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I just remember feeling like this immense comfort when I heard his voice for the first time. And he has this beautiful British accent, really soft-spoken, and sounds so kind on the phone. The date was awesome. I heard from him right away the next day in the morning. And honestly, from there, it was pretty full speed. ♪
I had never seen her so excited until she had started talking about Joe. We would tease her. I'm like, oh, you're really into this guy. Like, you're really, really into him. He was calling me all the time, sending photos, constantly texting. And he goes, it's not that easy. It's not that simple.
I was out at a coffee shop in the city and there was a table of five people near me. And these guys, these two guys parked their car in front of the place and walked in and shot the five people next to me. All five of them. And left.
I hid under a table and I was close enough that literally blood splattered on me. And not long after that, within a 12-hour period, the government showed up and spoke to me. And then he goes, I'm in WIPRO. And I was like, WIPRO? Like witness protection? And he was like, yes, WIPRO.
He's like, that's why you can't find me online. I cannot be on the internet. I have to keep my stuff really, really private. I have agents that are with me. I let myself in, but it's like 10 o'clock and she's dead asleep. And you could tell I get in there and she wakes up and she was like, what are you doing here? His mom passed his way. Then he goes into witness protection, but he's this movie producer and super rich. And then he has cancer. It felt like watching a Netflix series again.
He had these relationships with the actors that he worked with. One of them was Ryan Murphy, who's a really known director. And he was like, hey, he's coming and doing, working on this pilot on the show that I'm working on. And it's really exciting. So much of that stuff worked in his favor. COVID worked in his favor. Kenzie was pretty much alone. We were all locked up. He would get messages from the people that wanted to hurt him or hunt him down.
saying, we know where you are, we found you, you have to pay us this much money or this is going to happen to you and your family. And I was like, I'm not sure how to really put this into words of why I think this, but I think Joe's lying. He just kind of looked at me really stunned, being like, holy shit, I think you guys are right.
Charlotte comes up and she's like, you know, I actually did some research on my end and that dude is lying about a hell of a lot more. And you have all this proof. How do you tell your friend that they've been brainwashed, gaslighted, lied to, all of that for over a year?
I felt like the room was actually spinning. And my brain was thinking, there's no way this is real life because this doesn't make any sense. This is the shit you see in movies. This isn't real. Like, none of this can possibly be real. But it all worked in his favor. It all worked really great for him. He's like, they're rushing me to the hospital. I do not know what's going on. I am bleeding. I'm very, very sick. That's when Sophia shared, like, hey, she bought a one-way flight.
And yeah, that was scary. Fake ass motherfucker. You think you've hit the climax, but it keeps going. You're going to think we've hit the crazy part of the story, and then it's going to get crazier.
It felt surreal. You're finding out all this information about this stranger. Are we being punked? Someone going to pop out of the closet? Should we be scared? Terrifying someone like that exists truly in this world. And that he has a whole family that thinks probably pretty highly of him. And they're not aware of the monster that he is.
There is no doubt in my mind this van is looking for me. And it scared the shit out of me. So I start running. And I'm running. And this van is chasing me. And he sends me this screenshot. And it's at the top of it, the name said Preacher. And it said, we got some flags. Someone found your profile. We're coming over.
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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 f***ing around. She's like, I can't. A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast. It's 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.
Is this the largest mass hysteria since The Witches of Salem? Or is it something else entirely? A new limited series from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios, Hysterical.
Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery+.