An Interview with a Candle Face Believer: Mr. Smoe
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Time to read 4 min
The believer finally goes on record. Mr. Smoe says Candle Face came to him at his lowest point in 2002, took his pain, and sent him to spread her name among people fighting addiction. He also says those who reject her suffer for it. When I pressed on that contradiction, he ended the interview and told me to watch my step.
December 3, 2023
Date of interview: 26 Nov 2023
Main subjects:
- Mr. Smoe
Candle Face
I’ve spent a lot of time looking into the paranormal, but few stories in Central Texas draw attention like Candle Face. She’s said to haunt people who deny her existence, driving them toward a mental breakdown or even death, while her followers claim she can erase pain and mental torment in an instant.
My latest attempt to understand her led me to an interview with a man who calls himself “Mr. Smoe.” In some ways, our connection feels personal. He believes I played a role in drawing Candle Face out years ago. During our conversation, he described her one way to believers and another to skeptics. To believers, she’s gentle and able to lift unbearable pain. To skeptics, she shows no mercy.
Mr. Smoe’s story begins in a troubled home shaped by his father’s alcoholism. By thirteen, he says he was already struggling with addiction himself. His life changed in 2002, at a point of complete desperation. Sitting in his living room and ready to commit suicide, he saw a young ghost girl appear. She had hollow eye sockets, skin that bubbled like boiling oil, and a voice that didn’t sound human. “Do not do it. I can help you. I can make your pain disappear.” Desperate, he answered, “Yes, I believe.”
He said the change was immediate. The anguish lifted. The voices in his mind, which had tormented him for years, went silent for the first time. Candle Face retreated into the corner where she had appeared and left him changed.
After that night, she began appearing in his dreams and telling him to spread her presence to others, especially people struggling with addiction. As he spoke at AA meetings, he says he found others who also believed Candle Face had taken away their pain. Over time, his efforts moved beyond meeting halls to people on the streets and those caught in prostitution in South Austin.
There is, however, a darker side to this story. According to Mr. Smoe, people who reject Candle Face don’t find relief. They sink further into despair. Some reportedly lose their grip on reality. Others die by suicide.
I pressed Mr. Smoe on that contradiction and asked how she could be both compassionate and cruel. The question seemed to irritate him. He ended the interview abruptly and warned me to watch my step.
Below is the video of our brief interview. Mr. Smoe, clearly a pseudonym, insisted on anonymity. To honor that, I recorded the interview with the camera pointed at his ceiling fan, then edited the footage to brighten it and distort his voice:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqmUm8TWJjA
After the interview, I walked to a creek near my childhood home to clear my head. That creek was a well-known shortcut to Dawson Elementary School and a place where neighborhood kids often gathered to play or fight. I filmed the area and thought about how my brother Ricky and I used to move through those trails, and how I once encountered Candle Face there.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6Astmk75uA
Later, I visited an old friend who knows Candle Face’s legend from our childhood. While we were talking about the interview and the creek, his Ring doorbell camera picked up something unusual. No one was on the porch, but the video showed a large shadow and a strange orb. My friend believes it may have been Candle Face, drawn either by the conversation or by my recent interview.
Note to my friends who know this house and its owner: please keep his identity confidential.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jubdToQfe8c
I still have trouble making sense of the accounts that describe her as compassionate when so much fear surrounds her. One thing does seem clear. Belief, or the lack of it, plays a major role in how she deals with people. Believers are spared, while those who reject her suffer. But what drives her? Compassion? Vengeance? Something else?
For now, all I can do is document what I find: interviews, visits to places tied to her story, and footage like the Ring camera recording. Whether people believe in Candle Face or not, her effect on those who cross her path is hard to dismiss. She leaves a mark, and I don’t think she’s finished.
Arthur Mills
Arthur Mills served for more than two decades as an Army Intelligence Warrant Officer, specializing in piecing together what others missed: patterns, threats, enemy intent, and clandestine activity. He trained intelligence professionals, built threat models, and briefed commanders and world leaders on global threats and battlefield strategy. After retiring from the military, he moved into private investigation, focusing on missing persons, human trafficking, opposition research, and domestic terrorism. He holds a degree in Counter Terrorism Studies.
He has been writing books since 2006 and is an award-winning author. He publishes under his own name, though much of what he has written has appeared under pseudonyms. Readers may already know those titles without knowing they are his. The separation is intentional. His books invite readers to interpret what is hidden, and so does the way he publishes them.