Ep.74 - Daniel LaPlante, Killer Inside the Walls

Mike

Keith. What do you. Shut up. Oh, yeah, there is no lines. Your microphone isn't plugged in.

Yeah, that will do it. I actually don't even know if this is gonna start recording you or not. Yes. Give me. Gimme.

Gimme a minute. All right. I don't know if I'll even have to start re recording again. Oh, we have some gold there, so. Yeah.

Damn. Oh, wait, no. Okay, I think it is. It did. It's recording now, so I don't have to restart the recording.

But that was some pretty good goals. It's unfortunate that that didn't record. Okay, wait, I think your levels. Hello, can you hear me? I look kind of low.

You do? Maybe I just need to raise the volume of my voice dog. Loudly like this. See, look how high my levels are. Really loud.

Okay, there we go. Okay, so I just need to talk a bit louder. Yes, talk like this. Scream into the mic. All right, well, now you can stop talking.

Keith

Okay. Hey, you. And hey, you. And welcome. My name is Mike.

Mike

Or is it? Is it? I hope so. Yeah, that's my whole life is a lie after I redo 500 or something videos of wherever, how many freaking ones I've done. Um, so welcome, welcome, listeners.

Uh, whether you're first time or long time, me love you all the same. And, uh, I'm sure what, you're putting me off now. I thought I was in the flow, and now you're just laughing at me. Uh, joined as usual with you. Thank you.

Thank you. Joined as usual by Keith. Say hello, Keith. Hello. How's it going?

I said to say hello, Keith. Oh, say hello, Keith. There you go. No, did you just say, hello, Keith? After a great start.

Yeah, I know. Well, you know, we're getting in there. We're sinking in, you know. How are you? What's going on with you, Keith?

Keith

Good, good. Okay, so I'm excited to get into this one. You are? I am really excited to get into it. It's a really good story, but it actually reminded me of a somewhat similar story I have in my own life.

And I can't remember if I told you or not, but I'm gonna tell you anyway. Let's pretend you did. I actually have no idea what you're gonna say, but let's pretend you didn't for the benefit of the listeners. So if I have heard this story before, I'll pretend that I haven't. Okay, great.

So gonna start the story off as I do most my classic stories when I was in Canada. Here he goes, folks. Here we go. So we had these friends and we used to go through our house quite a bit for house parties and stuff. So the house they were in, it was.

It was like a three story house, but it was split into three separate flats. So they lived in the basement and there was the middle floor and then the top floor. But they all shared the same bathroom. Same, but no, they share the same hallway. So when you went into the house, there was this communal hallway.

And there was like, the doors split up there. But there was this cupboard which everyone kind of assumed belonged to someone else. So no one kind of went near it. It was just a door cupboard. They thought it was upstairs.

Upstairs. Thought it was downstairs and so on. Yeah. So nobody ever went near it. Anyway, so we had loads of house parties in this place.

Got them on really well. Turns out, after, like, them living there for. I think it was like a year or over a year or something, they found. They started hearing noises and they'd hear, like, doors open and stuff. It was all very spooky.

Exactly. Turns out there was a homeless guy coming in, going into the cupboard. And that was his home. He was sleeping in the cupboard the whole time. So he was like.

He'd come in the middle of night, about like two, three in the morning when Evan was asleep. Yeah. And he'd kind of get in through the front door and he. Did he have a key? I don't know how he got in.

Mike

Yeah. Wow. That's creepy. But, yeah, fair play to him. Yeah, yeah.

Good for him. Yeah. But, yeah, it was mad. Cause when we found out, we're like, God, we had so many house parties there. And he might have just been in that cupboard the whole time.

Keith

We're just walking back and forth, chilling, having a good time as possible. Yeah. Bop into the music. Wow. Well, that's it.

Mike

I actually haven't heard that story before, but it's a good one. And it's very, very. Insert the word I'm trying to think of here for this story. Yes. You know what I mean?

Keith

I do know what you mean. It's a good segue. Exactly. Very. That's Keith.

Yeah. Me and you. Look at. Look at us, look at us. Look at us.

Mike

Look at us. Huh? Who would have thought? Not me. Yeah, no, sorry.

I'm trying to just look at where. What I'm actually gonna talk about. Oh, yeah. So this is a Keith special. This one, much like that story, was a Keith special.

Because he did all the research for this one. He did all the heavy lifting. In fact, Keith, you told me this story, just briefly, a couple of weeks back when we were recording the Dolly Osterijk story. And it's wild. I'm gonna be deadly serious right now.

My jaw hit the floor, ladies and gentlemen. I had to seek medical attention. It's a really, really interesting story. I heard the name, but I didn't know the story at all. So you did, like, when I was.

Keith

Telling you the story, I think I was about halfway through, and you're like, is this real? Yeah. No. Cause it sounds, like, fake. Is this a movie you watched?

Mike

Like. No, no, this is real. So this is the story of Daniel Laplante. Laura Laplante. Laplante.

Which I, like, actually might say like that, but dan the plant. For you uncouths who don't speak, le non le parleiffan du le vous et. It means dan the plant. The plant. A and, yeah, I think we should just kind of get straight into this one.

So this is quite a dark story for the folks at home. This is a dark and disturbing one. Keith, can I say before we start? No. Great.

Today's story is an interesting one. Wouldn't. We wouldn't be telling you if it ain't. If it ain't an interesting story. But what's really cuckoo is despite the tragic ending, which would lead to some horrifying deaths in the story, there's sort of an even more terrifying chain of events leading up to it.

Like this story. This story would definitely be scary enough, as you said, without the horrific aftermath. Yep. He could stop telling the story halfway, and it's like, holy shit. That's.

Keith

That's absolutely terrifying. Shells, maybe. Yeah. The story of Daniel Laplante, it definitely resembles something out of a horror movie. So let's not delay any further and give it a go.

Mike

Today's story takes us to a place which may be best known for its top educational institutions or for its significant role in the American Revolution. However, to me, and by me, I mean Keith, it reminds you of witches. Yes, it does. You love your some witches. I do.

Keith

I do. I really do. You're a witchy kind of fella. And, of course, Boston Red Sox. I'm wearing a Red Sox t shirt right now.

You are? Just for the occasion. Just for the occasion. I have far too many Red Sox, and I spend a lot of. Well, I spend a lot of time in Boston, too.

Mike

Oh, and you're. Shout out to the gang at the corner tavern. Yeah. Keith's wrapping your shirt. 421 Marlborough street, mass.

Ave. Thanks for the beer, guys. Yeah, it's a good bear. Oh, by the way, roof aside, Mikey's sports corner, I got a little tangent. Need to go on.

Okay. I'm rough. Yeah. Cause I tweeted this pretty well. By the time people here this probably like a week ago, you know, follow me, by the way, if you know, it's good to be and follow Keith.

What's your name? On instagram, it's K for Keith. K for Keith? Yeah, K for underscore Keat or something like that. So I bought a Boston Red Sox canteen.

And since I know the Red Sox have always been kind of shit, the last couple years, but since I bought it, the team's been a disaster. The record actually isn't that bad. But half the team is out injured and every day I'm reading about new injury on the team. It's only a month in. By the time we're recording this, only a month into baseball and the team's done okay.

Right? Wild. And it's your fault. What? And it's your fault.

Yes, I know. I'm taking the blame. I'm putting this on my own back. So I don't know why I'm getting angry at the team, and I'm just admitting it's my own fault. But fuck them.

And fuck this Ken team. Um, you hear that, Red Sox? Fuck you. And I know you're listening. Yeah, exactly.

Oh, by the way, the NFL draft, uh, we're continuing like sports corner here. Um, the NFL draft is tomorrow. We're recording this on Wednesday, April 24. NFL draft is tomorrow, folks. Let me know who the Falcons draft, folks in the future who are listening to this.

While it hasn't happened yet, let me know. I'll probably already know, but you let me know anyway. Yeah, this isn't. You know what's kind of funny about recording this and releasing in the future is this is kind of like time travel. It is a little bit, isn't it?

Mhm. What's the future like? Guys? I know. I'm really curious.

Keith

Yeah. What's the weather like? Has there been a nuclear. Oh, have you watched a fallout? It's a good ass tv show.

No, I haven't. No. Good. Yeah. Yeah.

Mike

Really, really good. I'd highly recommend it. What else? What are we watching? Uh, fallout is really good.

Shogun. Good ass show. Mmm. Do you know what I watched here? Listen.

Okay. Mike's movie corner. Okay. You know what I watched, right? I've had far too much Red Bull.

Keith

You're buzzing.

We need a lovely outfit. I'm carrying this podcast. You know what I watched the other day, I watched Dune two. Oh, yeah? Yeah.

Mike

Stinkaroonie. Okay. Oh, man, that stank up the room. Well, have you seen Dune one? I have.

The thing is, actually really liked Dune one. I thought it was really good. Dune two. Woof. No good?

No, I didn't like it at all. I don't know why. Because I don't think it's a bad movie. I just thought it was. I just was, like, watching this, and I was like, this sucks, right?

Keith

Okay. Yeah, because it's a bad movie. Because I watched Oppenheimer too. I also thought that sucked when people were fucking blown their load over it. Now it's like I'm rewatching the same movie over here.

But anyways, I have seen neither. I'm actually gone on a bit of a. I'm starting to rewatch, like, old nineties movies again. Oh, man, nineties, the best golden era. Yeah.

Like, I recently just rewatched Jumanji. What a film. That's a great film. Oh, that's good. I haven't seen that in a long time.

Mike

I know. Yeah. It's so good. It's so nostalgic. Yeah.

Yeah. Jumanji's great. Oh, rewatched. It was only after re watching it again, I was like, oh, my God. This is, like, a traumatic time in my childhood where I had this fear of being pulled into paintings.

Keith

Do you ever see the witches? Yeah, of course. The witches are rolled out. What's her name? Angelica Huston.

Mike

She plays the grand high witch, right? Yeah, man, that movie, when she pulls off her mask. Holy shit, that was scary. Did I shit my balls off? That's terrifying.

Keith

That was scary. But it was the first five, six minutes of the movie that really ingrained itself. When it's like, the camera's flying over to. No, no. So do you know what she's telling the story at the start of the witch who traps the little girl in the painting.

Mike

Oh, yeah. And then. So she's kind of stuck in time and. Or she's not stuck in time because she kind of. She grows up within the painting.

Yeah. But, like, she. She can't escape, and eventually she just vanishes from. Oh, yeah, that was creepy. That was very heavy for.

Very creepy. I always thought the grandmother was weird. She kind of creeped me out, too. Yeah. With her missing fingers.

Yeah. That movie's terrifying for kids. Yeah. Honestly. Rats and shit.

Yeah, man. Roaldella. I mean, listen, I. What's wrong with you? Yeah, no, I grew up reading the shit out of his books, but wow, some dark ass stuff.

Keith

It is dark. Yeah. Yeah. You else is dark. Who this story?

Danielle Plante. Yes. Daniel Plante. Very good. And we're back.

Mike

Alright. Yeah, I suppose you should probably tell the story. So. That's right. Today, folks, we are off to Massachusetts, or more specifically, the small town of Pepperrell.

Pepperrell's northern mass. It's on the New Hampshire border. Pepperrell's small. It's about 10,000 people live there. And if you look, google it in pictures, it's very pretty.

Quaint little New England town. It has a. Has a covered bridge nearby, which is kind of cool. And for listeners, I know you don't watch sopranos, but for the listeners who do watch the Sopranos, if you know that town Vito escapes to in like season six when they find out he's gay, it's in New Hampshire, I think it kind of. That's the town.

It looks like that town, like just a very small, quaint, little, pretty New England town. And the year is 1986, and our tale begins much like a classic horror story. 15 year old Tina Bowen and her nine year old sister Karen had gathered around a Ouija board in the basement of their house. You see, tragically, the girls mother had died the year before from cancer and they were performing a seance in their basement as an attempt to connect with their mother. It's very.

That is very sad story. Yeah. Unfortunately, however, by the end of the session, they were unable to make any contact with their mother's spirit. Or so they thought, my friend, if you can believe that. Because almost right after, some very, very startling things started to happen in their home that night, as the girls tried to sleep, they started hearing a light knocking.

Light knocking on their walls. Wondering if their attempt to communicate with the spirits had worked and their mother was. Was trying to reach out, they excitedly began to ask the entity questions and to their surprise, they got a response in the form of more knocks and scratches on the walls. Do you like me doing sound effects? That was good.

Keith

It was good, yeah. Thank you. There's one knock for yes, two knocks for no. So that was a no. That was a no.

I'm just trying to confuse you. Yeah. So this is actually. It starts out like. This story really does start out like the horror movie and you think, you know, it's the beloved mom speaking from beyond, but then it turns out it's a demon the whole time.

Mike

I mean, like, conjuring all this shit follows the same plot. Gotcha. Yeah, exactly. But this one really does. It actually was a demon.

From hell. Who was speaking to them? They just didn't know it. Yep. The girls, however, were excited that they had gotten the chance to communicate with their mother again.

However, in the following weeks, the knocking became more aggressive and frequent, disrupting their sleep and causing them distress. Now, their father, Frank Bohn, he thought the girls were simply stressed out from grief and they were imagining things. He never really noticed anything weird or the knocking, but the unexplained events just seemed to escalate. Drinks vanished from glasses, objects shifted around the house, and the tv changed channels by itself, which is frankly just more annoying than anything else. It is.

Keith

Yeah, I was watching that. I was watching the patch game. Furniture even moved from one side of the room to the other as if they had a poltergeist in their home. Eventually, Tina and young Karen figured that they were being haunted by a malicious demon, not the spirit of their mother as they had they had initially thought. The knocking kept getting louder and louder, starting in the girls rooms, but soon spreading throughout the house.

Mike

One day, as they sat in the living room, they heard the knocking from beneath them. Scared out of their wits, but desperate for answers, they grabbed a kitchen knife and headed down into their basement. There they found a chilling message scrawled in red on the wall. I'm in your room. Come and find me.

Keith

That's terrifying. That is freaking. Yeah. No, yeah. No, no.

Yeah. No, that's all I'm saying. That's the last thing you want to see. Yeah. However, unlike in a horror movie where the protagonist would investigate further, the girls did exactly what we we would do, and they got the shit out of their house without a second thought to get help from their neighbor, which is a very smart move.

Mike

See, people in real life are more intelligent because if this was a movie. Yes. They would have gone. Oh, yeah, they would have gotten around. Yeah, yeah.

Keith

They would have went up to the room, had a look. Yeah, exactly. No way, Jose. When their dad, Frank, got back, you know, they explained what they found in the basement. And Frank, he was like, no, no, haven't it.

Mike

He thought his daughters were behind the creepy writing on the wall, playing tricks on each other. He was convinced it was just grief messing with their heads. And so he sent his two daughters, Tina and Karen, off for counseling. How terrifying must that have been for the two girls? Well, that is classic horror movie.

No. Yeah. When, like, you know, you're explained to the authority figure, the parents. Yeah, you're crazy. Yeah, you're nuts, man.

Keith

Especially, like, the writing on the wall, it wasn't red and was made. It was meant to look like blood, but I think it was in ketchup. Tastes delicious. So several weeks later, on December 8, 1986, Frank, Tina, Karen and Tina's best friend, Kathy Knapp. They arrived home after a day out, only to discover the house was an absolute mess.

Mike

They also noticed that the toilet had been used, but not flushed. While they were away. Someone left a giant shit in here, by the way, note for Regina. Please insert the video of the scottish woman. Yeah.

Which one of you forgot that lunch? The toilet. Every shit. Well, the fucking one of you.

Flush the toilet after they've had our shit. Well, it was fucking one of. Yes. Disgusting. This time, however, Frank, he really did.

I think it takes his house to be destroyed, to actually believe that his two daughters were telling the truth, that there was something very wrong with the house. No girl of mine is taking a shit like that. That's a big shit. So he began to snoop around. He began to investigate and see what the heck was going on.

When he walked into his teenage daughter Tina's room, Frank was confronted with a disturbing message painted on the wall. Marry me, Tina. But that's not the weirdest part. On the other side of the room, Frank saw something even creepier. There was this young man dressed up in his late wife's clothes with makeup on, wearing a dress, a blonde wig, and in one hand, the man held a hatchet.

Keith

Fuck. Fuck me. Yeah. This entity. I can only imagine.

Mike

You must have thought it was, like, an entity or. This is too freaky to be real. Yeah, yeah. This person thing. Camley ordered the tree girls and frank into the bedroom, where he threatened them with his weapon.

That's terrifying. It's like, um. IO. Insidious. The ghost woman who's haunting him and insidious, that's.

That's like, that kind of shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This person camily ordered the tree girls and frank into the bedroom, where he threatened them with his hatchet. Thankfully, Tina somehow managed to escape. She made a hasty getaway via the window.

She dashed to their neighbor's house and called the police from there. However, by the time the authorities showed up, this man had seemingly vanished without a trace. The family was shaken and deeply unsettled as they realized that the disturbances they had endured for almost a year were not caused by a ghost, but by a person living in their walls, deliberately tormenting them. The Bowens decided to stay elsewhere while the police investigated, understandably too scared to return home while this madman was still out there somewhere. And clearly he had easy access to their house somehow.

So they held up at a nearby hotel. Two days after the incident, Frank went back to the house to grab a few things for his girls. However, as he approached, he spotted movement in the front window of his house. Squinting, he realized that it was a man's face staring back at him. That's terrifying.

I genuinely am wondering if this story is the basis for so many horror movies. Yeah, right. There's just so much going on here. Frank wasted no time and he called the police, reporting that the intruder was still, still in the house. But when the authorities arrived and searched the house again, they found no sign of anyone.

Just like the first time, it was starting to feel like they really were chasing a ghost. Like this guy just kept vanishing. And you never felt safe in your own home. And like, around the time as well, I think it was like snow as well. So they looked or looked all around the house.

Keith

There was no footprints coming or leaving the house either. So he was there. He was in there, but they couldn't find him. Yeah. Yeah.

Mike

That's terrifying. What they did find, however, were two family pictures stabbed with kitchen knives and two chilling messages scrawled on the walls. One saying, I'm still here, come find me. And another bluntly stating, I am going to kill you. Which is no room between the lines.

No messing around there. They're not getting my message really, really clear. I'm being way too vague. So where had the perpetrator gone? Clearly he'd been hiding in the home for some time before taking the family hostage.

And Frank had just spotted him in the front window. But as you said, keith, oddly enough, the police found no footprints leading away from the house in the snow. And this is in the middle of winter, by the way, this reminds me, I think it's called frogging. Okay, let me just google this. Mike's googler here.

It's called frogging. When does somebody living in your house? While you're there? While you're there, yeah. So, uh, wikipedia, to rescue frogging is the act of an individual.

A frog, like ph or o g. Secretly living in another person's home without authorization. And it's like you hear so many of these urban legends of these things going missing in the house, and then they set up a camera and then they find somebody getting up in the middle of the night and, like, drinking their milk from the fridge and stuff like that. There's a lot of stories. The ones that always come to mind are ones from, like, Japan and stuff like that.

Yeah, maybe some of the more famous I don't know if these stories are even real. Some of them are just urban legends. Yeah. Yeah, but, yeah, just like a woman sets up a security camera in her kitchen. She sees this crazy guy climb out of her attic.

Keith

Jesus. Yeah, it's really scary. I mean, it's kind of like Dolly. Osterijk, only she knew he was there. She put him up there to her husband.

Mike

He was frogged, you know, so that's kind of like it. 50% of the house has been frogged. Yeah, exactly. That sounds very. They should change the name.

I don't know. It sounds very weird. As the police kept searching the house, they eventually came across a false wall in the basement. Behind it, they saw what they initially thought was just a pile of clothing until they realized it was in fact a person, 16 year old Danny Laplante, curled up inside. When they pulled Laplant out from the wall space and arrested him, they made a chilling discovery, finding this teenager hiding.

He had been living inside the walls of the house for quite a long time at this point. The passageway, they found it gave him access to other parts of the house through the walls and crawlspaces. And they found several peepholes scattered around, allowing Lapland to watch Tina from any room she was in. He was pretty obsessed with the family and he had access to every single part via these disconnecting spaces between. Between the walls.

Yeah. Yep. However, what may have even been more disturbing is that in custody it was discovered that Daniel Laplante had actually once been on a date with Tina Bowen. So who is Daniel Laplante? I don't know how you pronounce his name.

I'm just gonna call him Dan the plant. Dan the plant. That sounds good. Dan the plant came into this world in 1970 in Townsend, Massachusetts. It's the next town over from Pepperrell.

In his early years, he was far from. He did not have a happy childhood whatsoever. According to his own account, he endured physical and sexual abuse at the hands of his own father. He acted out in school and he didn't have many friends. He was often labeled as weird or the creepy kid.

This was likely due to his peculiar behaviour and complete disregard for personal appearance and hygiene. Smelly bastard, they used to call him. I don't know if they did, but that's what I'm calling. That should have. Yeah.

Keith

Actually, if you look at photos of him when he got arrested, he's like a big greaseball. Oh, wait, let me look. Let me look up some photos. Hey, listen, nothing better than an audio medium to describe photos. My best way of describing it is when you see him, he looks like he smells like sour milk.

Mike

Oh, I see what you mean. Yeah, he does. He kind of does look like these photos. He's got this, like, black, greasy hair. I mean, he kind of just looks like a teenager because most teenagers are greasy.

But, um, drinking milk. He does look like he drinks milk. Um, but, yeah, you're absolutely right, Keith. Once again, you nailed it, my friend. Yes.

Keith

Thats boy, Mary. Yes. He was eventually sent to a psychiatrist and diagnosed with a hyperactive disorder. However, instead of helping, Daniel claimed his doctor also sexually abused him during their sessions for a full year. By the age of 15, Daniel was already becoming a well experienced home invader and burglar.

Mike

However, his interests were not just in stealing things. Oh, no. What really tickled Daniels fancy was terrorising the people living in the houses he invaded. He loved playing mind games and moving objects around and leaving things behind just so the owners would know someone had been inside their home, inside their safe little space. I'm inside you.

Oh, God, do not say that again, ever. Please. In 1986, Stan the plant set in motion the chain of events that would etch his name into infamy. According to what some people say, Daniel acquired the Bowen family phone number following a break in at their residence. He then proceeded to make calls to the home asking for Tina and saying that he had gotten her number through a friend at her school and thought she was very pretty.

He described himself as blonde, tall, athletic, a far cry from his true appearance. Basically, he was catfishing her. The very first catfish. Daniel and Tina, they would talk on the phone often and eventually a friendship blossomed. Tina agreed to go on a date with Daniel.

However, when he showed up to the house looking pretty much the opposite of what he had described himself as, she got a bit of a shock, but Tina, being the nice person that she is, she decided to give Daniel the benefit of the doubt and went on a date with him regardless. I wonder why he was, like, expecting when he showed up. Yeah, why do you? I know. It's kinda like the whole thing with catfish is like, why do you.

Where do you think this is gonna go? She's. She's gonna see you. Unfortunately, things went south pretty quick when Tina confided in Daniel that her mother had recently passed. Honestly, you could not have picked a worse person to open up to here.

Instead of having sympathy and just listening to Tina as she opened up emotionally about her grief over losing her mother, he decided to ask, hmm, specific questions and details about how'd your mother die? And how much exactly did she suffer in her final moments? And, you know, was it painful? Describe on a scale of one to ten, how painful? You know, this kind of shit.

Like, he wanted to know exactly how Tina and her sister felt when they found out her mother was, that it was, like, into. It was like emotional torture porn. Yeah. Yeah. He was, like, getting off on it.

Tina, rightly so, said to herself, fuck this guy, and made an excuse to leave and got the hell out of there. She put the whole thing behind her and just hoped to never see Dan the plant ever again. Unfortunately, Daniels obsession had only just begun. And as we know, without the Bowen family knowledge, he decided to move himself into their house for the better part of a year, tormenting them, spying on them, witnessing their every move, and hearing their every conversation before he was finally caught. Now, you might be thinking to yourself, whoa, this story sounds unbelievable.

Keith

It's like something out of an urban legend. And, like, honestly, you would. Like, you wouldn't be entirely wrong. You see, like, when Daniel started breaking into homes and terrorizing Tina and Karen Bowen, they were all miners at the time, so none of this was actually officially reported to the police. And it wasn't in any papers at the time.

Yeah. In fact, if it wasn't for the more serious crimes that Daniel committed a year later, which we're going to dive into shortly, this tale of him being the ghost in the walls, or the boy in the walls, or whatever you want to call it, it might have remained hidden from the public forever. So it wasn't until after these subsequent crimes did the press, they started to delve into Daniel's past and unearth his, shall we say, his youthful shenanigans of terrorizing the bejesus out of people. So when they found out about his past, of holding a family hostage with a hatchet while wearing a dress, and after living in their walls, it was too good not to print. However, over time with there was a lot of details missing, because, as I said, there was no official report.

People, they've taken a bit of an artistic license to fill in some of the gaps and sensationalize the story a little bit. Now, that's not to say that the story is complete horseshit. In fact, like, thanks to his later crimes, I was able to source a court appeal document on the government of Massachusetts website where it outlined to the grand jury a number of his crimes that were committed when he was a minor. So in this document, it lists crimes like malicious destruction of property of Frank Bowen for over $100. Breaking and entering in the building of Frank Bowen with felonious intent, larceny in the building owned by Frank Bowen, kidnapping of Tina Bowen, kidnapping of Karen Bowen, kidnapping of Frank Bowen, kidnapping of Cathy Knapp, assault by means of a dangerous weapon with a hatchet, and entering and breaking into the house at nighttime to the building owned by Frank, and armed burglary as well.

And this is all listed on the website. What is not reported are details like Daniel was dressed up in Frank's late wife's clothing, for example. And there are other sources out there that say he was dressed up like a ninja, that he had face paint on, or he was dressed up as, like, tribal gear. Unfortunately, like, the truth is, we may never know exactly what these details are. However, what we do know for a fact is the horrific crimes committed by Daniel, which we're going to get into right now.

Mike

Yes, he did do some horrific stuff, that is for sure. But, yeah, as you said, a lot of the story is quite of question marks. But you know what? If you print the truth or the legend, let's print. Print the legend, baby.

Keith

I know, but I'm gonna believe. Yeah, I know the story is freaky, but it definitely gets even freakier. No matter how he was dressed or what he was doing, the story gets pretty horrific. So once officers found Daniel hidden within the walls of the Bowen family home, they promptly placed him under arrest. From there, he found himself confined to a juvenile detention center until October 1987.

Mike

Following this stint, he was moved to an adult facility, where, thanks to his mothers intervention, she was able to secure his release by posting $10,000 bail. Daniel then returned to the custody of his mother and stepfather as he awaited trial, December 11, 1987, all he had to do, you know, was keep his head down. It's like a month and a half he, or maybe even less, you know, from when he was out on bail to win his trial for breaking into the Bowens. But all he had to do, you know, was keep his head down until trial. Right?

And that's not what he did at all, that's for sure. Almost immediately after being let out, Daniel. Hey, listen, old habits die hard. He started breaking the houses once again. He burglarized one home on October 14 in broad daylight, only about a quarter mile from his mother's house.

In another instance, he sold cash and two guns. Then on November 16, 1987, he broke into the Gustafsson home, which was just through the woods behind his own house. Among other things, Daniel took a cordless telephone, two cable television boxes, a cable television remote, control device and some coins from a Liberty silver dollar collection, which are collectors coins. And a brief Google tells me there was a word, a lot of cha Ching. Now, Daniel's family did begin to notice that he somehow had a lot of cash for someone who had no job and was meant to be just sitting at home awaiting trial.

But they couldn't connect the dots to this one. Man, this is just too hard to figure out. I can't wrap my head around this one. Two plus two is. That's too hard.

Yeah, I give a. His mother even found one of the guns he had stolen and confronted him about it, but he just lied. And so the gun that was there before I got arrested. So that's. That's a.

That's my old gun. That's old gunny. Now, the man who breaks into homes and lies and is a creep. I wonder. Yeah, you know, was she thinking, wonder if the liar is lying?

No, he's fine. He's grant. Luckily, Daniel only had a gun without the bullets, but he soon fixed that by just, uh, just asking his brother for some bullets. When questioned about why he needed said bullets, daniel came up with the ridiculous excuse that he wanted to make a giant bullet to sell, which I love. He's just gonna, like, super glue a load of bullets.

Keith

Any sense? Yeah, no one's gonna mash them together. It's like, you know when you get skittles and you. Or starburst or something? Yeah, yeah.

Mike

Candy and you just mash it together to make a giant ball. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Like it was like a starburst apple. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's so, so stupid. So his brother did gave. His brother believed the stupid ass story of making a giant bullet and gave him a number of 22 caliber rounds. Then, on December 1, 1987, Daniel once again broke into the Gustafsson house behind his house, through the woods. He claimed he was not expecting anyone to be home and was planning his usual antics of moving items around to scare the homeowners.

However, when he broke in, he was greeted by pregnant Priscilla Gustavsson, 33 years old, and her five year old son, William. Daniel, this time, decided to escalate things dramatically. He shoved William in a closet, made makeshift restraints from stockings and a necktie, tied Priscilla up, raped her, placed a pillow on her head, and shot her multiple times. Then, in an act of more cruelty, he took young William to the bathroom and drowned the boy in the bathtub. This was not the end of his horrors due to some absolutely horrific timing.

Just as Daniel was prepared to leave this house, where he killed a young pregnant woman and her son. Priscilla's seven year old daughter, Abigail just so happened of all the times to return home from school, she just so happened to walk in the door while he was walking out. Daniel took her, drowned her in the bathroom also. Daniel. He then left the home, attended his nieces birthday party as if nothing ever happened.

Later that day, Andrew Gustafson returned home after work to an eerie silence that would typically be filled with the joyful noise and laughter of his children playing around. He walked into his bedroom, where he found his wife tied up and shot twice in the head. He immediately called the police and he said he was too afraid to look for his own children. As the continued silence was more ominous than anything. It didnt take long for authorities to link the Gustafson family murders with Danny Laplante.

Police dogs tracked a scent in the woods behind the Gustafsson home, which let officers write to Daniels mothers house. But when they got there, Dan had fled and a manhunt ensued. Daniel spent the next day breaking into other peoples homes, desperately looking for supplies and survival equipment so he could stay hidden for as long as possible. A few towns over, Dan broke into a womans home and kidnapped her in her vehicle. The woman managed to escape, but Daniel was spotted by someone who had seen his photograph in the news.

By now, it was everywhere. At long last, Daniel was found hiding in a dumpster 48 hours after the manhunt for him began. This was in the town of Ayer, Massachusetts, 20 minutes from his home, so he never really got very far when he was inspected. A hare belonging to Abigail Gustafson was discovered on his sock, confirming his involvement in her murder. It was one year later, in 1988, that Daniel was found guilty of three counts of murder and was sentenced to tree life sentences, deservedly so.

Keith

Absolutely. Yeah, there was a. There was a little shit show in Frank Bowen. He was outraged that Daniel had been allowed out on bail and then, you know, so he was able to commit the tree murders. He said to a local paper, if Daniel Laplante does not get convicted and gets out, I will personally kill him.

Mike

You can't imagine what kind of fear we've been living in. He is mentally insane. There's no question about it. Jeez. Yeah.

Keith

Messed up, man. But also, like, during his time behind bars. So Danny, he'd shown absolute zero remorse for his actions and apparently he had no intention of serving his sentence quietly either. So between 1988 and 2014, La Plante, he made numerous attempts to sue the courts, alleging violations of his rights. In 2013, he managed to make it back in the news again when he claimed that the prison system violated his religious rights to practice his Wicca faith.

So, Wicca, it is a recognised religion. It's a nature based pagan belief system founded in, like, the mid 20th century. The term Wicca, it is often confused with witchcraft, but they are separate. Wicca is a religion, whereas witchcraft is a craft and magical practice. So you could be a witch but not a Wiccan, or you could be a witch that also practices Wicca.

But to be honest, I don't think Daniel gave a shit about any of this. I'm pretty sure his lawsuit was, you know, to be edgy, a bit of a nuisance for the courts. The following is what Daniel requested. So La Plante asked the courts to order the doc to provide him with 36 different kinds of ritual. If a Wiccan does not have a particular scent of oil, le Plante implies he cannot properly perform the spell that uses that kind of oil to achieve a particular result.

Like, the result. Were looking to give him oil as well, because, like, it's like, you give him oil and he just puts it all over his arms and slip out. Of handcuffs or put something slip through the bars. Laplant. He requested that the defendants allow him access to 23 different ritual herbs.

He claimed that the herbs are essential part of practicing Wicca. He also asked the courts to order defendants to provide him with 16 different ritual teas. He asked that he and the other Wiccans were allowed to wear ceremonial robes during their corporate worship. He requested varieties of cake for each of their monthly full moon celebrations. And he also requested that he be given colored pens in order to write in his book of shadows as a witch is required by the wick of fate.

Mike

Yes. And also I request for the wiccan faith the key to my cell and a gun. Wiccans are required to have guns with lots of bullets. Big bullets. Really, really big bullets.

Keith

I'll get loads of different bullets. I'll put them all together. Yeah, I'll blow a hole in the cell. I have practice with that. So in 2017, he appealed for a reduced sentence as well.

But the judge said that he was clearly not regretful of his horrific crimes and upheld the tree life sentences. Daniel Laplante. He will not be eligible for parole until he's served 45 years. Sadly, Andrew Gustopson, the husband and father of Daniel's victims, he passed away in 2014, so he wasn't allowed to see Daniel. Appeal to be rejected.

However, reportedly on his deathbed, he said never let him out. He deserves to remain in prison for life. And I think it's safe to say that we are all right there with him on that one. Agreed. Yeah.

Mike

So that is the story of Dan the plant. I wish he had been a fucking plant because he got up some really sick ass mother Heckin cry marinos, that's for sure. Yeah. Wow, this story really starts out like urban legend. Ooh, spooky.

Yeah. And then it's like, oh, shit. It takes a dramatic, takes a dry turn. It's like, damn, damn, damn, Daniel, why can you just be the creepy guy who, like, knocks on door walls and shit like that? I know, yeah.

Keith

I'm. Oh, I'm gonna be a ghost. Yeah. And I just kill people. That's.

Mike

Yeah, you murder, like, I mean, three people. I mean, I suppose you could say four, recounting the unborn baby. Yeah. So. Yeah, well, there you go, folks.

Keith

Oh, what was that? I don't know, folks. It sounded like it was coming from the listener's house, not us. I didn't do anything. That knock did not come from the recording.

Mike

Those knocks are not in the recording. I hope you're not alone.

All right, well, we have to lighten the mood somehow because that is dark as shit. All right, folks, well, here, listen. Thank you so much for listening to me and Keith tell the story of Dan the plant. Yeah, that's kind of it. Spooky one.

Yeah, check out that chapter podcast out every, you know. Well, I mean, if you're, if you're hearing this, you already have. So good for you. Yeah, it's definitely, definitely scary. After I was reading this a little bit, I was like, you know, I start hearing noise myself in the house, which I'm sure if you're listening to this and you're at home and you might start hearing noises, and I just want to tell you, they probably definitely are someone in your wall or erratic.

100% agree. But what I like to do as a precaution is every so often I'll just say, I can see you there, which kind of flips the table, you know, then they think on what? I can see them. I'm watching them. What are you looking at?

It's a good idea. Who's watching who now, bitch? What I like to do is walk around with a hammer and just randomly hit the walls in case there's somebody there. Well, they're like two theories of boat work. I've never had someone in the house.

Keith

You never had someone in the house. Exactly. So, folks, if someone were listening at home and you have a gun? Just shoot. Shoot the walls.

Mike

Never know what happens. Top tips. There might be somebody there, you know. All right, here. Listen, folks, thanks so much for listening.

Means a lot to me and Keith. And, yeah, listen, next episode of the that chapter podcast will be out next Monday, so give it a goo. Say ya. There you go. All right, thanks.

Like just a very small, quaint, little, pretty New England town. So that's where we're going and there then. Or wait, that's. Wait, what? Yes, that's where we're going and the.

Keith

Year I was gonna move that Red Bull away from you. I think you probably should. I'm not even sure if it's Red Bull anymore.

Mike

I'm not even sure if it's Red Bull anymore.

Ep.74 - Daniel LaPlante, Killer Inside the Walls

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1. Introduction and Background

2. The Hauntings Begin

3. The Horror Unveiled

4. Aftermath and Capture

5. Conclusion and Reflections

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