The Magician’s Wife

In a quiet Los Angeles neighbourhood, a brutal and baffling crime is discovered. A businessman is dead, having been shot three times. The only other person in the house is his wife, but she is trapped in a closet that has been locked from the outside. However, neighbours report hearing strange noises coming from the property, shadows passing before its windows and ghostly scratching emanating from...

In 1153, an extraordinary event occurs in a picturesque English village. Two children suddenly appear... as if by magic. From a distance they look quite ordinary, but they wear unfamiliar clothes, speak an unrecognisable language and, strangest of all, have bright green skin. But just what might be behind the children's bizarre appearance? And, furthermore, where have they come from? Could they re...

In March 1990, two policemen arrive at a Boston art gallery to investigate a disturbance. But by the following morning the gallery is in disarray, and thirteen priceless works of world famous art have seemingly vanished into thin air. Though with no signs of a break in just how was this possible? And, furthermore, despite the value of the works taken, why were so many more valuable pieces of art l...

In 1989 a young mother frantically rushes her baby boy to hospital. The baby is severely ill, and hospital tests suggest he has been poisoned. Although the baby recovers, his mother instantly falls under suspicion, and when the baby suffers from the same symptoms of poisoning just weeks later she is arrested. But, if his mother is indeed guilty, she could only have poisoned her baby in a specific...

In 1848, Frederic Chopin is giving a piano recital when he is seized by a truly terrifying vision. Hoards of strange, ghostly beings are crawling out of his piano. And it is not the first time he has been haunted by these creatures. Nor will it be the last. But is Chopin really being plagued by the supernatural? Or might there be another explanation for these seemingly other-worldly terrors? In th...

In the 1930s, a young couple travel to an elegant London townhouse to attend an opulent ball. Yet when they arrive at the address they’ve been given and knock on its door, not only is there no answer, but they increasingly come to realise that there is something very strange about the building itself. Indeed, despite its solid walls, pillars and porticoes, it is almost as though the house doesn’t...

In a respectable corner of south-east Florida, an appalling discovery is made. A man’s body is lying near the boundaries of a gated community, a single gunshot wound to his chest. Moreover, the man’s valuables are missing and there is no murder weapon to be found. All the evidence, in fact, points to a robbery gone wrong. But something about the crime scene just doesn’t add up. Could this man’s de...

In the early 1990s, an ordinary American family relocates to a cattle ranch in north-east Utah. But almost immediately after they move in, they are plagued by a plethora of unsettling and downright terrifying phenomena, from lights in the sky to gargantuan wolves to mutilated animals. But are these events really down to the sinister entity from native American lore known as the skinwalker? Or migh...

In 2013, a disturbing piece of CCTV is shared on YouTube, a video which appears to offer conclusive proof of poltergeists. Following the video becoming public, many more people from the same corner of south east England come forward claiming they too have experienced a host of terrifying happenings in the same town. But could the entity responsible really be the man said to have disappeared a cent...

In this episode, Barry and Lora explore the little-known story of the magical monk of Syon Abbey, as well as inviting you to take part in a unique, interactive card trick. They’ll also be sharing some listener thoughts and theories on the mysteries explored in previous episodes. Order The Magician's Wife novel here. Download Lora's free novella here: themagicianswife.co.uk/freebook/ Enjoying our p...

In 1983, a Devonshire farmer claims that dozens of his sheep have been killed, slaughtered by an unknown predator in a highly unusual way. The flesh has been stripped from their bones, seeming to indicate that they have been killed by a big cat. And in the weeks that follow, numerous eyewitnesses come forward stating they have seen it: a large feline, with a coal black pelt and a body rippling wit...

In 2015, a photograph of a doll is shared on a Facebook page. Within hours, followers of the page begin reporting a whole host of seemingly inexplicable phenomena. Nausea, headaches, scratches to their skin, recurring nightmares, instances of pet dogs going beserk, and even strokes and heart attacks. But is this doll really possessed by some powerful demonic energy? Or might there be a more earthl...

In 2015, a photograph of a doll is shared on a Facebook page. Within hours, followers of the page begin reporting a whole host of seemingly inexplicable phenomena. Nausea, headaches, scratches to their skin, recurring nightmares, instances of pet dogs going beserk, and even strokes and heart attacks. But is this doll really possessed by some powerful demonic energy? Or might there be a more earthl...

On a bitter January day, three men are found to be missing from one of the highest security prisons in the UK, a prison with a reputation as the ‘British Alcatraz’. With seemingly no tools or materials, they have somehow managed to scale two huge perimeter walls. And stranger still is the fact that the men responsible haven’t actually ‘broken out’ of this prison at all. The men responsible have le...

In 1988, a Florida housewife makes an utterly astonishing claim. She says that, on a regular basis, large golden patches spontaneously form across the whole of her body, as though she is literally sweating gold. And that is not even the limit of her powers. This same woman is also a talented psychic, who has worked with the police. Moreover, she can make precious objects fall from her eyes and ear...

Join Lora and Barry for a very special episode of The Magician’s Wife, to celebrate the launch of Lora’s debut novel The Woman in the Wallpaper. For today’s trick, we invite you to party like it’s 1793. But listen carefully… is everything really what it seems? Order The Magician's Wife novel here. Download Lora's free novella here: themagicianswife.co.uk/freebook/ Enjoying our podcast? Support us...

In 1793, a young woman meets her end in the jaws of the guillotine. But when her severed head is held up to the crowd, her expression is clearly seen to change by multiple witnesses, as though she is still conscious. Similar accounts follow, of freshly-severed heads blinking and winking, blushing and moving their lips, until there are so many witnesses to this gruesome phenomena, they can’t all be...

In 18th century Prussia, a man giving off the foulest stench imaginable is found wandering the streets eating anything he can get his hands on. When he is arrested by the authorities, he claims he is a French spy, carrying top secret documents inside a wooden box that he has swallowed. After waiting for nature to take its course, the authorities realise that the strange man is indeed telling the t...

In the summer of 1986, whilst getting ready for work, a mother suddenly collapses and dies in the bathroom of her home. The headache tablets she took that morning are examined and found to be contaminated with lethal doses of cyanide. Soon, not only have more contaminated bottles been found, but a woman has come forward claiming her husband may have also died from swallowing the same deadly headac...

Pour yourself a wee dram and join Barry and Lora for this special Burns Night episode, which investigates the infamous Scottish export the haggis, exploring the bizarre and legendary creature that is said to dwell north of the border. But could there be any truth behind the strange little snuffling creature native only to Bonnie Scotland? Plus, Barry makes his magical predictions about events yet...

On the morning of 30th December, 1978, a series of shocking scenes are discovered at a respectable Colorado home. Two teenagers have been shot in their beds, one of them after a bloody struggle. Their 45 year-old mother is dead, too. She is found in the basement, slumped over her typewriter, having typed up a suicide note. This note, together with a host of other factors, reinforces the belief tha...

In the early part of the 18th century, a bloody and bizarre sequence of events unfolds at a country house in the north-east of England. It all begins when a stranger leaves an innocuous parcel of linens with the servants of the house. But just hours later and the scene is a bloodbath, and the servants quickly realise that the innocent-looking parcel of linens isn’t quite so innocent as it had seem...

One dark autumn day in 1936, two photographers visit a grand house in England to take pictures for a magazine article. What they don’t know is that the image they capture on their camera will go on to become one of the most famous ghost photographs of all time. But just who – or what – is the eerie figure in their picture? Is she really the infamous ghost said to haunt Raynham Hall, or could the p...

In the early hours of Christmas morning, a working man is discovered dead in his lodgings, the same man who had been celebrating the festive season with his friends only hours before. The man has been fatally struck on the skull. But could this really be the work of a cold-blooded yuletide murderer? Or could there have been some other reason for this man’s tragic and untimely demise? Join Barry an...

In the early hours of Christmas morning, the residents of a small town in south west England are awoken by a series of inexplicable sounds emanating from the roofs of their houses. Bizarre scrapings and thuddings are coming from the tiles above them, with some people even reporting extraordinary cacophonies, as though their chimneys are being smashed apart with huge and other-worldy force. But jus...