Stephen Young's Blog
March 26, 2018
'The Smiley Face Killers.' & 'The Smiley Face Murder Theory.'
The Beginning.
Many don’t buy into 'The Smiley Face Killers.' Many don't believe in 'The Smiley Face Murder Theory.' The belief that there’s something strange going on. They say young men and drinking doesn’t go together very well and that accidents are inevitable. Of course, this is a possibility, but when taking a look at some of these cases individually, invariably there is an element of high strangeness about how and why they ended up dead in the water. When looking at them all as a whole there is a very clear set of commonalities and patterns which link them together. And these commonalities are terrifying.
How does a young man end up dead in water that is only a couple of feet deep? Why can’t he get out of that water, even though he is not drunk? Why can’t he be found in that water, often for weeks when it is searched multiple times? Why would he go to the most remote body of water, in the opposite direction to the one in which he was heading? Why did his cell phone suddenly go dead after he said something disturbing? Why do many of them make desperate phone calls just moments before something happens to them? Why are some of them in such a state of terror or horror when they phone their parents or friends?
Why does it always happen on a night out? How do they disappear from bars yet no-one sees them go? What are they seeing, in the final moments before their phone is cut off? Why are many missing one shoe? Why do few of them have any signs of injury or trauma on their body?
For anyone thinking there is not something very odd going on, for anyone thinking this is just an urban legend, perhaps this set of circumstances is a good example for contemplation. One mother says; “We almost lost Cullen on Sunday. It all started the night before. He and his friend Ryan had gone off to La Cross to the bars, with their friend Jay. My son drove and they all planned to stay the night at Jay’s. At 1.30a.m. they were at John’s Bar. At ‘bar time’ Cullen was no-where to be found. Ryan and Jay were trying to find him until 5.30 a.m. Cullen resurfaced at 7.00 a.m. in the Emergency Room of the hospital. He remembers being in the Bar. The next thing he remembers is being in the river. He fought his way out of the river and collapsed on the shore. He had no jacket or shoes.
He ran to the sound of the cars nearby, saw a sign for the hospital and ran to the emergency room in just his socks. He voluntarily gave urine and blood samples. I’m thinking he must have had way too much to drink. His results came back; he was not drunk, and yet, he cannot remember anything from 1.30 a.m. until he woke up in the water. What did someone put in his drink? I don’t think he realizes he almost died. I don’t think he realizes someone almost killed him. He somehow managed to get out of the water. I think that he was NOT drunk is a factor.”
Strangely, he is not the only boy in that area of La Crosse, Wisconsin, to have been in a desperate fight for his life. In the next case however, it ended in tragedy and untold suffering. Jeff Geesey was found drowned in the same river, in 1999. This case was investigated by Retired Detectives Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte along with Professor Gilbertson of St Cloud University, a specialist in Gang Stalking and Domestic Terrorism. This young man too had disappeared during a night out in a Bar. He vanished on April 10th. His body was recovered on May 24th in the river.
A bloodhound privately brought in by this team had tracked the boy’s scent to the Niedbalski Bridge, Wisconsin, where it had then performed a ‘trauma roll,’ which was indicative of a physical altercation. It indicated that the boy had undergone a physical altercation of some type. The dog’s behavior then indicated that the boy had been placed into a vehicle and transported from the spot to where his body was recovered. He was found in a shallow gravel pit, drowned. He was missing one shoe, which strangely is often the case. The dog tracked away from the shallow pit however, indicating that someone who had been in physical contact with the boy, had walked away from the area after leaving the body.
Chillingly, Gannon and Gilbertson point out that this dog also picked up on another missing boy’s scent; the boy ‘Cullen,’ whose mother (in the previous account) had written of her son’s lucky escape after inexplicably finding himself in the river. Her son was the lucky one because for Jeff Gessey his fate was horrific. His body displayed signs that he had been held somewhere for an extended period of time, hanging upside down. His body had been drained of blood. In another case, a victim had been restrained by the neck and his face and body burnt to a char. Others have no signs of injury and yet no water in their lungs. How could they have drowned then? Others have simply never been seen again.
When I spoke to Professor Gilbertson about 3 years ago, he pointed out to me that he was concerned that the deaths appeared to have spread to the U.K. I had also spoken with former federal agent (name withheld). They too had been following the cases from the beginning and are still investigating them now. “Look at all the names here and we think we've only scratched the surface; that's what's really scary to me,’ he said. I had also spoken with several family members of the victims, who were of the opinion that these were not simple ‘accidents,’ or ‘misadventure.’
When I spoke to Professor Gilbertson in February 2016, he said they had spread to Ireland. How could this possibly be? Mystery enshrouds so many of these cases and on a side note, when I was first looking into these deaths I was contacted by a person who had a blog dedicated to charting and investigating these deaths. At their own request they asked for anonymity and warned me that they themselves had come “under attack” while looking into the deaths; so much so that they had been forced to stop. They now wanted nothing more to do with it. They were contacting me to give me a warning – this could happen to me. At the time, I thought they were crazy. In hindsight, I should have listened to them.
Award winning Kristi Piehl appeared on Coast to Coast A.M. radio years ago in an attempt to bring light to these mysterious disappearances and deaths. It was not long afterward that she too closed down her blog which was dedicated to investigating the deaths and refused to have any more involvement in the cases. One has to ask then, why people who get involved in this invariably end up distancing themselves from it? Of course, those who say it is just drunk men falling into water, who have not looked at the circumstances in which they were found, nor the autopsy or police reports, will say it is because they realized it was all something and nothing; that it was drunken accidents; but there are warning signs that keep flagging up for those who attempt to look into it, and this alone causes me to wonder why that would be?
On the other hand, with the continuation of ‘footsteps at the riversedge’ blog and Vance Holmes ‘Drowning in Coincidence’ blog on which he tracked the cases from the very beginning, it’s clear that many others have not stopped looking into it. Are all these people wrong in believing there is a lot more going on than people might realize?
When Kristi Piehl first appeared on Coast to Coast radio back in 2008, she was joined by forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Sikirica to discuss the tragic case of one of the victims, Todd Geib. On 12th June 2005 in Casnovia, Michigan, 22-year-old Todd was last seen at a bonfire party. It was a marshy rural area. He left the party to walk back alone to his cousin’s house, where he lived. He never made it back there. He called a friend at 12:51 a.m., but all he said was; "I'm in a field," before the phone call cut off. When the friend rang back, all the friend could hear was what sounded like the wind.
The area where he was last seen was thoroughly searched three times. During one of the searches, as many as 1,500 volunteers searched the area. He was not found.
When his body was discovered three weeks later in a remote bed of water, his death was ruled as ‘undetermined.’ When a new autopsy was carried out, he was discovered to have been dead only 2-5 days, despite being missing for 3 weeks. In other words, he had been kept somewhere, alive, for approximately two and a half weeks prior to his death. Where he was found had been thoroughly searched at least 3 times.
When independent pathologist Dr. Sikirica was allowed access to the autopsy files, he concluded through forensic analysis that Todd had been dead only between two to five days; and most crucially his body was not in the condition it would be expected to be in and he had no water in his lungs; so, he could not have drowned. He had not been in the water for the twenty or so days he had been missing; he had been held or kept alive somewhere for approximately three weeks, before being taken to the creek. He had been placed into the water to make it look like he had drowned. Where had he been before this was done to him? What was done to him when he was held somewhere, by someone?
According to the couple who found Todd, he was “standing upright” in Obenhall Lake. It was reported; ‘They remember it distinctly because “his head and shoulders were sticking out of the water.” This is not how a person drowns, and this is not the sort of position a person will die in. It is as though he had been put into that position, deliberately, like a raised flag, like someone leaving a message, like someone taunting those who would eventually have to retrieve his body. Said journalist Piehl at the time; "These drowning mysteries, they defy logic."
Dr. Sikirica’s opinion, that Todd did not die in the pond but was later placed into the pond, was backed up by 200 other forensic examiners when he presented the strange case at an international convention of Medical Examiners. There was no mistaking that this was not normal.
Piehl said of the cases she investigated, “A lot of people have asked me, who is doing this? Whoever had Todd is a sick individual. I think we’re going to find a dark human being, of a kind we haven’t met yet.” But the odds are, it’s more than one person. As the cases turn into a heavy pile of files, it will become very clear that this is not the work of one killer.
It all began when journalist Kristi Piehl joined forces with two retired NYPD detectives Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte, over 20 years ago. Gannon had investigated what he believed was the first case, and it was these two ex-detectives who first discovered what became known as ‘The Smiley Face Killers,’ a name they say was chosen by Piehl but which they now feel trivializes and sensationalizes the cases. What these two detectives discovered however was sensational, and it was sickening. 40 more cases could fall under the umbrella of ‘The Smiley Face Killers.’ Forty more boys had died at their hands, the detectives believed. The phrase ‘The Smiley Face Killers’ was derived from the claim by Gannon that graffiti was being found at or near the bodies, of a ‘smiley face’ sometimes with devil horns.
The first case they looked into occurred when Det. Gannon was still a serving officer with the NYPD (he gained bravery citations and after retiring, remortgaged his house to finance a deeper investigation onto many of these cases himself.) Patrick McNeill was 21 when he walked out of a bar in New York City on a cold night in February 1997. He told his friends he was taking the subway back to Fordham University where he was studying, but he never made it back there.
His body was found in the water at Owl’s Head Water Pollution Plant near a Brooklyn pier almost two months later. His body was found face-up, which is not the usual position for a person who has drowned. The Pathologist stated he was not drunk when he died of drowning, but some very concerning questions arose. According to Det. Gannon, as the young man exited the Bar he’d been drinking in, The Dapper Dog in uptown Manhattan, he appeared very drunk; so much so that he was bending over in the street as though he needed to vomit. He seemed very uncoordinated. He attempted to walk off down the street, stumbling along, and as he did so a double-parked car began to move beside him. Patrick stopped again as though he was about be sick, stumbled and fell over. The car beside him stopped. When Patrick managed to recover and pick himself back up, the car began to follow him again. He was found more than forty days later, dead in the river. He was found face-up and partially clothed.
Interestingly, ‘a couple’ were said to have been in the car following Patrick McNeill before he vanished. Of course, couples are less likely to arouse suspicion. And yet why would a woman be involved in this kind of thing? It’s interesting perhaps that in my book “Hunted in the Woods,” I described the well-known case in the U.K. of two young girls who were abducted and killed, and the alternative theories floating around about who the real perpetrators were. There was the suggestion that the perpetrator serving life was not really the one who did it. There were witness accounts of a man and woman intensely watching the children from afar as they sat in a car. In some of the 90 or so Manchester, U.K. “drowning” cases, as will later be described, a woman was actually convicted as being part of a gang who drowned a man. Women it seems may perhaps play a role in these horrific “drowning cases” then.
At Patrick McNeill’s inquest the Pathologist stated he was not drunk but he did die of drowning. He noted a possible ligature mark around the man’s neck but this was not followed up by the police. Another renowned independent Forensic Pathologist, Dr. Cyril Wecht when reviewing the case for journalist Kristie Piehl stated, “There's no way this man is accidentally going to fall into a body of water, (and) the fly larvae (was found) to have been laid in the groin area. It's an indoor fly—not an outdoor fly. So, we have a body that was already dead before it was placed in the water…I would call it a homicide, yes.”
In other words, the young man had been kept alive for an extended period of time again, prior to being found in the water; long enough for indoor larvae to settle on his body. He had been kept alive somewhere, indoors. Then he had been taken to the river and placed in it. The city medical examiner had ruled Patrick’s death an ‘accidental drowning.’ Kevin Gannon, investigating the McNeill case since 1997 said, “He was stalked, abducted, held for an extended period of time, murdered, and disposed of. They’re psychopaths….they have no remorse.”
Gannon’s team believed that the black ‘decomposition’ noted in the city examiner’s report was in actuality ‘charring.’ Gannon believed McNeill had been burnt from the head down to mid-torso, with something like a blow-torch. Another retired Federal Agent I liaise with believes however that this could actually be from his body being placed in a freezer, as opposed to torture-by-blow torch, but either way, it is highly disturbing. From the possible ‘ligature mark,’ Gannon’s team suggested McNeill could have been bound in a chair, tied by the neck, restrained and tortured, as his back appeared to have no charring to it, only his front. His face was the most burnt part of his body. Clearly, his torment and suffering before being found in the river was absolutely horrific, if this is the case.
They put their findings in the Book - Case Studies in Drowning Forensics
When I spoke with Kevin Gannon’s supervisor at NYPD about these cases, he suggested I look into the disappearance of a boy called Larry Andrews. A few months before Patrick McNeill’s disappearance Larry Andrews had come into New York City by train with a large group of friends, from their home town in Westchester County. It was New Year’s Eve and they were excited to be joining the celebrations in the big city. However, Larry never made it to Times Square.
The group arrived at Grand Central Station and went to a Bar called Houlihan’s close-by. Then they began a bar-hop. At some point during this, one moment Larry was suddenly gone. He was last known to have been on 42nd Street. Then he simply vanished. 6 weeks later, on the 12th February 1997 he was found. His body was floating in the Bay Ridge River, off Owl’s Head Park. His body was not far from where Patrick McNeill’s body would later be found. He was still wearing the winter clothing he’d set out in. His wallet with money inside was still on his body.
“He disappeared off the face of the Earth,” his Father said. “Police said he went into the Hudson River and that tide carried him to Brooklyn. He disappeared after they left the Bar. There was no reason for him to walk to the water all the way on the West side. I think he met up with someone.”
His Father hired a Private Investigator called Gil Alba, a former Police Detective. Despite weeks of investigation he could not determine what happened to the young man. “I talked to people in Bars, all along the route, from river to river.” But he found no leads to follow. He looked into the boy’s private life, checked for any problems, debts, or cult or gang involvement. He found nothing. “I know this kid inside out now, and there’s nothing; I couldn’t find anything.”
His sister said, “He was last seen running in his T-shirt heading west away from the train station. He gave someone a Yankees cap - which he did not have when he left Brewster. And he was no longer wearing the black turtleneck, his sweatshirt or his jacket.”
Larry was found in the water off Owl’s Head Park. Patrick McNeill was found close-by at Owl’s Head Water Pollution Plant. Josh Szostak’s parents found a severed owl’s head on their doorstep.
Josh Szostak’s father has never stopped gathering evidence about the death of his son. His son’s death was ruled ‘accidental drowning,’ but his son was last seen alive outside of a bar, like Patrick, like Larry, and the circumstances of his disappearance were to go on to be replayed in chillingly similar scenarios for the next two decades, and is continuing now, as young men continue to disappear on a night out only to be later found dead in a body of water.
Josh Szostak had been spending the evening of December 22nd 2007 celebrating a friend’s birthday in a bar called the Bayou Cafe. Later his friends said there was nothing about Josh’s behavior that night which caused them any concern; nothing stood out or alerted them to what was to come.
While Josh was inside the bar on North Pearl Street in downtown Albany, New York, his evening was captured on security surveillance footage. He was enjoying his night, drinking beer, listening to music and having fun. It’s thought he had three beers; not an exceptional number, particularly for a young man his size. He was over 6 ft and not a lightweight. He was a fit young man and was enrolled as a student at the local college. That night, he certainly didn’t appear to be falling down drunk or stumbling around. Everything was normal, for a while.
None of Josh’s friends can explain what happened shortly after midnight, or why Josh and a friend went outside. The most logical explanation is that they wanted some fresh air; the bar inside was packed with young people. A street camera located adjacent to the bar captured him as he exited the bar with his friend. It’s not clear footage; the quality of it is quite grainy, and of course it’s old now, but it is available to watch on YouTube.
Josh and his friend stand outside directly in front of the bar for a couple of minutes talking, and then his friend leaves, presumably going home. His other friends are still inside the bar. The footage shows that Josh then suddenly appears to become very hot. It looks like he takes off not only his jacket but a jumper too. Some who have watched it also think he fumbles for and pulls out his cell phone. It would suggest that his phone perhaps was ringing or vibrating, or that he was going to call someone to summon help.
Outside the bar it’s busy with other people, some standing smoking or talking, others passing by, and there’s a range of people from young men to old, and some young women. No doubt many have tried to analyze what all of these other people are doing as they stand outside close to Josh. Perhaps they had something to do with what later happened to him. It’s very hard to determine, but perhaps someone will be able to find that elusive clue amid those people which will show that one or more of them were in some way involved in what happened to him.
Certainly, if a person does not willingly walk into the water, then someone and probably more than one, is playing a role to either lure or take that person to the water, or to hold them first somewhere else, for purposes and motive we would not wish to contemplate because it is so dark but contemplate it we must. Between the place of their disappearance, and the place of water they are later found in, there will often be an extended period of time in which their actual location remains unknown; a hidden place of dark intention, and as yet, a secret place where no-one would ever want to venture. A place of unspeakable torment, where the mind is tortured more so than the body; the mind is a delicate thing, and consciousness even more so. It is there that it’s fractured and broken. The torment of course permeates more than just the victim, it is the family of the victim too; the parents who are victims themselves to an unendurable lifetime of pain that no-one could imagine the depths of.
Josh then, appears to be suddenly very hot on a cold night in December, but it isn’t just that; he can be seen stumbling, and suddenly uncoordinated. He looks like he is struggling to sort out his jacket and jumpers. At one point he attempts to put his jacket back on and it looks as though he is about to put it on back to front, until he straightens it out and manages to get it on. He is glancing around at people and back toward the bar entrance, but he doesn’t appear to be worried or necessarily anxious or scared at all, he just looks really out of it. As the CCTV images continue, he walks from the left side of the screen, across in front of the bar, past the entrance door, and comes to a halt on the right-hand side of the screen.
Of course, he had been drinking, and as his Father later said, he enjoyed Guinness; but Guinness is very different to shots of tequila or cocktails. In other words, like most young men, he enjoyed beer or ale, but he hadn’t been knocking back shots of strong spirit that night. And yet he is hot, uncoordinated and stumbling. He is very disoriented. He looks drunk; very drunk. Or rather, that would be the natural assumption when watching his body’s reactions. However, there is another much more sinister reason why he could be in the state that he’s in; it is very possible he has been drugged. In fact, a retired federal agent who has followed these cases for over a decade (name withheld) told me that he has evidence on security footage inside the bar of Josh being injected with something.
Outside the bar, after getting his jacket back on, he now seems to gather himself together and begins to walk off. He exits from the screen on the right-hand side and disappears from view. The assumption has to be then that he’s already said “good night” to his friends inside the Bar, or, in his confused state, he thought he had, and was now heading back to his car, where he’d left it, a couple of blocks away. Of course, he was in no state to drive, but his mind wasn’t working properly anymore. Later, it would become apparent that he had not said “good night” to his friends at all; they had no idea he’d left.
He is seen one more time, very briefly, just over a minute away on a camera that was located on the street close to the Bar. Where he went after that is not known. His car was parked a couple of blocks away from the Bar but inexplicably, he was not seen on any more surveillance cameras. He should have been, if he continued walking, because there were other cameras on the sidewalks along his route, but it was as though he simply vanished. Of course, no-one knew he’d gone missing just yet.
Strangely, around the same time that Josh simply disappeared from the streets, on the outskirts of the City close to the Albany Port a different surveillance camera was picking up something else. This camera was situated at a Government facility, the Department of Environmental Conservation. A figure was captured on camera in the parking lot of the building stealing an SUV that belonged to the Department. The unknown person breaks into the car, starts it up and drives away, getting captured on two more surveillance cameras as the stolen car leaves the facility and drives off, ending up at a spot by the water not too far away but one that is more deserted.
The area the car was entering, though deserted, had a locked gate. The driver drove the car straight through the locked gate. Conveniently for the driver, this area had no surveillance cameras. It was later discovered through the subsequent police investigation, that the driver then abandoned the stolen car, yet apparently left neither forensic evidence nor any clues as to why they had taken it. Why would someone steal a car and then abandon it just minutes later nearby? Had they simply walked away from that remote riverside location? Or, given that there were no cameras at the exact location where the SUV was abandoned, had the driver gone for a detour somewhere else, before they abandoned it?
Had they made a quick detour into the City? Did another vehicle arrive at the scene to pick that person up? The driver couldn’t be identified due to there being no surveillance at the dark spot; or if they had been identified, certainly the police never revealed this. Although the actions at the desolate spot couldn’t be determined, there is the obvious implication that the car thief may have been fully aware that it was an ideal spot to choose to conduct an activity they did not want to be observed on camera. What could that activity be? A drug deal? Selling illegal guns perhaps? Or a transaction of an even darker nature; the selling of a human being, or at least, arranging the transportation of one.
Had another vehicle joined the SUV there? Had a package been handed over? A package being a human; still alive, snatched off the street just moments earlier?
If so, this would clearly show an obvious planning stage before-hand.
from the retired Federal agent I liaise with, he knows what happened to Josh inside the Bar. He knows that Josh’s drink wasn’t spiked. Instead, he was injected with something.
Police reports indicate that they became aware of the car theft and responded to the incident, arriving at the scene at approximately 1.40 a.m., which was well after Josh’s last sighting. Josh was last seen at just after midnight. The stolen car was examined and taken away. It had damage to the front of it from the impact with the locked gate. Also, rather oddly, Josh’s cell phone would later be found around the front of the Environmental Conservation Department building where the vehicle had been stolen from. There were no prints on the car and DNA evidence was inconclusive.
The department building itself had not been burglarized and there were no signs of forced entry into the building, so it did not appear that the car theft related to anyone trying to get into the building to steal anything from it. Why was Josh’s phone later found there? How could he have got to the building when he had last been seen outside the bar no-where near the building; and, he was in no state to have got there. He was also a student with no criminal record. The next day, when it was determined that Josh had gone missing, his car was found still parked in the same spot he’d left it in before going to the Bar. He clearly hadn’t driven to the Environmental building. And he had no reason to take a taxi there. He also had not looked capable of doing so when last seen in the surveillance footage outside the bar.
At that time, it wasn’t known that he’d disappeared. His parents had no idea that he’d seemingly vanished off the street somewhere between the last surveillance camera recording him, and where he’d left his car. In fact, the area could be narrowed down further than that, because there were several other camera’s dotted along the two - block walk back to his car but he was only captured on one of them, just a minute after walking away from the bar.
It would become clear then that between that last sighting and the next camera, something had happened to him that had caused him to disappear from sight. The most realistic suggestion as to what happened to him could only be that either he somehow entered a building in that small grid area, or he entered a vehicle. He couldn’t have been walking anymore at that point because he would have been seen on footage.
When Josh’s phone was found by the building, the police believed he had to be the same person who’d stolen the SUV and then rammed the gate to get into the isolated riverside location where it was then abandoned. In fact, when Josh’s parents reported their son missing the next day, the police told them he’d stolen the car and was now the suspect in the robbery. However, forensic analysis failed to find any fingerprint evidence of Josh having taken the car and he was subsequently ruled out as the perpetrator of the crime. Then he became officially a missing person.
His Father, an experienced arson investigator, was scathing of the police effort to find his missing son. His father drove out to the site of the Government building and the site where the car had been abandoned. He came across freshly painted smiley graffiti. He’d heard of the two retired NYPD Detectives, Gannon and Duarte, from their media appearances and he contacted them straight away. They had been telling anyone who would listen that young men were being abducted, held for an indeterminate length of time, tortured, killed and disposed of in rivers. They said that ‘Smiley Face Graffiti’ was often found at or near the scene. They had hired private pathologists to re-examine cases. They were convinced that a group was doing this.
The police themselves however were not convinced of the relevance or authenticity of the graffiti discovery and in fact they would later suggest that the young man’s father, the arson investigator, had sprayed it there himself. His father understandably was furious. He was also upset by what appeared to have been done to his son’s retrieved cell phone. It seemed that while his father said he had received police photographs of the cell phone clearly showing several unread text messages, when he then asked the police about the messages, they appeared to have been deleted, and this too was a major disappointment to him; he’d wondered if there could have been vital information in those texts which could have perhaps explained what had happened to his son.
The report from the Albany Police Department said; "The investigator found no text messages in his phone." His Father however says that Bethlehem’s report contradicts this; "The photograph of the cell phone said that it had eight new messages; somebody had to erase his messages."
In an eerily and chilling replication of the disappearance of Patrick McNeill, according to Cardinalpoints online Josh’s father said, “A vehicle was seen on camera several times driving past the Cafe my son was in, prior to his disappearance. Cameras then spotted the car later at two locations, after a vehicle was stolen from the Dept. of Environmental Conservation on the port. After this vehicle left the parking lot there, it drove to the most southern part of the port. This part of the port is the only area not covered by cameras. Two cameras spotted it during this time and the vehicle was seen driving past the Cafe. The vehicle that was following was abandoned by the driver.”
His mother described their son as a scholarly student and a responsible young man who always kept to his commitments; he never missed class and he never missed a shift at his part-time job. “This is totally out of character,” she said. “He’s obligated to his school work and his job.” His father added, “He never did drugs.”
Though the police were now investigating their son’s disappearance as a missing person, the parents felt that because they had initially treated him as a suspect the police had lost vital time in searching for him as a missing person, when the first few hours after someone disappears are the most vital.
The police department spoke out by saying that they had employed helicopters, K9’s and sonar search units as soon as they realized what had happened. Sadly however, despite this search effort over several ensuing days, no trace of Josh other than his cell phone could be found.
If he had been seen walking from the Bar, a distance of two miles from the Government building the car was stolen from, bearing in mind that at that time he had been stumbling and very disoriented, and was also not seen on any more CCTV cameras! is there any possible way he could have got to that building himself? and then managed to break into a government owned car, and drive it away? It would seem entirely impossible.
Had he been victim of a street robbery, and his cell phone taken from him? Possibly, but his wallet was later found still on his body. Had this street robber then got to the Government building, two miles away and stolen the car? But then, why would he abandon it just a very short drive away? It still didn’t explain where Josh was, unless he’d been killed in the street robbery and his body put in a dumpster or down a dark side alley; but then, why was his body not found in the search of that small grid between the surveillance cameras, despite using tracker dogs? There’s also the fact that when he was later found, he had no stab wounds or gunshot wounds. But that vehicle was seen, driving past the bar he was in. His father said, “The vehicle was seen driving past the Cafe. The vehicle that was following was abandoned by the driver.” Was Josh kidnapped off the street? It would seem highly possible.
The search for Josh continued for weeks, but there was no sign of him and no leads to follow. It was to be four long months until he was found, on April 22nd 2008, dead in the Hudson River in the Coxsackie area, about 20 miles away.
The police determined very quickly that he was the victim of an ‘accidental drowning’ and that there appeared to be no signs of foul play. Police Captain Wayne Olson said, “His body showed no signs of a struggle.”
He was wearing the same casual clothes he’d disappeared in and his wallet and i.d. were still on him. His father of course was not at all satisfied with this ruling of an ‘accidental drowning.’ He wanted another autopsy done and so he employed the services of an internationally renowned forensic examiner called Dr. M. Baden, who proceeded to carry it out. His findings however, fully corroborated the autopsy results of the first county coroner. In other words, he too found it to be a tragic case of ‘accidental drowning,’ consistent with those of the first autopsy (which had been performed by the State Police in Greene County.) Like the first autopsy, Dr. Baden found no evidence of any injury or any sign of a struggle or any violence. He did add however, that "the investigation as to whether he fell in or whether he was pushed in or thrown in by others is a police investigation matter; the autopsy findings would be the same in either case.”
In other words, the pathologist could find no suspicious signs because he was only looking at the body not at the circumstances surrounding how Josh came to be in the river, and his implication by making that statement is that the matter of how he ended up in the river would be for the police to investigate. His is saying that the cause of death does not explain why or how he ended up dying; whether he was led away by someone in a drugged state and held under the water perhaps.
The ruling of ‘accidental death’ also didn’t explain why, on the one-year anniversary of Josh’s death, when his parents returned from visiting his grave, they found a message on their ansaphone. When they listened to it, it was their son crying for his Mom. This was told to me by an ex-federal agent who has collected case files on this murder and has worked closely with the victim’s father. They are determined to end this.
The message had been pre-recorded, of course, because their son was now dead. Someone, perhaps more than one, had made that recording while their son was still alive; which would obviously mean that he did not walk away from that Bar and fall into the river on his own; that he was still alive when that recording was made, and that he had to have been held somewhere against his will, in the most horrifying circumstances. His killers took pleasure in making that recording. His killers enjoyed sending that recording to his parents. His killers have still not been caught.
The police for their part were firm in the opinion that it was simply a tragic accident. Spokesman for the Albany Police Department at the time, Detective James Miller said that from interviews with ‘independent witnesses’ the possibility that the ‘smiley face’ graffiti was drawn by anyone connected with Szostak's death had been ruled out. The graffiti had been found at the scene of the car theft; coincidentally the same place that Josh’s phone was also found. It was Josh’s father who found it, and he was aware of the significance, having followed other cases that had come to light in the media, that had similar graffiti.
"We don't believe it's related at all,” said Detective Miller; yet he also appears to contradict this by saying, “More than likely, it was just a cruel hoax on someone's part." Cruel yes, but probably not a hoax…
How likely is it that someone, at this early stage of the ‘smiley face killers’ killing spree, would someone perpetuate a hoax? At this point in time, was the phenomenon even well enough known to have encouraged a copy-cat to have spray painted it? How would they know to paint a ‘Smiley Face’ for the father to find unless they themselves knew that Josh’s phone would be found at the scene?
The retired Federal Agent (name withheld) who has worked with Josh’s father unrelentingly ever since the death of his son, told me that he traced the telephone call made to his parents on the one-year anniversary of their son’s death to a trucking company in the Heartlands. Who was behind it? – the is keeping this to himself for now, but there is a very strong possibility that his killers will be hunted down. We will get to the cases in the Mid-west shortly.
Larry Andrews was found off Owl’s head. Patrick McNeill was found at Owl’s head water pollution plant, close to Larry. Josh’s parents were sent a severed Owl’s head after their son was found dead. It was left on their doorstep.
Owls have always held an Occult significance. They are associated with secrets, mystery, mysticism, and a connection to the Underworld. They are known as the Keeper of Secrets. The owl is a nocturnal bird of prey. Some say that perhaps it’s no coincidence that the Owl serves as a symbol of the secret society that meets at Bohemian Grove. The Native Americans see owls as the keeper of secret knowledge and they are said to call upon the owl during ceremonies when they require a vision of secret knowledge. They are messengers of secrets. In the Aboriginal tribes they were the messenger of the sorcerer and those who work in the magical arts.
The demon goddess Lilith throughout history has been represented as the Owl. Lilith appears as a succubus in Aleister Crowley’s De Arte Magica which also contains early O.T.O. rituals including the summoning of Lilith. Lilith has been described in ancient texts as a child killer, and as biting Adam and drinking his blood.
The Owl is also believed to be a satanic symbol for Satan. The ‘Horned Hand’ or the ‘Mano Cornuto’ is a common hand sign given by those who proclaim themselves to be Satanists.
The Owl is representative of Death and the Underworld. It was a guardian of death and the Underworld to the ancient Celts and Egyptians. One of the earliest secret societies known as the Minerval Academy, or the Academy of Illusionism had as it’s emblem an Owl. In Western mediaeval beliefs, the Owl was associated with Wizards. Owls are a predatory bird and have an ability to see in the dark. They can see what we cannot see. They are silent watchers and wait quietly in the night to strike. They are silent in flight, stealth like. According to J.E. Cirlot’s ‘A Dictionary of Symbols,’ “In the Egyptian system of hieroglyphics, the Owl symbolizes death, cold, night, and passivity, and the realm of the dead sun which has set and is crossing the lake or sea of darkness...’
The New York Daily News featured 3 deaths in 1998 in which the young men were all ruled to have “drowned.” ‘They are cases tinged with mystery that captured the sympathy of a City. When each vanished, their parents conducted highly publicized searches for them. Three were found floating in the river, with no apparent signs of trauma. How each entered the water, has not been determined.’ “My boy was murdered. It wasn’t an accident,” said Gitty Bender. Her son, Joshua, was found in the Hudson River, nearly two weeks after he had left his Yeshiva University Dorm. At the time, Robert Martin the Deputy Inspector of Police did admit that he found the circumstances strange. “It is a little unusual to have three males in the river of the same age,” but he also said they had found no overlapping commonalities other than that, although they would, “continue to work it.”
While the Newspaper did contact the F.B.I., a spokesman was quoted as saying that they would not be involved in any of the investigations because, “There is no evidence of a serial killer at work here.” It would seem then at this stage, no-one yet was considering it could be the work of a group.
I mentioned earlier that Josh’s father and his partner, the retired ex- agent who stands in the shadows but holds an astonishing amount of information about the perpetrators, traced a truck to the Mid-West.
https://www.amazon.com/investigation-...
Many don’t buy into 'The Smiley Face Killers.' Many don't believe in 'The Smiley Face Murder Theory.' The belief that there’s something strange going on. They say young men and drinking doesn’t go together very well and that accidents are inevitable. Of course, this is a possibility, but when taking a look at some of these cases individually, invariably there is an element of high strangeness about how and why they ended up dead in the water. When looking at them all as a whole there is a very clear set of commonalities and patterns which link them together. And these commonalities are terrifying.
How does a young man end up dead in water that is only a couple of feet deep? Why can’t he get out of that water, even though he is not drunk? Why can’t he be found in that water, often for weeks when it is searched multiple times? Why would he go to the most remote body of water, in the opposite direction to the one in which he was heading? Why did his cell phone suddenly go dead after he said something disturbing? Why do many of them make desperate phone calls just moments before something happens to them? Why are some of them in such a state of terror or horror when they phone their parents or friends?
Why does it always happen on a night out? How do they disappear from bars yet no-one sees them go? What are they seeing, in the final moments before their phone is cut off? Why are many missing one shoe? Why do few of them have any signs of injury or trauma on their body?
For anyone thinking there is not something very odd going on, for anyone thinking this is just an urban legend, perhaps this set of circumstances is a good example for contemplation. One mother says; “We almost lost Cullen on Sunday. It all started the night before. He and his friend Ryan had gone off to La Cross to the bars, with their friend Jay. My son drove and they all planned to stay the night at Jay’s. At 1.30a.m. they were at John’s Bar. At ‘bar time’ Cullen was no-where to be found. Ryan and Jay were trying to find him until 5.30 a.m. Cullen resurfaced at 7.00 a.m. in the Emergency Room of the hospital. He remembers being in the Bar. The next thing he remembers is being in the river. He fought his way out of the river and collapsed on the shore. He had no jacket or shoes.
He ran to the sound of the cars nearby, saw a sign for the hospital and ran to the emergency room in just his socks. He voluntarily gave urine and blood samples. I’m thinking he must have had way too much to drink. His results came back; he was not drunk, and yet, he cannot remember anything from 1.30 a.m. until he woke up in the water. What did someone put in his drink? I don’t think he realizes he almost died. I don’t think he realizes someone almost killed him. He somehow managed to get out of the water. I think that he was NOT drunk is a factor.”
Strangely, he is not the only boy in that area of La Crosse, Wisconsin, to have been in a desperate fight for his life. In the next case however, it ended in tragedy and untold suffering. Jeff Geesey was found drowned in the same river, in 1999. This case was investigated by Retired Detectives Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte along with Professor Gilbertson of St Cloud University, a specialist in Gang Stalking and Domestic Terrorism. This young man too had disappeared during a night out in a Bar. He vanished on April 10th. His body was recovered on May 24th in the river.
A bloodhound privately brought in by this team had tracked the boy’s scent to the Niedbalski Bridge, Wisconsin, where it had then performed a ‘trauma roll,’ which was indicative of a physical altercation. It indicated that the boy had undergone a physical altercation of some type. The dog’s behavior then indicated that the boy had been placed into a vehicle and transported from the spot to where his body was recovered. He was found in a shallow gravel pit, drowned. He was missing one shoe, which strangely is often the case. The dog tracked away from the shallow pit however, indicating that someone who had been in physical contact with the boy, had walked away from the area after leaving the body.
Chillingly, Gannon and Gilbertson point out that this dog also picked up on another missing boy’s scent; the boy ‘Cullen,’ whose mother (in the previous account) had written of her son’s lucky escape after inexplicably finding himself in the river. Her son was the lucky one because for Jeff Gessey his fate was horrific. His body displayed signs that he had been held somewhere for an extended period of time, hanging upside down. His body had been drained of blood. In another case, a victim had been restrained by the neck and his face and body burnt to a char. Others have no signs of injury and yet no water in their lungs. How could they have drowned then? Others have simply never been seen again.
When I spoke to Professor Gilbertson about 3 years ago, he pointed out to me that he was concerned that the deaths appeared to have spread to the U.K. I had also spoken with former federal agent (name withheld). They too had been following the cases from the beginning and are still investigating them now. “Look at all the names here and we think we've only scratched the surface; that's what's really scary to me,’ he said. I had also spoken with several family members of the victims, who were of the opinion that these were not simple ‘accidents,’ or ‘misadventure.’
When I spoke to Professor Gilbertson in February 2016, he said they had spread to Ireland. How could this possibly be? Mystery enshrouds so many of these cases and on a side note, when I was first looking into these deaths I was contacted by a person who had a blog dedicated to charting and investigating these deaths. At their own request they asked for anonymity and warned me that they themselves had come “under attack” while looking into the deaths; so much so that they had been forced to stop. They now wanted nothing more to do with it. They were contacting me to give me a warning – this could happen to me. At the time, I thought they were crazy. In hindsight, I should have listened to them.
Award winning Kristi Piehl appeared on Coast to Coast A.M. radio years ago in an attempt to bring light to these mysterious disappearances and deaths. It was not long afterward that she too closed down her blog which was dedicated to investigating the deaths and refused to have any more involvement in the cases. One has to ask then, why people who get involved in this invariably end up distancing themselves from it? Of course, those who say it is just drunk men falling into water, who have not looked at the circumstances in which they were found, nor the autopsy or police reports, will say it is because they realized it was all something and nothing; that it was drunken accidents; but there are warning signs that keep flagging up for those who attempt to look into it, and this alone causes me to wonder why that would be?
On the other hand, with the continuation of ‘footsteps at the riversedge’ blog and Vance Holmes ‘Drowning in Coincidence’ blog on which he tracked the cases from the very beginning, it’s clear that many others have not stopped looking into it. Are all these people wrong in believing there is a lot more going on than people might realize?
When Kristi Piehl first appeared on Coast to Coast radio back in 2008, she was joined by forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Sikirica to discuss the tragic case of one of the victims, Todd Geib. On 12th June 2005 in Casnovia, Michigan, 22-year-old Todd was last seen at a bonfire party. It was a marshy rural area. He left the party to walk back alone to his cousin’s house, where he lived. He never made it back there. He called a friend at 12:51 a.m., but all he said was; "I'm in a field," before the phone call cut off. When the friend rang back, all the friend could hear was what sounded like the wind.
The area where he was last seen was thoroughly searched three times. During one of the searches, as many as 1,500 volunteers searched the area. He was not found.
When his body was discovered three weeks later in a remote bed of water, his death was ruled as ‘undetermined.’ When a new autopsy was carried out, he was discovered to have been dead only 2-5 days, despite being missing for 3 weeks. In other words, he had been kept somewhere, alive, for approximately two and a half weeks prior to his death. Where he was found had been thoroughly searched at least 3 times.
When independent pathologist Dr. Sikirica was allowed access to the autopsy files, he concluded through forensic analysis that Todd had been dead only between two to five days; and most crucially his body was not in the condition it would be expected to be in and he had no water in his lungs; so, he could not have drowned. He had not been in the water for the twenty or so days he had been missing; he had been held or kept alive somewhere for approximately three weeks, before being taken to the creek. He had been placed into the water to make it look like he had drowned. Where had he been before this was done to him? What was done to him when he was held somewhere, by someone?
According to the couple who found Todd, he was “standing upright” in Obenhall Lake. It was reported; ‘They remember it distinctly because “his head and shoulders were sticking out of the water.” This is not how a person drowns, and this is not the sort of position a person will die in. It is as though he had been put into that position, deliberately, like a raised flag, like someone leaving a message, like someone taunting those who would eventually have to retrieve his body. Said journalist Piehl at the time; "These drowning mysteries, they defy logic."
Dr. Sikirica’s opinion, that Todd did not die in the pond but was later placed into the pond, was backed up by 200 other forensic examiners when he presented the strange case at an international convention of Medical Examiners. There was no mistaking that this was not normal.
Piehl said of the cases she investigated, “A lot of people have asked me, who is doing this? Whoever had Todd is a sick individual. I think we’re going to find a dark human being, of a kind we haven’t met yet.” But the odds are, it’s more than one person. As the cases turn into a heavy pile of files, it will become very clear that this is not the work of one killer.
It all began when journalist Kristi Piehl joined forces with two retired NYPD detectives Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte, over 20 years ago. Gannon had investigated what he believed was the first case, and it was these two ex-detectives who first discovered what became known as ‘The Smiley Face Killers,’ a name they say was chosen by Piehl but which they now feel trivializes and sensationalizes the cases. What these two detectives discovered however was sensational, and it was sickening. 40 more cases could fall under the umbrella of ‘The Smiley Face Killers.’ Forty more boys had died at their hands, the detectives believed. The phrase ‘The Smiley Face Killers’ was derived from the claim by Gannon that graffiti was being found at or near the bodies, of a ‘smiley face’ sometimes with devil horns.
The first case they looked into occurred when Det. Gannon was still a serving officer with the NYPD (he gained bravery citations and after retiring, remortgaged his house to finance a deeper investigation onto many of these cases himself.) Patrick McNeill was 21 when he walked out of a bar in New York City on a cold night in February 1997. He told his friends he was taking the subway back to Fordham University where he was studying, but he never made it back there.
His body was found in the water at Owl’s Head Water Pollution Plant near a Brooklyn pier almost two months later. His body was found face-up, which is not the usual position for a person who has drowned. The Pathologist stated he was not drunk when he died of drowning, but some very concerning questions arose. According to Det. Gannon, as the young man exited the Bar he’d been drinking in, The Dapper Dog in uptown Manhattan, he appeared very drunk; so much so that he was bending over in the street as though he needed to vomit. He seemed very uncoordinated. He attempted to walk off down the street, stumbling along, and as he did so a double-parked car began to move beside him. Patrick stopped again as though he was about be sick, stumbled and fell over. The car beside him stopped. When Patrick managed to recover and pick himself back up, the car began to follow him again. He was found more than forty days later, dead in the river. He was found face-up and partially clothed.
Interestingly, ‘a couple’ were said to have been in the car following Patrick McNeill before he vanished. Of course, couples are less likely to arouse suspicion. And yet why would a woman be involved in this kind of thing? It’s interesting perhaps that in my book “Hunted in the Woods,” I described the well-known case in the U.K. of two young girls who were abducted and killed, and the alternative theories floating around about who the real perpetrators were. There was the suggestion that the perpetrator serving life was not really the one who did it. There were witness accounts of a man and woman intensely watching the children from afar as they sat in a car. In some of the 90 or so Manchester, U.K. “drowning” cases, as will later be described, a woman was actually convicted as being part of a gang who drowned a man. Women it seems may perhaps play a role in these horrific “drowning cases” then.
At Patrick McNeill’s inquest the Pathologist stated he was not drunk but he did die of drowning. He noted a possible ligature mark around the man’s neck but this was not followed up by the police. Another renowned independent Forensic Pathologist, Dr. Cyril Wecht when reviewing the case for journalist Kristie Piehl stated, “There's no way this man is accidentally going to fall into a body of water, (and) the fly larvae (was found) to have been laid in the groin area. It's an indoor fly—not an outdoor fly. So, we have a body that was already dead before it was placed in the water…I would call it a homicide, yes.”
In other words, the young man had been kept alive for an extended period of time again, prior to being found in the water; long enough for indoor larvae to settle on his body. He had been kept alive somewhere, indoors. Then he had been taken to the river and placed in it. The city medical examiner had ruled Patrick’s death an ‘accidental drowning.’ Kevin Gannon, investigating the McNeill case since 1997 said, “He was stalked, abducted, held for an extended period of time, murdered, and disposed of. They’re psychopaths….they have no remorse.”
Gannon’s team believed that the black ‘decomposition’ noted in the city examiner’s report was in actuality ‘charring.’ Gannon believed McNeill had been burnt from the head down to mid-torso, with something like a blow-torch. Another retired Federal Agent I liaise with believes however that this could actually be from his body being placed in a freezer, as opposed to torture-by-blow torch, but either way, it is highly disturbing. From the possible ‘ligature mark,’ Gannon’s team suggested McNeill could have been bound in a chair, tied by the neck, restrained and tortured, as his back appeared to have no charring to it, only his front. His face was the most burnt part of his body. Clearly, his torment and suffering before being found in the river was absolutely horrific, if this is the case.
They put their findings in the Book - Case Studies in Drowning Forensics
When I spoke with Kevin Gannon’s supervisor at NYPD about these cases, he suggested I look into the disappearance of a boy called Larry Andrews. A few months before Patrick McNeill’s disappearance Larry Andrews had come into New York City by train with a large group of friends, from their home town in Westchester County. It was New Year’s Eve and they were excited to be joining the celebrations in the big city. However, Larry never made it to Times Square.
The group arrived at Grand Central Station and went to a Bar called Houlihan’s close-by. Then they began a bar-hop. At some point during this, one moment Larry was suddenly gone. He was last known to have been on 42nd Street. Then he simply vanished. 6 weeks later, on the 12th February 1997 he was found. His body was floating in the Bay Ridge River, off Owl’s Head Park. His body was not far from where Patrick McNeill’s body would later be found. He was still wearing the winter clothing he’d set out in. His wallet with money inside was still on his body.
“He disappeared off the face of the Earth,” his Father said. “Police said he went into the Hudson River and that tide carried him to Brooklyn. He disappeared after they left the Bar. There was no reason for him to walk to the water all the way on the West side. I think he met up with someone.”
His Father hired a Private Investigator called Gil Alba, a former Police Detective. Despite weeks of investigation he could not determine what happened to the young man. “I talked to people in Bars, all along the route, from river to river.” But he found no leads to follow. He looked into the boy’s private life, checked for any problems, debts, or cult or gang involvement. He found nothing. “I know this kid inside out now, and there’s nothing; I couldn’t find anything.”
His sister said, “He was last seen running in his T-shirt heading west away from the train station. He gave someone a Yankees cap - which he did not have when he left Brewster. And he was no longer wearing the black turtleneck, his sweatshirt or his jacket.”
Larry was found in the water off Owl’s Head Park. Patrick McNeill was found close-by at Owl’s Head Water Pollution Plant. Josh Szostak’s parents found a severed owl’s head on their doorstep.
Josh Szostak’s father has never stopped gathering evidence about the death of his son. His son’s death was ruled ‘accidental drowning,’ but his son was last seen alive outside of a bar, like Patrick, like Larry, and the circumstances of his disappearance were to go on to be replayed in chillingly similar scenarios for the next two decades, and is continuing now, as young men continue to disappear on a night out only to be later found dead in a body of water.
Josh Szostak had been spending the evening of December 22nd 2007 celebrating a friend’s birthday in a bar called the Bayou Cafe. Later his friends said there was nothing about Josh’s behavior that night which caused them any concern; nothing stood out or alerted them to what was to come.
While Josh was inside the bar on North Pearl Street in downtown Albany, New York, his evening was captured on security surveillance footage. He was enjoying his night, drinking beer, listening to music and having fun. It’s thought he had three beers; not an exceptional number, particularly for a young man his size. He was over 6 ft and not a lightweight. He was a fit young man and was enrolled as a student at the local college. That night, he certainly didn’t appear to be falling down drunk or stumbling around. Everything was normal, for a while.
None of Josh’s friends can explain what happened shortly after midnight, or why Josh and a friend went outside. The most logical explanation is that they wanted some fresh air; the bar inside was packed with young people. A street camera located adjacent to the bar captured him as he exited the bar with his friend. It’s not clear footage; the quality of it is quite grainy, and of course it’s old now, but it is available to watch on YouTube.
Josh and his friend stand outside directly in front of the bar for a couple of minutes talking, and then his friend leaves, presumably going home. His other friends are still inside the bar. The footage shows that Josh then suddenly appears to become very hot. It looks like he takes off not only his jacket but a jumper too. Some who have watched it also think he fumbles for and pulls out his cell phone. It would suggest that his phone perhaps was ringing or vibrating, or that he was going to call someone to summon help.
Outside the bar it’s busy with other people, some standing smoking or talking, others passing by, and there’s a range of people from young men to old, and some young women. No doubt many have tried to analyze what all of these other people are doing as they stand outside close to Josh. Perhaps they had something to do with what later happened to him. It’s very hard to determine, but perhaps someone will be able to find that elusive clue amid those people which will show that one or more of them were in some way involved in what happened to him.
Certainly, if a person does not willingly walk into the water, then someone and probably more than one, is playing a role to either lure or take that person to the water, or to hold them first somewhere else, for purposes and motive we would not wish to contemplate because it is so dark but contemplate it we must. Between the place of their disappearance, and the place of water they are later found in, there will often be an extended period of time in which their actual location remains unknown; a hidden place of dark intention, and as yet, a secret place where no-one would ever want to venture. A place of unspeakable torment, where the mind is tortured more so than the body; the mind is a delicate thing, and consciousness even more so. It is there that it’s fractured and broken. The torment of course permeates more than just the victim, it is the family of the victim too; the parents who are victims themselves to an unendurable lifetime of pain that no-one could imagine the depths of.
Josh then, appears to be suddenly very hot on a cold night in December, but it isn’t just that; he can be seen stumbling, and suddenly uncoordinated. He looks like he is struggling to sort out his jacket and jumpers. At one point he attempts to put his jacket back on and it looks as though he is about to put it on back to front, until he straightens it out and manages to get it on. He is glancing around at people and back toward the bar entrance, but he doesn’t appear to be worried or necessarily anxious or scared at all, he just looks really out of it. As the CCTV images continue, he walks from the left side of the screen, across in front of the bar, past the entrance door, and comes to a halt on the right-hand side of the screen.
Of course, he had been drinking, and as his Father later said, he enjoyed Guinness; but Guinness is very different to shots of tequila or cocktails. In other words, like most young men, he enjoyed beer or ale, but he hadn’t been knocking back shots of strong spirit that night. And yet he is hot, uncoordinated and stumbling. He is very disoriented. He looks drunk; very drunk. Or rather, that would be the natural assumption when watching his body’s reactions. However, there is another much more sinister reason why he could be in the state that he’s in; it is very possible he has been drugged. In fact, a retired federal agent who has followed these cases for over a decade (name withheld) told me that he has evidence on security footage inside the bar of Josh being injected with something.
Outside the bar, after getting his jacket back on, he now seems to gather himself together and begins to walk off. He exits from the screen on the right-hand side and disappears from view. The assumption has to be then that he’s already said “good night” to his friends inside the Bar, or, in his confused state, he thought he had, and was now heading back to his car, where he’d left it, a couple of blocks away. Of course, he was in no state to drive, but his mind wasn’t working properly anymore. Later, it would become apparent that he had not said “good night” to his friends at all; they had no idea he’d left.
He is seen one more time, very briefly, just over a minute away on a camera that was located on the street close to the Bar. Where he went after that is not known. His car was parked a couple of blocks away from the Bar but inexplicably, he was not seen on any more surveillance cameras. He should have been, if he continued walking, because there were other cameras on the sidewalks along his route, but it was as though he simply vanished. Of course, no-one knew he’d gone missing just yet.
Strangely, around the same time that Josh simply disappeared from the streets, on the outskirts of the City close to the Albany Port a different surveillance camera was picking up something else. This camera was situated at a Government facility, the Department of Environmental Conservation. A figure was captured on camera in the parking lot of the building stealing an SUV that belonged to the Department. The unknown person breaks into the car, starts it up and drives away, getting captured on two more surveillance cameras as the stolen car leaves the facility and drives off, ending up at a spot by the water not too far away but one that is more deserted.
The area the car was entering, though deserted, had a locked gate. The driver drove the car straight through the locked gate. Conveniently for the driver, this area had no surveillance cameras. It was later discovered through the subsequent police investigation, that the driver then abandoned the stolen car, yet apparently left neither forensic evidence nor any clues as to why they had taken it. Why would someone steal a car and then abandon it just minutes later nearby? Had they simply walked away from that remote riverside location? Or, given that there were no cameras at the exact location where the SUV was abandoned, had the driver gone for a detour somewhere else, before they abandoned it?
Had they made a quick detour into the City? Did another vehicle arrive at the scene to pick that person up? The driver couldn’t be identified due to there being no surveillance at the dark spot; or if they had been identified, certainly the police never revealed this. Although the actions at the desolate spot couldn’t be determined, there is the obvious implication that the car thief may have been fully aware that it was an ideal spot to choose to conduct an activity they did not want to be observed on camera. What could that activity be? A drug deal? Selling illegal guns perhaps? Or a transaction of an even darker nature; the selling of a human being, or at least, arranging the transportation of one.
Had another vehicle joined the SUV there? Had a package been handed over? A package being a human; still alive, snatched off the street just moments earlier?
If so, this would clearly show an obvious planning stage before-hand.
from the retired Federal agent I liaise with, he knows what happened to Josh inside the Bar. He knows that Josh’s drink wasn’t spiked. Instead, he was injected with something.
Police reports indicate that they became aware of the car theft and responded to the incident, arriving at the scene at approximately 1.40 a.m., which was well after Josh’s last sighting. Josh was last seen at just after midnight. The stolen car was examined and taken away. It had damage to the front of it from the impact with the locked gate. Also, rather oddly, Josh’s cell phone would later be found around the front of the Environmental Conservation Department building where the vehicle had been stolen from. There were no prints on the car and DNA evidence was inconclusive.
The department building itself had not been burglarized and there were no signs of forced entry into the building, so it did not appear that the car theft related to anyone trying to get into the building to steal anything from it. Why was Josh’s phone later found there? How could he have got to the building when he had last been seen outside the bar no-where near the building; and, he was in no state to have got there. He was also a student with no criminal record. The next day, when it was determined that Josh had gone missing, his car was found still parked in the same spot he’d left it in before going to the Bar. He clearly hadn’t driven to the Environmental building. And he had no reason to take a taxi there. He also had not looked capable of doing so when last seen in the surveillance footage outside the bar.
At that time, it wasn’t known that he’d disappeared. His parents had no idea that he’d seemingly vanished off the street somewhere between the last surveillance camera recording him, and where he’d left his car. In fact, the area could be narrowed down further than that, because there were several other camera’s dotted along the two - block walk back to his car but he was only captured on one of them, just a minute after walking away from the bar.
It would become clear then that between that last sighting and the next camera, something had happened to him that had caused him to disappear from sight. The most realistic suggestion as to what happened to him could only be that either he somehow entered a building in that small grid area, or he entered a vehicle. He couldn’t have been walking anymore at that point because he would have been seen on footage.
When Josh’s phone was found by the building, the police believed he had to be the same person who’d stolen the SUV and then rammed the gate to get into the isolated riverside location where it was then abandoned. In fact, when Josh’s parents reported their son missing the next day, the police told them he’d stolen the car and was now the suspect in the robbery. However, forensic analysis failed to find any fingerprint evidence of Josh having taken the car and he was subsequently ruled out as the perpetrator of the crime. Then he became officially a missing person.
His Father, an experienced arson investigator, was scathing of the police effort to find his missing son. His father drove out to the site of the Government building and the site where the car had been abandoned. He came across freshly painted smiley graffiti. He’d heard of the two retired NYPD Detectives, Gannon and Duarte, from their media appearances and he contacted them straight away. They had been telling anyone who would listen that young men were being abducted, held for an indeterminate length of time, tortured, killed and disposed of in rivers. They said that ‘Smiley Face Graffiti’ was often found at or near the scene. They had hired private pathologists to re-examine cases. They were convinced that a group was doing this.
The police themselves however were not convinced of the relevance or authenticity of the graffiti discovery and in fact they would later suggest that the young man’s father, the arson investigator, had sprayed it there himself. His father understandably was furious. He was also upset by what appeared to have been done to his son’s retrieved cell phone. It seemed that while his father said he had received police photographs of the cell phone clearly showing several unread text messages, when he then asked the police about the messages, they appeared to have been deleted, and this too was a major disappointment to him; he’d wondered if there could have been vital information in those texts which could have perhaps explained what had happened to his son.
The report from the Albany Police Department said; "The investigator found no text messages in his phone." His Father however says that Bethlehem’s report contradicts this; "The photograph of the cell phone said that it had eight new messages; somebody had to erase his messages."
In an eerily and chilling replication of the disappearance of Patrick McNeill, according to Cardinalpoints online Josh’s father said, “A vehicle was seen on camera several times driving past the Cafe my son was in, prior to his disappearance. Cameras then spotted the car later at two locations, after a vehicle was stolen from the Dept. of Environmental Conservation on the port. After this vehicle left the parking lot there, it drove to the most southern part of the port. This part of the port is the only area not covered by cameras. Two cameras spotted it during this time and the vehicle was seen driving past the Cafe. The vehicle that was following was abandoned by the driver.”
His mother described their son as a scholarly student and a responsible young man who always kept to his commitments; he never missed class and he never missed a shift at his part-time job. “This is totally out of character,” she said. “He’s obligated to his school work and his job.” His father added, “He never did drugs.”
Though the police were now investigating their son’s disappearance as a missing person, the parents felt that because they had initially treated him as a suspect the police had lost vital time in searching for him as a missing person, when the first few hours after someone disappears are the most vital.
The police department spoke out by saying that they had employed helicopters, K9’s and sonar search units as soon as they realized what had happened. Sadly however, despite this search effort over several ensuing days, no trace of Josh other than his cell phone could be found.
If he had been seen walking from the Bar, a distance of two miles from the Government building the car was stolen from, bearing in mind that at that time he had been stumbling and very disoriented, and was also not seen on any more CCTV cameras! is there any possible way he could have got to that building himself? and then managed to break into a government owned car, and drive it away? It would seem entirely impossible.
Had he been victim of a street robbery, and his cell phone taken from him? Possibly, but his wallet was later found still on his body. Had this street robber then got to the Government building, two miles away and stolen the car? But then, why would he abandon it just a very short drive away? It still didn’t explain where Josh was, unless he’d been killed in the street robbery and his body put in a dumpster or down a dark side alley; but then, why was his body not found in the search of that small grid between the surveillance cameras, despite using tracker dogs? There’s also the fact that when he was later found, he had no stab wounds or gunshot wounds. But that vehicle was seen, driving past the bar he was in. His father said, “The vehicle was seen driving past the Cafe. The vehicle that was following was abandoned by the driver.” Was Josh kidnapped off the street? It would seem highly possible.
The search for Josh continued for weeks, but there was no sign of him and no leads to follow. It was to be four long months until he was found, on April 22nd 2008, dead in the Hudson River in the Coxsackie area, about 20 miles away.
The police determined very quickly that he was the victim of an ‘accidental drowning’ and that there appeared to be no signs of foul play. Police Captain Wayne Olson said, “His body showed no signs of a struggle.”
He was wearing the same casual clothes he’d disappeared in and his wallet and i.d. were still on him. His father of course was not at all satisfied with this ruling of an ‘accidental drowning.’ He wanted another autopsy done and so he employed the services of an internationally renowned forensic examiner called Dr. M. Baden, who proceeded to carry it out. His findings however, fully corroborated the autopsy results of the first county coroner. In other words, he too found it to be a tragic case of ‘accidental drowning,’ consistent with those of the first autopsy (which had been performed by the State Police in Greene County.) Like the first autopsy, Dr. Baden found no evidence of any injury or any sign of a struggle or any violence. He did add however, that "the investigation as to whether he fell in or whether he was pushed in or thrown in by others is a police investigation matter; the autopsy findings would be the same in either case.”
In other words, the pathologist could find no suspicious signs because he was only looking at the body not at the circumstances surrounding how Josh came to be in the river, and his implication by making that statement is that the matter of how he ended up in the river would be for the police to investigate. His is saying that the cause of death does not explain why or how he ended up dying; whether he was led away by someone in a drugged state and held under the water perhaps.
The ruling of ‘accidental death’ also didn’t explain why, on the one-year anniversary of Josh’s death, when his parents returned from visiting his grave, they found a message on their ansaphone. When they listened to it, it was their son crying for his Mom. This was told to me by an ex-federal agent who has collected case files on this murder and has worked closely with the victim’s father. They are determined to end this.
The message had been pre-recorded, of course, because their son was now dead. Someone, perhaps more than one, had made that recording while their son was still alive; which would obviously mean that he did not walk away from that Bar and fall into the river on his own; that he was still alive when that recording was made, and that he had to have been held somewhere against his will, in the most horrifying circumstances. His killers took pleasure in making that recording. His killers enjoyed sending that recording to his parents. His killers have still not been caught.
The police for their part were firm in the opinion that it was simply a tragic accident. Spokesman for the Albany Police Department at the time, Detective James Miller said that from interviews with ‘independent witnesses’ the possibility that the ‘smiley face’ graffiti was drawn by anyone connected with Szostak's death had been ruled out. The graffiti had been found at the scene of the car theft; coincidentally the same place that Josh’s phone was also found. It was Josh’s father who found it, and he was aware of the significance, having followed other cases that had come to light in the media, that had similar graffiti.
"We don't believe it's related at all,” said Detective Miller; yet he also appears to contradict this by saying, “More than likely, it was just a cruel hoax on someone's part." Cruel yes, but probably not a hoax…
How likely is it that someone, at this early stage of the ‘smiley face killers’ killing spree, would someone perpetuate a hoax? At this point in time, was the phenomenon even well enough known to have encouraged a copy-cat to have spray painted it? How would they know to paint a ‘Smiley Face’ for the father to find unless they themselves knew that Josh’s phone would be found at the scene?
The retired Federal Agent (name withheld) who has worked with Josh’s father unrelentingly ever since the death of his son, told me that he traced the telephone call made to his parents on the one-year anniversary of their son’s death to a trucking company in the Heartlands. Who was behind it? – the is keeping this to himself for now, but there is a very strong possibility that his killers will be hunted down. We will get to the cases in the Mid-west shortly.
Larry Andrews was found off Owl’s head. Patrick McNeill was found at Owl’s head water pollution plant, close to Larry. Josh’s parents were sent a severed Owl’s head after their son was found dead. It was left on their doorstep.
Owls have always held an Occult significance. They are associated with secrets, mystery, mysticism, and a connection to the Underworld. They are known as the Keeper of Secrets. The owl is a nocturnal bird of prey. Some say that perhaps it’s no coincidence that the Owl serves as a symbol of the secret society that meets at Bohemian Grove. The Native Americans see owls as the keeper of secret knowledge and they are said to call upon the owl during ceremonies when they require a vision of secret knowledge. They are messengers of secrets. In the Aboriginal tribes they were the messenger of the sorcerer and those who work in the magical arts.
The demon goddess Lilith throughout history has been represented as the Owl. Lilith appears as a succubus in Aleister Crowley’s De Arte Magica which also contains early O.T.O. rituals including the summoning of Lilith. Lilith has been described in ancient texts as a child killer, and as biting Adam and drinking his blood.
The Owl is also believed to be a satanic symbol for Satan. The ‘Horned Hand’ or the ‘Mano Cornuto’ is a common hand sign given by those who proclaim themselves to be Satanists.
The Owl is representative of Death and the Underworld. It was a guardian of death and the Underworld to the ancient Celts and Egyptians. One of the earliest secret societies known as the Minerval Academy, or the Academy of Illusionism had as it’s emblem an Owl. In Western mediaeval beliefs, the Owl was associated with Wizards. Owls are a predatory bird and have an ability to see in the dark. They can see what we cannot see. They are silent watchers and wait quietly in the night to strike. They are silent in flight, stealth like. According to J.E. Cirlot’s ‘A Dictionary of Symbols,’ “In the Egyptian system of hieroglyphics, the Owl symbolizes death, cold, night, and passivity, and the realm of the dead sun which has set and is crossing the lake or sea of darkness...’
The New York Daily News featured 3 deaths in 1998 in which the young men were all ruled to have “drowned.” ‘They are cases tinged with mystery that captured the sympathy of a City. When each vanished, their parents conducted highly publicized searches for them. Three were found floating in the river, with no apparent signs of trauma. How each entered the water, has not been determined.’ “My boy was murdered. It wasn’t an accident,” said Gitty Bender. Her son, Joshua, was found in the Hudson River, nearly two weeks after he had left his Yeshiva University Dorm. At the time, Robert Martin the Deputy Inspector of Police did admit that he found the circumstances strange. “It is a little unusual to have three males in the river of the same age,” but he also said they had found no overlapping commonalities other than that, although they would, “continue to work it.”
While the Newspaper did contact the F.B.I., a spokesman was quoted as saying that they would not be involved in any of the investigations because, “There is no evidence of a serial killer at work here.” It would seem then at this stage, no-one yet was considering it could be the work of a group.
I mentioned earlier that Josh’s father and his partner, the retired ex- agent who stands in the shadows but holds an astonishing amount of information about the perpetrators, traced a truck to the Mid-West.
https://www.amazon.com/investigation-...
January 20, 2018
What's the creepiest/scariest most unsolved mystery? The ‘Smiley Face Killers.’
For the past 20 years, hundreds of college-aged men have disappeared, silently, soundlessly, vanishing without trace, only to be found some time later, dead in the water, but with no water in their lungs. Some are still missing. They usually have no wounds, no trauma, so how did they die?
a very sinister and highly disturbing group of killers. Organised, deadly, and always successful, they prey on the young men, selecting them, hunting them, abducting them, and killing them. They are never caught. They are silent, invisible predators who always get away.
How are they doing this? Who are they? Why are they doing this?
Young college men are vanishing without a trace, only to be found dead; weeks or months later, in remote rivers or creeks, in areas that searched multiple times before; their bodies later discovered there, as though deliberately placed to be found there. Taunting. Deliberate. Sinister and Sadistic.
“Nobody will speculate on the disappearances because they don't understand the sinister nature of the world they are living in. This is dark alchemy indeed.”
Chris Jenkins mother: “The evil is rampant and deep and widespread. He was tortured, taken to the river and killed. Then his body was taken to a different part of the river and positioned.”
Zachary Marr disappeared while out with his cousins at a Bar in Boston. He was not allowed back into the Bar after going outside for a cigarette. The Bar dispute this. Again at the time of writing, the police released a statement saying that they believe the surveillance cameras show him as he enters the ice cold Charles River. It was a cold night in Boston, in February. Why would a young man go down to the River and get into the water? He had only gone outside the Bar to have a quick cigarette.
In that same stretch of water, two weeks before Zachary disappeared, Matthew Genovese also disappeared after leaving a bar. His co-workers, who were in the bar with him, said that he did not appear to be intoxicated. On January 23rd, 2016, Matthew was found dead in the Hudson River. Strangely, his billfold was found on the pier beside the water.
24 days before this, on December 31st, the body of Northeastern University Dennis Njoroge was found in the river. He had disappeared on November 29th. His body was found in Boston's Charles River on December 31st. Following autopsy and toxicology tests, the city coroner concluded that it was impossible to determine if the young man had drowned by accident or suicide, or if he had “somehow died elsewhere,” and was then placed in the water already dead.
The cause and also the manner of the young man’s death was therefore listed as “unknown” and the Boston police stated that they were not going to be investigating it. It was determined by them not to be suspicious; despite the fact that from the Coroner’s report, he could quite easily have been killed and then placed in the water.
Again in Boston, on February 8, 2014, graduate Eric Munsell was out celebrating his birthday. Eric was in a bar with friends when he was thrown out by a bouncer because, according to his Mother, he had tripped on his way to the bathroom. His body was discovered in the river two months later, at the same spot he was believed to have entered the water, according to cell phone records. A passer-by had seen his “non-viable” body floating in the water. Why had his body not been seen before? Had he been in the water for 2 months, or not?
On Christmas day 2015, the body of Lehman College student Anthony Urena was found dead in the same stretch of water. It was believed his body had drifted from the Harlem River, into the New Jersey side of the Hudson River, where he was recovered. He had last been seen leaving a nightclub in New York City around 5 a.m. He had been missing for six weeks. At this point in time, it is not known if he had been in the water the entire time; or “elsewhere” for some of the time he had been missing.
Henry McCabe was found partially submerged in a remote body of water on November 2nd, 2015. He had disappeared on Labor Day, September 7th, 2015, in Minnesota. On the night he disappeared, he left what can only be described as the most haunting, most chilling, and most harrowing voicemail, after he went missing. He is screaming, pleading and growling in raw, animalistic agony. Disturbingly, in the background, is something that sounds mechanical. Even more horrific, a voice then interrupts his screams and calmly tells him, in a cold, emotionless, detached voice, “Stop it.”
He was found in the water seven miles from where he was last known to have been on the night he disappeared. His body bore no signs of trauma; and yet it had sounded as though he was being tortured. How does that make any sense? What could have been happening to him on that terrible night?
His Mother says, “This is what they did to my son. Someone killed my son. Before Henry died, he was pleading to someone who dropped him in the dark… Henry paid for you to learn the lesson… When he got off from that car in that morning, he had no idea that he was going to die…”
She seems to be suggesting here that Henry was ‘delivered’ to his terrible fate; as though he was offered up in some form of sacrifice, in some form of pre-planned killing. Rather bizarrely however, the police, despite his harrowing blood-curdling voicemail, say that they do not think there was any foul play involved. He had been missing for 5 days. Was he a victim of ‘the Smiley Face Killers,’ too?
many of them also made very disturbing phone calls just before they died or were taken, and were then found dead, days or weeks later, in bodies of water. What is perplexing, and very worrying, is that none of these cases are being investigated as suspicious.
We have the terrible case of Walton Ward. His sister says her brother also died in inexplicable, mysterious and terrible circumstances.
“Walton was last seen alive at Landsharks Bar, Indianapolis, with a 'bouncer' at approximately 1:20-1:30 a.m. on October 12, 2012. His last attempt to save his own life was at 1:30 a.m. when he dialled 911 from his Phone for help. His killers interrupted his 911 call and murdered him...He knew he was going to be killed. His desperate call lasted for 1 second, which was just enough to register to the nearest cell phone tower...but it wasn’t not long enough to save his life.”
“That was the last time we know him to be alive, until construction workers discovered his body on October 22, floating in the River a few blocks from the bar 10 days after his desperate call to 911 on that night. His phone was found on the bank of the River behind a Restaurant. The police said he must have been 'drunk', 'fallen in' or 'gone swimming' in the dead of winter.”
Other victims, who have ended up dead, the same way, have left comments on their facebook or twitter accounts, that also clearly cry out for investigation. Whether overtly or cryptically, some of these victims are in need of help even before they have disappeared. Something very strange, very alarming, and very sinister is going on.
In 2011, Mike Shaw wrote of the grief, the anger and the sense of helplessness he felt because he could not save his best friend.
01/17/10: Sylvester McCurry Jr., 18, Superior, WI
“Sly McCurry did not walk out onto the ice of Lake Superior (Wisconsin) that cold January (2010) winter night and fall through and drown. He was murdered. No one can ever convince me it was anything but murder. He was more than a friend to me. His smile would light up a room. He was always full of life, always happy. He would never have went from the Nightclub to that secluded area alone in 20 degrees below weather, with no coat, and drown. He had no car and after being thrown out of the club via the back door, on the alleged grounds that he was drunk, he was left in the alleyway. Four months later, his body was found in the lake. I was a trained fighter for many years and felt protective over my friends. I have never received closure. His death was ruled “accidental due to cold water immersion.” His scent stopped at the back door of the hotel. Like clockwork, I see this killers strike all over the North-East.”
The name ‘The Smiley Face Killers,’ comes from Grafitti found sometimes at or near the scene.
Curiously, some of them have been in towns they have never visited until that night, only to be found in remote ponds that they could never have known even existed, nor the route to take to get to them. Alternately, they appear to have scaled fences or other difficult obstacles to get into remote ponds and then drowned in water that is no deeper than a couple of feet.
Are there any clues which could help explain what has happened to these young men, and why?
Why are many of them found missing one shoe?
Why are their cell phones often found beside the river’s edge, again as though purposely placed there?
Why have some of their bodies been ‘placed’ into positions which are wholly inconsistent with that of a drowning victim?
Why are they later found in places searched multiple times before?
Why do many of them make desperate phone calls just moments before something happens to them?
Why are some of them in such a state of terror or horror when they phone their parents or friends?
Why would their cell phones suddenly go dead after they have said something very disturbing?
What are they seeing, in the final moments before their phone is cut off?
And where are the missing ones who are never found?
I’ve been on a personal hunt for clues and answers for several years now, as an author and researcher…. and some of the answers are more horrifying than any person could reasonably contemplate….
“If people knew the depth of this, they would be terrified to be outside at night, whether out in the country or in the city.”
“We take what we need and leave. Understand this: This is necessary. Life feeds on life feeds on life feeds on death feeds on life……”
https://www.amazon.com/investigation-...
a very sinister and highly disturbing group of killers. Organised, deadly, and always successful, they prey on the young men, selecting them, hunting them, abducting them, and killing them. They are never caught. They are silent, invisible predators who always get away.
How are they doing this? Who are they? Why are they doing this?
Young college men are vanishing without a trace, only to be found dead; weeks or months later, in remote rivers or creeks, in areas that searched multiple times before; their bodies later discovered there, as though deliberately placed to be found there. Taunting. Deliberate. Sinister and Sadistic.
“Nobody will speculate on the disappearances because they don't understand the sinister nature of the world they are living in. This is dark alchemy indeed.”
Chris Jenkins mother: “The evil is rampant and deep and widespread. He was tortured, taken to the river and killed. Then his body was taken to a different part of the river and positioned.”
Zachary Marr disappeared while out with his cousins at a Bar in Boston. He was not allowed back into the Bar after going outside for a cigarette. The Bar dispute this. Again at the time of writing, the police released a statement saying that they believe the surveillance cameras show him as he enters the ice cold Charles River. It was a cold night in Boston, in February. Why would a young man go down to the River and get into the water? He had only gone outside the Bar to have a quick cigarette.
In that same stretch of water, two weeks before Zachary disappeared, Matthew Genovese also disappeared after leaving a bar. His co-workers, who were in the bar with him, said that he did not appear to be intoxicated. On January 23rd, 2016, Matthew was found dead in the Hudson River. Strangely, his billfold was found on the pier beside the water.
24 days before this, on December 31st, the body of Northeastern University Dennis Njoroge was found in the river. He had disappeared on November 29th. His body was found in Boston's Charles River on December 31st. Following autopsy and toxicology tests, the city coroner concluded that it was impossible to determine if the young man had drowned by accident or suicide, or if he had “somehow died elsewhere,” and was then placed in the water already dead.
The cause and also the manner of the young man’s death was therefore listed as “unknown” and the Boston police stated that they were not going to be investigating it. It was determined by them not to be suspicious; despite the fact that from the Coroner’s report, he could quite easily have been killed and then placed in the water.
Again in Boston, on February 8, 2014, graduate Eric Munsell was out celebrating his birthday. Eric was in a bar with friends when he was thrown out by a bouncer because, according to his Mother, he had tripped on his way to the bathroom. His body was discovered in the river two months later, at the same spot he was believed to have entered the water, according to cell phone records. A passer-by had seen his “non-viable” body floating in the water. Why had his body not been seen before? Had he been in the water for 2 months, or not?
On Christmas day 2015, the body of Lehman College student Anthony Urena was found dead in the same stretch of water. It was believed his body had drifted from the Harlem River, into the New Jersey side of the Hudson River, where he was recovered. He had last been seen leaving a nightclub in New York City around 5 a.m. He had been missing for six weeks. At this point in time, it is not known if he had been in the water the entire time; or “elsewhere” for some of the time he had been missing.
Henry McCabe was found partially submerged in a remote body of water on November 2nd, 2015. He had disappeared on Labor Day, September 7th, 2015, in Minnesota. On the night he disappeared, he left what can only be described as the most haunting, most chilling, and most harrowing voicemail, after he went missing. He is screaming, pleading and growling in raw, animalistic agony. Disturbingly, in the background, is something that sounds mechanical. Even more horrific, a voice then interrupts his screams and calmly tells him, in a cold, emotionless, detached voice, “Stop it.”
He was found in the water seven miles from where he was last known to have been on the night he disappeared. His body bore no signs of trauma; and yet it had sounded as though he was being tortured. How does that make any sense? What could have been happening to him on that terrible night?
His Mother says, “This is what they did to my son. Someone killed my son. Before Henry died, he was pleading to someone who dropped him in the dark… Henry paid for you to learn the lesson… When he got off from that car in that morning, he had no idea that he was going to die…”
She seems to be suggesting here that Henry was ‘delivered’ to his terrible fate; as though he was offered up in some form of sacrifice, in some form of pre-planned killing. Rather bizarrely however, the police, despite his harrowing blood-curdling voicemail, say that they do not think there was any foul play involved. He had been missing for 5 days. Was he a victim of ‘the Smiley Face Killers,’ too?
many of them also made very disturbing phone calls just before they died or were taken, and were then found dead, days or weeks later, in bodies of water. What is perplexing, and very worrying, is that none of these cases are being investigated as suspicious.
We have the terrible case of Walton Ward. His sister says her brother also died in inexplicable, mysterious and terrible circumstances.
“Walton was last seen alive at Landsharks Bar, Indianapolis, with a 'bouncer' at approximately 1:20-1:30 a.m. on October 12, 2012. His last attempt to save his own life was at 1:30 a.m. when he dialled 911 from his Phone for help. His killers interrupted his 911 call and murdered him...He knew he was going to be killed. His desperate call lasted for 1 second, which was just enough to register to the nearest cell phone tower...but it wasn’t not long enough to save his life.”
“That was the last time we know him to be alive, until construction workers discovered his body on October 22, floating in the River a few blocks from the bar 10 days after his desperate call to 911 on that night. His phone was found on the bank of the River behind a Restaurant. The police said he must have been 'drunk', 'fallen in' or 'gone swimming' in the dead of winter.”
Other victims, who have ended up dead, the same way, have left comments on their facebook or twitter accounts, that also clearly cry out for investigation. Whether overtly or cryptically, some of these victims are in need of help even before they have disappeared. Something very strange, very alarming, and very sinister is going on.
In 2011, Mike Shaw wrote of the grief, the anger and the sense of helplessness he felt because he could not save his best friend.
01/17/10: Sylvester McCurry Jr., 18, Superior, WI
“Sly McCurry did not walk out onto the ice of Lake Superior (Wisconsin) that cold January (2010) winter night and fall through and drown. He was murdered. No one can ever convince me it was anything but murder. He was more than a friend to me. His smile would light up a room. He was always full of life, always happy. He would never have went from the Nightclub to that secluded area alone in 20 degrees below weather, with no coat, and drown. He had no car and after being thrown out of the club via the back door, on the alleged grounds that he was drunk, he was left in the alleyway. Four months later, his body was found in the lake. I was a trained fighter for many years and felt protective over my friends. I have never received closure. His death was ruled “accidental due to cold water immersion.” His scent stopped at the back door of the hotel. Like clockwork, I see this killers strike all over the North-East.”
The name ‘The Smiley Face Killers,’ comes from Grafitti found sometimes at or near the scene.
Curiously, some of them have been in towns they have never visited until that night, only to be found in remote ponds that they could never have known even existed, nor the route to take to get to them. Alternately, they appear to have scaled fences or other difficult obstacles to get into remote ponds and then drowned in water that is no deeper than a couple of feet.
Are there any clues which could help explain what has happened to these young men, and why?
Why are many of them found missing one shoe?
Why are their cell phones often found beside the river’s edge, again as though purposely placed there?
Why have some of their bodies been ‘placed’ into positions which are wholly inconsistent with that of a drowning victim?
Why are they later found in places searched multiple times before?
Why do many of them make desperate phone calls just moments before something happens to them?
Why are some of them in such a state of terror or horror when they phone their parents or friends?
Why would their cell phones suddenly go dead after they have said something very disturbing?
What are they seeing, in the final moments before their phone is cut off?
And where are the missing ones who are never found?
I’ve been on a personal hunt for clues and answers for several years now, as an author and researcher…. and some of the answers are more horrifying than any person could reasonably contemplate….
“If people knew the depth of this, they would be terrified to be outside at night, whether out in the country or in the city.”
“We take what we need and leave. Understand this: This is necessary. Life feeds on life feeds on life feeds on death feeds on life……”
https://www.amazon.com/investigation-...
Creepy Clowns
Why do clowns scare some people?
Coulrophobia, or fear of clowns... Lore or real....
Their garish exaggerated facial features can transform them into the monster in the closet and other such archetypal creatures from our darkest nightmares, or even our reality, such as visitations from ghost-clowns.
Clowns, jesters, tricksters, jokers and harlequins have appeared for centuries throughout many cultures: the court jesters of medieval England, Pygmy clowns of ancient Egypt, and Ancient Rome’s the ‘stupidus’ figure.
The Smithsonian quotes French literary critic Edmond de Goncourt, who wrote in 1876, “The clown’s art is now rather terrifying and full of anxiety and apprehension. Their suicidal feats, their monstrous gesticulations and frenzied mimicry reminding one of a lunatic asylum.”
The less manic clowns, the staple troubled, sad, and tragic clown variety in the form of the tattered “hobo” homeless clowns were no less troubling to watch.
There are some horrifying claims, though not easily substantiated, that in the Middle Ages, jesters were mutilated if they failed to make the court laugh; their faces cut into a permanent smile by the removal of their muscles that would make frowns.
As for the release of the 2017 Stephen King movie ‘IT,’ his clown is now depicted in classic Harlequin quality, with elegance of costume. ‘Pennywise’ has been described by theatre critics as ‘a harlequin-from-hell.’ Of course, in the fore-front of people’s psyche will always be John Wayne Gacy’s clown Pogo. Between 1972 and 1978 he sexually assaulted and killed more than 35 adolescent boys. When he went to entertain children and adolescents, dressed in his clown costume, what no-one knew was that he had already been convicted of sexually assaulting a teenage boy.
In contemporary times, Stephen King’s demon clown ‘Pennywise,’ Heath Ledger’s ‘The Joker’ in Batman and also ‘Punch and Judy’ as the henchmen of the Joker, DC Comics’ cloddish supervillains ‘Punch and Jewellee,’ and perhaps even the Insane Clown Posse’s grease-paint and their Dark Carnival performances, have all only solidified the fear of the unpredictable often frenzied persona of the murderous Clown or any other similar trickster characters, and this abiding fear lies in the soul of not just children but us adults too.
In the ‘Clown sightings’ outbreak of 2016 throughout America and England, online magazine Mashable synchronistically remarked; ‘Since the late summer, there have been about a half-dozen reports of clown sightings. Alleged sightings mapped along the border between the Carolinas, form a sort of ‘harlequin triangle’ between Greenville, Greensboro and Winston – Salem, North Carolina.’
The Washington post pointed out: ‘The incident seems to follow a script that has repeated itself several times over in the area since late August: Witnesses phone local police to report a menacing clown or clowns, but officers cannot verify the sightings.’
Fortean Loren Coleman first used the term “Phantom Clowns” after researching a “clown flap” in the early 1980’s, of children possibly being bundled into run-down and archaic vans.
Patrick Harpur in Daimonic Reality wrote of a strange and troubling variation: heavily made up “Phantom Social Workers.” In the early months of 1990 across England a similar pattern to the “Phantom Clowns” played out. Instead of clown costumes, they came wearing suits and heavy make-up on their faces. The police dealt with an ever-growing number of reports from concerned and distressed parents who had received unexpected visits from social workers who had turned up on their doorsteps, asking to come in to see their children. When the parents became suspicious, they would retreat and leave. Mostly these visitors were women, wearing very heavy make-up that would have been wholly inappropriate for a social worker.
They carried identification and clip boards. Sometimes they did phone in advance. “Operation Childcare” was set up by combined police forces to track down these bogus authority figures. Sometimes they were reported to operate in groups but strangely the police felt it was several different groups. Were they real paedophile groups, phantoms, or like the so-called Men In Black visits?
Fear of clowns and similar such disturbing characters is attributed by some to the “uncanny valley effect.” This is said to be the phenomenon where things that look human but aren’t quite, are as a result, deeply unsettling to the human psyche. Our reaction upon seeing such grotesque monsters is a dip in emotional response that occurs as we are confronted by such.
The term “uncanny valley” derives from robot maker Masahiro Mori, in 1970, who hypothesised that as robots grew more human in appearance and character, people would grow to accept them as more familiar when compared to earlier more mechanical and rudimentary models. However, the closer they became to human-like, the more disconcerted and uncomfortable people became and their responses of unease heightened.
Exaggerated postures and exaggerated facial features on human-like faces unsettle our subconscious, unnerve us with their unpredictability, and threaten us.
Perhaps the greatest fear from all of these archetypes is that their unnaturally fixed exaggerated and grotesquely frozen expressions make them so surreal, so nightmarish, and that these faces seem to hide their real nature… When the grease-paint is wiped off, what is left….?
Here is one man’s very disturbing account of a clown-like Harlequin figure that has stalked him all his life: https://www.amazon.com/Behind-Masquer...
Coulrophobia, or fear of clowns... Lore or real....
Their garish exaggerated facial features can transform them into the monster in the closet and other such archetypal creatures from our darkest nightmares, or even our reality, such as visitations from ghost-clowns.
Clowns, jesters, tricksters, jokers and harlequins have appeared for centuries throughout many cultures: the court jesters of medieval England, Pygmy clowns of ancient Egypt, and Ancient Rome’s the ‘stupidus’ figure.
The Smithsonian quotes French literary critic Edmond de Goncourt, who wrote in 1876, “The clown’s art is now rather terrifying and full of anxiety and apprehension. Their suicidal feats, their monstrous gesticulations and frenzied mimicry reminding one of a lunatic asylum.”
The less manic clowns, the staple troubled, sad, and tragic clown variety in the form of the tattered “hobo” homeless clowns were no less troubling to watch.
There are some horrifying claims, though not easily substantiated, that in the Middle Ages, jesters were mutilated if they failed to make the court laugh; their faces cut into a permanent smile by the removal of their muscles that would make frowns.
As for the release of the 2017 Stephen King movie ‘IT,’ his clown is now depicted in classic Harlequin quality, with elegance of costume. ‘Pennywise’ has been described by theatre critics as ‘a harlequin-from-hell.’ Of course, in the fore-front of people’s psyche will always be John Wayne Gacy’s clown Pogo. Between 1972 and 1978 he sexually assaulted and killed more than 35 adolescent boys. When he went to entertain children and adolescents, dressed in his clown costume, what no-one knew was that he had already been convicted of sexually assaulting a teenage boy.
In contemporary times, Stephen King’s demon clown ‘Pennywise,’ Heath Ledger’s ‘The Joker’ in Batman and also ‘Punch and Judy’ as the henchmen of the Joker, DC Comics’ cloddish supervillains ‘Punch and Jewellee,’ and perhaps even the Insane Clown Posse’s grease-paint and their Dark Carnival performances, have all only solidified the fear of the unpredictable often frenzied persona of the murderous Clown or any other similar trickster characters, and this abiding fear lies in the soul of not just children but us adults too.
In the ‘Clown sightings’ outbreak of 2016 throughout America and England, online magazine Mashable synchronistically remarked; ‘Since the late summer, there have been about a half-dozen reports of clown sightings. Alleged sightings mapped along the border between the Carolinas, form a sort of ‘harlequin triangle’ between Greenville, Greensboro and Winston – Salem, North Carolina.’
The Washington post pointed out: ‘The incident seems to follow a script that has repeated itself several times over in the area since late August: Witnesses phone local police to report a menacing clown or clowns, but officers cannot verify the sightings.’
Fortean Loren Coleman first used the term “Phantom Clowns” after researching a “clown flap” in the early 1980’s, of children possibly being bundled into run-down and archaic vans.
Patrick Harpur in Daimonic Reality wrote of a strange and troubling variation: heavily made up “Phantom Social Workers.” In the early months of 1990 across England a similar pattern to the “Phantom Clowns” played out. Instead of clown costumes, they came wearing suits and heavy make-up on their faces. The police dealt with an ever-growing number of reports from concerned and distressed parents who had received unexpected visits from social workers who had turned up on their doorsteps, asking to come in to see their children. When the parents became suspicious, they would retreat and leave. Mostly these visitors were women, wearing very heavy make-up that would have been wholly inappropriate for a social worker.
They carried identification and clip boards. Sometimes they did phone in advance. “Operation Childcare” was set up by combined police forces to track down these bogus authority figures. Sometimes they were reported to operate in groups but strangely the police felt it was several different groups. Were they real paedophile groups, phantoms, or like the so-called Men In Black visits?
Fear of clowns and similar such disturbing characters is attributed by some to the “uncanny valley effect.” This is said to be the phenomenon where things that look human but aren’t quite, are as a result, deeply unsettling to the human psyche. Our reaction upon seeing such grotesque monsters is a dip in emotional response that occurs as we are confronted by such.
The term “uncanny valley” derives from robot maker Masahiro Mori, in 1970, who hypothesised that as robots grew more human in appearance and character, people would grow to accept them as more familiar when compared to earlier more mechanical and rudimentary models. However, the closer they became to human-like, the more disconcerted and uncomfortable people became and their responses of unease heightened.
Exaggerated postures and exaggerated facial features on human-like faces unsettle our subconscious, unnerve us with their unpredictability, and threaten us.
Perhaps the greatest fear from all of these archetypes is that their unnaturally fixed exaggerated and grotesquely frozen expressions make them so surreal, so nightmarish, and that these faces seem to hide their real nature… When the grease-paint is wiped off, what is left….?
Here is one man’s very disturbing account of a clown-like Harlequin figure that has stalked him all his life: https://www.amazon.com/Behind-Masquer...
January 10, 2018
What are some of the unique mythological creatures from your country's folk lore ?
Boggart: an evil or mischievous spirit in folklore.
Location: England, Scotland.
A ‘Boggart’ is the name given for either a household spirit or a malevolent genius loci, which inhabits the woods, fields and marshes.
Other names for this being include bugbear, bogeyman or, the bogle.
In Lore, in rural parts of Northern England and up into Scotland, the Bogart should never be named; for if it is, none would be able to reason with it and it would become uncontrollable, and vicious. It would reap a path of destruction.
If it came in your house, it would pull on your nose or ears. Your dogs would go lame. Often, horse-shoes could be found on the front door of homes, in the belief that this would shield their occupants from the invasion of a Bogart.
The Bogart’s own domain however lay on the Moors, under bridges, or in crags or caves. The boggarts inhabiting the marshes or holes in the ground were often attributed more serious evil deeds, such as the abduction of children. There are alleged disappearances of children and adults associated with the Bogart, in earlier centuries.
A contact of mine recently told me that in Ogden, in the South Pennines of Northern England, “All over is stories of the ‘Bogarts’ and all over is little green troll decorations in the trees that people have put up. They’re put up because there is a tradition that some creatures called the Bogarts live up there. Its always happened on a place called ‘Spice Cake Hills.’”
Boggarts are described in various form: Many are described as relatively human-like in form, though usually rough and coarse looking, uncouth, very ugly and even monstrous creatures, often with beast-like forms and behaviour. It was believed they could shift in size and shape and form.
Irish writer Eliot O’Donnell gives an account in Scottish Ghost Stories 1911 of ‘The death bogle.’ (abridged)
“Several years ago, wanting to re-visit the Scottish Highlands, in Perthshire; an area that had great attractions for me as a boy, I answered an advertisement in a magazine for a "Comfortable room offered" in an elderly lady’s house. The location was heavenly, and since there were no other adverts in that area I responded.’
‘On arrival my suitcases were taken upstairs by a boy in the MacDonal tartan, and I was given tea of scones and cream. My bedroom was dainty and clean. It turned out that both our ancestors had fought in battalions in Louis XIV's brigades. A week after I had arrived there, I acted upon the landlady’s suggestion to spend the day on the Loch. It was a welcome rest from my writing and it wasn't until evening time, around 7 o'clock, that I set out to return to the house. It was a brilliant moonlit night; there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the landscape around me was as clear as in the daytime; The far-off river, the long range of mountains silhouetted darkly against the silvery sky, the green thickness of the box trees.’
‘I mounted my bicycle and rode speedily along the high road, until eventually coming to a stop after a couple of miles. I didn't stop fatigued, but rather because I was entranced with the scenery. I had stopped on a triangular shaped junction where three roads met. I dismounted and leant against the signpost, remaining like that for probably 10 minutes until I was about to remount my bicycle, when suddenly I became icy cold and a hideous feeling of terror seized me. The terror gripped me so hard that my bicycle slipped from my grip to the ground, crashing.
‘The next instant something, and for the life of me I know not what; its blurred outline and indefined shape landed in front of me with a thud and remained there, bolt upright as a cylindrical pillar. Meanwhile in the distance came the sound of a low rumbling, which grew until into view thundered a wagon loaded with hay and on top of the wagon sat a man with a wide-brim hat, talking heatedly to a young boy who lay across the hay. The horse pulling the wagon caught sight of the "thing" that stood in front of me and stopped still, violently snorting. The man cried out to the horse, then in a hysterical screech, "My God! What's that figure boy?" The boy immediately rose up and then clutched the man's arm tight, screaming; "I don't know! I don't know! But it’s me it's come for! Don't let it touch me! Don't let it touch me!"
The moon was so bright that as the boy screamed I could see their faces so well, and their expressions were one of abject terror; even more horrifying than the unknown "thing." The gorse, the trees, the grotesque crags of granite, all were overwhelmed by this stillness; the stillness of shadowland. I could count the buttons on the man's coat, I could see the marks of sweat on the boy's shirt. I could see his black nails. I could see the man's chest as it rose and fell rapidly as he breathed fast with fear, and while these minute details were being driven into my soul, the cause of it all was the shock of this indefinable indistinguishable "thing" that stood as a column; silent and motionless, and behind it was a glow.’
‘The horse suddenly broke free from the spell of this esoteric figure and it broke off at a gallop, tearing frantically past the phantasm and went helter-skelter along the road ahead, speeding recklessly. The silent and motionless entity now followed in their wake, with bounds, trying to get at them with its long spidery arms. If it succeeded I can't say, because I was uncontrollably frightened that it would return to come after me, and I rode as I have never ridden before to get away from there.’
‘I told my landlady about what had happened. She looked very serious. "I should have warned you," she said. "It has always been that way on that road. No-one who lives here will venture there after dark, and so it must have been strangers who you saw there. It's method never varies. It comes over the wall, remains still until someone approaches, and then it pursues them with monstrous speed. The person it touches will invariably die within 12 months. I remember when I was a child, a night such as you have described. I was coming home with my father from a party. When we reached that spot, our horse shied and we went racing off at terrific speed. I have never seen such fear in my father; his agitation alarmed me so, and my instinct told me this was not from the horse bolting but from something else. Soon I realized what it was; something overtook us and it thrust its long thin arms toward us and it reached my father, touching his hand and then, with a cry that was more animal than human, it disappeared. We could not speak until we reached home. My father was white as a sheet, and he took me aside and whispered to me, "Don't say a word; don't tell your mother what has happened. Never let her know. It was the death bogle and I shall die before the year is out." And he did die.'
She continued, "I can't describe it any better than you; whether man or beast, I do not know, but whatever it was I got the impression that it had no eyes.’
Eliot O’Donnell ‘Scottish Ghost Stories, 1911.https://www.gutenberg.org/files/...
Of course, the most famous boggarts feature in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series!
Location: England, Scotland.
A ‘Boggart’ is the name given for either a household spirit or a malevolent genius loci, which inhabits the woods, fields and marshes.
Other names for this being include bugbear, bogeyman or, the bogle.
In Lore, in rural parts of Northern England and up into Scotland, the Bogart should never be named; for if it is, none would be able to reason with it and it would become uncontrollable, and vicious. It would reap a path of destruction.
If it came in your house, it would pull on your nose or ears. Your dogs would go lame. Often, horse-shoes could be found on the front door of homes, in the belief that this would shield their occupants from the invasion of a Bogart.
The Bogart’s own domain however lay on the Moors, under bridges, or in crags or caves. The boggarts inhabiting the marshes or holes in the ground were often attributed more serious evil deeds, such as the abduction of children. There are alleged disappearances of children and adults associated with the Bogart, in earlier centuries.
A contact of mine recently told me that in Ogden, in the South Pennines of Northern England, “All over is stories of the ‘Bogarts’ and all over is little green troll decorations in the trees that people have put up. They’re put up because there is a tradition that some creatures called the Bogarts live up there. Its always happened on a place called ‘Spice Cake Hills.’”
Boggarts are described in various form: Many are described as relatively human-like in form, though usually rough and coarse looking, uncouth, very ugly and even monstrous creatures, often with beast-like forms and behaviour. It was believed they could shift in size and shape and form.
Irish writer Eliot O’Donnell gives an account in Scottish Ghost Stories 1911 of ‘The death bogle.’ (abridged)
“Several years ago, wanting to re-visit the Scottish Highlands, in Perthshire; an area that had great attractions for me as a boy, I answered an advertisement in a magazine for a "Comfortable room offered" in an elderly lady’s house. The location was heavenly, and since there were no other adverts in that area I responded.’
‘On arrival my suitcases were taken upstairs by a boy in the MacDonal tartan, and I was given tea of scones and cream. My bedroom was dainty and clean. It turned out that both our ancestors had fought in battalions in Louis XIV's brigades. A week after I had arrived there, I acted upon the landlady’s suggestion to spend the day on the Loch. It was a welcome rest from my writing and it wasn't until evening time, around 7 o'clock, that I set out to return to the house. It was a brilliant moonlit night; there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the landscape around me was as clear as in the daytime; The far-off river, the long range of mountains silhouetted darkly against the silvery sky, the green thickness of the box trees.’
‘I mounted my bicycle and rode speedily along the high road, until eventually coming to a stop after a couple of miles. I didn't stop fatigued, but rather because I was entranced with the scenery. I had stopped on a triangular shaped junction where three roads met. I dismounted and leant against the signpost, remaining like that for probably 10 minutes until I was about to remount my bicycle, when suddenly I became icy cold and a hideous feeling of terror seized me. The terror gripped me so hard that my bicycle slipped from my grip to the ground, crashing.
‘The next instant something, and for the life of me I know not what; its blurred outline and indefined shape landed in front of me with a thud and remained there, bolt upright as a cylindrical pillar. Meanwhile in the distance came the sound of a low rumbling, which grew until into view thundered a wagon loaded with hay and on top of the wagon sat a man with a wide-brim hat, talking heatedly to a young boy who lay across the hay. The horse pulling the wagon caught sight of the "thing" that stood in front of me and stopped still, violently snorting. The man cried out to the horse, then in a hysterical screech, "My God! What's that figure boy?" The boy immediately rose up and then clutched the man's arm tight, screaming; "I don't know! I don't know! But it’s me it's come for! Don't let it touch me! Don't let it touch me!"
The moon was so bright that as the boy screamed I could see their faces so well, and their expressions were one of abject terror; even more horrifying than the unknown "thing." The gorse, the trees, the grotesque crags of granite, all were overwhelmed by this stillness; the stillness of shadowland. I could count the buttons on the man's coat, I could see the marks of sweat on the boy's shirt. I could see his black nails. I could see the man's chest as it rose and fell rapidly as he breathed fast with fear, and while these minute details were being driven into my soul, the cause of it all was the shock of this indefinable indistinguishable "thing" that stood as a column; silent and motionless, and behind it was a glow.’
‘The horse suddenly broke free from the spell of this esoteric figure and it broke off at a gallop, tearing frantically past the phantasm and went helter-skelter along the road ahead, speeding recklessly. The silent and motionless entity now followed in their wake, with bounds, trying to get at them with its long spidery arms. If it succeeded I can't say, because I was uncontrollably frightened that it would return to come after me, and I rode as I have never ridden before to get away from there.’
‘I told my landlady about what had happened. She looked very serious. "I should have warned you," she said. "It has always been that way on that road. No-one who lives here will venture there after dark, and so it must have been strangers who you saw there. It's method never varies. It comes over the wall, remains still until someone approaches, and then it pursues them with monstrous speed. The person it touches will invariably die within 12 months. I remember when I was a child, a night such as you have described. I was coming home with my father from a party. When we reached that spot, our horse shied and we went racing off at terrific speed. I have never seen such fear in my father; his agitation alarmed me so, and my instinct told me this was not from the horse bolting but from something else. Soon I realized what it was; something overtook us and it thrust its long thin arms toward us and it reached my father, touching his hand and then, with a cry that was more animal than human, it disappeared. We could not speak until we reached home. My father was white as a sheet, and he took me aside and whispered to me, "Don't say a word; don't tell your mother what has happened. Never let her know. It was the death bogle and I shall die before the year is out." And he did die.'
She continued, "I can't describe it any better than you; whether man or beast, I do not know, but whatever it was I got the impression that it had no eyes.’
Eliot O’Donnell ‘Scottish Ghost Stories, 1911.https://www.gutenberg.org/files/...
Of course, the most famous boggarts feature in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series!
Podcast Episode: The American Dyatlov Pass Incident !
Masquerade Podcast with Steph Young.
EP: The AMERICAN Dyatlov pass case.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrGWZ...
The American Dyatlov Pass Incident !! I came across this little-known story, which bears remarkable similarities to the Dyatlov Pass incident – yet it happened in 1978 in a National Park in America!
Described by the Washington Post in 1978 as “The American Dyatlov Pass,” it concerns the curious, bizarre, tragic and ultimately still unsolved case of the death of four young men in the woods…who fled something…. in absolute terror for their lives..and paid the ultimate price… It’s the most curious and inexplicable case… for more episodes please visit https://www.patreon.com/stephyoungpod...
EP: The AMERICAN Dyatlov pass case.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrGWZ...
The American Dyatlov Pass Incident !! I came across this little-known story, which bears remarkable similarities to the Dyatlov Pass incident – yet it happened in 1978 in a National Park in America!
Described by the Washington Post in 1978 as “The American Dyatlov Pass,” it concerns the curious, bizarre, tragic and ultimately still unsolved case of the death of four young men in the woods…who fled something…. in absolute terror for their lives..and paid the ultimate price… It’s the most curious and inexplicable case… for more episodes please visit https://www.patreon.com/stephyoungpod...
February 21, 2017
Steph Young Podcast
Steph Young Author Podcast.
"Creepy Unexplained Mysteries."
Episode 1: Invisible Entities:
In this Episode, i talk about Invisible Entities out in the Woods... well, when I say Invisible, sometimes they show themselves, and when they do, you would wish that they had not... So join me for some true tales of Predators in the Woods; of hunters, hikers, campers' encounters with things that defy explanation, things that horrify and provoke terror in those who they show themselves to… Are they watching us? Stalking us? Hunting us? Join me for some creepy true stories...
steph young podcast>
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChY-I52fp98kMJm0aIoW-NA
"Creepy Unexplained Mysteries."
Episode 1: Invisible Entities:
In this Episode, i talk about Invisible Entities out in the Woods... well, when I say Invisible, sometimes they show themselves, and when they do, you would wish that they had not... So join me for some true tales of Predators in the Woods; of hunters, hikers, campers' encounters with things that defy explanation, things that horrify and provoke terror in those who they show themselves to… Are they watching us? Stalking us? Hunting us? Join me for some creepy true stories...
steph young podcast>
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChY-I52fp98kMJm0aIoW-NA
