Haunted Object

Hello, I'm Amy and I'm Rachel, and we're just two millennials who share a passion for the creepy and the spooky, harbor a true love for true crime, and share our favorite spirits. So sit back and have a cocktail with two creepy ghouls. Beautiful. Thank you, thank you. I'm glad it sounded beautiful. It did. Homegirl's not feeling too beautiful today. It's almost the end of the week. Oh my gosh, thank God for that. Yeah. That's all I can say. Um, so what's our theme today? So our theme today is, ooooh, haunted objects. Plays into my fear of weird things like antique stores. Yeah. For real. Yeah. So what cocktail goes with a haunted object? I'm glad you asked. I'm glad you asked. I'm glad you asked. I'm glad you asked. I'm glad you asked. I'm glad you asked. I'm glad you asked. I'm glad you asked. I'm glad you asked. I'm glad you asked. I'm glad you asked. I'm glad you asked. I'm glad you asked. I'm glad you asked. I'm glad you asked. Asked. Asked. Asked. Asked. It is a vodka martini with a twist. With a twist. Oh, of course. A haunted twist? A haunted twist. And to make this vodka martini with a twist feels very James Bond. You'll need a third cup of vodka, vodka of your choosing. I would personally go with like maybe a wet, like a nicer high-end one. Two tablespoons of dry vermouth, one cup of ice, and a lemon peel. And the directions are, you fill your cocktail shaker with ice, or if you just have a mason jar, your mason jar, your mason jar, you can put some ice in that and kind of use the little lid for it to help shake it around. But you have the ice in there, you add your vodka, your dry vermouth, and you shake it well, and then you strain it into a martini glass and garnish with a lemon peel twist. A lemon peel twist. And I like to rub it around the rim, too, because to get the essence of the limon out. Oh, yeah. So, very strong, great for dinner parties, especially when served with appetizers or what do they call the canapes? I like it when people say, oh, would you like a canape? I have no idea what you're talking about. That's what they can call appetizers, it's a fancy word. Oh, hors d'oeuvres? No, well, hors d'oeuvres, but there's also canapes. Okay. Alright. I think I'm pronouncing that correctly. I like it, maybe I'm just not that fancy and I don't know. Probably not. Our ideal of a nice appetizer is fried pickles, but oh my gosh, yes, is whatever. Maybe we're just not as refined as we like to think we are. But that's okay. But, yeah, oh, and if you're not a vodka person, you can always use gin. Oh, well. I'd rather use vodka. There's always a gin martini. See, I'm very much a gin person. I don't drink martinis because of the olive juice that's usually in them. Well, there's different types of martinis. Yes, I've had a lemon drop martini and those are delicious because it's full of sugar. Well, yeah, but there is the limit, like this one is with a twist, so it doesn't have any olive juice. So, I like that. I would like that more. Yeah, this would probably be more up your alley versus the dirty martini, which has a little bit of olive juice in it. Which I've had before. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. 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I don't know. This next story is about Ootsie the Iceman. I don't know this one. Oh. I don't think I do. Let me tell you about Ootsie. Please do. I just like saying his name, too. So, high in a remote area of Uzzel Alps in northern Italy, some 5,300 years ago, Ootsie the Iceman was shot in the back with an arrow. It struck a main artery and it is likely he bled to death within minutes and was near perfectly preserved in the ice. Oh, wow. Ootsie became one of the most oldest and greatest mummy specimens in the world. This rings a bell. Okay. Keep going. Yeah. So, you'll probably ring more bells, too, as I keep reading. Victims of Ootsie. Oh, no. So, first discovered in 1991 and was a fascination for both archaeologists, researchers, scientists, the whole gamut. As the studies and research began, a shocking amount of people related to the finding of the famous mummy began to die prematurely. The first victim, Rainer Henn, in 1992, who was head of the forensic team examining Ootsie, Henn was one of the first to make close contact with the Iceman, picking up the mummy with his bare hands to place it in a body bag. Henn died in a car crash on his way to a lecture to discuss the findings of Ootsie. Which, I kind of can't, why would you touch it with your bare hands? I feel like that's like science 101. Yeah. Like, you don't touch it. You have to have gloves and special, but whatever. I'll get back to it. This was only the beginning of the curse. Not long after, Kurt Fritz, the mountaineer who led Henn to Ootsie's body, died in an avalanche. An experienced climber who knew the area well, Fritz was the only member of his party to be struck. A few months later, after Fritz's passing, the only man granted access to film Ootsie's removal from the mountain, Austrian journalist Rainer Hulitz, died at 47 of a brain tumor only months after releasing an hour long documentary of the excavation of Ootsie. But the most chilling death was that of Helmut Simon. Simon was one of the German tourists who originally discovered Ootsie in 1991. He was also found dead, frozen in ice near the same spot in 2004. He had fallen to his death during a freak blizzard accident. Within an hour of Simon's funeral, Dieter Warneck, the head of the mountain rescue team, is said to have died of a heart attack. It keeps going. The following year, archaeologist Konrad Spindler, who first inspected Ootsie's remains, and publicly scoffed at the curse, declared, It is all a media hype. The next thing you will be saying, I will be next. He died of complications from multiple sclerosis. Lastly, Dr. Tom Loy. Loy carried out DNA analysis on Ootsie, piecing together the Stone Age story of his death, and he debunked the theory that he died alone, thanks to trace elements of human blood found on his clothes, which I kind of argue that could have been his blood, but maybe it was a different blood type. Maybe that's how they figured that out. And this discovery was groundbreaking, and Loy was close to finishing a book about it when he died. Actually, yeah, he died. He was found dead in his home in Brisbane at the age of 63. Loy did not believe in the curse either, taking the scientific approach in a peculiar pattern, like all of his colleagues. But at 63 and in fair health and one of seven, it's questionable. However, the truth is, it is easier to create patterns when looking for them. Maybe Ootsie is cursed and taking his revenge out on the people who discovered him. Other scientists have gone on to study Ootsie without any consequences. Perhaps we'll never know. The legend does continue, though. Ootsie the Iceman rests in a refrigerated room at the South Tyrol Archaeological Museum in Bolzano, Italy. He attracts 300,000 visitors a year. Do you dare to put the curse to the test and visit Ootsie and become victim number eight of the Iceman curse? Absolutely not. It's chilling, isn't it? Yeah! Not that joke. That was a good one. Yeah, but Ootsie! Yeah, oof. Yeah. So, you wanna go visit him for our next girls trip? No, I'm good. Hard pass. Hard pass. Hard... I'll skip that one, I'm sorry. I know it is a chilling tale. It is. I know that joke. I can't keep doing that. Yeah, you can. I mean, I can, but I won't. You wanna hear... Tell me a story. My other one? Yes. It's about a curse of a painting of a crying boy. Have you ever heard of this one? I don't know the story, but I know that... I think I've heard little bits of it, but tell me the story. So, this painting is blamed for a series of fires in the 80s. 1980s? Yes. Okay, I was gonna... There's a lot of 80s. We have to clarify. 1780s. 1680s. Keep going. The 80s, 80s. The 80s, 80s. Okay, gotcha. So, in the middle of the night in Thatcher-era England, Margaret Thatcher, a home in South Yorkshire succumbed to a fire. The lounge room was charred black, drapes and furniture reduced to ash. The owners of the home, Ron and May Hall, lost nearly everything to the blaze except one item, a painting of a crying boy. With his eyes wide, looking out from the wreckage, not even blackened by smoke. That's weird. And this wasn't the first time a picture of a crying boy had been found amid the ashes of a torched home. On September 4th, 1985, British tabloid The Sun, which I've heard of... Me too. ...published Blazing Curse of the Crying Boy Picture, a story about a very unlucky painting that caused fires. Oops, excuse me. These paintings, the firefighters, so the local fire stations got involved. These paintings, the firefighters said, turned up mysteriously unscathed in fires across the UK, all of which started spontaneously. It was well known he would never think of owning this cursed painting himself. The couple had laughed off warnings that their painting was cursed, wrote The Sun. Let all others heed the warning and get rid of their own giant paintings of crying children immediately. I don't really want a crying child painting. I know, that's not really a thing that comes to mind that I want to hang on a wall. I mean, what's the one with the big eyes? Like the movie Big Eyes? Yeah, the artist in that, like that kind of painting, yes, I could see. Yeah, but I'll show you this picture in a moment. Okay, well you're going to, okay, sorry, continue please. If the fact that paintings of crying kids were hung in living rooms of multiple households makes you double-take, you're not alone. The paintings are an odd relic of mass-printed art, were rarely available in stores during the 1950s and 70s, intended to appeal to young couples. While the paintings have not been reprinted for decades, the bizarre subject matter and backstory have kept the legend going, from copy-pasted internet legends to books of local lore. The legend of the crying boy painting seems to have begun with a son, fueled by the obscurity of the crying boy's painting artist. The artwork bears the prominent signature of one Giovanni Bragolin. But for quite some time, no one could find information about the man. Rumors abounded. He painted hundreds of crying children, many of them street urchins, it was said, in either Italy or Spain. Finally, a 2000 book of creepy stories called Haunted Liverpool, which we've got to look that one up. Yeah, we're going to have to. Claimed that in 1995, a well-respected school teacher called George Mallory discovered that the painter was actually a mysterious figure named Franchot Saville. So now we've got two names. The following backstory from 2000 seems to be a mash-up of a reportage from the son and from Mallory the teacher. One of the urchins he painted was a boy named Don Bonillo, who accidentally started a fire in which his parents died in Spain. From then on, wherever the boy went, a fire followed, prompting his nickname Diablo. Some believe the boy was adopted against the will of a priest and was abused by the painter. In the 1970s, the boy was consumed by fire as well, an explosion caused by a car accident. According to journalist David Clark, who researched the crying boy legend, this legend has more than a few holes, though. Giovanni Bregolone and Saville seem to have been one of the few pseudonyms for a Spanish painter, Bruno Amadeo, and Clark could not find evidence that George Mallory nor Don Bonillo ever existed. But Bruno likely painted 20 to 30 of these crying boys after training in Venice after World War II, prints of which were sold in department stores through the 70s. Another artist, Anna Zinkinson, had similar series of crying children paintings that were regarded as equally terse. So a lot of people, or at least a couple of people, were painting crying children. You know, it was after the war, everyone was sad. Yeah, yeah, that checks out. Most of the fires had normal causes, like cigarettes or unwillingly deep frying pans. Since most of the myth surrounds the nearly unbelievable fire resistance of the painting, Punt, a person of journalists, bought a crying boy picture of his own. After being inexplicably delayed on his destination several times, Punt began to feel a bit nervous about the possible curse. When he tested its fire retardancy by setting it alight with construction researcher Martin Shipp, they found that beyond the string it hung from, it didn't really burn. While the lapel of the boy's jacket was singed and the painting suffered a hole, the damage stopped pretty quickly. This may have been due to a fire retardant varnish he and Shipp surmised, which would easily account for why the painting would remain little-touched and burn homes across the UK. During his own investigation, Clark also discovered that the painting was printed on compressed board, making it difficult to burn. According to another person, Gail Nina Anderson, in her paper about folklore, the crying boy legend grew quickly because everyone could participate. The paintings were cheap and easy to find. The crying boy painting legend became so widespread that it grew to include all versions of similar paintings by various artists, including curse paintings of crying girls. The Sun capped most of its hype of the legend in a 1985 article on Halloween with the headline, Crying Flame, gracing the front page. The paper claimed to dissolve the curse once and for all with a bonfire burning sackfuls of paintings, which were sent to them by the public in response to their call. The bonfire blazed near the river Thames, dissolving the curse into smoke. The Sun, ever looking for reliable sources, quoted a chaperone to the event, a fire officer who said with relief, I think there will be many people who can breathe a little easier now. So it was trying to debunk the curse? Yeah. But I don't know. I like the theory, even though they're trying to debunk it, that this little boy actually started a fire and killed his family, and then he was painted. What says you? That's just sad. I know. Also, who wants crying children? No. Like painting. I don't think I would want a crying child painting. That's just not my vibe. Do, do, do. Not for me. I like the big eyes paintings, though. Oh, gosh, what is her name? It's going to drive me. Oh, my gosh. It's just sad. Yeah. I mean, who wants to see a crying child? No. No. What's the one I'm thinking about? I don't know. I'm going to look this up, guys. What are you looking up? The big eyes artist, Margaret Keynes. Oh, yeah. Those paintings, yes, I would. Okay. My mom is like, they mean those are weird and freaky. They are weird and freaky. Well, that's probably why I like them. Because they've got big eyes. Because they're big eyes. It's more Cher, but Lana Del Rey song. Do you have another story? I don't. I was going to do another one, but I got lazy. I like that we both did two and two. Well, yeah, I did, and I like that we did different things. You did a piece of jewelry, and you did a painting. I did a car, and I did a mummy. Ootsy. Ootsy. But it sounds cutesy when I say it like that. Yeah, it sounds so innocent. Can I tell you one thing? Sure. You were on fire with that story. Get out. Yours was really cold, and mine was really hot. I know. Oh, my God. It's like elemental. Fire and water. I love it. Which I did watch that movie the other day. I liked it. It's adorable. What would you recommend? Well, now that we're getting into our recommendations portion, yeah, so I found a couple of films. Well, one, I'm going to go, since you did your little brief story at the beginning, talking about the Dybbuk box. Yes. I'm going to go with The Possession from 2012 with Jeffrey Day Morgan. Mm-mm. I'm not familiar. Okay. It tells the story of a young girl buys an antique box at a yard sale, unaware that inside the collectible lives a malicious ancient spirit. The girl's father teams with his ex-wife to find a way to end the curse upon their child. It's the same essential thing, a Dybbuk. Okay. Okay. Then my other recommendation, which I've already mentioned, but I'm going to read it again, is 1983's Christine. Oh, yeah. A nerdish boy buys a strange car with an evil mind of its own, and its nature starts to change to reflect it. So, Stephen King book-based movie, Christine. I'm going to recommend that because of my story on a car. Mm-hmm. I don't know if we have any haunted gem movies. I don't think there are really that much. Is The Mummy considered things with haunted things in them? Can we just suggest The Mummy because that's a great movie? I feel like you're always going to suggest The Mummy. We could be talking about Dracula and you're going to suggest The Mummy. Okay. Let's watch The Mummy. You should watch it. Although, weirdly enough, I was thinking about that movie earlier today, which is really weird now that you mentioned it. Go watch it. Those are the two that come to mind. I'm trying to think. There's haunted objects. I just know, you know, I like old things, but I'm also kind of freaked out by antique stores. Because I think one time we were going to go- That's why you don't think I'm going to find anything. Well, because I know one time we were going to go into one and I was like, Rachel, I kind of have a fear of antique stores. And you're like, what? And I was like, I'm just afraid we're going to find a haunted object. Oh, I think I'm just going to go ahead and say The Conjuring because the Warrens are known to have their conduits because they keep them safe, so to speak. So, let me go pull up the... Because that's actually one of my favorite horror films. I highly recommend it. It's a series. So, it's fun to watch it with other films, too, like Annabelle and all that jazz because they do kind of connect. But I'm going to go with 2013's The Conjuring. And that is a paranormal investigators and Lorraine Warren, who were real people and real investigators, work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse. But in that film, you do get glimpses of their room of haunted objects, cursed objects, which they kind of protect from the public. And I think you can actually go... I think their son-in-law and their daughter still run the museum where they even house Annabelle, which I'm sure you've heard of. So, that's a thing, too. So, I'm going to recommend those for my recommendations. Oh, I'm going to... This isn't a movie, but over the summer, I remember at the beginning, I read a book by... It's called Heart-Shaped Box. I'm going to read it. It's by Stephen King's son. I've got to look it up. Heart-Shaped Box. Book. Oh, yeah. It's a novel. And it's by Joe Hill. And it's Heart-Shaped Box is the debut horror novel for Joe Hill. And the book was published in February 13, 2007. But it kind of tells the story of, like, a haunted suit is involved in it. So, I'm going to... That's my book recommendation. Okay. Because I did read that book, Heart-Shaped Box, and yes, it is an Urbana song. That's right. So, those are my recommendations. Those are great. So, do you have any shows, anything further to add? Other than The Mummy? No, I do not. I'm going to let you have it. Okay. Thank you. You know what? I'm not even going to argue with you. I'm going to let you have that one. There are haunting things in there. It's not really on par with our topic. I know. But I'm going to let you... You know what? You get that. I will let you have that. I appreciate it. So, we would like to say thank you for listening to us. And please give us a follow on Instagram, where we like to keep you updated with newest episodes that we publish, wherever you get your podcasts, as well as our drink recommendations. Check out any updates, recipes from us, and we appreciate you. And we would love it, love it, love it. Please, please, I'm begging you, wherever you get your podcasts, leave us a review, give us a rating, but just know how we're doing. And you've got to appreciate that, guys. Yeah. But anyway, we appreciate you listening to us rant like we're ranting right now. So, with that said, Rachel has... GOOGLED OUT!