its scabbard. I started keeping it under the bed. The baseball bat had worked once. Maybe razor sharp steel would work even better. And you know what? I started seeing them more clearly after that. Started understanding how they moved between worlds. They'd peek in first, like someone looking around a shower curtain before fully materializing. And once they knew you could see them, they stopped trying to hide. Which is exactly what happened. About 20 minutes ago. I was sitting right here in the living room when I felt that familiar pressure change in the air. So I glanced toward the sun room and saw one peeking in. And casual as can be, I walked to the bedroom, grabbed the sword and waited, watching the sunroom to see if they materialized again. Soon, three of them did. So I drew my blade, took a deep breath, and came at them from their blind side. I took one of their heads clean off. The other two vanished, of course. But here's the thing. The one I killed. It's still here. Clearly, they can't dematerialize once they're dead. So now I'm sitting here, staring at the body of an honest to God alien lying in my sunroom, head separated from its shoulders. And I'm not going to lie, I have no idea what happens next. Because they'll be back. They always come back. But now I know how to kill them. So bring it on.

[Brian Sigley]

Sightings will be back just after this.

[McLeod Andrews]

This episode is brought to you by Lifelock. During tax season, your personal info travels to a lot of places. Between payroll, your tax consultant, and the IRS. If your W2 gets exposed, that's just the ticket for identity thieves. That's why Lifelock monitors millions of data points every second. If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it, guaranteed. Or your money back. Don't let identity thieves take you for a ride. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com podcast terms apply.

[Brian Sigley]

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.

[McLeod Andrews]

Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the name your price tool From Progressive, you can find options that.

[Brian Sigley]

Fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates Price and coverage match limited by state law.

[McLeod Andrews]

Not available in all states. Welcome back, everybody. I hope you stuck with us through that very, very spooky story that was pretty chilling and just all over the place. I'm guessing you made a lot of that up, Brian.

[Brian Sigley]

I did not make anything up for that story. Believe it or.

[McLeod Andrews]

I kind of had this feeling you were gonna say that. Wow. Oh, it's impressive that so much was happening on this one piece of land. And I mean like the story cut off in the middle of the action. Kind of like, did anything crazy happen after that? After he cut off an alien's head?

[Brian Sigley]

More of the same really. You know, he ended up cutting off 18 or 19 aliens heads. It sounds like. Whoa, more aliens, more weird encounters, more lights in the sky, portals, all sorts of stuff. And since the point where he started killing aliens, he start going public with his story, which we'll get into eventually. But I think the big take home here is that he owned this property with all this stuff happening for almost 25 years.

[McLeod Andrews]

Incredible. And of course the big question on my mind is, why don't you run?

[Brian Sigley]

I was thinking the same thing the entire time I was reading this book. So let me just recap kind of everything that happened here. He and his wife moved in in 1996. Weird stuff started happening right off the bat. Just like in the story. You know that weird furnit situation where they move in, all the furniture's there, they leave for a few hours, it's all in the pool. Why someone would do that is beyond me.

[McLeod Andrews]

I know. I thought it was like a jerk move by the real estate agent or something.

[Brian Sigley]

It just seems like a weird prank if nothing else. Or some kind of weird. I guess the ghost or the aliens have a sense of humor.

[McLeod Andrews]

Yeah.

[Brian Sigley]

Then we got our machete wielding visitor who shows up and says, I kill the monsters.

[McLeod Andrews]

Surely he had to have had an Australian accent, like, I kill the monsters.

[Brian Sigley]

I'm never gonna something for you in Australia.

[McLeod Andrews]

No, no, never do. It's. But it just makes me think of like the guy from Jurassic park who's like. Like, clever girl.

[Brian Sigley]

Oh, yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. Which. Could you imagine being this guy and having this stranger come up to you and say this to you? Like, what do you. What do you do with that?

[McLeod Andrews]

I want a story. I want you to retell this story. But from the perspective of the monster hunter is he is that, like in. Is he real?

[Brian Sigley]

This is real. Oh, absolutely. That. Those are the exact words. He said, you know, I live here. He implied that he lived in the shed. He said, I kill monsters. And he turned around, walked away, and never came back.

[McLeod Andrews]

Okay.

[Brian Sigley]

Then we. You know, we get. So we get the lights in the sky. We get. Things disappear. And we got the animal mutilations, including the flattening of the dog, which was.

[McLeod Andrews]

Whoa, that was freaky. Yeah.

[Brian Sigley]

And then doppelgangers, which came out of nowhere for me.

[McLeod Andrews]

But that was also. I mean, I'm sorry. This is one of the most terrifying stories, and it's so full of just a diversity of horrors.

[Brian Sigley]

Absolutely. Then levitation, the aliens, the chopping of.

[McLeod Andrews]

The heads, the samurai sword.

[Brian Sigley]

I mean, so as I was reading this book and writing the story, part of me is like, is the fact that there's so much stuff going on make the story less believable or more believable? Because I feel like we've encountered this before where the weirder stuff gets. It seems like you have to be really clever to kind of weave it all together. You know, if it didn't actually happen, like, the samurai sword thing is, like, it's such an obscure thing. Either this guy just thought it was cool.

[McLeod Andrews]

Yeah.

[Brian Sigley]

Or it actually happened this way, which, if that's the case.

[McLeod Andrews]

Right.

[Brian Sigley]

Wow.

[McLeod Andrews]

For me, it's. It's too much. I think, honestly, all due respect to this gentleman and what he claims happened, for his sake, I hope he's making it up and this is all about something else, because this is just like a fun house of horrors. He's being tortured. He's being terrorized. His dog is flattened and exsanguinated. And I just. Why don't you leave the wife? Especially when your wife is doppelgangered on you. Like, why don't you get out of there?

[Brian Sigley]

And I guess to answer that, we kind of have to dig into John himself, you know, who was a very real person. He did pass away a few years ago, though. So in having this discussion, you know, I want to be as respectful as possible.

[McLeod Andrews]

Yeah.

[Brian Sigley]

Same. While still trying to kind of do an honest evaluation of his account, which, like I said, mainly comes from this book that he wrote that was published in 2019, so it's just a few years old. And he admits in the book that, like, he didn't keep notes or a diary or a journal. I wish he had, you know, so all of his recollections are kind of best guesses, but he still goes into detail on all of these kind of discrete occurrences. But, you know, since so much was happening on that ranch, I'm sure it was hard to keep track of it all, you know?

[McLeod Andrews]

Yeah. Yeah. And, I mean, I did, like, just to kind of get a sense of who this guy was, like, see if I could find a video of him talking. And I found a video of him on YouTube. I didn't watch it at length. I just kind of wanted to get a sense of his cadence. And he seems like a pretty straightforward, like, no embellishments kind of delivery to a lot of this stuff, which I was surprised by.

[Brian Sigley]

He doesn't give off the guise of someone who's just making it up from whole cloth, necessarily. And I guess to answer your question as to why don't you leave? Which is what was going off in my head. Alarm bells every five seconds. He was stubborn, and he wasn't gonna be driven off his land. He was gonna stay and fight. And in his book, he kind of chalks it all up to pride. He sunk nearly all of his life savings into this ranch, and he couldn't envision a. Where he, you know, retreated. But he admits that deep down, he doesn't really know why he stays. And he kind of acknowledges that it's kind of crazy. He says maybe I was addicted to how the ranch made me feel. It made him feel special, chosen, kind of entitled in a way.

[McLeod Andrews]

Yeah. I guess if suddenly you have a window to just about every single, like, occult phenomenon known to man, that would make you feel pretty special.

[Brian Sigley]

Yeah. But even though he might have felt, you know, he could feel as special as he wanted, I think about his wife. Right.

[McLeod Andrews]

Yes. You know, I really found myself thinking about her. Like, I was interested by the fact that she didn't seem to know what was going on. Like, he wasn't telling her for a.

[Brian Sigley]

While, as we saw in the story. You know, she was levitating. She knew what was going on. She wrote the epilogue of the book that ended up getting published about this and seems to have been on board with all of this.

[McLeod Andrews]

Wow. So you said that there was a bunch of other stuff in the book that's not in this story that was going on. Can you mention some of those things?

[Brian Sigley]

Yeah. So there was a point where they all started getting kind of branded in the night. As in, like, cattle branding, basically.

[McLeod Andrews]

But, gosh, this just. Again, the horrors. Everything in this is just so.

[Brian Sigley]

Yeah. The weirdest thing that I wanted to put in the story, but I couldn't figure out a way to make it fit, was he was walking on his land one day and found this big area where the grass had stopped growing. And in the middle of it was this circle of shoes, like hundreds of shoes, just sitting in the middle of the desert in a circle, all neatly aligned. And then when he went to go grab a camera to videotape it, and then he spotted a UFO and fell unconscious.

[McLeod Andrews]

Okay, so he was filming. Do we have that footage?

[Brian Sigley]

Just.

[McLeod Andrews]

I want to believe that there's at least that there's some physical evidence of these occurrences. Like the alien body. Like the head. He cut off its head. Where's its head?

[Brian Sigley]

Yeah. I guess all I can say here is, as with a lot of the accounts we discuss on this show, proof seems as a, you know, convenient way of disappearing.

[McLeod Andrews]

Right. Well, it's like thinking of Cisco gr, like the. With contacting the government. That seems to be kind of like the wrong move and a sure way to make things disappear. Like, he was like, I've got this piece of metal that I got from his body here, Air Force, and then it disappears.

[Brian Sigley]

Yeah, yeah. In this case, he doesn't seem to have given the alien body to the government. He ended up connecting with this doctor named Levengood, who asked him to FedEx the body parts to him.

[McLeod Andrews]

So he did.

[Brian Sigley]

And Levengood did his analysis and said he'd never seen anything like it. You know, the skin, he. He said, looked like segmented grass instead of, like, animal flesh or something. I don't really know how to describe it other than say he said it looked like segmented grass. The doctor ultimately said that this was, quote, the smoking gun. This is proof of alien life visiting Earth.

[McLeod Andrews]

Wow.

[Brian Sigley]

And then Levin Good. Seemed to have passed away, but the body parts and, you know, the DNA and all that stuff from the head, at least the first head he chopped off seems to have vanished. Question in my head, though, is what happened to the rest of the bodies or the heads that he chopped off because he did 18 or 19 of.

[McLeod Andrews]

Them or just like, what? At what point do you not just go like, hey, New York Times, I have a alien body. Come. Like, come look at my assortment of 18 alien bodies.

[Brian Sigley]

Exactly, exactly. He does talk about he put the first one in the freezer. I don't know why he didn't start collecting the rest and just hand them over to somebody. To be fair, though, you know, he did post on a lot of message boards. He went on, you know, the paranormal world of chat shows and things like that. He posted photos of, like, the weird brand marks on his body and A samurai sword with blood on it. Right. It seems a little convenient though, that he. He didn't actually take a picture of the aliens.

[McLeod Andrews]

Yeah.

[Brian Sigley]

But ultimately he seems to become a pretty prominent fixture on, you know, the UFO circuit out there.

[McLeod Andrews]

It seems to fit for me a little bit of a psychological profile of like, you dip your toe in, you get some attention, it kind of feels good. Especially he talks about how lonesome it is out on that ranch. You become part of a community, people start paying attention to you, people start listening to you. It feels good to have that sort of like status within a community. And also, like, maybe you do start getting fees for speaking at conventions and things like this.

[Brian Sigley]

He doesn't seem to have tried to make a profit on it until about 2017 when. Here it comes. He tried to sell the ranch for $5 million.

[McLeod Andrews]

Wow.

[Brian Sigley]

Which is a lot for apparently a piece of land in the middle of nowhere.

[McLeod Andrews]

Yes, exactly.

[Brian Sigley]

Doesn't sound like he sold the house, though. After he passed away, it looks like the house went into foreclosure or something. I don't know how that all works, but it ended up getting acquired by someone for like less than a million dollars. So there was a definite inflation in value going on. That doesn't look like it necessarily paid off for John.

[McLeod Andrews]

Yeah, but whether it paid off or not does not negate someone trying to cash in.

[Brian Sigley]

Yeah, well, his earnestness, I think, is a check mark in the believer beaver camp for me. You know, he does, like you said in the video you saw, he seems to truly believe all of this. He seems very earnest about it. And if it is all made up, then he's doing a very good job making it sound authentic and honest. That said, you know, there was a bunch of stuff that kind of raised an eyebrow for me as I was reading the book. It's full of movie references that makes me believe that he was pretty well versed in popular culture and could have been cribbing some of these things, you.

[McLeod Andrews]

Know, making a collage, sort of.

[Brian Sigley]

Yeah. And even though he seemed pretty level headed for, I guess, about 80 to 85% of the book, at the very end, the narrative kind of goes right off the deep end, you know, in terms of going into weird conspiracy theories and accounts that do not seem believable in the least. I mean, he goes into Pizzagate, which has nothing to do with aliens, but he goes there, you know, and at some point, some point, I guess 10 years ago or something, he ended up meeting this woman. She seemed to have the ability to open a portal on his property. And out of this portal walked a couple aliens, not gray aliens, that he killed. One was apparently an Andromedan. I don't know what that means. And the other was like a reptilian creature. And they all started talking to him and told him this whole story about how humanity has been planted here by aliens. And they're kind of just doing this on all planets, all over the place, and watching what happens, and that Atlantis was the pinnacle of humanity. And then they started over, basically. So it gets pretty in the weeds.

[McLeod Andrews]

And they don't explain to him the horror show. He's not like, why'd y'all kill my dog?

[Brian Sigley]

You know, admittedly, I might have started glossing over some of the book at that point because I'm like, what is happening here? You know?

[McLeod Andrews]

Right. It's a lot to take in.

[Brian Sigley]

I feel like we've been kind of skeptical geckoing this quite a bit. Is there a believer beaver case to be made, though?

[McLeod Andrews]

Well, I don't know if I am the believer beaver, but if there was a believer beaver case for it, I would say, like, just watching the guy talk, very affable, very. Like, he seems like a nice guy, and he seems. He doesn't seem to be, like, really pushing it. He seems kind of straightforward and bewildered by it. Like, he's believable to listen to and to watch.

[Brian Sigley]

I want to believe some elements of this, and the thing that pushes me in that direction is the fact that he didn't do, like, a well made, concise, clear point A to point B to point C to point D narrative, which is what I feel like some of them would do if they were making it up.

[McLeod Andrews]

Yeah, I just. I really bump hard on just the kind of, like, nightmare aspect of it all when it comes to aliens.

[Brian Sigley]

Based on what we know and what we have, and based on the accounts he's given, I think we're kind of more than a lot of the episodes we've been doing lately. Kind of coming down on the skeptical gecko a little bit more on this one.

[McLeod Andrews]

Yeah. Which on one hand, like, makes me feel better because I'd rather not believe this.

[Brian Sigley]

Although if it is true, and he did chop off a bunch of aliens heads with a samurai sword, dude is awesome.

[McLeod Andrews]

Or maybe poor aliens. I don't know. We don't know what they were after. Maybe they were just like, hey, sorry, we were trying to talk to the dog, and like, you know, we're like multidimensional beings. And he ended up getting flattened and we were like, oh, shoot. And we were just trying to, like, pet the horses.

[Brian Sigley]

But like always, we do have to say, listen, listeners, if you have been to Stardust Ranch or if you know anything or want to point us towards some video or something that we might have missed, hit us up on Instagram, itingspod or drop us a line on Spotify. But McLeod, I'm just going to say your line for you.

[McLeod Andrews]

I love it.

[Brian Sigley]

Where are we going next week? It's Listener story week, so I'm excited to go a bunch of new places. We've gotten so many more amazing stories from people that we are excited to bring to life for you. McLeod, I know you were kind of, I'm a wuss.

[McLeod Andrews]

You didn't want to say I'm a wuss. You know, like, does anybody have a nice friendly visit from, like, the ghost of their great, great grandfather? Like, that sounds lovely to me.

[Brian Sigley]

Send us that story.

[McLeod Andrews]

Yeah.

[Brian Sigley]

So we look forward to diving into all those stories next week, same time, same place, here on Sightings.

[McLeod Andrews]

Thanks, everybody.

[Brian Sigley]

Sightings is hosted by McLeod Andrews and Brian Sigley. Produced by Brian Sigley, chase Kinzer and McLeod Andrews. Written by Brian Sigley. Story music by Jack Staton. Series music by Mitch Bain. Mixing and mastering by Pat Kickliter of Sundial Media, artwork by Nuno Sarnatos. For a list of this episode's sources, check out our [e-mail] Sightings is presented by Reverb and Q Code. If you like the show, be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you're first to hear new episodes every week. And if you know other Supernatural fans, tell them about us. We'd really appreciate it.