The Monster Missive: Sn. 21 Ep. 13 & Sn. 21 Ep. 14 (Patreon)

Our weekly newsletter, brought to you by MAU team members, Delainey Bowers and Conor Ryan, every Friday.

-Show Notes Spotlight-

A more in-depth look at some of the research covered in this week's Tuesday and Thursday episodes.

Last week, we made the mistake of sharing some of our new favorite discoveries in The Monster Missive. So, we have a new intern at the HQ named Mothman III (although he makes us call him Trey). This whole week we have had to deal with him whining about how he didn’t get to share what he’s been watching. And then he has the gall to play us this video and wonder why we didn’t want to share it! Maybe if he remembered our coffee orders correctly, we might have let him share it. Anyway, enough about our little office drama around here - time to get to the good stuff.

On Tuesday’s episode, one caller talked about the time she had her hair pulled by an unseen entity while working at Rippavilla Plantation in Tennessee. For a bit more context on the location, here’s what Wikipedia has to say,

“Rippavilla Plantation, also known as Meadowbrook and Nathaniel Cheairs House, is a former plantation, historic house and museum, located in Spring Hill, Tennessee. This plantation had been worked by enslaved Black people for many years. It is open to visitors as a historic house museum.

The Cheairs family were part of a 1810 land grant awarded by President James Madison. Initially the property included a 1500-acre farm. Nathaniel Frances Cheairs IV (1818–1914) resided on the property along with his wife, Susan Peters Cheairs (1821–1893) until her death. Around 1840, the Cheairs family owned 46 enslaved Black people and up to 75 by 1860.”

Now as if that horrible history alone wasn’t enough to make you believe there might be a few spirits still lingering at the grounds of Rippavilla, Southern Spirit Guide fills us in on another chapter in the plantation’s history,

“[During the Civil War], Spring Hill and its surrounding estates had seen an influx of Confederate wounded into the small town. Many of the homes—including Rippavilla—had been requisitioned for use as hospitals. According to my guides in the house, the house had seen a smallpox epidemic among the wounded in 1862. 

During the fighting here in Spring Hill, Rippavilla’s fields were the scene of fighting. Spring Hill saw battle the day before the Battle of Franklin in 1864. While not a major battle, it did leave a few hundred dead or wounded on both sides.

This house has many layers of history, each leaving spirits within the house. One source reports spirits from Native Americans, through the Civil War and a smallpox epidemic during that era through to the 20th century, when rumors indicate the house may have seen use as a brothel.”

So, if you’re looking for a supernatural stopover on your next road trip through Tennessee, you just might want to add that plantation to your list.

Another anonymous caller on Tuesday’s episode told us about their experience seeing a cloud shaped exactly like a stereotypical flying saucer UFO during the Palisades Fire. In case you missed that news, The Palisades Fire began on January 7, 2025 and was finally contained on January 31, 2025, per Wikipedia, 

“[The fire] spread to 37 sq mi (95 km2), killed 12 people, and destroyed 6,837 structures, making it the tenth-deadliest and third-most destructive California wildfire on record and the most destructive to occur in the history of the city of Los Angeles.”

Now, for those of us that have seen Jordan Peele’s film NOPE, we know for a fact what our caller saw was not actually a UFO - but an alien being disguising itself as a cloud. However, we are forced to consider one other option here, which is that our caller saw a lenticular cloud. According to Wikipedia,

“Lenticular clouds (from Latin lenticularis 'lentil-shaped',) are stationary clouds that form mostly in the troposphere [the lowest layer of Earth’s atmosphere], typically in parallel alignment to the wind direction. They are often comparable in appearance to a lens or saucer.

Lenticular clouds have been mistaken for UFOs, because many of them have the shape of a ‘flying saucer’, with a characteristic ‘lens’ or smooth, saucer-like shape. Lenticular clouds generally do not form over low-lying or flat terrain, so many people may have never seen one and don't know that they can exist.”

And just to show how closely lenticular clouds can resemble alien creatures (or UFOs), below are a few examples.

Now we’re always talking about Swedish Chefs, but it’s not often we get the chance to talk about Swedish UFOs! Thanks to a caller on Tuesday’s episode, however, we did get to dig into Swedish UFO lore a little bit. According to this journal publication from Uppsala University about paranormal beliefs and practices in contemporary Sweden,

“Sweden is a largely disbelieving country. 72.3% of respondents do not believe in UFOs, while 10.4% remain neutral, 10.5% affirm their existence, and 6.8% aren’t sure.

Only 6.5% of respondents have experienced a UFO encounter or sighting.”

If you take a look at the NUFORC reports for Sweden, you’ll see that so far there have only been 102 reports submitted to NUFORC regarding UFOs in that country. The most recent report took place on December 30, 2025 in Kronoberg County where a young eyewitness observed a white-colored light zig-zagging in the sky. 

To get a succinct overview of some of the more famous UFO cases in Sweden, this Wikipedia entry is a good place to start. The one we found most interesting took place in 1946, 

“A businessman named Gösta Carlsson claimed that back in May 1946, he witnessed a UFO land in the forest near Ängelholm, and then encountered the vehicle's crew of humanoid occupants.” 

The “Ängelholm UFO memorial” Wiki goes into more detail about Carlsson’s encounter, including details about the “human-looking crew” who wore “tight-fitting, white flight suits with dark boots, belts, hoods, and earplugs.” Carlsson claimed that his experience ultimately led to his success as a multimillionaire. And in our experience, that’s about the only experiencer who directly links wild financial success to a run-in with a UFO, so we’re going to start trying to telepathically communicate specifically with those same aliens that visited Carlsson.

On Thursday’s episode, AJ related the story of having a black orb fly at her face while leaving the bathroom when she was working as a guard at a prison in Oklahoma. Now, according to this article by Love to Know, there are all kinds of meanings to seeing a black orb, including (but not limited to): low vibrational energies, demons, spirits of people who performed evil acts, vortex energy, benign energy, and much more. Since prisons are somewhat overflowing with sad, stagnant energy - many of those explanations could theoretically make sense for whey a black orb might manifest.

Interestingly, there are also some historical connections to black spots/marks and prisons. According to this article from The Historians Magazine,

“In ancient Rome, black pebbles were used in secret ballots to cast guilty votes during criminal trials — a tradition that tied the color black to condemnation. 

Similarly, during the Middle Ages, those sentenced to death or exiled were sometimes given black tokens or marks as a visible sign of their fate. 

Beyond judicial customs, the black spot found its place in folklore and superstition. In some traditions, dark markings on the body were seen as portents of death — a sign that the afflicted person was marked by unseen forces. During the Great Plague, blackened sores were a literal mark of death, reinforcing the association between black spots and impending doom.”

As far as the written word goes, there’s also a literary tradition known as The Black Spot. From the Wikipedia entry,

“The Black Spot is a literary device created by Robert Louis Stevenson for his novel Treasure Island. It is a message written on paper or card, signifying the verdict of accused pirates. Depending on the context, it signifies either the recipient’s removal from leadership or a sentence of death at the hands of fellow pirates.

The origin of Stevenson's Black Spot might be in the historical tradition of Caribbean pirates of showing an ace of spades to a person condemned as traitor or informer. The card was putting the person dangerously ‘on the spot’, as the ace bears a single pip.”

So, clearly what we’re saying is that black spot might have been the ghost of an inmate who was fond of re-reading Treasure Island to help make the time move a little faster while serving out his sentence.

Also on Thursday’s episode, Barry recalled the time a dream catcher that was gifted to him turned out to be more of a nightmare than a relief. While a lot of us may only be familiar with dreamcatchers in passing, it’s good to get a solid understanding of the history of these objects. From the Wiki entry, 

In some Native American and First Nations cultures, a dreamcatcher is a handmade willow hoop, on which is woven a net or web. Traditionally, dreamcatchers are hung over a cradle or bed as protection. It originates in Anishinaabe culture as ‘the spider web charm.’

In 1929, an Ojibwe legend was recorded in which “the ‘spiderwebs’ protective charms originate with Spider Woman, who takes care of the children and the people on the land. As the Ojibwe Nation spread to the corners of North America it became difficult for Asibikaashi to reach all the children. So the mothers and grandmothers weave webs for the children.”

The name ‘dream catcher’ was published in mainstream, non-Native media in the 1970s and became widely known as a Native crafts item by the 1980s. By the early 1990s, it was ‘one of the most popular and marketable’ ones.”

If you want even more context on the origin of dream catchers, we have two videos to recommend. The man featured in this clip, Lee Obizaan Staples, is from Minnesota and is one of the Spiritual Advisors on the Mille Lacs reservation, which belongs to a band of Ojibwe. Then, there’s this segment from Symbol Sage that touches on both Ojibwe and Lakota legends. So is it possible our caller’s dream catcher drew something in from the spirit world that wasn’t originally intended when he originally hung it above his bed? Seems pretty likely!

In a separate call from the same episode, Becky told of an experience driving through an apparition then suddenly feeling like she had a spiritual connection with The Battle of Little Bighorn, especially since she accidentally ended up parking at the entrance to that battlefield soon afterward. Just as a refresher on the battle, according to Wikipedia,

“The 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn, commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, and known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes and the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army. It took place on June 25–26, 1876, along the Little Bighorn River in…southeastern Montana Territory. The battle, which resulted in the defeat of U.S. forces, was the most significant action of the Great Sioux War of 1876.

On the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho side, 31-100 were killed, up to 160 were wounded, and 10 non-combatants were killed. For the 7th Cavalry, 268 were killed and 55 were wounded (6 of whom later died of wounds).”

Yikes! It seems like if any place was haunted, this battlefield would be a good bet. And, fittingly, reports of hauntings near the battlegrounds are abundant. According to Cowboys and Indians,

“The heart of the Little Bighorn’s supernatural encounters is the Stone House, which was built in 1894 as the residence for the grounds’ superintendent. Staff living on the premises have dealt with lights that turned on by themselves, doors that inexplicably refused to open…and shadowy figures that appeared without warning but vanished with equal abruptness.

…in the summer of 1986, a newly appointed battlefield ranger residing in the Stone House’s upstairs apartment saw a figure in his bedroom that appeared to be a soldier who was missing his head and legs.

In the autumn of 1983, an employee awoke around 2:00 a.m. ‘to find the figure of a man with a long handlebar mustache sitting at a table. The man did not speak but conveyed a painful expression.’ Later, the employee found a photograph of the man she witnessed, Lt. Benjamin H. Hodgson, who died in battle.

...the spirits of Native American warriors and Custer’s troops [come] into spectral view. Many people have heard frightening screams of men undergoing a grisly death, while touring the battle fields…

There have also been two separate reports of men who visited the site and insisted they were transported back in time to the day of the battle, where they watched the rival sides engaged in bloody warfare.”

Pretty spooky stuff! Oh also, it goes without saying that if you’re one of those two men who insist they were transported back in time to watch the battle, please give us a call!

In Kas’s call on Thursday, we heard a terrifying tale of how she saw a duende crouching by a haystack on a late-night drive through northern California. Now, for those of you that need a refresher, this TikTok by scaredbybrian gives some good context on these creatures. But, if you hate short form videos and love reading, here is the transcription of that video,

“In Mexican folklore, duendes are gnome-like creatures that are sometimes mischievous, sometimes protective, and sometimes evil. The word duende is Spanish for goblin. Most 

creatures are described as small, like a child, but with an old man’s face. Some can disappear at will and some will camouflage into a full-sized old man. It is said if an old man asks you for food or a little money, it could be a duende. If you don’t pay the ask, there will be chaos. Maybe your crops won’t grow or your car will break down. Mostly they are causing mischief, but there can be danger. The duende seem to be attached to certain natural areas, but can be coaxed to leave with proper gifts and respect. Duendes do have a particular affinity for children, though. Unlike other folklore stories that are often used to scare or frighten away children, duendes were seen as protectors. If a child ever was afraid or lost, children were encouraged to call out to duendes for guidance. Although they could be both mischievous and kind towards adults with the flick of a switch, it seems they were always kind towards children.”

Since we’ve covered these little guys on the show before, we did some extra digging - so here’s a new folklore creature alert! Well, at least for us. Let us introduce you to…Kratts. This entity is found primarily in Estonian folklore, but has similar counterparts in Germanic, Slavic, and Nordic folklore. From the Wiki entry, 

“A kratt was a creature formed from hay or of old household implements by its master, who then had to give the Devil three drops of blood to bring life to the kratt.

The kratt was notable for doing everything the master ordered it to and was mostly used for stealing and bringing various goods for the kratt's owner. It was said to be able to fly around. An interesting aspect of the kratt is that it was necessary for it to constantly keep working, otherwise it would turn dangerous to its owner.”

There’s such a wide swath of household protector spirits, too (that’s the type of entity a kratt is). Duendes can also exist as household spirits, and they join the ranks of other goblins/elves/brownies/domovoy/hobs/kobolds/nisse that watch over the land or have some tie to agriculture. Our caller did also mention that at first she thought the creature might have been a scarecrow and - surprise surprise - there is a ton of folklore revolving around straw creatures. According to this article in World of Interiors about straw dolls,

“Like so many traditional crafts, straw work spans many cultures and countries, and the most elaborate pieces were often born out of a desire to propitiate the gods. One legend, found in rural communities the world over, tells of a ‘corn spirit’ that retreats from the oncoming reapers every harvest time, hiding in the last of the standing crop. These final few stalks would be fashioned into a corn dolly in which the spirit could take refuge. Come spring, the token would be returned to the fields with the new planting.”

And a quick shout-out to the straw bears of Germany! The strawboys of western Ireland! And the skeklers of the Shetland Isles! (Sorry, Delainey gets a little carried away when it comes to straw-related folklore).

Regardless of whether our caller saw a duende or a strange straw creature that night, we know we are going to get unnecessarily nervous next time we drive by a hay bale late at night on a lonely stretch of road.

On the Beyond portion of this week’s Thursday episode, Adrian shared a creepy experience they had while driving around the L.A. hills one night. Later, our caller realized they stumbled upon the Peter Strauss Ranch. According to Atlas Obscura, 

“Do a bit of exploring, and you’ll come across curious finds like a ranch house, vacant aviary, empty swimming pool, radio house, dam, and lookout tower. This landmark is a testament to the ranch's former owner, Harry Miller, who bought the land in 1923 and used it as a weekend retreat from his automobile factory in Los Angeles.

Local legend has it that Miller used the tower to watch for police during the days of Prohibition, while throwing parties in his ranch house…It was eventually purchased and developed into an amusement park. It featured what was at the time the largest pool on the West Coast (now empty), which could fit 3,000 people. The Terrazzo dance floor, also left over from the property’s first stint as a theme park, still stands today next to the ranch house. 

If you look closely enough, you’ll see ruins left over from the ‘Fairytale Land’ sign at the front of the park. The faint outline of a baseball diamond lies in front of the ranch house, which people can still use today. There’s also a ruined structure that once formed the dam creating ‘Lake Enchanto,’ which people used for swimming, fishing, and rowing.”

Now, while we love to think that our caller stumbled upon some sort of secret satanic ritual, it sounds a lot like they might have actually come across a filming location for some upcoming blockbuster. We were able to dig up a number of articles like this one in the Los Angeles Times from February of 1997 that confirm multiple films have used the ranch as a shooting location. 

Most weird spots like these that we mention on the show are usually a nightmare to access because they are either falling apart, patrolled by the police, or both. This is one of those rare times where we can wholeheartedly say - go check it out! It’s now part of the National Park Service and is even hosting concerts again. And if you happen to see something spooky while you’re there enjoying the tunes on a summer night, you know who to call! 

-Here There Be Headlines-

A round-up of bizarre, curious, head-scratching news stories that leave you saying "huh."

Well, it’s time for us to go sweep up the pieces of all the lamps at HQ since Trey couldn’t seem to keep himself away. In the meantime, we hope these odd headlines keep you entertained until the next Monster Missive!

Dōmo arigatō, Mr. Roboto

Urine for a treat!

Like a complete unknown / Like a rolling stone

Chug! Chug! Chug!

Haunted Historical Headline