The Watseka Wonder: A Strange Tale of Possession

This is a story of two girls, Mary Roff and laurencey Venna. Also, i'd like to introduce doctor E. Winchester Stevens, MD, who helped in documenting the events that led people to believe something so bizarre that it shook a whole town's beliefs, through countless witnesses, a respectable family, a medical professional, and basing it directly from the account written by doctor E. W. Stevens himself. I want to tell you about the bizarre connection between Laurency and Mary. Now, they didn't know each other, so this isn't exactly a tale of friendship. And yet the first person account from doctor stephens book, The What seeka Wonder, It's where I got most of the information from. This person actually interacted with the family and with the witnesses. It's going to have you questioning what a ghost is truly capable of. And here's a tale of the what Sika Wonder. My name is Edwin and here is a dark memory just south of what Cicca, Illinois, in a town called Midford. Back in eighteen sixty four, Lorenda Smith and Thomas Venom had a child. Mary laurencey Venom, was born on April sixteenth, when she was about two months old. The family moved to Iowa and later returned to the area. If the family had to pinpoint when the event started happening, it was on July eleventh of eighteen seventy seven. Laurencey was thirteen years old by this time and was working in the house. At this specific time, she was sewing a carpet. That's when she told her mother that she wasn't feeling very well. The mother, concerned, was keeping a close eye on her when suddenly her body started shaking and moving and she just fell to the floor. Her mother walked up to her, watching Larncey's body be completely still, her muscles were stiff, and to any person watching, this girl was dead. The parents were, of course worried. They didn't know who to call, but they could tell that she was still alive and breathing. She was just completely still, and she remained that way for five hours. During that time, the mother had already gotten hold of a doctor, but that it was always that worry, you know. Living in a small town, people gossip around each other. Word obviously of this soon spread, but in thinking of what she was going to tell the doctor, Suddenly she remembered what Larncey had said. Just a few days before. While sitting around with her family, she claimed to have heard several people in her room yelling out her name, Rancy, as her nickname was. She said that the people were coming up to her very close, so close in fact, that she could feel their breath on her face, Rancy Rancy. The night after that, she woke up in the middle of the night without being able to go back to sleep, saying that multiple people could be heard in her room Rancy Rancy. Her mom was like, all right, something's going on here, so she stayed with her and they were able to fall asleep once again. Now this isn't something you share around with people in the town. This is the eighteen hundreds. Mental health isn't much of a concern as it is now. In the worst case scenario, they could be ridiculed out of town, literally being laughed out of it. And it was a nightmare. But either way, now Lurencey is unconscious on the floor and they go get some help. But all they can do is wait for her to come back. There was nothing apparently wrong with her. When she came back. She kept saying that She felt strange that something was up, but she couldn't exactly point it out to let her rest, and she was able to sleep well that night. On July twelfth, she was once again completely rigid, but after that it went away. It was as if her body had come back with two different minds, like Laurencey was still there, but that her mind didn't belong to her. At times. I know it sounds confusing, but she started saying things like how she could see people and spirits. She was able to explain what they were wearing and what they were saying. At one point, she looked around the room and said, oh, mother, can't you see little Laura and Bertie? They are so beautiful. Bertie, by the way, had died when Lorence was only three years old. And she kept having these episodes where she would lay down and then describe heaven and all of these ghosts or angels as she used to call them, doctors, and all of these people who were trying to help were around her and they were trying to figure it out, but it just didn't make any sense. A couple of months later, in September, everything just stopped and she seemed to go back to normal, but nobody was suspecting what was coming. It was November twenty seventh, eighteen seventy seven, when she started experiencing extreme pain in her stomach. Every few hours, she would get a violent pain, and then she would fold herself completely. Doctor Stevens described Lorencey folding her body back so much that her feet and her head touched. It was December now and the pains had stopped, but she would once again have these trans like states like she would lose herself for hours at a time, sometimes completely unconscious and other times laying down and describing Heaven and the angels. During this time, she had been under the care of two doctors, mellopathic practitioners doctor l and Pittwood and doctor Jewett. The situation did not seem to be getting better, and even close friends and relatives started to give input, as they tend to do, but it wasn't very helpful nor hopeful. They kept insisting that she was insane and needed to be put into the asylum. Now I know I don't need to mention this, but back then patients and asylums didn't receive proper treatment. From what I've found, they would even give tours to people, kind of like a circus. Plus we've all heard of the experiments that were performed, the lack of hygiene, and overall just a very bad treatment. Fortunately, there were people that lived in that city who saw things differently, people with more spiritual tendencies, who claimed that, in the words of a spiritualist lecturer, disease has a dynamic or spiritual origin. That's why I want you to imagine this. You're a member of this family where people are talking about taking your child to an asylum. You might be called a bad parent, or people give you the I'm sorry stare. It's something very tough to deal with, and suddenly everyone is trying to pressure you to put her in an asylum. I mean, even back then people knew how bad these places were. Who knows what could happen to lureency a place full of strangers who may not have her best interest in mind. So anyway, along come these spiritual people who are saying good things while hinting at the idea that she may be possessed, but they want to help. Now the family didn't know about this yet, but this story had gotten too the ears of mister Roff, a man from a family that lived across town. He was on the same side as a family saying that no, that she should not be taken to the asylum, and mister Roff wanted to help out with the situation desperately, so he kept contacting mister Venom until finally he was like, all right, let's hear what you have to say, and so mister Roff went over to the family's home, bringing along doctor E. W. Stevens from Wisconsin to help out as well. The doctor would visit what Seca pretty often and would either a lot hearing about, you know, what was going on. After all, in this place people would straight up argue about things like these, you know, spiritualists versus other religions and stuff like that. Anyway, they both arrived to mister Venam's house on January thirty, first of eighteen seventy eight. It was four pm and no one else was in the house except for the family. That's when mister Roff saw Allureency sitting in a chair by the stove, curled up on it with a blank stare, completely in silence. In the first account from the doctor, he says that she looked like a quote old hag. Doctor Stevens was given a chair and everything was silent, but as soon as doctor Stevens moved, she yelled at him to not come any closer. She did not want to greet the men, did not want to be touched. She was room food then just distant and cold to the other man as well. But it was here at this point when the doctor asked a series of questions, and when the doctor asked her what her name was, she immediately replied with Katrina Hogan, Katrina, how old are you sixty three? Where are you from Germany? How long ago? Three days? How did you come through the air? How long will you stay? Three weeks? After the questioning was over, she then changed the way she was speaking and said that okay, fine, she was going to be honest with a doctor. She said that she was not a woman, that her real name was Willie. She said that her father's name was Peter Canning. And what was weird about that is that she would end up giving a full biography of these people. An hour later, mister Roff and doctor Stevens were getting up and getting ready to leave, when Lorencey also stood up and suddenly fell to the floor once again completely rigid. The men sat down once more after helping her up. She then changed her demeanor and seemed to be more of herself, but also said that she knew that Willie and Katrina were evil spirits and that they kept bothering her. She just kept on looking around the room, describing what other people she could see. Doctor Stevens then started suggesting ideas to her. Why not have a logical good spirit come instead of these evil ones? And so Laurencey looked around the room and said, well, there is a good angel here that wants to come. Doctor Stevens asked if she knew what the angel's name was, and Larncey replied, Mary Roff. Mister Roff, who was there and listening to the whole thing, said that that was his daughter, that Mary Roff was his girl, and that she had died twelve years ago. He said, yes, let her come. We'll be glad to have her come. It was through this agreement, though, remember this is happening within Lrencey's mind right but change started to happen. Doctor Stevens begins to negotiate. Right here, wouldn't it be better to have a good and kind spirit instead of these wild deevil ones, and so doctor Stephens asked, how long do you want to stay in heaven? Always, sir, But will you come back? For the sake of your friends? Yes, sir, When will you come back? The family will want to rest. Can't you come back sooner? Yes, sir, I can. How soon? Can you come at nine o'clock? Will you come at nine? I will? And thus began one of the most bizarre accounts of proof between a spirit connecting attaching itself to a body. Because Mary Roff did come back and both the doctor and mister Roff became aware of the things she would say and how she would act, this was too much of a coincidence to be false. I'll tell you more about Mary Roff and what happened up next. Stay with me. Mary Roff was asas and En Roff's daughter, born on October eighth and eighteen forty six in Indiana. They moved around the United States for a bit before finally building their first house in a town that eventually became part of Witsika, where all of this was happening. Well, what's going to happen? When Mary was about six months old in eighteen forty seven, she had one of these fits that lasted several hours. The family was obviously very scared and thought that she was going to stay sick and would eventually die. But a few weeks went by and then she just recovered. These things would come and go, with her muscles becoming very tense, twitching for a few moments, and even though they would go away, they would come back, and they would come back worse. As the years passed, these fits would only worsen and become more and more violent. Several doctors were hired to come and help her, and even for over a year at a time to see what would happen, but nothing was working. She was bleeding herself for relief to get rid of these terribles headaches. Things had gotten so bad that on a Saturday morning, July sixteenth, eighteen sixty four, she went out to her backyard with a knife and cut her own arm. She was bleeding so much that she just passed out. When she came back, it was already two in the afternoon. But then things, all these fits started getting worse and worse. This time they would last for five days. It was a difficult thing to explain because five men were required to hold her still, and remember Mary was only about one hundred pounds and she had just lost a bunch of blood. After those five days, she started acting normally, doing her own thing, but she could no longer recognize the people around her. She apparently could not hear, feel, or see like you and I can do. But from all the tests that she was put through, what is that she could read blindfolded as if she could see when she was blindfolded with heavy cloth. The whole situation was just weird. Doctors called it catalepsy. Members of the church called it a mystery of God. And she stayed that way for about four days and then went back to normal well, still with those fits, but had apparently gotten rid of that strange power. Then on July fifth, eighteen forty five, she had breakfast, went to laid down on her bed and started screaming. When those in the house saw her thrashing and twitching, they did what they usually did and made sure that she didn't hurt herself. But a few moments after that Mary died. Obviously, that sad story had happened to mister Roth, so in a way he was reliving all of it. But anyway, about a week after the supposed spirit of Mary had taken over Larncey's body, Missus Roff and her daughter Minerva went to see her, and as they were coming up to the house, Mary sounded so excited when she said, there comes my Ma and sister Nervi. That's what Mary used to call me Minerva when they were both young. And when they came into the house, she hugged them and cried of joy to see them. Had the spirit of Mary actually come back? After their visit, Larencey seemed sadder around the house. She kept saying that she wanted to go home. Of course, Larencey's family wanted to please her and then send her to the ROV's household, but figured that it would be too much. I mean, this girl needed a lot of help, so it would be a lot to ask for any other family to do. However, when brought up to the Row family greed, so on February eleventh of eighteen seventy eight, Laurencey was sent to the Roths home. When she was asked how long she expected to stay, she said that the angels would let her stay until sometime in May, and so there she was happy and remembering old times with the family, remembering hundreds of scores of the music she used to study as a child, knowing absolutely everybody. One really interesting fact here is that her neighbor, a widow, had gotten remarried after Mary's death, But when Larncey went up to her and greeted her, she was unaware that she had gotten married. Yet she knew every detail about her neighbor, at least the same things that Mary used to know when she was a child. During her time there, she was reintroduced to the Venom family, that's right, her own family when they went over to visit. She did work around the house and acted like a normal member of the family. She recognized old acquaintances and greeted one of them, Missus Parker, as Auntie Parker, just like Mary used to call her twelve years before Larncey was born. She looked at her and her daughter, Nellie Parker, and asked, Nellie, do you remember when Nervy and I would come over to your house and sing? And in fact that was true for Mary. Her and her sister used to sing along with Nellie. Again, these are the things that in no way Larrencey could have known, and lots of other details. At one point, missus Roth put out a dress that Mary used to wear, and when Larncey came into the house and found it, she recognized the dress immediately. Larencey then asked for a box of letters, old relics of her old life, and then she relived and retold many of those stories from before Mary had died. Mister Roff, in trying to speak with his daughter but also testing Larncey, asked if she remembered living in Texas, because the family had lived there at some point, to which Larncey immediately replied that yes, she remembers crossing the Red River and seeing Native Americans and also Missus Reader's girls who had gone with them. She made some detailed claims in this book, by the way, some letters to doctor Stevens in gratitude for giving her the chance to come back, and also that helped as a way to record what she was going through. On May seventh, she told missus Roff that Larncey Venom was coming back and she was very sad about the whole thing. She asked if they could gather Nerve and everyone together to say goodbye, and it was then when she sat down closed her eyes and suddenly opened them and seemed confused. She kept asking where she was, and that's when the family explained to her what happened and how she was there to cure her body. She demanded to go home and refused to stay there. Five minutes after that, Mary was back. She wanted to start singing we are Coming, Sister Mary, which was Mary's favorite song as a child. At this point, she was aware that she couldn't be around much longer, so she wanted to spend as much time as possible with her sister Minerva or Nervi, as she would call her. When her sister would ask where she was going, she would say that the angels had told her that she was going to heaven, but didn't know exactly when. She kept saying that she wished that her sister lived with him at home, just like she used to. Minerva, by this time lived in her own household she was married. She would only come to visit. When she was being interviewed about her former life. She explained that she was not aware that she was in someone else's body at first. When they asked her about the cut on her arm, she rolled up her sleeve as if to show them the scars, but then she said, upon not seeing anything there, oh, this is not the arm that one is in the ground, and then she explained details about where it was buried, her funeral, the cut and everything. All this time, her health and appearance were improving, and when asked about where Lurencey was, she would say that Larncey was in heaven taking lessons with Larencey. Knowing full well that Mary would be leaving soon, she started answering as many questions as possible about whatever she was going through and how that actually worked well to the best of her knowledge. She said bye to everyone she knew and also gave advice to her family, and then said that her family would be able to fear her close at times, and that she wanted to come back. She said that Ramsey was going to return at eleven o'clock, and so Mary's sister and the family gathered and she spoke to them. They said their goodbyes, and at the time she predicted Larncey came back, she addressed mister Roff as mister Roth and asked to be taken home. Larncey grew up to be a happy young woman and she could no longer remember much of Mary's so called possession. She lived a healthy life. After the publication of Larncy's story, the family offered their own perspective and thoughts on the matter, and I think Mary's sister said it best in one of her letters when she was asked on the supposed possession by Mary on Larencey body. Here's what she said. I am now sixty four years of age. I could have no purpose to deceive myself or to mislead others. My life, while uneventful, has been a happy one. My confidence in the fulfillment of all hopes as to the future life has grown year by year with my age. And as a sunset approaches, I harbor no fear of the coming night, its shadows contained within their folds, no demand to torment with horror the closing hour. I understand that this account might be tough to believe, but even if it wasn't true, and in the worst case scenario it was all made up, it still managed to change the life on an individual, lives of a family, two families, and an entire community. The job there, even as Minerva or Nerve said, it was to trust that once we leave the Earth, they can rest assured that there's nothing there to be afraid of, that there's more to us than just our bodies, that perhaps once we leave our bodies, we can still come back, maybe to convey a message and relive our memories. This episode of Dark Memory was written by Edwin ko Arubias as part of scary FM's collection of podcasts. You can find out more about me by visiting Edwin dot fm or by emailing me directly. You can find more things to listen to next by visiting our website scaryfm dot com by looking up my other shows like Scary Story Podcast on your podcast app. Thank you very much for listening, See you sooner