Astonishing Legends

Was Anneliese Michel truly possessed by demonic forces, or was she suffering from a more earthly psychological affliction such as an extreme case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder with Scrupulosity, epilepsy, PTSD or Anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis? Tonight we examine this case from the solely scientific, clinical angle with our interview of Dr. Jennifer Sy, Ph. D. of the Houston OCD Program. Dr. S...

When considering the answer to the question, "Who or what was responsible for the death of Anneliese Michel?" as with all mysteries it is best to consider every opinion, especially an informed one.  Tonight we interview Father John Duffey, author of the book, Lessons Learned: The Anneliese Michel Exorcism: The Implementation of a Safe and Thorough Examination, Determination, and Exorcism of Demoni...

The legal systems of Western societies have no place for, nor consideration of, the offenses of the spiritual world. Neither does the spirit world have regard for the laws of men. These factors make the case of the death of Anneliese Michel so fascinating, so compelling, so confounding and ultimately so tragic, that it remains one of the benchmark legal cases for determining negligent culpability...

Southern New Jersey is steeped in the legend of The Jersey Devil, with the eponymous rascal inspiring everything from the names of businesses to stickers and T-shirts for tourists.  But as one "South Jersey" native has informed us, The Pine Barrens themselves may be nothing like what outsiders envision, with most of it being "lush, green and beautiful" and a joy to explore.  Also, maybe almost no...

They say if you meet someone from New Jersey, Pennsylvania or New York, you don't ask them if they've heard of the "Jersey Devil," you ask them if they've had some kind of encounter with it. The legend of the curious cryptid is so prolific, they've no doubt heard of it, and if they've spent any time near the Pine Barrens of "The Garden State," more often than not you'll find they've experienced so...

Most of us go on about our lives, enjoying the predictable routine of family, work, and if we're lucky, a little bit of leisure. Usually, nothing too out of the ordinary happens from day to day, and although it may seem dull, we forget it's also comforting. But if you're Orfeo Angelucci – aerospace worker, family man, thoughtful but average citizen, one day you get contacted by a race of advanced,...

Tonight we have a conversation with screenwriter and producer Richard Hatem, known for such Motion Picture and Television projects as The Mothman Prophecies, Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, Grimm, Damien, Supernatural, Witches of East End, The Gates and many, many others.  We discuss with Rich his approach to adapting John Keel's book, The Mothman Prophecies for the Big Screen, the larger concepts...

BACKGROUND: The logging town of Pere Cheney, Michigan once showed a lot of promise as a place where hardworking men and women of the late 19th century could raise a family — that is until two epidemics of diphtheria and devastating fires reduced it to a ghost town. And if you believe the accounts of some visitors to the nearby cemetery, Pere Cheney's tragic fate doomed it to be an actual town of g...

The case of Henry Plummer represents the gray area between due process and necessary action, depending on whether you view a rise in criminal activity as a matter for the justice system no matter how lacking, or local imperium no matter how brutal.  In an interview with Frederick Allen, author of A Decent, Orderly Lynching: The Montana Vigilantes, we discuss his initial interest in the story, the...

The dual nature of Henry Plummer's character would leave us questioning his legacy and the legitimacy of his ending.  Was he simply an honest lawman reluctantly entangled in the rougher aspects of frontier justice or a downright robber and murderer with a badge?  There are authors who believe he was solely one or the other but there also seems to be ample circumstantial evidence that he was likely...

Henry Plummer was like so many young men who ventured into the frontier of mid-nineteenth century America; full of a spirit of adventure and eager to make their fortunes in the gold fields of the Old West.  Handsome, charismatic and ambitious, Plummer soon went from trying his hand at prospecting to a career in law enforcement and was even encouraged to enter California politics by his supporters....

Despite what you may see in today's eye-catching, "Clickbait" internet headlines, so few mysteries are ever really "Solved!"  But what if we could get an image, an impression, a hint of a location even, some kind of clue as to what happened with some of the great mysteries of our world?  There might be a way.  We were fortunate enough to interview Remote Viewing instructor Lori Williams and one of...

The timeline of events leading up to the disappearance of Flight 19 suggest, as with so many tragedies, that it was not just one mistake responsible for the ultimate loss of 27 airmen, but a series of minor miscommunications and faltering.  This is perhaps due to the ordinary and routine nature of the training mission, one that was not far from home base and one that wasn't supposed to go so wrong...

BACKGROUND At approximately 6:00 p.m. on 5 December 1945, an HF/DF signal fix was obtained for Flight 19, placing its location somewhere within a 100-mile radius off the east coast of Florida, but that would be the last trace of the squadron's existence.  It wouldn't be the last tragedy of this story.  Around 7:27 p.m., two Martin Mariner rescue planes were launched from NAS Banana River, FL to co...

BACKGROUND The fate of a US Naval training flight, designated as “Flight 19” remains one of the American military’s most enduring mysteries, but also one of the signature stories from the legendary region known as “The Bermuda Triangle.” On December 5, 1945, a squadron of five Grumman TBM Avenger torpedo bombers departed Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, Florida at 2:10 p.m. on what should have b...

BACKGROUND We know that Distance = Rate x Time but when one of the variables of that equation is altered beyond reason by some unimaginable force of nature, the result can challenge what we think we know about the natural world. This was the experience of pilot Bruce Gernon, who believes he encountered a rare, yet natural phenomenon during a routine flight from Andros Island in the Bahamas to Palm...

Background The mystery of “The Nazi Bell” or “Die Glocke” is only surpassed by its reported potential. The Germans had the knowledge to build an atomic weapon in Otto Hahn, the chemist who first split the uranium nucleus in 1938. The next year the Nazis had control of Europe’s only source of uranium ore when they acquired the mine at Joachimsthal while invading the rest of Czechoslovakia. But was...

In August of 1997, Polish journalist, military historian, researcher and author, Igor Witkowski claims to have been shown classified prisoner interrogation transcripts of German SS General Jakob Sporrenberg by a Polish Intelligence agent. What Witkowski discovered seemed to be official evacuation protocols for a secret Nazi research project concerning a device named “Die Glocke” which he referred...

There seems to be no doubt that the Count of Saint Germain existed, but how did he exist and for how long? There are levels to the incredulity of his story. It seems unlikely that one individual could possess so many varied talents, but the Count's most unlikely talent was living into his 80s while still looking to be in his 50s. If you're willing to go even further and believe the accounts of som...

If you wished you could do all the things the Count of Saint Germain could do, meet all the people he had met, and learn all the secrets of life he seemed to possess, and on top of it all, have several lifetimes to employ your skills, what then? The question is, what would you do with these gifts? Would you be content to merely be the life of the party, or would you try and make a difference in th...

Who's the most interesting person you've ever met? Can they play a musical instrument? Do they speak a foreign language? Are they a fine art painter? Have they traveled the world? Are they descended from royalty? Sure, maybe only a couple of those. But what if they were a concert level violinist who could also compose music? What if they could speak ten languages or more? What if it seemed they co...

Sometimes we get a second chance and sometimes it seems we had no chance at all. What we can count on getting is a cycle of the heartwarming followed by heartbreak, the mundane punctuated with despair and assuaged by moments of joy. But greater than our earthly concerns, the cycle of life continues. Birth follows death as spring follows winter. And within this cycle, every once in a while just to...

Life is fragile and an end comes for us all. But whether that end is labeled as mysterious, ironic, tragic, coincidental or altogether unremarkable, is something for those that survive us to decide. The path of life through the wilderness of our choices can be both rocky and smooth, so look where you're going because others will remember where you've been. Tonight's Quote: “The fear of death follo...

Astonishing Legends makes digital media and internet history with our first ever "live" YouTube streaming event! Frankly, we weren't sure any of it would work, so we really didn't announce we'd be doing it, but we thought it might be a fun way to interact with our listeners and answer some of their questions in a text chat stream, all while doing our usual rambling, digressing, and nervous stammer...

As we approach our Thanksgiving holiday here in the United States, Astonishing Legends would like to thank our fantastic fans from all over the world with our final Part 4B of The Mothman series - the rest of the conclusions. Not only did we think this would make a good bonus for our listeners, but an undivided Part 4 would've been, shall we say, monstrous. Of all the things to be thankful for thi...