Episode 287: Long Island Urban Legends
/It’s summertime and we’re revisiting our own hometown urban legends. Don’t go swimming in Lake Ronkonkoma, don’t visit the Hell House, and don’t look too deep into the military base that inspired Stranger Things. But DO grab a Long Island beer and listen to this episode.
Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about or mentions of suicide, murder, death, execution, drowning, colonization, police corruption, animal attacks, child death, war, hanging, car accidents, medical/scientific experimentation, decomposition, military, and disease.
Housekeeping
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- Recommendation: This week, Julia recommends Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell.
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Transcript
AMANDA: Welcome to Spirits Podcast, a boozy dive into mythology, legends and folklore. Every week, we pour a drink and learn about a new story from around the world. I'm Amanda.
JULIA: And I'm Julia.
AMANDA: And this is Episode 287. Whereas, Julia, we're sticking close to home on this one.
JULIA: We are– we are revisiting our Long Island Urban Legends. Recently, you sent me a Reddit thread that Eric Silver had discovered and it was all about like, Long Island urban legends. And I was like, Oh, well, you know, man, we've done Long Island urban legends. You know, it's a little while ago, and then I looked it up in our archives when we did it. It was Episode 20.
AMANDA: That's a– that's a long time ago. That's not far after Eric, DMs me as a person I met in college years ago and was like, "Hey, cool podcast, I can talk about the Golem" and I was like, "Alright." and now we're about to get married! That's how much time has passed.
JULIA: So I feel like now is the perfect time to revisit it if you– if you think about it.
AMANDA: I totally agree. It is summertime. My mom is a professional lifeguard at the time, I'm used to being like, "Ugh, mom. Stop telling you all your stories about Long Island and the beaches and the things that wash up on them." I got some stuff prepared for you today, Julia.
JULIA: I'm very excited. I also have some stuff prepared for you.
AMANDA: Eyy!
JULIA: How about I kind of take our first half of the stories and we can– we can follow up on some of yours after we get back from our refill?
AMANDA: Love it. Let's do it.
JULIA: So I do want to preface this, there's a couple that we did touch on in Episode 20, we did the Amityville Horror so you're not going to hear about that in this episode. We did Sweet Hollow Road and we also did Mount Misery so there's like a nice mix of things that you- and Oh, and the Kings–
AMANDA: Kings Park Psychiatric Facility.
JULIA: Yeah, so we've done all those. So if you are looking for those kinds of stories, hey, go listen to Episode 20. It was a very long time ago.
AMANDA: You can also join our Patreon where we posted a video that Julia and I–
JULIA: Oh, yeah.
AMANDA: –recorded at Sweet Hollow Road and a couple of graveyards nearby. It was extremely fun. Both of us look different than we do now. And you can go enjoy that. Me with long hair.
JULIA: That is true. Look at that. So, Amanda, I think I'm gonna start with one that I have heard recently because I recently moved into the area of this myth and it is the Lady of Lake Ronkonkoma.
AMANDA: Oh, this one was new to me, I think I saw it mentioned in the thread and I was like, Who's this now?
JULIA: Who is this now? Who is this lady? What's she doing?
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: So if you are not familiar with Long Island Ronkonkoma is a town on Long Island. A lot of the names on Long Island again, if you're not from the area are like indigenous tribe names that we just turned into towns when we colonized the area. So keep that in mind as you're listening to this. But Lake Ronkonkoma is you know, I would say mid-Suffolk County, which is the most eastern part of Long Island.
AMANDA: Oh, Julia, can I– can I give my little orientation that people learn in elementary school on Long Island?
JULIA: Tell them about the fish.
AMANDA: Okay, Long Island is shaped like a fish. Okay, let's picture the fish with her head to the left and her tail to the right. The head of the fish is Brooklyn and Queens, the middle bit of the fish with the little flippies and the gills, that's Nassau County, which is mostly a bedroom community for New York City, very suburban. Levittown is there which is like a cookie cutter like, the example of a sort of postwar suburbs in the US and there are trains that go into New York City and then the tail of the fish is Suffolk County, which is quite Republican and has a lot of police corruption as well as some lovely places to live. And then the very tippity tip of the tail is the Hamptons and Montauk on the bottom flipper and the North Fork on the top flipper.
JULIA: It's a fork because the tail forks, So Lake Ronkonkoma is about mid of the like back fish part of Long Island.
AMANDA: Yeah, not quite the butt, but almost there.
JULIA: Yeah, exactly.
AMANDA: I love Ronkonkoma, lots of good stuff there.
JULIA: They also have Lake Ronkonkoma, which is the deepest lake on Long Island. It was an extremely popular swimming spot during like the 1920s when like well to do Long Islanders or those visiting from the city would come out and they'd like wanted to escape and they didn't want to go to the beaches so they went to the lake instead.
AMANDA: Sure.
JULIA: By the 1970s. The population in that area had transformed from more of like a, you know, little beach hut bungalow kind of thing to a much more dense population and the landscape was less of that like Lakeside escape and more of like a dense suburban neighborhood. Picture your average suburban neighborhood. That's what Lake Ronkonkoma is today. Even before the appeal of swimming in Lake Ronkonkoma began to disappear. However, the lake was unfortunately well known for being somewhat deadly. The location has had 160 drownings since the mid-1800s to the 1970s and since then has about 30 more.
AMANDA: That's a lot of drownings, I do have to say.
JULIA: That is a lot of drownings, and there's no like scientific reasoning or proof that this is a more deadly place to swim than anywhere else on Long Island, but because of its notoriety, a legend has kind of formed around Lake Ronkonkoma.
AMANDA: Totally and it sounds like just frequent enough right where it's like once a year or so that probably throughout the course of growing up, you know somebody who knows somebody who says that they know someone who drowned.
JULIA: Well, Amanda, it's interesting that you bring up once a year because that does tie into the story quite a bit.
AMANDA: This is totally new to me, I'm very excited.
JULIA: I'm very excited to tell you about it. So the story goes that during the 1600s, there was a Seatauket Princess who's name was Tuskawanta. Again, Long Island has kind of not the greatest history with the indigenous people. We can talk about that a little bit towards the end of the story, but this woman named Tuskawanta fell in love with a English settler named Hugh Birdsall, which I think is an incredible name.
AMANDA: Wow.
JULIA: Birdsall, what a name. So, they fell in love but her father forbade their union. So for seven years, Tuskawanta sent love letters to Hugh by floating them across the Nissequogue River which flows into Lake Ronkonkoma, or at least used to flow into Lake Ronkonkoma, I don't know if it does anymore. But basically, she sent those in the hopes that it would reach him but either he never received them or he never responded to any of her letters. And so with her heartbroken after seven years of this kind of untenable situation, she rode out into the center of the lake and then stabbed herself in the heart. And then it was said that she haunts the lake to this day, and she became known as the Lady of the Lake and was said to once a year pull down an innocent man into the water to replace the love that she lost.
AMANDA: I'm sure that there is you know, documented historical reality of love stories like this happening, but just the– the self-centeredness of the settler myth–
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: –really strikes me every time
JULIA: For sure, for sure. There is a story actually, that I found in the New York Post about Lake Ronkonkoma and kind of the legend behind it, where they interviewed a former lifeguard for the lake whose name was David Igneri, who they mentioned also, for some reason, they're like, oh, he's got a doctorate in colonial American history and I'm just like, oh dear, oh dear, I don't know about that. So he claimed that while being a lifeguard, he had like a premonition of his own drowning, which really, like shook him. He also said that during his time as a lifeguard, he encountered 30 drownings, all of whom were men.
AMANDA: Interesting.
JULIA: And he meanwhile, also witnessed many near accidents with women swimmers who survived the situation almost miraculously.
AMANDA: Huh.
JULIA: Hmm.
AMANDA: I must say, Julia, I am not too persuaded by a lifeguard having a vision of his own drowning because–
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: –much of what lifeguards do during the day is think about and prevent drowning.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: So, you know, I just have to push back on that slightly.
JULIA: That's just like an anxiety dream, my guy probably.
AMANDA: Yeah or I mean, like, all day, you are scanning the water looking for signs of imminent drowning, like, come on.
JULIA: Yeah. And he's like, you know, as well trained as lifeguards are, they do put themselves at risk when trying to save people from drowning. So it's very possible that someone could like push you under and you know, things don't go well for you.
AMANDA: Yeah, it makes you think through scenarios and how to prevent them. So that– that just seems like, like your profession, my guy.
JULIA: Yeah. Yeah, I do. I do find it interesting, though, that all of the drownings that he experienced were men, it really does tie into the myth very well.
AMANDA: It is a pretty big sample size. I get why this is a you know, a quoted sort of guide that has remained around.
JULIA: Yes, yes. That's like the big story of Lake Ronkonkoma again. Seems like a deadly lake seems like mostly men drown there, you know, could potentially tie into something to that effect.
AMANDA: There.
JULIA: There's also a lot of other rumors about Lake Ronkonkoma. Other than the story of the Lady of the Lake. They say that there are like, caves and underwater tunnels that suck people in to drown them like they're trying to like prove scientific stuff why people drown, it's not true. There's also been some unsubstantiated rumors about packs of piranhas that roam the water attacking bathers.
AMANDA: To be fair, Julia, Suffolk County is definitely where somebody would have like illegally bought like a panther or a piranha or some kind of like very poisonous snake and then been like, meh! Oh, no, and then flush it.
JULIA: Yeah. Yeah, that's very much the alligators in the sewers vibe. I got you.
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: Basically, though ecologist in the area believe that the bites that people say they have experienced on like their feet, and their lower bodies are most likely caused by turtles, which make up a good population of the lake and also have the tendency to bite people when they're provoked or threatened.
AMANDA: Yeah, leave turtles alone.
JULIA: A couple of people have like, quote, unquote, found piranhas in the lake and then brought it being like, I found this in the lake. And they're like, well, first off, that's not a piranha or is a piranha and they're like, there's no way this was living in that lake like if you test the gills and like the, you know.
AMANDA: Yeah, yeah.
JULIA: So it's very funny what people go to what lengths people will go to to be like, oh, the lake, it's messed up.
AMANDA: Amazing.
JULIA: That was a new one to me. But the one that I'm going to tell you next is actually one that I've heard before. And I chose it because it's a very like, Pan Suffolk County legend.
AMANDA: Alright.
JULIA: In that it doesn't have like one true location. It has a bunch of different locations that it could be told in which I think is very fun.
AMANDA: Hit me.
JULIA: So this is the story of Mary's Grave. Like I said, no one knows the true location of Mary's Grave or who she was exactly Mary who like never has a firm last name in any of these stories. Her myth has kind of changed multiple times depending on who's telling the story and where some say that she like killed both her children and her husband and then because of that deed, she's unable to rest in her own grave. Others say that she either cheated on her partner or was cheated on while he was away at war. Which war Amanda again, it all depends. I've seen stuff from World War Two, I've seen Revolutionary War.
AMANDA: It really is like a genre or an archetype of myth.
JULIA: And in those stories where there was cheating and also war, she either dies by suicide or kills her partner as revenge, all fun and exciting stuff there.
AMANDA: I know a real classic hysterical woman sort of like motherhood trope, we know what's happening.
JULIA: Classic. Another one of my personal favorites is she was said to have become possessed by an evil spirit and was the daughter of a wealthy landowner and while possessed killed her father and her brother and when the rest of it like town's folk notice like, Oh, Mr. so and so is missing. They go to the house to check on him and they find Mary covered in blood sleeping in bed next to her father's dead body.
AMANDA: Ohh.
JULIA: It's a- that's a fun one, that's a real Godfather moment.
AMANDA: Yeah, it really is.
JULIA: So she was tried and killed and the tree that they hung her from was said to still have the burn marks from where the rope hung.
AMANDA: Of course.
JULIA: A classic one really, like there's always like an area that is like still to this day, you know, attached to this the myth. You know, you also have to have that because there's no set place.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: So the story could happen anywhere, which I think is the– the most appealing part of the story.
AMANDA: It totally is. I think one of the reasons why the you know, looking in the bathroom mirror and saying Bloody Mary thing was so popular at our sleepovers as kids because it can be in any house and something like this where there is a possibility that it could have been right here but something you can point to or experience that makes it sound like maybe this is the place like that is the real kind of liminal possibility that makes an urban legend really creepy.
JULIA: Well, I'm glad you brought up the Bloody Mary story, Amanda, because this version of Mary also has something similar, which is if you find her grave, you will be able to identify it because it only has her birth date and no death date filled in. And if you manage to find that real grave, and you go at night and you shine your flashlight onto it, her face will appear.
AMANDA: Ahhh!
JULIA: Ahhh! Bloody Mary.
AMANDA: Ooh, Julia, that just made me think I wonder if you can make headstones or grave markers with like UV printing embedded that'd be fucking sick to spook some local teens looking to make out in my death.
JULIA: Oh, I just imagined like, having a glow-in-the-dark gravestone, that's so funny.
AMANDA: Isn't that good?
JULIA: Amanda, if I die before you tell Jake that's what I want.
AMANDA: If I die before you Julia have, "Stay creepy, Stay cool". Just invisibly inked on my gravestone, okay?
JULIA: Incredible. Love it. Pinky swear bond for life.
AMANDA: Pinky swear, we're going to delete each other's browsing histories. Make sure I do pets accounts are well cared for and get a glow-in-the-dark headstone.
JULIA: Exactly. I love this for us.
AMANDA: You got it.
JULIA: In terms of like other rumors about Mary's Grave, there was one that teens during the 1970s would dare each other to go visit the haunted grave site and pee on it.
AMANDA: Oh, don't do that.
JULIA: But however, it was said that anyone who did this would then die in a car crash on their way home because they would swerve to avoid a ghostly girl who suddenly appeared in the road.
AMANDA: To be fair, lots of underage drinking on Long Island. Lots of very small roads and too many people. So you know, unfortunately, that's a pretty close to reality consequence.
JULIA: Yeah, my only issue with that story is how do we know that that's why they swerved, how do we know that?
AMANDA: It's a good question.
JULIA: If they died in the car crash, who could say?
AMANDA: It's a real unprovable exactly. It's like well, you can't prove it in like, oh sir I cannot prove they didn't a lot of things that doesn't mean that it's true.
JULIA: There is another version of the grave site that says it has like an angelic statue for a grave head and it appears that the angelic statue will cry actual tears, another classic. This one's got everything this one really feels like it's got everything.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: And then so we were talking about the location of Mary's Grave there are various locations that it is like most quoted as being at. Some say it's in head of the harbor, some say Huntington, Stony Brook, Mount Sinai. The most quoted location is said to be in St. James on Shep Jones Road which we might have to take a trip out there at some point, Amanda.
AMANDA: Totally.
JULIA: Again, I really liked this one because it does seem like a very like classic Long Island urban legend. Like the story changes from place to place depending on who's telling it and when which I love.
AMANDA: Me too.
JULIA: And then finally, for this one, I have one that actually I had not heard of before and then did a little research on and this is another like people who are live during 70s and 80s really like talking about this one. It's still a route, which I think is also very exciting. And I'm glad you talked about Levittown before because now I don't really have to explain what a Levittown is, But we talked last time about the Amityville Horror House but that is not the only famous haunted house on Long Island.
AMANDA: Oh, say what?
JULIA: There's also the Massapequa Hell House, which is also known as the Witch House and the Satan House.
AMANDA: Mere miles from where we grew up.
JULIA: Yeah, exactly. So this is a like red brick Gothic style home which again, really stands out in a neighborhood that is full of these Levittown style homes which are just these cookie cutter ranch style or like split ranch, raised ranch style homes. The Massapequa Hell House, I have to send you a photo of it, Amanda, because it's so funny to see it on Google Maps.
AMANDA: Oh yeah. Oh, yep. This– I would call this the Hell House too. Every home has like very regulated like a tree in front of each home, it is a ranch home with like one car garage, one driveway and then you turn around and oh! Oh! The property is entirely covered trees, fence, and a real- real blood red house I gotta say also their driveway is brick and everyone else's is like paver or just an asphalt so damn.
JULIA: For people who are not looking at the photo, this house has literal turrets.
AMANDA: Yep.
JULIA: This house has in the past been the home to a hearse in the driveway.
AMANDA: Many columns many like balconies.
JULIA: Black wrought iron fence surrounding a house.
AMANDA: Yeah, everybody else's like one story or like you were saying like a split level ranch, damn.
JULIA: If you'll notice, Amanda, the sidewalk is not brick but painted red.
AMANDA: Oh, you're sure right, Julia. That's just painted red concrete. Yep.
JULIA: Yep, that is painted right concrete. And it's like stops right at their property line, which is also very funny.
AMANDA: Yeah, I'm kind of surprised that litigious sort of neighborhood watch types haven't prevented them from painting their sidewalk red, but I respect a commitment to the bit.
JULIA: Yeah, no HOA in Long Island, not just the regular suburbs, at least. Honestly, the aesthetic of this house is very strong and I appreciate it.
AMANDA: The vibes are immaculate. I have, I have no notes.
JULIA: Amanda, before we like move on actually, did you have a house that was like haunted in your neighborhood?
AMANDA: So the house I lived in growing up was on a small block of like 8 or 10 houses sort of surrounded by like, bigger blocks. And so as kids, we were allowed to ride our bike, you know, around or take a walk like around our own block before we were old enough to really like cross the street on our own. And so directly behind our house and like in the corner was a property with very big hedges that sort of like shielded the property from the rest of the sidewalk. And toddlers like myself and my siblings, like driving our little like, battery-operated car up on their lawn. And so we told each other like, oh, you know, don't go in there or don't you know, lose a baseball just because the hedges made it seem a little bit, you know, a little bit scary.
JULIA: There was like one house on my block that had stained glass in their front window and I was a little bit older and a little bit different than the rest of the houses on the block. So obviously, very haunted.
AMANDA: As an adult now, of course, those are the properties where I'm like, has character, I want it.
JULIA: Yeah, they rip that one down. I feel bad about it.
AMANDA: Ugh.
JULIA: People like say, the rumors are like, oh, the windows resemble a grinning demon face. The curtains that are in the windows, they look like coffin linings, that kind of stuff.
AMANDA: Uh, ma'am, that's just a curtain in a window.
JULIA: That's just a curtain that's just like a heavy velvet curtain, but sure. Not only does this house stand out because of its architectural choices, which are on point, in my opinion, but it's also claimed by locals to be haunted, or to be the home of quote unquote devil worshipers which Long Island during the 70s and 80s. Yeah, there was the Satanic Panic. So like, no one's surprised by this.
AMANDA: Yeah, maybe it's just somebody a little bit different to like, this is very, you know, a very homogenous kind of Suburban. I think being different and having a different aesthetic and being proud about that is– is actually really admirable.
JULIA: They claimed that these quote unquote devil worshipers would keep candles burning every night in their window. And it was said that if you drove by once you would see one candle in your window and if you drove by, again, there would be a number equal to the amount of people in your car.
AMANDA: Oh, that's a pretty custom myth. It's pretty good.
JULIA: This was apparently like something that teens enjoyed doing when they were just like out driving nowhere at night. And supposedly it meant that the quote unquote worshipers inside were watching you and taking note of who you were.
AMANDA: Of course, of course, it's pretty creepy. That's a pretty good twist.
JULIA: The house is still definitely occupied and the neighbors who have like claimed to have seen these people report that they just kind of look like you know, run of the mill Goths, but I imagined in the 70s and 80s on Long Island that was kind of a scary thing.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Now, Amanda, I would love to hear a couple of more urban legends from your neck of the woods on Long Island. But first, let's grab a refill.
AMANDA: Let's do it.
[midroll]
AMANDA: Julia, it's midroll.
JULIA: Oh, hey. Oh, we're singing Whoo. I like it.
AMANDA: Well, I thought to myself, how can I make this little special little different little Long Island for our people out here?
JULIA: By singing, I like it. I think we should do this entire midroll in Long Island accents and see how people feel about that.
AMANDA: Okay, let's- let's say that for the ad reads because you know people, we strive to really make our ads as entertaining as possible–
JULIA: We do.
AMANDA: –unskipable. So you know, you listen to them and also the sponsors don't get mad. And so that is one way that we haven't tried yet and I think that's worth trying.
JULIA: Alright, we'll do it. We'll do it. What's the most Long Island snack that we're having during this– this little refill here?
AMANDA: Maybe like those hot mustard pretzels those–
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: –are pretty Long Island.
JULIA: Yeah, just bagels?
AMANDA: Yeah. Bagel chips. That's a really good snack. I also gotta love Julia, our new patron Kevin. Kevin, thank you for joining we appreciate. You can go and find some bagel chips, gluten-free and not in the kitchen with our supporting producer level patrons Uhleeseeuh, Anne, Daisy, Froody Chick, Hannah, Jack Marie, Jane, Jessica Stewart, Kneazlekins, Lily, Little Vomit Spiders Running Around, Megan Moon, Phil Fresh, Captain Jonathan MAL-uh-kye Cosmos, Sarah, Scott, and Zazi.
JULIA: I gave each of those supporting producer-level patrons a bag of their own buffalo bagel chips as they walked into the party. I was like, Hey, I save these for you.
AMANDA: Amazing. Well, it's not can't reach a chip bowl. That's okay. Got a little chip in your pocket.
JULIA: Chip in your pocket.
AMANDA: Thanks to– to our legend-level patrons Arianna, Audra, Bex, Clara, Iron Havoc, Morgan, Mother of Vikings, Sarah, & Bea Me Up Scotty. Y'all are like standing near enough to the kitchen where you are the first to kind of scope out when new snacks are brought out into the party and he'd be like, I'm just gonna grab the little- little carrot chip from up top of that crudité platter before anybody else can get it.
JULIA: You're also hanging out by me who is making all of the recipes that you can find by going to patreon.com/spiritspodcast and signing up to be a patron and getting the incredible recipe cards that we make for every episode both alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages.
Amanda: You must say there's no way that Julia has made 574 recipe cards, check my math real quick on that one, two for each episode of Spirits podcasts that we have ever created. She has people, she has their their their beautiful you can print them.
JULIA: That's true. There's probably been a couple of repeats I'm sorry about that. But like hey, that's a lot of cocktails.
AMANDA: That means it's a classic that is worth repeating, so love it. All of that and more at patreon.com/spiritspodcast. But Julia, what have you been reading, watching or listening to recently that you think the conspirators would enjoy?
JULIA: I mean, I have been watching the new Obi Wan Kenobi series but that's besides the point what I want to recommend to you guys is a new book that I've been reading which is Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell. It is all the things that is sci-fi, it is queer, and it is a political drama, and I feel like everyone would be into it.
AMANDA: Oh my god, I love it. I can't wait.
JULIA: It's very very good.
AMANDA: You can check out our book recommendations as always at spiritspodcast.com/books which takes you to the fabulous bookshop.org which is like a co-op for indie bookstores, they let you purchase books online. Shipping times are a little bit longer than they are for you know, the Bezos that shall not be named but you are raising money for independent bookstores all over the country with your purchase. I use bookshop.org every week to send my grandma new books because she is a faster reader than me and goes through about 8 books a week.
JULIA: That's incredible.
AMANDA: That's where I get it from and I love it every time you're like you send books to Joyce, Amanda? I'm like I sure am and send the books to Joyce.
JULIA: There you go. There you go.
AMANDA: And folks, we also have a very exciting news speaking of summertime speaking of enjoying things speaking of Spirits calls to action, we are doing our first in-person live show the three of us Julia, Eric and me since that pandemic began on July 15 in person in New York City but also if you are outside of New York City and or don't quite feel comfortable doing it yet you do you you can attend via livestream. Yo!
JULIA: Whoa! And Amanda, if they're busy that night, which they should be busy watching our show but that's besides the point, what can our listeners are good, good conspirators do as well?
AMANDA: You'll also be able to get a video on demand copy of the show aka you can watch the video back afterward and chat maybe with the other conspirators in the Multitude Discord which is free to join if you want to hang out and chat about the show. But this is going to be legit, they have multicam live shows people they are filming us from multiple angles and a real person is sitting there mixing it and making it a fantastic recording. This is no like camera in the back of the stage or a recording of a Zoom session. This is like a real thing and you are going to really seriously enjoy it. It's $15 in person $10 for the live stream or the VOD, and you can get those tickets at spiritspodcast.com/live. And if you're listening in the future, and we are in your past, also going to spiritspodcast.com/live where you can get VOD copies of all of our past live shows.
JULIA: Do it.
AMANDA: Do it, it's gonna be so much fun.
JULIA: Manda Speaking of fun in the sun as well, it is Multitude surveys summertime!
AMANDA: As you're sitting on the beach or the park or maybe like me mostly indoors because you have a lot of colorful tattoos and you're pale. It is time to do the best time of year the best activity you could possibly do which is give us user feedback. It is Multitude survey summer this is where you tell us what you think of Spirits, of Multitude shows, of our projects. Give us ideas on what to do next. If you have a T-shirt you've been dying to see us make if you live in a city that you think would be amazing to have a live show If you just want to name your favorite small business or Instagram follow and tell us to reach out to them to be a potential sponsor, this is where you can do that.
JULIA: Yeah, it is all at multitude.production/survey and last year we got 1200 responses and we want to beat it this time around. You can get our photos you get emojis it's fun-filled questions again, that is multitude.production/survey.
AMANDA: That link along with all the other ones we've mentioned is in the description. And now Julia it is time for us to try our new sponsor gambit, which is to read some ads and a Long Island accent.
JULIA: Let's do it. Let's do it. Now, Amanda, we were just talking about how you extremely pale–
AMANDA: Oh my god.
JULIA: –and how you got to keep your, your beautiful tattoos nice and moisturized, right?
AMANDA: It's true. It's true. I was when I was like my mother.
JULIA: Exactly. I've been rocking a new body oil on my tattoo on my shoulder and it's because I have gone to OSEA. OSEA, Amanda, they have the best stuff for your skin.
AMANDA: There's nothing better than being soft, being just soft touching your own skin. It is soft. And since 1996, when I was four years old, OSEA has been creating clean vegan cruelty free products not a drop of cruelty to be found safe for your skin and the planet.
JULIA: No Amanda, Amanda, you and I we are from the ocean basically living on Long Island.
AMANDA: We are.
JULIA: And all of their– their body oil is seaweed infused and it makes my skin feel like I was sitting out by the ocean and it's like blessed and kissed by it. I love it so much. And their body butter, Amanda, it stays on my skin for so long. It moisturizes the skin for up to 72 hours.
AMANDA: Amazing. I put on a serum on my face after my skincare routine and when I wake up I feel baby soft like I am. I've just moisturized, it's truly amazing.
JULIA: And you should try it as well find your new skincare and bodycare favorites at OSEA Malibu- Oh, I love Malibu, OSEAmalibu.com and get a special discount just for our listeners. Get 10% off your first order sitewide with promo code Spirits at OSEAmalibu.com.
AMANDA: You get free samples with every order, every order and orders over $50 get free shipping. You're gonna want it all go to O-S-E-A malibu.com use code Spirits. Julia, when I went to my beloved grandfather, may he rest in peace his house for dinner is growing up at the end of every dinner in between dinner and dessert he would clear off the dining table he'd Windex every inch of that table above and below bottom of the glass you forget about that. But you should Windex it too. And I thought I would be a Windex user for my whole life. Instead, I now use sorry, I'm really virgin to JFK here.
JULIA: Do it, do it.
AMANDA: But now listen, I have switched my entire household over to Blueland cleaning products. I use their laundry tablets in my laundry. I use the dishwasher tablets for my dishes. I use their all-purpose cleaner and their glass cleaner where I use it on my kitchen table and I feel like my sweet grandfather Joseph may rest in peace.
JULIA: Amanda, the best part too is that I don't have to go to the store and just accumulate all these plastic bottles. The best part is Blueland. They'll send you these little, little tablets and you put it in some water you shake it up and now I have brand new cleaning tablets didn't have to buy a new bottle and it comes in incredible scents like Iris Agave, Perrine Lemon, which makes me sound really fancy and Lavender Eucalyptus
AMANDA: Like California Eucalyptus. I love it.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: It's from their best-selling Clean Essentials Kit to the hand soap duo and plastic-free laundry and dishwasher tablets. Blueland has something for every inch of your home. Do it.
JULIA: So right now you can get 20% off your first order when you go to blueland.com/spirits. That's 20% off your first order of any Blueland product at blueland.com/spirits. blueland.com/spirits.
AMANDA: And finally, Julia now a word from our sponsor BetterHelp. When I was growing up, Julia, if I said the word 'therapy', people would say ha hmm, don't say that again. And now times a different times changing. Even here on Long Island, you're getting the memo that therapy can be really good for you. It's not just when you're getting divorced when your parents get divorced or when your kids get divorced. No, it's when life is overwhelming. It's when you're feeling burned out. It's when you're feeling stressed.
JULIA: And BetterHelp, Amanda it wants you to remind yourself to prioritize yourself and talking to someone who can help you figure out what's causing the stress in your life.
AMANDA: My therapist is a lovely woman also named Amanda and I see her through the BetterHelp app every single week. She is from somewhere in the South. It's undisclosed and so her accent and my accent are in an accent duel and it's lovely. And we talk about me we talk about strategies. We talk about how I can feel less panicked and worried in my day-to-day life. Therapy is worth trying. You deserve someone. I really it's really the Es that are getting me that made me sound like John Kennedy you deserve it, okay? Treat yourself, get a therapist. Try BetterHelp.
JULIA: BetterHelp is a customized online therapy that offers video, phone, and even live chat sessions for you therapists so you don't have to see anyone on camera if you don't want to. It is much more affordable than in person-
AMANDA: Much more affordable!
JULIA: Much more affordable than in-person therapy and you can be matched with a therapist in under 48 hours.
AMANDA: Under 48 hours!
JULIA: Our listeners get 10% off their first month.
AMANDA: At betterhelp.com/spirits. Listen to me, that's better H E L P.com/spirits. Now let's get back to the show.
JULIA: Now, Amanda, naturally because we were talking about Long Island myths, we got to be drinking some Long Island beer!
AMANDA: I thought you're gonna say iced teas for a second. And I was like, no, please, no.
JULIA: No, nope, we've learned our lessons, no. Now, Amanda, what is what's your favorite brewery on Long Island? Because I want to like recommend some for people who maybe are visiting the area for you know, to see the Satan House and stuff like that.
AMANDA: I really am fond of Blue {oint. You have made it a real favorite of mine as well.
JULIA: Yeah, it's very good. I'm also a big fan of the Great South Bay Brewery, DUB Co. is also a very nice and fun one. There's a lot of great options actually. Long Island's brewery scene is popping off right now and I love that.
AMANDA: Yes. Much more so than when we were teens just drinking Natty Lights in the woods.
JULIA: Yep, sure did.
AMANDA: Sure did. So next time you visit Long Island or the New York City area, look for one of our local brews. I think you'll enjoy it. Now Julia, one of the things I was most excited to read about in that thread was about the Montauk Monster, which since we've started thinking about and planning this podcast in 2015, my mother has been Facebook messaging me every three or four months, some kind of new story about the Montauk Monster and so it has been a long time coming. We are indeed almost 300 episodes in, sorry, mom. But now, in fact, I'm going to cover it. I'm going to talk about the Montauk Monster.
JULIA: Let's do it. It's one of my favorites.
AMANDA: What did you know like in a sentence or two, Julia? What did you know about the Montauk Monster? When have you encountered it? What are you bringing to the table?
JULIA: What I remember was, hey, weird dead animal carcass washed up on shore. No one can identify what this possibly is. It doesn't look like any animal that anyone could possibly identify. Is it some weird like, government experiment? Government experiment, I think was the one that I saw a lot of. So-
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: Tell me about that.
AMANDA: This like any good Long Island story happens in the height of summer. This is in July on the very tip of Long Island in Montauk. And for whatever reason, this loomed so large in the mythology of like stuff people know about Long Island that I assumed it happened like 30 years ago. It was in 2008, Julia.
JULIA: Yeah, it was recent.
AMANDA: I didn't really we were in high school for this. We were living on Long Island. I have no memory of this being a fresh story. I just remember it kind of always being in the zeitgeist. So this is the basic story. So a woman called Jenna Hewitt says that she and her friends were looking for a place to sit when they saw some people looking at something they didn't know what it was and joked that maybe it was something from Plum Island.
JULIA: Ah.
AMANDA: Put a pin in that one because we're gonna get back to it. And so her color photo of the creature ran in the press as a sort of like mysterious creature. I won't describe it that much because I'm not really into gore but it was kind of like an unidentifiable creepy-looking you know carcass of an animal.
JULIA: Kind of slimy look. Slimy looking like gray skin.
AMANDA: Yeah, had definitely been, you know, in the water for a while and washed up on the shores of Long Island. As you know, carcasses do all of us have come across jellyfish or crab or, you know, bird carcass on the beach, unfortunately. But this was like very unusual and totally hairless, so very hard to identify kind of what it was one of the original stories about this was titled The Hound of Bonneville, which is both a reference to sort of Arthur Conan Doyle and also a pun on the name monikers, which East Hampton residents call themselves very funny. And the article was kind of like light-hearted and mocking and speculate that the creature might be a turtle or some kind of mutant experiment from Plum Island and Deaton. They called in a man named Larry Penny from the East Hampton Natural Resources Society who concluded that it was a raccoon with its upper jaw missing and that seems to be kind of the prevailing theory still. They've quoted lots of experts all of whom sound pretty, pretty exasperated to be putting their PhDs to use for this purpose. William Weiss of Stony Brook University's Living Marine Resources Institute looked at the photo and was like, meh, that's a fake though potentially it could be a disease dog or coyote that had been in the sea for a while was a specific quote. However, this really took a story and a turn of its own when some people tipped off a cryptozoologist named Loren with an 'O' Coleman.
JULIA: Oh boy. Listen, listen. You know? I know cryptozoologists, I think they're fun. I think the great. Guys, we gotta calm down about things that we find in the ocean.
AMANDA: Yeah, we really do. The ocean has lots and lots of shit that we can't fathom, with our land loving legs. And listen, it's a carcass of an animal. It's sad. Let it go. That's what I think ultimately, but Loren Coleman was like, Well, I can't fly from where I am in the Mid-US to New York in time to see this animal. As a reminder, it is rapidly decomposing. So instead, he just named it the Montauk Monster and it took a turn from there.
JULIA: Sir, no.
AMANDA: And so I thought, Okay, well, that sounds about right. unidentified animal, washed up on the shore, people took photos, newspapers ran headlines, and you know, for whatever reason, it has really persisted ever since. But no, Julia, this deepens and it becomes my favorite kind of story and New York Media Deep Dive.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: So this is the real story of the Montauk Monster, as reported by New York Magazine, a woman named [35:59] Alana Novitsky, who works for a PR agency.
JULIA: What a name.
AMANDA: Says, and I quote, "I got this email and open it from my girlfriend who works at Harris Publications, which has nothing to do with anything. Anyway, my girlfriend's sister." My girlfriend's sorry, "My girlfriend's sister was there with the friends and one of them took a picture–"
JULIA: There we go. Thank you, thank you.
AMANDA: "They were like this the scary shit we ever seen. And so I'm in Marketing. We were like, maybe we should send it to a few blogs and see if anyone else is as freaked out as we are. We had no idea that it would turn into this now it's literally a beast of its own nerf, but it has nothing to do with any kind of campaign." says Alana.
JULIA: Hmm.
AMANDA: So Julia, this woman who works at a PR agency got an email from her friend of like, look at this shit, and then forwarded it to the head of Gawker.
JULIA: Oh my god.
AMANDA: The Montauk Monster began as a Gawker Post.
JULIA: Oh, my god.
AMANDA: Which then local publications from all over Long Island picked up this Gawker post and republished the photo in black and white cuz I was wondering to myself if this originally came out in a print paper, how do we have a color photograph that's so popular? No, it was like a 300-word Gawker post, just like shit washed up on the beach. isn't that scary? Ha ha ha, goodbye. Because it's 37:10 and Gawker is where media gets its tips and sources from.
JULIA: Incredible, truly, truly incredible.
AMANDA: And so, in reading some of these articles back I saw a number of very good sort of like related headlines like recommended reading under this article. That's like the real story of the Montauk Monster.
JULIA: Hit me with them. Hit me with them.
AMANDA: East Hampton Bureaucrats deny Montauk Monster is beast from hell.
JULIA: Great.
AMANDA: Montauk Monster Mania, a portrait of the monster as a young man. What today's monster news tells us about New Yorkers, which by the way, managed to tie the Montauk Monster to the murder of Kitty Genovese and the breakdown of society post 911. It was a trip.
JULIA: What?
AMANDA: And yeah, Paging Darwin: Is Montauk Sea Monster Real or Photoshop Phantasy.
JULIA: Incredible.
AMANDA: This might not be as interesting to everyone else as it is to me.
JULIA: No, it is.
AMANDA: But the Montauk Monster began as a Gawker tip from a woman who works at a PR agency and her friend who also works in publishing of like, hey, let's see if we can make this a thing.
JULIA: That's so cool.
AMANDA: And there is nothing more East End Montauk to me than that because Montauk is like the slightly less popular Hamptons like this is where rich people from New York City go to summer and to see and be seen and the fact that this very very Montauk mystery, you say the word monster and people all over will say, you know, oh, the Montauk Monster or there are weird carcasses found all over the place to this day and people thought, Oh, the Montauk Monster. It's nothing. It's invented. It's from the press.
JULIA: That is wild. For– for some context for people not from Long Island, Montauk is one of the towns that the town of Amity from Jaws, the movie is based off of. So just like think of that vibe, that's what Montauk is. But like a little bit more upscale now because gentrification.
AMANDA: Exactly and there are just two more quotes that I want to just surface to you, Julia, I know you'll appreciate them. So the kind of like the way all these articles about the Montauk Monster end is like a no one knows what happened to it because it is not really clear where the carcass went or who took it. Two quotes. So one source says that the woman who found it kept calling Animal Control quote, "She wanted to name it after herself. I think they came and got it, the carcass whatever it was."
JULIA: That-
AMANDA: Hilarious.
JULIA: That's so- why would you want to name it after yourself?
AMANDA: An excellent question. The second was, "They say an old guy came and carted it away. He said, 'I'm gonna add it on my wall."
JULIA: What? Again, it's a rapidly decomposing-
AMANDA: Animal. I don't know.
JULIA: He's probably a hobbyist taxidermy guy. And that's-
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: –the funniest shit I have ever heard.
AMANDA: Yeah, but the real reason I think that this caught on and that first thing that I mentioned to you that first quote from Jenna Hewitt saying, maybe this is something from Plum Island. That's really the heart in the context of the Montauk Monster and a much longer standing myth here on Long Island.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: So Plum Island. The fact of this island where it is the fact that it exists plus two coincidences is what really makes it a hotbed for legends and conspiracy theories.
JULIA: Yes.
AMANDA: One, it is an animal disease testing site.
JULIA: Sure is.
AMANDA: Two, it is right across the bay from Lyme, Connecticut, which is where Lyme disease comes from or was first identified [40:08].
JULIA: Yep.
AMANDA: So the origin of Plum Island it's a small I've seen it described several times as a porkchop shaped Island–
JULIA: That's true.
AMANDA: –off the coast of Long Island about 100 miles east of New York City. The Department of Agriculture authorized the creation of a laboratory to fight animal diseases back in the 1950s and they chose a site that was sort of far enough offshore that they could try and reduce the spread of any pathogens, right? It's like meant to be setting diseases they don't want it to be on the mainland.
JULIA: So that's like smart but also like if you have to think about that maybe creating this lab is not the best idea.
AMANDA: Yeah, it's a real like, Ha-ha, captured hero, let me just reveal my fatal flaw type of vibe. So they chose the site of Plum Island which had previously had a US Army Fort named Fort Terry which from 1879 to 1948, it's one of the easternmost edges of the US and so they use it originally to kind of like look for the British and then also as a defense during World War 2 attempting to make sure there were no sort of U boats and attacks coming from the East.
JULIA: Which fun fact: Did you know that a German U boat did land on Long Island during World War 2?
AMANDA: I have heard that.
JULIA: They fucked up their mission so hard that like no one's ever actually like heard of it unless they studied World War 2 military history. It's very funny.
AMANDA: And I keep seeing this place referred to as a like secret military base or a secret testing facility. It's not actually that secret. There was a great article quoting several people who work at Plum Island, someone's like, we don't actually do any classified work at all. Our scientists publish reports on everything we do snd in fact, Plum Island is a really important scientific sort of backbone of the US. They house the only Foot and Mouth Disease vaccine bank in North America, which maintains a variety of vaccines that combat the many, many strains of Foot and Mouth Disease should be very fatal and very contagious among herds of animals. If an animal displays signs of potentially having Foot and Mouth Disease, they are flown immediately to Suffolk County where then they are airlifted in a helicopter to Plum Island.
JULIA: That's so funny. I'm sorry.
AMANDA: I know.
JULIA: Just imagine a cow getting that treatment.
AMANDA: Yep. And in fact, Plum Island has helped eradicate two diseases Rinderpest, which is a deadly cattle disease.
JULIA: Great.
AMANDA: And smallpox, which, you know, amazing.
JULIA: Hell yeah. I'm laughing because I feel like people call it a secret military base or a secret science, whatever, because you can't do tours on it and Long Islanders are nosy. So they're just like, well, I couldn't go there when I wanted to go there so it must be a secret.
AMANDA: You're completely right. However, when the thought that somebody else could own it really got them all riled up. So it was announced in the 2010s that advances in the ways that we can guard against disease escaping mean that when they do research like this, a lab no longer has to be offshore, it can just be like a highly secure lab that is instead on land or underground. So government announced that by 2023, Plum Island will be shut down–
JULIA: No!
AMANDA: –and replaced by the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan, Kansas, which again, just sounds like it's set up for a comic book sort of apocalypse.
JULIA: That sounds like a new season of Stranger Things.
AMANDA: Yeah, it really does. Well, Julia, put a pin in that too.
JULIA: What?
AMANDA: In 2022, a coalition of concerned citizens stopped the sale of the island, the government was attempting to auction off the island and the facilities that were left there after the lab shuts down.
JULIA: Man, we could have gotten such a deal.
AMANDA: Could have such a deal. This was in sort of 2016 and 17.
JULIA: That was the perfect time to buy real estate then.
AMANDA: Exactly, and the auction was being kind of set up like the government went as far as to put up an auction page, which I find a little bit fucked up just in theory, and people were like, oh, no, Trump's gonna turn into a Golf Resort, which I'm sure he would have.
JULIA: He probably would.
AMANDA: But instead, a coalition of concerned citizens protecting Plum Island stopped the sale of the land and they're now petitioning to make it like a conservation for the harbor seals and birds that nest there.
JULIA: I love harbor seals.
AMANDA: I know.
JULIA: One of the like, non-Long Island references to Plum Island that always makes me laugh is in The Silence of the Lambs movie. Clarice Starling like makes a deal with Hannibal Lecter being like, listen, if you give us some help, I'll get you transferred to a different facility. And the facilities on Plum Island he's like, oh, the animal disease place she's like, I hear [44:23] nest their and he's like, girl. It's very funny.
AMANDA: The fact of this- the fact that they do animal testing people talk about like animal hybrids and like strange experiments. And the fact is they you know, test diseases and they test vaccines and you know, none of the animals look any different. They are– they are, you know, being used in testing.
JULIA: Not that we know about, Amanda.
AMANDA: That we know about. And Julia, all of these, you know, conspiracy thoughts and theories take a bit of a darker turn when it comes to Camp Hero, which is right nearby, and again, some facts some fiction. So this was a military base. It's called Montauk Air Force Base, aka Camp hero, which got that moniker in the 1940s. And again, versions of this have existed since the Revolutionary War. This is the creepy part, I think that really made cover-up, sort of theories flourish later that they designed the base as a coastal fishing village. So official military structures were designed to look like cottages they were given, like, you know, the appearance of wood siding, they had windows painted on the gymnasium looks like a church and sort of relics of these buildings are still seen where it really looks like a creepy little town for anybody, you know, surveilling it from from the ocean.
JULIA: Yup, yup.
AMANDA: And much like the fact of plum islands, you know, it really was there. It's a 754 acres looking out for, you know, German U boats or enemy ships or any kind of invasion of New York City, particularly early on, there was like a very long account I heard of George Washington making his way not exactly to this base, but like near it and then he turned around somewhere around Patchogue when people were like, no, no, he really loved it. And like later when he recovered from pneumonia, he was like, Montauk should have lighthouse then like we made it a little lighthouse there. So really just like grasping for the George Washington tie-in.
JULIA: We love those.
AMANDA: I thought was very funny. But the bass was shut down, it was turned into a park. And since the 80s, when the base was shut down, but before it turned into a park where people could actually go there, there have been a lot of conspiracy theories about what happened there. If you Google Camp Hero, all of the things that come up are the real-life military base that inspired Stranger Things.
JULIA: Yep.
AMANDA: Because this is what Stranger Things was going to be Stranger Things was originally titled Montauk, that was its working title. While they have now set the series in Indiana, it was supposed to take place in Montauk in the eastern edge of Long Island.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: And all of the things that you may recognize from season one, many of them come from some of the rumors and Googling this I was like, huh, it really is true that urban legends take a sharp turn into conspiracy theories–
JULIA: Sure do.
AMANDA: –that are like damaging and really disturbing quite quickly. And so this includes allegations of secret government experiments on children psychological warfare, teleportation, time travel.
JULIA: Time travel is my favorite of those.
AMANDA: It gets really deep. And you know, it's– it's, it's pretty creepy to think about.
JULIA: Yeah, it is. But also kind of fun kind of cool. You know?
AMANDA: Kind of creepy kind of cool. That is for sure.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: To this day, when you visit the park, you are given a brochure about like what to do if you come across a landmine, what to do if you see a bullet which several different people who offered several different posts were like, yeah, it was pretty creepy. Like I'll do a lot for work. But like this was this felt pretty dangerous. And there is still a siege radar tower. So this is like a particular kind of radar like trying to detect incoming attacks, you know, with enough time to sort of evacuate the area. And a lot of people had stories about headaches, about television interference about like electronic devices getting scrambled while that was in operation because it just operates at a frequency that other devices do too.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: So that has been known to happen elsewhere as well.
JULIA: Cool. I love that.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Could be aliens. Could be alien technology. Amanda,
AMANDA: One thing that conspiracy theorists really like to point out is that in the deed in 1984, that turned the land over into parkland and it was 1984.
JULIA: Because of course, that's public. Yeah.
AMANDA: Yeah. It's specified that all things at or above ground level are ceded to Parkland.
JULIA: Oh, no.
AMANDA: Anything below ground level remains government property.
JULIA: That- No, no!
AMANDA: Yes, and so, this is really the heart of the myth today, where there are a lot of manhole covers. There are known to be tunnels and bunkers. There are some kind of munitions storehouses that have been bricked in or concreted over. And so all of these are like varyingly accessible, some people have sort of done like urban spelunking, and you know, attempted to go down there. And there are a lot of stories like oh, well, my friend's friend, you know, was able to make it into the manhole that is kind of like the form that this myth takes today.
JULIA: Classic. I love that. That reminds me of we were hiking down in Delaware while we were visiting my mother in law, and one of the hikes that we went on was a place that used to be a World War 2 like base and you know, you're like, just you're walking through the woods, you're having a great time. It's kind of along the beach, and all of a sudden you like come across like a like wall of concrete with a giant rusted metal door on it. It's like this. I feel like I'm in like a horror movie right now. I feel like this is like Resident Evil or something like that and that's the vibe the Camp Hero gives me
AMANDA: Yeah, it is very, very creepy to see the sign saying like, Closed to the Public, you know, Potentially Dangerous, like all the signage, it's there to prevent you from danger just feels like it's inviting you into the danger or inviting the danger to you-
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: -is how I felt. But Julia, of course, it wouldn't be a Long Island experience if there wasn't kind of bitchy customer service emails and reviews about it. So just to close out the Camp Hero and Montauk Monster stories. I do have a couple of reviews I wanted to share with you from Ilikehauntedhouses.com.
JULIA: Please.
AMANDA: All about Camp Hero. So we have one, one positive review and one slightly negative review. Which one would you like first?
JULIA: You know what? I'd like to hear the positive and then I'd like to see how bad the negative voice comparatively.
AMANDA: So the reading skill here is up to five pumpkins.
JULIA: Oh.
AMANDA: And the more positive of the two reviews is titled: Soldier Ghost.
JULIA: Great.
AMANDA: From August 2021.
JULIA: Wow.
AMANDA: And it says, "Saw the ghost of a soldier several times while there, four out of five pumpkins." I'd like to know what would merit a five out of five pumpkins? That's pretty legit.
JULIA: That ghost had to come up and talk to you. That ghost had to come and possess you.
AMANDA: Right?
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: And then on the other end of things, the slightly negative review from December of 2020 was, Maybe Next Time and the body of the review says, "Wasn't able to get that far." Three out of five pumpkins.
JULIA: Okay, Amanda, we're gonna have to go here now. I gotta review I gotta get that five pumpkins.
AMANDA: Still holding out hope.
JULIA: Incredible. I love that. So, so much. Now Amanda, I know you have one more story and I think it's going to tie very nicely into my last story. Ooh. So let's talk about South Haven Park and the UFO crash of 1992.
AMANDA: Yes, I love this because one of the things I claimed was Brookhaven labs–
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: –thinking Oh, wow. Okay. It's a research lab, they have a Heavy Ion Collider. My uncle used to work there, my great uncle, but then I couldn't find anything about it except the fact that like they work on physics projects, and there was once a UFO that somebody claimed the Heavy Ion Collider shut down. So tell me what you found.
JULIA: South Haven County Park is located in South Haven, New York. It is one of Suffolk county's first parks that was actually open to the public, which I think is really interesting. And I have not personally been to this park but I do need to read you a five-star review from AllTrails about this park real quick.
AMANDA: Yey!
JULIA: Because I want to look up and like see what the park looked like and stuff like that. And this is the most book wild shit I've ever read on the website my entire life.
AMANDA: Oh my gosh, I'm so glad we both found online reviews of haunted things in Long Island.
JULIA: "From the minute I stepped foot into these unforgiving trails..." This is a five-star review by the way.
AMANDA: Oh my.
JULIA: "From the minute that I stepped foot into these unforgiving trails, I immediately felt a sense of comfort as I had found a home away from home where to begin!" with an exclamation point, "...with each stride deeper into the heavy growth of the forest. The gunshots from the shooting range became even clearer resonating through the brisk fall air. Although the sound of gunshots may be off-putting to those who are faint of heart I for one found it almost calming, bringing back forgotten memories of my childhood. Growing up in the shadow of the mob. I was no stranger to the sound of firearms."
AMANDA: What?!
JULIA: "And in my younger years, I even had a knack for being able to tell the caliber fired by just the sound. That's how I got my nickname, Ears."
AMANDA: Ears?!
JULIA: "My talent was legendary and it seemed like I was on the fast track to stardom but it was only fitting that my troubled past, the very thing that allowed me to discover my talents would be the thing that also inhibited me from advancing any further. I knew it was all over when I got a call from Smiles that Sugar Plum Davis got nabbed by the Feds and he was singing like the canary. I remember it like it was yesterday before I could even hang up the door to my apartment was crashing down. It was Detective Edwards with what seemed like the whole 114 precinct. They clocked me in irons but I wouldn't squeal, years later I found out that smiles got busted that same day and he spilled the beans regardless. 26 years on Rikers charged with racketeering gumball machines, looking back on it, do I think it was all worth it? God, I hope so. Five stars."
AMANDA: I'm speechless. Holy shit. What- what just happened to me?
JULIA: It's probably fiction, but it's the most strange thing I've ever read on AllTrails in my entire life.
AMANDA: I am equally happy if this happened to this person or if they decided you know where I should trial my short story. This review of this trail and AllTrails.com
JULIA: Oh, god it's so stupid.
AMANDA: I love it.
JULIA: Oh so like the– the reason that they talked about that is there is a shooting range that's very close to the– the trail. A lot of people have mentioned that it's very off-putting because you're walking through the forest and all of a sudden there's like gunshots nearby.
AMANDA: I would hope that the shooting range actually exists as opposed to phantom noises.
JULIA: No, that wouldn't be on par with the kind of story that's happening here. Anyway, aside from all that. The reason we're talking about this on the episode is because on November 24, 1992, at around 7 PM There was a supposed UFO crash in that park. Apparently, according to sources, this was like witnessed by many people since the park is very near Sunrise Highway, which for people not from Long Island is probably one of the most traveled highways. One witness described the shape that they saw before it crashed as tubular in shape with two large bright blue lights on each end with a bright white light in its center, whose structure was composed of a dolt metallic, great texture. Now I take umbrage with a lot of UFO sighting descriptions because they are all so cool clinical. And I'm like a guy on Long Island going past South Haven is not going to be like it had a dull metallic gray texture to it, you know?
AMANDA: It sounds like a police report. Yeah.
JULIA: It does– it does it's very like it always feels very clinical and that's like one of my big problems with like UFO and like cryptozoology reports in general. Is that this sounds like a scientist wrote this.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: You're trying to give this more credit and like make it sound like it's legit by making it sound like, very scientific.
AMANDA: Yeah, but I for one, would give a lot more kind of credence to it if they're like yeah, I caught a glimpse of it, it was you know, long and gray and glowing at both ends and gave me a sinister feeling. I'd be like, okay.
JULIA: You're like oh, yeah, man, like just came out. I know what like they described like, the entry as being like 30 degrees and I'm like–
AMANDA: Come on.
JULIA: –no Long Islander would know what that no, sorry, my guy.
AMANDA: No.
JULIA: Basically, this guy saw this. A lot of witnesses saw it crashed in the park. Residents near the crash said that there were all sorts of mechanical and electrical glitches that same night including like, phones ringing with no one else on the other line, and TVs only showing static, which I think is really interesting and kind of goes back to the stuff we were discussing with Camp Hero and messing with the frequencies.
AMANDA: The radar, yeah.
JULIA: So supposedly the park was closed for three days. And this is when supposedly Brookhaven National Labs were called in and witnesses state that a large flatbed truck was brought into the park and then remove something large back to the lab. One individual online that I could find claimed that his brother used to work for the labs and said that a living alien was brought back to the lab after the crash.
AMANDA: Big claim, guy.
JULIA: Yeah, there are also claimed that the crash site has left some residual effects. So like trees that are bent as if they were almost torn out the ground, a round area that from an aerial perspective shows no trees growing and also they claim that there is quote, no electromagnetic field at the crash site, which I don't know a lot about science. I don't know what that means. Doesn't everything have electromagnetic field? Or does– does only certain things have electromagnetic fields? I don't know.
AMANDA: I don't know.
JULIA: I don't know.
AMANDA: Write in, let us know.
JULIA: But apparently, you know, Brookhaven National Labs was called in to retrieve this crash UFO, supposedly, or maybe a living alien, the guy who is claiming that his brother that worked for the labs. He's like, he told me this on his deathbed. He went to his grave with this and I'm just like, I'm sure that's all true.
AMANDA: Yeah, I found a couple of threads of people talking about Brookhaven. And someone was like, oh, yeah, my wife worked there like they just do physics. And the guy was like, you don't know what she doesn't know, bro. And he was like, ummm, I guess. Like it was very-
JULIA: She also like might not tell you, guy.
AMANDA: Right. Like it was very, it was very like reaching and hoping that something was true.
JULIA: So those are our Long Island myths. I think that there are a good mix of both oooh, haunted house, like we discussed with Amityville and stuff like that and also like more like scientific conspiracy theory stuff than I thought there was which I'm very glad that you brought that Camp Hero and Plum Island and Montauk Monster stuff to us, Amanda because I do love a scientific conspiracy for funsies.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Not like very seriously. I'm not a conspiracy theorist at all. But I do love a funsies one.
AMANDA: I am just so tickled that the perhaps best known Long Island urban legend since the Amityville Horror started out as a friend's friend who was in Montauk and works in PR who emailed somebody who emailed it to the head of Gawker, her boss was on vacation and probably would have said no to the story–
JULIA: [58:33]
AMANDA: –instead, she said, go for it, and just is there more in New York in the summertime story than that?
JULIA: Hell no.
AMANDA: Hell no.
JULIA: I love that well listeners next time you are on Long Island, be sure to visit one of the places that we mentioned here and remember as always, to-
JULIA: Stay creepy.
AMANDA: Stay cool.
[outro]
AMANDA: Spirits was created by Amanda McLoughlin, Julia Schifini, and Eric Schneider with music by Kevin MacLeod and visual design by Alison Wakeman.
JULIA: Keep up with all things creepy and cool by following us @SpiritsPodcast on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Tumblr. We also have all of our episode transcripts, guest appearances, and merch on our website. As well as a form to send us in your urban legends and your advice from folklore questions at spiritspodcast.com.
AMANDA: Join our member community on Patreon, patreon.com/spiritspodcast, for all kinds of behind-the-scenes goodies. Just $1 gets you access to audio extras with so much more. Like recipe cards with alcoholic and nonalcoholic for every single episode, directors' commentaries, real physical gifts, and more.
JULIA: We are a founding member of Multitude, an independent podcast collective, and production studio. If you like Spirits you will love the other shows that live on our website at multitude.productions.
AMANDA: Above all else, if you liked what you heard today, please text one friend about us. That's the very best way to help keep us growing.
JULIA: Thanks for listening to Spirits. We'll see you next week.
AMANDA: Bye!
Transcriptionist: KM