INTERVIEW — TAPE #12, SIDE #1
Q: Mark Gordon Russell (interviewer)
M: Maxine Mc Wethy
Q: I think the big question is if Michael knows what he is or if he’s just making things up.
M: Um-huh.
Q: If he does know, it puts things in a very different perspective.
M: Yeah. I wish I knew for sure what he was.
Q: As far as I know, no one involved in any of these cases ever really knew. In the car it threw rocks inside and then outside, letting us know it’s inside and outside. How is Brenda getting home?
M: That guy and his wife are going to bring her. I keep hearing a car and there’s nothing out there. Do you hear it?
Q: Yeah, I heard it.
M: Michael told us that Rachel drove a real old, noisy white Charger and we would hear it all the time back then. Everybody would be sitting in the living room and you could hear it going down this road right here but you couldn’t see it. Once he said, “RACHEL’S COMING AFTER ME.” I said, “What if you wouldn’t go with her?” “SHE’D RUN HER CAR THROUGH THIS HOUSE.”
Q: That’s a great scene.
M: “You better go with her, then.” (laughs)
Q: Yeah, really.
M: I don’t even know what’s the reason.
Q: And if he’s eight, how old does that make her if they’re friends?
M: Well, one night, Rachel came home with us after we went out there. We heard her telling Brenda right in there to kill her husband.
Q: Was he still alive?
M: We don’t even know.
Q: So she was talking to Brenda.
M: Rachel was trying to get Brenda to murder her husband that killed her. We heard it. Oh my God.
Q: Well, that’s the reason why she’s still around, probably.
M: Um-huh. Maybe she’s staying here — she’s in the house right now. I don’t know.
Q: Or the cemetery.
M: Once three older couples came out here. They ended up just sitting in there and that guy heard Rachel talking. I didn’t even know he knew anything about Rachel. But she was talking to them. Ohh.
Q: It’s just strange that Michael is supposedly the spirit of an eight-year-old child and yet he’s friends with Rachel who’s much older — not that spirits really have ages. She’s old enough to have a husband. It’s strange — the friends of a ghost?
M: I still hear it again. There.
Q: He might need to have a lot of people around to draw energy from. Or Twyla. It’s hard to figure out. I was alone with Twyla when a lot of it happened. He might be with her tonight. (“YEAH”) But she says that away from here she doesn’t really see many signs of him.
M: You can hardly hear him or anything.
Q: He might be over at the cellar or the cemetery.
M: He’s always busy no matter how late it gets. (“REMIND ME TO GET THAT”)
Q: So I see somebody moved a clock from the wall over here.
M: (small laugh) I did. I knocked it down and broke it. I put that key thing up higher where the kids would leave it alone.
Q: That’s a good idea. Kids need a lot of activity.
M: Ooh!
Q: Oh God.
M: Something’s tickling me in my ear.
Q: Really?
M: (laughs)
Q: The minute you said that I felt it on me.
M: (laughs) Something got my ear. It feels just like something sticking a feather in there tickling us.
Q: That’s what I felt on my head right after you.
M: Oh my God.
Q: Is it doing it again?
M: Nuh-uh.
Q: Oh. For a moment I felt something and I looked down. I thought, “What’s crawling on me?”
M: (laughs) Ooh.
Q: Well, I guess he might be doing subtle little things.
M: Yeah. I know there’s something (“TEE HEE”) that’s still here because — tickling my leg again now. There’s nothing there.
Q: Um-huh.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: I FEEL SOMETHING ON MY LEG AND REACT.)
M: (laughs)
Q: I’m feeling it too. Oh. No. In this case it’s an ant. Okay.
M: There are ants in here.
Q: Yeah. Oh God.
M: (laughs)
Q: That’s funny.
M: There was nothing crawling on us.
Q: No. Not at first.
M: We have ants all over this floor.
Q: They’re scout ants.
M: It just felt like something stuck something in my ear though. And what about that? Couldn’t get it out.
Q: Um-huh. Oh my God.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: I JUMP UP FROM MY CHAIR WHEN I FEEL SOMETHING WET ON MY PANTS.)
M: You got something else?
( . . . )
Q: It’s very strange.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: I REMEMBER WHAT I HAD MENTIONED EARLIER ABOUT THE NUMBERS ONE AND ZERO BECAUSE THERE IS A WATER SPOT THAT HAS LEFT A WET SPOT THE SIZE OF A SILVER DOLLAR ON MY PANTS.)
Q: Look what I have on my —
M: (gasps)
Q: And I thought it was my water bottle but it’s dry in here inside my Land’s End shoulder bag.
M: Ooh. I’ll say.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: I CHECK THE CAP OF MY WATER BOTTLE.)
Q: It’s closed. (“OH”) How bizarre.
M: Uh oh. He’s peed on you! (laughs)
Q: Isn’t that bizarre?
M: That’s funny.
Q: Maybe I should sniff —
M: (laughs) Please no.
Q: No. It just smells like water, thank goodness.
M: Well, you scared him off.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: I INSPECT MY SHOULDER BAG AGAIN.)
Q: I hope I didn’t get my film wet. I’ll put a little bit of water in here and see if I can feel it.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: I TAKE OUT THE WATER BOTTLE AGAIN.)
Q: But look.
M: It’s closed. It can’t be, can it?
Q: I don’t know. It was as tightly closed as possible.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: I SQUEEZE IT AND SOME WATER COMES OUT OF THE TOP.)
Q: Oh wait. Well, see — now a little bit — maybe — I have no idea.
M: (laughs)
Q: Maybe I’m just imagining things now. I don’t feel anything wet in here inside my bag. Oh who knows? It hasn’t done this before. My bottle is probably just leaking. I’m glad I found out now before later.
M: Yeah, but it could have been —
Q: No. Yeah. I don’t know.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: I CHECK INSIDE MY BAG AGAIN.)
Q: Strange. I don’t feel anything wet in here. (“OH”) It looks perfectly dry in here. (“BIG DEAL”)
M: I mean definitely he’s doing it.
Q: Yeah, it was right here.
M: Ohhh.
Q: I don’t know. Oh well. Why don’t I just go on then home now?
M: You look so keyed up.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: I WAS CONSIDERING THAT MAYBE THIS ALL WAS STARTING TO MAKE ME IMAGINE THINGS AND WAS FEELING SUDDENLY VERY TIRED.)
Q: I love you . . .
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: THIS IS THE END OF TAPED INTERVIEWS CONDUCTED FRIDAY, AUGUST 11 THROUGH SUNDAY, AUGUST 13, 1995 IN CENTRAHOMA, OKLAHOMA. THE UNEDITED SINGLE-SPACED TRANSCRIPT NUMBERED 517 PAGES.)
M: Um-huh.
Q: If he does know, it puts things in a very different perspective.
M: Yeah. I wish I knew for sure what he was.
Q: As far as I know, no one involved in any of these cases ever really knew. In the car it threw rocks inside and then outside, letting us know it’s inside and outside. How is Brenda getting home?
M: That guy and his wife are going to bring her. I keep hearing a car and there’s nothing out there. Do you hear it?
Q: Yeah, I heard it.
M: Michael told us that Rachel drove a real old, noisy white Charger and we would hear it all the time back then. Everybody would be sitting in the living room and you could hear it going down this road right here but you couldn’t see it. Once he said, “RACHEL’S COMING AFTER ME.” I said, “What if you wouldn’t go with her?” “SHE’D RUN HER CAR THROUGH THIS HOUSE.”
Q: That’s a great scene.
M: “You better go with her, then.” (laughs)
Q: Yeah, really.
M: I don’t even know what’s the reason.
Q: And if he’s eight, how old does that make her if they’re friends?
M: Well, one night, Rachel came home with us after we went out there. We heard her telling Brenda right in there to kill her husband.
Q: Was he still alive?
M: We don’t even know.
Q: So she was talking to Brenda.
M: Rachel was trying to get Brenda to murder her husband that killed her. We heard it. Oh my God.
Q: Well, that’s the reason why she’s still around, probably.
M: Um-huh. Maybe she’s staying here — she’s in the house right now. I don’t know.
Q: Or the cemetery.
M: Once three older couples came out here. They ended up just sitting in there and that guy heard Rachel talking. I didn’t even know he knew anything about Rachel. But she was talking to them. Ohh.
Q: It’s just strange that Michael is supposedly the spirit of an eight-year-old child and yet he’s friends with Rachel who’s much older — not that spirits really have ages. She’s old enough to have a husband. It’s strange — the friends of a ghost?
M: I still hear it again. There.
Q: He might need to have a lot of people around to draw energy from. Or Twyla. It’s hard to figure out. I was alone with Twyla when a lot of it happened. He might be with her tonight. (“YEAH”) But she says that away from here she doesn’t really see many signs of him.
M: You can hardly hear him or anything.
Q: He might be over at the cellar or the cemetery.
M: He’s always busy no matter how late it gets. (“REMIND ME TO GET THAT”)
Q: So I see somebody moved a clock from the wall over here.
M: (small laugh) I did. I knocked it down and broke it. I put that key thing up higher where the kids would leave it alone.
Q: That’s a good idea. Kids need a lot of activity.
M: Ooh!
Q: Oh God.
M: Something’s tickling me in my ear.
Q: Really?
M: (laughs)
Q: The minute you said that I felt it on me.
M: (laughs) Something got my ear. It feels just like something sticking a feather in there tickling us.
Q: That’s what I felt on my head right after you.
M: Oh my God.
Q: Is it doing it again?
M: Nuh-uh.
Q: Oh. For a moment I felt something and I looked down. I thought, “What’s crawling on me?”
M: (laughs) Ooh.
Q: Well, I guess he might be doing subtle little things.
M: Yeah. I know there’s something (“TEE HEE”) that’s still here because — tickling my leg again now. There’s nothing there.
Q: Um-huh.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: I FEEL SOMETHING ON MY LEG AND REACT.)
M: (laughs)
Q: I’m feeling it too. Oh. No. In this case it’s an ant. Okay.
M: There are ants in here.
Q: Yeah. Oh God.
M: (laughs)
Q: That’s funny.
M: There was nothing crawling on us.
Q: No. Not at first.
M: We have ants all over this floor.
Q: They’re scout ants.
M: It just felt like something stuck something in my ear though. And what about that? Couldn’t get it out.
Q: Um-huh. Oh my God.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: I JUMP UP FROM MY CHAIR WHEN I FEEL SOMETHING WET ON MY PANTS.)
M: You got something else?
( . . . )
Q: It’s very strange.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: I REMEMBER WHAT I HAD MENTIONED EARLIER ABOUT THE NUMBERS ONE AND ZERO BECAUSE THERE IS A WATER SPOT THAT HAS LEFT A WET SPOT THE SIZE OF A SILVER DOLLAR ON MY PANTS.)
Q: Look what I have on my —
M: (gasps)
Q: And I thought it was my water bottle but it’s dry in here inside my Land’s End shoulder bag.
M: Ooh. I’ll say.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: I CHECK THE CAP OF MY WATER BOTTLE.)
Q: It’s closed. (“OH”) How bizarre.
M: Uh oh. He’s peed on you! (laughs)
Q: Isn’t that bizarre?
M: That’s funny.
Q: Maybe I should sniff —
M: (laughs) Please no.
Q: No. It just smells like water, thank goodness.
M: Well, you scared him off.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: I INSPECT MY SHOULDER BAG AGAIN.)
Q: I hope I didn’t get my film wet. I’ll put a little bit of water in here and see if I can feel it.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: I TAKE OUT THE WATER BOTTLE AGAIN.)
Q: But look.
M: It’s closed. It can’t be, can it?
Q: I don’t know. It was as tightly closed as possible.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: I SQUEEZE IT AND SOME WATER COMES OUT OF THE TOP.)
Q: Oh wait. Well, see — now a little bit — maybe — I have no idea.
M: (laughs)
Q: Maybe I’m just imagining things now. I don’t feel anything wet in here inside my bag. Oh who knows? It hasn’t done this before. My bottle is probably just leaking. I’m glad I found out now before later.
M: Yeah, but it could have been —
Q: No. Yeah. I don’t know.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: I CHECK INSIDE MY BAG AGAIN.)
Q: Strange. I don’t feel anything wet in here. (“OH”) It looks perfectly dry in here. (“BIG DEAL”)
M: I mean definitely he’s doing it.
Q: Yeah, it was right here.
M: Ohhh.
Q: I don’t know. Oh well. Why don’t I just go on then home now?
M: You look so keyed up.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: I WAS CONSIDERING THAT MAYBE THIS ALL WAS STARTING TO MAKE ME IMAGINE THINGS AND WAS FEELING SUDDENLY VERY TIRED.)
Q: I love you . . .
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: THIS IS THE END OF TAPED INTERVIEWS CONDUCTED FRIDAY, AUGUST 11 THROUGH SUNDAY, AUGUST 13, 1995 IN CENTRAHOMA, OKLAHOMA. THE UNEDITED SINGLE-SPACED TRANSCRIPT NUMBERED 517 PAGES.)