Curator 135

Send us Fan Mail What are some of your Christmas-time family traditions? Elf on the Shelf? Boots on the windowsill? Hiding brooms? KFC? Curator135 looks at some of the strange but mostly meaningful Christmas traditions around the globe. Come along for a wild ride, and learn about everything from scaring children to radishes to straw goats.  Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Before iPhones and the internet, before television and radio, people went out of their way to find entertainment. If something newsworthy was happening, they wanted to be a part of it.  Floyd Collins and the caves below Kentucky gave the nation just that in January 1925.  Hear how one man, trapped 60 feet below the surface, brought in thousands of onlookers from across the country...

Send us Fan Mail W.W. Jacobs, was an English author best known for his short stories, particularly the classic tale "The Monkey's Paw." Jacobs' writing often delved into the realm of humor and the supernatural. "The Monkey's Paw," published in 1902, remains one of his most celebrated works. This chilling story revolves around a mysterious monkey's paw that g...

Send us Fan Mail In the late 1800's getting away with murder was a whole lot easier than it is today. Men like H.H. Holmes and Jack the Ripper made families lock their doors at night and prostitutes want to change professions.  One man, who some believed could have been the infamous Jack the Ripper, managed to murder in three different countries. His reign of terror continued even after he wa...

Send us Fan Mail Everyone knows about John Wilkes Booth and his dastardly plan to weaken the government and breathe new life into the Confederacy. It didn't work and Booth was killed days later. But who killed him? Thomas "Boston" Corbett, that's who.  Boston Corbett was an interesting character who lived a hard life but leaned on God to get him through everything.  In some peo...

Send us Fan Mail In 1971, deep in the Sierra Nevada, near the tiny village of Weimar, California, 17 campers experienced an event that changed their lives. By the next morning, Sheriff Wayne Brown and his deputies found three folks seriously injured and two dead. A manhunt that took them to Mexico ensued. Clarence Otis Smith was accused of the horrific event and rightfully so. However, he had demo...

Send us Fan Mail Whether you are a believer in extraterrestrial beings or not, 1979 gave us one of the most well-documented cases of a UFO in our recent history. Val Johnson was out doing his job, patrolling the back roads of northwestern Minnesota, just minutes from the North Dakota border. When he went to turn onto Highway 220, a light appeared before him. Seconds later it was hitting his vehicl...

Send us Fan Mail In the 1930's the science of forensics was still in its infancy.  When Dr. Buck Ruxton's wife and nanny went missing, the police were forced to come up with new ways to identify the bodies... which had been cut up into numerous pieces.  How did they do it? Learn all about Britain's 'Jigsaw Murders' in Episode 57 of the podcast.  Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Michigan has only 13 recorded executions in its history. They'd long ago taken the death penalty off the table. So why was Anthony Chebatoris hung within Michigan's borders in 1938? Find out what led up to Michigan's final execution. The life of Tony Chebatoris, his partner in crime, the targeted bank, and the hero dentist.  Support the show

Send us Fan Mail In 1942, just months after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, tensions were high all along the west coast. Might the Japanese invade California? It sure seemed like a possibility. After a submarine surfaced and shot at a nearby oil well, the city of Los Angeles was on alert. In the early morning hours of February 25th, something caused numerous stations to fire anti-aircraft guns t...

Send us Fan Mail With dozens of well-known classics, beloved by children and adults everywhere, what caused so many to become upset with Dr. Seuss? Why did Seuss Enterprises pull six of his books off the shelves? Was Theodor Seuss Geisel more of a Lorax or a Grinch?  Episode 54 dives into some little-known (darker) facts about one of the country's best-selling children's authors.   Suppo...

Send us Fan Mail Jack be nimble... Jack Sprat... Jack and the Beanstalk... Why is the name Jack used so often in English folklore and fairytales? And then comes Jack the Ripper and finally Spring-Heeled Jack.  Dive into episode 53 and learn about the terror of the 1800s who could breathe fire and jump over 10-foot walls.  Spring-Heeled Jack, man, monster or myth? Support the show

Send us Fan Mail In 1929 a little-known case rocked the city of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Eugene and Pearl Burgess believed that an old neighbor and family friend, Mrs. Etta Fairchild, was a witch and would soon put hexes on their household or worse yet, murder them one by one.  They did the only thing they could think to do. Murder her first.  The case rocked the city and soon spread across the nation...

Send us Fan Mail Hear the last written letters from some important people in history. While sad, they are evidence of the power of handwritten letters over what modern technology offers today.  The last written thoughts of Anne Boleyn, Marie Antoinette, Wild Bill Hickok, Sullivan Ballou, Vincent van Gogh, Virginia Woolf, and Ernest Hemingway are featured in this episode.  Support the show

Send us Fan Mail We celebrate our 50th episode and Halloween with a reading of "The Red Room" by science fiction legend, H.G. Wells. Few people know that Wells liked to dabble in horror from time to time.  Hear Curator135 read one of his spooky tales from the late 1800s.  This story explains that sometimes the scariest moments in life are created in your own brain.  Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Where did Halloween come from? Why am I so afraid of Haunted Houses when I love everything else about the holiday? And... Why do so many strange murders and deaths happen around the end of October?  Join Curator 135 as he discusses Halloween-themed murder, tragedy, and events that have shaped what we know as Halloween today. From Devil's Night to a psychic vision from David B...

Send us Fan Mail Truth is often stranger than fiction. Maybe that's why so many of your favorite scary movies were inspired by actual events. From 'The Birds' to 'Scream', every great idea comes from somewhere.  Find out about some of Curator 135's favorite horror films based on actual events and dive into one in particular. "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" i...

Send us Fan Mail Nowadays, epidemics and pandemics can travel the globe in days. But how did things like the Plague travel from continent to continent in the late 1800s? Learn about the S.S. Nippon Maru and how it carried the Bubonic plague from China to Japan to Hawaii before finally reaching the port of San Francisco.  When you think of the plague, you think of medieval times and the Black Death...

Send us Fan Mail From codpieces to leeches, poison facial cream to crocodile poo, the fashion and beauty worlds have seen it all. Travel through the ages and find out what some of the strangest and most dangerous fashion and beauty trends were.  If you want to be like Queen Elizabeth, shave your eyebrows. If you want to be like Marie Antoinette, where thin, skin-tight dresses in the winter.  Be ca...

Send us Fan Mail The 1980's were fun for some. Not so much for others.  Hear how the Satanic Panic took over a nation and potentially took the lives of a young boyfriend and girlfriend in Texas. A story that grabbed the attention of a nation thanks to Unsolved Mysteries. A story that has still never been solved.  Part 3 of the 1980's Series. Support the show

Send us Fan Mail In 1982 a madman brought the nation's economy to its knees. By pulling apart Tylenol capsules and placing a substance inside that killed seven people without warning, Johnson & Johnson lost million dollars and began a nationwide recall of a product that nearly every household owned.  Learn about the con-man they thought was responsible and the nearly 40-year investigation...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when a town bully pushes residents past their breaking point? Find out what became of Ken Rex McElroy after thirty-some years of feeling invincible in the tiny town of Skidmore, Missouri. When a town or city has no law enforcement of its own, is it safe to leave the citizens in charge of handing out justice?  Part one of a series of bizarre stories from the 1980s. Do...

Send us Fan Mail In our last episode we touched on the first half of our top ten music related curses. Episode 42 delivers the top 5 curses in music history. Buddy Holly, Fleetwood Mac, the Glass Armonica, Robert Johnson and the 27 Club.  Do you believe? Or is it all just a series of coincidences?  Can songs be haunted? Can one death cause countless more? Can an instrument created by Ben Franklin...

Send us Fan Mail In part one of the Musical Maledictions episode, we will learn about John Lennon's history with the number 9. How Jan and Dean created a song that jinxed one of the members so bad they nearly died. We'll discuss the Devil's Trill, Sonata No. 6, and a whole lot more. Curses in music, real or really made up? Apologies for my voice in this one, I'm on my eighth da...

Send us Fan Mail In the early 1900s alternative healing practices and occult beliefs were all the rage. Voodoo and Satanism washed over the United States as people began to look outside of the church for answers. Benny Evangelist and Aurelius Angelino were two Italian immigrants looking for a fresh start in America.  Both became interested in the occult and both of their families suffered for it. ...