Weird Darkness: Stories of the Paranormal, Supernatural, Legends, Lore, Mysterious, Macabre, Unsolved

“Death Spell” – A wealthy man swears his beautiful wife is quietly working a spell to kill him, every doctor insists he's in perfect health, and the struggling artist who moves onto his estate is about to learn what a person's own belief can do to them.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “Death Spell” (June 08, 1978) ***WD00:44:39.155 = Danger Dr. Danfield, “Case of Darkened Face” (September 22, 1946) ***WD01:09:46.058 = The Devil And Mr. O, “Chest” (January 28, 1972)01:38:01.666 = Diary of Fate, “John Haynes” (July 13, 1948) ***WD02:04:38.792 = Dimension X, “And The Moon Be Still As Bright” (September 29, 1950) ***WD02:34:03.364 = The Eleventh Hour, “Death And Understanding” (ADU)02:58:52.083 = Escape, “Night In Havana” (October 22, 1949)03:27:44.423 = Everyman Theater, ‘This Precious Freedom” (October 04, 1940) ***WD03:55:00.211 = Exploring Tomorrow, “The Gift” (February 08, 1958)04:13:23.936 = Dark Fantasy, “Sleeping Death” (June 12, 1942) ***WD04:29:07.558 = BBC Fear on 4, “Dead Man's Boots” (February 01, 1991)04:58:16.638 = Show Close(ADU) = Air Date Unknown(LQ) = Low Quality***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0741

A three-year-old girl's imaginary friend turned out to be a real man – one who had been dead for fifteen years before she was born.BOOK: “They Told Me My Newborn Died – They Lied: A Global History of Stolen Babies” by Darren Marlar: https://amzn.to/45fNXptEPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/heidiwyrickREAD or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/5a4fwj7tFEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: Deep in the Balsam Mountains of North Carolina, a shaggy eight-foot creature has been stealing gems and watching women bathe since the early 1900s — and the word used to name him came from a Lewis Carroll poem written the moment after a sleepless night at a dying man's bedside. (The Boojum) *** In 1980, a group of artists in Baltimore took out an ad in a major international magazine — not to sell anything, and not to promote a show. They were sending an invitation. The guests they were hoping to attract just hadn't been born yet. (Krononauts Party) *** A three-year-old girl in rural Georgia started playing with an imaginary friend — and then her family found out he was real, and had been dead for fifteen years. The question that nobody has been able to answer isn't whether she knew him. It's how. (The Heidi Wyrick Haunting)CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding00:01:23.333 = Show Open00:03:14.569 = The Heidi Wyrick Haunting, Part 100:13:30.069 = The Heidi Wyrick Haunting, Part 2 ***00:32:01.091 = The Boojum ***00:53:27.330 = Krononauts Party ***01:01:57.222 = SONG: “Krononauts Party” by Dark Weirdness (https://weirddarkness.com/music)01:06:24.212 = Show Close*** = Begins immediately after inserted ad breakLISTEN ON PODCAST APPS: Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*SOURCES and RESOURCES:The Heidi Wyrick Haunting: https://weirddarkness.com/heidi-wyrick/The Boojum: https://weirddarkness.com/boojum/Krononauts Party: https://weirddarkness.com/krononauts-party/(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.Originally aired: August 11, 2026Weird Darkness moves through three cases this episode: a decade-long haunting in rural Georgia that a university parapsychologist wired with scientific instruments, an eight-foot gem-hoarding creature that Appalachian locals have hunted for over a century, and a 1980 Baltimore art stunt that advertised a party for time travelers.It opens with the Wyrick haunting, which began in March of 1989 when three-year-old Heidi Wyrick walked in from the backyard of her family's new home on Swint Loop in Ellerslie, Georgia, and asked to keep swinging with an old man her mother couldn't see. The friend Heidi called Mr. Gordy matched James Gordy, a former caretaker of the property who had died in 1974, down to his silver hair, dark suit, and top hat; a second, wounded visitor she named Con matched Lon Batchelor, a man who lost his hand in a cotton gin accident and died in 1957. Before she could read, Heidi ran straight to Gordy's headstone in a cemetery of hundreds and later picked his face from a blind photo lineup. By 1993 the activity had turned violent, with a faceless dark figure, claw marks appearing on Heidi and her father Andy across consecutive nights, and a ribbon found wound around the throat of infant daughter Jordan, and the family brought in Dr. William Roll, a parapsychologist known from Unsolved Mysteries, who recorded an electromagnetic spike past 40 milligauss, elevated positive ions, and nearby seismic activity, then admitted he could not explain the scratches. Medium Amy Allan, later of The Dead Files, and a second psychic working separately placed the same entities in the same rooms, and the Wyricks finally left the house after Andy and Lisa found Heidi suspended upside down above her bed. The case appears in the Discovery Channel's 2002 film A Haunting in Georgia and the 2013 movie The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia, and in The Veil: The Heidi Wyrick Story, the firsthand account written by Heidi's aunt Joyce.From there the episode climbs into the Balsam Mountains of western North Carolina for the legend of the Boojum, a creature said to stand six to eight feet tall, covered in shaggy gray hair, with a disturbingly human face. According to Haywood County lore, the Boojum hoards the region's real gemstones – North Carolina is the only state that holds all four major precious gems, and the 1,869-carat uncut emerald pulled from the North American Emerald Mine in Hiddenite in 2003 is a matter of record – stashing them in moonshine jugs buried in hidden caves. The first written accounts cluster around the Eagle Nest Hotel, a forty-room hay-fever resort that opened on Eagle Nest Mountain in 1900 and burned in 1918, where guests were warned that the Boojum hid in the mountain laurel to watch women bathing in the forest pools. At the center of the legend is a woman named Annie, who chose to live with him as his wife and whose calls across the ridges are said, in local folk etymology, to have given the word "hootenanny" its name. The segment traces the creature's name back to Lewis Carroll's 1876 nonsense poem The Hunting of the Snark, sets the story against the Cherokee removal along the Trail of Tears and the eviction of Appalachian families to create Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and lands in present-day Waynesville, where Boojum Brewing carries the legend's name.The episode closes with the Krononauts, a group from Baltimore's avant-garde art scene who, in January of 1980, ran an advertisement on page 90 of Artforum magazine inviting time travelers to a party in Baltimore on March 9th, 1982, a date chosen because all nine planets would line up more closely than they had in nearly two hundred years, an alignment popularized by the 1974 book The Jupiter Effect. Hundreds of people came, the New York Times covered it and described the scene as an epidemic of temporary lunacy, and no one produced any evidence of time travel, since the organizers' real aim was the permanent paper trail, built on the logic that a documented invitation could be found and answered from any point in the future. The segment follows the same experiment forward through MIT graduate student Amal Dorai's 2005 Time Traveler Convention and physicist Stephen Hawking's 2009 reception at Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge, where Hawking mailed the invitations only after the party had ended and took the empty room as evidence for his chronology protection conjecture, and it ends with an original song, "Krononauts Party," by Dark Weirdness.LIKE WHAT YOU'RE HEARING? Get the daily WEIRD DARKNESS podcast (seven days per week) at WeirdDarkness.com • Paranormal, true crime, UFO, cryptid, ghost, and unexplained stories every day • Listen FREE wherever you get podcasts • My “OFFICIAL WEIRDOS” at https://WeirdDarkness.com/OFFICIAL get the commercial-free version, along with at least two bonus episodes each week, live chats every weeknight, free audiobooks I narrate, and more!

“The Kitchen Table” – A young couple pays a suspiciously low price for a neglected old farmhouse and lovingly begins restoring the home's long-buried kitchen — never guessing that the house has been waiting a very long time for someone willing to listen to what it needs to say.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “The Undying Heart” (June 05, 1978)00:45:25.646 = The Black Book, “On Schedule” (February 17, 1952) ***WD00:59:54.814 = Front Page Drama, “Ghost of the Catacombs” (September 28, 1933) ***WD01:14:48.366 = Box 13, “The Philanthropist” (January 30, 1949)01:41:26.286 = Calling All Cars, “The Smashed Windshield” (February 07, 1934) ***WD02:10:53.679 = Casey, Crime Photographer, “Duke of Skid Row” (September 19, 1946)02:40:09.682 = CBC Mystery Theater, “The Kitchen Table” (May 26, 1967) ***WD03:06:10.931 = Chet Chetter's, “Peace To The Frifalites” (1989)03:33:38.814 = The Clock, “The Double Cross” (June 24, 1956)03:57:42.053 = The Crime Club, “Epitaph For Lydia” (May 01, 1947) ***WD04:26:56.841 = Crime Classics, “Final Day of General Ketchum, How He Died” (July 27, 1953)04:55:59.262 = Calling All Detectives, “Jerry Stumbles Into a Pickpocket Convention” (July 09, 1948) ***Wda05:01:40.662 = Show Close(ADU) = Air Date Unknown(LQ) = Low Quality***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0740

On a quiet ER night shift, a badly burned stranger in a strange metallic suit is wheeled in, gasps a warning about a catastrophe that's coming, and then vanishes from the gurney — leaving behind a device counting down to a disaster only one nurse knows is on its way.EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/mitm-sixteenhoursSOURCES and RESOURCES: “The Time Traveler” by Keith Conrad for Auditory Anthology (https://www.auditoryanthology.com)WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.Midnight In The Macabre (MITM), originally aired: August 11, 2026

What happens when self-declared prophets, alien messengers, and doomsday fanatics build secret empires in plain sight — and convince others to follow them to the end of the world?EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/cultsREAD or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/utz5hrfdSOURCES and RESOURCES:New York Post - “Inside Manhattan's secret ‘cult'”. *** News.com.au - “Congregation for the Light: Inside New York's ‘cult next door'” *** Sinisterhood Podcast - Episode 16: “Congregation for the Light” *** The Commentator - “The Cult Around the Corner” *** Brooklyn Magazine - “Murray Hill Has A Secret Homophobic Aryan Doomsday Cult” *** https://yucommentator.org/2018/10/cult-stern-35th-the-light *** https://nypost.com/2014/11/02/the-secret-society-cult-that-operates-out-of-murray-hill/ ***https://www.researchgate.net/publication/381978851_Raelism_An_Unconventional_Religious_Pathway_to_Transhumanism*** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra%C3%ABlism *** https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/religion-and-philosophy/raelism *** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clonaid *** https://www.bota.org/ ***https://www.botaineurope.org/ *** https://articles.skeptics.nz/2023/04/24/builders-of-the-adytum-the-tarot-cards-and-qabalah-in-naenae *** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Builders_of_the_Adytum *** https://ilovehistory.utah.gov/1847-1904-lds-practice-of-polygamy/ *** https://www.watchman.org/profiles/pdf/fldsprofile.pdf ***https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamentalist_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-Day_Saints *** https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ching_Hai ***https://www.godsdirectcontact.org/spiritualpractice/Master_Ching_Hai.htm *** https://suprememastertv.com/en1/v/211271952624.html *** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ching_Hai *** https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ching_Hai *** https://nypost.com/2018/01/11/the-cult-leader-behind-the-worlds-fast-growing-vegan-chain/ ***https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubccommunityandpartnerspublicati/52387/items/1.0385823 *** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Science *** https://eng.the-liberty.com/2016/6323/ *** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happiness_Realization_Party *** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryuho_Okawa *** https://www.cdamm.org/articles/cut-tsl *** https://summitlighthouse.org/aboutus/church-universal-and-triumphant/ *** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Universal_and_Triumphant ***https://articles1.icsahome.com/articles/denouement-of-the-prophets--cult-the-church-universal-and-triumphant-in-decline *** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Clare_Prophet *** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Tribes_communities *** https://people.com/adam-arthur-rosenthal-twelve-tribes-religious-sect-accused-murder-8753907 *** https://nypost.com/2018/06/05/religious-cult-probed-for-child-labor-after-factory-expose/ *** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostles_of_Infinite_Love *** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Gaston_Tremblay *** https://ktxs.com/news/big-country/ktxs-special-report-mystery-still-surrounds-house-of-yahweh-*** https://www.watchman.org/profiles/pdf/houseofyahwehprofile.pdf ***https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unfulfilled_Watch_Tower_Society_predictions *** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Yahweh *** https://www.apologeticsindex.org/316-house-of-yahweh *** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuwaubian_Nation *** https://people.com/crime/story-behind-united-nuwaubian-nation-moors-georgia-cult *** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_York *** https://www.adl.org/resources/news/leader-anti-government-sect-sentenced-135-years *** https://www.splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/nuwaubian-nation-moors/ *** https://billygraham.org/answers/how-is-christianity-different-from-other-religions(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.Originally aired: March 28, 2025Weird Darkness host Darren Marlar pulls back the curtain on modern cults hiding in plain sight, from city apartments to desert compounds to Montana doomsday bunkers. This episode profiles more than a dozen secretive groups, including Manhattan's Congregation for the Light, the alien-worshipping Raëlian Movement and its Clonaid cloning claims, the polygamist FLDS led by imprisoned prophet Warren Jeffs, Supreme Master Ching Hai, Japan's Happy Science, Eckankar, Elizabeth Clare Prophet's Church Universal and Triumphant, the Twelve Tribes, the House of Yahweh, and the pyramid-building Nuwaubian Nation of Malachi Z. York. Along the way, Darren digs into why people get drawn in, the warning signs of a dangerous group, and what sets biblical Christianity apart from them all.

A lifelong night owl pushes their sleepless habit a few nights too far, and what starts happening once he finally closes his eyes is the reason he's now sworn off sleep for the rest of his life.EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/mitm-coffeeaddictionSOURCES and RESOURCES: “I Have a Coffee Addiction” by Ashley IngrahamWeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.Midnight In The Macabre (MITM), originally aired: August 10, 2026

Madame Delphine LaLaurie was one of the most admired socialites in New Orleans, and the Royal Street mansion she left behind is still called the most haunted address in the French Quarter.==========HOUR ONE: 
Winnie had two trunks when she arrived at the train station – trunks that contained the severed body parts of her two best friends. She had murdered them, it seems, all in the name of love. (Winnie Ruth Judd: Trunk Murderess) *** Was British government weapons inspector Dr David Kelly murdered? (Many Dark Actors: Dr. David Kelly) *** Madame Delphine LaLaurie, made popular by Kathy Bates in American Horror Story: Coven, was a first class monster. A figure of high society, she was well known for her mistreatment of slaves. But no one knew just how sick she truly was. (The Monster of Royal Street)==========HOUR TWO: Reddit users share some of the strangest, creepiest, most terrifying phone calls they've ever received – many that left the recipient with no explanation as to what just happened. (Creepy Phone Calls) *** Elizabeth Bathory was beautiful – and wanted to stay that way. So determined was her desire for a youthful appearance that she would bathe in the blood of young girls, thinking of it as a macabre fountain of youth. But how much truth is there to this story? And are there ghosts today, haunting their residences thanks to the Blood Countess? 
(Ghosts of the Blood Countess)==========SUDDEN DEATH OVERTIME: A former schoolhouse has accrued a sinister reputation as one of the most haunted, weirdest places in Japan. (Haunted Schoolhouse In Japan) *** The gold rush brought many to North Carolina – men looking to get rich, and rich men looking to get richer. But the greed also brought cruelty to some mine owners… and that cruelty sometimes brought death… and hauntings. (The Skinflint Mine Entity) *** Was a certain female reporter murdered because she knew too much about the death of John F. Kennedy? (The Dorothy Killgallen Murder) *** Something bizarre and terrifying is living below the streets of London – and there are many theories as to what it might be. (Strange Things Below London)==========SOURCES AND REFERENCES FROM TONIGHT'S SHOW:“The Monster of Royal Street: Delphine LaLaurie”: https://tinyurl.com/ssf9lm3“Many Dark Actors: Dr. David Kelly”: https://tinyurl.com/uf4jv5m“Winnie Ruth Judd: Trunk Murderess” by Troy Taylor: http://ow.ly/kpFb30nhABS“Creepy Phone Calls” by Aaron Edwards for Graveyard Shift: https://tinyurl.com/spnqq2s“Ghosts of the Blood Countess” by Amy's Crypt for Paranormal Scholar: https://tinyurl.com/r4lh7rn“Strange Things Below London” by Nick Redfern for Mysterious Universe: https://tinyurl.com/ulutgp7“The Murder of Dorothy Kilgallen” by Jessika M. Thomas for Ranker: https://tinyurl.com/tjzpaz7“The Skinflint Mine Entity” from North Carolina Ghosts: https://tinyurl.com/w6ofq7g“Haunted Schoolhouse In Japan” by Brent Swancer for Mysterious Universe: https://tinyurl.com/w4n98c6==========(Over time links seen above may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for material I use whenever possible. If I have overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it immediately. Some links may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)=========="I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46==========WeirdDarkness®, WeirdDarkness© 2025==========To become a Weird Darkness Radio Show affiliate, contact Radio America at affiliates@radioamerica.com, or call 800-807-4703 (press 2 or dial ext 250).

America's roads may look empty at night — but behind the headlights and mile markers, restless spirits are still trying to find their way home.EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/DontStopTheCarREAD or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/y5pypsk7FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: Spooks are known to haunt houses, castles, cemeteries, abandoned hospitals, and even toys or other objects… but somehow, it's haunted roads that seem the darkest for many. (America's Haunted Roads) *** A heating engineer working in the Treasurer's House in York, England is disturbed by music… and then the ghostly presence of at least twenty Roman soldiers walking right past him through the walls! (The Roman Ghosts of York) *** The last man hanged at Bodmin Jail not only still lingers at the location – he has even been caught on camera. (The Haunting of Bodmin Jail) *** We'll share the true and tragic story of a teenaged girl who's abnormality landed her on the freak show circuit, with people paying to gawk at “The Camel Girl”. (Ella Harper: The Freak Show Camel Girl)CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00.00.000 = The Foreboding00:01:02.590 = Show Open00:02:50.575 = America's Haunted Roads00:26:45.310 = The Haunting of Bodmin Jail ***00:35:22.933 = The Roman Ghosts of York00:39:56.546 = Ella Harper, The Freak Show Camel Girl ***00:45:55.801 = Show Close*** = Begins immediately after inserted ad breakLISTEN ON PODCAST APPS: Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*SOURCES and RESOURCES:“America's Haunted Roads” sources: RealParanormalExperiences.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/ywk5atas, Insider.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8mez23, TravelAndLeisure.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/5d8hmyd5, TravelChannel.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8v2d9f, WitteBros.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/598v39hb“The Haunting of Bodmin Jail” by Melissa Brinks for Ranker's Graveyard Shift: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yer4wbnt“The Roman Ghosts of York” from Anomalien.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/mrye36fn“Ella Harper: The Freak Show Camel Girl” by Bipin Dimri for HistoricMysteries.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8hj3sj(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.Originally aired: March, 2022

“The Speaking Clock”: In a Bond Street antique shop where a hundred clocks tick out of time and one of them speaks with a dead man's voice.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “Diamond Cut Diamond” (June 02, 1978) ***WD00:44:33.474 = X-Minus-One, “The Girls From Earth” (June 16, 1957)01:06:50.118 = Zero Hour, “There's a Man in 211” (May 23, 1945) ***WD01:24:07.577 = ABC Mystery Time, “Picture of Dorian Gray” (1957) ***WD (LQ)01:48:07.812 = Appointment With Fear, “The Speaking Clock” (April 13, 1944)02:15:31.324 = Arch Oboler's Play, “Nobody Died” (December 16, 1939)02:43:13.809 = Barry Craig, “Murder In Wax” (November 21, 1951)03:11:18.272 = BBC Radio 4, Radio 7, Ghost Story, “The Ghost Train” (January 24, 1988)04:36:25.323 = Night Beat, “Gusher James” (March 07, 1952)05:05:29.865 = Show Close(ADU) = Air Date Unknown(LQ) = Low Quality***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0739

The Pentagon's fifth batch of declassified UAP files arrived in early August, forty-one newly released records reaching as far back as 1950. Among them is gun-camera footage of four-foot "cold orbs" hovering over the Gulf of Oman, and video of a black sphere that blinks out over the Pacific before drifting back into frame.SOURCES, LINKS, AND PRINT VERSION: https://weirddarkness.com/UFOTranche05Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://pod.link/1078714736*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.

In a town where nothing interesting ever happens, there's one grave marker the locals won't let their children near on Halloween night.EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/mitm-stoneangelSOURCES and RESOURCES: “The Angel Statue Stole my Soul” by Kat HallWeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.Midnight In The Macabre (MITM), originally aired: August 09, 2026

A young scientist's growth-ray experiment leaves his terrified wife and a delivery boy trapped in a locked laboratory with a monstrous, six-foot creature they're certain will devour them — while the truth about what they're facing waits until the very last moment.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “The Bittersweet Honeymoon” (May 30, 1978) ***WD00:45:31.847 = Suspense, “Woman In Red” (April 06, 1944)01:14:40.954 = The Creaking Door, “Alive In Grave” (November 30, 1964)01:43:42.720 = The Saint, “The Case of the Blond Who Lost Her Head” (May 26, 1948)02:07:42.877 = 2000 Plus, “Insect” (May 17, 1950) ***WD02:37:06.492 = Unexpected, “Career Woman” (1947-1948)02:49:12.644 = Dark Venture, “Eclipse” (August 07, 1945)03:18:58.652 = The Weird Circle, “Ghost's Touch” (September 17, 1944)03:44:40.822 = The Whistler, ‘Meet Mr. Death” (April 23, 1945)04:14:13.335 = Strange Wills, “The Girl In Cell 13” (September 21, 1946)04:43:53.292 = Witch's Tale, “Wedding Gift” (March 29, 1938) ***WD05:07:35.233 = Show Close(ADU) = Air Date Unknown(LQ) = Low Quality***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0738

They look like lost children… until you see their eyes — and realize you've just opened the door to something inhuman.EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/dontlettheminREAD or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yath5y6wFEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: Described as childlike beings with eerie coal black eyes, no iris or pupils, and pale, white skin, a scourge of mysterious black-eyed children have been reported all over the world. There are hundreds of reports of black-eyed children, often seen in groups of two or more, who ask for permission to enter the person's home or vehicle. Witnesses often report an overwhelming feeling of dread and despair in their presence. What the black-eyed children seek is not known… nor is it known exactly what they are. (Invasion Of The Black Eyed Kids) *** In October of 1943, a U.S. Navy destroyer was supposedly turned invisible and teleported from Philadelphia to Norfolk. But did it really happen? (The Truth Behind The Philadelphia Experiment) *** The Witchcraft Act of 1735 ended the gruesome practice of burning witches at the stake, making it illegal to accuse anyone of having magical powers. Yet in 1944, Helen Duncan was convicted under this very law for fraudulent spiritual activities. Despite her claims of contacting spirits through ectoplasm and even revealing classified naval secrets, she was sentenced to prison. Her trial was one of the last times the Witchcraft Act was used before being replaced in 1951, but her supporters continue to campaign for her pardon. (Britain's Last Witch) *** Once a powerful festival, Dies Sanguinis, or "Day of Blood," honored the Roman goddess of war, Bellona, with animal sacrifices and martial rituals. The festival showcased Rome's military strength and dedication to victory. Although the rise of Christianity and the fall of the Roman Empire eventually ended the festival, its legacy still sheds light on the fascinating nature of ancient Roman culture. (Rome's Day of the Bloody Sacrifice) *** The Dardeen family was found brutally murdered in their home near Ina, Illinois, leaving residents and investigators stumped. Yet even after a confession by Tommy Lynn Sells, the truth is still a mystery. (Demise of the Dardeen Family)CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00.00.000 = The Foreboding00:03:33.089 = Show Open00:06:34.068 = Invasion of the Black Eyed Kids (Part 1)00:15:22.343 = Invasion of the Black Eyed Kids (Part 2) ***00:35:26.768 = Demise of the Dardeen Family ***00:53:33.895 = The Truth Behind The Philadelphia Experiment ***00:59:05.177 = Britain's Last Witch01:06:50.721 = Rome's Day of Bloody Sacrifice ***01:10:26.990 = Show Close01:11:54.153 = SONG: “Flee The Eyes As Black As Night” by Dark Weirdness: https://weirddarkness.com/music*** = Begins immediately after inserted ad breakLISTEN ON PODCAST APPS: Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*SOURCES and RESOURCES:BOOK: “The Black-Eyed Kids” by G. Michael Vasey, https://amzn.to/3Tniri9BOOK: “The Chilling True Terror of the Black Eyed Kids Monster Compilation” by G. Michael Vasey, https://amzn.to/3R8eTi7BOOK: “The Case For The UFO” by M.K. Jessup: https://amzn.to/3JRDwxzMORE BEK EPISODES: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/8kn9fpe9, https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2tcs3p3n,https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2tcs3p3n, https://weirddarkness.com/let-us-in/“Invasion Of The Black-Eyed Kids” sources: Anomalien, https://bit.ly/3WszSln, https://bit.ly/3WtCGhV,https://bit.ly/3Ww4ySw, https://bit.ly/44uJb6j; The Business Standard, https://bit.ly/3yhWESI“Demise of the Dardeen Family” source: Wikipedia, https://bit.ly/3WqgHbQ“The Truth Behind The Philadelphia Experiment” source: Katie Serena at AllThatsInteresting.com, https://bit.ly/3JRDi9H“Britain's Last Witch” source: AmusingPlanet.com, https://bit.ly/3UzX7Hk; History Extra, https://bit.ly/3JQez5x: The National, https://bit.ly/3UzgDUs“Rome's Day of the Bloody Sacrifice” source: Ancient Origins, https://bit.ly/3WtCzTx; Tales Beyond Belief, https://bit.ly/3URoQ6T; Journal Of Cognitive Historiography, https://doi.org/10.1558/jch.39915; Roger Pearse, https://bit.ly/3wrydBS; Academia.edu, https://bit.ly/3JREmKJ(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.Originally aired: May 08, 2024

State regulators arrived at South Chicago Chapel for a routine license check and walked out having ordered the removal of more than fifty unrefrigerated human remains, some infested with rodents and maggots, from a funeral home whose director had already been shut down once before.SOURCES, LINKS, AND PRINT VERSION: https://weirddarkness.com/SouthChicagoChapelLook for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://pod.link/1078714736*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.

Orange County deputies say a 71-year-old man reported missing near Orlando turned up dismembered inside three suitcases dumped along White Road, and that the man now charged with his murder was his own stepson.SOURCES, LINKS, AND PRINT VERSION: https://weirddarkness.com/WhiteRoadSuitcasesLook for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://pod.link/1078714736*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.

Two enemy fighter pilots—one American, one Soviet—crash side by side in the frozen Arctic, drained of all power by something that fell from the stars and is patiently waiting for them to freeze.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneInRadio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “Arctic Encounter” (May 26, 1978) ***WD00:44:08.465 = Quiet Please, “A Time To Be Born” (March 27, 1949)01:13:26.009 = Radio City Playhouse, “Local Storm” (December 04, 1949)01:37:38.711 = Hollywood Mystery Time, “Case of the Glowing Eyes” (May 20, 1943) ***WD02:06:19.867 = Sam Spade, “Death Bed Caper” (June 20, 1948)02:35:47.495 = The Sealed Book, “Out of the Past” (May1 3, 1945) ***WD03:05:17.187 = The Shadow, “The Club of Doom” (December 19, 1943)03:29:21.706 = Sleep No More, “The Bet Clerks Quest” (April 03, 1957)03:58:42.609 = BBC Spine Chillers, “Ghosting” (January 22, 2004)04:26:40.026 = The Strange Dr. Weird, “The Voice of Death” (March 06, 1945) ***WD (LQ)04:39:07.050 = Tales From The Tomb, “The Raven” (1960s)04:48:33.312 = Incredible But True, “The Man Who Walked Behind” (1950-1951)04:51:44.006 = Strange Adventure, “Death Rides The Desert” (1945)04:55:01.207 = Beyond The Green Door, “New Hebridos Fisherman” (1966)04:58:48.586 = Show Close(ADU) = Air Date Unknown(LQ) = Low Quality***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0737

A driver who never stops on the long haul home pulls off a Massachusetts highway at midnight for a burrito, and finds a spotless chrome diner whose sign promises it's open twenty-five hours a day.EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/mitm-diner25hoursSOURCES and RESOURCES:“A Diner Open 25 Hours a Day” by Christopher Maxim: https://www.reddit.com/r/ChristopherMaxim/WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.Midnight In The Macabre (MITM), originally aired: August 08, 2026

Scout Brooks just wanted to survive his first day of seventh grade. Instead, he found himself recruited into a mysterious after-school club, named 'The Chosen One' by the strange Professor Nog, and handed a box of secrets he's not allowed to talk about. Meanwhile, somewhere far beyond the stars, a man named Farrow remains a prisoner of creatures no one back on Earth even knows exist.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://pod.link/1655277373Find more family-friendly frights and creepy games to play on our website at http://MicroTerrors.com!Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/microterrorsOther stories, novels, and more from author Scott Donnelly: https://amzn.to/3LymHaUOther narrations, podcasts, and audiobooks from voice artist Darren Marlar: https://WeirdDarkness.com= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =Weird Darkness©, 2026Micro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids™, 2026#MicroTerrors #WeirdDarkness

A murdered woman still haunts her room, a drunken boarder bursts from the shadows, and something in the basement wants to be found — welcome to the S.K. Pierce Mansion.EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/SKPierceMansionSOURCES and RESOURCES:“The Many Hauntings of the S.K. Pierce Mansion” from SlightlyOddFitchburg.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p85u74e, https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p88ef7h(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.Originally aired: March, 2022

In an upscale Seoul district, a fortune-teller deals a custom tarot deck to greyhounds, turtles, and anxious owners who pay 20,000 won a session to find out what their pets have been secretly worried about.SOURCES, LINKS, AND PRINT VERSION: https://weirddarkness.com/pettarotLook for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://pod.link/1078714736*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.

For six months, slaughtered lambs and severed deer heads kept turning up on the doorsteps of New Forest churches, always with an inverted cross set close by, and some of the people who found them stopped going to worship altogether. When police finally caught the man behind it, he gave the court his name as Count Dracula. SOURCES, LINKS, AND PRINT VERSION: https://weirddarkness.com/NewForestVampireLook for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://pod.link/1078714736*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.

In 2016, a first-time director captured something on film he never intended to, and the people who've heard about what's buried in that footage tend to wish they hadn't.EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/mitm-cominghomeSOURCES and RESOURCES:“Coming Home” by JRT McMahon: https://www.creepypasta.com/coming-home/WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.Midnight In The Macabre (MITM), originally aired: August 07, 2026

Thousands have stepped off marked trails and into America's wilderness never to be seen again, and the retired lawman who spent years cataloguing them found the same strange details surfacing case after case.EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/Missing411READ or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/34vb6kexFEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: Thousands of people have vanished without a trace from America's wilderness areas, leaving behind baffling clues that defy conventional explanation. From children who disappear within seconds while picking berries to hikers in bright clothing who seem to evaporate from marked trails, these cases share disturbing patterns that suggest something beyond ordinary misadventure. What is happening in our national parks? And what strange forces might be responsible for those who seemingly step off the face of the earth?SOURCES and RESOURCES:David Paulides' "Missing 411" Book Series (Missing 411: Western United States & Canada * Missing 411: Eastern United States * Missing 411: North America and Beyond * Missing 411: The Devil's in the Detail)https://www.canammissing.com/missing-411.htmlCanAm Missing Project Website: https://www.canammissing.comGeorge Knapp's Interview with David Paulides for Mystery Wire: https://www.mysterywire.com/ufo/david-paulides-missing-411/National Park Service Missing Persons Database: https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/foia/foia-reading-room.htmDocumentaries on Missing 411: "Missing 411" (2016), https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5864680; "Missing 411: The Hunted" (2019), https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10524262Coast to Coast AM Interviews with David Paulides: https://www.coasttocoastam.com/guest/paulides-david/49441/Mysterious Universe: https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2024/08/Don-t-Want-to-Mysteriously-Vanish-Don-t-Do-These-Things-/The Charley Project: https://charleyproject.org/National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs): https://www.namus.gov/Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Dennis_Martin,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Alfred_Beilhartz,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Jaryd_Atadero, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kecksburg_UFO_incident(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.Originally aired: March 26, 2025Across North America, more than two thousand people have vanished in and around national parks under circumstances that resist every ordinary explanation. Former law enforcement officer David Paulides has spent years documenting these cases in his Missing 411 series, isolating the ones that can't be written off as voluntary disappearances, accidents, or animal predation — and finding that what remains follows a disturbing set of recurring patterns he calls profile points.This episode of Weird Darkness walks through those patterns one by one. It opens with the national park clusters and the failure of search and rescue dogs — trained trackers that lose the scent at a dead stop, panic, or never catch it at all — then moves to the berry-picking connection, with more than a century of cases: Lillian Carney in 1897 Maine, Alice Rachel Peck and her account of "The Black Man" who carried her, Eddie Hamilton, Wesley Piatote, Jack Pike, Simon Skogan, Gary Bailey, and the strange 1965 Kuninga family encounter in Finland. From there it examines the bright-clothing factor through the best-known cases in the catalog — Dennis Martin's 1969 vanishing in the Great Smoky Mountains, Alfred Beilhartz in Rocky Mountain National Park, and Jaryd Atadero in Colorado's Poudre Canyon — followed by the recurring role of granite boulder fields, nearby water, sudden weather, and victims who step out of sight around a bend and are gone.The episode also weighs what happens when bodies are recovered, often in previously searched areas or terrain the victim could not have reached, and lays out the range of proposed explanations — from unreported crimes and disorientation to cryptids, folklore entities, and Indigenous traditions of places where the veil between worlds runs thin — without landing on any of them. It closes with practical wilderness-safety guidance for anyone who'd rather not become a Missing 411 case themselves.

A Marine pilot vanished over the Atlantic in 1945 with no wreckage, no body, and no explanation — and more than thirty years later, forty people would swear he was still alive.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “Window to Oblivion” (May 23, 1978) 00:44:05.587 = Mysterious Traveler, “The Visiting Corpse” (January 09, 1944)01:12:38.749 = CBC Nightfall, “The Telltale Heart” (August 01, 1980)01:40:47.122 = Obsession, “Solitary Genius” (July 30, 1951) ***WD (LQ)02:04:08.135 = Origin of Superstition, “Knock On Wood” (1935) ***WD02:17:51.431 = Pat Novak For Hire, “Joe Candono Blackmail Pictures” (March 27, 1949)02:49:57.789 = Peril, “Man Against The City/Purple Death” (1953) ***WD03:11:08.909 = Mystery Playhouse, “Man In Velvet Hat” (December 19, 1944) ***WD03:39:06.839 = Philip Morris Playhouse, “Leona's Room” (February 25, 1949)04:07:58.182 = Price of Fear, “Soul Music” (October 27, 1973) ***WD04:36:05.849 = Adventures of Ellery Queen, “Three Frogs” (April 29, 1948) ***WD05:04:54.373 = Show Close(ADU) = Air Date Unknown(LQ) = Low Quality***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0736

I swear, I could start a whole new podcast called "They Shouldn't Be Parents" with these stories coming from all directions. So sad. A follow-up welfare visit to a six-week-old in Florahome, Florida ended with the baby in intensive care and four adults from the same household in jail, after deputies described the conditions inside as among the worst child neglect they had ever encountered.SOURCES, LINKS, AND PRINT VERSION: https://weirddarkness.com/CannonCase20260806Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://pod.link/1078714736*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.

Elizabeth Siders' attorney tells a national television audience that the photos and video claiming to show inside the house may not be genuine. The judge in her case still has not ruled on whether she will be evaluated at all.SOURCES, LINKS, AND PRINT VERSION: https://weirddarkness.com/SidersCase20260806Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://pod.link/1078714736*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.

“The Girl He Left Behind”: A young nurse turns down her soldier sweetheart's marriage proposal but keeps the ring he insists she hold onto, and when word arrives that he was killed on the drive back to base, she discovers that the dead do not always accept being refused.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “The Girl He Left Behind” (May 22, 1978)00:44:53.033 = Michael Shayne, “Mary Noble Suspects Uncle Briggs” (June 11, 1945) ***WD01:14:29.830 = Beyond Midnight, “The Thing in Cabin 105” (February 28, 1969) ***WD01:45:19.270 = MindWebs, “Gas Mask” (April 02, 1983)02:08:37.602 = Chamber of Horrors, “The Waxwork” (ADU) ***WD02:34:53.987 = Mystery In The Air, “Black Cat” (September 18, 1947) ***WD03:00:40.112 = Molle Mystery Theater, “Hands of Mr. Ottermole” (June 21, 1946)03:30:03.061 = Mr. Keen, “The Woman In Blue” (June 15, 1944)03:59:15.197 = Murder At Midnight, “Creeper” (May 15, 1950) ***WD04:24:31.631 = The Black Museum, “The Telegram” (February 26, 1951) ***WD04:48:07.485 = Calling All Detectives, “Jerry Witnesses a Murder” (July 08, 1948) ***WD (LQ)04:56:12.567 = Tales of the Frightened, “Shakespeare's Hometown” (December 17, 1957)05:00:30.682 = Show Close(ADU) = Air Date Unknown(LQ) = Low Quality***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0735

A TV studio worker wakes up to the same day he already lived — and he's the only person in the building who knows it.IN THIS EPISODE: “Frame By Frame” by Keith ConradMORE Stories Like This: https://www.auditoryanthology.comLook for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://pod.link/1078714736Originally aired: August 06, 2026EPISODE PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/framebyframe

A Stillwater high school student who pleaded no contest to raping and strangling two of his ex-girlfriends finished his youthful offender probation this week without a single day in prison, and a newly sworn district attorney is now asking the federal government to take the case Oklahoma no longer can.SOURCES, LINKS, AND PRINT VERSION: https://weirddarkness.com/jessebutler20260805Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://pod.link/1078714736*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.

In 1909, all eyes turned to Worcester, Massachusetts, as a well-dressed businessman claimed he'd built a flying machine — and the world wanted to believe him so badly, they saw it in the sky whether it was there or not.EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/airshiphoaxREAD or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/ye27xce4FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: We'll look at the crazy story of the Great Worcester Airship Hoax of 1909! *** We'll meet a cat that must have more than nine lives, as it survived three World War Two shipwrecks and lived to meow about it! (Unsinkable Sam) *** UFO crash stories are somewhat ubiquitous, with most immediately pointing to Roswell, New Mexico… or Aurora, Texas… or even the so-called “Battle Over Los Angeles”. But there are many other stories of flying saucers crashing to Earth – and we'll look at one that took place in Bolivia, in 1978. (The Bolivia UFO Crash) *** A hidden artifact found in a mysterious hill in Oklahoma reveals a terrifying story! (Oklahoma's Mysterious Hollow Hill)CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding00:00:53.694 = Show Open 00:02:30.154 = The Great Worcester Airship Hoax of 1909, Part 100:13:35.660 = The Great Worcester Airship Hoax of 1909, Part 2 ***00:23:58.982 = Unsinkable Sam00:31:02.011 = Oklahoma's Mysterious Hollow Hill ***00:44:45.651 = The Bolivia UFO Crash ***00:50:06.348 = Show Close*** = Begins immediately after inserted ad breakLISTEN ON PODCAST APPS: Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*SOURCES and RESOURCES:“Oklahoma's Mysterious Hollow Hill” by Ellen Lloyd for AncientPages.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/44s54rmp,https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p86uyt7“Unsinkable Sam” by Natasha Ishak for AllThatsInteresting.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8j9nkz“The Bolivia UFO Crash” posted at Anomalien.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/3f4b2rr7“The Great Worcester Airship Hoax of 1909” from SlightlyOddFitchburg.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2adehevb,https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yckp2hh9(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.Originally aired: March, 2022On this episode of Weird Darkness, host Darren Marlar follows a flying machine that may never have flown, a cat credited with surviving three warships in a single year, a silver cylinder buried under a haunted Oklahoma mound, and a cylindrical object that tore into a Bolivian mountain in broad daylight.It opens in Worcester, Massachusetts, in December of 1909, where Wallace E. Tillinghast, vice-president of the Sure Seal Manufacturing Company, told the Boston Herald he had invented a heavier-than-air flying machine that could carry three passengers some three hundred miles at a hundred and twenty miles an hour, only a few years after the Wright brothers had struggled to keep a powered aircraft aloft for a few hundred feet. Wallace never produced the machine, yet crowds across Massachusetts and out into Arkansas, New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island reported a mysterious airship moving silently through the night sky, with one witness in Revere describing seventy-foot wings and an engine he claimed he could hear rumbling from the ground. In Providence, a young H.P. Lovecraft cut through the excitement by identifying the light everyone was pointing at as the planet Venus. The New England Skeptical Society would later attribute the whole affair to collective wish-fulfillment, while the UFOlogist John A. Keel traced it back to an unnamed inventor who had been working his way east since the great California airship sightings of 1896, recruiting well-liked local men like Wallace to serve as the public face of a flying machine that never quite worked.From there the show crosses to the North Atlantic and the tale of Unsinkable Sam, a black-and-white tuxedo cat said to have survived three shipwrecks during a single stretch of the Second World War. As the legend runs, he began the war aboard the German battleship Bismarck, was pulled from a floating plank by the crew of the British destroyer HMSCossack after the Bismarck went down on May 27th, 1941, and was renamed Oscar. When the Cossack was torpedoed months later, the cat was said to have been rescued again, this time by the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, which is where the nickname Unsinkable Sam took hold; after the Ark Royal itself was torpedoed on November 14th, 1941, he reportedly turned up unharmed once more and was carried off by the HMS Legion. Darren measures the story against the record, noting that Bismarck survivors recalled no cat aboard, that a well-known photograph tied to Sam actually shows a different ship's cat named Simon of the HMS Amethyst, and that the seagoing cat was a genuine naval tradition even if this particular survivor may have been assembled from several.Next comes a haunted mound outside Binger, in Caddo County, Oklahoma, and a silver cylinder said to hold the reason the local people would not go near it. The account reaches print through a 1930s newspaper clipping rediscovered by Mrs. Cossette Willoughby of San Jose, California, in which a traveling reporter digs at dawn beside a mound her friends Pat and Louis warned was watched by two phantoms, a woman by day and a headless man by night. Inside the cylinder are papers written in Castilian Spanish, describing how a soldier named Alfonzo, separated from Francisco Vázquez de Coronado's 1541 hunt for the Seven Cities of Gold, wandered into a cave and down into a hidden underground country called Kenyan, ruled by long-headed people and guarded by hairless, dog-like beasts that gave off a musty animal odor. Drawing on Timothy Green Beckley's book Subterranean Worlds Inside Earth, the segment lays out Alfonzo's account of his wife Teen, their failed escape on the back of one of those beasts, and the sentence that supposedly set their preserved bodies walking the mound to frighten off anyone who might find the passage.The episode closes on the afternoon of May 6th, 1978, when something cylindrical slammed into the El Taire mountain along the Bermejo River, on the border between the Bolivian province of Tarija and Argentina, with a supersonic blast heard 150 miles away and windowpanes cracked 30 miles out in every direction. Border policemen described a metallic object trailing white smoke; Corporal Natalio Farfan Ruiz felt the ground tremble as it fell, and Policeman Juan Hurtado said the thing passed directly over his head before it struck the slope. The Buenos Aires newspaper Clarín reported that a police chief in Tarija had located a dented metal cylinder roughly twelve feet long, and while a promised NASA expert never arrived, two United States Air Force officers, Colonel Robert Simmons and Major John Heise, did, later confirmed through released State Department documents to have flown in under a program called Project Moon Dust. Darren ends on the stranger thread running through those files, the 1127th field activities group's interest in HUMINT, the gathering of UFO information from human sources through what the documents themselves describe as a game of deceit.

An aging millionaire's fixation on a battered toy car draws his family into a tense mystery rooted in a tragedy from the past.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “The Hundred Dollar Difference” (May 19, 1978) ***WD00:44:49.646 = Sherlock Holmes, “Horseless Carriage” (February 24, 1947) ***WD01:13:45.557 = Mystery House, “A Killing In Market” (May 31, 1946)01:39:11.056 = Inner Sanctum, “Death Is An Artist” (January 23, 1945)02:08:47.121 = Jeff Regan, “The Man Who Came Back” (August 21, 1948) ***WD02:37:47.050 = The Key, “Ninety-Three-Year-Old Man” (1956) ***WD03:03:15.060 = Lights Out, “The Story of Mr. Maggs” (December 01, 1942) ***WD03:29:48.621 = Macabre, “Crystalline Man” (January 01, 1962) ***WD03:58:09.534 = Philip Marlowe, “Deep Shadow” (March 21, 1950)04:27:44.319 = Blackstone The Magic Magician, “The Ghost That Trapped a Killer” (October 03, 1948) ***WD04:39:26.334 = The Black Mass, “Death of Halpin Fraser” (May 20, 1964) ***WD05:10:33.358 = Show Close(ADU) = Air Date Unknown(LQ) = Low Quality***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0734

It started with dust instead of smoke over an empty stretch of Colorado in the summer of 1973, and by the time anyone understood what the land was actually doing, the middle of the country had already begun to drop.EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/mitm-nebraskaseaSOURCES and RESOURCES:“The Great Nebraska Sea” by Allan Danzig (Galaxy Magazine August 1963)WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.Midnight In The Macabre (MITM), originally aired: August 05, 2026

One Siders defendant walks free on a signature bond. The last of the four asks a judge whether she's fit to stand trial at all.SOURCES, LINKS, AND PRINT VERSION: https://weirddarkness.com/SidersCase20260804Siders Case: Vinton County Child Endangerment Case, July 15 Coverage – Weird DarkNEWSThe Siders Family's Other House and Their Years Off the Grid – Weird DarkNEWS, July 22The 16 Siders Children: Vinton County Seeks Permanent Custody – Weird DarkNEWS, July 29Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://pod.link/1078714736*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.

A commercial crew descending into Gatwick watched a dark-rimmed disc pass within a few hundred feet of the right wing, and the radar recorded nothing there at all.SOURCES, LINKS, AND PRINT VERSION: https://weirddarkness.com/gatwicksaucer/Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://pod.link/1078714736*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.

Dressed like a 17th-century priest and armed with a library of ancient texts, Montague Summers devoted his life to proving that witches, vampires, and werewolves weren't just folklore — they were terrifyingly real.EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/montaguesummersREAD or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/montague20260803FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: Can a priest believe in witches, werewolves, and vampires? The answer is yes – and his name was Montague Summers. Was he a kook, or was he seeing the truth that others ignored? (Montague Summers Believed in Monsters) *** He smiled without speaking, appeared alongside UFOs, and promised to return – who, or what, was the mysterious Indrid Cold? (The Grinning Man – The Legend of Indrid Cold) *** Somewhere out there, another version of you made a different choice – that's the multiverse theory. And the key to proving it could lie in changing someone else's history. (Visiting Our Neighbors in a Parallel Universe) *** Anatoli Bugorski accidentally stuck his head in the world's most powerful particle accelerator in 1978; he saw a flash brighter than a thousand suns, and somehow lived to tell about it. (The Man Who Survived An Atomic Blast Through His Skull) *** In 1971, a massive glowing sphere hovered silently over a U.S. Navy carrier — and for twenty minutes, the entire ship went dark. (Code Black: The USS Kennedy UFO Incident) *** She was a Houston socialite raised like royalty, but Joan Robinson Hill's glittering life came to a mysterious end – followed by affairs, secret autopsies, a sensational trial, and a murder that still raises more questions than answers. (Murder in Texas: The Strange Death of Joan Robinson Hill) *** Imagine calling 911 because a perfectly healthy and alive loved one insists they're dead – and wants to be taken to the morgue to join the other corpses! (Walking Dead: The Syndrome That Makes You Think You Are Deceased) *** Locals whisper about witches and shadows at Blood's Point Cemetery, but the real horror lies in a forgotten tragedy no ghost story could match. (The Witch, The Shadow, and the Secrets of Bloods Point)CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding00:01:19.350 = Show Open00:04:01.662 = Montague Summers Believed In Monsters00:12:33.941 = Visiting Our Next Door Neighbors in a Parallel Universe ***00:16:55.866 = Code Black: The USS Kennedy UFO Incident00:27:48.566 = Murder in Texas: The Strange Death of Joan Robinson Hill ***00:36:51.664 = The Man Who Survived An Atomic Blast Through His Skull00:40:06.356 = Walking Dead: The Syndrome That Makes You Think You Are Deceased00:46:04.042 = The Witch, The Shadow, and the Secrets of Bloods Point ***00:51:53.221 = The Grinning Man: The Legend of Indrid Cold01:05:38.345 = Show Close*** = Begins immediately after inserted ad breakLISTEN ON PODCAST APPS: Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*SOURCES and RESOURCES:“Code Black: The USS Kennedy UFO Incident”: https://rense.com/ufo/kennedy.htm,https://www.ufoinsight.com/ufos/cover-ups/the-1971-bermuda-triangle-ufo-incident“Visiting our Next Door Neighbors in a Parallel Universe”: https://weirddarkness.com/visiting-our-next-door-neighbors-in-a-parallel-universe/, https://www.space.com/the-universe/could-we-travel-to-parallel-universes“The Man Who Survived An Atomic Blast Through His Skull”: https://weirddarkness.com/the-man-who-survived-an-atomic-blast-through-his-skull/“Montague Summers Believed In Monsters”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montague_Summers,https://libraryblog.lbrut.org.uk/2017/10/montague-summers/,https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8955270/montague-summers, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Montague-Summers, https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/32006.Montague_Summers,https://www.bloodynews.ro/article/the-controversial-life-of-montague-summers-a-priest-who-believed-in-vampires-and-witches/“Murder in Texas: The Strange Death of Joan Robinson Hill”: https://the-line-up.com/murder-in-texas-the-strange-death-of-joan-robinson-hill“Walking Dead: The Syndrome That Makes You Think You're Deceased”: https://the-line-up.com/cotards-syndrome-the-living-dead“The Witch, The Shadow, and the Secrets of Bloods Point”: https://www.hauntedrockford.com/hidden-in-the-shadows/“The Grinning Man: The Legend of Indrid Cold”: https://believingthebizarre.com/indrid-cold-the-grinning-man/(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.Originally aired: March 25, 2025

Around three in the morning on July 31st, a naked man drove his car through the front doors of a Baptist church on Detroit's west side, rolled to a stop inside the vestibule, and told the people who arrived that he was Jesus Christ; nobody was hurt, and Detroit police say any charges wait on the results of a mental health evaluation.SOURCES, LINKS, AND PRINT VERSION: https://weirddarkness.com/NakedJesusCrashLook for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://pod.link/1078714736*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.

Six members of one family were found dead in a Mechanicville, New York apartment in June; by August, investigators had ruled the four children's deaths homicides and the mother's and grandmother's deaths suicides, and said the two women planned the killings by text in the days before the kids were to leave for a court-ordered summer with their father.SOURCES, LINKS, AND PRINT VERSION: https://weirddarkness.com/HarmonChildren20260804Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://pod.link/1078714736*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.

Two men carried spades and a telephone line into an ancient swamp cemetery after midnight, and only one of them stayed above ground.EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/mitm-randolphcarterSOURCES and RESOURCES: “The Statement of Randolph Carter” by H.P. Lovecraft: https://www.creepypasta.com/the-statement-of-randolph-carter/WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.Midnight In The Macabre (MITM), originally aired: August 04, 2026

Alien abductions, cryptid creatures, secret government programs, portals to other worlds, cattle mutilations – the San Luis Valley may be the strangest and most terrifying place you've never heard of.EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/CattleMutilationsFEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: We've had several episodes before about mysterious locations that are host to strange, paranormal activity. Skinwalker Ranch, for example, or The Bennington Triangle, or even the harsh terrain of Alaska. Perhaps one of the locations that appears to persistently slip under the radar is the San Luis Valley in Colorado. The region is home to very much the same variety of paranormal activity as other apparent hot spots. UFO sightings here are in abundance, for example. As are cases of cattle mutilation, sightings of strange creatures, and even alien abduction. In short, the San Luis Valley could be one of the most interesting locations in the world.LISTEN ON PODCAST APPS: Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*SOURCES and RESOURCES:“The Paranormal, Extraterrestrial, and Otherworldly Explanations for Cattle Mutilations” by Marcus Lowth for UFOInsight.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/66a64hu5, https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/vhykeezp(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.Originally aired: March 2022Weird Darkness devotes a full episode to Colorado's San Luis Valley, moving from Native American creation myths through the 1967 mutilation of a horse named Lady, decades of Bigfoot encounters, and a global run of cattle mutilation cases tied to UFO sightings, secret government programs, and alien abduction.It opens with the valley's own history: the region passed from Mexican to American territory after the 1846-1848 Mexican-American War, and archaeological evidence places human habitation there for roughly 7,000 years across close to a dozen Native American tribes. Several of those tribes describe the surrounding peaks as the Sipapu, a place of creation and emergence, and the Navajo specifically name the Blanca Massif as the point where "star people" enter this world aboard what their oral tradition calls flying seed pods, a phrase researchers have since compared to modern disc-shaped UFO reports. The same traditions include legends of shapeshifting beasts roaming the valley, stories some investigators now link to the Bigfoot sightings still reported there.From there the episode turns to the case that first brought cattle mutilation into national headlines: the September 27, 1967 death of a three-year-old Appaloosa mare named Lady, discovered by Harry King and his mother, Agnes, on land belonging to his sister, Nellie Lewis. The horse's head had been stripped completely to the bone with surgically precise cuts, no blood was found anywhere at the scene despite the wounds, and a strong chemical odor hung in the air near the body. Investigators also noted that the horse's own tracks stopped abruptly about 100 feet from where she was found, that scorch marks including a distinct circular pattern marked the ground nearby, and that Agnes King recalled an unidentified object flying over her house in the days before the discovery. The Aerial Phenomena Research Organization investigated, and pathologist Dr. John Altshuler, examining the remains, found the heart, lungs, thyroid, and abdominal organs removed with medical precision and the body completely drained of blood. Alamosa County Sheriff Ben Phillips attributed the death to a lightning strike without visiting the site, and the Condon Committee later reported no evidence of abnormal causes, addressing neither the missing blood nor the burns. Press coverage mistakenly named the horse Snippy, after her sire, and the name stuck permanently. Researcher Christopher O'Brien would go on to document more than 200 further mutilation reports in the San Luis Valley alone, estimating the true, unreported total closer to 1,000.Next comes a survey of the valley's stranger residents, starting with a 1992 sighting known regionally as the Woman in Red, in which a driver picked up a hitchhiking woman who vanished after he noticed she had goat-like legs and hooves. The same stretch of the episode covers a wave of Bigfoot encounters that struck a seven-square-mile radius between late December 1993 and early January 1994, including a December 31 sighting with footprint tracks clear enough to show toenail impressions and partially captured on police video, plus a 2000 report from two ATV riders near Blanca Peak who tracked a seven-foot, brown-haired creature before losing it in the trees. Christopher O'Brien's files also record a white buffalo that appeared and then vanished without a trace near Winchell Lake in the early 1980s, a 1993 wave of legless, slug-like creatures locals call prairie dragons, and a report of an out-of-place platypus. The segment also revisits the Old Scratch legend, a century-old story of a well-dressed stranger who appears in a cantina during Lent and reveals claws, cloven hooves, and a tail before fleeing when confronted, last reported in 1984, then covers mid-1960s witness Robert Whitting, who claimed a craft pulled alongside his car and telepathically warned him of a dead black dog in the road ahead. It closes at the modern UFO Watchtower, a platform built for its 360-degree view of the valley that still draws UFO sightings and researchers year-round.The episode then widens its scope to cattle mutilation as a global phenomenon, opening with a 1606 case recorded in the court records of England's King James I describing sheep found with only their tallow and inner organs removed, and a Texas horse whose entire nervous system was surgically extracted in the same territory that saw a wave of sheep mutilations in 2013. It cites an FBI report from the late 1970s tallying roughly 8,000 mutilations in Colorado alone and lays out the pattern researchers keep finding: animals drained completely of blood, organs removed with surgical precision, unusual chemical readings in tissue samples, and a consistent absence of scavengers at the scene. From there it crosses to Cannock Chase in Staffordshire, England, where in 1985 a father and son watched a silent, triangular craft with three underside lights hover over a field, followed two days later by a duck hunter who saw a similar object stop over grazing cattle and fire light beams in his direction as he approached.A string of British cases follows, beginning with the 2010 mutilations of sheep near Shrewsbury, England, where animals were found with faces skillfully stripped of flesh and drilled holes where their brains had been removed, witnessed in part by a 16-person investigative team who reported both UFOs and apparent laser-style attacks on the flock in March of that year. It moves next to a 2011-2012 wave of mutilated horses across the United Kingdom, tentatively tied by some researchers to an equine herpesvirus type 1 outbreak rather than to ritual dates such as St. Winebald Day, then to Wales, where the Animal Pathology Field Unit spent twelve years, from 2001 to 2013, investigating sheep mutilations and, through investigator Phil Hoyle, concluded extraterrestrial involvement was the most likely explanation. The segment also returns to the 1977 discovery of 15 mutilated wild ponies in Cherry Brook Valley, Dartmoor, found by Alan Hicks, a case later investigated by Jonathan Downes of the Center for Fortean Zoology, who reported suspicious interference and elaborate hoax calls resembling Men in Black activity. It ends with Rob Lea's account, given to researcher Nick Redfern, of a Bristol-based group he called the Cult of the Moon Beast, allegedly performing animal sacrifices in Newport, England since the late 1980s to summon entities from a coexisting dimension on behalf of wealthy patrons.Back in North America, the episode covers Manuel Sanchez's discovery of a fourth mutilated calf on his Colorado ranch in December 2009 and Tom Miller's similar March 2009 find near Trinidad, Colorado, both missing tongues, udders, and eyes with no blood or tracks at the scene. It continues with Kit Metzger's decades of mutilations at the Flying M Ranch in Arizona, dating back to the late 1970s and clustering between June and October, and with the 1978 case of Manuel Gomez's bull in Dulce, New Mexico, examined by officer Gabriel Valdez, whose lab tests found the heart and liver reduced to a mushy, peanut-butter texture with abnormal zinc, phosphorus, and potassium levels and no copper at all. The segment covers a summer of 1990 mutilations on Richard Fazio's land in Vancouver, Washington, which Oregon State University matched to laser-type electrosurgical injury, alongside Christopher O'Brien's own assessment that mutilations are "more complicated than aliens" and more likely tied to covert environmental monitoring. It closes with 2013 sheep mutilations in Texas tha

There is a story about a man who knew everything the world would ever know because he claimed to be born ten thousand years too soon — a man who could foresee every future but his own, and who spent his life searching for the one person alive who could tell him how he would die.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “Time Out of Mind” (May 18, 1978) ***WD00: 45:49.141 = Dark Fantasy, “I Am Your Brother” (June 05, 1942) ***WD01:14:15.433 = BBC Fear on 4, “The Journey Home” (February 26, 1989)01:42:40.384 = Theater Five, “Talkers” (November 24, 1964) ***WD02:03:44.997 = Ave Maria Hour, “St Benedict of Nursia VS Poison And Witchcraft” (1939)02:27:27.651 = The Hall of Fantasy, “The Shadow People” (September 21, 1953) ***WD02:51:43.918 = Harry Lime, “Work of Art” (September 28, 1951)03:16:46.504 = BBC Haunted Tales of the Supernatural, “Walk On The Water” (July 12, 1980)03:42:17.928 = The Haunting Hour, “Thought” (June 10, 1945) ***WD04:07:12.210 = Hermit's Cave, “Hanson's Ghost” (October 29, 1944)04:35:22.568 = Mystery Is My Hobby, “Death is a Grain of Sand, aka Murder At a Magic Show” (November 26, 1947) ***WD04:57:45.862 = Beyond The Green Door, “Tom Dunlevy Wasts' Abandoned Cabin” (1966)05:01:59.177 = Show Close(ADU) = Air Date Unknown(LQ) = Low Quality***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0733

In 1982, an 18-year-old dropped dead after playing the arcade game Berzerk — and decades of half-truths, copycat rumors, and a real murder at the same machine turned it into legend. We separate fact from fiction on the Berzerk curse and its shadowy cousin, Polybius, the government mind-control game that may or may not have ever existed.==========HOUR ONE: It's rumored that an arcade game from 1980 might lead to the real death of its players. We'll look at the death curse of Berzerk. (The Berzerk Death Curse, And The Polybius Urban Legend) *** And another arcade game in the early 80s was surrounded by controversy – because the game never existed, despite so many saying it did. Or did it exist? We'll look at the urban legend of Polybius. (The Urban Legend of Polybius)==========HOUR TWO: Was Stanley Stiers the real-life inspiration for Michael Myers in 1978's John Carpenter film, “Halloween?” (The Real Michael Myers) *** The last known words of Peter Rugg were “Let the storm increase! I will see home tonight in spite of the last tempest, or I may never see home!" Over two-hundred years later and he has yet to make it home – but that hasn't stopped his tempest! (The Eternal Ride of Peter Rugg) *** Imagine attending college for several years, only to find out that the whole time you've been studying on top of the corpses of thousands of mental patients. That's exactly what happened in 2013 when The University of Mississippi made plans to expand parking for their students and staff. (The Corpses Under The University of Mississippi) *** Dealing with a ghost or two is awful enough – but what if you're attacked by a whole gang of ghouls? It was reported as real news in 1889's Chicago Tribune! (A Whole Gang O' Ghosts) *** People With Super Powers!==========SUDDEN DEATH OVERTIME: Michael Bryson disappeared on August 5th, 2020 from Hobo Campground at Umpqua National Forest. He has yet to be found. (The Disappearance of Michael Bryson) *** When it comes to cryptids, you have many to choose from – Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, the chupacabra, the list goes on and on. But I'm willing to bet nowhere on the list of your favorite cryptids, or even the cryptids you've ever heard of, do you have an entry for “The Belled Buzzard” of Texas. (The Belled Buzzard Legend) *** When the Black Plague arrived at Eyam's doorstep in the 17th century, its villagers were forced to choose between life or certain doom. It's the tragic tale of England's Plague Village. (The Black Plague Comes to Eyam)==========SOURCES AND REFERENCES FROM TONIGHT'S SHOW:“People with Super Powers” from Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.com/magazine“The Berzerk Death Curse” by Cat DeSpira: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yckk96tv“The Polybius Conspiracy” by Ryan Houlihan for InputMag.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8h6v8z“The Real Michael Myers” from Casper McFadden at TheMorbidLibrary.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yvj6ueze, and from TheScareChamber.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/vmew9uvb; “Halloween” theme piano solo by Noud van Harskamp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T9m-fj8K9c, “Halloween Kills | Epic Orchestral Theme” by Mike Chibante: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E82MEfQiffk“The Disappearance of Michael Bryson” posted at Strange Outdoors: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/mwvb3am8 (If you know anything that could help solve Michael Bryson's disappearance, or if you were at the Hobo Campground around August 3rd, 4th, or 5th of 2020, please reach out to the sheriff's office at (541) 682-4150, option 1, and reference case No. 20-5286.)“The Eternal Ride of Peter Rugg” posted at SlightlyOddFitchburg.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/3z7pdtzn“The Corpses Under The University of Mississippi” by Erin Wisti for Ranker.com's “Graveyard Shift”:https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8tdu6k“A Whole Gang O' Ghosts” posted from Strange Company: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p9ynpev“The Belled Buzzard Legend” from Texas Cryptid Hunter: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p875fxv“The Black Plague Comes to Eyam” by Stephanie Almazan for TheLineUp.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/1aptirxk==========(Over time links seen above may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for material I use whenever possible. If I have overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it immediately. Some links may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)=========="I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46==========WeirdDarkness®, WeirdDarkness© 2026==========To become a Weird Darkness Radio Show affiliate, contact Radio America at affiliates@radioamerica.com, or call 800-807-4703 (press 2 or dial ext 250).

Every time David Delano tries to propose to the beautiful Charlotte Marsden, a figure in old-fashioned evening dress appears in the room — visible only to him and to Charlotte's mother — and neither of them will explain who he is or why he keeps coming back.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “Edmund Orme” (May 15, 1978) ***WD00:46:57.073 = The Crime Club, “Topaz Flower” (April 24, 1947)01:16:53.148 = Crime Classics, “Death Picture Hanger” (July 20, 1953)01:46:38.330 = Danger Dr. Danfield, “Nola Jerrold Wants To Kill Her Husband” (September 15, 1946)02:10:54.934 = The Devil and Mr. O, “Three Thousand Dollars” (January 21, 1972) ***WD02:36:19.806 = Diary of Fate, “Victor Wakeman” (June 29, 1948) ***WD03:03:06.121 = Dimension X, “Dr. Grimshaw's Sanitorium” (September 22, 1950) ***WD03:32:38.297 = The Eleventh Hour, “Country Road” (ADU)03:58:20.749 = Escape, “The Sure Thing” (October 15, 1949)04:26:55.837 = Exploring Tomorrow, “Sourdough” (February 05, 1958)04:46:02.408 = Tales of the Frightened, “Chung Ling Soo” (December 16, 1957) ***WD04:50:22.457 = Tales From the Tomb, “The Lick” (1960s)04:53:51.912 = Incredible But True, “Naked Man of Newbury” (1950-1951)04:57:38.785 = Strange Adventure, “Crossroads” (1945) ***WD05:00:55.441 = Show Close(ADU) = Air Date Unknown(LQ) = Low Quality***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0732

From a New Mexico ranch in 1947 to a Navy fighter jet in 2004, we trace ten of history's most famous UFO encounters — the eyewitnesses who saw them, the governments who denied them, and the questions that still won't go away."EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/skiesarewatchingREAD or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/4hfn747dCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding00:06:39.225 = Show Open00:07:58.582 = The Roswell UFO Incident00:12:38.079 = The Westall UFO Encounter00:15:33.497 = The Pascagoula Abduction00:19:27.674 = The Allagash Abductions ***00:22:35.165 = The Tehran UFO Incident00:25:46.548 = The Cash-Landrum Incident00:29:03.352 = The Rendlesham Forest Incident00:32:19.175 = The Belgian UFO Wave00:36:28.126 = The Phoenix Lights ***00:40:52.495 = The Nimitz UFO Encounter00:44:15.325 = Show Close*** = Begins immediately after inserted ad breakLISTEN ON PODCAST APPS: Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*SOURCES and RESOURCES:- Paranormality Magazine article; (link no longer valid)- Halt, Charles. "Halt Memo," January 1981, archived by the UK National Archives.- Penniston, Jim, and John Burroughs. "Encounter in Rendlesham Forest." Thomas & Mercer, 2014.- BBC News. "Rendlesham Forest: 'Britain's Roswell' UFO spotted off Suffolk coast," September 2011.- Pope, Nick. "You Can't Tell the People." Pan Books, 2001 – A book by a former MoD UFO investigator discussing the cover-ups and inside stories of the British government's responses to UFO sightings, including the Rendlesham Forest incident.- Bruni, Georgina. "You Can't Tell the People: The Definitive Account of the Rendlesham Forest UFO Mystery." Sidgwick & Jackson, 2000.- SOBEPS Reports on the Belgian UFO Wave- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdEALPvl_4Q- "Belgium in UFO Fever" - Brussels Times- "The Cash-Landrum UFO Incident," by John F. Schuessler, provides an extensive analysis of the event, including medical records and witness testimonies.- "UFOs and Government: A Historical Inquiry," a comprehensive study by Michael Swords and others, details the government's response to UFO sightings, including the Cash-Landrum case.- "Fire in the Sky: The Cash-Landrum UFO Incident," an article in the MUFON UFO Journal that revisits the incident, detailing the investigation and subsequent legal battle.- "Westall '66: A Suburban UFO Mystery," a documentary by Shane Ryan, explores the events through witness testimonies and expert interviews.- "The Westall UFO: A Suburban Mystery," a book by Keith Basterfield, provides a detailed account of the sighting, including the social and governmental context.- Articles and interviews archived by the Victorian UFO Action group, which has collected and analyzed first-hand accounts from witnesses and former students of Westall High School.- U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency Report: This declassified document provides a detailed account of the Tehran UFO Incident, including descriptions from the pilots and ground control.- "Iranian Jet Chased UFO, Got Light Show": This article in the New York Times archives covers the public's reaction and the international reporting following the incident.- Interview with Lt. Parviz Jafari: Several interviews with Jafari provide first-hand accounts of the encounter, including technical details of the aircraft's malfunctions.- CIA Document on the Tehran UFO Incident: A collection of declassified CIA documents that discuss the implications of the encounter and its analysis by various intelligence agencies.- The New York Times: Articles from December 2017 that first revealed the Nimitz encounter to the public.- Department of Defense Releases: Official statements and declassified videos of the encounters.- Interviews with Commander David Fravor: His firsthand accounts provide detailed observations of the encounter.- "Unidentified: Inside America's UFO Investigation" on History Channel: This television series features interviews with the pilots and analysis of the encounters.- Raymond E. Fowler, the investigator and author of "The Allagash Abductions: Undeniable Evidence of Alien Intervention," which details the incident and the hypnosis sessions.- Interviews and Appearances: The men involved have given numerous interviews and appeared on various television programs to recount their experiences.- "Unsolved Mysteries" Television Series: Featured the Allagash abductions, providing a dramatized account and interviews with the witnesses.- Skeptical Analysis by Robert Sheaffer and others, who critique the method of hypnosis used and the financial aspects related to the publicity of the case.- "The Pascagoula UFO Incident" by Charles Hickson – Hickson wrote a detailed account of his experience.- "UFOs: Past, Present, and Future" by Robert Emenegger – Includes interviews and analysis of the Pascagoula incident.- Interviews and documentaries – Multiple television programs and documentaries have featured interviews with the witnesses and analyses by UFO researchers.- Articles in major newspapers – Numerous articles were written at the time in publications like the Washington Post and New York Times, providing contemporary accounts of the events and follow-ups.(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.Originally aired: May 06, 2024This episode of Weird Darkness moves chronologically through ten of history's most frequently cited UFO encounters, opening with a 1947 debris field on a New Mexico ranch and closing with a 2004 Navy radar encounter off the California coast.In July 1947, rancher William "Mac" Brazel discovers unusual metallic debris scattered across the Foster homestead north of Roswell, New Mexico, and reports it to Sheriff George Wilcox, who alerts the Roswell Army Air Field. Intelligence officer Major Jesse Marcel collects the material, and on July 8th the RAAF issues a press release announcing the recovery of a "flying disc." The story runs in newspapers nationwide before General Roger Ramey holds a press conference the next day identifying the debris as a weather balloon. The retraction does little to end the speculation; decades later, ufologists raise claims of recovered alien bodies and a government cover-up, and in 1994 the Air Force publishes "Case Closed: Final Report on the Roswell Crash," attributing the debris to the classified high-altitude balloon program Project Mogul.From there, the episode moves to April 6th, 1966, when more than two hundred students, teachers, and residents near Westall High School in the Melbourne suburb of Westall, Australia, watch a gray, saucer-shaped craft descend, hover for roughly twenty minutes, and shoot skyward at high speed after a second object appears to intercept it. Students who walk into the nearby field known as The Grange afterward find circular patches of flattened grass. Australian authorities attribute the sighting to a weather balloon, an explanation many witnesses reject, and researcher Shane Ryan later interviews dozens of them for the documentary "Westall '66: A Suburban UFO Mystery."Next comes the Pascagoula Abduction: shipyard coworkers Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker are fishing on the Pascagoula River in Mississippi on the night of October 11th, 1973, when a whirring oval craft with flashing lights hovers roughly forty feet above them and three robotic, wrinkled-skinned beings pull them aboard for what they describe as a twenty-minute physical examination. The men report the encounter to the local sheriff's office, which secretly records their conversation while leaving them alone in a room, capturing Hickson's visible distress rather than any hint of a hoax. Both men pass polygraph tests and undergo hypnosis, and UFO researchers J. Allen Hynek and James Harder investigate the case and find no evidence of fabrication.A similar pattern surfaces three years later in Maine, where twin brothers Jack and Jim Weiner and fellow art students Chuck Rak and Charlie Foltz are camping on Eagle Lake in the Allagash wilderness in August 1976 when a glowing orb appears to follow their canoe. After Charlie Foltz signals it with a flashlight, the light expands and engulfs the group, and the men find themselves back at a campsite fire that has burned down to embers with no memory of the intervening time. Years later, recurring nightmares send the four men to psychiatrist and UFO researcher Dr. Raymond Fowler, whose hypnotic regression sessions produce matching accounts of grey-alien medical examinations aboard a craft, a story that eventually reaches national audiences through "Unsolved Mysteries" and multiple books.Military personnel take center

Look for this podcast on YouTube Music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and numerous other podcast apps. Get the full list of options here: https://pod.link/1651062114Two doctored photographs posted to a comedy forum in 2009 spread, through thousands of anonymous contributors, into a mythology detailed enough that two eleven-year-old girls stabbed a friend nineteen times to prove their worth to it. Six years later, a South Dakota reservation would recognize pieces of the same figure inside a legend of its own, one that predated the internet by generations.EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources and print version): https://weirddarkness.com/cotu-slendermanWeird Darkness® and Church Of The Undead™ are trademarked. Copyright © 2026.

A young bride's uncanny knowledge of history's deadliest catastrophes convinces her husband she's hiding something — but the truth behind her secret is older than he could ever imagine.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “The Secret of Shen-Si” (May 22, 1978) ***WD00:45:23.731 = BBC Radio 4 / Radio 7 GhostStory, “The Crowd” (December 30, 1986)00:59:43.519 = Night Beat, “Expectant Father” (December 28, 1951) ***WD01:27:08.605 = The Black Book, “Different Readings, Parts 1 & 2” (November 21, 1951) ***WD01:52:20.091 = Challenge of the Yukon, “Magnanimous Ghost” (August 28, 1945)02:06:45.867 = Box 13, “Three To Die” (January 23, 1949)02:33:16.175 = Calling All Cars, “Missing Mexican Sheiks” (January 03, 1934) ***WD (LQ)03:05:07.603 = Casey Crime Photographer, “Handkerchief” (September 05, 1946)03:34:32.775 = CBC Mystery Theater, “The Hitch Hiker” (June 02, 1967) ***WD04:00:52.848 = Chet Chetters, “If You Can't Stand The Heat” (1992)04:29:31.575 = The Clock, “Time In Reverse” (January 17, 1956)04:53:57.175 = Beyond The Green Door, “Edgar Hayes – Amazon Trip Seek” (1966)04:57:50.162 = Calling All Detectives, “Jerry Is Framed for the Murder of Mrs. Mayner” (July 07, 1948) ***WD (LQ)05:05:52.977 = Show Close(ADU) = Air Date Unknown(LQ) = Low Quality***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0731

The Slender Man began as two photographs and a caption, submitted to an internet forum in 2009 as nothing more than a creepy image contest. Within five years, people across the country were treating him as real – and some proved just how far that belief could go.EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/SlendermanREAD or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8ka2reFEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: In 2009, a photograph appeared on an internet forum, submitted as an entry in a contest to create convincing fake paranormal images. The figure in it had no face, arms too long for its body, and a caption written like a piece of found history. Within a few years, that figure had a name recognized across the internet, a following that treated the images as more than fiction, and a reputation for turning up in places far stranger than a photo contest ever intended.CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding00:02:02.673 = Show Open00:03:13.025 = Slenderman: Blurring The Lines of Reality, Part 100:09:24.860 = Slenderman: Blurring The Lines of Reality, Part 2 ***00:22:48.484 = Slenderman: Blurring The Lines of Reality, Part 3 ***00:34:59.166 = Slenderman: Blurring The Lines of Reality, Part 4 ***00:41:57.606 = Slenderman: Blurring The Lines of Reality, Part 5 ***00:54:09.889 = Show Close*** = Begins immediately after inserted ad breakLISTEN ON PODCAST APPS: Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*SOURCES and RESOURCES:“Slenderman: Blurring The Lines Of Reality” by Marcus Lowth for UFOInsight.com:https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p9e9srj(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.Originally aired: March, 2022This episode of Weird Darkness traces the Slender Man from an internet photo contest into real-world stabbings, arson, and a wave of suicides on a South Dakota reservation, then weighs whether an invented internet legend can, in some sense, become real.It opens with the character's exact origin: on June 10th, 2009, Eric Knudsen, posting under the name Victor Surge on the forum Something Awful, submitted two doctored photographs as part of a contest to create convincing paranormal images. Each carried a caption inventing a backstory, one referencing a photographer "presumed dead" in 1983 and another tying the figure to a fire at the Stirling City Library and the disappearance of a photographer named Mary Thomas in 1986. The figure in both images, faceless and unnaturally tall with elongated arms, spread across the internet within days and took on the name Slender Man, along with a folklore of his own: a preference for woods and abandoned buildings, the ability to travel at will, and warning signs that included nosebleeds, nightmares, and sudden paranoia.From there, the episode turns to the Waukesha stabbing of May 31st, 2014, in Wisconsin, when twelve-year-old Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser led their friend Payton Leutner into nearby woods and stabbed her nineteen times, telling investigators the attack was meant to prove Slender Man's existence and make them his "proxies." Leutner survived and crawled to a roadside where a cyclist found her. Geyser was sentenced to forty years to life and remains held in a psychiatric facility; Weier, sentenced to twenty-five years to life, was released from institutional care in the summer of 2021 and placed under supervision.Next, the episode covers the string of incidents that followed within months: a thirteen-year-old girl's knife attack on her mother in Hamilton County, Ohio, in June 2014; a Las Vegas shooting in which the gunman, who reportedly dressed as Slender Man, killed two police officers and a bystander before killing his wife and himself; and a house fire set by a fourteen-year-old girl in Port Richey, Florida, in September 2014, who told police she had "been reading a lot" about the character online. It also details a separate wave of youth suicides on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation between late 2014 and mid-2015, which the New York Times reported topped one hundred in six months, some tied by officials to the Slender Man and to a local legend of a "suicide spirit" known as Walking Sam or the Tall Man, and a mass hanging attempt in nearby woods that a local pastor, John Two Bulls, intervened to stop.The episode also relays an account researcher Nick Redfern collected from a Pennsylvania flight attendant trainee named Lacy, who said her laptop began displaying Slender Man's face and, on one occasion, a voice, after she read Robin Swope's book Slenderman: From Fiction to Fact in 2016.The episode closes by comparing Slender Man to Spring-Heeled Jack, a figure reported across Victorian England from the 1830s onward and long suspected of being one person's stunt copied by others in later decades, before turning to researcher Peter McCue's Psychic Internet Theory and the ancient Egyptian god Ptah, weighing whether shared belief circulated across the internet might account for why so many people came to treat a fictional character as something they could encounter.

Scout Brooks just wants to survive his first day of seventh grade — but a mysterious after-school astronomy club, run by an even stranger professor, has him wondering exactly what he's signed up for.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://pod.link/1655277373Find more family-friendly frights and creepy games to play on our website at http://MicroTerrors.com!Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/microterrorsOther stories, novels, and more from author Scott Donnelly: https://amzn.to/3LymHaUOther narrations, podcasts, and audiobooks from voice artist Darren Marlar: https://WeirdDarkness.comBlLOG POST URL: https://weirddarkness.com/scoutbrooks001= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =Weird Darkness©, 2026Micro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids™, 2026#MicroTerrors #WeirdDarkness

Two best friends sneak out on the first night of summer break and find a working elevator standing alone in the middle of the woods — and the moment they step inside, the way home stops making sense.EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/mitm-ElevatorInTheWoodsSOURCES and RESOURCES: “The Elevator In The Woods” by Adrian Johnson: https://www.creepypasta.com/the-elevator-in-the-woods/WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.Originally aired: August 01, 2026

Records that surfaced in the weeks after the Siders children were found also describe a set of conjoined twins who died in 2022, two more underage marriages inside the extended family, and a stalled Ohio bill that would have raised the marriage age before any of it happened.SOURCES, LINKS, AND PRINT VERSION: https://weirddarkness.com/siderscase20260731Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://pod.link/1078714736*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.

From bathing in girls' blood to making homemade conjoined twins, we'll look at a few famous psychopaths who are truly some of the most terrifying people in the history of the world. Plus, whether flamboyant, miserly, or paranoid, some of history's oddest individuals put modern-day eccentricities to shame.EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/oddindividualsREAD or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/bdeejyx2CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding00:01:04.405 = Show Open00:02:00.371 = Diogenes : A Crazy, Homeless Philosopher00:04:07.881 = Tarrare: the Man Who Man Have Eaten a Baby00:06:39.397 = Lucky Lord Byron00:09:42.507 = Hetty Green: Taking Miserly To a New Level ***00:12:37.752 = Henry Cyril Paget: Married His Cousin And Lived Life Luxuriously00:15:47.020 = Carl Tanzler: He Couldn't Live Without His Love, Even After Her Death00:18:31.186 = Gloria Ramirez: The Toxic Woman00:21:15.035 = Anneliese Michel: She Endured 67 Exorcisms ***00:23:44.494 = Sawney Bean: The Scottish Cannibal00:25:45.378 = Margaret Howe Lovatt: Intimate Relations With a Dolphin00:28:52.014 = King Leopold II: Slaves And Slaughter For Rubber And Ivory ***00:30:38.976 = Pol Pot: Created a Nation of Peasants, Poverty and Punishments00:32:17.167 = Ivan IV of Russia: Better Known as Ivan The Terrible00:33:54.318 = Elizabeth Bathory: Eternal Youth Through Murder00:35:15.113 = Heinrich Himmler: The Second Worst Nazi00:36:23.100 = Adolph Eichmann: Claimed He Did His Duty By Killing Millions00:38:05.830 = Tomás de Torquemada: Nobody Expects The Spanish Inquisition! ***00:39:30.531 = Josef Mengele: The Angel of Death00:40:31.984 = Vlad Tepes: The Impaler That Inspired Dracula00:42:03.511 = Jim Jones: The Kool-Aid Serial Killer Cult Leader00:43:43.399 = Show Close*** = Begins immediately after inserted ad breakLISTEN ON PODCAST APPS: Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*

This episode covers real-life horror far more extreme than usual, including a Russian professor arrested in 2011 for keeping the mummified corpses of 29 women and girls in his apartment, each one fitted with a hidden music box. It also includes the story of a 19th-century whiskey heir who paid six handkerchiefs for a 10-year-old girl so he could watch cannibals kill and eat her, and the theory that Alexander the Great was declared dead nearly a week before he actually died. Content is more graphic than usual, so listener discretion is advised.EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/necropolystREAD or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8e5emeCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding00:00:47.354 = Show Open00:01:58.356 = Alexander the Great00:05:52.710 = The Ravenous Beast of Gévaudan00:09:41.943 = The Rape and Burial of Jessica Lunsford ***00:11:55.911 = The Dyatlov Pass Incident00:15:29.080 = The Torture Dungeon of Leonard Lake and Charles Ng00:19:10.197 = Robert The Doll00:23:08.785 = The Disappearance and Eerie Return of Bobby Dunbar ***00:26:33.271 = Albert Fish – The Brooklyn Vampire00:30:06.498 = The Strange Disappearance of the Sodder Children00:34:28.570 = Anatoly Moskvin, The Russian Who Mummified Dead Girls00:38:41.505 = The Jameson Whiskey Cannibal ***00:42:29.572 = Show Close*** = Begins immediately after inserted ad breakLISTEN ON PODCAST APPS: Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*SOURCES and RESOURCES:“Real-Life Horror Stories More Freaky Than Fiction” by Marco Margaritoff for AllThatsInteresting.com:https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8p9c72(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.Originally aired: March 2022Weird Darkness this episode gathers real-life horror too extreme for scripted television, spanning from ancient Macedonia to the Congo basin and landing, along the way, in a Russian apartment stacked with mummified girls.It opens with Alexander the Great, who collapsed in Babylon in 323 B.C. after a 24-hour drinking binge triggered a sudden fever, a stabbing pain in his back, and creeping paralysis that eventually left him speechless; doctors pronounced him dead at 32. His body reportedly stayed "pure and fresh" for six days afterward, evidence ancient Greeks took as proof of his divinity. In 2019, Dr. Katherine Hall of New Zealand's University of Otago proposed in the Ancient History Bulletin that Alexander actually suffered from Guillain-Barré Syndrome, an autoimmune disorder that paralyzes the body while leaving the mind fully intact; since fourth-century-B.C. doctors checked for breath rather than a pulse, Hall's theory suggests Alexander may have been declared dead nearly a week before he actually died, and was buried alive.From there, the story moves to 18th-century France, where a wolf-like creature killed or mauled close to 300 people across three years in the Gévaudan region, most of them women and children. Fourteen-year-old shepherdess Jeanne Boulet was the first confirmed victim in 1764; a fifteen-year-old girl killed a month later survived long enough to describe her attacker as "a horrible beast". Militia leader Jean-Baptiste Duhamel organized a 30,000-strong hunting party, and King Louis XV eventually dispatched his own bodyguard, François Antoine, who killed a large wolf in September 1765; the attacks resumed within months regardless. A farmer named Jean Chastel is credited with killing the actual beast using silver bullets, reportedly after finding human remains inside its stomach.Next, the episode turns to the 2005 murder of nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford in Homosassa, Florida. Convicted sex offender John Evander Couey broke into her family's home, took her to his trailer, raped her over three days, sealed her inside garbage bags, and buried her alive in his yard while she still clutched a stuffed dolphin her father had won her at a state fair. Prosecutors later determined Jessica may have still been alive in the house during Couey's first police interview. Couey was convicted of first-degree murder and kidnapping in March 2007 and died on death row of natural causes in 2009.From Florida, the episode jumps to the Ural Mountains and the Dyatlov Pass incident of January 1959, when hiking leader Igor Dyatlov and eight fellow students from the Ural Polytechnic Institute died during an expedition toward Otorten Mountain. Investigators found their tent slashed open from the inside and shoeless footprints leading nearly a mile into the forest; the first bodies recovered, dressed only in underwear despite temperatures near negative 20 degrees Fahrenheit, were ruled hypothermia deaths. Two of the last four bodies found, Lyudmila Dubinina and Semyon Zolotaryov, were missing their eyeballs, Lyudmila was also missing her tongue, and both had clothing that tested positive for radioactivity. More than sixty years later, no single explanation, from avalanche to secret Soviet weapons testing, has been confirmed.The episode then moves to a cabin in California's Sierra Nevada foothills, where Leonard Lake and Charles Ng tortured and killed as many as 25 people between 1983 and 1985. Lake, a Vietnam veteran discharged for psychological reasons, built a cinderblock bunker behind a one-way mirror where he and Ng held women as sex slaves before killing them, dismembering the bodies, and dissolving the remains in acid; investigators eventually recovered twelve victims' remains along with roughly 40 pounds of charred bone. The pair was caught in June 1985 after Ng tried to shoplift a bench vise; Lake swallowed a cyanide capsule sewn into his jacket lining and died in custody before trial, while Ng was convicted of eleven murders in 1999 and remains on death row at San Quentin.Next comes Robert the Doll, manufactured by Germany's Steiff Company in 1904 and given to a Key West boy named Robert Eugene "Gene" Otto, who reportedly carried the doll everywhere and spoke of it in the first person. After Gene died in 1974, new owner Myrtle Reuter said the doll continued moving through her house with no explanation and eventually donated it to the Fort East Martello Museum, where curator Cori Convertito now oversees a steady stream of visitors who claim their cameras stop working in Robert's presence.From there, the episode circles back to 1912 Louisiana and the disappearance of four-year-old Bobby Dunbar from Swayze Lake. Eight months later, authorities found a boy matching his description traveling with a man named William Cantwell Walters, who insisted the child was Bruce Anderson, son of field hand Julia Anderson; the Dunbar family claimed the boy as their own anyway. It took until 2004, after years of research by Bobby's granddaughter Margaret Dunbar Cutwright, for a DNA test to prove the man raised as Bobby Dunbar shared no blood relation to the Dunbar family, meaning the real Bobby likely died in 1912 and the family had unknowingly raised Julia's son instead.The story turns next to Albert Fish, born in 1870 and later known as the Brooklyn Vampire, who spent decades torturing, killing, and cannibalizing children after enduring severe abuse in a New York orphanage as a boy. In 1928, posing as a farmer named Frank Howard, Fish lured ten-year-old Grace Budd away from her family and killed her; he wasn't identified until November 1934, when a letter he sent to Grace's mother describing the murder in graphic detail was traced back to him. Fish was executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison on January 16th, 1936.Following that, the episode covers the unresolved 1945 Sodder children case in Fayetteville, West Virginia, where a Christmas Eve house fire killed, or apparently killed, five of George and Jennie Sodder's nine children. No bones were ever recovered from the wreckage despite a coroner attributing the deaths to the blaze, and the family spent decades chasing tips and alleged sightings after strangers had made ominous threats about the house burning down in the months before the fire. George and Jennie erected a billboard along Route 16 asking for information and died in 1968 and 1989, respectively, without ever learning their children's fate.From there, the story turns to Anatoly Moskvin, a Russian journalist and college professor fluent in thirteen languages who dubbed himself a "necropolyst" and visited 752 cemeteries around his hometown of Nizhny Novgorod. Moskvin was arrested in 2011 after police investigating the desecration of Muslim graves found him painting over photographs of the dead; a search of the apartment he shared with his parents turned up the mummified remains of 29 women and girls, dressed, made up with buttons for eyes, and fitted with music boxes inside their chests. Moskvin told investigators he dug up the bodies because he was lonely and confessed to 44 counts of abusing graves and corpses.The episode clos