Legends From Haiti and the Dominican Republic

This is Christina and welcome to a Spooky Tales. This next story is from the Sempting Scary podcast, read by host Blair Bathory. Something Scary shares ghost stories, folklore, and other spooky tales from around the world every Tuesday. You can also find them on YouTube, where they do a weekly animated scary video. We're so glad they shared a story with us today, hope you enjoy. Some of us are saddened by family members passing on and leaving us feeling very lonely, but others feel that they departed are always by their side, like in this story inspired by Brooklyn. I remember vividly the first time I encountered the paranormal. That memory seemed to have seeped into my bones. I must have been around four or five years old, nestled in my bed, the soft glow of my elephant nightlight casting shadows on the walls. Suddenly I awoke to a sight that would forever haunt my dreams. There looming over me was a man. His presence sent shivers down my spine. His figure was obscured by the dim light. But what frightened me the most was the gaping wound across his throat and the blue and purple bruised flesh surrounding it. Frozen with fear, all I could manage was a scream, fleeting for him to leave me, be despare me from whatever harm he planned for me. Please, I cried out, my voice trembling with terror. Yet despite my protest, there he stood, as if desperate to show me the horrors that he had endured. Thankfully, my parents rushed to my room. Their comforting presence seemed to make him disappear. But even as they tried to soothe me, I couldn't shake the image of the man from my mind. Desperate to call me and get back to sleep, my parents brought me into their room for the night, hoping that the safety of their bed would chase away the nightmares that haunted me. Yet try as I might, I couldn't escape the memory of that man standing over my bed. In the days that followed, I found myself plagued by the memory of the encounter, Unable to focus on anything else. My thoughts wandered, consumed by the man with the slit throat. Concern for my well being, my parents sought help, and soon I found myself sitting in the office of a counselor grappling with the demons that lurked within my subconscious He was the only thing I would draw when they gave me a pad in crayons. No amount of therapy could erase the memory of that night. The image of the man burned into my mind like a scar upon my soul. But all the adults around me just wanted to forget, or at least pretend like I was. Okay. It was a day like any other. When I was gathering my toys for a bath. I passed by my mother's room, only to be stopped in my tracks by the sight of a woman sitting on her bed. She was ethereal, sitting in a bright circle of light. Yet there was a warmth to her presence that eased the fear that clinched at my heart. As I stood there, transfixed by her gaze, I could feel her longing for connection, her silent plea for comfort. Without hesitation, I announced her presence to my mother, played it off as if it was my imagination. She asked me what the lady was doing, and I said that she wanted a hug. Then I described her in great detail, her long flower dress, her cropped hair and her tortoise shell glasses with a red jim heart on the side. My mother's face dropped. My mother stood there for a moment and told me that I should hug that woman, and so, with trembling hands, I reached out to the figure before me, wrapping her in a tender embrace that seemed to bridge the gap between the living and the dead. In that moment, I felt a sense of peace wash over me, as though I had finally found my purpose in this strange and mysterious world. But it wasn't until my mother pulled out an old photo album that the truth of the matter was revealed. For there, amongst the faded photographs and cherish memories was a picture of the woman I had seen, my grandmother, my mother's mother, who had passed away long before I was born. With that revelation, my mother's disbelief turned to acceptance, her eyes opened to the possibility that there were forces to play beyond our understanding, and so instead of sending me to the counselor, she went to the Internet in search of someone who could help guide me on the newfound path. Together, she showed me how to open myself up to encounters with the supernatural. With each visit, I found myself growing stronger, my connection to the spirit world deepening with every passing day. It wasn't long before we unearthed the dark history of our own home. The the original owner, it seemed, had met a gruesome end at the hands of his own wife. She had discovered he had been unfaithful, and took to slitting his throat while he bent over pulling laundry from the dryer in the basement. I stood in the basement where his life had been snuffed out. In an instant, I couldn't help but feel a sense of empathy for the tortured soul that lingered there. In his death, he had found a voice, a chance to tell his story to someone who would listen to me. And so that is what I do now. I listen. I listened to the stories of the dead, their voices echoing in the recesses of my mind, their tales waiting to be told. I am not just a witness to the supernatural. I am a conduit, a bridge between the worlds of the living and the dead. And though the path ahead may be fraught with peril and uncertainty, I walk it with a sense of purpose, knowing that I am not alone. For in the darkness that surrounds me, I find solace in the knowledge that the spirits of the departed are always by my side, guiding me on my journey into the unknown. Are you someone who has the gift who have been able to contact the other side? Has it been a positive experience or did something go terribly wrong? Tell us your haunting stories by sending us an email at something Scary at snarled dot com. Hi, everyone, this is Christina, and this is MJ and Carmen, Yes, and MJ's bag and now on the three of us. MJ, how does it feel to be bad? We missed you? We all missed you. It feels strange but I miss it too. Weird but good? Yeah, weird but good. Well, today we're talking about stories from are not stories legends? I guess legends from the dominemic Dominican I'm putting that. I'm sorry, Okay, go on the Dominican Republic. Yeah, I'm going to resay that because that's all getting cut. Okay, So we can't even get myself together. Okay, we're talking about legends from the Dominican Republic. And Haiti. But before we get to all of that, Carmen, you have our listener's story. I do. Yeah. If anyone else wants to send it in a listener story, you can email a spookyos at gmail dot com. You can send it via d M on any of the socials, though Instagram is probably the easiest one, and you can call it a spooky hotline. That's another option. So yeah, there's a bunch of ways you can. You can submit it on discord. I forgot about that. I forgot it was a thing. I haven't even looked at it, and so did I'm Jay. Yeah, I haven't been on this board in like forever. She joined well and said I'm here and then didn't open it again. Yeah. Yeah, So those are all options, Like I'll check one of them for sure, no doubt about that. No, no listener stories. We'll get there. They're there. I see them when they come in. You know, do I forget to which ones I've already read? Maybe yes? But yeah, yeah, Carmen, do you want to read this listener story? Yeah? All right. So this is from Batrees aka Trelera dash Aventuras. So she says, I have always been a big fan of the paranormal and I love to listen and watch anything that has to do with the paranormal. In my extra free time, I love to go ghost hunting, which, by the way, I would really love to see you ladies go on a ghost investigation. That's a negative dog. It's a no for me of one of you is gonna go with me one day going by yourself. I actually did just go with the ladies from the P ANDW Hunts and Homicide I saw went to court Townsend. Yeah, there's gonna be probably a couple of episodes over on their feet and a couple of weeks I think is when they're gonna come out. But we're going to talk about our experiences. But yeah, we we did try to go go hunting. My little spirit box did not arrive for me in time, so we used some random apps on phones, so it's probably not legit. I did have an EMF reader with me though, so yeah, more on that later. Sorry, go on with the listeners. Sorry, Okay, Well you went ghost hunting, so now me and MJ don't have to go with you. Well, there's more places to go. The one place I want to go is what is it called the house over there by Santa Clara. Oh jeez, my brain is uh the Winchester. Oh, I went, but I didn't like ghost hunting. I just did it tour. Was it nice? At least it was cool? Yeah? I love seeing like the old house. My friend that sees things felt weird in the house and house sometimes some people feel like weird, like physical symptoms like a stomach ache or like a headache, nausea. Yeah, I think she felt nauseous and she had like a headache. So take timel and all before you go. I'll be fine. I went, Now it was fine. Does title no work for paranormal headaches? Hm? So you should investigate that questions thanks to ponder. What about the other one, the national one dramaline or dermaline or whatever it's called dramamine? Oh yeah, yeah, so it was cool. You should go wait for me to visit and we'll all go and we could do that too. Yeah. Yeah, I doesn't. Yeah, if I go visit Ukarmon because mommy is not in La anymore. Yeah, so then I'm going to be We're all gonna be in the same area sort of. So yeah, I'll be cool to go during Halloween November. I went in October, like before Halloween. What's the other haunted place that we have here around in the valley nights? Very supposedly? Yeah, yeah, that one my friends went when long ago. You know them, Christina, Our same friends that we have, well, you know them too. I'm dying. Oh yeah, I forgot about that. The people that we know, the people we all know. Yes, they went hell late once and but I don't think they saw anything. But you know how, you're just like hyping each other up because you're scared. That's just all they did. Yeah, but I don't think they saw anything. Mckenry mentioned too. Supposedly I heard that. I've been there too. I've never been there from the outside. Yeah, me too. Did you well know you wouldn't see anything? Yeah, you know, I didn't see anything. Okay, well, I guess we'll discuss our paranoral feature of Paranormal Adventures another time so we can read the listeners story. Okay, back to the story. I never started, but one night I was needing a fresh new paranormal podcast. Oh no, this is not the story. This is just how she found the podcast. So she was needing a fresh new paranormal podcast to listen to and click the search button on iHeartRadio and the Spooky Tals popped up, and she remembers thinking, as Spooky tells, damn, that's a cool name. Thank you. We worked really hard on it. And then she discovered you were a Mexican and that was a bonus Mexican and then from then she was hooked from the first episode. So she says thank you for keeping her night shift as spooky. Night shifts are already spooky. They are, Okay, here's the ghost story. You don't go back to first personnel. So my job requires me to go in and out of the rail yards. I have to say that the rail yards are a dangerous place to be in because you must be mindful of the moving trains. There are no lights or gates that warn you of a train moving, so they have a rail yard personnel stand in front of certain areas of the tracks as a safety measure. And so I feel like a rail is one of those words they say really weird, like rule and endure. It's like that for me, I didn't even notice. I don't know. I felt like I don't even know anything. Okay, now I'm focused on the words when you say it specifically, go on Okay. Last year, in November, I received a text from my brother, who is a truck driver, that a driver was struck and killed by a train within the rail yard. I quickly googled it, and sure enough, it was all over the news. I remember feeling so sad and sneaking of his family and how they were feeling. That night, I went to work hoping that they wouldn't dispatch me to that raal yard because I was still nervous about what had happened. Two weeks later, I was dispatched to take a load out of that railyard, and I remember searching for the trailer on the raillyard's app and instantly becoming nervous when I saw where it was located. The trailer was located in the same area where the truck driver had passed away. Oh geez. So I went in, hooked up the trailer, and quickly left. I want to add that I was quickly hooking up the trailer, I was paying my respects to the driver and just thinking about the way he died. Fast forward to January twenty twenty four and I get dispatched to that same rail yard again, I searched for the trailer on the raillyard's app and again it is located in the same area where the accident happened. I entered that specific area and saw my trailer. I had to do some extra work to get the trailer out of the parking spot, and an hour later, I'm finally making my way out of that area to towards the exit. At this time, I went on the phone with my husband and I began feeling so emotional and started telling him that out of the entire railyard, this was the worst area that a driver could have passed away in and how I felt so sad for him and his family. I outgated from the railyard and on my way to the customer, I decided to stop at a truck stop. I go in, use the restroom, and come back out. As I'm walking towards the truck, I started getting the trailer and choke in my eyes to ensure everything is still the way it's supposed to be. As I panned back to the truck, I saw a white, ghostly apparition of a puppy, A puppy puffy, A ghost puppy, Yes, a spirit puppy okay looking out the passenger side window. It was wagging its tail excitedly and pawing at the window. How cute. Oh my god, this is adorable. I'm getting chills all over again thinking about it. The puppy had long ears and like a beagle. I jumped back in shock and it disappeared. My first thought was, oh, man, I'm going crazy or I'm sleep deprived. I continued doing my inspection check around the trailer and jumped back into the truck. I didn't feel scared. I just kind of sat there looking at the passenger seat, trying to figure out if I had really seen what I had seen. I started the truck and start pulling off, and I start smelling a very faint smell of a men's cologne. I remember sniffing and trying to figure out where the colonne smell was coming from. The rest of the night, I continued to smell a faint colonne smell in the truck. For the next few days. I kept trying to figure out if I had really seen that puppy, and if I did, why did I see it. Fast forward to Friday of that same week. I went over to my brother's house so my sister in law could do my nails. I shared the story of what had happened to me earlier that week, and she said, oh, that reminds me of a story. She shared that many years ago, her brother had a puppy that looked just like Shiloh, you know that famous dog, Yes, and he had decided to sell it to a family. Shortly after he sold it, the family called him to say that the puppy had ran onto the tracks and was struck and killed by a train. I grabbed my phone and searched for pictures of Shiloh, and to my amazement, it looked exactly like the puppy I saw in the window, but older. I immediately got the chills because I realized, omg, it was a truck driver's spirit with me. Sharing the story with my sister in law connected the dots from me and answered my questions and doubts about what I had seen. So yes, I strongly believed that truck driver was accompanying me that night after I left the rail yard, which also explains why I smelled the faint odor of Amn's cologne. I have to continue to go to that raillyard, so maybe I'll have another story for you. Well, let us know if you do. Yeah. And then she just said that she hopes you enjoyed the story and that may give you full body escalafrios. Honestly you didn't because it so cute. Oh my god. Yeah, or a cat, even some sort of cute animal. You know, I wouldn't mind being haunted by Yeah, a dog or a cat. Yeah, that is adorable. I feel like the dog was like, I need to show myself to her because she was very sad when she was here. Maybe yeah, and maybe even though the overwhelming sadness that she started feeling was probably the guy who had died there. Yeah. And so then the little Shiloh was like, you know what, No, not in my watch. No one's going to be sad here, not in my row yard. Oh that was so cute. We rarely get cute ghost stories, though, that was great. Yes. Oh, well, who wants to go first? M J? MEI or you? You since it's your first episode? Okay, okay, you're like, sure, I guess, I guess usually we h what's the called? It's always you? But I'll go first. I'm a little bit rested. I'm sorry, guys, we all forgive you the long. COVID is still here, so you're gonna probably hear me clear my throat a lot. Okay, Oh same though I've been sick. Yeah, like I got sick back into summer and I still have a cough. That lingering cough with COVID is insane. It is insane and it doesn't want to go away. So I will say, like anahistamines do help. But anyways, okay, let's get back to that. Sorry, yes, yes, okay. So this next legend is the legend of Elbaca, and it's a legend from both the Dominican Republican Haiti. I am unsure if it's a single entity or a group of entities, as I also saw that they refer to them as los baca, so plural, but then some people think it's only one. I don't know. So what is Elbaca spelled bacca, b a c a or b a ka. It's considered to be a shape shifting demon. It's often portrayed as being Satan himself. While it's said to be able to shape shift into any animal, it's usually seen as a dog or bull. This demon is conjured for wealth success and other desires, but at a very high price. It is said to demand very big sacrifices in order to grant wealth and success. If its demands or not met, the pact can backfire, and depending on the source the payment is a loved one or your very own soul. There is a saying amongst the poor in the Dominican Republic that when a person has progressed economically, they are protected by elbaca. In Haiti, elbaka is used to protect a business and assets, and according to legend, a conjuror must be a man and he has to offer a son or a relative within the five years of makal success as you're the seventh son of Argentina. Oh yeah yeah. And then like within five years of making the pact, the person who they offered will begin to die and they will, in legend protect that conjure and his wealth. If the conjured backs out or regrets doing the pact, the person who they offered to elbaca will then have a very painful, very violent death as a result. So once the pact is made, it's in motion. The person offered, the person offered as payment will die anyways, Wow and sorry, did you say that you can only offer a male relative or did I make that up in my head? No, it's some say it's you can only offer a son or a other relative, but like I think it's like, how how good of a sacrifice are you giving me? Okay, top tier a son? Okay relative. I did say it with earlier, but I'm fine with that. So one's going to leave a review about how we hate men again one Sorry, I'm sorry, I can't help it. It said in Haiti you have to buy a baka, and the article on this doesn't go into detail on how you buy one. So I'm assuming you go and pay someone to do it, like a witch or something, or someone who practices a cult some kind of occultism. But it's not said how you buy a bacca. So I was a little bit confused. Maybe someone from the region can tell me, like, do you go to like a a witch doctor and buy like some kind of like spell that they do for you, or is it buying as in you have to offer payment like metaphorical? What is it? Why can't or both? So? Yeah, okay, So it is said that the legend of the bacca was used as a tool by landowners to bring fear to the people so they wouldn't steal from them. The Lauri is believed to come from Africa and have spread throughout the region during the slave trade. Many of the articles give caution to those who want to conjure up the baka, as sometimes it might just take some livestock, but sometimes it might leave those who conjure it up in ruins. Wow, that sounds like too risky. Like yeah, so like even if you do it, if he doesn't like you, he's gonna be like, mmm, I like you, You're a girl dead blocked delete And so you said. Sometimes it's like a dog, right, Yeah, it's either like it's supposed to have to shape shift. It's considered like a demonic shape shifter, and it's supposed to shape shift either into any animal, but mostly seen as a dog or a bull. And interesting, bulls are often like seen as symbols of wealth and prosperity. Hm hm, So I thought that was interesting, like the bull from Wall Street. Mm hmm, it's actually in bacca. Oh oh, everybody in Wall Street has abaca. I do have another story? Do you want me to like do this one or after yours? Well, I'll do mine. Yeah, since minus also a shape shifting, uh demonic thing. So the luguru and the spellion, I've seen like all sorts of spellions. Sometimes it's l o u like ou, and then I've seen two o's. I think it's because like it depends on the English translation or if you're reading it in French. I think. I think there's like a French I think. And then I also though, but it sounds like it has like a French It does, actually, yeah, because it's almost the same thing as the French word for it, which is rugaroo. Oh. I have heard of this, Yeah, but I also saw luga wu. So it might depend like on the accent, like because you know, like there's so many accents in the area. Yeah, that's true. And this is a legend from Haiti. So the luguru is part of Haitian folklore and it originated from France, you know, hold on when they have that. I think they have that in what's that one place over there in the south in New Orleans. Yeah, that's where I heard it from. Yeah, yeah, but I will not be talking about New Orleans, so it has a similar but different name still in that area. Oh, I think I could be wrong too. I think you are wrong because I remember I think they covered it and that's why we drink. And I remember she said lula. Oh my god, I was gonna say lularo, not the legging, not the MLM. What was it called the garoo? Yeah, yeah, I remember her saying that, or sorry, I remember them saying that. So I don't know. It just sounds familiar and like kind of vaguely. You know, it probably doesn't have all over the place, especially Arlen, that's yeah, they were colonizing everywhere. So yes, so it originated from France and then mixed with African beliefs. And as we talked about a long long time ago in our Zombies episode, which was like eons ago, France was the reason that the Scholklers all mixed. Is because France was responsible for the slave trade in the Caribbean and the French it was terrible. I feel like they don't get enough hate. Yeah, thank you for this specifically because obviously we all hate the United States for their involvement in the slave trade. But I feel like everybody focuses in the United States and nobody talks about France, but the French were important. Thirty thousand to forty thousand enslaved Africans a year, which is more than double the number of Africans traffic to North America. More than double. Wow, I've heard that figure before. Yeah, my family has always hated the French though, because they tried to colonize or invade Mexico. Yes, always had hate. I've always said the battle, they did it twice. Yeah, yeah, they did it twice because and all that. That was the second French intervention in Mexico. That's what it's called. It was a long name for it. So yeah, that was the second time they did that. They lost that battle, then they went on to win a little bit more and then it took like another two years for Emperor Prince Guy died or whatever, Emperor Maximilian. Yeah, the second I know too much about this, Sorry, I could go on. I finished my notes on Tinkle, like, Oh, that's why it's fresh in years. It's very fresh in my mind, and I haven't got it out of my system. I haven't talked to anyone about it. Club. Yeah, well I'm here for it. Yeah. So yeah, we need to hate them a little more because it was terrible and their treatment of the enslaved it was brutal, Like obviously it's bad already, but it was so violent the conditions that these men and women went through, it was atrocious. The average life expectancy for an enslaved person in Haiti was twenty one years old. Wow, and wow, it was terrible. We had the exact numbers of how many The reason they had to keep traffic in so many Africans is because they were killing so many of them and their enslavement of them. That's how bad it was. And uh and the alone that was like one third of the entire Atlantic slave trade. That's how big these numbers are. So yeah, that's why French and Haitian and Africa, or that's why Haitian folklore is a mix of French and African beliefs, which we talked way more in depth about in our zombie episode. If anyone wants to go way back to listen to that, sorry, because we didn't know how to podcast back then, not that we know how now, but it was worse back then. We're a little bit better, Yeah, we're a little bit better. So yeah, even the name lou I was gonna say little real to them I'm sorry even the name of leggings. They really are. They're also fucking ugly, they really are. I still see something at Goodwill sometimes, yeah, probably better. I don't know, like like if the MLM is still like functioning, like a I thought they closed down or something. I have no idea, I don't know. That was another one. I never liked them, and I remember people would go crazy, Oh, I think over like the Disney prints or something like that. Always yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember seeing them first and I was like, oh, those are a little quirky, but I didn't like, I think they were cute. But then someone I knew would just wore them, like that's all they wore. And then they every time I saw them they had new leggings, and I was like, okay, this is a bit much like the first part I saw. I was like, oh, those are cute to them, just I don't know, it's a compliment, and like, not that I thought they were cute. They didn't try to recruit you or didn't no, I know. Actually they went on a long ass like rant about not rants. Sorry, they went on a long spiel that's the word I was looking for, spiel about how their friend sells the leggings and they're like this much and you can get them online and she'll like ship them to you. And I was like, oh, like, I don't want them. I was just telling you they were cute. They're cute for you. You, yes, look at on you. I don think I can pull them off leatic way of saying that, Yeah, that's what I said too, because I'm very tolmatic. So anyway, these are not lularo's. This is terrible. We're gonna keep thinking this, Okay. So even the word lugaroo is similar to the French term for werewolf, which is brugaroo. I feel like fucking scooby doo. That's why it was so funny. I could have been in I was like, excuse me, that's the last time I'm saying the French term for it, because I can't. Okay. So, but what's different about this and other werewolf legends or like folklore is that this were wolf is always a woman. Oh no, oh feminism, yes, for what they called support woman in their good in their bad or what do they say, like it sounds familiar women in their good deeds or misdeas or some shit like that. Okay, and doing the full moon. Yeah, and also also the full moon, so the lugaroo is not inherently evil. Some say that a woman becomes a lugaroo because it's like an elder lady who displeas a hoogan, which is a male priest in voodoo, so if she makes him mad or something, he curses her to become the lugaroo. Others say that a woman is cursed by by a boco, which is a practitioner of black magic in voodoo, so like an evil voodoo wizard, not wizard sorcerer, and then he's the one who has to curse an elderly woman to become the lugaroo. Others believe that it's inherited, so if like this elderly woman, or if a woman not even just elderly, although it said elderly a lot, but yeah, if a woman is a lugaroo, then it's passed on through the lineage of like women, so then the next daughter will have the curse as well, and the lugaroo can transform into this like half woman, half wolf creature or sometimes just all wolf. Sometimes it's a dog or a cat or a chicken or a snake. Wow. So yeah, it's not always a wolf. It's also said that they have this ability to shape shift into a werewolf because they are possessed by a demon. And so you're gonna stay possessed by an owl like the meme? What mean there's a meme? Yeah, it's like someone here is possessed by an owl. Oh, I'm behind on them and they say who and then you double take. Really, I haven't seen this. I'm gonna need you to send it to me. And then yeah, both of us. Actually, Carmen, I need to say I need to add you to our speaktas group chat. Oh also named in the book club book. Oh yeah, I forget, we also have that chat. Okay, So, like most shape shifting women's stories, they are said to suck the blood of babies and young kids. I mean, how else you're going to keep their youth exactly? Yeah? Okay, and so, oh perfect, I'm gonna take it. Should we look at it? Right? Break? Right, let's look at this, boss. I think someone in the office is possessed by someone in the office, because that's by now yeah, turned, because oh my god, does that's pretty good? I love it. Okay, So I'm glad you mentioned that okay, so back to the Lugu. Sorry I can't get yeah luluo and out of my head. This is terrible. Okay. So the Lugaroo are said to be able to fly either by turning into a bird or by taking off their skin and turning into a ball of fire. That sounds familiar, does it not? Right? Immediately I was like, oh my god, let's they moved. Although now I'm starting to realize this might be a common thing everywhere. Yeah, like belief because another time you and I am J talked about a legend from Dinaden to Bag, Oh my god, to Bag to trund Dad and Tobago. Because I was starting saying in Spanish and then I couldn't say the second half. I was like, am I going to say the second half in Spanish or English? That's Spanish people, right, But there's the legend of the suku Ya or something like that there, and it's like this thing that turns into a ball of fire. So yeah, common belief in a lot of places, I think. And I think it's also like common in what is it called Eastern Europe where the balls of fire with the but I'm not sure if they think it's witches. But oh, the boss of fire in like the forest m in eastern Europe. Yeah, and then a Chandena has a different balls of fire. Oh, and I figured out the quote that I was trying to say. We support women's rights and wrongs, oh misdeeds, miss oh we god? Okay, that makes sense. Okay, yes we do. We do support that. So here we love the lugaroo. Yeah. So they either turn their skin off, turn their skins this is such a bad first episode. Were coming back to here. They take their skin off, enter into a qualifier and travel that way. There's other versions that say that before they transformed they had to they have to salute the four corners. And this is like a voodoo thing. I think I could not find details on it other than it's like a thing that is done, but I don't know what it entails. Unfortunately, I feel like I've heard that, but in Wicca. I'm not entirely sure. I've heard that somewhere too. Okay, okay, so it is it is a thing. I feel like I heard it in Wicca, though I could be wrong. Don't come for me. I can't say where I heard it, but it was someone at their nose and they can tell us thank you, future prison, that's gonna tell us. So they say that if you stop them from salutine, then they don't transform into a wolf. I don't know what happens to them, though, I wonder. Also when they become an animal, their eyes glow red. So that's why you know it is one, because it's a werewolf with glowing red eyes, or a chicken with red eyes, or you know, whatever animal they transform into. And the lugaroo is quite dangerous no matter how they became the lugaroo, if they were cursed, if they were born that way, because they're angry that they have to be this thing, you know that shape shifts, and so they typically target goats and other smaller animals. However, they do also, like I said earlier, suck the blood of children and babies, and they were said to abduct children by taking them back to their layer or whatever. I don't know where they live, or they'll just like kill them there and you know, suck their blood. They don't usually attack adults, but it does happen. And actually after the earthquake in Haiti, you know, like the terrible one that happened in twenty ten, there was several stories of Luguru sightings and there were even people set up guards to guard the homeless shelters because of the alleged Luguru sightings, people were scared and so there was shifts of people looking out and there was actually lynchings of people that were accused to be lugurus. And sadly it's probably women because they are the ones that become lugurus. So I mean, as always, these stories usually do have like a darker real life component to them, so that's very unfortunate. And I did find some true stories. So the following one is from Reddit, and I did not read them beforehand, so again I'm sorry. If the same thing happens from the Lichusa story, I will never live that down. So this is a Luguru encounter from Reddit, submitted by user Butch cassidy Kid and it's nine years old. So a couple of years ago, I spent some time in the Dominican Republic, which borders Haiti. The Dominican Republic is a lush tropical paradise. Most of Haiti is nothing like that, really, Okay, some people have strong feelings about Haiti and the dr and they have strong feelings towards each other. Yeah, they do so due to decades of political bullshit. It's basically a barren wasteland and now one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. However, Haitian people have a spirituality that's unrivaled anywhere I've been. Because of the situation, there are a lot of people head east to the dr legally or illegally. One of my roommates had one of the craziest, creepiest life stories I've ever heard. I went there with him once and there's an over overwhelming feeling of I don't even know how to put it. Standing on a roof and a slum with no electricity, listening to people singing in Creyole. There's a mixture of French and various African language parteses from maybe three or four different churches or ceremonies, watching fires burn up on the mountains, no electricity. It's beautiful and eerie. He swears this is how it was when this happened. So we'll call him Williamson. His mother was a Voodoo mambo, which is one of the most practiced religions in Haiti and ingrained into their culture. His dad was a major drug dealer in his city who fucked off and started a new family. When he was very young, he lived with his mom in a slum on the outskirts of the city. Because tree and therefore charcoal is so hard to come by, people rob graves for the coffins themselves. His childhood memories include being sent to the cemetery to collect bones for his mother's potions and powders. As a teenager, they'd go collect schools and drink barbon cort rum out of them. Okay, I don't if I believe that, me neither. What the fuck? Sorry, let's suspend our disbelief, hold judgment until the end. Yeah, yeah, that too. Okay. So when he was about eight or nine, it was well known in his slum not to wander around at night because of the loogaroos. It's a Creole variation of the loop garou French for werewolf. See some places said it was loop garou and other places said it was a boogaroo. Okay. So they believe in shaf shutters, those who turned into animals and lure children into the night for God knows what to suck their blood, to suck their blood the fuck so being fucking weird. Okay, so read a person from nine fucking years ago. They used animal noises, the sound of laughing or playing kids, or even a familiar voice calling you that creepy when that is so creepy, anything that mimics something else that you know, it's like somebody you know or your own boy. Yeah that's creepy, Yeah, horrifying. One night he heard oinking coming from the street. He thought it was strange because pigs weren't common where he lives, and none of his neighbors owned them. Superstitious Williamson didn't go outside. The next night, he heard the same thing, but louder again. He stayed in his little concrete house. The night after that, he heard the grunting and oinking again, this time much closer, too close in the room. He scanned the room from his bed and didn't see anything. Then he looked up in the top corner in his almost pitch dark bedroom, he saw eyes. Terrified, he hid under his sheet and willed it away, expecting not to wake up in the same bed, if at all. When he woke up, the sheet was covered in blood that wasn't his. Apparently no one was really shocked by it. His mother held a ceremony and he says they put something into the back of his neck to protect him. Two years later, his mother was murdered by a man in their slum. Everyone knows who it was, but the justice system is so corrupt there that nothing came of it. And he moved to the Dominican Republic himself illegally. Just out him. Yeah, right, fucking snitching on Williamson, bitch. He's twenty two now and living and working in Canada. Most of his friends are still struggling. His wares has happened, and whatever they put in his neck is the reason for his semi charmed life. Most of his friends are still stuck in Haiti or the dr either being hustlers or doing nothing or in jail. When he was twenty, he went back to Haiti and killed the guy who murdered his mom, and don't blame him. The earthquake happened around the same time, and with everything in chaos, he managed to escape Scott free. A few months later, he married a friend of mine and moved to Canada. I asked him what was in his neck. He said he wasn't sure, but he suspected it was one of the bones he collected from the graveyard or cemetery. Haitians are mostly amazing people, but that's fucking crazy. And if you ask him, and if you ask him, true, who ends a sentence like that? A story like this is true? No, they just wrote and if you ask him, comma true distinct that's what he meant, right, Okay, I don't know. Yeah, it's just weird. We me Yeah. And although it's not uncommon for a shape shifter or a man to be a lugaru like it's it happens a little bit. I'm wondering what if what if the man who murdered his mom was the lugarou that he heard in his room? That would make sense. Maybe I don't know, I don't know. I don't know, or maybe it was just some other luguru. I don't know. I hate the way they wrote the story, but yeah, I just want to emphasize that no human is illegal, not according to this reditor. Yeah. Yeah, and yeah, I mean immigration from Haiti to the Dominican Republic is wild right now and it always has been. They're deporting a bunch of Haitians back into Haiti as we speak Haiti. Isn't turmoil right now? Read about it if you haven't. There's an excellent episode of Elo that just came out that talks about the situation there. So yeah, yeah, anyway, I have another story that maybe is a little better. This one is from someone's grandma, from a blog that I found. It has to be better then it's not from Yeah, it's not from bread, so automatically better. So and a dark night, an old lady was walking down the street on her way to get to her little house. She was northwest of Port Out Prince in a small town called boys Jore. As she walked down the street, she heard someone call out to her. She looked around and saw a man standing a little behind her. Who are you? Haven't seen the likes of you around? She said, looking at the man. Ah me, I'm just passing by and was looking for a place to say, he said in return, She looked him head to toe before signing and pointing a bit ahead of her. Just up there you'll find a nice keeper. Her name is Stephanie, and done to get no bright ideas, she totally. In return, he nodded and bowed before quickly walking past her and towards the keeper. He turned and yelled back, messy, I'm not saying that in this language, because it's going to be terrible. He turned and yelled back, thanks, stay safe. She shook her head before feeling something in her pocket. She took it out and looked at it, wondering where it had came from, before she realized it had cursed her. It was when of dark origins called a dark point, and before she knew it, she felt her skin loosen from her body, and she felt herself catching on fire. Her skin had began to drop and turned to ash as the rest of her body turned into this flowing yellow battle of flames. She was so mad about what that man had done that she took to the skies and flew towards Stephanie's little inn. Once she was there, the man was nowhere in sight. That made her even more angry. She flew towards the local farm and took her rage out on the animals, killing several small ones. She realized what she had done and turned back into her normal self and began to cry. She quickly made her way from the farm and headed towards the house, never to be seen by those people. Again. Damn man, that sucks. Mm hmmm. This man, this bitch ass man turned her into a lugaroo not a man. Crusty, dusty and musty man. Yeah. Wow, Now I now I feel for them. Not only did I already like them, but now my heart, my heart breaks for them. They tortured they that's why we support their wrongs. Yeah. Yeah, that was better than the redd story. I like that one. Yeah, yeah, this was better. This was not filled with prejudices. Fuck hatie and that that's basically what they Their whole story was the bear and wasteland. I bet you the writer was the crusty and musty and dusty guy. Yeah, I think so. Okay, well we have reached the end of the episode. Well I still have one story, unless you want to save that one. Oh no, I forgot, No, let's hear your story. It's not long, I remember. Yeah, it's pretty sure. This one's called This is nothing about shape shifters, but this is a very popular legend, and it's called La Rubia de la Americas, and it's one of the most popular ghost stings. Hot. Yes, and she owns it. No Pipy here. One of the most popular ghost settings in the Dominican republic is that of La Rubia de las Americas, which translates to the Blonde of the Americas, and according to legends, sometimes between nineteen seventy eight and nineteen eighty, there was an accident on Las America's Avenue in the Via Duarte sector. I don't know where that is, but I know it's an avenue, it's a street. We know this. I know that a woman, specifically a blond woman, had died, and there are stories on nacional dot com dot do. I was working as a taxi driver in the area when one night a woman stopped me and told me to take her home in the Las Frutas urban nisasion. When we were getting to the place, I look back and there was no one in the car. I didn't stop. I don't know what happened, said driver Fusi Santos. Other drivers, such as Luis Ramidz, narrate similar situations with a woman of the same appearance. He says that on one occasion, he was walking along Las America's Avenue around two o'clock in the morning, and when he arrived at Savana Laiga Avenue, he was approached by a blonde woman asking for a ride. She told me to take her to Costa Rica Street with Saint Vincent. I went the latter way, and when I arrived in Costa Rica, there was no one in the vehicle. The tremors took hold of me, but I never lost control and kept going. He says, damn, So it's like that. What is it called the ghost hitchhiker? I yeah, I was gonna say. I love a woman on the road asking for rides and then disappearing and causing car accidents. She knows where she wants, she asked what she wants. She wants a ride to scare the ship out of the man. Oh yeah, I love those stories because they're everywhere and they're always a little bit different but the same at the same time. I love it. Oh that was a good one. Okay, now we reached the end of the station. Okay, well before we go, do either of you have any spooky recommendations. I have a spooky recommendation, not like paranormal speakye, but like real life spooky, like to crime ish. I listened to the audiobook of Hold Pull It Up, so I get the name right. It's by Ronan Farrow. If you heard of it. It's like about his investigation into Harvey Wine. I never say his name, right, Weinstein, Weinstein, who cares? Yeah, tru Harvey we predator. Yeah yeah. So it's called catch and kill lies, spies and a conspiracy to protect predators. So it's about his he was working, I want to say it was NBC and he was like doing like investigative journalism like tv uh for them when one of his higher ups pitched this story to him because he was hearing like rumblings about it, and so he writes about his process. Basically, if NBC shutting his shit down, not letting him investigate, that's not suspicious. Yeah. And then also like the network of what's the word, you know, like those agencies like black was, Black Truth something like that, black Box what was it called? They were a black Cube, black Cube, I think that was it. It's like a private investigation type place, like a inform what are they called? Not private investigation, it's like a CIA type of organization, but it's a private organization from Israel. What yeah, hell, I'm sorry what okay? They're always black Cube yeah for real, apparently they are always involved always and oh my god. Yeah, And so they were hired by Weinstein too over his you know, years of abuse and predation to harass his victims, shut down his victims. They had been hired by and it wasn't Weinstein, Like, well, it was, yeah, it was him and his attorneys that hired Black Cube. I'm pretty sure I'm saying that right. And then and then writes about how he was stocked, but also how the private investigators that were stocking him and like investigating him, they didn't even know that they were being hired to like stock journalists, and then they didn't agree with that, so they were basically whistleblowers. And wow, it's such a good book. It's okay. And I listened to the audiobook, which I liked because there's like a recording that is from Winstein himself and it's horrible, awful. It was captured when one of his victims went to report him and then the police were like, okay, try to get him to confess and record it. And that's where the audio is from, and so it's included in the book. And then Ronan does like a bunch of different accents when he's portraying different people. It was really good. I liked it, and it was just like the depths of the conspiracy. They're wild. Okay, I need to check this out. Yeah, so how do you recommend that? Yeah, the true horror I'm watching is like the one that everybody's watching right now, which is quite on set. Oh, I can't wait to go visit you, Christina. I'm waiting. Yeah, I'm waiting for coming to visit me so we can watch it together. Which also, guess who who what connections Dan Schneider had, which I'm pretty sure if you've seen my my Instagram stories, he had connections with what's what's that one guy's name that got Clinton? I forgot his name? An attorney, No, the the guy that they captured, the human trafficker Epstein. Yeah, and oh of course he did. Of course he did. And he also say like he loves Israel or something like when I said, they're always involved, they're always involved. I did see your story. Yeahs m to say the least, the least, the least. Wow, Yeah, I gotta watch that still. I keep seeing clips about it and stuff. It was no the first the first two episodes, like, you watch it and it just keeps getting worse and worse and worse, and then a lot of like the stars kind of like not the not the main stars, but like kind of like the background actors are coming out. And there was a girl who was working on the Naked Brothers band that came saw that. I saw that. It just gets worse and worse, worse and worse. And then there's also a thing where uh Amanda binds, they were bringing up that she had a fake Twitter account. I have that's actually not her. You were saying the same thing. Yeah, and then it's been proven to not to have someone else and that person got sued by Amanda Bndes for impersonating her. So well good because there's also rumors that Schneider is what's her name's baby daddy Jamie Lynn. Jamie Lin spears, Yeah, I'm like, it's it's wild, it's wild. What I don't like that the movie came out and people are like, why isn't Amana Baying saying anything? Why isn't Ariana Grande saying anything? She doesn't have to say anything if she doesn't want to an Yeah, and like that's also like the thing like victims don't have to if they don't, and they're harassing them. In the IG comments and stuff her like the other girl Jade, the one that plays Jade on the show, Victoria, who was married too, But that's creepy. Also yeah, yeah, that's a whole other problem. Yeah, she got married to someone who worked on set who was like thirty somethings and she met him she was like fourteen fourteen. Oh yeah, she met him young on the show. But I think they started dating when she was nineteen. I thought it was eighteen. It might have been. I don't know it. But it seemed like he was waiting for her to turn yeah, which is like, yeah, yeah, just disgusting. Yeah, but it just getting worse and worse. But even in her own book, Jane mc curdie said that she dated someone who worked in Nickelodeon two. Yeah, as soon as she's thirteen and he was thirty something too. And then what's her name, Rebel Wilson Also today, I think came out again, came out and said stuff about the borat guys. Yeah, she's been saying that since twenty fourteen, Sasha whatever, I can't remember. It's not new. Her book is coming out and so she talked about it before. Either it's getting more pressed because of the book, but she had she named him and this situation back in twenty fourteen, and like, yeah, from the thing I read, fucking disgusting. I haven't even looked into it, like I just know that she said it. Okay, I'm gonna look into him, something about how she walked into a room and he there was him and another group of men there, and he was like trying to get her to do something like sexual really and she was like some kind of like sodomy or something. Yeah, wow, mm hmm, she didn't want to and gosh she was young. No, it was I don't know how about what set of what movie, but it was years ago, I mean obviously because she said she she started talking about it back in and fourteen and I already had happened back then. Yeah, and then was she an I don't think, I know, I don't know. I don't think nineteen Yeah, But and then what's his name, Borat whatever his name is, Sasha, whatever is hiring? Uh? What is it called? Like I did see that the people who manage really like scandalous like pr Yeah, oh okay, he's also an extreme Zionist, so like him anyway, Yeah, I told you to say the least oh man, but yeah, I like I'll discussing. So speaking of quiet sorry quiet on set. I have another recommendation that I just started listening to or watching. It's Alison Stoner's podcast. Oh yeah, yes, how did there? Yeah, you can find them on YouTube if you just look up their name, because I don't remember what the podcast is called. But it's a really good It is the way they break down information. It's not only like their own personal experiences, but like they tie it into like the development of children and how that affects them growing up, like in the Hollywood scene, the lack of autonomy, like bodily autonomy. Like it's just so in depth and just so it's really good. Yeah. I've seen clips on it on TikTok, but I've been meaning to like watch the whole thing. And this makes me so thankful because when my daughter was little, she was like, well I was handed a little card for like an agent. See, like that puts kids in like target ads, homart ads or even like like small snippets and like certain TV shows and I was like, no commercials and stuff. Yeah, but like TV shows too, Like you say they pick your kid from the list, then you fly them to different areas and like sometimes it's to film like a TV show, or sometimes it's to film and ad and I was like, no, I had like you know, like past and I'm like so thankful I passed because they're like, oh, sure, are you sure. I'm like yes, I'm sure. No, thanks, my kid is not working at the age of two. Yeah, yeah, I'm not to mention. Yeah, the dynamics and and Allison talks about that in their podcast, just the dynamics shift and the role, you know, change of then the child becoming the bread and the provider with family. Yeah, and how it just the pressure dynamics of the family. Yeah, uh huh yeah, yeah, depressing stuff. This could be a whole other episode, honestly, Yeah, it really could. Yeah, because it's not just Hollywood. It's like these industries everywhere because like i mean, we talked about it in the gloripisode and he was able to do that is because of all the same reasons that they do it here too. So yeah, and like not viewing children as people and a lot of don't do that. A lot of people don't like do that still and like the people who hate children. It's not exactly the same, but it's kind of the same. It's like adjacent, it's like in the same vein. It's all it's all related to not viewing kids, the patriarchy. Everything comes back to the patriarchy, yes, because in the patriarchy, women and children are not seen as people. So it's it really is all related. Like I said it like in a joking manner, but like I'm not joking. That's why it's it's like real horror, Like yeah, it's it's what I said before, Like, you know, why do you like legends and spooky shit so much? Because humans are the real monsters. That was so deep. That's a good place to end it. Wow. Yeah, we can't say anything else, and that's when we brought you back now and that's actually the end of the podcast. We can't say anything better or not. Sorry, Okay, So yeah, anything else anyone wants to add before we end? No? Okay. The current book club book is VAMPIRESVTE. I'm on chapter two still. It's been three months. I just haven't listened to it again. I'm done. I'm done. You need to need to like harm and change it. It's so good, even like right off the bat, so MJ hasn't started it either, right, No, I was. I'm like, I'm like I was reading two books and now I'm like trying to finish the first Akatar and then get to this. Okay, I don't recommend it. I'm just kidding way better. So yeah, that's the current book read. Soon we will but if you like talking ship, yeah that's true. Soon we will record the book Club episode for Silver Nitrates. That will be fun and it's okay yeah yeah right it was. I feel like it was really almost a year, like April, may you know, oh Ship, no way, yeah, because it wasn't that around the time we finished the Haunting of Alejandra and that was the last one and then it was Silver Nitrate after that. Yeah, oh my god. It really hard. O. Listeners have no excuse. We're sorry here in ourselves. I means you have plenty of time to finish it. You know, you're right, You're right, no, no, no, okay, so yeah, I don't know, watch out for that road if you're driving. Somebody say it's booky yes, Last America. I think, yeah, yeah, yeah, watch out for her and yeah, stay SPOOKI will catch everyone next time. Bye bye bye. M