Sept. 12, 2025

El Cerrito's Ouija Board Mania

Show Notes
Transcript

In March 1920, seven people in the Bay Area town of El Cerrito were arrested on charges of insanity after conducting Ouija board sessions and engaging in bizarre rituals to ward off evil spirits. In this episode, Cristina tells Carmen about this paranormal case.

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WEBVTT

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Hi, this is Christina and a Carmen and this is

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another episode of Spooky Teals, the podcast for all things

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a Spooky Hunted places true crime in Latin America. And

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today we just have a Paramol story. So yeah, like

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I was saying in the episode portion that you will

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only hear of your patreon, I only ended up doing

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a paranormal case for this, so yes, but before that,

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a listener story. And if you have a story that

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you want to send to us, you can email a

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spookyite do at gmail dot com. You can just DM

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us on any of our socials just at Spooky Tells.

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You can call the Spookie Hotline. You can also leave

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a voicemail on our website. There's a lot of ways

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to get to us and been on discord. We love

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receiving them, so yes, send us your stories please. Okay,

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and here's our listeners story. I'm from Nicaragua. I've heard

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one time from an old lady that used to sell

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in the food market in Leon that she remember is

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that when she was a child, her mother, that was

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also a street vendor, would bring her along and one

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time they got their way earlier than they used to,

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around three am and they heard a very particular noise

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and her mother recognized it as a noise from the

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ka nawa and took her under the table and covered

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her eyes so she wouldn't see it. That's scary. No, yeah,

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that is scary. Never be that early. That's the lesson here.

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The early worm does not get the worm the exactly. Yeah.

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So from now on, they got there at five or

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I would have. I'm okay, and then we'll take a

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little break here and then do the paranormal case. Okay,

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and we're back. Here's my paranormal case, the Luigi Mania

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of El Serrito Wuichi May yeah, yeah, and Buigi Media.

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So disclaimer. When I first heard about this case and

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I saw the names, I thought it involved Mexicans because

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I'm so Mexican centric, you know. Then I realized way

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too late that it was actually Italians, not our white cousins.

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I was bamboozled by their name. Now it's too late

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to change. Okay. So you have a story about some

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spicy whites, the Italians. Yes, yes, they are, honestly, I

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guess besides Spaniards who colonized that they are the most

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Latino white people, right, I think so, I think So

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also when I think of Italians and Mexico, I think

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of my Italian singer who was basically canceled, ran out

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of Mexico because he said Mexican woman had mustaches and

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he wasn't wrong, but he was canceled. That was actually

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the first cancelation written and recorded, it documented in history. Yeah, yeah,

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so that's what I think of anyway. So yeah, my bad,

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my bad dick of Jersey Shore, which I'm sure Italians hate, right, Yeah,

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I'm so sorry Italians. So so yeah, let's get into

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this Italian American story.

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Wow, Spooky Tales first, it is and his Booky Tales first,

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and that.

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Was my bad. I can't get over it, Okay, I

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can't fucking dumb, all right, So yeah, not usually what

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we talk about. So okay. So, on the night of Wednesday,

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March third, nineteen twenty, several officers with the Richmond Police

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gathered outside of a home on San Paolo Avenue in

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else Rito, California, to investigate reports of strange activity. First,

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a little about else Rito. It's part of the Bay Area.

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It was founded by refugees from the nineteen oh six

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San Francisco earthquake, and it was incorporated in nineteen seventeen.

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Back then, when it was incorporated, only one five hundred

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people lived there. Now it's like twenty thousand or something.

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It was called rust Effirst, named after a German blacksmith

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named Mattias Roost, but nobody liked the name. And that's

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not a good name. It's fucking ugly. Yeah, and the

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Spanish population that was already in the area referred to

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this location as the Hill or else Rito already and

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that's what stuck, because honestly, it is better. It's better

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it does. When it was incorporated included what is Rust

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and then like three or four other like small areas

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that were all separate, but then they became one to

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become elter Rito. Back then, there was no police department,

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there was only one school, there was two churches, and

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most people still had like cattle instead of cars in

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nineteen twenty so. And it was also over twenty five

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percent Italian when this took place. And this this neighborhood

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happened to be the Italian part of Encrito. Oh interesting,

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so yeah, little Italyans in etc Rito. Yeah, not Mexican.

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And while all this was taking place, the prejudice that

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Italians face in the US was sort of still happening.

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It was not happening in the Bay Area at all.

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Are you saying? Elcerito was kind of like a refuge

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because they were not like discriminated against in Enserrito. They

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were just not discriminated against in this whole in the

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Bay Area in general. They were like the people on top.

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They were the founders of like areas. You know what

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I mean, That's what I meant to say. Yeah, also

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important to know, but this is nineteen twenty and spiritualism

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was like an all time high. It's popping off. Yes,

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it was the thing to be doing. Wigi bords love them,

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people love them? Yeah, they had them, Okay, And so

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now Uigimania again. Where before I started talking about the town,

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I left off where police were at the door of

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this San Pabla home. So what led police? Richmond police

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didn't have police, of course, So what led Richmond police

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to this Anda home? I started with a family tragedy

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and then another family tragedy in the same family. Very sad.

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The Moto family had been in the area for alost

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twenty years. Nasato Moto, Sorry, I'm sorry, Nasa sounds like

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an hold antone name, except I can see what you thought. Nazorrow,

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Nat Suddle, Mama Mia. Yes, I'm sorry to sorry to

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hold Italians. I'm so sorry. Okay. So, Nataro Moto was

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considered a pioneer of Serrito. He had been there the

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longest part of his family and then you know, they

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all met, they had babies on that and then on

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April thirteenth, nineteen nineteen, he suddenly died of a heart attack.

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Very tragic, very sudden. No one was expecting it. That

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same year, the youngest daughter of the mortal familya Moro. Again, like,

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these are very Spanish names. So, and I can almost

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understand Italian. I'm pretty sure I can learn it. Yeah. Same,

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it sounds almost like Spanish. Yeah, it's very similar. Anyway,

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Okennia Moto was taking a Christmas present to a friend

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when a car hit her and fled the scene. And

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there's reports of this accident where people say that she

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drags herself fifty feet before collapsing in a ditch and

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then dying from her injury. Oh wow, that's terrible. Yeah.

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And three people were on the street when she was

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hit and they ran over to help her, and they

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saw that the car was slowing down after a hitter,

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so they thought it was going to stop. They were

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more concerned with helping e Kenya, and no one wrote

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down a license plate or anything. Oh and the car left. Yeah,

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the car just left. They didn't even get a good

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look at it. Damn. And this obviously shook the remaining family,

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particularly Maria, the matriarch of the family, and the police

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had no idea how to find her daughter's killers, so

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she took matters into her own hand. She consulted the

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Ouiji board and it was actually Okenya Swuigi board. She

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had gotten it to try and communicate with her dad,

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who again died just like six months before her. Way,

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how all those o Kenya, I can't find so Josie,

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the older daughter was thirty nine or thirty so, and

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Aquenya was still in high school high school age, but

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I can't find her exact age fourteen or fifteen. I

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want to say, gotcha, And so Maria, Josie the twenty

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nine year old daughter, and Sussie Bottini, that's right exactly

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that when I saw it, they were like wait, I

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was like yeah. Anyway, they began to do seances together

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to try and figure out the license plate of the

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car who hit Auenya, and so they would sit there

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and ask like what is the license plate number? And

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they got a number. They took that number to the police,

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but the police was like, this isn't even a license

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plate number format, Like what is this number? Like yeah,

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like it just didn't make any sense. But it also

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just the police was like, okay, fine, well, like check

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our system. I don't know what the system was, like

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a piece of paper, I really don't have, like file

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cabinet with like lights of the places ran down or

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something something. But it didn't match anything they had in

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their system. So the women they continued their seances more

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and more to try and figure out because again they're

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like they're just they're trying to figure it out. The

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police isn't helping. They're obviously heartbroken. So yeah, they're doing

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like nonsob sciences at this point. And this is when

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things escalate where they're like this is what they're this

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is consumed them. And then they worried that they had

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unleashed evil spirits while doing these seances. Can't be good, no,

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because then these evil spirits began to make demands and

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this is like a over the course of two months

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that oh okay, yeah, they started getting worse and then

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the spirits were making demands. So the spirits told them

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to start bringing in children during the seances. Why oh,

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because they would make the connection stronger. Oh yeah, okay, yeah,

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I'm like, what are they going to do that possess them? No, no,

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just it would make the connection stronger. Makes sense, right,

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Then the spirits started making worse and worse demands. The

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spirits sold them to cut off the hair, to cut

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off the hair of the children and then burn the hair.

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Then they demanded that money be burned, and then they

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started with a few dollars, but by the end they

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had burned seven hundred dollars. That's quite a bit. Yeah

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today that would have been thirteen seventy one dollars. Well. Yeah.

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They also were breaking furniture and burning that furniture. They

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were doing twenty four hour seances, and during these twenty

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four hour seiances, no one was allowed to leave, eat

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or sleep. Damn, that sounds horrible. Yes. Then suddenly a

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mysterious hole the size of a grave appeared in the yard,

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and Maddie, I believe that that's where the spirits were

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coming out from and now neighbors are like, what is

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happening at the Model House? Like, something serious is happening.

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They saw kids arriving but never leave. The windows were

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all shut, they never came out. There was a holding

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is going on here. Yeah, something is happening, especially in

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the last week. They were like, wow, things are escalating,

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We're worried and yeah. So this led neighbors to wonder

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if people were being held against their will inside the

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Model House or if there was dark magic being practiced.

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I mean either one could be it. Yeah. They tried knocking,

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but Mariamro never opened the door, and so then the

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neighbors went to the local marshall, who then went to

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the Richmond well. First the local marshall went and knocked,

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but Madia didn't open the door. So then he went

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to the Richmond Police and he the Richmond Police Chief

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and six officers and a Catholic priest went down to

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the Motor house and they tried knocking. They weren't like,

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nobody answered, so then they broke down the door and

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when they were finally able to enter, police found twelve

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people inside, seven adults and five children, and the seven

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adults were all arrested the I don't know if they

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were teenagers or like young adults, but they were taken

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into custody too, and then the kids were all placed

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in different homes. The news of this arrests were sensational nationwide.

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The next day, like wildly reported, and there was a

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mass meeting in the city of Enserrito of town whatever,

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the State Commission in Lunacy. That was the Department of Health.

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Oh okay, that was their name, the State Commission in

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the Lunancy. They announced that every single resident would be

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psychiatrically evaluated because of this. Yeah, they feared that this

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was going to spread, I guess, and this hysteria over

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the wigi board. But yeah, I don't see how I

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feel like upon hearing that, that would make people want

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to see what all of us is about and go

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get a wigi board. I mean, if I didn't have

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one before, I probably would have went to go get one.

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I'd be like, I might I might need to try this, Yeah, yeah,

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just to see, just to see, Yeah, just to say,

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and that's how they get you. That's she's mosas. That's

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how they get us or the ghosts. Yeah, that was they.

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That's what I'm talking about they are the ghosts. Yeah,

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that's how the ghosts get You said that she is Mosas.

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That's how the ghost get that she's Mosas. Oh okay, wow,

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I'm my brain because I'm so tired right now. I

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think so, I don't think it's me. Yeah, anyway, So yeah,

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the Commission in Lunacy feared that this was going to

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be a widespread issue and not just the initial twelve

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that was in the house. That were in the house,

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and those initial twelve, it was fifty five year old

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Maria Moro, her twenty nine year old daughter, Josie Soldavani

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Toldavini Soldavini Solavigni, I We're so sorry, Oh my god,

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her thirty year old son in law, Charles, and then

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her grandchildren, four year old Marino and two year old Eleanor.

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And then there was fifteen year old Adeline Bottini Bini.

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This is when I was like, oh shit, they're not

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Mexican like Adeleine Bottini. Yeah, her younger sister, Rosie Bottini,

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and then her parents, Susie and John, and then there

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was two cousins there, Louis and Harry Ferradio. So it's

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like guy Fieria Ferrari. Yeah yeah, and then they're oh, sorry,

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two more people. I think they these were neighbors, but

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thirty five year olds Ida Benno and her daughter Tessi Bene.

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So I could have been Mexican, you know, I'm sorry.

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I never met a Mexican named Tessi. But okay, go

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on anyway. Okay, So when police descended upon these twelve, Maria, Josie, Idolen,

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and Susie were super upset. But not because the police

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came knocking their door down. No, because they interrupted the seance. Okay,

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I had to find the urge to cut you off

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and say what you just said? I knew I could tell,

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I could see yeah, like that guy that mean with

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the vein. Yeah, that was it. Yeah. Yeah. And the

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police noticed right away that the women appeared pale and

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malmourished and were completely obsessed with the spirit world. They

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would not shut up about the spirit world. Oh wow. Yeah,

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and so they were quickly considered insane and sent to

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separate asylums for evaluation. The men were all released. To

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be fair though, crickets uh interesting, uh yeah, yeah, the

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men were not the ones in the same state of mind,

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right right, right, yeah, yeah, and so while speaking with

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experts at the three separate facilities, all of the four

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women told doctors that they were convinced that they had

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opened a door to the other side and were releasing

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evil spirits. Maria I explained to doctors that the family

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had started using the Wiji board to help capture her

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daughter's killers because they weren't doing their jobs. So officers

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weren't doing their daughters clearly, obviously, and so the women

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all said, you know, separately to these experts doctors that

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the spirits came through during their sessions had given them

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license plate numbers that belonged to the men that had

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killed Okenya. And then they also said, then the tables

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turned because the spirits began to make these strange requests,

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and those are the requests that I mentioned earlier, like

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the children being brought in, their hair being cut and burned,

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all those things. Adeline told the doctors, we cut my sisters,

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and Adeline is the younger neighbor. We cut my sister

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Rosie's hair because we were told she would die otherwise.

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That's what the spirits were saying. Josie told them my

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sister Jenny, that's what they called Okenya had used the

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Ouiji board in talking with my father, and I was

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talking with her, we heard strange sounds and voices, and Adeline,

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maybe because she was younger, she seemed to be the

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one to be able to communicate with the spirits the most.

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And she had also said, quote, I have been in

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a trance for some time, and I know what the

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Wiji board tells me is true. And a quote nice

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and yeah. The story became or it blew up overnight.

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It made headlines and newspapers across the country. In Nebraska alone,

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there was like seventy one articles about the story, damn

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all the way in about Nebraska, and there was headlines

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from the Chicago Daily, the Tuscaloosa News, the Omaha Evening

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b and also this headline from the Oakland Tribune, which

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I know Oakland is like right in this area, so

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it's not nationwide, but the headline from the Oakland Tribune

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read el serrito wuigi zeliz keep woman prisoner in history house.

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Doesn't sound good. No, it's not looking good for these

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nope women here, these zealots. As the story gained traction,

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local government officials panicked about how much this craze was

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going to spread, and that's when they were like, everyone

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needs to get evaluated. There was calls from state senators

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to quote step in and prohibit the sale of wigi

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boards altogether. Damn Yeah. The same senator also said that

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using wigi bards was as bad as a drug habit. Oh,

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come on now. One reverend all the way in New

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York said that churchless town of Esserito is almost forgotten,

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well nigh forsaken by the organized Christian churches. Forsaken. Wow.

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After a few interviews, the State Commission in Lunacy aka

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the of Health concluded that there, I'm just I love

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that name, the State Commission in Lunacy. I can't get

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over it anyway. And they concluded that there was no

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need to evaluate everyone in the town because because the

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mania had been contained to only those twelve. Okay, I

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mean that's reasonable, it makes sense. The women were released

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from the asylum after three weeks of treatment. Doctors felt

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that they just needed to rest and be away from

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each other. That was the Cure's a good solution. I mean, yeah,

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they're probably egging each other on shit. Yeah, It's like

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when you're with your cousins and you're like oh my god,

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did you hear that? They're like, no, no, I heard it.

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I felt Did you feel that? Yeah, so yeah they

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were probably so. Yeah, they just needed to rest and

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to be away from each other. And yeah, after leaving

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the asylum, the youngest adeline, she graduated high school, she

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moved out of El Serrito. She eventually got married. Everyone

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else stated the area, and yeah, lived out their lives

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like normal, And this little Wigi board craze was just

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a blur, blurer in the past, as they say. And yeah,

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that was the time Sero went Wiji board crazy, apparently

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not involving Mexicans but Italian Americans. Yes, yes, yeah, what

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a fascinating story. Yeah I thought so, I thought so. So,

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you know, what fun wind to cover. Anyway, like, at

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the end of the day, no harm was done. Everyone survived,

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other than a short stint at the lunacy whatever the

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hell it was called. Yeah, the asylum, Yeah, signed by

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the Commission in lunacy. Yeah yeah so so yeah, shorter episode.

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But again, I was busy today. It was an eventful

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day today at the time of recording Setember twenty twenty five,

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I was a little busy. Yeah, yep. Anyway, let's take

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a little break here and then we'll do spooky recommendations

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and we're back. Do you have spooky recommendations? I do.

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I actually just finished reading Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn,

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who famously wrote Gone Girl, but this was actually her

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debut novel. Oh I don't know that. And I also

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recently finished watching Dawn. What's it called the one I

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was telling you about the documentary Unknown Numbers? Oh? Yeah, yeah,

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we're going to talk about it on Patreon. Yeah, so

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I'm not going to watch it. People will know I've

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talked about a non number or something like that on Netflix.

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And if you watch that and want to read a

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fiction something that sort of reminds you has the same

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small town weirdness of that documentary as well as toxic

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motherness vibes. I don't know what I'm saying. I keep

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adding this towards that are it's necessary here for it,

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but it but very much after as I was reading it,

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I was like, this has the vibes of that documentary,

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but worse because there is some child deaths in Sharp Objects. Oh,

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sharp Objects? Yeah, yeah, sorry, because I was kind of

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like talking about the two and I was saying, how

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sharp Objects reminded me of that documentary because the same

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small town toxic Say. Yes, okay, I somehow thought you

359
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were going to bring up a different book. No, no,

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I'm talking about My recommendation is Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn,

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and now saying that if you watch our documentary and

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are wanting to read like a fictional sort of version

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of that, but worse, way worse than Sharp Objects would

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be a good read. Let me read the synopsis real quick,

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okay that description. Fresh from a brief stay at a

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psych hospital, reporter Camille Preeker faces a troubling assignment. She

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must return to her tiny hometown to cover the murders

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of two preteen girls. For years, Camille has hardly spoken

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to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half sister

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she barely knows. A beautiful thirteen year old with an

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eerie grip on the town. Now installed in her old

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bedroom and her family's victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying

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with the young victims a bit too strongly. Dogged by

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her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of

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her own past if she wants to get the story

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and survive this homecoming. So it was a good reading,

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full of one twist I predicted the other twist. I

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was like, what the I didn't see that coming, although

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I think in hindsight I should have. But it'd be

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like that sometimes. Yeah, it was a dark read. But

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you know that's my kind of read, and you're yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

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it was a good read, good thriller. Okay, okay, I

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might read it. It's a short read. It's only two

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hundred and fifty four pages. Oh that is short. I

385
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finally read Oh my god, what was it that v

386
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Castro book? Oh, goddess a filth? Yes, I finally read

387
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Got Us a Filth? Very fun?

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Was it?

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Not the best thing? Ever? It was fun. I love that.

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I could not believe the end or not the end,

391
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but I couldn't believe the Actually I could, but I

392
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couldn't believe the priest in that book. Yeah yeah, if

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you know, you know, But yeah, no, it was a

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very fun read. I'm very glad. It was very much

395
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how you described sheikan asked, meet the craft. Yeah that

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