Thank you all for stopping by and reading my posts, and for sharing on you social media.
Have a spooky, kooky and not to crazy 2024 ๐ฅณ
๐ป๐ฆ๐ง♀️๐ง♂️๐ง๐ง♀️๐บ๐
๐๐๐ฅ๐๐
Happy New Year.๐๐
๐ฆM.
Just after midnight on Christmas Eve in 1945, Jennie Sodder awoke to the smell of smoke. She quickly discovered that the Fayetteville, West Virginia, home she shared with her husband, George, and nine of their children, was ablaze. When the fire department arrived seven hours later, the two-story framed house had burned to the ground — and five Sodder children were missing.
The ultimate fate of the five young children is still unknown, but their family never saw them again, and their remains were never found in the ashes of their ruined home.
The siblings’ older brothers, John, 23, and George Jr., 16, and their father had gone to bed early that Christmas Eve, tired from a long day working at George’s coal trucking business. The younger children, however, were allowed to stay up late to play with the toys their older sister, Mary Ann “Marion” Sodder, 17, had bought them for Christmas. Their mother took the youngest child, 3-year-old Sylvia, to bed with her at around 10:30 p.m., telling Maurice and Louis to attend to the cows and chickens.
Joe Sodder, 21, had been discharged from the Army the day before the fire and was the only one of the 10 Sodder children not home.
At about 1 a.m., Jennie bolted out of bed when she smelled smoke and saw flames in her husband’s office, blocking her from reaching the phone. She told Marion, who had fallen asleep on the couch to take Sylvia outside while she and George frantically tried to save the rest of the children. George Jr. and John, who said he woke his siblings — but later updated his account, saying that he had only shouted at them — ran downstairs. Fire engulfed the staircase to the attic where the children slept, preventing their father from going upstairs. The fact that no one heard them crying out was one of the reasons the Sodders later believed they might not have been in their bedroom at all.
At the time, however, George desperately tried other ways to get to his children. He was unsuccessful for two peculiar reason ls. First, a ladder that normally stood by the house wasn’t there. He and his sons then tried to move his trucks against the house, hoping to reach the upper floor by standing on top of them, but they couldn’t get them started.
Although authorities determined that the children — Maurice, 14; Martha, 12; Louis, 10; Jennie Irene, 8; and Betty, 5 — had died in the fire, their family disputed the finding and never gave up searching for them.
Even if Jennie had been able to reach the family’s telephone, she couldn’t have placed a call: The line had been cut. George Bragg, a local writer and researcher, told NPR in a 2005 interview that a man later admitted that he had cut them — and during the fire was in an outbuilding on the Sodders’ property stealing a block and tackle (used to remove car engines). While there is speculation that he set the fire as a diversion, it’s also possible he took advantage of the family’s distraction to take the equipment. Still, neither the thief nor anyone else was ever charged with arson in the catastrophic fire.
The phone was working just after midnight, Jennie later said. Its ringing was the first of three separate strange events, including the smoke, that had awakened her. The caller asked to speak to someone Jennie didn’t know. After she replied that they must have the wrong number, the caller responded with what Jennie described as a strange laugh.
Half an hour later, Jennie heard “something like a rubber ball” hit the roof. “It rolled and hit the ground with a thump,” she said.
At the time, it didn’t worry her, and she fell back asleep again. But a passing bus driver (or passenger ) described having seen “balls of fire” being thrown on the tar and wood roof, where it was determined the fire had started. Sylvia later found a rubber object in the yard, the family claimed, that George identified as a type of hand grenade.
Death certificates for the children were issued on Dec. 30, five days after the fire. The cause of death for each was listed as “fire or suffocation.” Although George and Jennie Sodder later insisted otherwise, a journalist who covered the story for NPR said four people had reported seeing remains — including one of Jennie’s brothers. If so, they weren’t collected or included in official records.
George Sodder himself may have unintentionally destroyed evidence that his children had died. On Dec. 29, he brought in a bulldozer to fill the basement with dirt in order to create a memorial for them. At the time, the grieving family did not doubt the officials’ determination that the five children did not survive. Only later would John reportedly admit that he hadn’t actually seen or heard his five siblings respond when he warned them to escape as he and George Jr. fled.
In the “burial, cremation, or removal” section of the children’s death certificates, “burial” is selected with the date of Dec. 27. The Sodders’ address is listed as the “cemetery.” though no actual body's could be found.
The Sodder children we're never seen again and now nearly a century after the tragedy that destroyed their family the mystery remains, what really happened to the Sodder Family?
Because of so many odd events surrounding the fire and the Sodder children's disappearance's, the case immediately captured the public eye and is still one of the greatest mysteries of the early 20th century.
After only 45 minutes the five bedroom home had burned to nothing but ash leaving only the foundation.
The true fate of the family will likely never be solved and decades from now people will still find this mystery as perplexing as we do now
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Namahage
็ๅ
ใชใพใฏใ
Namahage
Japan is full of fascinating legends and folklore, yokai, oni, fox spirit's and so much more.
Today's post is about a norther mountain dwelling creature called Namahage.
While the name namahage is unique to Akita Prefecture, very similar yลkai are known by many different local names in neighboring regions: in Yamagata Prefecture they are known as amahage, in Ishikawa Prefecture they are known as amamehagi, and in Fukui Prefecture they are known as appossha. What they are called just depending on the region the story is being told,
They are Oni like yลkai that live in the mountains along the northern coast of the Sea of Japan.
They look like oni, with bright red or blue skin, wild hair and eyes, large mouths full of sharp teeth, and usually have horns coming from their forehead.
They wear straw leggings and raincoats, and carry large blades.
Once a year, during koshลgatsu the first full moon of the New Year the namahage come down from the mountains to scare villagers.
They go from door to door and brandishing their knives, saying things like, “Any bad kids here?”
They particularly enjoy scaring young children and new brides.
Despite their frightful appearance and behavior, they are actually well-meaning yลkai.
They are sent down from the mountain as messengers of the gods to warn and chastise those who have been lazy or wicked.
The name namahage comes from another taunt the namahage use: “Have your blisters peeled yet?” In the cold winter months, a lazy person who spent all of his or her time in front of the fireplace would get blisters from being too close to the heat for too long.
Namomi is a regional name for these heat blisters, and hagu means to peel.
The combination of those words became namahage.
Today, the namahage play a major part in New Year’s festivities in Akita Prefecture (old Dewa Province).
Villagers dress up in straw raincoats and leggings, wear oni masks, and wield large knives. They go from house to house and play the part of namahage.
Residents visited by these namahage give presents such as mochi to their “guests,” while the namahage chastise kids and warn them to be good. Newlywed couples
are also harassed by these namahage.
They are expected to give an account of all of the evil deeds they did during their first year together, as well as serve sake and food to the namahage before sending them off.
Just a quick message, I hope you all had a great Christmas and I wish you a safe and fun New year !!
Thank you for all the views and shares I really appreciate it !
๐ฆHappy New Year ๐ฆ
M๐ฆ
---Harionago---
-- Barbed Haired OR Hook Haired woman--
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My first post of 2021, this month's posts will mostly be Yokai :)
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Japan the Land of the rising sun, is full of fascinating myths and legends with yokai of all shapes and sizes.
Today's post is about a long haired fem-fatal called the Harionago.
She's a Human like yokai that is considered very dangerous.
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Alternative spellings...
Harionago, and in some areas Harionna ...
This long haired vixen is as dangerous as she is beautiful, those unfortunate enough to encounter her
often meet an unfortunate and painful end..
The Harionago is believed to resemble a beautiful young woman with very long hair..
However, unbeknownst to her potential victims her hair is tipped with extremely sharp thorn-like barbs.
She has full control of her hair, and she can use it to lash out like a whip, wrap around a foot
to trip you or simply use it to ensnare her target.
She is believed to wander the roads of the Ehime prefecture in Japan on the island of Shikoku.
When she finds a young man to her liking, she will laugh at him, and if the man laugh back,
she will drop her barbed hair and quickly attack.
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She is a fast and rather fearsome yokai, not only for the speed f her attack's but also for the
fact that at first glance she looks just like any other girl with long hair.
Her favorite haunts are the dark road of Shikoku late at night, She looks like young woman
with loose and somewhat disheveled hair.
However with a closer look, the tip of each of her hairs are fitted with a needle-like
barbed hook , unfortunately if you are close enough to her to to notice the hooks, it is
probably already too late for you.
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She wanders the streets always in searching of new victims, her favorite victim is usually young
single men walking home alone late at night.
If she takes an interest in a passerby, she smiles at him. (or sometimes giggle) If the smile
back or acknowledges her, she will attacks... she lets her hair down, and the barbed ends
lash out with unimaginable speed and seemingly a will of their own though she can control them at will.
The barb's begin sinking deep into her victim’s flesh.
Her hair strength is said to be comparable to steel cables, it is so strong that even the
strongest man can be easily overpowered by her hooks.
Once her victim is ensnared and rendered helpless, she rips him into pieces with her hooks
and then eats the remains.
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If you are relatively fit, and your home is VERY close to where you encounter the Haironago, you
may have a very slime chance to escape her.
If you do manage to somehow escape her grasp, she will still chance you and continue to try and break into your home.
Like most Yokai she will vanish at sunrise, so if you can survive her attack until then you will be safe.
However you may need to buy a new front door as the old one will have large gouges and slashes taken out of it from her vicious attack.
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So the next time your out late be cautious of whom you interact with, and maybe don't try to pick up strange girls you just meet lol.
