Listener Tales 74 with Jon Lee Brody | Morbid | Forensic Files

hey weirdos I'm Ash and I'm Elena and I am John Lee Brody and this is a special listener Tales edition of morbid
with one of our fantastic morbid Network hosts John Lee Brody of that was pretty
scary [Music] [Laughter] thanks for being here John oh yeah thanks for having me as a as a proud
weirdo of first of all happy five year anniversary of the more podcast because I've been a proud weirdo for those five
years and it's the what the wood anniversary so wouldn't it be nice if we got five more years yeah if anyone else
wants to say hi hold on Shelby is about to make an appearance and I'm gonna lose
my mind where is Shelby oh my God look at that Corgi Shelby is she feeling so much better
she is feeling better and I think she wants to take her nap right now she's like she's like I'm not working right
now she's like like she knew she must have known she heard y'all's voices because she's she hears
your girl's voices all the time because I always have the podcast on so she's like wait a minute are they here I love
it she's like I know them why do they sound familiar I know well this is special
because it's the five year anniversary like months and you're are like special guests of the month
I love that and it's also aapi heritage month and it's mental health awareness month so it's a lot of we got the
trifecta going on and it's very exciting and I've uh it's crazy because I feel like I've known you two well I have
known you two for five years but now we actually know each other we're working together and it's a very special Dynamic
and it's uh just it's all I have it all kind of culminate here is very very special it
well everybody has been is pretty scary people are loving it including me and me
I'm so glad to hear that well we got a you know we got a long road ahead and uh we'll get to our five year anniversary
uh for that um in good time and and also there was a really positive response to
my Instagram little mini Deep dive so I'll be doing more of those to anyone who is enjoying that there will be more
of those coming uh I think one uh won't be coming this week so this should be uh
more good stuff I'm glad people like it we certainly love doing it we love working with you all and we love all our
listeners too we're so happy to have you and I love those deep Dives they're so fun those are huge there's more there's
more trust me that might be a longer list than our list of horror movies I'm the person that's always looking at
those little details and I like to just shine a light on those things so that people go oh wait yeah it's not just a
happy accident that's happening there may be a calculated move in terms of why that's there I think that's awesome get
the inside scoop yeah and I think what works with your show is that it's like such good perspectives like it's a
different perspective than just talking like like even like we have scream and it's just like three you know us three
idiots talking about horror movies but it's like it's fun you have no Insight whatsoever that's fun but like it's
really fun to hear it from like professionals on either side of the situation so I think it's like a
brilliant idea for a show oh thank you well and and it's a lot thanks to you for going for the idea because I know
Freddie it was on a like a random general meeting three because you'll have the same manager and then he called
me said hey I think we got this this horror podcast idea is going to go in a different way I'm like oh okay great all
right let's log for the ride yeah and Freddie's my big brother and so to work with someone that you're really close
with like YouTube you two are you know obviously best friends and everything that's Freddy myself and he came up in
the industry a lot sooner than I did when he was doing she's all that I was in junior high
yeah I mean and and everybody won every guy wanted to be Zack Seiler in high school
yeah and none of us succeeded maybe a couple did no you guys are like the sweetest Freddy
that really was what it was we had like a random meeting with him and we were like he is so kind and so nice and it
was just such a good idea and we were like how do we not jump on this exactly well I'm glad you did I'm glad we're
here and I'm glad to be I'm honored to be here for listener tales and the part of the the flagship the mothership
podcast of The Morbid Network yes and we heard you have a tale to start us off with
yes so this is for my good friends back home in Palatine Illinois shout out to all my friends who I went to friend high
school with even the ones that made fun of me who are now going to be my friend because like they love morbid but
whatever oh my God I love it you gave me so much street cred with the people that
actually gave me a hard time it's just amazing it's funny good I'm glad screw them
exactly but but keep listening and subscribing to morbid exactly yes please do keep on keep on keeping that going so
there are these two haunted roads in Barrington Illinois which is about 15 minutes away from my hometown of
Palatine Illinois and the origin stories are a little murky they kind of vary a little bit it's like the Joker in The
Dark Knight he keeps telling a different origin story of how he got his scars so
we don't exactly know when this originated but there's a Rocco Cuba Road which leads to this Cemetery called The
White Cemetery so this does go back to the 1800s and whether White Cemetery means uh whites only or not I don't know
it could be I don't know if I really want to go there that era but considering there's a very heavy
Mafia and gangster influence in Chicago we're talking the Al Capone's and the John dillingers I'm guessing that that
might have had something to do with it or maybe that's where they bury their victims or whatever so Cuba Road is
known to be a haunted road which leads to the cemetery it intersects with this other world called rainbow road which
leads to this secluded house which apparently back in the day was this prominent like Scrooge mcduck's house
Richie Rich's house it was a symbol of this wealth that you would never ever in your wildest dreams get and the rumor is
now that at one point it was actually a like an insane asylum and the building was abandoned there's a rumor that there
was a house on Cuba Road that burned down years ago and the Ghost of the woman who lived there is still there and
looking over the land and apparently gets angry if you try to get out and see where the house was um just like get off
so long yeah she's I think she's the OG of get off my lawn I love that maybe that's why
she's so angry because people are using her phrase and not giving her royalties which um
that does uh that does play into the wga strike so maybe uh our old lady on the uh Cooper Road is the uh the OD of uh
Fair practices and fair pay topical we support you maybe that's all she wanted we support well my whole interpretation
of ghosts is we we tend to think that every ghost is going to be evil because we have like Ghostbusters we think the
Exorcist and that that's just how they portrayed on screen but there's also Casper the Friendly Ghost who just
tragically died as a kid and is just lingering in whip staff I'm going off of the Casper movie that came out in the
90s remember yeah with the human version being Devin Sala and every guy was jealous of Devon
Salvo because he's like wait every girl likes Devin Sala I don't look like Kevin
Sala there's no hope for me it was the hand shout out to Devon anyways I digress it was by the time we all got
our driver's licenses The rite of passage was you have to drive Cuba Road because that's the urban legend we grew
up with and it's so fun if you're really a tough guy if you're really a manly man because remember this
is the late 90s early 2000s people still talk like that yep if you're really a man you're gonna drive down Cuba Road
I'm like oh okay I mean I don't know how um I was like I don't know how my anatomy
and like this I don't know how this ties into the science of uh whether I'm a male or not but okay
because it's high school we want to be cool yeah and um I remember as me my best friend growing up Chris Ryerson so
shout out to Chris Ryerson who shout out is a teacher in Barrington now and wow I
was texting him last night I'm like hey man do you remember when we drove Cuba Road with uh shout out I think it was
our friend Lauren Jackie and Connor and I think we were trying to impress them to show them like how great we were on
Cooper Road this is amazing already it's taking me back it's got a nostalgic feel
too it does and it's taking me back the more I speak out loud about it it's it's
funny how memories work they're pretty dormant in our brain but the moment you bring it up you're like oh wow like the
whole flash of memories come back details you can roll in yeah you can like smell it yeah yeah and it was our
other friend Pat who was also in the car so Pat Pat's the friend who you know you
had the [ __ ] friend who but they're your [ __ ] so it's okay oh yeah absolutely and there's always one I'm
leaving his last name out because he's a college basketball coach so I don't want
to get him in any trouble but he's the [ __ ] friend but you know Pat you know who you are you know I love you but you
are an [ __ ] we feel that yeah so we're driving down Cube like all right we're gonna do this thing like
guys we got to play cool we got to be cool I didn't know I don't know how to play it cool now like let alone at the
age of 16 17 18. what am I doing but whatever they do it on TV how hard can it be so we're driving down Cooper Road
and right away and this is something we always heard about there's these little white and
green orbs of light that this isn't just reflecting from our headlights or anything these things are like following
us they're like kind of surrounding the car and it's like this is and there's no
street lights on Cooper Road [Laughter] just defies science and all it took was one of the girls to
say oh my god do you see that and then all of a sudden once we wish they said that and we saw that we couldn't unsee
it and then all of a sudden in my mind I'm like uh oh wait maybe this isn't just an urban legend I don't know this
is how my story ends like do I never like get to be Zacks either and she's all that like like no like I wasn't
going to be prom King anyway but there was at least a chance if I was alive it's gonna happen and so now I'm like
I'm driving in my mom's Volvo 850 which she still has to this day because you're
incredible because we're Korean we don't get rid of anything so just it's in our
garage shout out to her we got a shout out to my mom my mom who is the real superhero and with Mother's Day coming
up AKA superheroes day uh she's for sure is that but all right my mom's Volvo and we're
listening to like DMX or whatever yes mix CD mix I am literally there all of a sudden party up was not as an
upbeat tune because it was returning it became ominous oh yes and then then again you hear of DMX's
backstory so maybe that's all on brand it was being foretelling of the news we're gonna get about DMX uh years from
then so we're seeing the orbs of light and then we're getting to the cemetery and I swear I saw a car turn into the
cemetery that's weird people are here at night and we go down there there's no car now I like I swear this will happen
I'm like okay you all saw that right like yeah there was a car I'm like yeah we saw like some car points of the
cemetery which one that's I think a red flag when yeah we're there at eight o'clock it's pitch black on this you
know I think maybe I don't think it's an unincorporated road but it certainly felt that way and so we get to the
cemetery we don't see anything but we still see the orbs of light and um and this is before you could just get on
your smartphone and Google stuff we couldn't film anything because we didn't have that capability unless I took my
dad's like JVC video camera and made a mini movie yes which I did just not I did that all the time yeah and I used to
edit on two VCRs and everything that's that was my start in filmmaking yeah but uh for some reason today we didn't bring
the camera gear because we didn't think we needed it and um and then Pat named Pat was like I'm gonna go into the
cemetery and just look myself like what what are you talking about like we agreed we'd stay in the car
like a bad action movie in the 80s like no like don't you know what like in Last
Action Hero don't you know what happens when the partner goes with he always gets killed like you gotta stay in the
car you know what though classic Pat it is classic Pat yeah he he was on a different mission to really prove like
oh yeah I'm the alpha of this group yeah sure sure Pat Uh whatever you need to tell you I love you I love you sure Jan
so he's like he gets out of the car and we're like Chris and I are looking at each other like we're gonna you know
like we're gonna have to go with them but we also can't leave everybody here so we're trying to figure out what's
going on he takes two steps out of the car and it was like before Jordan peel even had the idea for
this basically we see Paco nope he doesn't even go there and um and that was kind of the end of that but then we
remember there's Rainbow Road and we said okay but if we're here we gotta check out Rainbow Road and which is
crazy to me because at this point I'm I'm not gonna lie I'm a little creeped out because
as much as people want to say there's no such thing as ghosts like you can't definitively definitively prove that
there are or there aren't uh that's that's my interpretation of it unless you can conclusively prove just like we
can prove two plus two equals four that you can prove that we are or not goes I'm open to all possibilities that's
always how my brains worked yeah so that's my thinking I'm like look first of all my curfew is like 11 30. it's not
too late to get out of here yeah I'll let no fury like a a worried Korean mom wondering where her son is on a
Saturday night it let alone if she knew we were on some haunted road in Barrington doing whatever whatever
you've got her Volvo I have her Volvo 850 the same car that Sally Field drove and Mrs Doubtfire just didn't want
instead of red oh yep yeah it took you right there before the 20th Century Fox so shout out to Mrs
Doubtfire in Sally Field so we're like all right well we're here I'm looking at my watch I'm like okay it's 10 30. I got
another hour before I got to get everybody home and meet my curfew because I legitimately was the that kid
who would get grounded and wouldn't be able to go out the next weekend if I was there like a minute later than my curfew
oh yeah so like well I heard there's an insane asylum on Rainbow Road okay all right so
we drive down there I swear I heard police lights so I'm like okay like maybe the police are shutting it down
because too many people go there and they just want to Usher people out or maybe people who actually live there on
Cooper Road were like man [ __ ] these guys that are trying to look around all the time it's like I'm just trying to
live our life here like maybe there's nothing wrong so like we're like looking around
looking around I swear we heard I swear we saw police lights and Sirens we get down further there's nothing there oh
I'm like okay uh this is this is strange again so like well which way which way do we go to this the same Asylum and
he's like I don't know I'm like what do you mean you don't know who's your idea like I just want to do Cuba Road you
want to do rainbow road now what's going on I don't know why my voice is so high
now and like I'm not exaggerating I'm I'm pretty sure like I did in that sort of
tone but also not trying to show that I was that scared so we're turning right we don't see it we're in like pitch
black and now I'm going from scared to kind of being like pissed I'm like what the [ __ ] like like it was enough to do
Cuba you had you had to just take it too far now we gotta go here we look down the other side and we do see just this
Iron Gate I'm like okay I think we oh no I think we found it and it's this really ominous
and dark long driveway right out of a Tim Burton movie uh except you're not as welcoming movies as creepy as they are
they're like you're still like I want to go there yeah there's a joke this was like to it this was like Bizarro Tim
Burton yeah yeah where it's like a level below Tim Burton you shall not go and you shall not pass
was basically the uh the thing here Pat once again is like oh my God is that it like we should hop the fence we should
do this I'm like why are you like cool why are you giving the ideas here who brought you here oh wait it was me oh
wait it was me because you're our [ __ ] friend again I love you Pat but still it's gonna be the running joke
that every time I come on we'll do a shout out to my ass shout out to [ __ ] Pat yes I'm here for it
so we we see that in like so we all like actually make a choice like okay let's let's all get out like someone's gonna
get out of the car we all get out of the car we all it's like all for one one for
all we gotta be let's do this so we get pretty close to this like Iron Gate and then I swear like I saw we saw like
headlights coming towards us like oh no no like this could be a ghost car this could be this so we never got uh too far
into exploring what the house could be or what it isn't there are legends that say some people have hopped the gate and
they actually get into the abandoned ruins of the house and they make it down to the basement where apparently
I have no way to confirm this or deny it so I'm just going to state that this is
what I've heard so I'm not saying this is a fact to anybody listening but apparently if you make it to the
basement of this supposed abandoned insane asylum there's like bloody pentagrams painted on the floor
and stuff like that and then I remember the mob backstory of Chicago because John Dillinger and Al Capone used to
always come up to the north suburbs to escape Chicago a little bit for a little r r or whatever but it's also very
possible that they could have used this abandoned place to hide some of the dead
bodies 100 you know what I mean so that's where my brain goes now back then it's like dude I gotta get I gotta get
home for curfew that matters and I don't want to look like a wuss in front of these girls because that was so
important to me so once we saw the headlights and we're just all like okay guys we gotta go like
because if the cops get us like we're all screwed and we were all like athletes and we all had stuff to do and
like if we all got in trouble that actually would be pretty dire consequences for school and me I'm
terrified of what would happen if I got in trouble with the I'd be more afraid of my mom than the police let's just do
that so I was like I would have been safer in jail yeah I feel like I don't want to even play with this exactly so
that was my personal tale of Cuba and Rainbow Road and that we went a couple other times and the other times weren't
as intense as the first time because you're going in you don't know what to expect yeah
you've heard people tell you stories but I swear those orbs everyone I've talked to that's been
there they say the same thing the orbs like surround your car and they follow you they're not just light refractions
and I'm not an expert in physics or anything but again there's no strings where were these boys
so there's a belief that these are the spirits of Cuba Road kind of being Guardians and uh I would hope that
they're just nice ghosts and they're hoping that you're not gonna kill anybody else that's what I was kind of
thinking that they were like surrounding your car to be like hey you should go back like don't go this way
it was it was the Devin sour Caster basically saying like if you don't go I can't keep you I was just gonna say
saying can I keep you that one line changes everything for everything for a whole generation
yeah and you know it's and it can only be said by Devin Sawa Circa the 90s yeah if I try to say that any man tried to
say it's a wrap it would be like oof let's turn into a horror movies let's go absolutely you can keep me yeah
it's uh it's up there with my favorite line deliveries of all time it's up there with Back To The Future Three when
Marty McFly just has his realization about being called chicken and he just looks at Mad Dog tanning and goes he's
an [ __ ] so it's like it's up there when it's very hard with that in terms of such
iconic line delivery so so that was my personal tale of Cuba Road rainbow to be a 17 18 year old kid who's you
know just first of all trying to figure out who the [ __ ] he is as a person which
I really haven't figured out I mean it's really in recent years I figured that out but trying to look cool in front of
these girls with your friend also trying not to be the wuss of the group sort of
thing not that I think I am but look when you're dealing with the supernatural anything goes you don't
know what's going to happen I was gonna say I'm not trying to mess with that um so yeah and I I did put uh
uh a thing out on my Facebook last night to any of my hometown friends if they had any uh stories they want to tell me
that may have been intense and I would love to share a couple with you please do
this first one is from Kristen Koenig so shout out to you Kristen Koenig who actually helped she actually planned our
our 20-year reunion last year oh damn so shout out to you Kristen for doing that
uh I don't know why you got tasked with such a thankless yeah I was gonna say damn appreciate you
so she wrote this on my Facebook I drove along Cuba past the old cemetery and saw
the floating orb of light that follows you uh also got lost search in Rainbow Row for the Asylum traveled along a
creepy little side road that turned out to be someone's driveway once we realized and turn tried to turn around a
man burst out of his house with a shotgun and scared the [ __ ] out of us okay and then she also mentioned that
there is also an urban legend that if you stop on the train tracks and honk your horns three times a ghost train
will come I love those kind of urban legends those are the most fun yep we never found the train track and we did
look another time but we never found that and uh maybe I should probably should just go on there during the
daytime to get a GI of the geography if I was smart back then but uh that's just
not what happened and uh Kristen B shaml said a bunch of my friends and I drove there way back in our day late in the
fall and we saw a faint green light not orbs more like Aurora Borealis style green light emanating from that
graveyard a couple of guys got out and went in with a flashlight to see what was going on because they thought
someone was pranking or left glow sticks out there but came back after a few minutes with no answers but both were
freaked out because one of them was sure someone tapped them lightly on the shoulder he looked around and no one was
there and our other friend uh parentheses flashlight guy wasn't close enough to have done it to this day they
still get quiet and uncomfortable when we talk about it oh look at me the chilly Willies yeah not much
and uh so it's it's fun to first of all hear people from people that I haven't heard from in a long time and some of
the others share with me that they heard those same urban legends and nothing really happened but for every one of
those there's those other stories like from the two Christians I didn't even put that down
it's a wild wild thing and I I think that's the sort of stuff is fun and um you know but also I'm glad I'm in the
comfort of my own home and it's just a it's a big Enigma and I kind of hope that they make a movie out of it maybe I
gotta make that movie no you should you must I was thinking it could be uh you ever seen the Curacao movie rashamon
so rashaman in a nutshell is basically a singular event but from different perspectives and how our perspectives
can uh make the story a little different with the same result but the journey getting there is different oh that was
so I figured because yeah yeah so I figured because there's so many different stories and different
interpretations I think that's how you structure the movie it's just maybe these different Tales almost and all it
gets juxtaposed almost Pulp Fiction style culminating into like Cuba Road and what this singular thing happening
there and what everybody thinks they saw or didn't see oh that would be so cool I
want to see that and then we can uh complement that with a morbid episode with a deeper dive in
the road yeah I mean so it's just cross-promoting all right I think we have a game plan guys TM oh yeah
that's ours so um thank you for letting me share my story of Cuba Rhodes this is uh it's
taking me back to my teen years I love that quite a bit ago yeah that's a good one thank you for sharing I like the
Aurora Borealis green coming out of the graveyard I could like picture them immediately I was like oh I want to go
in there I want to go to those ruins now and see the pentagrams I know maybe field trip I was just gonna say
field trip I would love to host you both in my hometown because we will do the Cooper Road thing but also there's
monkey dunkers which is the only place I get donuts it's in my hometown of Palatine that's that's sold it right we
love a donut I'm concerned or several and my cousin Natalie is like the head of marketing for Lou Malnati's pizza so
we'll get some deep dish pizzas uh uh thrown our way as well so I just I would love to host you two in my hometown and
be cool to just do like a little side quests with The Morbid girls hell yes see you just gotta double hell yeah
a great great thing Shelby is part of the squad as far as hell yeah that's our girl right there
well should we go on to some random listener tell hell yeah brother until you start us off yeah I
love that all right so the one I'm going to start off with is called Boogeyman birdie and the haunting of room 118
obsessed by Sarah brought to you by Sarah it says what's up you wonderful weirdos my name is
Sarah spelled the correct way with no extrenuous consonants little winky face I love the Pod and have been skipping
around the episodes for the last several months I've never been much into True Crime into the True Crime genre but
decided to give it a go when your podcast was recommended to me by a co-worker I love spooky [ __ ] but tend to
gravitate more towards ghost stories and paranormal type things rather than True
Crime because honestly the real life [ __ ] is way more terrifying because real life or real deaths accurate and it
freaks me out I don't always have nightmares but when I do it's the kind where you can't distinguish between
dreaming and being awake yes I said that like the world's most interesting man from the Dos Equis commercials staple
space Stay spooky my friends will do anyway I've been listening for a while but the
heebie-jeebies got the better of me and I had to take a break after having a nightmare involving Richard Ramirez
That's right The Night Stalker decided to stock at my way into his way into my dreams one night recently and proceeded
to chase me through the halls and classrooms of the high school where I currently teach I don't love that for
you being a teacher in these scare in these times is scary enough I don't need some psycho killer thrown into the mix
sheesh and you are right being a teacher is scary enough now and we appreciate you they don't pay me enough to deal
with that level of bullshitery and you would think that the terror would stop there but plot twist my mother decides
to make an appearance in the Scholastic hellscape my subconscious has so elegantly designed and is waiting in my
classroom to convince me to sit down with Mr Ramirez for a nice chat because he is and I quote a lovely young man
Excuse me while I schedule an emergency session with my therapist because I feel
like there's a lot to unpack here so Linda needless to say I stepped away from the Pod for all of about uh 24
hours what can I say y'all are just too good at what you do no need to fully hold on to your butts but maybe make
sure they are secure in case we encounter any turbulence I'm quite proud of the fact that I've
lived most of my life free from Supernatural natural encounters it's somewhat of achievement considering I
grew up in Uber rural Georgia and spent a few years of my young life involved in
a Pentecostal Church where belief in the Supernatural is very real think speaking
in tongue Spirit possession all that sort of carrying on anywho after graduating high school in way back times
2006. I like vintage I'm 2004 so 2002. there you go 2014. oof stabbed right in the chest I attended
Carson Newman College in another rural town in the foothills of the Appalachian or Appalachian mountains which one is it
I think we've been told more often than it's Appalachian I'm gonna go with that because I think that is yeah Appalachian
I had a softball scholarship not super relevant except to denote my tough girl status into late blooming lesbian hood
and subsequent Detachment from my alter conservative religious upbringing Shug shrug all female athletes were uh housed
in Butler Hall named for the late birdie Maples Butler it's a grandiose three-story brick dormitory complete
with classical Grecian facade oh that sounds beautiful that does I was just thinking that and in the lobby of the
dorm hung Birdie's portrait see the first attached image and they put an image of him uh note the creep factor of
the eyes birdie is a woman or I meant her sorry so old Bert there she is there's birdie very Regal
birdie gorgeous gorgeous girly so oh Bert a former graduate and faculty member of the college had made a sizable
contribution towards the construction of the dormitory in the early 50s apparently bestowing a ludicrous
ludicrous amount of cash to an Institute of Higher Learning is enough to get your
name on a building but not enough to have a say in the location of said building because the Brilliant Minds
behind the construction decided it was a fine idea to plop a girl's dormitory in
the front yard of an old as [ __ ] Cemetery sidebar it is not a fine idea side sidebar I'm still convinced there are
Graves under the foundation of the dorm side side sidebar the threat of dead bodies didn't deter my friends and me
from sledding down the cemetery hill behind behind the dorm on cafeteria trees oh my God
also the dorm shares a property line with an abandoned Hospital insert heebie-jeebies
so when I moved into Butler Hall my freshman year I managed to snag a sweet sweet on a first floor of the East wing
of the building room 118. most residents lived on the East Wing floors because the West Halls were always vacant and we
were told a myriad of reasons why molds electrical issues Plumbing plot problems
hauntings Etc I love that it goes from mold Electrical Plumbing hauntings you know like just what have you throw that
in there well naturally the little asterisk about hauntings caught my attention and after some light reading
through the annals of the college's history I discovered that many of these stories that cropped up over the decades
featured the ghost of the one and only birdie Maples Butler gasp oh but it really wasn't too big a deal
because no one lived in those Halls right well sort of a few years before I arrived a fraternity on campus had
managed to obtain permission to host an annual haunted house in those abandoned Halls of Butler dorm that was actually
quite surprising because Carson Newman is a conservative Baptist school and this particular haunted house dubbed
Frightmare Manor was not some light-hearted cheap ass Carnival Fun House I'm talking scenes of demonic
Conjuring dismemberment Gore in abundance chicken gizzards and liver livers sign a waiver type haunted house
a damn that's wild complete with gallons of rather tasty albeit realistic fake blood can talk concocted from Hershey's
syrup peanut butter for texture corn syrup and red food dye that's interesting sounds like a good combo we
smelled like Reese's cups for weeks I say we because as soon as I heard about the open cast call I decided to
participate as an actor in The Haunt and it was totally rad or whatever the youths are saying these days I think
they still say rad I still say rad so that's right that's rad right I think that's rad I think so every weekend in
October in the entire week of Halloween residents of Butler Hall were serenaded with screaming wailing chainsaws and
other spooky sounds that emitted from the rooms of The West Wing from the basement to the second floor that sounds
awesome sounds rad sounds [ __ ] rad aside from the general creepiness of the scenes in the haunt there always seemed
to be a presence that most of the actors myself included were aware of like something was watching us from just
beyond the next Shadow and occasionally we would catch drafts of icy wind blowing down the corridors despite the
fact that the AC units on that side of the building had not worked in years yep you bet I noped my Reese's cup ass right
out of there as soon as the haunt closed for the night heebies and gb's Galore I
thought for sure I'd be rid of those heebie-jeebies once The Haunting season ended and I went back to my comfy
heebie-jeebie Free Zone on the East Hall nice wish you naive Childs I didn't say that she did
that Christmas in keeping with the spirit of the season I decided to help decorate the lobby of the dorm remember
the creepy portrait of dear sweet birdie yeah I hadn't forgotten her either and after a night of good wholesome Baptist
College beer pong my Jolly inebrien itself thought Hmm this old lady looks a little too screwgy let's deck her Halls
so I promptly cut out a quick Santa Claus hat and beard and taped that [ __ ] to the glass with comp with the
confidence confidence of Pablo [ __ ] Picasso had iPhones existed at the time you best believe I
would have plastered my handiwork all over the gram I stumbled my way back to my room pleased as could be and filled
with dare I say Christmas spirit and promptly passed the [ __ ] out we only had a few weeks left before Christmas break
and every time I walked past Birdie's portrait I got a good laugh at the ridiculous decorations but that was the
wrong thing to do I had a feeling I don't think Bernie's gonna like you you don't LOL at birdie okay birdie just has
that vibe that you don't LOL at birdie no about three weeks after my little craft capade the spooky started this
portrait looked like some looked something like the second image after I added my festive festive Decor I can't
talk here's the second one birdie Santa Claus Edition mind you I didn't have a roommate at the
time because the girl who had been my roomie got a promotion to R.A on the second floor and moved out which fist
pumped the air heck yeah I'll take the solo room that's gonna be sweet oh my sweet innocent summer self shaking
my head that night upon the stroke of you guessed it 3 A.M I was rudely awakened by distorted muffled screams
coming from the massive 20-inch Box TV on my dresser the same massive 20-inch TV that I had turned off prior to going
to bed and whose remote control rested peacefully on my desk five or six feet away from the bed where I sat now rigid
and heart racing confused as [ __ ] the white static illuminated the room just enough for me to see my way over to the
desk and retrieve the remote to turn the TV back off it took a few minutes but I
managed to fall back asleep still too disoriented to think clearly about the incident so she just woke up to like
blood curdling screams and static on her TV and she was like okay see you later good night's rest is important I guess
so all right Sarah priorities man priorities you know everybody's got him Sarah for chick than I I would have
burned my house down and I also played softball I can't claim to be that tough I played softball but this is actually
like this is Sarah Connor from Terminator it's a really badass that would make more sense here yeah it took
a few minutes but I managed to fall back asleep too disoriented of course three weeks passed with no further disruptions
and I thought it had merely been a fluke until it happened again same time 3 A.M
same [ __ ] TV turning on to static and muffled screaming I don't like that only
this time the closet light was on no no now I'm someone who requires complete darkness to go to sleep because ADHD be
[ __ ] around when there's any kind of Illumination dumb so I don't sleep with any kind of light on and the closet was
on the opposite side of the room for my bed and again the TV remote was on the desk this time I managed to game some
modicum of mental coherence to weakly vocalize what the actual [ __ ] is happening and as the last syllable
passed by my lips the closet light clicked off oh no no no no no no no no no as though whatever or whoever was
saying oh my bad bro I forgot you were asleep let me get the lights let me get the lights for you that would have
freaked me out so bad I feel like that was just like [ __ ] around with her I would have loved if she actually heard
from the closet oh my bad bro like I forgot you were asleep let me get to like I would have changed this story the
movie version that's like oh it's okay but at this point I'm like nah don't bother because I sure as [ __ ] ain't
sleeping for the rest of the night the following day I recounted the story to my good friend and fellow Butler
resident M who listened with interest and said as nonchalantly as can be hmm sounds like birdie is messing with you
great nothing says happy holidays like a good old-fashioned haunting by the Ghost
of Christmas Past while I was thoroughly disturbed by her Revelation my inner Dean Winchester of Supernatural Fame had
sparked to life and was running through old episodes of Supernatural to remember
how to 86 a ghost of course Salt and burn the bones brilliant or would have been if I fancied desecrating
bertrude's final resting place which I did not good good and actually had no idea where it was actually located even
better I love how that was just like yes I will just burn the bones and salt them
it'll be fine so I spent the next few nights anticipating her return to my room and sure enough 3 am on the nose TV
static closet light and oh lovely the mini fridge is now opening on its owns like birdie is rooting around for a
snack something about that is really funny a mini fridge just like opening and closing by itself I like that Vision
I like that yeah that one doesn't feel as threatening no it's that just feels silly it's because it's small yeah it's
it's small you know that would humanize the ghost for me I'm like oh yeah you know like in Casper when like Fatso
stretch and stinky they're they're eating food yes I love snacks looking for a snacks we
got hummus we got carrots help yourself let me know what you want me to stock in
there I'll do I'll just leave a Post-It exactly I got a Costco membership it's all good oh yeah what do you like
together it's cool bertrude what do you like I'll buy in bulk at my Wit's End I yelled into the
semi-darkness what the [ __ ] birdie get a life and leave me the [ __ ] alone I don't
know if that was quite the way you wanted to go about that yeah that was mean and swear to dog in the midst of
the static buzzing from the TV I hear Santa Claus is coming to town she said get the hat off of my GD portrait right
now then it hit me like a ton of bricks I had just yet the portrait birdie apparently was not a fan of her Jolly
Old Saint Nick get up and decided to seek retribution by freaking me the [ __ ] out until I removed it so I scooted my
flannel clad ass out the door down the hall and skidded to halt in front of the damn portrait ripping off the
construction paper hat and beard and one sweeping yoink I love that they did it that night they were like you know what
I got you yeah I'm not waiting I'll take care of this I trashed the offending paper and tape and slumped away to my
room the eyes of Birdie Maples Butler burning into my retreating backside bertrude I appeared cautiously around
the door frame into my room into my utter amazement and relief the TV was off the closet light was out and no
sound or sign of any disturbance could be detected birdie had left the building well not really the building but at
least she had returned to the West Wing seemingly appeased but there was a little posted on the fridge that said
get more Oreos I never heard anything else out of Bernie in my remaining time at Carson
Newman but I also never looked that portrait in the eye again though I could still feel her chilly gaze follow me
anytime I pass through the lobby so that's it I apologize for the lengthiness but what can I say we
English teachers are a loquacious Bunch oh I like that word I love that word yeah it feels right like loquacious oh
I'm gonna try that on Scrabble there you go that's a lot of points don't forget to keep it weird but not so weird that
you unwittingly insult the resident ghost of the oldest [ __ ] creepy ass millionaire namesake of your college
dormitory and she decides to haunt you right before Christmas because your drunk ass thought it would be funny to
dress her equally creepy ass barter to Santa Claus bye that was a good one that was impressive that was awesome great
Sarah you need to be writing for like every movie and TV show that the truly writing of that it was so good it was
really good I was there painting a picture yeah I liked that or maybe a portrait but um Gertrude portrait I love
it well I'm waiting for the movie version of this too maybe Nick Cage will be this investigator
he has to be what's going on here guys is there a ghost here you know I like how Southern you got that I know
so whatever man those are both fantastic and I loved them it felt right well our next one is listener Tales
haunted roads the time I let my teenagers talk me into dumb [ __ ] and I nope to the [ __ ] out of hatchet man Road
Michigan why did you no why did you yes the [ __ ] into hatchetman road yeah that's absolutely terrifying I
would have always noped out of there me too it says hello ladies here is my listener tale of the time I let my
teenage daughters talk me into doing something I knew better than to do and saw a demon ghost girl and had to nope
the [ __ ] out of there please excuse the bad grammar and punctuation when I started this I had a cold and my eardrum
ruptured as well oh that's [ __ ] awful that's horrible that's my biggest fear I
think I get a new biggest fear anytime somebody tells us that's awful there it is I kept myself busy for a small time
doing this still not tech savvy so uh yeah no still not tech savvy so I did make you but I didn't know how to double
space it I did make it a size 14 font for your viewing pleasure though so just know I tried and we appreciate you and
this is perfect I think it is double spaced hello ladies my name is Amber and yes you can say my name you can also use
my teenagers names because if you read this on the Pod we will all just [ __ ] ourselves just poop everywhere
I'm so sorry not a good visual Amber let's start literally that's some good [ __ ]
let's start off with the normal gushing we love you you ladies have made us laugh and cry and feel so many emotions
I appreciate everything you ladies do and all the time you take to making sure you have all the facts while respecting
all the victims and their families thank you thanks we started listening to your
pod during the pandemic I've never listened to podcasts before and you were the second one I'd found and I was
hooked then they'd listen to me or then they'd listen to it with me in the car and soon me listening without them would
hurt feelings because they loved you just as much as I did I love that thank you guys listener Tales are their
favorite and they've been begging me to send this in for a couple months so I'm finally taking the time to do it hell
yeah so when I was a teenager I grew up living about a mile from the creek this was the road or this was a road that the
pavement ended on and about a mile up was one of was a one lane bridge that was over a small Cold Creek it was stuck
the creek it was definitely not the most perfect area to smoke pod an underage drink a couple of beers that we've
hidden from our parents during the week nope as far as my kids are concerned their mother was a perfect angel who
would have never done things like that no and that's definitely not why they never would get away with anything
because I had never been there nor have I ever done that of course you have not know me either I believe that no lay
Jose never now fast forward to last summer when I was talking to an old friend from that time period And she
said something about Hatchet Man Road and I'm like where and she says the Crick Amber that place we used to hang
out at is one of the most haunted roads in Michigan looking back we'd never been
there at night except except one time when my brother's car broke down it just wouldn't start so we ended up walking
home and as it got dark I had been terrified I chalked it up to just being scared of the dark and my
brother trying to scare me so I of course tell my kids about it during one of their sleepovers where they're all
trying to scare each other I tell them about how the man was scared of the Apocalypse built a bomb shelter where he
made them all live until he slowly went mad then trying to spare his family of what he believed was coming he murdered
all of them with a hatchet and then killed himself damn that's dark and I love that you told that story out of
sleep oh I love it nighty night kids bye this turned into all four of them begging me to take them on a drive down
Hatchet Man Road those are some cool kids I love those kids and you're a cool Mom at first I said no but let's face it
I'm kind of a pushover and I love all the spooky things and I've definitely created these Monsters of mine so I cave
and I tell them all to load up I feel that hatchet man road is still only a hop skip and a jump away from where I
live now so it didn't take long for all of us to pull onto the dirt side of the road and come to a stop just a pause so
I could roll down the windows and turn off the radio to set the mood while Alexis started recording on my phone and
placed it in the placed it back in the mount it was fun creeping at all of about six
miles an hour and hearing all the cracks and breaks of the twigs and the chirping
of the Crickets I'm there I planned on trying to scare my kids like a good parent would of course asking if they
saw that while actually seeing nothing and if they heard that while knowing it was just their own heavy breathing you
know just character building I love you Amber I do too my oldest daughter Alexis who's 16 was
sitting in the front with me while my middle daughter Ashlyn 15 was in the back with two friends I can't wait for
this with my kids oh my God I can't wait until they're like 15 and 16 and I could
do this if you don't pick me up on the way you're fake of course I will let's go so Lex started doing the normal talk
to the ghosties asking if anyone was there if they were and if they wanted to talk to us they could but there was
nothing much so we come up to the creek and I pull over so they can get out for a minute and goof off I get out with
them and friend number one starts telling us that she's had some medium experiences and that she's sensitive the
other girls mainly Lex started rolling their eyes at her so of course I being the sensitive that I am tried to
validate her when we all just got a terrible feeling and heard the loudest woman scream from the woods no I'm on
I'm unsure of the kids at this point but me being the whole ass adult that I'm supposed to be at 35 stomach dropped and
I had zero issue at that point leaving a child if they did not get into the car fast enough I will leave your ass you
better get in this car we are leaving so as we all fumbled over each other tripping and getting into the car we
rolled up the windows and locked the doors because you know ghosts can't get in if the doors are law of course
as we flipped around and started to head out front number two and Ash were giggling in the back seat about how she
almost lost a shoe and what on Earth was that scream when friend number one grabbed my seat and said there's a
little girl and she's crying no I'd be out of there I'd be like you get out of it I'd be like out of the car out of the
car [ __ ] roll baby yeah no I just got all quiet cause uh [ __ ] that indeed [ __ ]
that oh my God that's absolutely terrifying sorry I lost my phone I would have literally if she said that I would
have just turned around and like [ __ ] that absolutely but then Alexis turned and looked at her all mean and says
you're full of it you're the only one saying those things to make yourself feel cool I hit the brakes and was just
like what's wrong with you and why would you say that Lex says if there's really
a ghost make yourself known right now I bet you won't though because you're just
a giant [ __ ] oh damn my jaw Hit the Floor friend number one set with the shaking voices Lexi stop you don't say
things like that she went full sense I even chime in and tell her to stop we were just trying to have fun and now she
was turning into a real jerk she then started to throw her 16 year old teenage attitude around and I just looked at her
and said that's it we're going home we're done you're being mean to the ghost no I tell the kids to make sure
that they're buckled and apologize again to friend number one who's visibly shaken and pale Alexis isn't a jerk like
that she loves all her friends she's a really sweet caring and compassionate kid it was at this exact moment I went
to turn the phone recording off when I looked at my phone that was pointed in front of the car my blood ran cold or
hot I don't actually recall if I knew the exact temperature but I know that I couldn't feel my legs I couldn't even
talk I had just hand nudged Alexis and she started freaking out and soon all the girls in the car were shrieking it
was all I could do to reach up and push in the two buttons that screenshot in the trees you could see the perfect
little image of a little girl with long hair hanging around her face just past her shoulders and in one of her hands
was a teddy bear I would like that at all pedal to the metal out of there goodbye see you never
fast enough straight up little girl with a with a teddy bear the teddy bear makes
it real yeah yeah yeah I know I don't like that no no no no no and then like part of me would
want to make sure that it was like not a real little girl just like hung up in the trees yeah oh I
hate it I don't like it I don't like it so I look from the phone to the actual trees
and there's nothing okay well I guess you checked now it's time to leave but I look back at the camera and she's still
[ __ ] there no it's one of those things where you can't believe your own eyes open close them rub them it doesn't
go away so it almost paralyzes you but there she was standing in the trees you could feel her or no no sorry you could
see her from head from her head to her feet black hair and a white knee-length gown with the teddy hanging from her
hand her eyes were all you could make of her facial features and it was the darkest blackest holes I've ever seen
Samara I literally hate this David I don't like it oh once I came back to the realization of what was going on and
gathered my bearings with teenagers screaming on all sides of me I hit the gas and very very vocally said [ __ ]
nope [ __ ] that no [ __ ] way we were no longer doing six miles an hour to get the actual [ __ ] out of we were actually
levitating we took flight it was weird all of a sudden we were just flying yeah in this moment I no longer wanted to be
the adult I wanted my bed my safe and my warm bed the one that has my big 230 pound Burly husband in it the same
husband who probably would have said no and and stuck with no because even though he's not the responsible one in
the relationship he is not going to go ghost hunting with teenagers at midnight nope that was my dumbass choice so we
finally got to the pavement the whole mile we had to drive out feeling like an absolute eternity and I head towards our
house it was a quiet ride until about halfway there Lex turns to one to friend number one and says I'm really sorry I
acted like that back there I honestly don't know why I did I just felt so angry and frustrated and she says back
to her that's okay it wasn't you it was him making you feel that way oh no and every single hair I have stands up on
the back of my neck well girls I have Sage every single one of you is getting some when we get home and so is my car
the rest of the trip was all chatter from the girls laughing and giggling and I just can't wait to get home and change
my underwear that I'm pretty sure I've shot myself in we pull into the driveway where we get out once again tripping
over each other to get into the house Ash immediately grabbed the sage yeah I did and lit it
like started mirroring the phone to the TV so we could all watch the video that we'd just taken I went into my husband
still shaky and not exactly sure if I could feel my legs yet walking up to him telling him he needed to come out and
watch this so as we all sit there and watch the recording there is nothing the screenshot I took where the girl was you
can only see the Blackness of where her eyes were but that's it so we all went to bed with four teenage girls sleeping
on our bedroom floor because they were too scared to sleep alone now I don't scare easily I never really have when I
started I was sensitive earlier I just always know if a house is haunted or not just from walking into it I've
cleaned houses since I was a kid with my mom because she owned her own cleaning business and doing what we would call
the empties I would I'd walk into a good handful and know I was not alone there's
a couple great stories from the ghost who would slam doors and turn the lights off while I was in the room but would
stop if I sang along to my MP3 player or the one where I went to walk into the basement and was so overcome with Dread
I refused to go all the way down the stairs so while I was vacuuming the hose came undone three times the third time I
was watching it and at eight months pregnant noped the [ __ ] out of there but this is a road of this is a road Tales
so I'll save those for a later date hopefully by then I'll have another ghost story because I just moved into a
house that was built in 1900 on a hill with a giant front porch overlooking the city where I can drink tea and glare
with a cemetery as its backyard it really is just a witchy Kind of Perfect hell yeah it sounds like it anyway is
keep it weird but not so weird that you think it'll be fun to go on a midnight Haunted Adventure with a bunch of
teenage girls and realize that you see a little demon ghost girl and you no longer want to be the adult anymore and
you know of yourself all the way home that was so freaky in the midwest too so like Midwest we got our haunted Rose
yeah less themes I love it you guys have like a monopoly seriously absolutely terrifying damn Amber
Illinois they're a little more stealth about it's a Cuba Road like yeah it doesn't sound too threatening like the
hatchet I'm like whoa I know they're like Rainbow Road it's like that's nice that's a lot better this one's like
Hatchet Man Road I touch it you in the face rose yeah like I'd take the orbs over the little teddy bear girl any day
oh the teddy bear girl I don't like and the Deep black eyes it's a it's a it's a
song I am not into it I don't like it and then this little little possible like Spirit possession too because
saying like yeah you feel that way yeah that's what it sounded like yeah that she was suddenly being like nasty when
she's really not yeah she was like yeah sorry I was acting like a turd back there that wasn't me and she's like no
it's fine it was him and it's like who we never got further explanation on that was it the hatchet man
maybe it was the hatchet man I think it's like if you took a ghost and juxtaposed that with like get out like
it's like yes you know like when the ghosts are going to the bodies but this goes puts you in the stunk in place so
you're fully aware what's going on but you can't do anything oh I don't like that I hate that guys you always send in
the best freaking team you really do keep it coming so good I think that's probably all we have time for today yeah
I gotta go pick up my kids and take them to a haunted road yeah we're going haunted shopping let's go well John
thank you so much for coming on and thank you for bringing stories with you too thanks for having me on and I I Adore
both you well he does podcast shows but as humans and I can't wait till we have an in-person Meetup and we'll do it in
my hometown at some point deep dish pizza BFF all the deep dish plug before we let you go
well as people know that was pretty scary as every Wednesday this uh we got a we got a really fun list of uh movies
coming out so just it's gonna be a long first season but we got other Seasons planned as well so just uh stay tuned
and I'll be doing some more of those mini deep Dives on Instagram which uh look for that on my Instagram and also
Ash and Elaine are always very gracious about shared it on their Instagram stories as well so if you don't see it
on mine you'll see it on theirs but at some point you'll see it because we love you guys we love you and we love those
they listen to that was pretty scary well guys we love you so much we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep
it weird but not so weird that you go ghost no I think you should keep it so weird
that you go ghost hunting and experience terrible things keep it this weird hell
yeah yeah bye guys bye [Music] foreign [Music] thank you foreign [Music]

We've got a listener tale up in here!! This week we are joined by Alaina's #bffAF, the one and only Jon Lee Brody. On today's installment, we feature stories of spooky road adventures, badass moms, asshole friends & some demon encounters.Check out That Was Pretty Scary New episodes every Wednesday!If you have a listener tale that you would like to send in please do so and direct it to Morbidpodcast@gmail.com with "Listener Tale" somewhere in the subject line :)

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Brief Summary

John Lee Brody joins to share spooky tales from haunted roads and listener stories, celebrating Morbid's five-year anniversary.

Key points

Five Year Anniversary Celebration. Celebrating five years of the podcast with special guests and heartfelt moments.
Haunted Roads of Illinois. Exploring the eerie tales of Cuba Road and Rainbow Road, filled with ghostly legends.
The Ghost of Get Off My Lawn. A humorous take on a ghost protecting her property and demanding royalties.
The Orbs of Cuba Road. Witnesses describe mysterious orbs that follow their cars, believed to be spirits.
Creepy College Dorm Stories. A college dorm built near an old cemetery is rumored to be haunted by Birdie.
Haunted House Experience. A haunted house in a conservative college features disturbing scenes and eerie presences.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I love it! You gave me so much street cred!

Talking about friends who made fun of them in high school.

5:06WatchMay 26, 2023

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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