Episode 504: The Sauchie Poltergeist aka Wee Hughie

I'm Dan Taberski. In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York. A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast. What's the answer, and what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head?

Hysterical, a new podcast from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios, binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad-free on Wondery. Plus. Hey weirdos, I'm Alayna.

I'm ash and we're out, and this is morbid.

I just felt sing-songy about my name, went for a run at the end there, I said, I'm Ash, she's a runner.

She's a runner, she's a track star. Even though your children quite literally go whenever they want me to play tag or something, I'm like, Remember? And then we all say it together. TT doesn't run, running is bad.

Running is great, If you're running away from something you should be running from. Yeah, that's always good, but it makes my mouth taste like blood when I run. I've talked about it.

It's a thing I found it on TikTok. I think it's like they don't really know why it happens. But many theories are that there's little vessels in your lungs are bursting. So that's like, I don't think I'm meant to run, I don't think so either.

I'm just meant to be thickums McGee baby. Quite honest, that sounds terrifying. I mean, I walk, so that's good.

Walk, don't run. It's always good to walk too. Yeah, move, yeah, don't be stagnant, move it.

Groove it, baby. I have a poltergeist story today. Yeah, we're getting creepy with it, getting creepy up in here, it's almost Halloween.

Spooky season, Remember? we're doing all kinds of spooky stuff. Yeah, also, we haven't even talked about what we're going to be for Halloween because we're doing the thing, right.

Yeah, this is just like a family party. Yeah, this is us just making plans on the side. We're doing the thing, right.

It's like a ritual. Are we doing the thing? Oh, you were like, we're doing that thing. I was trying to distract them. We're doing that black mass in the woods, correct?

Shoo, shoo, shoo, shoo, shoo. Yeah, I know, sorry, I'm letting it all out. God, Olivia, I had an idea.

Can you tell me for us? oh, for me and you together, and we should, yeah. And maybe we can put a beep over this part of the episode so that it could be a surprise for later.

Is it the beep? But are you going to do a couple's costume with John for the Thing or me and you just doing it with? Are we a couple this year? That's wrong, but like, are we a couple of Halloween girls this year?

Are we a couple of gals? I don't know, because I have an idea for me and Drew. Oh, did I tell you what we were thinking? Yeah, maybe for the because I don't think that that idea I just gave you is great for the family event.

Because I think, yeah, no, it's super bloody. Yeah, I think the gals would not appreciate that. Maybe they would, I was going to say they probably would, but maybe the Fam-Bam on a whole level wouldn't appreciate that. Yeah, I'm just not gonna.

But yeah, so so, yeah, I think maybe we can do that for something else. But do you have any couple costume idea? because usually you have such a good couple's costume? No, I honestly have not even had time to think about it, so I'm going to sit down and brainstorm.

We can beep this too. But I think me and Drew are going to be, that's fucking amazing. isn't that incredible? Don't say I think we're going to be that. be that when I say, I think we decided on that.

Yeah, I was like, Don't you dare ponder over that? like, do that? I'm pretty stoked, that's phenomenal, but beep that out.

Don't tell the Mousels, don't tell the Mousels, don't just say it on my Insta. But it's an exciting, such a trendsetter spooky time surprise.

Oh.

I think, like, a pre, oh, a prequel, prequel.

Prequel to Hell House? A prelude to the trial is what I always think of. Why do I always say prelude? Is that wrong?

I mean, it's, no, not really, yeah, so it's still. I always think of Mickey from Scream 2 saying a prelude to the trial, and you do love Mickey. Oh, I love Mickey.

You and John should be Mickey and Sidney for Halloween. Oh my God, I mean, it's wrong, but very wrong, but very right, yeah.

As well also, your dog should be Sidney Sidney. the dog should be Sidney for Halloween, Sidney Prescott should be Sidney Prescott.

But aren't they being like a hot dog and a and a? Oh, you should make one a hot dog and one a trench coat, that would be hilarious. But one of them is being a hot dog, and the other one is being a pumpkin, a pumpkin.

Yeah, yeah, the kids decided, but yeah, I think I was gonna say, Where did we just go?

Hell House LLC Prelude Prequel Yeah, it has a prequel coming out, I think near Halloween, which I'm very excited about. For all you that are listening that haven't watched Hell House LLC, don't listen to anybody who says found footage is crap because this is a great one. And we were talking to John about it the other day, and it's not like, found footage. That will give you vertigo.

So anybody that has that and is worried about found footage. I feel like you'll be fine. And I mean, I'm not a doctor, so, but don't take that for. I mean, if you get vertigo from it, it's not my fault, that's your own problem, not my chair, not my problem.

Fuck you, I'm just kidding. if you get vertigo from it, fuck you, that's your own problem. fuck you and your vertigo.

But then there's the Saw prelude prequel. Yeah, there's a lot of fun stuff happening, I feel like, and just fun things to do. I think there's just fun things. So I think we're getting back into the swing of the spooky season and that's exciting.

And what's really spooky about the spooky season is poltergeists. that is one of the most spooky things about any season. I would say, yeah, so I have a poltergeist today that it's a really interesting story. But I am going to let you know from the jump that. It's not really like solved at all, which is interesting because you're like, how do you even solve that in the first place? But it hasn't really been debunked either, so that's fun to me.

That is fun. We love when it hasn't been debunked. I don't love a debunked. I've been doing a couple debunked lately and they make me feel a little upset in my stomach because I'm like, not fun, not fun.

But this moderately fun, okay, you know? So this is the I believe, it's the you say, it's soakie. And Elena can tell you. I looked at like a bunch of pronunciations, she sure did.

It's in Scotland, but it's the soakie poltergeist. Oh, Scottish, yeah, let's go, we have Ireland and Scotland up in here.

And this poltergeist became known as wee huey that makes this perfect, like exponentially better wee huey, wee huey.

It's like, lil huey, lil huey, lil hue, hue. Yeah, that's exactly what it is.

Also, I like the name Hue, just wanted to say that, so anyways. In the fall of 1960, Annie and James Campbell, a couple in their mid fifties, living in Donegal, Ireland. And I looked that up too. So please don't yell at me, you sure did. But they had grown really tired of the economic struggle that they were having.

You know, their rural life made it hard for them on the farm. Like it was, things weren't really going well. Yeah, so they made the decision to sell this family farm in Ireland and relocate to Scotland now. At the time, their youngest son, Thomas, and his wife, Isabella Campbell, were living in a house in Sochi, Scotland.

So Sochi is like a small coal mining town in central Scotland, and it's really well known for its association with regional football, which I believe is not like American football. But like, yeah, I think we're football that actually makes sense, football that actually uses your foot with a ball. Yeah, the United States is embarrassing when they say football because of, like, because you're not, because that's handball.

Using your foot that much? So, yeah. My seven-year-olds were very confused about that because they learned that football is soccer in other countries. And they were like, they were both like. That makes more sense, right? And I was like, I know there's a lot of things that don't make sense here, and I'm sorry. You're going to have to learn that.

Yeah, it really like unlocks like this weird feeling inside of yourself where you're just like, huh, that doesn't makes no sense whatsoever. Yeah, pisses me off. They kick it like once a game, yeah.

I think I don't even know when they like, Oh my God. I was like, Do they kick it? But you're right, there's like a kicker.

Yeah, anyway, that's all I have to say about football. But for this couple, it was a new start and one that honestly wouldn't really require much of a financial investment on their part. Because they were moving in with their son, so they started making plans to move themselves and their youngest daughter, 11-year-old Virginia, to Soakie now The economy in Soakie at the time wasn't really more promising than where they were at now. But I don't think it was really about, like, the financials.

I think it was more about, like, missing family kind of thing, you know? So, in October of 1960, Annie, the mother, and Virginia, moved in with Annie's son and Virginia's brother, Thomas, and his wife, Isabella and James. The father stayed behind to sell the family farm. Now, also, when you read about this, it says that a lot of sources say that the family moved in with an aunt, but that's not true. It was the brother and sister-in-law of Virginia.

Oh, that's good to know. So, at the time of the move, Virginia Campbell's life had been pretty lonely and isolating. She was the youngest of the Campbell children. So all of her siblings had moved out of the house, had moved away from their tiny village. And, as George Owen wrote quote, the only real companions that Virginia had were her pet dog, Toby, and one friend.

Aw, and it was like, her very best friend, Oh my God. So, even though she was already lonely at home, the move to Soakie was still a lot on Virginia. Because she might not have had a lot, but she was leaving all of it behind, yeah.

And she was being uprooted from the only world that she knew, so she definitely struggled to acclimate to her new life. After the move. Her teacher, Margaret Davidson, recalled Virginia was a shy, withdrawn girl, but very pleasant. She was in every other way, quite normal, hmm.

So the fact that she was quiet or withdrawn is pretty understandable. She had, like I said, just been uprooted from the family home. And now she was thrown into this new living situation, where she was sharing a bed and a bedroom with her niece Margaret. On top of that, her father still hadn't been able to join them, the dog hadn't come.

Yet I don't actually know if the dog ever ended up coming back. I think they left him. Oh, no, Toby, I don't know if it was like a farm dog.

Aw, it's sad. So that was a lot of upheaval for an 11-year-old. Remember, she's 11? And there was about to be more because just a few weeks after arriving in Soki, Virginia's mother got a job at the Dollar Academy.

It was only five miles away from their new house. But the job required her mom to work evening hours, and a lot of times she had to stay overnight at the academy. Oh, okay. And I forgot to mention that Virginia also lost connection with her best friend, like completely, man, so she was going through it.

Now, eventually, she would shed a lot of her shwy, shwy, shwy, all her shwy ways. I think I was about to combine shy and quiet and make it shwyet, shwyet, I like that. She would shed a lot of her shy and quiet tendencies as she settled into her new life, and eventually, she did start making friends.

But to school administrators, I can't talk. The initial apprehension and awkwardness of the Campbell family as a whole, like not even just Virginia, was obvious, according to Mr. Hill, who was the headmaster at the primary school where Virginia was now going. Annie, Virginia's new mom. Initially, quote, offered no more information than was necessary, and her voice seemed to come unwillingly from behind the mask on her face. They gave the impression of people who lived for a long time in a remote and isolated place, so basically they were just private.

Yeah, interesting, and you're moving to an entirely new place. For sure, you might be a little apprehensive.

Of course.

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So since she was older than her niece, Margaret, Virginia was placed in a higher grade, where obviously she didn't know anybody. And on top of everything else that she was going through, she struggled with the language difference between the rural Donegal and Soki. George Owen, author of Can We Explain the Poltergeist, wrote.

Okay.

Now, what are you looking at over there? Oh nothing. Oh, you looked like you were looking at something? Oh no, what are you looking at?

You always think I'm looking at something. I think whenever you're reading something, you get this face where you look like very like, invested. Yeah, because I think I focus when I'm reading something, yeah, and then I'm like, what is she reading? I was looking up things about that.

Like, I was looking at this little girl and like, the thing, isn't she adorable? she is? Don't spoil anything for yourself. So the picture of Virginia Campbell that comes from most accounts at this time is that of a fairly normal 11-year-old. Reacting pretty appropriately to a pretty disruptive life event and struggling, but refusing or failing to, not refusing or failing to adapt to her new life.

Yeah, she was open to getting used to this, yeah, she wanted to adapt, she was just having trouble, yeah. And, like I said, by all accounts, behind the quiet, shy exterior, there was a perfectly lovely, intelligent girl who seemed eager to engage with the world around her.

And in time, like I said a minute ago, she did make a lot of new friends, yeah. But, that being said, George Owen, who was actually involved with the family at the time of the supposed poltergeist activity, is quick to point out. Quote "...It may be of significance that at present, she is going through a period of extremely rapid physical development and maturation. Puberty in the full sense has not arrived, but she is going through a very rapid pubescence. It may also be of significance that, on occasion, she did give some indication of mental and emotional turmoil.

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

Talking in her sleep shows upset and aggressiveness, according to him. And that might because when I read that, at first, I was like, I talk in my sleep. Am I aggressive? Yeah, I talk in my sleep.

But when you hear about the kind of talking in her sleep that was happening, it wasn't your normal. Like, whoa, having a weird dream. Like she would go into trances and like, sit up, but they were like she was still asleep. That's also a night terror, it seems like she may have been having some night terrors. But then when you put it hand in hand with everything else that was going on, it's....

Well, and maybe the night terrors were caused by something else, because the girls have had night terrors for small spans of time before, and they are terrifying. One of them in particular, like, awake but asleep? Yeah, yeah.

Freaky, it's scary, I kids are fucking terrifying, yeah.

If your kid is scary, I'm sorry, Gary and a night terror. The thing like, you can't really do anything about it. You just have to like, comfort them through it. Isn't it? Like, hard to wake them up? And technically, you're not really supposed to?

They're asleep, but they're acting awake, and they're just kind of like, they're not focusing their eyes on you or anything like. It's very strange, yeah.

It's a very strange moment. So you just kind of have to, like, if you can rub their back and stuff, just kind of be like, I'm here, like, I'm here, like, let them know that you're here. And then hopefully it kind of, like, goes into their dream.

Like, subconscious somewhere in America. I think it's like, if you show comfort and like, I'm here kind of thing, then slowly they can come out of it. But it's scary and it's like, how, like when your alarm will ring in real life? But it manifests as something else in your dream, and it's just this loud noise in your dream that you can't get away from.

So maybe, like, some big random thing is comforting you, and not your mama, not your mama, not your mama, some big random thing is comforting you. I just pictured like a cloud, comforting me, like a giant cloud with legs.

I honestly pictured Cloud Guy, but like, big oh from trolls, Hell yeah, Cloud guy would comfort me.

Cloud guy does comfort me me too, and so does, um, fuck, what's his name? the giraffe? Oh, you love him.

I love the giraffe, Cooper, Cooper. I fucking love Cooper from Trolls.

I'm excited for the new Trolls movie and this is not a paid campaign. I'm just genuinely pretty excited. I love that anyway.

That's all to say. While Virginia Campbell may have been a normal, healthy, fully functional 11 year old, her behavior did indicate a certain amount of frustration related to her circumstances. That maybe was seeking some kind of outlet, subconsciously or consciously. Okay, shit was going down, truly or not.

No, it was, it was going down. Charlie Brown. So, as far as anybody could tell, the Poltergeist activity began on November 22nd, 1960, not long after Virginia and her niece, Margaret, had gone to bed. That night, the two girls began hearing what they later described as a thunking noise. They said. It was almost like someone was throwing a rubber ball against the wall.

Okay, yeah, now. They couldn't fall asleep because it was so loud, so they went downstairs. But the sound actually ended up following them as they were walking down the stairs, like the ball was hitting each step just behind them.

Ooh, now. In the living room, the girls reported the noise to Thomas and Isabella, which would be Margaret's parents and Virginia's brother and her sister-in-law. But the older, like the couple Thomas and Isabella, were like, Okay, you guys need to go to bed, like, clearly, this is some kind of tactic to stay awake.

And they didn't hear anything, so they just escorted them back up to bed. But as soon as Thomas and Isabella closed the door to the bedroom after getting the girls settled, they heard the sound from outside of the room. And they were like, Okay, now, Thomas just figured it was the girls pulling some kind of prank. Like, once he closed the door, he's like, Oh, they're trying to make me think that I hear this.

Yeah, so he opened the door to tell them to cut it out. But he was surprised to find both of them under the blankets, their hands completely covered and the sound emanating from the headboard of the bed, they shared Damn now. Confused and somewhat concerned, they moved Virginia and Margaret to a different bedroom to fall asleep, but the noises continued, and they only stopped after Virginia had fallen asleep. Ooh.

Just random, that's interesting and weird, like it was inexplicable. So that night was not restful at all for Virginia.

No, she had a very fitful sleep, so they decided to let her stay home from school the next day. Because they were like, first of all, we have no fucking idea what's going on. And you also didn't sleep last night, so it's not going to be a good day for you now. That afternoon, when Thomas, Isabella and Virginia sat down in the living room together, all three of them watched in shock as the sideboard next to Virginia Quote moved out five inches from the wall, then slid right back into place.

Oh yeah, yeah. So at the time, Virginia was seated less than a foot away from the sideboard, but both Thomas and Isabella swore that she never touched that sideboard. It moved very much on its own.

And they were like, what are we dealing with here, what is going on? If my little, if I like, well, I do have a little sister. And if she moved in with me and this shit started happening, I'd be like, Listen, I love you so much, but you got to go, yeah, because my house is chill and you're unchilling it.

Yeah, you know, don't be all uncool. Yeah, be cool, don't be all uncool.

COUNTESS LUANN I have wine glasses that say that they're a pair, just in case you were wondering, yeah.

I think I got them on Etsy, so try to find those. But that evening, after Virginia and Margaret had gone to bed, the family started hearing the knocking again. But this time it was all over the house and there was no obvious point of origin. They're all like hunting around to see, like, is this like a pipe? is this a? is this a?

Whatever, whatever, they can't narrow it down. And eventually, the knocks became so loud that even the neighbors could hear the noise and we're like, Uh, what's going on over there?

Like, please quiet down. And they were like, Yeah, we can't control this at all, like, we don't know what's happening, we're not doing it so.

We are not well-bitched, nobody of the living is doing it. So, finally, after enduring the noise for hours and being just really unsure of what to do, the couple Thomas and Isabella there ended up calling their priest Reverend T..W. Lund.

And they were like, can you come out here and just help help? So, Reverend Lund arrived at the Campbell House just after midnight that very night, and he was briefed on the activity that had been occurring throughout the last 24 hours. He could also hear the knocking sounds, and he eventually traced them to that headboard on the bed where Virginia and Margaret were sleeping like they were still asleep. So he, actually, the reverend, suspected that Virginia was causing these noises.

Somehow, he said, maybe she was like, like putting her head up against the headboard and kind of like thudding it against the wall. Yeah, so he asked her to slide down away from the headboard. Like, they woke the kids up, obviously, yeah.

And he assumed that the noises would stop, but after she did, they continued. And he also noticed that the headboard hadn't actually even been touching the wall at all, so there wasn't even the possibility that it was being vibrated. And, like, hitting the wall.

Debunking, debunking, it's not happening, it's not happening, No.

So when the reverend pressed his hand against the headboard, he could feel a vibration with every knock. Which convinced him that, no matter how impossible, this knocking was coming from inside the headboard itself. Oh, damn. And he could not figure out how, what? So, during his visit to the house, Reverend Lund also noticed a large linen chest like, pretty big.

It was 27 inches long, 17 inches high and 14 inches wide. He saw it rocking back and forth for no obvious reason, and then the sideboard slid more than a foot across the linoleum tile and then just slid back into place. What, yeah?

He could not explain the movement of the chest, especially because it was full of linen and not likely to move from any kind of vibrations. Like it's a big, heavy chest. So he shifted his attention back to Virginia and he was like, I think you guys just need to go back to bed, like Virginia and Margaret try to go back to sleep after witnessing that. Yeah, no big deal.

It's fine. And when he made that suggestion, the knocking from the headboard became violent and rapid. Like, No, no, no, nobody's going to sleep tonight, what the fuck?

Right, oh, I don't like this at all. No, it's weird and it doesn't. it gets weirder, and it's scary in and of itself. But this particular poltergeist doesn't seem violent, but he seems like aggressive.

Yeah, which I don't like. Like, knowing that it's wee huey, it does sound like just like a little kid polter, like this little boy huey. Just act in a fool, you know? Yeah, it's true.

Like, Wee Huey really does take the terror down a notch. It does, yeah, and it just seems like a little boy being rambunctious as a ghost. I also saw it described as a possible leprechaun.

Are you serious? Yeah, but they never found the Leprechaun. I'm just saying, I love that.

I love that wee Huey is a little Leprechaun, you never know, I don't know who's to say.

Not I. Yeah, they called it, and actually they called him a vengeful Leprechaun, so, but I don't really know how vengeful he was.

Like, he didn't do anything bad. Yeah, I don't know. I'm just saying he has had that reputation, because the bad reputation, I think, is what Taylor Swift says.

So the noises and the disruptions continued the next day, with knocking coming from the walls, the sewing machine was turning on and off by itself, objects were moving on their own. Virginia's father by that point, James, he had sold the farm and moved to where they were now in Scotland.

He claimed that he witnessed an apple rise out of a fruit bowl. Hover in the air for a second or two and then drop back down into the fruit bowl. What? And he, like this man is like a farmer, like he's not, he's like a noble shit kind of guy, yeah.

He's just like that, and he's like, I saw what I saw and I don't know why. I saw that. I saw what I saw, and I don't know why I saw it. It's weird, like that, is it?

And I just love that. It's like wee-huey. Like, picked up an apple, was looking at it and then was like, Nah, fuck this apple and just put it like, health, no health, wellness fiber, nah.

Absolutely not, not for me. I just picture like an apple floating on itself and a look at me, like, can you take the skin off this? And nobody answers, so he's like, Fuck it.

For some reason, no one heard him. But imagine if you did it, that would be actually terrifying and also not to know the context here. Can you take the skin off this? I'd be like, No, I can't.

And Apple's just floating in the air. Skin belongs on people. I'd be like, Ah, and the kid's like, it's an apple. I just don't want the apple skin.

I'd be like, I can't. No, no, thank you. So later that evening, Reverend Lund went back to the Campbell home, and this time he brought a local physician, W..H. Nesbitt, with him.

Once Virginia and Margaret had gone to bed, they both went into the room, the reverend and the doctor. And once they walked into the room, they looked on in utter shock as Virginia's pillow rotated about 60 degrees while her head was still resting on it. Okay, that's interesting.

That's weird, that's weird, that's suspicious, that's suspicious. So neither of them had really any time to process what they'd seen before.

The knocking started up again, first at the headboard and then in the walls. And the knockings were followed by the lifting and slamming of the lid on the linen chest, which again moved out from the wall on its own before sliding back into place against the wall. Okay, but all the while the lid is being lifted and slammed back down, lifted and slammed back down, that's disruptive.

It is so. These phenomena were shocking, but the final event witnessed that evening was the most inexplicable to them. As Virginia and Margaret lay in bed with the covers pulled up to their chests, both men witnessed what they later described as a strange rippling movement. Move up and down the bed covers, as the two girls lay beneath, almost like the cover was doing the wave. Yeah, obviously.

What? No, I hate it, nope, and I'm also like, Damn, y'all are just sleeping through this.

I know that's the thing. Kids are wild, everybody's just like, going about their business after this.

It's the kids, what the fuck like kids can sleep through anything they truly can, apparently.

But then they have, like, they need, like, one glass of water and it's over for you. Bitches. Oh, it's, I mean, going to sleep. Forget about it, forget about it, forget about it now. Since the activity started a few days earlier, Virginia had been staying home from school because they were like, Do we send her to school while this is happening?

But by Friday, November 25th, the Campbells decided there was really no point in keeping her at home any longer. Especially because, I mean, home isn't safe, it seems. So, yeah, and they weren't even any closer to understanding what the hell was going on. So after being home all morning, and you know, Virginia was probably like, I'm ticking them off a little bit, like, you know, like they were like, go find something to do, and she was like, I can't.

So they were like, you know what, go to school, forget it. So they sent her to school for the remainder of the afternoon. Now, that afternoon, as she was sitting in class, her teacher, Margaret Stewart, noticed that she seemed to be struggling with something at her desk.

From Mrs Stewart's vantage point, at the front of the class, it seemed like Virginia was fidgeting with her desk lid in, like an unusual manner. She's like, What the fuck is she doing? She didn't say that, though, she said, What the fuck is that little girl doing?

Virginia, What the fuck are you doing? What the fuck are you doing, Virginia? She didn't say that. That would have been so rude, that would have been really rude.

She would have had a problem with Annie Campbell if she said that, Yeah, and James, I'm sure, and me and me.

How about that, Mrs. Stewart? talk to that kid that way? Never, no, Mrs.

Stewart's a sweetie. So she assumed that Virginia was just fooling around. So she called out and was like, Virginia, what are you doing? and Virginia said, Nothing. Miss Honest.

She was like, I'm really not doing anything. So when the teacher told Virginia to stop distracting the class, she did, as she was told, and just lifted her arms off the desk. And at that point, the wooden lid of the desk began rising and falling on its own. As the other students just watched in complete shock and horror, No, that's not great.

So it seems like she might have been like, because she said the teacher was like it looked like she was fidgeting with her desk. It sounds to me like she was trying to stop that from happening, yeah, like they were trying to figure out why it was happening. Like just being like, what is going on here? Like trying to see if it could stop it. And then she takes her hands off and it starts just going for it.

And all the kids in class are like, What the fuck we got a Matilda up in here, we got a Matilda. So later that afternoon, during a period of silent reading, the classroom was again disrupted. When the empty desk behind Virginia slowly rose about an inch off of the floor and just gently settled down again on its own, what do you even say?

As a kid in that class, you're like, what's happening? I don't know, no, what is going on.

When she was interviewed about the incidents a short time later, Mrs Stewart told George Owen that during the first interruption, Virginia was in her line of sight. So she could tell that Virginia was not lifting the lid of the desk. And again, her hands were in the air. And after the second incident, Mrs Stewart went back over to the desk behind Virginia and examined, like, the whole entirety of it. And said, she quote, found no strings, levers or anything else that had been in operation to make the desk rise and fall, seemingly of its own volition.

Damn, so this wasn't a prank? Yeah, like they checked it out, it seems, yeah.

They tried to debunk everything and they literally couldn't see. These are the ones that it's like when they're going and checking it out and actual adults are looking and being like, I, Yeah, I can't explain this. That's when those scary, scary ones they are, and they're scary.

For some reason, I just find this one fun. Yeah, I mean, it's Scottish. Who doesn't love a Scottish tale? I love a Scottish tale.

I love a Scottish tale and it's an Irish girly, yeah, one of our own. We love it.

Later that evening, Reverend Lund and Dr. Nesbitt returned again to the Campbell House to check up on Virginia. And when Reverend Lund asked her how school had been, Virginia said, All right. But something funny happened. When I was there, when my teacher was standing near my desk, the lid of another desk went up all by itself, you know, funny.

Reverend Lund was like, Okay, I'm going to talk to your family, so give me a minute wild now. While he sat and talked with the family in the living room, Dr. Nesbitt spent the evening sitting in the girls bedroom, watching for any unusual behavior.

I'm Dan Taberski. In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York. I was like, at my locker and she came up to me and she was like, stuttering, super bad. I'm like, stop around, She's like, I can't.

A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast, like doubling and tripling. And it's all these girls with a diagnosis. The state tried to keep on the down low. Everybody thought I was holding something back.

Well, you were holding something back intentionally. Yeah, yeah, well, yeah, now it's hysteria, it's all in your head, it's not physical. Oh my gosh, you're exaggerating.

Is this the largest mass hysteria since the Witches of Salem, or is it something else entirely? Something's wrong here, something's not right. Leroy was the new dateline, and everyone was trying to solve the murder.

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Now, while he was alone in the room, Dr. Nesbitt witnessed similar, but less intense activity than had been reported days earlier. Including the light knocking sounds. The lid of the linen, chest lifting and lowering, and still, multiple rotations of Virginia's pillow as it just sat on the bed. Yeah, that's wild, so it's not even like, because I guess you're kind of thinking, or at least I was, when they first saw that pillow rotation. I'm like, maybe there's something that, like, she can pull that, like, makes it happen.

I mean, that's cool, like you, just you're trying to debunk, but you try to think of anything that can explain it. But now he's sitting alone in there.

That's the thing, like, she's not there to do anything. No, and this is the 1960s, so it's not like she has, like, some remote control that's like, hooked up to anything.

If it was now, I'd be like, all right, maybe it's like a drone or some shit, right? But like, back then, it's like, no, no. So the family hoped the arrival of the weekend maybe could bring some kind of just chill to this situation.

They were like, it's been really chaotic up in here with the paranormal activity. Maybe we can have a calm weekend, please. But unfortunately, it didn't take long for those hopes to be dashed. Saturday, the 27th, did pass with minimal activity.

The most really anyone witnessed was more pillow rotations and that rippling of the bed covers. I love that. More pillow rotations, more pillow rotations. It's like more bump-teenies.

Now Sunday, on the other hand, found the family experiencing an entirely new phenomenon. When Virginia appeared to go into a kind of trance. Ooh, this is kind of what I touched on earlier, okay?

That afternoon, Dr. Nesbitt returned with his colleague, Dr. William Logan. Oh, I know somebody with that same name.

But they brought along his dog, Dr. Logan's dog, and Virginia took an immediate liking to this dog, telling the doctors that he reminded her so much of her own dog, Toby, who she, like, really missed. I really don't understand why they couldn't bring Toby with them, but justice for Toby, justice for Toby.

Pour one out, I will now. The day passed without incident. The children played with the dog.

They seemed generally happy, but that evening, after the girls had gone to bed, Virginia appeared to slip into this kind of trance. Excuse me. And she started speaking almost like she was talking in her sleep. Calling out for Toby and her best friend Anna, who she'd left behind in Ireland now, Virginia's parents did what you would do. They tried to comfort her.

She's like, seemingly having some kind of night terror or distress. They gave her a teddy bear, but she ended up violently throwing the teddy bear across the room and started thrashing and striking out in all directions. Oh, damn. And they were like, I don't know what to do, so they left the room.

I don't really know what else they could have done, I guess. Yeah, and she just fell asleep normally after that. Oh wow, yeah.

Huh, have you have your kids ever had a night terror to like that extent? No, they've never, like thrashed around and like, become like scary like that, and like, potentially violent, yeah.

They've never become violent or, like, even aggressive. They more. It always kills me. Because, like, they would, um, they don't have them anymore, really. Knock on wood, uh. And they didn't get them a ton, they would just every once in a while. And I got them when I was little, so I knew what they were.

What to do? But I? They basically like, they get very like, they cry like weepy, and they get very like, uh, inconsolable. Like for a moment. And then finally they'll they'll fall into it and be like, and calm down.

But even like, even so, you feel bad leaving them because you feel like you haven't quite got them to a comforted place yet. Because they'll they'll lay down and like, go to go back to sleep, and you can still see like the stress on their face. So it always used to kill me. And then I go in like an hour later and they were like peacefully asleep. So I was like, Okay, we're good.

But yeah, it's always one of those things where you're like, Ooh, but I've they never got aggressive. I know, I don't, I don't know if that's just different strokes for different folks. Yeah, that's the thing.

Cause, in my mind, I'm like, maybe because what George Owen said earlier about how like she was clearly dealing with something. Whether she would or not, I don't know if maybe she was the kind of person with the temperament of like, not allowing things to get the best of her. While she was awake, yeah, but then at night she was like, angry about the fact that she had to move, like in her subconscious, yeah.

No matter what, she's young and she's going through a an upheaval. Yeah, so it's like, I feel like that's always going to put a kid in a different mindset. When it's the when it's not quite settled, or, you know, when things are settled, it's easier to be in a good mindset. But for a kid, unsettling and movement can really throw them off, yeah.

Like, way more than we think it does. It's, and it's interesting, like, and I think a lot of it. I think a lot of things with kids happen subconsciously. Yeah, you know.

Oh yeah, for sure, because it's just like they can't necessarily make sense of a lot exactly. There's so much going on.

Well, anyways. The next day, Virginia did return to school, and it was almost immediately apparent that whatever had been affecting her arrived with her at school that day. As the students were sitting quietly working on a world a word, Virginia approached Mrs Stewart's desk to ask for a little help with whatever they were doing. So she got up to sketch out the problem on the blackboard for her, the teacher, but she, the teacher looked as the chalkboard pointer on her desk started to vibrate, cause she was about to, like, grab for it. But it started vibrating on her desk and eventually fell off of the edge of her desk. And then, when she reached down to touch the desk, she was surprised to find that it, too, was vibrating slightly.

And then, without any kind of warning. And I I want to say that this is probably like the most quote unquote violent thing to happen. The right end of her desk lifted off the floor slightly and swung in her direction. Oh, like, it got like pushed towards her.

Oh, damn, and I am pretty sure that's one of the like the more violent things that happened. Luckily, I don't believe she was hurt, but weird, yeah, Wee Huey does not like Mrs.

StEWART No, and it's weird that it's following her to school, I know, you know.

That's the thing, wow, now. When Virginia arrived home from school that afternoon, the family made the decision to send her actually to stay with relatives in nearby. Dollar, where they hoped she would get a break from the paranormal activity. Cause they're like, she's really not sleeping, she's going to school.

Like, this is a lot on her as a 11 year old, so hopefully if we send her over here, she can. Maybe the activity is, like, linked to the house somehow. Yeah, I don't know.

But when Dr. Nesbitt visited the Dollar House later that night, he found that the knocking noises continued in the new location. In a series of knocks that ranged from gentle tapping to loud raps, always in the vicinity of Virginia. Ooh, spooky. So it followed her to an entirely different town, exactly.

That's wild now. The next day, Dr. Logan arrived in Dollar in the company of his wife, also a doctor, Dr. Sheila Logan. And they wanted to visit Virginia to get a load of this.

Yeah, now. When Sheila first heard the stories about the activity from her husband that seemed to be following Virginia, she was like, Okay, sure, and she seriously, actually doubted what was going on. She talked the quote unquote activity up to just a childish, childish prank. But as soon as she got to the house where Virginia was staying, Sheila experienced the knockings firsthand and walked away. Quote satisfied that the noises from within the room were not caused by the activity of anyone in it.

Huh, which is such a haunting statement. Yeah, whatever she was hearing in that room was not caused by anyone in it. Hate.

Don't like that hate, hate, loathe entirely. The knocking thing would annoy the shit out of me. I hate repetitive noises more than anything that would piss me off.

And I think I would literally go insane.

So later that night, the Logans were called back to the house in Dollar by the family, who were concerned because Virginia had fallen into another trance. And they were like, Yeah, we haven't experienced this before, so we're not really sure what to do. Not sure. So, when they got to the home, Dr.

Logan discovered that Virginia was sitting up in bed, quote talking in a loud, unnatural voice, calling for Toby and Anna and throwing herself about the bed, according to Logan. Even though Virginia's eyes were closed. She heard and responded to questions normally, but she did note that her responses indicated a lack of shyness that was typically present in Virginia's personality. Like, usually, usually, she was like a pretty soft-spoken, shy child. But when she was answering these questions, it was very like, confident, yeah.

Just like outside of her natural kind of disposition, that's an interesting like little side effect, yeah. So the doctor stayed with her for 10 or 15 minutes, until she did eventually emerge from the trance, and she did eventually fall asleep. But they were like, What the fuck?

They just had never seen anything like this before. None of it adds up, no, and it's not, and none of it is like, of typical poltergeist activity, yeah.

Like the obviously the moving of the furniture and that kind of the tapping noises. But just it's not your typical poltergeist story. It's very strange. So Virginia returned home the next day, November 30th, and the family actually reported no unusual activity. But that break did prove to be short-lived because the noises returned the following night, just around the time. And it always seems to be around the time that the girls are getting ready for bed. Of course, which makes you think that it's a prank. But then they try to figure it out, and there's no way that the girls are causing this.

Yeah, it's like, what the fuck? So, just before 9 p.m. Dr. Nisbet and Dr. Logan set up a camera in the girl's bedroom, hoping to capture any of this activity on film.

Now, the camera captured long periods of continual noise quote ranging from barely perceptible tappings to agitated knocks, more rippling of the bed cover. And quote a considerable amount of hysterical talking by Virginia, in which she showed the same lack of inhibition she had previously in her trances. Huh? So she's, she's this very like, confident, outspoken girl in her trances. And then when she's awake and out and about, she's very shy and reserved, yeah.

It's just interesting. So that same night, Reverend Lund arrived at the Campbell House in the company of three other local ministers to conduct. A service of intercession, I believe, is what it's called, it's not an exorcism. Those would become more popular in the media in the following decade, but what they were doing now? A service of intercession is basically just a prayer session where a group prays to their God on behalf of another person. In this case, Virginia.

Okay, so. Throughout the 15 minute prayer session, these men who were praying over her reported hearing considerable loud banging. Quote, a harsh rasping sawing noise and screams. And bouts of hysterical talking from Virginia, which they described as babbling, What the fuck? So this was clearly agitating, yeah.

The entity EW now. The activity, which had begun about a week earlier, had not only been disruptive to everybody involved, but also to the large number of witnesses to the phenomenon. It wasn't just Virginia that was going through it, it was everybody.

Yeah, now. Usually, in paranormal cases similar to this one, firsthand experiences are limited. Yeah, but Virginia's poltergeist had never really been shy about demonstrating its abilities. And it was only a matter of time, of course, before the press got onto the story.

Of course, you knew it was coming, of course, so. The intercessional prayer session coincided with an article that was published on The Wire by United Press International, the article. It kind of annoys me when they do things like this because it was poking fun at this.

Wow, and it's like, this is an 11-year-old girl. Yeah, that's the thing. It's like, come on, it's one thing if this is adults, and even that's like, pretty rude. But you don't need to make fun of people.

You definitely don't need to make fun of an 11-year-old, No, so, it had an unserious tone, but at the same time, it did lay out some of the facts that had occurred. It emphasized the ways in which Virginia's quote unquote ghost was disrupting the class, and Virginia's teacher, Margaret, was interviewed for it.

And she told reporters I don't believe in the supernatural, but I was mesmerized by what I saw. And she was referring to that movement of the desk, she said It looked like an elaborate, practical joke, but there was no string and no one touched the desk when it moved. Wow, so she was like, I don't believe in the supernatural, and even I can't explain.

I was just going to say, but she's like, I don't believe in the supernatural, but I have no idea how they did that. It's like, I think you might believe in the supernatural now, now. In addition to the description of paranormal activity occurring at school, the UPI article noted the rumors. I just said that, like, Meredith marks a little bit.

There's this new clip on House Vibes where one of the house vibes goes the rumors the way she says it is wild. I'm going to play it for you later, please do. But the UPI article noted the rumors that had been making their way around town. And quote villager said they understood church authorities would be consulted to determine if this case was warranting of an exorcism.

Ooh, here we go now. You can assume the writer was referring to Reverend Lund. They were like, is this motherfucker going to start an exorcism? Because he had been involved with the case from the very beginning and up to this point, had never made any mention of an exorcism. But this news report raised concern among the reverend and the doctors and Virginia's family that any additional attention was going to make things harder for Virginia.

Oh damn, they were like, all these articles are going to fuck shit up, we don't need this, which, I mean, yeah, she's 11..

Yeah, so. After discussing it with the family, the men decided that the best course of action would be to report to the news service. That, with help from her doctors and the reverend, the problem had been solved. They were like, we just need them to believe that this is over and we can do this privately. They're going to be like a dog with a bone.

Yeah, now. In their joint statement, the three men, which is the doctors and the reverend. They provided some small details about the activity. Saying, We concluded that the happenings could not be accounted for in the normal sense of cause and effect. And writing on behalf of the church, the statement went on When the observances did not quickly disappear. We attempted to help the child by changing her environment and to deal by means of sedatives with her hysteria, which we all agreed was a secondary emotional effect. We realized the need not only for medical care for the child, but also spiritual help for the whole family. And we consulted certain ministers who have had the experience of abnormal phenomena of a similar nature.

All along, we have recognized the possible importance of restoring the child to her previous environment. In Ireland. In our opinion, the phenomena are rapidly diminishing, and it is our belief that they may soon disappear altogether. So they were like, things are really chilling out over here, nothing to see, yeah.

Don't worry about it, we fixed it now. The statement Good, good, good, cool, cool, cool, awesome. So the statement actually seemed to satisfy a lot of inquiring minds about town, but some local news outlets still wanted more information.

Of course, and when none of the three men would provide any additional details, they looked elsewhere. So, in an article from December 2nd, 1960, the paper quotes secretary of the Alois Spiritualist Church, James Henderson saying. In my opinion, this little girl has certain unusual psychic qualities. And I am convinced that some person who has passed on is trying to communicate through her. I believe that a responsible medium should be taken to see the little girl for such a person could certainly help her. Oh, which, okay.

I get it interesting now. That same article goes on to quote a spokesperson for the Spirit or the the spokesperson for the Spiritualist National Church, that's mouthful it is.

And that's James McNee, he said. Happening such, as, such as, or taking place with this little girl are not nearly so unusual as many people think. And, contrary to popular opinion, they are not necessarily evil. In nature, children are much more alive physically than adults are, and often, although unconscious, real mediums. If much of what is called their blethers was seriously examined, they would be discovered to contain communication from people who have passed on. So basically, he's saying, what I think a lot of people believe is that kids are more susceptible to. Like seeing spirits, making friends with spirits, being visited by spirits, being open to spirits, being open to it. Because they, they're not as scared of it yet, because they haven't had the experiences yet.

And their mind is more open, and their mind is more open. The older we get, the older we close our mind. A ton, exactly, which sucks.

Cause we put up bullshit boundaries in our own mind. I want to see a ghost, I mean, I've already seen a few, but I want to see some more. But yeah.

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So despite that statement, though, or the statement that Lund, Nesbitt and Logan had made, the press, like I said, maintained an interest in Virginia's story. That went on for weeks, capitalizing on quotes from teachers, classmates, and then, finally, it did die out a few weeks later now. Although the statement put out by Lund, Nesbitt and Logan had kind of been intended to convince the press and neighbors that the problem had been resolved. And there was nothing more to see. The fact was actually, following the intercession service performed on the evening of December 1st, the activity had seemed to come to an end. So they were like manifesting kings and queens. I was going to say, there you go.

Now, aside from one more incident at school in late January, where a bowl of bulbs moved across Ms. Stewart's desk. There were no additional reports of disturbances from the Campbells or their neighbors. Now, I don't know if that's just because they were worried about the press continuing to bother them, or if genuinely the shit just stopped. Yeah, now. The story did end up getting new life in the summer of 1965, when George Owen released his book.

Can we explain the poltergeist? Can we? can we? I like that title, I always love when a book title is a question.

I do, too. It's fun. Can we, can we? Let's find out, read this book.

So in his book Owen, who is a Trinity College mathematics professor, he explores the potential realities of poltergeist phenomena, uh, phenomena. Excuse me. Paying particular attention to Virginia's experience, the book isn't exclusively about Virginia's case, but it did revive interest in that case in the UK, especially with the tabloid newspapers. In a 1965 article in the Sunday Mirror, five years after this had originally happened. The paper played up the family's rural origins and supposedly superstitious nature of Irish people, describing Donegal as a quaint, isolated part of. I think it's Ira is how you say it, it's e-i-r-e i-a-r-a. You're supposed to say it with like, an accent, but I'm not going to do that because it's not my accent.

Yeah, I don't, I have no idea. But it says where banshees are said to wail before death, and tiny leprechauns prance at the bottom of the gardens. So basically they were like kind of poking fun at their Irish roots, which is, they were being like, they're Irish.

So they're probably dumb and think stupid things, and it's like, Wow, yeah, okay, like they're like, Oh, they're just superstitious because folklore.

And I was like, fuck off, like, Cool, thanks, like, Mm, yeah.

I just did a big old bird. I was going to say she just flipped me off, in case anyone was wondering. But it was the Sunday Mirror, it wasn't you. I don't want to.

Fuck you Alayna, fuck you for no good reason, just for the hell of it, for no good reason, just in the middle of this episode.

Just fuck you, I really like, fuck you for no good reason, right? That's a good team for no good reason.

I like that, yeah, for the most part. The articles that followed the release of Owen's book told the story of Virginia's experience with the poltergeist that she and her friends had come to refer to as wee huey. That's where wee Huey comes in. Eventually, Virginia named her poltergeist.

Wee little Huey, I love that. She was like, you know what, he needs a name? Hell yeah.

But eventually, they got around to the question every reader wanted answered what caused the poltergeist? Now? Most people simply believed it was a matter of what Owen called. I hate the name of this theory, it's called the Naughty Little Girl theory. That's upsetting. Yeah, I don't love it.

It's just, you know, yeah. But he basically was saying that, or this theory was saying that. The activity was nothing more than a prank caused by Virginia herself. After all, she had been through a serious disruption in her life. Maybe, you know, feeling anxious or unstable, with both parents absent. So she created the wee huey scenario in order to get attention.

That was one theory. Okay, I personally don't buy that one because we've looked at all the ways in which she couldn't have caused what was going on. Well, that's the thing it's like.

That would be a very good theory, and it makes sense if there wasn't times when even adults were like, I don't know how she could have done that exactly. And, like, the the thought process behind the theory makes sense.

When you look at the disruption in her life and everything, all the yeah. But then, like you said, even the adults were like, Nope, no way. That's where it's confusing, cause it's like, how did she pull that shit off?

So that's where you kind of have to ax that theory, and it's great that you have to anyway. Yeah, now. Owen acknowledged the possibility that some of the activity actually could have been caused by Virginia or her niece, Margaret. But he rejected the belief that the entire thing was a hoax. He told a reporter It is possible to suppose one could be the victim of illusion or hallucination. However, it is beyond all possibility that everyone could be deceived over such a long period of time.

Yeah, that's the thing. So if it wasn't a hoax, what was it? It was wee little huey, well, Owen said. When girls are approaching puberty, they often seem to attract poltergeist phenomena. There are many cases, which suggests that activity is more likely to arise in that age group.

That's weird as fuck, and it's be, I guess it's because your body is going through a lot of upheaval. It's real weird, it is a little weird, I don't like it.

I don't love it, I don't like connecting it to puberty, I don't know why, it just gives me the it gives you the it feels icky. I get what he's saying and I don't think he's saying it like to in.

No, no, no, I don't. I'm not. I'm not like, offended by him or anything, I'm just no, just for some reason. That just always makes me think, like, ooh, yeah, no, you know, I totally. It has like, a, yeah, it's well, and it's such a shitty time, like puberty anyways. And it's like to add that like, and you know what, you might, you might get possessed.

Unwillingly attract a poltergeist while you're at it, I come on, I mean, that sucks. But then it kind of makes sense. Because there are like a lot of entities, like poltergeists and all different kinds of entities that will attach to somebody. While they're going through serious upheaval in life, like your hormones being all out of whack and like.

Wow, we should start warning kids about that, we should start being like, here's the ins and outs of puberty and what you can expect. Here's the Poltergeist section. You might also attract a poltergeist.

There's really not a lot you can do. Hate to break it to you kid? Yeah, that's. That's part of the side effects of puberty that might be. That might make those classes a little bit more fun.

Because you remember when, like, they would separate their girls into boys in like, sixth grade. And they'd be like, here's what's going to happen to your body. And you were like, Fuck my whole life. I also love that, cause I'm like, Yeah, definitely. Don't teach them what happens to the other, you know, like set of students, like none of you should understand each other in any way.

No, we had to sit there and watch all these fucking wild ass videos and the boys were like, we just played like a game. Yeah, they're like, our voice might crack, yeah, and it's like, okay.

Or you might be possessed by a fucking poltergeist. How do you like those assholes? It could be real easy or real hard for you, exactly so.

Owen theorized that moving from Ireland to a new home where she was uncomfortable, along with those feelings of loss from having parted with her dog and her best friend, left Virginia Quote in a state of some tension, and he believed the result was quote. Circumstances may well have triggered off a physical force around her, which is not yet known to science. Now, unfortunately, while Owen could offer those theories as to what may have triggered the paranormal events around Virginia, he was at a loss to explain precisely how those phenomena function. But The Sunday Mirror summarized, And I really hate this summarization, but go off Sunday Mirror, they said. If a girl is emotionally upset during her 28 day cycle, she can acquire an unexplained power strong enough to move things without touching them.

And Owen agreed with that summation, adding We are ignorant to the nature of this force and have no idea how it is applied. We cannot even begin to understand its potential. But one thing seems fairly certain the hidden force is wild and uncontrollable at the moment. It's probably why we won't let women be president over here, I guess, just out here, moving things.

And we don't know why. No idea that during that time, yeah, that I was so fucking powerful. I mean, I've never Matilda during my cycle, but go off.

Ovaries are scary as fuck. I mean, they are a little scary. ovaries hurt sometimes. That is, that's hilarious, that that's how they summarize this entire thing.

They were like, Welp, Yeah, period, period. They are wily and they can create demonic presence in a home.

And it's like, No, no, I am the demonic presence in my home. During that time. You're like, Giorgio, and you are confused. I'm like, I don't need an outside entity to make that happen, like, Don't you worry?

It ain't wee huey, it's me, it's not wee huey. I am the demonic force like you just texted us. Ovaries are scary as fuck.

Y'all, we should get a shirt that says that ovaries are scary as fuck, y'all, it's not the demonic force.

It's me, it's me. Yeah, honestly, wow.

But that got hilarious at the end. I was. I was excited to present you that theory. I was writing it and I was like, I don't even personally want to look further into this. I like the go off Sunday mirror.

Go off Sunday mirror. I'm like, Okay, wow, did a man write that? that's awesome?

Probably that's awesome, yeah. So the flurry of public interest around the case in Owen's book did die down. After a few weeks, and the case of Virginia Campbell went back into the corners of people's minds. And it wasn't until about 30 years later that Virginia's experience popped up again in the news in the mid nineties.

It was the nineties, it was the Nineties. Kevin, Kevin, Kevin.

But thank you to the interests of a high profile paranormal investigator, Malcolm Robinson. His mother grew up in the Soki area. And he said I initially looked into the case in 1987, but I never got anywhere. However, I had more success in 1994 when I looked at it again. Huh? So, initially he was kind of trying to investigate this, like I just said. And he was struggling to find anybody related to the case. And all his letters and his phone calls were going unanswered.

But then, in 1994, he tracked down one, Margaret Davidson, formerly Stewart, Virginia's former teacher, and as one of the primary witnesses. She was actually an ideal reporter, not only because of the respectability of her position, but also because of her seemingly excellent memory, she said. I had never really heard the word poltergeist before. I thought it was some kind of medicine. That's how naive I was.

Poltergeist Take two poltergeists and call me in the morning, imagine now. Over the course of their conversation, she was able to verify much of what had been reported on in the press. And she also was able to fill in some gaps for Robinson.

For instance, during the peak interest in the story, as the press was relentlessly pursuing the family and actually even waited outside of school. Mrs Stewart formerly was able to tell this reporter that one of Virginia's classmates actually ended up donning her coat and backpack in an attempt to lead the press away from the school. So that Virginia could leave without being harassed. Oh my god, that's how bad things got. Oh damn.

So you can see why. And I love that. The Reverend, and like, the doctors were like, we need to put a stop to this because she deserves to live a normal life. Yeah, like, we don't want to make this a big a big media circus hullabaloo.

Yeah, but they were like, all about it, it would be one thing, yeah, but the fact that they wanted it to go away.

And to protect her, it's so pure. Yeah, and you don't really hear that a lot. When we talk about these kind of stories, usually it's very like, you're like, what's happening?

Yeah, so. Davidson also added some of the less savory details that wouldn't have been published by the press in the sixties. Including a frightening incident where Virginia was harassed by a woman who believed her to be, quote, one of God's chosen ones, and asked if she could touch her. Oh, oh, what?

Oh.

Somebody just want you walk up to a child and ask if you can touch them. Because I think you're one of God's chosen ones. I'd be like, you better hope you are, cause I'm about to send you into eternity right now for asking my child if you can touch them.

Like, what the fuck, damn weird, that's fucked up, that's yeah, that's not good.

EW So, for the most part, Robinson's investigation just kind of reiterated what was already reported in Owen's book 30 years earlier. It didn't offer a ton of additional details other than the ones I just mentioned, or really any new theories that could explain what happened to Virginia. But it did underscore what made this case so fascinating in the first place. Because, like I said a little bit earlier. Unlike the majority of supposed hauntings and so-called poltergeist activity that had been reported on before and since Virginia's claims had been made, this poltergeist case does remain one of the few that still defies explanation.

Yeah, cause we still have no idea what the fuck happened and why it did. They couldn't confirm or debunk it exactly. Always the ones you want to you want to pay attention to.

Now, as Owen pointed out in 1965, obviously it's possible to trick someone, like one person, or even a handful of people, into believing something is real, but to trick multiple professionals. With no connection to this home and an entire classroom full of students and a teacher, and, like a myriad of other people, into seeing and hearing things that weren't there, no way, no. So this really happened, meaning it's entirely possible that there is some truth to Owen's conclusion. The poltergeist phenomena were real and not due to trickery, ground tremors or induced weightlessness.

That was a quote induced weightlessness. I like that, yeah. So Virginia Campbell's experience with Wee Huey, The Poltergeist is in a lot of ways, similar to so many other stories, except for the fact that people believed her.

And that's really the only difference at all that from the moment everything began, she was taken seriously. Yeah, so, but maybe that is why this particular case lacked the level of aggression and violence that we see in so many other cases. And maybe that's also why it was kind of resolved in a relatively short matter of time, because everybody gave it the attention it deserved and believed her exactly.

Like, this thing didn't feel like it needed to get bigger and bigger to prove that it existed. Yeah, yeah, so in the weeks and months after the intersessional prayer, the Campbell said. They experienced only occasional activity in the form of knocking noises and a slight, a slight movement of objects. But nothing at all like they had experienced in late November of 1960. Damn.

And a few months after the press coverage ended, James, Annie and Virginia did move out of Thomas and Isabella Campbell's house and into their own home in the Scottish Midlands. Seeming to leave little wee huey behind and soakie, see you wee huey bye now, a few years later, after she finally settled into her new life in Scotland, Virginia got a job working in a factory. And she was free of disruptive forces, so she was able to enjoy the things that girls like to enjoy.

Good for her, man, people like to enjoy now. In a final note, closing out the series of articles in 1965, Virginia said of the poltergeist It never really worried me, but for the sake of others, I hope it never returns. Ooh, and that is the end of Wee Huey.

The soakie poltergeist. What an end to that. I hope it never returns. See, this has like, it's poltergeisty, but it's also like a little like fae realm, yeah.

To me, I could see that totally. It feels very like, you know, like a brownie or something like one of those little like, fuck around, fuck around, find out, Fae.

Yeah, I feel like it's, and maybe it's because I'm reading the The Girls and I are reading the Spiderwick Chronicles at night. Now, like, we're going through the whole series and it's all about like, Fae and shit. But it reminds me it's weird that you did this one while we're reading. That always works.

That always happens to us, it always winds up, cause we're reading those. And it just it kept making me think about it all the like, mischief and shit. Yeah, I meant to say your case that you did earlier.

I'm not going to say the the the Torshorker witch trials, I did say it. Yay. Um, there was like a date that you had mentioned in the whole case, and I think it's releasing around the same time.

Like, Oh, that is weird. yeah, isn't that weird? That is very strange. We always have things like that happen.

Yeah, oh yeah, cause I think the actual trials were October, yeah, they were October 10th or something like that.

I think you're right, and I think it's a uh, or I think you said, like the 12th or the 15th, it probably. I think that's just in my head. But it was, I think it's releasing around that same time, so it's just weird, very weird.

Weird that you're reading these things. I wish I could say we do that would make us a lot more, you know, with it. But I think this is just the universe guiding us here. I was going to say, maybe we are super with it and we just don't even know how with it we are. We're the most with it, yeah.

Kids, what does that get for the guy doing the kid like like with the kids? Oh, hello youth, hello youths.

Hello youths, hello Universe, hello kids, I don't know, you know, that was a crazy story.

It was, and I like, that it wasn't debunked or confirmed, I know I wish it had been confirmed somehow.

Like, I wish they did get to the bottom of it and like, what really happened? I know? But it is kind of cool that they didn't, and it is kind of cool that Virginia was like, Listen, I don't know what happened. I love that.

She was just like, I don't know that was, that was that? But like, let's hope it doesn't come back for everyone else's sake. And it's like, Oh, okay, drop that mic, Virginia.

Okay, Virginia, way to leave us, I know, with a gasp with, Oh, I know.

Crazy story. I had fun doing this one and Dave helped me a lot and it was really fun to do together. So yay, David. And yeah, you guys, and we hope you keep listening, and we hope you keep it. Weird, but not so weird that you blame a 28 day cycle for a poltergeist activity because we're the demons, that's hilarious.

I.

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