The Witching Hour
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Hey Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Today's podcast will feature two stories about people who had sinister intentions. The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description.

The first story you'll hear is called "LaWanna the Bloodthirster" and it's about a horrifying ritual that led to a supposed curse. And the second and final story you'll hear is called "The Witching Hour" and it's about a group of people in Illinois who kill on demand. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.

So, if that's of interest to you, when the Amazon Music follow button has just finished raking up all of their fallen leaves in their yard, break out your leaf blower and obliterate all of their piles. Okay, let's get into our first story called Lawana the Bloodthirster. Are you holding back on foreign travel plans this year because you're afraid of the language gap?

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In 1909, Luana Constantinescu was a 27-year-old woman living in the Romanian city of Timisoara. Luana was a devout practitioner of Zoroastrianism, which is one of the world's oldest organized religions that began in ancient Persia and is now practiced primarily in East Asia.

In the city that Luana was living in, it was majority Christian, and they looked at Zoroastrians as witches. As such, Luana was persecuted and ostracized primarily by these two Christian ministers that spread a rumor that she was drinking the blood of local children and that she worshipped Satan.

That rumor would spread and grow to the point where everybody knew Lawana as like the singular witch of all the Zoroastrians in the city and it ultimately incited this angry Christian mob to storm her house on October 21st, 1909 and rip her into the streets and savagely beat her to within an inch of her life.

She would survive this lynching and she would be taken to a hospital where she'd be treated for severe blunt force injuries and lacerations. But after two days of being in the hospital when she had not made a full recovery at all, she checked herself out and headed home.

The next day, Luana was found dead in her apartment and her family and friends initially believed that she had died as a result of the injuries she had sustained from the angry mob and that perhaps she had checked herself out of the hospital too soon and untreated, that's why she must have passed away early. But when the authorities arrived at her house and began looking at the scene, it did not look like she had died as a result of those injuries. It looked more like some sort of ritual suicide.

She was laying on this sofa with her arms over her chest. Next to the sofa was an altar that was adorned with strange occult symbols and ritual herbs and effigies. And on the altar was this goblet with deep dark red stains on the inside. When they looked at Lawana, even though she was fully dressed, underneath her sleeves were all these cuts on her arms and there were cuts on her legs as well.

After her autopsy, the medical examiner said she had died from a combination of blood loss and internal shock from ingesting massive quantities of blood that triggered cardiac arrest. Luana had been draining her own blood into the sacramental goblet, drinking it, and then doing it over and over again until she died. Locals believed that that was not just a ritual suicide, but rather she was placing a curse on her enemies.

Almost immediately following her death, those two Christian ministers that had spread those rumors about her that led to the mob coming and attacking her, they both died of an extremely rare blood-borne illness. And then immediately following their demise, the two primary vigilantes that actually organized that mob that would attack Luana, they both died. One was hit by a falling tree and another died in a fire.

And according to more recent accounts, Luana's curse didn't end with the death of her tormentors. There have been dozens of reports of people after seeing an image, which is of Luana after she was discovered by authorities in her home, that they will have bouts of extreme sleep paralysis. These are people that have never had sleep paralysis before, that this picture somehow induces sleep paralysis in them, like they're cursed by Luana.

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On March 26th, it's all about the legendary Mary J. Blige bringing soul and power to the stage. And don't miss pop sensation Kylie Minogue on April 8th. Tickets are going fast. Secure yours now at CapitalOneArena.com. The next and final story of today's episode is called The Witching Hour. Just before midnight on August 22nd, 2005, 38-year-old Rick Eck knocked on the front door of an apartment in the tiny Midwestern farm town of Claremont, Illinois.

As Rick waited for the door to open, he could barely stand still because he was so excited about what he was going to be doing that night. Finally, the door swung open and Rick saw right in front of him this very skinny and gaunt looking woman with dark hair and dark eyes staring back at him.

Her name was Irenia Cotner, and she was 34 years old. And by day, she worked at Walmart, but at night, she became the real version of herself. She was a witch who actually led a group of witches known as a coven that Rick was a part of.

Without saying anything, Irenia motioned for Rick to follow her into her apartment, and then Irenia turned and began walking away. And Rick, before stepping over the threshold, he paused for a moment and just turned to the guy he had brought with him, a tall, muscular man named David Lindner. And Rick, he just kind of nodded at David, and David nodded back, and then the two of them walked inside. As Rick and David followed Irenia into her apartment, Rick still could barely contain his excitement.

He had only joined this coven recently, about a year and a half ago, and so witchcraft, which is something they were going to be doing that night, was kind of new to him, but it was very exciting. Rick had been inspired to become a witch and join this coven after watching the Harry Potter movies, and so he was hopeful that tonight would go something like Harry Potter.

And Rick knew David, the guy he had brought along, was this very powerful warlock, which is a male witch. And so he figured, you know, if David's here, this is bound to go to plan. Rick just hoped he'd be able to keep up with David or at least play some sort of meaningful support role.

Irenia eventually led Rick and David down this dark hallway to this small living room where in the middle of the floor was a ring of lit candles. And as soon as Rick and David stepped into the room with Irenia, they were hit with this powerful smell of incense that had been burning in the room. And also there was all this smoke hovering in the air from the various things that Irenia had been burning in preparation for tonight's event.

Rick, David, and Irina walked quietly into the middle of this circle of candles, and they sat down cross-legged in a circle facing each other, and then they got ready to begin. Life in the town of Claremont was normally very quiet and peaceful. I mean, this is a town that literally has more cornfields than people, and Claremont was over a hundred miles away from the nearest city. But beneath the calm exterior, Claremont had a dark side.

Amongst the 200 or so residents of Claremont were several very dark witches. Not this coven, not Irenia, Rick, and David. They were the good guys. The dark witches, they were kind of out and about in this town and doing bad things like practicing evil magic and evil witchcraft. And so this coven led by Irenia was actually in place to try to combat these evil witches in their midst.

And tonight, Rick, David, and Irenia were going to attempt to perform their most ambitious and important magic yet. The coven was going to attempt to break a powerful hex, which is kind of like a curse. And this hex was cast by a person who might very well be the worst of all the dark witches in Claremont, a 16-year-old girl named Lindsay Kassinger.

As Rick sat cross-legged in the middle of the circle, he found himself staring at the two slightly bigger candles that sat in the dead center of the circle, that were basically right between Rick, David, and Irina. And David, as he stared at these two candles, he saw etched in each of the candles' bodies were words. On one candle, it said, "'Lindsay,' and on the other candle, it was etched, "'Baby.'"

Because, it would turn out, this very evil dark witch, Lindsay, was pregnant. And so instead of having to combat one dark soul, the coven would have to combat two. Because Lindsay and her baby were kind of intertwined.

Now, before this night, the coven had attempted several times to try to break this hex that Lindsay had cast. And the coven believed, initially, this hex was actually cast directly at Irenia. Because Irenia was suffering from things like depression and anxiety and not finding love. And so, of course, that had to be a product of this curse.

And as the coven had continued to try and fail at breaking this hex, the hex had only become more powerful and begun to spread. From Irenia to other witches in this coven who actually were not present this particular night, including a 20-year-old woman who began complaining of depression and ever-worsening headaches, which of course had to be because of this hex.

And so that was why, on this night, the Coven had decided to really beef up their attack on this hex. And so that was why Rick had gone out and brought in David, the experienced warlock from St. Louis, Missouri, who claimed he had broken a hex before and he could do it again for them. As Rick, Irenia, and Dave all sat in the circle, they looked at each other, and then they began chanting in unison to bring out the dead, to join them in the living room right now.

And as they began this chant, Rick found himself intensely staring at those two candles with Lindsay and Baby on them. And as he stared at the flames dancing across the top of them, Rick started to feel like he was kind of drifting off into a trance-like state. And he knew that based on his prior teachings from Irenia, the leader of this coven, that this must be what it feels like when the spirit world opens up, which means the dead really were coming into the room.

And then, as Rick is kind of dealing with this trance-like state, he heard Irenia begin to talk. But it wasn't her normal voice. It was the slow and deep sounding voice, almost like something had inhabited her body and taken it over and was now speaking through her mouth. And Irenia, in this kind of slow and strange voice, she would tell Rick and David that the curse is still growing. And then she would say something that totally caught Rick by surprise.

She said, again in that slow, strange voice, that the hex now was also on Rick and his entire family, and if they didn't break this hex immediately, Rick and his family would all perish. And when Rick heard this, you know, he's still in this trance-like state, but his heart began racing because he didn't know this hex could potentially affect his loved ones, and so this was a really big deal. They needed to end this hex tonight.

Rick listened intently as Irenia began to say in this strange voice what their plan was for that night to break this hex. Basically, Rick and David were going to perform a sacred ritual, and Irenia, she began to say to the spirits in the room that Rick and David, they were ready, but they needed help.

And so after she said this, she went quiet, and so too did Rick and David, and they're all just sitting there kind of waiting for something to happen. And then after about a minute of just total silence, Irenia began to speak again, still in this strange, slow, bizarre voice, but Rick and David knew now it was a different voice coming out of her. Now Irenia was speaking on behalf of the spirit world that was in the room with them.

And Irenia, she would say in this voice, "I grant you five demons to help you on your quest to break this hex." And then after saying this, Irenia, she opened her eyes and she looked kind of confused for a moment and then she kind of got her bearings and she looked at David and Rick and she told them, now in her normal voice, that they had to perform this sacred ritual before the two candles in the middle with Lindsay and Baby etched on them burned out.

And so basically, Rick and David, they needed to get this done tonight. Then, Irenia handed David a sacred tool that would be used that night in this sacred ritual that David and Rick were going to complete. And then, Rick and David, they would stand up to leave, and before they left, Irenia would give them the typical witch send-off, which was, "'Blessed be.'"

And then Rick and David, they nodded their heads, they turned and walked out of the apartment, and as soon as they were out into the night, Rick could have sworn he saw dark shadows moving around all over the place. And he knew right then and there that he and David would be safe that night, because clearly, the shadows moving around had to be those five demons that Irenia had called forth from the spirit world to protect them this night.

and so feeling very safe and empowered rick and david went straight into rick's car rick turned it on and pulled away from the curb and began heading towards their destination a few miles away at the house where the 16 year old evil witch lindsey cassinger lived a 20 year old army private named joshua bennett was sitting at the kitchen table in lindsey's house eating chicken wings and just kind of enjoying his night

Josh didn't know Lindsay very well, but he wasn't at her house to see Lindsay. He was at her house to see his own mother. And Josh and his mother had a lot of catching up to do. She had abandoned him and his father when he was young, and so Josh's dad had raised him. And then when Josh was old enough, he had joined the military, and now he was about to deploy to the Middle East to go to war. But unexpectedly, Josh's father had died, and so Josh had come back to Illinois for the funeral,

And it was at the funeral where he saw his mother. She was in attendance as well. And, you know, even though he was upset with his mother for abandoning him, he felt like, you know what, I want to reconnect with her. And so he'd gone over and he'd given her a hug. And his mother had been so touched that she had asked Josh to come by her house in Claremont, Illinois, where she lived with her boyfriend, because she really wanted some alone time to actually hear about Josh's life and kind of, you know, get back together again.

And so, of course, Josh had said yes. And so here he was at this house in Claremont. Now, Josh had arrived at this house a little bit earlier, and he was surprised to discover that it was not just his mother and her boyfriend living there, but also his mother's boyfriend's son, whose name was Jackie, was also living there, along with his pregnant girlfriend, the evil witch, Lindsay Kassinger.

But Josh didn't really mind that there was extra people. It was just maybe a little bit confusing that this was kind of a big roommate situation. But it seemed like Jackie and his girlfriend Lindsay were very nice people, and they quickly went downstairs to the apartment in the basement and kind of just stayed out of the way so Josh and his mother could catch up.

and so after josh finished eating his wings his mother came into the kitchen and the two of them chatted for hours and then finally at about midnight that night josh decided to go to bed so he said good night to his mom he retreated to the bedroom and he laid in bed

But he couldn't really sleep right away because he had a lot going on in his life. I mean, he had just lost his dad a couple of weeks ago. And then at the same time, he had reconnected with his estranged mother. And he's about to deploy to Iraq, to a war zone. And, you know, he felt ready for that. But at the same time, he was kind of apprehensive. You know, it's about to happen. You know, I hope I'll be able to do my job. And so with all these kind of intense thoughts swirling around his head, he just kind of laid there and didn't really expect to sleep anytime soon.

But eventually, Josh did fall asleep. However, it felt like he had only been asleep for a couple of minutes when he was abruptly woken up by the sound of barking coming out from the kitchen. Jackie's dog was going crazy. And so Josh grabbed his phone and he checked the time and saw it was three in the morning. And so instead of going out there and dealing with this dog, he just thought, you know what, it's going to stop eventually. And so Josh grabbed his pillow and he put it over his head and tried to muffle the sounds so he could fall back asleep.

But it didn't work. The dog just kept on barking. And then when Josh took the pillow off his head and kind of sat up wondering what he should do about this dog situation, he heard the sound of a man's voice, a stranger's voice, saying, I bring you forth from the dark. And then after Josh heard this, he heard the sound of a woman screaming and it sounded like his mom.

and so acting on instinct josh leapt from his bed he ran out of the room and he goes into the kitchen and he sees the dog is jumping and barking and going mad and his mom is screaming and there's this guy grabbing her kind of grappling with her who's wearing black gloves and a ski mask and there's another guy next to him with the same getup it's absolute chaos but before josh could run over and save his mother suddenly his chest felt like it was on fire and

and then he went blind and his eyes had this burning pain in them and then he couldn't breathe and he was stumbling backwards barely able to stand minutes later rick who was one of the witches from the coven bolted out of the front door of lindsay's house where all this chaos was happening and he just took off running across the street directly into a cornfield and as he ran he felt this throbbing pain in his leg and he could feel blood pooling in his shoe

Rick ran until he couldn't run any farther, and then he collapsed onto the ground, and then he began thinking about what an absolute disaster it had been inside of the evil witch's house. Not only had they failed to break the hex cast by Lindsay, but also Rick was concerned that David, his partner who was still at the house, was dead.

and ricky began looking around wildly hoping all those demons that were sent to help them from the spirit world he was hoping they'd be nearby and they'd know what to do but rick looked around and there was no one so rick thought for a second oh my gosh lindsay's hex must be stronger than any of us realize you know we have to do something now we have to end this before me and my family get killed too

And so Rick pulled out his phone and he called Irenia, the leader of the coven, to get her advice about what they should do next. But Irenia didn't respond to what Rick was saying the way he expected her to. Instead, she seemed very cold and almost enraged at what he was saying. And then before Rick could kind of figure out what was going on with Irenia, he heard off in the distance the sound of sirens making their way to the evil witch's house.

Over the next few days, police detectives would speak to everyone inside of Irenia's coven, as well as everyone who knew both Irenia and Lindsay. And slowly but surely, the police would put together what actually happened inside of Lindsay, the evil witch's house, in the early morning hours of August 23rd, 2005.

At about 3 a.m. on August 23rd, 2005, Rick and David pulled up onto Lindsay Street and they parked their car a little ways away from Lindsay's house. Then after parking, Rick and David donned their ski masks and their gloves. And then after looking at each other and nodding, they hopped out and began walking towards Lindsay's house.

Their plan was to sneak in through one of Lindsay's windows and confront Lindsay the evil witch directly and break the hex by performing a sacred ritual. And then after this ritual was over, they had a second ritual they would need to perform that would send Lindsay's evil soul through the gates of hell. And to do that, they needed the help of the five demons that had been sent along by Irenia from the spirit world.

Now, Rick and David felt like this was a great plan. However, as soon as they got to Lindsay's house and David actually began trying to climb into one of the windows, everything fell apart.

First, the dog began to bark inside of Lindsay's house, and that alerted Josh's mother, who came into the kitchen and sees the dog and sees David falling through the window. And Rick, who didn't really know what was happening inside the house, he just climbed through the window after David, and when he stood up in the kitchen, he realized it was too late. They were totally caught. And so Rick, not really knowing what to do, he's seeing all this yelling and chaos happening. He looks over at David, and he sees David grab something from his belt, and he pulls it out. And it

And it was the tool that Irenia had given them when they left her apartment to go carry out the sacred ritual. This tool was part of that sacred ritual. And it was a long, sharp knife. And what they were going to do is stab the evil witch, Lindsay Kassinger, to death with it. That was how they were going to break the hex. And then after they killed Lindsay, they were going to perform this weird ritual with her clothing that would send her soul through the gates of hell.

Now, Rick did understand that this was the plan, they were going to murder Lindsay, but perhaps he didn't really know how serious David was about carrying it out. Or the fact that David was not really a warlock, as much as he was a violent criminal who had bragged to Irenia about previously murdering someone who had cast a separate hex, and so by killing this person, that was how David had broken the hex previously.

Also, Rick may not have known that David had been instructed by Irenia to not let anything stand in their way to break this hex, to carry out this sacred ritual on Lindsay. And so Rick just watched as David raised the knife and began stabbing Josh's mother over and over again in the chest while screaming, "'I bring you forth from the dark!'

And it was at this point that Josh, the army private who heard all this happening, came charging out in his underwear into the kitchen. And Rick watched as David went from stabbing Josh's mother to turning and immediately stabbing Josh directly in the chest. And Rick, at this point, he just jumped right in on it and pulled out his pepper spray and sprayed Josh in the eyes. And so that was why Josh felt the burning sensation and then went blind and couldn't breathe and fell to the ground.

And so now it is absolutely chaos inside of this kitchen and the actual target of David and Ricks, Lindsay, the evil witch, she managed to run out of the house and run to a nearby neighbor's house to get help. Meanwhile, the evil witch's boyfriend, Jackie, he comes upstairs carrying a shotgun.

And at this point, Josh is on the ground, clearly dying from the stab wound to his chest. His mother as well is struggling on the ground. And David is going totally nuts, saying all these strange things and whipping his knife around. And Rick is just totally panicking and doesn't know what to do. And so when Jackie ran at Rick with this shotgun, Rick pulled out his own knife and attempted to stab Jackie, but somehow missed Jackie and stabbed himself in the leg.

And so that was why his leg was throbbing and bleeding, because he had stabbed himself. And then after Rick had stabbed himself, Jackie just walked over and Spartan kicked Rick down the stairs into the basement.

And then Jackie turned his attention from Rick to David, who was still just going nuts with this knife and being a total maniac. And Jackie just walked over to David and David, he sees the shotgun coming over to him and he tries to move the barrel out of the way, but then somehow only manages to point the gun directly at his own stomach. At which point Jackie just fired a slug directly into David's gut.

And it was at this moment, as David is crumpling to the ground with his horrible stomach wound, that the neighbor that Lindsay, the evil witch, had gone to go get, had come to the house. They went inside and they found a scene of absolute carnage.

And before the neighbor could even do anything, Rick, who had stabbed himself in the leg and been kicked down into the basement, had scrambled up the steps and just run right past all the bodies on the ground, past the neighbor who didn't even do anything, outside, and Rick just kept on running out into that cornfield. And so at this point, the neighbor didn't even try to figure out what happened. He just called 911.

But it was already too late for Josh, the army private, who was only at this house to reconnect with his estranged mother before he deployed to Iraq. And here he was, dead on the ground from this totally bizarre attack. It would turn out, Rick, David, and really the entire coven of witches that fell under Irenia had been totally duped.

They all fully believed that Lindsay was in fact an evil witch who had cast this hex on Irenia, which was spreading to all the other members of the coven. But in reality, Irenia, the leader of this coven, she didn't believe there was a hex that had nothing to do with any of this. The whole coven thing was totally made up. She was just jealous that Lindsay was dating Jackie.

Irenia had previously dated Jackie and they had broken up and Irenia still wanted to get back together but Jackie didn't. And so now that Jackie was with Lindsay, Irenia just couldn't handle it. And so, naturally, Irenia had constructed this whole thing about Lindsay being one of the dark witches in Claremont, Illinois and she's cast this hex and now you, my witches in this coven, you need to go and kill her.

But, of course, Lindsay did not end up getting killed, and instead, it was the totally innocent person, Josh, the Army Private, who had nothing to do with any of this, who got killed. In addition to Josh dying, David, the warlock from St. Louis, he died from the shotgun blast to his stomach. And then Josh's mother, who had been stabbed repeatedly by David, she would actually survive her attack.

Irenia would ultimately be found guilty of first-degree murder, and she would be sentenced to 57 years in prison. Rick pleaded guilty to murder as well, and he was sentenced to 20 years. And a third member of the coven, who was not present for the attack, but who after the fact helped cover it up, they were sentenced to 32 years in prison.

A quick note about our stories: they are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes.

Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin Podcast. If you enjoyed today's stories and you're looking for more bone-chilling content, be sure to check out all of our studios' podcasts. This podcast, the Mr. Ballin Podcast, and also Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, Bedtime Stories, Wartime Stories, Run Full, and Redacted. Just search for Ballin Studios wherever you get your podcasts to find all of these shows.

To watch hundreds more stories just like the ones you heard today, head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya. Hey Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. And before you go, please subscribe to our channel.

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