Devotion

0:00Today's podcast will feature three stories about acts so strange and unsettling they blur the line between devotion and madness. The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called Exit Interviews, and it's about one of the most infamous cult cases in history. The second story you'll hear is called A Family Ritual, and it's about a sickening act a family performs together. Keep in mind, for this story, listener discretion is advised.

0:33And the third and final story you'll hear is called The Helping Hand. And in this story, a literal hand washes up on a beach in Florida, after which a very mysterious case begins to unravel. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast, because that's all we do, and we upload four times a week, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Fridays. So, if that's of interest to you, please offer to make the like button a nice peanut butter and jelly sandwich. But make sure you employ a 6 to 1 peanut butter to jelly ratio.

1:07Okay, let's get into our first story called Exit Interviews.

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2:36In the early 1970s, a man named Marshall Applewhite was fired from his music teaching job for having an inappropriate relationship with a male student. Shortly after, he admitted himself into a psychiatric institution where he met a nurse who worked there named Bonnie Nettles. Both had a deep interest in biblical prophecy, and Applewhite, after meeting Nettles, was convinced they had met in a previous life. Nettles agreed and took it a step further, saying extraterrestrials had come to her and preordained that she would someday meet Applewhite. The two did not have a romantic relationship at all, it was strictly platonic.

3:14They bonded over a desire to ascend to a higher level of existence and ultimately reach the kingdom of heaven. Applewhite began calling himself Bo, and Nettles became Peep, and together they would start an infamous cult known as Heaven's Gate. The premise of Heaven's Gate was that an alien spacecraft that they simply called the UFO was going to come to Earth and whisk away Heaven's Gate cult members, elevating them to a new world and a better life that they referred to as Tela, or the evolutionary level above human. There was a catch, though. Anybody on Earth who did not get on the UFO whenever it got here would be recycled, i.e.

3:52destroyed, along with everybody else on Earth. And then at some point, a new human population would grow, and another UFO would come, and whoever got on that would be saved over and over and over again. That was just how it worked. And Bo and Peep were telling everyone they talked to about Heaven's Gate that we're already in end times. Apparently there were signs that this UFO is going to be here any day. And so now is the time to join the cult. And so by 1975, Bo and Peep had recruited 20 people to be a part of their cult, which meant they gave up their families, they gave up their possessions, they basically gave up everything in their life, and moved to Colorado to live in total poverty as they waited for this UFO to arrive.

4:31For 10 years, cult members waited and waited for this UFO that never showed up. And Bo and Peep are aggressively reminding people that this is the path, you just gotta stay the path. And then Peep unexpectedly died of cancer in 1985, which really screwed things up for the cult. In their doctrine, it was destiny that Bo and Peep would get on that UFO and make their way to Tela, the evolutionary level above human. That was their destiny. and now Peep has died on planet Earth. She did not get on the UFO. She did not ascend to Tella. She will not get to Heaven's Gate. Bo was devastated and horribly depressed and it wasn't really clear what was going to happen to Heaven's Gate but he composed himself and he began to tweak his messaging a little bit.

5:21Bo began telling his followers that Peep had in fact ascended to Tella. Yes, she did not get on the UFO. However, the aliens must have given her a signal that if she leaves behind this human body, this mere vessel, you'll still ascend to Tella. Basically, he was preaching to them, if you just end your own life at the right moment, you can go to Tella too. But, Bo didn't really know what the right moment was. He didn't know what the trigger was going to be. until 1995 when astronomers discovered the Hale-Bopp comet was going to be passing by Earth two years later in 1997. And Bose saw this as the trigger.

6:00The UFO was going to be hiding behind the trail of this comet and for sure Peep was riding on that UFO and as soon as it passes by Earth we need to ascend. And so fast forward to March 26, 1997 as the Hale-Bopp comet passed by earth 39 of the Heaven's Gate cult members including Bo they began their journey.

6:27Bo told them they would be exiting the earth in three groups and so on March 26th group one entered their San Diego mansion and consumed applesauce mixed with barbiturates followed it up with a whole bunch of vodka and then put a bag over their head and waited for death. Then on March 27th group two entered the San Diego mansion knowing full well what they were walking into. They all had specific jobs of how they were going to clean up the mess left from group one. They cleaned it up. Then they picked up the group one members and placed them in beds and put a purple cloth over their face before they, group two, consumed their own applesauce mixed with barbiturates and put a bag over their head and waited for death.

7:06On March 28th, the third group entered the San Diego mansion and this included Bo and they did the same cleanup as group two. They put the group two deceased members in bed as well, and then they consumed applesauce and barbiturates, followed it up with vodka, bag over their head, waited for death. Bo had given special instructions to two of the members that were within that third group to wait until he had exited Earth and take special care to put him in a specific bed, organize a certain way, and then when they consumed their own applesauce and barbiturates, followed up with vodka, they should do that in their bed because they're the last two.

7:42There's nobody else to move them. When a former cult member stopped by the San Diego mansion to check in on the cult, they went inside not knowing what they were up to and found all 39 cult members deceased laying in bunk beds with identical black and white Nike running shoes on their feet with purple shrouds over their bodies and they were all wearing matching armbands that read Heaven's Gate Away Team. Just hours before they exited the Earth, each of the groups would perform exit interviews where they would record themselves talking about why they were doing this, why it was important, and what they expected on the other side.

8:18They are remarkably cheerful and happy considering what they all know they are about to do. Here are some highlights from those exit interviews. Okay, we have Thirsody with us and I believe that you chose the name Thirsody because you want to be reminded of your thirst for next level knowledge, is that correct? That's right. I know my vehicles, or this vehicle that I'm wearing, you know, pretty nervous, pretty scared. Some may say, well, boy, that's quite an irreversible step. This isn't a troubling circumstance. Don't take it as that. It's just a gateway, just a doorway. Okay, thank you. Now, you're going to find this old crummy vehicle in a bunk someplace that I'll be going.

9:02and I'll probably be watching when you check it out and observe your responses and your reaction when you look at these vehicles. And they're all nothing but containers that we've used and bored for the short amount of time. People in the world who thought that I had completely lost my marbles, they're not right.

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11:41Our next story is called A Family Ritual.

11:55On April 9th, 2005, in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, a young man was home alone inside of his apartment watching TV. And as he sat there watching TV, he heard a loud thumping sound coming from right above him. As soon as he heard it, he muted his TV and he listened for a second. And a minute later, he heard it again, a loud thump. And then he heard another one, and another one, and another one. And before long, all he heard was a succession of thumps and also what sounded like chanting coming from upstairs. However, as unusual as these types of sounds might be to the average person, to this young man, these actually weren't that weird.

12:31because the family that lived right above him, the Wu family, were pretty eccentric. They were very religious people who often did these ceremonial dances and rituals at all hours, and a lot of times they involved stomping around and chanting really loudly. And as annoying as that could be, this young man never complained. He was very respectful of the Wu family, and he knew, you know, these sounds he was hearing were connected to their religion, and he felt like that was none of his business. And so, like he did basically every other time he would hear these noises, he simply turned the volume up on his TV and tried to forget about them.

13:08But after a few minutes, it was like the noises coming from upstairs just kept getting louder and louder and louder until it was basically impossible to ignore. And then suddenly he heard a scream coming from upstairs that certainly did not feel attached to a ceremony. It sounded like somebody was in danger or in trouble or something. And so at that point, the young man turned the TV off and he stood up and he thought, I need to go up there and like make sure things are okay. I mean, forget being annoyed. It sounds like, you know, someone's in trouble or someone's hurt or something. But as he began making his way towards his door to go upstairs and check on the Wu family, all the noises just completely stopped and it was silent upstairs.

13:48And at that point, the young man just stopped where he was. And for a minute, he just listened, you know, waiting to see if maybe the noises would pick back up again. But they didn't. And so the young man just turned around, walked back to his seat, and turned the TV back on. Two days later, on April 11th, that same young man was back home all alone, watching TV yet again, when, once again, he heard a loud pounding sound. Except this time, it was not coming from upstairs, it was coming from his front door. Somebody was hammering on his front door trying to get his attention. And so the young man turned off the TV, he got up, and he went over to his door, he opened it up, and standing there on the landing was this middle-aged man named Wu Shan, who was the patriarch of the Wu family upstairs.

14:33And Wu Shan looked absolutely horrible. He was dressed all in black head to toe, but he was pale and skinny and very gaunt, and he was covered in what looked like filth, like food and ash, and he smelled unbelievably horrible. And the young man, he asked Wu Shan, like, hey, is everything okay? And remember, the young man's thinking about that crazy, loud ceremony they had just two days earlier, you know, wondering, you know, whatever happened with that? That was so loud. But Wu Shan just looked back at the young man with this kind of vacant expression, and he just said, call an ambulance. And then, without saying anything else, Wu Shan turned, ran down the steps, and disappeared out into the street.

15:14And so at this point, the young man is left just standing there having no idea what to think. I mean, Wu Shan did not look well, and he's now run away. And again, this young man is thinking about that bizarre ritual he overheard a couple of days ago that just kind of stopped abruptly after screams were heard. Now he's being told to call an ambulance. And so he's thinking, I better go upstairs and make sure things are okay before I do anything else. And so the young man left his apartment, went upstairs to the Wu family's apartment, and the door was shut. But even standing outside the door, he began to smell that same absolutely horrible smell that he smelled on Wu Shan.

15:50So he knocks on the Wu family's door, he's kind of covering his nose, but he doesn't get a response. Nobody comes to the door. And so after looking around, he just tried the doorknob and he found it was unlocked. So, you know, pretty apprehensively, but knowing he needed to see what was going on here, he opened up the door and right away he's hit with another wave of just this disgusting smell. He can barely breathe, but nonetheless, he steps into the house and he calls out to anybody, You know, anyone come over here and tell me what's going on. But nobody called back. And he kind of looked around the family's apartment and it was totally filthy.

16:22There was just this grime all over everything. And he made his way all the way into the living room. And there he stopped. Because in the middle of the living room on the floor, he saw something that he just simply couldn't believe. It would turn out the Wu family had performed a ritual two days earlier. That was the sounds that the neighbor downstairs had been hearing. those loud stomping and screaming, all that stuff, was a ceremony like the family was known to do. However, that ceremony got totally out of hand. So in the weeks leading up to that ceremony, one of the Wu family's daughters came down with an illness.

17:00And because the family didn't have a lot of money, they couldn't send her to the doctor. And after a couple of days when she didn't get better, the family decided that, okay, well, she must not be physically sick. she must be spiritually sick, meaning she was possessed by a demon. And so at first, they tried some ceremonies to ward off this demon, but it wasn't really working. And then before long, the rest of the members of the family began complaining that maybe they too were also possessed by the same demon. And before long, that was the belief that the entire Wu family shared, that they all were possessed by demons.

17:35And so on the day the downstairs neighbor heard all that stomping and chanting and screaming. That was the day that the Wu family performed a big group exorcism to try to get rid of these demons once and for all from all of them. But the way they did this exorcism was truly horrifying. They believed that the one thing demons were afraid of was filth. And so they decided that if they filled their bodies with enough filth, the demons would to leave. And so the Wu family, as they chanted and stomped around and screamed, began consuming their own feces. And when they would vomit it back up again, they would just swallow it right back down for hours and hours and hours.

18:20What the downstairs neighbor actually discovered inside the living room of the Wu family's apartment was the daughter, the one who originally had gotten sick, and she was laying on the ground and was deceased. And during the autopsy, they would discover that her airway was totally blocked by feces and vomit. By the time the downstairs neighbor made this discovery, the entire Wu family had fled the apartment. Wu Sean had disappeared after saying calling an ambulance, and the rest of the family too had kind of run off. But the police would ultimately track down all the remaining Wu family members, and they would all be arrested.

18:56However, a court ultimately decided that the Wu family was suffering from something known as mass hysteria. And as a result of that, they could not be held legally accountable for what they did. And so they were all acquitted.

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20:21One morning in November of 1997, a police captain named Jeffrey Lewis, along with his partner parked their squad car near the Manatee River in Bradenton, Florida, which is a small city just south of Tampa. A few minutes earlier, the Bradenton Police Department had received a call from this frantic man who had said he had found something suspicious that had washed up on the shore of this river. And so Captain Lewis and his partner were there to investigate. And so as soon as they got out of their squad car, this man who had called the police, he saw them and waved them down and he was pointing at something in the sand.

20:52And so Captain Lewis and his partner, they walked over, and before they even talked to this guy, they just looked down at what he was pointing at, and right away they could see why he called the police. Because there, sitting on the sand, was a severed human hand. And so the instant Captain Lewis saw this, his first thought was actually just alligators. Because there were alligators that swam in the Manatee River, and people were told about them, and were told, you know, not to go swimming here, but people still did, and so his thought was, well, maybe one of the alligators got a swimmer. However, when Captain Lewis looked at the hand more closely, he could tell right away that that probably did not happen, because where the hand had been cut off from the body, the cut was almost surgical.

21:33It was very, very neat, whereas if an alligator had ripped the hand off, it would be rough, but this almost looked like a surgeon had carefully removed the hand. And so what this signaled to Captain Lewis is this hand very likely represented a murder victim. Somebody who killed this person, cut their body up, and one of their body parts is now washed ashore. And so Captain Lewis turned to his partner and told him to call for backup. And within an hour, police officers were scouring the Manatee River looking for the body that belonged to this hand. Meanwhile, the captain bagged this hand as evidence and brought it to the county sheriff's crime lab, hoping that forensic experts could potentially figure out who the victim was using fingerprints.

22:12However, when he actually handed over the hand to these forensic technicians, they told Captain Lewis that it was very likely going to be impossible to try to pull prints from this hand because the hand was very badly decomposed and water damaged. But they told Captain Lewis that despite this being a total long shot, they would still give it a try. And so really all Captain Lewis had was this hand, and so he just kind of waited for information from the crime lab about the fingerprints. And before long, the waiting went from days to weeks to months, with no fingerprints. And so with no fingerprints and no other breakthroughs in this case, Captain Lewis moved on to other cases.

22:49That is until June of 1998, when Captain Lewis was sitting in his office doing some work when he suddenly got a call from the crime lab about the hand. An employee told Captain Lewis they had finally made a breakthrough. When they couldn't get the prints off this hand at first, they had moved to this very complicated technique where basically they would peel individual layers of skin off the hand and sort of piece together all the information to get a print. And amazingly, this technique worked. And so not only did they now have this print, but they had also already run this print through the Florida State database and they had gotten a match.

23:25The hand belonged to a man named Willie Suttle. As soon as he hung up, Captain Lewis opened up a new tab on his computer and began researching Willie Suttle to figure out who this person was. And he quickly found, through public employment records, that Willie had been a retired garbage collector, and then also Captain Lewis looked at police records and discovered that Willie had a minor criminal history. But what really stood out in his research about Willie was that Willie had never been reported missing. Willie had instead been reported dead. Right there in the public records that Captain Lewis was looking at, he found Willie's death certificate.