History Goes Bump: Ghost Tours For The Mind

We always try to pick a fun theme for our Halloween Special and this year we thought we would feature Halloween Music. Not just the music one might hear in a horror movie - and we will definitely talk about some of that - but music made specifically for Halloween. There is a whole history to what some may call "Monster Music" that goes from fun novelty songs to Goth Punk and even the disturbing. J...

Can there be anything more terrifying than a monster that can swoop down out of the sky and attack? Perhaps even pick you up? Probably the most famous scary flying creature of American lore is Mothman, but the pterodactyl would have to be the most petrifying flying monster in the history of the world. But to be sure, neither of these creatures have feathers. They seemed to fly with bat-like wings....

On the podcast, we have covered the Salem Witch Trials and other witch hunts in America and Europe. When we originally produced the Witches in America episode, we touched on a couple of the witch hunts that took place before the Salem outbreak, some Native American witches and then a couple of infamous witches, the River Witch of Marietta and the Bell Witch. We are still going to include some of t...

We all have our favorite numbers that we consider to be lucky. There are numbers that some steer clear of because of superstitious beliefs or bad experiences. Numbers mark important dates and can be symbolic. Nearly everything is based on mathematics whether it is engineering a bridge, building a house, counting items, creating a computer program and so much more. Numbers are important to humans....

Chatham in Kent has many haunted locations with most of them being connected to battle, war and the military. There were six forts built here to protect the Chatham Dockyard from attacks, particularly by Napoleon Bonaparte. Several of those forts are haunted and the Dockyard is probably the most haunted location in Chatham. Join us for the history and hauntings of Chatham! This Month in History fe...

Prisons are notorious for being haunted. They are places of such strong emotion, that isn't surprising. There are a couple of areas of jails that lend themselves more to haunting activity: solitary confinement and Death Row. Whether one supports the death penalty or not, there is no question that some people commit such heinous crimes that it is hard to imagine, that anything else could be justice...

Cemeteries just lend themselves to ghost stories. There is hardly a town that doesn't have that one cemetery that has a legend or myth connected to it. These legends are hard to prove, but even without evidence they have staying power. And most people like to believe that their loved ones hang around even after they've died, so why not hang out at the cemetery where they're buried. In this 31st ep...

Many believe that Glamis Castle is the most beautiful castle in Scotland. This castle has stood for 650 years and dates back to the 14th century, remaining in the hands of one family for centuries. That family is the Bowes-Lyons Family, now known as the Earls of Strathmore. Members of the Royal Family are among that number. Not only is there a deep history to the land, but legends and lore abound...

Is it possible that Yahweh might have a special group that he runs ideas by or likes to have around as witnesses? Something like a Board of Directors? There are scholars who believe that Yahweh has something like a Divine Council and the Bible does seem to support that belief. Who are the entities that make up this council? How many are there? Where do they meet? Could this Divine Council be the S...

The Mizpah Hotel has been voted the number one haunted hotel by a couple of publications. Not surprising for a hotel that has stood for 120 years. And it's been able to stand this long because this is one strong hotel. This building was formed from concrete, stone and brick in the Nevada town of Tonopah near the height of its mining boom. The lighted sign that sits on the roof can be seen from mil...

Gravediggers have a special place in our hearts, obviously. Our pseudo-mascot, Mort, is a gravedigger. For centuries, gravediggers have been stigmatized because of their association with the dead, which makes them seem soiled. But the truth is, we need gravediggers. They perform a very important and needed task and have literally risked their lives to the benefit of the rest of humanity through th...

There are two main Spiritualist Camps in America dating back to the Victorian Era: Lilydale in New York and Cassadaga in Florida. We've visited Cassadaga several times, which is known as the Psychic Capital of the World. Almost as often as St. Augustine, and like St. Augustine, Cassadaga oozes spiritual energy. While some people might think that Spiritualism was just a craze during the Victorian E...

This Redux originally was going to be about Pittsburgh's Federal Courthouse, but when we learned that just down the same street was Allegheny County's Courthouse and the Allegheny County Jail was just across from that, we figured, why not do all these haunted law-adjacent buildings? So that's what we have for you here. The Federal Courthouse is the newest building and yet, it still manages to have...

The Rapture. It's a pretty weird event. In the blink of an eye, millions – perhaps billions - of people just disappear. In the Christian religion, the Rapture is an event that is believed will take place during the end times and before the Second Coming of Yeshua when He returns to the Earth in judgement. But is the Rapture taught in the Bible? Along with the Rapture, many Christian denominations...

Pianist and singer Liberace was one-of-a-kind with big dimples, pompadour hair, huge rings on his fingers and expensive and flamboyant suits and capes. No one had his flair or style and he had a great dynamic with his audience, proclaiming often that he agreed with Mae West when she said, "Too much of a good thing, is wonderful." He was once the highest paid entertainer in the world. When one thin...

Many of us have some family ancestry that has left us with skeletons in our closets? For Lindsay, that family ancestry included the Doan Gang. The Doan Gang was no small entity. There were at least 60 members of this gang and many of them were from the Doan family, hence the gang's name. Some went to prison, some escaped and some were executed. Despite being Quakers, they took part in a variety of...

Thirty minutes north of Kansas City is Excelsior Springs, Missouri. This town was formed around natural springs that attracted Native American populations for centuries. Europeans eventually discovered them, settled here and marketed the waters for what they believed were their curative effects. The Elms Hotel was one of several lodgings offered in the city. The location burned down twice before t...

The city of San Antonio is beautiful and its River Walk is famous. The historic Gunter Hotel sits along that River Walk. That spot has hosted a hotel for nearly 190 years. The Gunter itself was built in 1909 and stands 11 stories. The hotel provides high end accommodations and amenities, one of which is an old time barber shop. There is more than meets the eye at the Gunter Hotel though. The histo...

Every culture claims among its earliest stories, the tale of a great flood that wipes out humanity. The tale of a great flood seems to have first been written down in the Epic of Gilgamesh. As is the case with myths and legends, when multiple cultures share stories, it lends credence to the idea that there is truth to the tale. Such is the case with Noah's Flood and the ark he built to survive tha...

The visually stunning Margam Castle is located in Margam, Wales and while the 269,000 square foot structure resembles a castle, it really is technically just a country house. A very large country house. The reason it is referred to as a castle though is because it was made to look like a castle complete with an octagonal tower, turrets and battlements. While this was never a fortification, there a...

Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta is a magical place. This is not only a garden of the dead, but a garden for the living. For 175 years, Oakland has been a burial place for the deceased of Atlanta and while it isn't officially an arboretum, there are dozens of varieties of trees and hundreds of flowers. Unique monuments, memorials and mausoleums dot the landscape that has been carved out with red brick...

The town of Crystal River in Florida is the home of the manatee. This is where they can be found in the winter, congregating in the natural springs found in the area. Those springs attracted indigenous people as well and some of them left behind their mounds. These not only have cultural and historic interest, but they have paranormal activity as well, which we discovered for ourselves. There are...

Springfield, Missouri will soon be celebrating its 200th anniversary. We've covered the haunted Pythian Castle that is here and back in 2015, we also featured the Landers Theater. This is a typical theater, meaning it has ghosts. There's just something about the emotions that are displayed on the stage and evoked in the audience that causes unexplained activity. Landers has stood for decades and s...

Horses are magnificent and beautiful creatures and, in the Bible, they have an important place. For the Israelites, these were mainly work animals. For YHWH, this is the animal that Christ will return upon to defeat His enemies. Four horses and the creatures that ride them, figure heavily into the prophetic images and statements made in the Book of Revelation. We know them commonly as the "Four Ho...

Our listener Celia hails from South Africa and she wrote us about an experience she had at a historic museum located in the capital city of Pretoria. It's an awesome ghost story and we wondered if there were other haunted locations in Pretoria and sure enough, we found some! South Africa has only come up on the podcast one other time in all these years, so it was definitely time to revisit this co...