Season 06 Episode 3 Extra: Return to Sunder

or other, didn't make it into the previous show. In last week's episode, Under the Influence, we trace the story of the apparent demonic possessions of David Glatsal and Arnie Johnson that were said to have occurred in Connecticut in the early nineteen eighties. Much of the story, as it has come to be known, is largely derived from the nineteen eighty three book The Devil in Connecticut, written by

Gerald Brittle. Brittle was given the supposed full account of the Glatsal families and Annie Johnson's bizarre experiences by some of the respective family members, and Lorraine and Ed Warren, who claimed to have witnessed much of it for themselves. In twenty six, with the book due to be republished, Carl Glatsaw jor David's older brother, who was fifteen at the time in question and who never once believed his brother was actually possessed, sued Brittle and Lorraine Warren for

their depiction of what apparently took place. Although Carl didn't dispute much what physically happened, he claimed that elements were exaggerated and in some cases entirely invented, to support the Warren's insistence that David was being possessed by demons. In fact, as Carl Junior stated, David's problems, which he believed were most likely the result of some form of psychiatric illness, had begun as far back as nineteen seventy nine, a full year before the book suggests or thor Or Old.

Brittle argued in response that having only written the book after recording hours and hours of testimony from the Glasso family themselves, he wholeheartedly stood by everything he said in it. The case was eventually dismissed. As for Arnie Johnson's conviction for the murder of Alan Bonno, his case is often presented as an example of how a defendant attempted to

use demonic possession as a legal defense strategy. However, in reality, this line of defense wasn't actually allowed by the judge and so was never genuinely put to the test in a trial by jury. As such, it is interesting to wonder what the outcome may have been had this been allowed. After all, as Johnson's lawyer put it at the time, for anyone claiming a Christian belief in God, as all of the jury did, there is the very awkward truth that they would most likely believe in the existance of

the devil too. In effect, for someone of that belief, the distinction between what was and wasn't an act of the Devil could never truly be satisfactorily established. Back in the sixteen seventies, on the island of Sicily, one Benedictine nun found herself confronted with the same uncomfortable dilemma after a series of terrifying experiences left her in no doubt

that she was being tormented by the devil. A gentle pink haze descended across the dusty land as the carriage continued its climb into the hills toward Palmer on the southern coast of Sicily. Inside, fifteen year old Isabella gazed longingly at the distant shimmering Mediterranean as they climbed, relieved to finally be over the fever that had so blind

I did he first three months at the monastery. Palmer was established in sixteen thirty seven with the building of the Church of Madonna del Rosario by Isabella's father, Julio Tomassi, the first Prince of Lampaduza, and his twin brother Carlo. A short time later, Julio's own palace was erected, taking

pride of place in the center of the commune. Then, in sixteen fifty nine, having decided that he and his family should dedicate their lives to God, Julio made the decision to donate his palace to an order of Benedictine nuns to serve as their monastery. The following year, Isabella Tomassi took her place amongst the nuns, alongside her sister Francesca, who joined the year before. Almost immediately that'd been complications, a strange nervous ailment that wouldn't settle in the end,

Isabella was sent back home to Agrigento to recuperate. Three months later, in October sixteen sixty, she returned. It had been a long and arduous journey from Agrigento, over six hours in total, in the cool autumnal air, sat alone, with nothing but her thoughts for company. Her heart was soon warmed, however, by the sight of Francesca, now Sister Maria Sarafica, waiting for her at the foot of the monastery steps to welcome her back to her true home

under God's roof. Isabella stepped out into the soft light of dusk and gazed out again toward the sea, still sparkling in the distance. Then turning back, she looked to the large cross perched high on top of the convent roof, then slowly followed her sister up the steps. Free from the troubles of those first few months, Isabella soon settled

into the cloistered life. Then, in May sixteen sixty two, under the watchful eye of her uncle Carlo, she was formerly baptized into the Order, taking the name Sister Maria Crossofissa della Concezioni. Like all her fellow nuns, Sister Maria's time was spent largely in prayer, reading scriptures, and taking mass.

Of all her pastimes, however, by far her favorite was singing in the choir, feeling the words and melodies flow through her, lifting her ever higher and closer to God and for the first few years, all was well, as documented in a series of letters that sister Maria wrote to her brother Giuseppe Tomassi, who was living in Rome at the time pursuing his own religious studies. But sometime around the beginning of sixteen seventy six, something strange began

to occur. At first, it manifested as an unsettling sense of loneliness within the then thirty year old sister Maria and the steadily building feeling that her experience of life was not the same as the other sisters around her, and before long the visions started to emerge. It was small things at first, seen out of the corner of her eye, that portrait of the Madonna and Child, for example, that she could have sworn was staring directly at her.

Other times, she was convinced that her guardian angel had revealed itself to her. And then one day Christ himself appeared to her, nailed to the cross, as real as if she was standing next to him at gold Gatha herself. We often talk about how the advent of streaming has revolutionized the way we engage with audio and visual content, placing countless numbers of films, TV shows, and music tracks at our fingertips. But did you know this has also

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Unable to keep it all to herself, news soon spread of sister Maria's apparent miraculous visions. In response, senior officials eager not to draw the attention of the Spanish inquisition treated her to a series of violent interrogations, demanding that she confessed to making it all up. But Sister Maria would not budge. It was all real, she insisted. But

then something else began reaching out to her. It started as a voice, at first, coming to her in the depths of night, when she felt most alone and isolated, telling her that she was wrong to worship God and that she should reject him. It was a voice she didn't recognize, but knew instantly the devil had come for her. Many nights, Maria would scream at the voice to leave

her alone. As her fellow sisters grew more and more concerned for her well being, but Maria refused to tell them the truth, terrified what they might think if they found out she was in communication with Satan. Even when she did attempt to confess it to the priest, the moment she entered the confession box, she would flail in agony, as if her skin were being ripped apart from head to toe. Even merely approaching the altar and the chapel left her screaming in agony, often to the point that

she would faint from the pain of it. Night after night, the devil tormented her, appearing to her in hellish visions, while her blood curdling screams could be heard ringing out through the deserted halls of the convent. On the morning of August eleventh, sixteen seventy six, as the rest of the convent assembled for choir, they soon realized that Sister

Maria was nowhere to be seen. With two nuns sent to Sister Maria's room to investigate, they arrived to find her sat on the floor in complete silence, her eyes dark and slack with the weariness of a night without sleep, and her face and hands covered in ink. And beside her on the floor underneath a long feathered quill, stiff and blackened with ink, a single piece of paper covered in a bizarre language of strange, indecipherable symbols. Then Sister

Maria looked up. Finally, it's a letter from the devil, she said, having clearly suffered some kind of ordeal, Sister Maria was ordered to spend some time in bed to recover. Later that day, with the other nuns becoming increasingly troubled by the existence of the strange letter, Sister Maria was visited by the head of the convent, Abbess Maria Seraphica, who wanted to learn more about where it had come from. A Sister Maria explained the devil had visited her again

in her room, demanding that she reject God. When she refused, the devil dragged her to Hell, where she was then tortured by demons and forced to suffer the pains of all the damned until eventually she blacked out. The next thing she knew, she awoke to find herself lying on her bedroom floor next to the mysterious leg, with no recollection of how it came to be there and no clue as to what it said. Abbas Sarafica looked again at the strange symbols scrawled across the thick paper, like

nothing she'd ever seen before. There was one word, however, that she did recognize, the last one, which read simply oime Alas. It was clear then to Abbas Sarafica what had taken place So valiant was Sister Maria's efforts to resist the devil's words that he was forced to take over her body and use it to write a diabolical confession which he tried to have her sign with her name. However, in a final effort of divine strength, Sister Maria had

once again resisted writing only the word alas instead. Deeply troubled by what might be written in the unknown message, Abbess Seraphica had the letter displayed to the public in the hope that some one might be able to decipher it,

but no one could. Over time, Sister Maria's reputation as somewhat of a mystic continued to grow, culminating in sixteen seventy eight in a tortuous forty nine hour session in which she claimed to visualize the entire passion of the Christ through his own eyes, from his welcoming to Jerusalem through to his nailing on the cross, with Sister Maria screaming out as each nail was thrust sharply into bone,

and on through to the resurrection. It is said that when she finally came to the imprint of a cross, as if burned on to her skin, was found in the center of her chest. When she died in sixteen ninety nine, the age of fifty four, it is said that that same image of a cross once again appeared on her chest for hundreds of years, the Devil's Letter

and its mysterious unknown language remained indecipherable. In nineteen sixty the Benedictine nuns of what by then had become known as Palmer de Montechiaro went as far as to offer a month long vacation at their monastery to anyone who could propose a solution, but once again, the letter refused to give up its secrets until that was in twenty seventeen, thanks largely to the dark Web. After three hundred and

forty years, a breakthrough was finally made. After hearing about a top secret algorithmic codebreak software apparently doing the rounds on the dark Web, a team from the Ludum Science Center in Catania, led by director Daniel Abbarte, decided to get hold of it. In need of something to test it out on, Abarte, who'd long been intrigued by the

mystery of the Devil's Letter, had the perfect suggestion. After conducting some research on the life of Sister Maria, the team soon discovered that she was in fact an expert linguist who devoted much of her time at the convent to studying ancient Greek, Arabic and the Germanic Runic alphabet, amongst other languages. After priming the software in accordance with what they knew about Sister Maria's linguistic skills, they ran

the letter through the program. Incredibly, it worked. The eleven lines of strange text were found to be created from a mix of Arcade, Greek, Arabic and Runic letters and graphisms. Once to cipher, they found in the letter a proclamation that God was nothing but a human invention, with the writer calling Jesus and the Holy Ghost dead weights and

urging Sister Maria to abandon her faith. If you enjoy Unexplained and would like to help supporters, you can now do so via Patreon To receive access to add three episodes, Just go to patron dot com forward slash Unexplained Pod to sign up. Unexplained. The book and audiobook, featuring ten stories that have never before been covered on the show, is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase through Amazon,

Barnes and Noble, and Waterstones, among other bookstores. All elements have Unexplained, including the show's music, are produced by me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe I been rate the show wherever you listen to podcasts, and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation

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