Episode 209: The Brothers Of The Mount
ALEX: From Pacific Northwest Stories and Minnow Beats Whale, it's season two of The Black Tapes Podcast. I'm Alex Reagan.
This season, we're continuing our exploration of the Strand Institute's enigmatic president and founder, Dr. Richard Strand. We're telling the story of the black tapes in order, every two weeks. So if you haven't listened to the first few episodes, go back and start there. We'll be here when you get back.
As always, there's a lot going on. Simon Reese is missing. Our boy in a river mystery now has a name. That name is Bobby Mames. Plus, Strand dug up some information on the mysterious Pilori. But first, Nic and I played the Riverview recordings for Dr. Strand. Here, Nic, Strand, and I discuss why Hausdorff's references to “Mr. Splitfoot” struck Nic as familiar.
ALEX: That's Sheriff Pat Packard. She's the sheriff of Jefferson county, where Dr. Strand's hometown of Summerville is located. She grew up in Brookville, which lies 7 miles northeast of Summerville, and is the county seat of Jefferson County.
ALEX: I went to see Strand at his father's house. He'd converted the enormous basement into a sort of Strand Institute bunker. His assistant, Ruby, has been helping. It's starting to look like a formidable base of operations, with a real Baker-Street-meets-the-Batcave vibe. He'd uncovered a few things about the Pilori that he found interesting.
ALEX: While Strand and I were digging into the Tiamat cult, I received a message at the studio. It was from Sammie.
ALEX: That wasn't all of her message. At the end, that stuff that sounded like a fax machine? Was just that. Nic had a friend who was able to somehow ingest that fax data and turn it into text. We've been unable to get in touch with Sammie, and yes, we tried leaving a letter in the mailbox in Portland. Either something has happened to her, or she's staying off the grid. Way off.
The encoded fax machine sounds, her message at the end of her message, resulted in a handful of printed pages. There were incorporation documents, research grants, and board of director lists. We're still looking into everything here, but, upon first glance, it appears that Daiva Corporation, a multinational energy conglomerate, was funding research into the paranormal.
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ALEX: Amalia's back in Russia. She went back to straighten something out with the government. She wasn't doing all that well, living in hiding. She hired a lawyer and got on a plane. She said everything is going better than expected. She should be home soon. While she's in Russia, she agreed to look into a few things for us. This is what she had to say on her first report.
ALEX: My head was reeling from this news. I wasn't sure how to process this. It looked exactly like Keith Dabic. It had to be him. I called his family, but there was no answer. I left a message, but have yet to hear back. If that was Keith, then I was definitely onto something far more dangerous than I'd ever imagined. The death of Maddie Franks still weighs heavily on my conscience. And if something horrible had happened to Keith Dabic, even if it wasn't our fault, directly, it would still... well. I'm starting to wonder if all of this might be why I can't sleep. The fear of what may come to me in my dreams, in my nightmares. Revisited by things left in the wake of my investigation. I'd already committed... errors, and let's not leave out the sloppy journalism. But this is unlike other stories, isn't it? And at times, these thoughts about my professionalism, my character, threaten to make me buckle. So when I received the next message on our office phone, it was like those nightmares that loomed at the edges of my waking hours were suddenly knocking at the door.
ALEX: Captain Stanner sent us a secure link to Edward Lewis's surveillance camera video. Brother Edward Lewis, of the Brothers of the Mount, was the monk who kidnapped Sebastian Torres for no explicable reason. Here's clip from our season one interview with Edward Lewis and Dr. Strand.
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ALEX: For some reason, the security camera in the cell went out. And when it came back online, there was Brother Edward Lewis, hanging in his cell.
ALEX: That was our intern. She's not in the habit of barging in while we're recording, so I knew it was important. But I wasn't expecting this. It was a news item on her computer. She'd been researching Edward Lewis and the Brothers of the Mount, which led her to a news item from a few days ago.
ALEX: We were looking at a screenshot I had sent myself. It was from the video sent to us last year by Fred Barnes, the administrator of Three Rivers State Hospital. He had taken us on a video tour of Simon Reese's hospital room. And in my screenshot was the symbol in the middle of all of Simon's madness. A pentagram enclosed in a double circle. It was exactly what we were looking at in the news photo of the suicide pact in Northern California.
ALEX: They sent over the photos of Edward Lewis's walls. It was exactly what I thought. Or, more accurately, it was who I thought.
ALEX: The next day, I received a text from an unknown number. Three words: “Call me, please.” I started recording, and dialed.
ALEX: And just like that, Simon disappeared, back into the darkness of everywhere and nowhere.
Strand came into the office to share what he'd learned through his Canadian connections. But he brought something else along with him as well. Something that had been submitted to the Strand Institute website from a user in Bulgaria calling himself “Hastur.” There was no text in the message-- just a link to download a sound file. I'm going to play that file for you know.
[Plays creepy apocalypse music because obviously that's the smart thing to do.]
We'll have more on that sound file next episode. In the meantime--
ALEX: So, we have a strange symbol connecting Howard Strand and Coralee to the Tiamat cult, Daiva Corporation is interested in the paranormal, and there's some sort of connection between Simon Reese and the mysterious Hausdorff. Is Keith Dabic really dead? If so, how could the mysterious “Hastur” be Keith Dabic? What is the importance, if any, of the sound that he, or somebody using his band's name, sent us? What does all of this mean? Sometimes I feel like everything is connected. Other times, I can't imagine how some of these seemingly disparate events relate to each other.
It's the Black Tapes. I'm Alex Reagan. We'll be back again in two weeks.
The Black Tapes Podcast is a Pacific Northwest Stories and Minnow Beats Whale production, recorded in Seattle and Vancouver. Produced, mixed, and engineered by by Nic Silver. Edited by Nic Silver and Alex Reagan. Executive producers Paul Bae and Terry Miles. If you enjoy The Black Tapes, you'll love our sister show, Tanis. You can listen to Tanis at Itunes.com/tanis or tanispodcast.com. If you enjoy The Black Tapes, please rate and review on Itunes, or wherever you found us. Reviews are key to keeping The Black Tapes on the charts, where people can find our show. Thank you so much for listening to The Black Tapes.
This season, we're continuing our exploration of the Strand Institute's enigmatic president and founder, Dr. Richard Strand. We're telling the story of the black tapes in order, every two weeks. So if you haven't listened to the first few episodes, go back and start there. We'll be here when you get back.
As always, there's a lot going on. Simon Reese is missing. Our boy in a river mystery now has a name. That name is Bobby Mames. Plus, Strand dug up some information on the mysterious Pilori. But first, Nic and I played the Riverview recordings for Dr. Strand. Here, Nic, Strand, and I discuss why Hausdorff's references to “Mr. Splitfoot” struck Nic as familiar.
- STRAND: Where did you hear the name for the first time?
- NIC: It was the Fox Sisters, I think, but isn't “Mr. Splitfoot” also a sort of generic term for the devil?
- ALEX: Wait, the Fox Sisters?
- STRAND: The Fox Sisters were part of an early wave of mediums popping up in the mid-1800's. People lined up to have Margaret and Kate Fox contact dead relatives while the eldest sister acted as their manager of sorts. At the height of their fame, they were treated like celebrities. They'd host séances, and claim they could facilitate communication with dead relatives through a series of knocks on the table. In once instance, during a séance in 1948 [Ed note: means 1848], there's a reference to “Mr. Splitfoot.” They later claimed this Mr. Splitfoot was the ghost of Charles B. Rosna, a man brutally murdered in 1843 with a butcher knife.
- ALEX: So, maybe this Charles Rosna person is connected to that case file from Riverview?
- STRAND: It's a dead end, in a manner of speaking. The Fox Sisters later admitted that it was all a hoax. A lot of the Spiritualism you see today can be traced back to the Fox family, but their legacy of fraud and chicanery has been conveniently left out of a lot of the stories.
- ALEX: So, our E. Hausdorff knew about the Fox Sisters?
- STRAND: Perhaps, but, like Nic indicated earlier, there are references to “Mr. Splitfoot” throughout American history. On the East coast, it was one of many names for the devil. It sounds like your Hausdorff had an unhealthy obsession with occult mythology.
- ALEX: It sounds like he was just all around unhealthy.
- STRAND: Speaking of health, the doctor on the tapes stated that Hausdorff had a dissociative identity disorder. Did I hear that correctly?
- NIC: Yeah, that's right.
- STRAND: Then this tape is not from the 70's.
- ALEX: What makes you say that?
- STRAND: It wasn't called “dissociative identity disorder” until the mid-90's. Before that, it was called Multiple Personality Disorder. If memory serves, the terminology switched in the DSMIV.
- ALEX: Okay, but the papers in the box were dated in the early 70's and have Hausdorff's name all over them.
- STRAND: Perhaps the patient was admitted to Riverview in the 70's.
- NIC: And stayed there as a patient for 20 years?
- STRAND: It's possible.
- NIC: But they would definitely have a record of Hausdorff, wouldn't they?
- ALEX: Hold on, hold on. Isn't is possible that our Hausdorff was admitted in the 70's, and that only in the 90's did his condition start to worsen? I mean, this would account for the length of his stay.
- STRAND: Perhaps we're looking in the wrong place. Let me have a look at this. I have a few government connections in Canada.
- ALEX: Of course you do.
- ALEX: I wanted to ask Strand about Bobby Mames, the boy who'd gone missing for eight days, and whose body was discovered near Red Bank Creek in 1976. But I didn't have enough to counter his trademark evasiveness. At least, not yet.
- PACKARD: That case is still burnt into my memory like it happened yesterday.
ALEX: That's Sheriff Pat Packard. She's the sheriff of Jefferson county, where Dr. Strand's hometown of Summerville is located. She grew up in Brookville, which lies 7 miles northeast of Summerville, and is the county seat of Jefferson County.
- PACKARD: The boy was my age, so all our parents were talkin' about it. Went missing near the start of the school year in '76. I remember, 'cause our teachers were talkin' about it, too. He just disappeared on his way home from school one day. Eight days later, his body was found near Red Bank Creek, just outside of Summerville.
- ALEX: And what happened to him?
- PACKARD: Abduction. They convicted a gas station attendant over in Clarion County. Gary Bishop. Guy had no priors. He confessed to three other murders. Two women, one man. Unfortunately for him, 1976 is the year the State of Pennsylvania re-instituted the death penalty. He waived his right to an appeal and died by lethal injection on July 10, 1979.
- ALEX: Did they ever find a motive?
- PACKARD: Yeah. He was evil.
- ALEX: That's it? No other reason?
- PACKARD: Nope. Some people don't need a reason for the things they do, other than the pure pleasure they get from doing wrong to others.
- ALEX: Was there anything... ritualistic about the murder? Signs? Engravings or drawings?
- PACKARD: I didn't see any of that in his file. The guy was just... nuts. I still remember the news footage of him in court. He smiled right at the camera. Kinda reminded me of that Charles Manson with that crazy look in his eyes.
- ALEX: How did the police find Bobby Mames's body?
- PACKARD: Ummm... Here. Some local boy reported it. Wesley Coates. I'll send over a copy of what I have.
- ALEX: Great, thank you.
- PACKARD: No problem.
- ALEX: Is there anything you remember about the case that I won't find in the file?
- PACKARD: Well... just how it changed everything here.
- ALEX: How did it change?
- PACKARD: My dad used to take me fishing near the Red Bank north fork junction. I'd go with my friends, too, after school. We could hang on the banks of the river fishing all day, not a worry in the world. Then, this happened. And it sent a signal to all our parents that the world wasn't safe anymore. That it was different. It was like a dark cloud suddenly cast itself over my childhood. It's amazing how one act of evil can change everything.
ALEX: I went to see Strand at his father's house. He'd converted the enormous basement into a sort of Strand Institute bunker. His assistant, Ruby, has been helping. It's starting to look like a formidable base of operations, with a real Baker-Street-meets-the-Batcave vibe. He'd uncovered a few things about the Pilori that he found interesting.
- STRAND: I did some digging into the Pilori.
- ALEX: You called them “watchers”?
- STRAND: Yes. They're similar to fairy folk, or pixies.
- ALEX: Pixies. That doesn't sound scary.
- STRAND: In some ancient folklore, pixies were extremely malevolent. Murdering and cooking children, feeding them to their parents.
- ALEX: Oh.
- STRAND: The Pilori believed that symbols and sounds had power. They held that there were certain sigils that could summon or bind. They carried thin iron rods which they would strike to create harmful sounds.
- ALEX: ...harmful sounds?
- STRAND: Yes.
- ALEX: And what do these Pilori, or watchers, have to do with anything?
- STRAND: Rumpelstiltskin.
- ALEX: Okay, I'm gonna need more than just one word at a time here.
- STRAND: Rumpelstiltskin was one of the Pilori. A watcher of the highest order. The folklore surrounding this particular character indicates if you learned his name, you'd be granted power over him, but in reality, in the ancient legend involved a symbol, not a spoken name.
- ALEX: So what? If you discovered his symbol, you'd get some sort of power over him?
- STRAND: Yes. The word for name and symbol were lost or switched in translation at some point.
- ALEX: So, what does all this mean?
- STRAND: I found something in my father's things. A symbol. It was clearly important to him-- he had a safe deposit box here in Seattle. Inside were two journals and a few other items. One of these journals was dedicated to nothing but this symbol. I found the same symbol on the walls of that recent group of cave painting photos. I found the same symbol somewhere else as well.
- ALEX: Where?
- STRAND: Coralee had a ring she'd never take off. Never. While we were on vacation in Prague, she needed an emergency appendectomy. Just before her surgery, while she was out, they took off her ring. I saw it sitting in a plastic bag on a side table in her recovery room. I could see the inside of that ring, and I could see the symbol. Coralee woke up, and before she said anything to me, she reached for that ring, and became agitated. She was very angry that somebody had taken it off.
- ALEX: And... what do you think that was about?
- STRAND: I don't know, but it comes back to this.
- ALEX: What?
- STRAND: This symbol.
- ALEX: Okay, so...
- STRAND: It's the sign of the Cult of Tiamat.
ALEX: While Strand and I were digging into the Tiamat cult, I received a message at the studio. It was from Sammie.
- SAMMIE: This is for Alex. I'm not safe. You're not safe. If anything happens to me, I want you to share this with the world. Tell 'em everything. (digital screeching noise)
ALEX: That wasn't all of her message. At the end, that stuff that sounded like a fax machine? Was just that. Nic had a friend who was able to somehow ingest that fax data and turn it into text. We've been unable to get in touch with Sammie, and yes, we tried leaving a letter in the mailbox in Portland. Either something has happened to her, or she's staying off the grid. Way off.
The encoded fax machine sounds, her message at the end of her message, resulted in a handful of printed pages. There were incorporation documents, research grants, and board of director lists. We're still looking into everything here, but, upon first glance, it appears that Daiva Corporation, a multinational energy conglomerate, was funding research into the paranormal.
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- AMALIA: Hello Alexandra. Is this a good time to talk?
ALEX: Amalia's back in Russia. She went back to straighten something out with the government. She wasn't doing all that well, living in hiding. She hired a lawyer and got on a plane. She said everything is going better than expected. She should be home soon. While she's in Russia, she agreed to look into a few things for us. This is what she had to say on her first report.
ALEX: Yeah, it's a great time to talk. How are you?
AMALIA: I'm okay. It's better. I don't have much time. Have you seen the file I emailed you this morning?
ALEX: Yes. That's terrible.
AMALIA: It happens here a lot, they say. The Glushka monastery tower is one of those beautiful places people choose to do horrific things, like end their lives. Golden Gate Bridge, it is the same thing.
ALEX: When did this happen? I couldn't find anything online.
AMALIA: It was recently. A week, I think. None of my Bulgarian sources are willing to go into detail, at least not with me.
ALEX: Is there anything? A name?
AMALIA: No name. But there is something. I sent you another photo. You should get it in a few minutes. I had to use internet, because my phone has no data right now.
ALEX: Okay. Uh, nothing yet...
AMALIA: How is Nic?
ALEX: He seems okay.
AMALIA: Good.
ALEX: Oh, here it is.
AMALIA: You receive picture?
ALEX: Amalia--
AMALIA: Yes?- ALEX: This is Keith Dabic.
- AMALIA: Yes.
ALEX: My head was reeling from this news. I wasn't sure how to process this. It looked exactly like Keith Dabic. It had to be him. I called his family, but there was no answer. I left a message, but have yet to hear back. If that was Keith, then I was definitely onto something far more dangerous than I'd ever imagined. The death of Maddie Franks still weighs heavily on my conscience. And if something horrible had happened to Keith Dabic, even if it wasn't our fault, directly, it would still... well. I'm starting to wonder if all of this might be why I can't sleep. The fear of what may come to me in my dreams, in my nightmares. Revisited by things left in the wake of my investigation. I'd already committed... errors, and let's not leave out the sloppy journalism. But this is unlike other stories, isn't it? And at times, these thoughts about my professionalism, my character, threaten to make me buckle. So when I received the next message on our office phone, it was like those nightmares that loomed at the edges of my waking hours were suddenly knocking at the door.
- STANNER: Ah, this is for Alex Reagan. This is Captain Kerry Stanner. I work for the Los Gatos police department with Chief Stan Collins. This call is regarding a prisoner you know by the name of Edward Lewis. He was being held down in Salinas Valley. Two days ago, he was found dead in his cell. I'm contacting you because we have reason to believe whatever this Lewis was into... well, my deputies listen to your show. They tell me you've seen some geometry. Something, numbers, and uh Satanic who-knows-what. Anyways, gimme a call. It's a [number redacted]. Again, it's Kerry Stanner, Los Gatos. Thanks. (message ends)
ALEX: Captain Stanner sent us a secure link to Edward Lewis's surveillance camera video. Brother Edward Lewis, of the Brothers of the Mount, was the monk who kidnapped Sebastian Torres for no explicable reason. Here's clip from our season one interview with Edward Lewis and Dr. Strand.
- [Audio clip plays]
- STRAND: No.
- LEWIS: You have been watched, Richard. All of your life you’ve been watched. You know that.
- STRAND: Brother Edward, if you’re not going to answer my questions, then you’re just wasting my time, and I will end this interview. It won’t be aired, and I know you want people to hear you. For the third time, why did you kidnap Sebastian Torres?
- LEWIS: Think, Richard. Think about Sebastian Torres. Think about what he can do. His gift.
- STRAND: What gift would that be?
- LEWIS: You know the gift I’m talking about. Think about Sebastian, about Simon Reese.
- STRAND: You’ve obviously been listening to Alex Reagan’s show. You believe the symbols drawn by Sebastian and Simon were portals.
- LEWIS: Your refusal to connect the dots will be your undoing, Richard.
- STRAND: Why did you insist on speaking to me? Why not just talk to the police?
- LEWIS: The police haven’t seen what you’ve seen. They don’t have all the pieces that need to be fit together.
- STRAND: I don’t have all those pieces.
- LEWIS: Oh, you’re mistaken. You do. You do, and that’s why they’re watching you. That’s why he’s watching you.
- STRAND: That’s why who’s watching me?
- LEWIS: The Advocate.
- [End clip]
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- ALEX: We called Dr. Strand to our studio to watch the surveillance footage sent by Captain Stanner.
- NIC: Uh, ok.
- ALEX: Is that him? In the cell?
- NIC: Sure looks like him.
- STRAND: That's him.
- ALEX: Okay, so, for our listeners: Lewis is just sitting there, uh reading something. And I'm assuming something will happen?
- NIC: Uh, I imagine. Maybe. Hopefully.
- ALEX: There. Did the lights just flicker in his cell?
- NIC: No, I think that's just the security camera.
- ALEX: Okay, now, it's just a black screen...
- NIC: Mmm-hmm.
- ALEX: And... still black. Should we skip ahead?
- NIC: Uhhh.... well, let's give it a sec.
- ALEX: Are you sure it didn't stop playing?
- NIC: No, it's not the playback. The playback is still... it's...
- ALEX: (gasps) Oh my god.
- NIC: Holy shit.
ALEX: For some reason, the security camera in the cell went out. And when it came back online, there was Brother Edward Lewis, hanging in his cell.
ALEX: I... I can't watch. Is it still...?
NIC: Yeah, it's... still. (pause) Okay, it's over.
ALEX: I think I'm gonna be sick.
NIC: Okay, what just happened? There's time missing from the tape. Right here.
ALEX: Um, he told me that their video experts swear up and down that there's no more than twelve frames missing.
NIC: That's half a second.
ALEX: Yeah.
STRAND: Can you rewind to just before the camera blacks out? Near the beginning.
NIC: Yeah, okay.
STRAND: There.
ALEX: What is that?
STRAND: It's a shadow. Someone was there in his cell with him.
ALEX: He didn't have a cellmate.
STRAND: Perhaps someone in there wanted him dead. They arranged to have a guard take the camera offline just long enough to murder Lewis.
NIC: Half a second?
STRAND: That's troubling.
ALEX: That's impossible.
STRAND: Did Collins send you anything else, or mention anything out of place?
ALEX: Ah, no. I've told you everything he told me.
NIC: I have a call with him this afternoon to follow up. Is there anything specific I should ask him?
STRAND: No, not yet.- INTERN: (bursts in) Sorry guys, you gotta see this.
ALEX: That was our intern. She's not in the habit of barging in while we're recording, so I knew it was important. But I wasn't expecting this. It was a news item on her computer. She'd been researching Edward Lewis and the Brothers of the Mount, which led her to a news item from a few days ago.
- ALEX: What is this?
- INTERN: Keep reading.
- ALEX: (mumbles)
- NIC: What is it?
- ALEX: It looks like... suicide. In West Waddell Creek State Wilderness. So... (reads) “Park officials have been attempting to evict eight cult members illegally building fortifications in the park when they discovered the bodies. They belong to a group who refer to themselves as 'The Brothers.' They were reported countless times to the park's rangers service by hikers disturbed by their inhabiting a section of the wilderness in an area that limits visitors to one-week stays. Early indications point to a ritualistic suicide pact made between eight men. No identification was on their persons. Authorities suspect they died by ingesting wine laced with poison.”
- STRAND: Could you expand that photograph there?
-
- ALEX: You know, the way they're dressed in those robes reminds me of that crazy monk in that, ah, trail-cam video that hunter showed us. Could these be the missing members of Edward Lewis's order?
- STRAND: I find this coincidence... concerning.
- ALEX: What do you mean?
- STRAND: It's one thing for Lewis to take his own life. Given his probable mental state it's not all that surprising. But to have members of his order, who have no idea Lewis died in his cell somehow feel his death and keep a death pact they made together? It's far-fetched. It has to be something else.
- ALEX: Like what?
- STRAND: Like something plausible.
- ALEX: Unless... (keyboard noises) There.
- NIC: What are we looking at?
- ALEX: Back there? By the door of that tent?
- NIC: Okay.
- ALEX: Umm.... I emailed it to myself. I just have to find it.
- NIC: Find what?
- ALEX: This.
- STRAND: That's... definitely interesting.
ALEX: We were looking at a screenshot I had sent myself. It was from the video sent to us last year by Fred Barnes, the administrator of Three Rivers State Hospital. He had taken us on a video tour of Simon Reese's hospital room. And in my screenshot was the symbol in the middle of all of Simon's madness. A pentagram enclosed in a double circle. It was exactly what we were looking at in the news photo of the suicide pact in Northern California.
- [phone ringing]
- STANNER: Uh, Stanner here.
- ALEX: Hi, Captain Stanner! It's, uh, Alex Reagan. From Pacific Northwest Stories.
- STANNER: Oh, hi.
- ALEX: I know you're busy, so I just wanna ask you a quick question. Um, you asked about sacred geometry earlier.
- STANNER: Uh, the symbols.
- ALEX: Yes. You got in touch because you found something similar with Edwards?
- STANNER: Uh, I haven't had a chance to look at the materials you had sent over yet, but yes, he drew some, uh, crazy shit on his walls.
- ALEX: What kind of... stuff?
- STANNER: The crazy kind.
- ALEX: Were there any pentagrams?
- STANNER: I wouldn't be surprised if there were-- he had a whole lot of crap on there.
- ALEX: Uh, numbers? Equations?
- STANNER: Probably.
- ALEX: Was there a particular drawing at the center of it all? A pentagram in a double circle?
- STANNER: I think so. Maybe. I'll get my deputies to send you the photos of his walls. They'll be thrilled to have something on your show.
- ALEX: Okay. Well, um, thank you so much.
- STANNER: Sure.
ALEX: They sent over the photos of Edward Lewis's walls. It was exactly what I thought. Or, more accurately, it was who I thought.
- ALEX: It's Simon.
- STRAND: Simon Reece?
- ALEX: Yes.
- STRAND: You believe that Simon Reese bi-located to Edward Lewis's prison cell, and to the encampment of these cult members.
- ALEX: Okay, when you put it like that, it sounds--
- STRAND: And for a moment, let's entertain this line of thought. To what purpose?
- ALEX: For revenge. What if those monks didn't kill themselves? What if Lewis didn't kill himself? What if Simon did?
- STRAND: That's--
- ALEX: Impossible?
- STRAND: Ridiculous.
ALEX: The next day, I received a text from an unknown number. Three words: “Call me, please.” I started recording, and dialed.
- SIMON: Hello, Alex.
- ALEX: Hello, Simon.
- SIMON: Thank you for calling.
- ALEX: It's hard to resist strange, random text messages.
- SIMON: Plural? You receive a lot of random messages?
- ALEX: Constantly.
- SIMON: What do they want?
- ALEX: Well, for one thing, we get a lot of people contacting us pretending to be you.
- SIMON: Now, why would they do that?
- ALEX: I don't know. I can't read strangers' motives.
- SIMON: Well, we're not strangers, are we, Alex?
- ALEX: Where are you?
- SIMON: That's not important.
- ALEX: Why? Because you can bi-locate anywhere you want? (pause) Okay, if you don't want to tell me, fine. But the hospital staff and authorities are looking for you, and--
- SIMON: (interrupts) The Brothers of the Mount had it coming.
- ALEX: Pardon me?
- SIMON: The Brothers of the Mount had it coming. And Edward.
- ALEX: Edward Lewis?
- SIMON: Edward. Carl. John. Peter. George. Douglas. Frederick. Martin.
- ALEX: Are those the names of the men you killed?
- SIMON: They killed themselves when they started down the path.
- ALEX: What path is that?
- SIMON: They were trying to raise a chorus of voices. Children's' voices. My voice.
- ALEX: Are you getting revenge on these people?
- SIMON: It's not revenge I'm seeking. It's balance.
- ALEX: Balance of what?
- SIMON: It's hard to describe to someone who hasn't seen. Or heard.
- ALEX: Try me.
- SIMON: No. I don't want to lead you astray, Alex. You need to focus right now.
- ALEX: Focus? On what?
- SIMON: On the machine.
- ALEX: What machine?
- SIMON: On Thomas Warren's machine.
- ALEX: Thomas Warren? What does he have to do with the Brothers of the Mount? Or with you?
- SIMON: Find the machine, and you'll find the man behind it.
- ALEX: What machine are you talking about? Simon?
ALEX: And just like that, Simon disappeared, back into the darkness of everywhere and nowhere.
Strand came into the office to share what he'd learned through his Canadian connections. But he brought something else along with him as well. Something that had been submitted to the Strand Institute website from a user in Bulgaria calling himself “Hastur.” There was no text in the message-- just a link to download a sound file. I'm going to play that file for you know.
[Plays creepy apocalypse music because obviously that's the smart thing to do.]
We'll have more on that sound file next episode. In the meantime--
- STRAND: I think I found Hausdorff.
- NIC: Where?
- STRAND: There's a mental hospital near Victoria, in British Columbia, called Colquitz. It used to be called “The Provincial Home For The Criminally Insane.”
- ALEX: You found Hausdorff there?
- STRAND: Well, the record keeping there was... inconsistent at best.
- ALEX: Is it still there? The hospital?
- STRAND: Colquitz closed its doors in 1964 and sent its patients to other mental health facilities in BC, including Riverview.
- ALEX: And Hausdorff?
- STRAND: I couldn't find any “E. Hausdorff,” but I did find a patient with the letters “E.H.” in the archival registry. But, he was only 12 years old when he was admitted to Colquitz.
- NIC: Admitted for what?
- STRAND: He murdered his parents in their sleep. Just like Simon Reese.
ALEX: So, we have a strange symbol connecting Howard Strand and Coralee to the Tiamat cult, Daiva Corporation is interested in the paranormal, and there's some sort of connection between Simon Reese and the mysterious Hausdorff. Is Keith Dabic really dead? If so, how could the mysterious “Hastur” be Keith Dabic? What is the importance, if any, of the sound that he, or somebody using his band's name, sent us? What does all of this mean? Sometimes I feel like everything is connected. Other times, I can't imagine how some of these seemingly disparate events relate to each other.
It's the Black Tapes. I'm Alex Reagan. We'll be back again in two weeks.
The Black Tapes Podcast is a Pacific Northwest Stories and Minnow Beats Whale production, recorded in Seattle and Vancouver. Produced, mixed, and engineered by by Nic Silver. Edited by Nic Silver and Alex Reagan. Executive producers Paul Bae and Terry Miles. If you enjoy The Black Tapes, you'll love our sister show, Tanis. You can listen to Tanis at Itunes.com/tanis or tanispodcast.com. If you enjoy The Black Tapes, please rate and review on Itunes, or wherever you found us. Reviews are key to keeping The Black Tapes on the charts, where people can find our show. Thank you so much for listening to The Black Tapes.