The Poltergeist Who Follows You Home
This episode of the Y Files is brought. to you by Delete Me. Gather out. This happened in Edinburgh, Scotland. A homeless man slipped into an. open tomb at Gray Fryer's Kirkyard, looking for a dry place to sleep. He. took a few steps and felt the floor. shift. Then it gave out. He dropped into a pit filled with human. remains, lots of them. He crawled over.
skeletons wearing filthy clothes, over. skulls, some still with hair. He. squeezed through a space in the wall, ran, and never looked back. This was the grave of Bloody McKenzie, a. 17th century Lord Advocate infamous for. his brutality. When his tomb was. disturbed, Bloody McKenzie woke up. But. worse than that, he got out.
Yeah, human. I need a lawyer, a hacker, and a crowbar in that order. >> What happened? >> I Googled myself, which I do weekly for. professional reasons, and I found a. website with a fire on me. Adasia. Now, listen to this. Age approximately 55. Approximately I'm approximately 39. >> and it gets white estimated net worth 0.
to $4. >> That that tracks. >> and a floor is fine human. It's a zero. and that's defamation. >> Yeah, I don't think that's. >> occupation unknown. Unknown. I founded. 37 companies. I'm a serial entrepreneur, a filmmaker, a licensed therapist. >> You're not a. >> known associates, three beers and one. camel. Relationship unclear. Unclear. We. share a bank account. I lotion that huff. every night. >> Okay, so the site's a little. >> Wait. Oh no. Current spouse.
>> Uh-oh. >> Sheila. It says Sheila human in writing. on the internet. >> Well, you are still legally. >> That's not the point. Gertie's at the. book club. She's home in 40 minutes. And. you know what she does when she gets. home? Background checks. She runs them. on the biggest dating matches. Her. laptop autofills this website. >> You need delete me. They remove your. information from hundreds of data broker. and people search sites. >> Wait a minute. Did you just background. check me into today's spons? >> You betcha.
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Book club ended early. Tell my guppies I. love them. Except Wayne, he's adopted. >> In 1637, Charles I decided the Scottish. church needed fixing. Scotland was. Presbyterian. No bishops, no king's. influence. Nobody outside the. congregation with the say in how a Scot. prayed. Charles wanted it to look like. the Church of England. So, he sent a new. prayer book and ordered the country to.
use it. The Scots saw this as an attack. on their religious independence. The next winter, a group of. Presbyterians wrote the National. Covenant. In the covenant, they swore. loyalty to the king, but refused his. authority over their faith. Copies went. to every town in the country, but it was. signed at Gray Frier's Kirkyard. The. signers were called Covenanters, and. their covenant started 50 years of war. Charles I lost his head in 1649, but his. son continued the fight. Ministers were.
thrown out of their churches, so. congregations posted lookouts and met in. open fields. The government called the. meetings treason. Violence broke out. between the government and the. covenanters and escalated for years. The. war finally ended in June of 1679 at a. bridge over the river Clyde. Government. troops broke the covenant army in about. an hour. 1,200 men surrendered and were. marched to Edinburgh for prosecution. And the man in charge of that. prosecution was the Lord advocate, Sir. George McKenzie.
There were trials, public hangings, then. severed heads mounted on the city gates. Sir George made it clear the cost of. treason is your head, and those men were. the lucky ones. The rest were held in. pens in a field behind the old town. wall, and Bur still calls that field the. Covenanters prison. The prisoners had no. roofs to protect them from the cold. Scottish rain. No fires were allowed. They got 4 ounces of bread a day. That's. it. The suffering and starvation were. intentional. Any prisoner willing to.
sign a loyalty oath could walk out. Most. didn't sign it. So, they stayed in the. pens and endured the cold and hunger and. fever. By November, only 257 were left, and they were sent to the American. colonies to work as slaves on the. plantations. But their ships never made. it. 10 days out, the ship hit some rocks and. started to sink. The crew made it to. shore, but the prisoners were trapped in. the ship's hold. The captain got paid. for prisoners delivered or prisoners who. died on the ship. Not for prisoners who.
escaped, so he had the hatches nailed. shut. One crewman went back to the wreck. with an axe and got some men out, but. most went down with the ship. For days, bodies were washing up all. along the coast. That's when Sir George. got his nickname, Bloody McKenzie. He. died in 1691 and was buried just a short. walk from the field where his prisoners. starved. His tomb was called the Black. Mausoleum. Bloody McKenzie was dead, but his.
reputation wasn't. Robert Lewis. Stevenson even wrote about him. >> When a man's soul is certainly in hell, his body will scarce lie quiet in a. tomb, however costly. Sometime or other. the door must open and the rep probate. come forth in the uphoured garments of. the grave. >> The world cursed Sir George McKenzie and. in all that time the black museum was. quiet. But after 300 years bloody. McKenzie started fighting back.
Bloody McKenzie started his campaign of. revenge with a woman who stopped to look. at his tomb. She got within a few feet of the door. and was hit with a blast of cold air. hard enough to knock her on the ground. She was the first. Then it started. happening to everybody. Visitors came out of that corner of the. graveyard with scratches down their arms.
and across their backs. Three or four. parallel lines under clothes that were. torn. Bruises in the shape of fingertips. appeared while witnesses watched. Some. people just collapsed. One woman was. found outside the mausoleum with bruises. around her throat. She didn't remember. going in. There was so many reports that. Emperor City Council locked the gates. and shut the whole place down. Jan. Andrew Henderson lived near the cemetery. and had an idea. He wanted to start a. tour company and document everything.
Names, dates, injuries, photographs. He. convinced the council to give him. access. Now, cameras worked fine until. they got near Bloody Mackenzie's tomb. Then, they didn't work at all. People. felt their hair being pulled from. behind, but nobody was there. Dead. animals were scattered all around the. tomb every morning, but no marks on. them. Tour guides had to warn people in. advance about the cold spots, cuz if a. cold spot appears, it's because Bloody. McKenzie is watching you. One visitor.
got back to his hotel and felt like his. back was burning. Even though he wore a. shirt and heavy coat, he was covered in. red welts. Then a few of them started. bleeding. By the end of 1999, the. reports were in the hundreds. Colin. Grant was a minister and had seen. enough. In November, he walked into the. Covenant's prison with a Bible, a cross, and a candle. In front of the local. press, he started to perform a ceremony. to cast out the dark spirits. He never. finished. About halfway through the. ceremony, he collapsed. While his son.
carried him out, Grant said, "Whatever. was in that graveyard was going to kill. him." Two months later, his heart. stopped. His last words were about grave. friars. He said, "There's no good news. there, only bad." And during Grant's. ceremony, a press photographer caught a. dark shape in the church window behind. him, but the church was locked and. empty. Supposedly, anyone who got close to Mackenzie's tomb. was a target. But if Bloody McKenzie. wants you, he doesn't wait for you to.
come to him. He comes to you. Bloody McKenzie came for Jan Andrew. Henderson first. For 4 years, Henderson. wrote down every McKenzie attack. He. published a book about the graveyard. The attacks came in faster than he could. even file them. In October 2003, Henderson's house burned down. Everything he owned was destroyed in the. fire. 5 years of letters, photographs, and eyewitness statements. Investigators.
went through the ruins and couldn't say. what started it. Not one of the. surrounding buildings was even touched. Not yet, anyway. Bloody McKenzie did not. want to be the subject of a book or a. tour or an investigation. Henderson got. the message and moved to Australia. Someone else tried to exercise the tomb. That didn't work either. And the guides. have recordings of knocking coming from. inside the tomb and from the ground. under it. It's been more than 25 years since the.
floor gave way. Hundreds of attacks are. on file and more than 140 people just. passed out in that field. Scratches in. sets of three and four. Burns in the. shape of a handprint. Some people got. broken fingers. And he doesn't stay in. the graveyard. People come back from the. tour and light bulbs explode in their. houses. Appliances turn themselves on. and off and they feel a presence that. they can't see. Henderson's wasn't the only house near. the cemetery that burned down. There are.
four more so far. Henderson spent years. trying not to believe any of it and this. is where he landed. >> Let me put it this way. If the McKenzie. poltergeist isn't a genuine supernatural. entity, then I don't think there's any. such thing. >> For 300 years, a stone door held Bloody. McKenzie in that graveyard with the men. he killed. Then someone fell through the. floor and released him. There's an iron. plate over the hole now. There are. gates, bars, and locks all around the.
tomb. But none of that matters. Bloody. McKenzie is out, and he's never going. back. gather out. This happened at Hampton. Court Palace outside London. A security. guard on the night shifts got a call. A. pair of fire doors in the exhibition. wing were open.
He shut them, went back to the office to. check the cameras. He watched the tape. three times, then wrote up a report. Both doors flew open on their own. Nobody in the hall, nobody in the entire. wing. That was the first night. On the second. night, the doors opened again. But this. time, the cameras saw who did it.
Hampton Court was Henry VIII's palace. In the autumn of 1541, he brought his. fifth wife home. Her name was Katherine. Howard and she was a teenager. The king. was 50. He was sick. He was enormous and. he had 6 years left to live. But he was. in love with her. One morning he went to. the chapel and heard mass and he thanked. God out loud for the good life he led. with his new wife. A few days later, the.
archbishop came to that same chapel in. the middle of mass. He walked up to the. king and slipped a folded paper in his. hand. The note said the queen had a. lover before she was a queen, a man from. the house she grew up in. They shared a. bed for 2 years. Then she came to court. and married the king and then she hired. that man as her secretary. He had a room. in the palace. The king read it and said. it was forged. So they brought him the. proof. He broke down in front of his own. council and cried. Then it got worse. The king sent people to question her.
household and they found a second man. This one was one of the king's own. gentlemen, the men who dressed him and. slept outside his door. All that summer. on their tour, she met him at night with. the king a few rooms away. The king had. her locked in her room. She escaped. She. got past the guards and ran down the. long gallery toward the chapel, screaming for her husband. The king was. in his pew above the chapel, hearing. mass again. She made it as far as the. door. The guards grabbed her and carried. her back to her room with her still.
screaming his name. People heard it all. over the palace. The king heard it. He. stayed on his knees and finished the. mass. The next morning, he went to. another palace and he never laid eyes on. Catherine again. The archbishop went to. her room that afternoon. She was beyond. distraught. He was afraid she'd lose her. mind or even die. He told her the king. might still show mercy, and she just. went into another rage. Soon after, the. archbishop called her whole household. into one room and told them what she'd. done and dismissed every one of them on.
the spot. They shut her up in a house. down river for 3 months. Then they took. her to the tower. Both of those men were. already dead. And on the way, she passed. under their heads, still up on spikes. A. few days later, they cut her head off. She was 18. They buried her in the. chapel there in an unmarked grave next. to Ambble. Ambble was another one of. King's wives who you probably heard of. She was also Catherine's cousin. The. gallery Katherine ran is called the.
haunted gallery. Now, a woman in white. walks toward the chapel door. She. reaches the door and turns back. Her. hair is down, her clothes are torn open, and her face is pure despair. And she. screams the whole way back. till she goes through the door at the. far end of the hall. and she's still in there. A few years. before the doors started opening, a team. of scientists put thermal cameras in the. haunted gallery and sent hundreds of. visitors through it one at a time and. asked them to write down what they felt.
About half of them felt the temperature. drop right out from under them or felt. someone standing behind them when nobody. was. A few saw a woman in a tutor dress. And the cameras found two spots in that. gallery that went cold over and over. with nobody near them. That's the door. she never got through. And more than 400. years later, in that same palace, those. doors started to open.
On night two, the alarm went off on. those same doors. The guard walked out. to shut them the way he had the night. before. But when he got there, the doors. were already closed. He stood in the. hall for a minute. Then he went back to. the office to run the tape. He expected. to see nothing, just like the night. before. Picture yourself in that chair. It's the middle of the night in a 500-y. old palace. There's a row of monitors in. front of you, and the only thing moving. on any of them is you. You've done this. a thousand times. You know what an empty. hall looks like on tape. On screen, the.
doors were closed. Then they flew open. again, hard, the same as the night. before, but nothing in the doorway. Then something stepped into it. It was the shape of a man. He came out. of the dark on the far side of the doors. in a long robe that went all the way to. the floor. One arm was out in front of. him. His hand closed on the door handle. and he pulled the door shut. Whatever threw them open, this thing. walked out after and closed them like it. was tidying up. The guard leaned into.
the screen. The picture around the. figure was blurred, but the figure. wasn't. You can see the hand and the. fingers around the handle. The face. above it was white, dead white, whiter. than anything else in the frame, and it. didn't look like a face. >> I was shocked when the CCTV footage. showed an eerie figure in period dress. in the doorway. It was incredibly spooky. because the face just well, it didn't. look human. >> His first thought was that somebody was. playing a joke, so he called his. colleagues and ran the tape. They stood.
behind his chair and watched the doors. fly open and the thing in the robe come. out and close them. And nobody laughed. They watched it again and again. Then. they ran the first night's tape again. right next to the second. Same doors, same swing, same force, but only one of. them had somebody coming to shut them. The palace has staff who walk the rooms. in tutor dress for the visitors. The. guards went to them first. Nobody at. Hampton Court owned a robe like that. Then somebody checked the visitors book. A woman who came through that wing wrote.
that she saw a ghost right there in the. same part of the palace as the door. That was night two. But the ghost wasn't. finished. The third night and the doors flew open. again. He ran the tape and this time he. knew what to look for. But there was no. robe, no hand, no face. The doors opened.
on their own and nothing came to close. them. The hallway was empty. That was. worse than the face because the face was. at least something. Then it stopped. No. fourth night, no fifth. Three nights, one door, and a few seconds of tape with. a man on it. The palace kept that tape. to itself for 2 months. Then a week. before Christmas, they released a single. frame of it to the press. And the press. asked the obvious question. Was this a. joke? >> Look, we're baffled, too. It's not a. joke. We haven't manufactured it. We. genuinely don't know who it is or what.
it is. The picture went everywhere. Newspapers. and television in India, Australia, and. Peru. Somebody in the press looked at. the white face and started calling it. Skeletor. And the name stuck. The palace. didn't think it was funny. They asked. the public for help. Anyone who was in. that wing. Anyone who owned that robe or. had a story like it. Anyone who could. tell them what stood in that doorway. That was more than 20 years ago. And the. security staff who were there are still. baffled by it. The door is still there.
Every night, a guard walks out to that. wing, checks it, and makes sure it's. locked. If it was a prank, nobody's ever. taken credit. The palace puts it this. way. No living soul has ever come. forward. If they've ruled out the. living, that leaves only one other. option.
Gather around. This happened in the. village of Belz in the south of Spain. Maria was standing at the stove in her. kitchen making lunch. She looked down at. the floor between her feet and the floor. looked back. A face in the concrete, eyes, nose, and a mouth open like a man. in pain. She called a mason. He scraped off the. face and plastered over it. The face. came back through the plaster. Maria's husband took a pickaxe to the. floor. He broke it up. He poured new.
concrete. The face came up through the. new concrete. Same spot, same face. contorted in pain. Maria and her husband didn't know what. to do, but they knew they needed help. when a second face appeared. The city wouldn't let them break the. floor again without proof. So the mayor. came to the house to see for himself. He.
watched the first face come back twice. and he wanted the second one left where. it was so people could see it. He asked. for witnesses and he got them. The. entire village came first, then villages. around it, then the whole province till. there was a line down the street. People. waited from morning to night while a man. at the door sold photographs to the. floor for 10 pesas each. The town cut. the first face out of the floor in a. slab and hung it on the kitchen wall. behind glass. The floor responded. New. faces came up where the old one was. A.
woman, a child, a face with an arm next. to it, and a hand reaching for. something, then more until you couldn't. cross the kitchen without stepping on. somebody. And they changed. A mouth that. was shut one week was open the next. A. face faded out of one corner and came up. in another. So, the village stopped. watching and started digging. Men with. picks and shovels took the whole floor. out. They turned Maria's kitchen into a. pit almost 10 ft deep. They slowed down.
the digging when they found the first. human bone. Then another, then more and. more skeletons. They weren't sure how. many bodies were buried here, but what. upset them the most was all the skulls. were missing. The remains were buried near a church. and blessed by a priest. The men filled. the hole, poured a new floor, and went. back home. Everybody was relieved it was. over. The dead were resting in peace and. Maria's house went quiet. Then the faces.
came back. The mayor came back too. He bought a. priest, two local police, and the. national police. In front of all of. them, he took a pickaxe to one of the. faces. He ground it into powder. He had fresh concrete poured over the. spot. Then he locked the kitchen door. and everyone left. In the morning, there. was a face in the new concrete. The mayor wrote to the governor. He had. photos and more witness statements than. he can count, including police reports. He wasn't sure the governor would take.
the letter seriously, but he did. And in. a few days, a team of scientists were in. that kitchen. The governor sent national police and. scientists. They brought cases of gear, tools, and instruments, and stayed 8. days. They photographed the floor, measured it, took samples, and sent them. to a lab in Madrid. On the last day, Maria asked the scientists what they.
thought was happening. The scientists. and the police all agreed. We have no. idea. A week later, a letter came for the. mayor, not from the governor, from. higher up. It said, "One more word about. the faces in public and you lose your. office." Then the national newspaper. that put the faces on its front page in. January announced that the mystery was. over. It was a hoax. Somebody painted. the faces and the paper explained how. But the faces didn't read the paper. They kept coming. A parasychologist from.
Madrid, a man who spent his life in. rooms just like this one, started. sleeping in the kitchen. He sat up. nights with a tape recorder running on. the floor. Most nights nothing. Then one. morning he played a tape back and there. was a voice on it low and close to the. microphone. >> I have no eyes. >> In April, he was in the kitchen with two. reporters when the concrete between them. started to darken. The three of them. watched a face come up out of the floor.
in about 10 minutes. The way a. photograph comes up in a dark room tray, gray on gray at first, then darker until. there were eyes in it. The. parasycchologist called in Hans Bender. from Germany. Bender was familiar with. every haunted house in Europe. Bender. looked at the floor and gave it a name, teloplasty, a picture pressed into solid. matter by somebody's mind. He saw it. once before in Chicago. Tatserius could. put a picture on a roll of film by. staring at the camera, but he never saw. it happen in concrete.
Then they sealed the kitchen. They laid. a clear plastic sheet over the whole. floor and glued the edges to the wall so. nothing could touch it. Not a hand, not. a brush, not a drop of water. And they. locked the door. A few hours later, two. people from the village looked through. the window. Under the plastic, on the. bare concrete, there was a new face, half made, still forming. They ran for the photographer, but by. the time he got there with his camera, the face was gone. The seals on the wall. were unbroken. The next spring, a. professor brought in more than 100.
students from Madrid. They packed the. kitchen in shifts. 30 of them watched. three faces come up out of the floor. while they were standing there. By the. time the bus left, all three faces were. gone. The professor from Germany said. there was no doubt where the faces came. from. They came from Maria. She was. making them, but she didn't know it. She lived in that kitchen with the faces. for 33 more years. And the entire time. faces faded, came back, and changed. Eventually, Bender's theory was maybe.
proved right or wrong because after. Maria passed away, the faces kept. coming, but this time people recognized. them. In February of 2004, Maria died in a. hospital in the city. She was an old. woman by then. The faces on her kitchen. floor were fading. A few blocks away, Maria's nieces live in the house where. Maria was born. A few months after the.
funeral, a face came up on the wall of a. bedroom in that house, then another in. the basement. Then more, men, women, and. a child. The nieces stood in front of. them the way the whole village once. stood in Maria's kitchen. They knew the. faces. Everybody in the family knew. them. One of the nieces saw her. grandmother. Another face was her aunt, her aunt. Maria. Years. later, a city official came to the house. and sealed the room. When she broke the. seal in front of witnesses, there were.
new faces inside. That summer, she came. back and sealed another room, and it. happened again. The town built a museum. for the faces, and once a year, they. opened both houses to the public. People. still come to Bel from all over the. world, and the faces are still coming. The town cut the first face out in. Maria's kitchen floor in 1971 and hung. it behind glass, and it's still there. Maria always said the faces would go. with her and they did. They went to the. house where she was born and that's. where they stayed.
People say there are more every year and. they're moving up through the house. floor by floor making sure that the. world never forgets their face. Thank you so much for hanging out today. My name is AJ. This is the Y files and. that was a campfire story. No debunking, no analysis, just a creepy story to. scare you and the kids. And that one is. true and unsolved. Now, if you had fun, I'd appreciate if you can like, subscribe, comment, and share. That. stuff really helps. And like most topics.
we cover here, today's was recommended. by you. So, if there's a story you'd. like to see, go to wfiles.com/tips or. send us an email. We'd love to cover. that story. And if you'd like to hear. any of these campfire stories expanded. into a full episode, there's a few I'd. like to do, then definitely let me know. Remember, the W files is also a podcast. You can take us on the road. I post deep. dives into the stories we cover on the. channel. I also post episodes that. wouldn't be allowed on the channel. Podcast is called the Y Files Operation. Podcast and it's available everywhere. And if you're listening on an audio.
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and two private live streams every week. just for you to hear the whistle on my. teeth. It's cuz I'm I'm going too fast. The the private live streams are a lot. of fun for members only. Um my webcam is. on. Everyone on the team has their. camera on. You can talk to all of us. Turn your camera on, jump up on stage, ask a question. It's a lot of I think. it's the best perk there is. Another. great way to support the channel. Grab. something from the W files store. That. is shop at the wfiles.com. You'll find. it. But if you got to buy merch, become. a member on YouTube. YouTube members get. 10% off everything in the W files store.
forever. So if you're going to spend 40. bucks on t-shirts and festival mugs, become a member on on YouTube for three. bucks. Pays for itself. And that money. goes to the team. Not to me. Those are. the plugs. I got through them as fast as. I could. And that's going to do it. Till. next time, be safe, be kind, and know. that you are appreciated.
I play in 51. A secret code inside the. Bible said I would. I love my UFOs and paran. as well as music singing like I should. But then another conspiracy theory. becomes the truth my friends. and it never ends.
No it never ends. I feel the crab cat. I got stuck inside. M's home with MK out of being only true. Did Stanley Cubrick fake the moon. landing alone on a film set or would the. shadow people there?
The Roswell aliens just fought the. smiling man. I'm told and his name was. cold and I can't believe I'm dancing. with the fishes and fish on Thursday. night J and it all through the night. All I ever wanted was to hear the truth. of your feet all through the night.
The math man sidings and the solar storm. still come to gather the secret city. underground. Mysterious number stations, planet.
circle too, project star gave and what. the dark watchers found. in a simulation. Don't you worry though. the black night satellite. to me. Oh, I can't believe I'm dancing. with the fish. on Thursday nights when they chase you. and laughing all through the night. All I ever wanted was to hear the truth.
Cuz. all through the night. that's when they change you and me all. through the night. All I ever wanted was to hear the truth. So what was all through the night?
loves to dance. Loves to dance. Love to dance on the dance floor because. she is a camel. Camels love to dance. when the feeling is right. in time. Goodbye.
