American Hauntings Podcast

The murder of Dean O’Banion – followed by the near-miss on John Torrio – became the opening battles in what would become the longest and bloodiest gang war in Chicago history. This wasn’t just gangland maneuvering, Hymie Weiss’ thirst for revenge – it went beyond all that. The control of the entire Chicago underworld was at stake.  Check out our new  American Hauntings Podcast Network  for even mo...

Two days before Halloween in 1987, 13-year-old Billie Lee Boyce was found behind a garage in Springfield, Illinois. She had left home two nights earlier and said she would be back in about an hour. She never returned. Her body was discovered near East Melrose Avenue, and her clothing was later recovered under a bridge along Fox Road. Police investigated. A suspect was arrested and charged. DNA tes...

Ghost stories recorded from friends and vendors at the 2026 Haunted America Conference. Check out our new  American Hauntings Podcast Network  for even more spooky shows. Have a question or comment? Text us on the Haunt Line @ 217-791-7859 New Facebook page -  https://www.facebook.com/troytayloroddities Check out our updated website and sign up for our newsletter at  AmericanHauntingsPodcast.com W...

An update from Troy Taylor about the status of AMERICAN NIGHTMARES and an explanation about why it hasn’t been in your feed lately. In mid-June suffered a series of strokes and has been on the mend ever since. But new episodes will be coming in July, so thanks for all your support and good wishes. If you’re feeling generous and would be willing to donate to the GO FUND ME for Troy’s medical recove...

Just as the door closed behind Capone, a long black car cruised slowly by. Inside the black car were North Siders Hymie Weiss, Vincent Drucci, and George Moran, all clutching shotguns and automatics. As they rolled up next to Capone’s car, the windows came down and they opened fire on Capone’s car. Bullets slammed into metal and windows shattered in the assault.  A policeman was later quoted as sa...

In 1976, a quiet farm home outside Lincoln, Illinois became the scene of one of Logan County’s most horrifying crimes. Lloyd, Phyllis, and Terri Schneider were murdered inside their own home, while two young survivors escaped into the darkness to get help. What followed was a disturbing case built around wealth, obsession, warning signs, courtroom testimony, and decades of fear every time Michael...

The Day the Music Died happened February 3, 1959, when a plane crash in Iowa claimed the lives of rock-n-roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. “Big Bopper” Richardson. But the plane crash didn’t affect just those who died on that terrible morning. In the wake of their deaths, a story began about a curse that was connected to Buddy Holly and his music. Legend has it that one of those mus...

On a cold December morning in 1969, a motorist pulled into an all-night Shell station near Glenarm, Illinois, along old Route 66. Inside, the counter was empty. In the storeroom, 18-year-old David Burch Jr. was found dead. What began as a late-night robbery became one of Sangamon County’s most haunting murder cases: a young attendant killed on the graveyard shift, a father and son accused of the c...

In the 1960s, Satanic Cinema took on a life of its own. Mostly left behind were the humorous portrayals and worn old tales that had already been told over and over again. New filmmakers were bringing the Devil to life onscreen through the works of Poe and H.P. Lovecraft and by way of both old curses and modern versions of witchcraft. But it would take Hammer Films – that bastion of gothic horror a...

“To hell with them Sicilians!” It was just an off-hand comment – a remark that was usually delivered with a smirk. Dean O’Banion and his North Siders were quick to say it. They didn’t care. The South Side mob, run by John Torrio and Al Capone, were tolerated – they weren’t pals. They were business associates and if it wasn’t for the money they made for O’Banion and his crew, they’d have nothing to...

In July of 1983, 17-year-old Kimberly McClaskey vanished while hitchhiking along Route 116 near London Mills, Illinois. The next day, her clothing and personal belongings were found floating in the Spoon River — but Kimberly was gone. Decades later, her remains would finally be identified, and her death ruled a homicide. This is the story of a small-town nightmare that never truly ended.    Check...

Based on the episodes that you’ve heard in this series, then you’re likely aware there are many stories of curses, superstitions, and creepy coincidences that have been interwoven into the fabric of the “Devil’s Music.” Some are silly and a bit of a stretch, some are eerie, and some – like the most famous music curse of the “27 Club” – are downright unnerving. In this episode, we’ll dig into the i...

Once the smoke cleared from the Cicero elections, Eddie Vogel – the underworld mover and shaker of the town, who gave orders to the mayor and other local officials – kept his promise to Torrio and Capone about gambling. On May 1, they opened the Cicero’s first bookmaking and gambling operation, the Hawthorne Smoke Shop, right next door to their Cicero headquarters, the Hawthorne Inn. Things were r...

Filmmakers in the 1950s didn’t completely abandon the dry and dusty lore of the Devil even if it did seem audiences were now much more inclined to see threats in the form of atomic bombs, little green men in flying saucers, and giant monsters unleashed by man’s experiments with radioactivity. A new obsession with science and outer space seemed to temporarily put the Devil on hold, largely pushing...

The call came in as a fire. What firefighters found inside was far worse. In March of 1994, three people were discovered dead inside a Westlawn Avenue home in Decatur, Illinois. The investigation led police to James David Dyer, a man already feared by one of the victims and already named in a court order.  This episode follows the threats, the violence, the chase, and the aftermath of a case that...

Before rock-n-roll started taking America by storm in the 1950s, you wouldn’t find a minister or holy roller anywhere in the country who didn’t refer to the blues as the “Devil’s Music.”  During the Middle Ages, the Church told people that any kind of music that wasn’t about God was the work of the Devil. That became a popular refrain for church leaders – then and sometimes now. By the early twent...

Check out our new American Hauntings Podcast Network for even more spooky shows. Have a question or comment? Text us on the Haunt Line @ 217-791-7859 New Facebook page -  https://www.facebook.com/troytayloroddities Check out our updated website and sign up for our newsletter at  AmericanHauntingsPodcast.com Want an episode every week, plus other awesome perks and discounts? Check out our  Patreon...

After keeping a low profile in the previous decade, the Devil made a comeback in the 1940s, when soon-to-be-war-weary audiences were both diverted and disturbed by satanic entertainment. Thanks to the darkness lurking in the world during those years, we shouldn’t be surprised to find there were a number of genuinely ominous visions of evil captured on celluloid at the time. Reflecting on those ter...

On a summer night in 1987, 22-year-old Brenda Sue Bottoms left her home in Auburn, Illinois for a short walk to a nearby tavern. Hours later, she was seen getting into a brown car with dents on the passenger side. She was never seen again. Nearly four decades later, investigators say new information has surfaced — including the possibility that more people witnessed Brenda’s final moments than ori...

The story of the murderous priest, Hans Schmidt, is one that has been seldom told, even though he may have been one of the most depraved criminals in American history. Scmidt left a trail of mayhem behind him in Germany when he came to the United States and he left death and destruction in his wake as he was moved from parish to parish around the country, keeping him one step ahead of rumors, accu...

There has always been something strange about music. It has captured the imaginations of people in ways that nothing else has ever been able to do. This was true during the days of traveling minstrels, when folk music emerged from the Appalachian Mountains, when the first jazz music was played in the brothels of New Orleans, and when the first bluegrass songs rattled across the American South. But...

As John Torrio was dividing up Chicago into territories so that the gangs could fairly supply the city with bootleg liquor, Al Capone was coming into his own in the Windy City... Check out our new American Hauntings Podcast Network for even more spooky shows. Have a question or comment? Text us on the Haunt Line @ 217-791-7859 New Facebook page -  https://www.facebook.com/troytayloroddities Check...

There were few faces as recognizable to anyone with an interest in the occult as his was in the twentieth century. His clean-shaven head and piercing eyes got the attention of everyone from would-be disciples in the 1920s to rock stars in the 1960s. Musicians like the Beatles put him on the cover of their Sgt. Pepper album and Ozzy Osborne used his name as the title of one of his songs. Jimmy Page...

A family is slaughtered in their beds. No forced entry. No warning. The only timeline comes from what three children ate for dinner. David Hendricks said he left town. Police said the clock told a different story. Convicted. Overturned. Acquitted. Four victims. No answers. Check out our new American Hauntings Podcast Network for even more spooky shows. Have a question or comment? Text us on the Ha...

American pop culture in the 1920s and 1930s was on the verge of a new sort of entertainment. Cultural shifts and breakthroughs in technology had led to a steady stream of new kinds of books, comics, music, and magazines, but it would be film that transformed popular culture forever. The ghostly images watched with strangers in the dark proved to be powerful enough to incite as well as to entertain...