A wealthy German farmer confessed to 25 years of murder, cannibalism, and transformation into a wolf — but was it a genuine case of serial killing, or an elaborate political execution disguised as supernatural justice?
Tag: true crime history
The Werewolf Case Referenced in ‘The Exorcist’ Novel | The Trial of Peter Stumpp
Peter Stumpp was arrested accused of being an “insatiable bloodsucker” – which, in 1589, meant he was being accused of being a werewolf. Even stranger… Peter readily admitted to being one.
Did a Voodoo Cult Commit Louisiana’s Deadliest Ax Murders?
Between 1911 and 1912, entire families across Louisiana and Texas were slaughtered in their sleep with an ax — their bodies sometimes arranged in prayer, their blood drained into buckets, and cryptic messages scrawled on the walls. A 17-year-old girl confessed to 35 of the murders, claimed she belonged to a secret voodoo cult called the Church of Sacrifice — and then vanished into history.
Gertrude Baniszewski | The Woman Who Charged Neighborhood Kids a Nickel to Watch Her Torture a Girl
In 1965, a carnival worker left his two daughters in the care of a struggling Indianapolis mother for $20 a week. What followed was one of the most horrific cases of torture and murder in American history — despite dozens of people knowing it was happening.
DEAD CALLING: They Answered Their Phone But No One Alive Was Calling Them
They answered expecting a familiar voice, but the person calling had been dead for hours, days, or even twenty years — and somehow, they still had something to say.
Two Strangers, One Face: The 1903 Case That Made Fingerprints the Gold Standard
In 1903, a man arrived at Leavenworth Prison claiming he’d never been there before — but the staff found his exact double already serving a life sentence inside.
He Bought Them New Clothes for a Family Portrait — Then Killed Them All
The Lawson Family Christmas Massacre: On Christmas morning 1929, a North Carolina farmer sent his teenage son on an errand to town — then systematically murdered his wife and six children before turning the gun on himself.
The Floating Hells: Britain’s Prison Ships on the Thames
Before convicts were shipped to Australia, they rotted aboard decommissioned warships anchored in the Thames — floating dungeons so brutal that a condemned man called them “a college of villainy” where every prisoner graduated “a master of arts in scoundrelism.”
France’s King Danced at a Ball That Turned Men Into Human Torches
A masquerade ball meant to entertain an unstable king ended with four nobles burning alive on the ballroom floor.
WEIRD AFTER DARK: Black Bart, The Topeka Insane Asylum, The Pollack Twins, and Case of Judy Smith
A gentleman bandit who left poetry at crime scenes, an asylum where horror was policy, twin girls who remembered dying in a past life, and a nurse who drove 600 miles to her death without explanation—join us as we unpack the darkness behind four of the most bewildering stories from Weird Darkness.
BLACK BART: The Gentleman Bandit Who Terrorized Wells Fargo While Writing Poetry
He robbed 28 stagecoaches without firing a single shot, left poetry at crime scenes, and vanished into legend—this is the strange tale of Black Bart, the gentleman bandit.
WEIRD AFTER DARK: The Murder of Bridget Cleary
In 1895 Ireland, a modern, independent woman named Bridget Cleary fell ill—and her husband became convinced she’d been replaced by a fairy changeling. What followed was two nights of ritualistic torture ending in her brutal murder by fire, all witnessed by her own family who believed they were saving her soul. This is the horrifying true story that became a children’s rhyme and the last time Irish courts would ever accept “fairy beliefs” as a legal defense for killing your wife.
WAS SHE A WITCH, A FAIRY, A CHANGELING? The Horrifying True Story of the Bridget Cleary Murder
A religious Irish man murdered his wife in front of witnesses and showed no remorse — because he genuinely believed he was killing a fairy changeling while his real wife remained trapped in another realm.
ARE YOU A WITCH OR ARE YOU A FAIRY: The Burning of Bridget Cleary
A children’s playground rhyme hides the story of a woman burned alive by her husband in 1895 Ireland.
THE MURDEROUS HARPE BROTHERS: A Reign of Terror By America’s First Serial Killers
In the lawless Kentucky frontier of the 1790s, two brothers unleashed a reign of terror so savage that even hardened outlaws were sickened by their bloodlust—culminating in an act so heinous that one brother murdered his own crying infant daughter by smashing her head against a tree.
THE WALTER COLLINS IMPOSTER: THE TRUE STORY BEHIND ‘CHANGELING’ and More True Tales! #WeirdDarkness
When Christine Collins’ son vanished in 1928, it sparked a twisted chain of lies, corruption, and murder that would expose one of the darkest chapters in California’s history.
THE AXE AND THE OMEN: The Callous Crimes and Horrifying Hex of Jake Bird
He was a drifter, a ruthless ax-murderer, and the man behind a chilling courtroom curse that seemed to claim lives long before his own execution.
FACE TO FACE WITH FEAR: True Encounters With Skinwalkers and Shapeshifters
When the sun sets over the Navajo reservation, ancient legends come alive — and those who’ve seen the skinwalkers will never forget the eyes watching from the shadows.