Howdy everyone!!
Today we are having a chat with John!! John is part of our HHS admin, he does the weekly tarot read in the group and plays the role of Sam in Hillbilly Horror Stories!! John is someone I consider a friend and an all round top bloke. I'm defiantly so happy we met each other through the HHS community!! I can't wait to share this interview with you guys!!
Name: John Joslin
What’s your day job? My day job is more like a night job, I’m an order filler at a distribution center.
Where are you based? I am based out of Cheyenne, Wyoming for now, but I am planning a move to Salt Lake City Utah in June.
How long have you been listening to HHS? I caught on a few months after Jerry started the podcast about 6 months or so.
How did you hear about HHS? I found the podcast as a fluke, I was looking for more witchy related podcasts, and I typed “supernatural Podcasts” into my search and HHS was the third or fourth on down, I felt drawn to it, so I had to download it and start listening!
Do you believe in aliens? I find it impossible, and silly to not believe in aliens, all that vast and infinite universe out there, and we are the only forms of life? I just cant get on board with it.
Do you believe in ghosts? Well if I didn’t believe in ghosts I would be a pretty terrible psychic... Yes, again all that vast an infinite universe out there, and we die and just disappear? I don’t think so.
Do you believe in Big Foot? Hell yes. It could just be a dude in an elaborate suit, or a bunch of squirrels wearing a trench coat, I love the idea of it, there is something so large that people all over the world are able to believe in it and I think that is the kind of unity we need. Embrace the weird.
What’s your favourite part about HHS? This might sound weird, but I really like the sound of Jerrys voice, he is a great story teller, and its easy to just sit and listen. However Tracy’s laugh keeps me coming back. It is such strong magic, that a person can laugh and you can feel their presence, and make you feel like you’re not alone out there ( specifically speaking I listen to the show when I’m driving and I’m usually alone)
What got you interested in the paranormal and witchcraft? A lot of different things, when I was younger, the kids in my class would all watch things like Pokémon, and Naruto, and Dragon Ball Z, and I watched them too, but while they were obsessing over those shows and playing with the toys, I was obsessing over Harry Potter, and Charmed. I’ve always loved magic, and the paranormal, and my Grandma used to tell me stories about how she dabbled, and she had a dear friend that was a witch and my grandma would help her and I always found those stories to be the most fascinating.
Does pineapple belong on pizza? I have yet to meet a piece of Pizza that is bad. Its not my fave, but I don’t mind it. The pineapple brings a really strong sweetness to an incredibly salty and acidic food, and I think it balances nicely. Pair it with a Moscato, and enjoy.
Your personal story:
Once in high school I was working a show with my local community theatre, saying I was in charge or ran lights and sounds makes it sound way cooler than what it was, because I just pressed a couple buttons. I ran lights and sound for this show, anyways we did it in one of the theatres here which is haunted as hell and used to be a hotel, a brothel, a candy store, and a few other things. It is just about as old as Cheyenne is, while it was a brothel/ hotel there was a priest living there with his wife and son.
Small back story downtown Cheyenne has tunnels that run underground and connect almost all of the buildings most of them are closed down today, with a few still “open” there is a tunnel that runs from the theatre too the capitol building (politicians and sex workers) So this priest takes sex workers down into the tunnels and kills them, he believes he is cleansing Cheyenne, what he doesn’t know is that his wife began selling her body to help bring in extra income.
The story goes that he took his wife into the tunnels and strangled her and left her body. Filled with rage and grief and doubt, the priest goes back to the hotel to his room on the third floor and in a moment of reckless thought he locks his young son in a closet to starve (because how long has his wife been doing this? Is the son even his?) before shooting himself.
I have heard so many different stories that I don’t really know what is true and what isn’t, but while I was working this show I had to be in the light booth all by myself in the dark, in this light booth there is a door in the back corner that connects to the third floor of the hotel which is around where it is said that the priest shot himself. It’s a creepy room. I refuse to be in there by myself and I don’t like going if people are with me so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ but anyways I’m sitting in the dark running the lights for this show, and I don’t remember fully what happened, but I remember it got colder than usual in there, and I heard a laugh, nothing too sinister, but enough to set me on edge, about 20 or so minutes pass and I’m feeling calm and I hear the laugh again but this time its deeper and it sounds closer, and then the door to the hotel moved. Did I mention that the door was padlocked on both sides?
That building has given me so many experiences, from that to playing games with the little boy (he loves the shows, he loves to run around on-stage during shows and be apart of everything, usually you can see his mom sitting up in the balcony watching, but he likes to watch from the stage. One night after we broke down the set I was carrying these huge banners (they advertise the show outside the building and are probably 15- 20 feet long) up stairs to the hotel part which gets used for costumes and set storage, and I’m all alone standing on the stairs heading up to the third floor when the back of the banner (which is a few stairs up from the bottom) starts to wiggle.
Almost like a small child is standing at the other end trying to get you to play. It didn’t freak me out it just surprised me, I asked him to please stop because I didn’t have time to play right now and just as quick as it stated the banner was completely still. Another time I was locking the door that separates the lobby from the hotel and I was with one of the girls that did the show with me, I’m standing on the landing finding the key for the door and we both heard the slick slide like it was being locked from the other side. I had the keys and no one else was around. reasons I won’t go into the hotel by myself anymore either.
Such a spooky and sad story!! Definitely creepy as!! Thank you John for taking out your time and sharing this with us!! We will be back next week with more creepiness!! Y'all come back now hear!!