Show Notes: Killer Coworker at Burlington Coat Factory and Richard Sharp Shaver

Random Michigan and mayhem. You know you want it.

This show, “Michigan and other Mayhem”, is a sort of factual, slightly comical, always earnest podcast about interesting stuff in Michigan and around the world. It is done by two sisters-in-law (Ali and Jenn) that like to talk about random interesting stories.  Expect cults, mysteries, murder, fast-talking, and a couple of mental palate cleansers… and cuss words.  Those happen on this show, a lot.

Episode 10: Burlington Coworker Death and Richard Sharp Shaver

Warning: This podcast occasionally contains strong language which may be unsuitable for children.

Alerts:

• Pretend podcast music (because we couldn’t find any we liked enough for a theme song). Ali tried to skip it but Jenn was having none of that mess.
• Ali has a weird laugh. It is often loud.
• Jenn’s dog can be heard throughout the podcast. He just wants to be involved.

Burlington Coworker Death

• Sandra Waller worked at a Burlington Coat Factory in Taylor, MI
• On October 15^th, 2017 she was in an argument with her coworker, Lorraine
  • They were arguing on how to properly scan an aisle
• The following day the argument continued.
• The store wasn’t open, and the two women are now going at it again.
• Sandra then pulled out a gun and shot Lorraine in the chest
  • Lorraine was pronounced dead on arrival
• Sandra then waited by the front door of the store for the police to arrive.
  • She pled guilty to 2^nd degree murder and felony firearm charges violations
  • She received two years for the firearm charge and 16-40 years for the murder charge
• Jenn found an article written in 2015 that said workplace murders are rare in the US
  • In 2013, there were 4,585 fatal work injuries, which included 404 workplace homicides.
  • Of those, 322 were intentional shootings.
• Ali and Jenn are now worried to argue with coworkers.
  • When Jenn leaves work after working with someone and wants to start the day over
    • Jenn doesn’t care what her coworkers say
  • Ali likes to ignore people she is working with after arguing.
    • She is argumentative.

Richard Sharp Shaver

• Born October 8, 1907, in Pennsylvania but really came on to the scene in the late 1940s, although his life’s plot twist began in 1932
• Setting the scene: most common story Richard told, although there are a few versions, was that in 1932 he is working in a factory, that I am mostly sure was in Detroit.
  • While using a welding gun, the frequencies of the vibrations of the machine, began to allow him to hear the thoughts of the men around him.
  • After that, he began to receive a telepathic record of a torture session done by subterranean species deep within the earth.
• Early 1934, Richard’s brother died, and Richard began to struggle with mental health issues.
  • Richard’s wife admitted him to Ypsilanti State Hospital in Michigan later in the year
  • When he was older, Richard would explain his actions at the time as due to shock and heat stroke, and insisted he only stayed in the hospital for two weeks.
  • Richard’s biographer would later find evidence that he spent a long time at the hospital, although the exact length of time is unknown
• Richard’s wife Sophie died, and her parents took custody of Richard’s daughter.
  • He later married twice more and divorced twice more
  • One wife left him after hearing he had spent time in a mental hospital
• In 1943, Richard wrote a letter to the “Amazing Stories” magazine claiming that he discovered an ancient language that he named Mantong.
  • He claims Mantong is the source of all Earthly languages.
  • Each Mantong sound has a hidden meaning, and by applying a formula he created, you could decode the secret meaning of any word, in any language
• An editor for the magazine, named Ray Palmer, says he used the formula on different words and it worked.
  • Ray wrote Richard Shaver back asking him about how he knew of Mantong and the formula.
  • Richard sends back a 10,000-word document named “A Warning to Future Man” that spoke of an extremely advanced prehistoric race that had built cities in underground caverns.
• The prehistoric people, the Teros, then abandoned Earth, due to the damaging radiation from the sun, but left behind some of their children.
  • Over time the Teros people degenerated into mentally impaired sadists named Deros.
    • Some of the beings remained as Teros, or good
    • Most of the cave dwellers became part of the Deros, or evil
  • The Deros are known for their savage behavior, kidnapping Earth’s surface dwellers and bringing them to the caves as food sources or to torture for entertainment
  • The Deros use ray machines, left behind by the fleeing Teros, to spy on humans and use the ray to project to ideas and torment human thoughts
  • The underground dwellers could also disguise themselves as human, although many of them were too deformed to pass aboveground
  • The Deros are responsible for all misfortunes and disasters suffered by humanity
  • Above-ground human women were often targets for the Deros. Shavers writings often included rape and sadomasochistic sex
  • The Deros would occasionally leave Earth and have contact with extraterrestrial beings that were just as evil as they are
  • Richard explained that there were two additional planets in our solar system, two billion miles past Pluto.
    • The farthest planet, named Quanto, is inhabited by a race or Nortans or Nor-men.
    • They are unable to stand the sun’s rays in any way and do not visit Earth
  • Richard insists all of his manifestoes is a true story and that he had spent serval years as a Deros prisoner.
    • Richard believed that in a past life, he also lived as one of the cave dwellers
  • Ray Palmer, the “Amazing Stories” magazine editor, edited and rewrote the manuscript that Richard Sharp Shaver had sent him.
    • Ray said he didn’t change any of the main elements in the story, but just added an exciting plot to the information
    • Ray renamed the story “I Remember Lemuria!” and published it in “Amazing Stories” in early 1945
    • It was a hit. The magazine sold out.
  • Four the next four years, an oddly large amount of readers wrote into the magazine and verify Richard’s claims. Anywhere from 50 to 2,500 letters a month came into the magazine about Shaver’s prerogatives on underground dwellers
    • The underground caverns were known as Hollow Earth and others claimed to also hear the voices of the Deros/Teros talking.
    • Shaver Mystery Club societies were created in different cities
    • The magazine had a big boost in circulation
      • From 1945 to 1948, 2/3 of the magazines published as “Amazing Stories” had some part of Shaver’s story of an underground society
      • On the flip side, there was once a letter writing campaign to stop the publication of the stories. Some people were kind of sick of the whole premise
    • In 1947, a man claimed to have seen UFOs near Mount Rainier. (which is in Washington)
      • Ray Palmer was quick to point out that UFO sightings were authentication for the Shaver Mysteries being real
      • The Deros were known to have spaceships and relationships with extraterrestrial beings
    • In 1948, the magazine ceased publication of all of Richard’s stories, however, the Shaver Mystery Clubs kept going strong
      • The Shaver Mysteries were part of a popular radio show through the late 1950’s
      • John Nebel, who hosted the show, though it was an entertaining subject but was sceptical during the entire run, on whether or not the stories were true
    • Ray Palmer, from “Amazing Stories” was still printing Richard’s stories in a different magazine called “The Hidden World”
      • This magazine put out Shaver’s stories with very little editing
    • In the 1960’s and 70’s people had mostly forgotten about the Hollow Earth theory
      • Richard begins looking for physical evidence to back up his claims.
      • He believed that certain rocks were created by the ancient Teros, and inside the rock were legible pictures and text.
    • He called these special rocks, Rock Books.
      • Richard wrote about the Rock Books, took photographs of them, and painted images he found in them to demonstrate their importance
      • He had a Rock Book library, in which he would send the rocks back and forth through the mail to people, with the package containing detailed descriptions pertaining to the rock it contained.
    • There have been exhibitions of his paintings and photographs in the years since his death.
    • Richard Sharp Shaver’s writing influenced several other writers, as well as a Japanese horror movie, and a class of monsters in the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons.
      • Ali is currently learning how to play D&D.
      • Jenn thought about a business that will send you a potato in the mail with a message on it.
    • Richard Sharp Shaver died in 1975.