Dark and Devious

You wake up in the middle of the night and there it is: a menacing presence that you can first feel and then see when you open your eyes. Scared like the dickens, you try to scream and bolt — but you can’t. It’s like you’re paralyzed or being held down by the evil presence. What in the world is happening? Three words: sleep paralysis demons. Listen now as Patrick gets personal and talks about the...

As the legend goes, Bloody Mary is easy to summon. All you have to do is stand in a dimly lit bathroom, stare into the mirror, and chant her name 3 times. “Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary…” Then, a ghostly woman is staring at you from within the mirror and she will haunt your forever, or even worse! But how did this Urban Legend get started? Could Bloody Mary have been inspired...

When an 8-year-old girl started her walk to school, her family could never have imagined the monster that awaited her at a church nearby. Cho Doo-soon became Korea's most hated man, and remain infamous as he moved back into the same neighborhood as his victim years later.

Early Christmas morning, December 25, 1945, tragedy struck the Sodder family in Fayetteville, Wes Virginia, when their house went up in flames. The parents and four children were able to escape, but five children disappeared. Did these kids die in the fire, or are they still out there somewhere? Someone must know something about this cold case from nearly 80 years ago.

Join us this week as Patrick tells the conclusion of the unsolved case of the Burger Chef Murders. In Speedway Indiana, 1978, after a string of uncommon violent crimes had occurred, four young victims were brutally murdered after being abducted from a Burger Chef restaurant. Jayne, Mark, Danny, and Ruth were taken from the restaurant and killed in what is believed to be a robbery gone wrong. Despi...

In Speedway Indiana, 1978, after a string of uncommon violent crimes had occurred, four young victims were brutally murdered after being abducted from a Burger Chef restaurant. Jayne, Mark, Danny, and Ruth were taken from the restaurant and killed in what is believed to be a robbery gone wrong. Despite eye witness testimony, a potential murder gang, and confessions from inmates, the quadruple homi...

Once again, we have another true tale from the collection Louisville Murder & Mayhem: Historic Crimes of Derby City by Keven McQueen. In 1892 Emma Austin and Eugenia Sherrill sat down to breakfast after a night of entertaining gentlemen callers, but by the afternoon both women were dead. Who killed these women? And what might their amorous neighbor downstairs have to do with it? Buckle up beca...

The Dark and Devious team has been doing some traveling lately and we're excited to bring you some tales collected from the road. Chris recently traveled to Louisville, Kentucky and found an excellent true crime volume called Louisville Murder & Mayhem: Historic Crimes of Derby City by Keven McQueen. Today's episode comes from a chapter from that book called "Chestnut Street's...

In the 1890s Upstate New York was shaken by the discovery of three bodies on the Halliday family's farm. Two women and one man were found murdered and what was even more shocking at the time was the prime suspect, the wife of the farm's owner:,Lizzie Halliday. A woman murderer was sensational enough for the time period, but soon enough her sanity became a major sticking point in her prosec...

In the middle ages, torture was used to extract information, force confessions, punish suspects, frighten opponents, and satisfy personal hatred. Modern day interrogation techniques have taken inspiration from Medieval Torture techniques, which itself took inspiration from the Ancient Greek and Egyptian cultures and practices. However, nothing practiced today, even the most extreme techniques, com...

Countess Elizabeth Bathory was a wealthy and powerful Hungarian noblewoman who reigned as supreme ruler throughout the early 1600s' in what now is present day Slovakia. In 1610 she was accused of gruesome acts of torture and serial murders beyond anyone's imagination. She was confined to her home, Castle Čachtice, where she remained until her death in 1614. Bathory is reputed to have kille...

Starved Rock State Park is a beautiful national park located in the State of Illinois, USA. The park is home to dark historical past, but today flourishes with beauty and awe. However, that dark past seemed to come back to life in the winter of 1960. In March of that year , Frances Murphy, Lillian Oetting, and Mildred Lindquist set off for a girls' trip. Just days later, the three women were f...

In the early 1950s Ann Woodward found herself at the top of the best dressed list and the wife of a banking heir. But her happiness at the top of the social ladder would not be for long. It all came crashing down one fateful night in October of 1954 when booze, pills, and paranoia resulted in a family tragedy. Ann was responsible for her husband's death, but later on she would cross paths with...

Betty Williams was a small town girl growing up in Odessa, Texas, in the the 1950's-60's. An outspoken feminist and voice for racial equality; she stuck out in the conformists small town she called home. She dreamed of moving to Hollywood with the intent of becoming s star. However, these dreams would never come true as she was subjected to a family that did not support her and bullying an...

Tamla Horsford was bright and loving, a devoted wife and mother of six.  She was an avid football fan and was looking forward to a night of fun with her fellow football moms. However, the adult themed slumber party would end in tragedy.  Tamla, was found dead the next morning and suspicion rose quickly as her race became a sticking point in the investigation. Despite multiple attemp...

In the fall of 2013, Gerald and Alice Uden were living comfortably on a farm in rural Missouri, set back a ways from the road and the rest of the world, living happily ever after.  They had both been married multiple times before, but when they found each other they knew it was a match made in Heaven....or was it? For 30 years they lived an ideal life, raising their daughter, Erica and now in...

In September of 1988, Tara Calico set out on a routine bike ride.  Her route was planned and predictable, yet she never came home.  She vanished, with only a few scraps of evidence left behind pointing to how, and why she was suddenly missing.  34 years later there is still no answer of where Tara went, and what happened on that fateful day. In this episode we'll discuss the case an...

As we explored on last week's episode, the Dozier School for Boys, located in Florida's panhandle had many accusations leveled against it. Survivors of the school rallied against the institution and it's brutal practices until the school was finally closed in 2011. But the story doesn't end there. When families of deceased children started looking for the remains of their loved ones a whole new ba...

The Arthur G. Dozier School For boys was once America's largest reform school. It operated for more than a century with the goal of setting "troubled" and "delinquent" boys on track to become respectable members of society. But what happened behind the doors of the school was not always well intended. Many suffered cruel punishment and abuse, and some even died while under the school's care. While...

Holidays are generally filled with love, good times, good food, and good cheer.  However not all family gatherings are as joyous as  everyone hopes.  On Christmas Day 1929, Charlie Lawson committed the chilling act of murdering his wife and 6 of his 7 children. What led to this horrific act of familicide and why are there still unanswered questions nearly 100 year later?  Liste...

On the morning after Christmas Day of 1996, 6 year old JonBenet Ramsey was found beaten and strangled to death in the basement of her family's home. At the time, the only other people known to be in the home were her parents, Patsy and John, and her brother, Burke. With little signs of forced entry from an intruder and with a very odd ransom note in possession, investigators weren't sure to look i...

We're not ready for Halloween season to be over yet, so we thought we'd continue on with one more Creepypasta to keep the spooky spirit in our hearts a little longer. This time, Patrick looks into the origins of a famous Creepypasta character that has haunted the internet for many years: Jeff the Killer and we get to hear one take on the killer's origin story.

Happy Halloween from Dark & Devious! Patrick and Chris are starting a new tradition and doing something a little different for today's episode and that is reading some spooky original stories from Creepypasta.com. We think you'll have as much fun as we did with the stories The Bag and Poppy's Peril . It'll be a scream!

It's almost Halloween and one of our favorite traditions here at Dark & Devious is to watch horror movies. These films frighten us by bringing the scariest events imaginable to life, but what happens when real life is just as scary as the movies? On this episode, Patrick shares the real life exorcism that inspired the film The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) and Chris will share stories of "curs...

Forests have been home to countless legends for ages - from folktales warning of evil spirits lurking behind the dark outlines of trees, to tales of innocent camping trips gone awry, the woods of the world can be a spooky place.  Join Chris and Patrick this week as they discuss two spooky woods: The Bennington Triangle in Vermont, USA and the "Suicide Forest" of Aokigahara in Japan.