All language subtitles for The UnBelievable with Dan Aykroyd s03e15 When Darkness Falls.eng

[Dan narrating]

[tense music]

What if I told you that
an ordinary night in LA

was the scene of an
unexpected battle?

- Anti-aircraft batteries
up and down the coast

are now shooting everything
they have skyward.

- This isn't a war zone,

this is Los Angeles, California.

The whole city starts to panic.

- Or that a mysterious
fireball in the dark sky

sparked an unusual encounter.

- Hovering in the sky above them

appears a massive, brilliantly
lit saucer-like craft.

- And it starts to
emit a strange noise,

and that's when all
hell breaks loose.

- How about an overnight
tourist attraction

to die for?

- You can have a
snack in the kitchen

where the murderer
raided the icebox.

- Many visitors
feel eyes on them

when there's no one there.

Needless to say, not much
sleeping takes place.

- These are the stories of what
happens when darkness falls

that are so strange,

they are truly unbelievable.

[dramatic music]

Amid the chaos of the French
and Indian War in 1754,

a quiet Connecticut town is
thrust into an overnight event

so unusual it would become
part of its lore for centuries.

- It's 1754.

We're in Windham, Connecticut,

one of the original
13 British colonies.

The French and
Indian War is raging.

The British are fighting hard

to prevent the French from
encroaching on their territory

from the west and
from the north.

- But the French are relentless

and they also have the support

of a number of Native American
tribes to back them up.

Now everybody in
Windham is terrified.

They've heard the stories
of these awful attacks

from Indian tribes
on other colonies.

- [Dan] On a sweltering
summer evening

just as darkness settles in,

a terrifying sound rings
out from the forest

and wakes up the entire town.

[frogs croak]

- The residents of
Windham are freaked out

because it's like nothing
they've ever heard before.

It's sort of this
deep throaty hum

that seems to be getting
louder and louder

and closer and closer.

- The villagers quickly conclude

that these must be the war cries

of the invaders that they
have been warned about,

coming to kill
them in their beds.

- [Dan] Fearing the enemy
is closing in on them,

residents turn to their leaders

Eliphalet Dyer and
Jedediah Elderkin.

- There's a reason that these
two men lead the militia,

they're brave souls;

and quickly they
form a scouting party

and run into the
darkness of the forest

to find out what
they're up against.

- [Dan] The deeper they
go into the forest,

the sounds get louder
and oddly more personal.

- They hear words repeated like,

"Let's kill them.
Let's kill them."

Some say they hear
the name Dyer, Dyer,

or Elderkin, Elderkin;

almost taunting the militia

to come out into the woods.

- The forest is pitch black.

A dense fog is
hanging in the trees.

Nobody can see a thing.

- They follow their ears
to this grumbling chant

and when they feel like they've
zeroed in on the source,

they open fire.

- They're firing,
reloading and firing again,

literally blindly into the dark

where they think the
noise is coming from.

- [Dan] Gradually, the noise

of their would-be
marauders fades.

The Windhamites begin to
celebrate their victory.

- Finally, when daylight breaks,

it gives them a chance
to peek through the trees

to see what they've been
firing at all night,

and their foes are not at
all what they were expecting.

- [Dan] American bullfrogs.

The colonists find
thousands of them

dead in a tiny pond.

- What the locals heard

was not the war cries
of fearsome enemies,

but the roaring
calls of lusty frogs.

During the night, a hoard
of big male bull frogs

descend on this
one tiny wetland,

croaking like mad in an
attempt to attract a mate.

[bullfrog croaks]

- Fellow colonists think,

how ridiculous was it

that these towns folk
sent their militia

against a group of frogs

and the citizens of the town

become the laughing stock
of 18th century America.

- [Dan] Luckily, this town
has a great sense of humor.

- [Thor] Instead of
playing down their folly,

they amplify it

and put a bull frog on
the town's official seal.

They even put a frog
on the local currency.

- Just when you think this
story is about to fizzle out,

the locals take it
even one step further,

when they build a bridge over
nearby Willimantic River.

- The residents place
enormous 11 foot copper frogs

on the pillars on either
side of the bridge

to commemorate that
almost fateful night.

[bullfrogs croak]

- Centuries after
Windham's amphibious alarm,

another nocturnal phenomenon
grips the skies Eastern Europe.

[tense music]

- In 1941, Hitler's
Blitzkrieg has brought

so much of the
world to its knees.

Europe is in serious trouble.

There has been a
non-aggression pact

in place with the Soviet Union

for two years at this point,

but Hitler's got
his eyes on Moscow;

he wants it.

He has tank divisions,

he has the Luftwaffe in the air,

he has 3 million soldiers

ready to march on
the city and take it.

- Stalin sees this build
up and he's worried.

Does he have enough
soldiers to fight them off?

- [Dan] Enter Marina Raskova,

the Soviet Amelia Earhart,

with a possible solution.

- Marina Raskova is a
decorated civilian pilot.

She teaches flying and she
meets women all the time

who say that they
wanna be combat pilots.

- At the time, women aren't
allowed to fly into combat.

They are allowed to
say, for example,

shuttle aircraft
around airfields

or fly them in
transfer operations,

but never in enemy action.

- Marina, who has the ear of
Soviet premier Joseph Stalin,

writes him a letter.

If he will allow an all
female combat squadron,

she will then step up
and lead it in battle.

- Stalin agrees
and on October 8th,

the Red Army gets
its first regiment

of all female bomber
fighting units.

- Even though women have now
been allowed into combat,

it's not gonna be easy for them.

Where their male
counterparts fly

the modern twin engine aircraft
built for dive bombing,

the women have beat up
two seat crop dusters

that have been retrofitted
to fight in the war.

- These are old
recycled biplanes

and they have to make do with
that as a combat vehicle.

But the women don't back down

and they train for
14 hours a day;

flying, repairing and
learning their new equipment.

- [Dan] Then after
only a few months,

the women are ready
to hit the skies-

but not during the day.

- The older, slower
model aircraft

that the women are flying

would be sitting ducks

for the German anti-aircraft
during the daytime,

so the women are
flying at night;

using the cover of
darkness for stealth.

- [Dan] On June 28th, 1942,

the first ever all female
bomber squadron takes off

with an important first mission.

- The first aircraft
in the squadron

fly out ahead to attract
the Nazi search lights,

which are desperately needed

to light up the inky black sky

so the rest of the squadron
can see their target.

- The following teams then
hit their engines to idle

and glide in silently
to attack their enemy.

Then, when the Germans begin
to fire away at the sky,

it reveals their positions;

allowing the next wave of women

to swoop in and destroy
those positions.

- Over two nights,

it is reported that they destroy

an entire German regiment and
their food and fuel supplies.

[tense music]
[artillery fires]

Gliding with their
engines idling

creates a swishing sound,

which some of the
Germans on the ground

said sounded like
witches on their brooms.

- [Dan] It's this
signature sound

that actually gives
them their nickname:

the Germans call them the
Nachthexen, or Night Witches.

- During the
remainder of the war,

the Night Witches fly
over 20,000 missions

and lose only thirty pilots.

- The Night Witches
terrify the Nazis so much

that they start a rule

that any German pilot that's
able to shoot one down

automatically gets the
very highest honor,

the Iron Cross.

- [MJ] Sadly, Marina never sees

the end of the Second World War.

She dies in service
on January 4th, 1943,

when her plane crashes
during a snowstorm.

She was 31.

- Marina Raskova is given

the first state
funeral of World War II

and her ashes rest
in the Kremlin.

- After a long day of
hard work in the woods

in November of 1975,

a group of
lumberjacks head home.

But as they're driving
through the darkness,

something unusual
catches their eye.

- Mike Rogers, the foreman,

is at the wheel and he's
trying to concentrate

while driving down
these dark roads.

The other men who are crammed
inside this pickup truck,

well, they notice
something else:

a light cutting
through the darkness

in front of their vehicle.

- At first they
think it's the moon,

but then they see the moon
is in the opposite direction.

- [Dan] Mike slams on the brakes

and they wonder what
on earth this could be.

- Hovering in the sky above them

appears a massive, brilliantly
lit saucer-like craft.

- Travis Walton, a
22-year-old logger,

jumps out of the cab

and through some
compelling force,

instead of running
away from the UFO,

he runs towards it.

- Travis stops directly
under the craft

and it starts to emit a
strange high frequency noise,

and that's when all hell loose.

- The truck itself
is starting to shake

and vibrate and get tossed
around a little bit,

and they start panicking.

They start yelling for Travis

to get back in the in the
truck, but he doesn't.

He just stands
there, mesmerized.

- And as he's watching this,

to his friends' horror,

some beam of light shoots
down from the vessel

and zaps Travis.

- Mike, who's still in the
driver's seat, flips out.

He and the rest of the crew

get the hell out of there,

leaving Travis behind.

- [Dan] Then a flash of
light streaks across the sky

and the strange
flying object is gone

along with their friend.

- They rush back to town
and alert local police.

A search party is assembled

for a period of five days,

and there's no sign of
Travis anywhere in the area.

- On the evening
of November 10th,

Travis's sister's phone rings

and on the other end
of the line is Travis.

He says that he's calling

from a phone booth
from another town,

and that he's disoriented

and he can't find his way home;

so his whole family
rushes to go get him.

- When Travis is told

that he's actually been
missing for five whole days,

he's totally stunned.

To him, it just feels
like it was a few hours.

- [Dan] For help
filling in the blanks,

Travis agrees to
see a hypnotist.

- Under hypnosis, Travis recalls
being zapped by the light

and then describes
how he's drawn up

like a rag doll, limbs dangling.

- Once on board,

he says that he's examined

in what looks to be almost
like a hospital room.

There's three beings there
all under five feet tall,

and they have that
typical alien look:

big heads, big black eyes.

It's what a lot of
people call a gray alien.

- At one point, Travis recalls

a sensation of intense pain

and a feeling of suffocation;

and he remembers
leaping off the table

and fighting with
these entities,

which causes them to
run out of the room.

- And this is when he meets

what a lot of people in the
community call the Nordics,

which are very tall,
beautiful aliens.

- With superhuman strength,

they push Travis back
down onto this table.

Travis then blacks out.

- The next thing he knows,

he wakes up wandering a road
in another Arizona town,

cold, confused, disoriented,

and finds his way to a
service station payphone.

- [Dan] Despite a healthy
dose of suspicion,

some ufologists consider
Travis' experience

to be the most credible
abduction story ever told.

- In 1978, Travis writes
a book about all this

called, "The Walton Experience."

It's actually one
of the first books

written by an abductee

and when he tells his story,

there's real sense of almost
post-traumatic stress disorder.

I don't know whether or not

he was literally
abducted by aliens,

but I know he believes he was.

- It's one thing
when a single person

claims something
attacked them from above,

it's another when 1.5
million people witness it.

- It's February, 1942,

just months after the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor

killed 2,400 Americans

and drew the United States
into the Second World War.

Residents stateside are
wondering if they're next.

- This fear and anxiety
puts cities on lockdown,

especially coastal
cities like Los Angeles.

On the 23rd of February,

a Japanese submarine
is actually spotted

off the coast of Santa Barbara.

It takes some shots at
the Elwood Oil refinery.

[artillery fires]

- There's minimal damage

but it sends everyone
into a panic,

especially along the west coast,

because now we know that an
attack could really happen.

[tense music]

- Authorities aren't
taking any chances

and so the enforce a
nighttime blackout.

- The idea is to
not be a target.

And lights, unfortunately,

are a great way to get
hit by air or by water.

- [Dan] These blackouts
go off without a hitch,

but not for long.

The next night on
February 24th, at 2:21 AM,

Angelenos are suddenly awakened

by the sound of air raid sirens.

- The military has picked
up something on radar

about 120 miles west of LA.

This lines up with
eyewitness accounts

of a massive craft
being seen in the sky.

It is oblong and moving
at 200 miles per hour.

- Within minutes, troops have

a massive battery of
anti-aircraft guns at the ready.

At 3:06 AM, search
lights converge

on this strange object
over Culver City.

- The 37th coastal
artillery brigade

is given the command
to start firing.

They are now shooting
everything they have skyward.

- Shortly afterwards,

almost every single
coastal defense in the area

is firing at this thing.

Finally, after 58 minutes
of a nonstop barrage,

a ceasefire is called.

- This isn't a war zone,

this is Los Angeles, California.

And as you might expect,

the whole city starts to panic.

The police switchboards
are flooded with calls,

the highways are gridlocked,

people are freaking out.

- Property damage is
reported throughout the city

and there's even a death toll.

Three people died from
stress induced heart attacks

and another three people
died in car accidents.

- [Dan] As the sun
rises the next morning,

residents are baffled.

What exactly
happened last night?

- On the front page
of the morning papers,

there's an iconic photo
of eight spotlights

meeting together to show

some sort of massive
well-lit craft overhead.

Some newspapers claim
it was the Japanese,

but despite the aerial barrage,

no Japanese planes are found

on the ground the following day.

- A short time
after the war ended,

a Japanese military leader

confirmed that they
never flew an aircraft

over the city of Los
Angeles during the war,

which leaves one big question:

what exactly were they
shooting at that night?

- The Civil War left no
shortage of bloodshed,

but after one of its
deadliest battles,

something strange appeared
on the battlefield

only visible after nightfall.

- It's early April, 1862,

and the Battle of
Shiloh is being fought

on the border of
Tennessee and Mississippi.

The Confederates launch
a surprise attack

against the forces of the
Union led by Ulysses S Grant

and over 100 000 Confederate
and Union soldiers

battle over the
next couple days.

- The Union ends up coming
from behind to claim victory

but when all is said and done,

23,000 soldiers are dead

and sixteen thousand
are wounded,

laying on the battlefield.

- Many of them have opened
gashes prone to infection,

that will bring them even
closer to the edge of death.

- But when night falls,

something really utterly
strange begins to happen.

The soldiers lying on the ground

notice that their
wounds begin glowing

a strange greenish
hue in the dark.

- [Dan] The men are terrified.

A glowing wound must
surely mean death.

But during triage,

something unexpected
begins happening.

- The field surgeons start to
notice an intriguing pattern.

It seems that the men with
wounds that glow in the dark

heal faster and suffer
fewer infections

than those whose wounds do not.

The soldiers start to think

that a divine force
has intervened,

that they've been saved by God.

They start calling it Angel Glow

for its amazing
healing properties.

- [Dan] For the next 100 years,

the truth behind this miraculous
phenomenon remains unknown

until an unlikely
investigator figures it out.

- In 2001, high school
student Bill Martin

goes to the site of
the Battle of Shiloh

and he's pretty curious;

he wants to solve the mystery

of what this Angel Glow was.

- [Dan] After taking
some soil samples,

Bill brings them
home to his mother,

a microbiologist for the US
Department of Agriculture.

- Fortunately for Bill,

his mother happens to be an
expert on a strange bacteria

that glows in the dark called
Photorhabdus luminescens,

or p. Luminescence for short.

This bacteria is known to live

inside of tiny soil dwelling
roundworms called nematodes.

- It turns out
that the nematodes

are finding their way into
the soldiers open wounds

and in their process

of literally consuming
their open flesh,

vomited up the
luminescent bacteria.

- The crazy side effect
of these nematodes

is that they're essentially
delivering antibiotics

and ultimately increasing
their likelihood of survival.

- Generally speaking,
these microscopic creatures

can't survive inside the
human body; it's too warm.

Luckily for these soldiers,

they had fallen
on the battlefield

on a very cold night.

Their body temperatures dropped

and that's why the bacteria
could survive long enough

to cleanse their wounds

and give them this seemingly
angel glow healing property.

- So perhaps an
angel was looking out

for the soldiers after all,

just in the form
of a vomiting worm.

There might also be
someone watching over

our next medical miracle worker.

- In Ogdensburg, New York,

there's an award-winning
surgeon and urologist,

53-year-old John Bongiovanni.

In 1980, Dr. John suffers
a terrible car accident

and because of that accident,

he loses his sight.

- [Dan] For most,
going blind would be

the end of their
career as a surgeon,

but not for Dr. John.

- Only six months
later, he's back at it.

Not only is Dr. John going back
to work diagnosing patients,

he is performing surgeries
on patients completely blind.

- He performs eight surgeries

and he has assistants- like
fellow doctors or nurses,

there to talk him through
the parts that require sight.

- There are parts of surgery

that require more
feel than others,

but you always need to
see what you are doing.

- This is a urologist;

he's performing surgeries
through someone's rectum,

through the tip
of their genitals.

I can't even believe that
he thought this was okay.

Despite being terrifying

and unethical that
he's doing this,

it's pretty incredible

that he is able
to pull this off.

- [Dan] Remarkably, Dr.
John continues practicing

for another three years,

until the Board of
Regents gets involved.

- The Board of
Regents finds Dr. John

guilty of professional
misconduct

for performing
operations while blind,

and strips him of his ability

to practice medicine in
the state of New York.

- In their defense though,

the hospital says that

in the eight surgeries
he performed blind,

in only one did a nurse
notice some slight bleeding,

but all the others were
considered a complete success.

- Even with a record
some surgeons would envy,

Dr. John Bongiovanni's technique

raised more eyebrows
than scalpels.

- We spend a third of our
lives in the dark, asleep;

eyes tightly shut

with only our dreams
to keep us company.

What if during that slumber

you were more
productive and talented?

- It's 1983 in Wrexham, Wales.

Mr and Mrs Hadwin
awake one morning

to discover something very odd.

There are drawings all
over the living room wall

and they're drawn in what
looks like crayon and pencil.

- The only other
person in their house

is their young son, Lee.

But when they confront
him with the drawings,

he says he knows
nothing about it.

- Lee rightfully points out
that he's terrible at art.

He couldn't possibly
have done this,

even his art teachers
say he's not that great

and these doodles and
drawings aren't half bad.

- Night after night,
it keeps happening.

New art appears in the morning.

Lee swears he has no
idea where it came from,

no memory of it.

Soon they realize
he's sleepwalking

and drawing in his sleep.

- As a teenager, Lee continues
to sketch in the night.

One night he actually draws

three small pencil sketches

that are very clearly
Marilyn Monroe,

but no matter what he does,

he can't replicate any of
these drawings when he's awake.

- Even into adulthood,

Lee is still sketching
in his sleep.

And now when he starts his
nighttime art making sessions,

his partner begins
filming him as he works.

When Lee watches the footage,

he is utterly blown away.

Not only is he a skilled
artist, he's ambidextrous.

- [Dan] Remarkably,
the sleepwalking artist

amasses quite a following.

- He has some pretty
high profile clientele

like Kim Kardashian

and the Marilyn Monroe Museum
in Hollywood, California.

And with this success,

Lee finally embraces it

and calls himself a
sleepwalking artist.

- As unusual as Lee's
nocturnal talent is,

there's another man with
an even stranger one.

- We're in turn of the century
Hopkinsville, Kentucky.

Carrie House, who is a nurse,

and her doctor-husband Thomas

have a three month old
premature baby named Tommy

and he's not doing very well.

In fact, they don't
know if little Tommy's

gonna make it through the night.

- Because they're in
the medical profession,

Carrie and her husband

actually have lots of doctors

in the house on
this critical night

to see if they can
save little Tommy,

but there's no consensus.

They start arguing
about what to do next,

but Carrie's not
ready to give up.

She's ready to try anything,

including something
pretty unconventional.

- [Dan] Carrie calls in her
cousin, Edgar Cayce, to help.

- He has no medical training.

In fact, he's not
a doctor at all;

but Edgar has been able to
diagnose ailments in his sleep.

He can close his eyes,

go into a trance

and tell you what is
physically wrong with people;

sometimes without
touching them at all.

- [Dan] When Edgar arrives,

he doesn't waste any time.

Without so much as
a glance at Tommy,

he simply finds a quiet
spot and preps for sleep.

- Right before Edgar
closes his eyes,

he tells Tommy's father
to take some notes.

According to Edgar,

he can never remember what
he says during these trances

and then Edgar begins to
enter this hypnotic trance.

- First, Edgar gives a rundown
of all the vital signs:

blood pressure, heart rate.

When it's compared to
the actual readings,

he's bang on.

Then Edgar describes
the child's condition

as if he's somehow seeing
the organs in his mind's eye.

He says the child has some
sort of epileptic condition

that causes extreme
nausea and vomiting.

- [Dan] Then comes the
very bizarre solution.

- Edgar says that
Tommy should be given

a dose of belladonna,

a very poisonous and toxic herb,

and then wrapped
in a hot poultice

and this will help
draw out the toxin.

When Edgar wakes up,

he can hear the
doctors and the family

and they're having
a big argument.

- Carrie, Tommy's mother,

really wants to try this.

She is all in.

The doctors, even her
husband are telling her,

"You will kill this child.

This is murder,

if you administer this
high level of belladonna."

Carrie reminds
them that they have

literally tried everything else

and nothing has worked,

so essentially she says,

"If I have to poison
my son to save him,

that's what I'm gonna do."

[tense music]

- Almost immediately after
taking the belladonna,

Tommy's seizures stop

and he falls into what
seems to be a deep sleep,

then Tommy wakes up.

He's drenched in sweat,

but his cheeks are pink and
he's breathing normally.

Edgar Cayce probably
saved his life.

- [Dan] News of his
talent quickly spreads

and soon Edgar Cayce
becomes a household name.

- Everyone wants
a piece of Edgar,

everyone wants him
to diagnose them,

including Woodrow Wilson,

Thomas Edison, Nicola Tesla;

and so he kind of becomes
this medical rock star.

- Out of profound gratitude,

Carrie and Thomas House built
a hospital in Virginia Beach

to focus on the treatments

Edgar channeled
during his readings.

Cayce's last reading was for
himself in September of 1944

and he told himself that
it was time to rest.

Only four months later,

he dies of a stroke.

- What Cayce does in
his sleep is astounding.

Certainly beats having
that recurring nightmare

of going to school
with no pants on.

- You're regarded as one of

the greatest authors
to ever live,

then you pass away,

leaving behind a
final masterpiece

without its long-awaited ending.

What now?

The answer, it seems,

is nothing short
of unbelievable.

- It's June, 1870
in Kent, England.

Charles Dickens
is trying his hand

at writing a
whodunit, a thriller.

He calls it "The
Mystery of Edwin Drood,"

and he's keeping tight-lipped
about the details.

Dickens is one of the most
popular writers of the day.

He's written "Oliver
Twist," "A Christmas Carol,"

among many others.

"Drood" is Dickens' 15th novel,

but his first mystery

and it's being published
in serialized form;

in installments.

- [Dan] Before publishing
that much anticipated ending

revealing the killer's identity,

Dickens suffers a
stroke and dies.

- Of course, the
world is mourning

the death of a great author,

but the public is
still hungry for more.

Dickens takes the finale and
the murderer to his grave.

- Just two years after
Dickens' passing,

across the pond,

there's a printer living
in Brattleboro, Vermont;

30-year-old Thomas Powers
James, or T.P. for short.

T.P. moves into a boarding house

and his landlady is a big
believer in spiritualism,

and invites him into
her weekly seance,

which is held in her parlor.

On the night of the seance,

T.P. is handed a pen
and a sheet of paper.

He is told that on occasion,

spirits will speak
through a person

in a process called
automatic writing.

In essence, you have
become the spirit's hands,

their vessel.

- [Dan] T.P. closes his eyes

and soon feels the
pen moving on its own.

- When he opens his
eyes, he's astounded.

T.P. had written
down information

about all of these strangers,

things he couldn't
possibly have known.

The locals are pretty impressed,

so they invite T.P.
back the next week,

and he agrees.

- Again, T.P. begins
automatic writing.

This time the spirit
introduces himself

and you won't
believe his identity.

- [Dan] It's none other
than Charles Dickens.

- The attendees are
blown away and so is T.P,

who by the way,

has no formal education

and not a literary
bone in his body.

T.P. meets with this landlady's
seance circle a third time,

but this time, T.P. reports

that Dickens has asked
him for a great favor.

- T.P. has been commanded

by the spirit of
Charles Dickens himself

to finish "The Mystery
of Edwin Drood,"

but the ghost has
one more demand.

It all must commence on
the night of Christmas Eve.

- [Dan] T.P. agrees

and on the night
of December 24th,

he retires to a
dark private room

to finish Dickens'
final chapter.

- According to T.P., when
he settles in his chair

and closes his eyes,

he feels an icy
hand on his hand.

Dickens is taking over.

T.P. begins writing furiously,

the story just
comes pouring out,

but apparently the collaboration
does not go smoothly.

The two men have
a spirited debate.

- The people outside his door

claim that they can
hear two men arguing,

one of them T.P. and one
of them Charles Dickens,

who's angry at T.P. for his
creative input in the story;

which obviously
Dickens does not like.

Word gets out about
these nightly arguments

and critics speculate
that perhaps T.P.

isn't communing with spirits,

but rather drinking them.

- [Dan] In spite of the critics,

finally on October 25th, 1873,

T.P. James completes the work

and turns in 1200 pages of a
manuscript for publication.

- The publisher is thrilled
with all the free publicity.

He puts out this
handsome leather bound

volume of the book,

"The Mystery of Edwin Drood"

by Charles Dickens and
Thomas Powers James.

The book is a hit in America,

but the Brits aren't
so quick to believe

T.P.'s story of
Dickens asking him

to finish his final masterpiece.

They accused T.P.
of being a poser,

a fraud, and a bad
writer to boot.

- [Dan] However, there
is one surprising ally

who comes to T.P.'s defense.

- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
of Sherlock Holmes fame

is a proponent of spiritualism

and he thinks the
work is a masterpiece.

- Doyle swears that this book

doesn't just read like Dickens,

it is authentic Dickens.

He says that Dickens
would be really offended

by all this criticism.

- [Dan] Back in Brattleboro,

T.P. James has offered
commissions to write more books,

even another by Dickens,

but he refuses and
fades into obscurity.

Dickens' legacy,
however, endures.

- Legend has it
that evil spirits

are more active at night.

While some people avoid
these dark entities,

others will actually pay

for the privilege of
being accosted by them.

- Over the last 20 years,

ghost hunting groups have
popped up all over America.

There are literally
hundreds of them

and they look for
places that are haunted.

Normally, some of the
darker history of America

is associated with these places.

A notorious one
is Joliet Prison.

- After opening in 1858
with fifty three inmates,

the prison quickly
earns a dark reputation.

It's a tinderbox
of rage and revolt,

which leads to full
scale deadly riots.

Punishments are severe.

- There are beatings, whippings,

solitary confinement is
something that's often used

and it's brutal
on the prisoners.

One prisoner even
screamed himself to death

while in solitary confinement.

- [Dan] For most, death
is the end of the story,

but at Joliet, some souls
appear to stick around.

- What seems to be proof of this

comes about in 1932.

People in the community
began telling the story

of what they call
the Joliet Singer.

- Every night for a
month that summer,

there is heard singing-
like church hymns,

in a foreign language,

and yet no source of
the singing is seen.

No one is there.

Even the guards report the
sounds of disembodied voices,

ghostly wails emanating
from prison walls,

and footsteps walking
through the massive complex.

- The prison prompts a
lot of different beliefs

among both guards and prisoners.

They begin talking
about the place

actually being haunted.

- [Dan] After being
decommissioned in 2002,

Joliet quickly becomes a hotbed

for would-be Ghostbusters.

- Self-proclaimed
paranormal investigators

pay good money to sit

in the darkened cells
of the former convicts.

- They'll wander up and
down the empty hallways,

climb the rusted staircases,

anywhere that they
believe there might be

some kind of spirit
activity going on.

- The ghosts of old
Joliet have been known

to give sudden and intense
feelings to visitors,

from a sense of hopelessness
to unexplained rage.

- And the only weapon they have

to defend themselves
against these evil spirits

is usually a flashlight.

- Based on all the
reports and happenings,

Joliet Penitentiary
is almost undoubtedly

one of the most haunted
places in Illinois

and one of the most
haunted prisons

in the entire country.

[dramatic music]

- But there are even
scarier thrills to be had

when darkness falls.

Consider spending the night

in a century old house

with a horrific past.

- It is a Sunday in
1912, in Villisca, Iowa.

Six members of the Moore family,

along with two house guests,

return home after a
Sunday church service.

The family and the house
guests change clothes,

have their supper,

and they are asleep
more or less by sundown.

- Unbeknownst to
the Moore family,

someone broke into the house
while they were at church

and he's now waiting
patiently in the attic.

And as the house
is dark and quiet,

the assailant comes
down from the attic

and kills every occupant

with the blunt end of an ax.

[uneasy music]

- [Dan] The story is so heinous,

it even displaces the
sinking of the Titanic

from the front
pages of newspapers.

- A nationwide manhunt follows

and even though
suspects are identified,

no one is ever
convicted of the crime.

Decades pass and in 1996,

the house actually
becomes a museum.

- [Dan] The case may be cold,

but some believe the
house still holds on

to the fear and
violence of that night.

- Many visitors intuitively
know that they're not alone.

They feel eyes on them
when there's no one there

and they hear
disembodied footsteps.

- This is especially
true in the attic,

where it is believed
the killer lurked

until the family went to sleep.

Not everybody is
terrified of rooms

where a blood splattered
crime once occurred.

Some pay to experience it.

- Caretakers at the
Villisca Ax Murder House

soon realize that
there's a real market

for people who want
to stay in the museum

in the dark hours
after it closes.

- Now you and your
horror seeking friends

can spend just under $500

to earn the privilege

to sleep under the roof of
the Villisca Ax Murder House.

- You can even have a
snack in the kitchen

where the murderer
raided the icebox,

laying out bacon and other items

after he had done the dark deed.

- Wannabe ghost
hunters set up cameras

and audio recording equipment,

hoping to capture EVPs or
electronic voice phenomena.

Needless to say, not much
sleeping takes place.

- From pitch black
battles to healing worms,

creating a masterpiece
in your sleep

or saving a life in a trance,

these are tales from the dark

that are so strange,

they can only be
called unbelievable.

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