Washington, DC, 2009.
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M6 B(4)
FW: I haven't seen them at all. What <unintelligible text>
INF: We were telling stories about, let's see. Me and Sarah, we're sure talking together and she was telling us like this that, that one night, that her Dad, that they were at their Grandmas it was in back of our house. And that there was two <unintelligible text>'s outside by our house. And we didn't even know it. And there were like, there were horses. One of them was half from here up, and the other one was from here down.
FW: Over here...about a month ago. We were talking, you know how the dogs bark alot at night when somebody's here.
INF: Ours, ours do too.
FW: They really bark. And there were, they, the neighbors you know were talking they're saying. And then the policeman told him came over here to all the houses and he told us to, to keep all our doors and windows locked at night.
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INF: Because why?
FW: Because that, and there's a man that knows how to get in and you won't even hear him.
INF: Jack the Stripper, I bet! The Ripper, I mean.
FW: And, and he says before you, especially if you're home alone, you know. He says make sure all, even your screen doors are locked.
INF: We leave our doors open at night. The screendsor.
FW: It it's real hot, I leave the door open but I lock the screendoor. But those screen doors and nothing but slice it and pull it up and come in.
INF: Or they can just pull it.
FW: Yeah. And, and when he came and he told us, all of us, you know, around the neighborhood. I don't know my sister I know he told her and my neighbor right there Gloria and us and Okie and Dorothy that lives right there. And it really happened.
INF: Where at?
FW: At my sister's house.
INF: You know what? They were telling us about this, Sarah was telling me like this that, that there was this guy. His name was Jack the Ripper. And that he wo...and when they would leave the windows open, that he would get up in without no sound. And that when he was outside, he would walk with be, bells and buckets, and that outside he would steal the clothes that were hanging on the clothesline. He would steal anything he could find. And he go, he would go in the room, inside the house. He would start stealing stuff. Then he would get out right away. Or he'll stare at you in the window.
FW: That, that time they told us to do that and, and that night...was seem like a Thursday night I think, I don't re...and my sister and them were all in bed. She's got big house four bedrooms, two bathrooms. And they all sleep in the back just like us, our house here. All my bedrooms are in the back, and the bathroom and the
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livingroom like this your house is bigger than mine. And everybody, you know all her kids have their own bedroom, or they share. And she was asleep. And that night her, her youngest boy that's ten was down with a fever and he was sick...
INF: Which one?
INF: Daryll? So's...
INF: He's only ten!
FW: Or ten or eleven I don't know. And she slept with, you know she laid down by him because he was, was sick and he was turning all over. And she went to sleep. And she had checked all the doors and windows before she went to bed. And this guy came in and didn't nobody heard him. Till she saw him standing at her door.
INF: Oh, how scary.
FW: And she couldn't do anything, you know and she...you know how you freeze? You get real scared? And she, she managed to get up and he ran out.
INF: See what I mean? They stare at you, they just look at you...
FW: That's what he was doing to her like hypnotizing her. That's what she said like she didn't know what was happening.
INF: Oh, how awful.
FW: But, and then...that dog shaking his tail! ...When they got out, they checked all the windows and doors and there was one window that he managed just to open. And everything else was locked. And they didn't even hear him come in. Oooh, and...
INF: How awful. When, when did she tell you at night?
FW: Yeah, at night. And we didn't come home. We slept over at her house.
INF: Where does she live?
FW: She lives just right there, you see that big brown house? Right there.
INF: Sure big.
FW: That's where my father lives over there with her. And that night when she told us, me and Michelle and Evette were over there. And we didn't come home.
INF: Oh, how awful
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FW: We just...when she, she told me she said you better lock everything in your house because that happened to them and...we didn't come home. I said "No way." We stayed over there. And then another evening, they turned her lights off somebody outside. You know where the box is? The meter box? They just turned all the electricity off. And they were over there tapping on all the windows. And they didn't know who was outside, they had no lights.
INF: Oooh, how awful.
FW: And, and it was dark. And the only thing she could do was to use the telephone. And, and they had some matches right there and she called me and then I called the police.
INF: And they co..did they catch them?
FW: Well, I don't know. They took off. And then she told me "Hurry up and lock your house" because they did that to her. So then when the police went over there, they came over here. My sister came...
INF: In our house, but for the electricity it's inside.
FW: Yeah, but you have the main breaker outside. Where you can do that. It's a little box, ours is outside. And I get scared too, sometimes. When I'm home by myself.
INF: Uh huh and I got scared. Eee, that night we were in that room all by ourselfs. Mostly all the big ones were asleep. And us little ones, you know Sarah's little sister? The little, little one? She was awake with us. Till four o'clock in the morning.
FW: Did...is your den real big?
INF: Oooh, it's big.
FW: So all of you fit in there.
INF: They were sleeping all over the place.
FW: Did you have sleeping bags or...
INF: Some of them have blankets.
FW: They took their own? Is it carpeted?