“A LIVING DEAD YULE HAUNTING” and More True Christmastime Tales! #WeirdDarkness #HolidayHorrors
53:42 Share

Ah, the sizzle of McDonald's sausage. It's enough to make you crave your favorite breakfasts. Enough to head over to McDonald's. Enough to make you really wish this commercial were scratch and sniff.

And if you're a sausage person, now get two satisfyingly savory sausage McGriddles, sausage biscuits, or sausage burritos for just $3.33. Or mix and match. Price and participation may vary. Cannot be combined with any other offer or combo meal. Single item at regular price.

Travelling to the UK? You will need an Electronic Travel Authorisation or ETA. It's quick and simple to apply via the ETA app or online. You'll need to apply for your ETA before travelling to the UK. Applicants will usually get a decision in up to three working days. Everyone travelling to the UK without a visa, whether visiting or passing through, will need one. It lasts two years and is valid for multiple trips. To apply now, search UK Travel ETA. Exemptions apply.

Welcome, Weirdos! I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved, and unexplained. Coming up in this episode…

We'll look at when the Warminster "Thing" terrorized a small English town on Christmas Day in 1964. Despite being in the middle of the First World War, on Christmas Day 1914, British and German soldiers sang carols together, exchanged gifts with the enemy combatants, and supposedly even played a soccer game against each other in order to celebrate the holiday.

The case was so mysterious, it was even featured on TV's Unsolved Mysteries and America's Most Wanted. Who committed the Christmas murder of Latricia White? And what happened to Lee and Chance Wackerhagen? We're so used to seeing old St. Nick showing up with a big bag of toys for the kiddies, but what if he arrived with another bag full of switches for your parents to use the whole year through if you were on his naughty list?

We'll look back at when Santa wasn't purely jolly and jovial, and when he arrived to dole out both presents and punishment. The Los Feliz murder mansion became the site of a horrifying and sad Christmas tragedy for one California family. A haunting holiday mystery took place in England in 1916 when a young bride simply disappeared without a trace.

But first up, a man tries to take on supernatural forces and ends up as an undead creature who appears as a terrifying Yuletide spirit. We begin with that story…

If you're new here, welcome to the show! And if you're already a member of this weirdo family, please take a moment and invite someone else to listen! Recommending Weird Darkness to others helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show. And while you're listening, be sure to check out WeirdDarkness.com where you can send in your own personal paranormal stories, watch horror hosts present old scary movies 24/7, shop for Weird Darkness and Weirdo merchandise, listen to free audiobooks I've narrated,

Do you have the courage to challenge supernatural forces?

If you decide to do so, remember, it will be your own undoing. One man named Glamour was overconfident. Considering himself invincible and untouchable, he thought that he could do whatever pleased him and get away with it. But that was a mistake. Fate caught up with him, and his ending was not a pretty one. The story of Glamour, a Swedish herdsman, is one of the scariest Old Norse Yule hauntings we can come across.

People in ancient Scandinavia were superstitious. They feared and respected supernatural powers, even long after converting to Christianity. The peculiarity of Scandinavian and Icelandic ghosts lie in the fact that they are corporeal, not wraiths, disembodied spirits, but the incorporated spirits of the dead. They are animated corpses, solid bodies generally mischievous and greatly to be feared,

Even Iceland, though a new colony, is ghost-ridden. In stories relating to Scandinavia, the ghosts are generally men, and this is probably an original feature. In stories relating to Norway, the ghosts are rarely found far from their burial places. The haugar, barrows containing a stone-built burial chamber roofed with wood and covered with a great mound of earth,

In Iceland, however, a ghost knows no territorial rights and limitations, and is free to wander where he will, either before or after burial. There is no lack of supernatural elements in Old Norse literature, and some stories can be truly horrifying. Supernatural creatures are regarded as dangerous enemies, but some accounts describe people who possess supernatural powers. In Elder Edda, the word "dólgr" is restricted to its primary sense of "enemy."

In prose, the word is applied to supernatural creatures, but only those with which mankind had to contend, such as devils, trolls, dragons, giants, and phantoms. But the roddolgr could also be applied to human beings who exhibited supernatural qualities, such as Gretter. Draugr was one of the creatures most feared by Vikings and ancient people in Scandinavia,

The Draugr was like a corporeal ghost in Norse mythology. The creature was a fearsome, ugly living dead who would rise from the grave and make life miserable for people. There is archaeological evidence that shows Vikings feared the Draugr so much that they took the necessary precautions to prevent the Draugr from returning back to the world of the living. This brings us to the cursed Glamour from Silgsdarl, who figures in Grettis Saga.

The man came to a farm in Iceland to work as a hireling. Grettis Saga relates the adventures of Grettir, an outlaw hero who on his return to Iceland saves the people from the malicious ghost of Glamr the Shepherd, who is ravaging the countryside. Glamr, sometimes referred to as "Glam", worked for a wealthy farmer named Thorhall, who had problems acquiring a shepherd because his farm was haunted.

However, this was no obstacle to Glamour, who said that he was not afraid of ghosts. On Christmas Eve, Glamour did something that surprised the farmer's wife: the Swedish herdsman ignored Christmas traditions. As he was preparing to go out shepherding, he asked the farmer's wife if he could get some food, but she told him that this was a day when they usually fast.

Now, time passed there until when comes the eve of Yule. Then Glamour stood up and called for his food. The lady of the house answered, "It is not proper that Christian men eat meat on this day because tomorrow is the first day of Yule," she says, "and thus they shall first fast today." Glamour did not want to listen to this. Glamour declared that he would eat, criticizing the Yule tradition and scoring local superstitions.

He answers, "You have many restrictions, when I see no good come of it. I do not know that men fare better now than when they did not heed such things. It seems to me that the customs of men were better when they were called heathens, and now I want my meat and no foolishness." Having eaten, Glamour went out and never returned from his work. While everyone was at the church, a severe storm came over, like a bad omen. The next day people searched for Glamour, but he was nowhere to be found.

After days of searching, when his body was finally discovered, he was described as dead and blue as hell and swollen up like an ox. What caused Glamour's death is unknown, but he did not die of natural causes. People made several attempts to move his body to the church to be buried, but it was impossible, and eventually they had to give up and put him to rest at the spot where he had died. People became convinced an evil spirit must have killed Glamour.

According to the saga, this is when the horror and Yuletide hauntings began. A little time after men were aware that Glamour did not lay quiet, people became so greatly disturbed by this that many fell into hysteria when they saw him, and some lost their wits. Even after Yule, men thought they saw him at home on the farm. People became extremely scared. Many men then fled. Next, Glamour took to riding horses at night so that he nearly broke them.

Grettir famously defeats Glamour, who is frequently associated with the old Norse-Icelandic Draugr, but not until the Revenant has cursed Grettir with unceasing fear of the dark, as terrible light from Glamour's eyes haunts Grettir until the end of his days and he becomes nyctophobic forevermore. As Glamour was dying, he cursed Grettir, predicting that he would grow afraid of the dark.

As Grettis Saga says, "So the day passed, and when it was time for bed, Grettir would not undress and lay down on the platform opposite the farmer's bed closet. He put a fur poncho over himself, and he wrapped one edge down under his feet and the other under his head, and looked out through the head hole. When the door opened, Grettir saw the villain stretch in its head, and it seemed to him enormously big and amazingly large-featured."

Glamour moved slowly and straightened up when he got inside the door. He towered high up into the roof, turned towards the hall, and laid his arms up on the crossbeam and leaned in over the hall. Grettir lay quiet and did not move. Glamour saw that some sort of heap lay on the platform, and he made his way in down the hall and took hold of the poncho rather hard. Grettir pushed against the platform support, and it did not move.

Glamour jerked again, much harder, and the poncho held firm. A third time he pulled it with both hands so hard that he pulled Gratier up from the platform. They now ripped the poncho in two between them. Glamour looked at the bit that he was holding onto and wondered greatly who could be pulling so hard against him.

And at that moment, Grettir leapt under his arms and took him around the middle and pressed against his back as hard as he could and intended that Glamour should bend over backwards. But the villain pushed at Grettir's arms so hard that he was forced to give way by the superior strength.

Glamour wanted to get outside, but Gratyr dug in his heels wherever he could, and still Glamour managed to drag him out the entrance. And when Gratyr sees that he cannot hold back with his feet, he does two things at once. He leaps as hard as he can into the villain's embrace and kicks back with both feet at a stone part buried in the ground that stood on the threshold.

The villain was not expecting this. He had been struggling to pull Grettir towards himself, and so Glamour toppled over backwards and was flung in reverse out against the doorway so that his shoulders caught the lintel and the roof gave way, both the beams and the frozen thatch. Thus, he fell face upwards and backwards outside the building with Grettir on top of him.

There was a bright moonlight outside and gaps in the heavy clouds. Sometimes it clouded over and sometimes it cleared away. At the moment Glamour fell, the cloud cleared from the moon, and Glamour glared up at it, and Gwytir himself has said that this was the only sight he ever saw that took him aback. Then he felt so weakened by everything, his weariness and seeing Glamour squint at him fiercely, that he was unable to draw his cutlass and lay just about between life and death.

and such was the greater power of evil and glamour than in most other revenants that he then spoke as follows: "You have displayed great zeal, Gratir, in seeking me out, and it will not seem surprising if you don't gain a great deal of good fortune from your encounter with me."

But I can tell you this, that you have now acquired half the strength and development that was intended for you if you had not met me. I cannot now deprive you of the strength that you have already acquired, but I can ensure you that you never become any stronger than you are now. And yet even now you are strong enough, as many will find out, to their cost.

"You have become renowned up to now for your deeds, but from now on you will become guilty of crimes and deeds of violence, and nearly everything you do will lead to your misfortune and failure. You will be made outlaw and be compelled always to live in the open on your own. I also lay this upon you, that these eyes of mine will always be before your sight, and you will find it hard to be alone, and this will bring you to your death."

The story ends with Rottier cutting off Glamour's head, assuring the Dragoor can never terrorize people again. Up next on Weird Darkness: Despite being in the middle of the First World War, on Christmas Day 1914, British and German soldiers sang carols together, exchanged gifts with enemy combatants, and supposedly even played a soccer game against each other in order to celebrate the holiday.

Also, we're so used to seeing Saint Nick showing up with a big bag of toys for the kiddies, but what if he arrived with another bag full of switches for your parents to use the whole year through if you were on his naughty list? We'll look back at when Santa was not purely jolly and jovial, when he arrived to dole out both presents and punishment. Plus, a haunting holiday mystery took place in England in 1916 when a young bride simply disappeared without a trace.

These stories and more when Weird Darkness returns. It's the Kia season of new tradition sales event. So don't just hang your own lights. Venture out and look for the northern lights. Drink cocoa on the beach or be a drive-by karaoke caroler.

Because every Kia comes with a 10-year, 100,000-mile limited powertrain warranty, so you can take holidays to places they've never been. See your local Kia dealer or visit Kia.com to learn more. Kia, movement that inspires. See Kia dealer for warranty details. Event ends 1-2-25. Intercom's AI-first customer service platform is such an upgrade that everything else feels a little outdated.

To whom it may concern, I find myself displeased with your product and wish to return it to you. Dear customer, our deepest condolences. We're happy to assist you in this matter. Please provide your... The future of customer service is here. Intercom is built on AI from the ground up to deliver fast, smart customer support. Intercom. AI first customer service.

The holidays are here, and before you stress about who to shop for and what to buy, here's a hint. Give the gift of the Virginia Lottery. Adults of all ages love the excitement of holiday scratchers, and the online games are perfect for that holiday downtime. Don't overthink and overspend. Celebrate the holidays with the Virginia Lottery in stores, in-app, or online. And play the New Year's Millionaire Raffle for even more excitement this season.

In the midst of the unrelenting violence of World War I, a ceasefire suddenly swept across areas of the Western Front in 1914. Massive amounts of life had already been extinguished, but there was one circumstance that halted the brutality and bloodshed: the famous World War I Christmas Truce of 1914. It was the first Christmas of the war. It was a day for peace, if only fleeting.

On the night before Christmas, Captain Arthur O'Sullivan of the British Army's Royal Irish Rifles was stationed in Rue du Bois, France. He heard a German accent float from across the barracks. It said, "Do not shoot after twelve o'clock, and we will not do so either. Then, if your English come out and talk to us, we won't fire." One Irish rifleman ventured out of his trench to test the invitation. After arriving back safely with a German cigar as a gift, others made their way out onto the still battlefield.

No man's land, filled with soldiers meeting each other halfway. And so began the unofficial Christmas truce of 1914. By December 1914, trench warfare was in full swing and already there were some 405,000 casualties. Earlier that month, Pope Benedict XV suggested a temporary hiatus for the holiday. But the warring countries refused to create an official ceasefire.

so the soldiers took it upon themselves to lay down their arms. The Christmas truce also provided the armies with time to collect their deceased soldiers from the fields and bury them. This gesture meant a lot in terms of respect for the dead for both sides. And so, along the front lines in France and Belgium on Christmas Eve, soldiers heard carols in the distance. German troops sang their version of "Silent Night, Holy Night," and the Allied troops chimed in, singing in alternating languages.

Cautiously, more soldiers began to join in on the celebrations. Germans held up lanterns and called to the British, assuring them in broken English that they would not shoot. Instead, they wished them a Merry Christmas. Men from both sides intermingled, shook hands, and shared cigarettes and food. Some, despite a great debate of the event, even say that a soccer game broke out.

Historian Alan Wakefield said, "If it happened, and there are very few collaborative accounts, there's second- and third-hand accounts of somebody hearing of a game going on somewhere." However, if you're keeping score, those who heard about it happening said the game ended 3-2 for the Germans. Many generals and senior officers were not on board with this overall show of goodwill. In some areas, peace lasted until the first few days of 1915 without many shots fired.

The military made it clear this was not acceptable wartime behavior. Another holiday truce of this kind was never recorded. Fighting did still occur on Christmas in some areas. Corporal Clifford Lane of H Company Hartfordshire Regiment explains that upon seeing some Germans emerge from the trenches with lanterns, he was ordered to open fire.

"The Germans did not reply to our fire," he says, "and carried on with their celebrations. They ignored us and were having a fine time indeed, and we continued in our wet trenches trying to make the most of it." He later regretted not engaging in the truce with the Germans, saying, "It would have been a good experience." But back in 1914, things magically aligned to allow for some holiday spirit. The soldiers involved in the Great War were either green newcomers or weathered veterans.

They'd expected the fighting to be short and done by Christmas. The war wasn't too dirty. The propaganda machine hadn't churned up the seething hatred against sides. The truce is attributed to the last of the romanticized, gentlemanly soldiers of the era. These men confronted their enemies face to face. Military strategies may have certainly changed, but it's comforting to know that on one frosty Christmas morning, adversaries laid down their arms.

that they extended hands in a gesture of peace, however temporary it might have been. Let's face it, if most of us were eight years old, we'd likely be on Santa's naughty list this year for Christmas. You know, that list of bad boys and girls who really aren't entitled to presents and toys? The separation of good children from bad children is a tradition as old as Christmas itself.

In the days of St. Nicholas, his demon-familiar Krampus followed him in his gift-giving travels and beat on and kidnapped the bad kids — a rather extreme warning for children in European countries that they needed to behave. But as St. Nicholas and his hideous companion began to fade in importance, the awful realization must have come to parents that they would no longer have someone to frighten their unruly children into obedience at Christmastime. The solution?

hand out switches to the wine-oxmen and other holiday gift-bringers. This way, they could also hand out punishments as well as gifts. And he did. Or at least threatened to do so by brandishing a bundle of wooden rods and waving an admonishing finger. Sometimes it was said he simply tossed the really bad children into his bag and carried them off, just like Krampus. Where did he take them? No one knew, so you'd better behave.

The dual nature of the gift-bringer, both loving and judgmental, gave him godlike qualities, and children were often shown down on their knees in front of them, hands clasped together and hoping to avoid a sort of juvenile judgment day. All of that in hope of presents? Apparently not. Bad kids were beaten, whipped, and even kidnapped if they misbehaved.

The earliest representation of Saint Nicholas in America was made in 1810, when a woodcut appeared showing the saint with a wooden rod clasped in one hand. To the right of him is a pleasing little girl holding a present. Next to her is a crying boy who had apparently gotten a beating for being bad. Merry Christmas! In an 1821 book called "The Children's Friend," old Santiclaus is shown for the first time for American readers.

After describing the gifts he left for good girls and boys, the book ends with a drawing of two stockings, doubtlessly hung up with care, one of which contains a bundle of switches, with directions for the child's parents to use them often in the coming year. Then a remarkable thing happened in 1822, when the switches disappeared from Santa's bag altogether.

Clement Moore's famous poem described Santa as a right jolly old elf, who filled all the stockings with gifts and left exclaiming, "Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!" No judgment, no punishment, and rewards to all, never mind how the children behaved all year long. From that point on, Santa in America was portrayed as a benevolent deity of Christmas, without a switch in sight. But there was that pesky list.

According to tradition, Santa kept a list of children's names, or rather two lists: one for good children and one for bad. Instead of beating on the kids who misbehaved, though, they were threatened with another fate: no presents. Not only would they receive no gifts, they would discover a lump of coal in their stocking instead.

The tradition of coal in the stocking began in the middle 19th century. It's said that when a child was good, he'd find a small toy or cookies and candy in his stocking. If he was bad, it would be a lump of coal. It was a pervasive belief in those days that if you were poor, it was because you or your ancestors did bad things. You were poor because God was punishing you. Most of England and Europe was powered by coal, and home furnaces were coal-burning.

Coal would often be taken, placed in a pan, and then put under the bed at night to stay warm. If you were a poor child, you were lucky to get coal that you could use to keep yourself warm during cold winter nights. The rich had nice warm houses and lots of goodies in their stockings. But the poor, who were being punished by God for being bad, were lucky to get coal.

There are so many versions of the story, but most date back to St. Nicholas and the story that he left gold for the dowries of three young women whose father could not afford them. He tossed gold into the window of the family's home and landed in stockings hung by the fire to dry.

The stocking tradition came from this story: that if you're a good, deserving child, St. Nicholas will put good things in your stocking. If you're a bad, naughty child, he will simply reach down into the fireplace and grab a lump of coal as a warning for you to behave in the upcoming year. So what about you? Will you find a lump of coal in your stocking this year? Or maybe a wooden switch might be more to your taste?

No one's judging here, so either way, happy holidays! One of history's innumerable, small, quickly forgotten yet oddly haunting mysteries took place over England's Christmas holidays of 1916. On December 25th, at Southwark Cathedral, a carman from Bermondsey, George Stephen Carter, married his sweetheart, 22-year-old Alice Elizabeth. Her maiden name was never mentioned in any of the newspaper accounts.

After the wedding, the newlyweds went to her mother's home, where they celebrated with what was described as a honeymoon party. They spent their wedding night there. The following evening, the couple prepared to leave for George's home. Right before they were to depart, Alice left the room, saying she was going to put on her hat and coat, a task that her husband naturally assumed would only take her a couple of minutes. She seemed as calm and happy as you would expect any bride to be.

Alice's mother saw her walk out the front door. She was without her hat and coat, so her mother assumed she merely went to exchange a few more goodbyes with their departing guests. That was the last George ever saw of his new wife. She never returned. In fact, as far as anyone could tell, she simply vanished. Her husband, family, and friends searched the area with increasing panic but could find no trace of where she had gone.

Finally, they went to the police, but could give the authorities no clue about what had happened. They all insisted that when last seen, Alice was sober, cheerful, and looking forward to her married life. She had not quarreled with George or anyone else so far as her loved ones knew. Alice's whereabouts remained a complete mystery until January 26th, when her body was fished from the Thames. It was presumed that she had drowned, but I found no mention of an autopsy.

The only possible clue in the mystery of Alice Elizabeth Carter's death came in a letter received by the Southwark Police Station on January 11th from somebody claiming to be a corporal in the Royal Canadian Regiment. It read, Sir, regarding the missing woman, Mrs. George Stephen Carter, late of Noah's Ark Alley and married at Southwark Cathedral on December 25th, 1916,

I was on leave from France for Christmas and was in the named woman's company before and after her marriage. Knowing Bermondsey well, I spent a good part of my time around there. What has happened to Mrs. Carter since I will not say in the letter. It is enough when I say I know all." The note gave a return address, but letters posted to that direction received no reply. Neither George nor Alice's mother recognized the handwriting or the address given.

They never had reason to think Alice knew anyone watching the writer's description. The jury at Alice's inquest did the only thing possible in such murky circumstances and returned an open verdict. Sadly, the puzzle of Alice's death is fated to remain open. Was this letter, as George Carter believed, a hoax? If it was genuine, what did this man, who apparently was never traced, know about his wife's end? Did Alice, torn between two men, commit suicide?

Or did she secretly go to meet this man and he murdered her? I have no idea about George Stephan Carter's subsequent history, but I'm guessing that for the rest of his life, Christmas was his least favorite holiday. When Weird Darkness returns, the Los Feliz murder mansion became the site of a horrifying and sad Christmas tragedy for one California family. That story is up next.

It's the Kia season of new traditions sales event. So don't just hang your own lights. Venture out and look for the northern lights. Drink cocoa on the beach or be a drive-by karaoke caroler. Because every Kia comes with a 10-year, 100,000-mile limited powertrain warranty. So you can take holidays to places they've never been. See your local Kia dealer or visit Kia.com to learn more. Kia, movement that inspires. See Kia dealer for warranty details. Event ends 1-2-25.

Intercom's AI-first customer service platform is such an upgrade that everything else feels a little outdated. To whom it may concern, I find myself displeased with your product and wish to return it to you. Dear customer, our deepest condolences. We're happy to assist you in this matter. Please provide your... The future of customer service is here.

Intercom is built on AI from the ground up to deliver fast, smart customer support. Intercom, AI-first customer service. You've heard the saying, good, fast, cheap. You can only pick two. But when it comes to customer service, AI is changing everything. Intercom's AI-first support platform won't make anyone compromise. Customers get a 70% faster first response time.

50% of those questions are resolved instantly, giving agents time for complex issues. And managers get happy customers and 30% more efficient teams, all on budget. Better, faster, or cheaper? Go ahead, pick all three. Intercom, AI-first customer service. Los Angeles has no shortage of infamous locations that house gruesome or inexplicable pasts.

Certain places, such as the Hotel Cecil or Chateau Marmont, are notorious for their repeated scandals, but the murder house left abandoned for decades in the neighborhood of Los Feliz stands out as a particularly chilling location.

A house fit for a movie star, nestled in the hills of Griffith Park at 2475 Glendower Place, the property's potential was cut short one December night in 1959 when Dr. Harold Perilson brutally murdered his wife and attempted to kill his children before ultimately taking his own life, joining the repugnant ranks of people who murdered their own families.

Since that fateful night, even with new owners, the mansion has stood empty, and the family's belongings have remained untouched. The mansion became a disturbing time capsule of the Los Feliz murder-suicide, a seemingly unmotivated crime in a quiet residential neighborhood. For decades, ghost hunters and curious neighbors have hunted for explanations and glimpses into the house's bizarre history.

Beneath the layers of dust and rumors, there are a few disturbing facts about Los Feliz's own murder mansion. At 4.30 a.m. on December 6, 1959, 50-year-old Dr. Harold Perilson stood over his wife Lillian's sleeping body and in one swift move slammed a ball-peen hammer into her head. Her blood pooled quickly, and she eventually drowned in it, with asphyxiation being listed as her official cause of death.

Covered in Lillian's blood, Dr. Perelson carried on into his 18-year-old daughter Judy's room and proceeded to strike her as well. In the dark, however, it was only a glancing blow, and she awoke screaming. Her cries for help woke her two younger siblings, as well as most of the neighborhood. A neighbor from the time, Sherry Lewis, reported that it sounded like a wild animal screaming. "Don't kill me!" she was heard pleading, while her father demanded that she lay still and be quiet

Judy somehow slipped away from him and ran to get her mother. At this point, she was joined by her younger siblings, who had awakened to Judy's screams. Finding the bloodbath in the next room, Judy bolted from the house and started frantically banging on neighbors' doors for help. The screaming pleas of Judy woke her younger siblings, 11-year-old Debbie and 13-year-old Joel. When they got up to investigate what was happening, they found their father covered in blood, still holding the murder weapon.

"This is a nightmare," he told them. "Go back to sleep." By this point, after smearing blood across the windows of neighbors while screaming for help, Judy had returned with their neighbor, Marshall Ross, who had called the police. Other neighbors reported being frozen with fear and that the whole front door of the Los Feliz mansion was a mass of blood. Covered in the blood of his wife and daughter, Dr. Perilson strode away from his children and toward the bathroom.

According to the coroner's report, neighbor Marshall Ross entered and confronted him, and the doctor told him to go home and not to bother him. Though some reports mention that he swallowed a cup of acid, the police report records it as follows. Smearing blood everywhere, Harrelson proceeded to rip open two capsules of Nembutol — a drug popular with suicides and euthanasia — and downed them, followed by over 30 pills believed to be a form of codeine.

Perilson then walked back to his wife's bedroom and laid down next to her. Resting his head on a bloody pillow, his breathing became shallow. Before the ambulance could even arrive, Harold Perilson was dead, still clutching the hammer with which he had attempted to destroy his family.

The night of the crime, police found on the doctor's bedside table Dante's Divine Comedy, open to Canto 1. "Midway upon the journey of our life, I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost." At the time of the murder-suicide, investigators weren't quite sure what the motives were behind Dr. Perelson's crime, but leaned towards blaming financial problems.

an injection specialist, the doctor had invented a new technology involving improved syringes and proceeding to sink a large chunk of his savings and years of his life into developing the product. However, a partner with whom he had made a verbal agreement swindled him out of the rights to his own invention. A bitter legal battle ensued, and Perilson only ended up with a little over $20,000 in settlement money.

This, coupled with a car accident involving Judy and the younger kids, sank the doctor further and further into financial duress. In a letter written to her aunt prior to the murder, Judy wrote, "My parents, so to speak, are in a bind financially. My family are on the merry-go-round again. Same problems, same worries, only tenfold."

On top of all this, the doctor suffered what had been explained as "coronaries" to friends and neighbors, but in the fallout of the investigation were exposed as multiple suicide attempts. It became clear the doctor had been growing increasingly disturbed, and his wife had wanted him committed to a psychiatric facility. One of the more puzzling questions regarding the location of the Las Feliz murder-suicide has to do with what's been sitting inside of it for over 50 years.

Neighbors and curious visitors have long reported and documented through photographs a Christmas tree along with neatly wrapped presents in one of the rooms of the mansion. Given that the crime took place in December, this shouldn't raise any concern, aside from the general creepiness of the house's preserved state post-murder. However, there are claims to support that the Perilsons were Jewish and most likely would not have had a Christmas tree.

Additionally, there are life magazines dating later than the murder date and cans of SpaghettiOs, which were invented after 1959, visible through the windows as well. For a house that, after the murders, was used as just storage, these all strike one more as artifacts of daily life rather than items to stow away.

This gave life to a rumor that a second, unknown family rented and lived in the house for a year after the deaths, unbeknownst to the gruesome recount of what took place. According to this rumor, the squatters conveniently found out on the anniversary of the crime and fled the house, leaving all of their belongings, including their Christmas decorations, behind. However, there's no solid evidence behind this urban myth, and the tree and the presents remain a murder mansion mystery.

In 1960, less than a year after the ghastly incident, a Lincoln Heights couple named Emily and Julian Enriquez purchased the house in a probate auction. A Spanish Revival-style mansion, 2475 Glendower Place boasted a hilltop view and three stories that rounded out to over 5,000 square feet. Despite these selling points, the new owners never moved in and supposedly only used the house as storage.

This was supported by reports from their neighbors confirming that they saw them coming and going with boxes but never staying overnight. Emily Enriquez passed away in 1994, and her son Rudy Enriquez inherited the house. Like his parents, Rudy claimed to have only used the house as storage. In 2009, he told the LA Times, "...I don't know that I want to live there or even stay there."

It appears he did neither, and when he passed away in 2015, the house once again entered the market, nearly untouched since the haunting night more than 50 years earlier. Though the foul nature of the murder-suicide itself would be enough to carry the tale through history, what has distinguished this crime from other bizarre cases is the fact that the house remained nearly untouched for more than 50 years after the grisly act.

Following the night of the murder, the Perilsons' belongings sat gathering dust and slowly deteriorating in the decades to follow, despite the house having been sold. Regardless of whether the Enriquez family actually stored any of their things in the house or not, it is clear by the glimpses snuck through the windows they did nothing to move or alter the belongings of the original ill-fated inhabitants.

Ultimately, this neglect achieved the perfect haunted house effect, not unlike its nearby Hollywood movie sets. Only this was the real thing. Nobody is sure why the new owners would leave such a dark history to settle and stagnate like they did, but it's definitely one of the factors that makes the Los Feliz murder mansion especially eerie in the long list of LA murder cases.

Like any bona fide haunted house, the Los Feliz murder mansion drew its fair share of curious visitors who wanted to sneak a glimpse through the windows of the well-preserved creepiness. Though the house was owned by the Enriquez family, it was the surrounding neighbors that put the most effort into keeping an eye on the house and maintaining basic upkeep here and there.

They discouraged trespassers. But at one point, things were a bit out of control, with everyone from sex workers to transients to curious teenagers spotted going in and out of the yard. Among these, claims of chills and overall menacing feelings would start to filter out. These amateur ghost hunters reported orbs seen inside the house, and people claim that they've heard a woman's voice yelling "NO!" as well as reports of ghostly faces looking down from the mansion's windows.

At one point, a trespasser was even bit by a black widow spider while attempting to break into the house. Due to the frozen-in-time nature of the crime scene, it's easy to forget that the three remaining members of the Perilson family actually survived and were somewhere out in the world. Following the murder, it's rumored that the children were taken into custody by an aunt, but after that it seems as though Judy, Joel, and Debbie all but disappeared into thin air.

For the reporters and crime enthusiasts that attempted to find and interview them, they were met with mostly false leads and dead ends. Understandably, it seems that the children were trying to distance themselves from the heinous crime as much as possible. Neighbors from Glendower Place commented that Judy was a "pretty popular high school senior" prior to the event, but all of that was ended with her mother's life and her own near-fatal blow.

To this day, none of the three children have ever commented publicly on the crime, nor the fact that their house has stood silently, full of their childhood belongings, for the majority of their adult lives. When Rudy Enriquez passed away in 2015, the Los Feliz murder house once again found itself in a probate auction, initially listed at $2.75 million. Nestled in the hills of Los Feliz, close to the Greek theater, the sprawling mansion was built in 1925.

Described in its original ad as beautiful and delightful, the three-story home boasts a basement replete with maids' quarters, four master bedrooms, and a glassed-in conservatory. Oh, and one mustn't forget the 20-by-36-foot ballroom that graces the third floor. Needless to say, the house is grandiose by any standard, no matter what decade you're judging it by.

The listing commented that the house was simply "waiting for that special person looking for a wonderful opportunity to remodel or develop." However, no mention was made of the haunt-worthy incidents, nor the fact that the house had stood empty and decaying with abandoned belongings for over five decades. Despite a setup akin to your run-of-the-mill horror movie introduction, a couple bought the murder mansion for $2.29 million in July of 2016.

The real estate agent tasked with selling the notoriously creepy property noted that there were many people interested in seeing the house, but that with all of the activity, all of the people coming to see it, only one couple came to court. The couple is reportedly not deterred by the house's hellish past or the rumors of haunting. They intend to fix it up and live in it. But the first time since 1959, the murder mansion might finally be lived in again.

This is Hollywood, after all, and the Harold Perilson murders make for a perfect horror movie. The plot writes itself, and it's an easy play for producers and screenwriters. After all, what's more frightening than a familicide and right in LA's own backyard? This isn't the first time that Hollywood has borrowed from reality. Amityville Horror, The Conjuring, and the Hotel season of American Horror Story were all inspired by "true" events and real locations,

And, if anything, the true story aspect of these cases are what make those movies even scarier. Up next on Weird Darkness, we'll look at when the Warminster "thing" terrorized a small English town on Christmas Day 1964. But first: The case was so mysterious it was even featured on TV's Unsolved Mysteries and America's Most Wanted. Who committed the Christmas murder of Latresha White? And what happened to Lee and Chance Wackerhagen?

That story is up next. Intercom's AI-first customer service platform is such an upgrade that everything else feels a little outdated. To whom it may concern, I find myself displeased with your product and wish to return it to you. Dear customer, our deepest condolences. We're happy to assist you in this matter. Please provide your... The future of customer service is here.

Intercom is built on AI from the ground up to deliver fast, smart customer support. Intercom, AI-first customer service.

Hey Weirdos, our next Weirdo Watch Party is this coming Saturday, and this one is extra special as it's our Christmas Watch Party, and yours truly plays a part in it. Our hostess, Mistress Malicious and her team at Mistress Peace Theater have recreated and re-edited the film for all of the funny stuff you'd expect from them, and they replaced all the narration throughout with my own narration, even keeping a few of the ad-libs I tossed in.

It's Santa Claus from 1959, sometimes known as Santa Claus vs. the Devil. It tells the story of the devil showing up at Christmas time, determined to ruin it all and ruin some children in the process. But Santa refuses to let Christmas be tainted and even teams up with Merlin the magician to help defeat the devil so Christmas can be saved.

Santa Claus or Santa Claus vs. the Devil, hosted by Mistress Peace Theater. It's this Saturday night, 10 p.m. Eastern, 9 p.m. Central, 8 p.m. Mountain, 7 p.m. Pacific, on the Watch Party page at WeirdDarkness.com. The Weirdo Watch Party is always free to watch. Just tune in at showtime and watch the movie with me and other Weirdo family members, and often the horror hosts join in the page's chat box with us, too.

"Mrs. Felicious brings us Santa Claus or Santa Claus vs. the Devil this Saturday night for our next weirdo watch party. I HO HO HO HOPE to see you there! Get the details on the Watch Party page at WeirdDarkness.com." The tragedy occurred over Christmas in Texas.

Chance Wackerhagen, nine years old at the time, lived in Kingsville, Texas, with his mother, Gay Williams. Chance's father, Lee Dubb Wackerhagen, separated from Chance's mother and residing in Lockhart, Texas, with Latricia White, a local nurse and a recently divorced mother of two.

Over the Christmas period of that year, Chance would stay with Latricia and his father Dub, leaving his mother on the 17th of December 1993 and later called his mother on December 25th, asking to extend his stay with his father. This phone call would be the last time Gay spoke to Chance. Chance and Lee were last seen on the 26th of December 1993. Latricia was found shot six times to the head on the 27th of December.

On December 27, Latricia was dead in her home, and Lee "Dub" Wackerhagen vanished, seemingly into thin air, along with his son Chance. Chance Wackerhagen was nine at the time of his vanishing, and it seems that we're heading towards yet another Christmas without knowing the truth. On the Christmas Day phone call, Chance, according to his mother Gay, was extremely excited about the Christmas presents he had received, which included an Old West-style duster coat and G.I. Joe toys.

"Spirits were high in the family, and there was no suggestion of any issues on that morning. I told him to call me later so he could set up a time when he could come home, but I never heard from him again," Chance's mother Gay said. Latricia was found by her father Jack. There were six shots to her head with a .22 caliber gun. There were no signs of any struggle, and nothing was stolen, thus ruling out any attempted burglaries.

Arrest warrants were issued for Lee Dub Wackenhager, and the police were soon scouring the area with Dub named as the most obvious suspect. The police had maintained that this was a crime of passion throughout the entire investigation. Dub was said to have had a violent temper and was often arguing with Latricia. Many of these arguments were allegedly about their son Chance. It was only a few days before Christmas that an argument got so heated that Lee began packing his bags and threatening to leave.

However, only a few days after this bust-up, they were seen by witnesses at a restaurant in good spirits and having a good time, with no suggestion of any acrimony between the families. Dub's friends came forward to tell the police that Dub was a jealous man, violent towards rejection and possessive over Latricia. Despite the questionable flaws of his character, Dub was not known to the police and did not have a criminal record.

Three days after Latricia's body was discovered by her father Jack, the police found a pickup truck belonging to Dub. The truck was left abandoned in a field about 50 kilometers from the murder site. It seemed at first glance that they were closer to their man and closer to Dub. The items found inside the truck included Dub's wallet along with a pile of unopened Christmas presents in the back of the car.

Blood was smeared all over the presence. The blood was assumed to have belonged to Latricia, and yet when it came back from the lab, the blood did not match Latricia. This now led to speculation that Dub and Chance were victims themselves and that their bodies had been disposed of. The case blew wide open. A hunting rifle was also found in the truck recently used, but did not match the type of weapon used to kill Latricia.

Now, debate rages about whether or not Dove abducted Chance and went on the run, or whether they were both victims themselves to whoever murdered Latricia in cold blood. Chance's maternal grandmother would later claim to receive an anonymous phone call from a young boy who screamed "help me" down the phone. The call was cut off, but Chance's grandmother believes it might have been her grandson Chance.

There is a strong possibility, though, that the phone call was a hoax and without verification. There isn't much veracity into either. In 2016, the police changed their initial stance that Dubb was the killer and now indicate that both Lee and Chance were victims of foul play at the hands of Latricia's killer.

Investigators found nothing in the home appeared to be missing and believed that this murder was most likely a crime of passion committed by someone closely associated with one or more of the victims, according to the release. At 1:25 a.m. on Christmas Day, 1964, resident Mildred Head awoke with a start

Her ceiling, she later told local journalist Arthur Shuttlewood, had "come alive" with strange sounds lashing at the roof. It sounded like twigs brushing against the tiles, and got louder and louder until it reverberated like giant hailstones. Had gone out of bed to look out the window, but found nothing there. She did, however, hear another noise, a humming sound that grew louder before fading to a faint whisper.

It was just the start of what would become a decades-long mystery and string of UFO sightings known around the world as the Warminster Thing. A few hours later, the soldiers at the nearby Nook Camp Army Base were awoken by what sounded like a huge chimney stack from the main block, ripped from the rooftop, then scattered across the whole camp.

At 6.30 a.m., Roger Rump and his wife were stirred by a similar noise. They described it as sounding like the 5,000 tiles on our roof being ripped off and then put back on again with an enormous clatter. At around the same time, Marjorie By was walking to church when she was thrown to the ground by the force of savage sound waves. In total, more than 30 individuals reported hearing mysterious noises that Christmas morning, and there was more to come.

Strange things continued to happen in Warminster, a town just over 15 miles from Stonehenge, in the new year. In February 1965, an entire flock of pigeons suddenly died. The following month, three families heard loud noises coming from above their houses, their roofs and windows shaking with the force. And in June, the Warminster residents began to see unidentified objects flying through the sky.

Descriptions of the UFOs vary from person to person, with one describing what they saw as cigar-shaped and covered with winking, bright lights, and another like twin red-hot pokers hanging downwards, one on top of the other with a black space in between. The unusual events began to receive national attention, and people flocked to Warminster hoping to get a glimpse of the "thing."

Over the August bank holiday of 1965, an estimated 8,000 people descended on the small town. The following month, when resident Gordon Faulkner claimed to have captured a photo of the UFO, the Daily Mirror published the picture, garnering even more publicity for Warminster. By that time, the news had made its way stateside, with newspapers as far as California reporting on the eerie events in the sleepy market town.

Sightings and unexplained noises continued intermittently over the coming years, ranging from a ball of crimson light in the sky to a terrible droning sound that made the witnesses' floor and bed shake. Interest in the mysterious phenomenon remained strong. In 1966, the BBC filmed "Pie in the Sky," a documentary about the events.

Shuttlewood penned several books on the subject, while a local UFO enthusiast named Ken Rogers began publishing the Warminster UFO newsletter. But by the early 1970s, sightings of the Warminster Thing began to decline, and with them, the number of curious visitors that had once swarmed the town. Even Shuttlewood, who'd become a figurehead of the phenomenon, had retired from sky-watching due to ill health.

With few sightings, no new books, and no one to guide would-be UFO spotters, interest in the Warminster Thing soon disappeared. Today, the town is still regarded by some as the "UFO capital" of the UK, with reported UFO sightings as recent as 2017. Though more than 50 years have passed since these strange events began, there is still no theory to explain the origin of the Warminster Thing. Thanks for listening,

If you like the show, please share it with someone you know who loves the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters, or unsolved mysteries like you do. You can email me anytime with your questions or comments at darren at weirddarkness.com. Darren is D-A-R-R-E-N. And you can find the show on Facebook and Twitter, including the show's Weirdos Facebook group on the Contact social page at weirddarkness.com.

Also on the website you can find free audiobooks that I've narrated. Watch old horror movies with horror hosts at all times of the day for free. Sign up for the newsletter to win free prizes. Grab your Weird Darkness and Weirdo merchandise. Plus, if you have a true paranormal or creepy tale to tell, you can click on "Tell Your Story." All stories in Weird Darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise, and you can find source links or links to the authors in the show notes.

A Living Dead Yule Haunting was written by Ellen Lloyd for Ancient Pages. The Great War's Christmas Truce was by Erin Kelly for All That's Interesting. Santa's Naughty List was written by Troy Taylor. Christmas at the Los Feliz Murder Mansion was by Colleen Conroy for Ranker's Unspeakable Times. An Unsolved Christmas Murder Mystery is from Mystery Confidential. Have Yourself a Flying Saucer Christmas is by Beth Coleman for Mental Floss.

and The Vanishing Christmas Bride was from Strange Company. Again, you can find links to all of these stories in the show notes. Weird Darkness is a production and trademark of Marlar House Productions. Copyright Weird Darkness. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. Matthew 25, verse 40. The king will reply, "'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'" And a final thought. Christmas is a necessity.

There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we're here for something besides ourselves. Eric Severide, I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness.

We all dream, but for some people, what should be a time for their bodies and minds to rest turns into a nightmare from which they cannot escape. Our next Weird Darkness live stream is Saturday night, December 28th on the Weird Darkness YouTube channel. And during the live broadcast, I'll share some of these chilling nighttime stories.

Tales of shadow people, sleep paralysis, and demons who stalk their victims in that place between dreams and reality. I'll share true tales of prophetic dreams, some joyful, some not. Sleepwalking incidents that are both amusing and disturbing. I'll also share real stories of night terrors so horrifying that sleep

became something to fear and dread for those victimized by the night. You might not want to sleep after joining our next live stream. It's Saturday, December 28th at 5pm Pacific, 6pm Mountain, 7pm Central, 8pm Eastern. On the lighter side, I'll also be responding to comments and questions live on the air and doing a giveaway of some Weird Darkness merch.

Prepare yourself for our next live scream for chilling tales of what some people must endure in an attempt to get some sleep. Find the details on the live screen page at WeirdDarkness.com.