TwistedPhilly

Episode 70 – Originally Released January 2019 Content warning: this episode contains discussions about drug use and addiction. Listener discretion is advised. One night in October 2017, a young woman from New Jersey drove along route 95, a major highway on the east coast.   Her story went something like this: she was on her way home from visiting a friend in Philadelphia and her ca...

Episode 69 – Originally Released January 2019 As we turn the page on another year, many of us take time to reflect on events of the past 12 months.  We look at events in our own lives, our families, our friends, and we look at the world around us, considering the good, the bad and the ugly of 2018. With that in mind, I’ve curated a collection of some of the best, the worst, the craziest and u...

Episode 68 – Originally Published in December 2018 Content warning: this episode includes adult subject matter including discussions about domestic violence and murder.  Listener discretion is advised. Do you know the moment a relationship goes bad?  Is it one moment or thousands of little moments, or big ones, that add up over time?  Do 5 years or 10 years or 20 years eventually c...

Episode 67 – Originally Released December 2018 It’s hard to believe the last time Irene Levy Baker was a guest on TwistedPhilly was almost two years ago!  When we first sat down, Irene  just released her book 100 Things To Do In Philadelphia Before You Die.  Since then Irene has been hard at work on her second book: Unique Eats and Eateries of Philadelphia. Irene Levy Ba...

Episode 66 – Originally Released November 2018 Content warning: This episode contains adult subject matter including discussions about mass shooting. Additional content warnings are contained within the episode.  Listener discretion is advised. On the morning of September 6, 1949, 28 year old East Camden resident Howard Unruh shot 16 people in 15 minutes, killing 13 and severely injurin...

Episode 65 – Originally Released October 2018 Content warning: This episode contains adult subject matter including discussions child abduction, child sexual abuse and murder. Listener discretion is advised. On Friday morning, October 30, 1992, the battered body of eleven year old Shauna Howe was found in a shallow creek bed a few miles outside the town of Oil City, Pennsylvania.  &nbsp...

Episode 64 – Originally Released October 2018 Content warning: This episode contains adult subject matter including discussions about domestic violence and murder.  Listener discretion is advised. When the Blair Witch Project hit the big screens, many independent filmmakers had aspirations of creating the next big found footage horror movie.  That was especially true for 25-year-old Blai...

Episode 63 – Originally Released September 2018 At the very bottom of New Jersey is a tiny Victorian town called Cape May.  This is my home away from home.  Filled with historic charm, and “painted ladies” – what we affectionately call the vibrant Victorian homes – you feel as if you’re transported back in time to the 1800s.   One particular house...

Episode 62 – Originally Released September 2018 with Special Guest Cohost Margo D, cohost of Book vs. Movie podcast, Dorking Out Podcast and the What a Creep Podcast Content warning: This episode contains adult subject matter including discussions about abduction, missing persons including missing children and murder.  Listener discretion is advised. Susan Reinert was an English teacher at Up...

Episode 61 – Originally Released September 2018 It’s back to school for many students across the country and in this episode we’re going to Kutztown, PA, where we’ll visit Old Main, one of the oldest and most recognizable buildings on Kutztown University campus.  We’ll talk about the history of the university, including the haunted history of Old Main, where the ghost...

Episode 60 – Originally Released August 2018 I love the idea of sneaking away unexpectedly for a few days, dropping off the grid, turning off the phone, and shutting out the world. Provided you don’t fake your own kidnapping to do it. That’s what happened on Tuesday, May 26, 2009, when Bucks County Pennsylvania resident Bonnie Sweeten called 911 from the trunk of a car.  She said she’d...

Episode 59 – Originally Released August 2018 There is nothing I love more than being a tourist in my own city.  You hear me talk about that in so many episodes.  I wander City Hall every chance I get.  I stop at every blue and yellow historical marker, I know the obvious history and tourist attractions, but even more I love the not so obvious moments in history, and the not so obvio...

Episode 58 – Originally Published July 2018 There is a house in Northeast Pennsylvania, on a quiet residential street, with one of the worst haunted histories in our country.  It’s been compared to the Amityville Horror House.  This two story brick home with  three small windows on the second floor, what was once a charming front porch and a little yard in the back, was a nigh...

Episode 57 – Originally Published July 2017 Content warning: This episode contains adult subject matter including discussions about death as a result of suicide.  Listener discretion is advised. On Sunday, July 1, 2018, I had the pleasure of participating in the 6th Annual Philly Podcast Festival.  This was my second year in the festival and my second time back at the best bar in Philly,...

Episode 56 – Originally Published June 2018 Content warning: This episode contains adult subject matter including sexual assault and murder, which may be upsetting to some listeners.  Listener discretion is advised. On November 21, 2014, 33-year-old Jessica Padgett from Northampton County, Pennsylvania, ran an errand on her lunch break.  Her coworkers at Duck Duck Goose Child Care expect...

Episode 55 – Originally Published May 2018 Content warning: This episode contains adult subject matter including discussions of traumatic accidents resulting in death, which may be upsetting to some listeners.  Listener discretion is advised. Ride the Ducks landed in Philly in 2003.  The company had been around for over 30 years, primarily operating on land and water in more rural areas,...

Episode 54 – Originally Published May 2018 In this episode we get a little spooky, a little scary, and certainly twisted.  Twisted Legends features two Pennsylvania legends: The Green Man from our “west coast” outside of Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia’s Bus to Nowhere, a Philly legend that scares me to my core.  These stories were part of the live broadcast Live Str...

Originally Published May 2018 Content warning: This episode contains adult subject matter, including the death of a young mother, which may be upsetting to some listeners.  Listener discretion is advised. On Tuesday, April 29, 1997, 29-year-old Stefanie Rabinowitz and her husband Craig went out to dinner with her parents to celebrate the end of Passover.  After they returned home Craig a...

Episode 52 – Originally Published April 2018 In Old City, Philadelphia, there’s a tiny little street that can’t even be called a street.  It’s an alley, barely wide enough for a small cart to pass through; Elfreth’s Alley. Elfreth’s Alley is the oldest continuously inhabited street in America.  Other cites like to boast they have the oldest street in the cou...

Episode 51 – Originally Published April 2018 Content Warning: This episode contains adult subject matter, including discussions about addiction, relapse and overdose, as well as murder, which may be upsetting to some listeners.  Listener discretion is advised. During my research about the Kensington Strangler I found a case I’d never heard of before; the death of Allison Edwards. ...

Episode 50 – Originally Published April 2018 Content Warning: This episode contains adult subject matter, including discussions about addiction, sexual assault and murder, which may be upsetting to some listeners.  Listener discretion is advised. On December 9, 2010, a headline in the Philadelphia daily news read “For Hookers, fear of attack is a constant companion.” Hookers.  This head...

Episode 49 – Originally Published March 2018 On Thursday, December 9, 1965, a strange object was sighted over Canada.  This object passed into the United States, creating sonic booms as it moved.  Witnesses reported seeing fire in the sky, trailing behind a bell shaped craft moving eastward across the US until it crossed into Pennsylvania and landed in a remote village outside of P...

Episode 48 – Originally Published February 2018 There are so many elements that contribute to the legend of Groundhog Day and n this episode we’ll travel a circuitous route over a few hundred years of Pennsylvania history mixed with pagan traditions, Christian celebrations and Indigenous folklore. Groundhog Day is the one day each year when the residents of the Keystone state turn to a...

Episode 47 – Originally Published January 2018 Content Warning: This episode contains adult subject matter, including discussions about depression, mental health struggles, suicide and murder, which may be upsetting to some listeners.  Listener discretion is advised. In the early morning hours on Saturday, May 11, 2007, a teenage boy made his way through the dark, across back yards in Manhei...

Episode 46 – Originally Published January 2018 Content Warning: This episode contains adult subject matter, including discussions about depression, mental health struggles and murder, which may be upsetting to some listeners.  Listener discretion is advised. In the early morning hours on Saturday, May 11, 2007, a teenage boy made his way through the dark, across back yards in Manheim, PA, located...