The Devil's Century Box

Scared To Death

The hosts reflect on their recent experiences at Wet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camp and announce a significant charity donation to Big Table for

Key takeaways

• The hosts raised $13,150 for Big Table to support victims of the Spokane Complex Fires.
• The legend of 'La Garita del Diablo' involves soldiers mysteriously vanishing from a sentry box in Old San Juan.
• A modern worker named Enrique reported hearing the historical 'Sentinella, alerta!' call while working at night in San Cristobal.
• Todd Seas died in 2002 near Montour Ridge, Pennsylvania, under circumstances that many find suspicious despite an official ruling of cocaine toxicity.
• A circular UFO craft was reported by locals over the same ridge on the morning Todd Seas disappeared.

Main topics

• Wet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camp recap
• The Devil's Sentry Box legend
• The mysterious death of Todd Seas

Notable quotes

Sentinella, alerta!

Conclusion

A compelling blend of historical folklore and modern-day mysteries tha

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:01) Whether thou art a ghost that hath come from the Speaker 2 (0:04) earth, Speaker 1 (0:04) or a phantom of night that hath no hollow, or one that lieth dead in the desert, or a ghost unburied, or a demon, or a ghoul, whatever thou be until thou art removed, thou shalt find here no water to drink. Thou shalt not stretch forth thy hand to our own. Into our house enter thou not. Through our fence break through thou not. We are protected, though we may be frightened. Our life you may not steal, though we may be scared Speaker 2 (0:37) to death. Speaker 1 (0:40) Welcome to Scared to Death, creepspeepers, Roberts and Annabelles. I'm Dan. Hello, Speaker 2 (0:44) Dan. I'm Lulu Marie. Hello, Speaker 1 (0:46) Lulu Marie. Hello. We are both completely exhausted and also exhilarated. It's a weird emotional state to be in. But we just got back from Wet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camp where we didn't get a lot of sleep, but we had a lot of fun and stayed very busy. And it was so cool this year. So anybody listening who came to Wet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camp, it was... Truly magical. Like, just such a special, special weekend. And, you know, again, for Scared to Death fans, the live Scared to Death was so much fun. It was so fun to try a new story format that worked so well. And just a quick thank you. Do Speaker 2 (1:21) you want to tell them just really quickly what the story format was? That's so invasive. Speaker 1 (1:24) I called it like a choose-your-own-nightmare, but it's like the old choose-your-own-adventure novels from when I was a kid. And, you know, the live audience had six different choices to make during the story that definitely affected the outcome. And it was really cool to like go into it, not knowing where the story would end. Actually, the ending was, I thought, the least likely option. And it was interesting to see how many of them were coin tosses and just that format. As I do more, you know, scared to death lives in the future, I will be repeating that because it was just super fun. Speaker 2 (1:55) Yeah, we're already brewing up ideas for years down the road. Like what could we do with that? Speaker 1 (2:01) Yeah. Speaker 2 (2:01) Yeah, yeah, yeah. And when Dan said, live scared to death. Like that's just like an idea that's out there in the future. So don't think that you missed an announcement. Yeah. But yeah, Speaker 1 (2:11) nothing new is coming up until, you know, at the earliest late next year. Yeah. Speaker 2 (2:15) Okay. Well, good to know. Well, what is happening where you can catch us doing a live scared to death that you guys already know about. And if you're feeling the FOMO from summer camp, you can join us on Crime Wave at Sea where we will be hanging out, going on excursions with you guys like the beach day at Coco Cay or Coco Cay. Speaker 1 (2:37) Yeah. Speaker 2 (2:37) And yeah, just around the ship and doing a live scared to death. So if you want to hang out with us and our friends over at No Sleep and True Crime Campfire and more, we will be sailing on Monday, February 8th and returning on Friday, February 12th. So don't worry. You'll be back for Valentine's Day and or the Super Bowl should you care. And Speaker 1 (2:58) that will be another interactive show after this one worked just for people that's helping. Speaker 2 (3:03) Yeah, it will be a choose your own nightmare. Yes, yes. Yes, on Dan's side. So it'll be two stories from me, two fan stories from me. Choose your own nightmare from Dan. And if you're interested, rooms are still available, just a few, at crimewaveatsea.com. And then somewhere in that registration process, they ask you like what show brought you. Be sure to mention Scared to Death so that you're invited to all of the Scared to Death events. Speaker 1 (3:25) They have like a world within world at this cruise, which is a very cool way to do it. Speaker 2 (3:30) Exactly, exactly. And now that we are done with camp, I can officially share the numbers for this month's charity donation. Thanks to everybody at Summer Camp who gave tips to the bartenders who then donated their tips to allow us to bolster our donation. So we got $2,477 in tips at camp, which got added to the monthly Patreon money. totaling $13,150 to Big Table. which is in support of the Spokane Complex Fires. And we're putting $1,180 into the scholarship fund for 2027. Speaker 1 (4:05) Awesome. Speaker 2 (4:05) If you want to learn more about Big Table and what they do in various cities across the country, you can visit bigtable.org. And if you're curious to know, I mentioned this previously and the date got jostled. So now it's officially October 25th. If you want to come say hi to me as I collect donations for some families that have been deeply affected. by the Spokane Complex Fires, who are also being supported by Big Table. You can find me at the restaurant 10-6 on October 25th from 9 to 1. Soon I will be sharing an Amazon wishlist, so it's kind of going to be like a giving tree type situation for a couple of families who are having a harder time than some other families within the Spokane community recovering from the fire. And last but not least, stay tuned next week on the October... 5th, October 6th episode, to learn about the annual Bad Magic Giving Tree. And just keep in mind, some of you pay for early release. So you want to be listening to the first episode of October. That's when we will be sharing the information about the Giving Tree. Good Speaker 1 (5:08) job. That's a big info dump. You did it. You did great. You Speaker 2 (5:11) did it in my sexy voice. This is the leftovers from camp. I don't have a full voice yet. Speaker 1 (5:17) Okay. So I will give you a break from speaking and share my stories first. First up, we're going to head to Puerto Rico. For centuries, soldiers stationed at one isolated watch post in Old San Juan were said to vanish without a trace, leaving behind rumors of something evil lurking in the dark. And when a modern worker begins to hear an old military call echoing through the fortress after sunset, the legend of the Devil's Sentry Box suddenly feels far less ancient. For my second final tale, we will head to Pennsylvania, where in 2002, a husband and father disappeared near his home. only to be found dead after a massive search with no obvious explanation for what happened. Then came reports that at nearly the exact time he vanished, something strange was seen by multiple witnesses hovering over the ridge where he had gone in his final moments. Ruh Speaker 2 (6:07) -roh. Speaker 1 (6:08) Yeah, so I think that one is going to mess you up a little bit. No, I'm Speaker 2 (6:12) fine. Speaker 1 (6:12) What paranormal listener claims... Have you chosen to share this week from those sent in to my story at scaredtodeathpodcast.com? Speaker 2 (6:19) I have a really creepy-ass tale that I have labeled a ghost on probation, which I know sounds silly, but when you get into it, it's so creepy. We're going to hear about a probation officer who completes a home visit and spends time with more than just her intended parolee, I guess her intended visitor. Speaker 1 (6:41) Okay. Okay. Speaker 2 (6:42) And then my second story begs the question, what would you do if you were on a work Zoom and you saw someone who shouldn't be there? Speaker 1 (6:52) That's cool. Speaker 2 (6:53) Yeah, it's a great story. And I will just say this now ahead of telling that second tale. It's a medical Zoom. And so, yes, the person who sent this story did include a... photograph that I'll be able to explain to you but they say at the end like you know basically I don't know what the HIPAA laws are so please don't share this photo okay gotcha Speaker 1 (7:12) gotcha Speaker 2 (7:12) we'll talk about it but um just in case I edited that out I'm so foggy from camp yeah Speaker 1 (7:17) yeah I'm Speaker 2 (7:18) like what do we do here Speaker 1 (7:18) what's my Speaker 2 (7:19) name and Speaker 1 (7:20) then um I will start telling my story my first one right after you share this week's spoopy socks well Speaker 2 (7:25) this week's spoopy socks are some hand-holding ghosty guys. They're black and they have these bubbly white eyes and their hands are magnetic. So my feet are stuck together. Speaker 1 (7:35) Those are cute. Very, Speaker 2 (7:36) very cute. I love these yellow guys. They're from Kurt and Kurt, it was great to see you at camp. I heard you had quite the adventure getting home, but really good to see you. Oh, Speaker 1 (7:45) okay. Settle in. Our first story tonight takes us to Puerto Rico. As I mentioned, a place we've actually very rarely traveled to here on scared to death. We'll head to a massive stone fortress overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and Old San Juan, where for hundreds of years, soldiers stood guard over one of the most strategically important cities in the Caribbean. A massive fortress filled with tunnels, dungeons, cannon batteries, shadowy passageways, and numerous small stone sentry boxes built into its walls. And all but one of those observation posts have perfectly normal names. The one that does not? For centuries, it has been known primarily as La Garita del Diablo, the Devil's Sentry Box. And according to one of Puerto Rico's oldest and most enduring paranormal legends, sometimes the soldiers who were sent there to stand watch never came back. And the frightened men serving alongside them came to believe that something in the night, something inhuman, had devoured them. Time now for the tale of the Devil's Sentry Box. Speaker 1 (8:50) Old San Juan has been fortified in one form or another for nearly 500 years. The Spanish understood very early that Puerto Rico occupied an enormously valuable geographical position in the Caribbean. Ships carrying massive amounts of gold, silver, and other riches plundered from Spain's colonies and the Americas frequently passed by the island on their way back to Europe. And wherever treasure goes, pirates and enemy navies tend to follow. San Juan was attacked repeatedly, too many times to list when including all the minor skirmishes. In 1598, nearly 2,000 English forces invaded and took the Castillo San Felipe del Moro, the promontory castle of St. Philip, and held it for two months before disease took too great a toll on the soldiers for those who yet lived to risk staying there any longer. Before leaving, though, they further damaged the castle and burned San Juan to the ground. The fortress was strengthened following this defeat, and then in 1625, the Dutch attacked for two months, losing over 400 men in the process. Although the Spanish fortress, known today simply as El Morro, the promontory, remained standing, Dutch soldiers managed to land elsewhere, enter San Juan, and burn much of the city down again, before eventually retreating. Spain responded by further strengthening its defenses. In 1634, construction began on a new fortification guarding San Juan from attack, Castillo San Cristobal. What began as the construction of a relatively modest defensive position would soon be expanded again. and again for more than a century, eventually becoming a sprawling three-level fortress covering roughly 27 acres, making it the largest fortification built by the Spanish in the New World. Its walls towered above the coastline, its cannon positions overlapped, and a network of carefully constructed tunnels allowed soldiers and the ammunition they carried to move through the fortress while remaining protected from enemy fire. Some underground galleries were designed so explosives could be placed beneath advancing enemy troops. and invaders who somehow made it through one defensive barrier would find another waiting behind it, and then another still. San Cristobal was designed to make an attacker feel trapped inside an enormous stone machine built specifically to kill him. And scattered throughout that machine were small observation posts, known as gueritas, stone sentry boxes. Their sizes vary a bit, but mostly they're each only large enough for a single man. One soldier stationed inside, looking through narrow openings toward the sea, the city, or the surrounding countryside. One soldier waiting, hour after hour, watching and listening, and trying not to fall asleep or imagine movement where there is none. Around the middle of the 17th century, one particularly isolated sentry position was built along San Juan's northern defenses. Officially, this position was called El Espigón, the breakwater, but almost no one refers to it by that name today. They instead call it La Grita del Diablo, the Devil's Sentry Box. Even today, the National Park Service repeats the old legend that this particular grita seemed to somehow on occasion mysteriously devour the soldiers assigned to it. And when you see where it sits, it isn't all that difficult to understand how stories of soldiers being vanished by something started. The Devil's Sentry Box rests low and apart from the main fortress, near the violent Atlantic surf. For a soldier stationed there centuries ago, especially at night, isolation would have been almost complete. There's no glow. from the city around you, no phone in your pocket back then, nothing but you and stone, wind and darkness, and the force of the ocean, powerfully smashing against the rocks below. There would have been moonlight reflecting off the waves if the sky was clear, but no light at all, basically, if the cloud cover was thick. I would have hated it. I would have hated not knowing what might be floating over towards me in the darkness, not knowing what was near in the water, lurking just beneath the surface, what, at least in my mind, could crawl up out of the water and grab me. No matter how scared you became thinking thoughts like these or something similar, you could not simply abandon your post because you became uncomfortable. You were a soldier, and you stayed where you were ordered to stay. To feel a bit less afraid, and also for the practical defensive reason of making sure everyone else was present and doing their job, the sentries developed a way of checking in on one another. During the night, each night, a call would travel from post to post along the defenses. One guard shouting into the darkness, Centinella, alerta. Sentry, be alert. Another soldier would answer with, Estoy alerta. I am alert. And then the call would continue farther down the wall. One voice, then another, and another. A chain of voices stretching out across the darkness. Imagine how comforting that must have been. You're standing alone under the cover of night, and you haven't seen another human being for hours. The wind is howling around you, and the ocean is crashing beneath you. You wonder what terrible thing could be coming for you. But then from somewhere out in the distance, you hear a familiar voice shout, Sentinella, alerta! And another familiar voice then answers, Estoy, alerta! Others are still with you, still watching. Another call travels from farther down and you hear another answer. Everyone else is accounted for. Everyone else is alive. Then the call reaches your post. You answer. And the chain is complete. And then sometime soon, the chain will start again. At least you hope it will. But sometimes... it doesn't get completed. According to Puerto Rican legend, one night when the chain reached the Devil's Sentry box, it stopped. One of the oldest literary versions of this claim comes from the early 20th century, from Puerto Rican historian and writer Cayetano Coritoste. His version takes us to around the year 1790 and introduces us to a Spanish soldier referred to only as Sanchez. Sanchez was apparently unusually pale-skinned, earning him the nickname of Flor de Azar, Orange Blossom. He was also supposedly an excellent Spanish guitar player, and somewhere outside the walls of San Cristobal lived an 18-year-old woman referred to only as Dina. Dina and Sanchez fell in love, but unfortunately for them, Dina lived with an extremely protective and controlling aunt who had very different ideas about who the young woman should be courting. She would never approve of her marrying a common soldier, so their relationship developed mostly in secret. Sanchez would passionately play his guitar and Dina would lovingly listen. The music became the foundation of their courtship. Eventually, on one particular night, Sanchez was assigned to stand watch at the isolated Garita. Dina left home, made her way toward the fortifications, where she somehow reached him. According to Colitoste's romantic telling of the legend, the two young lovers finally found themselves alone together in that lonely sentry box under a moonlit sky with seemingly no one else around. But then a voice broke through the darkness with a familiar cry of, Centinella, alerta! Another sentry answered, and then the next, and the next after that, as the call moved from post to post, closer and closer to Sanchez and his would-be bride. And then finally the call came for him. Centinella, alerta! It was answered only with silence, not a word from Flor de Azar. Again the call came. Centinella, alerta! And again, the reply was nothing but silence. The Garita had gone quiet. The following morning, when the guard changed and soldiers were sent to investigate, Sanchez was nowhere to be found. Only his rifle and cartridge box remained behind. Run off with his lover, perhaps. But where had he gone? Coli Tosta wrote one especially intriguing sentence when describing what he believed had happened. He wrote that this was not the first strange disappearance associated with that specific sentry box. This would fuel a lot of speculation as to who or what was taking multiple people. Some believed it was Lucifer's doing. Why the devil would come to take soldiers is anyone's guess. Others, of course, believed that Sanchez and Dina had run off together as young forbidden lovers, as they so often have throughout history. Perhaps they had planned the entire thing. Maybe Dina had arrived while Sanchez was standing watch, and then they snuck off together. He abandoned his rifle and military equipment because caring either would immediately identify him as a deserting Spanish soldier. The pair then fled San Juan somehow. Some later tellings of their story say they escaped toward the mountains of Loquillo, where they hoped to begin a new life someplace, where no commanding officer or disapproving aunt could come between them. That explanation made the most sense to Coletoste. He essentially ends his telling by poking fun at people who would rather believe that Lucifer flew away with a soldier and his lover than accept the much simpler possibility that two horny young people escaped to start a new life together when family and circumstance stood in the way of their union. Fair. But does that explanation explain the other, previous disappearances? No. What about the others said to have disappeared from the same post? In other tellings of this legend, it's said that numerous soldiers stationed in the Devil's Sentry Box, who didn't disappear, did hear strange and disturbing voices coming up from the rocks and ocean below. An unsettling whistling was heard by some. Others heard a pained groaning. Some heard mocking laughter. Some weren't sure if the voice calling out, Sentinella, alerta, was in fact another living soldier. Some tellings include soldiers reporting the smell of sulfur. Others claim that after Sanchez disappeared, men standing watch elsewhere along the fortifications occasionally heard guitar music drifting to the darkness. Songs that Sanchez used to play. Today, daring visitors cannot simply wander down into the old Grita anymore during the day, let alone at night, to see what they might hear inside the Devil's Sentry Box or what they might see. You can still at least catch a glimpse of it from elsewhere around the now historic site, a tiny stone box standing against the enormous Atlantic, almost four centuries old, still standing, still watching, and maybe still waiting for someone to answer. While researching the story, we came across a more recent account shared online several years ago by an anonymous man, I'll call Enrique. Enrique doesn't claim to be a paranormal investigator searching for ghosts. And when the following allegedly happened, he said he didn't immediately connect it with any legend. At the time, Enrique wrote that he was living in Puerto Rico and doing occasional contract work related to historical preservation and building maintenance. One project brought him into portions of the San Cristobal complex. after normal visitor hours. Overall, he said he had a great time, that restoration is his passion, and that he loved working there, especially at night, at least initially. During the day, the fort could be crowded, full of families, tour groups, school field trips, so many people taking so many photos, so much distracting movement and noise. But after closing, the atmosphere changed completely. It grew calm, peaceful, and quiet, but also a bit strange in some ways. The same stone corridors that felt picturesque at two in the afternoon suddenly felt enormous, empty. Sound behaved strangely and conversation occurring around a corner might seem impossibly close. Footsteps traveled through tunnels and the wind moved through openings in the stone and created noises that could easily be mistaken for whispers. So when Enrique first heard a voice one evening, he didn't think much of it. It was sometime not long after sunset. He and two other men with him, Luis and Noah, were working in different areas, checking sections where recent heavy rain had caused water intrusion. Enrique was alone near a passage that overlooked portions of the northern wall, and he was writing something down when he heard a man yell, from far away, maybe from outside the fortress. He could tell that the man shouted two words, but he couldn't understand what they were. He stopped working for a few moments, waited to see if he would hear them shout again. When he didn't, he assumed it had been one of the other guys working on the restoration, and he got back to work. Then, maybe ten minutes later, the voice showed up again, louder this time. And this time he did make out what they had shouted. Sentinella! Alerta! He stepped into the passage and called out, Hola! When no one answered, he walked maybe 20 feet further and then called out again. He heard only the wind and the distant sounds of other work going on around the fort. He radioed one of the other workers and asked if he had just yelled something, but they hadn't. Enrique shrugged it off, went back to what he was doing. Several minutes passed of nothing happening, and then... Sentinella! Alerta! This time the voice didn't sound as far away as it had previously. Definitely hadn't come from outside. Enrique could tell that it came from somewhere deeper within the fort. So we radioed again, asked the other worker nearest him, Luis, to repeat what he had just said. Luis was adamant he had not said anything. Enrique told him that somebody was yelling, Centanela, alerta. Luis got quiet for a moment and confirmed, really? Centanela, alerta? When Enrique said yes, that's exactly what he'd heard. Luis told him to head to his position. Something about his tone bothered Enrique. He sounded so serious. When Enrique made it to Luis and asked him what was going on, Luis told him that that was an old sentry call, something soldiers had used while standing watch around the fort to make sure everybody was still manning their position. Enrique laughed and then asked, so someone's fucking with me. Probably, Luis replied, but he didn't sound convinced. Then he added, just don't answer them. Enrique laughed again and asked, why? Luis seemed like he was going to say one thing, then stopped, and instead mumbled something else, like, because you're not a sentry. That, of course, didn't explain shit. Enrique started walking back, and soon, when he had made it about halfway, the voice called again. Sentinela, alerta! This time he knew exactly where to come from, from just behind him, from the passage he had just left. Enrique turned around, thinking he might see whoever this was. Instead, he stared perhaps 30 feet into an empty corridor. Beyond it, he could only see darkness. Enrique radioed, Where's Noah?