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The following file is Level 2/4643 Classified
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Item#: 4643
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Reverend William Wells (left) and Avery Dean (right).

Assigned Site Site Director Research Head Assigned Task Force
USCALA Site-103 Jared Blake Sylvia Morrison N/A

Special Containment Procedures: All recordings of SCP-4643 are contained in a secure climate-controlled vault at Site-103. Foundation Information Control agents are to monitor web traffic for discussion of SCP-4643. Any additional recordings are to be collected and remitted to RAISA technicians for verification and containment.

Description: SCP-4643 was a recorded interview between late night television host Avery Dean and evangelical Christian minister Reverend William "Willy" Wells on January 16th, 1966. The interview, originally taped for the program "After Hours with Avery Dean", lasts sixteen minutes and thirty-six seconds. Anomalous activity present near the end of the footage resulted in the disappearance of the host, the guest, much of the audience and the majority of the crew of the show.

Addendum 4643.1: Background

The January 16th, 1966 shooting of "Late Nights with Avery Dean" was originally intended to feature guest Jason Robards, who was in the middle of a press tour for the film A Thousand Clowns. However, when Robards had to cancel due to illness, show producer Jack Coffman contacted American evangelical Christian missionary Reverend William "Willy" Wells to come on the show instead.

Reverend Wells had just completed a much publicized mission to Borneo, and had not yet been interviewed by any major news network. This was due in part to reports of brutality between Wells' missionaries and the local Dayak population. One week prior to the January 16th taping of "Late Nights", CBS President Michael Dann had released a public statement condemning the mission while stating, "…we do not intend to give any platform to individuals who believe it is acceptable to take the kind of reckless actions against an indigenous people, like those we've had reported of Mr. Wells and his following." Despite this, Coffman went forward with scheduling Wells, who accepted the invitation.

Addendum 4643.2: Interview Transcript

Note: The following is a transcript of the January 16th, 1966 recording of "Late Nights with Avery Dean".

Camera pans across the stage as music plays. The host Avery Dean comes out from backstage and greets the audience, who claps.

Dean: Hello hello hello folks! Thank you, thank you, you're very kind. I am Avery Dean, and thank you for joining us tonight on Late Nights. We've got a really grand show for you tonight, really grand. Pop Baxter and the Late Night band is here with us tonight!

Audience applauds. Band plays a short stinger.

Dean: And we're pleased to have with us tonight a real character; you know him from his book Summons of the Nations, Why God Has Stopped Calling and his recently, much discussed mission to the Island of Borneo- (audience murmurs) -yes, yes, well, tonight we're going to get to the bottom of it. Let's go ahead and get into it, ladies and gentlemen, Reverend Willy Wells!

Polite applause from the audience. Band plays a short piece as William Wells enters from stage left. He smiles and waves at the audience, then takes a seat to the left of Avery Dean's desk.

Dean: Reverend Wells, yes, thank you for joining us tonight, we all sure do appreciate you taking the time.

Wells: No, no, thank you Avery. It's been a real pleasure, your folks have been, have been real great so far. Real great.

Dean: Reverend Wells, let's talk about your mission work. You've been all over the world now-

Wells: Oh yes, all kinds of places.

Audience laughs.

Dean: -and you've endured no small amount of hardship to do what you do, so I guess my first question is to ask why you do it?

Wells: Well Avery, first off I believe that God the Father has called us all, each of us, one by one to act in the betterment of his church here on Earth. Now, I think most folks probably don't uh, don't really see that call the same way I do. I take it very seriously, you know, it's not just a calling to me, it's a charge. Divine instruction, so yes, I do it because I know that God the Father Almighty has directed me to do so.

Dean: Did he call, or did it come in the mail?

Audience laughs.

Wells: (Laughs) Well you know, that's funny. When I was younger I was a real out of control punk, and got into all kinds of trouble. I remember one time, I was running with some other boys a little older than me, and we broke into this little church. We were going to steal from their office, but when we got there we were stopped by a figure in the darkness who told us to leave, or be cursed by God. The boys I was with left in a hurry, but I stayed and begged forgiveness. I wanted to be a tool for God, not a tool for Satan. So no, not quite a phone call.

Audience laughs uncomfortably.

Dean: You are the uh, well, you've been the subject of some scrutiny recently after this trip to Borneo, let's hear a little bit about that trip.

Wells: It was a really good experience, Avery. A really good one. We were met with kindness by the locals, who wanted nothing more than to see and hear the word of the Lord. It's a beautiful country there, Avery, really really beautiful. You wouldn't believe how beautiful God's creation can be.

Dean: Well sure Willy, but I think what everybody wants to know is what uh, what happened out there in the jungle that has got- got folks so worked up?

Wells: Well, Avery, look- (pauses) I have, I think, a real moral imperative not just to the people we're spreading the word of God to, but also my parishioners, to make all the effort possible to reach these people. These- these people, Avery, they're wallowing in their own filth. Walking around naked, speaking in their backwards tongues, eating dirt out of the ground. They are an unclean populace. In the book of Isaiah, chapter one verse sixteen, it is said, "Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil." These people, Avery, these people are being commanded by God to make themselves clean, and they won't. They just won't do it. A few of them, we got a few of them to look at a Bible for a little while by giving them some shiny trinkets, but none of them - none of them cared. They didn't understand. We put a Bible in the hand of every man, woman and child that we saw and they were not compelled to give their lives to Him. How can a person be so arrogant as to not be compelled by the literal, divinely inspired word of God Himself?

Dean: I don't know Willy, it just seems like-

Wells: No, I'll tell you what it seems like, Avery. We're out there doing the work of the LORD, Avery, the work of the LORD OUR GOD, every single day. We spent money we didn't have, to- (grunts slightly) -to go out into that desolate jungle to meet those barbarians who didn't even so much as listen to this impossible gift we were giving them. Second Corinthians chapter six, verse fourteen and fifteen, "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?" This is the word of God, Avery. These people, after everything we offered them and all the work we did to get to them, they still resisted us. Resisted the Lord God Himself. And then we come back home, and what do they call us? What do the television networks and newspapers call us? Butchers. What butchery is it when a man answers the call of the living God?

Dean: Hey, calm down Willy. We're just trying to find out… We just want to know what you did to those people?

Wells: Look, look. Avery, how could you understand? You weren't there. God appeared to me and told me that they could still be saved. Now, if you had spent all that time and all that money to get to a place, just to find that all your efforts were going to be resisted by a group of… of apes, but then God Himself came and told you there was still a chance, wouldn't you do that? Wouldn't you take the chance to save those people?

Dean: I just don't-

Wells: Answer the question, Avery.

Audience murmurs uncomfortably. Dean looks towards the side of the stage. A bead of sweat appears on his forehead.

Dean: Well I don't know, Willy. I don't know, I can't say I've ever been in that position.

Wells: No. No, you haven't, because just like those beasts in the jungle you have resisted God. All of you have, all of you have heard the word of your creator speaking to you and chosen to turn away. Each of you have. (Pauses) God said, that if we gave their bodies to Him like the Kingdom of Israel did when offering the fattened calf, then they… they could be spared the fires of Hell. He promised me this, so we built the pyres high-

Dean: Oh my god, you-

Wells: -and the men, the ones who resisted, we put them down first, with the women and children on top, and they-

Audience begins to shout and stand out of their seats. Dean is now gesturing towards the side of the stage.

Wells: -screamed, and they screamed, and it was like music, Avery. That was the music of atonement. God was taking that fire and putting it into their bodies and burning out all of the devil inside them to make them clean. Psalm chapter fifty-one, verse seven, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." We did this for them, all of them. (Shouts over the crowd) Don't you understand? Don't you understand? They're in Heaven now! They're in heaven!

Dean: I think, I think we're done, Willy, I think you need to get off of my-

Wells: No we are not done. I didn't come here so you could get me to sing and dance like one of your circus acts or negro performers. I found something in that forest, Avery. Something that I had only dreamed of prayed for my entire life, ever since I was begging in the darkness to be spared by God. I found the power to be his judgement. (Pauses) I came here so that I could bring the same blessing to all of you, and so everyone can see- everyone across this country can see what the Lord wants of you. I will save you.

Wells removes his shirt, revealing a large, inverted cross-shaped brand on his chest. The audience begins to rush towards the stage as a plume of fire bursts from the cross-shaped brand. The fire streaks out around him until it connects with itself, forming a violent band of flames. Avery Dean is caught in the flames and stumbles backwards, desperately trying to smother the flames.

Wells: I am Elijah! I am Elijah! Come, chariots of fire!

The spinning plume of fire begins to expand as panicked audience members rush the exits. The flames cascade over the top of them, setting fire to everything it touches. As more and more people collapse and burn, a high pitched sound is picked up on the recording equipment. A man stumbles into frame near the front of the audience, his body burning, and points something towards Wells. There is the sound of a gunshot over the roaring of the flames, and the fire instantly goes out. Wells stumbles backwards, blood pooling out of a hole in his chest over his heart.

Wells: What-?

The man collapses onto the stage, arms still outstretched. The man with the gun falls forwards and stops moving. Wells pulls himself up on the leg of a chair into a seated position, his left hand idly touching the place on his chest where he was shot. He looks around the room. Everyone else in the studio has stopped moving.

There is a quick movement behind Wells, and a figure comes into view. It is tall and gaunt, with pitch black skin and dark red eyes. It does not move after appearing, though Wells does turn to face it. As he does, he gestures at his chest.

Wells: Lord?

A pit suddenly open up beneath Wells, and bright flames burst out of it. He screams and writhes in the air for a moment, before disappearing into the darkness. As he vanishes, the pit disappears as well. The figure in the darkness lingers for a moment more, and then disappears.

Remaining cameras continue to function for an additional sixteen minutes before the last working camera fails due to fire damage.
