The Boy at the Bottom of the Stairs | True Ghost Stories | Ep #36

0:01 Oh, I didn't hear you come in. What's that? You've got a true strange story of the unexplained you'd like to hear narrated on the show. E-mail it to me, madamstrangeways@gmail.com. Welcome strangers, strangelings and strange Kateers to Madam Strangeways, where I, Madam Strangeways, narrate your true strange stories of the unexplained. And as always, solicited or not, usually not. I share my strange thoughts and observations and drag you down a slew of strange rabbit holes, kicking and screaming if absolutely necessary.

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1:57 The boy at the bottom of the stairs by OMG Real UFO. It seemed like a lot of you liked my post about the Whispering Girl. I don't have any other paranormal experiences myself, but my Auntie Linda does and honestly it's one of the scariest true stories I've heard. So my Auntie Linda is a very straight talking woman. She never believed in ghosts or the paranormal until she experienced something. So this encounter was about 20 years ago.

2:38 My Auntie Linda was working at a care home in Wales. Now the care home is really old and it's been a few different buildings in the past. The building is over 100 years old so my Auntie Linda was doing a night shift so she started working around 6:00 PM and then would finish the next day around 9:00 AM. She was doing her rounds and checking that all of the residents were asleep and all seemed fine. She went upstairs to the staff room to get ready to go to sleep. She was locking the staff room toilets upstairs before she went to bed. Now the staff toilets are directly opposite the stairs, so when she locked them she turned around facing the stairs. She then noticed what looked like a little boy sitting at the bottom of the stairs.

3:36 He was wearing old fashioned clothing, maybe something from the 1920s, and was facing away from her. Startled, she called out to ask if he was OK. Then all of a sudden the boy turned to face her. Now her description still freaks me out to this day. She said. When he turned to look at her, it looked like his jaw or something was broken because his jaw was hanging from his mouth. He gave her direct eye contact.

4:18 Now you know how kids run up the stairs sometimes using both their hands and feet. This kid started to run towards my auntie up the stairs. She screamed in terror and as soon as she screamed the boy disappeared. My auntie then ran out of the building and called her manager to say she's not staying the night. When the manager asked what happened she said she saw something at the bottom of the stairs and they ran towards her. Her manager then said oh you've seen Benny.

4:58 Turns out the little boy was a boy called Benny who had died from falling down the stairs in the building years ago. Some of the residents at the care home said he visits them sometimes and sits on their beds. Honestly scared the shit out of me as a child. This story did and my auntie to this day swears what she saw really happen. From that point onwards, she didn't dismiss the paranormal anymore.

5:43 Ba ba Ba Benny and the Jaws or lack thereof perhaps. Thank you so much OMG Real UFO for letting me read yet another one of your stories. This is the second story. Actually, if you go back and listen to episode number Mumble Mumble, I did read another one of OMG Real UFOs stories. And actually that was the second story that I read, this story about poor Benny and his lack of jaw. This is the story that I read first from OMG Real UFO. But because of the beginning, it references an earlier story.

6:23 I was like, well, now I got to read both stories and I got to start chronologically. So now this is actually the first story that I read that really hit me because it's so spooky. So look, OMG Real UFO. Your aunt or aunt is definitely a victim here and she was so smart because you know what she did what I love, you know I love to do it. Absolutely not, absolutely not. Two of my favorite words, absolutely and not. They have to be together though, because I can't say absolutely to a ghost situation. It's going to be an absolutely not for me and also for your aunt slash aunt.

7:08 She made the right choice there. But poor Betty Benny is the real victim here. Poor Benny. Benny, first of all, doesn't have a jaw. So listen, there's not going to be any jaw Breakers being enjoyed by poor little Benny. Kids love jawbreakers. I never loved a jawbreaker personally, but I imagine, you know what, like ghost kids from the 20s and 30s, you know they loved a hard candy. You know they loved them like barley sweets and lemon drops. Those sound like those are things. Those are old style candies.

7:50 You know he loved those and he can't even enjoy a jawbreaker. You know what? You know what? Maybe a jawbreaker was involved. No, he fell down the stairs. OK, OK, so no spectral jaw Breakers will be enjoyed by poor Benny. And also, of all the places to get stuck as a ghost, as a care home. Like, no wonder he goes and sits on the patient's beds. He ain't got nothing else to do, you know, It's sad. Poor Benny. What a, what a tragic end. I, you know, I, I, I think someone said in the comments, I think there's only one comment, but I think someone said like, oh, imagine those poor old people who are waking up and they have this terrifying, terrifying young child ghost sitting on their bed. I however, I think that they would not be terrified because here's the thing about old people is they have seen some shit and also they're really lonely. So I bet they were thrilled.

8:58 I bet they looked forward to Benny visiting them at night or anytime. I bet they were thrilled to have him and they probably told their stories for the five thousandth time to him. And he probably had a great time too. So I think you have to answer. You have to ask the question, OK, when it comes to hauntings, right, There's residual hauntings and there's intelligent hauntings. So a residual haunting is sort of like a ghost repeating the same thing over and over as if on a loop or like on a a record, right? And it's just repeating over and over and over again, sort of like the Stone Tape theory, which is, you know, as I've mentioned, the theory that you have something that happened over and over enough or that was traumatic enough or, you know, violent enough that it sort of stuck in time.

9:51 And so that's that kind of like residual haunting where the ghost is not interacting with you. It's literally just pretending like it's living its life and nothing new has changed and it doesn't know that it's dead, that sort of thing. Then intelligent haunting that would be some interaction. So whether or not it's knocking or whether or not it's messing with you like hiding things or even you know, a, a poltergeist would technically be considered an intelligent haunting, but in some way where there's an intelligence there and it's not just over and over and over again. Now stay with me here, because although Benny did turn and look at Auntie, and even though Benny did run up the stairs toward her, I don't know that that necessarily means that he was doing so intelligently.

10:41 I don't know that that means that he was aware of her. Or was this just one of his loops that he did? Because if you think about it, kids with nothing else to do and there's stairs around, they're going to be running up and down the stairs. That's going to be their whole thing. Especially like, oh God, like clambering up the stairs, spot on his hands and feet. That's so scary. I don't know that he was trying to scare Auntie. I think that's kind of like AI think that's like a horror movie trope at this point. You know, I, I guess the concept of like humans moving in a way that seems inhuman, you know, maybe not impossible, like maybe not full on heads spinning around 360° all of the exorcist all right, but doing humans moving in a way that they shouldn't move is just kind of uncanny and it gives you the heebie jeebies, right. So, you know, like maybe he was trying to scare her, but I don't think he was.

11:40 I think he was just being a kid. If if this, if this is a haunting, if this is a ghost, I think he was just being a kid and that this might actually be a residual haunting. And you may say, oh, but hold on, Madam. Excuse me. Benny went and sat on the beds of patients. Yeah. But like, if this house has been used as a hospital for a long time, then it's fair to say that actually this is just, again, this is just a residual thing and that he was sitting on various beds and etcetera before. So, you know, let me know what you think. Let me know. Do you think this sounds like a residual or an intelligenthauntingmadamstrangeways@gmail.com? Let me know. But also what I find the most compelling about these kinds of haunting stories is that it's like you don't share the assuming this is true.

12:31 OK, I am assuming that OMG real UFO is correctly and truthfully relaying the story from his aunt who accurately and truthfully relayed the story to him without embellishment, whether that embellishment was purposeful or accidental. Because as I've said before, yes, you're right. Good point that every single time we access a memory, we're actually writing over it. We're saving over the memory. And so actually you can't trust a single memory that you have because every time you you think of it, it's altered. And so truly, what is reality and memory? I don't know. Great question.

13:12 Aside from that, assuming that all of this is true and this is exactly how it happened, I think it's always so spooky when a story is effectively someone accidentally discovering the built in lore, especially at their workplace. I don't know why work stuff is just it's like work sucks already and then what? Now I'm going to be haunted during work hours? I mean, I guess I would prefer to be haunted on an employer's dime than in my free time, personally, if I had to choose. So, OK, it's fine. I just find these stories very, very spooky.

13:53 Very spooky, you know? OK, look, from a, from a naturalistic or a mundane standpoint, could you argue that Auntie Auntie did hear about Benny and kind of forgot or like wasn't really paying attention, maybe heard that there was some kind of ghost or, you know, sure. And then forgot? Yeah. But I mean, you would think, you would think that that would be an included detail. Although here's the thing about humans is that we do love a good narrative. We love a good narrative. And so it is a better narrative for her to not mention that she had already heard the story of Benny. So I couldn't blame her for leaving that part out. And I'm not even saying she would be doing it consciously. She may even that's how much we love narrative is that we kind of subconsciously alter what we share with people. And I know I will find myself doing it and I'll be thinking, well, let's not like I am leaving out this detail, but it does make a better like as I'm saying it, I find myself doing it, but it just happens.

15:07 And so I would have to then go back and be like, OK, hold on. I, you know, no. And then I got to get semantic and be like, well, technically this thing OK. No, no, no, no, it's fine. So from a naturalistic standpoint, I think the easiest, the easiest explanation for this would just be that, you know, OMG, real UFOs. Aunt had actually heard the story of Benny and then experienced it in that order. However, like I said, you know, I do like to take these stories at face value. So I guess a different naturalistic explanation, you know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.

15:53 Besides, you know what? Besides Auntie just sharing a scary story and wanting to scare the shit out of her nieces and nephews, I feel like that's, I feel like that might be it. That's, I mean, look, I'm not saying I would do the same in her shoes, but I also couldn't blame her. So I think those are the two most naturalistic explanations for the story Would just basically be it's a better narrative to tell it a little differently and maybe misremembering it over time and not even remembering that that happened the other way because that's how memory works.

16:35 Or she just wanted to scare you guys. It's one or the other. Or there was really a ghost with his jaw missing named Benny. Now, how hard do you have to fall down the stairs for your jaw to be hanging off? Right? All right, so you OK. You may have noticed if you are a listener of the show that I do have a soft spot for Wales. I just feel like Wales get slept on. I feel like in terms of the UK, everybody is all about, you know, England, jolly old England and you know, Ireland and Scotland and then no one really talks about Wales. So I have a soft spot for Wales, but I don't want this to turn into a one hour episode where I tell you interesting facts about Welsh folklore and ghosts and hauntings and etcetera. So do you want to hear more about Welsh folklore and Welsh ghost stories?

17:36 Let me know madamstrangeways@gmail.com. I would be happy to do another episode like a Will's a Palooza, a Welsh, there's, I don't know, there's something there. I would be so happy to do that. So let me know madamstrangeways@gmail.com But what I am going to do because I thought this was really interesting. So what I am going to do is explain like who and when, where, why, how Manor houses would even become care homes in the UK and why so many of them would be haunted as hell. All right, so OK in a nutshell. In a nutshell.

18:17 No. Yes, this is a nutshell. I assure you what I am telling you is a nutshell. I spent too much time this morning researching this. So this is I assure you, this is a nutshell. OK, so there's first you got to say, OK, OK, OK, OK, who? How do I start this social hierarchy? All right, you've got the peerage and the landed Gentry and they are the ones that own these manners or houses or estates, etcetera. And also, when I'm talking about a house, I need you to understand that what I am saying is not like an American house. It's not like 1300 square feet or less. I mean, this is like a mansion or you know what, you might even consider to be like a castle.

19:02 It's huge. All right, so you've got the peerage that owns these manners and houses, etcetera, and these are like hereditary titles like Duke, Marquis, Earls, viscounts, barons, Lords, etcetera. So they are the ones that pass their titles down like through birth, otherwise known as primogeniture. Then you also have the landed Gentry. So the landed Gentry don't have noble titles and are basically quote UN quote, lower class or lower quote UN quote lower class or quote UN quote commoners. So they're they're one tier below the aristocracy, but they own land. Now they may own land because someone else a really long time ago owned land and then it gets passed down. And so someone's great aunt dies and they're the only one that's surviving in their family.

19:56 And so now they have inherited land. So because they have land, it's not just land. You understand the land. The land, you understand, the land includes, you know, houses, estates, etcetera, and also farmland. OK, so you've got this massive house that requires a huge amount of workforce to run. And on top of running the house, you also have the farmland, which includes tenant farms run by tenant farmers who rent the land. So they basically pay the land owners for the right to farm that land.

20:37 These houses would also effectively kind of support the nearest town or village by giving the people that worked or the people that lived their jobs or you know, they need resources, they need food, they need etcetera to run this house. Think Downton Abbey basically as an American. I think that's probably the easiest. I don't remember if Downton Abbey, if the family had tenant farmers, but pretend that they did if they didn't in the show. So, you know, it's it's basically like a little mini ecosystem. And that's that's more or less how these houses worked. However, with the decline in farming, not only due to apparently an agricultural depression in the 1870s. Aside from that, you also have the industrial revolution happening.

21:29 And so, you know, cities are booming and jobs are moving to the cities rather than out in the countries. And aside from the Depression, you know, these farmers need jobs and so they're going to the cities. So this is reducing the rural labor pool. Literally every single time I say rural, I always think of the rural juror from 30 Rock. I think of it every single time, the rural juror. All right, so it's reducing the rural labor pool, right? So they're moving to the cities. So there's no one to work the fields and there's no one to pay to work the fields, right? And then the people in the villages and the towns are also moving to the cities.

22:14 And so now there's no one to work at the houses. And then also, by the way, some of these estate owners, like, you know how at least in America, I'm sure everywhere, you got the term house poor. So that would happen where, yeah, maybe you own all this crazy amount of land and you have this estate with houses and farmland, but you don't have any money. You have no money, you know, especially if you inherited it as the landed Gentry. And some families actually even had multiple estates, you know, smaller houses, larger houses, etcetera, all around the UK. So sometimes they just didn't have A use for some of these houses. And in I think in some cases they would just start selling them off just to get some cash flow, you know, because all the tenant farmers are gone.

23:04 So they're not getting any rent. So they need some money. So maybe that's why they were selling it or they just want more money. Maybe they had plenty of money and they just wanted more because what else? What what is more human than that? Just wanting more. So I'm about to potentially enter enemy territory because although I love history, I am no Tony Soprano, OK. I don't watch World War One and World War 2 documentaries for fun. You know, Ken Burns I know does a great job, but it's just not my thing, although I do love history. However, I don't know if I am fully qualified to talk in detail about World War One versus World War 2 in terms of the amount of injured or the technology that was invented between World War One and World War 2.

23:51 And that was the reason why there were far less injured soldiers that needed room in hospitals in World War 2 versus World War One. But you know what, just imagine that I just spoke very eloquently about it and that you fully understand. And obviously if you fully understand, that means I fully understood. OK, good. I'm glad we had that talk. So in World War One and World War Two there we needed extra hospitals more in World War One than in World War Two. We just we just we as in the the royal we we as in the United Kingdom during the world wars. So like I said, some of those estates were donated temporarily, some were permanent and some were so badly damaged that they just had to be, you know, razed to the ground. Raz, were they razed?

24:40 I like saying that word, but I don't think that that I don't think they were burned. They were just demolished. OK, it's fine. Don't worry about it. I need to play SIM five I think is how many Sims are there. SIM 5 is my favorite. It's fine, don't worry about it. Continue, continue with the episode. OK, so wartime requisition is more or less an initial, what just happened there? So in World War One and World War 2. So in fact, by the end of World War 1 / 1400, auxiliary hospitals had opened across the United Kingdom, many in private homes. So just to give you an idea, some of those places after the wars remained in use as hospitals or convalescent homes or elder care, as in this case, as care home.

25:25 So especially because out in the country you've got that like Crisp, the crisp country air, the clean air, like I mentioned, I think in the last episode or two episodes ago, one or the other, where you know, the rich would go to convalesce to recover from their illness. So a lot of these Manor houses were out in the country where the air was nice and clean as opposed to like London where it was awful and choking. But here's what I will say is that OMG, real UFOs. Auntie Auntie said that Benny was dressed like the 1920s. I don't think it's a stretch to say that she probably wasn't a fashion expert and a history expert.

26:10 So I think it's safe to say that Benny could have been dressed like, for instance, the year 1918. And for those of you who are also not Tony Sopranos, when it comes to history, World War One spanned from 1914, 1918. So I ask you, did he lose his jaw falling down the stairs? Or did Benny suffer this injury because of a bombing? Just some food for thought, just some food for thoughts.

26:52 So see, aren't you so glad you waited till the end of the episode? Aren't you glad you've listened to the end? Because come on, we know that the care home was at least 100 years old in the 2000s, early 2000s, right? So that would be 1900. OK. And it was probably older than that because everything in the UK is super old. So it was probably older than that. So to me this is my pet theory and I don't want to be talked out of it. So OMG real UFO. If you have information that doesn't jive with my theory, you know what, I don't need to hear about it.

27:34 You can just keep that to yourself. You don't need to tell me I'm just kidding. Please tell me if you have more details, I would love to hear it madamstrangeways@gmail.com. And if any of you listening have ever experienced anything spooky or if your family has a ghost story that they like to tell, I would love to hear it. Go ahead, e-mail me at madamstrangeways@gmail.com or you can go to the website at madamstrangeways.com. Thank you for joining me for more true strange stories of the unexplained, remember that you can feel afraid and not be in danger. You're safe here with me, probably. Please follow the podcast, leave a rating on Spotify or Apple, or tell your friends and foes about the show. It would mean the world to me.

28:36 The underworld, obviously. I mean, come on, was that not? Was that not clear? Madam Strangeways is produced and narrated by me. Madam Strangeways theme music is by marina.ryan@marinamakes.co. Cover art is by Andrea Chisel Roldan at Cult of Teddy on Instagram. You can submit your own true strange story at madamstrangeways.com or e-mail it to madamstrangeways@gmail.com. See you soon, she said ominously.