Ray Bradbury is in my top five writers
ever to put Finger to typewriter whether
it's a story about men exploring Mars or
time traveling to hunt dinosaurs or
simple
murder it's always about something else
the setting is a bucolic 1950s American
town the Drone of lawnmowers and peewee
baseball games screen doors creaking and
slapping shut over the distant tinkle of
the ice cream truck Flags l in a lazy
Breeze as girls and boys jump to catch
fireflies and bring them home in
jars Bradbury used such a setting to
play out many of his most Sinister
pieces of non-speculative fiction in
several pieces he called it Greentown a
substitute for his hometown of Wan
Illinois but he made it clear that
Greentown could be any small mid-century
suburban American town a universal local
that many many readers will relate to
and an unexpected place for a Horror
Story therefore what better place as an
aside I realized that below the surface
of the idealized 1950s American scene
was an entire culture that was not cozy
or safe because of the color of their
skin where everyday mistreatment was the
norm not Shadows left over from Jim Crow
But continuing in the subsequent decades
getting a little better each year that
is not not the horror story Bradbury
writes about in dandelion wine and in
that sense it is of its
time small American towns have their
boogeymen partly influenced by writers
like Bradbury and Stephen King who use
picturesque settings like King's Castle
Rock as backdrops for Tales of Menace
and horror the key to good fiction
writing in my opinion is to transport
the reader to a new world to take them
someplace they've never been or just see
the normal world in a new way I
see the world differently after a good
story as if I've actually been to some
new place that's why I read and I hope
you get the same magic out of it not
just to escape reality but to add depth
and wonder to our own lives Bradbury is
a master of wonder whether it's a story
set in the ruins of an ancient Martian
City or an unexceptional Midwestern town
where a Madman runs loose the point of
suspense story classic Hitchcock films
TV crime shows cozy murder mystery
novels set in small English fishing
villages is one unshakable thought a
faceless threat could be lurking just
behind your perception around the next
Bend as you walk home alone at night
Beneath The Echoes of your own Footsteps
in the alley crouching in the shadows of
the hedges in front of your house it
could be anywhere and before you know it
you're leaping up the front steps and
fumbling for your key keys and once
you're inside you slam the door and lock
it and wait someone inside says
sweetheart are you okay you look like
you've seen a ghost you have Hitchcock
and king and Ray Bradbury to thank for
that but Ray Bradbury’s dandelion wine
is not a great book but it needed to be
written for him to get to who he would
become it's fine for what it is what
they call a fixup novel consisting of a
collection of short stories Loosely
linked together in a sequel
that makes enough sense but it's short
stories not novels that made Bradbury a
master on par with Alfred Hitchcock even
Hitchcock said as much within the novel
dandelion wine is a Bradbury story that
is not about Martians or time machines
or robot houses coming to life it's a
short story called The Whole Town's
sleeping and it makes the whole thing
worthwhile for this discussion we can
toss the rest of the book and focus on
the story of a killer on the loose where
the women of Greentown your town are
vulnerable and prayed upon by a phantom
known as the lonely one an
excerpt and death was the lonely one
unseen walking and standing behind trees
waiting in the country to come in once
or twice a year to this town to these
streets to these many places where there
was little light to kill one two three
women in the past 3 years that was
death dandelion
wine quick diversion but I promise it's
related this is really Niche but one of
my guilty pleasures is listening to old
radio plays shows like suspense and
Escape think the Twilight Zone but
written for the
radio suspense in the 1950s included
such talented voices as Orson Wells
Henry Fonda Humphrey Bogart Bella Lugosi
Judy Garland Vincent Price Jimmy Stewart
Gregory peek Kirk Douglas Boris Karloff
Bob Hope Bert Lancaster Lana Turner
marlina dietric Ronald Reagan Mickey
Rooney Tony Curtis Lena horn Cary Grant
and Agnes Moorhead remember that
name I've always rolled my eyes at the
dorky collectors of old memorabilia and
comic books but I think I've reached
Peak geekdom with 1950s radio dramas but
just imagine if in the 2020s every
living Oscar nominated actor comes
together making 30 episodes of Black
Mirror written by the best living
writers and directed by Tarantino and
Scorsese and Nolan gathered around a
transistor radio to be whisked away into
imagination by the best living suspense
and horror writers and for free except
for the cigarette and aftershave
commercials Tom Cruz smokes Winston
unfiltered cigarettes because Winston
tastes good like a cigarette should I
was fortunate to stumble upon the August
31st 1958 broadcast of suspense the
whole town sleeping based on Bradbury's
short story The blurb is as
follows the famous story about the
lonely spinster walking across a dark
Ravine at night with a killer on the
loose a small Midwestern Town lying
asleep in the Moonlight of midnight
could anything be more familiar more
peaceful more safe certainly not unless
Ray Bradbury is writing about it for his
is a typewriter of Terror and once again
it has pounded out a tail not only
calculated to keep you in suspense but
likely to cost you a night or two of
sleep the lonely one has already killed
at least 12 women in green toown by the
opening of the whole town sleeping every
mom and dad and kid every vulnerable old
lady is aware of the Ravine in the the
center of town and the killer they call
the lonely one we follow several older
spinsters who had planned a night at the
movies across town until learning that
their friend Eliza Ramel had been found
dead and posed in the open Moonlight
that night in the Ravine one of the
ladies levinia nebs admonishes the
others for being so silly to live in
fear she suggests they go to the movies
anyway the lonely one be damned the
other ladies find levinas joking about
the murder in poor taste and her
decision to walk home alone through the
Ravine to be tempting fate levinia
scoffs and makes for the Steep steps
that lead down into the
Ravine what was
that she hears the echo of her own
footsteps clearly but now there is
something
else another set of footsteps that
disappears anytime she stops
walking she grows more and more
convinced she is being followed and
moves quickly through the dark green
Shadows where more than a dozen women
have been found murdered and she curses
her hard-headed insistence to take this
way home as opposed to the safer way
under the street
lights soon she finds herself sprinting
up The Path on the opposite side still
waiting to be attacked by the lonely one
but she's catching her breath in front
of her house and there's no one
around The Whole Town's sleeping if you
will she shakes her head you silly
girl and descends the steps to her front
door when behind her in the dark someone
clears his
throat later in dandelion wine the
neighborhood boys see a body taken out
of the nb's house and surprisingly it is
not a woman's body but a man's linia had
stabbed him with a pair of scissors the
local boys don't want to believe the
lonely one is dead after all he was such
a perfect
Boogeyman it's also not surprising that
the character of the lonely one was
inspired by a real life Criminal Who
terrorized Bradbury's childhood Hometown
when he was 6 years old welcome to the
evil
section today we're delving into an
intriguing subplot that has perplexed
book dorks and investigators alike
hidden within the pages of a classic
novel that most people have never heard
of dandelion wine by the legendary
author Ray Bradbery in this debut novel
Bradberry introduces is a subplot that
left many of us puzzled and haunted and
it is the best moniker for a villain
I've ever heard even creepier than the
shape in Halloween if you read John
Carpenter's screenplay the character of
Michael Myers was written as the shape
not his name but it's better than the
shape anyway bradberry's novel kind of
sort of revolves around this character
named the lonely one but there's
something most readers don't know the
master of the maab and the Fantastic may
have drawn inspiration from a very real
albeit obscure criminal figure a figure
that struck fear into the hearts of
residents in Bradbery's hometown of Wan
Illinois maybe you could call it
Greentown while Bradberry never
explicitly mentioned a name it was
evident that the lonely one was inspired
by a realife cat burglar who played a
chilling role in the author's childhood
oh being scared to death in childhood
what a magical creative Haze were in as
kids as a creative weirdo kid everything
was so intense like loading your mind
into a giant Daydream slingshot to who
knows where you just better hope you're
aiming at something fun and not
something
terrifying throwing Nightmare on Elm
Street at a 10-year-old kid can be a big
mistake I speak from experience I am an
HSP highly sensitive person which I know
sounds like some woow woo scientific
deepok Chopra but it was a
revelation to me when I learned it
you're not actually a wimp I've pulled
people out of car accidents chased away
a mountain line been held up at gunpoint
multiple times but unexpected things bad
and good hit way harder when you're
genuinely in HSP I should never have
Childhood Boogeymen.]
been exposed to what I'm about to tell
you but it was as the song goes nobody's
fault but my
own my brother had a combination
Halloween 13th birthday party at the
same Mansion where I took oral painting
and piano anal lessons as a kid I was 9
years old one room was dedicated to
playing VHS movies on a loop Halloween 1
and Halloween 2 I've always loved
throwing an obstacle in front of myself
just to see what happens and this time
it wasn't good I can't stress that
enough as the credits rolled from
Halloween 1 I thought you know what you
just did idiot you just created for
yourself two straight years of the worst
nightmare ever I knew this and yet when
Halloween 2 began I sat in the same spot
for 2 hours and just let it stream into
me my creative mind was forming
electrical connections and haunted roads
I spent years of therapy trying to
bulldoze until I realized I could use
them
creatively I wish I had known that early
on for the next 2 years I would keep my
bedroom window cracked even when it was
snowing so I could hear Michael Myers if
he came up my block he never did but I
knew he would when I wasn't looking my
parents and I said prayers before I went
to sleep every night that no knife
wielding psychopath would sneak into my
house and into my bedroom at night now I
lay me down to sleep I pray the Lord my
soul to keep something something hold on
let me ask her and for the record she's
getting Michael Myers mixed up with
Freddy Krueger but who hasn't done
that oh my gosh when our son was little
he unfortunately watched a movie he
should never have watched called
Halloween I think it was and he was so
scared of that uh guy um Freddy Krueger
I guess was his name and it was so long
ago I hardly remember the names but
because he has just such a
sensitive Soul it really affected him
tremendously and so every night before
he would settle down to go to bed we had
to say multiple prayers to keep Freddy
Krueger out of our house out of our
neighborhood protect our son uh can't
let him get get to him I was it was an
incredible uh eye opener for us that he
was such a sensitive
guy I couldn't go into a video store for
2 years because Michael Myers was on the
cover of the display VHS tape Michael
Myers the shape my lonely
one but was the lonely one
real check this out Orville Wyant not a
EVIL - Orville Weyant.27:00]
great horor moniker buddy an unassuming
fellow with a penchant for lawlessness
bore a striking resemblance to the
character known as the lonely one in
Bradbury's novel though Bradbury never
explicitly named Wyant the parallels
between the two are undenied iable in
the late 1920s Orville an old railroad
stoker by trade embarked on a crime
spree that saw him break into an
astonishing 33 businesses gas stations
were his usual Target where he lightened
the load of many a till and swiped goods
from stor shelves but what set Wyant
apart from common burglar was the notes
he left behind signed with the ominous
moniker the lonely one yes his modus
operandi was to leave behind three
distinct letters one was addressed to
the business owner a chilling
acknowledgement of their Misfortune
another found its way to the local Press
A sly tactic to ensure that his exploits
received adequate coverage the third and
perhaps most unsettling note was meant
for the police a not so subtle PR urging
them to improve their investigation
prowess this was 40 years before the
Zodiac but he was already zodiac and UNT
fortunately for this crook fortunate for
w Keagan 8 months into his audacious
spree Orville Wan's criminal Enterprises
sort of hopped off the rails in a daring
break-in at a hardware store in Ray's
quaint Hometown Wyant swiped a pistol
but was suddenly cornered by the police
he faced a grim Choice attempt to escape
surrender under the condition that the
wagan police would show him some
leniency in those days law enforcement
had considerable latitude in the
treatment of suspects especially of the
Caucasian persuasion suicide by cop
or just then in a desperate bid to avoid
confrontation he put the gun to his own
head threatening
suicide like any crook caught in this
situation Wyant was probably aware that
some rough handling awaited him on the
way to the station think billy clubs
they call it the old wood shampoo
nevertheless he chose
surrender once apprehended in his
identity revealed the Press unveiled the
full extent of Wan's audacious spree
starting from February 1st 1928 33
businesses broken into and robbed and to
the police department's Chagrin the
public found humor in the apparent
ineptitude of the police in their
attempts to thwart him as pointed out in
his letters think of the wake of fear
left by an honest to goodness local
boogy man the lonely
one after just over a year Behind Bars
Orville Wyant sought parole though Wyant
had occasionally fired shots at the
police his actions on the night of his
arrest were notably nonviolent some
heavy disses by police chief Tom Kennedy
who labeled Orville as nothing more than
a run-of-the-mill punk led to him being
denied
parole there's one more connection of
note that only makes sense in context of
the Orval Wyant story when the levinia
nebs character in the whole town
sleeping within dendelion wine
approaches the Ravine alone at night the
Killer is still on the loose having
killed that very
night who does she run into on the
street one officer
Kennedy and he's
whistling he offers to accompany her
home and levinia strong willed as ever
says no thank you she'll be fine alone
he says okay he tells her to holler if
she needs any help down there officer
Kennedy yeah here's an excerpt just cuz
I love the way he
writes levinia nebs walked alone down
the midnight street down the late Summer
Night silence she saw houses with the
dark windows and far away she heard a
dog
barking in 5 minutes she thought I'll be
safe at home in 5 minutes I'll be
phoning silly little
Francine she heard a man's voice a man's
voice singing far away among the trees
oh give me a June night the Moonlight
and you
she walked a little faster the voice
saying in my arms with all your
charms down the street in the dim
Moonlight a man walked slowly and
casually
along I can run knock on one of those
doors thought linia if I
must oh give me a June night sang the
man and carried a long Club in his hand
the Moonlight and
you well look who's here what a time of
night for you to be out Miss
nebs officer Kennedy and that's who it
was of course I'd better see you home
thanks I'll make it but you live across
the
Ravine yes she thought but I won't walk
through the Ravine with any man not even
an officer how do I know who the lonely
one
is no she said I'll hurry I'll wait
right here he said if you need any help
give a yes H voices carry good here I'll
come running thank you she went on
leaving him under a light humming to
himself alone here I am she thought the
Ravine I do like the book I'm not saying
that I like the way it captures a Young
Person's view on the innocence of Summer
and sunlight and hanging out with
Grandpa and all that stuff but I could
never really understand the meaning of
this creepy subplot or or why the author
included it in the book at all every
small town has its ghost story it's
Boogeyman the thing that keeps kids
awake at campfires Bradbery never came
out and said it never gave a name but
come
on he wrote in the intro to dandelion
wine entitled just this side of
bizantium
was there a lonely one there was and
that was his name and he moved around at
night in my hometown when I was 6 years
old and he frightened everyone and was
never
captured obviously the last part's not
true he had to have known
that true crime enthusiasts literary
afficionados laww enforcement I think we
can all agree that Orval wyant's most
extraordinary Legacy Remains the
handiwork of someone else in this case
his immortalization in the pages of a
pretty good debut novel by a promising
young
writer Mr Ray
Bradbury don't be scared subscribe to
season 1 for free in your podcast app
then be
scared
