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MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories

Defies Explanation Vol. II

18 Jun 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What unexplainable phenomena are featured in today's podcast?

0.031 - 13.73 Mr. Ballin

Today's podcast will feature two stories about unexplainable phenomena. The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description.

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The first story you'll hear is called Two-Faced, and it's about a man who's filled with this deep sense of foreboding after a ghastly sight in his mirror. And the second and final story you'll hear is called Make It Rain, and it's about an inmate who has a truly unbelievable ability.

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But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right place because that's all we do, and we upload two, three, even four times every week. So if that's of interest to you, please invite the follow button to come with you to a big costume party. But don't tell them you're actually going to a funeral.

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Okay, let's get into our first story called Two-Faced. On the night of November 7th, 1860, a 51-year-old American politician walked inside of his modest two-story home in Springfield, Illinois.

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85.338 - 106.834 Mr. Ballin

This politician was totally exhausted, but he was also really happy because in his hand, he had a telegram that confirmed he had won an election that he had worked so hard for and he wasn't sure he was going to get. And so earlier that night, this politician had been out basically partying and celebrating this huge victory, but now he was totally beat and ready for bed.

107.475 - 122.496 Mr. Ballin

Once the politician was inside his house, he picked up an oil lamp to light the way, and he walked through his house to his study, where he put the lamp down on his desk, he put the telegram saying he had won this election next to the lamp, and then the politician just collapsed into his sofa to fall asleep.

122.476 - 142.033 Mr. Ballin

But before he closed his eyes, this politician looked over at a mirror on the wall, and what he saw in the mirror made him gasp, and he sat upright and looked at it like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. In this mirror, this politician was seeing his own face reflected as it should be, But then next to it was another face, and it was not his.

142.073 - 159.486 Mr. Ballin

It kind of looked like him, but it actually looked more like a corpse, like a dead person was looking out at him from this mirror. And so the politician, he stood up and began walking over to the mirror to get a closer look. But as he got closer, the dead person's face disappeared, and all was left was his own reflection.

159.466 - 183.01 Mr. Ballin

and so he's like okay i must have been dreaming that you know that can't have been real and so feeling very unsettled this politician just went back over to the couch and he laid back down thinking okay just forget about that go to sleep but again he glanced over at the mirror and now that he was laying down again he saw the two faces again his own and this dead person's face and at this point he stood up and rushed out of the room into his bedroom where his wife was

Chapter 2: What is the story behind the 'Two-Faced' phenomenon?

375.777 - 395.529 Mr. Ballin

He was instead just totally angry. In fact, as he was sitting there, he was clenching his fists so hard out of fury that his fingernails were practically cutting into his skin. Don had come to this funeral home directly from the Monroe County Correctional Facility where he was serving a 4-12 month sentence for receiving stolen property.

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The jail had granted Don a furlough, which is a temporary leave of absence, so he could go to his grandfather's funeral. And Don had jumped at the opportunity, mostly just to get out of jail for a minute, but now that he was actually at the funeral, he kind of regretted going.

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Eventually, the actual funeral began, and one by one, Don's family members would go up to the podium and say something nice about the grandfather, and then sit back down. And at first, Don, you know, he put up with it. But after a couple people had spoken, Don was just livid. He just couldn't hear anymore.

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And so he tried to focus his attention just on his grandfather's casket, where he could literally see his grandfather's face as he was laying there. And as he was staring at his grandfather's face, Suddenly, Don saw something and he stood up really suddenly in his seat. And in fact, when he stood up, it immediately caught the attention of the speaker, which was Don's cousin.

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And the cousin just stopped and stared at Don. And at that point, the rest of the people in the funeral also turned around and looked at Don. And Don, he knew people were looking at him, but he didn't care anymore. He was now so focused on his grandfather because a second ago, he could have sworn he saw his grandfather's lips moving like he was still alive.

466.895 - 478.77 Mr. Ballin

But as Don continued to stare at his grandfather, expecting his lips to move again, they didn't, and so finally Don didn't say a word to all these people who were still staring at him, and he just turned and stalked out of the funeral home.

479.511 - 494.031 Mr. Ballin

Once Don was outside, he thought for a second about heading to the home where he knew his whole family would be going after the funeral, but Don just could not face being around that crowd again, and so instead, he headed to his friend's home. It was this couple named Bob and Jeannie Kiefer.

494.311 - 511.465 Mr. Ballin

And the reason Don wanted to see them is he knew they were just kind of laid back people who would not ask him a lot of questions and they would just kind of let him have some peace and quiet. And really all Don wanted between now and two days from now when he had to go back to jail when his furlough ended was just to have some peace and quiet.

511.445 - 521.876 Mr. Ballin

And so Don made his way to their house, and when he got there, Bob and Jeannie were so excited to see him, they called him inside and said, hey, you know, we're going to make dinner, you know, go wash up and relax, and we'll eat together.

Chapter 3: What eerie experience did the politician have in front of the mirror?

834.79 - 854.196 Mr. Ballin

And he said, Don, are you okay? And Don, he didn't say anything. He didn't move. But his mouth kind of contorted into this weird smile with his lips kind of pulling away from his teeth. And all the tendons on the top of his hands began to tense as he wiggled his fingers. And Bob, at this point, he realized there's something wrong with Don. And they needed to call the police.

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854.632 - 870.885 Mr. Ballin

A couple of minutes later, two police officers named John Bosian and Richard Wolbert arrived at Bob and Jeannie's house. And so they came inside and Bob quickly tried to explain what was going on. But John and Richard, I mean, they walked inside and immediately saw, okay, something totally weird is happening here.

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Because they looked into the living room and they saw water coming down from the ceiling, coming out of the walls. It was even bubbling up all over the floor. And in the middle of all this chaos was one person, Don, who's just sitting there totally erect, not moving, wiggling his fingers with this weird expression on his face.

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And the police very quickly said to Bob that we don't know what this is. We don't even know how to help. So we're going to get our police chief. And as soon as those officers left, it was like Bob, Jeannie, the landlord, the landlord's wife, they were now scared to be in this house. Before, it was just baffling.

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But now, with Don sitting there tapping his fingers, with that weird grimace on his face and water coming out of everywhere for no reason, it was like terrifying. And so the four of them just kind of huddled in the dining room, staring at Dawn and the living room until finally the two officers came back with their police chief.

919.596 - 937.595 Mr. Ballin

Once the chief came inside, things did not get any better because the chief walked inside and he saw how totally weird this was. But his reaction was, this is not a police problem. You clearly have some sort of totally weird plumbing issue that seems very extensive, and your friend, he seems okay, he's just acting really weird.

937.896 - 951.726 Mr. Ballin

And so the chief told his two officers, John and Richard, to not talk about what they saw in this house and just leave, don't report it, get out of here, we're done with this. And just like that, John, Richard, the police chief, they said, OK, guys, your problem. And they left.

952.167 - 978.86 Mr. Ballin

And then Bob and Jeannie's landlord was like, OK, we're going to get a plumber over here right away, you know, and you can deal with this. And then they left. And so Bob and Jeannie at this point are totally unsettled and they just stood in the dining room, staring over at the living room where Don was just sitting there, tapping his fingers, you know, water's leaking all around him.

978.88 - 997.039 Mr. Ballin

And then finally a plumber came to the house and they searched the whole house and they could not find anywhere where there was a leak. It literally didn't make sense that the living room was still leaking water. And so Bob, you know, he contacted his landlord and said, you know, what do you want me to do? And the landlord said, you know what? I don't know. We'll send out more plumbers tomorrow.

Chapter 4: What was the prediction made by the politician's wife after the mirror incident?

1173.095 - 1186.836 Mr. Ballin

But the guard, who was definitely unsettled by Don and his behavior, he was less scared and more just kind of intrigued with what Don had just said. And he said, okay, hey Don, if you can make it rain, then why don't you make it rain in the warden's office?

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And after the guard said this, Dawn's expression, that kind of creepy, weird smile he had, it grew larger and larger until he had this totally bizarre smile on his face, exposing all of his teeth. At this point, the guard now felt totally terrified of Dawn and understood why the cellmate was so scared of him.

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And kind of instinctively, the guard just turned and ran into the warden's office to tell the warden what was going on with this guy.

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but when he got into the warden's office he looked at the warden dave keenhold was his name and he was sitting at his desk doing some paperwork and dave looked up at the guard and the guard realized on dave's chest his shirt there was this wet spot that was growing slowly all over his chest and it was almost like the warden didn't realize it was happening and so dave looks up at the guard and he's like what what's going on and

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1233.02 - 1246.656 Mr. Ballin

And the guard, he just points at Dave's chest and says, look, look. And so the guard told the warden about what he had just witnessed in the jail cell and how he had kind of jokingly told Don to make it rain in the warden's office. And now there's this wet patch on your shirt. You know what's going on here?

1246.696 - 1263.919 Mr. Ballin

And the warden, you know, he looked down and he was just as caught off guard by this wet spot on his shirt. And so he leapt up and he and the guard ran back to Don's jail cell. And when they got there, they couldn't believe what they saw. Water was pouring out of the ceiling. It was coming out of the ground. Even the bars were leaking water.

1264.159 - 1283.094 Mr. Ballin

And there was Don in the back of the jail cell, standing there with that terrible smile on his face. And his fingers were contorting. All the tendons were all tight in his hand. And his cellmate was practically crying, huddled in the corner. And so right away, Warden Keenhold moved the cellmate out of that cell, put him in another cell, and then shut the cell where Dawn was.

1283.154 - 1297.466 Mr. Ballin

And then the warden called a plumber to come out here and stop this leak from wherever it was coming from. But the plumber came to the jail, and no matter where he looked... He could not find anything that would cause this leak inside of this jail cell. It just didn't make sense.

1297.806 - 1315.339 Mr. Ballin

And in fact, the plumber was so scared of Don, who the whole time this inspection is happening, he's standing in the back wiggling his fingers with this bizarre look on his face. The plumber was so scared of Don that after he told the warden that he couldn't find a leak, he just left without even being paid. He just had to get away from Don.

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