0:10

It was September nineteen ninety

0:12

eight when the Cobb family first brought

0:15

the bed into their home. Parents

0:17

Al and Leela had slowly made

0:19

their way about the auction house, running

0:22

their eyes over the various lots, while

0:24

their two fourteen year old twins, Jason

0:27

and Lee, flitted about the place looking

0:29

for a potential bargain of their own. Though

0:32

Lee enjoyed the world of antiques, it

0:35

was really more Jason, who'd taken on his

0:37

dad's love for it. As

0:39

a gallery owner himself, these trips

0:41

for Al were usually more about finding

0:44

a bargain to sell on than for something

0:46

to take home themselves. It

0:49

was Jason who spotted it first, the

0:52

single honey oak bed propped

0:54

up in the corner of the room.

0:56

He guessed it was late eighteen hundreds, perhaps,

0:59

with its finely carved headrest and

1:01

fancy molding on the feet. Seeing

1:05

how enamored their son was with it, Al

1:07

and Leela agreed to leave a bid for the bed

1:10

as a possible early Christmas present. Al

1:14

was at work the next morning when he received

1:16

the call informing him the bid

1:18

had been successful. The

1:21

family lived in a modest, two story

1:23

home in the picturesque suburbs of the

1:25

Isle of Hope in Savannah,

1:27

Georgia. It

1:30

is often said that the US city of Savannah,

1:33

a majestic port town located

1:35

at the north of Georgie's Atlantic coastline,

1:38

is one of its most beautiful. It

1:40

is also said to be one of its most

1:42

haunted. With

1:45

its live oak lined streets dripping

1:47

with Southern moss and grand architecture

1:50

a colorful mix of almost every style

1:53

since it was founded in the eighteenth century,

1:55

it's impossible to escape the air of

1:57

the Southern Gothic, for

2:00

perhaps nowhere else in the United States

2:03

is the gulf between esthetic beauty and

2:05

the horror and brutality with which

2:07

much of it was forged. So

2:10

vast you're

2:12

listening to Unexplained, and I'm

2:15

Richard McClain smith. The

2:24

story of Savannah is, in many ways

2:26

the story of the United States, in all

2:29

its complex, thrilling and terrifying

2:31

glory. First

2:34

established in seventeen thirty three by

2:36

British politician James Oglethorpe,

2:39

it was intended as a second chance opportunity

2:41

for anyone stuck in the misery of the

2:44

British debtors prison system.

2:46

Oglethorpe was effectively offering an

2:48

opportunity to those less fortunate

2:50

than others to escape the drudgery

2:52

of life in Britain in return for

2:54

a chance at prosperity in the New

2:56

World. Unlike many

2:59

others in his position, Oglethorpe

3:01

was keen to avoid any hostility with the

3:03

local Native American tribes, maintaining

3:06

friendly relations with the Yamacraw tribe,

3:08

most notably through his friendship with the

3:10

tribe's leader, Chief Toma chi Chee,

3:14

though not above utilizing them himself.

3:16

Oglethorpe also outlawed slavery.

3:20

It's thought, however, that this was done less

3:22

out of concern for slaves and more

3:24

out of concern for how it might corrupt

3:27

the colonists. Since

3:29

the settlement was only ever intended as

3:31

a buffer to provide a first line

3:33

of defense for other more prosperous colonies

3:36

like the South Carolinas, any

3:38

arguable need for slave labor was

3:40

non existent. Everything

3:43

changed, however, when Oglethorpe eventually

3:45

returned home ten years later. As

3:48

the colony grew in size and began

3:50

to take on its own identity, the

3:52

desire amongst residents to compete with

3:55

other settlements, the prosperity

3:57

of which was greatly enhanced by slave

3:59

labor, only grew more intense.

4:03

By the time of the American Revolution in

4:05

seventeen sixty five, there were sixteen

4:07

thousand slaves in Georgia, most

4:10

abducted from West Africa and arriving

4:12

through the port of Savannah.

4:15

Over the course of the next hundred years, cotton

4:18

plantation owners from Savannah were

4:20

the third highest exporters of cotton in

4:22

the South, the number of slaves

4:24

registered in the state by then numbering

4:27

almost half a million. In

4:30

eighteen o three, a ship carrying

4:33

seventy five enslaved people from

4:35

what is now Nigeria docked

4:37

in Savannah. The people

4:40

members of the Ebo community, were

4:42

then packed into another vessel and sent

4:44

a hundred kilometers on towards Saint

4:46

Simon's Island. At

4:49

some point, the captives managed to overthrow

4:51

the ship's crew, forcing the ship to

4:53

run aground at a place called Dunbar

4:56

Creek. Stranded

4:58

and with no hope of returning home, rather

5:01

than phase a life in captivity, the

5:04

group decided to make a final stand.

5:07

Under the guidance of one of the group, thought

5:09

to be a high Ebo chief,

5:11

they marched together solemnly

5:13

into the water, from where they

5:15

did not return. In

5:24

eighteen fifty nine, at a racecourse

5:26

two miles west of Savannah, in

5:28

what is locally referred to as the Weeping

5:31

Time, over the course of two

5:33

days, four hundred and thirty six

5:35

children, women and men were sold

5:37

into slavery. It is

5:39

thought to be the largest single sale

5:42

of people in US history. Throughout

5:45

the history of Savannah, being as it is

5:47

surrounded by extensive marsh and swampland,

5:51

there have also been multiple outbreaks of

5:53

yellow fever, claiming the lives

5:55

of many local residents, most

5:57

famously perhaps in eighteen twenty,

6:00

when seven hundred people lost their

6:02

lives, many of which were collected

6:04

and buried in mass graves in the city's

6:06

Colonial Park Cemetery. Savannah

6:10

also played host to one of the bloodiest

6:12

battles of the American Revolutionary

6:14

War, with hundreds thought to

6:16

have died in the skirmish.

6:19

Then, in nineteen o nine the Worth

6:21

of Savannah Acts murders, and

6:23

in nineteen eighty one the murder

6:25

of Danny Hansford, a young tradesman

6:28

who was shot dead by his employer, Jim

6:30

Williams, at his mansion home

6:32

on Bull Street. Hansford's

6:35

murder and the subsequent trial of Jim

6:37

Williams would form the basis of the

6:39

city's most famous book, Midnight

6:42

in the Garden of Good and Evil, And

6:45

in nineteen eighty four, the discovery

6:48

of Francis Campbell's body in the

6:50

Tremont Park area of the city. Campbell

6:54

was thought to be one of nearly one hundred people

6:56

killed by Samuel Little, one

6:58

of the country's most prolifick serial

7:00

killers. All of which

7:03

is to say Savannah is not

7:05

a town short on ghosts.

7:14

After hearing that their bid for the bed had been

7:16

successful, Al jumped into his

7:19

Volvo and made the short trip from

7:21

his shop on Whittaker Street to pick it up,

7:23

with Lilah, spending the afternoon lovingly

7:26

putting it together. When

7:29

Jason arrived back from school, he was

7:31

overjoyed to find it waiting for him in his

7:33

bedroom, just as beautiful as he'd

7:36

remembered it. Later,

7:38

Jason thanked his parents again for the

7:40

wonderful gift before saying good night

7:43

and retiring to his bedroom, looking

7:45

forward to his first night alone in

7:47

the new bed. He

7:50

just turned the light off when he felt

7:52

something strange at the back of his neck,

7:55

as if someone were breathing on it. Hurriedly,

7:58

switching on his bedside i'd light, he looked

8:01

around to find himself completely alone.

8:04

Only there was one place he couldn't

8:06

see, stealing

8:08

himself. He edged toward the side

8:10

of the bed and slowly peered

8:13

underneath, relieved

8:15

to find the space was completely empty.

8:19

Looking up, he caught sight of the air

8:21

vent just above him in the ceiling. Realizing

8:24

he'd most likely just let his imagination

8:26

get the better of him,

8:29

Turning back over, he switched

8:31

off the light and nodded off back

8:33

to sleep. A

8:35

few nights later, Jason was

8:38

drifting off to sleep again when this

8:40

time he was certain he felt

8:42

a weight shift in his pillow, as

8:44

if some one had just laid their elbows

8:46

either side of his head, and

8:49

then came those breaths again. Jason

8:53

shot up and switched on the light once

8:55

more, only to find again that

8:57

he was completely alone.

9:00

It was then that he noticed with surprise

9:02

that the photo of his grandparents that usually

9:05

stood upright on the table next to him,

9:07

was now lying face down. Confused,

9:12

Jason writed the picture before

9:14

turning off the light once more and heading

9:16

back to sleep. The next

9:18

morning, Jason awoke to find

9:21

the photo was again lying

9:23

face down.

9:31

Over the next few weeks, Jason

9:33

continued to experience a number of peculiar

9:36

events, sometimes even

9:38

waking in the middle of the night to find

9:40

all his pillows had somehow ended up

9:42

on the floor. Having avoided

9:45

telling his parents for fear of being ridiculed,

9:47

Jason eventually plucked up the courage to tell

9:50

his mum about it. Knowing

9:52

her son wasn't one to make something up

9:54

like that, Lillah wondered if perhaps

9:56

Jason's brother Lee was playing some

9:59

kind of cruel trick on him.

10:01

With the activity seeming to center

10:04

on the photo of Jason's grandparents,

10:06

she suggested that the next time it was placed

10:08

down that she put it back and

10:11

wait to see what happened. One

10:13

morning, after waking to find it lying

10:16

down again, Jason due

10:18

placed it upright, and, together with

10:20

Lila, then waited outside the bedroom

10:22

door to see what might happen. With

10:26

al upstairs and Lee playing

10:28

outside, the pair listened

10:30

with alarm at the sound of something

10:32

scraping across the floor. Opening

10:36

the door. Moments later, they were

10:38

shocked to discover the picture lying

10:40

face down once more. Lila

10:45

cautiously stepped toward it, and

10:47

picking it back up, let out

10:49

a pained gasp the

10:51

front of it had been smashed. After

10:56

racing to tell his dad exactly what had happened,

10:59

Jason returned to his bedroom, shocked

11:01

to find that someone had now placed a

11:03

pile of toys in the middle of his bed. After

11:07

yelling for Al and Lila to take a look,

11:09

the couple joined him moments later, with

11:12

Al feeling compelled to ask if

11:14

they had a casper in the house. Remembering

11:18

something he'd seen before, Al

11:20

suggested that if it was a ghost, they

11:22

should try and communicate with it. That

11:25

night, the family placed a pencil

11:27

and paper at the foot of the bed and

11:30

waited to see what might happen. It

11:34

was one thirty in the morning, with Jason

11:36

having elected to spend the night in Lee's

11:38

room, when the family peered into

11:40

Jason's bedroom to find a short

11:42

message had now appeared on the paper.

11:45

Written in a childish scrawl, it

11:48

said simply Danny, aged

11:50

seven. Soon after,

11:53

a second note was found that dread mum

11:56

sick in bed died eighteen ninety

11:58

nine. Love toys. A

12:02

little unnerved. With Jason

12:04

and Lee returning to bed, Alan

12:06

Lila closed the door to Jason's

12:08

room and also headed off to bed.

12:12

A short time later, they were woken

12:14

by the terrified screams of their sons

12:17

yelling for them to come back down, and

12:19

the pounding sound coming from inside

12:21

Jason's room. The

12:23

place had been completely trashed. Over

12:32

the next few weeks, the family claimed

12:35

they continued to communicate with what they

12:37

took to be the ghost of seven year old Danny.

12:40

In one message left for the family, he

12:43

demanded that nobody sleep in his

12:45

bed again. Angered

12:47

at being put out of his room, one

12:49

night, Jason called out to

12:51

ask if Danny was there, Getting

12:54

no reply. Out of defiance,

12:56

he took a moment to lie down on the bed.

13:00

Having got up again to pick up some clothes

13:02

from the floor, a colossal smash

13:04

rang out around the room. All

13:07

about the floor was littered with shards

13:10

of a terra cotta wallpiece that had

13:12

somehow been dislodged and sent flying

13:14

to the floor. That

13:17

night, Alan Lila made

13:19

the decision to take the bed apart

13:21

and sell it on After

13:24

another bout of violent activity the following

13:26

day, with a lamp knocked over, curtains

13:29

pulled off their rods, and clothes

13:31

ripped from their hangars al

13:34

Julie took the bed to the nearby Cramer

13:36

Sadler Gallery and put it up

13:38

for auction. With

13:40

word beginning to spread of their apparent

13:42

haunting, the Cobb family were contacted

13:45

by local journalist Jane Fishman.

13:48

Fishman, who worked for the Savannah Morning News,

13:50

was at first skeptical of the story. After

13:53

speaking to the family, however, and being

13:56

shown the apparent communications with Danny,

13:58

she was no longer sure. Fishman's

14:03

article was released on October sixteenth,

14:05

and later that day the bed was

14:07

put up for auction and eventually bought

14:10

by Deborah Brogden, who ran a second

14:12

hand furniture shop in nearby Pembroke.

14:15

Thanks to Fishman's article, Deborah

14:18

was soon inundated with calls from prospective

14:20

owners hoping to catch a glimpse

14:22

of the seemingly possessed artifact. Growing

14:26

tired of the interest, she sold it a

14:28

few days later for five hundred dollars

14:30

to Faith Demea. Demea,

14:33

a financial manager for a local car

14:35

company, had become intrigued after

14:37

reading Fishman's article and was keen

14:40

to meet Danny herself. Her

14:42

plan was to keep the bed in its

14:45

own bedroom in the hope that she

14:47

might coax Dannie into becoming a regular

14:49

resident in her home. However,

14:53

after living with the bed for a few days,

14:55

Danny failed to materialize, and

14:58

less than a week later, Demea had

15:00

a change of heart. The

15:02

following Friday, the bed was back

15:04

at the Cramer's auction house. That

15:07

weekend, a motion detective at the auction

15:09

house was repeatedly set off, despite

15:12

no one being in the shop at the time. The

15:15

following Monday, the bed was sold

15:17

to Detective Joey Warrenzac of

15:19

the Chatham County Vice Squad. Warrenzac

15:23

was the last known owner of the bed. As

15:26

for Danny, however, and perhaps

15:28

the reason why he never showed up at Faith

15:30

to Me's home, it appeared

15:33

he'd never left the Cobs. It

15:42

was October the eighteenth, just two

15:44

days after the bed had been removed, that

15:47

Jason, feeling relieved to finally

15:49

be rid of Danny, had just stepped out

15:51

of the shower when he heard his bedroom

15:54

door slam shut. He

15:56

stood for a moment, aghast at what

15:58

sounded like somewhat or

16:00

something moving about inside.

16:04

Hurriedly, he opened the door, only

16:06

to find at the end of his bed a small

16:09

note written again in that strange,

16:11

childish scrawl that said

16:14

simply Danny Sorry.

16:18

A week later, Jason was woken

16:20

in the middle of the night by a soft clunking

16:23

sound. Lying still

16:25

in the dark, he peered over toward

16:27

the closet, which he could just make

16:29

out in the dim light, to see

16:31

its door was inexplicably gently

16:34

opening and closing of its own accord.

16:37

When he looked up from the base of it, there

16:39

seemed, for a moment to be the shadow

16:42

of a small figure standing next

16:44

to it. Danny,

16:46

is that you, he asked, but there

16:49

was no reply. The

16:51

family claimed that over the next few days

16:53

they were able to communicate with Danny once

16:56

more. When they asked where he was

16:58

staying now, he replied that

17:00

he was sleeping above Jason.

17:04

A few weeks later, Al bumped

17:06

into Detective Warrenzac at the auction house.

17:09

Although he planned to sell it, Warrenzac

17:11

had set the bed up out of curiosity, installing

17:14

it in his garage. Ever

17:16

since, his dog had not stopped

17:19

growling at it, while he'd

17:21

been unable to shake the feeling that

17:23

something in his house was watching

17:25

him.

17:32

It was shortly after the new year when

17:34

Al received a call at work from Jason,

17:37

who had been sent home from school after

17:39

feeling ill. As Jason

17:41

explained, the fear palpable

17:43

in his voice, a man had just appeared

17:46

in the living room, standing by the fireplace,

17:49

dressed like a mountaineer from the nineteenth

17:51

century. Jason had

17:53

only time to look up and see him

17:55

before he'd vanished. Just

17:58

then, the sound of cabinet being

18:00

flung open and slammed shut rang

18:02

out from Jason's end of the phone. It

18:05

was followed by Jason yelling out

18:07

in terror before everything went

18:10

completely silent. Having

18:12

heard nothing more from Jason, al

18:15

raced home to find the place in a complete

18:17

mess and Jason lying barely

18:19

conscious on the floor underneath a chair

18:22

that appeared to have fallen on top of him. A

18:25

week later, it was Leela's turn

18:27

to receive a call from Jason. It

18:30

was happening again, he said, from underneath

18:32

the kitchen table as he tried to shelter

18:35

from the maelstrom breaking out around

18:37

him. As the same

18:39

crashing sounds rang out from Jason's

18:41

end of the line. Leela demanded

18:44

to know what was going on. As

18:46

her son explained the mysterious

18:49

mountaineering figure had returned again,

18:51

but this time he was looking for something.

18:55

For some reason, Jason had sensed

18:57

he was looking for his baby that had

18:59

been under the house. Just

19:02

then, as another crash rang out, the

19:05

line went completely dead, but

19:07

when Leela tried to call Jason back,

19:10

it appeared all the lines at her work had

19:12

also gone dead. By

19:15

the time she made it home to Jason, who

19:17

was unharmed but shaken by the ordeal.

19:20

The disturbances had stopped after

19:24

this latest terrifying event. However, it

19:26

was clear to the family they were severely

19:29

out of their depth. In

19:38

early nineteen ninety nine, al

19:40

contacted famed parapsychologist

19:42

William Rowell at Georgia College,

19:44

who in turn passed the case on too

19:47

a doctor Andrew Nichols, director

19:49

of the Florida Society for Parapsychological

19:52

Research based out of City College Gainesville

19:55

in Florida. Nichols

19:57

was working with another family at the time that

20:00

seemed to be suffering from a similar haunting.

20:03

The family in Albany, New York,

20:05

had also been communicating with their apparent

20:08

spirit, using a chalkboard to

20:10

talk to it. Unlike Danny,

20:12

however, whatever had been plaguing

20:14

them was far warm align supposedly

20:17

writing curse words and throwing knives

20:19

into the walls. At one

20:22

point, it had even allegedly

20:24

levitated their baby out of its

20:26

cot. After

20:29

driving five hours to meet the family, Nichols

20:31

was given a rundown of everything that had

20:33

happened so far. Nodding

20:36

along as the family detailed

20:38

everything from the written communication with

20:40

Danny to the loud disturbances and

20:42

recent appearance of the second apparent

20:45

entity, doctor Nichols

20:47

was left in no doubt that they were dealing

20:49

with some kind of poltergeist. Nichols

20:53

took some equipment from his bag and

20:55

the family led him into Jason's room.

20:58

If indeed this were a to guist, he explained,

21:01

it was likely that Danny had died in the

21:03

bed, and in so doing something

21:06

of the young boy had somehow seeped

21:08

into the material. Nicholls

21:11

held out one of his instruments and moved

21:14

in closer toward the back wall, asking

21:17

if that was where the bed had been positioned. The

21:20

family nodded in agreement as

21:23

Nicholls made a series of further measurements.

21:25

He suggested that perhaps a concentration

21:28

of electromagnetism had somehow

21:30

energized Danny's ghost into existence,

21:33

although he would need to make further tests

21:35

to be sure. After

21:39

two days of inspecting the property, Nicholls

21:41

concluded that the activity was most

21:43

likely a combination of the unusual

21:46

concentration of electromagnetism

21:48

in the bedroom and the psychokinetic

21:50

energy created by Jason and Lee,

21:53

exacerbated by their relationship as

21:55

twins. Shortly

21:58

after Nicholls left, Al was

22:01

inspired to make a tape recording of the empty

22:03

bedroom, hoping to try and capture

22:05

some of the activity. One

22:09

night, with the family out of the house

22:11

for the evening, the recorder was

22:13

left running in the property. Later,

22:16

Al sat quietly on his own as

22:19

he listened back to what he'd recorded. With

22:22

a loud click, the tape word

22:24

into action, and a quiet hiss

22:27

began to emanate from the speakers. Hearing

22:30

little more than the gentle drone of

22:32

the air conditioner humming away in the

22:34

background, Al stayed

22:36

and rapped as the hypnotic sound

22:38

continued uninterrupted, minute

22:41

after minute, until suddenly

22:43

something else jumped out. Al

22:47

rewound the tape and let it play out

22:49

again, and there again

22:51

he heard it what sounded

22:54

like the squeaking of a drawer or a

22:56

footstep, perhaps followed

22:58

by the clear sound of some one or

23:01

something moving across

23:03

the floor. Over

23:11

the next few months, as Al wrote

23:13

in his book Danny's Bed, detailing

23:16

the family's experiences, things

23:18

became increasingly fraught. After

23:21

the supposed arrival of Danny, the family

23:24

apparently found themselves contending with

23:26

the number of other ghosts, from a

23:28

little girl thought to have lived around

23:30

the same time as Danny, to a woman

23:32

dressed in Victorian era clothes, as

23:35

well as the peculiar vision of the mountaineer.

23:39

At times, the family would come home from

23:41

a night out to find all the lights

23:43

in the house had been turned off, despite

23:45

leaving them on when they left. They

23:48

would frequently have the sensation that

23:50

they were being observed by something invisible.

23:54

Once Jason and Lee returned

23:56

home to the sound of something running

23:58

up the stairs into their attic. Following

24:01

the noise, they found themselves

24:03

standing up there staring at

24:05

a mannequin that Al had brought Jason

24:07

one time as a practical joke. When

24:10

the mannequin's head had then moved in their

24:13

direction, the pair was sent

24:15

to scarrying back down in horror. In

24:19

one incident, Jason was said

24:21

to have come home one day to find two

24:23

knives impaled in the ceiling of his parents

24:25

bedroom, with a note telling them

24:27

all to leave, pinned under one of them.

24:31

After this incident, however, it

24:33

seems whatever was occurring came to

24:35

an abrupt end, with little

24:38

else happening after. Rare

24:42

is the household without at least one

24:45

ornament or piece of furniture that

24:47

once belonged to someone else. Many

24:50

of us will have something that once belonged

24:52

to those that are no longer withers to

24:55

remind us of their existence, or

24:57

just simply because they meant something special

25:00

to us. You certainly

25:02

don't have to believe in literal ghosts

25:04

to feel the weight and warmth of someone

25:07

you miss return instantly the

25:09

moment you take hold of something that once

25:11

belonged to them, or

25:13

conversely, should an object hold

25:15

less palatable memories for you, feel

25:18

the weight of that person slip from your

25:20

shoulders once the object has

25:22

been dispensed with. Though

25:26

such is life with or

25:28

without such objects, there is

25:30

no guarantee that something of them

25:33

won't continue to remain. If

25:39

you enjoy Unexplained and would like to help support

25:42

us, you can now do so via Patreon

25:44

to receive access to add free episodes.

25:47

Just go to patron dot com Forward

25:49

Slash Unexplained Pod to sign up,

25:52

or if you'd like to make a one time donation,

25:54

you can go to Unexplained podcast dot com

25:57

Forward Slash Support. All donations,

25:59

no matter how large or small, are greatly

26:01

appreciated. Unexplained,

26:03

the book and audiobook, featuring

26:06

ten stories that have never before been covered

26:08

on the show, is now available to buy

26:10

worldwide. You can purchase through Amazon,

26:13

Barnes and Noble, and Waterstones, among

26:15

other bookstores. All

26:17

elements of Unexplained, including the show's

26:19

music, are produced by me Richard McClain

26:22

smith. Please subscribe and rate the

26:24

show wherever you listen to podcasts, and

26:26

feel free to get in touch with any thoughts

26:28

or ideas regarding the stories you've heard

26:30

on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation

26:33

of your own you'd like to share. You can reach

26:35

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26:37

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26:40

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26:44

Unexplained Podcast