You're entering another world. One just a few feet beyond the safe blow of the street light, out into the duck. One slight step off the edge of the map, into the land of monsters. Today's tale. Three intrepid podcasters stumble across a story more real and more disturbing than they could have ever imagined. In partnership with Stuff they Don't Want you to Know, presents the tale of the University six. From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies, History is riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A production of I Heart Radio. Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Mark, my name is Neil. They call me Bill. Today we're continuing our previous exploration of the so called University six. Folks. Please check out part one before joining us for part two. This story is part mystery, it's possibly cover up and just baby, part paranormal, at least that's what some folks are alleging now. Mark, Neil and I initially received notice of this story from a source or possibly sources that wish to remain anonymous, and as we dove into what they had sent us, we started to seriously wonder about this person or these people's identities. Here are the facts, as we talked about before, were this, Uh, the case of the University six is it occurs in a real place out there in Pennsylvania. Right. The Homestead State School and Hospital was built just a couple of miles outside of the appropriately named Hazard, Pennsylvania, over the course of five years from nineteen o three in nineteen o eight. Uh. And as we talked about in the last episode, the history of mental health more like mental health care I suppose, or really it's kind of a misnomer in America is super fraught, um. And a lot of these institutions were the site of terrible abuses by people in power who should have been taking care of those in their charge. Yeah. And we talked about the human experimentation that a lot of patients were subjected to when staying at one of those places. And uh, you know, as we as we dove into the this issue, we talked about how this concept of the University six really has been urban legend, I mean for as long as we've known about it, right, Yeah, And you run into this often any region of the world you travel to any community is going to have their own local lore, you know what I mean, Just like how parts of New Jersey at the Jersey Devil, Just like how West Virginia has Mothman or other cases of strange disappearances. You know dB Cooper out in the Pacific Northwest of folklore is alive and often there is a grain of truth to it. The University six were no different. For many, many years. This was a campfire story. The idea being that somewhere in the mid ninety nineties a group of students at a local university decided to do something a lot of people have done in the past, something that the three of us have done in the past. They went to see whether they could prove or disprove any of the any of the stories right, any of the urban legends around what is often called the Black Castle. So like when you guys were when you guys were growing up, did you ever encounter local legends or you know, spooky places. I think we talked about this a little bit in the past. I just never wanted to be a part of an urban legend like this, where you got you know, university students who are interested in who are actually actively investigating something, and then they disappear and you don't hear from again, and then it goes away, and then, as we said in the last episode, the local authorities don't even want to talk about it. Right. That was where the legend hit the light of investigation. I guess you could say, because, as you noted, Mark, we did reach out to local law enforcement. We looked into some of the footage we received from what we saw six college students from a local university, the ones who were called the university six, visited this place, this Black Castle, and according to all the official documentation we could find, their trail went cold from there. Uh. We were not able to contact any family members. We searched down a few possible contacts, but those folks just had you know, the same last name, right, They were just they they weren't related to these folks, And the police records that we were able to obtain we're also no help. Part of that is because so much time has passed. But someone, um, someone wanted us to find this. So we received, separately intogether a series of anonymous deliveries, um and they look like they look like found footage, like what you're describing, Neil they and there's a shaky camera, right, and it starts outside of something that very much appears to be the Homestead State School in hospital and then they go inside. And if you heard part one, then you see that things quickly seemed to go wrong. Right. What do we figure out? They're they're running late. There's someone named Emily, there's someone named Matt. They're trying to meet other people, other members of their cohort um. Is there anything else that's stuck out to you guys about the initial footage we received possible spooky clown siding. Maybe we don't know. We don't know if that's what it was, or if there there seems to be something in there. Because Emily in the first series, or like right in the beginning, they enter the actual area that we think is the Black Castle, she reports to have her leg grabbed. I guess um nothing is shown you know on the camera that was probably that may have been standing there right that grabbed her. But as the camera pans around, it appears to to show something by the stairs, but they don't investigate it any further. They just kind of keep moving on. Yeah, and we also looked into records from local universities, even community colleges, only to find that they had none of them. No one near hazard Pennsylvania had a record of student disappearances of this nature. In fact, they had no record of these students at all, which is another wrinkle to the story. We send footage the multiple institutions. One university did get back to us and called it a prank. H the head of the universe State listened to the footage, told us it was false, and then also said something that felt a little bit like a party line that would never, on principle, allow students to submit a project involving illegal activity. All rights reserved, yours, president of the university, and my illegal activity. We're talking about trespassing, right, I mean, this shouldn't be on those grounds without permission. Yeah, urban exploration, which we've talked about in the past. Uh, And I know, at least on my side, urban exploration is something near and dear to my heart. But of course it makes sense right that a university would deny co signing any sort of illegal activity or violation of the law. But also that makes you wonder. I don't know, I don't feel like any hall of learning I've been to ever kept that close of an eye on a project, whether a solo essay or whether a group work in the field. Um, I think they it seems like they were saying this talking point after the fact, right like after we progressed in questioning. Yeah, for sure, it does feel like a canned response. So then we reached out to different department heads because, as you know, folks, departments in universities and colleges across the world can often be siloed, meaning they can be their own fiefdoms, which means, and this is true that sometimes if you can't get an answer from the overall hierarchy, you can go to the head of a department. So we looked at the film department. We spoke with the uh oh gosh, we spoke was weird ones the geology department just in case, and this also that department barrel of laughs. Yes, they use emoji in their email, And almost everybody got back to us with pretty much the same response they had never heard of this story. The last one we're waiting on technically is the anthropology department. The chair of the anthropology department has yet to respond to our inquiries, and that can mean one of Anything's you know, maybe they're on vacation or look, does it. Does it strike you guys as weird that this is a piece of local lore, right, wouldn't the people who live in the area know the local lore a little better than you know, some random guys in Michigan who are recording a podcast. That's true, but it also kind of reminds me of a story we've covered pretty extensively about the Georgia guidestones over there in Alberton, Georgia, not too far from Atlanta. In our travels and conversations and research into that, oftentimes it seems like people that live outside of the area know about the things more than folks that live really close by. I think it oftentimes has to do with people that are's kind of the niche sort of circles of research, and it's easy to take it for granted. But people that live nearby these things sort of like living in New York City, you don't go see the Empire State buility. Yeah, maybe it's a thing where I've heard that story. Yeah, whatever, that thing that's near me, come on, tell me something new. Still, it seems relatively um relatively implausible, or at the very least surprising that very well read people, people who literally work at a university in the area, would somehow not have known about this. Every every every professor in West Virginia who's been there for more than a semester is gonna be aware of moth Man. They might not be an expert, they might not have seen the statue or gone to point pleasant, but they're not going to stonewall you. They're not going to be surprised and say, what do you mean some sort of moth that's also a man, or some sort of man changes into a moth. They'll just go moth man. Yeah, So I think it was surprising though to you guys point I think I think it's surprising that people seem entirely unaware of this, But it seems it's still it seems implausible, right, It's hard to believe so long time listeners after being stone walled by both local law enforcement and local academia, if you want to call it that, we were at an impass until that is, we were received a new set of recordings. What are we talking about, We'll tell you after a word from our sponsors. Here's where it gets crazy. So we talked about how this does sound odd, But folks, you may not know this off air after we recorded part one. Uh, Neil, you actually received another package. Mark, I believe you received something identical or very similar. Yeah, And as we said in episode one, we received these things in these unmarked packages, no return address, no information, and inside each one there is a USB drive, and on those USB drives there are I would describe them as snippets of a videotape from a while ago and older. It was probably a physical video tape that had been digitized, and then we're getting like just pieces of it that somebody has cut up and turned into individual files. I gotta say, you know, you hear about getting unmarked packages or packages with no return envelopes containing spooky stuff in movies all the time, But to actually have it happened to you, it's very unsettling. Uh. It almost felt like it was hand delivered. It had a certain you know, mine was lacking in in proper postage, which I thought was kind of unusual, which makes me think somebody knows where I live. I don't care for that one bit, No, I don't. That's a giveaway if for anybody who wants to attempt to mail something with a degree of anonymity. The only thing you really need on a return address in the US is a ZIP code. If you have a zip code as a return address, then it can still enter the post. However, if you receive stuff like we did that has zero return address, zero identifying information, then that does mean and that's someone possibly APPROXI right, but someone delivered that thing by hand. Typically uh and in these uh, in these snippets, as you describe them, Mark, we learn a little bit more about this purported story. Please be aware the following audio may not be appropriate for all audience members. And we're gonna play play one of the clips we've got, and then we're gonna react to it and kind of share our thoughts. And I will say, there's some strange stuff going on in these clips that we've received. We're gonna look at it as objectively as we can. Just we want to know what you think. So as we listen through these, gather your thoughts and then make sure you send them our way. All right, here we go or are you still using someone will know what happened to us? The things arging I don't know what this is. Gonna get ahead of here Anyway, every time we go down the hallway, we get more law. So looking at this again, it appears to be the same two people from the previous stuff we had been sent. Uh, this time they are they remain in a dark, subterranean area. They seem That's the thing. I don't know if they seem distressed, because people who are, it's unusual. People who are distressed at that level are typically much less coherent. That's one of the things that stood up to me. You can hear it in their voices a little bit. Um it. It is odd. In the very first clip we see of the female character running, that's that's really what you see is kind of a shaky camera and they appear to be inside. I would say it's interior. I don't know if it's you know, underneath the ground or or what, but it appears to be inside and very dark in this facility that we saw from the first video. Then almost immediately it cuts and guys or did you see it looks like a cave to me or some kind of earthen like you said, been a subterranean structure that's a very outcombe, very eld and ring. And the the other thing is you can this is an audio podcast, of course, so you can hear what appears to be a third voice. In a previous clip we were sent, there was this question that the characters had about whether or not a member of their group was it's pranking basically right? They I believe they had They had assumed that other people had arrived earlier and that they were catching up with them, So maybe they ran into these folks at this time. Um. Again, it's just it's unusual for people to react that way in distress. Agreed. Uh, I guys, I don't know. I'm I'm trying to I'm trying to keep an open mind with this thing. As this camera is panting around when they're down in that cave. Did you guys see the thing? It was like white and red, looked like clown. Yeah, yeah, we talked about that earlier. Yeah, that's this is us watching this footage for the second time together and watching it again. It's sure doesn't have the feel if that's the thing has that clown feel, that creepy clown feel. Yeah, there's a sound it emanates. Can we just talk about the sound for a minute, guys, tis a tis a silly sound. It feels like that sound was either added to the tape or is emanating from a source that is not physically where that creature thing or whatever it is in the video. Does that make sense? It does make sense. It makes me think of, like, you know, found footage films, the ones that do it right. They take into account the fact that you're recording from a simple one source, you know, situation like onboard mic on a camera. But then you watch films like clover Field, which I really love, but all of a sudden, there's sounds coming willy nilly from every which where and uh, you know, crazy surround sound stuff happening, and what's meant to be found? This has the feeling of a of a sound that was was dubbed over. So I don't know who's trying to pull our leg here what, but it definitely makes my my spidy senses go off in terms of authenticity. Chronicle is another found footage film that I think did it quite well. Do you guys remember Chronicle? Yeah, I've never seen it, and I really want to see it. It's like on my list of movies to watch. But but in this case, guys, I'm I'm genuinely asking myself if there is, if there was something encountered in there that is outside of my understanding of something that could exist. Because that thing, if it's real, whatever that creature thing was, I don't know what it is and I couldn't explain to you what it was. Is it possible that it could make sounds differently, or like emanate sound, or make us sound, like throw a sound to a camera in a weird way. I just don't know. Yeah, it's a fair question. I mean, also, as we saw someone between whenever this was created and when it arrived with us, as someone messed with the information, the content, right, even the metadata. So so it is possible that it is possible that what we're hearing is maybe not what what these characters appear to have heard. Anyhow, they they're distressed, or they appear to be distressed in the footage, and before that clip cuts out, they are running right there, running from whatever they appear to have encountered. Whether that is what of their colleagues plain and prank, or whether it's something else. That's a great point. It could it really could be who's the person they mentioned, Josh maybe or those other students that they mentioned. It could be a prank except for the fact that did you hear what what Emily said in there? Um? I think the Matt character said, you know, uh, why are you still using that thing like speaking about the camera? I believe, like why are you still recording anything like we're gonna we're in a situation here, And that to me says that they've been in there for a while, or they've been lost for a while, and a long amount of time has passed since the last thing we saw, or at least that running clip when they're inside to when they're inside that cave system or whatever it is. So it really it does make me wonder about how long they have actually been going through this ordeal and it have how long they've been in that state of mind. But it also makes me question if they're just being messed with so because or are or are the people who are shooting video messing with us ah And these are fair questions. Mark. The question about time also really stands out because clearly sometime has passed in the second clip, which Mark, Neil and I also had a chance to take a look at. But maybe let's play this and describe what we're seeing. Also just to add uh, not to bury the lead here. But there's another kind of odd um presence I guess you could say is like a the outline of a figure kind of down the hall. I mean, there's a lot of whip panning with this with this held handheld camera stuff. But I swear it looks like like somebody in a dress or something like that. And then the door slam shut. Yeah, there's a green glow even going on there. Okay, that's a bridge too far. Green slamming doors, spooky figures. Well, and there's another strange sound. It's like a kind of a I don't laugh, I guess is that what how you guys would describe it? Sort of a Doctor Claw menacing villainous laugh, remember Dr Claw? Oh yeah, Mark, I love the point you made earlier about the passage of time, because in the next clip we received, it appears that more time has passed. Uh. These people um seemed to be stopped in their track X and they're trying to figure out something they see on a chalkboard. Well, let's just let's cueue it up, let's play it, and let's let's talk about it. It wasn't immortally, I don't know yet, but maybe we will help us get out of here. Give you a notebook here? When did you sketch these the first night? I thought these are actually good. Thanks, give me the pencil, curious, I just need a few minutes. I've all got it, okay, okay. In this clip, it appears they have encountered what looks to be a chalkboard covered with covered with stuff, and we we paused the frame and we could look at some of the language, some of the drawings. They seemed, um, relatively uncollected, but but very dense. There's something that stood out to me here, which is that they're saying their names quite often, and people don't typically people don't typically say each other's names to each other unless they're on a podcast. Mark, unless you're on a podcast. Mark. Okay, Bill, just remind everyone that's right exactly. But there there's it seems strange, right that they stopped in the middle of running away. Yeah, but then it's we to us the way this thing was edited together, it's in the middle of them running away. But if you listen closely, Um, well, let's just say what happens. Emily looks at this thing and she's got the camera she's looking at the chalkboard. It's got all this weird stuff on it, right, we're looking at schematics, it appears or skeleton. There's a skeleton hand, a bunch of weird writing that I can't decipher at least at the moment. And after looking at it for a while, it feels scientific in some way. It doesn't look like a magical spell or anything like that that I've seen in chalk before, but it is very very odd. Um. After she looks at it, she asks for Matt's notebook, right or sketch book or whatever it is. He's got a book and she wants to like write some stuff down about this thing. And Matt makes the statement, Oh, I made those last night after you fell asleep. So it's not it's not mid run. They've been here for a while, they even like slept. Can I just say, I'm very appreciative of her support of his artistic ability these and and that encouragement that she offers him. You know, it's a real tender moment between these characters. Yeah, yeah, she is kind uh And you know, if you look at the video, Matt brings the camera down and shows the sketches that he's made and they are genuinely good. But to me, guys, they look like creatures, maybe some of the creatures that we've possibly seen in this video that he's making sketches of. This dude straight up looks like a clown. Are you seeing this? Oh yeah, reminds me of Zebo, the clown from Are You Afraid of the Dark from the nineteen nineties. You guys remember that episode, the Tale of Laughing in the Dark. So if these um, if these students are being pranked by other students, then that's well and good. It just makes the it's just import taste on the part of the other students, right, But there are a lot of college kids out there pranking each other. The thing is that these kids, uh don't reappear right after after the clips we've played as we're reporting this, like the university doesn't have any information. Um, the family members we tried to track down. We ran cold on that one. Law enforcement as well. Uh, these are not the only clips who received. I suggest we take a pause for a word from our sponsor and then look at two more clips which might change the conversation just a bit. And we've returned, so let's let's take a look at clip three and see is is this a prank? I mean, have you guys ever pranked someone to this degree? Where your pranksters in your day? I've never know if this is a prank. No, I've never done it like that, But I do enjoy scaring people. That is kind of one of my favorite things. I hate it. Man. One time I jumped out and spooked my my girlfriend's former roommate, and she was so scared that she beat the out of me. Yeah, pounded me with her fists. Still got the bruises. Also, I mean, you know, I've placed the odd whoopee cushion here and there, but nothing this barroke. I don't know. I'm kind of starting to lean in that direction. What's that movie behind you? Kidding? Kidding? N Like, I got a monitor here I can see myself to. I also point out I want to ask you guys a question. And when faced with a real you know, uh, confrontation with terror like this, do you really say turn around, look at the spooky thing behind you? Or wouldn't you just be like hold very still, like a like a bee was was near you or something? Or do you do you say turn around. That seemed like a bit of a most stressed just exclaim. Um, there's a small chance that someone who really has it together might say, don't move, but that can also freak out the listener because you'll instantly want to move right. It's really you know, if you think about human psychology, the fastest way to get someone to turn around is to tell them don't look now, and then instantly right like, huh, really, well, I'm just in a don't look now moment. In that previous clip, we just have to mention it. There is a weird tiny human she's she's wearing a figure. Yeah, you're right, you're right, there's a she's wearing pink. And what do you hear in the video something about our bag taunting? It was taunting, Yes, I wrote it down. This voice says, you want to see what's in my bag? I mean a bag? Are we talking of Halloween candy bag? I don't know. The camera cuts immediately after this thing whatever, this whatever it is, is revealed, and then it cuts, and that brings us to what's occurring in this clip. Were up, get up? Hm? M hm, h no, has her way out? Not turn on your recorder? Do you need a record. So again, Um, I'm not sure how much time has passed, but in this clip, it appears the camera has fallen to the floor and the Matt character, what identified is as Matt uh is unconscious and prone, it appears, and we're not sure what happens due to the way things are cutting out, but the Emily character has either just woken up or remains conscious but seems attempting to convey distress. Yeah, for sure, And oh what does she say? Immediately after she wakes up? She gets Matt awake, and she notices that the sketches or the notebook or whatever it was it that they had in the last scene that we were able to see is gone, right, So and she says something like it was our key or our way to get out of here. That's all. I wonder how a notebook could have helped them. They didn't really actually explain that part. Um, Maybe I don't know. Well, remember we saw that chalkboard with some of those those drawings and such. Maybe there was they copied something from there, they got some there's a map. I no, I don't know what. I'm just speculating here, because that's what they were doing. I just don't understand what I saw on that tchalkbird, how that translates to them escaping or you know, being okay. But obviously there's something in there. It was maybe the key to fighting the Yeah, maybe there's maybe it's leading them to an exit. Maybe they had lost their way. You know, not everybody does the Labyrinth and Minotaur rules, right. Not everybody has a length of string or handling Gretel style breaks. Bread problems were always a terrible idea. I figured it out, guys. This is an elaborate escape room that Matt and Emily's friends have set up for them. That's what's happening. It's like that movie the game, you know that that David Fincher movie, And then at the end it turns out it was just an elaborate birthday present. Sorry spoilers for the game. So obviously, uh, we are divided. I believe I think this whole thing could be uh, a spirited prank on on the part of some other folks. So I mean again, we're working with the footage we have. The only the only thing that keeps me on the fence is the stone walling from institutions we contacted. We have other we have like a little bit more footage stuff that made us ask who is talking to the Emily character, and whether or not it's perhaps the person who sent us these packages to begin with, should we play now, let's do it? Stupid Matt, I told him we should stay together. So that line is someone saying, quote, I have a secret, and Matt, the Mat character has gone well yeah that yeah, Um, I guess let's just describe it really quickly. They appear to be running again. Then as soon as the camera cuts one last time, the mad character, as you said, Bill appears to be gone, just completely gone, and Emily is alone. Emily is you know, saying how she wishes that they didn't split up, they should have stayed together. And I just want to describe where they are. It looks like some kind of laboratory, right There's there's clearly old or aging equipment in there that was probably that was probably electronic in nature, at least appears that way, but it's dilapidated. With This leaves us with more questions than answers. I would say, And if you're listening now, when you're the person who sent this to us, please contact the authorities. We're at a bit of a cliffhanger. As you know, folks, when we can't get the answers through the official sources, we get as close to the primary source as we can get, which means Mark Neil that we are going to go find this castle ourselves. We will update you when we have more information in the meantime, what do you think? Let us know. We can't wait to hear from you, especially when you find out that this was a prank. This is a prank. This is a two part prank from stuff they don't want you to know. And Spirit Halloween. What we've been had. We had ourselves, We've been had as Yeah, we did we we we we we played ourselves. I'm not supposed to do that, but we love Spirit Halloween. Spirit Halloweens create. Where do they even come from? They just pop up magically when the time of year comes around, and there's like four hundred of them. I thought, I really thought for a long time Spirit Halloween was a local thing, and I got so excited when it would show up every year. I've always been captivated by how they show up, and as you guys know, I wrote a story explaining that and maybe that's something we will explore in the future. You might be asking yourself, guys, why are you in such a such an autumnal spirit over over the course of summer. And the answer is, at least in my opinion, that it's always kind of Halloween. Uh. And and as far as we know, the Emily and Matt characters are fine. There is no university. There is no homestead institution that, to our knowledge housed uh a laboratory for unethical experimentation. However, there is a there is a place called the Penhurst State School and Hospital. And this was an institution that opened way back in the nineteen early nineteen hundreds and continued for eighty years of controversy before it closed in You're right, we based this thing around you know, real real stuff, right. Uh. We hope you had fun with this, By the way, I really hope you enjoyed this as much as we did. Uh, just being a little silly being uh, Mark, Bill and Neil. Yeah. Yeah, the bizarre world stuff they don't want you to to know. In case you didn't catch it with the whole Ben's incredible Twilight Zone intro um, I think from Michigan in this universe, I don't know, And we're still working out the backstory ourselves. But also just to add the history is true, like I mean the parts about the history of psychiatric care or lack thereof, and abuses you know in in the United States. Um, very much a real thing, as we discussed in the past. Oh yeah, can we talk just a little bit about the video itself, because the video was was shot by Spirit Halloween and sent to us, we didn't know what was going to be in it, and uh, there's so many fun things in there, and you know what it is, those those creatures that we are describing, those sounds, those are I hope this isn't spoiling things. They might make me take this out. Those are the animatronics that are going to be featured this season at Spirit Halloween. Which, uh, animatronics are a big deal with Spirit So there's like individual clues to which characters are going to be around this year. It's a big deal apparently, Like there's all these Spirit Halloween stands that are like, you know, try to think are out what the newest animatronics that are gonna be unveiled are going to be by doing some pretty serious internet sleuthing. Um. So yeah, hats off to you Halloween nerds. Yeah, it's the most wonderful time of the year, as they say in that song that I'm pretty sure is about Halloween. But hey, it's always Halloween in America, is it not. Uh, we are going to call it a day, as Matt said, And this is our Matt, the actual Matts and the actual Nol and they call me Ben. As Matt said, We do hope you enjoyed this. We hope it gave you a chuckle, and we are going to return with our actual episodes very soon. We can't wait to hear from you. As always, we try to be easy to find online. That's right. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube a Conspiracy Stuff Instagram or Conspiracy Stuff Show. You can call our number one eight three three std w y t K. Let us know what you thought about this in any other episode, we'd love to hear from you. Give yourself a cool nickname, let us know where you can use your message and name on the air, and you've got three minutes say whatever you'd like. If you've got more to say than can fit in a voicemail message, why not send us a good old fashioned email. We are conspiracy at i heart radio dot com. Stuff they Don't Want You to Know is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

You're entering another world. One just a few feet beyond the safe blow of the street light, out into the duck. One slight step off the edge of the map, into the land of monsters. Today's tale. Three intrepid podcasters stumble across a story more real and more disturbing than they could have ever imagined. In partnership with Stuff they Don't Want you to Know, presents the tale of the University six. From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies, History is riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A production of I Heart Radio. Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Mark, my name is Neil. They call me Bill. Today we're continuing our previous exploration of the so called University six. Folks. Please check out part one before joining us for part two. This story is part mystery, it's possibly cover up and just baby, part paranormal, at least that's what some folks are alleging now. Mark, Neil and I initially received notice of this story from a source or possibly sources that wish to remain anonymous, and as we dove into what they had sent us, we started to seriously wonder about this person or these people's identities. Here are the facts, as we talked about before, were this, Uh, the case of the University six is it occurs in a real place out there in Pennsylvania. Right. The Homestead State School and Hospital was built just a couple of miles outside of the appropriately named Hazard, Pennsylvania, over the course of five years from nineteen o three in nineteen o eight. Uh. And as we talked about in the last episode, the history of mental health more like mental health care I suppose, or really it's kind of a misnomer in America is super fraught, um. And a lot of these institutions were the site of terrible abuses by people in power who should have been taking care of those in their charge. Yeah. And we talked about the human experimentation that a lot of patients were subjected to when staying at one of those places. And uh, you know, as we as we dove into the this issue, we talked about how this concept of the University six really has been urban legend, I mean for as long as we've known about it, right, Yeah, And you run into this often any region of the world you travel to any community is going to have their own local lore, you know what I mean, Just like how parts of New Jersey at the Jersey Devil, Just like how West Virginia has Mothman or other cases of strange disappearances. You know dB Cooper out in the Pacific Northwest of folklore is alive and often there is a grain of truth to it. The University six were no different. For many, many years. This was a campfire story. The idea being that somewhere in the mid ninety nineties a group of students at a local university decided to do something a lot of people have done in the past, something that the three of us have done in the past. They went to see whether they could prove or disprove any of the any of the stories right, any of the urban legends around what is often called the Black Castle. So like when you guys were when you guys were growing up, did you ever encounter local legends or you know, spooky places. I think we talked about this a little bit in the past. I just never wanted to be a part of an urban legend like this, where you got you know, university students who are interested in who are actually actively investigating something, and then they disappear and you don't hear from again, and then it goes away, and then, as we said in the last episode, the local authorities don't even want to talk about it. Right. That was where the legend hit the light of investigation. I guess you could say, because, as you noted, Mark, we did reach out to local law enforcement. We looked into some of the footage we received from what we saw six college students from a local university, the ones who were called the university six, visited this place, this Black Castle, and according to all the official documentation we could find, their trail went cold from there. Uh. We were not able to contact any family members. We searched down a few possible contacts, but those folks just had you know, the same last name, right, They were just they they weren't related to these folks, And the police records that we were able to obtain we're also no help. Part of that is because so much time has passed. But someone, um, someone wanted us to find this. So we received, separately intogether a series of anonymous deliveries, um and they look like they look like found footage, like what you're describing, Neil they and there's a shaky camera, right, and it starts outside of something that very much appears to be the Homestead State School in hospital and then they go inside. And if you heard part one, then you see that things quickly seemed to go wrong. Right. What do we figure out? They're they're running late. There's someone named Emily, there's someone named Matt. They're trying to meet other people, other members of their cohort um. Is there anything else that's stuck out to you guys about the initial footage we received possible spooky clown siding. Maybe we don't know. We don't know if that's what it was, or if there there seems to be something in there. Because Emily in the first series, or like right in the beginning, they enter the actual area that we think is the Black Castle, she reports to have her leg grabbed. I guess um nothing is shown you know on the camera that was probably that may have been standing there right that grabbed her. But as the camera pans around, it appears to to show something by the stairs, but they don't investigate it any further. They just kind of keep moving on. Yeah, and we also looked into records from local universities, even community colleges, only to find that they had none of them. No one near hazard Pennsylvania had a record of student disappearances of this nature. In fact, they had no record of these students at all, which is another wrinkle to the story. We send footage the multiple institutions. One university did get back to us and called it a prank. H the head of the universe State listened to the footage, told us it was false, and then also said something that felt a little bit like a party line that would never, on principle, allow students to submit a project involving illegal activity. All rights reserved, yours, president of the university, and my illegal activity. We're talking about trespassing, right, I mean, this shouldn't be on those grounds without permission. Yeah, urban exploration, which we've talked about in the past. Uh, And I know, at least on my side, urban exploration is something near and dear to my heart. But of course it makes sense right that a university would deny co signing any sort of illegal activity or violation of the law. But also that makes you wonder. I don't know, I don't feel like any hall of learning I've been to ever kept that close of an eye on a project, whether a solo essay or whether a group work in the field. Um, I think they it seems like they were saying this talking point after the fact, right like after we progressed in questioning. Yeah, for sure, it does feel like a canned response. So then we reached out to different department heads because, as you know, folks, departments in universities and colleges across the world can often be siloed, meaning they can be their own fiefdoms, which means, and this is true that sometimes if you can't get an answer from the overall hierarchy, you can go to the head of a department. So we looked at the film department. We spoke with the uh oh gosh, we spoke was weird ones the geology department just in case, and this also that department barrel of laughs. Yes, they use emoji in their email, And almost everybody got back to us with pretty much the same response they had never heard of this story. The last one we're waiting on technically is the anthropology department. The chair of the anthropology department has yet to respond to our inquiries, and that can mean one of Anything's you know, maybe they're on vacation or look, does it. Does it strike you guys as weird that this is a piece of local lore, right, wouldn't the people who live in the area know the local lore a little better than you know, some random guys in Michigan who are recording a podcast. That's true, but it also kind of reminds me of a story we've covered pretty extensively about the Georgia guidestones over there in Alberton, Georgia, not too far from Atlanta. In our travels and conversations and research into that, oftentimes it seems like people that live outside of the area know about the things more than folks that live really close by. I think it oftentimes has to do with people that are's kind of the niche sort of circles of research, and it's easy to take it for granted. But people that live nearby these things sort of like living in New York City, you don't go see the Empire State buility. Yeah, maybe it's a thing where I've heard that story. Yeah, whatever, that thing that's near me, come on, tell me something new. Still, it seems relatively um relatively implausible, or at the very least surprising that very well read people, people who literally work at a university in the area, would somehow not have known about this. Every every every professor in West Virginia who's been there for more than a semester is gonna be aware of moth Man. They might not be an expert, they might not have seen the statue or gone to point pleasant, but they're not going to stonewall you. They're not going to be surprised and say, what do you mean some sort of moth that's also a man, or some sort of man changes into a moth. They'll just go moth man. Yeah, So I think it was surprising though to you guys point I think I think it's surprising that people seem entirely unaware of this, But it seems it's still it seems implausible, right, It's hard to believe so long time listeners after being stone walled by both local law enforcement and local academia, if you want to call it that, we were at an impass until that is, we were received a new set of recordings. What are we talking about, We'll tell you after a word from our sponsors. Here's where it gets crazy. So we talked about how this does sound odd, But folks, you may not know this off air after we recorded part one. Uh, Neil, you actually received another package. Mark, I believe you received something identical or very similar. Yeah, And as we said in episode one, we received these things in these unmarked packages, no return address, no information, and inside each one there is a USB drive, and on those USB drives there are I would describe them as snippets of a videotape from a while ago and older. It was probably a physical video tape that had been digitized, and then we're getting like just pieces of it that somebody has cut up and turned into individual files. I gotta say, you know, you hear about getting unmarked packages or packages with no return envelopes containing spooky stuff in movies all the time, But to actually have it happened to you, it's very unsettling. Uh. It almost felt like it was hand delivered. It had a certain you know, mine was lacking in in proper postage, which I thought was kind of unusual, which makes me think somebody knows where I live. I don't care for that one bit, No, I don't. That's a giveaway if for anybody who wants to attempt to mail something with a degree of anonymity. The only thing you really need on a return address in the US is a ZIP code. If you have a zip code as a return address, then it can still enter the post. However, if you receive stuff like we did that has zero return address, zero identifying information, then that does mean and that's someone possibly APPROXI right, but someone delivered that thing by hand. Typically uh and in these uh, in these snippets, as you describe them, Mark, we learn a little bit more about this purported story. Please be aware the following audio may not be appropriate for all audience members. And we're gonna play play one of the clips we've got, and then we're gonna react to it and kind of share our thoughts. And I will say, there's some strange stuff going on in these clips that we've received. We're gonna look at it as objectively as we can. Just we want to know what you think. So as we listen through these, gather your thoughts and then make sure you send them our way. All right, here we go or are you still using someone will know what happened to us? The things arging I don't know what this is. Gonna get ahead of here Anyway, every time we go down the hallway, we get more law. So looking at this again, it appears to be the same two people from the previous stuff we had been sent. Uh, this time they are they remain in a dark, subterranean area. They seem That's the thing. I don't know if they seem distressed, because people who are, it's unusual. People who are distressed at that level are typically much less coherent. That's one of the things that stood up to me. You can hear it in their voices a little bit. Um it. It is odd. In the very first clip we see of the female character running, that's that's really what you see is kind of a shaky camera and they appear to be inside. I would say it's interior. I don't know if it's you know, underneath the ground or or what, but it appears to be inside and very dark in this facility that we saw from the first video. Then almost immediately it cuts and guys or did you see it looks like a cave to me or some kind of earthen like you said, been a subterranean structure that's a very outcombe, very eld and ring. And the the other thing is you can this is an audio podcast, of course, so you can hear what appears to be a third voice. In a previous clip we were sent, there was this question that the characters had about whether or not a member of their group was it's pranking basically right? They I believe they had They had assumed that other people had arrived earlier and that they were catching up with them, So maybe they ran into these folks at this time. Um. Again, it's just it's unusual for people to react that way in distress. Agreed. Uh, I guys, I don't know. I'm I'm trying to I'm trying to keep an open mind with this thing. As this camera is panting around when they're down in that cave. Did you guys see the thing? It was like white and red, looked like clown. Yeah, yeah, we talked about that earlier. Yeah, that's this is us watching this footage for the second time together and watching it again. It's sure doesn't have the feel if that's the thing has that clown feel, that creepy clown feel. Yeah, there's a sound it emanates. Can we just talk about the sound for a minute, guys, tis a tis a silly sound. It feels like that sound was either added to the tape or is emanating from a source that is not physically where that creature thing or whatever it is in the video. Does that make sense? It does make sense. It makes me think of, like, you know, found footage films, the ones that do it right. They take into account the fact that you're recording from a simple one source, you know, situation like onboard mic on a camera. But then you watch films like clover Field, which I really love, but all of a sudden, there's sounds coming willy nilly from every which where and uh, you know, crazy surround sound stuff happening, and what's meant to be found? This has the feeling of a of a sound that was was dubbed over. So I don't know who's trying to pull our leg here what, but it definitely makes my my spidy senses go off in terms of authenticity. Chronicle is another found footage film that I think did it quite well. Do you guys remember Chronicle? Yeah, I've never seen it, and I really want to see it. It's like on my list of movies to watch. But but in this case, guys, I'm I'm genuinely asking myself if there is, if there was something encountered in there that is outside of my understanding of something that could exist. Because that thing, if it's real, whatever that creature thing was, I don't know what it is and I couldn't explain to you what it was. Is it possible that it could make sounds differently, or like emanate sound, or make us sound, like throw a sound to a camera in a weird way. I just don't know. Yeah, it's a fair question. I mean, also, as we saw someone between whenever this was created and when it arrived with us, as someone messed with the information, the content, right, even the metadata. So so it is possible that it is possible that what we're hearing is maybe not what what these characters appear to have heard. Anyhow, they they're distressed, or they appear to be distressed in the footage, and before that clip cuts out, they are running right there, running from whatever they appear to have encountered. Whether that is what of their colleagues plain and prank, or whether it's something else. That's a great point. It could it really could be who's the person they mentioned, Josh maybe or those other students that they mentioned. It could be a prank except for the fact that did you hear what what Emily said in there? Um? I think the Matt character said, you know, uh, why are you still using that thing like speaking about the camera? I believe, like why are you still recording anything like we're gonna we're in a situation here, And that to me says that they've been in there for a while, or they've been lost for a while, and a long amount of time has passed since the last thing we saw, or at least that running clip when they're inside to when they're inside that cave system or whatever it is. So it really it does make me wonder about how long they have actually been going through this ordeal and it have how long they've been in that state of mind. But it also makes me question if they're just being messed with so because or are or are the people who are shooting video messing with us ah And these are fair questions. Mark. The question about time also really stands out because clearly sometime has passed in the second clip, which Mark, Neil and I also had a chance to take a look at. But maybe let's play this and describe what we're seeing. Also just to add uh, not to bury the lead here. But there's another kind of odd um presence I guess you could say is like a the outline of a figure kind of down the hall. I mean, there's a lot of whip panning with this with this held handheld camera stuff. But I swear it looks like like somebody in a dress or something like that. And then the door slam shut. Yeah, there's a green glow even going on there. Okay, that's a bridge too far. Green slamming doors, spooky figures. Well, and there's another strange sound. It's like a kind of a I don't laugh, I guess is that what how you guys would describe it? Sort of a Doctor Claw menacing villainous laugh, remember Dr Claw? Oh yeah, Mark, I love the point you made earlier about the passage of time, because in the next clip we received, it appears that more time has passed. Uh. These people um seemed to be stopped in their track X and they're trying to figure out something they see on a chalkboard. Well, let's just let's cueue it up, let's play it, and let's let's talk about it. It wasn't immortally, I don't know yet, but maybe we will help us get out of here. Give you a notebook here? When did you sketch these the first night? I thought these are actually good. Thanks, give me the pencil, curious, I just need a few minutes. I've all got it, okay, okay. In this clip, it appears they have encountered what looks to be a chalkboard covered with covered with stuff, and we we paused the frame and we could look at some of the language, some of the drawings. They seemed, um, relatively uncollected, but but very dense. There's something that stood out to me here, which is that they're saying their names quite often, and people don't typically people don't typically say each other's names to each other unless they're on a podcast. Mark, unless you're on a podcast. Mark. Okay, Bill, just remind everyone that's right exactly. But there there's it seems strange, right that they stopped in the middle of running away. Yeah, but then it's we to us the way this thing was edited together, it's in the middle of them running away. But if you listen closely, Um, well, let's just say what happens. Emily looks at this thing and she's got the camera she's looking at the chalkboard. It's got all this weird stuff on it, right, we're looking at schematics, it appears or skeleton. There's a skeleton hand, a bunch of weird writing that I can't decipher at least at the moment. And after looking at it for a while, it feels scientific in some way. It doesn't look like a magical spell or anything like that that I've seen in chalk before, but it is very very odd. Um. After she looks at it, she asks for Matt's notebook, right or sketch book or whatever it is. He's got a book and she wants to like write some stuff down about this thing. And Matt makes the statement, Oh, I made those last night after you fell asleep. So it's not it's not mid run. They've been here for a while, they even like slept. Can I just say, I'm very appreciative of her support of his artistic ability these and and that encouragement that she offers him. You know, it's a real tender moment between these characters. Yeah, yeah, she is kind uh And you know, if you look at the video, Matt brings the camera down and shows the sketches that he's made and they are genuinely good. But to me, guys, they look like creatures, maybe some of the creatures that we've possibly seen in this video that he's making sketches of. This dude straight up looks like a clown. Are you seeing this? Oh yeah, reminds me of Zebo, the clown from Are You Afraid of the Dark from the nineteen nineties. You guys remember that episode, the Tale of Laughing in the Dark. So if these um, if these students are being pranked by other students, then that's well and good. It just makes the it's just import taste on the part of the other students, right, But there are a lot of college kids out there pranking each other. The thing is that these kids, uh don't reappear right after after the clips we've played as we're reporting this, like the university doesn't have any information. Um, the family members we tried to track down. We ran cold on that one. Law enforcement as well. Uh, these are not the only clips who received. I suggest we take a pause for a word from our sponsor and then look at two more clips which might change the conversation just a bit. And we've returned, so let's let's take a look at clip three and see is is this a prank? I mean, have you guys ever pranked someone to this degree? Where your pranksters in your day? I've never know if this is a prank. No, I've never done it like that, But I do enjoy scaring people. That is kind of one of my favorite things. I hate it. Man. One time I jumped out and spooked my my girlfriend's former roommate, and she was so scared that she beat the out of me. Yeah, pounded me with her fists. Still got the bruises. Also, I mean, you know, I've placed the odd whoopee cushion here and there, but nothing this barroke. I don't know. I'm kind of starting to lean in that direction. What's that movie behind you? Kidding? Kidding? N Like, I got a monitor here I can see myself to. I also point out I want to ask you guys a question. And when faced with a real you know, uh, confrontation with terror like this, do you really say turn around, look at the spooky thing behind you? Or wouldn't you just be like hold very still, like a like a bee was was near you or something? Or do you do you say turn around. That seemed like a bit of a most stressed just exclaim. Um, there's a small chance that someone who really has it together might say, don't move, but that can also freak out the listener because you'll instantly want to move right. It's really you know, if you think about human psychology, the fastest way to get someone to turn around is to tell them don't look now, and then instantly right like, huh, really, well, I'm just in a don't look now moment. In that previous clip, we just have to mention it. There is a weird tiny human she's she's wearing a figure. Yeah, you're right, you're right, there's a she's wearing pink. And what do you hear in the video something about our bag taunting? It was taunting, Yes, I wrote it down. This voice says, you want to see what's in my bag? I mean a bag? Are we talking of Halloween candy bag? I don't know. The camera cuts immediately after this thing whatever, this whatever it is, is revealed, and then it cuts, and that brings us to what's occurring in this clip. Were up, get up? Hm? M hm, h no, has her way out? Not turn on your recorder? Do you need a record. So again, Um, I'm not sure how much time has passed, but in this clip, it appears the camera has fallen to the floor and the Matt character, what identified is as Matt uh is unconscious and prone, it appears, and we're not sure what happens due to the way things are cutting out, but the Emily character has either just woken up or remains conscious but seems attempting to convey distress. Yeah, for sure, And oh what does she say? Immediately after she wakes up? She gets Matt awake, and she notices that the sketches or the notebook or whatever it was it that they had in the last scene that we were able to see is gone, right, So and she says something like it was our key or our way to get out of here. That's all. I wonder how a notebook could have helped them. They didn't really actually explain that part. Um, Maybe I don't know. Well, remember we saw that chalkboard with some of those those drawings and such. Maybe there was they copied something from there, they got some there's a map. I no, I don't know what. I'm just speculating here, because that's what they were doing. I just don't understand what I saw on that tchalkbird, how that translates to them escaping or you know, being okay. But obviously there's something in there. It was maybe the key to fighting the Yeah, maybe there's maybe it's leading them to an exit. Maybe they had lost their way. You know, not everybody does the Labyrinth and Minotaur rules, right. Not everybody has a length of string or handling Gretel style breaks. Bread problems were always a terrible idea. I figured it out, guys. This is an elaborate escape room that Matt and Emily's friends have set up for them. That's what's happening. It's like that movie the game, you know that that David Fincher movie, And then at the end it turns out it was just an elaborate birthday present. Sorry spoilers for the game. So obviously, uh, we are divided. I believe I think this whole thing could be uh, a spirited prank on on the part of some other folks. So I mean again, we're working with the footage we have. The only the only thing that keeps me on the fence is the stone walling from institutions we contacted. We have other we have like a little bit more footage stuff that made us ask who is talking to the Emily character, and whether or not it's perhaps the person who sent us these packages to begin with, should we play now, let's do it? Stupid Matt, I told him we should stay together. So that line is someone saying, quote, I have a secret, and Matt, the Mat character has gone well yeah that yeah, Um, I guess let's just describe it really quickly. They appear to be running again. Then as soon as the camera cuts one last time, the mad character, as you said, Bill appears to be gone, just completely gone, and Emily is alone. Emily is you know, saying how she wishes that they didn't split up, they should have stayed together. And I just want to describe where they are. It looks like some kind of laboratory, right There's there's clearly old or aging equipment in there that was probably that was probably electronic in nature, at least appears that way, but it's dilapidated. With This leaves us with more questions than answers. I would say, And if you're listening now, when you're the person who sent this to us, please contact the authorities. We're at a bit of a cliffhanger. As you know, folks, when we can't get the answers through the official sources, we get as close to the primary source as we can get, which means Mark Neil that we are going to go find this castle ourselves. We will update you when we have more information in the meantime, what do you think? Let us know. We can't wait to hear from you, especially when you find out that this was a prank. This is a prank. This is a two part prank from stuff they don't want you to know. And Spirit Halloween. What we've been had. We had ourselves, We've been had as Yeah, we did we we we we we played ourselves. I'm not supposed to do that, but we love Spirit Halloween. Spirit Halloweens create. Where do they even come from? They just pop up magically when the time of year comes around, and there's like four hundred of them. I thought, I really thought for a long time Spirit Halloween was a local thing, and I got so excited when it would show up every year. I've always been captivated by how they show up, and as you guys know, I wrote a story explaining that and maybe that's something we will explore in the future. You might be asking yourself, guys, why are you in such a such an autumnal spirit over over the course of summer. And the answer is, at least in my opinion, that it's always kind of Halloween. Uh. And and as far as we know, the Emily and Matt characters are fine. There is no university. There is no homestead institution that, to our knowledge housed uh a laboratory for unethical experimentation. However, there is a there is a place called the Penhurst State School and Hospital. And this was an institution that opened way back in the nineteen early nineteen hundreds and continued for eighty years of controversy before it closed in You're right, we based this thing around you know, real real stuff, right. Uh. We hope you had fun with this, By the way, I really hope you enjoyed this as much as we did. Uh, just being a little silly being uh, Mark, Bill and Neil. Yeah. Yeah, the bizarre world stuff they don't want you to to know. In case you didn't catch it with the whole Ben's incredible Twilight Zone intro um, I think from Michigan in this universe, I don't know, And we're still working out the backstory ourselves. But also just to add the history is true, like I mean the parts about the history of psychiatric care or lack thereof, and abuses you know in in the United States. Um, very much a real thing, as we discussed in the past. Oh yeah, can we talk just a little bit about the video itself, because the video was was shot by Spirit Halloween and sent to us, we didn't know what was going to be in it, and uh, there's so many fun things in there, and you know what it is, those those creatures that we are describing, those sounds, those are I hope this isn't spoiling things. They might make me take this out. Those are the animatronics that are going to be featured this season at Spirit Halloween. Which, uh, animatronics are a big deal with Spirit So there's like individual clues to which characters are going to be around this year. It's a big deal apparently, Like there's all these Spirit Halloween stands that are like, you know, try to think are out what the newest animatronics that are gonna be unveiled are going to be by doing some pretty serious internet sleuthing. Um. So yeah, hats off to you Halloween nerds. Yeah, it's the most wonderful time of the year, as they say in that song that I'm pretty sure is about Halloween. But hey, it's always Halloween in America, is it not. Uh, we are going to call it a day, as Matt said, And this is our Matt, the actual Matts and the actual Nol and they call me Ben. As Matt said, We do hope you enjoyed this. We hope it gave you a chuckle, and we are going to return with our actual episodes very soon. We can't wait to hear from you. As always, we try to be easy to find online. That's right. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube a Conspiracy Stuff Instagram or Conspiracy Stuff Show. You can call our number one eight three three std w y t K. Let us know what you thought about this in any other episode, we'd love to hear from you. Give yourself a cool nickname, let us know where you can use your message and name on the air, and you've got three minutes say whatever you'd like. If you've got more to say than can fit in a voicemail message, why not send us a good old fashioned email. We are conspiracy at i heart radio dot com. Stuff they Don't Want You to Know is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.