Like all good legends, almost everyone knew somebody who (supposedly) knew first hand of strange doings but nobody ever saw anything that could be backed with fact or photo. But it still made a great spooky story in the days before movies like Halloween and Friday the 13th.
Some of the tales of devil worshipers involved human and/or animal satanic ritual sacrifice. People disappeared (well, there was some truth to that one) and dogs were found drained of blood. Then there were chains of hooded people across isolated roads to stop cars so they could pull the passengers out and..., well, they were going to do something with them.
And Hook Man, well it was said he could show up anywhere, anytime, but mostly in the dark of night and usually when a romantic couple was parked in some back woods make-out spot. He was old, evil, disfigured and, of course, had a hook for a hand. The hook was a result of a logging/mining/hunting accident, depending on who was telling the story. But he was out there and he was demented and a vengeful killer.
Perhaps the stories were in response to or balanced out the Blue Army that had come to Kootenai County. Maybe there just wasn't enough creepy stuff in the area and people always need a good one for the campfire or to tell an impressionable young lady ("snuggle up, baby, I'll protect you"). Some say the stories were told in hopes of keeping folks from moving here. Whatever the reason, they certainly got people's attention and were passed around like a box of Cracker Jacks. But unlike the snack, these stories always got bigger.
Turns out almost every small town across America had a tale similar to Hook Man. Where do you think they came up with the ideas for those movies? A little creepiness goes a long way.
Many of the devil worshiper stories took place near Rathdrum. Perhaps it was because in 1972 a mutilated cow was found on a local ranch. That one has never been solved.
Now there was a real disappearance that everyone associated the devil worshipers with. A Rathdrum couple named Ron and Rita Marcussen disappeared in late 1973 and it was assumed they had fallen victims of the devil's disciples. When their remains were finally discovered it turned out it was just your run of the mill murder (if there is such a thing).
You may want to save this story for the campfire.
Posts
I was a young kid in Coeur d'Alene in the 70's and remember well these stories. My grandfather told about the hand-in-hand hooded devil worshipers stopping cars up by Rathdrum where he was working. My impression as a child was that these devil worshipers were rampant around Kooteni county. The other bit I remember is that they supposedly wore three pointed black hats around town when they were not participating in their hooded nighttime murders. I remember seeing such a person in a Safeway in CDA when I was about 6 or 7.
ReplyDeleteI remember the part about the devil worshipers well. A friends car was damaged when she drove through the human chain. Im glad you think its funny, you must be a newcomer to the area. Or young. I have no idea what your talking about with the hook hand guy,,it couldnt be the one we told ghost stories about when we camped out, could it???? Oh, shiver shiver!
ReplyDeleteI was a healthcare workers and I was traveling to Spokane to attend a worshop we decided to take the old road home to Kellogg, we went thru Rathdrum, and I can tell you that there were people that were like shadow peole that were on that road, we saw them put the peddle to the metal and got the hell out of there. It's not Devil worshipers, it's shadow people and there are still peole in Rathdrum that are seeing this.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said. I can't believe I posted this without spell check.
ReplyDeleteI was a healthcare worker and I was traveling to Spokane to attend a workshop and we decided to take the old road home to Kellogg, we went thru Rathdrum, and I can tell you that there were people that were like shadow people that were on that road, we saw them and put the peddle to the metal and got the hell out of there. It's not Devil worshipers, it's shadow people and there are still people in Rathdrum that are seeing these people.
March 26, 2011 5:27 PM
Har Har! I'm from Sandpoint and our campfire stories were always about, "The Man with the Bloody Beard". Big time 80's scary stuff! But when enrolled at U of I in the 90's I learned about the chain of black robed people across the highway between Cda and Moscow. And of course there was a friend’s friend who actually ran one over and sped to the nearest town (Worley?) to report it to the police. Naturally when the police went to investigate there was no body. After hearing this story and sometime much later while driving back to school on a late Sunday night, I had a car following me in the dark with its lights off in the middle of no-where Palouse. The car would drive right up behind my car then fall back, this happened repeatedly for quite a few miles until finally disappearing into the complete blackness that one can only experience well beyond city limits, and before cell phones were pocket sized and available to all. To add to my then late night driving paranoia I had another story scrambling my senses that my crazy Aunt had told me years prior to that late night incident. Has anyone heard the one about a car abandoned on the side of HWY 95 (near Rathdrum) with the driver's door open and the (soon discovered) missing women’s crucifix hanging on the window roll-up knob (are cars still made with those?) One year later her severed head was discovered moldering above the cliffs on the East side of 95 by a hunter, and to this day her body has never been found....OOooooooohhh..
ReplyDeleteI was a follower of the evil ones, the devils fallen angels we used to pray to so they would do our dirty work for us, or give us the power or strength to do rituals and sacrifice animals. and I have never been able to escape the torment that this has put me through. walking at night in our black robes, digging up the graves of the dead to use thier skulls for our rituals. using blood and sorcery and chants. we were totally posessed by satanic order to gain personal benefits for ourselves. I was innitiated and recruited slowely into a evil and dark sick world and life. I am sure cars seen us walking along the road in the middle of the night as we did our little ritualistic stuff. noone is ever going to come forward and admit who they are or what they have done. but I am from rathdrum and was raised there. they got to me. and brought me into that life. im no longer any part of that. but I still have those demons fighting for me to lose my life and soul to thier will as they laugh. the price of evil is very great. I cant close my eyes and sleep like a normal person. I can never tell anyone what I have done and what I used to be. but the satanic worship in rathdrum Idaho really happened. I dont think or know of anything going on now days. but it could be. all I know is its worse than any horror show you'v ever seen. you better believe in God, because this is not a joke or something to scare the readers. Im very sorry for being that way... I hope God has mercy on my soul...
ReplyDeleteIt all started out as a joke. I posted the last post as well, it started with a person named Jimmy who talked with me and my brother about the cool stuff that black magic can do. I thought it was stupid. but he was persistant and soon introduced us to a person named Anton.
ReplyDeleteAnton seemed to be very serious and did not act like it was some sort of joke. he knew every kind of ritualistic practice and meathod. we talked about doing all sorts of things that I can not mention. I kept saying ok ok but I dont want to worship satan. and he said we are not. but we are only using the demonic power to acheive things. thats how it starts. with Tarot cards and ouiji boards. then goes straight to citcles and satanic chants. I cant tell my wife about this it would ruin me, maybe noone would believe me, which is good. but I found myself digging holes in the woods at night and placing animal rotted carcasses around the hole, and the satanic alter at the head laying in the hole to achieve contact with demons to ask for powers and to pray for certain people to die, which they did. and I lived my whole first part of my life with people fearing me, they gave me a nick name evil eyes. now I look back at the killing of the cattle in the night to get some blood for rituals. all rituals require blood. listen this is just to let you know that they had those so called stories for a reason. I knew about the satanic worship my whole life. had no idea that we were them. I say i hate devil worshippers. I am a Christian now, but there are things in life you never want to do. parents please give your children love. dont let them fall victim to cults that seek out and pray upon lost kids. because I seen things happen that were pure evil and it will ruin your mind forever if you ever survive it. most the people I knew that were there are all dead. now I feel the wicked fallen angels taunting me wanting me back. wanting me to do bad things. I have to stay very close to God and just try to forget. think its a joke? I never heard of chains of people maybe a couple of times, but it was never very many. maybe 20 at the most. usually groups of 4. I cant even come to terms with the fact that I was a hooded freak feeling the chill of some strange illusional type power naked beneath the robe. we were what to fear at night in the woods. but these things really did occur. just to clear that up. rathdrum Idaho is and always has been a strong satanic worsjipping area. but I think its over now... I hope.. there are no boundaries for that type of influence. since the beginning of the 1900's its gotten really bad. I denouce all evil power and thoughts and hope you all get God in your life. dont play games with demons.. its not a joke. please refrain from any thoughts and never say anything they can hear. Im actually very worried right now.
LOL That was a pretty good one!
Deleteso How did you like my made up story, to let the readers know I am a story writter, just starting, I actually was raised me intire life in the rural parts of rathdrum Idaho and I can attest that I drove around at night a lot and I have never seen one single devil worshipping thing, its all just a made up story because they found a cow that was dead near my house with its tail cut off and suppoed drained of blood, for one thing the blood vains from the tail are not large enough to drain out all the blood. coyotes harrass the cattle and always eat from the butt in, we had a cattle ranch and when a sick cow was downed, the pack mutilated it. so enjoy the stories but its actually full of more christian like people. incidentely , that lore came about after movies like "Salems Lot" and "the Omen" were made. so sorry for the false story, I have always been a devout Christian. lol
ReplyDeleteI actually almost believed you lol....I used to live in Rathdrum and my parents lived in Sandpoint..from what I remember they were the KKK type people not satan worshipers....Also the kkk are in sanpoint..I was exposed to people playing on the ouiji boards as a child although I was never involved but it scared the hell out of me and have told my children to never ever touch them ...
ReplyDeletewell, I do know of mutilated cattle and people in black robes. I lived there too. The cows had the tongues and genitals cut out. A lady at my church saw the people wearing the black robes as did one of the youth as he was riding his bike. We met at the church one night and discussed whether or not we should carry a weapon as protection. When we took our youth groups camping, we were instructed to stick together and to get back to the camp fast if we saw anything. Some may treat this as a joke, but there have been and may still be evil cults there. One of my friend in college was also involved in a satanic cult before turning her life over to Christ.
ReplyDeleteI was raised in North Idaho until age 7 then my I moved to Eastern Washington. When I was around age 6 or 7 (1982-83ish) we lived in a complex of duplexes that formed a big horseshoe shape in the post falls area. The center of the U was quite large and was just a grassy field. As I was a very poorly attended to child I ran around and rode my bike everywhere unsupervised. One of my most vivid earlier memories happened one warm day when I was exploring the center of this field.
ReplyDeleteIn the center of the field I found a circle of volcanic rocks and what appeared to be a fire pit. The rocks had melted red wax and the remnants of some red candles on them. To the side was the severed head of a large mountain goat (with large horns). There was no body to the goat that I found. I ofcourse found this fascinating and poked the carcass with a stick and inspected it for some period of time. It had disgusting strings dangling from it's neck. I remember thinking, how come I didn't see the fire because it was right infront of a whole neighborhood.
I told my mother who was uninterested and didn't think much about it again. Until I was a teenager and saw a holloween show wher they were talking about satanic blood ritual and all but described the scene I saw as a young child. I also was very nearly abducted when I was 2 and we were living in Coeur d' alene. I was saved by the screams of my older brother. I would not be surprised if this went unreported by my mother. I also witnessed when I was older, while going to visit my father who lived in the vacinity of Hayden Lake the cross fires that the clansman used to burn on the mountain. Although, I have never considered the two related. There is or was for some period of time something creepy going on in that area.