Deathbed Confessions: Chilling Secrets Revealed

Imagine if the final words you heard from someone were so bone-chilling that they forever altered your perception of them.

These deathbed confessions rocked families, changed the course of police investigations, and showed where the bodies were buried.

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TRANSCRIPT

Secrets, we all have them. Little parts of ourselves that we keep hidden from the world, known only to us. 

There are secrets that people eventually tell, There are secrets that people take to the grave, and then there are secrets that people share just before they die. Those secrets scare me the most. The kinds that torment people so much during life, that they’re afraid to take them with them. Because those are the secrets that tend to reveal something about a person that fundamentally alters the way their loved ones see them

I want to tell you a story today of just that. People that revealed information right before they died that shocked those around them. Today’s episode is going to look like a few different stories, but at their core they’re the same.. Tales that prove you never really know the person sitting across from you.

Welcome to heart starts pounding, a podcast of terrifying tales. I’m your host, Kaelyn Moore.

If you’re a fan of the podcast, please follow us on instagram, and if you’re feeling generous, you can support us on patreon, or with a one time donation on Buy Me A Coffee, linked in the show description. We have episodes every Thursday, though we’re taking April off to release our scripted fiction horror podcast called The Timekeeper starring Judah Lewis, Chandler Kinney and Arjun Athaley.. We’ll be back on a weekly basis after that in May.

A few weeks ago, I started a bite sized series about deathbed confessions on our instagram and tik tok where I showcased some of the wildest confessions I could find

Like the story of a nurse who was looking after an elderly man. This tale came from the depths of reddit, it sat ice cold on an archived thread from years ago, lost in the swelling tide of the internet. 

The story was that this nurse was caring for a tough and rugged war vet who had softened at the end of his life. He had seen more carnage in Vietnam than anyone should ever see in a lifetime, including the death of his brother who was killed by an enemy soldier.

But, the thread reads, he was ready to confess something about his brothers untimely death. The two were twins, so identical that their friends had a hard time telling them apart, even into their teens. They had requested to serve in the same unit in Vietnam, which contrary to popular belief, you were actually allowed to do then. The man confessed to the nurse that while they were in Vietnam, his brother didn’t actually die in enemy fire. He had killed his brother, stolen his tags, and came back to his unit and fully assuming his brothers identity. This continued even when he got home tricked his brothers wife into thinking it was him. He was so changed by the war, so unrecognizable from the man he was before, that no one could tell.

Some of the other stories are heart breaking and sad, like the woman who was told by her dying mother that not only was she adopted, but her mother had adopted her from China’s black apdoption market. An underground child trafficking ring that can't guarantee if the child was given up willingly or stolen. 

And some of them are borderline hysterical, like the tale of the woman and her owls

The woman who posted this story starts off by saying her grandmother had a home that was completely owl themed. Think Owl salt and pepper shakers, owl themed towels, more owl figurines than you could ever count in your lifetime. The woman said her grandmother never talked about owls, but everyone knew how much she loved them so every holiday, they gifted her with more owl themed homegoods.

But, as this woman was about to die, she lay in her hospital bed with her family around her, and her daughter asked if there was anything shed like to share before she went. The woman thought about it for a moment and then replied, “i never understood the owls”

It turns out, that she had bought an owl salt and pepper shake setr in the 60s and then after that, someone assumed she loved owls and bought her a small figurine. And then after that, someone came over and saw the owl decor, figured she loved owls, and then bought her another owl themed thing. 

This continued for the womans entire life, but she was too polite to ever say anything about it. These were gifts afterall, you accept them and say thank you. It was only on her death bed that she could finally confess that she really did not care about owls.

I love that story, because I could see myself accepting one too many owl themed presents and then realizing it was too late to ever  say anything. 

In my research, I also came across a story that was too long to share in a bite sized moment. many of these tales linger around the depths of the internet, getting shared like folklore. And they could be just that, but if this ones true, it’s pretty  chilling. 

All of the names in the following story were changed by the poster. This comes from a woman named Lindsay. 

Lindsay was an at home nurse for an elderly woman near the end of her life named ms margaret. Ms. Margaret was in her late 90’s and was mostly bedridden, so it was Lindsay’s job to help her around the house and make sure she was looked after. Lindsay said she  had done this kind of at home nursing for elderly patients before, but Ms. Margaret was Lindsays favorite by miles, she was a really kind woman and a really easy patient. She’d always ask about Lindsay’s life, ask her about her friends and her potential love interests.

So One day, about three months into the job, Lindsay, walked in the front door and called out: Helloooooo Ms. Margaret, as she usually did. But no one answered. Ms. Margaret Hellloooooo!  Again, no answer. So she walked down the long hallway of the house toward Margarets room, where she could see the faint flicker of a television set with no sound.. Lindsay said she feared the worst and braced herself to see something she didn’t want to see. But As she walked into the room, she saw Ms. Margaret sitting straight up in bed facing the door,  her feet dangling over the edge as if she were trying to get out. And as soon as she got closer Margaret looked up at her, fear in her eyes.

“He’s coming for me”, she whispered.

Lindsay ran over to Ms. Margaret to get her back in bed. She was so weak from being bedridden that lindsay was afraid she’d fall if she tried to get out of bed like that.

“Who is coming for you?” Lindsay was so confused. No one had called the house the entire time she  had been there, she doubted any visitors had planned on coming. 

But judging by her face, whoever was coming was probably not a welcomed guest.

“Are you expecting someone?” she asked again

But she never got a reply. Margaret never said anything after that. The whole time lindsay was there that day, Ms. Margaret lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, fists clenched and that same look of fear in her eyes.

So at the end of the day, Lindsay popped back into her room.

“Ok, ms. Margaret, I’m leaving for the day do you need anything before I go?”

Again, she got no reply. The older woman  just lay there, staring at the ceiling. Eventually, her head started turning slowly towards the door

“Don’t let him come for me” was all she said.

Lindsay said she could tell things were not looking good. She knew when she started that Margaret probably didn’t have a lot of time left, and now this change in behavior and confusion was making her think that her death would probably happen sooner rather than later.

So she told her she’d be back, first thing in the morning, but once again, no reply., she just turned her head back to look up at the ceiling with clenched fists.

The next day, Lindsay walked into the house and gave the same “helloooooo ms. Margaret” not expecting to hear anything, just like the morning before.

But this time she heard “Helloooooooo lindsay!” echo down the long hall. She’s kind of shocked that so much would have happened overnight, so she runs over to Ms. Margarets room. And there. she was, sitting in bed with a big smile on her face, as if the day before had never happened.

When Lindsay asked if she was feeling any better, Margaret just gave her a confused look, as if she had no idea what she was talking about. Instead, she started talking as if everything was normal, launching into what she had watched on the morning news show earlier. Lindsay thought this was weird, but she had worked with patients at the end of their lives before and she had definitely seen weirder. Maybe Margaret just had a bad day

So that day Lindsay did her normal routine. She made food, picked up a little around the house, and made sure Ms Margaret took all of the meds she needed to take. And then that evening, after the sun had gone down, she walked back into Margaret's room to say goodbye.

And there she was, in the same position as the night before. Sitting straight up, facing the door feet dangling over the side of the bed. It seemed like She was staring into space, but she had the same expression of fear splashed across her face. 

Lindsay went to go help her lie down, but she snapped her head towards her. 

He’s coming for me. He’s almost here.

Lindsay was now really freaked out. She had seen patients hallucinate before, but this repeated delusion of someone coming was really scary. 

No one is coming, Ms. Margaret, it’s just me. You’re ok, you’re ok. Lindsay was trying her best to calm margaret down while also trying to get her to lay back in bed
Don’t let him get me. Ms Margaret was getting more visibly agitated, now almost gasping for breath and starting to cry. 

Who? Who is trying to get you?

Ms. Margaret took  one look at Linsay, brow furrowed in fear

The devil. For what I’ve done. 

Ms. Margaret had something she needed to confess.  She proceeded to tell Lindsay the following story. 

It’s the early 30’s and Margaret’s family had just moved to a new neighborhood in Oklahoma. Margaret is 10, and she doesn’t remember a lot about the initial move, but she remembers hating her new neighborhood. She said everything was always covered in dirt, probably because it was the middle of the dust bowl, and that the other kids in the neighborhood were brutal.

Specifically these two twin boys, Billy and Sam. They were these 12 year old freckly redheads that looked identical to each other. Margaret said their dad was a mean, mean man and that’s probably where they got it from, and right after she and her younger sister Bobby moved in, it was like they had a target on their backs. The boys would terrorize the two girls. 

like one day, when Margaret and Bobby are walking back from town. Their parents had sent them to get some flour and sugar, and as they are walking back home, they are being so careful not to cross paths with the boys.. They were cutting through a neighbors backyard and could  see their house at the end of the street, when all of a sudden Bill jumps out of nowhere  in front of the two girls. So Margaret quickly grabs Bobby’s hand and turns around, but Sam is right there, behind the girls. They are now caught in a pickle between the two boys.

Sam snatches the flour right out of Bobby’s hands, which causes. Margaret to lunge at him, but Bill grabs her. Sam proceeds to open the flour and dump it on Bobby’s head. Margaret isscreaming, but Bill pushes her down on the ground and is holding her face to the dirt. Sam then takes the milk right out of Margaret's hand and dumps that all over Bobby as well.

Margaret said she felt something happen in her. She could feel a darkness swell up inside her that she had never felt before. She said she didn’t sleep at all that night, she just lay awake staring at the ceiling, clenching her fists. 

But, Margaret tells Lindsay, she had overheard something a few weeks prior. And Lindsay writes that her eyes got really dark, and she had  this faraway stare.

Margaret is at a church bakesale month or so ago when she overhears Bill and Sam’s mother talking to one of the bakers, asking if there were nuts in one of the cakes. Apparently, Sam had a strange reaction to peanuts as a baby, and she wanted to avoid them altogether. 

The next week, when Margarets father sent her to the store again, she picked up two extra items, taffy and peanuts

This time, instead of trying to avoid the boys, she walked straight down the street home, and when the boys eventually came up to her and wanted to steal her candy, she didn’t put up a fight. Margaret had pushed a peanut into each piece of taffy, and watched as the boys ate it. 

She ran away before she saw anything, but she said a neighbor discovered the boys bodies in their front yard about an hour later. They had both gone into severe anaphylaxis, and died on the way back to their homes. 

She said everyone figured they had accidentally ate nuts. If you had a severe allergy back then, you just died. People didn’t really look into it. 

Margaret had held on to this secret her entire life. Never telling anyone, not even her late husband or her sister Bobby. She said she had to tell someone before she died, because if the devil got her she wouldn’t see Bobby in heaven. 

Margaret passed away a few days after she had told Lindsay this story. Lindsay said that she didn’t know if the Devil came to collect Margaret, but her death was peaceful. 

Could you ever look at a person the same way knowing they did that? I understand if Margaret probably didn’t think the worst case scenario would happen in that moment, but I also cant deny that something deep and dark lived inside of her, and it sounds like she knew it.

Our next story is another tale of a mother harboring a deep and dark impulse.. This is the case of Geraldine Kelley.

In September of 2004, Geraldine Kelley was 54 years old, and she was dying of breast cancer. She lay in her home in Massachussets with her daughter Sherry Ann by her side. Sherry Ann had been estranged from Geraldine since she was a teenager, but now, in the last few moments of Geraldines life, she wanted to be near. The two talked more than they had in the past 20 years, but Geraldine’s daughter didn’t know that Geraldine was working up the courage to say something that would reveal a secret about their family that only Geraldine knew. 

The last time that Geraldine and Sherry Anne spoke, it was so Geraldine could let her know that her father, Geraldine’s husband John, had died. Sherryann asked questions and wanted to know more, but Geraldine was incredibly vague about the details of Johns death. he died in a motor vehicle accident in Nevada and was buried there, and that was that. No obituary, No funeral, nowhere to send flowers . But, now, Geraldine had some more information. John didn’t die in a motor vehicle accident. No, the only person who knew where John was, was the person who killed him. And Geraldine was ready to come clean.

Let’s start from the beginning.

Geraldine Kelley was born in a tough neighborhood in Somerville, Massachusetts in 1950. and she was a tough person as a result. At just 5’2” her height wasnt ever going to intimidate anyone, so she made sure her appearance did. She was tatted up and kept unfriendly pets like viscous, untrained dogs  and boa constrictors.. Her friends said that  sometimes she’d  be seen with the six foot snake draped around her neck. 

But Gerry had a soft spot for John, her highschool sweetheart. They met as teenagers, and just got each other. Being raised in the same small town, you feel a certain sort of kinship to those that were raised the same as you. john also had a dark side to himself, just like Gerry. And while their hot, firey nature brought them closer, it also brought out the worst in each other at times.

And this was not helped by Johns drinking. It started when he was young, around the time his mother passed away, which was also the time he dropped out of highschool. And the thing about Johns drinking was when he drank, he got mad, and when he got mad, he got violent.

Usually it’s with other boys, like the time he almost knocked his best friend Tom out. Tom described John as Jekyll and Hide when he drank, though he didn’t see that when John was with Gerry. There was something about Gerry that could keep him in his place. 

But other times, it turns deadly. Like in 1981, when Geraldine and John were at a family wedding in their hometown of Somerville, Massachusetts. It was a small ceremony hosted at a housing authority complex for the elderly, nothing too flashy. 

Sometime during the reception, John became wildly intoxicated and started getting aggressive. Afterwards, he would admit to remembering flashes of what happened next, but no the whole thing. John began arguing with his brother in law, Edward Gordinier and in the heat of the fight, punched Edward square in the face. Two other men entered the altercation which ended with Edward being so injured he was rushed to the hospital. He held on for a few weeks in a coma, but eventually succumbed to his injuries and passed away. 

John insisted he had nothing to do with Edwards death, and family members who witnessed the event were so tight lipped that the investigation never found anyone guilty. But a few years after the death, John and Geraldine moved to California. Some of his family members believed it was because John got nervous that one day he’d be arrested for Edward’s murder.

While Living in California, John and Gerrys fighting intensified, to the point where once their children were in their late teens, they cut off all communication with their parents. 

So, new location, no friends, no contact with their children. There’s not a lot of people that ask a lot of questions when John goes missing around early 1992. 

Gerry and John had been working together at an inn, and when Gerry goes in to work one day, she announces to the staff that John got a job back in Massachussets and has left. But then a few days later, it’s reported that Gerry’s story took on a fatal twist.

John died in a motor vehicle accident in Navada on his wa to MA, she told those around her. She also had to leave work early that day because she got a phone call from her storage unit and there was a leak she had to take care of, according to a woman that worked with Gerry at the time. 

That’s just the story that’s told to the people who work with her at the inn, though. A few other versions of this story pop up. In one, John is in Massachussets when he was hit by a drunk driver. In another, he was killed outside of a jack in the box in ventura. She didn’t tell her children until 5 years after Johns disappearance, but she sticks with the story that he was killed in a car accident in Nevada. No one compares notes to find discrepancies in the story, and Gerry gets mad at people for pestering her when they ask to see the obituary. for the next 6 years, Gerry worked at the Inn without John.

Until 1998, when she decided it was time to move back to Massachusetts. Gerry packed up all of her things, including everything that was residing in a storage unit she had kept. One of these items was a big, unplugged freezer that was taped shut. Itwas transported 3,000 miles across the country to another storage unit in her hometown. 

And there that freezer sat until 2004, when Gerry was sitting in her hospital room with her daughter. She told her daughter that John had not died in a car accident in Nevada. No, Gerry had shot him during an argument out of self defense. She then placed his body in a freezer that she kept in her storage unit, and she gave Sherry ann the keys.

Sherry ann called the police, who were able to open the storage unit and confirm Gerrys story. They could tell from the tattoos that were still visible 10 years later, that the body in the freezer was  John. But one thing wasn’t consistent with Gerry’s story. John had been shot twice in the back of the head, which didn’t match up with Gerry’s self defense explanation. But Gerry was already dead, they’d never really get the full story. 

The person you know best in this world could be holding on to a secret as devastating as those we discussed today, without you even knowing. These confessions may bring relief to those who tell them, but they often complicate things for those left behind. Sherry ann left home at 18 to separate herself from her parents spite, and then when she was able to make final amends with her mother, she learned that the truth was much darker than she ever imagined. So I ask you, listener Is it better for someone to always be remembered as the person they were, or for the truth to come out? 

This has been heart starts pounding, written and produced by me, Kaelyn Moore. Music by artlist. Have a heart pounding story you’d like to share on the podcast? Email heartstartspounding@gmail.com. Be sure to rate and review wherever you listen, follow us on instagram, and support us on patreon for just $3 a month. Until next time OOOOOOOOOO