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- [00:00]
Brian Sigley
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. You chose to hit play on this podcast today. Smart Choice make another smart choice with Auto Quote Explorer to compare rates for multiple car insurance companies all at once. Try it at progressive.com, progressive Casualty Insurance and affiliates not available in all states and situations. Prices may vary on how you buy.
- [00:21]
Drew Grimm
Some stories keep you awake at night. Others follow you into your dreams. Scary Shorties is your weekly dose of bite sized horror. Hosted by Drew Grimm, Each episode of Scary Shorties is under 30 minutes. Perfect to listen to on the way to or home from work, but don't let the length fool you. These tales pack enough chills to haunt you for days. From twisted original nightmares to terrifying fan submitted stories, every word is crafted to sink into your mind and stay there. Quick scares, lasting nightmares, and the kind of stories you can't shake no matter how many lights you leave on. Think you can handle it? Then press play. Scary Shorties is waiting for you. New episodes drop every week on Spotify and Apple Podcast. Tune in now before your courage runs out.
- [01:17]
McLeod Andrews
There's nothing quite like the promise of a fresh start. A new home where you can rebuild your life and leave the past behind. But what happens when something decides to follow you? When invisible forces turn your sanctuary into a battlefield? Sometimes the only way to find peace is to face the darkness head on. Welcome to Sightings, the series that takes you inside the world's most mysterious supernatural events. Each episode brings 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.
- [01:56]
Brian Sigley
And I'm Brian. And after last week's action packed episode, I thought we could use a nice, quiet, terrifying ghost story.
- [02:06]
McLeod Andrews
Yes, a nice, quiet, terrifying ghost story. When a paranormal investigator is called to the house of a traumatized single mother in Southern California, he realizes that this case is far more terrifying than most. Find out why on this episode of Sightings. My name is Mason Tufts. I'm associate director of the Parapsychology Lab at ucla and I've handled thousands of cases of hauntings, apparitions, and unexplained phenomena during my career. Most turned out to be explainable, of course. Electrical issues, overactive imaginations, or good old fashioned fraud. But occasionally, very occasionally, something came along that defied conventional explanation. This case is one of those. When the call came in mid 1989, I knew right off the bat we had something. I've learned to listen for certain things in a witness's voice. Fear, certainly, but more importantly, the kind of measured desperation that came from someone who had exhausted all rational explanations. Jackie Hernandez had that voice. She said she'd seen me on television recently and needed my help since she'd been experiencing unusual activity in her San Pedro, California bungalow for several months. When I asked her to elaborate, she paused for a long moment before saying it would be best if I just came to see it from myself, preferably at night. She said she'd encountered strange smells, objects moving on their own, and apparitions that had even been seen by friends. Then she said there was some kind of substance oozing from the walls of her house. Now that got my attention, and the way she said it, direct matter of fact, but with that telltale distress, it convinced me this would be worth my time. So I agreed to travel to her the following week. After we hung up, I did some basic research on Jackie. She was 23 years old, recently divorced with two young children. She worked multiple jobs and attended school part time, trying to build a better life for her family. And stress like that. It was a magnet for something called recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis, which of course has a much more frightening layman's term a poltergeist. On the night of August 8th, my assistant Jeff and I drove to Jackie's house in San Pedro, a modest single story bungalow on a quiet residential street. Nothing about its exterior suggested anything unusual, but the moment Jackie opened the front door, I could see the toll the situation was taking on her. She looked exhausted, eyes darting nervously as she invited us inside. We sat in her living room while she recounted her experiences in greater detail. She said the activity had started. Small objects going missing, unexplained sounds, a feeling of being watched, things like that. She just dismissed them as a byproduct of stress. But then things escalated. She described witnessing objects moving through the air as if thrown by invisible hands. Once, a pencil holder had levitated from a hallway table and sailed toward her while she watched television. That incident frightened her so badly that she'd grabbed her son and fled to the neighbors. That neighbor, Susan Castaneda, had also witnessed phenomena while visiting Jackie's house. A painting had fallen several feet from its wall once, and on another occasion Susan claimed to see a lamp float seven feet across a room before falling to the floor. Jackie then told us about the more disturbing incidents. She discovered a reddish blood like substance seeping from cracks in her kitchen ceiling and running down the walls. And when she climbed up to investigate the source, she encountered something that terrified her to her core. She described pushing her head up through the attic access and finding herself face to face with a disembodied head. Yes, a disembodied, severed head. It seemed to belong to an elderly man, and it glowed with an unnatural light, she said. Then it moved toward her with apparent intelligence and purpose. Now, as fantastical as that might sound, as Jackie recounted this incident, something remarkable happened. A putrid stench began wafting through the house, something like rotting meat mixed with sulfur. It was so strong that Jeff and I nearly retched. Then we heard it. A thumping from somewhere overhead, like something of significant mass moving across the attic beams. Something was up there, and I could tell from Jackie's expression that this was why she'd asked us to come at night. Jeff and I were soon climbing the rickety ladder into the attic. The smell got worse with each new step, and the moment we entered the cramped space, I felt it. An unmistakable sensation of being observed. Jeff felt it, too, and whispered that something was watching us from the darkness as he pulled out his camera, hoping to capture whatever it might be. But just as he raised the device to his eye, something grabbed it. Not knocked it from his hands, grabbed.
- [08:49]
Brian (co-host)
It, yanking it away with such force.
- [08:52]
McLeod Andrews
That Jeff stumbled backward, nearly falling through the access hole. We immediately climbed back down to regroup. Whatever had taken the camera had demonstrated both intelligence and considerable physical force. But now it had Jeff's camera, and Jeff wanted it back. So we went back up there, and we found the camera all right. But it had been completely disassembled, with the lens on one end of the attic and the body sitting neatly inside a cardboard box on the other end. And that precision, the kind needed to separate a camera lens from its body, was remarkable. It wasn't random poltergeist activity.
- [09:38]
Brian Sigley
It was.
- [09:39]
McLeod Andrews
It was deliberate, methodical action. Before leaving the attic, I collected a sample of the red substance that Jackie had described. It had a viscous consistency and that same overwhelming stench, But I placed it in a sterile container to be analyzed by a colleague. Before we left, I told Jackie I'd stay in touch. I also warned her to be careful, because in my experience, entities capable of physical manipulation often escalated their activities over time. And if whatever was in her house decided to become more aggressive, there was no telling where it might lead. In the weeks that followed, Jackie reported more disturbances. Objects moving, more strange sounds, and her children crying at night. I went back to her house one afternoon to gather more details about her background when a dark mist began forming in the corner of her living room. It wasn't smoke. It moved with purpose, flowing through the space like liquid shadow. Jackie saw it too, and immediately suggested we check on her children, who were napping in the back bedroom. When we arrived, we found the baby asleep in her crib and her son on the top bunk of the bed. But on the lower bunk of the bed, directly beneath her son, sat something else. An apparition of an elderly male figure. Gray skin, red eyes, clad in a flannel vest. It regarded us with a fixed stare, dare I say a malevolent one, before vanishing. This was no stress induced hallucination. Jackie and I had both witnessed a detailed manifestation in broad daylight. And in my professional assessment, we were dealing with something far more complex than a typical poltergeist case. So far, it hadn't demonstrated any physical violence towards Jackie or her children. But that raised one terrifying question. What happened when the entity got angry?
- [12:07]
Brian Sigley
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- [12:16]
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- [12:39]
McLeod Andrews
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Brian Sigley
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- [12:50]
McLeod Andrews
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- [12:50]
Brian (co-host)
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- [12:51]
Brian Sigley
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- [13:21]
Brian (co-host)
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McLeod Andrews
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- [13:52]
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- [14:12]
McLeod Andrews
Three weeks after our initial investment investigation, my colleague completed his analysis of the sample I'd collected from Jackie's attic. The results were disturbing, to say the least. The material contained traces of human blood, specifically male blood, along with unusually high concentrations of copper and iodine. I decided to spare Jackie those details, as she was already under enough stress. And indeed, on August 28, she called me in a complete state of hysteria. She was barely coherent through her sobs, but managed to tell me that she'd been physically attacked. Apparently, she'd been cleaning up objects that had been thrown around her house when invisible hands grasped her neck and pinned her down until she could barely breathe. So it had finally happened. The entity had crossed the line from psychological harassment to direct physical assault. Or, put more bluntly, it was now angry. Jeff and I immediately drove to her house. When we arrived, Jackie was pale and trembling, pacing the kitchen as though she couldn't stay still. She showed us red marks where she said the invisible hands had gripped her. As she spoke, familiar noises began from the attic, heavy thumping with new dragging sounds. Jeff looked at me warily. Neither of us wanted to return to that cramped, malevolent space, but this was precisely the kind of documented escalation that could provide crucial evidence for our research. So we climbed back up, and I immediately knew something had changed. The oppressive feeling of being watched was stronger than before, almost overwhelming, and the putrid stench had intensified as well, making it difficult to breathe. Then we witnessed orbs of light appearing throughout the attic. Not reflections or optical illusions, but genuine luminous phenomena moving with apparent purpose. Then we heard the distinct sound of fingers snapping and rhythmic pattern. It wasn't coming from any specific location. The sound seemed to emanate from the air itself. Jackie, who had remained below, begged us to return to the kitchen. But as Jeff turned toward the attic stair, preparing to climb down, he suddenly yelped in a panic. I turned in his direction and took a picture with my own camera, using the flash to illuminate the attic. And what I saw was horrifying. A length of cord had somehow wrapped itself tightly around Jeff's neck, pinning him against a wooden beam. The cord appeared to be moving on its own, tightening with each new twist. Though Jeff was still conscious, he struggled to breathe, hands clawing desperately at his throat. I rushed to loosen the cord, but as I Pulled, I could feel resistance, as if something were actively working against me to maintain a deadly grip around Jeff's neck. And for several terrifying seconds, I was locked in a literal tug of war with an invisible force. Until finally, I managed to create just enough slack to slip the cord over his head. We immediately climbed down from the attic, and I saw the angry red welts around Jeff's neck. Proof that what happened was not suggestion, not hysteria, not imagination. It was real, and it was dangerous. Shortly after this latest incident, Jackie made the decision to move. She packed up her trailer and relocated nearly 400 miles north to a trailer park in Weldon, California. She hoped the distance would break whatever connection the entity had formed with her. And for a brief period, it seemed the strategy had worked. Jackie reported calm, peaceful nights in her new home. But peace is rarely permanent in cases like this. By spring of 1990, she began reporting new disturbances. Scratching noises from her storage shed, lights floating through her trailer. Neighbors witnessed some of it themselves, which only confirmed that the activity had followed her. So I returned to investigate with a very reluctant Jeff. And no sooner than 10 minutes of our entering the house, we saw a black mist float into her daughter's bedroom and light the bedspread on fire. The child was safe, fortunately. But I realized then that this entity had not only followed Jackie, it was escalating things even further, and it needed to stop. So I made a decision that would either end the haunting or put all of us in grave danger. I suggested we attempt direct communication with the entity using a ouija board. The next day, we assembled in Jackie's trailer. Myself, Jeff, Jackie, and a friend of hers named Tina. As soon as we set the board on a sturdy table, the temperature in the room plummeted and our breath became visible. The planchette began moving before any of us had even placed our fingers on it, sliding across the board with deliberate, forceful movements. Determined to regain control, I asked how many entities were in the space with us. The board spelled out, phantoms fill the skies around you. I asked why it had attacked Jeff. It responded, because he is the likeness of my killer. Further answers illuminated a tragic backstory. It claimed to have been suffocated in the San Pedro Inlet in 1930, and its killer, a violent sailor named Charles Pearson, resided in Jackie's former house. Worse, it harbored death. Deep, unresolved rage about the injustice of its death and its killer's escape from consequence. And as the table began to shake and Jackie began to scream in terror, I realized I needed to act definitively. I addressed the entity directly acknowledging the injustice it had suffered. I told him that Charles Pearson would be long dead by now, that whatever justice could be served had been served by time itself. And I insisted that tormenting an innocent woman and her children would not bring it the peace it sought. For a long moment, nothing happened. Then the planchette slid slowly to spell one final word, going. And just like that, the haunting ended. Jackie later told me that the phenomena stopped completely. After that night, she was able to live peacefully in her trailer, raise her children without fear, and rebuild her life without the constant terror that had plagued her for so long. For my part, I cataloged the case with mixed emotions. It had been traumatic, yet also profoundly significant. But it also served as a potent reminder that behind every terrifying haunting, there's often a story of pain, injustice, and unresolved trauma. That case stuck with me for a long time, and it taught me something I've never forgotten. Sometimes the most important tool a paranormal investigator can possess isn't equipment or knowledge. It's simply compassion. That house in San Pedro still has a reputation among locals. Tenants rarely stay long, and those who do often report a familiar phenomena. Strange sounds from the attic, unexplained smells, the feeling of being watched. Some hauntings, it seems, leave permanent impressions on the places where they occur. But Jackie Hernandez is free. And sometimes that's the most important victory of all.
- [22:56]
Brian Sigley
Sightings will be back just after this.
- [22:59]
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- [23:38]
Brian (co-host)
Welcome back to Sightings. I gotta say Brian, the thing about poltergeist stories like this one that, that I find so intense and fascinating is that unlike a lot of supernatural encounters, ghost stories especially in which things are maybe happening just out of your peripheral vision or like could be explained away with like a psychological occurrence. Poltergeist stories are like no, a thing flew across the room and hit me in the head. And like this one, we've got red ooze dripping down walls. Like there's this sort of tangibility to poltergeist stories of there being just like hard experiential evidence that's not just in the mind, unless it's a mind that is suffering severe delusions. And it sounds like there's, you know, there's multiple people involved. There's like reaching out for help. That sounds like multiple people experienced this event. There's like. I don't know, I can't remember. Was this red ooze collectible? Like, did they actually grab some.
- [24:46]
Brian Sigley
They did. And they did some tests on it. We can talk about what they found and the potential issues with the whole test itself.
- [24:55]
McLeod Andrews
Yeah.
- [24:56]
Brian (co-host)
Yes. And so it's like. It seems to me the thing that's tricky with poltergeist stories is. Is like the only explanation against them kind of is that it's made up. It's like the only argument against or.
- [25:10]
Brian Sigley
A hoax of some kind or dramatized in some kind or.
- [25:13]
Brian (co-host)
But that's what I find fascinating about them because it's like it either you have to really not trust the source of this stuff.
- [25:20]
Brian Sigley
Yes.
- [25:21]
Brian (co-host)
Which sometimes, you know, people lie, people make stuff up, but you have to almost. The burden of proof is almost on you to like, prove why this person's untrustworthy.
- [25:31]
Brian Sigley
Absolutely. And conversely, if this is true, then this poor woman, what she went through in this house.
- [25:38]
Brian (co-host)
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
- [25:39]
Brian Sigley
But this one's a really well known poltergeist story because it is so well documented. Again, I should say there is not any evidence, photographic evidence of here is a picture of the ghost or anything like that that makes it the definitive. This absolutely happened or is absolutely 100% attributable to paranormal activity. But it was actually documented by the parapsychologist who you read. I changed his name for the story. The actual parapsychologist's name was Barry Taff. And he worked for UCLA and was investigating these kinds of things. Before he investigated this story, he investigated a. Another poltergeist story also in Southern California that went on to become a movie. And this was his second big case after that of the hundreds or thousands that he had done. I guess these are, I think, the two most memorable of them. Basically. The other thing that I thought was really compelling about this story was this ghost didn't just live in the house. It followed her right from house to.
- [26:41]
Brian (co-host)
House to house, which sometimes that trips my skeptical gecko senses a little bit in terms of like a. Well, if it's following the person, then is it the person?
- [26:53]
Brian Sigley
But I think as we'll go into in this story, there are other people who Saw weird things happen.
- [26:57]
Brian (co-host)
And so, again, could you remind me our account, our main account of this, or, like, written account, is this investigator from ucla.
- [27:05]
Brian Sigley
Yes. Barry Taft. Was his name. Barry Taft, but Jackie Hernandez, the woman who owned the house. Absolutely. A real person. The house itself. Real place in San Pedro, which is outside of Los Angeles. This poor woman was super stressed out when all this started. From a divorce. She'd had a young. She has a young son and then another kid on the way, and. And she moves into this place and weird stuff starts happening as happens in these stories. It started small, like misplaced items, Strange smells, weird knocks, sounds, things like that, which is just kind of the forte of a haunting, I guess. But then we move into poltergeist land.
- [27:41]
Brian (co-host)
Yeah, which actually, I wanted to. It's been nagging at the back of my mind, like, what is the difference technically between, like, a poltergeist versus just a ghosty ghost?
- [27:51]
Brian Sigley
So poltergeist means noisy ghost in German.
- [27:54]
Brian (co-host)
Okay, so it's like just a subcategory of ghosts.
- [27:57]
Brian Sigley
Yeah, it's a type of ghost, but they generally are much more disruptive. They move objects. They're much more overt, Whereas a ghost could be. We've talked about it in some episodes before where you kind of have, like, some different categories of ghosts. Like, you've got the ghost that is kind of replaying the same scene over and over again. Like, you see it walking down the stairs, for instance, and then you.
- [28:18]
Brian (co-host)
I think we talked about that with Genevieve of my Victorian nightmare.
- [28:22]
Brian Sigley
Yes, absolutely, we did on that. I'm thinking also, like, the Stanley Hotel has some elements of that where they're just kind of caught in a loop a little bit.
- [28:29]
Brian (co-host)
Like, it's almost like. It's almost like residual emotional presence.
- [28:32]
Brian Sigley
Whereas a poltergeist is much more dynamic, much more active, much more overt and difficult to deal with. I guess then we've got a nice ghost who opens the door every once in a while or walks down the steps or things like that. And as we heard in the story, this ghost was violent. Just to be crystal clear, everything that happened in the story allegedly happened. I did do a little finessing at the end to wrap the story up very quickly. Like, there were multiple seances, apparently with Ouija boards and things like that. But all the scary things that happened in the story actually happened, which is kind of wild and terrifying. Things really got bad, though, apparently, when Jackie had her second kid, a daughter. That's when we started getting the red ooze dripping down the walls and she goes upstairs to look in the attic, and she sees this severed head fly at her.
- [29:18]
McLeod Andrews
Yeah.
- [29:19]
Brian (co-host)
Yikes.
- [29:19]
Brian Sigley
Terrifying. Ye.
- [29:21]
Brian (co-host)
You bring up the red ooze again. And we mentioned that they actually did get a sample. Can you tell me more about what happened with that?
- [29:28]
Brian Sigley
Yeah. So they did get a sample. They found that there was male blood in it, along with copper and some other elements. But the issue was they never identified the person who did the testing.
- [29:40]
McLeod Andrews
Oh.
- [29:41]
Brian Sigley
And it was kind of oblique in how they presented the reported all of that going down and how they presented their findings. So I think we have to take it with a little bit of stimulus.
- [29:53]
Brian (co-host)
There's not a phlebotomist who we can contact and be like, oh, yep, I definitely tested that vial of weirdness.
- [29:59]
Brian Sigley
Exactly. And I should say the other thing that I did in the story was I just had it where the investigator and his assistant went. In reality, there was also a photographer and maybe one or two other people who were always in this house.
- [30:08]
Brian (co-host)
Did the photographers capture anything?
- [30:11]
Brian Sigley
They captured something. It wasn't a ghost. But the last time they went into the attic, Jeff, this poor assistant was attacked and had a cord of some kind wrapped around his neck and tethered to one of the beams on the wall, basically. And that was photographed by the photographer in the room. And if you want to take a Look at this, McLeod.
- [30:36]
Brian (co-host)
Yeah. I mean, it doesn't quite look as extreme as that.
- [30:40]
Brian Sigley
It's not an image we're gonna put on Instagram, everyone. Because it is a man effectively being hung in a way. Yeah.
- [30:48]
Brian (co-host)
Yeah. He definitely feels like he's kind of his. It's almost like his ear is pinned to an attic roof, and his shirt is definitely riding up to, like, the bottom of his chin. He does not look in, like, severe distress.
- [31:01]
Brian Sigley
No. But you can tell that he's been jerked by his neck and.
- [31:06]
Brian (co-host)
Or like. Like. Like. Yeah, his. His feet are on the ground. Like, he's like, well, guys, like, a little help here a little bit more. I cannot see anything around his neck.
- [31:16]
Brian Sigley
Yeah.
- [31:17]
Brian (co-host)
Other than because his shirt is riding up so high.
- [31:19]
Brian Sigley
Yeah, that's foul. But I think I wish they'd been taking video where we could have seen the cord around his neck or something like that. But apparently it was traumatizing enough that they never went back in that house. And right after that is when she moved to her new house. Of course, the thing followed her. She moved 380 miles away, and the thing went right with her.
- [31:40]
LifeLock Advertiser
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- [31:41]
Brian Sigley
And again, it got so bad that, you know, her daughter's bedspread was catching fire. And she called TAF again, obviously. And he's like, well, I think we just need to figure out what's going on here. Rather than just documenting it, we need to confront it, which is where we got the whole Ouija board scene. And they did a seance. And honestly, I don't know if a seance would have been my first choice for a violent ghost like this, you know?
- [32:07]
Brian (co-host)
Right. It's like, what's the proven methodology of using a seance to get rid of a ghost?
- [32:16]
Brian Sigley
I just talk about his feelings or something. I don't really know.
- [32:19]
Brian (co-host)
Sort of therapy. Ghost therapy.
- [32:21]
Brian Sigley
Apparently they did several seances, though, over time, they came to realize that the entity was probably a man who was murdered by a former.
- [32:29]
Brian (co-host)
And is that verifiable?
- [32:30]
Brian Sigley
They were able to find names that lined up with people who died around that time, lived in that area. And the person who lived in the house, I do believe, did kill some people. So.
- [32:43]
Brian (co-host)
Okay, so here's a theory of if. If the poltergeist is a victim of what sounds like a serial killer, the victim is lashing out at people in the house because it's trying to either prevent or get revenge on this serial killer or like to catch this serial killer, but it's a ghost, and it's confused, and it doesn't actually know that the people in the house are not the serial killer. It's kind of acting out this dire drama of trying to protect itself or to kill this person that hurt it so that it can't hurt anybody else. But it is not aware that it's just attacking people on a different plane or something.
- [33:24]
Brian Sigley
Yeah, valid. I think my mind would go to. Or he's just. He was murdered, probably brutally and is tormented in the afterlife. And it just wants. Trying to get attention, you know, to just raise attention to his plight, I guess.
- [33:39]
McLeod Andrews
I don't know.
- [33:40]
Brian (co-host)
Attention feels like a light word for what's going on.
- [33:45]
Brian Sigley
I think you might be right. I think I underplayed that a little bit, but.
- [33:50]
Brian (co-host)
Cause I would have assumed, oh, it's the ghost of this murderer.
- [33:54]
Brian Sigley
But because of the level of violence. That's valid. Again, the only reason they were able to make those connections is because the ghost identified itself on the Ouija board. Yeah.
- [34:07]
Brian (co-host)
And it is the case that with Ouija boards to just kind of throw a little skeptical gecko on there that especially this investigative team or whatever could have already looked up and been aware that there was a violent individual associated with this house. And, you know, Guided the plinth to spell out his name.
- [34:28]
Brian Sigley
Absolutely. So, yeah, no, I think that is a valid skeptical gecko approach to this. But let's talk some supporting data that, you know, I guess would go in the believer beaver camp a little bit here. Like I said, there were multiple witnesses of this. Not only the paranormal investigator and their team and Jackie Hernandez neighbors. Multiple neighbors saw things happen and have attested to things happening. Another interesting data point is that there has been consistent testimony from both Jackie and Barry Taff, the investigator. They have never changed their story.
- [34:59]
McLeod Andrews
Right.
- [34:59]
Brian Sigley
There's also that, obviously the photo evidence of the strangulation. But on the skeptical side of things, there's no photos of any entities or orbs or lights. Like, I'm thinking back to the black forest haunting story that we did where there were photos of weird things in the mirror and weird lights in the. In the fore and things like that. None of that here, which is interesting and related to photography. Some people have raised a red flag because when Jeff the assistant was strangled in the attic, the photographer kept shooting pictures instead of trying to help him.
- [35:35]
Brian (co-host)
Right.
- [35:35]
Brian Sigley
Which raises the question of whether or not all of it was staged and he knew he was okay and is like, I'm just gonna keep taking pictures.
- [35:43]
Brian (co-host)
Which again, like, kind of. To go back to my first point is like, the only argument you can really make against all this stuff is that people are not trustworthy for whatever reason.
- [35:53]
Brian Sigley
Overall, I find myself kind of toeing the line, But I want to believe that some. Well, I think I believe that something was happening in this house. Yeah. I just. I find it too implausible, Especially because neighbors saw things. Unless there was a vast orchestrated thing.
- [36:07]
Brian (co-host)
I'm sorry. Like, it's also. Whenever the source is somebody whose bread and butter is paranormal activity, like, there is a baked in motive for keeping this story alive. If it was just like the cops came over and were like, whoa, are you seeing this stuff? That would be different than a guy who makes a living going around looking into paranormal activity.
- [36:33]
Brian Sigley
That's valid. But why would Jackie still stick by her story then, you know, if this was. Unless she's in on it in some way, you know? But again, like, I don't think there was tons of money made off of this. Maybe they thought this was gonna be the next big paranorma after his first thing. Did really well.
- [36:49]
McLeod Andrews
Right.
- [36:49]
Brian Sigley
You know, ironically, this never became a movie. It gives me feelings of kind of the Conjuring series a little bit.
- [36:55]
Brian (co-host)
That's who first came to mind when you said a movie was made.
- [36:58]
Brian Sigley
I think what's resonant about this story, though, is that it's a compelling story with an emotional through line and you feel for these people whatever they're experiencing. And that's what resonates with me more than is it believable or is it not necessarily. And it's just a really interesting thing to explore and wonder what, what it means if these kind of entities are actually a thing in the world.
- [37:21]
Brian (co-host)
You know, hard agree with that, Brian. Listeners, if you have any thoughts on this of any variety, share them with us on Spotify. We love reading your comments on Spotify or if you listen through Apple Podcasts. We really appreciate reviews on there, mostly if they're good. Helps us make a case to stay alive as a podcast. So, Brian, where are we going next week?
- [37:50]
Brian Sigley
Next week we're heading into kind of this weird confluence of government conspiracy, supernatural stuff. We're heading to New York. We're heading to Long island specifically. And I'm not gonna say where, but I will say that the story that we're gonna do influenced and basically was the source for one of the biggest current television shows of all time.
- [38:13]
McLeod Andrews
Oh, wow.
- [38:14]
Brian Sigley
I'm not gonna say the show, but I will say it starts with an S, it ends with an S. That.
- [38:18]
Brian (co-host)
Is a juicy clue.
- [38:20]
Brian Sigley
I know. I'm so excited for this episode, though, and secretly I hope Netflix is too. You're here. All right.
- [38:31]
Brian (co-host)
I hope that we will see all of you next week for what's sure to be an exciting, storied episode.
- [38:38]
Brian Sigley
Absolutely. Same time, same place, right here on Sightings. Bye. 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 Madison James Smith. Series music by Mitch Bain. Mixing and mastering by Pat Kicklater of Sundial Media. Artwork by Nuno Sarnatos. For lists of this episode's sources, check out our website@sightingspodcast.com 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. And if you know other Supernatural fans, tell them about us. We'd really appreciate it.
- [39:26]
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