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- [00:03]
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- [01:30]
Podcast Host
Hey Sat B listeners, any true crime fans among you might want to check out Crime Capsule the episode Northern Ohio Cold Cases, which features an interview with Jane Ann Terzillo. She talks about the importance of local knowledge in investigating these stories, including the case of Robert Hamrick and the wild speculation about his death, a cautionary tale about the power of misinformation and the importance of seeking the truth amidst the noise. Another case she discusses is the disappearance of Police Chief Mel Wylie. This, too covers the intricate web of personal secrets, community dynamics, and often overlooked details that can change the narrative entirely. Jane's insights into these cases highlight how mysteries are rarely straightforward and often involve layers of human emotion and complexity.
- [02:22]
Benjamin Morris
Welcome back to Crime Capsule. I'm your host, Benjamin Morris. New York, New York is a hell of a town. The Bronx is up and the Battery's down. One of my favorite song lyrics, echoed only by the love letters penned to the city by Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, and of course, the Beastie Boys and Jay Z. There is nothing like a trip to the greatest city in the world to get you curious about who lived and who died there, who set their ambitions on the skies, and who still remains to haunt the earth. Here at Crime Capsule, we make a point of visiting the Big Apple as often as possible for just that reason. And today we are thrilled to visit a part of the city that most folks know more by name and by how you get there than by actual experience. And yet the island is a part of the city that is central to its history, as today's author shows. Mariana Randazzo is the author of, yes, you guessed it, Haunted Staten island, just published by the History Press. As we continue our journey through spooky season, she's here to take us to one of the most charged places in all of New York. Mariana, welcome to Crime Capsule.
- [03:50]
Mariana Randazzo
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
- [03:53]
Benjamin Morris
It is our pleasure. We are so excited about this particular book. And let me just ask you right up front, this is your fifth book, your sixth book. I mean, you got a couple notches on the belt, don't you?
- [04:08]
Mariana Randazzo
I do, I do. I've had an interesting introduction to writing books, and I'm on my way to writing my next one, hopefully. So this is my sixth book. Yes.
- [04:21]
Benjamin Morris
Love it. And you said that this is, if I remember correctly, your first actual appearance with this title that has just been published, is that right?
- [04:31]
Mariana Randazzo
Yes, yes, it was just published couple of weeks ago.
- [04:35]
Benjamin Morris
Well, congratulations again and again. You know, we are doubly excited because we have not had a good New York book on the show in a minute. And last year. Oh, I know, it's been way too long. You know, we had a title called Haunted Brooklyn, and we had a great time with that, you know, wonderful, wonderful conversation with the author of Haunted Brooklyn. But, you know, the Staten island is so rich and so deep with all sorts of things going on. Just. Yeah, I'm so, so delighted to get to travel, you know, on the. On the ferry across the Hudson. Now, I do have to ask you right up front. Get this right out of the way. Sometimes I wonder, is, is Staten island haunted more by Pete Davidson than anything else? You know, at this point, it seems like he's kind of put it on the map more than anybody, possibly.
- [05:31]
Mariana Randazzo
But we have a lot of other good people and good things to offer as well, and a lot of scary things. So get ready.
- [05:39]
Benjamin Morris
Yeah, I can't wait. I can't wait. So tell us a little bit about your background. You said that you came to writing from a slightly unusual place. So how did this all come about?
- [05:51]
Mariana Randazzo
Okay, so the first 35 years of my career, I was a teacher. I was actually a reading specialist. And I always loved reading. And even as a kid, I was fascinated with the paranormal. I could remember reading Rosemary's Baby in the eighth grade and being terrified and my mother coming into the room and saying, isn't that a scary. And I said, no, no, no, it's not scary. Cause I never wanted her to know when I was reading, because that's how you learned about sex in those days. But there you go.
- [06:27]
Benjamin Morris
There you go.
- [06:28]
Mariana Randazzo
But then I graduated to the Exorcist and the Amityville Horror. And I remember reading those on the bus, going to Kingsborough College, and every day reading a chapter because it was like a diary. And then I met my husband, my late husband, when I was 18 years old, and he had a fascination with it as well. From there, we started visiting places. We went to Salem, Massachusetts, to see the Witch Trials reenactment. I actually stood at Lizzie Borden's house in Fall Rivers, Massachusetts, which was very, very interesting and scary. We've been to Key West. I stood at Robert the Doll's house, and it's called the Artist's House. They're trying to disguise the fact that Robert the Doll was there. And we just always found things to do. To Arizona and stood at the Copper Queen Hotel and next to Julia Lowell's room, which was the prostitute that hung herself. And she was not in favor of any lovers being in her hotel. So my husband and I actually experienced an apparition of her at the time. Yeah, really interesting. I saw something, and then I said, tim, did you see that? And he's like, yep, I did. And we went down and we wrote it in the hotel book of experiences. And they said, well, you know that you were sleeping in the room next to Julia Lowell, and she does not like happily married or. Well, that's not what they said. But apparently she doesn't like people in love.
- [08:11]
Benjamin Morris
Wow.
- [08:12]
Mariana Randazzo
So that was interesting. And then when I. 18 years ago, I retired from teaching, and I had an opportunity. Well, I had to reinvent myself after about 35 years of teaching, and I started to. Well, I had a business going on as a tutor, but I also started writing. And that's when I wrote my first book, Giving Away a Sicilian Upbringing. Those were the memoirs of my mother and her sister growing up in Sicily during World War II. So from there, people started asking me to write their memoirs. And I did a few of those. I wrote a story about Michael Beh. He was a firefighter. And then I wrote the Father Capodanno biography. And for Arcadia, I also wrote the Italians of Brooklyn. And then when I thought about it, what else do I know? What else do I love to write about? I thought about how I lived in Staten island. And when I Moved here, Everybody started telling me, oh, that place is haunted. Oh, this is haunted. So the first thing I did was I got a part time job at the Garibaldi Meucci Museum, and I worked there for 10. And I had some experiences there. Nothing really too heavy, but there were people that were there speaking to ghosts in the library. So that intrigued me as well. And then once I proposed the idea to Arcadia History Press, they said, okay, see what you got. And I put it out there. And of course, everybody had a story to tell me, but I said, look, I can't just go by. You know, you were sitting there and you saw a ghost. I need things that are documented and, you know, that people have looked into before. And it wasn't that hard to find. I mean, Starting in the 1600s, places like the conference house had documented ghostly apparitions, and they were usually connected to some kind of a crime. I found. So that I found interesting as well.
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Benjamin Morris
Yeah.
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Mariana Randazzo
So usually where there's smoke, there's fire.
- [10:32]
Benjamin Morris
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, that is such an incredible journey. I love the fact that you went around searching these places out as kind of your. Your foundation and. Wow. The fact that you saw. Saw her and she was displeased with you is. That's really something to kind of sit with for. I'm glad you made it out of that, Mariana.
- [10:59]
Mariana Randazzo
My husband was very good at finding these places for us to explore. Lizzie Borden's house was a trip, too. Yeah. We slept in the maid's bedroom up there next to the toy room.
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Benjamin Morris
Like, was there a loose ceiling fixture that was threatening to come down on you at any minute or what?
- [11:18]
Mariana Randazzo
I mean, no, no. In that house, there were toys in the attic, and people had reported hearing toys move around. They found them in different places, and that was actually not haunted so much. You know the story how she killed her mother and her stepmother and her father and she. I think that that house is haunted by the children that lived next door. They were Lizzie's cousin, and apparently the whole family had a history of mental illness, and these children were drowned in a well. So those toys belonged to them, and I think they haunt the house. And that night, I couldn't sleep. I kept dreaming of babies. Cr. Horrible. I said, we're. I said, we're never doing this again. But of course we did.
- [12:07]
Benjamin Morris
Of course you did. Of course you did. Yeah. You get the itch? Doesn't say scratched for long, does it? So this. This book. I mean, one of the things I love about haunted Staten island is this book. Is so expansive. I mean, it has so many different types of cases and legends and stories, which are just a little bit more than folklore. Because, as you say, you did a lot of documentation and archive digging and that sort of thing. And what was interesting to me, one of the first things I wanted to ask you about your book is you actually make reference to a kind of history of research on strange things happening on Staten Island. Right. And you even mention in the foreword, sort of previous scholars, Heinz and Davis, who had written a book who'd kind of come along before you. And here you are picking up the thread. Can you just give us, like, a little insight into who has worked on this in Staten island before and what kind of contribution did they make?
- [13:14]
Mariana Randazzo
Well, I will tell you about Patricia Salmon.
- [13:16]
Benjamin Morris
Okay.
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Mariana Randazzo
Patricia is a historian, and she was the curator of Staten Island Museum. She has become a friend to me, and she actually inspired me to learn about Staten Island. She does all types of talks and lectures, and she did the phone of my book. So it was through her I learned so much. I mean, you could go on YouTube and look her up with Snug harbor. And she's just a wonderful woman and so intelligent and so knowledgeable. So she really was my inspiration. And then, of course, when I was doing the research, I dug up every book I could on anything to do with New York, especially Staten island, you know, folklore, ghost tales, paranormal. And I just learned. I. I mean, I studied the stories. I saw what was repeated. I saw the differences in the stories. Of course, you know, I mean, we can't prove if the ghost was wearing red or white. You know, but if they say there was a ghost, then, you know, we have to. It's hearsay, of course, but if enough things have happened to justify it, we could go with it. I mean, I don't believe in bad things, but, you know, I do believe in the holy Ghost. So why wouldn't there be other ghosts? I mean, that's how I was raised.
- [14:46]
Benjamin Morris
I think there's also something to be said for a collection of reports that seem to document similar things happening over time in. In the same place. You know, it's kind of interesting when you have multiple independent attestations that, you know, the people didn't know one another who were making these claims. They all kind of revolve around the same basic form of a sighting and so forth. And you go to great lengths at your book, in your book to kind of get at the fact that in many of these houses and mansions and abandoned hospitals and all these sorts of things that multiple people at different times in different places say they saw the same thing. That's. That's. It just adds a little bit of credibility. That wouldn't be there if it was one guy.
- [15:33]
Mariana Randazzo
Right.
- [15:33]
Benjamin Morris
You know, who might be a little drunk one night riding home, you know, on his. On his horse. And, you know, is that. Is that a ghost or is that the reflection of the moon in the water? Because he just fell off his horse and, you know, he's. He's upside down. So, you know, I appreciate your dedication to taking everything with a grain of salt, but also trying to sift through what has been collected. And as you note, I mean, even the very origins of Staten island are shrouded in a kind of mystery, you know, through Harry Hudson. I was wondering if you could just tell us just a really quick. Give us a sense of. Kind of why you say that even the beginnings.
- [16:15]
Mariana Randazzo
Right, right.
- [16:16]
Benjamin Morris
Have that aura to them.
- [16:18]
Mariana Randazzo
Well, Henry Hudson was not loved by his crew, and they kind of committed a mutiny, and they threw him and his son and I think a few others overboard and they went back and they. They were not tried for the crime, even though they knew they weren't admitted to have done it. And no one knows what happened to Henry Hudson. And apparently there was a rock that was found in near Canada that had HH and I think the year 1621 on it, and they suspect that that might have been a place where he was abandoned, and he engraved it into a rock, and that's the only evidence they have. They never found him. And they say that there's a ghost ship that sails through the harbor. And, you know, it's part of the folklore of Staten island and New York.
- [17:16]
Benjamin Morris
I love it. I love it because it just sort of sets the tone for everything else that you write about in this volume, and it is such a blast. So we have all sorts of cases to look at this week and next week, and I thought what we would do is do what is effectively a charcuterie platter, a smorgasbord of different types. Okay. And we'll kind of pick. Pick one and talk about it and run to the next one and. And see what it has to offer. And we'll. We'll run the gamut. We're not going to give away everything, you know, but. But there's. There's a few on here that really stand out that are worth kind of talking about. And the. The first one that I wanted to. To come to, in one sense, it falls into your kind of classic Haunted house framework. But there's a little more to it than that. The Kreischer House, which you write about, has a long history of kind of decadence and decay and disrepair and sort of the wealth gone wrong. And I was. I was just wondering, can you tell us a little bit about that? Because you write it is a destination. You know, it is one of these go to places. Fascinating.
- [18:33]
Mariana Randazzo
Well, it always comes up on the places to visit, haunted places to visit. And they do have ghost tours. I've never actually been inside the house, but I've been outside the house, and I can tell you it's behind a shooting range. So it's very interesting that, you know, it just is sitting there vacant. There is a caretaker, though. The Kreischer house was built by a Bavarian German immigrant. His name was Balthazar Kreischer. And he actually built twin houses. So there were two of them up on that hill. Now, Balthazar came to America. He had a stone factory in Germany, and he came to America and established himself in New York City. But then he bought property in Staten island and he put a factory up and he employed many, many people. And two of his sons, I think he had about six or eight children, worked in the factory. And those were the two houses that he built for his two sons. Now, during this time, business flourished, and he actually named the area Chryslerville. And he put up houses for all his employees. And there are still some. There's a lot of land landmarks in Staten Island. As a matter of fact, sometimes it's a problem because you could buy a house and then they'll tell you it's a landmark and you're not allowed to touch it. I've seen that happen as well, But. So they named the area Kreischerville, but that didn't last because after World War I, there was a lot of anti German sentiment. So they called it Charleston. Same thing happened with the Garibaldi Meucci Museum. The Garibaldi house lost its appeal after World War II because of the Italians. Anyway, not to digress. So the mansions were built for his son Charles and Edward. But unfortunately, Charles committed suicide. I think it was Charles. No, it was Ed. Edward committed suicide. And they say it was probably because of economic ruin, possibly a fight with his brother or maybe something to do with his wife who, like, really quick, quickly got married after that. So who knows? There were a lot of stories circulating. Then the house burned down. So now we were left with just the one house. So they talked about ghosts haunting the mansion and the property as far Back then as then in 1866, after the fire. But more. And that's where a lot of the stories began. A lot of the apparitions, the creepy things that were happening. And after it was abandoned by the Chryslers, it was taken care of by various people. They had caretakers, and they would have all these ghost tours. And it just got creepier and creepier because of the fact, I think also that it was abandoned and just what it looked like in the inside as well. But it is a popular destination because even Hollywood uses it. Broadwalk. What was it called? Empire. Empire, yeah. Broadwalk, Empire and Paranormal Lockdown was there. And then it really got notoriety in 2005. There was a gruesome crime there.
- [22:13]
Benjamin Morris
This was terrible. I mean, it's one of those where the sort of. It makes you wonder, you know, does the. Does the reputation of the mansion precede itself that then leads to something else terrible happening there? Because this was brutal. Tell us what happened.
- [22:27]
Mariana Randazzo
Okay. Well, I don't delve too much into crimes that are ongoing. Let's put it that way. I mean, the criminals are still alive. So I don't like to talk about people right now, but very, very fair. It is very documented that the caretaker, a young man named Joe Black. Young. Was apparently a hitman for the mob, and he was hired to kill, basically another mobster. And his body was really mutilated and buried throughout the property. So once they discovered that, everything got creepier at the Chrysler Mansion. And of course, whoever bought it after that, because it's been bought and sold several times, has taken advantage of that fact. They rent it out. They use it for horror films, independent films, and they still do it now it's October, It's Halloween season. They're going to have tours there, and they tell all the creepy stories, and that's what makes it so popular.
- [23:40]
Benjamin Morris
So I guess I have a couple questions for you. But the first one is, of course, is this gonna be your year to go inside finally at last?
- [23:49]
Mariana Randazzo
Well, you know what was funny? I was doing an event at Richmond, and I walking around with my book, and somebody stopped me and said, what is that? And I told them about my book. And he said to me, well, I'm the. My. My uncle's the caretaker. Not Joe Black, but a new caretaker. He said, and we're going to be doing a tour. Why don't you come? And we exchanged numbers, and his name was cj. He was terrific. So I might. I might go and do the tour from. Not too scared.
- [24:24]
Benjamin Morris
I think you have to Marietta, I think you have to. I think the door is flung wide open for you, you know.
- [24:30]
Mariana Randazzo
I know, I know. But they were a wonderful family that took over, and, you know, they were having a lot of fun with it. So looking forward to seeing them again.
- [24:41]
Benjamin Morris
Absolutely. You know, one of the interesting running threads throughout your book is, like we were saying, sort of documentation and so forth. And in this particular case, Kreischer Mansion has the additional kind of ele of people coming there to do testing, to do the electromagnetic stuff and, you know, the infrared and, you know, all the kind of. They bring the ghost gadgets along and, you know, let's see what we can find and so forth. And it's interesting to me because not. Not everywhere has this, but a good number of the properties in your book, you describe as kind of like, you know, this is an active field of study and so forth. So have they found anything at all, Anything of note?
- [25:21]
Mariana Randazzo
I don't really recall, to tell you the truth. What they found, I know that they've had paranorma investigations there, and somebody always hears something. I don't know how they interpret it, but I'm sure they have. You know, I've done those investigations myself, and, you know, I know you could always find something, even if it's not real.
- [25:46]
Benjamin Morris
Exactly. Exactly. If you go in expecting to find something, I wonder what's going to happen.
- [25:51]
Mariana Randazzo
Right, right. I had that experience as well. Yeah.
- [25:57]
Benjamin Morris
You know, the way I look at this is that if you're making pasta, right, and you got the water to a boil, what do you add your pinch of salt? Take your pinch of salt and see. See what you can find.
- [26:07]
Mariana Randazzo
What turns out.
- [26:08]
Benjamin Morris
Exactly. Exactly. Well, let's. Let's switch gears and let's travel a little bit of a ways around the island. And I want to land at a place which I imagine a number of folks out there probably know by name, but they don't actually know. Know what it is. Okay. And what I'm referring to is a little place called Snug Harbor. And, you know, there are all sorts of different cultural touchstones, you know, which may reference Snug harbor, but this is the actual physical site which gave all of those later touchstones that their. Their. Their name. And so I was wondering, can you tell us just a little bit about how. What it was and how it came to be and then how it came to be haunted?
- [27:02]
Mariana Randazzo
Of course. Well, first of all, it is not little at all. It is tremendous, and it's absolutely beautiful. Okay. It's a cultural center and there are botanical gardens there and Staten Island Museum. I've actually been to weddings there. And they have art fence show. They really are spectacular. They have gardens where they sell fresh fruits and vegetables and plants in the spring. So Snug harbor was founded in the early 19th century by Captain Robert Richard Randall. Okay. And it was supposed to be a retirement home for sailors, and it was a refuge. Many residents struggled with addiction and, you know, at that time, leading to suicides and alcoholism. So this captain really wanted to find a place for sailors to live comfortably. So he basically created like a little city in there. There was a church and a hospital and there was cleaning services and just everything a person needed to grow old there. And at the time there were, it accommodated about 1,000 seamen. And it became actually one of the first, first, earliest democratic charitable institutions in the United States.
- [28:27]
Benjamin Morris
Wow, that's remarkable.
- [28:28]
Mariana Randazzo
So with that said, one of my favorite ghost stories is at Snug harbor. Okay. It's called the matron's cottage. Now, it's been told a few ways, and I'll just tell you my interpretation. All right. So this was a two family house. Right now it's called Building K at Snug Harbor. It's still standing. And one side was for the matrons, and the other side was the steward and his wife and his family. Now, the matron, she was in charge of all the maids, kind of, and they did the laundry and, you know, all the domestic work that had to be done. And she was very strict. She had strict rules. She enforced a non fraternization policy for her assistance. She forbidded interactions with the sailors, but she broke her own rules. And she had an affair with the sailor. Okay. The affair resulted in a pregnancy, and the matron chose to hide her pregnancy. And she gave birth privately, but it was a very difficult birth. And she got the poor butcher to help her. I guess that was the closest she could find to a doctor. Well, this poor butcher, he delivered the baby and it was a difficult birth. And it led the butcher to alcohol abuse because it was actually a breech birth. And the baby was born with mental deficiencies. And it was an awful situation. So anyway, the matron hid her son in the basement to keep him a secret. But as he grew, you know, they were concerned about him maintaining this secrecy. Meanwhile, the poor butcher became such a dead drunk alcoholic that his wife had enough for him. And she kicked him to the curb one day and he was on his porch and he froze to death. That was the end of the butcher.
- [30:35]
Benjamin Morris
Yeah. There are Some beer jackets that can't keep anybody warm, you know, in those conditions, Right?
- [30:41]
Mariana Randazzo
So that kind of began a vicious cycle of tragic tragedies there. So then the husband wasn't her husband, the sailor, her boyfriend there, he was so ridden with guilt that he felt that he had to. His name was Herman. Herman something. Herman Ingalls. Right. So he felt that he had to confide in somebody. Now, he was a little scrawny guy, and the matron, she was quite a big woman, okay? So he decided that he needed to tell someone what was going on with this baby and how he was being raised. So he went to the preacher because he felt that he could confide in him. And he told him, he came up with this story that he attacked the matron and he basically, you know, took her against her will and that she got pregnant and had this child. Well, the preacher was a little suspicious because, I mean, I don't know what he looked like, but according to my research, that wouldn't have been physically possible, according to what they said. So Henry Ingalls there, he got Herman Rather. Herman Ingalls got very nervous. And one day while this preacher came out of church, he approached him and he shot him to death. And then he turned the gun on himself. So we had a murder suicide. So in all the craziness and confusion, the whole town came out. They called the ambulance, they called the police. It made the New York Times. It was very sensational. I mean, this was a big media story. So the woman, the matron there, she got nervous and she wanted to check on her son, so she ran to the basement to check on him, and she couldn't find him. And he was hiding, but in the interim, he was exposed to the outside world. He saw there was a world out there, and he kind of went berserk. And when his mother finally found him, she stabbed him to death. He stabbed her to death with a scissor. So now she was dead. So now we have the butcher, the preacher and the sailor and the matron are all dead. The son gets out into the crowd and nobody knows who he is. And I guess they just view him as, you know, somebody who's insane, who just murdered a woman. And they unfortunately, they performed their own justice and they lynched him. So now he was gone. So it was a really brutal affair there. And so needless to say, there's a lot of ghosts that roam that area.
- [33:43]
Benjamin Morris
There's a lot of ghosts. And honestly, you know, when I read this account in your book, it was one of Those moments where I just. I thought, you know, this can't get any worse. This can't get any worse. And then I turned the page. It's like, nope, it's getting worse. I thought, well, no, it can't get any worse after that. No, it's definitely getting worse. You know, from, like, hiding a child in a basement to, like, the boy killing his own mother to the. And then he gets lynched, and then you just like, well, that's. I think I just need to go, you know, play outside with some puppies for a little while to kind of rinse all of this off of me.
- [34:16]
Mariana Randazzo
It's a big hit during the ghost tours, I'll tell you that much.
- [34:20]
Benjamin Morris
Oh, I bet it is.
- [34:22]
Mariana Randazzo
They actually provide death certificates and photos and the newspaper articles from the incident while at the location of the tragedy. So that really did happen. So it's no wonder that the area is creepy.
- [34:38]
Benjamin Morris
Yeah, no, it's got something for everybody there. Well, I was wondering, actually, as we wrap up this week, would you be so kind. There's a passage in your book which speaks to the Snug harbor hauntings. And I gotta tell you, Marianna, next time I go to New York and I visit Staten island, it's gonna be one of those moments where it's like, I know I'm going to want to visit Snug harbor, but then I'm going to have to ask myself whether I really want to visit Snug Harbor. You know, you're going to feel a little torn in that situation, but would you. Would you read that passage? It's the last paragraph in your Snug harbor section. The one right in the middle of page 47 there. Just so our listeners can kind of.
- [35:19]
Mariana Randazzo
Get a sense of several staff members. That one.
- [35:22]
Benjamin Morris
Yeah, that's it. That's it. Would you read that just so we can kind of get a sense of what we're dealing with here?
- [35:26]
Mariana Randazzo
Sure. Several staff members who work in the Main Hall C have shared their experiences of paranormal activity inside this historic building. Many have heard footsteps, keys jingling, and doors opening and closing independently. They also see strange reflections, shadows where they shouldn't be, and figures on the balcony when no one else is present. Main Hall C was the first building on the campus where many of these sailors once live. Some believe spirits have formed a solid connection to the place. Tour guides at the Governor's mansion have mentioned that there have been many reports of paranormal occurrences at the house and that investigators have picked up voices on recordings telling everyone to get out the.
- [36:23]
Benjamin Morris
Thing that really got me there was the shadows where they shouldn't be. That. That's pretty creepy, I gotta admit.
- [36:33]
Mariana Randazzo
Yep.
- [36:35]
Benjamin Morris
All right, well, I know, I know. At least I. At least I know I won't be sleeping tonight. You know, it won't be a surprise. At least I'm queued up for some insomnia, so.
- [36:43]
Mariana Randazzo
Well, go to the botanical gardens there. They're lovely. You'll appreciate those. And the children's museum, that's lot of fun. They have life size games. They have life size games. You can play checkers and Connect 4. It's great.
- [37:01]
Benjamin Morris
Love it, love it, love it. Well, we are going to move from one iconic Staten island site this week and pick up her right back next week with another iconic Staten island site. Mariana, thank you so much for joining us this week on Crime Capsule. It is a total joy having you with us.
- [37:19]
Mariana Randazzo
Thank you so much for having me. This is great. I love talking about this stuff.
- [37:24]
Benjamin Morris
Oh, you're too kind. You're kind. All right, we'll see you next week.
- [37:27]
Mariana Randazzo
Okay, bye.
- [37:30]
Benjamin Morris
Thanks for listening. Our guest has been Marietta Randazzo, author of Haunted Staten island, published by the History Press. To order a copy of the book, visit your local independent bookstore or visit Arcadia Publishing. Join us next week as we continue our conversation with Mariana. See you then. Thanks to our producer Bill Huffman, our production director, Bridget Coyne, audio engineer Sean Rule Hoffman, and our executive producers, Michael D'Aloya and Gerardo Orlando. I'm your host, Benjamin Morris. Crime Capsule is a production of Evergreen Podcasts and a signature of title of the Killer Podcasts Network. You can find Crime Capsule wherever you listen to podcasts. Discover more great true crime and paranormal programming@killer podcasts.com. hey, what's up, you guys? This is Reed Mathis. I made a podcast called the Gifts of Improvising. The Gifts of Improvising that's coming out on Osiris. We talked to all your favorite improvisers, Natalie Cressman, Marco Benevento, Tom Hamilton, Aaron Magner, Holly Bowling, Bill Kreutzman, and Jay Lane.
- [38:51]
Mariana Randazzo
So what are you doing?
- [38:52]
Benjamin Morris
A podcast? Yeah, doing a podcast. So don't fear if you hear a foreign sound to your ear. We need the gifts of improvising. Improvising. Hey everyone, it's Chris Pandolfi inviting you to check out the new season of my podcast, Inside the Musician's Brain with new episodes airing now. Hearing it in that room, these guys playing this thing and trying to figure out how to play this song was mind blowing. It's so inspiring to know there's so much more to it than you ever thought, and it just opened another door. But when people find faith, because they need to, in terms of just filling a void to feel better without actually being better, that's when it becomes a crutch, much like drugs and alcohol do. Man, I don't have all the time in the world here if I want to be a professional bluegrass musician. I felt like I had to take a very, like, strategic approach, just trying to get rid of the barriers and figure out what those barriers were. The feelings still come, and I have to reckon with that, but I think I have better ways of. Of moving forward and not being stuck, which I think was the killer for me. Catch all that and so much more. On the new season of Inside the Musician's Brain.