We Scare Because We Care

Lately Scotty has been intrigued with the story of Joseph Henry Loveless, a criminal from Utah whose body (or parts of it) were found in a cave in Dubois, Idaho in the 70’s.

You should definitely click the link and read the story, but if you need the quick version, here it is:

Known as “the Bootlegger,” Joseph killed his wife with an axe in 1916, then he went missing. In the 70's someone found his torso wrapped in burlap in the cave in Dubois. In the 90's, an 11-year-old girl found a hand sticking out of the ground while exploring the same cave (poor girl). After some excavating (by professionals), both arms and legs were recovered. The identity of the body was only confirmed early last year through a DNA sample from Joseph's grandson. 

His head is yet to be found... and the Bootlegger is said to haunt the cave. 

[insert ghoulish music here]

Anyway, the cave is now a haunted attraction, and Scotty really wants to go sometime due to his enthusiasm for caves and scary stories. I'm not big on ghost stories, but I'm always intrigued by murder stories. I'm one of those weirdos - it taps into my fascination with human behavior. So I don’t care much about the haunted part of the story, but I definitely want to know who killed the Bootlegger and what they did with his head!

Over the weekend, Scotty told the story of Joseph Henry Loveless to his mom (another ghost story enthusiast)... in front of our three daughters... who are scared of everything. I was thinking, "Oh dear, this could be bad." Then Scotty found a YouTube clip where a lady talks about how they haven't found the Bootlegger's head, and it must be found and returned to the body so the Bootlegger will stop haunting the cave. Of course, he loaded the video on the big screen and watched it in front of the kids.

Shortly after this, Eva asked me, "Mom, is the Bootlegger real?" and I said, "No, that's just a silly Halloween story that Grandma and Daddy like to tell." 

[Lies].

Then Scotty's mom started telling ghost stories. My mother-in-law has had a lot of "experiences" in her life and is, I guess, what you would call, "sensitive to spirits." She has always claimed that her own house is haunted, as did the previous owner. Her house is really old. In fact, it was originally an underground house, and everything above ground was added later (though the above-ground portion of the house is very old too). 

Here's a not-great photo of her basement from the year we had to have our Easter hunt down there in a snow storm. It's hard to see the details, but if you look closely, you can see that the floor is stone. It's the perfect setting for a haunting... or a murder... not so much an Easter hunt, but we made it work. 

With her home being so old, there are some interesting stories about her property. Supposedly there are at least two babies buried in her back yard, and someone wearing boots died back there. Scotty's mom says she hears someone walking up the stairs in boots. There are also stories of laughing children and water turning on and off. My mother-in-law claims that they are "good" spirits and not menacing, so they are not scary, but that wasn’t a very convincing fact for my kids whom I’ve told for years that ghosts aren’t real. 

After all this scary talk, I knew we were in for it. I knew that Zoe and Daisy would be a wreck that night, and we would find ourselves dealing with all sorts of new fears and anxieties. 

But it didn't stop there...

Eva is apparently the next generation to be fascinated by ghosts. My mother-in-law ended up breaking out a book of scary stories, and Eva asked her to read story after story. 

Eva became obsessed with this illustration of "the wolf girl:"

She kept asking to see it over and over again. Then she ended up bringing the book home from Grandma's house so she could look at the wolf girl some more. We gathered around to watch Wheel of Fortune on Sunday night (Donny Osmond was on - he did terrible), and Eva brought her scary book and flipped through it the whole time. Then she asked Scotty to take her upstairs and read her more scary stories 

The photo in this post was taken by Eva on my phone. She said, "Mom, I took a picture of the wolf girl on your phone so we can always remember her."

My kid is weird. 

Anyway, that night, all three girls (even wolf-girl-obsessed Eva) refused to go in any rooms alone. We had to escort them everywhere they went. The three of them insisted on sleeping in the same bedroom, and we had to sit nearby until they fell asleep. Would it be just a one-night thing? Oh, heck no. I'm anticipating months of this. Years, even. 

Since Sunday, Zoe has been asking in her prayers that someone will find the Bootlegger's head and return it to the Bootlegger's body so he will stop haunting the cave. I guess we'll see if it turns up sometime. I think Scotty would love to be the one to find it. He just needs to get himself to Clark County, Idaho.