Autumn's Oddities

From plane crashes to assassinations, overdoses to terrible illness, the Kennedy family has been struck by a bizarre amount of devastating tragedies over the years. After a car crash in 1969, Ted Kennedy, who had by this point lost 4 of his siblings under tragic circumstances, wondered aloud if “some awful curse did actually hang over all the Kennedys”. The sheer number of tragic illnesses and dea...

It has over 160 rooms, 40 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, but only one shower. It has stairs that lead to the ceiling, and doors that, when stepped through, will drop you a story or more. It has 10,000 windows, a number of which are placed on inside walls, including a $1500, $40,000 in today’s money, stained glass window made by one of the most expensive companies in the world, Tiffany. This is the Winche...

19-year-old Keith Warren was found hanged by the neck in a wooded area behind a townhouse in 1986. Before his mother was even notified, he was cut down and taken for embalming to a funeral home. There was no autopsy or toxicological testing done before ruling his death a suicide. This is by far the most bizarre death scene and surrounding set of circumstances that I've ever covered. SOURCES https:...

After a concert at the St. Augustine Amphitheater in 2010, Michelle O'Connell and Jeremy Banks headed home with some friends. Minutes after their friends left, Banks claims that Michelle O'Connell found his service weapon and shot herself with it. When St. John's County Sheriff's Office arrived on the scene, they recognized Banks as one of their very own deputies. This is another case where there...

In part two of Jill Wells' case, I get into the findings of her reopened case and the fate of Mike Wells. Sadly, this case is still open, so it's not the kind of resolution we're hoping for. Promo: Batwings & Butterflies SOURCES https://more.ppld.org/SpecialCollections/Index/ArticleOrders/2017/07/907498.pdf https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/20785172/jill-wells https://www.scribd.com/document/328...

Jill Wells was shot and killed under suspicious circumstances, allegedly by her 6-year-old son, when her husband Mike Wells turned his back at target practice. But the investigation wrapped up in under 2 hours by the Sheriff's Office and no autopsy was performed, they just took Mike's story at face value. Jill's family never accepted the story they were told because of a potential affair and a lif...

On December 10, 2003, the Whitaker family of Sugar Land, Texas walked into an ambush in their own home after a graduation dinner for their son, Bart. It was clear that someone wanted it to look like a robbery gone wrong, but it became quickly apparent that this was a hired hit. Promo: Ye Olde Crime Podcast SOURCES Savage Son – September 26, 2017; book by Corey Mitchell https://abcnews.go.com/US/ma...

Gail Katz-Bierenbaum was last seen at the Upper East Side Manhattan apartment she shared with her husband, Dr. Robert "Bob" Bierenbaum, on July 7, 1985. Bob claimed that he and Gail argued that morning and Gail walked out of their apartment on east 85th Street to sunbathe in Central Park. Gail has never been heard from again. Investigators believed that Robert was involved in Gail's disappearance...

Happy Valentine's Day! This isn't a romantic tale, if you want to hear something romantic, albeit twisted, check out my Patreon episodes on Carl Tanzler. The conclusion of the Satanic Panic riddled investigation into Jeanette DePalma's death and the introduction of a potential serial killer targeting young women hitchhiking in New Jersey. Promo: Let's Start a Cult SOURCESDeath...

When 16-year-old Jeanette DePalma's body was found on a cliff aptly named The Devil's Teeth, the police were sure that her murder was related to witchcraft. There was Satanic and occult imagery surrounding her badly decomposed body. The only problem is, many of the people who viewed the crime scene claim that no such symbolism existed. This is a twisted case of Satanic Panic that leads i...

When Clairvius Narcisse was admitted to the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, he was suffering from a sudden onset illness. His condition deteriorated rapidly and he fell into a coma. Two days later, on May 2, 1962, he was declared dead by two attending physicians, and his sister Angelina identified his body. Narcisse was buried in a small cemetery near their village of I’Estere...

In the conclusion of the bizarre death of Rey Rivera, I get into the infamous "note" and some theories on what could have happened if his death weren't a suicide.  Bust out your tinfoil hat, because there are some wild theories! Promo: Batwings & ButterfliesSOURCESAn Unexplained Death: The True Story of a Body at the Belvedere – Deckle Edge, November 6, 2018by Mikita Brottman REY RIVERA, SUIC...

Loving husband Rey Rivera got a phone call that sends him running from his Baltimore home and he never returned. Days later, his body was found beneath a hole in the Hotel Belvedere and investigators quickly leaned toward suicide. But the injuries don't match a fall from a great height and Rey wasn't suicidal. In the weeks before his death, he had become paranoid and wrote a strange note...

A woman is found burned alive in the remote mountains of Isdal, Norway. Identifying her turned out to be impossible because she sanded off her own fingerprints and removed all labels from clothing and objects in her possession. The police ruled her death a suicide because of drugs found in her body, but a plethora of Cold War era evidence led many to theorize that the Isdal Woman was a spy or an i...

On Feb. 19, 2013, a maintenance worker at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles made a gruesome discovery in the building's main water tank: the body of missing 21-year-old Canadian student, and hotel guest, Elisa Lam. Hotel guests had been complaining of foul-smelling water and low pressure, which prompted a search of the tanks. In the days prior to her disappearance, Elisa had exhibited odd behavi...

To those who didn’t know them, Ryan Poston and Shayna Hubers seemed like one of those couples you love to hate on social media. He was a handsome 29-year-old Cincinnati attorney. She was beautiful, young, and a gifted student. Their romance began like a tale as old as time when he added her on Facebook after stumbling across her bikini spring break pictures and slid into her DM's. Soon, they...

Well, this is it, this is the last iteration of my Urban Legends series, ending it with the Western and Northwestern regions of the U.S. The legends included today are from Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon,  Nevada, California, Alaska, and Hawaii, so you know they're good just there's too much land mass to not have weird happenings! SOURCES http://www2.hawaii.edu/~hawnpac/libg...

Fill up the tank because we're traversing the vast Southwest U.S. as we continue on our Urban Legends trip. This episode features the lore of Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona, so bust out your cowboy boots and try not to lock eyes with any skinwalkers! SOURCESGhosthunting Colorado (America's Haunted Road Trip) Paperback – September 13, 2016; book by Kailyn LambGho...

I'm back from the brink of death and ready to continue the legend trip, while semi-medicated, through The Northeast United States. This episode explores the legends of the oldest parts of the U.S., including Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. SOURCESNew England's Things That Go Bump In The (...

Let's continue on our road trip across the creepiest parts of the United States with part two of the Urban Legends Series. This time I'm covering the tales of the Midwest, including Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota. I don't know if you're ready for some of these because the Midwest has some of...

Happy New Year's Eve! Part one of my Urban Legends Series takes us to the Southeast Region of the U.S.: West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana. Hold on to your fried chicken and sweet tea, I'm covering everything from the Goat Man of Pope Lick to Mothman to Lake Lanier, y'all! SOURCESEncycloped...

All Sameena Imam wanted for Christmas was to spend the holiday with her boyfriend, Roger Cooper.  But Roger was leading a double life, with a long-time partner at home, and he wasn't planning on giving her up. He told Sameena they were going to be together and that he was leaving his partner.  But in reality, he and his brother David were plotting to kill Sameena and communicating using Star...

We all know the holiday customs of our own cultures and religions, but do your traditions involve witches, demons, giant cats, or sauna elves? Let's take an educational and festive trip around the world to learn about traditions, cryptids, and lore that make the holidays special. SOURCES https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/kfc-christmas-tradition-japan/index.htmlhttps://guidetoiceland.is/histo...

 Did you ever stop to think about the fact that if Santa Claus were real, how many crimes would this guy be committing? Well, the answer to that question is that he would be breaking A LOT of federal and state laws and committing a giant sack full of crimes. Tis' the season for breaking and entering! So shut your chimney flu and turn on your security system, because today I’m covering the Cri...

This week I'm kicking off our fun old-fashioned Christmas with an old-timey triple murder, again, in Kentucky. On Christmas Eve 1881, the bodies of three teenagers were found in their burned-down home.  But the fire wasn't an accident, it was set intentionally to cover a terrible crime. The men responsible were eventually brought to justice, but not before multiple citizen-lead militias...