Transcript
Mystery Inc Ep2
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[00:00:00] Does the mic make me look like I have lost a lot of weight? I
[00:00:04] feel like I'm a hamster and a hamster. Ca all ,
[00:00:08] like you're trying to drink some water. Mm-hmm. , it's above me because we have these new boom marks that we're trying to get used to. Well, you can lower
[00:00:16] it.
[00:00:16] I did. Well, I have to, if any lower, I won't be able to see my screen, but I was just sitting here like, I feel like a hamster and I don't hate it. first. What problems hit me? One of those for the bedside table. That'd be handy at night. Just lech
[00:00:32] Your, your dog would be like, dad has finally
[00:00:35] lost it. She wouldn't drink it though. There's no ice. Can't drink that. I've spoiled her like grandma did Spike, like she likes ice water and her nighttime begging strip
[00:00:47] and, and she won't drink water unless it's from
[00:00:50] the cup. Yeah, well, she will drink out of her bowl.
[00:00:52] But the other night she was whining and I couldn't figure out why and I walked through the kitchen and her water bowl was empty [00:01:00] and I was just like, oh, bless her heart. How long has it been empty? My poor baby. I was reminiscing. She's five now. So, last night I was like, oh my sweet baby, I've had you for five Christmases.
[00:01:14] And then I noticed she was like covered and something, it was ham, she had gotten all over the ham and stuff. I was like, oh, great. Bad dog.
[00:01:23] Yeah. And you said that she's so spoiled that when you are opening your. Yesterday, or was it the day before yesterday?
[00:01:29] It was yesterday on Christmas.
[00:01:31] , I was opening them and she was watching me with like an angry look in her face, and she walked by me and the whole day was completely fine, had done nothing, and she looked at me and then started limping like to her cage. And then normally she'll go to her cage and stay there, but she came back a few minutes later, limping the other direction, and then jumped on the couch just fine.
[00:01:55] I was like, do you want to come here and help me?
[00:01:59] spoiled. This is [00:02:00] a chihuahua for those who are listening.
[00:02:02] She's a good chihuahua. She's not mean like the other ones.
[00:02:04] I, she's not a bad barker either. a lot of people hear the word chihuahua and they think
[00:02:08] Barkers, I don't put up with barking.
[00:02:11] I'm like, she doesn't like loud noises, so when she barks, I always make like real quick. And she's, oh god. It kind of, you know, snaps her out of it. Right.
[00:02:20] Well, let's get into our topic since you started last time. Why don't I start this
[00:02:24] time? Great minds think alike. Good. I was thinking . I will try not to say Jesus as much.
[00:02:29] This one. Like it's, we're not at church today, so Yeah.
[00:02:32] So we'll address that. So what's funny is last time was the first time we recorded for this podcast clearly, and when we were listening through it, Josh was, had said Jesus so many times. Oh my God, Jesus. That when we were listening back through it, , he just, of course made so many comments about how often he had said that.
[00:02:50] So,
[00:02:51] well it was in my mind, I was not saying Jesus, I was saying like cut it off. When we're talking about Jared, [00:03:00] but my filter, it comes out like, oh, someone, you know, might take offense to that. So it comes out as, oh Jesus.
[00:03:07] Well, and also we have to mention that. We were raised with by our grandma, and so we always heard that Oh yeah.
[00:03:15] Growing up and with everything we're from a B. Bless your heart type of family, right? Bless Southern Baptist, Baptist.
[00:03:22] Pray to Jesus. But anyway, praise him. Anyway, so my topic, Josh and I have no idea what, what either of us is gonna be talking about. So he has no idea what I'm covering and I don't have any idea what he's covering.
[00:03:36] So my topic starts. The lovely twitterverse. Oh God. I know. There you go with God again. Why would Jesus, I'll do it
[00:03:44] again. praise. I'm not Christian either. I'm more ptl. Control ptl. They, indoctrinated it into me at such young age. Right. It's like embedded into my personality.
[00:03:56] But anyway, so this all started from Twitter because, [00:04:00] I follow Leah Remmy,
[00:04:01] Leah Remmy.
[00:04:02] Leah Remi, king of Queens.
[00:04:04] Yeah. Leah Remmy. I know her. Yeah. Yeah. So she, of course, as you mentioned, she starred in the King of Queens, the CBS TV show that ran between 1998 to 2007.
[00:04:16] Good friends with Michelle Visage from RuPaul's
[00:04:18] Drag Race. Oh, I didn't know that. I could see it though. , she has a, large person.
[00:04:24] , on that show she starred with Kevin James, who a lot of people know as Paul Blart, the mo
[00:04:29] cop. I've never seen that. I refuse .
[00:04:34] What I don't like about Paul Blart is just, I hate when fat people are shown as like, you only can be on TV if you're funny. Right? Like, you're a joke. Yeah. And I mean, good for him for making money, but they do that.
[00:04:47] I don't care to watch it myself. I feel your pain. I mean, see a gay man in a movie, nine out of 10 times, he's the effeminate, you know, flamboyant, stereotypical. We're, we're more of made to be a joke [00:05:00] versus an actual
[00:05:00] person. That's a good point. Josh Walk type of gay person, are you?
[00:05:05] I vary depending, sometimes I'm fair, depending.
[00:05:10] Well, sometimes like if I'm going out shopping, I might, , depending on where I am, appear more masculine than I really am. because to me that's , a defense mechanism, not in a, I'm afraid that somebody's gonna do something. It's a, I'm afraid of how I'll react cuz I know I would survive prison, but that doesn't mean I want to.
[00:05:33] Right. And we live in rural Indiana. Yes. So I get that. So anyway, back to the King of Queens. So Leah starred in the King of Queens. That's how a lot of people will know who she is. She also had a documentary out. Did you ever watch this documentary?
[00:05:49] Parts of it? I struggle with Scientology because I, it gave me p s d from our upbringing where I was like, I, I can't
[00:05:57] watch it.
[00:05:58] There's a lot of religion. Yes. Yeah. [00:06:00] So her documentary show was about her time in Scientology, she talks to a lot of people who were in Scientology. She co-producers it and is a host of the series. The show is called leah Remi, Scientology in the aftermath. And the show ran from 2016 to 2019. I watched all of it. I binged it when I was really sick, and , like you, when I first saw that it was coming out, I was like, okay, I've had enough of this religion, especially from any listeners who follow foul play crime series.
[00:06:33] The other podcast I have my longest series is on Sister Kathy's case, which involves abuse of priests in the, and the Catholic religion
[00:06:44] and the continued coverup of it.
[00:06:46] Right, right. So I've had enough of this religion from the Baptist to the Catholics. So when I saw the Church of Scientology, I was just like, I have no more time on my plate for any of this [00:07:00] religion talk.
[00:07:00] I understand it and I don't. Watching the Golden Girls. Yeah. , that's it. Golden Girls and Friends. , that's what my life's about. But anyway, so I was sick and it came on and was like, you should play this. And I was like, yes, I'm sick. Let's watch it. And immediately I was hooked into it. So I watched all of it.
[00:07:18] It's a really good series. When I first started watching it, I mean, it just is mind blowing everyone that she talks to and what their stories are. A lot of their stories kind of remind me of the people that I've talked to first. Sister Kathy's case, not because they're people who are saying that they were sexually abused, as in the case of Sister Kathy's case, dealing with, , the Catholic abuse and the coverup.
[00:07:44] But you're dealing with a lot of people there's , a very large institution and powerful, very powerful with a lot of money, and it involves their beliefs and their religion. And it also involves an [00:08:00] institution who doesn't want to lose power or lose followers, and they want to always police themselves, which is always like this thing that I see with religions, which is always some Bs like, , if you see something wrong, contact the police.
[00:08:17] Do not contact the institution. Right. Cuz they will cover that. Like, that's, that's a whole not a like, not a thing.
[00:08:23] They're like, we're not paying taxes, don't you tell anyone? Right. We're a church. We're
[00:08:27] Well, and also, like, if I were to get robbed by Joe Schmo on the street, I'm not calling Joe Schmoe's parents.
[00:08:33] Right. Or his family. You know what he did, you know, I'm calling the police and that's what you should just do across the board. Don't call any
[00:08:42] organization. Just what I saw of her documentary. I mean, they were even policing the police because even the police and, isn't it Los Angeles? Were l a p d?
[00:08:51] Yeah. Yeah. I mean they're all, everybody's in their pockets over
[00:08:55] there. Yeah. And that's kind of where this mystery is gonna come from. I [00:09:00] also do want to mention that I learned throughout this process that Leah has. A podcast also called Scientology Fair Game. I've heard
[00:09:09] bits
[00:09:09] and pieces of it.
[00:09:10] Yeah. I didn't even know she had the podcast until I started looking into this. But as I mentioned, this all comes from this tweet that Leah had sent out. So Leah sends this tweet on November 11th, so just over a month ago. And the tweet goes out and I'm gonna read the tweet. It's pretty long, but it's gonna lay out what this mystery is that I'm covering today.
[00:09:33] Okay? Before I get to it though, I'm gonna tell you that my topic and my topic is the possible missing person case of Shelly Misca. I know who exactly who you're talking about. and I've looked up how to pronounce her last name three or four times. , I'm probably saying it wrong. Please don't at me or email me if I'm mispronouncing it or if I [00:10:00] mispronounce it later on.
[00:10:01] We
[00:10:01] come up from a family who pronounces fire as far, so don't judge us. Right?
[00:10:06] Yeah. We are from the flatland of Indiana and anyway, so Shelly is a possible missing person case. Shelly is the wife of the current leader of Scientology, and she's not been seen or heard from for more than a decade, and I had never heard of her, didn't know anything about her missing person case at all until this.
[00:10:36] And I didn't even follow Leah on Twitter. I just, this just popped up.
[00:10:39] I have since her and Michelle co-hosted the Wendy Williams show, and so that kind of rejuvenated me on Leah Michelle who? Oh, visa massage. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. They were both co-host and I've a fan of Michelle's for years, and I mean, I have been of Leah's, but you know, just, I haven't watched her since.
[00:10:57] King of Queens.
[00:10:58] All right, so this is the [00:11:00] tweet. It starts out, and this is all Leah's saying this in the tweet, many of you know about Shelly Misca, the wife of Scientology's leader David Misco, who has been missing for over 15 years. Well, I have got hell of an update for you, and I'm gonna tell you that in this next tweet, , there's two men, they're holding a check for $20,000.
[00:11:24] And Leah continues in her tweet saying, meet Corey Polka, a 34 year old vet of lap p d and a longtime captain of the Hollywood division. Corey was in charge of the division where I filed my missing person's report into the disappearance of Shelly Misca. Here Corey accepts a check from Scientology for an LAP D charity.
[00:11:49] Here's where things get interesting. Corey is now being investigated for providing confidential investigative information to top c b s executives, which begs [00:12:00] the question, what investigative information has he provided to Scientology over the years? In 2013, after I left Scientology, I filed a missing person's report with the LAPD on Shelly.
[00:12:15] By the time I filed the report, It had been nearly eight years since I had last seen or heard from Shelly at Tom Cruise's wedding to Katie Holmes in 2006. I was shocked when Shelly wasn't with her husband, David Misca. Tom's wedding was dubbed the Wedding of the Century in Scientology. It was the most critical event for top Scientologists.
[00:12:39] Shelly was always with her husband. She was his shadow, not only because she was married to him, but also because she was his top aide. For her not to be in attendance was not only unusual, but also unimaginable. When I asked where Shelly was, Tommy Davis, Tom Cruise and David Mischa's [00:13:00] Hinchman told me, quote, you don't have the F in rank to ask about Shelly in quote,
[00:13:07] I was subjected to months of cool interrogations and reprogramming for the quote, high crime of asking where Shelly was. How dare she? I know. Well, and they talk about high crimes in the documentary, and they kind of explain what that is. And this organization really tries to do their own policing and tries to do their own programming of people.
[00:13:32] So high crimes is a way of, if you're doing something they don't like, high crimes is their way of labeling it as something that you did that they really don't like. And you need to fix it. And you have to remember, most of the people in Scientology, all of your family and friends are in Scientology as well, right?
[00:13:49] So your punishment, if you don't fix it, is , you're gonna be dead to all of your family and friends. So you better be fixing
[00:13:57] it. Similar to, , the Amish, how, if you [00:14:00] choose not to live your life as an Amish person, your, you know, ban from the community and your family.
[00:14:05] Yeah. And they're no longer allowed to contact you.
[00:14:08] I think, , I view their, the high crimes as just their version of the word sin. You know? Right. If it was Catholic, it'd be, oh, this is your, you know, human sin that you've done. Right.
[00:14:20]
[00:14:20] My letters to Shelly had all gone unanswered. I couldn't reach her by phone either. So, when I left Scientology, my first goal was to try and find Shelly. I filed a missing person's report through a friend I knew at the lap d hours after I filed the missing person's report, the case was closed.
[00:14:40] The LAPD announced to the press that they had found Shelly. This news was released first to the press, not to me, who filed the report. I learned about all of this from the media, not from the lap. D. when I asked if detectives had spoken to or had seen Shelly themselves, I was told that was [00:15:00] classified by the lap D I was told to file a public request if I wanted further information. I spent $50,000 in attorney fees, filing various requests. My request for information from the lap D were shut down. I still don't know anything about the circumstances of this investigation. Scientology has always done a great job integrating itself , with law enforcement, despite being experts.
[00:15:27] In obstructing justice. Scientology hires off-duty LAPD cops as security and donates to LAPD charities, all while instructing their members never to help any criminal investigations involving Scientologists and making it a high crime within Scientology to report Scientologists to law enforcement. When I met Corey Polka about Shelly, he had a letter on his desk thanking him for all of his help with Scientology matters.
[00:15:59] In [00:16:00] inviting him to come to have lunch as a guest at the Celebrity Center. I was so alarmed by Cory's closeness with Scientology. I even offered to personally double any donations they had made to LAPD charities if he wouldn't accept any donations from them.
[00:16:16] Corey was incredibly dismissive.
[00:16:19] Take a look at these emails that Corey exchanged with Scientology officials. Look how helpful Corey is to Scientology. Look how friendly their relationship is. So what, she does is she ends up getting access to some of the emails between, this captain for the lap D mm-hmm. , and with these officials who are in the church and she posts these emails.
[00:16:40] Okay. And I'm going to explain to you what a couple of the emails
[00:16:44] are. I read like when she tweeted this, she's one of the few people I follow on Twitter that's clean . I remember when she tweeted this and, you know, that's how I know anything about it. Cause I'm like, wait, how's this lady gone missing?
[00:16:58] And nobody's done anything [00:17:00] about it. Right?
[00:17:01] So in one of the emails, commanding Officer Corey Polka is writing to Lisa Alexandra. Or Alexandria. The name is spelled with an RE at the end, so I'm not sure if it's Ray Alexandria. I don't know. Hmm. Who is in public affairs for Scientology Media Productions?
[00:17:21] Corey writes, thank you Lisa. We need you on our team. This can be a very difficult occupation, but it's more than just a job. It's the people that need to be cared for. Thank you for caring for us at Hollywood. And then Lisa replies, captain Polka, we are 1000% on your team. Always.
[00:17:41] Smiley face, Lord. Yeah. This is a captain at the lap. D. Right. And then Leah continues to tweet,
[00:17:50] oh, I hate this . I know. I That nervous
[00:17:52] Fuman. Corey even assigned a particular detective who could personally handle Scientology's complaints. He also [00:18:00] agreed to help introduce them to the Detroit Chief of police.
[00:18:03] So in another email , that Leah posts Captain Polka is reaching out to a police chief in Detroit on behalf of the Church of Scientology, which is super shady. Like, why is he in any way, shape or form helping this organization? Exactly. You know, that's, it's just really weird because they'd like to meet with that chief in Detroit in regards to opening a new church facility again in Detroit, Michigan.
[00:18:31] Well,
[00:18:31] that's where one of the cases I covered on a previous episode of my other podcast, the Shrine of the Little Flower, , is a Catholic church, , that was started in Detroit. So Detroit kind of has like a, it's a little bit of a unknown to me, a religious hub. Oh wow.
[00:18:48] It gets, you know, Canada as well as
[00:18:51] America. Yeah, that makes sense. . And then the third email is Corey letting a contact of the church know that he has an officer available to [00:19:00] them to contact directly , to document any incidents that the church would like to report as threats. , and this is specifically because that night, the second season of Leah's show was coming out.
[00:19:13] Okay. So the Church of Scientology doesn't like that. Her show's coming out and this captain at the LAPD is giving them a direct detective to report anyone who they think might be saying things that they don't like. . Like they need to go through the same channels that everyone else does.
[00:19:32] I don't understand.
[00:19:33] Churches just don't like questions apparently. Just follow
[00:19:35] blindly. Well, and apparently if you donate enough money, you can just have your own officer that you can. Enough
[00:19:42] just, I mean, that's the way of the world. You have enough money, you kind of, right. You get to do what you
[00:19:46] want. Yeah.
[00:19:47] It's just crazy to me. But anyway, so Leah continues in her tweets, the L lap D Lieutenant, Andre Dawson, the detective in charge of my missing person's report into Shelly Msca, also has a [00:20:00] cozy relationship with Scientology. Here he is speaking at Scientology Celebrity Center , at an event
[00:20:06] about human trafficking. And then she posts a photo of him at the event at the church. Corey Polka also allowed Scientology to set up a quote, informational kiosk at the LAP D Hollywood division. Luckily it was inside the building too. Yeah. Inside the building, the government building. Yeah. And I think that because of the amount of backlash, It wasn't there long.
[00:20:30] I know that. Yeah, it was, they had, they had taken it down pretty quick
[00:20:32] separation of church and state. Especially
[00:20:36] when they're using tax payer dollars. Exactly. In exactly in public building. Exactly like what and then Leah continues to say, , an investigation must be opened into Corey's relationship with Scientology and the LAPD's interactions with Scientology overall.
[00:20:51] And the LAPD must not attend Scientology events anymore or accept their funds. Where is Shelly? So I see all [00:21:00] of this and like, you know, this just sparks my interest because immediately I like, why is this woman missing for 15 years, like anyone outside of the organization, her friends that should have heard
[00:21:12] from.
[00:21:13] Haven't heard from her in 15 years. Well, and even Lee is the only one that came forward. Like her other friends, not, she's
[00:21:20] missing. Well, I did find throughout my research that there was a second missing person's report filed by someone else. They're now missing. But , I'm kidding. Well, no, I can't figure out who filed the report.
[00:21:33] I know it wasn't Leah, so I don't know who did that report. But I think it may have been around the same time even. But the LAPD is very, very, not forthcoming when it comes to this. Right. And maybe it's because they're afraid of legal, backlash or whatever the reason
[00:21:50] is legal backlash losing their funds from Scientology.
[00:21:54] Right. All kinds of factors.
[00:21:55] Right. So I see all of this and so I immediately, [00:22:00] tweet, I tweet tolia, and so I tweeted and I said, Let's find out. Let's create a podcast season together. And then I also included a gif or a gif, whichever one
[00:22:11] gif. Uh, I
[00:22:12] call it gif. A gif. Okay. All the kids, they're changing the names.
[00:22:16] I know. And we didn't have G I've, I've heard people call it G I F and you know, whatever we want to call it. Anyway, I posted this automated image, whatever, of Keith Morrison from Dateline. Do you know who that is?
[00:22:31] Barely. I can kind of picture
[00:22:33] him. Yeah. So I have it with him raising his eyebrows, which like, he's a famous person, like true crime, you know? So, It was like,
[00:22:43] hmm, if you do ever work with her, I better get to go with you. I will not embarrass you, but,
[00:22:49] well, a lot of people, she's wonderful. A lot of people liked it and were commenting on it and stuff, you know, and they're like, oh, you guys need to do it.
[00:22:55] You need to do it, and all that stuff.
[00:22:56] Well, then my curiosity
[00:22:59] spiked.
[00:22:59] [00:23:00] Because this fake account responds and they respond with this propaganda. Video, like so bad that you would think that it's Kim Jong-Un from North Korea.
[00:23:12] Oh, I have . You know what I mean? Like horrible propaganda video. This fake, I mean, beyond fake account tweets back just saying, Leah is a scam artist continuing to spread a hoax, and they share , this propaganda video. Say the same
[00:23:29] thing about
[00:23:30] Scientology. So I was in a mood when I saw that because I was like, how D First off, I cannot stand when people hide behind a fake account.
[00:23:40] Like, you know, I've been in podcasting since January of 2014, been doing this true crime podcasting for a long time. I cannot stand people hiding behind fake accounts. Coward is, and tweeting at me, adding me, and especially when you are trying to say or accuse someone of something, but you're using [00:24:00] a fake account to do it.
[00:24:01] Exactly. So immediately when they're trying to say that this woman is trying, but you're using a fake account to do it. So that immediately made me mad. So I immediately Tag Scientology. , you know, what do you do? Go to top? He goes
[00:24:14] straight for the big guns. Yeah. Shane in a mood is my favorite version of Shane, by the way.
[00:24:19] Well,
[00:24:19] and you know, so I go straight to the top, I remember like my face getting hot. You know how it is, your face gets hot. You're like, Uhuh, boo Boo Colin, Tom Cruise. Yep. . I should have tagged him too. So I tagged, Scientology, their Twitter account, and I said, at Scientology, if you're gonna share a video, at least do it under your real account and not a fake one.
[00:24:42] And then I used another gif. That's what you called it, right? Sure. Gif.
[00:24:46] Sure. I might be wrong though. I mean, I'm, we are in our thirties, we don't know,
[00:24:49] right? Well, I'll probably call it something else in a minute. But anyway, of Keith, and this time it was him saying, whoa. So,
[00:24:58] He's coming at Scientology with [00:25:00] gifts.
[00:25:00] I mean, I love it.
[00:25:01] I love it. . Yeah. And so the people were liking it and, you know, retweeting it and stuff. And so rather quickly, that posts gets a comment from another weird account, right? Mm-hmm. and the, the other weird account is called Freedom Media. Ethics now go together? No. In their description, this is what their, their Twitter description says.
[00:25:29] It says they are taking a resolute stand against the broadcasting and publishing a false information. And then they share the same video that the other fake account shared. And , when they shared it, they said, Okay, how about this? So they said that in response to me tweeting the Church of Scientology, telling 'em, which quit using fake accounts.
[00:25:54] Right. So, okay, Scientology, I get it., so this account is clearly being [00:26:00] ran by these Scientology people, , I get it so lower.
[00:26:02] That's how you get inducted. You gotta run the Twitter for a few months and then
[00:26:06] you move on to Yeah. And so they're using the name Platinum Freedom Media Ethics to try to, use some language that makes it look like they're trying to do something that's, , ethical, but it's just, it's some bs.
[00:26:18] So they share this same video and the video was actually uploaded I found out by another account called Hate Monitor. And their description says we monitor and expose discrimination AM bigotry. Whether by anti-religious extremists, which is a . Okay. They calling me out. Yeah.
[00:26:43] anti-religious extremists. Now, I've heard of a lot of extremists, but I've not heard of the anti-religious extremists. I'm almo, I'm getting there. Right. , anti Scientologists or irresponsible media who give them a platform. And so that's [00:27:00] who uploaded this stupid video thing that this other account from Scientology.
[00:27:05] I'm just gonna say it's Scientology because
[00:27:08] who? Well, I mean, why else would anybody,
[00:27:10] yeah. At this point I know exactly what's happen. Scientology has these departments, they have these people running , these different social media programs. Oh yeah.
[00:27:18] And it's all to discredit anyone who speaks out against them.
[00:27:22] They're in the media capital of the world, basically. They Right. Own
[00:27:27] media. Yeah. And they're trying to use language and they're trying to appear underneath accounts that make them look like they're legit.
[00:27:33] And yeah. No one's fallen for it. , Scientology. But anyway, I was in a mood, right? So Scientology's response to all of this, and by this point in time I thought, wait, before
[00:27:48] allegedly, allegedly what? Scientology .
[00:27:51] Right. So by this point in time, I was like , on the cusp of about to turn this into like a 10 part foul play series, [00:28:00] just because I'm getting a, I'm getting angry.
[00:28:01] Mm-hmm. , you know. But anyway, don't test us. Anyway, so Scientology's response to all this, this tweeting thing from Leah is this is an international hoax effort to incite harassment and hatred towards Scientology, which the entire language right there matches all of those accounts, like the fake one and the other two accounts.
[00:28:26] The language itself, whoever wrote that tweet is probably the same person or the same group of people who wrote the description for
[00:28:34] other account. I'm sure they have a long list of, you know, generic responses to things. Oh yeah. Similar.
[00:28:39] I mean, you have to, and then they tell you, browse the lap d Pio O profile on Twitter for their recent statement about refuting their hosts.
[00:28:48] I couldn't even find anything about this. The LAPD PIO O profile has like, Less than 2000 followers if that. Like it's just a small, tiny profile on [00:29:00] Twitter. Probably ran by Scientology, I mean. Right. All the followers are Scientologists . Right. It's not even a verified account. You can't tell if it's real or what it is.
[00:29:08] It's just a really weird account that's tiny. It's just very weird. So it all begs the question, what happened to Shelly so what we do know is that she was last seen publicly in 2007 at her father's funeral. Now, prior to that, I found some reports that said that she hadn't been seen for a while up until that point in time.
[00:29:35] But at her father's funeral, that was the last time anyone has seen her outside of the organization. or that anyone has been willing to , admit to. Okay.
[00:29:45] How long do you know, from her father's funeral to Tom Cruise's wedding? When Leah noticed that sh you know, she wasn't, her has been shadow there.
[00:29:54] Tom Cruise's wedding.
[00:29:56] It's been so long. I can't even remember. Yeah, Katie, [00:30:00] bless your heart, honey. You
[00:30:01] put up with so much. It was a number of years.
[00:30:04] Okay. I was just, curious if it was like a week after, or, you know,
[00:30:09] 2013. Okay. Yeah. 2013 is when we, uh, submitted her missing persons request. , so it was a long time after she was seen. But when you learn about Scientology and Leah and the other people who are in that show, talk about this.
[00:30:30] when you're in it, you are taught and you go through these different reforms on how to be reprogrammed to stop asking questions. Mm-hmm. . So until she got out, she probably wasn't in a place where she could, go report her missing. Exactly. You know, I know that even Shelly's assistant, who will later say, after Shelly disappears, her assistant and the other assistants are told that [00:31:00] Shelly is not in need of their services anymore.
[00:31:03] The assistant, in order to flee, she ends up hiding in someone's trunk in order to flee. So in order to get out for a lot of these people, they have to come up with these very in-depth ways to get out. They can't just. Decide, well, I'm gonna leave and I'm just walk out the front door
[00:31:22] and just walk out. You'll disappear like
[00:31:24] this
[00:31:25] woman.
[00:31:25] Right? So Shelly was last seen, like I mentioned, publicly in 2007 at her father's funeral,
[00:31:31] I know. Even watching, older episodes of King of Queens while Leah was still in Scientology, it, I watch it through different eyes than when I did, you know, as a child. Oh yeah. Cause I'm like, my God, It shows how good of an actor she is to be able to play that role while, going through literal brain reprogramming, right.
[00:31:50] And Scientology, , I just, it baffles me that the strength of people's character to be able to not only survive something [00:32:00] like that, but to be able to be mentally sound
[00:32:02] afterwards. Right. I think one of the things that sh shocks me about Scientology is how much it costs to be in it. Mm-hmm. and to progress to the different stages.
[00:32:12] Like, you have to buy a bunch of things and you have to buy your way through it. So it costs you all of this money to get through it. So if you don't have the money, , you basically aren't gonna get through it, which is what you need in order to get to your, whatever you have to get
[00:32:27] to. But they want those people.
[00:32:29] Cause I mean, you're the one, you know, you'll be the valet or this, right, the housekeeper or et cetera.
[00:32:35] So I think in order to have a good understanding of what could have happened to Shelly, it's important to know a little bit about her background. Her real name wasn't Shelly. She was born with a name Michelle.
[00:32:48] And of course, people sometimes call Michelle Shelly. I would
[00:32:52] never accept that if my name
[00:32:53] was Michelle . Well, we knew a Shelly and we didn't like that name. . , her middle name [00:33:00] is Diane and her last name, which was her maiden name was Barnett. She was born in January 18th, 1961. Now, I found that she and her sister, this wording is kind of weird to me, but they were left in the care of the founder of the Church of Scientology.
[00:33:18] and this name always gives me kind of the heebie-jeebies. When I say it's cuz I'm afraid of like the consequences of saying it. Mm-hmm. l Ron Hubbard.
[00:33:27] Okay. L Ron Hubbard. Yeah. I'm gonna make sure I'll say it. . Yeah. Don't, don't be afraid of straight boys. Ladies, .
[00:33:36] So Hubbard was of course the founder of the Church of Scientology.
[00:33:40] The language that was used to describe her being left in his care, her and her sister. I don't think that they were raised by him. I believe that as a religious figure, they were left as like he was their, he
[00:33:55] paid for the housekeeper who raised them. Rich people don't raise the housekeeper,
[00:33:58] No, no, no, no, no, no, no, [00:34:00] no. That he was more of like their mentor, like that their parents. You know, very devoted and devout. I think that might be the same thing. I have no idea. Brainwashed. Right. But they, they were very into the Scientology thing, and so they were very close to Hubbard, Shelly and her sister.
[00:34:19] So most of her childhood, Shelly was on Hubbard ship, the Apollo, and at the age of 12, she and other teenage girls helped take care of Hubbard. Shelly was described as sweet and innocent, and oftentimes people said that she was thrown into chaos. And it's not really clear what all type of chaos they're talking about, if it's chaos of her childhood or if it's chaos of the church that she was trying to help cover, you know,
[00:34:49] work through.
[00:34:50] Well, shoot, we have both of either one, ,
[00:34:54] but what we do know is that she was pretty loyal to Hubbard. But it was also so that she didn't fit in very [00:35:00] well with the other girls that she worked with who were a part of Hubbard's Inner Circle at the age of 21 in 1982, she married David.
[00:35:10] David would go on to replace El Ron Hubbard when he died four years later in 1986. And of course, as I said, that's when David took over the Church of Scientology. Okay. But I think it's also important, a lot of people who may know about Shelly's disappearance, they know of her being the wife of the leader. But not only is she the wife to the leader of the church, she is also in her, in and of herself, an extremely high ranking member. Of the church of Scientology's elite sea org.
[00:35:45] I was going to ask, that made me think, how are men and women treated in Scientology?
[00:35:50] Are they as equal or as like in our religion that we grew up with are women, you know, you're made of man, so you'll always be lesser than
[00:35:58] man. You know, I [00:36:00] don't know that I could answer that, but I do know that there seemed to be a lot of high ranking women. Okay. But I know that the accusations against her husband David, as the full leader of the religion, there were a lot of accusations of people who have firsthand experiences that share this experience.
[00:36:21] So I'll say allegedly, but they are very open about this. Not only in the show, the document. , but they're very public about their firsthand interactions with him. But they will say that he is very violent, that he's very demanding of what he wants, and he will attack you physically if you do not do what he wants.
[00:36:41] So like a four year old basically. Yeah. . Yeah. So all to say that when you have a religion, it may appear that women and men may have the same power in the same hierarchy, but when you have a man in charge of all of [00:37:00] it who is an absolute power, no one can really speak to that. You know, no one can challenge him, right?
[00:37:06] No one can speak against him.
[00:37:08] So I just, I remember as a child, that was one of the first things that started in my questioning of, yeah, religion was when I was taught that. women can be teachers, but not preachers and
[00:37:20] women couldn't
[00:37:21] vote. Yeah. Well, I mean, we're not that old. What are
[00:37:24] you talking about,
[00:37:25] No, they couldn't vote in church.
[00:37:26] Okay. Yeah. I was like, we, they're only 30. What are you talking?
[00:37:30] For Shelly, she was a high ranking member of the SEA org. This specific organization is made up of the church's most, fanatical members. These are members who have signed contracts. And this is very weird.
[00:37:45] I mean, not just as someone who is not a member of the church, but also as someone who has heard a lot of different religions. Like this is just weird across the board, but they have signed contracts that will hold them to a billion [00:38:00] years of service to Scientology. So, I mean, when we talk about Shelly not being seen for 15 years, , then you have to like think about this contract that she had signed with this organization who might say, well, she had a contract with us that she's ours for a billion years.
[00:38:18] You know, like, okay, come on, calm down,
[00:38:21] read the fine print. Ladies and gentlemen, always read the fine print.
[00:38:25] So until 2005, Shelly and David went to every meeting and every social function together.
[00:38:33]
[00:38:33] And then after that point, David started attending everything without Shelly, and everyone started mentioning that Shelly's demeanor was changing. She started acting what people describe as anxious and suspicious, which, , this is all things that people describe as. You know, before a woman leaves her husband mm-hmm.
[00:38:55] you know, and someone who's been in the true crime world for a long time, when someone goes missing, [00:39:00] they always look at the husband. And this is behavior that is always very suspicious. Right? So the fact that people are reporting, her, missing her friends who she's been in contact for a very long time, have reported to the lap D that this is very unusual behavior.
[00:39:18] That this is possibly a domestic issue where, the evidence could show that she might have wanted out, but could be in a very unsafe situation. The fact that we also have these emails showing that the captain of the lap d and someone who was in charge of the missing person case had constant communication.
[00:39:39] With the very church organization who does all of this work to discredit anyone who talks about or asks questions about Shelly's disappearance, but not only Shelly's disappearance, if you question them at all, they'll come at you. Mm-hmm. , I fully expect [00:40:00] us to have some negative reviews. Oh, yeah. Or negative tweets or comments from these.
[00:40:05] They fuel my life brewing them. These fake people who are gonna try to come at us just because we're talking about an organization. Come
[00:40:16] at me and tell me how much ruining a Scientologist day will affect me.
[00:40:21] And I mean, . But I think it's important though, because with any organization, there has to be oversight.
[00:40:26] And we go to police and detectives when we think that someone might be in trouble. And , one of the troubling things about this is that, when she was reported missing the L lap. D have never said or never confirmed that they saw her in person to confirm a wellness check. That she is safe and sound, she's okay that they've met with her in person when she's not around.
[00:40:52] You know, in a domestic violence situation, you meet with the person, whether it be a woman or a man, get them out of the situation [00:41:00] and make sure they're okay.
[00:41:01] And make sure, and when, when the police came to mind, when my ex and I broke up, right, they sent them over to my house for no reason. But I mean, they just, yeah, they call out swatting, they broke into my bedroom, like, busted open the bedroom door.
[00:41:12] I'm sleeping like, oh, you know, at first I was like, two policemen in my room. Thank you. Dream come, you know? Oh, and then one was a woman, and then I was disappointed. not, she wasn't, you know, she's very, the kind and nice, but I like Audis, , .
[00:41:26] But for this, like, it just blows my mind that. They've just treated this missing person case just so horrendous.
[00:41:34] And that there's not more of a separation between the L LAP D and this church organization, especially when it comes to this case. Right. Those officers and detectives because they do have a relationship with this church organization who people are questioning because they could have some wrongdoing here, especially the leader of the organization may have had something to do with her disappearance.
[00:41:59] Those [00:42:00] officers and detectives should have recused themselves. Mm-hmm. or they should have asked the FBI to come in to do the investigation. Exactly. And I'm a firm believer of anytime, , a law enforcement agency, if there could be a question on, even if the agency can be involved or if there could be a question on a relationship, for whatever means the tiniest fraction of.
[00:42:24] Us as the public not having the full trust , of that investigation. They need to recuse themselves. They need to ask another organization, whether it be the F B I or another body to come in and do it. It's just what you need to do, step down L A P D. And if, they find out that Shelly has been in this bad situation for this long, I fully believe the LAP D should be held responsible. Oh, exactly, yes. And every person involved with the communication with mishandling the case, [00:43:00] they all should be held responsible.
[00:43:01] I just have no tolerance for it because I've spoken to too many family members who depend on those detectives and. We as a society, you just depend on them. We have to depend on them. And we pay them too. Don't forget that. Yeah.
[00:43:18] But, but more than that, like for Shelly, like if she is truly in a good place where she doesn't want people to bother her, the least they could do is go there, do a wellness check for themselves. Exactly. And that'd be it. She is
[00:43:32] alive. She does not wish to be, you know? Yeah. Any communication end
[00:43:36] a story.
[00:43:36] Yeah. , but the fact that the LAPD just has all of this crazy , it seems like they, they made a quick phone call to someone and they're like, oh yeah, she's fine. Okay. I believe you. Thanks. It was probably an email. I have a theory, it was a quick email from Captain.
[00:43:52] They snail her. Yeah. In the post office. from the captain to his friend. But anyway. So let me get back to , the story, [00:44:00] because there are some other things that I wanted to bring up. So I mentioned the last time she was seen was in 2007 at her father's funeral. That's the last time anyone has public.
[00:44:09] It's not, I mean, for more than 15 years, no one has seen this woman. Half of our lives. Yeah, like 15 years. And anytime the media will question Scientology on asking, Hey, where's Shelly? Where's she at? Why is she not being seen? Like they have these events that every Scientologist are required to attend.
[00:44:37] She's not there. Where is she
[00:44:39] like? As you said earlier, she's one of the highest ranking right women. But it's just
[00:44:44] weird that she's not there. And it's also weird to me that. Does, no one from the outside world has had any contact with her. So she's not gone to these events, she's not been contacted and , she has all of these [00:45:00] friends who express their concern for her, and none of them have been able to get in contact with her for more than 15
[00:45:07] years.
[00:45:07] Well, I mean, in a woman of her age, , she's not even going to the doctor. She's not getting now a pap smear or anything.
[00:45:14] So for Scientology, when the media reaches out to them to ask them questions, they'll immediately make their attorneys respond. And their response is always deflecting to Leah is a liar.
[00:45:29] You need to look at this video. She wants attention. Yeah. And they have, oh my god, they have created the most propaganda website. Oh yeah. I imagine like it is. , what are little magazines that you can find that are like super shady and like they have all this Oh, uh, like
[00:45:47] Elvis's Ghost content.
[00:45:49] Tabloids, yeah. Tabloids. Yeah. So it's, it's just very tabloidy. Like, it's just, it has all these like images that are very tabloidy and well, that's titles that are [00:46:00] tabloidy and
[00:46:00] that's the go-to, especially when a woman comes up against somebody like, yeah, oh, she wants attention, she wants money. She's s l u t.
[00:46:08] I don't know if I can say that. Online. .
[00:46:10] Yeah. And that's exactly, that's everything that they have put on this website and in the videos that they've created, they make it look like they are just a happy-go-lucky group who are just doing God's work and smile. They have this demonn woman who can't keep her mouth shut.
[00:46:29] But anyway. Like I mentioned, it's important to note the L lap D has never acknowledged that they have met in person with Shelly. And in fact, when Leah questioned them on this, when she filed the missing persons report, and they told her they've talked to her and she was fine.
[00:46:48] She wanted to reaffirm with them that they met with her in person to confirm that she was okay and that she was, in a good place mm-hmm. and they would not answer that question. And when you do not answer a question, [00:47:00] that's your answer to the question, you know, no responses or response.
[00:47:03] Yeah. Now, a former LAP D detective stated quote, I and many other detectives believe that the investigation was very poorly handled and the LAP D fell way short on this one. So there are many, it seems, LAP D detectives at the time, when the investigation was happening, who believed that they didn't do their job, and it sounds like they didn't do anything.
[00:47:29] For, besides maybe an email, quick phone call or text message,
[00:47:35] nothing else was done. Right?
[00:47:37] So there are many accounts of David lashing out physically at other Scientologists. Even people who were close to him who get out will talk about how he has physically done things to them, or he has physically had other people do things to other people.
[00:47:58] In Leah's [00:48:00] series, there's one man who comes out , and confirms that he was one of those people who did things, a fixer, basically. Okay. For David. And he, was this the mafia? Basically, when you're, trying to stay in power and. You have a lot of money apparently.
[00:48:18] So there are compounds , that this church apparently has. And so some people believe that she might be being held at one of these compounds. One of them, I found is called the Twin Peaks compound. Now, the last point I wanna make is this weird thing I mentioned that she attended her father's funeral.
[00:48:39] Mm-hmm. . That was the last time she was publicly seen. Well, I found this article from when her mom died. Her mom was found shot to death. She was shot in the head in 1985. And this is the article on September 8th, 1985. [00:49:00] She was found dead at the age of 52 from a shot to the head, from a Ruger 10 22 rifle.
[00:49:08] Now you probably don't know what that is, Josh, but it's a, a big gun. It's a rifle. Yeah people don't normally use rifles to shoot themselves in the head. Right. They're for hunting. Yeah. So they're It's also hard to shoot yourself in the head with a rifle. You're, yeah. Most
[00:49:20] people use their foot when they Yeah.
[00:49:22] Do that. It's kind of difficult. There's a lot easier ways to do it. The body also had three rifle shot wounds to the chest.
[00:49:31] You can't do that to yourself. Right.
[00:49:34] One surface wound, one through a breast implant and one that passed through the left lung and fractured a rib.
[00:49:42] There were also three superficial slash marks on her wrists that were identified in the autopsy report as possibly having been a few days old. Despite the multiple gunshot wounds and the unwieldy nature of the weapon, her death was ruled a [00:50:00] suicide. Hmm.
[00:50:01] According to one former member of the C-org, David Misca set a Flo's death, which is her mom of Shelly's mom.
[00:50:10] And I'm not gonna say the B word. I'll say the B word. Okay. That bee got what she deserved.
[00:50:17] That was his response to her death.
[00:50:19] Yeah. His mother-in-law. No, I get a lot of people don't like their mother-in-law, but you don't say that when your mother-in-law. I think
[00:50:25] he just confessed there. I mean, she got what she deserved.
[00:50:28] Suicide isn't, a punishment that's self-inflicted.
[00:50:31] First of all, people who commit suicide, they don't tend to try first to shoot themselves. In other areas, right? I
[00:50:41] mean, with three in your chest, like, and you still have enough gumption and strength in your body to shoot yourself in the
[00:50:48] head.
[00:50:48] Like, like what? With a rifle. So I mean like you're injured bleeding, and then you're still going to be able to maneuver yourself to shoot yourself in the head. I mean,
[00:50:58] from what I know, a [00:51:00] rifles, they only hold like one or two shots, I believe. Yeah. I couldn't tell you about this. So it's gonna have to be reloading
[00:51:06] Yeah. Hang on, let me pause my suicide and reload. Right. Didn't do
[00:51:10] it. Right. Right. So just a lot of, a lot of shady stuff is happening around Shelly. And so all of this to say there's a mystery happening around the Church of Scientology, and if they didn't tweet at me, we wouldn't be covering this. But they tweeted me and I got mad at So you did it to yourselves.
[00:51:31] Yeah. And just a little warning, Scientology, if you're listening, you tweet at me again on this, it's gonna be turned into a 10. Maybe a 12 part series on foul play crime series. Don't at me.
[00:51:45] And remember Shane's the nice one, right? I might sound nice and lovely, but I will
[00:51:51] come for you. I, I'm the six foot nine Nice one.
[00:51:54] And
[00:51:54] I'm the mean one . Right? I love that cuz people don't expect that they see you and they're like, [00:52:00] Uhuh, I ain't gonna mess with him. And I'm like, I'm the one you need to worry about.
[00:52:03] I will cut you. Well, and the funny thing I was like, okay, so for our first one, I did . The whole subway pedophile.
[00:52:10] And I was like, that's true Crimey. So I was like, real for next one I won't do true crime. But then they added me like, and I just was just like, well, I'll wait. And then I was like, Nope. Mm-hmm. I'm not, they, they add me again in that stupid second video. And I was like, I'm not, I'm doing it huge
[00:52:27] on conspiracy theories, but I do believe I'm one of those that I believe that there's a link between Scientology, the Illuminati X and the government and et cetera with all these, you know, there's a reason these people have been in power for so long.
[00:52:43] Sure. And my thinking is too, I'm not saying this is right. I'm not saying I agree with this, but generally when a white person, especially of wealth goes missing the police, it becomes a top priority Yeah. To them. And for a [00:53:00] top woman in this organization with her money to go missing and nothing to come out of it.
[00:53:06] And it also makes me think. , is this ringing any bells with anybody else in Scientology because, oh look, this woman who's the top of the top went missing and nobody's asking no questions. Right? Same thing could happen to me down here at the bottom. You know? Mm-hmm. . Except nobody's gonna be asking
[00:53:22] any questions,
[00:53:23] Right? Well, and like I mentioned earlier, the people who worked, for Shelly, said that at some point, after she was last seen, they were all told that she just no longer needs their services. So very weird, very odd behavior.
[00:53:41] Shane and I magically come up, mysteriously disappearing in the next few weeks or months.
[00:53:47] We'll know why
[00:53:48] we're probably gonna be held in a
[00:53:50] compound. I ain't going quiet, and
[00:53:52] guarantee they probably tricked me. Pizza part of some kind.
[00:53:57] got some crystals and house plants in this van. [00:54:00] Josh, come on over. . Okay. Or we ha have a big, hairy, bearded man in here. Okay? Alright. You got, that's enough said.
[00:54:09] They tricked you through Grindr. .
[00:54:11] That's how they get me. Can host Dom top two feet away, . Okay? True. Yeah. Meet you in the garage. Okay. Darn ,
[00:54:21] you're in the back of the van. Alright?
[00:54:23] I'm not a teenager anymore. Uh, I, I've told you yesterday at Christmas, I'm in my thirties. They, they have to have a house. You know, none of this, I have a garage or uh, Walmart parking lot, right?
[00:54:35] No, I am 30. You need to have like some kind of memory foam, a blanket. All right. So
[00:54:42] what is your mystery?
[00:54:43] My mystery. I thought similar to you.
[00:54:45] I was like, last time I did, some monsters and, supernatural creatures. Did a
[00:54:50] supernatural creature at you on Twitter?
[00:54:53] , no more than usual. , Moth Man's always trying to hit me up, but he just doesn't understand no means. [00:55:00] No, no. Walmart parking lot
[00:55:01] moth man.
[00:55:02] Yeah, he's just, he, he likes the lights at night, you know, moth,
[00:55:07] I was looking and looking and I couldn't find anything and I wasn't really into the Christmas spirit this month, so I was watching a horror movie and it was talking about, I can't even remember the name of it, but Spiritualism, the Christmas story. No, no. I, I hardly watched, I think I watched Juan Dolly Parton Christmas movie, , unlikely Angel, and that was about it.
[00:55:30] Mm-hmm. , but. in the movie they were going over spiritualism and it happened to be, like the seances that they used to perform and how they were hoaxes. Well, that got me thinking cuz I know how popular they were. And in one of my episodes that I'm working on for Rotten was about Queen Victoria in the Victorian era is when spiritualism started to take off.
[00:55:56] Mm. And , as I researched more and more, I of [00:56:00] built my story around the Victorian era's, fascination with death and the spiritualism fad and the start of it. And the con artist as well. Oh, sorry. , people taking advantage of those in mourning. Mm. Spiritualism during the Victorian age was all the rage. The death rate in that time was nearly 60% among children in the average lifespan was 45 years old among the upper class, but only, 22 to 25 years for the labor class. So, basically our family, we would be dead by now.
[00:56:40] And you said this was the Victorian era? Yes. What timeframe is
[00:56:44] that? That is around the 18 hundreds, early 19 hundreds.
[00:56:48] Did they get that name from Queen Victoria?
[00:56:50] Yeah. A lot that we do today was inspired by Queen Victoria. Like, a good example is the white wedding dress. Before that, she's the first one to wear white wedding dresses and a [00:57:00] lot of our wedding traditions today stemmed from her royal wedding.
[00:57:03] Wow. And what she chose to do, that's why I just kept researching, became kind of fascinated by it. Tune into Rotten to the core January 5th to find out about Queen Victorian, her rotten actions. Mix that with disease, famine, and the new factories. This was the time when factories were starting to, rise up, new factories with zero safety practices.
[00:57:28] They didn't give two hoots about the safety of their workers. If you die or lose, an arm will replace you. And you get a generation of individuals who are very comfortable with death. Spiritualism took off because these people were so surrounded by death that it just didn't phase them the way it does.
[00:57:46] People nowadays, most people. This was also a time when grave robbing was highly lucrative, especially in larger cities. Some cities grew too quickly and finding places to bury the dead became a real [00:58:00] problem. Some cemeteries, even had grave sites with several bodies buried on top of one another.
[00:58:06] Oftentimes, they say, grandpa died, they'd go to dig his grave. Oh, there's a guy underneath him. There's not room. Well, that guy's been dead a few months. Toss him into the river. Put grandpa in there. That's great for grandpa until he runs outta space for the next guy and grandpa gets tossed into the river.
[00:58:28] Makes me really question like, Ooh, I can just, I want to take a water sample from back then. Just look under a microscope and see what little critters. At that time, there were really only church burials. Everyone wanted their bodies to be entombed and holy ground and surrounded with their ancestors.
[00:58:46] Some churches would even swindle people by selling more space than they had, and when they ran out, they would chuck the older bodies into the nearest river. Honestly, once you were buried, there was no guarantee [00:59:00] that you were gonna rest in peace there forever. Even though staying asleep, unbothered is probably my favorite thing to do while alive.
[00:59:08] I would be haunting people if they came at me when I'm dead. , right? This is my time. Death was so common that it left many people with a lot of unanswered questions and a hunger for answers, and soon spirituality was taking off. This was also a time when Memento Mok was popular. Those are those after death photos that.
[00:59:33] Everybody's seen by now. Most people were too poor to have their photos taken, so it was often reserved for death. It was also usually the only photo most parents would have of their children, which is also another reason it became popular is my child's dead. I have no pictures of them. I at least want something to remember them by.
[00:59:54] We see it as morbid these days, but I can honestly understand that as a parent, well not [01:00:00] as a parent, but if I were even my dog, if she died, I'd want a picture if I didn't have any, right? If you ever see Juan, fun fact, you can always tell who the dead person is. Sometimes you can see wires or stands holding them up, but back then photos took several minutes to shoot.
[01:00:17] So the person who is the clearest in those old photos usually dead cuz everybody else, you know, even if you hold still, you're moving a little bit and. . I looked at some of 'em and like the dead person's like crystal clear and I'm like, oh. And some of them you're like, oh my God, they look alive. Like some they'll put fake eyes in because the eyes are the first to go learn that.
[01:00:40] Researching this, learned all kinds of stuff about dead people. , spiritual was so popular that both Abraham Lincoln and Queen Victoria were involved in at least Juan Seance. Abraham was trying to contact his dead son in Victoria, her beloved husband. Now, as Shane knows, I am [01:01:00] full-heartedly a believer in all of this.
[01:01:01] I use tarot, pendulums, meditation, and many other methods to try to connect with my guides. I don't do it with the intent to communicate with spirit. More for just, to discover myself in the universe in which I live in. And I am a very visual person, so I receive images. I. Do not hear voices or anything of those sorts.
[01:01:24] Occasionally a feather like the one I have on my desk. Now, as you can imagine, this will be hard to believe, but some people took advantage of these poor mourning masses, right? And let's see, do I believe that some of these mediums were real and genuinely trying to help others? Yes, of course. But I believe most of them were just con artists taking advantage of suffering.
[01:01:49] And even though it is true, unless the client was later informed that it was fake, the customers still received closure from the fake sounds, as [01:02:00] most of them still provided them with a sense of closure. So even though they weren't specifically getting what they signed up for, they still received a benefit from.
[01:02:10] These con artists weren't just whipping out crystal balls and rolling their eyes in the back of their heads. The performances became the it thing. For the upper and middle classes. It was like going to a play. There were smoke illusions, disembodied voices, tapping candles, lighting and self extinguishing themselves, and they put on these shows.
[01:02:32] And if they were lucky or researched enough, they could make a decent living doing it. The actual start of spiritualism is believed to have begun with three specific women, the Fox sisters, Katie, Maggie, and Leah, who managed to swindle their way into a lucrative and famous career until they ultimately confessed to being scammers and lost everything.
[01:02:58] Now, do you remember playing tricks [01:03:00] on our parents as we were little more our father than our mom? She was a crier. I
[01:03:05] remember cutting up his cigarettes and burying
[01:03:07] them.
[01:03:07] I burying him in the sandbox. The one I remember is you, he had a plastic runner rug that had these sharp, pointy little plastics turning pieces, turn it upside down.
[01:03:16] Then he turned it upside down. And I never felt bad about that, cuz in my brain I'm like, he coulda took one step, ow, step off. But he took one step and then walked the rest of the way down the hall. Yeah. Ow, ow, ow. So whenever I think of playing a trick on a parent, that's always my first all in good fun.
[01:03:34] All in good fun. Well, that is how those fox sisters got their start all out of a simple trick on their mother after, just tying a string to apples and bouncing them on the steps upstairs to create the sound of footsteps. They plan to end it several days later with a finale by communicating with the fake spirit by [01:04:00] tapping.
[01:04:01] But their mother being in a small little area, quickly told the neighbors that the house was haunted. And, they didn't have cable. They wanted to come see too, not a lot of entertainment. And the sisters were soon thrown into the world of spirituality. Eventually the eldest sister came home and joined, and that's when they really got their start in the seas.
[01:04:25] She, masterminded this plan of deceit, they had told her it was fake, but she's like, no, I came home already believing it was real . So we're gonna make some money out of this. The trio quickly skyrocketed to some of the most sought after mediums in the entire world.
[01:04:43] They started to have seas that continued to grow in numbers, not only in fans. Protestors as well. As you can imagine, some religious people felt the sisters were in league with the devil and would often protest and threaten them to stop almost as if they [01:05:00] were trying to force their lifestyle choices on others.
[01:05:03] the younger sisters, Maggie and Kate, played the role of the mediums while Leah was the translator. They had a unique communication system by tapping once, meaning yes, and Twice was for no demand for their show became so popular that they soon played in larger venues and faced even more pressure with every performance.
[01:05:24] Each one had to be bigger and better than the last. Hmm. When the popularity of spiritualism took off, though medium shows were coming out of the wood. These newer mediums added better performance effects like flipping tables, people levitating, and even, taking ghostly photos where a ghost image would appear in the photo with the person and the wants saw after seas of the Fox.
[01:05:49] Sisters soon started growing smaller and smaller. Eventually the sisters wanted to break away from spirituality. They were [01:06:00] women and at that time women couldn't really do much unless they were married. So, they all wanted to get married and start families. They wanted to just get away from the spiritualism and just live normal lives as married women and mothers.
[01:06:16] Sure. The old wrapping of the one sister's big toe just wasn't cutting the trick anymore, and as their fame dwindled and their built up guilt of deceiving others for years. , the sisters, Katie and Maggie were soon drowning their sorrows in alcoholism. Cuz not only were they guilt ridden from deceiving people for so many years, at that time a lot of men really weren't seeking, psychic wives,
[01:06:48] They don't want that type of woman and raising their children, et cetera, et cetera. So, the dating pool was not, it was a puddle, right? A dried up little puddle for them. At one point, the sisters were [01:07:00] so guilt ridden and broke that Katie and Maggie publicly confessed to everything being a scam after being paid $1,400 to do so.
[01:07:10] Even after they came out and said it was all fake, there were still skeptics that said that they were forced to say it because of their dire need for money.
[01:07:20] The oldest sister, Leah even stated that they were lying. But seeing how she was the one who masterminded the continued con, I can see why she would attempt to cover up their mishap. Mm-hmm. , the Fox sisters still to this day are recognized as the birth mothers of spirituality, a practice that has become even more popular today.
[01:07:44] Sadly, the sisters all died single penniless and mostly homeless. They were, staying at friends' houses when they could just relying on the charity of their friends until they just died. To me, even though they did, [01:08:00] take advantage of people, they still brought joy to people in doing that.
[01:08:04] And I don't know, , they died in such bad way where it makes me feel bad for them. , right.
[01:08:10] Sadly, the sisters all died single penniless and mostly homeless, relying on the charity of their friends to get by. And the once world famous mediums were now the same restless spirits that they had spent their lives trying to communicate with. And that's my spiel on the, spirituality. I wanted to use them, because they were the first and from their beginnings, the whole, every other con artist in spirituality was derived from their beginnings.
[01:08:42] Mm. So I was trying to find the worst one, and I couldn't, I couldn't decide. So instead of the worst, I chose the first. And these were the, I guess training book for how to con grieving people out of their money. Right. Which, as I said earlier, they were conning them. A lot of [01:09:00] them, they're, I do believe in psychics and mediums, so I believe some of them were real and genuine, but they were still being conned.
[01:09:07] Yeah. By the majority. But they still benefited from it, ? Yeah. Unless they were told later, oh, they were fake. They, still believed, great. Grandma told me I was pretty, right. .
[01:09:19] Yeah. It's funny though, because of course I didn't know what your topic was gonna be, but when it comes to psychics and mediums, especially in the true crime world, there are people who really either believe in them or very strong critics Yes.
[01:09:37] Of them and just, I'm a bit of both. Yeah. I'm especially because you know that there are gonna be those who. Are going to want to take advantage of people in any field, whether it be this or whatever field you can imagine. But, for those people who are very critical of any type of [01:10:00] psychics, some of them are also very critical of anyone who believes in them.
[01:10:04] Mm-hmm. . Well, I mean it, so,
[01:10:06] uh, from just our upbringing, oh, don't believe in psychics
[01:10:09] or medium just cause of our religious, that's, that's a devil, right? We couldn't even , we even got criticism as children from some of our religious family members for watching Harry Potter . Oh yeah.
[01:10:21] I remember having the book, and they're like, that's the devil's book.
[01:10:25] I remember our Pokemon cards were taken. . Because in Japan they call cartoons and creatures like that. Demons. Mm-hmm. . It's not the same demonn as American Christians believe in. But yeah, that Sunday the preacher was there, demons and Pokemon.
[01:10:41] And then the next following Monday we come back from school and, oh, where are our invested in time consumed Pokemon cards? Like I had a whole binder full of 'em. Where they at , you know how much money you spent on
[01:10:53] those , do you know how much money they would've been worth by now? I know Before we leave though, Josh, I have a cool [01:11:00] idea.
[01:11:00] We've not talked about this, but of course like now we're over an hour in talking. But there are some things that I wanted to still talk about, but I thought it would be kind of cool to give people who may not care for, more conversational talk between us. Mm-hmm. , because I know a lot of people just want the nitty gritty.
[01:11:21] Of the mysteries that we're talking about, and they don't really care for our back and forth as much. So they've already gotten more than an hour of that. So I thought let's just do a separate recording after this and we can throw it out as anyone who would like to join us on Patreon or we can also release it out on Apple Podcasts.
[01:11:42] There is a premium Okay version, so we'll start releasing those. What should we call that? Should we call it like mystery ink after dark or something fun? You know, because we can always, talk a little candid, we don't have to keep it because we try to keep our [01:12:00] normal episodes a little PG 13 because
[01:12:02] I cuss a lot in real realize people
[01:12:04] So this is, I am toning it down
[01:12:06] for you. Well, and because if we have to mark an episode for anyone who's not a podcast fanatic, if we ma have to mark an episode as explicit, , it means that it will remove it from some countries, actually. Exactly. Some countries cannot listen to explicit episodes, so
[01:12:24] even the music we
[01:12:25] use, some countries won't say it.
[01:12:27] So if we say the F word and then we have to market as explicit, then some countries are no longer able to get that episode. Or it could mean that the entire podcast then has to be marked as explicit in that country, meaning that our episode or our podcast can no longer be listened to by people in that country.
[01:12:49] That's something that I learned a long time ago, , in podcasting. So I'm very careful on any podcast I do, just to try to not say things that will limit people who can listen.[01:13:00] But in a Patreon or a premium version, because there is a paywall that people can, have to pay to get in. And we'll start it out as really low, maybe $3 to join.
[01:13:11] Okay. , so if you go ahead and join now, it's gonna be really, really cheap. because we would like you guys to join us. We are planning not only, releasing this additional time for us talking, but Josh and I are also going to be going out on a little trip in March. Road trip. Yeah. In the mystery machine, Tesla.
[01:13:30] And for all of you people who are emailing me asking if it's real. It is. It's
[01:13:35] real. My 33 year old older brother has a mystery machine. Tesla. Yeah. It's, I, when he got it, I said,, I'm not to take away from anything else you've done, but I think this is the most jealous I've ever been from you. I But if you do join us on edited Patreon, just to let you know, I am filthy, raunchy, floral .
[01:13:58] Listen to it in [01:14:00] headphones. When
[01:14:00] I record for a podcast. I, I worked at a nursing home before and,, I had loved me, some older women. Like that was one of my favorite jobs ever.
[01:14:10] And when I record, I always have it in my head, say as if you were in a room full of 90 year old women, which I have a lot of experience, . Yeah.
[01:14:19] Or if someone's child, it could be a listening or, well that's,
[01:14:22] that's, I, I like
[01:14:23] old people more than children. , but, but if you're paying to listen, then you're gonna get a little more candid conversation between Josh and I.
[01:14:31] But if you do join, I'm gonna just tell you immediately that I am friends with one of probably, , the, the world's most popular psychics. And I'll talk to you, Josh, we'll have a conversation about when I first met him and what that was like. And he FaceTimed me. Yeah,
[01:14:46] it was funny. Just cuz which I wanna know what you told him cuz he was kind of rude to me.
[01:14:50] And I'm like, why is he coming at me like, cause I mean he was at a Cracker Barrel too. At that point. I was like, listen honey, I don't know who the hell you think you are. , but I [01:15:00] will cut your little bald ass and wrap it with your scarf. Right. Come at me. But thank you for the Christmas gifts that year.
[01:15:07] I love my scarf. I wear it all the time. Right.
[01:15:10] So I might give you guys a hint of who it is, but we will talk about it in, are we gonna call it after dark? What are we gonna talk? Call it. Uh,
[01:15:16] I'll have to brainstorm.
[01:15:17] All right. Well, uh, it, it will be named by the time you find it, but you can find it in the show notes.
[01:15:23] There'll be a link. We have a website now. It's mystery inc.com. The Patreon account will be in the show notes as well. Josh. We have an Instagram watch's, the Instagram
[01:15:33] handle. Well, if you enjoyed this episode of Mystery Ink, check out one of our other podcasts, foul Play, hosted by Shane or Rotten to the Core, hosted by me.
[01:15:42] If you enjoy History with a Little Dark Humor, this podcast, and those are available anywhere you enjoy your favorite podcast. And you can also find us on Instagram at it's mystery Inc. And thank you for your support, .
[01:15:56] Sweet. We also do have a Facebook page. The Facebook link is [01:16:00] facebook.com/ It's Mystery Inc. And of course, the Facebook page is Mystery Inc. Podcast. All right, Josh, let's go ahead and start. We'll just record our first Patreon episode.
