When Fighting Corruption Lets the Monsters Corrupt Us

The New Orleans Ethics Review Board, which checks the finances of elected officials for signs of bribery or corruption, must now submit to financial review themselves.

Not to sound like a Negative Nancy, but this worries me. I know, I know. I'm the only guy in town who thinks this could be a bad idea. To be fair, if you don't know about the supernatural, why wouldn't you think this was a good idea? "Who watches the watchmen" and all of that.

But think on this:

Can a mobster bribe a city official? Yes
Can a banker bribe a city official? Yes
Can a businessman bribe a city official? Yes
Can a vampire bribe a city official? Yes
Can a demon? Yes
Can a ghost? No.

Strip away the ability to bribe, and we are left only with ways to corrupt a city official that mortals can't do.

Can a mobster mind control a city official? No
Can a banker mind control a city official? No
Can a businessman mind control a city official? No
Can a vampire mind control a city official? Yes
Can a demon? Yes
Can a ghost? Yes.

Granted, those mortals who can't mind control can still blackmail and threaten, but those are against the law and can be easily diffused with, say, surveillance equipment or a bold public confession. But what can you do against mind control?

Holding the Ethics Review Board, while on the surface, seems to curb corruption, really it just curbs mortal corruption. In other words, our politicians are still in someone else's pocket, but they are no longer serving mortal, human masters.

This is something I would like to call the Lex Luthor problem. People see him as the villain for bribing police and what not, but he's just trying to keep people from siding with the alien, to keep control of Metropolis in human hands.

Admittedly, this is a bad analogy because Lex Luthor is evil and Superman is good, and bribery and threats and blackmail and extortion are all evil, but now only one side is allowed to cheat, and that ain't our side.

Honestly, I don't know that anything can be done. We need laws like this to limit corruption. I just wish there were a way to limit supernatural corruption too, since I imagine it's the more insidious and evil.

What do you guys think? How can we stop monsters from controlling our elected officials the way the ERB keeps mortal parties from controlling elected officials?

Stay Strange!
-Steve

Floating City... Perhaps Atop Leng?

A couple of days ago a floating city in the clouds was spotted over China. Conspiracy theorists are quick to blame NASA's Blue Beam Project, but that's a bit far fetched. Scientists claim it's Fata Morgana, but that floating city looks absolutely nothing like anything below, so where would that city come from? Besides, I've never heard of Fata Morgana appearing that high above the horizon. Fata Morgana? Now THAT's crazy talk. Some say it's a temporal vortex revealing the area in a different time. Others that it's a peak through space or even reality to another world.

My theory is much more reasonable, and more in line with the last. I believe we are seeing a glimpse of the very city described atop the evil Plateau of Leng described in H.P. Lovecraft's famed work, At the Mountains of Madness.

According to Lovecraft, the plateau was believed to be in China, and thus the characters were quite surprised to find something fitting its description in Antarctica. If Leng does exist in the Dreamlands, then it stands to reason that it could be found anywhere, though most likely it would be found in China due to their meditative practices making the Dreamlands more easily viewed and discovered their.

The main character sees in the distance in the cloud and fog a sheer cliff face, with distinctly unnatural and angular objects atop it, high off the ground. Buildings.

What do we have here? Distinctly angular buildings, high off the ground, concealed in mists and clouds in Asia, where the plateau was long suspected to be.

For a brief moment, earth and the Dreamlands aligned and opened a path to the famed and feared city of the Elder Things atop the Plateau of Leng. This raises the vital and troublesome question:

Did any shuggoths come through? Unholy Star Spawn or Mi-Go? Or perhaps the horrific unnameable horror that Danforth mad?

If you live in China and should happen to hear cries of "Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!" warn everyone and run like Hell.

Stay Strange!
-Steve

A Quick Post for My Casual Readers about Conspiracy Theories

Hey Strangers and people who are strange adjacent,

I get a lot of questions in my inbox about conspiracy theories and my take on them. Let me make a couple of things clear.

Firstly, this is a New Orleans and the surrounding area paranormal blog. If it does not have to deal with both of those things, I probably won't post it. If it deals with neither of those things, I definitely won't post it.

Secondly, I'm not some nutcase. I'm not a birther. I don't believe the moon landing was faked. I don't think 9/11 was an inside job. Jet fuel doesn't burn hot enough to melt steel. No, but it can weaken a structure, especially when combined with the sudden impact of a passenger jet. It's like a soda can. You can stand on one no problem. It doesn't collapse until you compromise the structure by giving the side even the tiniest trap.  But the building feel straight down! Why didn't it topple over?  Because that's how sky scrapers are designed, to collapse straight down on themselves when the structure fails. Otherwise it falls over and hits the next building which falls into the next like a tragic game of dominoes that wipes out half of Manhattan. Do I think the government could keep a secret that big? Sure. Do I think they can pull off a job that well? No. The government can't even decide whether or not it should pay the bills each month. Get two politicians in a room and you'll have a three way argument. They could never coordinate something like that, especially not right after an election when they are still finding out where the bathrooms are.

That being said, and I will only go into this once because it isn't New Orleans related and I know it will open a can of worms, I do think Benghazi was a cover up, but not for the reasons they make out on TV. I think monsters got involved. I think monsters were caught on camera being monsters and they couldn't let the footage and the unscrubbed reports get out or there would be a global panic and literal witch hunts.

Here's the thing. I agree with the government's plan to hide the truth. I think at this point if they just came out and told the public monsters were real, I think there would be some real chaos. Anarchy. Violent mobs. Suicides. The average person couldn't take it. But they let my blog continue for two reasons.

First, you guys are smarter than the average person. You can handle it. You know the monsters out there have always been there, whether the president tells you or not. If the government announced it, you wouldn't panic because you know the world hasn't changed. It's the same as it always was.

Second, they know the best way to wake up is gradually. If you startle a person awake, there is a good chance someone will get punched or something will get broken. But if you wake up slowly, the reaction is much less violent. You are alert and prepared for the day instead of scared and reactionary. My blog is allowed to exist because, much though it pains me to admit it, I don't have a very wide reach. I allow America to wake up slowly to the truth. I tell you and you tell your friends and one by one, we all become aware of the truth without the panic of sudden realization. If this little site ever gets too big, though, and suddenly the government starts to discredit me on the news, that's how I'll know I've done my job well keeping you informed, because I'm waking America up too fast and they are worried my truth will cause a panic.

I hope that answers those questions I keep getting. Now let's keep things local from now on?

Stay Strange!
-Steve

Rest in Peace, Chef Paul

A New Orleans icon passed away today. Paul Prudhomme, a chef who helped put New Orleans cuisine on the map, is no longer with us. Without him, I have a hard time imagining Tony Chachere's or Zataran's becoming national brands. We wouldn't know who Emeril Lagasse was, probably. Well, we in the South would, but no one else.

So I'm going to just say a few things:
1) If he was killed by a supernatural being, be warned, monster. I will hunt you down and kill you and serve your heart up Creole style with a side of fried okra.
2) If he was turned into a vampire or a zombie, I will hold off on killing him long enough to see if he still can whip up a mean blackened redfish dish. If he can, I'll be tempted to spare him.
3) If he's a ghost, he can haunt my kitchen any day.
4) If he's lucky enough to be resting in peace, here's to tasting your savory magic spice in Heaven some day.

So let's all raise a locally sourced blackened redfish mufaletta in his honor.

Stay hungry, Strangers, and stay strange!
-Steve

Rosemary ' Baby Daddy? Supernatural Scarface? Faust of the Marigny

Trigger warning: this post focuses on rape and demons. Read at your own risk.

I was reading the news this morning when a couple of stories caught my eye. The first was about a series of rapes and robberies around the Marigny. There have been several instances of a masked man breaking into homes (squeezing through burglar bars at that, which seems to me should require supernatural assistance, given how close those things are to each other) and raping the occupants and robbing them. I won't go into much detail out of respect for the victims, but I will point out that though there have been several similar events in recent weeks, the police and media haven't really touched on it and when they do, they deny the connection. Why? It's no big secret that the police are under Mayor Landrieu's influence. Probably the media too. So why would be want to keep this hushed?

Demons.

Allow me to explain.

These break-ins are being covered up, so probably something supernatural or paranormal in nature is happening. Likely it's demons, given that the hush may be coming from city hall and given the mayor and his family's recent rise to power and influence from humble beginnings, I'm going to assume it's a deal with the devil. The Landrieu family made a deal with the devil for power and influence and that same demon is making a pact with someone else.  Someone whose actions may either draw attention to the demon connection and take down the Landrieu family or would draw the attentions of exorcists, who would send the demon back to Hrll, and take with it the Landrieu's source of power.

So what does our mystery demon summoner want that connects him to the rapes and Landrieu? What do most people want? Love and money. But this is a demon we are talking about here. Demons are corruptors by nature. What is corrupted love and money? Rape and theft. In making a pact with a demon a man has already damned himself but this allows the demon to introduce additional misery and tragedy into the world. The sort of horror that that makes good people, people like the victims, lose faith in the goodness in the world. Makes good people fear, makes them mistrust, makes them hate. Those who deal with demons have their own damnation coming by virtue of giving demons power over our world for selfish reasons. But with that power, demons increase misery which turns goods people bad. Turns love and plenty to rape and theft.

Which brings us to the article that brought all of this to my attention: an unidentified man recently has been reported as breaking into homes and stealing copper pipes. Big deal. People steal copper all the time. It's valuable. But get this. He's been doing it at about the same time as the rapist. And he's been acting nearby. Even has a similar physical description. So is he stealing the copper for the money? After all, I mentioned or perpetrator was into demons for love and money, right?

Not this copper.  No. Copper historically had been viewed as a symbol/charm for love, wealth, and prosperity. Love and money. See the connection now? Most people don't realize this, but the kinds of demons who make deals aren't all-powerful. They are limited in what they know and what they can do. If you summon the wrong demon, you either won't get good results on what you want because they don't know what they are doing, or you will pay a lot more because the demon needs to broker a favor with another demon to get the job done,  driving up the price.

Our demon summoner is smart (or at least thinks he is. If he were smart, he wouldn't be summoning demons). He used copper in his summoning to ensure he got a demon who worked with love and money. He must have low balled the demon or given a pretty nasty insult, because of how badly the demon seems to have twisted his wish, usually pretty bad business to so blatantly undermine the customer's intent. Djinn don't even twist wishes that badly. I wouldn't be surprised to learn the guy wished for kids and this is the demon's cruel joke. Arrested, disgraced, and hated by mother and child. Or perhaps the demon is doing some of his own business on the side, using this guy's twisted wish to bring literal demon spawn into the world should any of these assault victims bear children.

Meanwhile, Landrieu plays it all like it's nothing to concern ourselves about because he knows when the demon goes, so does his power base.

So be mindful if you are out in the Marigny. There's a devil on the loose out there and a powerful man who doesn't want anyone to know about it.

Stay safe and Stay Strange!
-Steve

Halloween Haunt Too Haunted?

So, supposedly someone built a room sized alleged Devil's Toybox as an attraction that's driving people to madness and suicide. According to the article, it's just a few hours away from here.

A Devil's Toybox, for those who don't know, is a mirror cube with all the cubes facing inward. It's called a Devil's Toybox because of long standing superstitions about devils and mirrors and having that many mirrors facing each other draws out the devil I guess.

A reader sent the link to me to get my thoughts on it, and much though I'm afraid of monsters in the dark, I'm not too worried about this one. While I do believe that the phenomena of a Devil's Toybox is real, I followed the links in the article, and the one telling the story of the one built in 2014 as a Halloween attraction reads a lot like creepypasta, urban legends that are made up on message boards either just to see who can come up with the scariest, most plausible story and/or who can convince the most people that it's real. The account is a little too well written and structured for me to think it's real. Plus, it doesn't name the town, and also the guy who wrote it, Joel Farrelly, though he is a character in the tale, has also written a bunch of other horror stories and published a book of creepy horror stories, so either he's cursed to be plagued by the supernatural (entirely possible) or he's just a pretty clever aspiring horror author (much more probable).

That being said, ideas are infections, like viruses, and I wouldn't be shocked if someone felt inspired by this work of likely fiction and created built a room-sized Devil's Toybox.

Keep eyes out there, Strangers, for anything you might think is supernatural in nature, and if anyone happens to know of that little Louisiana town that actually does (or did) have a full sized Devil's Toybox, let me know.

Stay Strange!
-Steve

Mysteries Solved to the Highest Bidder!

So, this isn't macabre or anything. A lot of older people die with old, valuable items in their possession that they don't know the true value of. So yes, I read obituaries because it leads to estate sales which might lead to little nuggets like this auction listing from an estate sale:

"A series of private letters sent anonymously and without return address to a Mister Richard A. Hadley in New Orleans in the autumn of 1883. With the location of Mr. Hadley yet unknown and the letters undelivered, per instructions accompanying the letters, should the letters be undelivered by 1893, they were to be opened and published in the Weekly Pelican, an African American newspaper which ran from 1886 to 1889. With the indicated publication defunct, ownership of the letters passed to the then current owner of 1215 Royal Street, Ms. Henrietta James. The letters were presumed lost, not found again until 2015, with the passing of Ms. James’s great grandniece, Justine Lareaux. As items from her estate were sorted and cataloged for an estate auction, the letters were discovered behind a dresser in the attic, still sealed.

Of Mr. Hadley, little is known. City records indicate no one of that name ever owning that home, though journals belonging to the Saunders family, who lived in the home through June 1887, reference a visiting friend named R. Alfred, presumably Richard A. Hadley. Journals indicate he left New Orleans to visit Europe in the summer of 1887, though no ships’ manifests indicate any passenger named Hadley. The identity of Mr. Hadley, nor even his existence, has ever been confirmed, the letter serving as the sole known evidence of his presence in New Orleans.
Bidding starts at $100."

Sure, to most people, it's just a bunch of letters. To local historians, possibly the answer to a trivial sort of mystery. I confess, I hadn't really heard anything about Mister Hadley as a local urban legend. This stranger with no connection to anything receives letters that are to be published if he can't be found. Why wouldn't they be able to find him, and why would the sender 1) expect he wouldn't be found, 2) feel that the contents of the letters were so important that they should be published, and 3) request said letters be published in a paper that wasn't even founded at the time the letters were sent? Was the letter writer part of the group that put the paper together, expecting the paper to start its run sooner and run longer?

And why the Weekly Pelican? Was it that influential? And such a limited run to a small audience. Those African Americans lucky enough to be living in the South in the 1880s with access to education and money enough to purchase newspapers? Clearly not a large enough audience to be profitable, as the paper only ran for four years. What secrets did these contain that needed to be shared publicly with only a few people? Why not the Times-Picayune, or as it was known then, the Daily Picayune?

And who sent them? 

Letters from an unknown sender to a non-existent recipient with instructions to be printed a decade later in an obscure paper if the recipient is missing? Crazy. Could it be a list of all the monsters in the city? Or perhaps the true history of New Orleans, to be published only after the anonymous sender has a chance to get out of town before all the ghouls, bloodsuckers, and voodoo queens can punish him for releasing their secrets into the light of day? Arcane secrets? Prophecy? A warning too late for Mr. Hadley, but one that was meant to reach the public if he couldn't be reached to save the day? OR maybe blackmail that chased Mr. Hadley out of town? What if Mr. Hadley isn't an individual, but a code word for a group of individuals working together under a shroud of secrecy, hence why he wasn't able to be located. It could be anything. And the only way to ensure I find the answers is to get my hands on those letters.

So... anybody got a couple hundred bucks they can lend me?

Share your theories (and money) in the comments, and as always...

Stay Strange!

- Steve


UPDATE (October 4):

Last night, I was able to pull together a few hundred bucks (Thanks, DeadNotSleeping), but alas. I was outbid. I didn't stand a chance, really. I thought I would be able to come in and snap them up from any local historians with a passing interest, but apparently the interest was a lot bigger than I would have guessed. It came down to three people by the time I realized it was well out of my reach and left. I kinda wish I had stuck around. If these papers were that interesting and valuable, it would have been good to know who they were and why they wanted it.

There were three people. A dark skinned woman with braids, a pale dude with red hair, and a middle eastern dude with medium length hair and a really nice suit. I tried speaking with the auction house to get details, but they weren't having any of it. Apparently after a soul jar they auctioned off last month got stolen from the buyer, they are extra tight lipped about that sort of thing. I still don't have any leads on who those people were or what the letters contained, but I'm definitely certain it's something rare and powerful. Man, I wish I could have been in the room when the wax seals were broken and those letters were read for the first time.

If I hear anything else, I'll let you guys know.

Stay strange!
-Steve

Shotgun Robber "Suspect" Caught?

Police think they may have caught the shotgun park robber I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. It seems they found evidence (phones, clothes, and other items) at his place that matched six other robberies including the three teens earlier.

Sounds suspicious to me. Earlier they said it was a man. This is a sixteen year old. Witnesses said the robber had a shotgun. This kid had a lever action rifle. It doesn't add up.

They mentioned they pulled in a suspect a while ago, but that they later released him after determining he wasn't the guilty party. Remember that mind control I was talking about in the previous post? They pull in a guy who seems to have strolled around town with a shotgun without drawing any notice. They let him go and arrest a teen with a rifle instead. I guess the eye witnesses were wrong. I mean, makes sense. What would the victims know about what happened to them?

My guess is they caught the guy and he used the same vampire hypnotism on the cops that he used on the teens in the park, causing the police to go after someone who doesn't fit the description at all.

What can you even do about that kind of thing? How is a vampire hunter supposed to take him on? He'll just do his mind juju on the hunter and convince the poor would-be Van Helsing that his mom is the vampire instead. As many awful murders as there have been lately, I wouldn't be surprised.

Be on the look out, and be wary of strangers trying to hold eye contact with you. It's probably a vampire.

Stay strange!
- Steve

New Krewe of Boo King

Looks like the Krewe of Boo has chosen a new King!

I like the Krewe of Boo, generally. Halloween's a fun holiday and any excuse for a parade, am I right? Of course, there are a lot of monsters out there that use it as a cover to commit horrible evil. Sure it's a mask. Sure that's fake blood. Of course that ghost is just an effect.

But this guy, Sidney Torres, has done good work keeping the people of New Orleans informed about dangers in the area with that app he made. I imagine it can be used just as well to warn people of monsters as it does crime. So good for you, Krewe of Boo! Thanks for picking someone who will actually help make Halloween safer!

Stay Strange!
-Steve

What Did He Have to Gain?

A man with a shotgun robbed three teens sitting in an Uptown park last night. "Details" can be found here.

Does that not strike anyone else as strange? First off, you have a man with a shotgun strolling around a park in Uptown and no one is freaking out? Uptown is not a particularly sketchy place, and I know people can get pretty nosy there. And yet, no reports of the man until after he gets in and makes off with a bunch of kids' valuables. And he gets away afterward? Sounds suspicious. Like vampire mind control suspicious.

And he's robbing teens. They don't have a lot of money. I mean, sure they have spending cash and o bills, but they aren't exactly loaded. Walking around with a shotgun in a nice neighborhood, and he targets three kids? Surely there are wealthier people he could have gone after. And he takes their phones, too. Granted, three good smart phones will net you pretty good bucks, but you have to sell them and scrub them so it doesn't get tracked back to you. Seems a bit sophisticated for the sort of person who walks around nice neighborhoods with a shotgun.

No, my guess is those kids saw something and recorded it. You know teens these days. Always taking selfies and streaming videos to YouTube and stuff. Three teens gathered together, one of them had a camera on, guaranteed. He took the evidence and swiped the cash as well to make it look like a robbery.

Also, the news on this is really vague, like the cops have nothing. No good description of the guy. Didn't even name the park.

My guess is there was a vampire the teens caught feeding. Oh, sure, no one in the area thought anything about some suave guy spending a little time with a lovely young woman in a park. No cops called beforehand. The kids, though, in the same park, just so happen to record the feeding. So the vampire, not knowing really how smart phones work because he's two hundred years old or whatever, decides it's best to just take the phones and worry about finding out how to destroy what's on them later. Then he uses his vampiric mesmerism to convince the kids they didn't see a feeding, they didn't see a vampire. They just saw some normal dude with a shotgun. That's why no one else witnessed Shotgun Man coming and going.

And for those wondering why the vampire didn't just kill them too, because then he would have four bodies to carry away instead of just the one.

What are your thoughts? Post in the comments!

Stay Strange!
-Steve

Probably Good News

President Obama was in town a couple weeks ago to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. I wasn't there. Didn't see it.

But he was outside this morning in the sunlight for a moment of remembrance for the 9/11 attacks fourteen years ago. So if he's out in broad daylight, at least we can rest safely know that he wasn't turned into a vampire while he was in town. So that's good.

Still doesn't prove he wasn't taken as thrall while he was here through their strange blood mind magic. There could be a modern day Renfield sitting in the Oval Office right now. Think about that.

Stay Strange!
-Steve

The Carla Williams-Mannequin Killer Connection

So, police found the body of Carla Williams blasted in half in the same building my friend saw the ghost. I thought it might be the ghost of Carla, which isn't unreasonable, since that was clearly a female ghost i the picture. Except the body was clearly less old than the ghost. So whose ghost did we see there? And what drew Carla Williams to that spot? And what so savagely ripped her body in two?

What we know: Carla Williams claims to have been possessed by Devil when she hits the cop, which is totally unlike here. She flees her home, also unlike here. At that building where she was found dead, there was probably an exorcism going on there a few weeks ago, but it didn't work because the ghost stuck around, probably a result of that broken salt circle. My friend's friend was probably possessed by that ghost, because he said several days later he just sort of... woke up... in that building, starving and exhausted, and surrounded by a group of people, including two priests. He freaks out and runs away. Shortly thereafter, the body of Carla Williams is found dead there. The Mannequin Killer stops killing around this same time.

Theory: Carla Williams was possessed by a demon when she hit the cop. She went to find a priest that night she disappeared. They tried to exorcise the demon (in the warehouse my friend went to the night she went missing). The exorcism goes wrong. It banishes Carla Williams and keeps in the demon. The demon possessing Carla's Body kills people as the Mannequin Killer, changing the clothes of the victims as a way of bragging that he's stolen Carla's body. Carla's ghost possesses my friend's friend, I don't know why but probably to get her body back because she doesn't like what the demon is doing with it. She finds the priest she originally sought to perform the first exorcism and he brings back up. They lure the demon back to the building and cast it out of Carla's body, and she gets it back, but the demon, furious at having been cast out, rips Carla in half before being pulled back to Hell.

That's my theory, and if right, that priest, whoever he is, needs to practice up on his exorcism skills because he did it wrong the first time and did it too slowly to save Carla the second time. That or the demon was really powerful and simply had a better grip on Carla's body than Carla's own spirit, and a better grip on earth too, giving it time enough to kill her before being cast out. Who knows? Maybe her being ripped in half was even part of casting the demon out because its hold on her was so strong that the act of exorcising it did it.

What are your thoughts? Does it work for you? It makes sense to me, but maybe you have evidence to support it or maybe you see some holes in the theory. Maybe you have a theory of your own. Let me know in the comments.

Stay strange!
-Steve

Strange Post - Hacked?

Hey Strangers,

Have you seen the weird post with the dinosaur on it? I woke up this morning and saw someone had added it to the blog. I have no idea where it came from. Is this one of the downsides to using a free blog page? I can't remember if I signed up to allow ads on the site, but maybe I did. Is this an ad? If it is, it's a strange one selling who knows what. Or was I hacked because they don't do security as well as I did on my blog?

I'm leaving it up, because it's a cool little mystery. I'm intrigued to hear what you guys make of it. The font looks familiar, but I can't quite place it off the top of my head, though. Anyone recognize it?

Stay Strange!
-Steve


Update: Apparently, this post has shown up in an identical form on all sorts of paranormal blogs across the net over the last couple of days. Should I feel flattered that they think I'm a legitimate paranormal blogger with lots of reach, or should I be insulted, because maybe they think I'm just like all the other paranormal bloggers on the net, most of whom wouldn't know a vampire if it bit them.

Seeking...

To learn the truth of this Celestial message, 

you must remember the Eye is Silent.

The Great Migration

Hey Strangers!

I've secured this new blog location, so make sure you update your bookmarks and news feeds! Unlike the old place, this blog's free, which means I can devote more time and money to keep it going instead of having to pull extra shifts to pay for the site hosting and spending the extra time doing all the website coding myself.

I'm in the process of slowly migrating all of the old posts over as well. I'd like to maintain all of your thoughts and theories, but I can't do comments properly here. I may end up just copying and pasting all of the old comments from over there onto the ends of posts if I can't figure out something better.

Meanwhile, any of you Strangers see anything strange out there while I've been locked up in my room securing this new webspace for those of us who see the truth? The new megaport they're looking to build. A boon to the economy, or one more vampire scheme to smuggle in more of their kind from South America? And with all this talk about the Katrina decade-versary, anyone remember the chaos, the darkness, and anything lurking in it (other than looters)? There were a lot of monsters, human and otherwise, who took advantage of the situation. And what concerns do you have about Hurricane Fred? I know it's still too early to tell anything, but what preparations do you have for when the power and water cut out or for when the vampires are out in force, lurking in the shadows? Have you stored up extra salt for ghosts? And the Saints. Did you see that pitiful loss against the Texans? I know it's preseason, but I'm thinking it's a curse or something. Either some angry Colts fan still bitter against their Super Bowl win in 2009 or maybe some magic bookie trying to rig the numbers in his favor? I'm dying here. What's going on out there?

Stay Strange!
-Steve

Desperate Ghosts or Desperate Ploy?

Normally, I’m all for laughing off any hotel that claims to have “friendly ghosts” as a scam to draw in tourists, especially here in New Orleans. You can’t walk three feet without bumping into someone telling you their store, their bar, their hotel, their hot dog cart is haunted and the tourists eat it up (though if they’re smart, they won’t eat up that hot dog).

I read an article on the Hotel Monteleone that kicks it up a notch (sorry, Emeril). So, they’ve laid claim to ghosts in the past. Ghostly kids. Ghostly dancers. Ghostly jazz singers (because this is New Orleans, right?). Ghostly clock workers. Ghostly naked Mardi Gras revelers. You got a reason for coming to New Orleans, and they have a ghostly version of it. I’m surprised they don’t say the ghost of Marie Laveau haunts the place.

Well, now they’re saying that the ghosts are getting angry and acting up. Throwing things. Slamming doors. Wailing more? Why? On the one hand, it seems a strange marketing ploy to say, “Hey, you know our friendly ghosts? Well, now they are petulant, borderline crazy.” On the other hand, maybe business is slow and they’re trying to lock down the ghost tourism. I mean, if you fancy yourself brave and say you want to stay in a haunted hotel, stay there and tell your friends back home you stayed in the scary angry ghost one and not the Casper the Friendly Ghost one, right? Maybe draw in more ghost hunters? Take their money. Tell them, “Huh, that’s weird. Nothing happened last night. Normally they go crazy.”

It’d be funny if it turns out the place actually really was haunted now and the ghost was getting violent because people keep wanting it to be cutesy and do tricks like a trained puppy. What could they do? They couldn’t say the place wasn’t haunted because they built a reputation on it, that the scary ghost was all in their head. Same for an exorcism, because then they’d have to be like, “Well, no more ghosts here at all, everyone! Find a different haunted hotel!”

What do you think? Have they gone too far with their marketing or do you think maybe they actually finally have a real ghost and don’t know what to do about it?

Stay strange!

-Steve

The Mannequin Killer - Thoughts?

So, the Mannequin Killer. Killing two people and dressing up one in the other’s in their clothes. And always someone normal. A unique looking person and a normal looking person. Freakin’ weird if you ask me. Where are the bodies of the distinctive people? Why are they all missing and the bland people so easily found? How is he killing them? There’s no signs of poison or violence or anything. And what’s the motive? What would make a person do so much work (and not even take the cash out of the wallets)? Honestly, guys. Supernatural? Super weirdo? I’ve got nothing on this one. Consider me stumped.

 What do you guys think? Serial killer? Deranged artist? Spooky ghost? Share your theories.

As always, stay strange!

-Steve

Ghosts on Decatur?

So there's this warehousey kind of building down on the corner of Decatur and Marigny that's always popping up full of some indie scene of some kind or another. No budget coffee house. Art space. Experimental performance venue. That kind of stuff. A friend of mine likes to check out places like that, do a little urban exploring and see what all gets left behind once whatever it was falls through. What catches my attention is they say the place is haunted. I mean, old creepy abandoned building that can't keep a tenant longer than a few months, of course people are going to say there's a ghost or something haunting the place chasing business away or something. But the artsy kid says he was going by there this Sunday past and heard weird chanting and noises and stuff. Being the scaredy-cat little artsy fartsy kid that he is, he bolts.

So he tells my friend, who decides to check it out with some buddies. Inside he finds this:

  

salt_circle.jpg

That's weird, huh? Said it was salt. Ghost hunters, maybe?

burned_paper.jpg

This was lying next to it on the ground. What is that? Latin? A quick google search says it's probably part of an exorcism. What was going on here? Someone down on his luck property owner trying to purge the ghost and maybe get in a tenant that won't get scared off after a couple months? I tried to get a hold of the owner to get to the bottom of this, but I couldn't find out who owned it. If any of you loyal readers know, shoot me an e-mail so we can get to the bottom of this mystery.

Anyway, back to the story, my friend's buddy goes into this room. It's full of trash and stuff. My buddy is in the main room, poking around and stuff. He hears his friend scream. Like seriously horror movie scream. So he runs in there, and his buddy is just standing there, and he's like, "Dude, what's up?"

His friend turns around, crazy eyes like he's seen a ghost, and just says, "I gotta go find somebody."

Then he leaves, just like that. No goodbye, no nothing. Just walks away.

Crazy, huh? Later he shows me the pictures he took and we see this:

decatur-marigny_ghost.jpg

He swears up and down he didn't see that while he was there or he'd have booked it like his friend did.

I checked the place out yesterday and I'm not going to lie. Gave me the creeps. Between the salt circle and the cold spots, I'm a bonafied believer that places is haunted.

Anyone else have any experiences with this place to share? Or if you don't, if any of you brave NO Strangers have the guts to check it out, share your story and pictures in the comments!

Stay strange!

-Steve

Runnin' (Down Cops) with the Devil

What's up, NO Strangers? How about that lady who hit the cop, huh? Normally I'm all about cracking a joke at the old "The Devil Made Me Do It" bit, but that bit about being a passenger. Do you think she meant metaphorical like the devil took over her and then took the wheel or do you think there was an actual physical demon driving the car and she was literally a passenger like in the passenger seat or maybe tied up in the back seat or even the trunk of her car. Do Priuses have trunks? I don't know. Maybe she's crazy.

Maybe she isn't. The police haven't released the tapes. Pretty suspicious if you ask me. They know. They have to know. New Orleans is full of too many strange occurrences for them not to know that ghosts and vampires and demons are real. Probably there was a real demon with horns and stuff driving and they didn't put out the tapes because they are trying to cover it up. And do you mean to tell me three people record that thing and none of it ends up on YouTube? Oh sure, they say they want to keep things from getting posted because it's evidence and ongoing investigation and blah, blah, blah. That didn't stop people from posting stuff in about a dozen other cases to YouTube, did it?

And Carla Williams wasn't the crazy type from the sound of it. All the news reports say she was respectable. Her family and friends are all talking about how they never would believe it in a million years that she did this. And I'm supposed to believe she took a little Prius--the car of all things liberal and pacifist--and drove it across an elevated median to run down a cop? I mean, I know people like that hate the police and everything, but that seems a bit extreme, right? No way there ISN'T a demon involved and everything is exactly as it seems.

If you ask me, my money's on demonic possession and massive police coverup. What do you think?

-Steve

UPDATE (July 28th): Did you see the news on Monday? That Williams lady disappeared. Mysteriously. Went out to have a smoke and poof! Gone! Did she make a break for it? Flee to Mexico? I doubt it. I think one of two things happen.

1) She was possessed by a demon again and it is out there on the loose right now as we speak, probably plotting to run down more cops or orphans or something.

2) The powers that be kidnapped her, knowing if she went to court, she would testify and they would have to show the video, proving to the world that demons exist, and they can't have that, can they? So they kidnap her. She's either in some government black site, brainwashed and living someplace else, or feeding aligators in the bottom of Lake Pontchartrain right now. No suspect, no trial. Clean and neat.

What are your theories?

Stay strange!

-Steve