Hey, Keek and Cardi are back.

This episode is a journey through the dark intersections of theology, repression, and some very judgmental medieval paperwork. From Lilith and Lilu to 15th-century demon semen logistics, we’re unpacking how sexual fear became spiritual warfare—and why sleep paralysis demons still get blamed for everything from forbidden desire to full-on witch trials.

We explore:

• Ancient Mesopotamian sex spirits (hi Lilitu 👋)

• Church doctrine that turned nocturnal emissions into evidence of possession

• The Malleus Maleficarum’s unhinged obsession with demonic erotica

• The tragic case of Johannes Junius, who died under torture for a “demon mistress” he never had

• 17th-century theologian Ludovico Maria Sinistrari, who basically invented the demonological field guide with his treatise De Daemonialitate

• And a little peek into pop culture’s glow-up of the sex demon—from Bayonetta to Buffy to Lilith in Diablo

Because it turns out… nothing haunts society like a woman who enjoys herself.

👻 Research Links & Sources:

🖋️ Johannes Junius’ letter from prison (1628)
https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/17c-junius.asp

📜 Dante’s Inferno (on demon lust in the Second Circle)
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8800

📚 De Daemonialitate et Incubis et Succubis (Sinistrari, Latin & English)
https://sacred-texts.com/evil/dde/index.htm

📖 Malleus Maleficarum (1487) – Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger
👩‍🔬 Academic commentary on Lilith & demon folklore: JSTOR, Zohar, Alphabet of Ben Sira

🎵 Music Credit:
Opening and transition tracks by Dark Fantasy Studio – licensed under commercial podcast rights.

🕯️ Like your folklore hot, haunted, and historically cursed?
Follow us @SpookologyPod, @SpookologyPodcast, or @Spookology on Spotify, Instagram, Ko-fi, Patreon, and Facebook.

In April 1973, something weird hopped into the quiet town of Enfield, Illinois—and left behind nothing but claw marks, confused police, and a cryptid case that refuses to die. In this episode, we break down the Enfield Horror in all its three-legged, chest-armed, flashlight-eyed glory.

It's our take on one of the strangest creature reports ever filed.

We talk sightings, footprints, Midwest monster panic, and what it says about fear, folklore, and how fast small towns can lose their minds when the thing in the dark doesn’t match the local wildlife guide.

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RECOMMENDED YOUTUBE VIDEOS FOR DEEP DIVES:

1. The Enfield Horror | First Sighting in Illinois, pt. 1 – Cryptids Across the Atlas

2. The Enfield Monster – Twilight Emporium

3. Searching for the Enfield Horror (The Strange Case of Southern Illinois)

4. Enfield Horror Audio: Lost Field Recordings and Return to the Rails

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SOURCES & FINAL THOUGHTS:

• Mysterious America by Loren Coleman

• “Swamp Slobs Invade Illinois” – Fate Magazine, July 1974

• "A ‘Monster’ At Enfield" – Mt. Vernon Register-News, April 27, 1973

• Miller, Mietus & Mathers (1978) – A Critical Examination of the Social Contagion Image of Collective Behavior: The Case of the Enfield Monster, The Sociological Quarterly

• Wikipedia:
  • Enfield Monster – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enfield_Monster
  • Henry McDaniel – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_McDaniel_(Enfield)
  • Cryptozoology – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptozoology
  • Social Contagion – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_contagion

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📖 Head to the Fate Magazine archives or academic journals for the primary documents.
🗺️ Explore the woods near Enfield—if you're brave enough.
Let us know what you believe.
A mystery lost to time… or a creature waiting in the shadows?

🧙‍♀️ Episode Summary:
In 1706, Virginia held its first and only recorded trial by ducking—strapping a woman to a chair, tossing her in the river, and calling it justice. That woman was Grace Sherwood: midwife, widow, and suspected witch.
She wore pants. She grew herbs. She sued her neighbors. And when she didn’t drown? They threw her in jail anyway.

This week, we’re diving into colonial paranoia, the politics of pants, and how a river decided Grace’s fate.

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🪓 Topics Covered:

• Witch trials in early Virginia

• Trial by ducking (ordeal by water)

• Land-owning women and independence

• Rumors, court records, and colonial drama

• Grace Sherwood’s legacy and pardon

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📚 Sources & Research Credits:

• Encyclopedia Virginia – “Grace Sherwood (ca. 1660–1740?)”

• The Witch of Pungo by Louisa Venable Kyle

• Virginia Beach History Museums – museumsvb.org

• Library of Virginia – virginamemory.com

• William & Mary Law Review – "Women, Witchcraft, and the Law"

• “The Old Jail” – Virginia Humanities

• Spookology internal research, written by Nichole Dela Montanye

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🎧 Credits:
Written and narrated by Keek (Nichole Dela Montanye)
With commentary and side-eye from Cardi
Produced by Want Some Bread Co.

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Patreon + Ko-fi: @spookologypod
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Reddit: r/spookologypodcast