The Black Tapes FF Notes
Jun. 19th, 2018 05:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aftanithElements of the Black Tapes
The Theme Song
oh my lord here's a just reward
bring me my devil
just behind the door
she said
and flies down the road like thunder
and we'll go flying through the kingdom of the universe
if you get there first
fly away
fly away
The Sagamore | http://theblacktapes.wikia.com/wiki/The_Sagamore
The Sagamore is a hotel-resort in New York State. There have been numerous claims of hauntings, including lights flickering and deep rumbling sounds. Dr. Richard Strand tells Alex he's debunked the stories surrounding it, but hesitates before he says it. When someone mentions The Sagamore in audio recorded during a panel Dr. Strand participated in, a low rumbling sound is heard and then the power cuts out.
The Black Tapes
In S1E1, there are around a dozen tapes. The Tall Paul videos are both on "tape one".
Tall Paul
it looks like a tall man wearing a hat, but its proportions are all wrong
extremely thin; could be mistaken for a tree if not for obvious humanoid limbs
fingers as long as Alex's forearms
first tape: "Bobby" Torres' fifth birthday party (forty years ago) in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
second tape: Robert Torres' wedding in San Francisco three years before Alex sees the tape
Maria Torres claims she has seen the shadow near Sebastian (Robert/Maria's son) five, six, or seven times; it's the reason they broke up (Sebastian lives with her).
Maria doesn't take photographs or videos of Sebastian anymore and destroyed all she had, because "Tall Paul" appeared in every one. (An unrelated photographer confirms seeing mysterious dark smudges in both of Sebastian's school pictures.)
A face like the monk in the "Scream" painting was drawn onto the back of Sebastian's closet (but Alex says it could easily be mistaken for a nasty mold spot). Maria insists that Sebastian didn't do it (because he's a "good boy", which I find really disturbing).
Sebastian refers to "Tall Paul" as his friend (and gives it? that name). He says it doesn't like him to talk about it, but that it's okay to talk to Alex about it because she can see it, too.
RICHARD STRAND
One of the other paranormal investigators calls him "more of a writer" than a scientist.
Maria Torres implies that Strand had a "team" when he last met her three years ago.
Why does Strand reach out to Alex again after their fight in episode two? Alex suggested it was because he wanted publicity either for himself or his upcoming book. (He says it's to promote skepticism.)
When Alex and Strand were having coffee one day, Strand "left briefly to visit the bathroom" while Alex's phone was sitting on the table. A video was taken during which someone off-screen said "he's not who you think".
In-universe, Strand gets pissed because people keep focusing on him personally instead of actual skepticism; he calls her out on her lack of journalistic integrity in episode 106 (and it's glorious), and then quits (only temporarily, unfortunately).
ALEX REAGAN
There is a very persistent theme of Alex operating unethically.
Alex offered to keep that first bit of info about Strand's marital status (and his related lie to Robert Torres) private. Since then, though, she's repeatedly violated his privacy to get the personal details she's after. (Eventually, she's as obsessed with Strand as Jeff was obsessed with the Unsound; perhaps there's something to that?)
She also admits several times that she "wants to believe".
HASTUR RISING
Jeff Wendt's band is Hastur Rising; see if I can use that bit of Lovecraft. (His suicide is how Alex learned of the Unsound, via Keith Dabic.)
The members of the band were Jeff, Keith, Mike, and Rory. Keith says Mike and Rory weren't really into the occult stuff; it was just a gimmick for them. Mike and Rory quit music entirely after Jeff's suicide, and they don't want anything to do with the Black Tapes podcast.
Keith was the one who originally found the Unsound on the Deep Web. He was also the one who proposes the idea of using occult bullshit as a band gimmick. And Jeff took it, apparently, as a religious awakening.
The Unsound was brought to Keith's attention by a fan at a bar who sent him to the Deep Web via Tor, and when Keith found the Sound he shared it with the band.
A while after that, Jeff played Keith a blank track that he claimed wasn't blank (something to do with a sound that God can't hear, perhaps?). Jeff said Keith just had to try harder to hear it, and it's implied that it's something Jeff extracted from the Unsound, which he'd been "experimenting with".
Keith killed by himself by hammering a butter knife through his chest with a polo mallet. Seems extreme; why go that far, instead of just shooting himself or slitting his throat? (Maybe it had to do with specifically stabbing himself in the heart?)
Keith says he heard the Sound nine months ago and expects to die within the next three; he obviously believes in the curse of the Unsound.
THE UNSOUND
Everyone who hears it is supposed to die within one year of initial exposure.
One of Strand's former assistants' names was Travis Collinwood. Supposedly, he was interested in conspiracy theories; he first introduced Strand to the Unsound in 2005, and Strand says he was obsessed with it. Travis died four months after leaving the Strand Institute. (Strand might not even know, Alex says.) He was "hit by a cyclist and thrown into a bus", dying instantly.
Strand says the Unsound samples have been studied already. (Professionally? By Internet nerds? Probably the later.)
The Unsound has also been referred to as "the Devil's note," and it supposedly summons/invites a demon(s) into the world.
"The Unsound is his voice, gently asking the listener to invite him into our world." The "he" here being an Archdemon.
In one myth, the Unsound came into existence when Satan was cast down into Hell. As he fell, he created "some kind of musical back door", "something sonic that would allow Satan and his minions back into the world without God knowing". Supposedly, God would be unable to hear this sound.
It's also rumored to have been created by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Aleister Crowley himself, or the Freemasons.
"A year of research" on the Unsound lead Strand to the story of the Antarctic outpost. Their instruments picked up the Unsound, and they all died within the year. (Strand proposes that the myth came from them.)
The Black Tapes published the Unsound on 6/2/2015 in their third episode. Alex must have listened to it before that, and she says she listened to it many times. She says she feels like she's hearing it differently every time she listens. She proposes that "maybe everybody hears something different, something unique to their own experience". (Going off the theory that it's the Archdemon "gently asking the listener to invite him into the world", perhaps it seems to be changing because it is; perhaps the Archdemon is saying something different each time, tailoring his words to what he thinks will most affect you at the given moment.)
Dr. Michael Pullman also hears the sound prior to the episode's release as well, because Alex had him examine the sound. He claims it's a low frequency wave--they shouldn't be able to hear it, but they do. He thinks it's an organic voice.
The theory is proposed (by a Bible scholar who's clearly not a Bible scholar because he keeps saying "Revelations" instead of "Revelation") that the Unsound is a portal to hell (but the man who proposes the theory dismisses the idea of the recording being genuine).
Jeff's WIP track had the Unsound hidden within, and he's been seeding a torrent of the file (at least since he died; it's possible that was the last thing he did before he died). It's been downloaded over six million times.
CORALEE STRAND
She went missing under mysterious circumstances in 1997.
Coralee went missing when they "were driving down the coast to Big Sur". They stopped at a gas station, Strand went in to pay, and when he came back, she was gone. (Was Strand's daughter in the car?)
Strand was the prime suspect in Coralee's disappearance, and her parents were convinced he'd done it. (Her father hates him for being an atheist and is completely convinced she was murdered by Strand; her mother, however, thinks she's still alive.)
He also assaulted a psychic who had been hired (by who?) to look into the disappearance. The psychic was a woman, and she dropped the criminal charges against him. (They settled a civil suit out of court.) This actually does plant an early seed for the "Strand might be psychic" subplot, but I genuinely hate that subplot, so think of something else for this detail? Or just fucking ignore it.
After the police moved on from Strand, their primary focus became a serial killer active in the area.
Coralee's mother claims she received a post card from Coralee; her husband thinks she's being ridiculous.
Coralee's father claims Coralee planned to divorce Strand; Coralee's mother dismisses the notion, saying "divorce was never on the table". Coralee's mother says their relationship issues were because Coralee wanted to have kids of her own, and Strand was content without having more; he already had a daughter, Charlie, born to a woman from Canada. (It's unknown whether that woman was an ex-wife.)
Coralee's father is the one to break the news that after Coralee's disappearance, Strand disappears for five full days.
A recording of her voice was published by Alex and Nic at Pacific Northwest Stories four years before the Black Tapes came out. A cyclist found the tape on the side of the road, and fifteen years later, his daughter sent that tape in to PNWS. The tape deteriorated over time, but the digitized recording of the excerpt used in that PNWS episode. In the tape, Coralee discusses leaving a relationship by "straying further" in order to come back and "extend love". The tape breaks off abruptly when someone Coralee refers to as Warren calls her name.
THE UPSIDE DOWN FACE
Alex is introduced to the myth via the Black Tape explored in episode 104. There is a tape in which a hooded figure approaches a young woman; the young woman, Fiona DeNevers, looks terrified and then "crumbles". (First responders found her unconscious from an apparent heart attack; at only twenty-three, she died "just over a year" before the release of the episode.) The hooded figure then walks off to the right.
Strand tells Alex that the town where it happened, Charlesworth, Virginia, celebrates the Festival of the Upside Down Face, a macabre festival based the urban legend of the murder of Catherine Williams in 1957. She was killed by Sarah Benning, who had been bullied mercilessly by Catherine and her friends, and had exacted her revenge by slitting Catherine’s throat, cutting off her face, and sewing it back on upside down. Wilson Pepper, a hotel owner, came up with the idea for the bizarre festival in 1985, after Charlesworth had fallen off the list as one of the most haunted places in the U.S. Strand says that the legend that has since developed is that Catherine’s ghost haunts the town as a reminder of what the group of girls did to Sarah Benning. Alex convinces Strand to attend the festival with her the next day.
Fiona's older sister, Crystal, lives in Sacramento with her family and works as an elementary school teacher. Their grandmother was a friend of the murdered homecoming queen, and rumor has it that the ghost/zombie has been haunting and/or hunting the descendants of those who tormented her in life.
Crystal claims that the myth is wrong: Sarah didn't sow Catherine's face upside down onto Catherine's skull; she sowed Catherine's face upside down on top of her own. She also claims that her grandmother saw Sarah more than once, and that's how she knew Sarah was wearing Catherine's face; during one of the appearances, Sarah took it off and showed it to her. (Crystal's grandmother later committed suicide by jumping off the roof.)
It's also rumored that it's not the ghost of Sarah Benning; it's "Sarah Benning herself", whatever that means. (Both her and Catherine's graves were robbed, and their bodies were missing; that's where the legend came from. It's presumed, however, that it was sick promotion for the festival.)
THE EXORCISM OF JESSICA WHELDON
In another of the Black Tapes (this one featured in 105), a twelve-year-old girl named Jessica Wheldon underwent a Christian exorcism; it took four men to hold her down when she supposedly demonstrated "demonic" strength. (Strand says she was merely strong for her age, which is a little silly; hysterical strength makes more sense.)
Strand witnessed the exorcism in person; he was the one filming.
The exorcist claims he exorcised a "Grigori" from Wheldon. The priest who performed the exorcism was Father Peter Vincent, who, during his interview with Alex, says, "Careful around him. He's everywhere, and he's watching." (Alex first thinks he's talking about Strand; Vincent denies this.) He also tells her, "They watch, and they wait, and they know when you're looking for them. You don't want to find them." / "This Watcher is unique among them. This one is crueler and toys with us." He denies he's talking about Satan; "No, not Satan; the other one." (Strand immediately assumes he's talking about something called "the Elemental", and Vincent confirms. Alex is as fucking baffled as I am.)
Vincent says a recording of another exorcism of this "Elemental" might be found in the possession of one Bishop Thornton, if it exists.
When they returned for another interview with Vincent, he had been moved to a different care facility, supposedly because of his family's wishes and his own health, but it's rather suspicious that they refused to tell Alex/Strand where Vincent was removed to.
BRAYDEN COURT
"He looked like a librarian."
He claims he and Coralee were going to get married before she met Strand. He accuses Strand of being a liar, and implies that because Strand is an atheist, no one should deign to associate with him. Okayyyy.
Despite Alex's suspicions, however, he left her only a voicemail; he did not make that mysterious video on her phone.
Strand claims Brayden is delusional; Coralee had "an indiscretion" with him "one night", but she was never his girlfriend or fiance. He also claims she later got a restraining order against him.
SIMON REESE
Alex is contacted by one of Simon's caretakers ("healthcare manager") at the mental hospital (Three Rivers State Hospital in Idaho), Fred Barnes.
PNWS did a segment on Simon during a show about false imprisonment in 2008. Why is PNWS so ubiquitous in these Black Tapes cases?
"When Simon was eleven, he was charged with murdering both his parents. Apparently he stabbed them to death in their beds while they slept. [...] Simon was a selective mute, which of course complicated things. His defense team claimed there was no way he could have murdered his parents. There was no blood on his clothing, which makes no sense given the circumstances and the geography of the house. Also, there was the question: how could he stab his mother with his father sleeping right beside her? In the end, the judge ruled that Simon was criminally insane. He's been in Three Rivers State Hospital since the trial. He's eighteen now." -quoth Nic
Simon would only answer yes and no questions by tapping. One tap for us, two taps for no. Supposedly, trauma made Simon completely mute; before his parent's deaths, he was merely selectively mute.
In the old PNWS interview, Simon answered that yes, he was there the night his parents died; yes/no, he was in the room when his parents died; yes/no, he saw the murders take place; yes, he was both in the room and not the room; yes, he was in two places at once. And then he started tapping regardless of the questions (perhaps answering someone other than the interviewer who the interviewer couldn't hear?)
Simon was accused of attacking another patient at the hospital, but he was on camera in his own room at the time.
The Theme Song
oh my lord here's a just reward
bring me my devil
just behind the door
she said
and flies down the road like thunder
and we'll go flying through the kingdom of the universe
if you get there first
fly away
fly away
The Sagamore | http://theblacktapes.wikia.com/wiki/The_Sagamore
The Sagamore is a hotel-resort in New York State. There have been numerous claims of hauntings, including lights flickering and deep rumbling sounds. Dr. Richard Strand tells Alex he's debunked the stories surrounding it, but hesitates before he says it. When someone mentions The Sagamore in audio recorded during a panel Dr. Strand participated in, a low rumbling sound is heard and then the power cuts out.
The Black Tapes
In S1E1, there are around a dozen tapes. The Tall Paul videos are both on "tape one".
Tall Paul
it looks like a tall man wearing a hat, but its proportions are all wrong
extremely thin; could be mistaken for a tree if not for obvious humanoid limbs
fingers as long as Alex's forearms
first tape: "Bobby" Torres' fifth birthday party (forty years ago) in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
second tape: Robert Torres' wedding in San Francisco three years before Alex sees the tape
Maria Torres claims she has seen the shadow near Sebastian (Robert/Maria's son) five, six, or seven times; it's the reason they broke up (Sebastian lives with her).
Maria doesn't take photographs or videos of Sebastian anymore and destroyed all she had, because "Tall Paul" appeared in every one. (An unrelated photographer confirms seeing mysterious dark smudges in both of Sebastian's school pictures.)
A face like the monk in the "Scream" painting was drawn onto the back of Sebastian's closet (but Alex says it could easily be mistaken for a nasty mold spot). Maria insists that Sebastian didn't do it (because he's a "good boy", which I find really disturbing).
Sebastian refers to "Tall Paul" as his friend (and gives it? that name). He says it doesn't like him to talk about it, but that it's okay to talk to Alex about it because she can see it, too.
RICHARD STRAND
One of the other paranormal investigators calls him "more of a writer" than a scientist.
Maria Torres implies that Strand had a "team" when he last met her three years ago.
Why does Strand reach out to Alex again after their fight in episode two? Alex suggested it was because he wanted publicity either for himself or his upcoming book. (He says it's to promote skepticism.)
When Alex and Strand were having coffee one day, Strand "left briefly to visit the bathroom" while Alex's phone was sitting on the table. A video was taken during which someone off-screen said "he's not who you think".
In-universe, Strand gets pissed because people keep focusing on him personally instead of actual skepticism; he calls her out on her lack of journalistic integrity in episode 106 (and it's glorious), and then quits (only temporarily, unfortunately).
ALEX REAGAN
There is a very persistent theme of Alex operating unethically.
Alex offered to keep that first bit of info about Strand's marital status (and his related lie to Robert Torres) private. Since then, though, she's repeatedly violated his privacy to get the personal details she's after. (Eventually, she's as obsessed with Strand as Jeff was obsessed with the Unsound; perhaps there's something to that?)
She also admits several times that she "wants to believe".
HASTUR RISING
Jeff Wendt's band is Hastur Rising; see if I can use that bit of Lovecraft. (His suicide is how Alex learned of the Unsound, via Keith Dabic.)
The members of the band were Jeff, Keith, Mike, and Rory. Keith says Mike and Rory weren't really into the occult stuff; it was just a gimmick for them. Mike and Rory quit music entirely after Jeff's suicide, and they don't want anything to do with the Black Tapes podcast.
Keith was the one who originally found the Unsound on the Deep Web. He was also the one who proposes the idea of using occult bullshit as a band gimmick. And Jeff took it, apparently, as a religious awakening.
The Unsound was brought to Keith's attention by a fan at a bar who sent him to the Deep Web via Tor, and when Keith found the Sound he shared it with the band.
A while after that, Jeff played Keith a blank track that he claimed wasn't blank (something to do with a sound that God can't hear, perhaps?). Jeff said Keith just had to try harder to hear it, and it's implied that it's something Jeff extracted from the Unsound, which he'd been "experimenting with".
Keith killed by himself by hammering a butter knife through his chest with a polo mallet. Seems extreme; why go that far, instead of just shooting himself or slitting his throat? (Maybe it had to do with specifically stabbing himself in the heart?)
Keith says he heard the Sound nine months ago and expects to die within the next three; he obviously believes in the curse of the Unsound.
THE UNSOUND
Everyone who hears it is supposed to die within one year of initial exposure.
One of Strand's former assistants' names was Travis Collinwood. Supposedly, he was interested in conspiracy theories; he first introduced Strand to the Unsound in 2005, and Strand says he was obsessed with it. Travis died four months after leaving the Strand Institute. (Strand might not even know, Alex says.) He was "hit by a cyclist and thrown into a bus", dying instantly.
Strand says the Unsound samples have been studied already. (Professionally? By Internet nerds? Probably the later.)
The Unsound has also been referred to as "the Devil's note," and it supposedly summons/invites a demon(s) into the world.
"The Unsound is his voice, gently asking the listener to invite him into our world." The "he" here being an Archdemon.
In one myth, the Unsound came into existence when Satan was cast down into Hell. As he fell, he created "some kind of musical back door", "something sonic that would allow Satan and his minions back into the world without God knowing". Supposedly, God would be unable to hear this sound.
It's also rumored to have been created by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Aleister Crowley himself, or the Freemasons.
"A year of research" on the Unsound lead Strand to the story of the Antarctic outpost. Their instruments picked up the Unsound, and they all died within the year. (Strand proposes that the myth came from them.)
The Black Tapes published the Unsound on 6/2/2015 in their third episode. Alex must have listened to it before that, and she says she listened to it many times. She says she feels like she's hearing it differently every time she listens. She proposes that "maybe everybody hears something different, something unique to their own experience". (Going off the theory that it's the Archdemon "gently asking the listener to invite him into the world", perhaps it seems to be changing because it is; perhaps the Archdemon is saying something different each time, tailoring his words to what he thinks will most affect you at the given moment.)
Dr. Michael Pullman also hears the sound prior to the episode's release as well, because Alex had him examine the sound. He claims it's a low frequency wave--they shouldn't be able to hear it, but they do. He thinks it's an organic voice.
The theory is proposed (by a Bible scholar who's clearly not a Bible scholar because he keeps saying "Revelations" instead of "Revelation") that the Unsound is a portal to hell (but the man who proposes the theory dismisses the idea of the recording being genuine).
Jeff's WIP track had the Unsound hidden within, and he's been seeding a torrent of the file (at least since he died; it's possible that was the last thing he did before he died). It's been downloaded over six million times.
CORALEE STRAND
She went missing under mysterious circumstances in 1997.
Coralee went missing when they "were driving down the coast to Big Sur". They stopped at a gas station, Strand went in to pay, and when he came back, she was gone. (Was Strand's daughter in the car?)
Strand was the prime suspect in Coralee's disappearance, and her parents were convinced he'd done it. (Her father hates him for being an atheist and is completely convinced she was murdered by Strand; her mother, however, thinks she's still alive.)
He also assaulted a psychic who had been hired (by who?) to look into the disappearance. The psychic was a woman, and she dropped the criminal charges against him. (They settled a civil suit out of court.) This actually does plant an early seed for the "Strand might be psychic" subplot, but I genuinely hate that subplot, so think of something else for this detail? Or just fucking ignore it.
After the police moved on from Strand, their primary focus became a serial killer active in the area.
Coralee's mother claims she received a post card from Coralee; her husband thinks she's being ridiculous.
Coralee's father claims Coralee planned to divorce Strand; Coralee's mother dismisses the notion, saying "divorce was never on the table". Coralee's mother says their relationship issues were because Coralee wanted to have kids of her own, and Strand was content without having more; he already had a daughter, Charlie, born to a woman from Canada. (It's unknown whether that woman was an ex-wife.)
Coralee's father is the one to break the news that after Coralee's disappearance, Strand disappears for five full days.
A recording of her voice was published by Alex and Nic at Pacific Northwest Stories four years before the Black Tapes came out. A cyclist found the tape on the side of the road, and fifteen years later, his daughter sent that tape in to PNWS. The tape deteriorated over time, but the digitized recording of the excerpt used in that PNWS episode. In the tape, Coralee discusses leaving a relationship by "straying further" in order to come back and "extend love". The tape breaks off abruptly when someone Coralee refers to as Warren calls her name.
THE UPSIDE DOWN FACE
Alex is introduced to the myth via the Black Tape explored in episode 104. There is a tape in which a hooded figure approaches a young woman; the young woman, Fiona DeNevers, looks terrified and then "crumbles". (First responders found her unconscious from an apparent heart attack; at only twenty-three, she died "just over a year" before the release of the episode.) The hooded figure then walks off to the right.
Strand tells Alex that the town where it happened, Charlesworth, Virginia, celebrates the Festival of the Upside Down Face, a macabre festival based the urban legend of the murder of Catherine Williams in 1957. She was killed by Sarah Benning, who had been bullied mercilessly by Catherine and her friends, and had exacted her revenge by slitting Catherine’s throat, cutting off her face, and sewing it back on upside down. Wilson Pepper, a hotel owner, came up with the idea for the bizarre festival in 1985, after Charlesworth had fallen off the list as one of the most haunted places in the U.S. Strand says that the legend that has since developed is that Catherine’s ghost haunts the town as a reminder of what the group of girls did to Sarah Benning. Alex convinces Strand to attend the festival with her the next day.
Fiona's older sister, Crystal, lives in Sacramento with her family and works as an elementary school teacher. Their grandmother was a friend of the murdered homecoming queen, and rumor has it that the ghost/zombie has been haunting and/or hunting the descendants of those who tormented her in life.
Crystal claims that the myth is wrong: Sarah didn't sow Catherine's face upside down onto Catherine's skull; she sowed Catherine's face upside down on top of her own. She also claims that her grandmother saw Sarah more than once, and that's how she knew Sarah was wearing Catherine's face; during one of the appearances, Sarah took it off and showed it to her. (Crystal's grandmother later committed suicide by jumping off the roof.)
It's also rumored that it's not the ghost of Sarah Benning; it's "Sarah Benning herself", whatever that means. (Both her and Catherine's graves were robbed, and their bodies were missing; that's where the legend came from. It's presumed, however, that it was sick promotion for the festival.)
THE EXORCISM OF JESSICA WHELDON
In another of the Black Tapes (this one featured in 105), a twelve-year-old girl named Jessica Wheldon underwent a Christian exorcism; it took four men to hold her down when she supposedly demonstrated "demonic" strength. (Strand says she was merely strong for her age, which is a little silly; hysterical strength makes more sense.)
Strand witnessed the exorcism in person; he was the one filming.
The exorcist claims he exorcised a "Grigori" from Wheldon. The priest who performed the exorcism was Father Peter Vincent, who, during his interview with Alex, says, "Careful around him. He's everywhere, and he's watching." (Alex first thinks he's talking about Strand; Vincent denies this.) He also tells her, "They watch, and they wait, and they know when you're looking for them. You don't want to find them." / "This Watcher is unique among them. This one is crueler and toys with us." He denies he's talking about Satan; "No, not Satan; the other one." (Strand immediately assumes he's talking about something called "the Elemental", and Vincent confirms. Alex is as fucking baffled as I am.)
Vincent says a recording of another exorcism of this "Elemental" might be found in the possession of one Bishop Thornton, if it exists.
When they returned for another interview with Vincent, he had been moved to a different care facility, supposedly because of his family's wishes and his own health, but it's rather suspicious that they refused to tell Alex/Strand where Vincent was removed to.
BRAYDEN COURT
"He looked like a librarian."
He claims he and Coralee were going to get married before she met Strand. He accuses Strand of being a liar, and implies that because Strand is an atheist, no one should deign to associate with him. Okayyyy.
Despite Alex's suspicions, however, he left her only a voicemail; he did not make that mysterious video on her phone.
Strand claims Brayden is delusional; Coralee had "an indiscretion" with him "one night", but she was never his girlfriend or fiance. He also claims she later got a restraining order against him.
SIMON REESE
Alex is contacted by one of Simon's caretakers ("healthcare manager") at the mental hospital (Three Rivers State Hospital in Idaho), Fred Barnes.
PNWS did a segment on Simon during a show about false imprisonment in 2008. Why is PNWS so ubiquitous in these Black Tapes cases?
"When Simon was eleven, he was charged with murdering both his parents. Apparently he stabbed them to death in their beds while they slept. [...] Simon was a selective mute, which of course complicated things. His defense team claimed there was no way he could have murdered his parents. There was no blood on his clothing, which makes no sense given the circumstances and the geography of the house. Also, there was the question: how could he stab his mother with his father sleeping right beside her? In the end, the judge ruled that Simon was criminally insane. He's been in Three Rivers State Hospital since the trial. He's eighteen now." -quoth Nic
Simon would only answer yes and no questions by tapping. One tap for us, two taps for no. Supposedly, trauma made Simon completely mute; before his parent's deaths, he was merely selectively mute.
In the old PNWS interview, Simon answered that yes, he was there the night his parents died; yes/no, he was in the room when his parents died; yes/no, he saw the murders take place; yes, he was both in the room and not the room; yes, he was in two places at once. And then he started tapping regardless of the questions (perhaps answering someone other than the interviewer who the interviewer couldn't hear?)
Simon was accused of attacking another patient at the hospital, but he was on camera in his own room at the time.
