Stories of the Paranormal, Supernatural, Legends, Lore, Mysterious Macabre, Unsolved and Unexplained
Do you remember playing “Bloody Mary” when you were a child? You know, the game where you stared into a mirror and chanted the blood-witch’s name three times, with the eminent risk that a devilish ghost would emerge from the reflective surface and rip your face off?
IN THIS EPISODE: We’ve all heard of the Headless Horseman – but Sleepy Hollow’s lesser-known ghost will terrify you all the more. (The Bronze Lady of Sleepy Hollow) *** Theodore Roosevelt was so tough, that during one of his speeches he was shot in the chest – but still kept going until his speech was over. And then there was Alice, his daughter – who may have been even tougher than Teddy! (A Bullet And a Voodoo Doll) *** An icy cold hand caresses a girl in the middle of the night. (A Comfort) *** For most people, spotting a UFO would be considered extremely unusual, but for two Ohio women, seeing a UFO was the least surprising part of their experience. (UFOs And Time Distortions) *** Was there another gunman in the notorious Amityville House murders? (The Defeo Family Massacre) *** AND A WHOLE LOT MORE!
t began when a teenager made a deal with the Devil in the mid 1970s. That’s when the werewolf sightings began – and some experts say there is proof of their existence. (Werewolves of Central England) *** Some think they are escaped circus freaks, others that they are strange medical experiments gone wrong. Some believe them to be ghosts or demons. What are the terrifying white animals or entities people are seeing in Pennsylvania – and could it be more than one kind of creature? (Mystery Monsters From P.A.) *** A couple moves to an old mining town with a dark past… and the darkness apparently hasn’t gone away yet. (The Old Mining Town) *** Is it any surprise that something strange might happen in a pub that used to be a church? One of our Weirdo family members tells her story. (Bandit) *** One of the best worst poets of all time has taken inspiration from a certain mountain in North Carolina – but even when there for the solitude, he wasn’t alone. (The Phantom Hiker of Grandfather Mountain) *** In 1946, a sadistic killer dressed in a white mask terrorized a small town at night. And to this day, the Moonlight Murders killer could still be at large. (The Unsolved Texarkana Murders) *** Plus, I’ll share a chapter from the upcoming audiobook, “Suffer the Children” from Troy Taylor, a story called “The Most Monstrous and Inhuman Criminal of Modern Times”.
On a sunny Saturday afternoon in July of 1996, Frank and his wife, Carol was visiting Liverpool’s Bold Street area for some shopping. At Central Station, the pair split up; Carol went to Dillons Bookshop and Frank went to HMV to look for a CD he wanted. As he walked up the incline near the Lyceum Post Office/Café building that lead onto Bold Street, Frank suddenly noticed he had entered a strange “oasis of quietness.” Suddenly, a small box van that looked like something out of the 1950s sped across his path, honking its horn as it narrowly missed him. Frank noticed the name on the van’s side: “Caplan’s.” When he looked down, the confused policeman saw that he was unexpectedly standing in the road. The off-duty policeman crossed the road and saw that Dillons Book Store now had “Cripps” over its entrances. More confused, he looked in to see not books, but women’s handbags and shoes. Looking around, Frank realized people were dressed in clothes that appeared to be from the 1940s. Suddenly, he spotted a young girl in her early 20’s dressed in a lime-colored sleeveless top. The handbag she was carrying had a popular brand name on it, which reassured the policeman that maybe he was still partly in 1996. It was a paradox, but he was relieved, and he followed the girl into Cripps. As the pair went inside, Frank watched in amazement as the interior of the building completely changed in a flash to that of Dillons Bookshop of 1996. The girl turned to leave and Frank lightly grasped the girl’s arm to attract attention and said, “Did you see that?” She replied, “Yeah! I thought it was a clothes shop. I was going to look around, but it’s a bookshop.” It was later determined that Cripps and Caplan’s were businesses based in Liverpool during the 1950s.
Fortunato had hurt me a thousand times and I had suffered quietly. But then I learned that he had laughed at my proud name, Montresor, the name of an old and honored family. I promised myself that I would make him pay for this — that I would have revenge. You must not suppose, however, that I spoke of this to anyone. I would make him pay, yes; but I would act only with the greatest care. I must not suffer as a result of taking my revenge. A wrong is not made right in that manner. And also the wrong would not be made right unless Fortunato knew that he was paying and knew who was forcing him to pay.
It was 1976. Four artists were enjoying a canoeing trip on the Allagash Waterway when their pleasant evening was turned into a nightmare. A nightmare of missing time and alien abduction. At first only missing time, and then forgetfulness. Finally a connection was made, and little by little the details became known in what is now considered one of the most compelling and well documented cases of alien abduction in history.
You’d be forgiven for thinking the world of UK celebrity Gemma Collins was consumed with champagne, shopping sprees and trips to Marbella, but it appears she is also consumed by conspiracy theories. Particularly reptilian ones. Gemma confessed on her podcast recently that she’s a firm believer in the dark, long-running theory that Lizard People live among us. Admitting it was a ‘little weird’, Gemma said she is fascinated by the idea that shape-shifters really do exist – and she even added her own spin on the conspiracy. She thinks the Lizard People have gone undetected for so long because they’ve been using a secret network of underground tunnels- also allegedly used by Queen Elizabeth – to scurry about. Theorists say pop superstar Madonna could be one of them as well, along with Katy Perry and Angelina Jolie. Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and the late Michael Jackson have also been accused of having a scaly under-skin. The concept of half-reptile/half-human people even existing is rather bizarre, and in most ways flies right into the face of what we know about science and biology – so why do, by some estimates, up to 12 million people worldwide believe lizard people are among us? Where did this conspiracy theory even begin?
Of all the instances of cannibalism found in human history, no one quite practiced it like some in China used to. In these cases, cannibalism came in the form of eating mellified flesh for medicinal purposes. In 16th century China, mellification was a way for elderly people nearing the end of their lives to donate their body to science. The idea, originally derived from an Arabic recipe, was that they could turn their bodies into medicine that would be ingested by their descendants to alleviate ailments like broken bones. The process of mellification was a gruesome one. In short, it consisted of very slowly turning one’s body into a mummified human candy bar. And that’s not even the worst part — for mellification to be the most effective, the process started while the person was still alive.
Charles W. Henry was a cruel and heartless miser. In 1895 he was 70-years-old, living in Brooklyn with his wife and 39-year-old son William. Though Henry was a wealthy man, he kept his family in a state of poverty, spending little on food and the most basic amenities. Their house was large, but the inside was filthy with dust and clutter. Mrs. Henry’s room had a bare floor and a single cot, while Charles slept on four chairs in a row, alternating back and front held together by tape. Mrs. Henry was frail and emaciated, wearing the same clothes she had for twenty years. Charles kept a daily ledger of household expenses, each day on a separate card, the cards were tied together in bundles and the stacked bundles went back many years. An example of an extravagant day was Christmas 1894 when 54 cents was spent on dinner for three. Is it any wonder someone wanted to kill him?
Carl Panzram has been called a “one-man crime wave” and described as “too evil to live”. His crime spree spans nearly two decades, even though he was hanged at the age of 38. During that time, he committed arsons, burglaries, and more, and confessed to more than 20 murders and the rape of as many as 1,000 men and boys. His plans for grander crimes—while never realized—would have been right at home coming from the lips of a comic book supervillain. While he was sitting on death row in Leavenworth, he wrote a memoir, which began with a chilling one-sentence summary of his dark deeds, followed by the simple statement, “For all these things I am not in the least bit sorry.”
One Sunday morning in April 1943, during the dark days of WW2, four teenage boys made a terrifying discovery that would baffle the police and remain a mystery for over 70 years. The boys were searching for birds nests at Hagley Woods, a private estate near Birmingham in England’s Midlands. Climbing up an ancient old wych elm tree, 15-year-old Bob Farmer saw something truly terrible. Looking down the hollowed out trunk, Farmer noticed a strange object staring back at him from the dark interior. The teenager was horrified when he realized it was a human skull.
Few things freak people out as much as being alone – not necessarily in the relationship sense, but the actual deafening and eerie stillness of being isolated in a place where no one would know if something happened to you. When you get down to it, complete isolation sounds horrifying, but for people who work alone, it just becomes part of the process. Scary stories from people who work alone reveal just how lucky you are to work in an office full of coworkers. Sure, they can get annoying, but at least you’re among other warm bodies. Much like people who work graveyard shifts, people who work alone tend to become spooked once they realize they might not be alone, but rather, in the company of an unknown party.
When Darren Evans wrote about his horrifying experience with the Ouija Board demon named Zozo in 2009, hundreds of people claimed that the same thing had happened to them. The Zozo demon, Evans claimed, had come to him multiple times in various states. The demon sometimes pretended to be a different spirit, lied or tried to convince Evans that it was someone else. Eventually, though, the Zozo demon couldn’t help but make his truly malevolent self known. As it turns out, tales of the Zozo demon go back at least 200 years.
The 1960s were strange and heady times for popular culture. Mind-expanding music, films and substances were spawning some crazy ideas, and none were crazier than the story of a legendary musician and the mystery surrounding his true identity. Paul McCartney has been one of the most famous people in the world for over 50 years. First as one quarter of the greatest pop band in history – the Beatles, then for a successful 40 year solo career featuring a string of hit singles and albums. The Beatles’ expansive music and surreal lyrics had always inspired theories and speculation amongst their fans, but by the height of their fame in the late 60s a weird rumor was beginning to move from college campuses to the mainstream media; the band’s bassist and joint songwriter Paul McCartney was dead. This came as news to McCartney himself, who in 1969, when the stories of his death reached fever pitch, appeared to be walking around alive and well. But was the man going by that name truly the same Paul McCartney who first charmed filmgoers with his fellow bandmates, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison in 1964’s classic A Hard Day’s Night? Was the man walking barefoot across the Abbey Road crossing in the most famous album cover ever produced really the same man who wrote pop classics like I Want to Hold your Hand and Yesterday? Apparently not, as far as the conspiracy went.
