The Ritual Rewind

In July 1988, a wealthy North Carolina businessman was brutally stabbed to death inside his own bedroom. His wife barely survived. At first, police believed they were hunting a violent home intruder. What they uncovered instead shocked the nation. A troubled college student. A secret plot fueled by greed. Underground tunnels beneath a university campus. Obsession with Dungeons & Dragons. LSD-f...

Did a satanic cult murder a young Louisiana family on the eve of Mardi Gras? In February 1991, Eric and Pam Ellender were brutally murdered in their home in Sulphur, Louisiana while their 18-month-old daughter was left alive in her crib. Authorities quickly arrested teenager Chris Prudhomme, but rumors spread that the killings were connected to a mysterious group known as SKATERS (Satan's Kids Aga...

A satanic death metal band. A series of disappearances. And bodies buried in the woods outside Milan. In the late 1990s, a group of young musicians known as Beasts of Satan emerged from the underground metal scene of Milan. What began as drug-fueled occult rituals and black masses soon spiraled into something far darker. Teenagers vanished. Bodies turned up burned, hanged, or buried in shallow gra...

Three members of a family executed on the side of the road. Six teenagers who said it felt like a game. On April 6, 1997, the Lillelid family pulled off Interstate 81 for a routine stop. They never made it home. What followed was one of the most disturbing crimes of the 1990s—fueled by drugs, obsession, and a warped sense of fantasy inspired by films like Natural Born Killers. In this episode of R...

At the height of the Satanic Panic , one woman’s story shocked America. Lauren Stratford claimed she had survived years of ritual abuse, sexual slavery, and satanic ceremonies carried out by a hidden network operating in the shadows of American society. Her book, Satan’s Underground, became a national sensation—launching her into fame, speaking tours, and even an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Sh...

In February 1987, a concerned citizen in Tallahassee, Florida called 911 after seeing something deeply unsettling at a local playground: six small children wandering barefoot and dirty under the supervision of two strange men in suits beside a blue van with out-of-state plates. What police discovered that afternoon would open the door to one of the strangest and most controversial investigations o...

In July 1995, 15-year-old Elyse Pahler vanished from her quiet neighborhood in Nipomo Mesa, California. At first, authorities assumed she had run away. But the truth was far darker. Lured into a eucalyptus grove by three teenage boys she thought she could trust, Elyse became the center of a crime that shocked the nation — a killing the perpetrators claimed was a “sacrifice” meant to empower their...

In 1987, an undercover operation inside a Texas high school ended in betrayal, paranoia… and three gunshots in a dark field. In Part 2 of The Devil and 21 Jump Street , we unravel the night Officer George Raffield was lured into isolation by the very teenagers he was investigating. What began as a small-town drug sting spiraled into obsession, occult ritual, and a plan fueled by fear of exposure....

Part 1 of 2 On a rain-soaked October night in 1987, three young men sat in a Texas field, heavy metal blasting through the speakers. Minutes later, undercover police officer George Raffield lay dead in the weeds — shot from behind by the very teenagers he believed he was investigating. In this episode of The Ritual Rewind , we rewind to Midlothian, Texas , and unravel the chilling murder of a 21-y...

In the summer of 1988, fear took hold of a small Texas town. Whispers spread of a devil cult known as the Merchants of Death . Locals spoke of an abandoned house with a glowing red porch light, midnight gatherings, and ritual sacrifice. Most dismissed it as rumor. Then a teenager was found hanging from a tree outside of Childress, Texas. In this episode of The Ritual Rewind , we descend into the h...

Friday the 13th has long been feared as a day cursed by superstition, betrayal, and death. From biblical lore and Norse mythology to modern horror cinema, the date has carried an aura of dread for centuries. But on one Friday the 13th in July 1990, that fear became horrifyingly real in the quiet town of Panhandle, Texas. In this episode of The Ritual Rewind , we explore the chilling murder spree o...

On February 5, 2001, a foul odor drifting through a Las Vegas storage facility led police to a discovery straight out of a nightmare. Inside a trash can sealed with duct tape and plastic wrap was the decomposed body of an elderly woman, submerged in her own liquefied remains. Surrounding the unit were books on witchcraft, astrology, black magic, and devil worship. The renter of the unit was Brooke...

On January 13, 1995, the mutilated body of 17-year-old Colleen Slemmer was found near the Knoxville Job Corps campus — a crime so brutal it shocked Tennessee and reignited fears lingering from the Satanic Panic era. This episode of The Ritual Rewind dives deep into the disturbing case of Christa Pike , the youngest woman ever sentenced to death in the United States, and the violent path that led t...

The Devil and Union County - The Unsolved Murder of Jeannette DePalma | Ritual Rewind Podcast In September of 1972, a dalmatian trotted out of the New Jersey woods carrying a human arm in its jaws — and with it, unleashed one of the most disturbing true crime mysteries in American history. When police followed the trail into the overgrown quarry known as Devil’s Teeth , they found the decomposed b...

The Devil and the Three Girls | Ritual Rewind Podcast On a warm June night in 2000, in the quiet mountain town of Chiavenna, Italy , a nun received a desperate call for help. Hours later, Sister Maria Laura Mainetti was found brutally murdered — stabbed 19 times, her hands still clutching the hair of her attackers. When police discovered who was responsible, the truth stunned the nation: three tee...

In 1980, on the eve of Easter, Sister Margaret Ann Pahl was found murdered inside the chapel of Mercy Hospital in Toledo, Ohio. The brutality of the crime shocked even seasoned investigators — her body arranged in what appeared to be a desecrated ritual, an inverted cross carved into her flesh. At the center of the mystery stood a quiet hospital chaplain: Father Gerald Robinson . For decades, whis...

In the quiet farmlands of Ohio, 1985, the devil was said to walk among them. Sheriff James Telb believed he had uncovered a vast Satanic network — one that stretched across churches, daycares, and police stations. He spoke of hundreds of cultists, blood rituals, and children taken in the night. Television cameras descended. Paranoia ignited. Neighbors turned on neighbors. But when the sheriff orde...

Spring Break 1989. Thousands of college students flood the Mexican border town of Matamoros for nights of partying and cheap drinks. Among them is Mark Kilroy , a 21-year-old pre-med student from Texas. But by morning… Mark has vanished without a trace. What begins as a missing person case soon unravels into one of the most shocking true crime stories of the 1980s — a narco-satanist cult , ritual...

Before the world knew his name, Adolfo de Jesús Constanzo was initiated beneath a sacred Ceiba tree—crowned with leaves to lure spirits into his mind. He would rise from this ritual to become El Padrino , the Godfather of a deadly cult that mixed Palo Mayombe, drug trafficking, and ritual human sacrifice on the Mexican border. Constanzo and his high priestess Sara Aldrete built a following that be...

Before NASA reached the stars, one man tried to summon demons. 🚀🔥 Jack Parsons — rocket engineer, co-founder of JPL, and devoted occultist — lived a double life of science and sorcery. From building the foundations of American space exploration to invoking Aleister Crowley’s Thelema and sex magic rituals, Parsons’ story is stranger than fiction. On June 17, 1952, an explosion ripped through his...

In this episode of The Ritual Rewind, we revisit one of the darkest chapters in New England crime history: The Fall River Murders. Between 1979 and 1980, three young women—Doreen Levesque, Barbara Raposa, and Karen Marsden—were brutally killed in what police believed were satanic ritual murders tied to cult activity in Fall River, Massachusetts. We explore the chilling stories of Carl Drew, a viol...

In the summer of 1984, Ricky Kasso—known as The Acid King—led three friends into the Aztakea Woods of Northport, Long Island. By the end of the night, one teenager, Gary Lauwers, would be brutally murdered in what many believed was a ritual sacrifice to Satan. This chilling case sparked headlines across the nation, fueled the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, and cemented Ricky Kasso as a dark legend in...

In the late 1980s, Omaha, Nebraska was rocked by one of the most disturbing scandals in American history: the Franklin child sex ring. At the center was Larry King Jr., a rising Republican star, who allegedly ran a nationwide network of child exploitation, trafficking children across state lines and involving some of the most powerful figures in politics, business, and law enforcement. This episod...