1408 THE COP WHO INVESTIGATED THE OCCULT: Ghosts, Rituals & Something Darker

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Lawrence Lawson (1:34)

I don't know if you remember back in the late 80s or early 90s. The country was in the grips of a lot of multi-victim child abuse cases. The McMartin daycare out of Manhattan Beach, California, is the first one that comes to mind. Daycare, school, stuff like that. There were a number of places where these kids were claiming to be abused, and the people that were either watching over them or running the schools were accused of it. It got pretty intense back then. We had a case here that I was involved in that went down that road also. We actually were able to obtain a conviction on it based upon the testimony we got. But what it was is kids would start talking about the offenders doing things like wearing black robes, talking in a funny language, candles, showing skulls, killing of animals.

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Richard Syrett's Strange Planet. Following the truth wherever it leads. Exposing evil and corruption and the secret machinations of powerful elites. Revealing the highest strangeness beneath the surface of our supposed reality. Coming to you from the great white north and his studio beneath the stairs.

Here's Richard.

Richard Syrett (2:48)

Hey there, welcome to Strange Planet. Most people who spend their lives in law enforcement learn to trust what they can see.

But what happens when you see something that shouldn't be there? In 1980, Larry Lawson was a young correctional officer working inside the Dade County Jail in Miami when he saw a figure walking along the cell block. Not a shadow, not a flicker in the corner of his eye, a full-bodied apparition. And then it vanished. Larry would go on to spend more than 40 years in law enforcement and criminal justice as an investigator, instructor and police academy director. Along the way, his work took him into some particularly dark territory, including the investigation of cult and a cult-related crime. But that strange encounter inside the Dade County Jail never quite let go of him. Eventually, Larry went looking for answers. And today, he's the founder of the Florida Bureau of Paranormal Investigation and the author of Haunted Indian River County. He's investigated haunted buildings, unexplained voices, apparitions and places where witnesses insist that something remains long after the living have gone. But here's where things get really interesting. After all these years, Larry isn't convinced we're dealing with simple ghost stories. So what are people actually encountering? Are the dead somehow reaching back into our world? Can places become imprinted by tragedy? Are we occasionally catching glimpses of another dimension? Or is there something else out there? Something intelligent that wants us to believe we're communicating with the dead?

Tonight, we're going into haunted places, occult crime scenes, and some of the strangest cases Larry Lawson has ever encountered. And we're asking a question that becomes considerably more disturbing the longer you think about it.

When we stare into the darkness and something stares back, what exactly are we looking at?

Larry Lawson, welcome to Strange Planet. How are you?

Lawrence Lawson (5:04)

I'm doing great, Richard. Thank you for having me on.