Podcast appearances and mentions of jake patterson

In this episode of *Unspeakable*, Kelly analyzes the tragic case of the Closs family from Barron County, Wisconsin. KJ recounts the chilling events surrounding the murders of James and Denise Closs and the abduction of their daughter, Jayme. Kelly reveals the calculated nature of the perpetrator, Jake Patterson, who targeted Jayme in a disturbing premeditated scheme detailing Jamie's harrowing 88 days in captivity and her courageous escape.#jaymecloss #crime #ThomasPatterson #crime #podcast #unspeakable #truecrimeChapters09:25 The Closs Family19:42 The 911 Call21:37 The Search for Jamie22:22 Heartache and Investigation36:23 The Kidnapping Begins52:31 Jayme's Courageous Escape56:25 The Capture of Jake Patterson1:04:01 Jayme's Recovery and Future

THE TRUE CRIME CASE THIS STORY IS BASED ON: In October 2018, 13-year-old Jayme Closs was abducted from her home in Barron, Wisconsin, after her parents were brutally murdered by Jake Patterson, a stranger who had targeted her after seeing her board a school bus. Patterson held Jayme captive in his remote house for nearly three months, forcing her to endure unimaginable conditions, including being confined under a bed for hours with no food or water. Despite the constant fear and abuse, Jayme seized an opportunity to escape in January 2019 when Patterson left her alone. She found help from a local woman, leading to Patterson's arrest and eventual conviction. Patterson, who had no prior criminal history, admitted to the crime and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.SOURCES…The Scare Chamber: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8hnu8jMusic provided by Alibi Music LibraryVideo version created by https://www.fiverr.com/vane875= = = = =(Over time links seen above may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately.)= = = = ="I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46= = = = =WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2024, Weird Darkness.= = = = =Originally aired: December 10, 2024

Send us a textSpecial Guest: Hannah This week Lauren tells Hannah about the abduction of Jayme Closs and her amazing escape.Sources:CNN: Timeline of the 87 days of Jayme Closs' disappearance by Faith Karimi Rausch and Steel Funeral Home: James and Denise Closs of Barron, Wisconsin | 2018 | ObituaryWEAU 13: Sheriff shares message of hope, thanks community on 5-year anniversary of Jayme Closs escape by Lindsay AlowairdiNBC News: Video shows Jake Patterson, kidnapper of Wisconsin girl Jayme Closs, in prison fight by Erik OrtizPeople Magazine: Jayme Closs Case: Timeline of Murder, Abduction and Her Miraculous Escape Jayme Closs, 13, escaped her abductor, Jake Thomas Patterson, who killed her parents so he could kidnap her. Patterson said he decided to kidnap Jayme after seeing her board a school bus by Jeff TruesdellKare11: 'I can't believe I did this' | Accused Jayme Closs kidnapper writes letter from jail Jake Patterson says he will plead guilty in a letter written to KARE 11 reporter Lou Raguse.Support us!Drink Moment | Moment Botanical WaterDrink your meditation. Use code MOSTWANTEDAMANDA at checkout!Kind CottonConsciously-sourced, inclusive, impactful, kind clothes. Use code AMOSTWANTEDPOD at checkout!Devon + LangLife changing underwear. Use code MOSTWANTEDAMANDA at checkout!Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

The Bridge - Jake Patterson - Oct. 13, 2024 by Sermon

"The Beloved Community" - Jake Patterson - May 5, 2024 by Sermon

Welcome to Cryptic Soup, your after-dark podcast filled with nightmares that haunt the daylight. From murders, to crimes, to cryptids, to anything in between, you can learn about what might be going bump in the night. In this week's episode, join Thena and Kylee to discuss the kidnapping of Jayme Closs. Jake Patterson was on a mission to find and kidnap a young girl, and when he saw Jayme he deemed her his conquest. Jake decided to show up at her house with a shotgun, murdering her parents, and then taking Jayme for himself for 88 days. Our sources for this weeks episodes: https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/i-cant-believe-i-did-this-accused-jayme-closs-kidnapper-writes-letter-from-jail/89-e1a0eb81-4e41-474c-9800-5aa3672a7883 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD65WwlJMnM https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/19/us/jayme-closs-case-moment-by-moment/index.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/05/us/jayme-closs-missing-girl-barron-wisconsin.html https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/11/us/jayme-closs-found/index.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h05cx7iPZkU https://drydenwire.com/obituaries/james-and-denise-closs/  https://abcnews.go.com/US/man-accused-kidnapping-13-year-wisconsin-girl-killing/story?id=60343911 

Jake Patterson was a loner. Classmates described him as someone who was just….there…One day while driving to work he was behind a school bus that picked up 13 year old Jayme Closs, and he decided he couldn't live without her. - 02:08 - Start of Case 02:44 - Jake Patterson 04:33 - Kidnapping 09:30 - Search for Jayme 11:15 - Jake Patterson house 13:02 - Jayme escape 17:39 - Jake caught 18:32 - Patterson prison letters 23:08 - Sentencing 25:30 - Jayme Closs victim statement 28:21 - Updates - Read the transcripts - Suggest a case  - Logo by Stephanie Solheim from Grow With Meerkat (And my mom) - SOURCES: See the episode transcript for Sources. I ran out of characters lol

Ep. #27 is brought to you by our TITLE Sponsor www.lmctruck.com - When you need parts for your Dodge Truck, think LMC.  https://www.qa1.net/mopar - QA1 has taken the guess work out of getting your truck to perform and ride the way you want it to. QA1 has what you need.  Jake Patterson is a Do-It-Yourself kind of guy, and he Figure it out. I think this is why Berto wanted to interview him, because that is how he (Berto) is as well.  Enjoy the Pod. 

Jayme Closs was abducted from her home, in Barron, Wisconsin in October of 2018. In just 4 minutes, Jake Patterson, the perpetrator killed Jayme's parents and he then took the 13 year old teen. For 88 days, Jayme Closs was held captive by Patterson, and her world was confined mostly under his bed. Then, on her 89th day of captivity, Jayme heroically escaped. Jayme Closs survived, and lived to tell her unforgettable torment while her captor willingly faced the grim consequences of his impulsive deeds.

Sportssjef Henrik Malmström har ønskelisten klar i god tid til jul. Øverst på lista står ny kontrakt for Spartas dyktige keeper, Jake Patterson. - Jeg skal snart snakke med Jake for å høre hvor landet ligger. Han har vært fantastisk for oss både på- og utenfor isen, sier Malmström i ukas utgave av SAs hockeypod. Vi får også høre mer om William Fällström som er signert ut sesongen.   Ellers i podden får vi høre hva Malmström tror om de kommende kampene mot Grüner og Vålerenga.

Un hombre que mira a una niña solo una vez se enamora y decide en ese momento que tiene que ser de el. Bienvenidos a Juego de Asesinos Podcast!..

Un hombre que mira a una niña solo una vez se enamora y decide en ese momento que tiene que ser de el. Bienvenidos a Juego de Asesinos Podcast! . . 🎧¿Ya escuchaste el episodio?🗣👂🎧 . Si aún no lo haces ¡Corre a Ivoox! DALE AL BOTÓN DE SUSCRIBIR Y DEJANOS TU ❤ . 💙Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JuegoDeAsesinosPod . ❤Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juegodeasesinos_podcast/ . . 🧡La historia completa aqui👇 https://www.ivoox.com/p_sq_f1731758_1.html . . 💟¿Eres fan apasionado de nuestro podcast y quieres más episodios? Esta todo en nuestra opción de mesenas!! Dentro de la misma plataforma! #ivoox . . NO OLVIDES CHECAR NUESTRA TIENDA DE MERCANCÍA👕👜🧢👚😷!! Juegodeasesinos.threadless.com . . Fuentes: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/jayme-closs-wisconsin-teen-who-escaped-captor-2019-doing-good-n1253938 https://biographymask.com/jayme-closs/ https://www.dreshare.com/jayme-closs/ https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-news/obituaries-released-for-denise-and-james-closs-slain-parents-of-missing-jayme https://www.rauschandsteelfuneralhome.com/obituary/james-and-denise-closs https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/jayme-closs-kidnapper-targeted-her-after-seeing-her-get-school-n958526 https://www.nbc15.com/content/news/Amber-Alert-logistics-one-year-after-Jayme-Closs-abduction--561937531.html https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/16/us/wisconsin-amber-alert-jayme-closs/index.html https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/i-m-lost-i-don-t-know-where-i-am-n957946 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/crime-courts/jayme-closs-kidnapping-suspect-charged-murdering-her-parents-n957586 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/jake-patterson-suspect-jayme-closs-kidnapping-had-no-previous-criminal-n957666 https://www.wicourts.gov/ca/opinion/DisplayDocument.html?content=html&seqNo=13437 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/24/us/jayme-closs-trial.html https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/561-jake-patterson-charges/0d504489dc541e820518/optimized/full.pdf#page=1 Escucha el episodio completo en la app de iVoox, o descubre todo el catálogo de iVoox Originals

In October of 2018, Denise and James Closs were murdered inside their home in Barron, Wisconsin and their 13 year old daughter, Jayme, was missing. A nationwide search ensued for Jayme, but what no one expected was for her to rescue herself after months of being held inside a dirty cabin over 75 miles from her home. Listen to the incredible survival story of Jayme Closs on this week's episode.

Ian and Matt discuss the strange behavior of Jake Patterson-- who made an impulsive decision one day to kidnap teenager Jayme Closs. They also break down her incredible escape, reactions from the family, and Mike Boudet's attempts to scare the crap out of us each week. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Austin Meek's guest this week is local businessman Jake Patterson. He talks about transporting his restaurant concept from Portland to Waco, his downtown food trailer, and why he's opening up a brand new drive in location on Valley Mills Drive.

Austin Meek's guest this week is local businessman Jake Patterson. He talks about transporting his restaurant concept from Portland to Waco, his downtown food trailer, and why he's opening up a brand new drive in location on Valley Mills Drive. Listen to this episode here:

Sara and Kristen deal with the annoying tribulation of mentioning on of the greatest douche bags on earth while talking about the kidnapping and inspiring survival of Jayme Closs. Be sure to follow us at: Twitter: @rarwpodcast Instagram: @rarwpodcast Contact us at: E-mail: redrumandredwinepodcast@gmail.com All music written and produced by: Savasas savasas | Free Listening on SoundCloud Resources: ABCNews. (2019, February 7). Dad of Jayme Closs' alleged abductor speaks out. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwAKtqwHA9Q. BeMiller, H. (2020, January 10). The day Jayme Closs saved herself: Year later, records tell story of Barron teen's defiant escape from Jake Patterson. Gazette. https://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/news/2020/01/10/jayme-closs-one-year-since-teen-saved-herself-jake-patterson/2778222001/. Collman, A. (2019, January 14). The woman who found Jayme Closs after the teen escaped her captor happened to be a former social worker, and her training helped bring Jayme to safety. Insider. https://www.insider.com/how-jeanne-nutter-found-jayme-closs-2019-1. Collman, A. (2019, January 22). Jayme Closs' suspected kidnapper reportedly hosted a Christmas party in the house where police say he was holding the 13-year-old girl. Insider. https://www.insider.com/christmas-party-where-jayme-closs-was-held-report-says-2019-1. Jayme Closs. Biography Mask. (2021, July 14). https://biographymask.com/jayme-closs/. McLaughlin, K. (2019, January 15). Everything we know about Wisconsin teen Jayme Closs, who was found alive 3 months after her parents were brutally murdered. Insider. https://www.insider.com/jayme-closs-disappearance-everything-we-know-about-wisconsin-teen-2018-10. McLaughlin, K. (2021, January 13). Jayme Closs is 'doing good' 2 years after escaping kidnapping by a man who killed her parents, her aunt says. Insider. https://www.insider.com/jayme-closs-good-2-years-after-escaping-kidnaping-aunt-says-2021-1. Schneider, D. (2019, January 23). Jake Patterson, accused of abducting Jayme Closs, isolated himself after high school. Gazette. https://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/news/2019/01/23/jayme-closs-kidnapper-jake-patterson-isolated-after-high-school-marine-corps-murder-barron-gordon/2632527002/. Thompson, N. B. and A. (2021, January 9). Two years after teenager Jayme Closs escaped from captivity, her case remains a source of hope for missing children. Crescent. https://www.postcrescent.com/story/news/2021/01/07/jayme-closs-escape-captor-still-has-deep-impact-two-years-later/4007686001/. USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin. (2020, February 4). Jayme Closs timeline: Complete coverage. Gazette. https://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/news/2019/09/30/jayme-closs-jake-patterson-timeline-complete-coverage/3821149002/. WISN. (2021, May 24). Judge sentences man who kidnapped Jayme Closs, murdered her parents. WISN. https://www.wisn.com/article/man-who-admitted-to-kidnapping-jayme-closs-murdering-her-parents-to-be-sentenced/25706133. YouTube. (2021, February 5). Jayme Closs - Abduction, Escape, Survival. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to9gzkR_Y2c.

Jayme Closs oli 13-vuotias nuori tyttö, joka kidnapattiin Jake Patterson nimisen miehen toimesta. Lähteet:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to9gzkR_Y2chttps://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/jayme-closs-everything-we-know-about-wisconsin-teen-s-abduction-n957541https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping_of_Jayme_Closshttps://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/19/us/jayme-closs-case-moment-by-moment/index.htmlhttps://abcnews.go.com/US/father-jayme-closss-alleged-abductor-speaks-hearts-broken/story?id=60882133 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jayme Closs had her life ripped away from her when she was just 13 years old. Jake Patterson took an interest in her, obsessing over her. He killed her parents in an attempt to kidnap her. He held her in captivity for over 2 months. Luckily, Jayme got away...

This week we are talking about the kidnapping of Jayme Closs. A 13-year-old girl who was taken from her home by Jake Patterson in 2018. Jake killed both of Jayme's parents with a shotgun and kidnapped her from the house. Jake kept Jayme under his bed for 88 days until she made the daring attempt to escape. As always, if you enjoy the episode, be sure to go leave us a review on iTunes. Enjoy! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/chillingtruth/support

Description: On this episode, we discuss the kidnapping of Jayme Closs and the murder of her parents, James and Denise Closs. This devastating case turned into a nationwide interest and a search to find 13-year-old Jayme. Sources: Expanded Homicide: https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2017/crime-in-the-u.s.-2017/topic-pages/expanded-homicide Kidnapping of Jayme Closs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping_of_Jayme_Closs The day Jayme Closs saved herself: Year later, records tell story of Barron teen's defiant escape from Jake Patterson: https://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/news/2020/01/10/jayme-closs-one-year-since-teen-saved-herself-jake-patterson/2778222001/ Man who kidnapped Jayme Closs never thought Wisconsin teen would escape because she was ‘terrified of me’: https://www.chicagotribune.com/midwest/ct-jayme-closs-kidnapping-20191221-7zl52maywrc4fp7spnje35v3ey-story.html Jayme Closs, Kidnapped by a Stranger, Endured Horror, Police Say: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/us/jayme-closs-updates-jake-patterson.html The Jayme Closs case: A chilling tale of murder, kidnapping and escape in rural America: https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/19/us/jayme-closs-case-moment-by-moment/index.html The man who kidnapped Jayme Closs told police he'd been thinking of kidnapping a girl for 2 years and that 'if it wasn't Jayme, it would probably be someone else': https://www.insider.com/jayme-closs-kidnapper-jake-patterson-police-interview-2019-12 One year later: Investigators open up about Jayme Closs case: https://www.cbs58.com/news/one-year-after-her-daring-escape-jayme-closs-continues-to-heal Creepy New Details: Jayme Closs' Kidnapper Jake Patterson Slept In The Same Bed: https://radaronline.com/exclusives/2019/12/jayme-closs-kidnapper-jake-patterson-slept-in-same-bed/ Wisconsin Man Pleads Guilty To Abducting Jayme Closs And Killing Her Parents: https://www.npr.org/2019/03/27/707373987/wisconsin-man-pleads-guilty-to-abducting-jayme-closs-and-killing-her-parents Jayme Closs' kidnapper gets two life sentences for killing her parents and 40 years for abduction: https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/24/us/jayme-closs-kidnapper-jake-patterson-sentencing/index.html 'I can’t believe I did this' | Accused Jayme Closs kidnapper writes letter from jail: https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/accused-jayme-closs-kidnapper-writes-letter-from-jail/89-e1a0eb81-4e41-474c-9800-5aa3672a7883 --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/rawcrimespodcast/support

Jake Patterson holds Jayme Closs captive for 88 days after killing her parents. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/crime-no-time/support

Join us this week as we discuss murderer and kidnapper Jake Patterson & the wild story of Mary Vincent.   Sources: Available at https://behindtheshowercurtain.com/p/sources-1598820421/

In this episode we discuss the senseless and very recently solved kidnapping of Jayme Closs! Jayme was 13 years old at the time of her parents murder and her cold-blooded kidnapping. Wanna hear about how big of a dickweed Jake Patterson was/is? Tune in this week to find out!

Today's episode is all about the brutal murder of Jayme's Parents and her terrifying abduction, lasting 88 days. Jayme was taken by Jake Patterson from her family home. The police had no leads, the case ran cold. Find out how Jayme managed to escape by listening to the full episode! This True Crime Podcast is hosted by Laura Jean. This includes graphic depictions of sensitive materials. Viewer discretion is advised. Trigger Warning is in effect. Join the True Crime Family by subscribing and you'll never miss another episode! Request a Case @ RequestACase.com/Yellow Podcast can be found here: https://linktr.ee/laurajeanonline Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/behind-the-yellow-line/id1516102877 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dfohERySSs7FJUbrfvxQu New Podcast videos out every Wednesday at 4PM EST. Come back for all your favorite stories while leave a suggestion down below, and who knows maybe your favorite story could be featured in a future episode! Follow Behind the Yellow Lines on Socials: @BTYLTrue Crime on Twitter @BTYLTrueCrime on Instagram I'm your host: LJ! Where to find me: http://www.youtube.com/c/laurajeanonline http://www.facebook.com/laurajeanonline Twitter: @laurajeanonline Instagram: @laurajeanonline Snapchat: @laurajeanonline Tiktok: @laurajeanonline --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/behindtheyellowline/support

Jayme Closs was abducted on October 15th, 2018, when 22 year-year-old Jake Patterson broke into the Closs family home. This is her heroic story of survival after being held captive for 88 days. 

Jake Patterson, the Director of Marketing for Northern Quest Resort & Casino, speaks to the changing casino industry and strategies to capitalize on changing demographics. Listen to Jake's insights on how to work your way up the ladder and learn about the Casino and Resort industry.

It's an Ash Mini, guys! Because Alaina still has to work through the Covid19 pandemic, Ash took this one on and slayed the game. The brutal murders of James and Denise Closs and the horrific abduction of their daughter Jayme is something we probably all remember dominating the headlines in 2018. Luckily, the story has as good an ending as we can hope for in a tale like this one and Jayme emerged a warrior who used her strength and wits to survive and now thrive while her abductor Jake Patterson rots for the rest of his life. Visit our sponsors for this episode! Upstart See why Upstart is top ranked in their category with a 4.9 out of 5 rating on Trustpilot and hurry to Upstart.com/morbid to find out HOW LOW your Upstart rate is. Checking your rate only takes a few minutes! Raycon Now’s the time to get the latest and greatest from Raycon. Get 15% off your order at Buyraycon.com/morbid  and enter discount code Morbid15  Get 15% off wireless earbuds! Do it!

This episode brought to you by butter puddles.Carina investigates Marion Stokes and her intense fascination with TV news.Whitney follows the crimes of Jake Patterson, a man with a very deadly crush.Lisa travels to the fascinating culty commune of the Oneida Perfectionists. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

An indefinite stay of execution for Rodney Reed, who currently sits on a Texas death row.In New Mexico, Jake Patterson, the man convicted of kidnapping Jayme Closs and murdering her parents gets into a fight in prison.In Southern California, the LAPD arrested and charged a suspect in two cold-case homicides, that took place in 1981 and 1986.Two Arkansas chemistry professors are accused of manufacturing methamphetamine at Henderson State University.Finally, police in Pennsylvania charged a Maryland man with kidnapping his disabled girlfriend, who was last seen when the two left on a trip to Nevada. Authorities in Nevada have recovered a body matching the victim’s description, and formal identification is underway.

Esse episódio de Boo e Outras Coisas foi retirado do vídeo que está no youtube https://youtu.be/64WIQRE-zJk Olá, bem-vindos ao BOO! INSCREVA - SE: http://bit.ly/BOOeOutrasCoisas AH! Não leve a mal a pronúncia da nossa apresentadora ao falar o sobrenome do Jake. É que ainda há resquícios da sua paixão platônica por Robert Pattinson

Nick & Jessa are joined again by Scott & Heather from Status Pending to conclude their conversation about the sentencing of Jake Patterson. 

This is part 2 of a total of 3 episodes on Jayme Closs and Jake Patterson.  To find the first part, check out the Status Pending Podcast's feed -- Jessa and Nick guest host with Scott and Heather as they break down the facts of the case in the first part.  In parts 2 and 3, Nick and Jessa are joined by Scott and Heather to discuss the strategies made by both the prosecution and the defense at sentencing. 

Police bust a long time fugitive in a auto shop in Virginia. Cops looking for killer of a 35 year old man for more than 30 years. Chris Watts and Jake Patterson now in the same Wisconsin prison.

Police bust a long time fugitive in a auto shop in Virginia. Cops looking for killer of a 35 year old man for more than 30 years. Chris Watts and Jake Patterson now in the same Wisconsin prison. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Police bust a long time fugitive in a auto shop in Virginia.  Cops looking for killer of a 35 year old man for more than 30 years.   Chris Watts and Jake Patterson now in the same Wisconsin prison.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

In this episode, I talk about Memorial Day, what the Raptors need to do to have a chance in this series. I also talk about the closure of Jake Patterson's trial and just how strong Jayme Closs is.

Mike Duncan discusses Jake Patterson's sentencing on Wisconsin's Morning News

Content note: animal mutilations with details   Pic source   This week, I'm covering the Beast of Bray Road - just like Em from And That's Why We Drink did during one of their live shows here in Madison this week. I'd totally planned it already, so the coincidences are the best. What do you expect from the two coolest theybes?   Resources Wikipedia Did Legend Hunter just solve the mystery of the Beast of Bray Road and add new theories on Dogman and Chupacabra legends? 14 Facts About the Beast Prairie Ghosts Historic Mysteries Linda Godfrey's site PBS video Isthmus article The Bray Road Beast on Amazon Prime Script transcript Transcript   Welcome to episode nine of the Spooky Sconnie podcast, the podcast that covers everything fun from Wisconsin, from the criminal and the paranormal to the just plain weird. I'm your host, Kirsten Schultz. And on this edition we're covering a story I got to see live this week actually, um, this week, the wonderful podcast And That's Why We Drink was here in town. And I went and saw them both nights. They were performing at comedy on state, on state street here in Madison, and it was a really great time. Um, I love Em and Christine, the two of them are just hilarious, and it's always fun when I get to see them and say hi. So I really enjoyed that and they covered some cool stuff that I'll be bringing up soon. Um, although I guess, you know, really they covered two stories I've already done too, which is kind of cool. ----more---- Um, and that's probably my husband's fault, but I won't get into that. But, uh, no, I, I love And That's Why We Drink. I love Em and Christine and, and it was great fun to be able to see them this week. Um, and one of the stories that Em covered actually was the beast of Bray Road. So I was already planning on doing it for this week's episode and it just pushed me to do it even more. Em did a really great job and I'm not going to be able to live up to the amazing, amazing humor that they injected into the story. But I'll try. Before I get started, just another reminder that the um, true crime podcast festival in Chicago is coming up on July 13th. That is a Saturday. It is a one day deal and yours truly, we'll be there. I will have some goodies for sale, and you might even just be able to win some of them. So, you know, come the tickets aren't that pricey. Come hang out. There's a lot of other great podcasts that will be there too. Um, and it'll be a great time. I know, I'm really excited to see True Crime Obsessed the night before - they have a show which the tickets are already sold out. I'm so sorry for bringing it up, but, um, I'm really excited to be able to go listen to them, cover a story and enjoy them in person to the true crime and paranormal podcast world is kind of amazing and it's really fun to, uh, to be able to, to meet people and see how they hone their craft. So, so there you go. Make sure to put that on your calendars and come hang out with me in Chicago and while you're there, pickup Do Rite Donuts because they're fucking amazing. They have Vegan and gluten free options to just saying I am not in any way sponsored by them, but every time I go to Chicago I get so many donuts and now I just wish I had donuts. It's way too early to be functioning without donuts. Um, so yeah, so as I said, we're covering the beast of Bray road today, which is pretty exciting. This occurs in and around Elkhorn, Wisconsin, which is about 40 to 50 miles depending on where you mark it, south west of Milwaukee. It's located in Walworth county and it's basically the biggest city in the county. So it's the county seat is where like the county court house is all that kind of stuff. But despite being kind of the main city in that county, it's still pretty small town, still pretty Homey, which is kinda fun. So Bray road itself is more traveled now than it used to be. Um, it's one of the ways that people can get towards some of the highways in the area. So if you're going anywhere basically, um, Bray road is a potential for you to drive down to get towards like 43 or other highways to, to travel across the state. It used to be basically like a driveway. In fact, the road is named after four brothers who all had farms along the road. Um, and those farms have for the most part continued for multiple generations. The last Bray brother that purchased a plot, um, did so in 1902. So these families have been living on this land for all a really long time and there are definitely some non-Brays living there. But, um, it's, it's really heavily populated with people with the last name Bray and that's um, in a lot of rural and small town areas. That's how a lot of roads get their names is they're named after the people who lived on them, which is kind of fun. So I want to describe the beast itself and there's a couple of different descriptions, but these are kind of the main things you need to know as we go through the story and the history of the beast. It's been described by witnesses in several ways. Um, sometimes it's described like a bear, a bear like creature. Other times it's described as something similar to bigfoot. It's usually incredibly tall for something like a wolf. Um, but it has been compared to that too. It's around at the highest, um, six to eight feet when it's standing upright and can be as tall or described as tall as five feet when on all fours. The fact that this is an animal able to walk on its hind legs and that does so often is I think an interesting thing. Um, it's been described as weighing between 400, 700 pounds, sometimes more, sometimes less. I don't know how people estimate this stuff. Like I would just be like, it was built, I dunno. Um, and, and that's, that's a true thing too. This is supposed to be a very buff cryptid. Um, it has fur or hair that ranges from like a brown gray to a black color. Um, and again is very similar to dog or bear hair where it's not incredibly long. People have seen it eating roadkill along Bray road, but upon being seen, this creature who they would have previously described as wolf, like well then get up and run away on two legs on the back too. Naturally, witnesses have also claimed to have been chased through cornfields and other spaces. Um, and that the beast had red glowing eyes. Some other reports have described the eyes as yellow and kind of iridescent the way animal eyes get dark. Um, with the exception of maybe you want to, it's angry thighs will be red. So there's, there's a lot of flexibility in these reports. Um, it has pointed ears and the face is very similar to a wolf. It has three long claws on each hand with two other fingers. So essentially what we would deem as like the index or a pointer finger and the thumb more like shriveled, um, which I think could make sense if we're talking about a wolf, um, or, or some similar type of creature. It's interesting. Um, the body has been likened to that of a lean, muscular man. Um, the leanness is more in the back half and the muscle tends to be more in the front half or upper half. If it's on the back two legs. It's been seen eating prey or scavenging, um, you know, roadkill. Other animals that are left out, it's never attacked anyone successfully, um, as far as the live in person. But some witnesses, um, have said that it's been very aggressive towards them and that behavior includes things like running at people, jumping on their vehicles. Um, they're not sure what the rest of the creature's diet is other than, you know, like roadkill or already dead animals. It also tends to sit back, in almost in a squat, which I think is an interesting thought. Um, or also could kneel like a man. Many locals consider it to be aware of wolf. Some crypto zoologists - people who study cryptids - really see it as a continuation of national and international bigfoot sightings. But you know, naturally since nobody has been able to get evidence of this creature, we, we don't know what it is. It may go back all the way to the very first settlers in Wisconsin who had described canine like creatures who would attack and then vanish without a trace. But a lot of those way back accounts occur in other spaces in the Midwest. So like Michigan, you know, there've been a lot of sightings of a similar creature near Detroit and that's not something I would necessarily say is very close to Elkhorn. So I dunno, I dunno about that one. Most signings tend to occur at night when it's dark. Um, usually between about 10, 30 PM and 5:00 AM, but there have been sightings that have occurred during the day or at other times just far more likely to happen during the dark times. Sightings have occurred all year round but tend to be most, um, reported between August and October. So like these are times when corn fields are growing and it might be really difficult to tell what type of an animal is in a corn field. It's believed that, um, this beast is not one of a kind, um, Linda Godfrey who will talk about a lot during this episode. Um, it was a journalist that helped break the stories, um, in the late eighties, early nineties, and she has seen and gotten reports from people of sightings that match these descriptions across the United States and across the world. It's, um, an actually fairly well known cryptid and thought to be one of the most popular and well known from Wisconsin and other places with the only, um, competition really being the Hodag, which we've already talked about. And it's just the cutest creature. Em from And That's Why We Drink also covered the hodag and it was kind of fun to hear them riff about it. Uh, it was just such a fun little creature. So fun. So with that, we're going to move into some stories about the sightings. So the very first sighting, um, is actually believed to have occurred in 1936 but the siding wasn't really reported, um, to one source until the eighties and nineties kind of phenomena of seeing this beast more often happened in this was reported by Mark Shackleton who worked at St Coletta's as a nightwatchman and occurred in Jefferson county precinct. Coletta is there one night while patrolling the grounds, he spotted a figure digging in a native burial mound, which I promise an episode on those is coming up. On taking a closer look. He saw something that was covered in hair and when it stood erect it was over six feet tall and had shriveled looking thumbs and forefingers on each hand with the other fingers fully formed and humanoid. And as I said later, these fingers would be described as long clause as well. It smelled like death and decay. Shackman returned the next night because he wanted to see the creature again. Um, and he did lucky dude. It was making a strange three syllable growling noise that he dubbed as sounding neo human. He said, it sounded like something like 'gadara' and in the new testament there's a piece about a person possessed by demons that Jesus heals, that people feel like this is in reference to. Um, the problem is from a logistical standpoint, that's likely not the name of the location of this exorcism of this demon. So like, yes, but also no, I see the connection, but also that's like not historical. Shackelman naturally was like "the fuck?" He began praying loudly and started to back away from the beast and the beast, like, mimicked his behavior and backed away too Later, his son would go on to share that his father's first thought was that it must be something satanic. Maybe that's because Shackleton knew his bible and like connected the dots between the Gadara thing or I mean naturally, what are you going to think when you see like this giant hairy beast trying to talk to you at night? I don't know. In 1964, the beast was apparently spotted near the same burial ground and in 1972 a woman had reported it outside her house. She was patro side of it. Trying to get in her home was she said it was trying to um, and harming her family. It's a really interesting story just because I can see it being that she was just very scared that it was trying to be around her home, but I could also see with such humanoid-like hands it trying to get in the home. Um, I think it's aggressive behavior that we don't normally see. So I dunno, I don't know. The rash of claimed sightings in the late eighties and early nineties prompted a local newspaper, the Walworth county week to assign Linda Godfrey to cover the story. While she was initially skeptical, she became convinced of the sincerity of the witnesses. Later on, after interviewing them, she wrote a series of articles which then like spawned this giant book, the beast of Bray road tailing Wisconsin's Werewolf. And she has a site that feels a little like it might want to be on geocities still. Um, but she has people from all over the world who contact her to report their sightings, whether that's been visiting here in Wisconsin or you know, in their local regions. That's, it's really quite fascinating. The sightings here in Wisconsin follow a rash of reported wolf man or well or Werewolf sightings from the 1970s, um, around the United States, specifically in Ohio, New Mexico and Pennsylvania. The first sighting that went public here was fittingly on Halloween in 1989, a high school senior named Doris was driving along Bray road. And as she neared the intersection of hospital road, she leaned over to change the station on her radio. She felt her right front tire jump off the ground as if she had hit something and naturally she was concerned. So she got out of the car to see what it was. And that was her first mistake. She saw nothing on the road behind the car, but began to look around to see, you know, did I hit a deer or a small animal? And as she looked into the darkness, she suddenly saw a dark hairy form racing towards her. She didn't see what the figure looks like from the distance she was standing, which was like 50 feet or so. But she did see it was quite bulky and leader. She compared it to somebody who works out continuously, like is always in the gym pumping that iron. She was really startled and he, and naturally, and um, part of that was because she described the sounds while this thing was running at her as like really heavy footsteps. Um, so I think that'd be scary as it is. She quickly ran to her car and jumped in and was starting to drive away when the beast jumped on to the trunk of her car. It was too wet for the creature to hang on, so it fell off onto the pavement. But the back of her car had these, um, like slashes on the trunk where, um, this creature had been trying to hold on. She returned to the site leader that evening, which I think is bold, um, because she was taking a younger kid out trick or treating and you know, just to had to drive that way. And she saw this thing on the side of the road and saw it start to move towards her. So, you know, this is back in the days of manual door locks. So she told the kid in the backseat to lock the door, um, and drove away as fast as she could. She had no idea what she'd seen, but some of the things she thought it was like, it was just like a bear and it was mad cause I hit it or a wolf or something like that. She told her neighbor about the encounter and the day after and then, you know, showed her car, like, this is the evidence I have. My car is fucked. And more people started talking about it and um, started to share their own encounters with the beast. So one night in the fall. Um, so around the same time a bar manager named Lori Endrizzi was rounding a curve on Bray Road and she thought she saw someone kneeling on the side of the road. So she slowed down to try to see like, is this person hurt? Do I need to help? And took a closer look at this figure. She wasn't more than like six to 10 feet away. So she was pretty close and this was a fairly long encounter as far as these go. It was almost a minute long. Endrizzi stated that what she clearly had seen was a beast with grayish brown hair things and pointed ears. She also said his face was long and snotty like a wolf. I love that she noted that even though the car's headlights were pointed towards the roadway, the creatures eyes glowed with that yellowy color. And like Doris, she saw that this creature was very wide and the chest and very powerful looking and she said the arms were really weird. Um, they were jointed like a humans and seemed to be holding the food upwards, like with the palms of the hands upwards, which no animal that isn't somewhat humanoid or ape-like does that, like dogs don't do that. Guinea pigs don't do that. Cats don't do that like that is not - well I guess unless they're licking their paw - but, like, that is not a typical animal behavior unless you're looking at like apes, monkeys and humans. She didn't notice any sorts of tail. Uh, said the back legs were behind it as though a person was kneeling. Um, you know, again, the arms were muscular and the fingers seemed human like, but there were claws on the end. Endrizzi was super unnerved by the sighting, natch. She later said in an interview that the creature appeared to be so human like that it was scary. And the only answer to what she'd seen she thought was like, maybe this is some sort of freak of nature. She didn't have any idea what else it could be until she was later at the library and saw an illustration of a werewolf. And it's so closely resembled that she like freaked out after hearing Doris is account as a rumor. Endrizzi contacted the Lakeland animal shelter. John Frederickson, who was the county humane officer at the time, spoke with her about what she saw and she also has claimed that she thought she saw the devil. I mean, you know, it happens during their conversation. There was like odd stuff going on in the office to like books were flying off the shelves behind John's desk. That doesn't seem good. Um, at this time he started to create a folder, um, to keep track of all of these interesting sightings and he just casually labeled it 'Werewolf' - just casually. Endrizzi's mother contacted Linda Godfrey hoping that the publicity might encourage other people who had seen this creature to come forward. And the story that followed was published, uh, right after Christmas in 1991. And while it contained some basic information about both what Doris and Endrizzi had seen, it also included information on other sightings. Um, and the nice thing about this was they used pseudonyms for Doris and for Endrizzi. Even though I think at this point a lot of people in the town knew who it was that was, you know, said they had had these sightings, especially Doris. The story also mentioned that chickens had been stolen and that another family who lived near the road had experienced their own close encounter with the beast. Karen Bowie, who actually lived along Bowers road, stated that her daughter, Heather, who was 11 had seen the creature in 1989 they had been playing outside and though they had spotted, oh they thought they had spotted large dog, like hanging out outside and then it's stood up. She mentioned the odd shape of the back legs and how quickly it was moving. John Fredrickson told Godfrey that he thought that this was some sort of coyote, but he did concede that there were a lot of people who believe they'd seen something funky and the he didn't know what to make of it. He'd actually believed, cause the around this time there was a lot of animal mutilation going on and he had believed initially that those mutilations were related to the occult. He'd received a call and the 90s at some point from an anonymous cult member who admitted to playing a part. But many think maybe this was just this beast, like go into town on some tasty little protein packs of animals or if the activity via cult activity brought the beast about. That's the other theory. I feel like the occult explanation as a little to say panic panic for me like this is around the same time that every city somehow had some sort of Satanic panic like, 'oh my God, there's satanists.' Um, and that just feels off for me personally. Um, one of the police chiefs locally, James Jensen, dismissed this idea in June, 1981 but Fredrickson still insisted that officials were missing the point. According to him, some of the animals had had ropes tied around their back legs and their throats were slit somewhere decapitated and others were dismembered in other ways. The most recently killed animals included a dog that had, had its chest cavity split open in its heart removed, which shit? Shit. Oh, several animals match the description of recently missing pets too and certainly had not been killed by passing cars. These mutilated animals were basically covered up immediately. Um, the site where they kept being found wound up being bulldozed. Um, it was kind of in the woods and they just kind of bulldozed everything, you know, tore down trees and that ended Frederickson's investigations into this issue, but really didn't stop anybody in the town from talking about it. Other reports began to reach Fredrickson that summer about this beast. You know, rumors were passed on about humane officer imposters who were pursuing stray dogs. One incident involved this dude nobody knows in a black uniform driving a large black car who attempted to intimidate a kid who was home alone into giving up his black lab. About the same time there were reports of occult graffiti in an abandoned house and at the local cemetery - the abandoned house was about a quarter mile off of Bray road. So that's the connection there, I guess. Um, and yeah, it led to more people wondering if these things were connected. I think it's interesting, the story has so many elements of other stories, right? If we look at the, this unidentified man, he definitely seems like a men in black guy, right? Um, at not the fun movie, like the really creepy ass stories. Um, and I, I think it's just an interesting idea to consider if this was a man in black, why is he trying to get this kid to give up his, um, his puppy? Does it make sense to me? After seeing Frederickson's folder and all of the, um, stories he'd been collecting, Godfrey began reaching out to other witnesses and upon interviewing them all, she no longer thought this was some kind of joke and realize that people had truly believed they'd seen something really freaky. She also, during her conversations with this, these people would watch them essentially going through a PTSD response while reliving their encounters to be able to tell her about them. It's a really fascinating thing. Um, you know, Godfrey herself hasn't said their PTSD type of encounters, but I was watching a documentary last night, um, which is why this didn't go out last night. About the beast of Bray road and, um, the way she's describing these sayings, like they began sweating the, you know, went very white. They had trouble recalling things in order, a lot of those things as someone with PTSD, like their PTSD things. So I just wanted to be clear, she hasn't said their PTSD things, but my PTSD ass did. Large media outlets started picking up this, and unfortunately when that happened, you know, people who had witnessed this animal began to be the butt of jokes and they began to deal with pranks. Um, things would happen. Like they'd wake up to Werewolf signs planted in their front yards or people would have werewolf parties. And that one, I don't think it's that bad, um, except for the fact that this even happened at the bar where Endrizzi worked. And I don't think that she was consulted about whether or not that was okay. Many witnesses who had come out publicly at this point really wished they hadn't. Um, because of all of this monster tee-shirts began to be sold and tourists began to come around, you know, driving up and down those basically this very long driveway that was Bray road at the time. I'm trying to see this creature. So it started to where patience thin around the community, there is also still this large undercurrent of fear in the area. You know, something was going on here and nobody knew exactly what it was and you still have animals being mutilated. You still have, um, pets going missing. Like this is still happening all around the same time. An earlier sighting of quote, something unquote was made by dairy farmer Scott Bray, who reported seeing a quote, strange looking dog unquote in his pasture near Bray road. He said the beast was larger and taller than a German shepherd. That it had pointed ears, a long tail covered in hair and the hair was gray and black and kind of long and shaggy. He added that it was built very heavy in the front and had like a very strong chest. He followed this animal to a large pile of rocks. But then the creature vanished. He did find that I left behind huge footprints. So now we've got this idea of this very large animal and now we've got, okay, we've got very large footprints as well. So that to me and to many disputes, the idea of like a coyote or I dunno like a Malamute gone loose or, um, even like there have even been, um, ideas that this was like a Hyena. Definitely not a Hyena with a very, very large foot, although a hyena would explain how the body is very kind of jacked in front and very, not in the back. We'll, we'll get to that in a bit though. Russell Gest also reported seeing the creature about the same time as Scott Bray. He was a block or so away from this overgrown area and he heard, you know, foliage being wrestled. So he's like, the fuck is this. He looks up to see this creature or emerge from the thicket. It was standing on their feet and took too wobbly steps towards Gest before Gest decided, 'I'm fucking out of here.' He looked back to see that the creature was now on all fours, but it did not chase him. After a short time. It did wander off in the direction of Bray road though guest said this creature was much larger than a German shepherd and again was covered in black and gray hair when it was standing upright. He said it was about five feet tall. It had this very oversized dog or wolf like head, had a big neck and wide shoulders. So this is like the jock of canine creatures. The animals form was mostly dog like and that led guests to hypothesizing that maybe this was some sort of dog wolf hybrid. Um, around Christmas 1990, Heather Bowie had her previous mentioned and counter. Um, she had no idea that she'd seen the same thing as doors, Gibson until she heard Doris talking about it on the school bus and their driver, Pat Lester, who happens to be Lori Endrizzi's mother listened to the girl's story and then pass that on to Linda Godfried. Linda contacted them. Um, well contacted Karen Bowie who was Heather's mom who is also a school bus driver and then mentioned that sighting in the newspaper. So, um, it's really interesting to go back into Heather's story a little bit. This happened at 4:30 PM and again, Heather and several friends were outside. They were returning home from sledding near Loveland road, which is about a mile and a half southeast of Bray and Hospital where, um, Doris had her encounter. They looked up and they saw this dog walking along a creek and since they thought it was a dog, what do you think they did? They're like, hey, puppy puppy, and the creature looked at them and then stood up on its back legs and they were like, oh shit. Heather described the animal as being covered with long silver fish, like brownish hair. The dog walked 4 awkward wobbly stops towards them on those back feet and then dropped down to all fours while starting to run at the children. And then Heather described it later as, um, this animal was taking bigger leaps than dogs run. If all of the group about halfway to the Bowie home before running off in another direction in Elkhorn farmer named Mike Eten also spotted something unusual around the road. Um, it was around two o'clock in the morning. Eten admits he had been drinking at the time, but he saw a dark haired creature bigger than a dog, a short distance from that intersection with hospital road, whatever the creature was. It was sitting like a raccoon sits using its front paws to hold onto something that it was eating. As he passed by the creature lifted its head and looked at him and he described the head as being thick and wide with a snout that was not as long as the dog's, the body was covered with dark, thick hair and the legs were big and thick. He wasn't able to identify it but assumed it was a bear. But then one other sightings came out publicly. He had to sit with that and wonder if what he'd seen was this beast or if he had seen a bear. One of the last reported encounters with this beast happened in early February, 1992 it was about 10:30 PM on Highway H, which is six miles southwest of that intersection of Brian Hospital. A woman named Tammy Bray - surprise - worked for a retirement home and was driving home when a large dog dog like animal, uh, she puts it, crosses the road in front of her. She had quickly hit the brakes and stopped about the same time that this creature is turning and looking at her, which would be fucking terrifying. She described the creature is having a broad chest pointed ears and being covered with maded brown and black for it had a narrow nose, thick neck and shining yellow eyes and that convinced her she was not looking at a puppy. Finally, unafraid though, it's like, it's like that scene and that movie or Joe Pesci or whoever is like, 'Hey, I'm walking here.' It's not Joe Pesci - Why did I pick him? That's okay. You get what I'm saying? Um, so you know, he basically stops the stare down and be like, 'Hey, I'm walking here' and then like walks off. She said it was strong in front and more slouchy, sloppy, like in the rear. So she hurries home and goes to tell Scott Bray that she's seen the same animal. Scott Ray, by the way, it's her husband. The sightings die out, but you know, people are still like the fuck is happening and you know, right as things calm down, a local reputable businessman tells Linda Godfrey anonymously that he's seen two bright lights emitting sparks and moving a radically across the sky above Delavan, which is a nearby town. Later that spring, four or five horses that were in the pasture near Alcorn were found with their throats slashed. John Fredrickson, remember local humane officer dude investigated it and was quoted as saying they were almost surgical type wounds. After that, things became eerily quiet again. So really nobody knows what this is. Um, Linda Godfrey had sat down and kind of sketched out what she thought based on the people she'd talked to, which is, um, kind of the stereotypical idea right now going around still of like, this is very buff werewolf. Um, uh, coyote doesn't match a native Red Wolf doesn't match. Um, gray wolf's are larger than red wolves, but like, they're not really in the area and they're much nearer were in the chest, so it doesn't fit. Um, it just really doesn't resemble anything, even what it was compared to, um, Dan Groebner of the International Wolf Research Center in Minnesota, I was like, Nah, this is not a wild wolf. Y'All not a wild wolf. You know, there's, there's a lot of thoughts of what this could be. Um, could it be some sort of beast along the lines of Incadu from Gilgamesh, this type of Proto-human that isn't civilized yet? Um, I don't know. I, I think it's hard to say, right? There's a lot of our world that's still unexplored, but I also feel like white people are so good at finding, like on, you know, quote on civilized people, unquote to quote, fix on quote that I just feel like we would have found them by now and fucked it up. A researcher named Richard Hendricks points to a creature suggested by a couple of others called the "shunka warak’in" - it's a creature that is said to have lived in the wilds of the upper Midwest. It's a wolf like animal that was known to the native and indigenous population and early settlers in the region region. Um, the creature was named by a native American tribe and the name means carrying off dogs. Nobody really knows that much about the creature naturally, but apparently it was quite fierce. Um, at one point it was a mounted specimen at exhibits in the Yellowstone area and in a small museum in Idaho. Um, and it is some sort of like dog hyena hybrid, which fits a lot of the descriptions that we've seen. So it could be something like that. Uh, other Native American related things could be like skin walkers, although the running theory with skin walkers is that other people within the tribe would know. And a, I would assume someone would have come forward at this point. Could it be an interesting mutation or part of evolution? That's one of Godfrey's theories that she's been working with. Um, another thing she's run into a is people telling her that they felt this was some sort of harbinger of doom, um, not unlike the moth man of, you know, mostly West Virginia lore, although it has been spotted in Chicago in the last couple of years, which is fucking scary. But you know, there's a thought of that, although there's not been some sort of huge tragedy here, like the silver bridge collapse in West Virginia, at least not that we know of. Um, another thought other than Werewolf is could it be some sort of other animal? Um, so we've already talked a bit about like wild dogs. Um, there's a thought that it could be a wolf dog hybrid. There's a thought. It could be a coyote dog hybrid. Um, there were similar encounters about the same time in Michigan and they, um, have labeled it the dog man. So is this some sort of like related thing? I don't know. Um, there is somebody from the show called legend hunter and he believes that, um, the first thing to do is to start by examining the natural wildlife and the region in the area. So wolves hadn't been seen. There are many theories, which we've already covered. Um, but he did consider that an increase in the wolf population everywhere could mean that, you know, wolves are passing through again though we don't think that's a thing. There's not enough forest cover, there's not enough available prey. And the thing is just bigger than a wolf. He did find odd tracks, but again, they didn't match wolves. The other major problem with the idea of this being some sort of wolf if is is wolves are hunters. They are not scavengers, right? Like they don't go and eat things that are already dead. Hyenas do. But we've also already covered why that doesn't fit. Witnesses have also noted that the animal, right was like squatting down and like lifting pray to with mouth to eat, which again, not a wolf trait. You know what is it s trait of? Bears. Bears display this behavior. Bears can walk up. Right. And they're were not supposed to be in the area either. The bears have been spotted in the general, like larger area, so it could be feasible. And Spain from legend Hunter thinks that this is a bear with mange. You know, it would not be easily easy to recognize that this was a bear. Mange makes animals look funky. Um, but I just don't know. I don't know. The other theory, sorry to say is that this could be a very large hoax. So Doris' account took place on Halloween, which that's kind of a red flag, right? The biggest issue though is that there's relationships between a lot of these people and that raises red flags for some, for me, I dunno, it's hard. I can see where they're coming from. But this is also a small town. I don't know. Um, injuries. The mother Pat Lestor is a central figure in this case. In addition to being one witnesses mother, she's also Doris Gibson's neighbor. Um, and drove the bus that Gibson, Heather Bowley and Russell Gest rode. Heather's mother was also a school bus driver. Karen. Um, Tammy Bray was a friend of Pat Lester's daughter and Scott's wife and it was also Lester who took the initiative to contact the newspaper about the sightings. But Lester never tried to influence the reports of witnesses. Um, and so people just think, well she was just in a position to over hear what people were saying and encourage them to talk about it. It's, it's an interesting thing to consider. I think. I found some wild firsthand accounts that I would love to share with you because Holy Shit. So this first account, um, I just found, I don't know who it is from, but it's an account: “I lived in the town of Franklin, WI. This was about 1997-98 We had just moved into a brand new subdivision, and were currenty the only house that was built. The rest of the area for a long distance was empty lots on what used to be the adjoining farm’s old land. Our back yard had a running creek. On the other side of the creek was some brush and a single lane road with an old wooden streetlight that gave off an orange hue about 30 yards or so away. It was a warm summer night, and I was having a sleepover with one of my friends. We had all the lights off and were playing hide and seek in the dark. I went back into our sunroom and saw something crouched over illuminated through the brush and the orange streetlight. I’m not sure how to descrbe its body posture. You know how when you’re about to throw up, and you hunch over on your knees and palms? I was similar to that. Its breaths were so deep and heavy that you could see its chest heaving from that distance. We had a 140lb Akita who stood 6 ft on his hind legs. I could easily tell that whatever this was dwarfed my akita. I also know that it wasn’t any type of dog or wolf. Its hind legs were thick and muscular like a mans but its body tapered at the abdomen and head like a wolf or canine. I called out to my friend who came over and just said “what the fuck is that!?” to me, trying not to make much noise. We sat there as it was hunched for a good 30 minutes. My dad (who was a hardass Vietnam Vet) came out to see what the hell we were doing up so late. We asked what it was and he just said ” I…..don’t know.” He then went outside as we stayed in, scared for my dad. He had one of those old “megalights” that had “the power of 1000 candles” and took it with him. He stood in the driveway and shined it onto whatever we were watching. It looked back at us and I honestly dont remember its eye color. What I do remember is that when it took off into the brush it took off upright, like a sprinter from the on all 4’s stance. My dad heard it splash through the creek and hightailed it in. It was one of those fucked up moments you dont really talk about because people with think you were crazy. When I heard about it so many years later I immiediately knew I’d seen it too.” Another account involves speeding away from the beast only to have it keep pace with a car speeding in excess of 60 miles an hour. Here's some other fun ones. Uh, okay. This first one, I don't know who it's from, but the next couple I do, so I will chime in with their name before I dig into their kind of long quotes. “I’ve spent some time on Bray Road. A good friend of mine has too. You hear things in the woods, maybe see shadows in the fields, but I’ve never had a “true” sighting of anything. Just a creepy being watched feeling. But that could simply be nerves as you’re expecting/hoping for something to happen. My friend has experienced quite a bit and has some impressive EVP’s from different areas. I had something on two legs run out in front of me on the north side of Madison/Middleton, but it happened so fast, it’s hard to say what it was or could have been a deer/wolf/coyote lunging. It seemed pretty big.” So here we can see that, you know, the sightings may not necessarily just be confined again to this area and Elkhorn. Tom Brichta shared his own um, interesting interaction: "it was a Saturday night, late July, early August and I was coming home from a wedding reception, I had my friend Scott and my friend Chris from Hanover Park Illinois in the car with me, it was very foggy, we could barely see two car lengths ahead of you. And we started smelling this funny odor, this real foul smelling odor like this skunky kind of smell. I had noticed a hand sticking out into the road, and my friend had noticed me looking out on the side of the road, and he had looked and he had seen whatever it was, it was huge, it was really large, it was whitish, gray and black, streaks in it. It was hairy, it was reaching out towards my car, it scratched a small piece of pin striping from my car. The fingers were either pointed or had quite the nails on them, I did not get any facial detail but it was frightening, it was very frightening. And now as long as I think about this, not a day goes by that I don't, and I know a day won't go by that I won't think about it. I can remember like it was just yesterday." in case you're wondering, Tom was a teenager when he saw this and coming back from a wedding reception with friends with his car and maybe they smelled weed. I'm just saying that's all I'm saying. Um, this next account is from a man named Ricky Sanchez. Um, and I'll be sharing a good chunk of what he said on the documentary that I'll talk about in a couple minutes here. But he lives out towards the Horicon march area, which is I think about 70 miles north ish of Milwaukee area. Um, and it's, um, it sits right on this marsh, which is really pretty. It's kind of the area my husband grew up in, so I'm really familiar with it but has a lot of wild life and even if you kind of know what you're looking at, it's kind of scary sometimes to be out there at night. But, um, this is just a very interesting story. So in between a couple of really long quotes from him, I'm going to share something that was on the documentary, the broke up, these two long quotes because I think it's really interesting and it adds to the story. So here we go: “2017 is when it all started at my property. It all started one night around one o'clock. I walked outside with a head lamp, we don't have, like we're out in the country, so there's no lights out, and I saw this large black object in the property but beside the silhouette which really could focus with the headlamps were the two eyes." I just want to chime in and say that some of these accounts difficult to read because I have a thing for grammar and I want to correct them, but I'm not, so if I'm stumbling, that's why. Back to the quote! Didn't really pay much attention to it because it was really low to the ground, so I kept walking towards the car. As I got to the trunk of the car I glanced at again, and it was slowly walking crouched down to the ground but towards me. So I'm trying to figure out what is this? So I walked towards it a little bit, and it walked backwards while still looking at me. That sparked my curiosity because it was coming towards me, the cat normally doesn't come towards me, I put the headlamp on brighter and kind of walked towards it, and it tried to back in the same position. So I walked towards it more and it kept on walking backwards and backwards while still looking at me, and still looking at me walked back until it reached one of the trees on the property. Flipped up, looked at me, now it's eyes shine at my height and it just stood and stared at me. I'm still trying to figure out what the hell because now it's higher up, so my headlamp can't really focus on what it is. Brought the water in, brought the dogs inside, by the time I went back out it was gone.” 'For the next few weeks repeated activity would occur on Ricky's property, including multiple sightings of strange shapes moving through the fields and forests surrounding his house. On more then one occasion he saw not one, but multiple pairs of strange glowing eyes peering at him from the darkness. As Ricky began to search for answers as to what was prowling on his farm he began to investigate other sightings of upright canids in the surrounding area. Soon the activity would extend to his neighbors homes including the house located closest to his.' “So according to my neighbor, which is my nextdoor neighbor he gets up to work at two o'clock in the morning. He puts his trash in the back of his pickup truck, and drives out to the front of the road, picks up his trash, goes to the corner, puts it down. But he's hearing something from the truck, as he turns around to go back towards his truck he sees this dog like, wolf like creature in front of his pickup truck pacing back and forth, looking at him. He froze, it was in a kind of crouched down position but not completely on fours, looking at him as it paced back and forth. He got into his truck and went to work after he got his composure back because he didn't know what it was. Probably a week after, this was mostly every week, we were outside with a bonfire me and my neighbor, and my dad, my dad comes home from Springfield, Mass for vacation. My dad had gone inside, so it was one of those days we decided to just call it quits because there were too many mosquitoes and go inside. When we threw water on the fire it was looking at us from the other side of our field of our property. His eye shine was probably at my height, but you could see a silhouette, it wasn't on all fours, it wasn't starting erectile, it looked like it was scared. It looked terrified, it ran. While it was on the grass it ran on two legs. When we got to the trail, it's already overgrown, so you can't see through the treeline, it's already June. So you know, you have bushes and everything, you can't see, so I got kind of iffy, I told him let's head back because if this guy is either side we don't have a lot of space between us to react. So by then I told my neighbor I think it's time for us to go inside.” yeah. I'm sorry. Some of these quotes like since I heard these people say them, I'm trying to stick to a, how they said them. So I'm sorry that it's not like in my normal nice quote reading voice. The next long quote is from a man named Lee Hampel: “I cut hay, and it was ready to be bailed on a Sunday in September 2013. So I basically went down the road to a couple of local farmers, and I said I need help getting hay up, will you guys come and help, and they said, sure we'll come and help. So they did. And after we got done, the one guys said, he said well you know the Beast of Bray Road lives back on your property there. He said, oh yeah, he said, my wife saw it, and another farmer saw it, and then he's telling me another farmer saw it. The one farmer who had seen it on Bray Road, eating a raccoon. And I go okay, sure, you know, so forth. So a couple days later I was driving down Bowers Road and there was a raccoon so I took it and threw it outback on my property line, and go back two days later, and here the raccoon is cut open, and the intestines are gone. So then I, couple days later, I got a badger, it was dead on the road, roadkill, put it down in the hole, three days later it's out of the hole like 10-15 feet away, and a badger weighs 20-25 pounds. So I know a birds not picking this thing up, and there's no path, the grass is all still around this. So what I do is reach down and take it out. I said so alright some guys coming back on my property and doing this, that's crazy. So then I started setting up cameras." And the um, the documentary goes on to like break this up and you have like Linda Godfrey's take on it. You have like the narrator's take on it. It's really interesting. So when I tell you about it in a minute, go watch it. "I basically had a deer out for three years, three to four years. There was things happening with the deer and the lights, they were very close together. And then a mist came and like cloaked it, and then the deer's gone. There's these five toed, seven pad tracks that I have many pictures of and castings off along the edge of the field. I've gone to the Field Museum, they sent me to a track expert, who said these are not tracks, these are not animals. They said, you can go to home depot and buy stilts and walk around your field and make those tracks. There's nobody walking around my field with stilts. I tried universities, University of Wisconsin, I tried to talk to them. I've tried VNR, they tell me it's an abnormal coyote, and they've looked at the tracks, oh that's an abnormal coyote. I believe it exists, I've seen it. I have evidence, I'm past that, now I want to to know where is it coming from? Does it really live here? Why does it need food at all, does it actually use it for food? That's my pursuit.”" Lee's story is really interesting and Linda talks a lot more about like some of these lights and some things going on. Um, if you want to see you, the beasts of Bray road, please note that the land around Bray road is privately owned. It is under increasing development. People who see you on their land, will call the neighbors to let them know there's some random person there and we'll call you on the sheriff and report you for trespassing. You have to obtain permission from land owners if you want to walk in their fields or the woods right there. Honestly, you'd be better off camping. Um, there's a lot of campgrounds around the area who and, and they have like a lot of hiking trails. So like do that. Um, also some assholes keep stealing the Bray road sign. It's not cool. That is a criminal acts. It is disrespectful of the Goddamn town. Leave signs alone. Okay. Of course, if you're lucky or unlucky, I guess you'll wind up being one of the many people who have seen a similar creature around the world. If not, go watch this documentary. It's called the Bray road beast. It's available for free on Amazon prime right now. The documentary features interviews with people who've had firsthand encounters, um, interviews with Linda Godfrey, with John Fredrickson, um, and a lot more, um, Ricky Sanchez and Lee Hampel shared theirs. Um, so did Tom Brichda, Duh. So those are all from the documentary itself. It's an interesting film for a cinematography perspective. Uh, the recreation's are little. Oh, awful. I mean it's from Wisconsin, it's going to be cheesy. Ah, but, um, the actual footage of like driving down roads and stuff, they, they interject some weird like static things and you know, uh, pixelization and things like that. It has the feeling of like being very related to the movie footage from the ring, like while they're watching the shitty VCR shape. So keep that in mind. Um, I, I've already found like a couple of problems with the documentary. It's interesting. Um, I don't think there, there was a lot of hype here locally for it to come out and people were really excited and when I came out, it just, it's not great. It's only an hour and six minutes. Uh, it's just really upsetting to me personally because I think they could've done a better job, especially with Linda involved in this. Like, hello, can you just do this? But you know, it's still pretty interesting and I'll link to it in the show notes. For those of you who would like to take a look at it. Um, as I said, don't expect anything. Super Fantastic. So that's the piece of prey road. Um, there have been sightings at other points in time, but not quite as maybe reputable or well known. So I left some out. And you know, it's not too difficult to find those by just doing a Google search or duck duck go search or wherever you search. Um, I'll put the uh, uh, put a bunch of links for further reading and that include my sources in the show notes. Um, some of the things from the original sources, I found some better information. Um, so some dates were altered to make them actually what it looks like. It happened like closer to the actual time period. But yeah, it was, it was a really interesting thing to dive into and I'm really glad that, um, it just so happened that the Amazon prime, like having this documentary just recently happened. So it was nice to be able to like watch that last night and be able to talk about it. Um, and considering doing some kinds of mini episodes where I do reviews of documentaries, um, shitty movie and other things that are related to Wisconsin. So if that's something you're interested in, let me know. Um, I might just put it on Patreon and see if that goes somewhere. We'll see. Um, for now I think that's all. I'll have an interesting story next time. I think there's, um, there's some really interesting kidnapping stories that have happened about this time of year and, um, that are recently, you know, picking up steam again, um, cold the case kidnappings from decades ago. So I think I'm going to cover one of those for the next episode unless I find something more timely. Um, and if you were keeping track of the Jayme Closs case, I believe that, um, Jake Patterson's next arraignment day is coming up in June or July. So there will probably be some upcoming mini episodes about that too. All right. Um, like always, you can make sure to reach out to me on social media or via email if you have some thoughts you'd like to share. Um, and make sure to go check out the podcast And That's Why We Drink. Um, I'm sure they'll probably be releasing some of the Madison episodes coming up soon. Um, and they might already have the Milwaukee went up. I'd have to check am I'm a couple episodes behind myself because work has been interesting, so make sure to go check them out. And then, um, next episode I'll also have a trailer from another podcast that I'll be sharing so that, um, you know, those of you who are interested in checking out other things, no. What cool things to check out until next time, please take care. You just listened to the Spooky Sconnie podcast. It is produced every two weeks by me, Kirsten Schultz. The intro, outro music is from Purple Plant. You can find show notes and more over at spookysconnie.podbean.com, including a transcript in case you missed anything. Take a minute and rate and subscribe if you can. You'll help more people see the show by rating and you won't miss a single episode if you subscribe, and that's pretty dope. You can support the show over at patreon.com/spookysconniepodcast and you can email me anything you'd like me to know at spookysconniepodcast@gmail.com. Meantime, sleep tight. Don't let the badgers bite. Bye.

In this episode, I give an update in the Jayme Closs case before going on to cover the history of one of the coooooolest cemeteries in Wisconsin - Forest Hill in Madison. Come learn about the northernmost Confederate cemetery, effigy mounds, and some willllddd history - oh, and make sure to visit the FB page for pics! Resources Jayme Closs Today show snippet Patterson guilty plea Forest Hill wiki Parks page Haunted Madison Forest Hill Cemetery guide Confederate Rest removed A Biographical Guide to Forest Hill Cemetery: The Ordinary and Famous Women and Men Who Shaped Madison and the World (Amazon) This Podcast Will Kill You Transcript Welcome back to the Spooky Sconnie Podcast - the podcast that talks about everything, spooky, funky, criminal and weird in the state of Wisconsin. Before I dive into this week's topic, I wanted to give an update because I'm recording this right now on Wednesday the 27th and that means Jake Patterson who abducted Jayme Closs and killed her parents in October of 2018 was just arraigned and pled guilty to charges. So I wanted to talk a little bit about that before I dive into today's topic. Upon entering the court, he was crying and sniffling as he answered the judge's questions. He pled guilty to the three charges against him, which was killing Jayme's father, killing Jayme's mother, and then kidnapping Jayme. Um, the murders bring with them a life sentence while the kidnapping charge could be up to 40 years. So he's basically facing, um, two life sentences and an extra 40 years. ----more---- It seems as though from what I've read, that he struck a plea deal in this case, which means that, um, no other charges during the time that he had Jayme in his possession will be brought up as well as he won't be charged with armed burglary, which was part of this as well. So, um, for people wondering if Jayme had undergone any sexual violence with him, we still don't know. My guess is, again probably, but at this point they don't want to put her through talking about that. And I would say rightly so. Um, he, as I said, pled guilty to all those three counts and will be sentenced on May 24th. As he was being led out of the court, he said "bye, Jayme." She was not in the courtroom. I, I'm sure that he wants to think that she's watching, but her family has been shielding her from basically all of the coverage around this case. Over the weekend of the 16th here, um, he had a call with WCCO, which is, um, uh, a local news station, I believe out of Minneapolis with one of their reporters that also made the Today Show. And I wanted to give a little bit of an update about that. Um, he said that he knew he wasn't supposed to talk to the reporters but he didn't care. Um, and that he doesn't want to cause any more harm, which to be frank, I think talking to the reporters and basically coming into people's living rooms is causing more harm. But that's just me. He talked about that he wants to talk to her [Jayme] but knows he can't. He loves her. Um, which, uh, Gail on the today show mentioned after the, um, snippet about this aired that she hoped that Jayme's family and people that she was close with were still shielding her from, um, the news and, and making it so she wasn't watching things like the Today Show when the stuff will randomly pop up because of how jarring that could be. And, um, I think that was rightly so. And, and just as an Fyi, I have linked to the youtube video of this news snippet. Um, Gail is laughing at the beginning of it because they were talking about something funny in the previous segment. She's not laughing about this. There were a lot of youtube comments - context, people. He - Patterson - said that while he had Jayme in his custody, they spent time talking about stuff, playing games, watching TV and cooking and that just about everything that they ate was home, home cooked. Um, obviously as you can guess with wanting to not, you know, tell everybody that he has a kidnapped girl in his possession. About that same day on the 16th, Elizabeth Smart - famous kidnapping survivor - talked here in Wisconsin in Barron where Jayme grew up and in her hometown. She talked a lot about how to help Jayme heal but also how to heal as a community. Um, and I think I've talked about this before in the, in the minisodes about this case, but Elizabeth Smart got abducted when I was young and, um, her constant work around not only kidnapping, not only healing from trauma, but also around how the sex negative culture that we have makes it even tougher on victims and survivors is just fascinating. And I have goosebumps right now because, um, it matches up so well with the work I do, um, in the, in the sex ed world. So it just makes me happy. Elizabeth Smart also talked about respecting Jayme's privacy and avoiding really tough questions. So again, I really feel like this comes back to don't ask her if she was on the receiving end of any sexual violence during this, uh, 88 day kidnapping and being held against her will. So that's the update for Jayme's case. And, um, hopefully here we will have a very quick sentencing and there won't be any issues to let Jake off because motherfucker does not need to be anywhere outside of the jail right now. I generally want to like move towards restorative justice and things like that, but when people can't even tell you why they abducted someone, there's still a part of me that says, "Nope, that's too scary." Um, that's obviously something I'm working on and I think something we all need to work on. But, um, when it's a a white boy, I also don't feel that sad about it to be frank. Um, but that's a topic for another day. So for today's episode we're actually talking about a cemetery here in Madison. It is Forest Hill Cemetery and it's actually one of the first US national cemeteries established here in Wisconsin. It's located at one Speedway Road, which basically serves as a junction between Mineral Point Road - which is on the west side for the most part - and campus. So like the Regent Street area that goes, you know, right down by LaBahn arena where the badgers just brought home the national championship in women's Ice Hockey and I'm fawning all over. Um, and um, yeah, the Kohl Center where the Badgers men's hockey team plays. Um, but also like Camp Randall and some other spaces. So this is a pretty well traveled area. Um, it's right by one of the high schools. It's, it's fairly well known. So if you've been to Wisconsin and you're remembering a very, very large cemetery that covers both sides of a road, it's probably Forest Hill. It's often described as a romantic or rural cemetery. Um, the rural cemetery movement really drew upon like English garden landscape styles that were really, really popular. Um, especially the late 18 hundreds, like middle to late 18 hundreds here in the states. About the same time that, um, you know, we were turning the corner into the 19 hundreds. There were concerns about the aesthetic around like this rural cemetery thing. Um, and there wasn't any uniformity around gravestone markings and headstones. So people would make these grand elaborate things on top of their graves and in their families' plot area. And, um, of course, you know, at that point the people that ran Forest Hill couldn't turn around and say, okay, we need to get rid of those. Um, but they do have some areas now where it's just flat markers and it just makes maintenance easier. There's not this constant like one upmanship and, um, just tends to be a newer area for, for people who've been buried far more recently. Um, they also really wanted to use like soft lines. And so when you go and you see the landscaping around the cemetery, it's really beautiful and, um, it feels rural while at the same time, you know, you can hear cars and the distance, you don't feel like scared rural. That makes sense. Um, but instead you're just kind of in this very nice space that turns almost into its own world, which I think is powerful. Um, and also beautiful. The graveyard contains just about everybody from Catholics to Lutherans to Jews, um, and more, but we especially have a very large Hmong population. So the Mung are an ethnic group originally from, um, this kind of region between China and Southeast Asia. And there were a lot of Hmong people who came over to Wisconsin in general as refugees during the Vietnam War. Um, and, uh, you know, were coming from Vietnam and China to come seek space here to be safe. So there's a very large Hmong population throughout the state, but especially, um, as we start looking at graveyards and things, there's a lot more diversity than I think people think Wisconsin would have, especially here in Madison, right, with the university and people really making homes here after that. The first burials of settlers slash colonizers here in Madison happened on Bascom Hill. And like, if you watch, um, you know, college football games, you'll usually see Bascom hill, um, when it's featured on like national TV. So it's this big hill with like the snazzy White House look in building at the top of it. And sometimes it's decorated with flamingos. There's a history about that. We'll get into it in a later date. But, um, so, so it's really like a very main point of campus. State Street is a street that you, um, you can't drive down. It's just like a pedestrian street with a lot of shops and restaurants and that kind of runs straight into the hill, um, which then goes up into a different part of campus. And um, further on the other side of that hill is really more of like ag buildings and um, vet buildings and even the medical building cause the hospital's much further down from the hill. But let's get back to this right now that I've given you a mental layout. So basically this hill's right in the middle of campus and I'll talk more about it on its own because the UW is definitely going to get its own very long episode. There were a few other cemeteries around the city located around, um, spaces we know now as like North Carroll Street or even where the Saint Mary's hospital currently is, which is further down on Park Street. But uh, that, that also just reminds me never to go there. Um, it's a Catholic hospital and there's a lot of problems with it anyway. But, um, I think it's kind of a, an interesting thing to have a hospital basically built on where a graveyard used to be but of course there are houses and stuff built there too. Um, anyway, downtown Madison and much of campus itself lies on an isthmus and I hate saying this word cause I feel like I have like a slight lisp and so it makes it hard to say isthmus - whatever. It's i s t h m u s. As defined by Wikipedia, an isthmus is "a narrow piece of land connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water by which they are otherwise separated." So it's like a land bridge and, here in Madison, the isthmus is between Lake Mendota and Lake Monona. There's only one other city built on an isthmus and that's Seattle. So fun fact there - between being on the isthmus and having a very rapidly growing population, they were looking locally to establish a more formal cemetery and to push it more towards the outskirts of town. Not only was that a pretty common thing at the time, it also pushed the cemetery to further away from the lakes and the isthmus itself. So you wouldn't run into things like major flooding that might bring up bodies and stuff like that. Um, this last summer we had terrible flooding and now that all of the snow is melting, um, it's, it's definitely not as bad as it was over the summer. Um, cause we had a couple of days of torrential downpour, but a lot of the water spaces are very, very, very, very high almost to the road. Again, the first official village cemetery was established in 1847 near what is now Orin Park, which is really close to, um, this area that we're talking about. In the mid 1850s, a committee was formed to search for a more appropriate site to really create, as I said, like an official, um, cemetery for the city and, and some surrounding areas as well. So they chose the current site, which was at that point on the very far west side. Um, and they bought in original 80 acres of land for about $10,000 from John and Mary, right in 1857 and they had actually obtained the land from James Duane Doty who had gotten it from Alanson Sweet who was a territorial council member from Milwaukee that really led the fight to make Madison, um, the Capitol of the state, which is kind of cool. We'll get into that at some point too. Um, this is definitely like the nerdiest stuff and I get way too excited about it. Um, so this area is about two and a half miles away from the state Capitol building, which, um, to go back to Bascom hill and that layout Bascom hill flows into state street and state street goes right up to the Capitol building. So it all flows really cool. Um, but is very far to walk. Um, many of Forest Hill's earliest like graves were re burials from other graveyards around the city, including spaces like Orton Park. And they're actually at the time that they bought this, this large plot of land, there were still people using it for agricultural purposes. And so the transition to really fully using it as a cemetery was gradual. Um, and it wasn't until 1861 that the common council and asked the cemetery committee to, um, you know, not allow people to keep farm animals in the cemetery, which is wild to me to think of like, you're just going to like have a picnic by your dead relative and there's a cow. It just feels like the most Wisconsin thing. By five years later, um, the Wisconin State Journal had written about a group of men who were just covered with, um, like horses and plows and other farming material, planting potatoes in unoccupied parts of the cemetery. Um, you know, people that live nearby still continued to use the land for their own purposes, for planting crops, for planting a garden, um, up until basically they were phased out by like the cemetery growing or people catching on, which I think is hilarious. During the 1860s, the city made a lot of improvements because they had sold a lot of plots. And so they added things like fences and a gate, um, a receiving vault, which allows people to, um, be held in a space where they're not going to stink everything up while it's winter and there's too much snow or the ground is too frozen to actually bury them. So something that actually happens a lot here in Wisconsin is you'll see somebody dies in say November and then they're not buried till April because everything's frozen. And even then, sometimes April's a stretch. So, uh, that's something that was really important at this point in time for them to install and, um, get a lot of use out of. They also planted some new trees and some nice shrubbery and, and other miscellaneous, um, gardening goodies throughout the space of the cemetery to really make it feel, um, you know, going back to the beginning, like this romantic, earthy, beautiful space. Um, at that point, they also decided that they, you know, they recognized that people with different faiths might want to be buried in their own sections. And so they offered sections to some of the Jewish congregations locally, which they accepted and purchased a section on the southwest side of the cemetery and, um, to Catholics and the Catholics and the Roman Catholic society had declined. And then turned around a couple of years later and purchased, um, 25 acres from the city, which is now the Resurrection Cemetery, which is basically the other side of the road, um, from Forest Hill, which is fun. It's still basically there. So again, like mid 18 hundreds, people would get in their carriages on Sunday afternoons and go out to the cemeteries for picnics. And this may sound really weird, but that was actually part of what they wanted picnics to be at that point in time, was to be this space where you could go and have this nice park atmosphere, but also be able to go be with and remember and honor your loved ones. So, you know, um, uh, kind of anecdotal example could be, um, when I was little I would go visit my great grandmother's grave, um, back in the Pacific northwest and we would get ice cream cones, which were some of her favorite things. We would like go out on day trips and drive around and get ice cream Collins and look at the pretty nature around us. Um, so you know, I'd like go sit there and eat ice cream cone and like talk to her. Right. And it's just like an anecdotal example, but there are many other people who might bring their whole families to visit, you know, their late mother or late father and really kind of spend time there in that space with them, which I think is really cool. And I kind of hope we get back to not just cause I want to eat ice cream in a cemetery. I just like, I think it's really cool. I mean, I don't mind eating ice cream in a cemetery. I could eat ice cream anywhere. Well, almost anywhere a morgue would be terrifyin. So the people who had access to carriages were really the well to do and this became a pretty good sign of wealth and of social status if you could like be seen at the cemetery eating sandwiches. Um, and it wasn't until about the late 18 hundreds, so 1897 when they actually extended the street car tracks from downtown to the entrance of Forest Hill. And um, it allowed a lot more people to be able to go and visit their loved ones and you know, do picnics if they wanted or, or just sit and visit and honor them, which I think is really cool. Um, the, let's get back to the civil war because that's about to happen. It really became a turning point for how we used cemeteries here in the states. And you know, looking at the demographics of who died. I think that's a pretty important thing we look at here in Madison. Um, as a city we sent two thirds of men age 20 to 45 off to war. And that was a larger population than any other city in Wisconsin, probably because we had a lot of younger people and about 24% of those men died in service, which means just about everyone here in Madison would have lost a loved one, whether it was a family member or a friend. And honoring those people became something really important, um, not only locally but nationally. Um, it became far less of "let's go to the cemetery on a picnic to honor Papa" and more "Let's go visit our brother John who died and mourn and bring all of those feelings with us." It wasn't so much about spending time and honoring in a maybe jovial way or a comforting way as it was looking back on the loss of the sorrow of that time period. And that's where, where everything really started to shift with cemetery use. Within, um, Forest Hill itself, there's the Soldier's Lot where about 240 union soldiers are buried as well as the Confederate Rest plot, which holds 140 prisoners of war. And we will get to that shortly. Well, kind of shortly. Um, Memorial Day, um, or as it was called way early on, 'decoration day' was first observed here in Madison in 1868 and they had a parade from the center of the town to the cemetery to adorn the graves and talk and honor people who had fallen. In 1878, they constructed a chapel, Caitlin Chapel, Catlin Chapel. Sometimes I can't read what I wrote. I think it's Catlin, c, a, t, l, i, n. And they built it new their cemetery entrance and it became a space for people to come and worship. Um, and it really kind of signaled along with the street car being built within the next couple of decades. It really signaled even more change from um, what the cemetery had been one at first started to really becoming something that was public and not exclusive. Going back to the streetcar thing, since we're there about timeline wise, the current cemetery office was actually built as a street car station, um, which I think is absolutely fantastic. And it was built in 1908, so about a decade after the street cars started to really, you know, help hold crowds and help provide shelter for people waiting for the street car back and all of that stuff. In the 1920s, the city purchased an additional two tracts of land bordering Forest Hill. There's 20 acres from the Zwerg farm and 60 acres from the Wingra Land Company. Now the, um, land from the farm has been incorporated into the cemetery. There's dead people in it. Um, and then the land from Wingra has actually been leased to a golf course since 1927 - the Glen Way Golf course, which is nine holes. Um, and a lot of people who have enjoyed golfing in general like to find plots in a duration sections like very close to the green so that they could conceivably like watch golf. It's just fantastic. The land itself hasn't really changed since this time. So, um, Forest Hill cemetery itself is about 75 acres right now. Madison was also figuring out, um, how to handle people who are using the cemetery for a sexy purposes, um, at probably because of the fact that it was so much more accessible at this point. A lot of young couples, and this was not a Madison specific thing. This is something that also happened nationwide, but a lot of young couples would sneak off to the cemetery after dark because no one would be there to go neck and snug and whatnot. And I mean, you think about it, it's a gorgeous space. Yes, there's headstones and dead people, but like there's pretty, there's trees. It's very naturey. Um, it's all kind of makes sense honestly. And this just represented, you know, one more new thing that was happening. Um, and, and having people who had enough extra time to be all like, sneak off and make out, especially teenagers, um, having teenagers who weren't at, at, um, like working out in the fields all day and were instead like in school and then maybe at jobs, um, give them a lot more time to go do the dippidy in the cemetery. Many local commissions really tried to regulate this new, uh, recreational purpose. And they would do things like charge admission fees or um, if they hadn't had gates install gates or have people who kind of kept the grounds in the evenings to like chase kids off, which I think is kind of fascinating. Um, in 1910 to back up a smudge, there was a booklet released called "Rules and Regulations of Forest Hill Cemetery." And some of the stuff I read really tied that into this notion of having to like push back against kids doing it. Um, but part of this booklet talks about hours at admission and you know, tells you you can't pick any of the shrubbery or flowers and you can't ride or drive faster than you walk. You can't be drunk or drinking. You shouldn't be resting in spaces that don't belong to you. And, um, you shouldn't be like walking over dead people, which might be my favorite one. Um, I really try hard to like not walk over dead people's spots anyway. So when I read that, I was like, Ooh, it's me. I'm a big nerd. Um, unfortunately a lot of the pushback against, you know, kids and, and people coming to use the graveyard area for different purposes, um, I think helped contribute to the fact that now cemeteries are lonely and sad and sure, you know, bringing in the civil war and bringing in the sorrow from that time period forward and all the wars we had sense definitely plays a part. And, um, one of the things I was reading also talked about cars playing apart. You know, a lot of people when they go visit graveyards, they might just stop in their car and not get out, especially if it's like a shit day weather wise. But I really think a lot of it was this pushback and I don't know if there's any way that they could have done it differently, but it's just something to think about I guess. Hmm. Forest Hill's landscape, architecture, and building program shifted to really incorporate new design ideas. Um, the mausoleum was built in 1916 which offered, you know, above ground burials. And it's a really nice space. It's like right across from the chapel. It's, it's really pretty. Um, and then they eventually, um, as I said had adopted the notion of having flat grave markers in a, at least one part of the cemetery. One of the cool things is that there're a lot of effigy mounds within the cemetery. So let's talk about effigy mounds for a minute. Long before Forrest Hill became like this premiere big cemetery, it was a cemetery already. Um, Native American and Indigenous people had been using the space for effigy mounds for a really long time. And these mounds remind all of us, right, that this land was a sacred spot already and it wasn't white people coming in that made it sacred. You can explore effigy mounds in this area and, and honestly, all throughout the state. Um, and there's different sections, which is, is cool. Um, most of the effigy mounds are within section 35, but, but you can get hints and um, you might be able to see where there may have been one in the past. It's really unfortunate - for really long time, people didn't think of effigy mounds is the thing or just thought it was a hill or give a shit cause it was Native Americans and indigenous people. Um, so unfortunately there is a lot of effigy mounds that have been destroyed, um, even if just partially so, which is so sad, but a lot of them have been preserved. Um, and we'll talk a little bit more about that. Join me on our effigy mound journey. So effigy mounds were built between the years 700 and 1200 CE by Native Americans and indigenous people. And they were built, you know, on the land that is now part of Wisconsin. Earlier mounds tended to be, um, connical or geometric. So they were shapes but not necessarily the same way as, um, you know, the effigy mounds as they are now. I feel like that didn't make any sense. It's like if you look up here, I meds, right? Some of them are step pyramids and some of them are triangular pyramids and step ones usually came earlier. And it seems to be that like once people figured out how to make the triangular ones, they shifted to that. Um, or if they had the resources to do that, they shifted to that. It's kind of the same idea with the effigy mounds. So at first they might've just been a little mound and then they grew into, now if you look at it from far away, it looks like a Jaguar, which is pretty cool. The term effigy really refers to the fact that they were built in shapes of animals. Um, and they were usually constructed around sites that already had earlier mounds, which is really neat. Kind of keeping those spaces together, recognizing that you'd already created a sacred area and really kind of filling it out and telling a story with the shapes you were making. People who built the effigy mounds during the late woodland period, which is where we were at in Wisconsin, and that was happening, excuse me. Um, really obtained a lot of resources by hunting and gathering. Um, so you may find things like corn near an effigy mound. You may find things like clay pots near an effigy mound or in an effigy mound. Um, and the effigy mounds themselves were burial spaces. Um, they were really meant to serve as this really cool decorative way to bury your dead. And archeologists have found no other significant burial grounds by the late woodland people who lived where we now know as Wisconsin. So really these effigy mounds were the primary way they buried and honored their dead. Effigy mounds typically contain one body or might have several. Um, it all depends on how large the mound is and shape and stuff. Some mounds had no bodies at all and that winds up bringing up concerns about, well, was this already disturbed at some point? Did they forget to put a body in there or what was the other purpose of this mound? I will do a whole episode about effigy mounds at some point, but um, the basic way they usually created them was they would dig the shape they wanted and then place the dead and whatever objects they wanted that person to have with them and then create the rest of the shape on top. So it's really like building a hill, um, which is really cool. I think, I don't know. I'm a nerd. Mounds began to be excavated and preserved, um, probably around the mid 19 hundreds. Um, and now let's become a really big part of Wisconsin. And a part of our tradition has been preserving Native American and indigenous spaces as much as we can and talking about them and learning about them and sharing that knowledge with others, which I think is cool. So let's talk about the confederates. Hooray. Not really. Um, so as I said earlier, there's a section of the cemetery that's known as Confederate Rest and there's about 140 confederate prisoners of war who died while in confinement and a union camp here in Madison in 1862. The bulk of the soldiers were a part of the first Alabama and from tree regimen or supporting that regiment during fights. And they had just moved from, I think it was Ohio, back into Illinois when they got caught up in a 23 day fight and then were captured by General John Pope and Commodore Andrew Foote. 5,000 of the prisoners of war were sent to different areas. So some were sent to like a Saint Louis for example. And then about a thousand of them came up to camp Randall. You might be saying right now like "wait, Camp Randall is where the Badgers play football!" Yeah. So it used to be a training camp for soldiers mostly during the civil war and it wasn't well equipped at all in general, but it was especially shit - shittily equipped to be a holding facility prison. On April 19th, 881 confederates arrived and on the 25th, another 275 came, the leader group actually came by boat, um, because they were incredibly sick and would not have been able to do the journey by rail that the earlier group had done. Within two days of the second group coming, 10 of the confederates had died. Most of the soldiers who would die did so due to wounds they had sustained during the fights, um, due to infections due to malarial fever. Um, who knows whether it was like it actually anything related to that, like malaria or anything like that at all? I think it was just fever. Um, so again, infection and then some sort of condition that caused diarrhea. There wasn't great, um, maintenance within camp Randall. So one of the things that they're worried about like cholera or something like that that was passed through stools and then, you know, hung out in spaces where you're drinking water. Yeah, it's great - shit water. After 140 soldiers had died, those who were left were transferred to Camp Douglas in Chicago. The state journal kept a record of deaths that happen day to day, which is Kinda cool. Um, on May 3rd, they posted the following under the headline of Death of Prisoners at Camp Randall: "There is a great mortality in the Prisoners Hospital at Camp Randall. Rumors are prevalent of gross neglect in respect to medical and other attendance, and of inattention to the ordinary hospital alleviations and to sanitary rules. We have not visited the hospital, and cannot vouch for these current reports. It is to be hoped that means will be adopted to spare needless suffering, and to provide, as far as possible, for the comfort and restoration of the sick." (book, part 2, 393) So clearly it wasn't on in great shape. Um, and we'll never know for sure. I think what a lot of these folks actually died of. Germ theory was not prevalent at the point, uh, that the civil war happened. And so there just wasn't knowledge about how we spread germs and all of that. Um, and there's some really great podcast episodes around that topic from the podcast called This Podcast Will Kill You. It's fantastic. It's nerdy. It's about epidemiology and diseases and pandemics and it's fantastic - and it's led by two chicks. So please go listen to it cause it's a great podcast. In the confederate section, there is a grave just in front of it and it belongs to a woman named Alice Whiting Waterman. She was born in the south and moved to Madison in 1868. She was widowed and didn't have any relatives, so she really didn't know what to do with her time to be quite frank and she became really interested in the neglected graves because they weren't well kept as you can imagine, because they're prisoners of war, so she spent the next 25 years of her life, the the year she had left taking care of that space and beautifying it and making it look better, cleaning it up so you could see the tombstones getting tombstones for those who didn't have them. Governor Lucius Fairchild also assisted in the effort, likely due to having fought in the war himself, but he's also often left out of the narrative and all of the blame is placed on Waterman. I don't know who knows what the full story is, but seems like uh, a lot of it gets placed on her because they don't want to associate Fairchild with it. I don't know. Anyway, the movement really was Waterman's baby. She referred to them as her 'boys' and really took ownership of essentially her kinfolk having grown up in the south. And when she died, she asked it to be buried with them. So they did what they could and buried her in front of them. We're going to get into some interesting things with this. Uh, but first let's boop ahead to 1872 and For memorial day that year, this space really served as a space of reconciliation. Um, that year, Governor Cadwallader C Washburn - who had been a union general at Vicksburg and elsewhere, but that was his big battle - spoke, and this goes on for a minute, so I'm sorry, but it's pretty great: "I would not have these ceremonies perpetuated for the purpose of keeping alive resentments of dividing a people that ought to be united, but only to remind us of the priceless value of our glorious union, and our obligations to those who sacrificed their lives to uphold and maintain it and to the near and dear ones they have left behind. Here, almost side by side, and in one silent bed, are laid not only those who sacrificed their lives to preserve - but also those to destroy our fair fabric of governance. Misguided as the last were, you wage no war with lifeless clay and your resentments stop with the grave. Let us then after we shall have decked the graves of our brave defenders, scattering pansies, forget-me-nots and the 'rosemary of rememberance,' nowt forget the lowly bed of those who sleep so far away from their once happy and sunny homes." (book, part 2, 398) I'm about to get into why this is bullshit, but first, let's hear what the newspaper has to say about this whole shenanigans: "After the graves of the Union soldiers had been handsomely and befittingly decorated, Governor Washburn stepped to the front, with more courage than has ever been shown on these occasions, asking volunteers to go with him to scatter flowers over the graves of the rebel dead who reposed nearby. No one can go beyond us in renouncing the cause of secession in all its forms, but we say Governor Washburn's conduct yesterday was that of a high-minded, magnanimous solider - of one who dared to sustain his professions by his public acts - and show charity for the erring and misguided 'boys in gray,' who like our own soldiers were brave beyond parallel, though sadly in the wrong. So little an act as this will do more to wipe out the asperities of the war than we can estimate. We can say it with credit to the old soldiers present that the Governor was not without a following in his work of merciful charity. All the officers of the day, chaplains, and veterans of a hundred battlefields joining in strewing the graves of the rebel dead." (book, part 2, 398) So it was either really easy to forgive and forget during this time period or this is the whitest thing I've ever heard. I can see in that time period right, going, okay, we're done. Things are getting better. But the fact that people thought it was actually getting better at that time period without recognizing that, slavery just shifted. And that black people still didn't have the right to vote from in most places. And in the small places they did have the right to vote, they were often bullied and threatened and harmed if they did. So like from a white person's perspective - Sure. Let's forgive and forget. And these little boys were wrong. They just made an Oopsie. I'm sorry. Fuck all y'all. No And it just gets better. Are you ready for this? So you know, from the 1872 up to 2000, people would still come and decorate that area with confederate flags. And it was only when a couple of people complained that they went, 'oh, I guess we should stop that.' Now let's fast forward to last October because of all of the stuff that has happened in fairly recent history with white supremacists and racists bigots re using the confederate flag and reasserting their, um, loyalty to those who led the confederate army and everything they stood for. Um, you know, there was a question about what the fuck do we do with the spot. And in October, 2018 the Madison City Council had convos about this. They were like, what the fuck do we do? They voted 16 to two to destroy the marker with the list of buried prisoners, which overturned the landmarks commission, um, who had denied a permit to remove the marker. The marker was built in 1906. Like, okay, it is historical, but do we need it and do we need everything that says, oh, proud boys, these are great? Um, no, we don't. The eradication of that plaque was seen as some people within the city government as some sort of reparation. Um, I don't think it's that, but it was supported by a number of people and a number of organizations throughout the city, state and even nationally, um, including like the Equal Opportunities Commission here in Madison. The Dane County Historical Society was pissed. Um, the editorial board of the Wisconsin State Journal was pissed because this is the northern most confederate graveyard. And I get that. I get that there's history, but we don't need to celebrate people who did terrible things. Um, then I think that if you're going to war for the confederacy, we can't excuse that. When I was in eighth grade, we had conversations about, 'oh well Robert E. Lee didn't really like slavery. He just didn't think black people were people, so that's why he fought on that side' as if that's somehow excused it and I'm sorry. No, it doesn't. As of January, the monument was removed and it was given to the local veterans museum. They didn't do damage to the monument, the cemetery grounds. Um, and uh, I'm going to talk about this interview and I'll put the link in the resources notes. I always do that. Um, but I, I think it paints a good picture of this. Michael Telzrow, the director of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, said the marker is in crates at the state archive preservation facility on Madison's Near East side. He said there are no current plans for its exhibition either now or in the near future. It's highly unlikely that it would ever be permanently displayed. The museum, which is that 30 West Mifflin Street on the Capitol Square, accepted it because of the connections between that memorial and the union veterans from Wisconsin because there were a lot of veterans here that helped raise money for that marker, um, and things like that. So that's part of why they decided to take it and I think they also just wanted to get the shit done with, to be honest. Um, not all of the monument's gone. So there's a base of the structure that kind of acts as a fence around the plots themselves and it was going to be way too costly to get a permit to take that out. Um, it's made from granite, it weighs like over 4,000 pounds, so it's just not, um, something that's worth it at this point. Instead, they took like the two top portions off and brought that to the state archives preservation facility on Thornton Avenue. The top most portion listed 132 of the names of the soldiers who died at the camp when it was used as the military base. The middle section stated erected in loving memory by the United daughters of confederacy to Mrs Alice Whiting Waterman and her boys - a reference to again Waterman - and nothing's inscribed in the base. So in August, 2017, mayor Paul saw Glen, (who's running again, dear God. Why?) ordered that a smaller stone marker and plaque be removed. And that monument that was placed in 1982 described the dead as "Valliant confederate soldiers" and "unsung heroes." And that came right after, um, the protest around the statue in Virginia and um, the death of Heather Heyer. Is that her last name? Oh, Shit. I think it is. Y'All know what I'm talking about. It's okay. Um, yeah, so that's the big stuff with this area. Um, some notable residents include Steve and Babcock who, um, helped revolutionize dairy production. I mean, this is Wisconsin. Kathryn Clarenbach, who was one of the founders of the National Organization for Women (NOW) who I unfortunately need to point out are TERF. Um, if you've not encountered the term TERF, it stands for Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist. Um, I've also seen people write it as fart and I can't remember everything it stands for it cause I laughed too much. Um, I can't remember. But the point is that, um, as we're doing feminist stuff, there's a lot of people who want to exclude people who are trans in some way. And um, let me put my sex educator hat on. Being cisgender just means you assigned or you, you're identity aligns with your assigned sex slash gender at birth. So you're born, you have a penis, they call you a boy. Um, and you know, fast forward 30 years later, you're still cool with being a dude. Then you're cisgender. Transgender people don't identify that way. And actually there's a lot of science to back this up. I won't get into a lot of it because that's a whole different section of a podcast, right? But the fact of the matter is science shows that, excuse me, our brains align far more with our identities then, I dunno, our genitals do. And the reason I talk about this is I am trans. Trans is not just being one gender and wanting to go to a different gender. It's not just going through, um, hormone replacement therapy or, um, going through surgeries. Sometimes it's just, um, your state of being. So for me, I am what is known as gender fluid. And what that means is that some days I wake up and I want to be super femme and pretty and paint my nails and maybe be called a slut and have my hair pulled. And um, just enjoy that. Right. And there are some days where I wake up (usually after watching ghost adventures, not really), but I wake up and I'm like, yeah, dude, Bro. Ah, and I get like really aggro and I'm very masculine and other days I'm somewhere in between and aren't just me. And there's not a good way to put a finger on that, but organizations that are TERFy in nature don't want people like me involved. They don't want people who were assigned as boys at birth who are now women to be involved in their organization. And that's fucking bullshit. Um, also Matilda S Howell who started the first kindergarten and fighting Bob La Follette who we will talk about later. I promise - there's so much to talk about. Since the early two thousands, the Wisconsin Veterans Museum has sponsored an annual talking spirits, tore that runs for a week, each October. It's really cool. Um, groups walk throughout the cemetery with a guide and they stopped for the little vignettes that are performed by actors that you know, are all dressed up and I'm representing kind of civil war era people. So in 2013, um, for example, they had someone portray a woman whose two sons were a part of the iron brigade and had died and how she was handling things and all of this stuff is really heavily researched and they actually base it on like real life, which I love. It's brought like 1600 school kids and, um, several hundred people from the community and it's just really fun. Um, if you go at night, you have candles. It's just, it's nice. I like it. Um, so I couldn't find a ton about it being haunted, but there's just a couple of things. Um, you know, of course the people who were moved from other cemeteries to here, um, maybe their spirits are wandering and lost. Of course, there's also, you know, concerns about, people within the confederate plot and haunting and, and being upset that they're stuck up here in the north or that they lost. Um, and then there were other people who were buried in unmarked graves. There's actually a, a large section in one of the books that I read, um, where people are just kind of lost to time. Nobody knows who's there, just really sad. And I did find something about, um, they think there might be people hearing baby's crying, but I also saw that on a similar, um, similarly named cemetery in another part of the state. So I can't say for sure, but I love this graveyard. It's one of my favorite places to go. And I'm that bitch that grew up going to graveyards. Sorry. Sorry about it. Um, and I just love seeing the ornate, beautiful statues and remembrances of family members. Um, I love walking through and recognizing names that are now names of buildings on the UW campus. Um, and I love in the fall, the way the sunlight hits the trees just right and it creates this very etherial lighting. It's just beautiful. I've got a couple of really fun pictures I've taken, so I'll put some of those, um, in the show notes for y'all to take a look at. It's beautiful there. I love it. And if you ever have the chance to come to Madison, especially in the fall, um, stop at Forest Hill Cemetery. Explore and you'll never know who you'll run into. Maybe me. [goofy spooky laughter] That's it for this episode. Next episode we're going to be talking about Earth Day, so stay tuned to that because Earth Day was started by a Wisconsinite and it's amazing. Have a great and wonderful fortnight! You just listened to the Spooky Sconnie podcast. It is produced every two weeks by me, Kirsten Schultz. The intro, outro music is from Purple Plant. You can find show notes and more over at spookysconnie.podbean.com, including a transcript in case you missed anything. Take a minute and rate and subscribe if you can. You'll help more people see the show by rating and you won't miss a single episode if you subscribe, and that's pretty dope. You can support the show over at patreon.com/spookysconniepodcast and you can email me anything you'd like me to know at spookysconniepodcast@gmail.com. Meantime, sleep tight. Don't let the badgers bite. Bye.

Content note: discussion of ableism/sanism at the end, mentions of sexual violence and murder throughout (no details), general dudely creepitude Photo of creepy letter courtesy of Radar Online (link below) In this minisode, I discuss the updates on the Closs case that have happened in the last month. Dude sent a creepy ass letter this week, too, and now I feel like I need to shower. Further Reading & Sources 'No guilt, no remorse, no empathy.' Criminal profilers say Jake Patterson case stands out ‘Jayme is doing well:’ Family, friends of Jayme Closs mark a milestone by wearing blue Jayme Closs case: Investigators examine call logs, photos, videos stored on Jake Patterson’s cellphone Father of Jayme Closs' alleged abductor speaks out: 'Our hearts are broken for their family' (autoplay video in link) Suspect ordered to stand trial on charges of kidnapping, murder in Jayme Closs case Suspect Jake Thomas Patterson hosted a Christmas gathering while Jayme Closs was imprisoned in the same house, sources say Jennie-O to donate $25,000 in reward money to Jayme Closs Kidnapping victim Jayme Closs thanks well-wishers for support Online fundraisers have raised more than $100K for Jayme Closs since her escape Radar Online exclusive about the creepy letter (heads up for sensationalism) Plain text of the creepy letter Transcript Welcome to the second minisode in the Jayme Closs case coverage. Please go back and listen to the first one if you are not familiar with the case because it gives a lot of background and everything that has happened up until the end of January, 2019. As of February 6th, Patterson was arraigned. He waived his right to a preliminary hearing and his next arraignment date is set for March 27th that is when he is expected to formally enter a plea. He has of course already confessed to the crimes, but we'll see if that sticks. ----more---- As he was leaving the courtroom, he smiled and nodded towards relatives telling them he loved them. Investigators are working right now on searching his vehicle for clues as well as examining his cell phone records, who we called, who he texted, which towers his phone pinged off of, et cetera. My guess is they're double checking that there aren't any people involved in this case in any way other than Patterson. Uh, it's, it's very clear that Patterson was obviously the main driver behind this crime. But when you have someone who is so adamant that they did this on their own, it's always a case where you have to double check everything before you just make an assumption that they're telling the truth. Investigators, profilers and researchers who have interviewed or studied killers that have multiple victims believe Patterson's case is unusual. He told the detectives that he carefully plotted these crimes, but he was impulsive and a lot of the actions he took in decisions he made. He had no relationship with the Closs family, but it wasn't completely random since he targeted her after seeing her get on a school bus. He spares Jayme and drives her away from the murder scene after murdering her parents. And that's usually not something that happens. And you wind up having the victim alive at the end of the case. I think that most people assumed she was probably dead. Um, and I think it may potentially come out that she has, dealt with some sexual violence. I would be nearly willing to bet a large sum of money I don't have on that. Greg McCrary, a former agent with the FBI, worked a lot with the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime and was one of the early criminal profilers - he says that Patterson's case, like his situation is outside of the norm. "He’s impulsive on one side but he is more ritualistic. When guys do this sort of thing, anybody who gets between them and their target is in peril,” he said. “That’s his desire, and he is willing to kill. This is someone with no guilt, no remorse, no empathy. He killed these people with the empathy of lighting a cigarette.” "(Multiple killers) are not that common, but this guy is even more uncommon, McCrary says, with his willingness to callously and unremorsefully (commit murder and kidnapping.) It’s pretty striking, going in with a shotgun and blasting away. He talks about being criminally sophisticated and his efforts at not being detected. He likes to brag about it, which is extremely pathological,” McCrary continued. “He thinks he’s smarter than anybody else. He was just getting off on this. He had this secret, which reinforces his feelings. He has a captive in the house and appears to lead a normal life. It’s the narcissism that often is their vulnerability, such as the confidence to go out and leave (Jayme) alone. He got overconfident in his ability to maintain this.” S,o part of how he did this was by following groups dedicated to true crime that we're talking about the case, uh, which is creepy. He loved watching TV coverage of the case and he also spent a lot of time googling terms, terms they found on his computer so far were things like “Jayme Closs, “Jayme Closs Suspect”, “Barron County”, “Jayme Gordon” [Gordon is where she was found], “Jayme Closs Gordon” and “Gordon”, “FBI” and “Kyle Jaenke-Annis”, which go listen to the first episode to hear why he's involved. Kim Rossmo is the director of the center for Geospatial Intelligence and investigation and the Department of Criminal Justice at Texas State University. He's also the former detective inspector in charge of the Vancouver Police Department's Geographic Profiling Section. The Post Crescent interviewed him about the case and he said, "I think one of the unusual aspects was the fact that he didn’t kill his victim within 24 hours. That’s pretty standard. Given his planning, it was unusual to go into the home (without knowing who was there). Maybe he couldn’t wait.” And I think that speaks to a lot of what we've heard so far. He went to the house several other times, but there were people home and he didn't want to go into a house necessarily full of many people and instead chose, you know, 1:00 AM midnight, when he knew no one else was there other than the family. Patterson's family is just as shocked as anyone that this happened. His father, Patrick, recently shared his thoughts: "My words can mean nothing after such a tragedy has taken place. I most definitely want Jayme's family to know, everyone to know, that our hearts are broken for their family. I'm very sorry for everything that has happened. These words come directly from my heart and my family's heart. I wish for a complete healing of Jayme's mind, heart and soul. I would like to thank the federal, local and state authorities for their professional and respectful way in which they have treated me and my family. I would also like to thank the media for the way in which they've been patient and understanding with this difficult matter. It has been a very difficult time for us." Earlier this week, Patterson reportedly sent a letter that Radar Online got ahold of the, like, scanned copy. I'll put a link to the show notes for that. It is difficult to read just from a logistical aspect. I Dunno. Scanned copies of letters with shitty handwriting are just difficult to read. In the letter, he really seems to think that he and Jayme just had our regular domestic relationship, which I think is an interesting counter to, on the outside, his very, his nature of being very braggadocious bragging a lot about the situation, about how smart he was. Um, this, this is just a quick sampling of two different parts of the letter. “My brother… got a puppy named ‘Vale’ a couple of weeks before [heart] Jayme [heart] ran away. I love Mexican food too, but I like lots of stuff. Chocolate and berries are probably my favorite. Me and Jayme cooked a bunch of stuff. Cooking is another thing I like doing a lot. It’s weird. I went from never committing a crime or really doing anything bad to doing the worst thing a human can do. Just one big f–k up ha ha.”. Oh, this was in a letter to a friend that got leaked. In the meantime, Jayme has been doing well. Um, I think as well as possible considering everything that has gone on. When it's warm enough - because we have had several cold spells - she has been playing outside, spending time with family and working on healing WCC0-AM reported that she also had a steak dinner on the third with her grandfather, which was the promise he had made to her while she was missing. That makes me wonder too with how obsessed Patterson was with watching footage and learning more about what the public knew about the crime, how much Jayme had heard. Had she known that her grandfather promised this steak while she was missing, or did she only learn about it when she escaped and you know, but probably it a day or two after was able to get in contact with more relatives? I have no idea. Jayme's parents worked at the Jennie O plant that's local. The company had donated $25,000 towards Jayme's reward, a match of the FBI's $25,000. Since Jayme escaped herself, Jennie-O is donating their portion of the money directly to her. The FBI hasn't said what they're doing with their portion but I highly doubt it will go to Jayme and I don't know that it should. Um, there are a lot of kids out there that are missing a lot of adults out there that are missing and potentially in danger and that money I think would be better served towards trying to help other kids. Jayme is currently living with an aunt and in a statement she and the Closs family expressed their deepest gratitude for the incredible gifts and generous donations that she's received from all around the world. "Jayme... appreciates each and every gift, as well as the many cards and letters. The many kind words have been a source of great comfort to her," the statement said. A Facebook fundraiser raised $51,000 for Jayme within days of her escape in January and a separate go fund me for Jayme and the family started by her cousin Angela De Andriano has raised an additional, uh, about $51,000 as of this past Wednesday. In an interview with Wpr, De Andriano said she's increased the Gofund me goals twice already at the request of donors. "Each time I get close to a goal I have just like an overload of messages coming in, 'This isn’t going to close is it? We would like to help.' And I’m like, 'OK, nope it doesn’t just close. You can go ahead and go on there and I’ll just keep adjusting it.'" She also said donations have been steady ever since news of Jayme's escape broke, but that there have been upticks whenever Jayme's story gets renewed attention in social media or news reports. "There’s a lot of people out there that want to help and that are really concerned and following along as these hearings begin, and I think that Jayme has a lot of support from all over the world," De Andriano said. She said another fundraiser established by the class family at sterling bank in Barron has been accepting donations in person and by mail ever since the crime happened. The branch manager has declined to say how much money has been donated, and I think that's probably a good thing. Lastly, an FBI special agent, Justin Tolomeo and a team of 250 FBI agents and personnel worked nearly around the clock to try to work to bring Jayme home. He said, "I'm still amazed by the bravery and resilience she displayed," he said. "We did everything we possibly could and I again, I said it, Jayme herself that gave us that break." Like I said, probably the next big step in the case is the March 27th arraignment date set for Patterson and we'll see what happens. I fully expect that since he confessed, he will consider pleading guilty. But I can also see his lawyers or he himself thinking they would be smug and trying to claim insanity. I do not think that that fits here. I do not think that it's okay to say that he is insane when he clearly knew what he was doing was wrong, didn't give a fuck, et cetera. I think there's a whole discussion about sainism and ableism that we could get into about how the general true crime community and people beyond view insanity and view a person's ability to do things though, um, with that label. I think so often we want to push off something that's evil as insane. And unfortunately when we do that, we're really shitting on everybody who actually has a mental illness and you know, is struggling versus the Ted Bundys and Jake Patterson's of the world. Um, I think it's important to remember that evil and, and sanity are not necessarily connected. Someone can be perfectly sane and be an incredibly evil asshole and that's really hard to stomach. And so I think that's something that we have to work on. People don't want to think that an average other person just like them could turn around and do something horrible without having some sort of a, a reason or without having lost their minds. And the reality is people do evil shit every single day. There are people who, everything they do is rooted in hatred and bigotry and harm. And if they're lucky, uh, they don't get caught or don't get punished for it for a long time. That usually just means that their actions tend to grow exponentially. We see it with serial killers, right? Some of the first steps they usually take are abusing animals and then they're not caught or they're not punished, and then they step up and step up and step up. We see that with, um, all sorts of other criminals to someone who works at a store and steals a pair of sunglasses and then, you know, ramp up to where they're stealing five Playstations to sell and then ramp up to where they're robbing banks. I mean, it's a very clear, it's very clear to me anyway, that there are steps that get us to a point where we're causing even more harm. And nowhere along that path is there a clear point where someone loses their sanity. Someone could go down that path perfectly sane the entire time and perfectly aware of everything they're doing. We see those even in politicians, right? People constantly say that 'Trump is mental. Trump is losing his mind. Or Trump never had a mind. He's got dementia.' What if he doesn't have anything and he's just an evil fucking asshole? That's probably more terrifying to people than blaming evil actions on a disability. Did you know even psychological associations will not allow people to armchair diagnose someone with a mental illness unless they've actually had, you know, evaluation time, which then it's not armchair diagnosing. So why is everybody else arm chair diagnosing people if even psychologists can't? What makes the average, uh, true crime afficianado the person who can tell who is or isn't sane? Something to think about. That's my little social justice diatribe for this episode and stay tuned for more updates. This probably won't get a big update until again, the arraignment date or, um, unless some big news happens between here and the end of March. Thanks for listening. Have a great day! You just listened to the Spooky Sconnie podcast. It is produced every two weeks by me, Kirsten Schultz. The intro, outro music is from Purple Plant. You can find show notes and more over at spookysconnie.podbean.com, including a transcript in case you missed anything. Take a minute and rate and subscribe if you can. You'll help more people see the show by rating and you won't miss a single episode if you subscribe, and that's pretty dope. You can support the show over at patreon.com/spookysconniepodcast and you can email me anything you'd like me to know at spookysconniepodcast@gmail.com. Meantime, sleep tight. Don't let the badgers bite. Bye.  

Suspected killer-kidnapper Jake Patterson pens a disturbing jailhouse letter drawing hearts around kidnap victim Jayme Closs’s name. New York 9-year-old takes her own life after mom says its too early to be on a cell phone. In llinois, loving husband send final text to wife after being shot by disgruntled co-worker.

The government shutdown is over for now, but it is still unclear what the final outcome will be. President Trump walked away with nothing in terms of his border wall and now there is a 3 week time limit on whether it will happen again. Also developing over the weekend, Roger Stone gets indicted in the Mueller probe.  Ginger Gibson, political reporter for Reuters, joins us for a breakdown of all the big political news. Next, a quick update on the story of 13 year old Jayme Closs, who was held captive for 88 days by Jake Patterson.  A lot was made of who would be getting reward money that was offered for anyone that had information that led to her rescue.  Well since she saved herself when she escaped, she will be getting $25,000 of that reward money.  My producer Miranda joins us for more. Finally, there is a whole community of content creators on YouTube that are blind.  While YouTube doesn't seem like a natural fit for someone who is visually impaired, these creators have become voices for and often overlooked group of people who use the internet just as much as many others. Emma Grey Ellis, writer at Wired, joins us to discuss the blind YouTubers making the internet more accessible. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

On October 15, 2018, in Barron Wisconsin, the unthinkable happened. An armed intruder entered the home of James and Denise Closs. He murdered James and Denise and kidnapped their daughter, 13-year-old Jayme. The story made headlines around the world. Police led an all-out search for Jayme and the person that abducted her and killed her parents. But, they came up empty. On January 10, 2019, Jayme escaped from her captor, a man she identified as 21-year-old Jake Patterson. Police caught Patterson quickly and he told them the details of what happened in the proceeding three months, beginning with the murder of James and Denise. He also told them his motivations and how he became infatuated with Jayme Closs. The details will both shock and scare you. You can support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In our 1st Crime In The News episode, Claire & Angie discuss Crime In The News, all current, because the world is a bad, bad place. ***THIS PODCAST DEALS WITH ADULT THEMES WHICH SOME LISTENERS MAY FIND DISTRESSING. LISTENER CAUTION IS ADVISED.*** Make sure to rate, review and subscribe. Follow us on Social Media Instagram: @murderonourmindspodcast Twitter: @murderonourmind Facebook Group (now live): www.facebook.com/groups/329888131197720/ Or email us with your comments or suggestions at MurderOnOurMinds@Gmail.com You can also join our Patreon for freebies, early acces, and a bonus episode www.patreon.com/MurderonourMinds Crime In The News Man Rape 11 Year Old Girl, Has Worst Excuse Ever https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6602923/Father-five-33-says-11-year-old-girl-got-pregnant-baby-using-clothing.html Jayme Closs Kidnapper Update https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9kp5dz/accused-jayme-closs-kidnapper-jake-patterson-threw-party-in-cabin-where-he-held-her-report-says Relating CV https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5687925-Jake-Patterson-resume.html 14 Year Old Fatally Shot https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6601517/Family-14-year-old-boy-fatally-shot-Arizona-cop-demand-answers.html Health Care Facility CEO Resigns https://indianexpress.com/article/world/healthcare-facilitys-ceo-resigns-after-woman-in-coma-gives-birth-5529543/ Idiot Of The Week Man Inject Himself With His Own Semen As A Pain Reliever https://www.mirror.co.uk/science/man-injects-himself-semen-hopes-13865520 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/murder-on-our-minds/message

Jake Patterson has admitted to killing the parents of Jayme Closs and kidnapping her. What punishment should he receive?

Charging documents. The FULL story from investigators. Jayme Closs is a fucking hero. Jake Patterson won’t do well in prison, IMO. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/taboo-and-murder/support

Content note: discussion of murder and kidnapping, mention of sexual violence (no details), general dudely creepitude Welcome to the Spooky Sconnie podcast, the show that talks about the spooky, paranormal, criminal, and just plain odd Badger State. While we're known for sportsball and food, there's a lot more to learn about Wisconsin if you know where to look. In this first minisode on the subject, I discuss the Jayme Closs case. Three months after her parents double murder and her kidnapping, Jayme was recently found. Details are still coming out about her captivity and, yesterday, her captor - Jake Thomas Patterson - was officially charged. Further reading Link to Wisconsin's current missing children cases Jayme's GoFundMe Jayme's FB update Complaint: Kidnapper saw Jayme Closs get on school bus; 'he knew that was the girl he was going to take'   Transcript Welcome to the first minisode of the Spooky Sconnie Podcast, the podcast that talks about all things creepy, weird, spooky, and more in the state of Wisconsin. One of the things that I think it's very interesting about true crime is when you get the opportunity to cover a case as it unfolds when you are a podcaster or a writer or what have you, and I wanted to take time today to talk about a fairly well known kidnapping. The recently occurred here in Wisconsin and is actually reaching the trial stage and I'll talk about all the details and get you all caught up if you haven't heard about what's going on, um, since this case is going to start going to trial potentially in February. This will be, um, you know, I would imagine a longer minisode series, um,and we'll just see where it takes us. Some of the episodes might be really short, some of them may be fairly long and this one will probably be a longer one just because of, uh, getting everyone up to speed on the kidnapping of Jayme Closs and her recovery. ----more---- At the center of this case are two, uh, locations in Wisconsin. The first is Barron, Wisconsin, which is located in the northwest of the state. Um, it's a city, so there's a town of Barron and surrounding that town is the city of Barron and is located in Barron county. This happens so much in Wisconsin specifically as wild. Uh, let's be more imaginative with names. I don't know. Anyway, there's an estimated 3,300 people in the area and it's actually closer to Lake Superior, one of the Great Lakes than it is to Madison. In fact, it's roughly 220 miles or about three and a half hours away by car from Madison versus being about an hour and 45 minutes in slightly different directions from both Minneapolis or Lake Superior. Gordon, Wisconsin, the other city that is really being focused on in this case, is up in Douglas County. This is, at least in my eyes, the most northwestern county in the state of Wisconsin. In 2000, there were only 645 people living there permanently and that really hasn't changed 19 years later, which is weird. Anyway, um, as, as par for the course for Wisconsin, there are a lot of cabins where people come up and stay throughout the year, use for hunting, use for snow sports, use to be close to the lake because it is only about 35 miles south of Lake Superior. And to give you another idea of how remote and how full of kind of snow sport type people this is, um, there are signs that remind motorists to share the pavement with ATVs, be mindful of snowmobiles, etc. So it's really kind of up there. Um, and, and a very active Space. The two cities are about an hour's drive apart on US-53. And um, as I said, they've both been at the center of a kidnapping that made national attention. Now, um, it did start earlier than this date, but this is the main starting date is October 15th. James Closs who's 56 and his wife Denise, 46, were at home with their daughter Jayme, who is 13. Jayme was asleep and James and Denise were likely asleep or getting close to it as this was, you know, just after midnight on technically the 15th. The silence of the night in their sleepy area at such a late time - or early time in the morning, depending on how you look at it - was not going to last much longer. A 911 call early monday morning featured people screaming and yelling for help in the background, but there was no response to the dispatchers' requests. The dispatchers called trying the phone back several times without success and they got the voicemail on Denise's cell phone and tried to call the landline listed for them, but it was disconnected. All 911 calls are supposed to be investigated, especially when there's no direct response response and there's screams for help. So they sent, um, some squad cars out, sirens blazing after arriving at the Closs home around 1:00 AM. Authorities reported one male down and multiple rounds spent before discovering Denise's body likely near the bathroom. By 3:57 am, Jayme Closs was entered as a missing juvenile. The FBI immediately got involved with the case. Law enforcement agencies all over the country were told to look out for a five foot, 100 pound teenage girl with green eyes and strawberry blonde hair. Many tips were called in including one the next day from Miami, Florida that didn't go anywhere. The next two weeks were spent conducting searches of the area near the Closs home as they didn't think that she would have been taken very far after her disappearance. Police collected more than 3,500 tips, but no hard leads emerged. On October 30th, James and Denise Closs' joint funeral was held at St Peter's Catholic Church in Cameron, which is just a few minutes from their home. It's. I'm just down the road from Barron. Unfortunately earlier that same day, a Wisconsin man was arrested for allegedly burglarizing their home. Kyle Jaenke-Annis - that's a Wisconsin name - 32, was spotted Saturday just before 2:30 AM on motion-activated surveillance cameras set up around the property and entering the home through the patio door. He admitted to taking items from the home and a search found that among things he stuffed in his coat pocket were two tank tops, a girl's dress, and two pairs of Jayme's underwear. He told deputies that he just took the items because he was "curious about the size Jayme was" and he figured no one was going to miss these things. He also said he didn't know the family. He did work at the same Jennie-O Turkey plant that James and Denise worked at. Um, he was charged with burglary but cleared of any involvement in the murder and kidnapping. I think it's safe to say he's a fucking creeper though. Who takes and steals girl's underwear? Like, just think about it. most. Uh, well many I would say serial killers, kidnappers, uh, started with peeping tom stuff and breaking in and stealing underwear. So I hope they keep a close eye on that motherfucker. If you've been following the case, you'll know that the next big break came in just last week on January 10th, a 21 year old Jake Thomas Patterson confessed to killing James and Denise Closs shortly after detectives began interviewing him on the 10th. He told them he targeted Jayme randomly after seeing her one day get on a school bus. He told investigators that he was working at a nearby cheese factory, which he worked there for two days before quitting. On his drive to the cheese factory one of the two mornings he worked there, he stopped behind a school bus on highway eight and watched Jayme get on the bus. He told investigators he had no idea who she was or who lived at the house. But when he saw her, he knew she was the girl he was going to take. He meticulously planned the abduction. He went to the home twice before actually committing the kidnapping. Um, you know, he was ready to do it, but said that he was unable to kidnap her because there were too many people around. He took steps to steal license plates from another vehicle to put on his to avoid being detected. He also removed, um, inside trunks that are relatively modern. There's an anti kidnapping release cord and um, he, he went to the steps to remove that so that once he put Jayme and the trunk, as we'll find out later on, she couldn't get herself out. On the night of the killings and the abduction, Patterson says he took his father's 12 gauge Mossberg pump shotgun. His research had showed the shotgun was really common and would probably be difficult to trace. He also shaved his face and his head so he wouldn't leave hair behind. He said that he was determined he was going to take Jayme that night and was going to kill anyone in the house because he could not leave any eyewitnesses behind. He was also prepared for a shootout with the police if he had been stopped. I'm not sure if that just means mentally prepared or if he maybe had more arms on him that would be better for, I don't know, a shoot out. I've been playing a lot of Red Dead Redemption and shotguns are okay, but I feel like pistols are better for a shootout. I don't know. I don't know what I'm saying. this. I'm just nervous and this case makes me anxious. Anyway, Jayme told police that she was asleep in her room when the family dog started barking. She looked and saw there was a car in the driveway and woke up her parents. Her father, James went to the door and saw Patterson there with a gun. Jayme says she and her mother hid in the bathroom, holding one another in the bath tub with a shower curtain pulled shut. They heard a gunshot while they were hiding and knew that James had been killed. Denise starts to call 911 as Patteron breaks down the bathroom door. He was dressed in black wearing a face mask and gloves and carrying the shotgun. He told Denise to hang up the phone and ordered her to tape Jayme's mouth shut. He told detectives that Denise struggled with the tape, so he wrapped the tape himself around Jayme's mouth and then taped her hands behind her back and her ankles together before pulling her out of the bathtub. He then shot Denise in the head right in front of her. He dragged Jayme outside, nearly slipping in blood, pooled on the floor from murdering James. He threw Jayme in the trunk and drove off, pausing to yield to the three squad cars speeding towards the house with flashing lights. The entire attack took about four minutes. Patterson then took Jayme to a cabin,he said was his. He told police he ordered a weeping Jayme to strip and then dressed in his sister's pajamas saying he had to get rid of the evidence. Uh, he took her clothes and threw it in the fireplace in the basement of this cabin. He kept her in a space under his bed. To make her stay there, he would barricade it with plastic totes and laundry bins filled with barbell weights and she was stuck under there for up to 12 hours a day. I can't imagine being out of there would be much better at this point. Um, he believes that she tried to escape at least twice. One of those times was making banging noises so loud that it alerted some of the other people in the household before he made some excuse about it. He threatened her, uh, and scared her. He says into not escaping. We'll see how well that worked out for him. When his father visited, Patterson would turn up the radio in the bedroom to cover any noise that she might make. Jayme told investigators that she was able to escape on January 10th when Patterson told her he would be leaving for five or six hours. After he left, she was able to push the bins and weights away from the bed and crawl out. She then put on a pair of his shoes, walked out of the house and ran into a woman who helped rescue her. Um, Jeanne Nutter is a social worker and she was out walking her dog when Jayme approached her. She immediately took Jayme to a nearby home, making sure it was not the Patterson home and phoned police. They actually approached, um, a neighbor - teacher Kristin Kasinskas who had been just arriving home from work and absolutely knew it was Jayme right away, brought them into the house. Um, she and Jean got her - Jayme - calm and, um, phoned the police say, you know, 'we've got Jayme, she's here. You have to come. She's safe.' She was positively found then in the town of Gordon at 4:43 PM. Within a span of less than 20 minutes, police converged on the Patterson cabin where they came upon Patterson in his car who was out looking for Jayme. Police say Patterson got out of the car and said, 'yeah, I did it.' Patterson told detectIves he thought he'd gotten away with the killings because he hadn't been caught in the first two weeks. He also said he would never have been caught if he had planned everything perfectly, which also just feels like a scooby doo episode. "I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for that damn kid I kidnapped!" A shotgun consistent with the type of gun used to kill Jayme's parents was recovered. They haven't officially run it through the state crime lab system yet, but you know, when the ballistics come back and it checks out they'll be able to definitively say it was the same weapon. Patterson was actually officially charged Monday - yesterday - with two counts of first degree intentional homicide in the deaths of James and Denise Closs. He also faces one charge of kidnapping and one charge of burglary with a dangerous weapon. Each first degree intentional homicide charge carries a life sentence with it. The kidnapping charge carries 40 years in prison and armed burglary is 15 years. His bail was set at $5,000,000 and he will appear in court again for his preliminary hearing on February 6th at 11:00 AM. His defense attorneys, um, state Assistant Public Defenders Charles Glynn and Richard Jones said they believe he can get a fair trial, but they're not sure where they might have to seek a change of venue, which is something I was thinking about the other day. With how publicized this has been, it may be quite difficult for them to figure out a space to try him where they believe he can get a fair trial. My guess is they might just bring him down either to Madison or Milwaukee and try him in one of those two cities. Otherwise they may have to do something out of state and I'm not sure what the likelihood of that is. Um, especially like this was so close to Minnesota that I don't think, you know, uh, a Minneapolis court would be a good idea, but something like Chicago could potentially be a good idea. But they're so backlogged and they have negative funding all the time anyway. So I don't know what the likelihood of that is. Um, but it's something to think about. One thing that's interesting to me is Patterson has no criminal history. He was born in 1997. He graduated from Northwood high school in nearby Minong, Wisconsin in 2015. Minong actually from what I was reading, um, it's a single building that houses everything from kindergarten through high school because there's just a very small population. He was a member of the school's quiz bowl team. Uh, his parents divorced in 2007. He has an older sister and an older brother, Erik. Eric is the one person in the family that has a criminal record, which includes bail jumping, marijuana possession, and a no contest plea to a 2013 fourth degree sexual assault charge. Um, he was sentenced to a year probation served that. All of that said about Erik, they believe that Jake acted alone. Details of Jayme's captivity for the three months she was kidnapped have not been released. And the Barron county sheriff Chris Fitzgerald hasn't said whether Jayme was sexually assaulted. I think it's quite possible. Um, if you're going to kidnap a young girl and hold her for three months, I mean, where's the other drive for that? Where is the motive for that, if you're not going to engaged in sexual assault? I don't know. It's important to note though, that Patterson's attorneys have been lauded for taking high profile cases that have an emphasis on sexually violent people. So it's quite possible that those details will come out as the proceedings get underway. Jake wrote in his high school year book that he planned to join the marines after graduation. Um, military records show he only lasted about five weeks, which isn't even the full course of basic training. And he was prematurely discharged in October, 2015 at the rank of private because, again, he hadn't even finished basic training. Naturally the news is full of interviews with people saying things like he was just so quiet which like, look, also please don't extrapolate that and think all of us who are quiet in social settings are going to kidnap people or kill people. And I think he was just, it seems like, um, you know, they tried to talk to some of the teachers he had in high school and stuff. And it seems like he was really forgettable, um, which I think is more important than just quiet. The few neighbors who know Patterson's family say he grew up in a cabin in a remote development that's a mix of seasonal and year round homes about 10 miles outside Gordon proper. So that's I think that's where this cabin is that they're talking about, that Jayme was kept in. Um, as I said, his high school teachers barely remember the 21 year old man, even though he only graduated a few years ago and they didn't realize you lived in the same area still. Um, as I said, his parents had divorced. One of their neighbors told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the parents had moved away, but that Jake and his brother Erik continued to stay at the cabin. They often got in trouble, stole things and um, may have potentially spent time in foster care. Of course, that's according to the neighbor. Um, but, um, you know, that hasn't necessarily been fully verified. He worked for one day in 2016 at the Jennie O Turkey Plant in Barron where James and Denise worked before he quit ,saying he was moving out of the area. Um, between that and only having worked at that cheese factory for two days, nobody actually knows what he's been doing to make money since then. Um, he, he told, uh, you know, the detectives that he was unemployed. So I have no idea what he doing to get money. One could speculate that he'd been going back to stealing things potentially, or that Erik had, I don't know. Um, he apparently has no online presence, like no facebook, nothing like that. The teacher who nearby, who helped rescue Jayme told the Star Tribune she didn't even realize that Patterson was her neighbor. So I think that's an interesting juxtaposition to the other neighbor who, you know, so that they got in trouble a lot. Photos of the cabin, um, were shared across you know, a couple of news sites and they show like an unfinished ceiling. There's a three car garage. Um, there was an empty box of adult female diapers in the trash. A sign over the front door reads. 'Patterson's retreat.' Ownership of the remote cabin was passed to a credit union soon after Jayme's abduction. Records actually show that Jake Patterson's father transferred the title of the cabin to Superior Choice Credit Union on October 23rd. We're not sure why. Could -There could be a number of things. Um, and I'm sure that will come out as time goes on. After being recovered, Jayme was checked into a Duluth, Minnesota hospital, so that was about an hour away from Gordon. Um, she spent the night there and was being evaluated and was taken back to her hometown of Barron on Friday after meeting with an aunt. And then, um, later that evening was reunited with other relatives, including her grandfather who has been so vocal about trying to get her back. I mean her aunts have as well, but he really has, um, and he described the moment when they saw each other and, and they both just gave each other a really big hug. And that really gives me the happy chills? Is that a thing? Um, there've been a number of, you know, other kidnapping survivors that have spoken out about her recovery, about the fact that she needs time and, you know, she'll know that things won't go back to the way it was, including Elizabeth Smart, whose case really hit me hard as a kid. Um, she was kidnapped in 2002 from her Salt Lake City home and was held captive for nine months. And her entire family is Mormon. My entire family's Mormon. I'm not, um, but that was a really big shock I think to the Mormon community - like this cute little white girl getting abducted from her home. Um, and she's written a lot publicly about how the way that we view and teach sexual health stuff to young people is awful. Um, and I will especially say like within the Mormon church growing up, there were a lot of things like, 'oh, like you don't want to have sex with someone before you're married because then you're like, uh, chewed piece of gum and no one wants to chew an already chewed piece of gum.' And for people like Elizabeth Smart who have gone through horrible sexual trauma, um, that kind of stuff is really even extra demeaning because it's not like you chose to engage in those actions. Even if you did, you're not a chewed piece of gum. You're a human being. Um, and anyway, my, my sex educator side really likes Elizabeth Smart, um, and the work that she's done to try to combat a lot of that bullshit. if you're looking for ways to support Jayme and her family. um, I've got a link in the show notes to the official GoFundMe that you can donate to. You can keep up with her journey at facebook.com/JaymeCloss. And her name is spelled slightly different. So it's facebook.com/j a y m e c l o s s. And don't worry, it's a public page. It's not like her private facebook. Um, it was initially the page to try to find her and now it's turned into kind of a, uh follow her journey as she heals and let's, you know, help her and help the family. Also, if you want to - please don't be a fucking creeper - but you could send her a note at Light the Way Home for Jayme Closs P.O. Box 539 Rice Lake, WI 54868 I'll be covering the breaking news on this case as time goes on. So expect, you know, some mini episodes every so often in between the normal ones. I do want to say, um, that this case is great and I'm glad that she's back, but she's gotten a lot of press because one, she was a pretty white girl and two, because of the circumstances of her kidnapping and disappearance. Um, there are currently over 50 missing children from Wisconsin who aren't lucky enough to be in similar situations. And, um, I really hope that you will take a minute to look at the links in the show notes because I do have a link to some of the missing children's information, their photos, and I'd really like to see more people have a happy ending like Jayme will have. Um, I mean, you know, happy is obviously relative in this case. Um, her parents are dead - she'll never get them back. She'll have to work really hard to get over that trauma of watching her mother be killed, seeing her father's dead body, whatever happened to her in the last three months, but, um, these other kids deserve to be found too and they deserve justice and they deserve peace - and so do their families. And just because they may not be white or just because the circumstances of their disappearances may be different, doesn't make it any less important to find them. So please take time to read those. In the meantime, uh, the end of this week, you'll see a new episode about the Hodag of Rhinelander and I'm hoping to actually get that recorded today as soon as I get this up. Um, and then, uh, yeah, the, the regular episodes would be every two weeks. These ones will happen every so often as there are updates and, um, eventually I'm hoping to do some kind of Wisconsin-related movie reviews, which will be fun. Um, yeah, so I hope you enjoyed listening to this episode - minisode - and, um, make sure to check out sites like the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Wisconsin State Journal, um, and channel3000.com if you are looking for more updates about Jayme's, um, you know, abduction and recovery. And I'll also really work on sharing those things on social media. So if you're not only already following the facebook page and twitter page, you may want to do that. Um, in the meantime, have a great couple of days until I talk to you again. You just listened to the Spooky Sconnie Podcast. This podcast is produced every two weeks by me, Kirsten Schultz. The intro, outro music comes from Purple Plants. You can find show notes and more over at spookysconnie.podbean.com including a transcript in case you missed anything. Take a minute and rate and subscribe if you can. You'll help more people see the show by rating and you won't miss a single episode if you subscribe. And that's pretty dope. You can support the show over at patron.com/spookysconniepodcast. And you can email me anything you'd like me to know at spookysconniepodcast@gmail.com. Meantime, sleep tight. Don't let the badgers bite.  

Brave neighbors hide teen girl Jayme Closs and arm themselves as her suspected kidnapper Jake Patterson hunts for the escaped girl. 19-year-old beats his girlfriend’s four-year-old daughter to death because the child spilled juice on his X-Box. Mother-of-two allegedly tries to kill her estranged husband by pouring antifreeze into his wine. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Brave neighbors hide teen girl Jayme Closs and arm themselves as her suspected kidnapper Jake Patterson hunts for the escaped girl. 19-year-old beats his girlfriend’s four-year-old daughter to death because the child spilled juice on his X-Box. Mother-of-two allegedly tries to kill her estranged husband by pouring antifreeze into his wine.

The 911 call recording of a woman reporting that Jayme Closs was in her home reveals the dramatic moment the Wisconsin teen was finally safe 87 days after her parents were murdered and she was kidnapped. Nancy Grace listens to the call and discusses what was learned at kidnap-murder suspect Jake Patterson's first court appearance. Grace's panel includes forensics expert Karen Smith, Atlanta juvenile judge & lawyer Ashley Willcott, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Bober, Southern California prosecutor Wendy Patrick, and syndicated radio host David Mack.

Hour 2 The Mayor begins the second hour today with a story out of yesterday's Star Tribune saying that there is a group wanting more and better bike lanes in Minneapolis. Yep, we are not nearly inclusive enough!!! Johnny Heidt wraps up the show with a news segment including Breaking news in the criminal complaint against Jake Patterson in the Jayme Kloss kidnapping story.

Jayme Closs saved herself in a brazen escape last week. The 13 year old watched her parents murdered and was then held by Jake Patterson, the alleged murderer and kidnapper for 88 days. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/taboo-and-murder/support

Jake Patterson, responsible for the two murders and kidnapping of Jayme Closs appeared in court today. Bob Burnell from WOSH-AM 1490 discusses the latest updates.

Jake and I sit down to discuss his experience being diagnosed with schizophrenia. He explains how it effects him, what methods he uses to deal, and the type of learning he experiences when going through episodes. Enjoy!

Today Chas and David discuss The Year of The Snake and why Jake Patterson is the most disruptive coach in surfing, they critique current hair styles trending on the top 32, analyze potentially racist surf etymology, and discuss how to extort rich tourists. Plus everyone’s favorite game, Barrel or Nah? Enjoy! Follow @ReportsFromHell and @SurfSplendor … Continue reading "019 – The Grit! April 23, 2018" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today Chas and David discuss The Year of The Snake and why Jake Patterson is the most disruptive coach in surfing, they critique current hair styles trending on the top 32, analyze potentially racist surf etymology, and discuss how to extort rich tourists. Plus everyone’s favorite game, Barrel or Nah? Enjoy! Follow @ReportsFromHell and @SurfSplendor … Continue reading "019 – The Grit! April 23, 2018" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices