In 1785, in the town of Blair, Maryland, an Irish-born woman named Elly Kedward was accused by the local townspeople of witchcraft. She was convicted and their punishment for her was to banished her out blindfolded into the woods in the middle of harsh winter. They torturing her, and then left her hanging by her neck on the tree. The townspeople believed she had been died, however her doomed spirit was restless and haunt the forest. By the end of that winter in 1786, Elly Kedward’s spirit returned and some of the children of Blair suddenly disappeared. The townspeople eventually called her as the Blair Witch and proclaimed the town of Blair and the Black Woods as cursed. They had vowed to never mention Elly Kedward’s name again and as soon as the weather broke the entire township abandoned the town.
Nearly forty years, the town of Blair became a ghost town and a hand written book called “The Blair Witch Cult” was published in 1809. The book has a faded green cover and it reveals some interesting facts about the Blair Witch. Here are excerpts from several parts of the book:
“It was testifi'd, That at the Examination of the Prisoner Kedward before the Magistrates, the Bewitched was extreamly tortured.
. . .was the Shape of the Prisoner, which was whipped with Iron Rods, to compel her thereunto.
. . .about Sun Rise, he was in his Chamber assaulted by the Shape of this Prisoner : which look'd on him, grinn'd at him, and very much hurt him with a Blow on the side. . .and. . .Shape walked in the Room where he was, and a Book strangely flew out of his Hand, into the. . . six or eight Foot from him.
. . .he wak'd on a Night, and saw plainly a Woman between the Cradle and the Bed-side, which look'd upon him. He rose, and it vanished : tho' he found the doors all fast. . .he saw the same Woman, in the same Garb again ; and said, In God's Name, what do you come for? He went. . .The Child in the Cradle gave a great Screech, and the Woman disappeared. Blood was. . . “
In the 1820s, a man named Burkitt purchased the abandoned property of Blair from the government, he renovated the abandoned buildings, and rechristened the town after himself. The new founders rename the town as Burkittsville in 1824, the township is once again settled and it still stands in Maryland today.
Several years later in 1824, a ten years old girl named Eileen Treacle is pulled down by a ghostly hand into the Tappy East Creek stream witnessed by her parents and other people who watched as the girl is dragged under the water. Her parents were shocked and immediately sent search parties out to seek her. The water was reportedly less than a foot deep, yet her body is never recovered. After the incident, the Tappy East Creek was clogged with mysterious wooden stick figures, and for several months the water being polluted with strange oily substance. A farmer reports of having to move cattle from the creek area as cows that have drunk from it have died or had calves with birth defects.
In 1886, another incident occurred, a little girl named Robin Weaver got lost into the woods. A search party is sent out looking for her. While the search party go out, she returned to her parents and told them when she got lost, she met an old woman who was floating few inches off the ground. She took Robin to an old house and put her in the basement and asked her to wait whilst she left the house. Robin escaped through a window and returned to safety.
After the little girl returned alone, the search party that had gone out after her had not returned. So a second search party was organized to find them. Their search ended at Coffin Rock, near the creek where Eileen Treacle had gone missing less than fifty years before. The second search party were horrified to find the first search party stripped of all their clothes and belongings, and their bodies were tied to Coffin Rock. Their intestines had been removed and their reproductive organs had been mutiliated with strange pagan symbols carved into their faces and feet. By the way the ropes were cut into their skin the second search party could tell that these atrocities took place whilst they were alive.
The second search party rushed back into town for reinforcements and bringing back the sheriff with them. But upon a return to Coffin Rock, they discover that there is no trace of the dead bodies but the air remains heavy with the stench of death. But the bodies were never found.
In the 1940s Rustin Parr, who was known for living in an old house on a hill in the woods comes into the local Burkittsville market exclaiming mysteriously that "I've finally finished". This leads the police to hike up to his house in the woods where they discover seven children's bodies ritualistically disemboweled with pagan symbols carved upon them. He kidnapped the children and brought them to his house in the woods, where he tortured and murdered them. Parr brought the children into his home's basement in pairs, forcing the first child to face the corner and listen to their companion's screams as he murdered the second child. Parr would then murder the first child. Eventually turning himself in to the police, Parr later pleaded insanity, saying that the spirit of Elly Kedward, a witch hanged in the 18th century, had been terrorizing him for some time and promised to leave him alone if he murdered the children.
He was at first told to do strange things like sleep in the cellar for a week at a time, he could not resist this strange voice telling him what to do and soon found himself being told to go down to Burkittsville and get the first two children that he saw.
In all Parr took eight children, but only killed seven of them. He claimed that the woman in the black cloak appeared to him after he'd killed the seventh child and told him that he was finished and that he was to go into town the very next day and tell everyone what he had done.
The local authorities also discovered an eighth missing child, Kyle Brody, who was traumatized and found standing in the corner of the basement. It was Kyle's testimony in court that helped convict Rustin Parr of murdering the seven children. Rustin Parr was convicted and hanged, and his house was burned.
Upon closer examination of Kyle Brody's life, some very interesting things come to light. None of the seven children knew each other, except for Kyle, who knew all of them.
In 1969, a film documentary called White Enamel was made. In the film there is footage of Kyle in his cell chanting the phrase, "Never Given!", the same phrase Rustin Parr had been heard screaming the night before his execution.
Other footage shows Kyle Brody writing on a large art pad. What he is writing is Transitus Fluvii, the witchcraft language. Transitus Fluvii is a rare language, yet Kyle is seen writing it correctly, from right to left. He remained institutionalized for the rest of his life until his death in 1971.
In 1991 the only known existing copy of "The Blair Witch Cult," on display at the Maryland Historical Society Museum in Baltimore. It has since been returned to a private collection.
In October 1994, film students Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams and Joshua Leonard set out to produce a documentary about the fabled Blair Witch. They travel to Burkittsville, Maryland, formerly Blair, and interview locals about the legend of the Blair Witch. While filming a documentary about the legend, they never returned. Search parties went out looking for them but they were never found. The footage of their documentary was found a year later within the foundation underneath an old house in the woods. Part of the documentary that was found was not published, instead sent back to the families of the three students. In 1999 a film of the documentary was made by piecing together footage from their film, and published.
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This is a joke, right? You do know it was just a movie? Lol
ReplyDelete@Pixiemom691: Although the film is a work of fiction, it was written around well documented historic incidents
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