Weird World Podcast

When James Kennedy murdered his first-wife (allegedly, by Deanonly) he replaced her with his 14-year-old nanny. They had a daughter they named Aimee. Aimee got religion early and preached fire and brimstone to her dolls, as you do. She soon shed farm life and a Mr. McPherson to found the world's first megachurch in the heart of Los Angeles decadence. Then she disappeared.

Katie got it first, a weird tick with her chin she couldn’t explain or control. Then Laurie, then Chelsea, then five more, then ten more. An epidemic of strange behavior hit the kids of Leroy Junior Senior High School. The case became a national cause celebre even more baffling than the name of their school.

It seemed like a straight-up double homicide - two bodies at the river's edge, killed while late night trysting in early 1960s Sydney. But if it was murder, why was there no sign of it? After a year of intense investigation, authorities could still not determine what had killed the victims, let alone who.

The dire wolf was not just a CGI co-star on Game of Thrones. It was an apex predator until 10,000 years ago when they became extinct. Until now. A bioscience company in Texas says they have rewritten the genetic code of a gray wolf to give birth to three dire wolves. Next up: the wooly mammoth.

When police found Ricky McCormick's body dumped in a field they discovered two odd notes in his pocket. The jumble of numbers and letters made no sense. The FBI was convinced it was a cipher - but the best code breakers in the world have never solved it. Who killed Ricky? And what the hell is in those cryptic notes?

Three kids playing football in their rural West Virginia town in 1952 saw a bright light flash across the sky and, they thought, crash into a neighbor's farm. Quickly a little group gathered to bravely trek into the woods. Something with bright red eyes, a strage spade-shaped head and a metal apron floated down the hill toward them and into UFO history. What was the Flatwoods Monster?

You might call it dumb, but let's call it poor judgment. This week in weird news we highlight some very poor decisions. Things like do-it-yourself cryogenics, surgeons that did not put sticky notes on the organs they were supposed to remove, people who start a war with raccoons, and so much more.

Thanks to photoshop, the only limit on how we can mess with pictures is our imagination. But back in the 19th century, William H. Mumler began capturing people in his family portraits that had never been inside his studio - at least not while they were alive.

When a group of hardcore Libertarians took the political reins of a little town in New Hampshire they figured they would face opposition. Hostility from government-loving locals, from the teacher and cops they would try to fire, the usual suspects. But they didn't know they would also be attacked by the bears.

Does an ancient race of small hairy humanoids with sharp claws and nasty fangs still live in the deepest jungles of modern Madagascar? Many locals are terrified of these Kalanoro, because, though only not quite three feet tall, they have been known to kidnap and kill humans.

Every straight guy will say something about their “gaydar” at least 3 times a year if they work in an office. But there was a time when Canada - yes, Canada - thought they really could build a device that could tell if someone was gay or not, and that this was a good thing.

Do you think you could become a Nazi? With the right circumstances, the right environment, the right pressures? In 1967, none of the students in Ron Jones' high school history class thought so - until they did.

The case against Jeremy hinges on the smallest details - was the silencer on the rifle? Whose blood was that on the barrel of the gun? Was it even actually blood? And is Jeremy willing to go to any length to get his hands on the money? Or is it is someone else?

The seemingly simple, if horrific case, of murder-suicide explodes when Jeremy's ex tells the police of her deep, dark secret. Did Jeremy in fact extinguish his immediate family to get the family fortune? Or this something deeper going on here.

The Bamber family was modern English countryside gentry, but there was trouble broiling beneath the surface. Son Jeremy was loathed by most and daughter Sheila had two children from a broken marriage and serious psychological issues. In the early morning of Aug. 7, 1985, a horrific act started one of the most polarizing murder mysteries in English history. Part 1 of 3.

Should this be the last time we trust anything coming out of New Jersey? JK, but it does seem that maybe the drone scare was more War of the Worlds than Pearl Harbor. Let's get into the latest on the New Jersey Drone Invasion (question mark?)

The drone invasion of New Jersey has shocked the nation. Or at least New Jersey. Is it China? Is it a secret military project? Is it underfunded alien naturlists studying us in an oddly low-tech way? Or have we just begun to realize that, damn, there are a lot of drones up in the sky these days?

Let's catch up on some of the latest UFO-related items from around the world, and also Las Vegas. Tiny alien mummies, the latest unexplained UAP sightings from the government agency investigating those things now, a predicted battle in the sky between us and them, and a 10-foot, bright-eyed, big-mouthed alien that crash-landed in Las Vegas and hung out in a family's backyard for a bit.

The FBI reopens its investigation into what happened to the real Paul Fronczack. Disturbing details of a brutal childhood emerge with twins disappearing and a family afraid to ask questions. DNA testing finally reveals the truth and decades of lies unwind.

Paul Fronczack is about to have a baby so wants to uncover more of his murky past. A DNA test proves he is, surprise, not really Paul Fronczack. The story becomes a media sensation as Paul goes down a DNA rabbit hole attempting to solve two mysteries - who is he and what happened to the real Paul Fronczack?

One day old Paul Fronczack was stolen from his mother's arms in a Chicago hospital. After an agonizing year, authorities in New Jersey thought they found the boy abandoned in Newark. The relieved parents took the baby home to raise as their own. But was he?

We may live in a "post-truth" era, but that is no reason to give up on discovering the truth when you're researching the paranormal, the strange, the unanswered. So, with humility, we present a guide to some crticial questions you might ask in trying to separate truth from grift.

It chased little kids. It ran down cars. It lurched from the woods on foggy nights to terrify those unlucky enough  to stop along Wisconsin's lonely Bray Road. Some said it was a werewolf. Some said it was more like a Bigfoot. All said the Beast of Bray Road scared the hell out of them.

Every culture the world has ever known has had ghosts. Could there be an answer for those ghosts we feel as an unexplained presence? Are those ghosts "all in our mind," though in a very unusual way?

A mother and daughter's trip to the Paris Exhibition in 1900 leads to one of the greatest urban legends of all time.