Listen on YouTube
Episode Transcript
Welcome back to the Storage Papers. I’m pleased to report I’m still alive and was not murdered in a dark alley behind a seedy bar. And while I definitely have some more interesting documents I’ve found in the storage papers, I’ve also been able to make some progress in connecting some dots, so to speak. I’m starting Season 2 off not by sharing any documents I’ve found within the Storage Papers, but with an opportunity to tell you about this meeting I finally had with Ron Hammond.
It went mostly how I expected it to, and still in some ways, there were a couple of unexpected turns…in a great way though, and I know you will be interested to hear about them.
We met on a Sunday afternoon at a local coffee shop. I told him what I looked like beforehand and that I’d be wearing a black hoodie sweatshirt, without the hood off of course, and I’d have a digital recorder on the table in front of me at the agreed-upon time. He was punctual, and approached me directly without ordering anything. When he got close, I extended my hand to shake his, and he paused for a moment to look at the digital recorder before shaking my hand and asked if I was already recording.
When I told him I wasn’t, he started to negotiate some terms. He didn’t shake my hand… this wasn’t the start I had hoped for, but he eventually said it would be fine if I record our conversation, though only if I didn’t use the recording for the podcast. I was extremely disappointed by this… I mean, that was the whole point of my recording. But when I began protesting, he turned around and began to walk out. I didn’t feel like I had much of a choice, so I must apologize as I won’t actually be able to share any of that audio with you today.
The first few minutes of our conversation were extremely awkward. I got the feeling he was sizing me up in some ways. It was obvious he didn’t necessarily trust me too much, and he made the strangest request. He asked me to roll up my sleeves so he could look at my forearms, just up to my elbows. He was quick to squeeze my arms, beginning at the elbow joint, and palpated methodically down to my fingertips, first on my left side, then my right. Once this strange ritual had been carried out, he seemed to loosen up a bit. I asked him if he cared to explain what that was about, and he said “not right now”.
As I was about to begin asking him some questions, Ron began with a barrage of his own. He asked me a lot of questions about my religious beliefs and my knowledge of scripture. He also asked if I’d ever used a Ouija board, if I had any experiences obtaining psychic readings, and since I had previously mentioned being involved in paranormal investigations, if I had ever invited anyone or anything to use my body as a medium, or to channel themselves through me.
Just so you, the listeners are aware, I was raised with Christian principles and went to private schools through 7th grade. My knowledge of scripture, I would say, is better than average, however, I don’t attend church for personal reasons that are beyond the scope of this podcast. I refuse to dabble with Ouija boards, and no, I have never attempted to allow a spiritual entity to use my body as a vessel for communication. The only time I received a so-called psychic reading was for a previous podcast I produced where I was interviewing someone who claimed to be psychic, and she read for me on the show.
Eventually, I asked if he was going to answer any of my questions, and he replied “sure… though this is the first one you’ve asked.” Before I could even reply though, he laid into me with more questions, wanting to know what experiences I’ve had with demonic entities. Now that question took some time for me to answer because ultimately I wasn’t sure if some of the experiences I referenced during our conversation were actual demonic entities or something entirely different, not excluding the possibility that some could have even been hallucinations on my part. He said it was best to assume they were demonic entities and to always treat those interactions with great caution.
I told him about some of the shadow figures seen in my home recently, as well as throughout my childhood. I also told him about a few encounters that you’d consider typical poltergeist activity, but with some atypical details like the smell of sulfur and a couple of objects – a book and a doorknob of all things, spontaneously catching fire during a couple of investigations. While he had an interest in these things, he spent most time asking me about the winged creature I had been seeing repeatedly in my dreams. Ron seemed absolutely certain that the creature should be speaking to me in my dreams more than I could recall, and he encouraged me to keep a journal by my bed so that I could jot down notes about my dreams or any speech happening during them immediately when I wake up so that I don’t forget.
The conversation wasn’t entirely one-sided. I asked him about the instructions he previously gave to avoid naming any demonic entity that I encountered, and he replied more or less as I expected with a somewhat biblical-based answer. He said that naming it could have varying effects. Power is held within a name, so if you’re going to go about using it, you’d better be aware of what the holder of that name is capable of. A name used to have more significance culturally speaking. Historically, when a parent would name a child, it would be after an attribute that the parent wished to bestow upon the child. A modern version of this concept would be in the name, Hope or Grace. In addition though, if you’ve ever done any research on exorcisms, a majority of the time involved spent by the clergy is in finding out who is possessing the victim, and acquiring a name.
They need to know the name of the demon in order to exert authority over it, and ultimately remove it from the vessel which it inhabits. But in order to have authority, you must also have faith in God. The greater one’s faith is, the greater the authority over the entity. This is why the rite of exorcism is only approved, at least in the Catholic church, to be carried out by someone, in their perspective, with great faith. If you think about priesthood, a priest has sacrificed oneself and his personal luxuries to live a life of service. And only those priests who have demonstrated the highest of faith, and have had formal training for exorcism from the Vatican, are approved by the church to perform the rite.
Ron went on to ask “what do you think the point, or the motivation would be of a demonic entity, to possess a human?” I couldn’t provide him a clear answer, though I had a couple of theories I shared. He basically told me I was incorrect, and explained that biblically speaking, it can be contrived that we humans are capable of having equal authority that Jesus himself would have, but we are flawed. Demons know this, and they are jealous of the potential we possess. You have to ask yourself, “do demons have faith? Of course they do”, he said. They search for power and authority in any way they can acquire it. They don’t wish to rule in heaven. They wish to spoil God’s “greatest creation”, human beings, out of cruelty, jealousy, revenge, hatred, and spite for the creator. If you can’t hurt someone directly, you hurt what they love. These are the motives of the purely evil.
I continued asking questions. One of the questions I asked was about the video that he claimed to obtain of that cloudy dark entity from his pocket video camera he told me about in his letter. He not only confirmed he had the video still, but he showed it to me on his phone. The audio was sub-par for sure, but the video quality was exceptionally good for having been converted from its original magnetic tape form to digital. I was shocked. The video shows him walking out a door into an alleyway, and then it turns to face a dumpster on his left. You can see a woman’s calves and feet in high heels laying on the ground on the other side of the dumpster. Then as the camera slowly pans wide, it’s just as Ron described, a shadowy figure hovering above a woman’s body. You can see it morph into a man and turn upright to walk toward Ron, and then an up-close shot of the man’s tie before he goes out of frame and Ron runs over to the woman.
I asked him to rewind the video to try to get a still shot of the man’s face. To my astonishment, he was bald, and I couldn’t make out any eyebrows. He was smiling that wide-toothed grin I’d become so familiar with. Yes, the facial features were somewhat different than the images I’d seen of Malcolm Foye, but the other features were shockingly similar. Ron confirmed my suspicion that this had been that very demonic entity that now possesses Malcolm.
At this point in the conversation, I couldn’t help but ask why he had any interest in meeting me and allowing me to continue the podcast based on his collection of documents. I don’t know what it was about this part of our conversation, but I felt like he was lying. He claimed that listening to these events was refreshing his memory regarding some of the details of these cases, and that it was a huge help to him in reviewing details that maybe he originally dismissed.
I tried asking him about what happened in his law enforcement career. He refused to answer any questions about that, and politely asked me to move on. So I brought up his trip to Tijuana. He seemed enthusiastic to inform me about his trip. I finally began to feel like he was getting comfortable around me. Ron said there were actually several reasons he was there. First he had been researching Preston Nicholson – you remember, the Magician’s Apprentice from Episode 6, and learned that he had been adding to his skillset some psychic mediumship and communication with the dead, along with some other rumored abilities. All of this was according to some subreddit where he claimed to have made a connection with Nicholson himself, and they apparently had some dialogue for a little while under a throwaway account. And then he heard local rumors that an amazing mentalist was performing shows in Tijuana in English only, similar to the documented account by the FBI back in 1997. Ron said he sent a message to his contact on Reddit informing him that he would like to meet with him, if he’s actually who he claimed to be online, and took a chance by traveling down there.
But then Ron shared another reason for traveling there, one which he didn’t even truly grasp the entire significance of until he was able to meet with Nicholson. Ron was convinced that he could recruit some help for Brianne Scanlon, whom he felt was undergoing the preliminary stages of oppression and quite possibly possession herself. You see, he is a devout Catholic. He doesn’t miss Mass, and he had attended a local church during his stay in Tijuana during his trip to meet with Nicholson. Prior to this trip, he had tracked down a priest who was originally an American, and had been transferred to the church in Tijuana. He had also been trained by the Vatican in the rite of exorcism, and one particular priest, he learned, had an excellent reputation, and was scheduled to travel throughout California in the next few months to speak to other diocese about his experiences with exorcism.
So even though Ron had previously planned on soliciting this priest’s help, he figured he was killing two birds with one stone with this trip. But he got side-tracked by a week or so when he met with Nicholson. He said, in fact that they had several meetups, and had developed a rapport. He even said they had been listening to the podcast episode about him, and had a good laugh over it. And then, most recently, they had agreed to meet one last time for another discussion – the specific topic, Ron wouldn’t say, but he did mention it was related to Project Hydra. They had become rather casual with one another and agreed to have a beer over their discussion when Nicholson noticed another episode of the Storage Papers had come out. So they sat and listened to Episode 10, Original Beast. When I got to the end of the episode and spoke of the postcard from Catalina Island with three signatures, Ron said he was dumbfounded.
If you recall, the signatures were supposedly those of people whose bodies had been inhabited by the beast, the cursed ones. There were two first-names, Ivanov and Maxwell, referring to Ivanov Vassiliev, the originally-cursed Russian soldier, and Maxwell Stannard, the U.S. Intelligence Officer and Spy who claimed to have knowledge of Project Hydra, and that the curse was passed onto. But the third name, Lucas Stone, was what caused Ron to really lose his mind. He had the man’s name in the papers the whole time, but didn’t recall it, or simply failed to make the connection. Lucas Stone was the name of the American priest he had been researching, the exorcist. This was the priest that he had hoped to connect with to help Brianne Scanlon.
Ron spoke a lot with me about fate and the concept of divine intervention. I mean, what are the chances that Ron had this single mention of Lucas Stone’s name from a post card dated 1986 that seemed so insignificant back then. And now, the same man, who according to the Storage Papers may actually be a werewolf AND a priest who trained at the Vatican that Ron needs help from. He had a tie-in to his identity so many years before it became relevant, and it was easily overlooked. I couldn’t help but to feel like I contributed to something here, even though it may be a small part.
Ron acknowledged the unlikely probability of this, and as we wrapped up our conversation, he asked me to relay a message to Detective Anderson, who had helped him find Preston Nicholson. I’m not at liberty to discuss that message at the moment, but it was clear I had to find him soon. Ron gave me a couple leads that should allow me to reach him quickly. Ron did encourage me to keep the podcast going, and said it was “doing some good”. I got the distinct impression that he had ulterior motives for encouraging the podcast to continue, but so long as it aligns with my plans to keep more episodes coming, I’m game. We left with plans to reconnect soon, and he urged me to continue strengthening my faith so that I (quote) “don’t become compromised”. And he reminded me that I have authority over any of these demonic entities should they pay me a visit.
Before we parted, Ron gave me a discerning look, as if still trying to weigh my intentions. He asked me how involved I wanted to be with his work… if I preferred to be behind the scenes reorganizing the storage papers and looking for relevant information on his current tasks of both helping Brianne Scanlon and looking further into Project Hydra. I asked for some clarification since I didn’t really believe my podcast was a “behind the scenes” role. Then he handed me a folded piece of paper and said, “if you’re truly interested in helping, and finding some valuable information, take your voice recorder here and start asking some questions.” I unfolded the piece of paper, which had an address in La Mesa on it. Then he said, “just make sure to ask permission to use anything you discuss on your podcast before putting it out there.”
Then he got up, shook my hand, and walked out. Ron texted me some photos a few hours after our meeting with a series of symbols, saying “look for these in search for Hydra documents.”
After I got home, I did a quick internet search of the address from the piece of paper he gave me. I didn’t find anything unusual about the location. It looked like a small residential home near a shopping center and across the street from a church. Perhaps I’ll take a drive out there within the next week or two.
Two days after my meeting with Ron, I received a small, book-sized package in the mail. I was surprised to see a couple of pages of paper with handwriting on it, and directly underneath it, wrapped in bubble-wrap and enclosed inside a Ziploc bag, was a flash drive.
The letter read:
Dear Jeremy,
Ron tells me you have checked out okay, and are interested in assisting us with some research. After he shared Episode 2 of your podcast with me (this was the one referencing a flash drive with the video of a man spontaneously appearing in a hotel parking lot), I wanted to make sure you were trustworthy before asking for your involvement. If Ron trusts you, and I trust Ron, then you must be okay.
The fact is, the homicide that occurred at that hotel is a cold case. I mentioned the contents of the flash drive to my chief at the time, and the only evidence documented in the official report was a still-shot of the person’s face from the video. He made sure the paranormal stuff wasn’t included. We’ve also never been able to make a connection to the case with any of the medical files contained on the flash drive.
I’d like to ask for your assistance, since you are now in possession of what you refer to as “The Storage Papers”, in searching for any documents linking to this homicide and/or any of the medical documents on the USB drive itself. There’s a couple things I’d like to point out… I’ve placed the medical documents in their own folder on the drive, but I’ve also added a folder named “evidence”. Within that folder, you’ll find a copy of the official police report, as well as results from forensic testing, photographs of the crime scene, and a longer version of the video you previously mentioned on your show. I had the security footage downloaded for one hour prior to the appearance of the man, and one hour following his exit from the screen.
You should also be aware that Brianne Scanlon and her brother, Ben have medical documents on that flash drive. You’ll also see some lab results for Malcolm Foye, along with many other patient files. I have exhausted my resources at the Police Department in an attempt to find references to anyone else’s medical files and known homicides, kidnappings, or any other crimes. In fact, it is my hope that since I’ve come to a dead-end, perhaps you might be able to cross reference some of the names within those medical documents with any potential connections to The Storage Papers.
Ideally, you’d be able to pay special attention to any names relating to your search for Project Hydra documents to reference these medical files. My hunch is there may be a connection there somehow.
If you find anything, please make sure to reach out. Below I’ve listed my personal cell phone and email address. Good luck, and let me know if I can be of any assistance.
Mark Anderson
I don’t know why, but when I held this flash drive in my hands for the first time, it seemed surreal. This podcast was supposed to be interesting, or even entertaining. Now, it feels like something more. Almost like an obligation… not a reluctant one per se, but it’s not just some story that I’m reading about. It just got real for me, and I feel a sense of moral obligation, or duty, to see if I can help.
While I dig further into these medical files, I began creating a basic Excel spreadsheet over the break with names and patient demographics. Of course, ethically speaking, I can’t share some specific things in association with actual names of people who, when I think about it, may very well be still alive and living near me. I’m not even sure if I can get into trouble for sharing information contained within, but I will also be continuing my search for any documents related to Project Hydra in real-time, and checking this spreadsheet for correlating names or other information. I’ll also continue sharing some of the other accounts that may or may not be related, with the promise that I’ll keep you posted as I learn more and as events unfold.
Before I end this episode, I should share some patterns that I’ve found simply by placing a few filters and sorting a few items on the spreadsheet I created. All of the records appear to have had lab work done, and more specifically, some kind of genetic testing not covered by insurance. This stuck out to me for two reasons. First, because the lab is not local and second, there were positive markers relating to a very specific gene mutation. I’ve tried to research these specific results online, as well as in some medical journals for research, and have come up with nothing explaining the significance of these results. Maybe it’s coincidence, but aside from all records coming from the same hospital, and the patients’ residences being located in San Diego county, this is the only pattern I can see at the moment.
I should also mention that some of the medical files contained photographs of the patients. Brianne Scanlon’s was one of them. When I first looked at it, I thought she was pretty, but there was something familiar about her photo that I didn’t see at first. It began bothering me, but the more I looked at it, the more I was frustrated until I gave up. It was like watching a TV show knowing you’ve seen an actor’s face on something else, but you can’t quite figure it out, and then later it will just come to you when you aren’t even thinking about it. That was the case here… I was on my way to work on Friday, and if you listened to the trailer for this season, you’ll recall an elderly woman in a purple dress in my dream that spoke to me in Latin, not in a woman’s voice. Brianne Scanlon is the elderly woman in my dream, only her medical record picture shows her looking younger than me. My dream depicted her as a woman who appears to be at least in her 70’s. How is that possible?
I would love to hear your thoughts on all of this. You can always reach me by social media or email. I’m on Twitter and Instagram @StoragePapers. Or you can leave me a voice message at anchor.fm/thestoragepapers. Make sure to reference episode 12, Consensus Ad Idem. And if you do reach out, please let me know if I have your permission to share what you’ve said. I’ll be back soon with more documents to share from The Storage Papers.
Huge developments have occurred over the show’s hiatus. In this week’s episode, I will fill you in on my meeting with Ron Hammond as promised. Things have gotten real, and this is becoming much more than just a podcast! Some pieces begin to fall into place as our ad hoc team, if you want to call it that, comes together. Due to the nature of information shared on this episode, listeners may want to listen to the following episodes prior to listening to this week’s:
Leave a Reply