Don't Look Now

This week we have multiple stories of cryptids from around the US.  There's always a fun story of the local creepy monster or legend to make kids out camping rethink their decisions when they wake up in the middle of the night.  This week we have everything from Sink Hold Sam to the Pope Lick Monster. Take a listen and learn about some of the more strange local legends both whimsical and sini...

My apologies for the late podcast this week... the blue screen of death reared its ugly head, but the computer issues are now fixed and the podcast is finally posted. Our topic this week is Amelia Elizabeth Hobley-Dyer, the Ogress of Reading.  A woman who made money "caring" for children of unwed mothers in Victorian England.  Unfortunately, this often meant her killing the children and...

Where did the people of Scotland come from?  The Picts were living in Scotland when the Romans arrived but where did they come from and who did they descend from?  Theorys abound: from home grown stories of them descending from an Egyptian queen to more conventional crossings of the Irish Sea by Gaelic peoples.  Take a listen and see what you think.

The ornate eggs that Faberge made for the imperial family of Russia are famous around the world. 52 eggs were made for the imperial family, and the majority of these are still around today, on display around the world in various collections.  However, some of the eggs are still missing and have from time to time been found in the strangest of places.  Take a listen, maybe you'll be the next t...

Daniel Dunglas Home (pronounced Hume) was a medium of the mid 19th century that gained fame in both Europe and the US for his ability to levitate and move objects during seances.  He became one of the most famous mediums of the spiritualist movement and had many high profile believers and doubters including Arthur Conan Doyle as a prominent believer and the poet Robert Browning as a prominent detr...

The concept of a Wendigo, a malevolent spirt that can cause someone to become an insatiable cannibal is a part of Algonquin Folklore that is both part cryptid and part culture-bound syndrome.  While the concept has entered the vernacular of the western world with horror movies and stories depicting it, it stems from the Algonquin culture where the threat of starvation in the winter woods was a ver...

This week's topic is the life of Margaret Brown, better known as The Unsinkable Molly Brown in mostly fictionalized accounts after her death.  Margaret was born in Hannibal, Missouri about 30 years after Mark Twain.  She is famed for her activism in social causes and for surviving the sinking of the titanic.  Take a listen and find out more about her facinating life.

Today's podcast is about one of the more light-hearted cryptids out there.  The mysterious jackalope, seen mounted on many walls but not often in the wild.  Take a listen and find out about this icon of the great plains.

Today's podcast has two topics: the miraculous staircase of the Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico and the vampires of New Orleans.  Both of which are linked, oddly enough, by their relationship to nuns.  

Andrew Cunanan was a serial murderer that killed five people during a crazed spree in 1997.  His most famous and final victim, other than himself, was Gianni Versace, the famed clothing designer.  What drove him to do what he did?  Listen in and see what you think.

The conclusion of our two part episode on Jim Jones and the People's Temple.  The People's Temple moves to California and problems begin in earnest.  The cult eventually moves to Guyana and creates the settlement of Jonestown where is slowly decays into human rights abuses and ultimately the Jonestown Massacre.  Don't drink the Flavor Aid.

We discuss the early life of Jim Jones, the cult leader most infamous for the mass murder/suicide of his followers at Jonestown in Guyana.  From his start in life as part of a desperately poor and dysfunctional family, to his alternately being a preacher, atheist, communist, civil rights crusader, and cult leader, his life seems to be a constant contradiction full of shifting positions.  Take a li...

Today's podcast deals with a couple of the lesser known cryptids of the United States: The Pukwudgies of the Massachusetts woods and the wand wielding frog people of Ohio.  Time for a little detour into the weird ;)

During and after World War I, a group of women living in Nagyrev, Hungary, used arsenic to poison up to 300 men.  The ringleader of the group was Zsuzanna Fazekas, a local midwife with a strangely missing husband.  The poisoning was initially aimed at abusive husbands, but eventually spread to parents of the women involved and thier own children.  

Our topic this week is the Marquise de Montespan, a noblewoman renowned for her beauty and with that became the mistress of King Louis XIV of France and one of the post powerful people in the country.  She was accused of being part of the "Affair of the Poisons" when it was revealed that a large chunk of the court of Louis XIV had been poisoning each other with the aid of Catherine Monvo...

Today's topic is the Roman Emperor Nero, or Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus to be more exact.  Most famous today for possibly enjoying the great fire of Rome a bit too much and for persecuting Christians afterwards, we take a look at the actual history.  What all did Nero get up to that has made him a villain to this day?  How much is true and how much is made up by political enemies...

This week out subject is out of body experiences.  There are estimates that up to 1 in 10 people have an out of body experience at some point, seeing yourself disconnect from an outside viewpoint, or feeling like you are not co-located with your body.  They are most closely associated with lucid dreaming and near death experiences, but can occur in may difference situations.  Most people agree tha...

In the midst of WWII, conflict broke out in Los Angeles between members of the navy and Mexican American youth stemming from tensions from a naval base being built over a primarily Mexican community and the young people in the community flaunting zoot suits that defied rationing laws.  In 1943 these tensions spilled over into violence as thousands of navy sailors began to attack anyone the could f...

The 369th Infantry Regiment, now known as the Harlem Hellfighers, or the Black Rattlers, was formed in the lead up to the US's entry into WWI as a regiment of black men predominantly from New York City and surrounding areas.  It ended up being the US unit that spent more time on the front lines of WWI then any other unit, being detached and assigned to French command, fighting with distinctio...

This week we have a couple of early tall tales or urban legends from the 18th and 19th century.  First up is Tarrare, a French street performer and sometime soldier that was constantly hungry, eating literally anything organic he could get his hands on.  The second being Edward Mordrake, a supposed heir to a wealthy family that had a second face on the back of his head that whispered bad things to...

This week we discuss Native American origin stories.  Just about every culture has a story for how the world was created that tells you something about it's core values and beliefs.  Many Native cultures in the Americas share a creation story involving the creation of the land on the back of a turtle.  For this reason, North America is sometimes referred to as Turtle Island.  Take a listen an...

In the late 60s people started reporting seeing the dead rising from Highgate Cemetery in London.  General wave of mass hysteria broke out leading mobs of people to flock to the cemetery with stakes to hunt the vampire.  It also produced one of the strangest rivalries between two occult "experts" who both claimed to have successfully hunted the vampire. 

There are legends among the Cherokee and other Native American tribes of a people that existed in North America well before the arrival of Columbus  that had very light skin and large "moon eyes".  Theories have abounded about who or what these Moon Eyed people were, from Albinos, to decedents of pre-Columbian  Welsh explorers, to Aliens (of course).  Take a listen and see what you think...

Mankind has been practicing many forms of body modification for tens of thousands of years.  Most are aware of things like piercings and tattoos, but there are some more extreme forms that have been used across the globe at different times by different societies.  One of these, is intentional cranial deformation, or skull shaping.  Many groups have bound the heads of their children to create a par...

One of the most enduring myths from the time of Spanish conquest of the New World is the take of El Dorado, the city of gold.  We discuss the actual historical roots of the myth and how the Spanish and other colonial powers began to dream of cities full of gold.