Wondery subscribers can listen to morbid early and ad free. Join wondery in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. You're listening to a morbid network podcast.

Hey, weirdos. I'm Elena. I'm Ash, and this is morbid.

The once was a ship that put to sea and the name of that ship was a billy ot. The winds blew harder Bob dipped down blow me, bully boys, blow soon may the weatherman come to bring us sugar and tea and rum one day when the dangling is done take our leave and go.

How do you guys feel about double spaced documents?

Ash has a lot of thoughts about it.

Well, I just double spaced my document, and then I was like, mmm, that might be a little too much.

So then. Don't you ask people to double space their puddafas?

It's wild that you just call me out like that on a national podcast, but. Okay, I didn't call you out.

You say it.

No, I do.

You know, and people do it, and.

They do, and I appreciate it. So that's. No. Okay. Good point, though, because.

Thank you.

You're welcome. On PDF, we're, like, real punchy today. We are on PDF's. It looks good. But I was just in the Google Docs. In the Google. And a double space is like, all right.

Jarring.

It's almost insulting. I'm not that blind.

Yeah, it insists upon itself.

Yeah.

You know, I'm not old. I'm nothing old. I mean, do we drink carbonated sparkling water?

Not around here.

Not that old.

I took two sips of that shit and I said.

Well, you know what's exciting? What?

Why'd you look up when you said that?

It dimmed a little bit again. I thought the. The sun had sneezed and blinked again.

Oh, that did happen today.

A few days ago.

No, Mama, that happened ten minutes ago. You good?

Miss, I need more coffee.

That happened several years ago.

Hey, Elena, I've been in this room for several years.

That's like when I say something happened the other day. Yes.

It could be any time between, like, an hour ago and two decades ago. Yeah, no, it was only a couple minutes ago. The light. The sun seemed to have blinked real quick.

Sneeze.

Which was disconcerting.

Yeah, but we're all here still right now, at least.

That's okay. And what's exciting is we're talking about a spooky lighthouse. Guys, we're doing a spooky episode because we. I mean, come on. We haven't done it. We've been in a long time.

And it's almost the burr months.

I am wearing a Halloween sweatshirt right now in full preparation.

Shut up. Actually, by the time you hear this, will it be burrhichdhe?

Will it be burnt?

Will it be September? No, we're not that far.

No, we're not that far, are we? Maybe. Who knows? We could be. So maybe it's the burr months. And if so, welcome to the burr months.

And if it's not, get fucking excited. I do like your sweatshirt. Where's that from?

Thank you. American eagle, actually.

Is it really?

Yeah, everybody. I'll post it, cuz it's very comfortable.

Wow, it looks. It's like a good slouch.

Very slouchy, very comfy. I actually saw Michaela on TikTok go to Pato. She said. She said, I got this at American Eagle. And I said, holy shit, that's really cute. And I got it. She influenced me.

Shop.

Shop. Make it shop.

I love her so much. Michaela, be our friend.

This is day 200 of saying, mikayla, be our friend.

She's like, okay.

She's like, please leave me alone. You're weird. Progress. But, yeah, she influenced me. And let me tell you, that's cute. She wasn't kidding.

I like it.

I'll post it on my instagram. You guys can find it easily.

Gotta shop my.

I don't. Yeah, absolutely. There you go.

We'll talk later.

But, yeah, it's time for some spooky. We haven't done it in a long time, and these are just like. They're just kind of a. They get me so ready for the spooky season because it's, like, the haunted aspect. But there's also a lot of true crime in here.

Oh, yeah. Mine has a murder.

Your murder. That was confused as, like, a suicide. But when you hear it, you're gonna be like, um.

Why would they even think that mine was really senseless?

Yeah. As they usually are.

Yeah, typically.

But I'll start with mine.

Oh, okay.

I'm gonna start with mine.

Oh, all right.

It's me first.

Me, me. I'm first.

Oh, no. My fancy ice is not available on Instagram.

What?

You guys know those ice things? Like the big balls of ice? Yeah, I just really like those.

I'll bring you my molds.

Thanks, I appreciate that.

I have an ice maker in my fridge now. It's a luxury I never knew.

Yeah.

And now I know it.

I just. I really like those big ones because they take forever to melt. And then if I want, like, an ice cold Coca Cola, then it doesn't get wadded down.

This is unimportant, but I have to know. Do you drink other beverages in your Stanley other than water?

No.

Me either.

Never.

Me either, because I feel it would taint it. I do have several, so I could, like, delegate one nested.

You know, I only have one Stanley, and I only drink water in it.

It's crazy that you only have one. I gotta get you another one. But I feel like an ice cold beverage in your Stanley cup. Like, with the ice in it, would be the equivalent to, like, when you get a McDonald's.

Oh, I bet it would. Slap. So my lighthouse today is the cap romaine lighthouse in South Carolina.

Okay, cool.

This is a very. It's in McClellanville, South Carolina.

I like how you say that.

McClellan. So in the spot where this lighthouse is today, and they're, like, abandoned now, I believe. Like, I think people took care of them, but, like, they're in a pretty lonely part of the island and everything. They're just really by themselves.

Oh, that's sad.

Now, where the lighthouse is today, there used to be a windmill.

Okay.

A lot of ships back in the day, in the 18 hundreds, would mistake this windmill for the Charleston lighthouse, which was another port. Oh, no. And they would end up tragically crashing because the waters are crazy, treacherous off of this island where, like, the raccoon keys and Cape Romaine are. There were a number of fatal accidents because of this. And people said that they probably, because at first, you're like, they confused a windmill for it. Like, they have blades, but when it got, like, windy and shit, they would take the blades off of the windmill. So it looked like a lighthouse, like, the tower looked just like one.

Well, I guess if they're going fast enough, you might.

And it's dark.

Yeah.

And it's dark. Foggy. Easy to get confused.

Yeah. We're not sailors. We don't know.

We're not. I'm not claiming to be maritime at all. So, you know, who am I? Who am I to say not.

Not maritime out here?

Not maritime.

Morbid is not going maritime. I'm not nautical.

So the spanish schooner, the diamond or the Diamante crashed there in 1816, and there was a loss of 21 lives in this crash. And after this incident, the national advocate paper in New York City wrote, quote, several vessels have been wrecked, and many accidents happen. From mistaking the windmill on Cape Romaine for the Charleston light. The loss of the diamond from Havana is attributed to that cause. The safety of vessels and security of persons and property renders it necessary that something should be done to prevent accidents of like nature. It would be well to take down the windmill or erect a lighthouse. We think, however, if the windmill is removed, it would answer the purpose. At present, the similarity between the Charleston light and the windmill is the case of many unfortunate casualties. That was only one crash. Wow. It just happened to be a very big one. Many happened because of this. Now, that was in 1816. That that crash happened in 1817. A man named Edmund Blunt wrote in some outlet. I'm not exactly sure where he wrote. We will also give a hint to the owner of the windmill on Cape Romaine, which has deceived many navigators and caused a destruction of their vessels.

And remind him that as there is a curse denounced against him who removeth his neighbor's landmark, we presume and hope a double curse will be his who willfully holds out a false beacon to the mariner when approaching the coast.

Oh, them's fighting words like, damn. So that sounds like the guy who owned the windmill was like, fuck you. Don't touch my window windmill. And that guy was like, fuck you. We're not going to touch your windmill. We're just going to re up and double your curse.

We're going to double that curse. Because he was like, I curse the man who fucketh with my landmark.

Yeah.

And they were like, okay, we curseth you. We double curse the man who fucketh with the mariners trying to navigate out there.

No takesies backs. Yes.

So someone actually made up a poem about it, and they referred to it as a murderous beacon poem, which is a hefty indictment.

That's a slander, if you will.

I would say so. So at the end of 1821, shit was getting intense and the pressure was getting pretty thick with all these people crashing and dying and all these tragedies happening.

Yeah.

So the South Carolina government was like, wow, we should probably fix this, because it does kind of look like a lighthouse in the fog and the dark.

When she said, now that you mention it, you know what?

You are right. Fun side fact for all my Bravo kids out there. Oh, me does everybody. All right, these are from my southern charm watchers. Okay. Does everyone remember John Pringle? Yes. Was he only on, like, one season or something of southern charm the season before last? There you go. So John Pringle came on. We were all like, who is this? I found what I assume to be his ancestor in this story. Yeah.

Cause he has deep roots in South Carolina.

Yeah. James Pringle of Charleston.

Shut the fuck up.

He was appointed as one of the commissioners on this task to, like, fix this problem.

I'm obsessed.

And so I thought that was kind of funny. And although their initial resolution was very pringle of them, actually, they just proposed putting a mark on the windmill, like, across.

As if people are gonna see that in the fucking distance.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Like what?

That was very. I don't know, that was pretty pringle ish to me. It felt like, I don't know, John.

Pringle was an interesting vibe.

Yeah. So obviously that wasn't a brilliant plan. So they agreed to build a lighthouse to actually aid in navigation.

I love that. They were like, symbol. No, okay, lighthouse.

Yeah. At first they were just like, let's just like, slap across on it. And it's like, that's not gonna help.

And they're like, all right, fair enough.

They were like, I guess we'll build a whole lighthouse. And it's like, wow. So you could have done that.

They were like, what if we spend $20 instead of $20,000?

Yeah, but see, we finally got there, so they plan to erect it on Raccoon key. Cause the other place, I think, like, the other side of the place where they wanted to do it was like the tide was too crazy. It would end up, like, eroding where it was and then there's no point. So in March 1827, they build one. They build a lighthouse 65ft high. It's made of brick. They also build a keeper's residence on the area, of course. But apparently the lighthouse wasn't great because it wasn't a. That tall when it comes to, like, lighthouses and, like, being at sea level and seeing it, it was kind of like, when you look at it now, you're like, mom, I was a little puny.

Oh, that's funny. Mine is 66ft tall.

Yeah, this one was, like, pretty puny. When it comes to, like, the sea level that we are at here, like, I think, like, it wasn't able to be seen very well. And I think part of that was also that mariners were complaining a lot that the light was super dim.

Oh.

And it would be super bright for a little while, and then as the night went on, it would burn out. So they were like, this is a little janky.

They were like, hey, this isn't exactly what we were looking at.

They're like, this actually is like, less.

Helpful, but no cigar.

So that was in. No, that was in 1827.

Okay. Listening on audible helps your imagination soar. Whether you listen to stories, motivation, expert advice, any genre you love, you can be inspired to imagine new worlds, new possibilities, new ways of thinking. Find the genres you love and discover new ones along the way. Explore bestsellers new releases, plus thousands of included audiobooks and originals that members can listen to all they want with more added all the time. Audible makes it easy to be inspired and entertained as part of your daily routine without needing to set aside extra time. Theres more to imagine when you listen. If you know me, you know that I recently just got into the fantasy genre and I have been listening to the spell shop. It's the titles written by Sarah Beth Durst and it's narrated by Caitlin Davies. I totally recommend this one. It's so whimsical. If you need a little escape, this is a title you're going to want to listen to as an audible member. You can choose one title a month to keep from the entire catalog, including the latest bestsellers and new releases. New members can try audible free for 30 days. Visit audible.com morbid or text morbid to 500 500 thats audible.com morbid or text morbid to 500 500 to try audible free for 30 days.

Audible.com morbid this show is sponsored by better help I feel like kids are always learning and growing, obviously, but as adults we sometimes lose that curiosity. Whats something you want to learn? Gardening? A new language? Maybe how to finally beat your best friend in bowling? I recently took up learning how to do sourdough. Therapy can help you reconnect with your sense of wonder because your back to school era can come at any age. I feel like I'm experiencing my back to school era right now. Learning the sourdough process. It's pretty crazy, and I feel like therapy taught me that. I kind of wanted to like dive deeper into some of my interests that I've been holding on to for a while, and I feel like you could learn that in therapy too. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give better help a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule, and all you have to do is fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist. Switch therapist anytime for no additional charge. No big deal. Rediscover your curiosity with betterhelp. Visit betterhelp.com morbid today to get 10% off your first month.

That's betterhelp h dash e dash P.com morbid.

In 1852. They're like, wow, all right, we'll fix it. Like 1852.

No, that makes sense. I have similar shit. Go on with me. Yeah, with me and my lighthouse.

With me and my life and my lighthouse. It's always this way. But they finally were like, all right, we'll fix it. So they go to fix it because they got, like, some grant or something that said, like, you can fix up this lighthouse and make it usable. But then when they tried to, they were like, we actually can't fix this one up.

Oh, no.

They tear down. Well, and then they were like, okay, we'll build another one. So they were like, leave the other one up while we build this one. Then normally when this happens, they tear the other one down.

Yeah.

But they didn't. In this instance, both of them are still standing.

That's interesting.

And they're right next to each other. Huh.

So they go to for one.

Yeah, there you go. And this one's taller. They also used slave labor on this one. So already we have some not great vibes and not great energy already happening on this.

Yeah, I don't love that.

Yeah. And it's. That's something that in every source you will read or see is very, like, specifically, they make sure you know that because I think the shit that goes down here, you're like, oh, there's some bad energy. And this one is 150ft high. Holy shit. And even crazier. Stop. It leans slightly. It's like the leaning tower of Pisa.

I was just going to say that. It's fun with photos, I bet.

Yeah. Just pretend you're holding it up.

Yeah.

So, you know, it's fine. It's cool. It can lean. That's okay. They've had to fix it up a few times over the years to make sure it's not leaning to, like, a dangerous place, but it's still leaning. And that brings us. So that's. What a beginning. What a beginning to this structure.

Yeah.

And let me tell you, doesn't get better. Something pretty crazy happened there. So Tuesday, April 8, 1873 at 05:00 p.m. captain Andrew Johnson, which might be Johansson, but maybe was changed to Johnson because he was from Norway. Oh, okay. He was married to a woman from Sweden. She is not named in any source that you can find. She is only misses Johnson or misses Andrew Johnson.

That's fucked up.

Yeah.

She had a name.

She sure did, but we don't know it now. At 05:00 p.m. captain Andrew Johnson, he was the lighthouse keeper. He left his home, the residence on the area and went on his way to light the lighthouse lamp and to do his normal, like, you know, lighthouse keeper business.

Yeah, as one does.

Exactly. He'd been the keeper for about six years at this point and had an annual salary of $700.

Huh.

Yeah. And he was. He was gone for a while because it's not an easy job being a lighthouse keeper. And his wife was back at the residence again. They're right next to each other, but, like, he's not in the house. Yeah. And the keeper said his wife was in good spirits and seemed completely fine when he left her. Nothing was amiss.

Okay.

He saw her around 06:00 p.m. outside tending to chores around the house. And he spotted her from where he was standing high above her. He was out on the gallery, which is like that balcony that surrounds the light.

Yep.

And she waved at him. He waved at her, and she went back inside the house.

He looked at her and she looked at him.

That's literally what happened then. So Julius L. Lee, who was the assistant lighthouse keeper, he also lived on the property. That's usually how it went. Like, the keeper would live there. And the assistant. And he stated a bit after the events that are about to take place, that misses Johnson came over to his residence at one point and had just, like, hung out with him and his wife for a little bit. Like, sat down and talked.

Yeah.

And they reported later that she was also in great spirits. Like, they didn't. They didn't see anything amiss either. She wasn't upset. She wasn't, you know, this is important to note.

Yeah.

And so Captain Johnson stayed on his shift at the lighthouse until about 09:00 p.m. and then he was relieved by Julius Le. The assistant got it after only about, he claimed. So Julius Lee said it was about five or six minutes after he saw him go into his house. Captain Johnson ran out of his home screaming that his wife was dead. She had killed herself.

Oh, God.

So he and the assistant went back into the house and found his wife, 53 years old, splayed out on the bed or on the floor, depending on the source that you look at.

Okay.

Absolutely. Soaked in blood in her night clothes.

Oh, no.

Her throat had been cut from ear to ear.

And they're claiming that's a suicide.

There was a revolver next to her. It was his revolver. Captain Johnson's revolver.

Yeah.

But there was no. It had not been shot.

Okay.

Apparently, they said they somehow determined that the revolver was probably intended to be used at one point, but was not discharged for some reason. It got, like, stuck. Like it jammed, essentially. So next to her was a straight razor as well. Oh, my God, that was used to cut her throat.

Oh, yeah.

Now, interestingly, too, once they called people to the scene, jewelry was missing, but only her jewelry. He had valuables, and none of his valuables were taken.

And that's strange.

And also the room looked like it had been, like, slightly ransacked. Her clothing was everywhere, which was not normal.

And why would she do that before?

And the door leading into the bedroom open and locked from the inside. And was clearly tampered with. What? And witnesses say they later found a pair of gold spectacles in the garden below the bedroom window. And they were hers.

In the garden below the bedroom window?

Yeah. Okay. So Captain Johnson said he couldn't understand what had happened here. He didn't see anyone go in there, but he wasn't looking the whole time because he was keeping the lighthouse.

Yeah, you gotta do that.

And he said his wife did once tell him, like, during their relationship, that she once had thoughts of wanting to kill herself, potentially.

Okay.

But neighbors and friends all said their marriage was great. They were very happy together, very content. There was no signs, any slight indication of trouble or violence of any kind in that home. They were nothing violent with each other. Nothing. And they all said they didn't see any indication that she would be upset. There's all these stories that come out where they say, like, you know, she wanted to go visit Sweden and go back to see her family, and he wouldn't let her. Okay. So she got so despondent that she. It doesn't make sense, though. It's not suicide. Yeah, this is not suicide. And I don't think many people believe it is.

Yeah, it doesn't sound like it. It just sounds bizarre.

It does. And interestingly, too, apparently the couple had a savings account with South Carolina loan and trust company. The account had reached $1,400. That's big back there. Exactly. And ten days before her death, misses Johnson had gone into town, gone to the bank and told her, told the people at the bank that her husband had asked her to withdraw all the money for some kind of business venture he was entering into. So she was given the money, she wrote a check, she did all the things, given the money because she had permissions to do it. But after her death, Captain Johnson said he never asked her to do that. There was no business venture, and they have no idea where the money went and where her jewelry and valuables went.

That's weird that she was the one to take out the money and then specifically her jewels were missing.

Yeah. Isn't that strange? That's the thing, there's really no theories because people, like, didn't know anything about them.

And it's like whoever did, like, they either had to be on the island or she would. They would have had to arrive by boat. And he's manning the lighthouse so he'd see some. Somebody arrived by fucking boat.

Exactly. So it's got to be somebody. One theory I did see from someone that. And they're just speculating like wildly here because what do we have to go on?

Yeah.

Is like, did someone at the bank or someone, like, did someone at the bank know she had that money, saw that she took it out for some reason or, like, and follow, like, came to take it?

You know, somebody would have seen them.

Arrive with sending her to take that money out in the first place.

Yeah.

If she. Or why was she doing it?

Or did she owe somebody a debt first?

That's what I wonder. And people think, like, did she take out the money because she was gonna leave her husband? So she took all the money and, like, sold her jewelry to, like, get money to leave.

And he found out.

Maximal that's the other side where people are like, did he find out and flip out?

Interesting. I mean, it doesn't sound like we'll ever fucking know.

That's the thing.

They did end up ruling it a suicide.

They. I don't even think. I don't even know if it was officially ruled because this is even crazier back then.

They didn't do that.

She was placed in a temporary grave at the lighthouse because they couldn't get the coroner out there or get her to the corner in time. And they had to keep her from.

The elements and everything.

Yeah. And so they placed her in a temporary quote unquote grave on the lighthouse grounds. Like buried her to keep her from, like, decaying as fast. But no one knows if she is still buried there because there is no records of her not being buried there.

Shut the fuck up.

So her body could still be buried there.

Shut the fuck up.

And there's like, all these stories about light keepers after these people tending to the grounds. Like, there's a grave there, like, making sure, like, honor that there might be a person buried under here.

But nobody knows where. I.

But he knows where.

That's chillin I know.

And the spooky part about it is that bloodstains inside the keeper's residence, like after this, couldn't be cleaned. And they remain no matter how much scrubbing was done. And sometimes they would get lighter and then they would darken again, like they reappeared.

And there's no scientific not reason why that would happen.

Not because these are just, like, people talking about it, like, spoopy, goopy, and this is, like, wooden, you know, like, why it's like. And then droplets of blood would also appear around the residence. People who lived there afterwards said, like, just drops of blood would appear.

I couldn't do that. I couldn't handle that.

They would still hear soft footsteps going up and down the 195 steps of the lighthouse.

Oh, you could never catch me in the afterlife, climbing stairs like that.

And they think that she was like, she's going around just walking through, or.

It'S like a residual haunting.

Yeah.

One of my absolute favorite things is when it's time for fall and I can get rid of literally all of my summer clothes. I pack them away, I put them in a box in the attic, and I say, see you later. Goodbye, and I take down all of my fall stuff. And then I add a few staple pieces that I can continue to wear forever and ever into my wardrobe. But guess what? I am always going to quince.com to get those staple pieces because quints offers timeless and high quality items that I simply adore, ensuring that my wardrobe stays fresh and I don't blow my budget. They literally have cashmere sweaters from dollar 50. They have pants for every occasion, washable silk tops. You understand if you have a silk top. A lot of times they're not washable. These ones from quints are. And they have so much more. I love a tailored pant, but I also love a pull on pant. And their organic stretch cotton wide leg chino pants are to die for. They come in multiple colors, and I have every single one of them. Make switching seasons a breeze with Quince's high quality closet essentials.

Go to quince.com morbid for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's Q dash e.com morbid to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com morbidity.

And a keeper named August Frederick Wickman claims.

I think August is such a cool name.

I love that name, too.

Right?

Especially for a boy. Yes, I think it's a really cool boy name. I do, too. He claimed that he heard them all the time. He's like, it used to freak me out, and then I got used to it. And his son, who was born on the island and took on after him, said he also heard it and would see, like, weird apparitions on the, on the ground.

It's so creepy. If you've ever heard, like, footsteps when you know that you should not be hearing footsteps? That's a weird ass feeling. Because you heard the footsteps at mountain Pos, right? I used to hear it all the time. Like, they wouldn't be home. I would be home alone and I would hear footsteps and be like, oh, cool, someone's coming to murder me.

Great. Like, oh, cool.

And then nothing would happen. It would just be fucking footsteps.

It is so creepy.

What the fuck? It's just. It's really freaking me out that they don't know if she's buried there or not.

That's the thing that really got me. We have every reason to believe that she might. Oh my God.

That was so scary. Why did that happen? There's no reason why that should have just happened.

Oh my God.

Fuck.

You gotta keep moving.

Oh, no, genuinely, why did that happen? You saw it.

I saw it.

That was very punch my shit.

Her headphones, as soon as she said it really freaks me out that she could be buried there. They slowly. And it wasn't like they slid down.

They slowly also, they were on the other side of that stopper.

They went over this little thing.

Oh, no. Oh no. Oh no. What the fuck? It really grinds my gears that you're haunting me. What are you doing? Yeah, it really bends my gears.

I don't think it's that little guy's fault.

I'm so. I love you.

I don't think it's that guy's fault.

I was upset yesterday that it was here. No, no, he can, like, stay. Give him. Put him on Elena's side.

Yeah, you can put him.

He can stay here. It's okay. Just please don't mess with me. It scares me. Oh, you know, maybe that's just saying, hi, my heart.

They weren't trying to hurt you. They were just being like, wiggle, wiggle the tv. I mean, that was a reminder so long ago. Weeks.

That's fucking weird that that just happened. Um, sorry, I was saying if I could finish, if that's all right, but fuck.

Jesus, I'm really excited to hear that back.

Yes.

That was the most genuinely horrified reaction I have heard in a long time.

No, that was really j. I moved away. I didn't know if. If they were gonna fly at my face.

In case you guys have no fucking clue what's going on right now. Cause you are not in the room with us.

Fair, fair.

We have like, mic stands in front of us and both of us have our headphones, like, on the mic stands. Yeah, but there's like, a little stopper between, like, the rest of the pull of the nightstand. That would stop them from, like, falling down onto the microphone.

Yeah. And mine are literally hung over that stopper.

And at all times, Ash said, you.

Just kind of think it's.

Ash said, when she said, it really freaks me out to not know if she's buried there or not. They literally jumped over the little stopper. It was like they were pushed and wiggled down almost right into her face.

And did you hear the. When they hopped over the thing? Yeah, I heard them as they came. And I was like, I heard them as they came.

It sounds like they gave a run. I heard them as they approached.

I did. I heard them as they came sliding.

It was weird. It was weird. I watched it. It's right in front of me, so I saw that happen. I wish we were recording. We probably should record these things. Oh, God.

I know. We really should.

Yeah. But if you want me to end on, like, a strange note, go for it. I just happen to find. So, in the Vermont Union from 1873, like a newspaper, there's this little section that's called items.

Okay?

And it's just like, little short news items, like, back to back to back. And I'm reading through it, because this situation. Because this was 1873. So this crime, this what I think was murder, is in here as, like, an item, because it had just happened.

Right?

But when I tell you this is the most bonkers array of items, back to back.

Oh, no.

I'm gonna read them to you really quick. So it says, a mysterious tragedy occurred on Saturday night at Cape Romaine Lighthouse, Sc. Misses Johnson's, wife of. Misses Johnson, wife of the keeper, was found dead with her throat cut from ear to ear in a razor and a revolver lying by her side. A large sum of money, which the deceased had lately drawn from the bank, is missing. It is not known whether she was murdered or committed suicide. And then there's a dash to show that we're going to the next item. And it says, the female applicants for clerkships in the Treasury Department pass better examinations than the Mendez.

Hell, yeah.

Then there's a dash, and it says, a number of human scalps were recently discovered in a bale of rags received from the west by a paper mill in Petersburg, Virginia.

What the fuck?

Yep. Then the next one is a Newark man gave a friend a bottle of oil of vitriol to make his beard grow. It didn't work as the friend expected, so we went from a murderous to exams. Girls do better than boys on exams, says the treasury department. Then, hey, we found this bag of scalps that seemed to have come from Virginia. And then it goes right to like this guy gave this guy an oil for his beard and he said, your beard will grow. And it did not as expected.

It was snake oil.

What am I to do? What am I meant to do with all of those items back to back?

I don't know exactly. I mean, they're selling papers, that's for sure.

To go from. Girls do better than boys on exams sometimes too. I found a bale of human scalps.

That'S a bit cray.

I mean, that's a lot. And then, like, this guy's beard didn't grow like you wanted it to.

Did you look further into the human scalps?

No, but I'm sure going to. Yeah, if I know you, I'm definitely going to.

Yeah, if I know you, you, I'm.

Going to look into the human scalp.

What the poop? That's scary.

So, yeah. So old newspapers are hilarious and scary.

Yeah.

Wow.

I want to know. I want to know about that.

I must look it up. But that's the cape romaine lighthouse. At least a story about it and why it's haunted today.

Wow. Well, I have the little Ross lighthouse murder. Ooh, I'm still fucking shook.

I need. I can't wait to hear that back.

Oh my God. All right, so little Ross Lighthouse is located in Scotland.

Scotland.

It's in Kirky Bright Bay. And I looked up how to say that. So if you yell at me, don't yell at Google, don't, don't. The island, little Ross, is only accessible by boat or helicopter and it stretches about 29 acres. It was designed by Alan Stevenson in 1843 and like your original lighthouse, it stands at about 66ft tall.

That little guy.

Yeah, little guy. It was constructed to close the gap between other lighthouses at the mull of Galway and southernness. But author David Collin points out, before the lighthouse existed, before any lighthouse existed in the area, there was demand for one. There was like shipwrecks going on, there was stormy weather. It was bad.

It was bad. It was not a maritime good time.

I love that.

It was a bad maritime, it was a malitime. Yes, there you go.

So the demand dates all the way back to 1792 when Reverend Doctor Robert Muter wrote in stormy weather when vessels can neither keep the sea nor clear the land. This harbor is the best in the south coast of Scotland for shelter and on that account is much frequented in the winter. But the entrance into it being narrow, a strong tide setting right across and no lighthouse to direct them. It is dangerous to run for it in the dark and engage with a lee shore. Many fatal accidents happen by ships missing the harbor and being driven into Wigtown Bay or on the banks of Solway Firth. The island of Little Ross affords an excellent situation for a lighthouse. One might be erected there at a small expense and kept up on moderate terms. It would be of the utmost utility to all shipping, and particularly to strangers in the hour of danger. Were the government apprised the great benefit that would result from this, it is to be hoped they would think the matter worthy of their attention and cause a lighthouse to be erected at the public expense.

Wow.

So basically he said, it's really fucking dangerous around here. It'd be hella dope if we built a lighthouse, and it wouldn't even be that expensive.

Yeah. So they're like, why not?

It would take 48 years.

That's a lot of years.

48 years. Bunch of back and forth with different lighthouse boards and people lobbying to make this happen and a ton more shipwrecks and deaths. But finally, in 1840, they got approval for the lighthouse. It was given by northern lighthouse board and Trinity House. So Robert Stevenson and his son Thomas were actually the first to start surveying the area for a good site. But Robert wanted to retire, so that's why ultimately, his brother Alan Stevenson, took over the design process with his nephew Thomas, starting the actual building and engineering in 1843. So the construction would actually be completed on schedule, which might be the only time that's happened in the history of literally ever.

100%.

It is, yeah, I think so.

100%.

And the lighting system was so advanced that at the time, William Thompson, who later took the name Lord Kelvin. I don't know if you know who that is.

I don't know who that is.

As in the guy that discovered Kelvin's scale of temperature? What he said it was, quote, undoubtedly of the three best revolving lights in the world.

Damn.

Isn't that crazy?

That's. That's a big honor.

That's high praise for a lighthouse. For a lighthouse, yeah. Yeah. That light would shine bright like a diamond, baby. From 1843 until 1960.

Damn.

That was when it became automated, most likely due to something pretty huge in the lighthouse's history.

You don't say.

According to one publication, though, the quality of design, construction and maintenance of all the buildings comprising the lighthouse station has been so high that very few changes have been made in. In their entire history, which, like. Wow, that's crazy.

Yeah, that's awesome. That's a good flex.

I would say so, but the island made headlines again back in 2017 when it went up for sale for just €325,000.

Wait a sec.

A whole fucking island?

Like, the entire island?

The island went up for sale? Lighthouse. Like, there was cottages still on it. They were, like, definitely in need of some work, but the cottages were still there. And the whole island for 300.

The whole damn island, it sold for.

More than that, but, like, they were.

Willing to part with it, but yeah.

And could that be because a grisly murder took place there decades ago? I think so, too. In August of 1960, author David Collin, who I mentioned above, he was home visiting from college at the time, and he used to go out to little Ross island all the time. But on this specific trip, his father decided to join him. And when they arrived on the island, they enjoyed a little lunch together, and they were gonna kind of, like, explore around, but they decided, oh, you know what? We should stop in at the cottages and introduce ourselves to the keepers. We're trying to be as, you know, polite and respectful as they could. Yeah. So they headed straight to the cottages on the island, which at that time, were kept up because the keepers were living there.

Yeah.

They would usually kind of be, like, doing chores during the day, like, bopping around, you know?

Yeah.

So they figured, you know, let's introduce ourselves, let them know that we're just here for the day visiting. But as they looked around the cottages, there was no one to be found. But they noticed that there was a dog who David said was, quote, very pleased to see us.

Oh.

And as they looked around some more, the dog just followed alongside them, like, just stuck with them.

The pupper tin.

They kept looking, and they noticed that, like, the closer they got, they were hearing a phone ringing. And the phone was ringing over and over and over, like hours long, nonstop. Nobody answering the phone.

Okay.

So it was pretty clear that something was off here.

Yeah.

So David Collins father decided they should look around a little bit more to make sure that everybody was okay. Also, looking around that island must have been chilling because they didn't know it, but they were the only two living souls at that point, and things were not great around here.

And it's chilling.

The more and more they looked, it just got more unsettling. This is really sad. And it ends okay, but they found a rabbit that was trapped under a wooden box, and they just had to free him. And he was, like, panicked, but he's like, thanks, man. Yeah. He was so distressed. But after letting him out, they kept looking around and they didn't see any signs of anyone. This dog is still following them around. They're like, what the fuck is going on here? And it was getting close to the time that they were planning on leaving. And they obviously, because, you know, they're on an island and they have to use the boat to get home, they have to time it properly. I don't know anything about tides.

Yeah, I love that you're like, you know, schedules and times.

I'm like, I don't know if you leave high tide or low tide, but the moon says you leave at one of those times.

The moon is like, I tell you when you leave, bitch.

And they said the moon told them. He said, hey, it's getting close to closing time here, so pack it up.

Moon's like, I'm about ready.

But still they were like, that phone keeps ringing. This dog is like following us. No one's around. This is weird.

Yeah, that is weird.

So David's father decided to try to make one last try to see if anybody was around. And he ended up looking into one of the windows of a cottage and what he thought he saw was somebody lying in bed. So he's like, I don't think they're sleeping because I feel like we would have woken them up. The dog might have, the phone might have.

There's just a vibe.

Yeah. So they made their way in there and they found an older man lying quite still in his bed. David Collins recalled to the Scotsman what happened next, saying everything looked normal. But moving closer to him, my father could see there was a towel wrapped on his head and there was blood on the towel.

Oh, man.

Our assumption was that he had fallen down the lighthouse stairs and the other keeper had left to get help. But we couldn't understand why he hadn't come back.

Oof. This is really creepy.

Yeah. Imagine you're like, you just go for a day trip to this island that you go to all the time.

Yeah.

And this is what you.

And this is what you stumble across.

Yeah. So rather than wait around for the other keeper to come back, they called the police and a doctor. But because the island is so remote, they had to wait 3 hours for help to arrive.

See, this is what happens. That's why they had to bury misses Johnson.

Yeah. Exactly. How fucking creepy is that?

Super creepy.

Especially when, like, you don't really have any association to this place. Like, and you just have to stick.

Around you staying here with what you assume is a dead body. Dead body.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So police showed up and they came obviously with a doctor around 07:00 p.m. that night. And that was then when they realized that this man had died from a gunshot wound to his left eye. Later, when the body was formally examined, the bullet was said to have fallen out of the man's eye socket.

Wow.

The medical examiner flipped him around, and.

That'S when the bullet stinged right out.

Yup.

Damn.

Not great. Wow.

What a visual.

So the man who was killed was identified pretty quickly as the keeper of the lighthouse, Hugh Clark. And he is an adorable man and was known to be, like, a really kind, great man.

Aw, that makes me so sad.

Coincidentally, his assistant keeper, Robert Dixon, was nowhere to be found.

You don't say.

It turned out Robert Dixon had escaped from the island using Hugh Clark's dinghy to row to the mainland.

Oh, no.

Or the mainland.

The mainland.

The mainland. And then he stole Hugh Clark's car to make his way even further from the scene.

Jeez.

He then rented a car and made it all the way to Yorkshire before being apprehended on what David Collin described as, quote, unquote, impressively acute information.

Look at that.

When they pulled over the car that Robert Dixon had hired after ditching Hugh Clark's car, they questioned him about what he knew relating to the murder, and he replied, all right, I know all about it.

Wow.

Yeah. And they found, I think it was dollar 80 in cash on him, which he shouldn't have had, and a gun with him.

I mean, that's pretty smoking.

Yeah. So no one really knows what exactly led Robert Dixon to murder Hugh Clark in his sleep, because it was believed that the man was sleeping when he was shot.

Somehow, that's even worse. You know, like, his most vulnerable state. He's not doing anything wrong. Yeah, he's just sleeping.

There really wasn't, like. There really wasn't a lot of motive here.

Yeah.

He was found with money that was believed to have been stolen from a recent delivery of Hugh Clark's pay and pay for some tradesmen. But David Collins pointed out that they wouldn't have really been with each other, like, super often. Like, there was a lot of time where Hugh Clark would have been up in the lighthouse and Robert Dixon could have stolen what he needed to steal with the man being away, and he.

Could have just left instead of killing about his business.

Yeah. So money could have been a motivator here. But there was still an air of mystery surrounding the case. David Cullen wrote, to some, it was essentially a mystery story to be likened to the disappearance of the three lighthouse keepers at the. Is it Flannan?

Flannon, I think, yeah.

At the Flannan Islands in 1900. To others, it was a tale of violent disharmony between the two men whose calling required them to live in close proximity to each other in an environment which petty squabbles could have easily broken out and then been magnified beyond endurance.

Dang.

Yeah. And didn't you say Flannan islands, like the disappearance of the keepers? That was something you wanted to cover?

Yeah. I really want to look into that more because it's. It seems pretty fascinating.

That's why.

Episode.

Yeah. That's why I included the quote.

I was like, smart. Little foreshadowing smarty over there.

Oh. You know. So Robert Dixon was arrested and ultimately tried for murder. And David Cullen and his father were both called as witnesses. His father, Thomas. Ultimately Robert Dixon was sentenced to death by hanging. Whoa. And this was in the 19th. This was 1960.

Damn.

David Collin was among many, though, who wasn't quite sure that the punishment fit the crime, given the circumstances.

Huh.

There was a lot of evidence that Robert Dixon was not a completely sane man.

Oh, okay.

Including the fact that a doctor had quite literally diagnosed him as insane.

I mean, that's a good indication.

Yeah, usually.

Yeah.

He also had fallen off a horse at one point in his life and suffered really severe head trauma that resulted in severe headaches. He spent time in a psychiatric hospital voluntarily, and sadly, at one point had attempted suicide. So I'm assuming after they reviewed this evidence of his insanity, the court reprieved his sentence of hanging five days before his planned execution. Wow. So they really. Whoa. Yeah. He was still to remain incarcerated. And two years after he was given the reprieve, Robert Dixon overdosed in prison and died.

Oh, geez.

So he really didn't serve much time for the crime, but he died in prison.

Wow.

So many would believe, and some would claim that because of the murder that took place on Little Ross island, that it must be haunted.

Yeah.

And some even question if that's why the selling price was listed so low in 2017. But those who knew Hugh Clark doubt that he would be a malevolent spirit haunting the area. And David Collins wrote, friends and colleagues of Hugh. Friends and colleagues of Hugh have subsequently told me that if he was to have had a ghost, it would have been gentle, kind, and friendly like him, so there would have been nothing to fear. Oh, isn't that so sweet?

Oh, my God. Break my heart.

Yes. So that is the case of the murder on Little Ross island and the lighthouse. That's there. Jeez. That was like a pretty brief overview because obviously we cover two lighthouses in this. But David Collin wrote a book. It's called Life and Death on Little Rouse. And it's definitely worth checking out. I got a lot of information from there.

Oh, I love that.

Yeah. And it's available on the Kindle.

Oh my God.

That's where I bought it. I love that. I think it was like not very much.

I don't know how much I bought.

It a while ago.

You know what the thing with lighthouses is? It's like you don't think of it how lonely and like isolated of a job it is.

Yeah.

So these stories happen all the time.

Yeah.

With lighthouses you hear of like people just losing it, snapping murders happening, accidents happening, like all this stuff.

And it's like so many hauntings related.

To so many hauntings because there's also like, the fucking sea, the shipwrecks, the fucking sea. And it's crazy. Exactly like the shipwrecks happen. They're usually happening right on these rocks that are right outside of these lighthouses. And then you have all these, you know, sea ghosts singing sea shanties. I love shanty. It's a lot.

It is.

But I love old spooky lighthouse.

I know I do. And we hadn't done one in like.

A year, I think it's been a long time.

We're gonna bring these back. We gotta bring back the spooky lighthouses.

Yeah, well, the sprinkle.

The spooky roads.

But you guys have suggested a lot of them, so make sure you keep writing in your spooky roads, spooky castles, spooky lighthouses, spooky school, spooky forests. I really want some spooky forests. Please help me on that. Yes, if you. If you will be so kind and send them into morbidpodcast@gmail.com. but make sure you put spooky whatever it is in the title of the email.

Yeah, we know it is free to let us know if you've had like your own experience because we also love to share an experience when we're talking about whatever, the road, the lake. So, yeah, whatever.

Have you definitely know there's like a million of these things. Or if you know what, you guys have also come up with good ideas for like other installments of spooky things. Like, I think you guys were the ones who brought up spooky schools to us.

Yes.

And we ended up finding some really cool stuff. So if you have another idea, bring it to us, let us know. Spooky lakes, all that good stuff. Yeah. But, yeah, we love these. We want to bring them back a little more, sprinkle them. And they're interesting. They're spooky, they're fun, they're scary.

And we're getting into the burr months.

Getting into spooky season.

That's what spooky season's all about.

I'm ready for it.

Can't wait. So we hope you keep listening, and we hope you keep it weird, but not so where the, um, you haunt a lighthouse. Or maybe do keep it so weird that you haunt a lighthouse. I would keep it that weird. Oh, and definitely don't keep it so weird that you're so fucking haunted that your goddamn earphones fall on you. Because I'm really stressed out about how haunted I am right now.

But they come.

Before the water the whales they came up and caught her hands inside our boomed and water when she dived and go soon may the wellerman come to bring us sugar and tea and rum one day when the dummies found it the line was cut nowhere was free that the captain's mind was not on greek but leave it all to the wailing screech he took that ship in tow soon may the weatherman come to bring us to Benti and rum one day when the dummy sun take a leave and go laden come to bring us sugar and tea and rum one day when the turning is done we'll take our leave and go the skies are prey the fight still on the line's not cut and the whale's not gone the weatherman makes his regular call during the captain, crew and all soon may the weatherman come with the ring of sugar and tea and hung one day when the dummy is done.

If you like morbid, you can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wonderye in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey@wondery.com.

Survey.