Pennsylvania Oddities

The coincidental timing of the science fiction craze and the Cold War inspired millions of Americans to keep their eyes glued to the night sky for Soviet missiles, flying saucers, and all things in between in the decade following World War II. Just three years after the Roswell crash, a peculiar UFO sighting in Clearfield County on March 15, 1950, made national headlines. The fact that this "flyin...

The trials and tribulations of Albert Large, a Civil War-era hermit who found peace living inside a hilltop cave... that is, until his hideaway was discovered by nosy locals.

In a lonesome spot on North Mahanoy Mountain, near the No. 3 Reservoir on Waste House Run, lies a grave with a peculiar history. This is the final resting place of Jost Folhaber, a Jewish-German merchant who became the first known murder victim in Schuylkill County. This spot, known locally as "Peddler's Grave", has been one of the Coal Region's best-kept secrets ever since Folhaber's gruesome dea...

Peter Hauntz was the stage name of James H. Sharp, a Civil War veteran from Clinton County who rose to prominence during the latter half of the 19th century as a master puppeteer, ventriloquist, magician and stage performer. Trained in the German tradition of the famed Eisenstadt Puppet Theatre by Professor de Rotschkoff-- a man who believed the key to making realistic puppets was by using real hu...

In 1884, a peculiar series of murder trials took place in Cambria County. Two men, both of whom were named Mickey, were convicted of murder in the same week. Both men not only shared the same first name, but also the same handicap-- they both had wooden legs. But  what makes this bit of historical trivia even more interesting is that  both judges in these respective murder trials, Judge...

The small town of Montgomery in Lycoming County was thrust into the national spotlight on Thursday, November 23, 1899, after a chilling discovery was made under a haystack. Wrapped in bloodied burlap were the bodies of a young widow and two small children. The bones of another child, just a mere infant, were later found under a manure pile in a horse stall. Suspicion immediately fell upon a temper...

Chambersburg played a role in many important chapters of American history, from the French and Indian War to the Whiskey Rebellion to the Underground Railroad. Chambersburg also holds the distinction of being the only northern city that was burned down by Confederate forces; the order given by Gen. John McCausland on July 30, 1864, reduced much of the community to ashes and smoldering rubble. Hist...

Eight miles north of Emporium, in the wilderness of McKean County, lies the ghost town of Gardeau. Once a prosperous lumber town with over a thousand residents, Gardeau is home to more rattlesnakes than humans these days. Although it is a lonely place today, Gardeau does boast one unusual and mysterious tourist attraction-- the  mausoleum of Colonel Noah Parker. What makes the mausoleum stran...

On St. Patrick's Day of 1934, a 23-year-old taxi driver named Albert Shinsky murdered a woman near Ringtown, in Schuylkill County. But this was not a cold-blooded killing; according  to Shinsky, the reason he put a lead ball through the heart of Susan Mummey was because a Pennsylvania Dutch witch doctor had told him that  it was the only way to remove the evil spell that Mrs. Mummey had...

In the spring of 1856 one of the saddest chapters in the history of Bedford County was written, after the two young sons of Samuel and  Susanna Cox wandered away from home and into the mountains. The search for the two boys lasted for two weeks and culminated in a gruesome discovery beneath a large tree on the shady  banks of Gypsy Creek. And had it not been for a prophetic dream, the wh...

Virtually everyone who lives in Huntingdon County is familiar with the legend of John Armstrong, who is more  commonly remembered as Captain Jack-- arguably Pennsylvania's most iconic hero of the  frontier. However, what most people don't know is the bizarre story of how his long-lost bones were discovered more than a century after his tragic death.

In the 19th century, Philadelphia lost  one of its most curious and morbid historical landmarks-- an obscure  graveyard hidden in the center of an urban jungle, where the bones of forgotten Philadelphians slumbered for generations-- until their remains  were mysteriously and unceremoniously disinterred. Attached to the graveyard was a curious legend about the plot's namesake,  ...

In the summer of 1947, Dr. Vernon Haber, a well-liked Penn State University professor, went missing. Despite a massive month-long search involving  hundreds of students, law enforcement officials and State College residents, the fate of the vanishing professor remained unknown... until his body was found hanging from a tree, in a place that had been searched thoroughly just days before. Was i...

When a newspaper reporter from the Philadelphia Inquirer traveled  to the remote mountain wilderness of Clinton County in 1890 in search  of a story, he discovered more than the rustic ways and quaint customs  of the backwoods hill people-- he discovered an unspeakable horror. It  was in Sugar Valley where the Inquirer reporter discovered  William Bierly, an elderly man, k...

Unpunished murders have always been a blight on Schuylkill County, especially during the 1920s and 30s. In some cases the murderer was identified but eluded capture, disappearing into the night, never to be seen again. Other cases, such as the peculiar death of William Laughlin in 1930, remain unsolved to this day. Laughlin, who worked as a confectioner at his father's candy shop in Centralia, dis...

While many ghost stories are easily debunked or explained by natural phenomena, other stories-- such as the haunting of the Titus homestead in Luzerne County in early 20th century-- defy explanation and seem to provide irrefutable proof that the dead don't always stay in their graves.

The quiet borough of Lykens in upper Dauphin County was thrust into the national spotlight in July of 1932 when Barney Godleski, an out-of-work miner,  inexplicably slaughtered three of his four children in the basement of his home on the 600 block of East Main Street.  Pennsylvania Oddities presents the true tale of this ghastly crime.