VOICEOVER: The Black Tapes is in part an exploration of belief and the search for truth, and in part a profile of the founder of the Gottlieb Institute, professional skeptic Dr. Hermann Gottlieb. Our story is progressing in order, week by week. So, if you’re a first-time listener, welcome to the show! Go start at episode one. Don’t worry. I’ll wait.
(Familiar theme music fades in)
From CTC Studios and the WGBH Podcast Network, welcome to the Black Tapes Podcast. I’m Newt Geiszler.
(Theme music plays: acoustic guitar, church bells, a faraway female voice.)
NEWT (VO): Welcome back. It feels like I say this every week, but we really have a lot to get through. This is our last episode in season one, and without giving too much away... Well, a lot has happened. We’re going to do our best to make sense of it all.
We started with an exorcism.
(interlude music #1)
So, personally? I love horror movies. That, you could probably already tell, from my choice of podcast subject. The Exorcist is one of my favorites. But what about the rest of America?
A recent poll says 90% of Americans believe in God. (I know, seems surprisingly high to me too.) Of that 90%, 67% believe in demonic possession. A higher percentage believe something supernatural might suddenly take over their body than the percentage who voted for the president. A nation divided indeed.
In 1999, the Catholic Church reported 208 cases of demonic possession in the United States. Last year, they reported 1118. That’s a 450% increase in just 13 years. This increase seemed pretty bizarre to us. After some research, we discovered that the Catholic Church has responded by creating an... unusual new institution. They now have programs for training exorcists. It sounds like something they would have started in 1600, but it’s actually quite recent: in 1999, they opened the Exorcist Society of America.
Before 1999, there were only three Pope-approved exorcists in the U.S. Today, there are 32. Why the sudden rise of alleged demonic possessions?
MALE VOICE: Most people mistakenly believe demonic possession and exorcism are exclusively of the Christian world. They aren’t.
NEWT (VO): This is Father Wilson. He teaches religious studies at Boston University, and is a priest at St. Mark’s in Dorchester.
FATHER WILSON: All the major religions contain this idea, that the devil can enter and possess a human host. You’ll find it in the texts of Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism.
NEWT: Sure. But the Christian Church is the one that’s built an industry on exorcism. There are private exorcists for hire who make millions.
FATHER WILSON: Not any different than televangelists. These people are charlatans. There have always been those who seek to profit from our weaknesses.
NEWT: Sure. Okay. So how do you explain the rise in actual cases? Cases of demonic possession?
FATHER WILSON: We live in an age where people, more and more, are turning away from the Church. They seek their own path, but without the guidance of the Church they fall to temptation and sin in higher numbers than ever before. The work of the devil is to get that foot in the door. He insinuates himself where he sees weakness. And as a people, we are weakening. The path of temptation leads to darkness, the occult, paganism.
NEWT: People have been turning away from the church pretty steadily since the middle of the twentieth century. I don’t think secularism alone explains this specific spike. For example, why didn’t the exorcism boom happen in the 70’s? Paganism and the occult were all over.
FATHER WILSON: That was when psychology was on the rise. Many victims of possession were mistakenly treated as psychology patients.
NEWT: (incredulous) Mistakenly?
FATHER WILSON: Sadly, yes.
NEWT: (clears throat) Tell me, Father, has there been an actual rise in possession cases? Or are there simply more exorcists, due to the new Church programs?
FATHER WILSON: Would there be a need for more exorcists if there weren’t more cases of possession?
(cut to different interview)
MALE VOICE, HEAVY BOSTON ACCENT: So is that what they’re sayin’?
NEWT (VO): I spoke with Dr. Brian Schmidt, a family psychologist in Cambridge. He’s forthright and easygoing, like a sweet uncle--until you get him talking about the Catholic Church.
NEWT: Apparently, cases of possession have jumped over 400% since 1999.
SCHMIDT: No--no. Let me tell you what’s goin' on. These people are sick. They have an issue that requires professional treatment. If you're “hearing voices,” and your church leadahs tell you that those voices are demonic possession, that is easiah--almost more romantic, in a way--to believe than the reality. That you’re sick, and that you need complex medical intervention.
NEWT: Well, the church invests a lot of resources in training these new exorcists. They seem pretty convinced that it’s working.
SCHMIDT: These people, in my experience, are usually suffering from a form of monomania or demonomania. And I include the church when I say “these people.”
NEWT: What’s demonomania?
SCHMIDT: When somebody is convinced they’re possessed by a demon. Receiving a rite of “exorcism” creates a placebo effect, making it seem, for a time, like they’re healed. But it does nothing to treat the undah-lying psychological condition. Ask the Church if they follow up on these so-called “successful” cases latah. I bet they don’t have data on their rate of recidivism.
NEWT (VO): Dr. Schmidt was right. They didn’t have any of that data available. We looked.
HERMANN: Newton, I think you’ll find this one intriguing. You expressed some interest in exorcism during the Coventry case, as I recall?
NEWT: (eager) Sure did.
NEWT (VO): Across the Charles River, I sat down with Dr. Gottlieb in his office at the Institute. He queued up a tape--an actual VHS tape, today. The label on it was simply August, 1993.
HERMANN: This is the exorcism of Vera Ruben.
(Exorcism audio plays. We hear a young girl screaming, but not with fear--with fury. The pitch is disturbing. There are sounds of thumps and creaks. Something rattles, maybe a chain. An adult male voice is audible, chanting, but his words are indistinct. Something crashes and breaks.)
NEWT: It really took four guys to hold her down?
HERMANN: Yes.
NEWT: Wow... Jesus.
(screaming continues in background)
NEWT (VO): So... It’s hard to describe what we were seeing. The girl, Vera Ruben, is on the bed in the middle of a room. The room is dark, I can’t really see anything in it but her and the bed. She’s thrashing and screaming. There are four men around the bed... trying to hold her down. Four tall, able-bodied adults. And they’re having a hard time holding down this child.
One man each is on her left leg, right leg, right arm, left arm. They’re putting all their weight on her. It’s barely enough.
(recorded screaming and chanting continue)
NEWT: Damn. This is pretty good. A pretty good fake, I mean. There’s no way this is real.
HERMANN: Just watch.
NEWT: Oh...
(Screaming gets louder. Something smashes.)
NEWT: Holy [expletive bleeped]. Oh my god!
NEWT (VO): Okay, so, for a second there, that little girl lifted those four men right off their feet. All four of them. With her arms and legs. Then she did it again.
(Vera Ruben screams get louder, more frantic. Priest chanting gets louder too, words garbled, inaudible. One last drawn-out scream, then we hear a crash. Screaming stops, echoing.)
(silence)
(sound of dripping)
(footsteps)
(pause)
PRIEST: (wearily) The demon is gone. The girl is safe.
(click--tape ends)
NEWT: Good god. That was crazy.
HERMANN: Convincing?
NEWT: Disturbingly. Especially those sounds coming out of her. (...) But, well, I guess they added those in post. And the special effects with the bed? It’s pretty well done.
HERMANN: (frankly) The girl was making those sounds.
NEWT: What? No way. Someone made that video with a computer. It wouldn’t even be that hard. I could do it. Take me an hour in Premiere. Boom. Done. Million-dollar prize, in the bag.
HERMANN: (slight laugh) No, no. It wasn’t edited.
NEWT: Hermann! How can you say that? Are you feeling well? Are you good? Hello? There’s no way you believe that was real.
HERMANN: It wasn’t real. I’m saying it wasn’t edited.
NEWT: And how do you know that?
HERMANN: ...Because I was the one filming it.
NEWT: (shocked) It--you? You were there?
HERMANN: I was behind the camera. I saw the whole thing from about seven feet away.
NEWT: Good god! But the whole thing was so...
HERMANN: (grimly) ...Convincing. I know. As soon as it got underway, I wished I had set up additional equipment.
NEWT: So...?
HERMANN: So?
NEWT: Do you think it might have been a real possession?
HERMANN: No. I do not. (sighs)
This was in 1993. I had just begun the Institute when I met Father Dirac. He’s the priest performing the exorcism in this video. I shadowed him on several exorcisms around New England; mostly, they were nonsense. These were people who needed psychological help. But this one was... different.
NEWT: How so?
HERMANN: To this day, I don’t know how they did it. As you saw, it was elaborate. But I wasn’t allowed to look around the bunker. I was hurried away and off the island before I had a chance to examine the room...
NEWT: Hang on, hang on. Island? What island?
HERMANN: This exorcism took place on Rainsford Island, in Boston Harbor.
NEWT: Oh. Okay. Um... Why?
HERMANN: I was given to understand it had some significance to the family. They had a connection to the building, Stone Hospital. It was disused by that point. Sort of a crumbling Greek-revival by the ocean.
NEWT: Sound extremely un-dramatic and un-creepy.
HERMANN: (sighing) It was certainly quite an atmosphere. They brought Father Dirac and me down to the basement, and then through a concrete tunnel, into this bunker.
NEWT: This didn’t seem strange to you?
HERMANN: The whole experience was strange.
NEWT: Mm.
(interlude music #2)
NEWT (VO): So what's it like, undergoing a church-sanctioned exorcism? I wanted to speak to someone who had experienced one.
YOUNG MAN’S VOICE: It happened when I was 16.
NEWT (VO): This is David. He asked that we only use his first name. A few years ago, he says, he was possessed by a demon.
NEWT: Can you tell us how it happened?
DAVID: Well, it started out pretty normal. I went over my buddy Jake’s house on a regular Friday. He was having a bonfire. There were other kids there, and this one girl I didn’t know, she had a ouija board. We sat around the picnic table and played it.
NEWT: (attentive) You think the demon came from the board?
DAVID: Well...
NEWT: Do you--um, was the board black?
DAVID: No. It was just paper. I think the girl made it herself.
NEWT: Oh. ... Go on. What happened with the board?
DAVID: Well we were talking with the ghost, asking like how it died, and where. Then the girl asked why it was talking to us, and the thing on the board went nuts and flew off. It landed in my lap. I was [expletive bleeped] terrified.
NEWT: So you think that ghost came out and possessed you?
DAVID: I don’t know. When I told the priest about this, he said I had left my mind open to something dangerous.
NEWT: The priest said that.
DAVID: Uh-huh.
NEWT: How long were you possessed?
DAVID: Eight months.
NEWT: Can you describe the experience?
DAVID: I don’t remember it very clearly. It’s hazy, like there’s a cloud over it. Almost like a dream.
NEWT: ...Have you ever been treated for depression, David?
DAVID: No. I’ve never been depressed.
NEWT: Do you remember the exorcism?
DAVID: ...No.
NEWT: How did it feel when you were... um, freed?
DAVID: Relieved. I felt happy again. Like that cloud had been lifted.
NEWT: And who was it who suggested you were possessed?
DAVID: It was my priest who finally figured it out. I’m on a much healthier path now.
(interlude music #1)
NEWT (VO): So as it turned out, Dr. Gottlieb’s friend Father Dirac was still around. He’s in his late seventies, living in a care home run by the Church in the Boston area. He agreed to speak with us about the exorcism.
Before we went, I did a bit of research into the island. There wasn’t much. Rainsford Island, known at other times as Quarantine Island or Pest House Island, is a tiny island in the protected Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. In its time, it has served as farmland, veterans hospital, reform school, resort, quarantine hospital, and unmarked burial ground for criminals and the diseased. No ferries run to the island--it’s only accessible by private boat, and by the countless ghosts that surely haunt the hell out of it.
Mako got to work finding us someone with a boat who was willing to sail in early December. In the meantime, Dr. Gottlieb and I went to visit Father Dirac.
NEWT: So you worked with Father Dirac for a while?
HERMANN: A year or two. He let me videotape the exorcisms as part of my research, as long as I didn’t release the tapes to the public.
NEWT: Huh.
HERMANN: But the exorcism of Vera Ruben changed things. For both of us. The Bishop of the Archdiocese tried to seize the tape from me, though of course he had no legal grounds. When I wouldn’t hand it over, the pressure fell on Father Dirac. He had to ‘let me go,’ so to speak. He didn’t hold it against me. He was busy with his own crusade by then.
NEWT: How do you mean?
HERMANN: As it turned out, this was his second time trying to exorcise Vera Ruben. At some point, it became personal for Father Dirac. He actually performed three more exorcisms on her over the next few years.
NEWT: Wow. Do you know why?
HERMANN: I never really understood it. I believe he thought God’s mission for him was to rid the world of this specific demon.
NEWT: Oh. Will he want to talk about it, after all this time?
HERMANN: (darkly) He likes talking about it.
NEWT (VO): We sat down with Father Dirac in his room at the care home. He’s pretty spry for a 70-year-old guy. Dr. G was right. He did like talking about it.
NEWT: So, I saw the tape of Vera Ruben’s exorcism.
FATHER DIRAC: (elderly, slight Boston twang) You kept it, Hermann?
HERMANN: Of course.
FATHER DIRAC: (to Newt) Are you a believer, my son?
NEWT: Call me... agnostic.
HERMANN: (quiet laugh)
FATHER DIRAC: You better watch out for this one. Hermann’s the skeptic extraordinaire. He can make you doubt anything. He’ll talk the moon right out of the sky.
NEWT: (laughs) He’ll sure try.
FATHER DIRAC: (chuckles)
NEWT: It was uh... sure something. That tape.
FATHER DIRAC: It certainly was, my son. That wasn’t the last time I came face-to-face with that demon.
NEWT: No, Dr. G told me you performed a few more exorcisms on the same girl...
(chair creaks)
FATHER DIRAC: (voice low) Not just her. There was another.
HERMANN: There was someone else?
FATHER DIRAC: We must be careful, and stay vigilant. He is everywhere. And he is watching.
NEWT: Who is?
HERMANN: Did anyone film that exorcism?
FATHER DIRAC: (confidential) He is...
HERMANN: (pressing) Father Dirac, when was the second case?
FATHER DIRAC: They wait, and they watch. They know when you’re looking for them... and they know when you’re at your weakest. They’ll take advantage. They don’t want to be found.
NEWT: What do you mean?
FATHER DIRAC: The watchers. And this watcher is special. He is crueler. Not as cruel as Satan, but it is he whom he serves.
NEWT: Who does?
HERMANN: Are you talking about the elemental?
NEWT: What’s that? I think I’ve heard you mention it.
HERMANN: It’s a myth.
FATHER DIRAC: It’s no myth.
NEWT (VO): Father Dirac’s demon sounded eerily familiar. More on that, and a trip on the high seas, after the break. But first, we had some listener mail. Stay with us.
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MAKO: So, as you know, we get a lot of messages from listeners.
NEWT: We sure do. (to the mic) You guys are freaks! We love it.
MAKO: (laughs) Right. Well, a lot are tips. Some of them are a bit out-there.
NEWT: Such as?
MAKO: Well, lately we’ve been getting messages from someone named George Smith. A lot of messages.
NEWT: Doesn’t sound like a fake name at all.
MAKO: Mm. Well he claims he’s an old friend of Justin McCall.
NEWT: Interesting. Justin McCall was Gottlieb’s old intern, right? The one who was obsessed with Il Sorriso Capovolto?
MAKO: That’s right.
NEWT: He died in a car accident.
MAKO: Well, Mr. Smith says he has information about his death. Information that apparently pertains to Dr. Gottlieb.
NEWT: Really?
MAKO: (grimly) Really. He wants to meet with you and Dr. Gottlieb.
NEWT: Huh. I guess we should check it out.
MAKO: (reluctantly) Yes, well, I set up a meeting. It’s in a public place.
NEWT: Alright.
MAKO: And I’ll frisk him before he goes in.
NEWT: (laughs) Always looking out for me, Mako.
MAKO: Someone has to.
(interlude music #1)
(interior café sounds--talking, clinking cups, street outside)
HERMANN: I don’t think Mr. Smith is coming.
NEWT: Maybe.
HERMANN: He’s almost an hour late. Why are you still recording?
NEWT: Just in case. Let’s give him, like, five more minutes.
HERMANN: As you wish. (pause) Do you... have plans for the weekend?
NEWT: Me?
HERMANN: Who else would I be talking to?
NEWT: Sorry, just. Coming out of left field, from you.
HERMANN: Are you unfamiliar with the concept of small talk?
NEWT: I didn’t think you were familiar with it. (laughs) I’m probably just working. You know me. Might go see the new Hobbit.
HERMANN: (disdainfully) Why?
NEWT: (laughs) Not a Peter Jackson fan?
HERMANN: Absolutely not. If--
(loud buzz--phone vibrating)
HERMANN: ...This is my office. Excuse me.
NEWT: Mhm.
(sound of chair as Hermann gets up, leaves the table)
(café sounds continue)
(Newt whistles absently)
(sound of chair)
NEWT: Uh. Someone’s sitting there.
MALE VOICE: (deep) Are they?
NEWT: ...Yes. (pause) Um, do I know you?
MAN: Maybe. Are you Newton Geiszler?
NEWT: Maybe. Are you... Are you George Smith?
MAN: ...Not what you were expecting?
NEWT: Not when I was expecting. You’re almost an hour late, dude.
MAN: I’m sorry. I’m here now.
NEWT: Well.
NEWT (VO): He was tall. He was wearing a suit. His hair was carefully coiffed, and his voice... well, you can hear it. And. What I’m... What I’m trying to say is--this guy was extremely handsome. Like, really good-looking. Like if Chris Hemsworth started going to Cary Grant’s hairdresser and also stole George Clooney’s eyebrows. This dude was unreal.
Not what I was expecting indeed.
MAN: So you’re here with Dr. Gottlieb.
NEWT: Per your request, yes. He’s right out front, with my producer. You must have walked right by them.
(beat)
NEWT: So what was it you wanted to tell us about Justin McCall?
MAN: Your little show has a lot of listeners, doesn’t it, Newton?
NEWT: (uncertainly) Well, I like to think so.
MAN: I’d mind what you share with them. People are more pliable than we realize.
NEWT: What’s that supposed to mean?
(chair moves)
NEWT: Hey, what are you doing with that?
MAN: Goodbye, Newton. Pleased to finally meet you.
NEWT: Hey!
(footsteps)
(other footsteps)
MAKO: Hey--is everything okay?
NEWT: Yeah, um, you guys just missed George. And let me just say, he was not what I was expecting.
HERMANN: What?
MAKO: Really?
NEWT: Yeah. He just left.
HERMANN: That’s impossible.
NEWT: Improbable, maybe, but it’s true. He sat down, said some weirdly cryptic stuff, and then he--uh?--stole your coffee, Dr. G, and walked out.
HERMANN: No. Newton. I just got off the phone with my office. George Smith is sitting in my waiting room. Someone called and told him to come see me. He’s never heard of The Black Tapes Podcast.
NEWT: What? Seriously?
HERMANN: It’s true. I just got off the phone with him.
NEWT: But... I thought it was him... (uncertain) Come to think of it, I don’t think he actually said his name was George.
NEWT (VO): Mako pulled up a picture of the real George Smith on her phone.
NEWT: (laughs) Oh--yeah, no.
MAKO: Not him?
NEWT: No, no. Definitely not. The guy who talked to me can only be described as like... outrageously hot.
HERMANN: Only?
NEWT: Seriously. This picture is like, nerdy Quentin Tarantino. My guy was like sexy Danny Ocean. But scary. Scary, sexy Danny Ocean.
HERMANN: Hmm.
MAKO: So what did Evil Danny Ocean say?
NEWT: Not evil. Scary-sexy. He didn’t say much, but I got it all on tape.
MAKO: And he... took Dr. G’s coffee cup?
NEWT: Yeah. Took it and walked out. It was bizarre.
NEWT (VO): We still have yet to identify this coffee-stealing impostor. In the meantime, Mako found us a seaworthy vessel and a captain. That weekend, we took a trip out on the harbor on The Lady of Shalott.
(interlude music #1)
As most of the ship captains and boat owners and Coast Guard officers we contacted told us, December is a pretty sub-optimal time to take a boat into the Harbor. They weren’t lying. It was a turbulent, bone-cold journey from Hull to Rainsford Island. The harbor did not want us out there. Our captain, unseasonably chipper, spent much of the trip telling us how they had built the boat themself.
But we made it to the island in one cold, wet piece. Mother Nature works hard, but the WGBH Podcast Network works harder.
When Dr. G set the scene, I had pictured a sort of Shutter Island type of deal. But his last visit was almost 20 years ago. The sea and the wind had done a lot of reclamation in that time. "Greek-revival" the abandoned hospital might once have been; now it was barely a shell. We walked up the rocky slope, over the frozen rise, and up to the hospital.
(sound of waves, howling wind)
NEWT: (loudly, over wind) You weren’t kidding about the atmosphere.
HERMANN: (loudly) No.
NEWT: This thing is barely a skeleton.
HERMANN: In your estimation, does that make it more, or less haunted?
NEWT: (laughs)
HERMANN: Honestly, Newton, I’m not sure what you expect to find here.
NEWT: I’m not sure either. But we came a long way for it. Let’s find that bunker.
NEWT (VO): Dr. G had a pretty good memory of the layout of the hospital, and was able to find the steps down to the pit that used to be the cellar. The cellar was full of debris, but with some luck, we found the bulkhead. It didn't look like anyone had opened it since that day in 1993.
But it wasn’t locked.
(wind, distant waves)
NEWT: After you?
HERMANN: I insist.
NEWT: Smart. Whatever’s in there will eat me first.
(loud, metallic creak as Newt opens door)
HERMANN: You know what they say.
NEWT: (voice echoing inside the tunnel entrance) What do they say?
HERMANN: Women, children, and journalists first.
NEWT: (laughs--it echoes in the tunnel) Come on in. The water--and by water I mean completely frozen, completely creepy tunnel--is fine.
(Wind fades. Two pairs of footsteps plus cane clicks echo down a narrow concrete hallway. Sound of water dripping in the distance.)
NEWT: (hushed) Is it far?
HERMANN: Not as I recall. There--that should be the door.
NEWT: Sweet. It’s unlocked.
(sound of metal handle, creaking door)
(footsteps echo wider as they step into a larger space)
NEWT: ...Whoa.
NEWT (VO): The door at the end of the hallway opened into a long, dimly lit room. It had barred windows near the ceiling, where some light filtered in, along with the rain and snow from outside. The floor was wet--in some places the puddles looked a few inches deep. It was empty now, but it looked like it might have been used for storage, originally.
But there was something else. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust, but when they did...
(Drip, drip, drip of water. Wind howling outside.)
NEWT: (quietly, but echoing) Hermann?
HERMANN: Yes?
NEWT: What are those symbols?
NEWT (VO): I pointed my flashlight at the far wall. It barely reached. Neither of us had stepped out of the doorway. There was something that kept us from crossing that threshold.
HERMANN: What sym... oh.
NEWT: Yeah. Do those look familiar to you?
HERMANN: They weren’t here in 1993, if that’s what you’re asking.
NEWT: No, no. I mean, do they look like the ones from the cabin?
HERMANN: ...I’d have to take a closer look.
(Hermann starts walking)
NEWT: (whispering) Hermann!
(annoyed sound from Newt, then footsteps as he hurries after Hermann)
NEWT: This bunker doesn’t freak you out?
(sound of their footsteps through shallow water, echoing)
HERMANN: There’s nothing to be nervous about. Not a soul has set foot in this building in decades.
NEWT: Somehow, not reassuring.
HERMANN: Strange. I seem to remember a horror movie buff who was profiling me for the past six months. What ever happened to him?
NEWT: Sure, I like watching them. But do I look like I would survive one?
HERMANN: (laughs)
(footsteps stop)
(beat)
NEWT: So? Are the symbols the same?
HERMANN: May I? Thank you. (...) No. These symbols and shapes contain some sacred geometry. But there are unrelated symbols as well. For example, this is the sign of Tiamat.
NEWT: That wasn’t in the cabin?
HERMANN: Not as I recall.
NEWT: What about that?
HERMANN: Which?
NEWT: That. Isn’t that the same symbol from the cabin, and the demon board? Pentagram, double circle?
HERMANN: Yes... so it is.
NEWT: What does it represent?
HERMANN: I’m not exactly certain. I’ll have to look into it.
NEWT (VO): I took some pictures, which Dr. G promised to send to his mathematical friend for a second opinion. Then we left the bunker and rode the boat back to the mainland.
It was a pretty fascinating visit. Compared with everywhere we’d been so far, that island was by far the most hauntable. Even though it was freaky--that tunnel especially--I was into it. But I didn’t know what I’d do if the tapes keep ratcheting up the haunt factor. I wasn’t sure how much higher I could go.
I wiped away tears from the frigid wind and watched Rainsford Island get smaller and smaller on the horizon. As we got farther, I felt a weird tension in ease in my stomach. I hadn’t even known it was there. There was something about that place, all right.
I looked over at Hermann. He was up at the bow, looking at the horizon--trying to keep from getting seasick, I think. He looked troubled. When I looked back at the horizon where the island had been, it was gone.
(interlude music #3)
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NEWT (VO): The island visit gave me a lot to think about. Mako and I couldn’t find any reliable historical documentation that explained why an exorcism would have taken place there. So we turned to an earlier source.
NEWT: Hello Father? It’s Newt Geiszler from the radio show.
FATHER DIRAC: (muffled through phone) Oh, Hermann’s friend. Good to hear from you, son.
NEWT (VO): I called Father Dirac at the care home. He was kind enough to chat.
NEWT: So we went to the island. We visited the bunker where you performed the exorcism of Vera Ruben.
FATHER DIRAC: Oh, yes. Of course.
NEWT: Well, the walls were covered with symbols. Hermann said they were sacred geometry. Some of them looked pretty satanic. Do you know anything about those?
FATHER DIRAC: Well, I’d have to see them for myself to really be sure...
NEWT: So they weren’t there when you performed your exorcism?
FATHER DIRAC: No, no.
NEWT: There was a pentagram with a double circle around it. Are you familiar with that symbol? Hermann also mentioned something called the sign of Tiamat. Plus the sacred geometry--they’re equations, as I understand them.
FATHER DIRAC: Ah.
NEWT: Do you have any idea why someone would draw these?
FATHER DIRAC: The end of days, of course.
NEWT: Uh--sorry?
FATHER DIRAC: I’d have to see them to be sure, of course. But your description sounds like a ceremony to bring on the end of days.
NEWT: Oh. Father, you say it so matter-of-factly!
FATHER DIRAC: Yes, I’m familiar with this ritual. Nothing more than a myth, of course. Quite apocryphal. Have you heard of the Ceonophus?
NEWT: No, I haven’t. What’s the Ceonophus?
FATHER DIRAC: It’s a book. A book of incantations. It’s a bastardized Bible... You see, in the first millennium, most people were convinced the end of days was coming in the year 1000. The rumblings of apocalypse were all around. Everyone prepared for judgment day. Then the year 1000 passed... and nothing happened. Then they waited for 1033, the millennium of the death of Christ. Still nothing. The world went on. The Antichrist did not appear.
Some people had staked a lot on that. Not for the right reasons. After others moved on, they kept waiting. It’s around this time that the Ceonophus was written.
NEWT: That’s fascinating. What sort of incantations did that book have?
FATHER DIRAC: Supplications.
NEWT: Sorry?
FATHER DIRAC: Invocations. Appeals to the elemental, to come to the speaker.
NEWT: The elemental. You mentioned that before. What is that?
FATHER DIRAC: A very ancient demon. I’ve encountered it myself. You saw the tape.
NEWT: That was it?
FATHER DIRAC: Yes. The Griogori.
NEWT: The Griogori...
NEWT (VO) There it was--that name again. I suddenly felt something coming. Like the Father was, without knowing it, nocking an arrow and drawing the string.
FATHER DIRAC: Yes. It’s like I told you, son. He is watching.
NEWT: Can--(clears throat) Can you tell me why you performed this exorcism in that bunker? Instead of in a church?
FATHER DIRAC: It was a church.
NEWT: (startled) Pardon?
FATHER DIRAC: That’s no bunker. That’s a church.
NEWT: (agitated) We--we researched out the building records on that island. There’s no record of anyone building a church.
FATHER DIRAC: My son, there are many types of worship.
(interlude music #1)
NEWT (VO): I arranged to bring the Father the photos we took in the bunker. I was supposed to visit him at the care home the next day. When I arrived at the home, I was informed that Father Dirac had been moved. The administration said it was a matter of privacy. They would not give me his new address.
The Catholic Church runs the home where he lived. Did they whisk him away so he couldn’t talk to us? If so, why?
When the Father said that bunker was a church... Something clicked. It was like--it was like I was a bear wandering through the woods, hunting and scavenging for food. Suddenly, I looked down and my foot was in a trap. For a second I didn’t know what was coming--I just knew something was coming. And then it snapped shut.
How could I have not seen it?
I asked Dr. Gottlieb to meet me at the studio. I played him the phone interview with Father Dirac.
NEWT: So?
HERMANN: Yes?
NEWT: You don’t think that’s... interesting?
HERMANN: I think it’s interesting that he was so suddenly moved. The Church may be trying to suppress something that he knows. I wonder if they overheard us talking about the other exorcism.
NEWT: Okay--yeah. Maybe. But what about what he actually said? He said the bunker was a church. Like the cabin.
HERMANN: I’m not sure what to make of that. I don’t really see why you’re accepting the testimony of an old, unstable man at face value.
NEWT: (pause) Okay, but...
HERMANN: Additionally, Newton, I did not say that cabin was a church. I said it might have been, or that it was being used as one by Tessa Hall’s abductor.
NEWT: (...)
HERMANN: What was it you found so interesting?
NEWT: The Griogori. Doesn’t that sound familiar?
HERMANN: The same as the demon supposedly possessing Zilpha Foster. Yes.
NEWT: And in the cabin, you said the shadowy shape was the Griogori.
HERMANN: I said it could have been.
NEWT: Hermann.
HERMANN: What?
NEWT: (slowly) I have to ask... Your black tapes. They aren’t just an arbitrary collection of unsolvable videos.
HERMANN: (...)
NEWT: Hermann... Are the black tapes all connected?
HERMANN: (...)
NEWT (VO): I finally, suddenly felt like I was seeing the big picture I hadn’t even known was there. It was exhilarating. And terrifying. Was everything, somehow, impossibly connected? Did Dr. Gottlieb know?
NEWT: Hermann. Are they?
HERMANN: ...What makes you suggest that?
NEWT: Um, like, everything? Is it not obvious? The Griogori possessing several people over a hundred years? The pentagram in the double circle, appearing in the bunker and the cabin and the demon board? The demon from the experiment having an upside-down face like the one in the painting? The shadow following the Halls? How could you not see it?
HERMANN: (exasperated) Newton...
NEWT: What?!
HERMANN: Let’s isolate each of these “connections,” as you call them. An upside-down face is something that naturally horrifies us. It’s viscerally upsetting. It’s natural that such a nightmare image would recur throughout human history. And a gap of 700 years hardly makes for a coincidence.
NEWT: (...)
HERMANN: As for that symbol, I am still looking into it. It is a satanic symbol; its history is unclear to me, as yet. But we have no evidence it represents one particular organization or interest.
NEWT: (tightly) What about the Griogori?
HERMANN: Newton. Even if it were not coincidence, where would that leave us? Let’s say there is some group, say, a doomsday cult, actively seeking to bring this particular demon into the world. Perhaps their symbol is this concentric-circle pentagram. What does that give us? Nothing. Proof of nothing. Their efforts will be futile. Because there is no such thing as demons.
NEWT: (...)
HERMANN: (...)
NEWT: I think you’re avoiding the question, Hermann.
HERMANN: What question? I’ve just answered it. The connections are spurious. Your mind is seeking a pattern where there isn’t one.
NEWT: (with irony) ...Pareidolia?
HERMANN: (matching irony) As you say. (...) Honestly, Newton. I appreciate your open-mindedness, as a journalist. But it is possible to be too open. Your skepticism is one of your most valuable critical tools. Keep it sharp.
NEWT: ...I don’t know.
HERMANN: About?
NEWT: I think I have a sharp skepticism. It’s just pointed in a direction you don’t approve of.
HERMANN: Which is?
NEWT: Towards you.
HERMANN: ...You don’t believe me.
NEWT: I think you’re dodging my question. Are the black tapes connected?
HERMANN: (clears throat) No.
(tense pause)
HERMANN: (curtly) Is there something else you’d like to ask, Newton?
NEWT: (frustrated) Don’t you trust me, Hermann? After all this time?
HERMANN: No--it isn’t that.
NEWT: Then what? What do I have to--
(knocking on door)
MAKO: (muffled) Newt? Dr. Gottlieb?
NEWT: (loudly) Yeah?
(door opens)
MAKO: I’m sorry to barge in. I just got a call from Ms. Smoot at the post office in Florida. She--well, she saw Vanessa.
NEWT: What?
HERMANN: (...)
MAKO: She said she came in and got her mail--I’ll play you the message, hold on--
NEWT: What? How did she look? Did she say anything? Did she get any letters? What kind of car--
MAKO: ...Dr. G? Are you...?
HERMANN: (low) Excuse me.
NEWT: Hermann?
(sound of chair moving, someone hurrying out of the room)
NEWT: Wait! Hermann, wait! Hey!
(sound of chair, Newt scrambling after)
(door closes)
--------- ⏹ Stop ---------
(running footsteps, echoing down a hallway)
NEWT: Hermann! Wait!
(second pair of footsteps, hurried, with cane clicks)
(all footsteps stop)
(sound of a door handle, then a thump)
NEWT: (breathless) Hang on. Please.
HERMANN: (also breathless) Newton, let go of the door.
NEWT: Where are you going?
HERMANN: (voice low) Where do you think? I’m going to find my wife.
NEWT: (still breathless) You seriously--think you can just--answer none of my questions--and then run off? And not expect me to--?
HERMANN: Newton, please. I have to go.
NEWT: Hermann!
HERMANN: (...)
NEWT: (...)
HERMANN: (more gently) What? What is it?
NEWT: (quietly) I don’t know. I just have the--the feeling that once you walk out this door I’m not going to see you again. At least not until you--until you find Vanessa.
HERMANN: (pause) Newton...
NEWT: Please, just tell me one th--
(Newt breaks off)
(muffled, unclear noise)
(sound of inhale)
(thump)
(squeak of shoe)
(soft gasp)
HERMANN: (murmur) Goodbye, Newton.
(door opens)
NEWT: Wh...
(footsteps with cane recede)
(door slams shut)
(Newt exhales loudly)
NEWT: (whisper) Oh, god.
--------- ⏺ Rec ---------
NEWT (VO): And just like that, he was gone.
(interlude music #3)
But that wasn’t the last surprise waiting for us.
MAKO: I know you’re worried, but you can’t do anything at this point.
NEWT: I know.
MAKO: We just have to wait, Newt.
(knock on door)
MAKO: Come in! (door opens) Oh, hey, Shelby. What’s up?
SHELBY: There’s a delivery guy out here. He, like, really wants a signature.
MAKO: You can sign, Shelby. It’s just a proof of receipt.
SHELBY: No... The package is for you guys. He said it had to be one of you. He’s, uh. Insisting.
MAKO: Okay. I’ll be right there.
(sound of Mako standing up, walking out)
(door closes)
(pause)
(door opens)
NEWT: What did you get?
MAKO: (slowly) Don’t know. I don’t remember ordering a... tube.
NEWT: (sharply) A what?
MAKO: Yeah...
NEWT: Who delivered it? Is he still out there?
MAKO: I don’t know--
NEWT: (yelling) Shelby! Don’t let that guy go!
(thumping footsteps as Newt runs out of the room)
(door slams)
(silence)
(...)
NEWT (VO): I wasn’t able to catch the delivery guy. We got a picture of him on the CCTV, but it’s blurry. He isn’t in uniform. Before you ask, no--it wasn’t Sexy George Clooney from the café.
(outro music begins)
So, I know what you’re wondering. Is Vanessa really alive? What did Father Dirac know? Who drew those symbols in the bunker-church? What did Sexy George Clooney want? Was he threatening us? Where is Tomás Hawking? Who kidnapped Tessa Hall? Why?
Are the black tape cases all connected?
Who sent us that package? What was in it?
...Was it a painting?
(outro music continues)
It was a painting. You’ll have to wait for our next episode to find out which.
We’ll answer that, and, lord willing, the rest of these questions, in our next season. Stay tuned to the feed. We’ll have more updates as soon as we possibly can.
Trust me--as badly as these questions are tearing you up, it’s 20 times worse on this end. They keep me up at night. I swear to you, we are doing our best to find the truth.
You’ll just have to trust us a little longer.
This is the Black Tapes Podcast, and this is Newt Geiszler... signing off. See you next season.
(music fades out)
⏺ Rec