THE DOPPELGÄNGER OF PAULINE PICARD: Creepy Paranormal and True Crime Tales! #WeirdDarkness
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Welcome, Weirdos! I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore,

crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved, and unexplained. 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 find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more, along with the Weird Darkness Weirdos Facebook group.

Coming up in this episode… Dubbed "The Odd Father" for his peculiar mannerisms and long-standing history of bizarre behavior, Gigante was either genuinely mentally ill or the perpetrator of the longest legal charade in New York's history. A man wearing a ski mask broke into the home and kidnapped 13-year-old Jamie, but only after murdering both of her parents in cold blood. But why was it done

Even the kidnapper/murderer says he doesn't know why he did it. UFO researcher Raymond Fowler has been investigating UFO sightings and supposed abduction cases since the 1960s, but in his new book he shares what might be the ultimate story of an alien abduction. Are changelings and doppelgangers real?

You might choose to believe so after hearing about the strange disappearance of Pauline Picard. Plus, we'll look at a few true, first-hand accounts of people who have come across doppelgangers, and for them, it was a frightening experience. Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness.

The two-year-old girl was playing on her family farm in Gauze-Aladou just outside Brest in Brittany, France. It was a quiet and safe area, and Pauline Picard's mother never worried about letting her children play in the picturesque farmland. But when she called her daughter to supper one evening in April 1922, she was horrified by the lack of response.

Shocked by the little girl's disappearance, police and townspeople banded together to comb the landscape for the lost girl, but they came up empty-handed. La Petite Pauline Picard, as the media dubbed her, had vanished without a trace. Statistics show that the first 48 hours of a child's disappearance are the most critical for finding them alive, so at the three-week mark, the Picards had begun to abandon hope of ever seeing their little girl again.

Little Pauline was widely assumed to have been eaten by a boar or taken by gypsies. So news from Cherbourg of a little girl matching Pauline's description having been found by police seemed miraculous. When an officer showed a photo of the child to Pauline's mother, Lamattin reported that she burst into tears, crying, "That's my daughter! My poor little Pauline!" Overcome with joy, the couple drove 250 miles to Cherbourg to take their daughter home.

But the story of little Pauline was far from over. Questions quickly grew into a heartbreaking paranoia for the Picards. How had their toddler wandered 250 miles without succumbing to the elements? Why did she not seem to recognize her parents or her brothers and sisters? And most troublesome, they couldn't understand how she had forgotten the Brayton dialect. These doubts were explained away as amnesia brought on by post-traumatic stress.

The working theory was that Pauline had been abducted and abused by her kidnapper. While the girl didn't seem to recognize her family, they including her brothers, sisters, and even their neighbors all recognized her. A mysterious woman dressed in rags was seen with the little girl before she was taken by Sherbourg police, and the media maintained that this woman was the key to unraveling the mystery of Pauline's disappearance.

Though newspapers from Paris to New York rejoiced over the miraculous return of little Pauline, the Picards harbored nagging suspicions that the child living in their house was not actually theirs. These worries grew when a local farmer, Yves Martin, seemingly confessed to killing their daughter. He shakily asked the Picards whether they thought the little girl in the house was their daughter before screaming, "God help me! I'm guilty!" and then running off,

He was later admitted to an asylum. And soon after this, a discovery was made that would terrify a nation. On May 26, one month after Pauline was discovered in Cherbourg, a cyclist found the naked body of a small girl not far from the Picard farm. The head, feet, and hands had been removed, preventing positive identification.

but next to it was a neatly folded pile of children's clothes, among which were the black and white checkered dress, navy blue jacket, and black tights little Pauline had been wearing the day she disappeared. Stranger still, the skull of a fully grown man was found next to the grisly scene, introducing the prospect of a second victim. Also, the police and volunteer rescue researchers maintained that they'd been over the area where the body was found many times,

So careful was the search made at the time of Pauline's disappearance that the body would have been discovered had it been lying where it was found, all of which suggested that the body had been moved there recently because the killer wanted it to be found. So who was the little girl then living with Picards? Sadly, after the body was found, the Picards determined that the girl found in Cherbourg could not be their Pauline, and she was sent to live in an orphanage.

But questions have lingered over the last century as to how the Picards could have been so sure initially that the little girl found 250 miles away was theirs. Experts point out that parents often suffer from a very confusing psychological state after a child's death. "When your child dies, the pain and devastation of the loss can feel overwhelming," says Carolyn Bryce, CEO of the Compassionate Friends, a British support group for bereaved parents.

The Picards are not the only family to have, in extreme grief, mistaken another child as their own. But lacking DNA evidence to confirm whether the body in the woods was indeed Little Pauline, this tragic mystery remains unsolved. Little Pauline may or may not have been a doppelganger. When Weird Darkness returns, though, we'll look at a few more true, first-hand accounts of people who have come across doppelgangers

And for them, it too was a very frightening experience. Hey Weirdos! If you enjoy what you're hearing from me and the Weird Darkness Podcast throughout the year, may I ask for a Christmas gift from you? It's an easy one, and it's free to give. This month, just invite two or three people you know to give Weird Darkness a listen. That is truly the greatest gift you could ever give to me.

Letting your family, friends, co-workers, neighbors and others know about the podcast is incredibly valuable to me, my bride Robin and our cat Miss Mocha Monster. That's it. Tell someone about the show. Drop a link to Weird Darkness in your social media. Maybe send a text to a few folks to wish them a very scary Christmas with a link to the show in that text. It doesn't matter how you do it, but it does make a huge impact when you do.

From all of us here at Marlar Manor, thank you, and Merry Christmas!

Eat, save, and be merry with low prices and same-day delivery from Amazon Fresh. Whether you're looking for sweet deals on holiday treats or your dream gingerbread house, outshine the tree with holiday deals delivered right to your doorstep. Prime members save even more with deals on thousands of grocery items and up to 50% off on weekly favorites. Celebrate the holiday season with savings and same-day delivery from Amazon Fresh.

When you're part of a military family, you understand sacrifice and support. So at American Public University, we honor your dedication by extending our military tuition savings to your extended family. Parents, spouses, legal partners, siblings, and dependents all qualify for APU's preferred military rate of just $250 per credit hour for undergraduate and master's level programs. American Public University, value for the whole family. Learn more at apu.apus.edu slash military.

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A doppelganger is someone who looks almost identical to someone else, even though they are not related to that person. It's eerie to come across someone with practically the same features and characteristics as yourself or another person you know, and doppelgangers are often seen as spooky. True doppelganger stories can be truly horrifying and often include interesting details about how people tried to interact with their lookalikes.

With over 7.5 billion humans in the world, it should probably come as no surprise that there are plenty of people who look uncannily similar to each other. Just take the story behind the Three Identical Strangers documentary as an example. Albeit a particularly strange one, meeting a doppelganger can be a surreal experience, especially if they suddenly disappear without a trace. From Redditor QuiteVoice4846,

Late at night, I usually go to the bathroom multiple times, but for the past four days, every time I go to leave, I can see myself still standing in the mirror from the corner of my eye. It's like the other me is watching me leave the bathroom. It terrifies me to the point where I almost run out without looking directly at the mirror. I never told my husband about it because I didn't want to acknowledge it out loud. Earlier today, I took a nap in our bed while he sat in the chair next to it watching TV.

When I woke up, he told me that he had seen me sit up and crawl backwards to the edge of the bed and stand up in front of our bedroom door from the corner of his eye. He thought it was weird that I got up like that because I'm in the last month of my pregnancy and I can't really move so well without it hurting, so he tried talking to me. When I didn't answer, he looked at the door to find me not there and still sleeping in bed. I got really creeped out and I finally told him about what I'd been seeing in the bathroom.

He thought it was creepy as well, but didn't want to really talk about it anymore because he thinks it'll give whatever it is power or energy. I have no idea what it wants, or why we have both seen it. From Redditor G4YF13R1 When I was nine, I stayed home sick from school. I distinctly remember that I wasn't actually sick, simply playing hooky to avoid bullying. Kids are cruel.

as I did a lot around that age. I awoke from a nap, turned on the TV in our living room, and scrolled through some channels when my mother suddenly leaned over the bar and stared at me without saying anything. I've been awake for a few minutes at this point, so I can't rightly blame sleep paralysis for all of this. Now, whatever this thing was, it was entirely identical to my actual mother,

It sounds weird to describe, but it's as if the only difference was that this thing pretending to be my mom had never felt a single emotion in its life. It was unsettling. It beckoned me, and I attempted to talk to her as I would my mother. She kept beckoning, refused to answer, and that's when I sensed something horribly wrong. Naturally, I started screaming at this thing to answer me. It just kept silently beckoning.

I bolted, running out of the room and into the yard, yelling for help. My mother, the real one, had been working in the yard and came rushing over. I told her what I had just seen, and she soothed me with easy explanations that it was just a fever dream. But thankfully, she stayed by my side the rest of the afternoon, as I was a nervous wreck. From Redditor Geobite,

I remember one Sunday morning my brother and I were watching Cardcaptor Sakura on TV, and someone knocked on the door. We lived in an apartment that was empty. The owner hadn't rented the second floor, it was a two-bedroom apartment with a kitchen and a bathroom by the door. A small apartment, but with a big window that faces out to the door. So when I heard someone knock, I checked the window, and I saw my father. So I thought.

I was going to the door to open it. When I was going to unlock the door, my mother pulls me away and screams at me to not open the door because I didn't know who it was. I told her I saw Dad. She freaked out, going to the window and checking and then checking the peephole. She started to get terrified, and she said to go to the farthest room in the apartment and to not come out. She went and woke up my dad. My dad got up angry and confused. We told him what we saw, and the man was still knocking at the door,

My dad screamed, "Who is it?" No answer. He said he'll call the cops, but no response. While my dad was busy screaming at him, we saw that he was just standing still in front of the door. So my mom took us to the farthest room from the door while my dad got ready to open the door with a metal bat. Once he did, the man was gone.

My dad goes out looking everywhere around the apartment. The apartment door was a heavy metal door and always was heard when someone comes in and out but we heard nothing that morning and nothing when my dad opened the door. We heard no footsteps either. But my brother, my mother and I saw that man that looked exactly like my father. From Redditor Hyperham51197: "I remember one time I was talking to my dad in a hallway of my house.

I don't really remember what it was about. We both saw my mom clearly walk past us and into her room, shutting the door. I walked back out into the living room, and my mom was still on the couch, asleep. I looked back at my dad, and he looked at me. We were both terrified. We both crept over to their bedroom and looked at the closed door. Neither of us went inside. We were freaked. I'm pretty sure my dad slept on the floor that night.

from Redditor Celestial_ESpirit: "When I was about 16 or 17, I was really heavy into doing the Ouija board. Other stuff happened, but the doppelgangers were definitely the worst. The first one was my mom. I heard her come in and my best friend was with me. My friend and I walked down to greet her. She looked like a younger version of my mom and was carrying groceries. So I tried calling out to her but she didn't respond and walked into my brother's room. Then I got a sick feeling.

I called out to her, but she didn't respond. Still. So I followed her up. She wasn't there. When I walked back down, my real mom had come in and didn't know what was going on. She was also wearing a different outfit. The next one was my brother. My mom was talking to him on the phone, and he said that he was on his way home. Well, as soon as he hung up, my brother walked in the door. He talked to us for a little. Mom wanted him to take out the garbage or something and then walked to the bathroom.

He'd been in the bathroom for like 15 minutes and then I got this sick feeling again. I asked if he'd fallen in or something. Then my real brother walked in and was freaked out. My mom checked on him all night to make sure he was okay. Both times they had darker eyes and it felt sort of like a dream but I was definitely awake. And other people witnessed it. From Redditor DonDonDon

Both times that my family experienced doppelgangers, the doppelgangers refused to respond when spoken to. The first was my sister's doppelganger, whom my brother told to go downstairs for lunch. She didn't answer. When my brother walked downstairs, he instantly saw my actual sister wearing a different shirt. She could not have passed my brother so quickly because the staircase led directly to our dining area.

The second was my own doppelganger who stood at my door at 12:00 PM mute and staring at my sister who was using the computer. I wasn't actually home until 4:00 PM later that day, after school. My sister didn't know that until she asked me why I was just staring at her without emotion earlier around noon. From Redditor Bobross0902: "I am so weirded out right now. What the heck

I was sitting there on my computer when my brother walks in and sits down on his bed. He doesn't say anything. He is a quiet person, so that is normal. I go to the bathroom, walk back in, and he's gone. Look outside, and the car that he had left in with my mom a few hours ago still isn't there. I go outside to see if anyone else is home that I could have mistook for him. Nope, I am still home alone. From Redditor Shudderspook

We had problems with doppelgangers at a fast food joint that I worked at. I had two separate sightings myself. First, my general manager comes to tell me in drive-thru and the register person to clean the lobby, then goes to the restroom. So the register person and I come up with a plan and wait for her to come out. We see her walk out of the restroom, walk by us and walk into the lobby. We go to catch her, and no one's there. We turn around and she's walking out of the bathroom.

We tell her what we just saw, but she didn't believe us. Second, manager and I are in the prep area. One of the girls who's working up front walks back and right into the walk-in cooler. After about five minutes of waiting, the manager asks me to go check on her. I open the walk-in door. There is no one in there. As I'm trying to explain this to my manager, the girl in question walks into the prep area from the front. Needless to say, the manager believed me and finally believed what had happened in the first sighting.

From Redditor Okoff: "I woke up one morning to my dad going to the kitchen and stopping by to say, 'Hey, wake up!' And then I took out my phone and started watching YouTube. I was awake, for sure. Later my mom was walking to the kitchen and did the same thing that my dad did. Then I get out of bed, and I see that my parents were still in their room. I asked them if they asked me to wake up while walking to the kitchen and they said, 'No,

I don't know what it was. Can somebody please explain? From Redditor Shubbykins: "The first one was my husband. I turned into the hallway and I saw him there walking away from me and towards the bedroom at the opposite end. I called to him but he didn't respond. As soon as he entered the bedroom, he turned to the left. There's just a wall there, not even any windows. I followed him into the bedroom and there was no one there. My husband had been upstairs the entire time.

The second time was my dad. He was unloading some things from his truck and was going to bring them to the back door which opens into the kitchen. I was in the kitchen and heard a noise at the door. Through the window in the door, I saw my dad bending over as though he was bending down to untie his shoes. I ran to the door and opened it, but there was no one there. My dad was still at his truck. Both times it has been a family member. Both times I haven't seen their faces.

Neither event felt wrong in any way or sinister. The movements that the figures made were exactly the movements my dad or husband would have made. From Redditor Grillo7, My wife said she saw me standing in the kitchen doing something while I was actually at work at the time. She initially thought that I had come home from work and was worried, and then the figure of me apparently vanished which was naturally even more upsetting. No other occurrence before or since then.

From Redditor Gentleman T Bone: "A similar thing happened when I was living at my sister's house in college. My room was in the basement and the bathroom was on the second floor. One morning she saw me in the hallway mirror behind her walking towards the bathroom in the same clothes I was wearing. She said good morning but I didn't even look like I noticed. I then came upstairs about 5 minutes later and she seemed puzzled thinking I was already upstairs. Freaked her out." From Redditor Ultra Hot Lasagna:

When I was in middle school, I was at a friend's apartment she lived in with her mom. Her mom was cool, let us party there, she's always at work for long and late hours. There was a group of us there, maybe six people or so. Everyone was in the living room except for this couple who were in my mom's bedroom with the door closed and lights off. We had all gotten pretty baked. I just made myself a snack and was walking to my friend's bedroom which was right past the mom's room where the couple was.

As I walked past the mom's bedroom door, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the door opening from the inside and a partial face or head that looked identical to my friend's mom, who was not at home. I didn't think anything of it since there were so many people in the small apartment and kept walking and sat in my friend's room. A minute later, the girl who'd been screwing around in that bedroom came out and yelled at me and asked me why I'd kicked the door open.

I told her I saw somebody come out of there, and she was adamant that I had just walked by and kicked the door open. The more I thought about it, the weirder it was. I thought she was messing with me at first, but the person I saw didn't look like anyone that was there at the time. It looked so much like the mom.

If it were her, it would have meant that she had somehow snuck back into the apartment after being gone for hours, hidden in the room in the dark for over an hour while this couple was messing around in her bed, and then she would have to have discreetly left the bedroom and passed the living room full of people to get to the front door. From Redditor BabyKitten28 This is just a little story that's probably not worth telling, but a couple of friends got a kick out of it.

I let my dog out at midnight one night, left the door ajar for him to come back in, then went about making some soup and something to drink. After a couple minutes, I hear this distinctive long toenails trotting back in on the wood flooring. I lock up the door and return to my meal. I then hear my dog barking from outside. Any dog owner knows that there's no mistaking those toenails, so I was a little shocked that he was somehow back outside. What had come in?

It didn't really spook me. From Redditor, I am not Harry Seldon, so I've just gotten really baked at my friend's apartment, walking home in broad daylight. Down the sidewalk ahead of me, I see two young girls, instantly recognizable as Mormon missionaries. They get maybe 50 feet away from me, and one of them waves and calls me by name. We meet, and one of the girls gives a friendly hello, acts like she knows me,

Bear in mind, I'm pretty stoned, so I'm trying to figure out if I know her from somewhere, but she catches on that I don't recognize her and acts kind of offended by it. So she reminds me that we had some big long conversation on her friend's porch on such-and-such street just a few days prior.

At this point in my life, I smoked a lot of weed, but I never drank or did anything else. And going to random parties and charming pretty young blondes was completely off the menu. I was already half in love from the moment she smiled at me. I don't think I would have forgotten this long and grossing conversation we apparently had. Now her expression I remember as I stumble through this conversation. At first she thought I was joking, but then she thought I was being mean,

and then she kind of looked just as confused as I was. So I suggest, maybe it was my brother you met? She looks at me skeptically, not unless he's your identical twin. My brother and I look like brothers, but you'd never confuse one for the other. So we awkwardly, confusedly parted ways. I don't remember the other girl ever saying anything. Then it dawns on my dumb stoned brain she knew my name.

I turn around. They're a few hundred feet away. I yell, "'Wait! How'd you know my name?' But they don't hear me, and I foolishly couldn't muster the courage to run to catch up with them. That bugged me for weeks. I wanted to know what we had talked about."

Coming up on Weird Darkness, dubbed the Oddfather for his peculiar mannerisms and long-standing history of bizarre behavior, Victor Gigante was either genuinely mentally ill or the perpetrator of the longest legal charade in New York's history. Plus, a man wearing a ski mask broke into the home, kidnapped 13-year-old Jamie, but only after murdering both of her parents in cold blood. But why was it done?

Even the kidnapper/murderer says he doesn't know why he did it. Those stories are on the way. 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 Scream 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-screen. 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-screen 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.

Eat, save, and be merry with low prices and same-day delivery from Amazon Fresh. Whether you're looking for sweet deals on holiday treats or your dream gingerbread house, outshine the tree with holiday deals delivered right to your doorstep. Prime members save even more with deals on thousands of grocery items and up to 50% off on weekly favorites. Celebrate the holiday season with savings and same-day delivery from Amazon Fresh.

When you're part of a military family, you understand sacrifice and support. So at American Public University, we honor your dedication by extending our military tuition savings to your extended family. Parents, spouses, legal partners, siblings, and dependents all qualify for APU's preferred military rate of just $250 per credit hour for undergraduate and master's level programs. American Public University. Value for the whole family. Learn more at apu.apus.edu slash military.

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and caffeinate larger with IQ Bar. Go to eatiqbar.com and enter code audio to get 25% off all IQ Bar products plus free shipping. Again, go to eatiqbar.com and enter code audio. He could often be seen leaving his mother's Greenwich Village apartment, dressed either in a bathrobe and pajamas or in a windbreaker and shabby trousers.

But the sight of the two bodyguards accompanying Vincent Gigante at all times ensured that nobody could dismiss him as just another New York eccentric. Dubbed the Oddfather for his peculiar mannerisms and long-standing history of bizarre behavior, Vincent Gigante was either genuinely mentally ill or the perpetrator of the longest legal charade in New York's history. It all depended on who you asked.

Born Vincent Louis Gigante in 1928, Gigante was a professional boxer who fought nearly 30 bouts between 1944 and 1947 before abandoning the ring for what would be his real career. Starting out as a mob enforcer for the Luciano crime family, Gigante, who quickly acquired the name of "The Chin," and three of his brothers, established themselves as mobsters who became prime enforcers in the Genovese family.

Despite various arrests, including a conviction for heroin trafficking which earned him a seven-year sentence in the 1950s, Vincent Gigante rose to become a capo regime for the local branch of the Genovese family operating out of Greenwich Village, not far from his mother's apartment. Remaining loyal to his family throughout his lifetime, they also rallied around him, including his brother Louis who had stayed out of the mafia to become a priest.

Vincent eventually rose to the very top of the Genovese family after his mentor, Philip Lombardo, also known as Benny Squints, stepped down due to ill health in 1981. He beat out his main rival for the position, Anthony Salerno, when Salerno received a life sentence for racketeering charges.

From 1981 until his death in 2005, Vincent Gigante controlled some of New York's most notorious rackets, including bookmaking, loan sharking, construction companies, and various other enterprises. At the peak of his career, he was believed to have handled as much as $100 million in legal and illegal revenue.

Though state and federal agencies were well aware that the Chin was one of the most powerful crime bosses in the United States, proving it in court was another matter. Even though mob deserters testified about Gigante's criminal activities and his involvement in cartels that rigged contract bids across New York City and Westchester County, his unorthodox management style established him as a very different kind of mafia don.

In 1986, FBI agents, maintaining constant surveillance during one of their investigations, observed Gigante leaving his mother's apartment in seedy clothing until he was driven to the townhouse owned by his common-law wife where he changed into more expensive clothing to do business with associates. The next morning, he would often be seen back in his seedy clothing and returning to his mother's apartment or another family home.

He remained acutely paranoid of FBI wiretaps and electronic listening devices, and rarely left his home unoccupied for long for fear that FBI agents would plant bugs. "It was hard to understand what enjoyment he got out of being a mob boss," said Ronald Goldstock, the former director of the New York State Organized Crime Task Force of Gigante. "His only pleasure appeared to be the pure power he exercised.

His reclusive lifestyle ensured that he would remain in power longer than any other mob boss during that same era. Despite his unorthodox management style, he certainly had no problem resorting to violence as needed. He went on trial in 1958 for the attempted murder of Genovese family boss Frank Costello, but was acquitted when Costello refused to testify against him. The code of silence known as omerta prevailed at all times, even with assassination attempts.

Though he was widely suspected of ordering other murders, prosecutors were never able to prove anything in court. Probably his most well-known trick for avoiding prosecution was to feign insanity successfully for years. Beginning in 1969, Gigante maintained an elaborate pretense, which often involved him being seen around Greenwich Village wearing only his pajamas, robe, and slippers, while mumbling to himself and generally appearing to be just another New York street person.

In a masterful performance, Gigante ensured that all public appearances reinforced the image he maintained for himself. Whenever he went on trial, his defense attorneys produced medical experts who testified that he suffered from various diagnoses, ranging from schizophrenia to dementia dating back to his boxing days. Various family members, including his wife and mother, testified on his behalf, verifying that he was mentally ill and incapable of standing trial.

His brother Lewis even went so far as to accuse prosecutors of engaging in a vendetta due to prejudice against Italian-Americans. His mafia colleagues certainly had no doubts about the sanity of the odd father. Even his arch-nemesis John Gotti grudgingly said of Gigante that he was "crazy like a fox," while an FBI supervisor quoted in Gigante's obituary said that "he was probably the most clever organized crime figure I've ever seen."

This, despite his lawyers frequently insisting in court that their client had a below-normal IQ in the 69-72 range, which meant he was too mentally disabled to be involved in the mafia. Not only did Vincent Gigante produce his own experts, he also successfully fooled prosecution experts as well.

Forensic authorities such as Thomas Guthiel of Harvard Medical School, Donald Franklin Klein of Columbia Medical School, and Abraham Halpern of New York Medical College, among others, assessed Gigante over the years and subsequently testified that he was unfit to stand trial. His habit of appearing in court in pajamas, a robe, and his familiar cap were all part of the elaborate scam he maintained to stay out of jail, and it worked for decades.

Even during sanity hearings in 1996, when several high-level mafia defectors testified that Gigante appeared perfectly sane during various meetings, his lawyers provided testimony from psychiatrists and psychologists attesting to his mental illness. They also presented evidence that Gigante had been institutionalized 28 times between 1969 and 1985 for hallucinations and dementia rooted in organic brain damage.

According to Dr. Eugene Diamamo, who acted as his primary treating psychiatrist from 1973 to 1989, Gigante had been diagnosed since 1969 as suffering from schizophrenia, paranoid type with acute exacerbations which resulted in hospitalization. Along with daily doses of diazepam and chlorpromazine, he also had several operations on his heart, which complicated the medical picture considerably.

that many of his repeated hospitalizations for mental illness were conveniently timed to avoid criminal charges hardly escaped notice. When he was charged with racketeering in 1990, he still successfully delayed the trial for years while the question of his sanity was studied.

The judge in the case, Eugene Nickerson, finally ruled that Gigante was fit to stay on trial, and he was later sentenced to 12 years in prison. He managed to beat the charges relating to the attempted killing of fellow mafia don John Gotti. Gigante sat quietly in his wheelchair as the verdict was read out. Even in prison, however, he continued to run the Genovese family with his orders relayed through visiting relatives.

The insanity pretense only ended after he was charged with obstruction of justice and racketeering in 2002. His son Andrew, who had acted as his lieutenant while he was in prison, was charged along with him. At long last, Vincent Gigante admitted to successfully fooling the doctors for 30 years as part of his guilty plea, which earned him and his son reduced sentences. The plea meant three extra years added to his current sentence and was regarded by many as an unprecedented deal for a mafia don.

In talking about the guilty plea afterward, his lawyer, Benjamin Brothman, said that "I think you get to a point in life, I think everyone does, where you become too old and too sick and too tired to fight." Vincent Chigante died in federal prison on December 19, 2005. Not long before his death, he'd been transferred to an acute care hospital to stabilize his condition before he was returned to prison where he died ten days later.

Father Luis Gigante later blamed his brother's death on the medical care that he received in prison. In Vincent Gigante's obituary, he was quoted as saying that he had visited his brother 19 times and there wasn't a day he didn't suffer. Prison officials defended the care Vincent received, though the stress of incarceration likely shortened his life. Whatever the circumstances of his death, Gigante's funeral was definitely low-key, much as he lived his life

As the last of the old-time godfathers, Vincent the Chin Gigante's death marked the end of an era. The Oddfather would be missed. It's dark and cramped. You can't sit up and rolling over is impossible. Unable to escape, you stare up at the bottom of the bed, wondering what's going to happen next.

Your stomach growls, but no one cares. It's probably for the best since there aren't any bathroom breaks. Sure, you could push one of the crates out of the way and slip out, except he'd know. He'd know you tried to leave. You are Jamie Cross, and you are trapped. In the early hours of October 15, 2018, in the city of Barron, Wisconsin, Jamie Cross, 13, was asleep in her bed.

Just after midnight, her dog started barking, waking her up. Looking out her window, she could see a car coming up the driveway, one she did not recognize, one with no lights on. Scared, she ran to her parents' room. Her father James took a flashlight and went to the front door, while she and her mother Denise took refuge in the bathroom, locking the door and hiding in the bathtub. It wasn't long before the sound of a gunshot rang through the house. They knew James had been killed.

Denise started to call 911 just as the intruder broke down the bathroom door. He was dressed in black, wearing a ski mask and a black coat. He carried a shotgun. The intruder ripped back the shower curtain to reveal Denise clutching her daughter. He grabbed the phone away from her and threw it. Next, he told her to hang up the phone and ordered her to tape Jamie's mouth shut. As any person would be in this situation, Denise was rattled and had difficulty with the tape.

The intruder had no choice but to tape Jamie himself, wrapping it around her mouth and head before taping her hands behind her back. He taped her ankles together and pulled her out of the bathtub. Another gunshot rang out, the bullet striking her mother in the head. Both of Jamie's parents had just been murdered. The 911 operator could only make out a disturbance and yelling before the call dropped. When they tried to call back, they got Denise's voicemail.

The intruder dragged Jamie outside, nearly slipping on her father's spilled blood. He placed her in the trunk of his red four-door car and calmly drove away. Emergency vehicles came racing down the road toward the Kloss home, and the intruder yielded as any driver should. His calm behavior let him slip by undetected. The whole event took place in just four minutes.

At the Kloss home, police questioned neighbors who reported hearing gunshots but dismissed them as hunting was common around their homes. Jamie lay in the trunk of that car for what felt like two hours before they reached their destination: a house in rural Gordon, almost 70 miles away from her home. He took her clothes and gave her his sister's pajamas. Then he took the clothes and burned them along with his gloves, the duct tape, everything he had used. There wouldn't be any evidence.

Her kidnapper made it clear that no one was to know she was there, else bad things would happen to her. As a prisoner, Jamie would spend time with him, walking in the yard, playing badminton, catch or board games. They watched TV, cooked together, and even slept in the same bed. Whenever he was away, Jamie was made to hide under his bed, where he stacked totes and laundry bins around the bed with weights stacked against them. If she moved them, he would know.

On one occasion, she accidentally moved one of the totes. She was told something bad would happen if she did it again. On at least two occasions, he thought that she was trying to get out from under the bed. He struck a wall and screamed so much that he felt she was scared and would never try it again. Once, he even struck her on the back with what appears to be a handle used to clean blinds. After about two months, he let Jamie write a letter to her aunt, telling her that she was alive.

He considered dropping it at her driveway, but never actually did. Often on Saturday nights, his father would come for a visit. When other people happened to be in the house, he would play loud music, so there was no chance of anyone hearing her. She was trapped under the bed for hours on end, sometimes as long as 12 hours with no food, no water, and no bathroom breaks. He came and went frequently, but as time wore on, he felt he was safe.

On January 10, 2019, nearly three months after Jamie was abducted, her captor left the house, telling her he'd be away for a couple of hours. This was her chance to escape. Confident that he was gone, Jamie pushed the bins away from the bed. She ran, wearing a light shirt, leggings, and a pair of his sneakers. She came across a local woman walking her dog. She asked for help. "'I'm Jamie Kloss. I don't know where I am. He killed my parents. Please help. I want to go home.'

The woman was Jean Nutter, and she instantly recognized the girl. She quickly took her to her home and called the police. Police arrived around 4.45 p.m. Jamie was able to describe her captor and his vehicle before being removed from the scene and taken to a nearby hospital for her safety. When a deputy spotted his car, they stopped him. He exited his vehicle and said, "'I did it.'" Jake Patterson was arrested.

In a confession, Jake Patterson, aged 21, admitted that he'd fantasized about kidnapping a young teenage girl since his discharge from the Marines for medical reasons after only three months. He was able to repress those feelings until the day he saw Jamie one day in September. Jamie was getting on the school bus near her home when he saw her. He knew that was the girl he was going to take.

Patterson made a total of three attempts to kidnap her, aborting the first two attempts due to activity around the home. Later, he admitted if it wasn't Jamie, it would probably be someone else. While the world searched for the missing girl, he watched the news, following accounts of the abduction, and over time grew increasingly confident that he'd gotten away with it.

After a while, I thought, well, I could get away with this. I mean, I understand how when there's no connection, a person has no connection to someone, how that's almost impossible to solve or really hard to solve. Despite what many may think, he did feel remorse. I just felt so bad, like every time I looked at her, I was like, I can't, like, I couldn't literally, couldn't believe that I actually did this. With no history of criminal activity, his confession left many confused."

Why did he do this? What was his motive? In the end, even he couldn't fully explain the why. In a letter in response to questions from a reporter, he apologized for his crimes and said they were committed mostly on impulse. Hormel, the parent company of the Jenny O. store where Jamie's parents had worked, had offered up a $25,000 reward for her safe return. On January 24, they awarded the money to Jamie for rescuing herself.

As for Patterson, he was charged with two counts of first-degree intentional homicide, one count of kidnapping, and one count of armed burglary. On March 24, 2019, Jake Patterson pleaded guilty to two counts of intentional first-degree homicide and one count of kidnapping. The judge agreed to dismiss the armed burglary account, and on May 24, his sentence was handed down. Jack Patterson was given the maximum sentence possible.

two consecutive life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder charges, plus an additional 40 years for the kidnapping. Since then, Patterson has made multiple public statements that he was sorry for his actions. Today, he resides in a prison in New Mexico where he was transferred in July 2019 for safety concerns.

Coming up: UFO researcher Raymond Fowler has been investigating UFO sightings and supposed abduction cases since the 1960s, but in his new book he shares what might be the ultimate story of an alien abduction... when Weird Darkness returns.

Hey Weirdos, our next Weirdo Watch Party is Saturday, January 18th and sci-fi film host and all-around nice guy Jukesua is back with another terrible B-movie. This one from the infamously inept Roger Corman. From 1958 it's "War of the Satellites." "And yet you propose to follow this tenth failure with another attempt?"

Using more of your volunteers? An unknown force declares war against planet Earth when the United Nations disobeys warnings to cease and desist in its attempts at assembling the first satellite in the atmosphere. We are obviously in the grip of a force stronger than we can oppose.

It's a movie eight weeks in the making, and it shows on every frame of film. See the last few seconds with a wire holding up a planet. See the satellites spinning in different directions every time you see them. "There it is, the barrier."

"All those men in that satellite will die." Sea shadows somehow being cast onto the backdrop that is supposed to be outer space. "Sigma barrier dead ahead. Crash emergency. All hands secure for blast." You'll even see actors wearing the same clothes day after day after day because...

Who knows? War of the Satellites! Join us online as we all watch the film together on January 18th at 7pm Pacific, 8pm Mountain, 9pm Central, 10pm Eastern on the Monster Channel 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 even join in the chat during the film for more fun. We're always cracking jokes during the movie, usually at the actor's or director's expense, but hey, it's all worthy of criticism. It's Jukesua presenting Roger Corman's War of the Satellites from 1958.

You can see a trailer for the film now and watch horror hosts and B-movies for free anytime on the Monster Channel page at WeirdDarkness.com. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash TV. And we'll see you Saturday, January 18th for our Weirdo Watch Party!

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When it's PCS time, you know the drill. Pack, research to new base, get the kids in school, because family supports family. At American Public University, we support military families with flexible, affordable online education that moves with you. As a military spouse, your tuition rate is the same as your partner's, just $250 per credit hour. American Public University, education that moves with you.

Learn more at apu.apus.edu slash military. An O'Reilly Auto Parts gift card is the perfect gift for that hard-to-buy-for person. Give the gift of convenience from O'Reilly Auto Parts. O-O-O-O'Reilly Auto Parts. Freeman Fowler has been a UFO investigator since the 1960s, and as a researcher dedicated to the subject, he has few equals.

When he first began his field research, which consisted of following up on sightings reports that came his way near his New England home and frequently traveling to the actual locations where flying saucers had been seen, Fowler and his peers in ufology were in hot pursuit of what they believed to be physical spacecraft visiting Earth from somewhere out in the universe that was completely unknown.

Investigators in those early years were mainly cataloging lights in the sky and metallic airborne devices that were solid enough to show up on radar, but nevertheless exhibited flight maneuvers that man-made aircraft were not capable of. The spacecraft would sometimes leave traces behind, such as indentations made by landing gear or strange circular burn marks on the grass where a UFO was seen to have touched down.

At the time, in terms of hard science, any reports of alien occupants of the flying saucers were not given much credence, especially by researchers who took the subject seriously. Speaking and interacting with UFO occupants was a concept embraced by the contactees of the 1950s, who told of golden-haired space angels who took their chosen humans on trips to Venus, a kind of lunatic fringe belief.

No serious researcher wanted to be tagged by the same brush as the contactees, and Riemann Fowler shared that disdain himself at first. In his book, UFOs, The Ultimate Abduction, Fowler gives a fascinating account of his early days on the trail of physical UFOs, providing a picture of that moment in history in which the government, the military, the scientific community, and the public in general grappled with the mystery of just what was being seen so frequently in our skies.

At the time, the mid-1960s, Fowler was among those advocating for Congress to open an official inquiry into the subject and even had some of his research entered into the Congressional record.

Fowler also tells the story of Project Blue Book, an agency within the Air Force tasked with collecting and compiling UFO reports from civilians that was discontinued in 1969 based on the recommendation of the Less Than Trustworthy Condon Report, a government-contracted study of the subject conducted by academics at the University of Colorado.

The first several chapters of his book, UFOs, the Ultimate Abduction, are an absorbing account of those earlier years. But the real fascination the book holds is in Fowler's telling of the story of how the nuts and bolts evidence he examined initially eventually led him to embrace a much different view of the UFO phenomenon. He was following the data, not just the whimsy of idle speculation.

Fowler's understanding changed over time as he began to put together a puzzle, an alien jigsaw that combined some of the precognitive and out-of-body experiences of his father as well as moments from Fowler's own youth. At two or three years of age, he encountered a light that bathed him in love. Other encounters with loving entities of light would follow, but Fowler characterized those moments as religious experiences that were not UFO-related.

In fact, if pressed to do so at the time, Fowler would have condemned spiritual or supernatural UFO encounters as demonic and totally removed the loving purity of what he'd experienced. Much of Fowler's spiritual journey had its origins in his investigation of Betty Andreason, a devoutly Christian New England housewife and mother who claimed grey aliens entered her home in 1967 and abducted both her and her daughter.

Fowler was present when Betty recalled her experiences under regressive hypnosis, and he would later write five books on Betty and her family. The titles may already be familiar for those listening. The Andreasson Affair, The Andreasson Affair Phase II, The Watchers, The Watchers II, and The Andreasson Legacy. In a recent exchange of emails, Fowler clarified his views on Betty and what had happened to her.

I believe that Betty's extraordinarily strong fundamentalist views, he said, influenced her testimony on several occasions. In the Andreessen Affair series of experiences by Betty, we must remember that they are told by a very religious person and strongly influenced by her belief system as she sought to make sense of what she was experiencing. I do not see any definitive connection between Christianity and the UFO phenomenon.

people tend to see and interpret such experiences through the spectacles of what they want to believe or disbelieve i might add that the entities associated with betty he continued seem to have encouraged her in her faith and may even have gone along with it in some sense so she'd be more pliable in her relations with them and also not to upset her

For myself, I would reject the terms supernatural or spiritual because every bit of the UFO phenomenon is natural and only appears to be supernatural because most of it is beyond our understanding. Taken together, the Andreessen books related the alien religious odyssey of not only Betty and her family, but also Fowler's realization of his own place in the cosmic drama that is the UFO mystery.

His transition from Christian fundamentalism to a more open, perhaps an even more loving, view of reality also incorporates essential truths learned from the study of near-death experiences, including an examination of the research of NDEs conducted by Kenneth Ring that makes a case for the similarity between NDEs and alien abduction experiences.

There are likewise connections between alien abductions, NDEs, and the aforementioned OBEs, or out-of-body experiences. Those three areas of study also dovetail nicely with what we've learned from the study of past life experiences or accounts, often also obtained from people under regressive hypnosis of the historical details of former lives that serve as proof of reincarnation.

Fowler offers the notion that reincarnation, while it is also not a fundamentalist Christian belief, does give comfort to many people who prefer to believe that human existence extends over many lifetimes and is part of a kind of evolution of the soul, a becoming that consists of more than just a one-shot attempt at getting the business of living right.

Another crucial component to Fowler's scheme of reality is synchronicity, a phenomenon he devoted an earlier book to called Synchrophile. Part of his thesis is that meaningful coincidence and the apparently non-random order of events show us that reality is arranged by some higher force that does not, as Einstein said, play dice with the universe. Nothing is left to chance, perhaps, but human consciousness still perceives its reality through a veil of free will.

In his book UFOs, The Ultimate Abduction, Raymond Fowler has stitched together a continuum of phenomena whose elements harmonize beautifully and serve to make a wonderful kind of sense out of our admittedly limited glimpses into the ultimate truth. Perhaps it's his mission not only to learn the lessons God's laid out for him, but to teach them to the rest of the world as well. Weirdo family member Brandy Campbell sent this one in. She's called it Ghost Follower.

Okay, so here's my story, at least the best I can remember it. Before I start the story, you need to know I have been told I am what they call a medium and that ghosts are very drawn to me. If you don't know, a medium is someone who can interact with the spirit world. At least, that's what the internet says. I never really investigated what people called me because I never believed it. I've had several encounters with the paranormal in my life, but this is the one that has always stuck with me the most.

When my husband and I first started dating, we lived in my old apartment together. At this apartment, I swear to you, there was a ghost or a demon or something that lived in the house and sometimes in the woods behind it. There were also some kind of weird creature things in those woods, but that's a story for another time. When I first moved in, I lived with my mom, dad, and little brother. At first, I thought this ghost was a little boy named Sam, who I swear on all things holy I could just as clear see as you and me.

He was a small boy, probably around the age of nine. He had curly dark hair, blue eyes, and he wore one of those old-looking sailor suits that boys wore around the 1860s. I was told by him that he died in 1864, on the spot where the apartment now sits. According to him, there used to be a tree there, and his father had hung him, his sister Elizabeth, and their mother Mariah from it before shooting himself in the head.

I've never heard that story before. Living in that town my whole life, you'd have thought that I would have heard something about that story, but I never did. I ignored that, though, thinking nothing of it. I even have a picture that my older brother caught that looks like a person covering their face. I also found a bunch of random postcards in my closet that I swear to you were not there before, though some of them dated back to 1909, so I don't know if those had to do with Sam or not.

At one point, I saw a white, full-body shadow walk from my hallway into the kitchen, and it terrified me. A year or two passed, and my father had passed away from cancer. A few months after he died, I could have sworn I saw my father around the house. I could hear him cough. I could hear him talk. My mother even told me that she'd hear him call her name, hear him sneeze, and she saw a black shadow on our porch.

I ignored it. I never told anyone until now about seeing my dad because I thought they would just call me crazy. The whole time I was seeing my dad, I never once saw Sam. That struck me as strange, but I ignored it. The first terrifying experience I had was when my two brothers and I went into the woods to look for the Thrasher's Nest, the name we'd given the creature in our woods. Again, a whole different story on its own.

After we found what we considered the nest, we were searching around the area, and we'd found the bottom jawbone of what seemed to be a child. My older brother picked it up to examine it. After he did, I started to hear the screams of a child. I passed it off as the neighbor kids. We started heading back into the woods, and we started hearing things following us. We knew it wasn't the thrashers because they only came out at night. We concluded they feared sunlight, so we stopped.

I must add that all of this was on camera, and I wish to God that I could find the phone we recorded it on. This will be important later. My older brother picked up a stick and started swinging it around, trying to scare whatever was there. He swung it in front of him, and it broke. In thin air. This wasn't a weak stick, either. It was a strong, dry branch, so there was no logical reason it should have broken.

We ran away from that spot further into the woods until I stopped dead in my tracks because I felt somebody pull the backpack I was wearing. I told my brother what had happened. They started walking towards me, and as suddenly as they started, they both flew back as if some force had pushed them. They both flew a good foot or two. I ran to where they were, and we all heard a scream. This is where the camera comes into play.

We all sat there for a moment, catching our breath. I panned the phone around and noticed by one of the trees there was some kind of deformed-looking face staring at us. I couldn't see it in real life, but I could easily see it in the camera. After that, we left the woods, and I never went back in. After a while, I stopped seeing my dad and started seeing Sam again. A while passed, and my mom and brother both moved out.

I met my husband, Jordan, who was just my boyfriend at the time, and he moved in with me. After he moved in, things got really strange. He told me there were times when I would talk to my two glass dolls that I had or just sit there and stare, but I don't remember any of that. The next thing I'm going to tell you, I still have nightmares about to this day. One night, while my husband was asleep, I was laying in my bed and staring at my bedroom door.

I laid there and watched as my door would just move slowly back and forth. After a few minutes of the door swinging, I saw what looked as though a smoke-filled body shape walked into my room. I wasn't scared, though, and I got out of my bed and followed it into the hallway. I stood there and watched as the shape came closer and closer to me until we were inches apart, and then I felt two large hands wrap around my neck. I could feel my body fall to the ground, and I couldn't breathe at all.

I could now see through my tear-filled eyes that the smoke shape had turned into this dark, looming figure with bright red eyes. I tried with all my might to scream, yell, do something to wake my husband up, but I couldn't make a sound. My eyes started to go black, and I could feel myself passing out. Suddenly, it stopped. I yelled for my husband, and he ran into the hallway to help. I told him what had happened as I watched the dark, red-eyed figure watch us from the doorway to my kitchen.

After that, I didn't believe the ghost in my house was a little boy. I didn't even believe it was a ghost. I didn't know what it was, though. One night, my husband and I were sitting in my brother's room. I refused to go into my room after a while. He was playing his PlayStation, and I was talking to my mom and reading. Suddenly, I had the urge to take a notepad and start writing. I wrote a lot of things, mostly things about what my mother was doing that I realistically could not have known.

All the while, I didn't feel like it was me writing. It felt as though somebody had a hold of my hand and was forcing me to write. After a few minutes, whatever it was forced me to write the name Charles over and over. I figured that must have been the demonic entity's name. After that, I don't remember much else, except I moved in with my husband a few weeks later. When I still lived in Newport, I'd sometimes walk past where that apartment was, and I could still feel whatever was there.

According to the New Zealand Times, February 13, 1904, a man who had committed bigamy was today acquitted at the Paris Assizes. He'd married a woman 20 years older than himself, but she turned out to have had a very bad temper and refused to live with him. Then he met a young woman with whom he fell violently in love and, not being able to wait for a divorce, married her. When the jury heard the story and saw the behavior of the two women in court, they decided to acquit the man,

"But he is my legal husband," protested the older woman. "No," said the younger woman, kissing the man, "the court says my poor darling is not guilty and I am therefore his wife." Thereupon the two women began fighting with their umbrellas and had to be separated by the police. So here's a tip for you, men: if you're going to be a bigamist, make sure your second spouse is as proficient in the art of umbrella fighting as your first one. 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 me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the show's Weirdos Facebook group on the Contact Social page at WeirdDarkness.com.

Also on the website, if you have a true paranormal or creepy tale to tell, 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. The Disappearing of Pauline Picard is by Addison Nugent for OZEE.com. Stories of Real Doppelgangers is by Nathan Gibson for Graveyard Shift. The Oddfather is by Romeo Vitelli for Providentia.

A murder without motive, a kidnapping without cause is from The Scare Chamber, Bigamy Excused is from Second Glance History, and The Ultimate Alien Abduction is by T.R. Swartz for SpectralVision.com. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. Proverbs 9, verse 10, "...the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." And a final thought...

Stop putting yourself down and thinking what you do is not important. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness.

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When you're part of a military family, you understand sacrifice and support. So at American Public University, we honor your dedication by extending our military tuition savings to your extended family. Parents, spouses, legal partners, siblings, and dependents all qualify for APU's preferred military rate of just $250 per credit hour for undergraduate and master's level programs. American Public University, value for the whole family. Learn more at apu.apus.edu slash military.