King Arthur

MOYERS: 

Who is telling us today that we are men? 

Who is in charge of the initiation?

BLY: 

One of the things it said, 

if you do not do the initiation consciously, 

you will do it unconsciously, 

’cause it’ll take place.

MOYERS: 

Aren’t we initiated as men 

by the sergeant in the army, by the–

BLY: 

No! No, no, no.

MOYERS: 

— corporate executive we take our first jobs from, by the professor at the university?

BLY: 

To some extent. 

But the sergeant is not the equal of the old male initiators, 

because he’s not interested in your soul.

MOYERS: 

In your soul?

BLY: In your soul. 

He’s interested in your not dying, or he’s interested in your physical health, or he’s interested in your obedience. 

But the old male initiators we’re talking about — King Arthur would be one — is interested in The Soul of The Young Man. That’s what The Young Men are missing, that there aren’t any Older Men who are interested in Their Souls.

MOYERS: And you mentioned King Arthur. He was a Mentor to The Knights, he was the one who stood at The Gate.

BLY: Yes. You could say that a beautiful thing see, one of the ways to think about a male initiation, it goes in this way, possibly. 

The first stage is bonding with The Mother, and separation from the mother. 

We do the bonding with The Mother pretty well in this country. 

We don’t do The Separation well at all. There’s no Ritual for it.

Secondly, bonding with the father and separation from the father. 

Now, we don’t do the bonding with the father well. 

What did Jeffrey Gore say in The Americans? He said, “In order to become an American, it’s necessary, first of all, to reject your father.” 

That’s about all that is necessary. 

You don’t even attack him, as in Freud; you just regard him as ridiculous, as in all those movies that we’re seeing, and all the filmstrips and all the situation comedies in which the men are the fathers are completely ridiculous. You know those?

MOYERS: Sure.

BLY: All over television. 

The father is a fool and the woman is a wonderful person and knows everything, and the father the man is in bad shape, you know, and the woman says, “You should have Comtrex.” And he says, “What is Comtrex?” She tells him what it is. You mean the man doesn’t know what Comtrex is? 

So there is this feeling in which, all over the situation comedy, the young males writing that are rejecting their fathers over again in order to become Real Americans.

Okay. So the second thing is bonding with the father and separation from the father. 

In a culture in which you reject the father automatically, as in America, oftentimes you don’t become bonded with your father until you’re 40 or 46. 

That’s what I told you in my story.

MOYERS: Well, how do you bond with a father who’s absent all the time, who goes off to the office eight, 10, 12, 15, 30 miles away?

BLY: Sometimes you have to wait until he’s 63 and he’s home. It’s not easy. 

The men that I know say they’re 50 years old, they’re 45 years old. They call up their father and he’s saying, “Here’s your mother,” and they say, “Wait a minute,” you know, “I’m going to take you down to New Mexico, we’re going to go down to New Mexico for five days.” “No, I don’t want to.” “Yes, you’re going to go, I’m going to pay for it and we’re going to go.” 

Well, that’s a bonding that sometimes takes place with their father there. The son has to do it. The son has to make the motion.

MOYERS: That’s the stage of bonding, that’s a part of it.

BLY: Bonding with the father. 

And after that you still have to do the separation. Then the third stage is called the appearance of the male mother.

MOYERS: The Male Mother?

BLY: 

The Male Mother. 

That is a Man who does nurturing in a similar way as a woman, only he’s not a woman. 

King Arthur acted that way for those young men.

MOYERS: 

What Does He Do?

BLY: 

Cuts his arm and gives them The Blood. 

He nourishes them and nourishes their souls. 

So this is like Pablo Casals was a wonderful male mother.

MOYERS: Yes.

BLY: Every jazz musician every black jazz musician in this century has had a great male mother. ‘Round Midnight was about that. You remember, the first scene of ‘Round Midnight, he walks into a hotel room in Paris, and you don’t know what’s going on. And the black musician stands there a long time. And finally someone says, “Is this where he died?” And he says, “Well, I guess so, but these rooms all look so much alike.” That was the room where his male mother, his mentor, his male mentor had died.

MOYERS: Well, you’re talking about a mentor, you’re just using–

BLY: We’re talking about a mentor.

MOYERS: You’re just using the phrase mother as a metaphor.

BLY: Male mother. I’m using it I mean a mentor. And so King Arthur was a mentor to those young men, and when the male mother or the mentor comes along and helps the young male to separate from his mother and from his father, because he has a man who is not his father who is acting to him both as a mother and a father. That’s the third stage.

MOYERS: Wordsworth has this wonderful poem in which he talks about the old man who sat under the tree.

BLY: You found that, too?

MOYERS: Yes, the old man sits under the tree, and he says, “He picked me out from all the rosy boys and I became a comrade for life.”

BLY: I couldn’t believe that passage when I read it. And he was in grammar school, and an old man there at the edge of town would talk with him every day. And Wordsworth, at the end, says, “I think he had the greatest mind in England.” Do you remember that? Because he had given that boy so much. So that’s a perfect example. That’s how you produce a Wordsworth.

MOYERS: Where do we get our mentors today?

BLY: I tell the men, you know, you have to look for it. Your father came to you, you didn’t have to look for your father, but you have to look for your mentor. If you want a mentor, you have to go look for him. That means that usually he’s in your field, but not always. If you’re an architect, you go and look for a male mentor.

You know, I met Szent Gyorgyi, I stopped to see Szent Gyorgyi one day, the one who invented vitamin C, got three Nobel prizes. And I said to him he was living alone in Woodstock, and he told me various things, and he said: “When I got out of graduate school, I knew exactly who I wanted to work with. I would have walked 150 miles to work with this man, and I did. I worked with him, I loved him.” And he said, “I’ve been here 30 years. Not a single American man has ever come and wanted to work with me.” I said, “Well, maybe they’re not interested in ideas.” “They’re not interested in ideas!” he said. “You know what they’re interested in? Retirement plans!” He was a wonderful old man. But he was waiting to be a mentor, a male mother, to young American scientists, and they didn’t know the tradition and they didn’t go to him.

MOYERS: But in these traditional cultures, when these older men played this role for young men, what were the older men? What were the male mothers doing for the boys?

BLY: When the male mother is there, and the mentor is there, one thing he does is bless the young men. And it’s so strange, that men need blessing from older men. Robert Moore, I heard him say in a tape, “If you’re a young man, and you’re not being admired by an older man, you’re being hurt.” I like that a great deal.

So that many women bless young men, but the man still needs a blessing from an older man. You know, I heard Robert Moore say it to a group of men: “How many of you have admired a younger man in the last two weeks, and told him so?” Silence. “How many of you were admired by older men when you were young?” Silence. Then he said that sentence, “If you are a young man and you’re not being admired by an older man, you’re being hurt.”

Kill The Spare

“Remember —

If the time should come, when you have to make A Choice between What is Right and What is Easy —

Remember What Happened to a boy who was Good, and Kind, and Brave, because he strayed across The Path of Lord Voldemort. 

Remember Cedric Diggory.”

—Albus Dumbledore's eulogy to Cedric Diggory

Cedric was said to be an embodiment of the qualities of Hufflepuff House. He had a sense of fair play: during the 1993 Gryffindor/Hufflepuff match, despite his capture of the Golden Snitch (which ensured his team's victory), Cedric immediately offered to replay the match once he found out that his opponent, Harry Potter, had fallen from his broom due to the influence of the Dementors.[3] Later on, he provided Harry with information as to how to decipher the golden egg clue for the Second Task. After Harry saved him in the maze, Cedric realised that Harry was the one who truly deserved to take the Triwizard Cup, and had no qualms with openly acknowledging it, which actually resulted in an argument of sorts between them. This sense of fair play and his ability to accept there were those who were better than him is a definite testament to his nobility and his grace.

He also appeared to possess a strength of character that was not unlike Harry's: despite Fleur's turning the force of her Veela charm on him while asking him to be her date for the Yule Ball, he still refused, for he already had a date - Cho Chang. Hence, it could be said that Cedric was a man of his word with remarkable inner strength, especially given how he was able to successfully resist the allure of Veela charm (which could be overwhelming) and keep his previously made promise.

Besides all this, Cedric was genuinely modest, telling his father that his victory in the Gryffindor/Hufflepuff rematch had not been a truly fair one. All the female Gryffindor Chasers described him as being "strong and silent", suggesting that he was sensible enough to speak only when it was absolutely necessary. He was also courteously polite to foreigners: though he supported Ireland during the 1994 Quidditch World Cup final, he was still civil to Viktor Krum (who was from Bulgaria). The fact that his spirit's last request to Harry had only been to take his body back to his parents also proved that he loved his parents dearly.

ANISSA

So this is the yearbook from Anissa's fifth grade year. And this is what Anissa wrote. It says, "You're like a second dad to me." So that was really sweet. It's kind of tough looking back on it, 'cause if she felt that strong, you know, just... maybe I could have done something else. 

Anissa was definitely one of the biggest outliers I've had just because she had no solid connections with other 4th and 5th-graders. 

Anissa would definitely cry once every couple weeks, I would want to say. Mostly about... kids being mean to her at school. 

She wouldn't be able to contain herself in front of the whole class, and sometimes she would just cry. So other kids were aware of her... emotions, and being upset. 

And there's times she would come in from lunch/recess and cry about not having friends. 

I've guessed that Anissa made a connection with Morgan and was happy that they both were into Slenderman, was happy that she made a new friend, shared a connection, shared interest, and it may have spiraled out of control from there. 

SLENDER

" You couldn't set up a better system to fail, in terms of "No one at school likes you, but here's this open-ended monster who will embrace you." 

The worst time to be socially isolated is the time when your brain and body are begging for camaraderie, for kinship, which is adolescence. 

It's the hardest time to be alone. I think in the absence of social contact, the Internet can sometimes serve as a peer in a way, or a peer group. Those two girls in a tight-knit group of eight friends, I don't think this would've happened, because they wouldn't have only been talking to each other and they wouldn't have been relying so heavily on information from the Internet. "

Slenderman is the modern-day boogeyman. 

Because it's faceless, because it's quiet, because it doesn't speak words, it's open to a lot of interpretation and open to a lot of possibilities and to a lot of projection. 

It varies from person to person as to what Slenderman actually is. 

He's the creature that lives in my closet. 

He's the guy in the windowless white van. 

The faceless stranger who kidnaps kids. 

It encapsulates, symbolically, a lot of these other kind of societal fears that we've had for ages and ages and kind of conveniently wraps them up and makes it really malleable. Because, really, Slenderman can be whomever you want him to be. We can empirically look back and find out where Slenderman was created. It was created in 2009 by Eric Knudsen under the screen name "Victor Surge" as part of a Photoshop contest to try to create something that looked real that really wasn't. Urban legends on the Internet has been a thing for decades. There was already a base audience that was ready for a globalized project to kind of build a myth. It actually began with the games that spun off from Slenderman. It's so heavily Page 12/51

visually oriented that it's replicable without really having to understand too much cultural context. And from there, it spread to every available platform and medium on the web. Tumblr... DeviantArt... YouTube... and also the 4chan's Paranormal Board. All of these websites have a really strong affinity with fan art in general. "Slender is coming"? YouTube was the international hub for non-English speakers to kind of break their way into the myth. Creepypasta is this generic term for horror stories that gets copied then pasted because it's good. As it spreads, people start tweaking some parts of the story or pick up where they left off. These are stories that branched out of the main canon of Slenderman. "Oh, should I travel through the woods," "Or should I not wishing I would?" "For above me lurks within the trees" "No one could hear my deathly screams" "The palest man, the blackest suit" Page 13/51

"Bigger than the tallest brute" "Six black arms will grab you up" "Or stalk you till you just give up" "He'll leave your body not to eat But to staple your corpse upon a tree." "Fear the man, the Slenderman For he can do what no one can." Slenderman kind of represents an opportunity to see where people are nervous about certain things and what excites them and what brings them together, because it changes. It changes based on who's telling the story. Often in the adult world we forget how much it sucks to be a kid. Slenderman can also be seen as a guardian angel. Slenderman is the Grim Reaper but with a heart. These pictures are not so much him showing up on the playground to snatch kids away, but to rescue them. Stories like this can be a powerful aphrodisiac for... for somebody who is lonely or is troubled, or is trying to find their way in the world. Slenderman has this entire community of people online who are feeding into the narrative and creating their own versions of it. It's constantly... Page 14/51

it's exponentially growing. That's the definition of a good meme. In human culture, if it's copied from one brain to another, that's a meme. Hi, my name is Valerie, and I've decided to do the Ice Bucket Challenge. I'm doing the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. I'm here to join the people bringing attention to Lou Gehrig's disease. It can be an idea. It can be a tune. It can be a style of dancing. Tired? What do you think he's doing? - Planking. - Oh, you know? - Yeah, I do. - Yes! I am from the Internet. The Internet provides a very, very fast, efficient, universal, worldwide medium for memes to spread. That'll never catch on. No doubt. 

 

"There may be some Memes that spread like a very rapid epidemic and then die away. 

But others may have strong persistence. 

 

People are captivated by Slenderman and wish to pass on images or to modify images of him. 

This horrifying story of two girls who thought that it was their duty to Slenderman to go and kill someone. 

 

Well, that's what I call Power. 

That's very Substantial Power, very Horrific Power."

 

-Prof. Richard Dawkins, Atheist.

 

"One of the things that just absolutely staggers me about these stories—especially the story of Cain and Abel, which I hope to get to— is that it’s so short. It’s like 10, 11 lines. 

There’s nothing to it at all, and I’ve found that it’s essentially inexhaustible in its capacity to reveal meaning. I don’t exactly know what to make of that. I think it has something to do with this intense process of condensation across a very long period of time. That’s the simplest explanation. The information in there is so densely packed, and it’s not that easy to come up with a fully compelling explanation for that. One of the things that you can be virtually certain about is that everything about the archaic Biblical stories that was memorable was remembered.

This is kinda like Richard Dawkins’ idea of Memes. 

I often thought that Richard Dawkins, if he was a little bit more mystically inclined, would have become Carl Jung. 

Their theories are unbelievable similar. 

 

The idea of Meme and the idea of archetype of the collective unconscious are very, very similar ideas. 

 

The Jungian idea’s far more profound, in my estimation — well, and it just is. 

 

He thought it through so much better. 

 

Dawkins tended to think of Meme as a sort of like a mind-worm that would infest the mind, and maybe multiple minds. 

But I don't think he ever really took the idea with the seriousness it deserved. 

 

I did hear him, actually, make a joke with Sam Harris, the last time they talked, about the fact that there was some possibility that the production of Memes — say, religious memes — could alter evolutionary history. 

 

They both avoided that topic instantly. 

They had a big laugh about it, and then decided they weren't going down that road. 

 

That was quite interesting, to me."

- Prof. Jordan Peterson, Prophet

Unconsciously, Slenderman stems from a tradition that... that goes way, way back. 

To a great extent, the Brothers Grimm collected tales that deal with what I would call universal human struggles that we continue to have today. 

I think that's one of the reasons why people are responding to this tale, and they're telling their own versions, their own horror stories about what is happening in The World today. 

Slenderman is a tale about a character, a strange weird character, who may feed upon children. 

It made me think of a legend that Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm collected called "The Pied Piper of Hamelin." 

Many years ago a town was being devastated by rats... in the gutters... on the streets... in the cellars. 

The Pied Piper comes out of nowhere. 

And he's a very odd, strange-looking person, but he has a flute or some type of pipe that he plays. 

The man said, 

"If you want me to get rid of the rats, you must pay me." 

So they said, 

"Yes, as much as you want if you can get rid of the rats." 

The Piper began blowing on the pipe. 

The Rats began following. 

The Piper had all The Rats jump into The River. 

But The Mayor and The Councilmen cheat him. 

And the Piper said, 

“You know, there are other tunes I can pipe, 

and ways that I can repay you, 

in a way that you will never forget." 

So The Piper took his pipe to his lips again and he began piping. 

The people froze, but the children followed him. 

There was an opening, a sudden opening in The Mountain. 

And all the children headed toward this opening. 

And as the last one entered, the mountain closed, and the Piper went inside as well. 

Depending on the times and the person who is telling their version of "The Pied Piper," he can be many different things. 

So he is a very mysterious figure. 

We don't know whether he's evil or good. 

We don't know whether he's going to do anything to these children. 

The children never return. 

Nobody ever hears about them.

But the Pied Piper does live on.

MORGAN

 

Hi, Morgan. Hi, Morgan. 

 

Morgan was a Surprise. 

And I didn't know how to feel about it at first... 

But I knew that I loved her.

 

Yay! 

 

And she changed our lives drastically and for The Better. Morgan's always been quirky, and she's always marched to The Beat of Her Own Drum. 

 

Even from... from little on... she didn't care what people think about her, which I think is a wonderful trait, especially for... for a girl. 

 

Girls are usually so... so self-conscious and concerned about... about what others think of them, and Morgan was never like that. 

 

You know, she just... 

She always just did her own thing, and if people didn't like it, well, that was Their Problem. 

 

Kitties and puppies aren't wild animals.

 

No, that's right.

They're not. They're pets. 

 

I had a camera in her face for a good portion of her childhood, so I think she got sick of it sometimes. 

 

She got a real miniature baby grand piano for Christmas one year. 

 

And she would sit there for quite a long time, just making up sweet little songs. 

 

And we tried to capture as many of them as we could on video, but usually as soon as she realized that we were paying attention or recording her, she would stop. 

 

They'll stay stray forever — 

 

One thing about Morgan that always struck us... as a little... odd was that she... 

 

She didn't react the way that you would expect her to react... like at the movies. 

 

Like, if something bad happened to the main character, she... she wouldn't have Empathy for them. 

 

Bambi, come here! 

Look. New spring grass. 

 

I remember watching "Bambi" with her for the first time. 

 

We were so worried to watch it with her, because we thought she was gonna be so upset when... when The Mother died. 

 

Bambi, quick! The thicket! 

Faster! Faster, Bambi! 

Don't look back! 

Keep running! Keep running! 

 

But The Mother died, and Morgan just said, 

“Run Bambi, run! 

Get out of there, save yourself!” 

 

You know? 

And she wasn't sad about it. 

 

We made it! 

We made it, Mother! 

We... Mother...?

 

 And I could think of... 

A lot of other examples along those lines where she hasn't reacted in the way that we would expect a Little Girl to react. 

 

We were aware that Morgan was interested in Slenderman. 

She would show us some of the characters and some of the stories. 

 

While I wasn't thrilled about her interest, I didn't really see the harm in it either. 

 

We never thought for a moment that she... 

She could possibly believe that it was Real. 

 

When I was Morgan's age, I... 

 

I remember biking home from the library with Stephen King's "It." 

You know, so I liked that sort of thing too when I was her age, and I think most kids her age do like scary stories and horror movies and... 

Scary stories on the Internet, you know? 

 

So, that's all that we... that's all that we thought that it was. 

 

I just can't imagine her... 

I can't imagine her coming up with that plan on her own. 

 

What, ultimately, was Morgan diagnosed with? The final diagnosis, both in the psychological report and in my report are schizophrenia, unspecified, 295.90... oppositional defiant disorder, 313.81... and bronchial asthma, mild, intermittent, J45.2. What is schizophrenia? Schizophrenia is one of the most serious and one of the most studied mental illnesses of human beings. Approximately 1% of the population succumbs to schizophrenia. It is a psychotic illness. It's through a combination of genetic predisposition and then stress placed on the person to begin manifesting symptoms. Patients lose track of reality in a number of ways. One would be hallucinations. One could hear voices, one could see visions one could feel things crawling on them. Delusions, on the other hand, don't have to do with sensing something, they have to do with a thought. So, for example, believing that Slenderman is real is a delusion. Saying that you saw Slenderman is a visual hallucination. Is the pile getting bigger? Ha! Jumping in the leaves. And that's one of my favorites. I raked up a bunch of leaves in the back yard and... she came flying in. Nice action shot. Yeah, it's hard for us to imagine that she was having problems. It's hard to process. None of us... saw this coming. Morgan recalls having hallucinations as early as three. She remembers... seeing ghosts at night, as young as three, that would bite her and pull her hair. But from what I understand, for the most part they were friendly, too. She even said that she... she tried to tell us about it once, and that we just told her to go back to bed, but I don't have any recollection of that. And really, how often do your children tell you at bedtime that 

they're seeing something or hearing something when they're that age?

 

"A monster's in my closet," or "something's under my bed," you know, just because they don't want to go to bed.

 

It's hard because I haven't been able to discuss these things with Morgan, because she's been incarcerated for the entire time that I've...

I've known... that she's... that she's had these symptoms.

 

 

"She expressed the ability to see and hear things that other people are not able to hear or see.

Things like unicorns.

She at one point digressed into fairly rambling discussion about a student in her class being a pegasus.

 

When I saw her last week, a few days before, Snape had come to visit her and kept her up until 3: by Morgan's report."

 

Snape?

 

“Snape."

 

Who is that?

 

"A "Harry Potter" character."

 

"She also will say not just that she's heard things,

but that since as early as three, she's had some sensory-perceptual distortions.

 

She might see a person

change slightly or see colors.

 

She doesn’t have much concern about whether she gets a long prison sentence, because, wherever she is, she will use Vulcan mind control to make herself feel, to make herself believe whatever she likes.

 

And so, even under very stressful circumstances, she doesn't feel the stress because of this...

what she described to be Vulcan mind control.

 

How about her... her cell?

 

I would consider her cell disorganized.

She has papers scattered about the floor.

 

Have you ever suggested picking them up?

 

Yes, I have. And she stated that she liked the papers there because they made it feel less empty.

 

And she is in the room alone?

 

Correct.

 

She said, "Seeing my friends, none of these things are dangerous. These friends can't disappear. They're important to me."

 

Was she referring to real world friends or fictional friends?

 

Fictional, I believe.

 

She's not allowed to hug her family or touch them?

 

Not in our facility.

 

Right.

 

She made clear that her primary concern was with her relationship with Slenderman, 

and she felt like if she says the wrong thing, if she somehow upsets Slenderman, not only hers but her family's lives could be in danger. With childhood schizophrenia, almost everyone develops, eventually, negative symptoms and cognitive symptoms. What's unique about Morgan's circumstance is that a severe course is so predictable. Well, we knew her diagnosis before we went to meet them at the hospital. We had a conference call with two of the doctors, so we were... we were prepared. And the reason that we all went up there, actually, was so that we could tell Morgan what her diagnosis was. And we thought that it would be helpful for her to know that her father also... had the same mental illness, because we had never told her previously that Matt had schizophrenia. We were very worried about the way that she might react to learning that she has schizophrenia because Morgan... Morgan's a very smart girl, and she's been reading... Which makes me think that she knew. Yeah. I think when they told her, she was probably like... Not surprised..."Well, that's what I would've guessed... if I had to diagnose myself."

 

What I think is that Morgan knows that other people don't see her hallucinations, but they're still very real to her.

Like, in her head they are real, and they're there with her. They're there.

But I think that she knows that other people don't see them. Otherwise, why would she make an attempt to...

 

Cover it up.

 

Mm-hmm.

...hide them from us, exactly.

It's because she doesn't want to lose them.

She's afraid they would be taken from her.

 

"This is the doll house, or the components for a doll house, that Morgan made while she was housed at Washington County Juvenile Detention Center. And she just put so much... detail into it, it's amazing. She's not allowed to have scissors, so all of these... all of these tiny little pieces she ripped by hand. This is a television, and these are some of her little cartoon characters that she likes to draw.

 

This actually, I think, is a character that's modeled after Spock. When I watched her do a couple of the dolls Page 39/51

and the... and the clothing, and she said what was surprising is how few times she had to start over. Like, she was able to just be meticulous about... Here's some food. I think this is salad and a piece of pizza. A salad and a piece of pizza. Here's a little laptop computer. See there's even detail on the screen. Look at the cute little heart on the front of the computer. This looks like it's another TV. Oh, and there's... how appropriate. There's a courtroom drama playing in the background. When I ask her what she wants to watch on TV that night... it's one of the things I usually ask her when I talk to her on the phone... she'll say that it depends on whose turn it is to decide. And she's in a cell by herself, so she's the only person there. I do a lot of stuff with running numbers in my head. I do... I try to put up static, almost, is how I describe it. I wish that I could talk to her about... like, I have... right now, there's like patterns of light and geometric shapes that's, like, always racing. Like always, like right now. Pshew, pshew, pshew, pshew, pshew, pshew. I always wanted to know if she sees that stuff, too. Everything seems normal to me, because it's... it's my everything. 

 

This is how I've always seen things.

So, it doesn't seem weird to me that like,

"Oh that's not how you see street lights?"

or

"Oh, that's weird."

I don't know if that was everyone that had like a weird little visual... thing going on...

like the glaring demon, devil.

Like that you're like,

"Okay, this is clearly not real."

 

But it doesn't matter. Like, I've had where... like you... you can see it and you know it's not real...

but it totally doesn't matter, because you're still terrified of it.

 

Like, I know that there's...

I know The Devil's not in the backseat,

but The Devil is in the backseat.

You know?

 

Yeah, sometimes you know it's not real,

but it still smells, tastes, and looks real, so it's real."

 

Could you just describe, in general terms, what you found in the bedroom when you went through it?

 

There were... numerous... notebooks

and pieces of paper with drawings and writings

pertaining to the Slenderman character.

 

Where was all this stuff located?

 

All in Morgan's bedroom.

 

When you ask Morgan...

"What if Slenderman doesn't exist?"

 

She can't tolerate that.

She becomes somewhat oppositional, and says

She Knows it's True,

and it can't be Proven Untrue,

so it's True.

 

Did Morgan use the words

"It had to be done?"

 

Yes.

 

Did you tell her to say that?

 

I did not.

 

She's volunteering this to you?

 

Correct.

 

That seems like an unusual thing to say. It does. Did you ask her what she meant by that? I did. And did you have to ask her multiple times? I did. Okay, after you asked her multiple times what she meant by "It had to be done," what did she offer you or what did she say? She told me that the man ordered it. Yes, I did. She held up three fingers. Like three? Three. What did that... did you try to understand what that meant? I asked her if that meant three years ago, and she said, "No, at age three." She believed that she communicated telepathically with Slenderman, and that... once the communication began, that she had to do 

 

what it was that Slenderman demanded. And if she didn't do what was demanded, her family wouldn't be safe? She wouldn't be safe, her family wouldn't be safe. Dr. Robbins, was Morgan's entry into this particular crime because of her psychosis? I believe so. It bears saying that schizophrenia, in and of itself, is not a dangerous illness. There are many 35-year-olds who have schizophrenia who don't have to be incarcerated, who can be managed in a community. However, there's a second part to that. When your delusion... when your fixed delusion tells you to kill people... and when your... insight doesn't allow you to seek treatment, then schizophrenia becomes dangerous. It is a dangerous illness untreated... and hence... we're here. You are just so lost in your illness that no one knew about... and then for people just to hate her like that, just hate you... "I hate that little girl. I hope she burns." Like, having people call my house and tell me, "You're going to burn in hell and so is your daughter." People don't understand that... she loves Bella. We love Bella... so much, and she still talks about her like they're friends. Oh my god. She loves her like I love her. And like, for people to talk about her the way they do, it's like... Morgan loved Bella. She's... like, how sick are you that you would do that to your best friend? Because you're afraid of something happening, or because you want something happen. You want to become something... because your illness dictated that this is something you need to be. Just blows me away... that people are like that. It just makes me sad. I wish people knew. The regular ones are just the regular cat treats that you're used to. Just to say, "I love you, kitty." Cat Snacks are only 2.99 at your local grocery store. Thank you. Detective, did you have a chance to watch that compilation? I saw the compilation. And would you agree that that's you present in that room with Morgan Geyser?

Those were... pieces of the interview that was me and Morgan together.

 

Did you tell Morgan she could have parents available to talk to before you interrogated her?

 

I did not tell her that, because that wasn't an option.

 

You weren't going to let her parents be present?

 

Correct.

 

Or let her even have a phone call to talk to them?

 

Um, we did not offer her a phone call.

 

At some point were you provided with Anissa's phone?

 

Yes, I was.

 

Did you have a chance to look at any of the messages on that phone?

 

Yes, I did. It says, 

"This is my final wish to those who care..." 

 

Mm-hmm.

Where did you locate the suspects? 

 

They were located right by I-94 in Waukesha County. 

 

Did you notice anything about Anissa's emotional state when you had contact with her? 

 

She said she was scared,

and I asked what was she scared of? 

 

And do you recall what she said to you? 

 

She made mention that if she told me, I would think that she was crazy,

and I told her that I didn't think anybody was crazy. 

 

Okay. 

 

Can you ask the question again please? 

 

One of the first communications before any of the search requests

was found on Anissa's phone that was provided by her parents, correct? 

 

Correct. 

 

It was basically a goodbye letter.

Correct? 

 

Yes.

 

And basically indicated that people should remember who she was, not grieve for her... 

and that she wouldn't do them harm. 

 

Correct.

 

Nothing further,

Your Honor.

 

Aiden?

 

Wrap it up, chief. we got places to go. All right? We have to run over to the school for a mandatory meeting about iPads... setting up their iPad... and using their iPad, and... the disadvantages they'll be at if they're not allowed to use their iPad. You know? I don't think anybody can really, you know, begrudge me for thinking the way I do about... a bunch of fifth graders getting iPads. You know, based on what this family has been through. At the same token... you know, I don't want to hinder his learning. I guess I just need to... get over my own reservations about it. 

 

And about the iPads. 

If I'd had my way, he wouldn't have one.

 

You have a child that is... incarcerated, for lack of a better term...

but your other life still has to go on,

so you still have to be able to support your other children

with the activities that they're in,

and you do your best to support your children

that you can't have access to and have to explain to Anissa that,

"Well, I might not be able to come up on Tuesday,

because Aiden has a pack meeting.

I have to be there for that."

 

I've had conversations with my oldest son. I was out in the backyard. He comes outside, he says to me, "What's wrong?" That's when I told him... it's just stressful as hell...

trying to keep everything as balanced as it can possibly be.

You never get a day off... and it wears on you.

It just really wears the shit outta ya.

 

Because you have to do so much more...

to try to keep everybody in a positive place, including yourself. 

 

It's... It's mentally... and emotionally and physically just draining.

 

I knew it was always a risk, simply because of genetics

that one of our children might develop schizophrenia. 

 

I never thought something like this would happen.

 

Matt is so... He's so high functioning and he's so... stable.

I just know that he's developed an awareness of What's Real and What's Not.

And I think, for Morgan, those lines are still pretty blurry... but it's all still very real to her.

 

In general, Morgan's just becoming more and more lost and involved in

This World of Imaginary Friends that she has.

 

The best possible situation would be that she ends up in an environment where she can receive treatment for her schizophrenia, and that would be a psychiatric facility. Not prison. She can't go to prison. 

 

I think it's kind of cruel of the courts to have a law where you can take two girls who are not troublemakers prior... 

And they did not try to hide what they did. 

 

They did not lie about what they did. 

They were very truthful for it. 

 

And it's like they're being punished extra because of it. 

 

Well, let's hope the judge is gonna have some good news.

Some very good news.