Morbid: Episode 504: The Sauchie Poltergeist aka Wee Hughie

Morbid Network | Wondery Morbid Network | Wondery 10/19/23 - 1h 14m - PDF Transcript

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Hey, weirdos.

I'm Elena.

I'm Ash.

And...

Well, that drew out, and this is morbid.

I just felt sing-songy about my name.

Went for a run at the end there.

I said, I know.

She's a runner.

She's not a runner.

She's a track star.

Even though your children quite literally go whenever they want me to play tag or something,

I'm like, remember.

And they all say it together, TT doesn't run.

Running is bad.

Running is great if you're running away from something you should be running from.

Yeah, that's always good.

But it makes my mouth taste like blood when I run, so I've talked about it.

It's a thing.

I found it on TikTok.

Yeah.

I think it's like...

They don't really know why it happens, but many theories are that there's little vessels

in your lungs are bursting.

So that's like...

I don't think I meant to run.

Yeah, I don't think so either.

I'm just meant to be Thiccums McGee, baby.

To be quite honest.

That sounds terrifying.

I walk, so that's good.

It's always good to walk, too.

Yeah, move.

Yeah, don't be stagnant.

Move it.

Groove it, baby.

I have a Poltergeist story today.

Yeah, we're getting creepy with it.

Getting creepy up in here.

It's almost Halloween.

Spooky season.

Remember, we're doing all kinds of spooky stuff.

Yeah, also, we haven't even talked about what we're going to be for Halloween, like what

I'm being.

Because we're doing the thing, right?

Yeah.

This is just like a family party.

Yeah, we're doing the thing.

This is us just making plans on the side.

We're doing the thing, right?

Yeah.

What are we doing?

Like a ritual.

We were like, we're doing that thing.

I was trying to distract them.

We're doing that black mass in the woods, correct?

Yeah, I know.

Sorry, I'm letting it all out.

God, Alina.

I had an idea.

Can you tell me?

For us.

Oh, for me and you together?

And we should, yeah.

And maybe we can like put a beep over this part of the episode so that it could be a surprise

for later.

Is it the...

What are you going to do?

A couple's costume with John for the thing or me and you just doing with, are we a couple

this year?

That's wrong.

But are we a couple of Halloween girls?

A couple of gals?

I don't know.

Because I have an idea for me and Drew.

Oh, did I tell you what we were thinking?

Yeah, maybe for the...

Because I don't think that idea I just gave you is great for the family event because

I think...

Yeah.

No, it's super bloody.

Yeah.

The gals would not appreciate that.

Honestly, they probably would.

I was just going to say they probably would, but maybe the fam bam on a whole level would

be appreciated.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

I'm just not going to.

But yeah, so yeah, I think maybe we can do that for something else.

But do you have any couple costume idea?

Because usually you have such a good couple's costume.

No, I honestly have not even had time to think about it, so I'm going to sit down and brainstorm.

We can beep this too, but I think me and Drew are going to be...

That's fucking amazing.

Isn't that incredible?

Don't say I think we're going to be that.

No, I'm pretty like...

When I say I think we decided on that.

Yeah, I was like, don't you dare ponder over that.

Like, do that.

I'm pretty stoked.

That's phenomenal.

Right.

But beep that out.

Don't tell the masses.

Don't tell the masses.

I'll just see it on my Insta.

But it's an exciting...

Such a trendsetter.

Spooky time.

Surprise.

Oh.

Oh.

There's a lot of fun things happening.

I know.

I love Halloween.

In October.

I think Hell House, LLC.

There's another movie coming out.

I think it might be...

Oh, a prequel.

Prequel.

I love that you were about to say prelude.

Prelude.

I know.

A prelude to the trial is what I always think of.

Why do I always say prelude?

Is that wrong?

Is that wrong?

I mean, it's...

No, not really.

Yeah.

So it's still...

I always think of Mickey from Scream 2 saying a prelude to the trial.

And you do love Mickey.

Oh, love Mickey.

You and John should be Mickey and Sydney for Halloween.

Oh my God.

I mean, it's wrong, but very wrong.

But very right.

Yeah.

As well.

Also, your dog should be Sydney, the dog should be Sydney for Halloween.

Sydney, Prescott.

But aren't they being like a hot dog in a NAM?

You should think one a hot dog and one a trench coat.

That would be hilarious, but one of them is being a hot dog and the other one is being

a pumpkin.

A pumpkin.

Yeah.

Yeah, the kids decided.

But yeah, I think...

We love that other hand.

I was going to say, where did we just go?

Hell House, LLC.

Prelude.

Prequel.

Yeah.

It has a prequel coming out, I think, near Halloween, which I'm very excited about for

all you that are listening that haven't watched Hell House LLC.

Don't listen to anybody who says, you know, found footage is crap because this is a great

one.

No, it's good.

And we were talking to John about it the other day and it's not like found footage that

will give you vertigo.

So anybody that has that and is worried about like found footage, I feel like you'll be

fine.

Yeah.

And I mean, like I'm not a doctor, so, but don't take that for, I mean, if you get vertigo

from it, it's not my fault.

That's your own problem.

It's not my chair, not my problem.

Fuck you.

If you get vertigo from it, fuck you.

That's your own problem.

Fuck you and your vertigo.

But then there's the saw prelude prequel.

Yeah.

There's a lot of fun stuff happening, I feel like.

And just fun things to do.

I think there's just fun things.

So I think we're getting back into the swing of the spooky season and that's exciting.

And what's really spooky about the spooky season is poltergeists.

That is one of the most spooky things about any season, I would say.

Yeah, so I have a poltergeist today that it's a really interesting story, but I am going

to let you know from the jump that it's not really like solved at all, which is interesting

because you're like, how do you even solve that in the first place?

But it's all, it hasn't really been debunked either.

So that's fun to me.

That is fun.

And we love when it hasn't been debunked.

I don't love a debunked.

I've been doing a couple debunked lately and they make me feel a little upset in my stomach.

Yeah.

Because I'm like, not fun.

Not fun.

This.

Not really fun.

Okay.

You know?

So this is the, I believe it's the, you say it's Soakey and Alina can tell you, I looked

at like a bunch of pronunciations.

She sure did.

It's in Scotland, but it's the Soakey poltergeist.

Oh, Scottish.

Yeah.

Let's go.

We have Ireland and Scotland up in here.

And this poltergeist became known as Wee Huey.

That makes this perfect.

Like exponentially better.

Wee Huey.

Wee Huey, which I'm like, is that just like low Huey?

Low Huey.

Yeah.

That's exactly what it is.

Also, I like the name Hue.

Just wanted to say that.

There you go.

So anyways, in the fall of 1960, Annie and James Campbell, a couple in their mid fifties

living in Donegal, Ireland, and I looked that up too.

So please don't yell at me.

You sure did.

But they had grown really tired of the economic struggle that they were having, you know,

their rural life made it hard for them on the farm.

Like it was, things weren't really going well.

Yeah.

So it was the decision to sell this family farm in Ireland and relocate to Scotland.

Now, at the time, their youngest son, Thomas, and his wife, Isabella Campbell, were living

in a house in Soki, Scotland.

So Soki is like a small coal mining town in central Scotland, and it's really well known

for its association with regional football, which I believe is not like American football,

but like football that actually makes sense.

Football that actually uses your foot with a ball.

Yeah.

The United States is embarrassing when they say football because of like, because you're

not because that's handball.

Because that's handball.

Your foot that much.

So yeah.

My seven year olds were very confused about that because they learned that football is

soccer in other countries and they were like, they were both like, that makes more sense.

Right.

And I was like, I know there's a lot of things that don't make sense here and I'm sorry,

you're going to have to learn that.

Yeah.

It really like unlocks like this weird feeling inside of yourself where you're just like,

huh, that doesn't makes no sense whatsoever.

Yeah.

They kick it like once a game.

Maybe.

I think I don't even know when they like, oh my God, I was like, do they kick it, but

you're right.

There's like a kicker.

Yeah.

Anyway, that's all I have to say about football, but for this couple, it was a new start and

one that honestly wouldn't really require much of a financial investment on their part

because they were moving them with their son.

So they started making plans to move themselves and their youngest daughter, 11 year old Virginia

to Soki.

Now the economy and Soki at the time wasn't really more promising than where they were

at now, but I don't think it was really about like the financials.

I think it was more about like missing family kind of thing, you know.

So in October of 1960, Annie, the mother and Virginia moved in with Annie's son and Virginia's

brother Thomas and his wife Isabella and James, the father stayed behind to sell the

family farm.

Okay.

Also, when you read about this, it says that a lot of sources say that the family moved

in with an aunt, but that's not true.

It was the brother and sister-in-law of Virginia.

Oh, that's good to know.

So at the time of the move, Virginia Campbell's life had been pretty lonely and isolating.

She was the youngest of the Campbell children.

So all of her siblings had moved out of the house, had moved away from their tiny village.

And as George Owen wrote, quote, the only real companions that Virginia had were her

pet dog, Toby, and one friend, and it was like her very best friend.

Oh my God.

So even though she was already lonely at home, the move to Soki was still a lot on Virginia

because she might not have had a lot, but she was leaving all of it behind.

Yeah.

And she was being uprooted from the only world that she knew, so she definitely struggled

to acclimate to her new life after the move.

Her teacher Margaret Davidson recalled, Virginia was a shy, withdrawn girl, but very pleasant.

She was in every other way quite normal.

So the fact that she was quieter, withdrawn is pretty understandable.

She had, like I said, just been uprooted from the family home.

And now she was thrown into this new living situation where she was sharing a bed and

a bedroom with her niece Margaret.

On top of that, her father still hadn't been able to join them.

The dog hadn't come yet.

I don't actually know if the dog ever ended up coming back.

I think they left him.

Oh no, Toby.

I don't know if it was like a farm dog.

That's sad.

So that was a lot of upheaval for an 11 year old, remember she's 11.

And there was about to be more because just a few weeks after arriving in Soki, Virginia's

mother got a job at the Dollar Academy.

It was only five miles away from their new house, but the job required her mom to work

evening hours.

And a lot of times she had to stay overnight at the academy.

Oh, okay.

And I forgot to mention that Virginia also lost connection with her best friend, like

completely.

So she was going through it.

Now, eventually she would shed a lot of her shwai, shwai, shwai, all her shwai ways.

I think I was about to combine shy and quiet and make it shwai it.

Shwai it.

I like that.

She would shed a lot of her shy and quiet tendencies as she settled into her new life.

And eventually she did start making friends.

But to school administrators, I can't talk, the initial apprehension and awkwardness of

the Campbell family as a whole, like not even just Virginia, was obvious.

According to Mr. Hill, who was the headmaster at the primary school where Virginia was now

going, Annie, Virginia's new mom, initially, quote, offered no more information than was

necessary and her voice seemed to come unwillingly from behind the mask on her face.

They gave the impression of people who lived for a long time in a remote and isolated place.

So basically they were just private.

Yeah.

Interesting.

You're moving to an entirely new place.

For sure.

Like you might be a little apprehensive.

Of course.

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Hey, weirdos.

We want to thank you for keeping it weird with us, traveling back in time with us and

journeying through the strange and very unusual with us.

I have a question.

What is it?

You love getting shit early?

I love getting shit early.

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and all episodes are ad-free on Amazon Music.

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Spooky, Alone at Lunch, and, that was pretty scary, early and ad-free on Amazon Music.

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No, seriously, do it.

Do it!

So, since she was older than her niece Margaret, Virginia was placed in a higher grade, where

obviously she didn't know anybody.

And on top of everything else that she was going through, she struggled with the language

difference between the rural Donegal and Soki.

George Owen, author of Can We Explain the Poltergeist, wrote, At first she was extremely

shy and her teacher found it difficult to establish real connection with her.

But it was clear to everybody that she was very intelligent and she was kind, even if

she seemed very emotional and under distress.

Okay.

Now, what are you looking at over there?

Oh, nothing.

Oh, you looked like you were looking at something.

Oh, no.

You always think I'm looking at something.

I think whenever you're reading something, you get this face where you look like very

invested.

Yeah, because I think I focus when I'm reading something.

Yeah, and then I'm like, what is she reading?

I was looking up things about that.

Like, I was looking at this little girl and like the thing.

Isn't she adorable?

Yeah, she is.

Don't spoil anything for yourself.

I'm not going to spoil anything.

So the picture of Virginia Campbell that comes from most accounts at this time is that of

a fairly normal 11-year-old reacting pretty appropriately to a pretty disruptive life

event and struggling, but refusing or failing to, not refusing or failing to adapt to her

new life.

Yeah.

She was open to getting into this.

Yeah, she wanted to adapt.

She was just having trouble.

Yeah.

And like I said, by all accounts behind the quiet, shy exterior, there was a perfectly

lovely intelligent girl who seemed eager to engage with the world around her.

And in time, like I said a minute ago, she did make a lot of new friends.

But that being said, George Owen, who was actually involved with the family at the time

of the supposed poltergeist activity, is quick to point out, quote, it may be of significance

that at present she is going through a period of extremely rapid physical development and

mature, maturation.

Puberty in the full sense has not arrived, but she is going through a very rapid pubescence.

It may also be of significance that on occasion, she did give some indication of mental and

emotional turmoil.

At times she talked in her sleep showing signs of both upset and aggressiveness.

Talking in her sleep, she was upset and aggressiveness.

According to him and that might, because when I read that at first, I was like, I talk

in my sleep.

Yeah.

I talk in my sleep.

But when you hear about the kind of talking in her sleep that was happening, it wasn't

your normal like having a weird dream.

Like she would go into trances and like sit up, but they were like, she was still asleep.

That's also a night terror.

It seems like she may have been having some night terrors, but then when you put it hand

in hand with everything else that was going on, and maybe the night terrors were caused

by something else because the girls have had night terrors for small spins of time before

and they are terrifying.

One of them in particular, one of the girls sleep, yeah, yeah, freaky.

They are scary.

I, kids are fucking terrifying.

Yeah.

If your kid is scary, I'm sorry, Gary, in a night terror, the thing like you can't really

do anything about it.

You just have to like comfort them through it.

Isn't it like hard to wake them up?

And technically you're not really supposed to.

They're asleep, but they're acting awake and they're just kind of like, they're not focusing

their eyes on you or anything.

Like it's very strange.

Yeah.

It's a very strange moment.

So you just kind of have to like, if you can rub their back and stuff, just kind of

be like, I'm here, like I'm here, like let them know that you're here.

And then hopefully it kind of like goes into their dreams.

Like subconscious.

Right.

Like if you show the comfort and like I'm here kind of thing, then slowly they, they can

come out of it.

It makes sense.

It's scary.

And it's like how like when your alarm will ring in real life, but it manifests as something

else in your dream.

Yes.

And it's just this loud noise in your dream that you can't get away from.

So maybe like some big random thing is comforting you and not your mama.

Not your mama.

Not your mama.

Some big random thing is comforting.

I just pictured like a cloud comforting me, like a giant cloud with legs.

I honestly pictured cloud guy, but like big.

Oh.

From trolls.

I would comfort me.

Cloud guy does comfort me too.

And so does, um, fuck what's his name?

The giraffe.

Oh, you love.

I love the giraffe.

Cooper.

Cooper.

I fucking love Cooper.

I'm excited for the new trolls movie.

And this is not a paid campaign.

I'm just genuinely pretty excited.

I love that.

Anyway.

That's all to say.

While Virginia Campbell may have been a normal, healthy, fully functional, 11 year old, her

behavior did indicate a certain amount of frustration related to her circumstances that

maybe was seeking some kind of outlet subconsciously or consciously.

Okay.

Shit was going down.

Truly.

Or not.

No, it was.

It was going down Charlie Brown.

So as far as anybody could tell, the poltergeist activity began on November 22nd, 1960.

Not long after Virginia and her niece Margaret had gone to bed that night, the two girls

began hearing what they later described as a thunking noise.

They said it was almost like someone was throwing a rubber ball against the wall.

Okay.

They had a picture.

Yeah.

Now they couldn't fall asleep because it was so loud.

So they went downstairs, but the sound actually ended up following them as they were walking

down the stairs.

Like the ball was hitting each step just behind them.

Oh.

Now in the living room, the girls reported the noise to Thomas and Isabella, which would

be Margaret's parents and Virginia's brother and her sister-in-law.

But the older, like the couple, Thomas and Isabella were like, okay, you guys need to

go to bed.

Like clearly this is some kind of tactic to stay awake.

And they didn't hear anything.

So they just escorted them back up to bed.

But as soon as Thomas and Isabella closed the door to the bedroom after getting the

girls settled, they heard the sound from outside of the room and they were like, okay.

Now Thomas just figured it was the girls pulling some kind of prank.

Like once he closed the door, he's like, oh, they're trying to make me think that I hear

this.

Yeah.

So he opened the door to tell them to cut it out, but he was surprised to find both

of them under the blankets, their hands completely covered, and the sound emanating

from the headboard of the bed they shared.

Damn.

Now, confused and somewhat concerned, they moved Virginia and Margaret to a different

bedroom to fall asleep.

But the noises continued and they only stopped after Virginia had fallen asleep.

Ooh.

Just random.

That's interesting.

And weird.

Like it was inexplicable.

So that night was not restful at all for Virginia.

She had a very fitful sleep.

So they decided to let her stay home from school the next day because they were like,

first of all, we have no fucking idea what's going on and you also didn't sleep last night,

so it's not going to be a good day for you.

Now that afternoon, when Thomas, Isabella, and Virginia sat down in the living room together,

all three of them watched in shock as the sideboard next to Virginia, quote, moved out

five inches from the wall, then slid right back into place.

Oh.

Yeah.

Okay.

At the time, Virginia was seated less than a foot away from the sideboard, but both Thomas

and Isabella swore that she never touched that sideboard.

It moved very much on its own.

And they were like, what are we dealing with here?

What is going on?

If I do have a little sister and if she moved in with me and this shit started happening,

I'd be like, listen, I love you so much, but you got to go because my house is chill

and you're un-chilling it.

Yeah.

Don't be all uncool.

Yeah.

Don't be cool.

Don't be all uncool.

Countess Louie.

I have wine glasses.

Let's say that they're a pair.

Just in case you were wondering.

Yeah.

I think I got them on Etsy.

So try to find those.

But that evening after Virginia and Margaret had gone to bed, the family started hearing

the knocking again, but this time it was all over the house and there was no obvious

point of origin.

They're all like hunting around to see like, is this like a pipe?

Is this a that?

Is this a whatever?

They can't narrow it down.

And eventually, the knocks became so loud that even the neighbors could hear the noise

and we're like, what's going on over there?

Like please quiet down.

And they were like, yeah, we can't control this at all.

Like we don't know what's happening.

We're not doing it.

So we are not well, bitch.

Nobody of the living is doing it, so let's see.

Finally after enduring the noise for hours and being just really unsure of what to do,

the couple, Thomas and Isabella there, ended up calling their priest, Reverend T. W. Lund.

And they were like, can you come out here and just, yeah, help, help.

So Reverend Lund arrived at the Campbell house just after midnight that very night and he

was briefed on the activity that had been occurring throughout the last 24 hours.

He could also hear the knocking sounds and he eventually traced them to that headboard

on the bed where Virginia and Margaret were sleeping, like they were still asleep.

So he actually, the Reverend suspected that Virginia was causing these noises somehow.

He said maybe she was like, like putting her head up against the headboard and kind

of like thudding it against the wall.

So he asked her to slide down away from the headboard, like they woke the kids up, obviously.

And he assumed that the noises would stop, but after she did, they continued.

And he also noticed that the headboard hadn't actually even been touching the wall at all.

So there wasn't even the possibility that it was being vibrated and like hitting the

wall.

Debunking.

Debunking.

It's not happening.

No.

So when the Reverend pressed his hand against the headboard, he could feel a vibration

with every knock, which convinced him that no matter how impossible, this knocking was

coming from inside the headboard itself.

Oh, damn.

And he could not figure out how.

What?

So during his visit to the house, Reverend Lund also noticed a large linen chest, like

pretty big.

It was 27 inches long, 17 inches high and 14 inches wide.

He saw it rocking back and forth for no obvious reason.

And then the sideboard slid more than a foot across the linoleum tile and then just slid

back into place.

What?

Yeah.

He could not explain the movement of the chest, especially because it was full of linen and

not likely to move from any kind of vibrations.

Like it's a big, heavy chest.

So he shifted his attention back to Virginia and he was like, I think you guys just need

to go back to bed.

Like Virginia and Margaret tried to go back to sleep after witnessing that.

Yeah, no big deal.

It's fine.

And when he made that suggestion, the knocking from the headboard became violent and rapid.

Like, no, no, no, nobody's going to sleep tonight.

What the fuck?

Right.

Oh, I don't like this at all.

No, it's weird.

And it doesn't, it gets weirder and it's scary in and of itself, but this particular

poltergeist doesn't seem violent.

But he seems like aggressive.

Yeah.

Which I don't like.

Like knowing that it's we Huey, it does sound like just like a little kid polter, like

this little boy Huey just make act in a fool.

You know?

Yeah, it's true.

Like we Huey really does take the terror down the notch.

It does.

Yeah.

And it just seems like a little boy being rambunctious as a ghost.

I also saw it described as a possible leprechaun.

Are you serious?

Yeah.

But they never found the leprechaun.

I'm just saying.

I love that.

Right?

Maybe Huey is a little leprechaun.

You never know.

I don't know.

Who's to say?

Not I.

Yeah.

They called it and actually they called him a vengeful leprechaun.

So.

But I don't really know how vengeful he was.

Like he didn't do anything bad.

Yeah.

I don't know.

I'm just saying he has had that reputation because the bad reputation I think is what

Taylor says.

So the noises and the disruptions continued the next day with knocking coming from the

walls.

The sewing machine was turning on and off by itself.

Objects were moving on their own.

Virginia's father by that point, James, he had sold the farm and moved to where they

were now in Scotland.

He claimed that he witnessed an apple rise out of a fruit bowl, hover in the air for

a second or two and then drop back down into the fruit bowl.

And he like this man is like a farmer.

Like he's not.

He's like a noble shit kind of guy.

Yeah.

He's just like that.

And he's like, I saw what I saw.

And I don't know why I saw that.

I saw what I saw and I don't know why I saw it.

It's weird.

Like that is it.

And I just love that it's like we Huey like picked up an apple was looking at it and that

was like nah.

Like health.

No.

Health.

Wellness.

Absolutely not for me.

I just picture like an apple floating on itself and a look at me like, can you take

the skin off this?

And nobody answers.

So he's like, fuck it.

For some reason no one heard him.

But imagine if you did it.

That would be actually terrifying.

And not and also not to know the context here.

Can you take the skin off this?

I'd go like, no, I can't.

And apple is just floating in the air.

Skin belongs on people.

I was like, ah.

And he's like, it's an apple.

I just don't want the apple skin.

I'd be like, I can't.

No.

No, thank you.

So they do that evening.

Reverend Lund went back to the Campbell home and this time he brought a local physician,

W. H. Nezbit, with him.

Once Virginia and Margaret had gone to bed, they both went into the room, the Reverend

and the doctor.

And once they walked into the room, they looked on in utter shock as Virginia's pillow rotated

about 60 degrees while her head was still resting on it.

Okay.

That's interesting.

That's weird.

That's weird.

That's suspicious.

That's suspicious.

So neither of them had really any time to process what they'd seen before the knocking

started up again.

First at the headboard and then in the walls.

And the knockings were followed by the lifting and slamming of the lid on the linen chest,

which again moved out from the wall on its own before sliding back into place against

the wall.

Okay.

But all the while the lid is being like lifted and slammed back down, lifted, slammed back

down.

That's disruptive.

It is.

So these phenomena were shocking, but the final event witnessed that evening was the most

inexplicable to them.

As Virginia and Margaret lay in bed with the covers pulled up to their chests, both men

witnessed what they later described as a strange rippling movement, move up and down

the bed covers as the two girls lay beneath, almost like the cover was doing the wave.

Yeah.

Obviously.

What?

No.

I hate it.

Nope.

And I'm also like, damn, y'all are just sleeping through this.

No, that's the thing.

Kids are wild.

Everybody's just like going about their business after this.

It's the kids.

Like what the buck?

Like kids can sleep through anything.

They truly can apparently.

But then they have like, they need like one glass of water and it's over for you bitches.

Oh, it's, I mean, go in to sleep, forget about it.

Forget about it.

Forget about it.

Now, since the activity started a few days earlier, Virginia had been staying home from

school because they were like, do we send her to school?

Yeah.

This is happening.

But by Friday, November 25th, the Campbells decided there was really no point in keeping

her at home any longer.

Especially because home isn't safe, it seems.

Yeah.

And they weren't even any closer to understanding what the hell was going on.

So after being home all morning, and you know, Virginia was probably like, I'm ticking

them off a little bit.

Like, you know, like they were like, go find something to do and she was like, I can't.

So they were like, you know what, go to school.

Forget it.

So they sent her to school for the remainder of the afternoon.

Now that afternoon, as she was sitting in class, her teacher, Margaret Stewart, noticed

that she seemed to be struggling with something at her desk.

Mrs. Stewart's vantage point at the front of the class, it seems like Virginia was fidgeting

with her desk lid in like an unusual manner.

She's like, what the fuck is she doing?

She didn't say that though.

She said, what the fuck is that little girl doing?

Virginia, what the fuck are you doing?

Virginia.

She didn't say that.

That would have been so rude.

That would have been really rude.

She would have had a problem with Annie Campbell if she said that.

Yeah.

And James, I'm sure.

And me.

And me.

How about that?

Ms. Stewart.

Fuck that kid that way.

Never.

No, Ms. Stewart's a sweetie.

So she called out and was like, Virginia, what are you doing?

And Virginia said, nothing, miss, honest.

She was like, I'm really not doing anything.

So when the teacher told Virginia to stop distracting the class, she did as she was told

and just lifted her arms off the desk.

And at that point, the wooden lid of the desk began rising and falling on its own as the

other students just watched in complete shock and horror.

No.

So it seems like she might have been like, because she said, the teacher was like, it

looked like she was fidgeting with her desk.

It sounds to me like she was trying to stop that from happening.

Yeah.

Like I was trying to figure out why it was happening, like just being like, what is

going on here?

Like trying to see if it could stop it.

And then she takes her hands off and it starts just going for it.

And all the kids in class are like, what the fuck?

That's wild.

We got a Matilda up in here.

We got a Matilda?

So later that afternoon, during a period of silent reading, the classroom was again disrupted

when the empty desk behind Virginia slowly rose about an inch off of the floor and just

gently settled down again on its own.

What do you even say as a kid in that class?

You're like, what's happening?

I don't know.

What is going on?

No.

When she was interviewed about the incidents a short time later, Mrs. Stewart told George

Owen that during the first interruption, Virginia was in her line of sight, so she

could tell that Virginia was not lifting the lid of the desk.

And again, her hands were in the air.

And after the second incident, Mrs. Stewart went back over to the desk behind Virginia

and examined the whole entirety of it and said she, quote, found no strings, levers,

or anything else that had been in operation to make the desk rise and fall seemingly of

its own volition.

Damn.

So this wasn't a prank.

Yeah.

Like they checked it out, it seems.

Yeah.

They tried to debunk everything and they literally couldn't.

See, these are the ones that it's like when they're going and checking it out and actual

adults are looking and being like, I can't explain this.

That's when those scary, scary ones.

They are.

They're scared.

For some reason, I just find this one fun.

Yeah.

I mean, it's Scottish.

Who doesn't love a Scottish tale?

I love a Scottish tale personally.

I love a Scottish tale.

And it's an Irish girly.

Yeah.

One of our own.

We love it.

Later that evening, Reverend Lund and Dr. Nesbitt returned again to the Campbell House to

check up on Virginia.

And when Reverend Lund asked her how school had been, Virginia said, all right, but something

funny happened when I was there.

When my teacher was standing near my desk, the lid of another desk went up all by itself.

You know, funny.

Reverend Lund was like, okay, I'm going to talk to your family.

So give me a minute.

Wild.

No, while he sat and talked with the family in the living room, Dr. Nesbitt spent the

evening sitting in the girl's bedroom watching for any unusual behavior.

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Now, while he was alone in the room, Dr. Nesbitt witnessed similar but less intense

activity than had been reported days earlier, including the light knocking sounds, the lid

of the linen chests lifting and lowering, and still multiple rotations of Virginia's

pillow as it just sat on the bed.

Yeah, that's wild.

So it's not even like, because I guess you're kind of thinking, or at least I was, when

they first saw that pillow rotation, I'm like, maybe there's something that like she can

pull, that like makes it, I mean, that's, like you just, you're trying to debunk.

But you try to think of anything that can explain it.

But now he's sitting alone in there.

That's the thing, like she's not there to do anything.

No, and this is the 1960s.

So it's not like she has like some remote control that's like hooked up to anything.

If it was now, I'd be like, all right, maybe it's like a drone or some shit.

Right. But now, like back then it's like, no, no.

So the family hoped the arrival of the weekend maybe could bring some kind of just chill to

this situation.

Yeah.

Like it's been really chaotic up in here with the paranormal activity.

Maybe we can have a calm weekend, please.

But unfortunately, it didn't take long for those hopes to be dashed.

Saturday, the 27th did pass with minimal activity.

The most really anyone witnessed was more pillow rotations and that rippling of the

bed covers.

I love that more pillow rotation.

More pillow rotations.

It's like more bump titties.

Now, Sunday, on the other hand, found the family experiencing entirely new phenomenon

when Virginia appeared to go into a kind of trance.

This is kind of what I touched on earlier.

That afternoon, Dr. Nesbitt returned with his colleague, Dr. William Logan.

Oh.

I know somebody with that same name.

But they brought along his dog, Dr. Logan's dog.

And Virginia took an immediate liking to this dog, telling the doctors that he reminded

her so much of her own dog, Toby, who she like really missed.

I really don't understand why they couldn't bring Toby with them.

Justice for Toby.

Justice for Toby.

Truly.

Pour one out.

I will.

Now, the day passed without incident.

The children played with the dog.

They seemed generally happy.

But that evening, after the girls had gone to bed, Virginia appeared to slip into this

kind of trance, trance, excuse me.

And she started speaking almost like she was talking in her sleep, calling out for Toby

and her best friend, Anna, who she'd left behind in Ireland.

Now, Virginia's parents did what you would do.

They tried to comfort her.

She's like seemingly having some kind of night terror or distress.

They gave her a teddy bear, but she ended up violently throwing the teddy bear across

the room and started thrashing and striking out in all directions.

Oh, damn.

And they were like, I don't know what to do.

So they left the room.

I don't really know what else they could have done, I guess.

Yeah.

And she just fell asleep normally after that.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

Huh.

Have you, have your kids ever had a night terror to like that extent?

No, they've never like thrashed around and like become like scary like that.

Like potentially violent.

Yeah.

They've never become violent or like even aggressive.

They more, it always kills me because like they would, they don't have them anymore really

knock on wood and they didn't get them a ton.

They would just every once in a while and I got them when I was little.

So I knew what they were.

What to do.

But I, they basically like, they get very like, they cry and they get very like inconsolable

like for a moment.

And then finally they'll, they'll fall into it and be like, and calm down.

But even like, even so you feel bad leaving them because you feel like you haven't quite

got them to a comforted place yet.

Cause they'll lay down and like go to go back to sleep and you can still see like the stress

on their face.

So it always used to kill me.

And then I go in like an hour later and they were like peacefully asleep.

So I was like, okay.

We're good.

But yeah, it's always one of those things where you're like, but I've, they never got

aggressive.

I know.

I don't know if that's just different strokes for different folks.

Yeah.

That's the thing.

Cause in my mind I'm like, maybe what George Owen said earlier about how like she was clearly

dealing with something, whether she would or not, I don't know if maybe she was the

kind of person with the temperament of like not allowing things to get the best of her

while she was awake.

But then at night she was like angry about the fact that she had to move like in her

subconscious.

And no matter what she's young and she's going through a, an upheaval.

Yeah.

So it's like, I feel like that's always going to put a kid in a different mindset when it's

the, when it's not quite settled or, you know, when things are settled, it's easier to be

in a good mindset.

But for a kid unsettling and movement can really throw them off.

Yeah.

Like way more than we think it does.

And it's interesting.

Like, and I think a lot of it, I think a lot of things with kids happen subconsciously.

Yeah.

For sure.

Because it's just like they can't necessarily make sense of a lot.

Exactly.

There's so much going on.

Well, anyways, the next day Virginia did return to school and it was almost immediately apparent

that whatever had been affecting her arrived with her at school that day.

As the students were sitting quietly working on a world, a word problem, Virginia approached

Mrs. Stewart's desk to ask for a little help with whatever they were doing.

So she got up to sketch out the problem on the blackboard for her, the teacher.

But she, the teacher looked as the chalkboard pointer on her desk started to vibrate because

she was about to like grab for it, but it started vibrating on her desk and eventually

fell off of the edge of her desk.

And then when she reached down to touch the desk, she was surprised to find that it too

was vibrating slightly and then without any kind of warning.

And I want to say that this is probably like the most quote unquote violent thing to happen.

The right end of her desk lifted off the floor slightly and swung in her direction.

Like it got like pushed towards her.

Oh, damn.

And I am pretty sure that's one of them, like the more violent things that happened.

Luckily, I don't believe she was hurt, but weird.

Yeah.

We Huey does not like Mrs. Stewart.

I guess.

No, it's weird that it's following her to school.

I know.

You know?

That's the thing.

Wow.

Now, when Virginia arrived home from school that afternoon, the family made the decision

to send her actually to stay with relatives in nearby dollar where they hoped she would

get a break from the paranormal activity because they're like, she's really not sleeping.

She's going to school.

Like this is a lot on her as a 11 year old.

So hopefully if we send her over here, she can maybe the activity is like linked to the

house somehow.

Yeah.

I don't know.

But when Dr. Nesbitt visited the dollar house later that night, he found that the knocking

noises continued in the new location in a series of knocks that range from gentle tapping

to loud raps, always in the vicinity of Virginia.

Oh, spooky.

So it followed her to an entirely different town.

Exactly.

That's wild.

Now, the next day, Dr. Logan arrived in dollar in the company of his wife, also a doctor,

Dr. Sheila Logan, and they wanted to visit Virginia to get a load of this.

Yeah.

Sheila first heard the stories about the activity from her husband that seemed to be following

Virginia.

She was like, okay, sure.

And she seriously actually doubted what was going on.

She talked the quote unquote activity up to just a childish, childish prank.

But as soon as she got to the house where Virginia was staying, Sheila experienced the

knocking's firsthand and walked away, quote, satisfied that the noises from within the

room were not caused by the activity of anyone in it, which is such a haunting statement.

Yeah.

I remember she was hearing in that room was not caused by anyone in it.

Hate.

I don't like that.

Hate, hate, loathe entirely.

I have some shame, but knocking thing would annoy the shit out of me.

I hate repetitive noises more than anything, that would piss me off.

And I think I would literally go insane.

So later that night, the Logan's were called back to the house in dollar by the family

who were concerned because Virginia had fallen into another trance.

And they were like, yeah, we haven't experienced this before, so we're not really sure what

to do.

Not sure.

So when they got to the home, Dr. Logan discovered that Virginia was sitting up in bed, quote,

talking in a loud, unnatural voice, calling for Toby and Anna and throwing herself about

the bed.

According to Logan, even though Virginia's eyes were closed, she heard and responded

to questions normally, but she did note that her responses indicated a lack of shyness

that was typically present in Virginia's personality.

Like usually she was like a pretty soft-spoken, shy child.

But when she was answering these questions, it was very like confident.

Yeah, just like outside of her natural kind of position.

That's an interesting, like little side effect.

So the doctor stayed with her for 10 or 15 minutes until she did eventually emerge from

the trance and she did eventually fall asleep.

But they were like, what the fuck?

They just had never seen anything like this before.

Yeah, it's just like none of it adds up.

No, and it's not, and none of it is like of typical poltergeist activity, like obviously

the moving of the furniture and that kind of tapping noises, but it's not your typical

poltergeist story.

Yeah, it's very strange.

So Virginia returned home the next day, November 30th, and the family actually reported no

unusual activity.

But that break did prove to be short-lived because the noises returned the following

night just around the time, and it always seems to be around the time that the girls

are getting ready for bed.

Which makes you think that it's a prank, but then they try to figure it out and there's

no way that the girls are causing this.

Yeah, it's like, what the fuck?

So just before 9 p.m., Dr. Nisbet and Dr. Logan set up a camera in the girls bedroom

hoping to capture any of this activity on film.

Now the camera captured long periods of continual noise, quote, ranging from barely perceptible

tappings to agitated knocks, more rippling of the bed cover, and quote, a considerable

amount of hysterical talking by Virginia, in which she showed the same lack of inhibition

she had previously in her trances.

Huh.

So she's this very confident, outspoken girl in her trances.

And then when she's awake and out and about, she's very shy and reserved.

Yeah.

It's just interesting.

So that same night, Reverend Lund arrived at the Campbell House in the company of three

other local ministers to conduct a service of intercession, I believe is what it's called.

It's not an exorcism.

Those would become more popular in the media in the following decade.

But what they were doing now, a service of intercession, is basically just a prayer session

where a group prays to their God on behalf of another person, in this case, Virginia.

So throughout the 15 minute prayer session, these men who were praying over her reported

hearing considerable loud banging, quote, a harsh, rasping, sawing noise, and screams

and bouts of hysterical talking from Virginia, which they described as babbling.

What the fuck?

So this was clearly agitating the entity.

Ew.

Now the activity, which had begun about a week earlier, had not only been disruptive

to everybody involved, but also to the large number of witnesses to the phenomenon.

It wasn't just Virginia that was going through it.

It was everybody.

Yeah.

So currently, in paranormal cases, similar to this one, firsthand experiences are limited.

Yeah.

But Virginia's poltergeist had never really been shy about demonstrating its abilities,

and it was only a matter of time, of course, before the press got onto the story.

Of course.

You knew what was coming.

Of course.

So the intersessional prayer session coincided with an article that was published on The

Wire by United Press International.

The article, it kind of annoys me when they do things like this, because it was poking

fun at this.

Wow.

It's like, this is an 11-year-old girl.

Yeah, that's the thing.

It's like, come on.

It's one thing if this is adults, and even that's like pretty rude, but you don't need

to make fun of people.

You definitely don't need to make fun of an 11-year-old.

No.

So it had an unserious tone, but at the same time, it did lay out some of the facts that

had occurred.

It emphasized the ways in which Virginia's quote-unquote ghost was disrupting the class,

and Virginia's teacher Margaret was interviewed for it, and she told reporters, I don't believe

in the supernatural, but I was mesmerized by what I saw.

And she was referring to that movement of the desk.

She said, it looked like an elaborate practical joke, but there was no string, and no one

touched the desk when it moved.

Wow.

So she was like, I don't believe in the supernatural, and even I can't explain this.

I was just going to say, but she's like, I don't believe in the supernatural, but I

have no idea how they did that.

It's like, I think you might believe in the supernatural now.

Now in addition to the description of paranormal activity occurring at school, the UPI article

noted the rumors, I just said that like Meredith Marks a little bit, there's this new clip

on Housewives where one of the Housewives goes, the rumors, the way she says it is wild.

I'm going to play it for you later, but the UPI article noted the rumors that had been

making their way around town, and quote, villagers said they understood church authorities would

be consulted to determine if this case was warranting of an exorcism.

Here we go.

Now, you can assume the writer was referring to Reverend Lund, like they were like, is this

motherfucker going to start an exorcism?

Because he had been involved with the case from the very beginning, and up to this point

had never made any mention of an exorcism.

But this news report raised concern among the Reverend and the doctors and Virginia's

family that any additional attention was going to make things harder for Virginia.

They were like, all these articles are going to fuck shit up.

We don't need this.

Which I mean, yeah.

She's 11.

Yeah.

And with the family, the men decided that the best course of action would be to report

to the news service that with help from her doctors and the Reverend, the problem had

been solved.

They were like, we just need them to believe that this was over.

And we can do this privately.

They're going to be like a dog with a bone.

Yeah.

Now, in their joint statement, the three men, which is the doctors and the Reverend, they

provided some small details about the activity saying, we concluded that the happenings could

not be accounted for in the normal sense of cause and effect.

And writing on behalf of the church, the statement went on, when the observances did not quickly

disappear, we attempted to help the child by changing her environment and to deal by

means of sedatives with her hysteria, which we all agreed was a secondary emotional effect.

We realized the need not only for medical care for the child, but also spiritual help

for the whole family.

And we consulted certain ministers who have had the experience of abnormal phenomena of

a similar nature.

All along, we have recognized the possible importance of restoring the child to her previous

environment in Ireland.

In our opinion, the phenomena are rapidly diminishing, and it is our belief that they

may soon disappear altogether.

So they were like, things are really chilling out over here, nothing to see.

Yeah.

Don't worry about it.

We fixed it.

Everything's cool.

Good, good, good.

Cool, cool, cool.

Awesome.

So the statement actually seemed to satisfy a lot of inquiring minds about town, but

some local news outlets still wanted more information.

Of course.

One of the three men would provide any additional details they looked elsewhere.

So in an article from December 2nd, 1960, the paper quotes Secretary of the Aloha Spiritualist

Church, James Henderson, saying,

In my opinion, this little girl has certain unusual psychic qualities, and I am convinced

that some person who has passed on is trying to communicate through her.

I believe that a responsible medium should be taken to see the little girl, for such

a person could certainly help her.

Oh, which okay, I got it.

Interesting.

The article goes on to quote a spokesperson for the spiritualist national church.

That's mouthful.

It is.

And that's James McNeigh.

He said,

Happening such as or taking place with this little girl are not nearly so unusual as

many people think.

And contrary to popular opinion, they are not necessarily evil in nature.

Children are much more alive physically than adults are, and often, although unconscious,

real mediums.

If much of what is called their blethers was seriously examined, they would be discovered

to contain communication from people who have passed on.

So basically, he's saying what I think a lot of people believe is that kids are more susceptible

to like seeing spirits, making friends with spirits, being visited by spirits.

Being open to spirits.

Being open to it because they're not as scared of it yet because they haven't had the experiences

yet.

And their mind is more open.

And their mind is more open, exactly.

And they close their mind a ton, exactly, which sucks because they put up bullshit boundaries

in our own mind.

I want to see a ghost.

I mean, I've already seen a few, but I want to see some more, but yeah.

So despite that statement though, or the statement that Lunn, Nesbitt and Logan had

made, the press, like I said, maintained an interest in Virginia's story that went on

for weeks, capitalizing on quotes from teachers, classmates, and then finally it did die out

a few weeks later.

Yeah.

Now, although the statement put out by Lunn, Nesbitt and Logan had kind of been intended

to convince the press and neighbors that the problem had been resolved and there was nothing

more to see, the fact was actually following the intercession service performed on the

evening of December 1st.

The activity had seemed to come to an end.

So they were like manifesting kings and queens.

So I was going to say, there you go.

Now aside from one more incident at school in late January where a bowl of bulbs moved

across Ms. Stewart's desk, there were no additional reports of disturbances from the

Campbell's or their neighbors.

Now I don't know if that's just because they were worried about the press continuing

to bother them or if genuinely the shit just stopped.

Well, the story did end up getting new life in the summer of 1965 when George Owen released

his book, Can We Explain the Poltergeist?

Can we?

Can we?

I like that title.

I always love when a book title is a question.

I do too.

It's fun.

Can we?

Can we?

Let's find out.

Read this book.

So in his book, Owen, who is a Trinity College Mathematics Professor, he explores the potential

realities of Poltergeist phenomena, excuse me, paying particular attention to Virginia's

experience.

The book isn't exclusively about Virginia's case, but it did revive interest in that case

in the UK, especially with the tabloid newspapers.

In a 1965 article in the Sunday Mirror, five years after this had originally happened, the

paper played up the family's rural origins and supposedly superstitious nature of Irish

people, describing Donegal as a quaint, isolated part of, I think it's Ira's, how you say

it?

Ira?

Ira?

You're supposed to say it with like an accent, but I'm not going to do that because it's

not my accent.

Yeah.

I have no idea.

But it says, where banshees are said to wail before death and tiny leprechauns prance at

the bottom of the gardens.

So basically they were like kind of poking fun at their Irish roots, which is-

Yeah, they were being like, they're Irish, so they're probably dumb and think stupid

things.

And it's like, wow.

Yeah.

Okay.

Like they're like, oh, they're just superstitious because folklore.

Yeah.

Fuck off.

Thanks.

Like, mm, I just did a big old bird.

I was going to say she just flipped me off in case anyone was wondering.

But it was the Sunday Mirror, it wasn't you.

I was like, fuck you, Alina.

Fuck you for no good reason.

Just for the hell of it.

For no good reason.

Just in the middle of this episode.

Just fuck you.

Fuck you.

I really like fuck you for no good reason.

Right?

Fuck you.

That's a good team.

For no good reason.

I like that.

Yeah.

For enough in the most part.

Follow the release of Owen's book, told the story of Virginia's experience with the poltergeist

that she and her friends had come to refer to as Wee Huey.

That's where Wee Huey comes in.

Eventually, Virginia named her poltergeist.

Wee little Huey.

I love that she was like, you know what?

He needs a name.

Hell yeah.

But eventually they got around to the question every reader wanted answered, what caused

the poltergeist?

True.

Now, most people simply believed it was a matter of what Owen called, I hate the name

of this theory.

The naughty little girl theory.

That's upsetting.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't love it.

It's just, you know, yeah.

But he basically was saying that, or this theory was saying that the activity was nothing

more than a prank caused by Virginia herself.

After all, she had been through a serious disruption in her life, maybe, you know, feeling anxious

or unstable with both parents absent.

So she created the Wee Huey scenario in order to get attention.

That was one theory.

Okay.

I'm gonna buy that one because we've looked at all the ways in which she couldn't have

caused what was going on.

Well, that's the thing.

It's like, that would be a very good theory if there wasn't times when even adults were

like, I don't know how she could have done that.

Exactly.

And like the thought process behind the theory makes sense when you look at the disruption

in her life and everything.

About people, all the, yeah.

But then like you said, even the adults were like, nope, no way.

That's where it's confusing because it's like, how did she pull that shit off?

So that's where you kind of have to axe that theory and it's great that you have to anyway.

Yeah.

Now, Owen acknowledged the possibility that some of the activity actually could have been

caused by Virginia or her niece Margaret, but he rejected the belief that the entire

thing was a hoax.

He told her reporter, it is possible to suppose one could be the victim of illusion or hallucination.

However, it is beyond all possibility that everyone could be deceived over such a long

period of time.

Yeah.

That's the thing.

So if it wasn't a hoax, what was it?

It was Wee Little Huey.

Well, Owen said, when girls are approaching puberty, they often seem to attract poltergeist

phenomena.

There are many cases which suggest that activity is more likely to arise in that age group.

That's weird as fuck.

And it's, I guess it's because your body is going through a lot of upheaval.

It's real weird.

It is a little weird.

I don't like it.

I don't love it.

I don't like connecting it to puberty.

I don't know why.

It just gives me the.

It gives you the.

It feels icky.

I get what he's saying.

Yeah.

I don't think he's saying it like to.

No, no, no, no.

I don't, I'm not, I'm not like offended by him or anything.

I'm just.

No, just for some reason that just always makes me think like.

Yeah.

You know, I totally, it has like a.

Yeah.

Well, and it's such a shitty time like puberty.

Yeah.

Anyways.

And it's like to add that like, and you know what?

You might get possessed.

You might get possessed while you're at it.

I come on.

I mean, that sucks.

But then it kind of makes sense because there are like a lot of entities like poltergeist

and all different kinds of entities that will attach to somebody while they're going through

serious upheaval in life.

Yeah.

Like your hormones being a lot of whack and like.

Wow.

We should start warning kids about that.

We should start being like, here's the ins and outs of puberty and what you can expect.

Here's the poltergeist section.

In rare occasions, you might also attract a poltergeist.

There's really not a lot you can do.

You need to break it to your kids.

Yeah.

That's that's part of the side effects of puberty.

That might be.

That might make those classes a little bit more fun because you remember when like they

would separate their girls and the boys and like sixth grade and they'd be like, here's

what's going to happen to your body.

And you were like, fuck my whole life.

I also love that because I'm like, yeah, definitely don't teach them what happens to the other,

you know, like set of students.

Like none of you should understand each other.

And anyway, we had to sit there and watch all these fucking wild ass videos.

And the boys were like, we just played like a game.

Yeah.

They're like, our voice might crack.

Yeah.

Or you might be possessed by a fucking poltergeist.

How do you like those assholes?

It could be really easy or real hard for you.

Exactly.

So Owen theorized that moving from Ireland to a new home where she was uncomfortable along

with those feelings of loss from loss from having parted with her dog and her best friend

left Virginia quote in a state of some tension.

And he believed the result was quote, circumstances may well have triggered off a physical force

around her, which is not yet known to science.

Now, unfortunately, while Owen could offer those theories as to what may have triggered

the paranormal events around Virginia, he was at a loss to explain precisely how those

phenomena function.

But the Sunday Mirror summarized, and I really hate the summarization, but go off Sunday

mirror.

If a girl is emotionally upset during her 28 day cycle, she can acquire an unexplained

power strong enough to move things without touching them.

And Owen agreed with that summation, adding, we are ignorant to the nature of this force

and have no idea how it is applied.

We cannot even begin to understand its potential.

But one thing seems fairly certain.

The hidden force is wild and uncontrollable at the moment.

That's probably why we won't let women be president over here, I guess.

Just out here.

Just out here moving things and we don't know why.

I had no idea that during that time.

Yeah.

That I was so fucking powerful.

I mean, I've never matildaed during my cycle, but go off.

Overs are scary as fuck.

Overs, I mean, they are a little scary.

What's happening?

Overs hurt sometimes.

That is, that's hilarious that that's how they summarize this entire thing.

They were like, well, yeah.

Period.

Periods.

They are wily and they can create demonic presence in a home and it's like, no, no.

In a home.

I am the demonic presence in my home during that time.

You're like, Georgia and you are confused.

Yeah.

I'm like, I don't need an outside entity to make that happen.

Like, don't you worry.

It ain't we Huey.

Yeah.

It's me.

It's not we Huey.

I am the demonic force.

He just texted us.

Overs are scary as fuck, y'all.

We should get a shirt that says that.

Overs are scary as fuck, y'all.

It is not the demonic force.

It's me.

It's me.

Yeah, honestly.

Wow.

But that got hilarious at the end.

I was excited to present you that theory because I was writing it and I was like, I don't even

really want to look further into this.

I like the go off Sunday mirror.

Go off Sunday mirror.

I'm like, okay.

Wow.

Did a man write that?

That's awesome.

Probably.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

So the flurry of public interest around the case in Owen's book did die down after a few

weeks and the case of Virginia Campbell went back into the corners of people's minds.

And it wasn't until about 30 years later that Virginia's experience popped up again in

the news in the mid 90s.

It was the 90s.

90s.

Kevin.

Kevin.

Kevin.

But thank you to the interest of a high profile paranormal investigator, Malcolm Robinson.

His mother grew up in the Soki area and he said, I initially looked into the case in 1987,

but I never got anywhere.

However, I had more success in 1994 when I looked at it again.

So initially he was kind of trying to investigate this.

Like I just said, and he was struggling to find anybody related to the case and all his

letters and his phone calls were going on answered.

But then in 1994, he tracked down one Margaret Davidson, formerly Stuart, Virginia's former

teacher.

Oh.

And as one of the primary witnesses, she was actually an ideal reporter, not only because

of the respectability of her position, but also because of her seemingly excellent memory.

Huh.

She said, I had never really heard the word poltergeist before.

I thought it was some kind of medicine.

That's how naive I was.

Poltergeist.

Take two poltergeists and call me in the morning.

Imagine.

Now, over the course of their conversation, she was able to verify much of what had been

reported on in the press and she also was able to fill in some gaps for Robinson.

For instance, during the peak interest in the story, as the press was relentlessly pursuing

the family and actually even waited outside of school, Mrs. Stuart formally was able to

tell this reporter that one of Virginia's classmates actually ended up donning her coat

and backpack in an attempt to lead the press away from the school so that Virginia could

leave without being harassed.

Oh my God.

Like that's how bad things got.

Oh damn.

So you can see why.

And I love that the Reverend and like the doctors were like, we need to put a stop to this because

she deserves to live a normal life.

Yeah.

Like we don't want to make this a big media circus.

Hullabaloo.

Yeah.

But if they were like all about it, it would be one thing.

Yeah.

But the fact that they wanted it to go away.

And to protect her.

Yeah.

And you don't really hear that a lot when we talk about these stories.

Usually it's very like.

You're like, what's happening?

Yeah.

So Davidson also added some of the less savory details that wouldn't have been published

by the press in the 60s, including a frightening incident where Virginia was harassed by a woman

who believed her to be quote, one of God's chosen ones and asked if she could touch her.

Oh.

Oh.

What?

Oh.

What?

Oh.

What?

Somebody just, you walk up to a child and ask if you can touch them.

Because I think you're one of God's chosen ones.

I'd be like, you better hope you are because I'm about to send you into eternity right

now for asking my child if you can touch them.

Like what the fuck?

Damn.

Weird.

That's fucked up.

That's not good.

Ew.

So for the most part, Robinson's investigation just kind of reiterated what was already reported

in Owen's book 30 years earlier.

It didn't offer a ton of additional details other than the ones I just mentioned.

Or really any new theories that could explain what happened to Virginia.

But it did underscore what made this case so fascinating in the first place because like

I said a little bit earlier, unlike the majority of supposed hauntings and so-called poltergeist

activity that had been reported on before and since Virginia's claims had been made,

this poltergeist case does remain one of the few that still defies explanation.

Yeah.

We still have no idea what the fuck happened and why it did.

They couldn't confirm or debunk it.

Exactly.

Which is always the ones you want to pay attention to.

Now as Owen pointed out in 1965, obviously it's possible to trick someone, like one person

or even a handful of people into believing something is real.

But to trick multiple professionals with no connection to this home and an entire classroom

full of students and a teacher and like a myriad of other people into seeing and hearing things

that weren't there, no way.

No.

So this really happened, meaning it's entirely possible that there is some truth to Owen's

conclusion.

The poltergeist phenomena were real and not due to trickery, ground tremors, or induced

weightlessness.

That was a quote.

Induced weightlessness.

I like that.

Yeah.

So Virginia Campbell's experience with We Huey the Poltergeist is in a lot of ways similar

to so many other stories, except for the fact that people believed her.

And that's really the only difference at all, that from the moment everything began, she

was taken seriously.

Yeah.

So, but maybe that is why this particular case lacked the level of aggression and violence

that we see in so many other cases.

And maybe that's also why it was kind of resolved in a relatively short matter of time.

Because everybody gave it the attention it deserved and believed her.

Exactly.

Like this thing didn't feel like it needed to get bigger and bigger to prove that it

existed.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So in the weeks and months after the intersessional prayer, the Campbell said they experienced

only occasional activity in the form of knocking noises and a slight movement of objects,

but nothing at all like they had experienced in late November of 1960.

And a few months after the press coverage ended, James, Annie, and Virginia did move

out of Thomas and Isabella Campbell's house and into their own home in the Scottish Midlands,

seeming to leave little wee-hee-wee behind and soaky.

See ya, wee-hee-wee.

Bye.

Now, a few years later, after she finally settled into her new life in Scotland, Virginia got

a job working in a factory and she was free of disruptive forces, so she was able to enjoy

the things that girls like to enjoy.

Good for her, man.

And people like to enjoy.

Now, in a final note, closing out the series of articles in 1965, Virginia said of the

poltergeist, it never really worried me, but for the sake of others, I hope it never returns.

Ooh.

And that is the end of wee-hee-wee, the soaky poltergeist.

What an end to that.

I hope it never returns.

See, this has like, it's poltergeisty, but it's also like a little, like, fey realm

to me.

I could see that.

Totally.

It feels very like, you know, like a brownie or something, like one of those little, like,

fuck around, fuck around, you know?

I feel like it's, and maybe it's because I'm reading, the girls and I are reading the

spider wick chronicles at night now, like we're going through the whole series and it's

all about, like, fey and shit, but it, it reminds me, it's weird that you did this one

while we're reading, that always works.

That always happens to us.

It always winds up, because we're reading those and it just, it kept making me think

about it all, the, like, mischief and shit.

Yeah.

I meant to say your case that you did earlier, I'm not going to say the, the truth.

The Tor Shorker.

Tor Shorker witch trials.

Witch trials, I did say it, yeah.

There was like a date that you had mentioned in the whole case, and I think it's releasing

around the same time, like now.

Oh, that is weird.

Yeah.

Isn't that weird?

That is very strange.

We always have things like that happen.

Yeah.

Oh yeah, because I think the actual trials were October.

Yeah, they were.

October 10th or something like that.

I think you're right.

And I think it's like, or I think you said like the 12th or the 15th.

Yeah, probably.

I think that's just in my head.

But it was, I think it's releasing around that same time.

So it's just weird.

Very weird.

Weird that you're reading these things.

I wish I could say we do.

That would make us a lot more, you know, with it, but I think this is just the universe

guiding us here.

I was going to say, maybe we are super with it and we just don't even know how with it

we are.

We're the most with it.

Yeah.

Kids.

What is that gift for the guy doing the kid?

Like, like with the kids?

Oh, hello, youth.

Hello, youth.

Hello, youth.

Hello, universe.

Hello, kids.

I don't know.

I don't know.

You know, that was a crazy story.

It was.

And I like that it wasn't debunked or confirmed.

I know.

I wish it had been confirmed somehow.

Like I wish they did get to the bottom of it and like what really happened.

I know.

But it is kind of cool that they didn't.

And it is kind of cool that Virginia was like, listen, I don't know what happened.

I love that you just like, I don't know.

That was that was that.

But like, let's hope it doesn't come back for everyone else's sake.

And it's like, oh, okay.

Drop that mic, Virginia.

Okay.

We're GNI.

Way to leave us.

I know.

With a gasp.

With.

I know.

Crazy story.

I had fun doing this one and Dave helped me a lot and it was really fun to do together.

So.

Yay, David.

And yeah, you guys.

And we hope you keep listening.

And we hope you keep it weird, but not so weird that you blame a 28 day cycle for a

poltergeist activity because we're the demons.

That's hilarious.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.

When Annie Campbell uprooted her daughter from their home in Donegal, Ireland and relocated to Sauchie, Scotland in 1960, the move resulted in consequences far beyond what anyone could have expected. Removed from the only home she’d ever known, eleven-year-old Virginia Campbell did her best to acclimate to the foreign environment as she and her mother settled into the home of Virginia’s aunt, but within just a few weeks of their arrival the family was under siege from an invisible entity Virginia would later name “Wee Hughie.”

One of the most notorious cases of poltergeist activity in Scottish history, the case of the Sauchie poltergeist involved the usual trappings of poltergeist phenomenon—slamming doors, moving objects, and disruptive noises. Yet what set the phenomenon apart from myriad other cases of poltergeist phenomenon was that the supposedly supernatural phenomenon was witnessed by many bystanders, including Virginia’s teachers and classmates.

Was the Sauchie poltergeist a genuine example of paranormal activity, or was “Wee Hughie” nothing more than an elaborate hoax perpetrated by a creative girl seeking attention in the wake of major disruption in her life and environment?




Thank you to the lovely David White, of Bring Me the Axe podcast, for research assistance :)




References

Associated Press. 1960. "Haunted Irish girl gtets aid." Windsor Star, December 3: C-8.

Owen, A.R.G. 1964. Can We Explain the Poltergeist? New York, NY: Garrett Publications.

Robinson, Malcom. 2020. The Sauchie Poltergeist. Scotland: Independent.

Sims, Victor. 1965. "Poltergeist Terror." Sunday Mirror, June 13: 8.

—. 1965. "Virginia was possessed by a wild and unknown force." Sunday Mirror, June 27: 13.

United Press International. 1960. "Girl's ghost upsets school." Pittsburgh Press, December 2: 17.




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