The Eddy Brothers and the High Life Ski Club

Morbid

This episode explores the rise and fall of William and Horatio Eddy, two 19th-century Vermont brothers who claimed extraordinary psychic abiliti

Key takeaways

• The Eddy brothers claimed a lineage tracing back to Salem witch trial survivor Mary Bradbury.
• Their father, Zephaniah, reportedly abused the boys and even sold them to a traveling sideshow.

Main topics

• The Eddy Brothers
• 19th-century Spiritualism

Notable quotes

I see no more reason why we should not be able to trace the phenomenon of spiritualism back to their source than those of heat, light, motion, electricity, or chemical action.

Conclusion

A compelling look at how personal trauma and theatrical showmanship in

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Hey weirdos, I'm Ash. And I'm Alayna. And this is Morbid in October. Speaker 1 (0:20) It's October! Happy motherfucking October, bitches. We made it, y'all. Oh, we're here. September flew by. September literally, excuse me, Proctober wasn't a month. No, it didn't even feel like Proctober because it was so fast. I know. What's happening to time lately? It's like bent or something. Did Speaker 2 (0:41) somebody Speaker 1 (0:41) break that too? Like, what's going on? Actually, yeah. Oh, I forget what it is. Shit. This isn't going to like sound good because there's a thing I was telling you about it recently. I can't remember what it's Stern or Kern. Fuck. I believe both of them. People are like, like probably yelling it from the rooftops, but I fell into this whole TikTok hole about this like. machine that like bends time timelines and it's like where mandela effects come from okay and it is making time either go by faster or slower they're gonna need to to hit the pause button on that one so i think that's the problem i think in october so pause i think when they unplug it it like fucks with the space-time continuum and obviously this is like theory and like i'm not crazy but do a little power cycle plug it back in October needs to go slow. I think when it's plugged in, it's like fucked up too. I think whoever made it is. Put batteries in it. I don't know. Make it battery powered. What is it called? I can't think of what it's called. It's called the thing that's making things go by too fast and I don't like it. Yeah, period. That's it. Yeah, yeah. That's the name of it. I should, I wish that I had fallen into that hole more recently and that I remembered. My brain is also just like a fried egg right now. Yeah, it's been a year. It's Speaker 2 (1:57) been Speaker 1 (1:57) a year. It's been a year. I thought you were going to say it's been a day. It's been a day. It's been a year. It's been a day. I've recently fallen back into, this is how I know it's October. Talk to me. I've fallen straight back into my Salem Witch Trials hyper fixation. I saw that you were watching something. Yeah. I'm living for it and much to my family's chagrin because I'm just explaining horrible atrocities to John all the time. That's kind of how this podcast started. Yeah. Are you going to do something? It made me want to like, because like we covered the So Much Trial so long ago. Yeah. And I feel like I could do it better. Okay. And I was sitting there thinking like we have bonus episodes. We do. So like every once in a while, maybe I could throw one in. There's another witch trial that we haven't covered that I want to cover. That is like, it starts with a T. Yeah. I want to cover, I know exactly which ones you're talking about. Yeah. But I think I could, I think we could also. Could dive into those a little further. All right. Go ahead, girl. Go ahead. Get down. I have all the transcripts and stuff. I feel like I could really do like Jack the Ripper style. Kind of deep dive. The look on Big Red's face right now. I'm kind of ready for Speaker 2 (3:07) it. Speaker 1 (3:07) The look on Big Red's face right now. It's helping. I'm also doing research for a book. Oh. So that's helped a lot. And you can't really say much more than that. No. But. But that kind of tells you something. When do you get to? You can cut this out if you need to. But do you have any idea when you need to? Shit if I know. Okay. I just, you know, suffer away for a few months. Yeah. And then they tell me when I can say it. Should we leave that in or cut it out? Because that's funny. That is pretty funny. I think you can leave it in. I think that's the life of an author. It literally is. Like, you just are like, okay, now tell me when I can tell everyone about this. I'm excited for you to. I'm very excited about this. I've been excited about every book, but this one's different. It's outside of the series. No, that's fun. So it's fun. And I can tell you it's really horror. It's like true horror. Yeah, it's not like a thriller. And I'm really excited about it. I'm super, super excited about it. And I can't wait to read it, but I want to read it when it's done. I know because every now and then I'll be like, oh my God, I have this really good chapter. And you're like, I don't want to hear it. I really want the experience of reading a full book of yours just for the first time when I sit down to read the book. See, now I have to fully rely on John as my first Speaker 2 (4:24) reader. Speaker 1 (4:24) I'll do it. You know I will. Someday I'd like that option. Someday. Can I have that? I'm using John's My Tabby. Your Tabby. I mean. My Tabitha King. Yeah. I love him. So he's really got to step into that role more now. He does. He's Speaker 2 (4:38) your Speaker 1 (4:38) husband. I'm just your right hand bitch. It's true. I just fell out of a reading slump and I have to thank Richard Chismar for that. Yes. I read. I Speaker 2 (4:47) knew Speaker 1 (4:47) you would love that. Becoming the boogeyman or chasing the boogeyman. Speaker 2 (4:51) And Speaker 1 (4:51) I'm obsessed. That is a really good series. I read it in one day. Oh, it's such an easy one to just eat up because you just. The way he writes it, you're just like, all right, I got to know what happened next. Like you can't stop. I gobbled it up. Chasing the, Becoming the Boogeyman is also awesome. And his Killing the Boogeyman that's coming out is amazing. Yeah, I have Killing and then I pre-ordered Becoming. I'm finishing up Ninth House. Oh, you've been talking about that. I actually have that. Love it. I haven't read it, but I have it. I am loving it. That's like a dark academy. Dark Academy? No, like there's, it's like a weird like academy, right? It's like, it's Yale. Oh. And it's, so, so yeah. So yeah. And it's like, and it's like dark academia, like fantasy. And it's like a, like a secret society? There's secret societies involved. Okay, that's fun. Yeah. Yeah, I think Aiden recommended, you recommended that. And then there's a sequel. There's two books, two more books. So it's a trilogy. And I have all three of them because as soon as I got. a quarter of the way through Ninth House. I was like, give me the other two. I'm ready. Like she, Lee Bardugo is the author and holy shit. Really good. Can they write? Holy shit. Holy shit. I don't even know my own kid. It's so good. And the magic, it's like got magic in it, but the magic is like. Like dark. Yeah, and it just, like, feels so, so real. Okay. And there's a lot of, like, the supernatural. It's very, very, very good. And the Secret Society stuff is delicious in it. Really? Yeah. This time of year, I'm very into, like, a spooky read that, like, scares me. Yeah. Like, uh, fucking, uh, which I mix up all the verbs. All the verbs? Of the boogeyman. Chasing. Chasing the boogeyman. Thank you. Scared the shit out of me. Like, I couldn't sleep. I love that. Yeah. And I love that feeling. Yeah. Which is probably self-sabotage, but we all love that. I love it. So this time of year, I'm looking for all those kinds of recommendations for books like that. Hell yeah. And there's so many. I also just had a bookshelf built in my house and I need to like fill it with more books. So there you go. I really thought that I had a lot of books and then the bookshelf was complete and I was like, am I illiterate? Speaker 1 (7:03) I have the opposite. Give me some Speaker 2 (7:06) of Speaker 1 (7:06) your books. Where I have too many books and I need more bookshelves. I have them stacked. I look like one of those like crazy tropes of like an author. Yeah. Where like I just have stacks of books all around our house. I love that. And John's like, can we get a vessel for these? You're also somebody that has like multiple copies of the same book. That's true. You have a lot of duplicates. I'm weird. The only book duplicates I really have are yours. I have at least six versions of each book. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, that's books. That's books with us. That's literacy with us. And let's talk about, I mean, it's October 1st, so you know we're about to get spooky this month. That's right. So I have a spooky story about some mediums. How about that? Let's go. So we're going to be talking about the Eddy Brothers today. And this is like. Not true crime, not anything like that. It's just like a spooky, haunted story. I love that. And it's up to you to decide if they were real or not. I kind of think they might have been the real deal. Really? Maybe. So William and Horatio Eddy were born and raised in Chittenden, Vermont, which was a small village in Rutland County. When they were born, it was between the 1830s and 40s. And at that time, there was only about 600 residents in their village, which is gnarly to think about. According to legend, they both actually, this is so weird that you were just talking about this. They both descended from a long line of psychics going back to Mary Bradbury. And she was a distant relative who was convicted of witchcraft in Salem. Oh. In 1692. I don't know if you've studied her yet. Look at that. But she managed to escape execution by fleeing Massachusetts. Damn. Isn't that so fun? I can't believe she fled. She fled. She was a witch. Wow. Or maybe she wasn't. So according to those same legends, the boy's mother, Julia, had also gained a reputation around their village for, quote, frightening her neighbors with predictions and visions. Good for her. Which, like, I'd like to be that neighbor. Yeah, good for her. There's not enough neighbors frightening the village. Yeah, you gotta bring it back. We all have to take it upon ourselves to be that neighbor. Yeah, we do. Okay. Unfortunately for her, though, her husband, Zephaniah, I believe is how you say his name, he shut down his wife's supposed gifts, and he declared that her powers were the work of the devil, and so he forbade her from not only using them, but even speaking of them. It's not your pal. Buzzkill. It's not your pal. Asshole. Yeah. The worst. I Speaker 2 (9:29) don't Speaker 1 (9:29) like that at all. I don't like him. Now, according to famed occultist and journalist Henry Alcott, Zephaniah Eddy was little more than a, quote, uneducated farmer who was, quote, yeah, he read him to death. He Speaker 2 (9:40) just Speaker 1 (9:40) said, whoa. And he said he was, quote, narrow-minded and strong in his prejudices. Sounds it. So he instinctively feared his wife's gift of clairvoyance, and that's why he made her hide it. Yeah. Now, unfortunately for brothers Horatio and William, they didn't get the not-so-subtle message of their father's discontent with the supernatural. One afternoon when they were still pretty young boys, their father spotted their sons in one of the nearby fields surrounded by dozens of other children. But the closest children in the area lived many, many miles away, so he became terrified by what he saw. And he called the boys back to the farm where he, quote, and this is awful, beat them mercilessly for creating an ungodly vision. So you hallucinated. Maybe. Perhaps. Or maybe they just like made playmates because they have powers. That's their problem? Yeah. It's the work of the devil, Alina. You have to beat the devil out of Speaker 2 (10:40) them. Speaker 1 (10:40) Yeah, you got to. It's your only option. Yeah, that's what the good Lord says. That's Speaker 2 (10:45) all Speaker 1 (10:45) you do. Just beat your kids about it. Yeah. For sure. Now, this was not the first time that he had caught his sons playing with supernatural apparitions. It was