“COULD OUR MOON BE AN ALIEN SPACESHIP?” and More Creepy True Tales! #WeirdDarkness

Listen to ““COULD OUR MOON BE AN ALIEN SPACESHIP?” and More Creepy True Tales! #WeirdDarkness” on Spreaker.

IN THIS EPISODE: Conspiracy theories, while often dark, can also be kind of humorous due to being so outlandishly unbelievable. For example… is the Earth’s moon artificial, and actually an extraterrestrial spaceship? We’ll look at the strange theory. (Could Our Moon Be An Alien Spaceship?) *** In 1912 one of the most brutal slayings in America took place in the small town of Villisca, Iowa… a murder so brutal that numerous documentaries have been made about it, books have been written, and amateur detectives have poured over the facts and suspects still trying to find out who the murderer was that swung the bloody axe. (The Unsolved Villisca Ax Murders) *** The President of the United States, no matter who is in the position at the time, is always in danger from those who would like to see someone else in office. We’ll hear on the news of the assassination attempts that came close, but we more often than not are completely unaware of the attempts and plans that have been thwarted – and some of those attempts to kill a sitting U.S. President have been extremely bizarre. (Bizarre Assassination Attempts on U.S. Presidents) *** Some Biblical accounts seem unbelievable and we tend to dismiss them as fantasies, or dreams of the person writing the events down. But what if some of the strange creatures described in the bible are actually real – but come from another dimension, or even outer space? (Are Extraterrestrials in the Bible?) *** If you are told there is a city that has been built specifically for the dead, you probably think of some ancient culture that worshipped their ancestors. Personally, I think of pyramids in Egypt… but I never would’ve thought of the suburbs in California, USA. (California’s City of the Dead)

SOURCES AND REFERENCES FROM THE EPISODE…
“Could Our Moon Be An Alien Spaceship?” posted at Anomalien.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/bdhz5563
“The Unsolved Villisca Ax Murders” by Joe Turner for HistoricMysteries.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8mnfp6, and from HauntedRoom.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/36b6k2h4
“California’s City of the Dead” by Hugh Landman for Ranker.com’s Graveyard Shift:https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yckrxjzd
“Are Extraterrestrials in the Bible?” by Ellen Lloyd for AncientPages.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/mr3d8dpk
“Bizarre Assassination Attempts on U.S. Presidents” by Richard Stockton for AllThatsInteresting.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/26avtuhr
Weird Darkness theme by Alibi Music Library.
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Originally aired: January, 2022

PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT:

DISCLAIMER: Ads heard during the podcast that are not in my voice are placed by third party agencies outside of my control and should not imply an endorsement by Weird Darkness or myself. *** Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised.

SHOW OPEN=====

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.

If you’re new here, welcome to the show! While you’re listening, be sure to check out WeirdDarkness.com for merchandise, my newsletter, to connect with me on social media, and more!

Coming up in this episode…

In 1912 one of the most brutal slayings in America took place in the small town of Villisca, Iowa… a murder so brutal that numerous documentaries have been made about it, books have been written, and amateur detectives have poured over the facts and suspects still trying to find out who the murderer was that swung the bloody axe. (The Unsolved Villisca Ax Murders)

The President of the United States, no matter who is in the position at the time, is always in danger from those who would like to see someone else in office. We’ll hear on the news of the assassination attempts that came close, but we more often than not are completely unaware of the attempts and plans that have been thwarted – and some of those attempts to kill a sitting U.S. President have been extremely bizarre. (Bizarre Assassination Attempts on U.S. Presidents)

Some Biblical accounts seem unbelievable and we tend to dismiss them as fantasies, or dreams of the person writing the events down. But what if some of the strange creatures described in the bible are actually real – but come from another dimension, or even outer space? (Are Extraterrestrials in the Bible?)

If you are told there is a city that has been built specifically for the dead, you probably think of some ancient culture that worshipped their ancestors. Personally, I think of pyramids in Egypt… but I never would’ve thought of the suburbs in California, USA. (California’s City of the Dead)

Conspiracy theories, while often dark, can also be kind of humorous due to being so outlandishly unbelievable. For example… is the Earth’s moon artificial, and actually an extraterrestrial spaceship? We’ll look at the strange theory. (Could Our Moon Be An Alien Spaceship?)

Now.. bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness!

STORY: COULD OUR MOON BE AN ALIEN SPACESHIP?=====

Over the years, it has been scientifically observed that the Earth’s Moon holds some strange characteristics.

The Moon is the 5th largest natural satellite in the Solar System. It is believed to have been created by a giant impact between the young Earth and a Mars-sized body.

After examination, it has been noted that the Moon is apparently in the wrong orbit for its size, according to its current assumed density. Astronomy data indicates that the internal regions of the Moon are less dense than the outer, giving rise to the inevitable speculation that it could be hollow.

Some of these claims come from the fact that when meteors strike the Moon, it rings like a bell. More specifically, when the Apollo crew, on November 20, 1969, released the lunar module, after returning to the orbiter, the module impact with the Moon caused their seismic equipment to register a continuous reverberation like a bell for more than an hour.

In July of 1970, members of the then Soviet Academy of Sciences, Michael Vasin and Alexander Shcherbakov, proposed the Spaceship Moon Theory.

The pseudoscientific theory claims that the Earth’s moon may actually be an alien spacecraft. Vasin and Shcherbakov’s thesis was that the Moon is a hollowed-out planetoid created by unknown beings with technology far superior to any on Earth.

Huge machines would have been used to melt rock and form large cavities within the Moon. The Moon would, therefore, consist of a hull-like inner shell and an outer shell made from metallic rocky slag.

The “Spaceship Moon” was then placed into orbit around the Earth. Proponents of this theory point to the increased reports and pictures of UFOs taken by NASA on their missions to the moon.

The moon has tens of thousands of craters of various sizes covering the surface; however, all of the craters have the same depth. This suggests to scientists that there may be some sort of metallic barrier underneath the surface protecting it from damage.

It has been found that asteroids and meteors not only create shallow craters on the Moon’s surface, but produce a convex floor to the crater instead of concave as expected, supporting the idea of a rigid shell.

The moon is far older than previously expected, maybe even older than the Earth or the Sun. The oldest age for the Earth is estimated to be 4.6 billion years old, while Moon rocks were dated at 5.3 billion years.

The chemical composition of the dust upon which the rocks sit is remarkably different from the rocks themselves. This indicates that the lunar surface may have been moved from somewhere else and placed on the Moon.

Some of the Moon’s craters originated internally, yet there is no indication that the Moon was ever hot enough to produce volcanic eruptions. Hundreds of moonquakes are recorded each year that cannot be attributed to meteor strikes. Some of the quakes seem to follow a specific schedule.

The moon’s crust is much harder than originally presumed. When NASA was recorded drilling down a few inches into the Moon’s surface, it appeared that metal shavings were visible.

Earth’s moon is the only natural satellite in the Solar System that has a stationary, near-perfect circular orbit. How does one explain the coincidence that the moon is just the right distance, coupled with just the right diameter, to completely cover the sun during an eclipse?

Professional astronomers have been gradually discouraged from investigating a phenomenon that has been reported on the Moon for 1,000 years. It is short-lived light, color, or other changes in the appearance of the lunar surface, referred to as Transient Lunar Phenomena.

The moon is also known to contain a unique combination of metals. According to Ancient Code, it includes traces of metals that are not naturally occurring, such as brass. The amount of titanium that is found on the moon is also 10 times what is found on Earth. Scientists call this ratio “mind-blowing.”

The mysteries of the moon and the universe are far from being solved and the possibilities of what lies beyond our earth’s atmosphere may not be discovered in our lifetime.

The facts and theories that define the universe are malleable with every new thought, technological advancement and scientific discovery. It’s just a matter of what’s next.

BREAK=====

Coming up next… in 1912 one of the most brutal slayings in America took place in the small town of Villisca, Iowa… a murder so brutal that numerous documentaries have been made about it, books have been written, and amateur detectives have poured over the facts and suspects still trying to find out who the murderer was that swung the bloody axe.

Plus… if you are told there is a city that has been built specifically for the dead, you probably think of some ancient culture that worshipped their ancestors. But you’d probably never think of the suburbs in California, USA.

These stories and more when Weird Darkness returns.

STORY: THE UNSOLVED VILLISCA AX MURDERS=====

When eight innocent people lost their lives in a single night, the usually-quiet, uneventful town of Villisca, Iowa, changed forever in June 1912. The perpetrator viciously murdered the Moore family and their two house guests with an axe. Suspects and confessions have come forward, and even trials were held, but, ultimately, the person responsible for the barbaric crimes remains unknown. Now more than a hundred years later, the Villisca axe murders remain one of the most mysterious cases in history.

Located in Montgomery County, Iowa, Villisca boasts a population of around 1,100 residents as of 2019. Back in the late 1890s and early 1900s, Villisca was a thriving town with a close-knit community. Although there were only 2,500 residents in Villisca, it was a hub for developing businesses and a magnet for local tycoons who were eager to capitalize on the area’s growth.

It was a quiet town, interrupted only by the regular trains which passed through. In addition to the many businesses, Villisca also featured a National Guard Armory, funded entirely by the local residents – the first of its kind on U.S. soil.

While Villisca still possesses the same small-town charm and appeal it did over a hundred years ago, its legacy is forever tainted by the events of June 1912. To this day, the Villisca Axe Murders continue to haunt the small town. Its effects are sewn into the fabric of its history and never seem to fade even with the passage of time.

The eight victims — the entirety of the Moore family and two friends of the Moore children — were as follows:

Josiah B. Moore, 43
Sarah Moore, 39
Herman Montgomery Moore, 11
Mary Katherine Moore, 10
Arthur Boyd Moore, 7
Paul Vernon Moore, 5
Ina Mae Stillinger, 8
Lena Gertrude Stillinger, 12

The head of the household was Josiah B. Moore. He was a successful businessman in Villisca, excelling at everything he lent his hand to. After he amassed reasonable wealth during his thirties, he later went on to marry and have four children with his wife, Sarah.

The Moore family was well-liked throughout Villisca and gained a reputation for being generous and kind. They were a church-going family who maintained strong contacts and good relationships with many in the community. However, Josiah had a number of enemies in both his personal and professional life.

On the morning of June 9th, Josiah and Sarah prepared their children for the busy day they had planned. Their local Presbyterian church was hosting Children’s Day. Sarah Moore had worked as one of the co-facilitators of the event, and the entire Moore family would be attending. The activities lasted them through the afternoon and into the early evening, finally ending around 9:30 pm after all of the children had finished their performances.

Two neighborhood children, Lena and Ina Stillinger, asked their parents if they could stay over at the Moore’s house that night, and their parents agreed.

The Moore family, along with the two Stillinger girls, left the church and made their way back to the Moore’s home as the evening set in. It was a late night for the youngsters, and after milk and cookies for supper, everyone present in the Moore home retired to bed.

None of them would be seen alive again.

Come morning around 7:30, the usually-vibrant Moore household was strangely devoid of activity, and the local neighbor, Mary Peckham, took notice. The curtains were still shut and none of the eight occupants had come or gone on their morning routes. Mary called Josiah’s brother, Ross, who came to check on the household.

He arrived around 8 am and let himself in through the front door. He first inspected the downstairs bedroom, and to his horror, he found two bloodsoaked sheets covering two corpses. They were the bodies of Josiah and Sarah Moore.

Ross called the local marshall and told him that something terrible had happened.

Marshall Henry Horton arrived on the scene thirty minutes later and thoroughly searched the Moore house. He found a dead body in every bed, along with a blood-covered axe still lying in the room where the Stillinger girls lay dead. The entire Moore family and their two friends were brutally slain.

Word quickly traveled around Villisca. Police officers and a local doctor scrutinized the crime scene and examined the bodies. Doctor F.S. Williams, the first medical officer on the scene, determined that the attacks took place sometime between midnight and 5 am.

An axe struck each of the victims between 20-30 times. This left them mangled and bloody. The blade of the weapon struck Josiah, while the blunt end crushed the rest of the victims. This distinction possibly indicates that Josiah had been the killer’s real target.

Seven of the eight victims died while they slept. However, 12-year-old Lena Stillinger may have still been awake when the killer struck. Her body displayed a defensive wound on her arm, and she was lying lengthwise across her bed.

There was no decapitation, dismemberment, or sexual assault. The cause of death was brute force trauma to each of the victims’ skulls. In Josiah and Sarah’s bedroom, the ceiling showed gashes from the axe’s upswing.

In addition to the sheer brutality on display, there were bizarre discoveries at the crime scene. Two cigarette butts were discovered in the attic, suggesting that the perpetrator had waited there while everyone in the house went to sleep. He then made his way through the home using an oil lamp, first targeting Josiah and Sarah and then moving on to the children.

Police discovered a plate of food and a bowl of bloody water on the kitchen table, which the killer might have used to wash his hands. He also searched through the drawers and found garments to cover various surfaces in the house, including mirrors and glass panels in the doors. However, most strangely of all was that the killer left a four-pound slab of bacon in the Stillinger girls’ room. The killer took the house keys as he left, locking the doors behind him.

By the afternoon of June 11th, a crowd had amassed outside the Moore residence. Doctor F.S. Williams told the audience, “Don’t go in there. You’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”

Despite the doctor’s warning, the curious residents of Villisca descended upon the Moore house and ventured inside. The crime scene became instantly contaminated, and given the lack of forensic advancements at the time, finding any concrete DNA evidence left by the perpetrator was an almost-impossible task.

The local police had very few leads. They searched Villisca and the surrounding areas and interviewed some townsfolk. But the killer had at least a three-hour headstart on them, and police believed that he would have already fled the town.

Numerous suspects cropped up over the years, some of whom even confessed to the Villisca murders.

A traveling minister named Reverend George Kelly arrived in Villisca for the first time on the morning of June 10th to attend the Sunday school directed by Sarah Moore. He then left Villisca at 5 am the next morning on the train heading westbound out of the town.

Reportedly, he told some of the passengers that eight dead bodies were lying back in Villisca – several hours before the news had spread. He even mentioned that they had been killed while they slept.

Reverend Kelly returned to Villisca two weeks later, and after fooling officers into thinking he was a detective from out of town, he was able to latch on to a tour of the Moore house with a group of legitimate investigators.

It wasn’t until police became aware of Kelly’s past that he became a suspect in the Villisca killings. In his teenage years, Kelly had struggled with severe mental illness and also had a history of sexual deviance. Regularly visiting churches throughout Iowa and neighboring states, Kelly had developed a reputation as something of an eccentric.

It wasn’t until 1917 that a Grand Jury indicted Kelly for the murder of Lena Stillinger. In August of that year, Kelly confessed to the murder, saying that God had whispered “suffer the children to come unto me” in his ear.

Given Kelly’s history of mental illness, his confession was dismissed. The court later acquitted him and set him free.

There was another man by the name of Henry Lee Moore. Though he had no relation to the Moore family, Henry was an alleged serial killer who, only months after the Villisca killings, murdered his mother and grandmother with an axe in a crime that bore striking similarities to the Moore slayings. His motive, he said, was to obtain the deed to their Missouri family home.

Around the time Henry became a suspect, other similar axe murders were popping up around the country. An officer assigned to the Villisca case became convinced that Henry Moore was responsible for the Villisca killings and a string of similar attacks in Colorado, Kansas, and Illinois. But little evidence tied Henry to the Villisca killings, so it was dismissed.

Two years after the Villisca killings, police turned their attention to an Illinois resident and serial killer. William Mansfield murdered his wife, daughter, and parents-in-law in a way that was eerily similar to the Moore family murders. Later, investigators linked him to other axe murders that happened in Kansas and Colorado, and he was even a suspect in the notorious Axeman of New Orleans case.

While the Villisca perpetrator had draped cloth over the mirrors and reflective door panels, the murderer in the Illinois case used sheets to conceal the windows so no one could see in. It later came to light that Mansfield had been in Illinois around the time of the Villisca killings. Indeed, an eyewitness later claimed that he saw Mansfield boarding a train in Clarinda, Iowa, only twenty minutes outside of Villisca.

Frank Jones, a Villisca businessman with political sway throughout the town, was another suspect. Several years before the murders, Josiah Moore had been an employee of Jones, but Moore left to start up his own business. In doing so, Moore took a big chunk of Jones’s business with him.

Moore and Jones despised each other, according to Villisca residents. However, it was considered a stretch that Jones could progress to murdering his business rival. There were also rumors around Villisca that Moore had engaged in extramarital activities with Jones’s daughter-in-law.

While many have tried to solve the case, the Villisca murders remains a mystery and most likely will forever. The ghosts are certainly lingering after all this time.

The Villisca house has been investigated several times and various paranormal investigation shows have filmed there. Many teams have spent the night in the house and have reported the same experiences. They reported a feeling of heaviness from the main stairwell of the house up to the rooms upstairs. Various videos and pictures have been taken showing orbs. Numerous EVP or electronic audio phenomena have also been recorded.

At 2.00 am the train passes through the town of Villisca and it is thought that the whistle of the train triggers the residual events of the murder. Many people have noticed a light fog filling up the bedroom just after the train whistle. It moves from one room to another and once it dissipates, the sound of dripping blood can be heard.

Over a hundred years later, the Moore family household still sits on the quiet residential street in Villisca, Iowa. While every other house nearby boasts renovations and refurbishments, the Villisca house remains frozen in time. There’s no electricity, the curtains are permanently drawn, and the doors and windows are boarded up. Outside, there’s a sign marking ‘The Villisca Ax Murder House.’

The Villisca house is now an attraction, a spectacle for the morbidly curious tourists. Slightly touched up to maintain its stability, it now exists as a museum. Its interior still boasts the same furniture and beds in which the Moore family and Stillinger girls were cruelly slain.

STORY: CALIFORNIA’S CITY OF THE DEAD=====

Colma, CA, has an interesting distinction – it is a cemetery city made for dead San Franciscans. This city of the dead emerged when the land that had previously been reserved for burials became increasingly valuable in the Golden Gate City, and as a result further burials there were banned.

This silent city has 1,000 times more dead inhabitants than living, and hundreds of thousands of corpses were even moved to the city after being evicted from their San Francisco resting places. Cemeteries in Colma are now home to some of the most famous names in American history as well as tens of thousands of people who have been lost in its mass graves.

This city owes its existence to the timeless problem faced by San Francisco: the need for space. Even long-time living residents of the city are being slowly driven out of their homes by dead interlopers looking to displace them. Yet, Colma remains the highly sought-after destination for San Francisco’s most well-regarded corpses.

Most American suburbs are best known for their outlet malls, Walmarts, and multiple Denny’s locations, but Colma is famous for something far different: the city has 17 cemeteries. In the 1920s, San Francisco’s retired residents were moved there as the city continued to grow into the sprawling metropolis it is today.

While most US suburbs are made up of well-organized subdivisions and manicured lawns mandated by city ordinances and the social pressure of keeping up with the Joneses, Colma abides by a different kind of city planning. The city of 1,600 is home to over 1.5 million graves. Since the initial relocation of 150,000 graves beginning in the early 1900s, the town’s graveyards have grown at a pace far exceeding that of its living population.

Several of Colma’s graveyards are home to mass graves that contain tens of thousands of people who were relocated from their San Francisco-resting places. Though the city would ultimately pay to have anyone buried in its cemeteries moved to Colma, unless families paid $10 to have their loved ones moved, their bodies would end up being reburied in mass graves. The Holy Cross Cemetery has a marker that says 39, 307 Catholics are buried there, while a marker at the Cypress Lawn graveyard memorializes over 30,000 bodies in a mass grave there.

San Francisco was a growing and booming metropolis at the turn of the 20th century. Unfortunately, it was also a tinderbox of wood structures tightly packed together just waiting for a disaster to hit. Then when the massive 1906 earthquake rocked the city, its cemeteries quickly filled up and the concentration of dead bodies in San Francisco cemeteries led to public health concerns. The solution was to move the dead from their San Francisco resting places in the city to Colma. As a result, the largest relocation of graves in history took place nearly 20 years after the earthquake.

In order to transport the bodies efficiently, the city decided that they should be moved to Colma the same day that they were exhumed. Some of the dead were even moved in the same caskets they were buried in, but if the caskets hadn’t weathered the elements very well then the remains would be put into boxes. Catholic priests were present at every exhumation at Calvary Cemetery, but 55,000 Catholic bodies ended up in a mass grave site in Colma. While San Francisco paid for the bodies to be moved, tombstones were left behind if no loved ones came forward to pay the cost of moving them.

In 1900, every body was removed from San Francisco and cemeteries were banned, but that doesn’t mean that their grave markers always went with them. Unless loved ones paid the city to bring along the gravestones, people would instead be reinterred in mass graves. Some abandoned gravestones were reused to create gutters in the city or to reinforce sea barriers to keep the San Francisco Bay at bay.

Over 155,000 bodies ended up being moved from San Francisco to Colma, but some of them didn’t make the trip. Construction crews can’t manage to dig a hole on the University of San Francisco’s campus without stumbling upon human remains. Perhaps more unsettling were the discoveries made at the Legion of Honor when crews laid plumbing pipes and disturbed grave sites in the 1920s. Workers sometimes even threw bones into the ocean when they were in the path of their work.

In 1848, a railroad worker named Phineas Gage was packing some black powder into a hole with a metal rod. Suddenly, the reactive powder blew up, sending the metal rod through the left side of Gage’s face and out of the back of his head, miraculously not killing him. Gage quickly gained notoriety after doctors learned that his personality had changed as a result of his injury. He became the first patient to lead neurologists to identify the connection between brain injuries and changes in behavior and personality traits. Gage later died in 1860 due to seizures and was buried in one of Colma’s cemeteries.

Cemeteries rely on expanding and selling new burial plots in order to stay solvent. So, when the city banned the creation of new grave sites in 1900, funeral grounds could no longer rely on this income to pay for their upkeep. This led to macabre scenes in cemeteries as looters stole skeletons and hedonists held orgies, as there was no money to pay security guards to keep them out. There were even accounts of soccer games being played with human skulls. A public outcry about the state of the city’s cemeteries led to the graveyards being moved to Colma.

Included among the dead and buried in Colma are some of the most famous figures from the turn of the 20th century. Famous Wild-West sheriff Wyatt Earp and pants-pioneer Levi Strauss are both buried there, join by the newspaper giant William Randolph Hearst. Railroad owner Charles Crocker can also be found under a gravestone in the city.

In the 1850s, a land speculator named Joshua Norton lost all his wealth when land prices crashed. Possibly in a fit of insanity, he declared himself to be Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico. Norton wrote decrees that were published in newspapers and was even outfitted with a uniform by the US Army. He became a local icon and was given free tickets to the opening nights of films and could be seen frequenting popular San Francisco night spots. When he died in 1880, he was buried in San Francisco but ended up being moved along with tens of thousands of others to Colma where his grave stone reading “Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico” can still be found today.

Originally the dead were buried on the western side of San Francisco, as the first residents of the city assumed that nobody would ever want to live there. But as the city attracted more citizens, the land became higher in demand. Cemetery locations made it difficult to navigate the city for street cars and eventually the value of the property they sat on led to solution of banning future cemeteries and relocating the existing grave sites.

San Francisco has a rich baseball history from the Seals to the Giants. Not all of these players represented their city on the field, but they are buried in Colma. From Joe DiMaggio to George Kelly, Dolph Camilli, Bill Lange, Frankie “The Crow” Crosetti, Hank Sauer, and Lefty O’Doul, Colma is the final resting place of MVPs and role players alike.

The “City by the Bay” didn’t move every dead body outside of its borders. There are still four places of rest in San Francisco. There’s the San Francisco Columbarium, a beautiful cemetery filled with late-Victorian grave markers; a veterans’s cemetery in Presidio; and another in Mission Dolores. The fourth is strange in it’s own right and is where the city’s pets are laid to rest. It lays near a former military base and may have started as a burial ground for calvary horses or guard dogs. Now, every type of pet from lizards and hamsters to dogs and cats can be found there.

The morbid notoriety of having 1,000 times more dead residents than living ones has inspired Colma to invent a creative slogan. The city councilofficially gave the town the slogan of “it’s great to be alive in Colma.” Citizens have also adopted nicknames about its strange fame like “City of Souls” and “City of the Silent.”

BREAK=====

When Weird Darkness returns…

But first… some Biblical accounts seem unbelievable and we tend to dismiss them as fantasies, or dreams of the person writing the events down. But what if some of the strange creatures described in the bible are actually real – but come from another dimension, or even outer space? (Are Extraterrestrials in the Bible?)

These stories are up next.

STORY: ARE EXTRATERRESTRIALS IN THE BIBLE?=====

Whether you are a Christian or not, one must say the Bible is in many ways a fascinating read. The Holy Book contains amazing stories describing extraordinary meetings with unusual people, strange creatures, sightings of peculiar natural and artificial wonders, and unknown sky phenomena. The Bible is without doubt one of the most mysterious book ever written, and we find an enigma on nearly every page.

Some Biblical accounts seem unbelievable and we tend to dismiss them as fantasies, but maybe we should dig deeper into some stories?

When reading the Bible, we are offered a choice. We can reject all Biblical stories as fantasies. We can choose to believe in miracles, or we can try using scientific methods to unravel certain peculiar Biblical mysteries.

In this article, we will rely on the latter and examine how a Biblical prophet’s strange meeting with otherworldly creatures can be explained if we rely on science and our knowledge of the Universe and alien life.

A respected scientist who examined this strange Biblical account has a theory that may shed light on one of the most puzzling encounters in the Holy Book.

One of the most famous and often quoted texts in the Bible is the story of Ezekiel’s Wheel. Ezekiel, one of the most significant prophets in the Holy Book experienced an extraordinary event.

Sitting at the river Chabur, near Nippur, Ezekiel suddenly discovered how a “fiery whirlwind” was moving fast towards him. Out of the whirlwind appeared four strange-looking creatures. They had human hands under their joined wings, calf-shaped feet, and faces of man and animal.

What kind of extraordinary creature did Ezekiel see? It certainly doesn’t sound like any known animal we are acquainted with today.

We are here once again confronted with a Biblical description that deserves more attention.

The reason why the story of Ezekiel’s Wheel has received so much attention is mainly because of the former NASA chief engineer Joseph F. Blumrich. After years of intensive research, Blumrich reached an interesting conclusion that is presented in detail in his book “The Spaceships of Ezekiel”. Blumrich suggested that Ezekiel’s account was based on a real UFO encounter.

Blumrich, who was a significant person within NASA, among other things awarded in 1972 for his exceptional contribution to the Saturn and Apollo project began researching what was hiding behind Ezekiel’s sighting after reading Erich von Däniken’s book “Chariot of the Gods”.

His main intention was to prove Däniken wrong. According to Blumrich himself he “began to read von Däniken with the condescending attitude of someone who knows beforehand that the conclusions presented can by no means be correct”. Being an open-minded and objective scientist, Blumrich discovered that Däniken’s theories and evidence were credible. Blumrich went from an extreme skeptic to becoming fully convinced that the Book of Ezekiel was a real, accurate, and detailed encounter with alien visitors from out of space.

Ezekiel 1:1-25 = “Now it occurred in my thirtieth year, in the fourth month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw the visions of God. And I looked, and behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire flashed, causing a brightness about it, and out of the midst of it gleamed something like a pale yellow metal. Also out of the midst of it appeared four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had the likeness of men. And their feet were straight feet, and the sole of their feet was shaped like the sole of a calf’s foot; and they sparkled like burnished brass. And they had human hands under their four-sided wings. Their wings were joined together; and they did not turn when they went, they all went straight forward. As for the appearance of their faces, they had the face of a man, and the face of a lion on the right side: and they had the face of an ox on the left side: they also had the face of an eagle. In amongst the living creatures glowed something like coals of fire or lamps, which moved up and down between the creatures: and the fire was bright, and from out of the fire flashed lighting. Now as I looked upon the living creatures, I saw four wheels upon the ground, one by each of the living creatures, with their four faces. The appearance of the wheels and their composition was like the color of shiny amber: and all four wheels had one likeness: and their appearance and their composition was like a wheel in the middle of a wheel. And when the living creatures went, the wheels went with them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. And the appearance of the sky upon the heads of the living creatures was reflected as the color of the terrible crystal stretched over their heads above. And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, like the din of an army. When they stood still, they lowered their wings. And there was a voice from the crystal covering that was over their heads when they stood and had let down their wings.”

One can imagine how terrified Ezekiel must have felt seeing such a huge and strange “creature” standing in front of him. But was it really an animal or was Blumrich correct?

Supporters of the ancient astronaut’s theory think Ezekiel observed a flying machine. After deducing the shape and size of this craft, and identifying many features such as rotor blades, fairing housings, landing legs, and retractable wheels, Joseph F. Blumrich realized that what Ezekiel witnessed was a very advanced type of flying vehicle.

In fact, according to NASA engineers, this particular shape of the craft is compatible with the type of orbiting and inter-atmospheric ascents and descents described by Ezekiel.

In Blumrich’s opinion, the cloud mentioned by Ezekiel is equivalent to a vapor cloud caused by preliminary cooling and firing of a rocket engine.

The four “creatures” are surrounded by fire and vapor. They appear to be alive but they are in reality helicopter-like bodies deployed before landing. The four blades of the rotors and the fairing housings above the rotors look like faces and wings to the prophet. The legs Ezekiel is referring to, are landing legs which have round footpads, therefore the impressions of a calf’s foot.

The “human hands under the wings” are mechanical remote-controlled arms hanging alongside the cylindrical helicopter bodies. The “faces” are faring surfaces protecting the gears and other control devices above the rotors. The “coals of fire” refers to the flowing reactor radiator and the bursts from the control rockets.

When Ezekiel says that the wheels went with the creatures, it is another way of saying that the craft was rolling on the ground. In the next passage, Ezekiel informs us of the color of the craft. The surface was metallic, shining, bright. It is obvious Ezekiel is describing a machine. The noise the prophet heard was mainly caused by operating rotor blade motors.

According to Blumrich: “The helicopter [devices] themselves are distinguished by such features as folding wings, ability to change their position and astute layout for the control rockets. All these properties fit together without any contradiction or unsolved questions; they are unmistakable indications of very able and sophisticated planning and design.”

If we assume the prophet’s account is genuine, then isn’t it possible that the craft witnessed by Ezekiel was something not of this world, a highly advanced vehicle? Ezekiel described it using the best words and terms he could think of. To him, it was some kind of monstrous creature, but a scientific investigation of this Biblical sightings leads us to think it was a highly advanced flying machine.

STORY: BIZARRE ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS ON U.S. PRESIDENTS=====

In 1981, John Hinckley tried and failed to assassinate Ronald Reagan. The incident left the president and press secretary wounded and was a huge embarrassment to actress Jodie Foster, who was the object of Hinckley’s obsession and his declared reason for shooting the president.

Predictably, the attempt sparked a national debate over mental health issues, and Hinckley’s successful insanity defense prompted Congress to tighten up laws regarding its use in court. In a way, it’s funny that Hinckley’s attempt sparked these changes, when there have been so many mentally distressed individuals, before and after him, who thought that killing the president would solve their problems.

President Barack Obama was the target of numerous death threats during his two terms in office. Most of the people sending these threats were venting misplaced anger, but some were seriously dangerous people who’ve spent a long time plotting to kill the president.

What’s really weird, and frankly unprecedented, is the serious threat who really does carry forward a plot against the president, but whose real goal is to spite a stranger in an online flame war. That was the case that unfolded in April 2013, when Secret Service agents discovered the poison ricin in letters that had been sent to various Washington addresses, including the Obama White House. This is undoubtedly one of American history’s strangest presidential assassination attempts.

The letters sent to the Capitol and White House also contained rambling, half-crazy notes, as per usual for this sort of attack. Other letters were sent to a Mississippi judge and contained enough evidence that authorities were able to sweep down on one man, Mississippi resident and professional Elvis Presley impersonator Paul Curtis.

Upon closer examination, investigators were befuddled: What was the motive, and could Curtis have even made the ricin? According to federal investigators, Curtis’ home had no ricin in it, nor did he have any of the material necessary to make it (it wasn’t clear that he even had the technical know-how, what with being an Elvis impersonator rather than a chemist).

According to Curtis’ lawyer, however, he was mixed up in an online feud with a Tupelo, Mississippi man named Everett Dutschke. Dutschke was very proud of his status as a member of the genius group Mensa, and probably less proud of his criminal record. Ten days after Curtis was detained by the FBI, authorities raided Dutschke’s home and seized papers and equipment that pointed to him as the perpetrator of the attacks.

Apparently, Dutschke – who was a genius, remember that – cooked up the ricin and sent the letters in an effort to frame Curtis over some stupid argument the two were having in an Internet comment forum. In 2014, noted genius Everett Dutschke pled guilty to five counts of felonies and got 25 years in federal prison. Mr. Curtis remains available for events within 200 miles of Tupelo.

Would-be presidential assassins have a fascinating internal landscape. According to a 1999 Secret Service study of people who tried to kill public figures, there’s no standard profile that fits every one of them, but many are motivated by an incredibly petty grievance against the government. Yes, presidential assassination attempts are often inspired by very small annoyances.

It’s typical of an assassin that, after a minor property tax hike or IRS audit, they spend months or years stalking a public figure they’ve identified as the enemy. Such people aren’t delusional, as some attempted assassins are, but most seem to think the government is out to get them specifically.

That description certainly fits Samuel Byck who, in 1974, hijacked a commercial passenger jet on the runway in an apparent plot to kill Richard Nixon. Byck was a 44-year-old truck driver who had grown up in extreme poverty. His wife divorced him in 1972, and shortly thereafter he was turned down for a small-business loan.

That seems to have sent him over the edge. Byck started sending threatening messages to the White House. He also sent threatening recordings to a U.S. senator, polio researcher Jonas Salk, and composer Leonard Bernstein. Byck, a middle-aged Jewish man, also tried to join the Black Panthers.

The Secret Service was aware of Byck’s antics, of course, but his rambling got lost in the many, many threatening letters Richard Nixon inspired. In what proved to be a major miscalculation, they wrote Byck off as harmless.

On the morning of February 22, 1974, Samuel Byck shot a police officer at the Baltimore/Washington International Airport. Then he stormed aboard the nearest plane that seemed ready to take off. According to his tremendously long and detailed audio diary, his plan was to fly the plane into the White House and kill the president.

Unfortunately for Byck, the Atlanta-bound DC-9 he took over wasn’t quite ready for take off, since it still had chocks under its wheels. When the flight crew told Byck about this, he shot both pilots — one of whom later died — grabbed a random passenger, and ordered her to fly the plane.

She didn’t have any more luck than the two trained pilots Byck had just shot. Before Byck could come up with a Plan B, police stormed the plane and shot him twice through a window. Byck ended the episode by shooting himself with a .357 Magnum he had stolen before the rampage.

Two attackers tried to shoot Gerald Ford during his September 1974 visit to California. Together, they were the only two women in history known to have tried to kill a president. Both used pistols, both failed, and while there’s no reason to believe they were working together, both were foiled by their inability to properly operate the guns they were carrying.

The first attempt came on September 5, on the north lawn of the California State Capitol Building. There, Lynette Fromme, who was almost the last devoted member of the Manson Family, strolled right up to President Ford while wearing a bright red robe and carrying a 1911 .45cal automatic pistol with four rounds in the magazine.

None of the rounds were in the chamber, however, so Fromme’s attempt ended with a slight clicking sound and a dive-tackle by the Secret Service. Fromme actually got really close to Ford, and it’s likely she’d have killed him if she had thought to chamber a round before the attempt. According to her later statements, Fromme did it on behalf of California’s redwood trees.

The second attempt came 17 days later, on September 22, in San Francisco. There, a woman named Sarah Jane Moore managed to get off a single shot that missed Ford by six inches. Moore was a huge fan of Patty Hearst — even working at a Hearst Foundation nonprofit — and well-known to authorities as a radical who moonlighted as an FBI informant.

In the run-up to the assassination attempt, Moore threw off as many warning signs as she possibly could. She said and did a lot of suspicious things and even had her gun confiscated by the police the day before. This was before waiting periods existed, so Moore just went out and bought a replacement .38cal revolver the morning of the attempt.

What Moore didn’t know was that the gun’s sights were misaligned, so her first shot went wide by half a foot. Before she could correct for the error, Moore was tackled by a retired Marine and hauled off to jail. The wild shot she fired on her way to the ground also missed and wounded a nearby cab driver.

The two women’s lives continued to parallel each other for decades. Both pled guilty and continued spouting radical politics from their cells. Both women briefly escaped from prison in the late 1970s, only to be picked up and returned after a few hours. Both were paroled a year or two after Gerald Ford died of natural causes in 2006.

Going by their public statements since being paroled, Moore came to regret trying to kill the president, while Fromme still believes Charles Manson is the Messiah.

SHOW CLOSE=====

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! And please leave a rating and review of the show in the podcast app you listen from – doing so helps the show to get noticed! You can also email me anytime with your questions or comments through the website at WeirdDarkness.com. That’s also where you can find all of my social media, listen to free audiobooks, shop the Weird Darkness store, sign up for the newsletter to win monthly prizes, find my other podcast “Church of the Undead”, and more.

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.

“Could Our Moon Be An Alien Spaceship?” posted at Anomalien.com

“The Unsolved Villisca Ax Murders” by Joe Turner for HistoricMysteries.com, and from HauntedRoom.com

“California’s City of the Dead” by Hugh Landman for Ranker.com’s Graveyard Shift

“Are Extraterrestrials in the Bible?” by Ellen Lloyd for AncientPages.com

“Bizarre Assassination Attempts on U.S. Presidents” by Richard Stockton for AllThatsInteresting.com

Again, you can find link to all of these stories in the show notes.

WeirdDarkness™ – is a production and trademark of Marlar House Productions. Copyright, Weird Darkness.

Now that we’re coming out of the dark, I’ll leave you with a little light… “For the sake of his great name the LORD will not reject his people, because the LORD was pleased to make you his own.” — 1 Samuel 12:22

And a final thought… “God has objective for your pain, a motive for your struggle and a gift for your faithfulness. Don’t give up!” – Unknown

I’m Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness.