Divine intervention is when a deity, so God or a God, becomes actively involved in human affairs here on Earth. Now, of course, we don't know if divine intervention is a real thing, but today's story certainly offers compelling evidence that it might be. But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then you come to the right place because that's all we do, and we upload once a week. So if that's of interest to you, please use all your life savings to build this beautiful luxury home right on the coastline to be used as an Airbnb. And then finally, after years of work, when it's all done, tell the like button that they can stay in the Airbnb for the first time to the first guest, all for free. Go enjoy it. But don't tell them about all the human-hating, highly aggressive Honey Badgers you've hid under all the beds. Also, please subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's story. Late on the evening of November 15th, 1884, a 20-year-old man named John Lee helped his sister Elizabeth clear the dining room table in the English manor where they both worked.

John was a butler at this manor, and his sister Elizabeth was a cook. And the manor itself had a name. It was called the Glen, and it was this gorgeous property right on the beach in the seaside community in England. Now, years ago, the Glen had been much more grand, and in fact, the king and queen of England had at one point came to stay at the Glen. But recently, the Glen and the family who owned it had fallen on hard times. The staff was down to a skeleton crew of just John, his sister Elizabeth, and two elderly maids, which meant virtually all the physical labor at this property fell to John to take care of. So on this night, John was lugging a huge pile of heavy China in his arms to bring out to the kitchen. And as he was doing this, he was trying to talk to his sister, who was also helping clear the table, about an upcoming dinner party they were going to host at the Glen for some very important lawyers and politicians. But as John tried to talk to Elizabeth, Elizabeth just wasn't really reacting. She was staring off into space, and she was only carrying one or maybe two plates off the dining room table, while John is carrying 50.

And so John was becoming really annoyed with his sister. I mean, she's not really helping, and she's ignoring him. And so John was about to complain to his sister about her behavior when suddenly she turned around and she apologized to him and said, You know what? I'm sorry I'm acting this way. I just don't feel very good, and I really think I should go lie down. Now, John was about to be really annoyed at this, but then he noticed his sister had her hands reflexively over her stomach, and John knew his sister was pregnant, and so suddenly he felt like, Okay, the reason she's acting this way must be because of her pregnancy. And so he did not press the issue. Now, you need to understand that Elizabeth did not tell John that she was pregnant, nor did she tell anybody else in the house, because the owners of the Glen were very traditional and very religious, and they almost certainly would not approve of Elizabeth's pregnancy because she wasn't married. At the time in England, it was not okay to have babies out of wedlock. It was viewed as this totally taboo thing that you should never do.

But despite Elizabeth's best efforts to conceal feel her pregnancy, John and the other two elderly maids very quickly realized what was going on because every morning they would see Elizabeth vomiting because of morning sickness. And so when they approached her and said, Hey, it looks like you're pregnant. What's going on here? Elizabeth refused to talk about it. She did not admit to being pregnant. She just said, Leave me alone. I mean, John didn't even know who the father was. Elizabeth did not want to talk to anyone about her pregnancy. But despite all that, John and the other two maids really wanted to support Elizabeth and help her get this pregnancy without being found out and potentially fired because of it. So when Elizabeth said to John that she just wanted to go lie down because she was feeling sick, he didn't press the issue, and he just told her, You know what? I'm fine. I'll finish up. You go lay down. I hope you feel better. By 11:00 PM, John was nearly done with all of his chores, and he was getting ready for bed when one of the elderly maids came into the room and told John it was time for their nightly prayers.

And without any hesitation, John put down the silverware that he was polishing and followed the maid into the living room where one of the owners of the Glen was waiting in her night clothes. The owner was a 68-year-old woman named Emma Cace, and at night, she really liked to lead a nightly prayer with her staff. It was something she really enjoyed doing. Now, John was not a very religious person but he really cared about Emma, and so he agreed to do these nightly prayers really just to make her happy. I mean, after all, Emma had basically saved him on multiple occasions. John had begun working for Emma six years earlier when he was just 14 years old. John, he was like a rough kid and a troublemaker, but Emma, she just had a soft spot for him. At some point, when John admitted to Emma that he was really interested in traveling the world someday, Emma would help him get into the British Royal Navy. For two years, John very happily served in the military and did get to see the world. But at the two-year mark, John came down with this terrible case of pneumonia, and it forced him to leave the military early.

When John was medically discharged, he came back home and he had no idea what he was going to do. I mean, he anticipated staying in the Navy for some time, not just two years. But luckily, Emma stepped in again, and she gave this glowing recommendation of John to one of her very wealthy friends, basically saying, Hey, you should hire John. And this wealthy friend of Emma's agreed and hired John, and John was so happy, so relieved. I mean, Emma has totally picked him up again. But after getting hired, John would make a totally stupid mistake. He would steal this really expensive plate from this wealthy friend, and he would get caught. And this wealthy friend, they didn't just scold John and make him give the plate back. They got the police involved, and ultimately, John would be sent to prison for six months for the theft. And when John got out again, he was certain nobody was going to hire him. I mean, he just went to jail for stealing. But that was when Emma, for a third time, stepped in and helped John again. Emma was a big believer in forgiving people and giving them additional chances when they screwed up, and so she said to John, You know what?

I understand you made a mistake. Why don't you come back to the Glen and work for me? You can be our butler. John couldn't believe it. I mean, he knew he did not deserve this chance, especially from Emma, who's now been done wrong by him multiple times. But he was so grateful, and he said to Emma, I'll take this, of course, and I will do anything you want, no matter what. I will do the best possible job. I'm not going to screw this up. And so far, that was exactly what John had done since coming back to the Glen. He did what ever Emma wanted, and that included nightly prayers. So on this night, after John walked into the dining room, he took a seat next to Emma at the table, and then after Elizabeth and the other two elderly maids took their seats at the table, they all held hands and they bowed their heads, and then Emma began to lead them in prayer. When the service was over, the two maids got up and headed to the kitchen to make a cup of hot cocoa for Emma. Emma typically stayed up really, really late, basically later than anybody else in the house, and she liked to drink hot cocoa and just sip by the and read and write letters.

It was just her time to be alone and to be left alone. After the maids had gone, John stood up, too, and he said good night to Emma and told her to enjoy the rest of her night. Then he made his way into the kitchen and he went into the pantry, which doubled as his bedroom. Once in the pantry, he pulled out his cot, climbed under the covers, and he fell asleep. A few hours later, at about 3:30 in the morning, John suddenly woke up in the pantry to the sound of somebody screaming outside the door. John, he burst the pantry door, and right away, he's looking in the kitchen, and it's just completely covered in smoke. He can barely see, but not far from him, in the kitchen was his sister and also one of the maids, and they were the ones screaming. They were actually screaming at John to, Wake up and go get everybody. We need to get them out of the house and get some help. John, his first instinct is, Okay, clearly there's a fire or something. And Emma, she's upstairs and she could be in trouble. And so John, he instinctively ran towards the stairs and began going up to the second floor to say believe Emma.

But as he went up the stairs, the other maid was coming down the stairs looking totally frantic, and she would tell John that she was just in Emma's bedroom and she couldn't see Emma anywhere, and her bed was totally on fire. And so she didn't know if Emma was even in there, but it didn't look good. John, at this point, he turned and went with that maid back to the kitchen where they linked up with John's sister and that other maid, and the four of them filled up buckets of water and tried to run back up the stairs to attempt to put out the fire that was in Emma's bedroom. But by the time they got back upstairs, the fire up there had really spread, and there was a wall of fire right in front of Emma's bedroom, so there was no way to really get through it, and their little buckets of water did nothing. And so even though they hated the idea of leaving Emma potentially behind, the four of them knew they couldn't do anything more. Finally, the four of them turned and began running downstairs to evacuate. As they ran through the dining room on the first floor, they would find Emma.

She was laying on the ground, sprawled out, and it was obvious to all four of them that she was clearly dead. However, it was also obvious that the fire had not killed her. She had clearly been hacked to death. She had all these horrible wounds on her head that looked like somebody had taken an ax, basically, to her head, and her neck was so deeply cut. It was almost like someone tried to remove her head. John and Elizabeth and the two maids just stood there staring in shock at Emma, not even sure what to do. Then one of the maids just started screaming, and then all four of just turned and ran out of the house. Eventually, some neighbors, some local fishermen, and members of the Coast Guard were able to put out the fire at the Glen. But this was not just a fire, this was a murder. When police came to investigate, suspicion immediately fell on John. This was back in the day, well before forensic science was used in investigations. And so at the time, the way police figured out who done it is by intuition and gut feeling and assumptions. I mean, it was basically like pseudoscience.

But at the time, that's how it was. And quickly, the police determined that whoever had killed Emma and inflicted these horrible injuries on her, they had to be really strong. And so the assumption was, John is the only man in the house, and so very likely the strongest person in the house. And so he must have been the one to do this because it didn't look like anybody else had the strength to do this. Also, the investigators found these blood trails underneath the rubble from the fire that showed Emma had not actually been murdered where she was found on the ground in the dining room. Instead, she had actually been killed in the hallway near the stairs, which was not far from the pantry where John slept. Basically, right outside of John's pantry door was a bloody hatchet and a bloody knife. On top of all of that, investigators also determined that the fire had been set intentionally, and the person who set it had used this particular type of oil that was very flammable, and they had doused it all over the house and ignited it. It turned out the only place where this oil was located inside of the Glen was inside of the pantry where John slept.

So on the same day this whole fire breaks out and they find Emma dead, John was arrested for Emma's murder. Hey, everybody. If you've not heard by now, our flagship podcast, Mr. Ballon podcast, Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories, that pretty much immediately rocketed to the top of the charts when we launched in 2022 and then quickly was scooped up by Amazon by the end of the same year. Yeah, that show, our top show, is now available everywhere. It is no longer just on Amazon Music. It's on all platforms, and it's three, which means if you've not listened to this podcast since it went exclusive with Amazon Music back in November of 2022, then that means you have about 100 news stories that are only on the podcast that are only now being made available to everybody. So go binge them. And if you signed up for Amazon Music just for this podcast, I love you. Thank you so much. But most importantly, there are still going to be perks for you if you continue to listen to the podcast on Amazon Music. Prime members will get to listen to the Mr. Ballen podcast 30 days earlier than everybody else, and Prime members will get to listen to the podcast on Amazon Music with no ads.

But again, the Mr. Ballin podcast is now available worldwide on every podcast platform, and it's totally free. So please, if you would, go find the Mr. Ballen podcast on your choice podcast platform, whether that's Amazon Music or Spotify or Apple or whatever. Give us a follow, listen to an episode, and then please rate the podcast and leave a review. It does an enormous amount for the growth of the show. I'd really appreciate it. All right, back to the stories. The next day, John was in his jail cell, and a guard came down the hall and wrapped on the bars and told John he had a visitor. His lawyer was here to talk to him, but John was confused because he didn't have a lawyer, so he had no idea who this was. But regardless, the guard opened up the cell, and he led John down the hallway to this room. When John walked in, he saw there was this man who was very well dressed and very handsome. He was sitting at this table, and clearly he was waiting for John. John, at first, he didn't really know who this guy was. But then it dawned on him that he knows who this guy is, and it made no sense that he was here to defend John.

The man's name was Reginald Templer, and he was a very successful lawyer, highly respected in the area, and he also happened to be one of Emma's absolute closest friends. Reginald Templer, Emma's close friend, the woman who's been murdered, is here to defend the person who's accused of killing Emma. It just didn't make any sense. But eventually, Reginald gestured for John to come in the room and sit down. And so John just made his way in and he sat down, and Reginald immediately said, John, I know you did not kill Emma. That's why I'm here. John was so relieved, and before long, he was pouring out all the information he could about everything he could recall about the night of the fire and the murder. And as he did, Reginald took all these notes, and he began creating a framework for John's defense. And so by the time John was back in his jail cell, he couldn't help but feel optimistic that maybe be with Reginald's help, he could actually beat this thing and prove he didn't do this. But John's relief would be short-lived. His first court appearance went extremely well. Reginald showed up in a fancy suit, and he was just completely on his game and just ripped the prosecution apart and basically said their entire case was just circumstantial, and he rattled off all these legal precedents, which John didn't really understand.

But he looked up and saw the judge definitely knew these precedents and was impressed with what Reginald was doing. Then also Reginald would say that the police did a terrible job investigating. They basically didn't investigate and just jumped to conclusions that it was John. As Reginald is basically destroying the prosecution, Reginald looked over at the prosecutor, and he could tell the prosecutor looked really nervous. John was really starting to feel confident that Reginald was exactly what he needed. But on the day of the second court appearance, Reginald just didn't show up with no explanation. He didn't contact to anybody. And so John just sat there waiting to see what was going to happen. The judge delayed for as long as he could. But eventually, when Reginald still didn't show up, the judge looked to John and said, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to defend yourself, which, of course, John did not know how to do. I mean, he barely had even gone to school, let alone studied law. And from there, things only got worse for John. Reginald continued to miss court dates with no explanation. Then on other times, he would show up to court, but instead of being this fantastic, very sharp lawyer, he acted like a maniac.

He would start all these unnecessary fights with the judge over totally irrelevant matters like how to pronounce a particular word. Then when he had witnesses on the stand, his line of questioning didn't make any sense. He would ask things like, Well, what did you have for breakfast today? And what's your favorite color? And then finally, Reginald just withdrawn altogether from the case, leaving John with no lawyer at all, which admittedly might have actually been an improvement for John. After Reginald overdrew, another lawyer found out about it and took pity on John and volunteered to take on the case. But it was on very short notice, and this other lawyer had good intentions but was not nearly as skilled as Reginald was when he was on his game on that first day. And so really quickly, this lawyer fumbled the case. And then when it went to the jury to decide whether or not John was guilty, it took them less than an hour to come back and say, Oh, yeah, he's guilty. He killed Emma. And so John was sentenced to death by hanging. For the next three months, John sat in his jail cell waiting for his execution.

As he waited, he continually insisted that he really was innocent and that ultimately God would protect him. Finally, February 23, 1885 rolled around. This was the day of John's execution, except something very weird happened on this day. When John was led from the jail to the gallows where he was going to be executed, the hangman could not get the gallows to work. The trap door in the gallows where the condemned stands, where it's supposed to open up and they fall down and the news breaks their neck. Yeah, that trap door, it would not function whenever John was standing on it. Now, when John was moved off the trap door, it functioned perfectly fine. It was only when he was on that trap door that it would not work. And so think about this. Pretend you're John. Three different times, the hangman led him onto that trap door. They put the noose around his neck, put a bag over his head, asked him for his last words, and they threw that lever. And each time, John is expecting to die, and it's not working. Finally, after the third failure, the hangman just called off the execution, and then actually a judge would weigh in and say, You know what?

We cannot possibly attempt for a fourth time to execute John. This constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. And so they swapped his sentence from a death sentence to 22 years in prison. And none of this would make any sense until one day, six years after Emma's murder, when John, by this point, was sitting in a jail cell and everybody had forgotten about him. On that day, in 1890, a group of very high society type people, politicians, and lawyers, and rich people, they all gathered in this misty cemetery not far from the Glen. The group was in the Cemetery for the burial of a very important and well-respected man who had died after slowly going insane. And as the priest finished his final blessing, the mourners began chucking handfuls of dirt into the grave. And as they did, one of them said quietly but out loud, Today, we have buried a murderer. Here's what many people believe really happened on the night of November 15th, 1884, when Emma was killed. At the time of Emma's murder, Elizabeth's pregnancy was very scandalous, but not Just for Elizabeth, it was also scandalous for the father of the baby, the father who nobody knew except for Elizabeth.

It was scandalous for this father because like Elizabeth, he was worried what society would think if they found out he was having a baby out of wedlock, especially with Elizabeth, who basically from a societal standpoint was below his station. But despite all that, the father of the baby did not attempt to distance himself from Elizabeth. Instead, on the night of the murder, the father of the baby actually decided to sneak into the Glen to see Elizabeth. But Emma was still awake. She was up late, drinking her hot cocoa, writing and reading, and she heard the sound of the father coming into her home. She got up to go investigate, and she would eventually find the father up in the hallway right outside of Elizabeth's bedroom. Remember, Emma is very traditional. She's very conservative and religious, and she's seeing this strange man in her house, clearly going into or coming out of Elizabeth's room. She was so offended and angry. And so Emma just began screaming at this guy to get out of her house. And if he didn't, she was going to tell the whole world about this illicit relationship. And then Emma walked up and hit this guy right in the face.

And at this point, the The father just snapped. And he flew into this rage, and he began screaming back at Emma. And then he grabbed a hatchet that was on the wall right near the pantry. He pulled it off, and he brought it down right on top of Emma's head. And Emma crumpled to the ground. The man, he's looking down at Emma and he's realizing he's inflict this horrific injury on Emma. If she doesn't die, she's going to tell someone, and then this father is going to go to jail, if not worse. In a moment of panic, this father runs into the kitchen, gets a kitchen knife, comes back, and he finished Emma off. Once she was deceased, he dragged her back to the dining room where she normally did her reading and writing, and then he doused her and the whole house in that weird oil that he found in the pantry where John was sleeping. After getting the whole house covered in it, he ignited it, and then he ran out of the house. But over the next six years, Emma's killer felt so bad about what he had done, both to Emma and then nearly killing Elizabeth and his unborn child, that he went completely insane, and this caused his physical health to totally fail, and he died.

But right before he died, as he's laying in his deathbed, he began ranting and raving about all the things he regretded in his life, including murdering a woman at a big, beautiful seaside estate. Basically, he was admitting to killing Emma, and he did it in the company of all the people who would then be at his burial. That's why as they're throwing the dirt onto his casket, they're saying, Today, we buried a murderer. The killer's was none other than Reginald Templer, John's lawyer. Now, nobody knows if Reginald took John's case because he felt guilty and wanted to prevent an innocent man from going to jail, or if he just wanted to sabotage John's case to ensure he did go to jail to protect himself. We don't know. Either way, though, it was during the course of this trial that Reginald began his descent into madness, which would ultimately lead to his death. Some people believe the reason the gallows malfunction every time John stood on that trapped door and it wouldn't open was because of divine intervention, that God or a God or some deity came to Earth and literally interfered with the execution to spare John's life.

The reason people think that is because John really was an innocent man, and he did not deserve to die. John would serve all 22 years of his sentence, and then when he got out, he became famous for being the man who could not be hanged. John would eventually get married, and he would move to America, or he would live a very happy be in quiet life until he died at the age of 81. Hey, everybody. As mentioned earlier, right now, you can listen to over 100 news stories on the Mr. Ballin podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. It's available on all of them. And so right now, I'm going to play you a clip from an episode of the Mr. Ballin podcast. It's called Rendezvous in Capistrano. Enjoy.

At 10:00 PM that night, Deputy Tony Castillo of the Orange County Sheriff's Department was in his cruiser, out on his usual rounds. Deputy Castillo eased off the gas when he noticed a Silver Dodge Stratas car pulled over in the breakdown lane on a rural highway outside of San Juan Capistrano. It was pitch black and there wasn't much traffic. Castillo figured there wasn't a reason for anyone to stop right there unless they were having car trouble, so he decided he would walk over and see if they needed any help. Castillo pulled his cruiser in behind the car. He could see that the car's engine was still and the high beam lights were on, and the passenger side door was wide open. Just ahead of the car on the side of the road, Castillo saw a pole with an emergency phone box attached to it. He thought maybe the passenger in this car had jumped out of the car after it pulled over to go use that call box to call for help because maybe their car had broken down. But then Castillo noticed a woman's barefoot sticking out of that open passenger door, and he knew right then something had to be wrong.

Castillo radioed to let dispatch know what he'd found and that he was now going to go investigate. Then Castillo got out of the cruiser, put his right-hand on his holster, and began walking towards the back of the Dodge. Castillo's footsteps on the gravel were the only sound. Castillo saw what looked like a smear of blood on the back passenger side door, but he went around to the driver's side, and he saw right away the front window was smashed, and Castillo saw a scene of pure horror inside the car. A man was slumped over in in the driver's seat, still wearing a seat belt, and a woman who had been in the passenger seat was sprawled across the front seat, basically on the driver, with her head on the man's lap. Both of them had been shot multiple times, and they were drenched in blood. And when Castillo checked both of them for a pulse, he found they had none.

They were both dead.

Castillo rushed back to his cruiser, and he radioed dispatch to tell them that he had just walked up on two apparent homicide victims out on Ortega Highway. They Then Castillo ran the plates on the Dodge Stratas, and the vehicle came back as being registered to Ken and Caroline Stahl. And while he couldn't know for sure quite yet, Castillo was reasonably certain that those were the two victims.

If you like that trailer and you want to hear the whole story, just go ahead and look up the Mr. Ballin podcast on any podcast platform. It's free. And then once you find it on Apple, Spotify, wherever, just give the show a follow and then start your binge. Or you can listen early and ad-free on Amazon Music. But again, the Mr. Ballin podcast is available on all podcast platforms. Go follow, go listen. So that's going to do it. If you want more Strange, dark, and mysterious stories, then you need to check out all the Balin Studios podcasts. You can find all of those podcasts simply by searching for Balin Studios on any podcast platform. Okay, that's going to do it. Until next time. See you. Wait, don't go anywhere. If you're looking for more Strange, dark, and mysterious videos, click here.