Episodes

Between 1967 and 1971, the small city of Stamford, Connecticut was terrorized by a little-known serial killer. A total of five Black women were strangled - most with their own brassieres - and dumped within a 750-yard stretch of the Merritt Parkway. While a colorful local character was eventually arrested and prosecuted for the crimes (sound familiar?), doubts linger to this day about who was behind these women's' fate. This week Sean takes us through the facts of the case in the Bra Murders, an...

Among the legends of allegedly cursed objects, stories of cursed jewelry and gemstones reign supreme. There's something mystical about these items, which often fall into the hands of the extremely wealthy, famous, and powerful - from bone-fide royalty to your run-of-the-mill tycoons and socialites. But can these gaudy possessions really be cursed? We cover the stories of 4 of the most possessed possessions, including: The Delhi Purple Sapphire, which returned to one desperate author's possession...

Even among all the creative execution methods mankind has dreamed up over the years, the Guillotine stands out, raising nightmares of show trials and cutting ( ahem ) an imposing silhouette. Originally created as a more “humane” capital punishment, the head-chopping machine soon became synonymous with the bloodthirsty excesses of the French Revolution. This week, Sean takes us through the history of “ Madame la Guillotine” - from its British ancestors to its horribly iconic role in 1790s France ...

In March 1998, the Bradley family - dad Ron, mom Iva, son Brad, and daughter Amy - embarked on a "trip of a lifetime": a luxurious cruise on the Rhapsody of the Seas , sailing between Puerto Rico, Aruba, and Curacao on a whirlwind vacation of carefree fun and family time. Three days into the trip, 23-year-old Amy vanished from the cruise, never to be seen again. ...Or was she? We discuss all the clues in this baffling case, including supposed sightings of Amy in the Caribbean as recently as 2005...

This week we dive into one of the most persistent legends of secret U.S. military experimentation - the famed Philadelphia Experiment. In the fall of 1943 - so the story goes - highly classified government tech made the destroyer escort USS Eldridge completely invisible - and, as an unexpected side effect, displaced it in time and space and left it sitting 200 miles away in Norfolk, Virginia for several minutes before snapping back into place. In the aftermath, sailors were said to have strange,...

In November 1987, one of the weirdest moments of TV history happened right underneath the noses of the Chicago viewing public. That night a mysterious figure wearing a full-head "Max Headroom" mask invaded the broadcasts of local Chicago TV stations WGN and WTTW. Initially, on WGN, the masked marauder was only able to cut in for about 30 seconds before the transmission was re-seized by network engineers...but on WTTW, which was airing an innocuous Doctor Who rerun, the signal hijacking would las...

Inspired by the new hit show "Our Flag Means Death", we're covering the most famous pirate in history: Blackbeard! At the dawn of the 18th century, the Caribbean was ruled by roving bands of seaborne criminals who robbed and murdered with impunity. The British colony of the Bahamas even lost an entire island to pirate occupation as Nassau became home base for all of the most famous criminals ever to sail the seas. Of all of these pirates, none had a more fearsome reputation - and none is better ...

After a long month of axe-murder mayhem, Carrie takes a break from the grim and gory to tell a strange tale about what may be the most adorable cryptids of all time! The Fresno Nightcrawlers first came on the scene in security camera footage from 2007, when a California homeowner named José checked his tape from the night before only to find one of the strangest pieces of video evidence the world has ever seen. On the tape was 2 creatures, which almost resembled sentient pants with a head, walki...

Axe Season 2022 comes to a close with the end of our discussion of Bill and Rachel James' 'Man From The Train' theory. We follow our proposed serial murderer from his probable several-year stint in prison to his roving, cross-country murder spree - a spree that will claim dozens of victims as the axeman tears a path from Virginia, to Texas, to Seattle, all the way to - in 1912 - Villisca, Iowa. We might even tie in another old Ain't It Scary cold case! ________________________________________ Co...

We’re rounding out Axe Murder Month with two weeks on Sean’s favorite solution to last week’s unsolved mystery, the 1912 axe murders in Villisca, Iowa: the roving serial-murderer theory proposed by famed baseball writer Bill James in his 2017 book “The Man From The Train.” This week Sean spends a long time raving about Bill James, and then weaves the tale of a 19th century East Coast murder spree stretching from Massachusetts to Florida. Were these family murders all committed by one man? Was th...

Sometime in the overnight hours of June 9-10, 1912 in the tiny town of Villisca, Iowa, eight people - including six children - were killed by an intruder, with an axe, in cold blood. The case caused a national uproar and years of investigation...and it remains unsolved to this day. This week, Sean takes us through the facts in one of the most infamous axe murders in American history, and some of the principal suspects throughout the years. Were the Moore family and the young Stillinger girls kil...

Sean has officially declared March to be axe murder month - much to the chagrin of March-born Carrie - and so we begin a multi-part series on horrific axe murders! Well, in like a lion, out like a lamb, as they say. Our first part focuses on one of the most famous early unsolved murder sprees in American history. From 1910 to 1911, and again from 1917 to 1920, New Orleans' famous French Quarter was stalked by a madman with a lust for blood. This mysterious figure, dubbed "The Axeman of New Orlea...

Union Cemetery sits at a crossroads, almost 400 years old, with headstones scattered across its area spanning centuries of New England history. From the first settlers from the New Fairfield Company to the most recent citizens of Easton, Connecticut, Union Cemetery is home to the final resting places of hundreds of locals...and several spirits.Why has Union Cemetery and its surroundings been the site of not one, not two, but at least three brutal murders/body disposals? Who is the real "White Lady", Union's most famous ghost who has become one of the most often-seen spirits in state history? And what made Ed & Lorraine Warren, basis of the Conjuring films and locals to Union themselves, call it the most haunted cemetery in America?Follow us on a haunted cemetery stroll through decades of history, madness, and bloody, bloody murder.

We're singin' more sea shanties on the finale to our 2-part series on ghost ships! This week Sean rounds things out with two twentieth-century tales of ships turning up abandoned at sea, their crew and passengers vanished without a trace. First,...

In this first of two nautical episodes, Sean introduces us to three of history’s eeriest ghost ships.First, the Flying Dutchman sets the stage (and sails) for all ghost ships to come. Then, the passengers and crew of the Mary Celeste vanished on...

"A long, long time ago, I can still remember..." February 3rd, 1959. Three of the brightest stars in the rock 'n roll galaxy - Buddy Holly, the bespectacled frontman of the Crickets; Ritchie Valens, the first crossover Latino artist in rock; and JP...

This week we take a look at Indiana's most prolific serial killer, Herb Baumeister. After a string of disappearances of gay men in the Indianapolis area throughout the early 90s, the police investigation eventually leads to an apparently...

In the incredibly polarized times we're living in, it's comforting to know there are some things we can all agree on, even if it's just the shape of the planet we live on. Right?This week Sean digs into the history of Flat Earth belief and...

In 1886, Sarah Winchester - widow of William Winchester, the son of the founder of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company - took her $20 million inheritance ($550 million in today's money), moved from Connecticut to California, and began a project that...

In October 1849, now-legendary horror and suspense writer Edgar Allan Poe was found in a tavern in Baltimore, delirious, with clothes that didn't appear to be his and no concrete answer for where he'd been since he left Richmond, Virginia almost a...

This week, we're teaming up with our friends at the New York Mystery Machine podcast for a crossover look at UFOs and abductions in the Hudson Valley! Adam and Christina from NYMM join us for part 1 of the saga as Sean introduces us to the Hudson...

Graduation Night, 1992.Suzie Streeter and Stacey McCall arrive home to Suzie's mother Sherrill's house in a giddy daze. They're finally done with high school, and they have summer - and their whole lives - ahead of them. The next day they're heading...

We're back from the sick bay and rounding out the holiday season with some Yule-tide cheer this week! Sean takes us through the folklore and traditions that inspired our modern-day American Santa Claus, from pagan ritual sacrifices to jolly old St....

Happy holidays from your favorite ghoulish couple! No, not Gomez and Morticia...okay, maybe second favorite, then.Due to health reasons we unexpectedly have to take a break this week (fingers are crossed that Omicron hasn't come down our chimney) but...