True Weird Stuff
True Weird Stuff is the award-winning podcast hosted by Sheri Lynch. Surprising, odd, bizarre - and sometimes insane. Always true. Let us tell you a story…
Sat, April 26, 2025
Doomsday Clock: 89 Seconds To Midnight
Today's True Werid Stuff - Doomsday Clock: 89 Seconds To Midnight Created in 1947, the Doomsday Clock was established by a group of atomic scientists to represent to the public the likelihood of a human-made global armageddon, whether it's the looming threat of nuclear war, bioterrorism, or cyberwarfare. Over the years, the Doomsday Clock has found itself inching closer to midnight, and January 2025, the clock was set to 89 seconds before midnight...the closest it's ever been to doomsday.
Fri, April 18, 2025
The Arkansas Ghost
Today's True Weird Stuff - The Arkansas Ghost January, 1929. A man named Connie Franklin moved to Stone County, Arkansas. The alleged 20-something began courting a 16-year-old girl named Tiller Ruminer, and on March 9th, 1929, the two were on their way to obtain their marriage license when a group of men attacked them. Tiller survived the brutal assault, but Franklin was tortured to death, and his body was burned in the woods. Months later, a pile of ashes and charred bones was discovered, leading to a bizarre moment in history that included Connie Franklin himself testifying at his own murder trial. And thus, the tale of the Arkansas Ghost was born.
Fri, April 11, 2025
Reliving The Black Eyed Kids
Today's True Werid Stuff - Reliving The Black Eyed Kids In 1996, reporter Brian Bethel said he had an encounter with two children that left him terrified. Sitting in his car in a parking lot late at night, Bethel was approached by two young boys whose eyes were as black as coal. In the decades since Bethel shared his story, others have claimed to have similar encounters with children with pitch-black eyes asking for help, or asking to enter the person's home. Are these haunting run-ins an urban legend, or do you have reason to fear the black-eyed kids? (NOTE: This was originally released as episode #31. We're re-releasing it with a newly added Post Mortem discussion).
Fri, April 04, 2025
Another Icepick To The Brain
Today's True Weird Stuff - Another Icepick To The Brain Rosemary Kennedy was part of the powerful and highly esteemed Kennedy Family. Rosemary was born with intellectual disabilities at a time when children with special needs were highly stigmatized. When she was 23 years old, Rosemary's father ordered her to have a lobotomy. The procedure left her permanently incapacitated, and her family would keep her mostly hidden from the public for the rest of her life. (NOTE: This was originally released as episode #29. We're re-releasing it with a newly added Post Mortem discussion).
Fri, March 28, 2025
Headless Valley
Today's True Weird Stuff - Headless Valley The Nahanni Valley in the Northwestern Territories of Canada is a beautiful area that's home to strange and deadly tales, including the story of Frank and William McLeod. The two brothers set off into the Nahanni Valley in hopes of discovering a fortune in gold. Years later, their skeletons were found at an abandoned camp...and their heads were missing. Hence the reason the area became known as the Headless Valley.
Fri, March 21, 2025
The Last Duel
Today's True Weird Stuff - The Last Duel The most famous duel in American history was between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr in 1804. The premiere way of settling disputes and upholding unwritten codes of honor, the act of dueling would gradually fall out of favor over the 19th Century. However, dueling was still commonplace in Southern states like South Carolina. That is, until a duel in 1880 between Colonel E.B. Cash and Colonel William Shannon forced the state to ban the practice.
Sat, March 15, 2025
Jill the Ripper
Today's True Weird Stuff - Jill the Ripper In 1888, the people of the Whitechapel district of London were terrorized by someone on a ruthless killing spree. Over 100 suspects were named, including a woman named Mary Pearcey. In 1890, Mary was convicted of brutally murdering her lover's partner and child, and Mary was sentenced to death. The brutal nature of the killings would lead to a theory decades later that claimed Mary Pearcey was the was the infamous Jack the Ripper.
Sat, March 08, 2025
Mirror, Mirror
Today's True Weird Stuff - Mirror, Mirror Margaretha von Waldeck was the real-life inspiration for Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Born to a noble family during the Holy Roman Empire, Margaretha's mother passed away when she was 4 years old. Her father, Count Philip IV, would go on to remarry a woman named Katherina von Hatzfeld. Katherina despised her stepdaughter, and had Margaretha sent away. Though beautiful and poised to make a name for herself in the history books, Margaretha's short life would play out like a fairy tale...minus the happy ending.
Sat, March 01, 2025
Brain In A Jar
Brain In A Jar Phineas Gage was an American railroad foreman who survived a traumatic brain injury. In 1848, an iron rod shot through his skull and destroyed a chunk of his left frontal lobe. Though he survived the accident, the damage to his brain drastically altered his personality. Gage's story became a catalyst for modern neuroscience, which has advanced to the point scientists are now able to develop a brain in a jar.
Sat, February 22, 2025
The King's Rhinoceros
Today's True Weird Stuff - The King's Rhinoceros In the 1500s, King Manuel of Portugal gifted Pope Leo a beautiful, white elephant as a gesture of obedience to the Vatican. Unfortunately, the majestic beast passed away after only two years. To make up for it, King Manuel tried to ship Pope Leo a rhinoceros named Ganda; however, the rhino met its demise in a shipwreck before it could make it to Rome. The only good thing to come from this debacle was the immortalization of Ganda by an artist who created a sculpture without ever having seen a rhinoceros.
Sat, February 15, 2025
The Appetite
Today's True Weird Stuff - The Appetite Tarrare was a French Showman in the 1700s who had an insatiable appetite. His eternal hunger terrorized him to the point he literally tried to consume everything: live animals, garbage, inanimate objects, and even human flesh. The curious case of the 100lb Tarrare baffled even the greatest medical minds, and the medical findings of his autopsy were the definition of truly weird stuff.
Sat, February 08, 2025
The Bunker
Today's True Weird Stuff - The Bunker In the 1950's and '60s, fallout shelters were all the rage. Tensions due to America's Cold War with Russia led to a looming fear of nuclear disaster. These underground bunkers, equipped with a living space and food rations, were a civil defense strategy aimed at reducing casualties in a nuclear war. And no fallout shelter was more elaborate than the Greenbrier Hotel; a luxurious resort paid for by the government as a cover for the secret bunker designed to house Congress below.
Sat, February 01, 2025
A Real Stiff
Today's True Weird Stuff - A Real Stiff Elmer McCurdy was an American outlaw who couldn't pull off a smooth heist to save his life. He tried to use his Army training with nitroglycerin to rob banks and trains, often to no avail. After accidentally robbing the wrong train in 1911, a drunken McCurdy met his demise after firing at the deputy sheriffs searching for him. And for the next 65 years, McCurdy's mummified corpse wound up being used as a traveling sideshow attraction known as "The Bandit Who Wouldn't Give Up."
Sat, January 25, 2025
Human Cloning
Today's True Weird Stuff - Human Cloning In the previous episode of True Weird Stuff, we told the story of Raëlism, the religious UFO cult led by Claude Vorilhon. We're now diving into one of their core beliefs: that Jesus was resurrected through cloning and humans need to perfect human cloning to achieve immortality. That would lead to a claim made in 2002 by a scientific company created by Raëlians that the first human clone had been born.
Fri, January 17, 2025
The Messenger
Today's True Weird Stuff - The Messenger This is the story of a man who created a religion around UFO's. Claude Vorilhon was a journalist who claimed he was abducted by aliens in 1973. He said they told him humans were created by extraterrestrial species using advanced technology, and then they renamed him Raël and sent him back to Earth to serve as ambassador to their faith. And thus, Raëlism was born.
Sat, January 11, 2025
Coconut Cult
Coconut Cult In the early 1900s, a German author named August Engelhardt packed up his library of books, moved to the South Pacific island of Kabakon, and started a sun-worshipping coconut cult. He believed the way to become closer to God and gain immortality was by consuming coconuts and nothing else. Engelhardt convinced dozens of people to join him on the island, but many of them died from illness or malnutrition. And the ones who didn't perish fled, having realized the lunacy of a man who was cuckoo for coconuts.
Sat, January 04, 2025
A Curse on You
Today's True Weird Stuff - A Curse on You Alchemist. Astrologer. Magician. Georg Faust was considered a heretic in medieval Europe, primarily because he practiced black magic and summoned the spirits of the dead. Through legend and literature, Faust was hated by many, not just because of his fraudulent ways, but because of his pact with the devil for knowledge and power; a debt the devil would quickly collect.
Sat, December 14, 2024
Once Upon A Shroom
Today's True Weird Stuff - Once Upon A Shroom R. Gordon Wasson was an author, and worked in banking for J.P. Morgan. He was also responsible for popularizing shrooms in America...you know, the ones with psychedelic properties. Even the CIA got in on the action, covertly funding Wasson's expedition to study and collect hallucinogenic species of mushrooms for MK-Ultra's subproject 58. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sat, December 07, 2024
Asylum Ladies
Today's True Weird Stuff - Asylum Ladies In the 1800s, women could be placed in mental institutions simply for not behaving the way society believed they should. Mental diagnoses at the time were simple: you were either deemed a lunatic, a moron, an imbecile, or feeble-minded. Like many others, a woman named Josephine Shaw Lowell believed poor women who lived in almshouses were promiscuous and prone to having illegitimate children. That's why in 1878 she created a place to house those women called the New York State Custodial Asylum for Feeble-Minded Women. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sat, November 30, 2024
Forbidden Island
Today's True Weird Stuff - Forbidden Island In the early 1900s, a woman known as Typhoid Mary was identified as patient zero for a series of typhoid outbreaks in New York. As a result, she was forced into quarantine on North Brother Island and lived the rest of her life in exile. Not only was the island a quarantine zone, it was the location of the General Slocum steamboat disaster, the deadliest event to happen in New York before 9/11. Today, North Brother Island has been abandoned for over 60 years, and travel to the island is strictly forbidden. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sat, November 23, 2024
Dark Twinning
Today's True Weird Stuff - Dark Twinning Stewart and Cyril Marcus were identical twin gynecologists. Though regarded as brilliant men in their profession, the Marcus twins' personal lives were shrouded in darkness. In 1975, the 45-year-old brothers' partially-decayed bodies were found inside a locked apartment littered with garbage and pharmaceuticals. An investigation led to the discovery of lives that had been just as mysterious and tragic as their deaths. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sat, November 16, 2024
Hammersmith Ghost
Today's True Weird Stuff - Hammersmith Ghost (Airdate 11/15/2024) In 1803, residents of the Hammersmith district of London reported being terrorized by a ghost. The hysteria was so intense that a man named Francis Smith did the unthinkable: he shot and killed a man wearing white clothing, having mistaken the man for the Hammersmith Ghost. Can a man be found guilty of trying to kill a ghost? It's a decision that would take English courts 180 years to figure out. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sat, November 09, 2024
Cokey & Lucky
Today's True Werid Stuff - Cokey & Lucky His name is Lucky Luciano. An Italian-born gangster, Luciano was credited as the Godfather of American organized crime. From extortion, to bootlegging, and prostitution, Luciano was on top of the world as he rose to power beyond his wildest dreams. That is, until a woman named "Cokey Flo" helped expose his prostitution ring in front of a jury, causing Luciano's luck to finally run out. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sat, November 02, 2024
Welcome to the Multiverse
Today's True Weird Stuff - Welcome to the Multiverse Do you remember as a kid it being called the Berenstein Bears with an "e?" It was actually spelled with an "A". How about the Monopoly man's monocle? Turns out he never actually had one. Oh, and Ed McMahon never showed up on anyone's doorstep during the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes. These collective false memories we share with others are called the "Mandela Effect." Is this a coincidental phenomenon, or part of something bigger in a multiverse reality? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, October 25, 2024
The DUNE Project
Today's True Weird Stuff - The DUNE Project Neutrinos are tiny, fundamental particles that may contain a key to better understanding the universe. Roughly a thousand trillion of these mysterious particles harmlessly pass through your body every second. In order to better understand them, scientists shoot an intense beam of neutrinos from a facility in Illinois to an underground detector 1,300 kilometers away in South Dakota. They call it The DUNE Project. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, October 18, 2024
Rest In Peace
Today's True Weird Stuff - Rest In Peace London in the early 1800s had a graveyard problem. A lack of space led to unsanitary burial practices as the smell of rotting corpses and overflowing sewers consumed the city. One such place was Enon Chapel, a church in which the pastor was getting paid to allow bodies to be buried in the chapel's basement. But a man nicknamed "Graveyard Walker" made it his mission to put an end to these filthy practices. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, October 11, 2024
The Rightest Stuff
Today True Weird Stuff - The Rightest Stuff Astronaut Gordon Cooper had to manually control his spacecraft after a series of equipment failures. Edgar Mitchell avoided disaster by deactivating spaceship abort commands caused by a faulty switch. Becoming an astronaut has been the dream of generations of children, but it's more than exploring strange new worlds. The job of an astronaut is stressful, demanding and requires quick life-or-death decision making. This episode looks at a few tales in space where astronauts rose to the occasion to avoid catastrophe. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, October 04, 2024
Beavers on the Moon
Today's True Weird Stuff - Beavers on the Moon Claims that the Apollo 11 moon landing was a hoax have existed for decades. Meet the grandaddy of moon landing conspiracy theories, Bill Kaysing. He believed the Apollo Moon landings between 1969 and 1972 were faked. However, this isn't the only lunar conspiracy...The Great Moon Hoax of 1835 went as far as to trick people into believing that animals lived on the moon. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, September 20, 2024
The Pineys
Today's True Weird Stuff - The Pineys The Pine Barrens of New Jersey may be a forbidding wilderness, but people have called the place home for hundreds of years. It's also where folks have reported sightings of a terrifying beast, capable of a blood-curdling scream that can send chills down the sturdiest spines. It's the legend of the Jersey Devil that haunts the Pineys. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, September 13, 2024
Legend of the Pines
Today's True Weird Stuff - Legend of the Pines Joe Mulliner was known as the “Robin Hood of the Pines.” Forced to flee his home in 1779, Mulliner went on a crime spree through the Pine Barrens of Southern New Jersey...never killing anyone, but robbing and kidnapping his way into the history books. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sun, September 08, 2024
King Of Quacks
Today's True Weird Stuff - King Of Quacks Curtis Howe Springer was a radio evangelist, self-proclaimed medical doctor and minister. In 1944, he laid claim to 12,000 acres of land in California's Mohave Desert and created his own town. The only problem? The land wasn't his. He was also a medical fraud who used his radio show to sell fake miracle potions. Springer was the ultimate con man known as the "King of Quacks." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sat, August 17, 2024
Big Muddy Monster
Today's True Weird Stuff - Big Muddy Monster Summer, 1973. Police in Murphysboro, Illinois started receiving phone calls about the presence of a large creature. Some saw a tall, muddy beast with glowing red eyes lurking around wooded areas. Others heard a shrieking noise that terrified even the police officers who were investigating. It's a cold case that's never been solved...the mystery of the Big Muddy Monster. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, August 09, 2024
Adios, Yda!
Today's True Weird Stuff - Adios, Yda! Yda Addis was a brilliant and famous writer in California in the late 1800s. She was also someone whose personal life was full of turmoil. Constant legal battles, a nasty divorce, charges of defamation and attempted murder took their toll on Yda. Then one day, out of nowhere, she disappeared...never to be heard from again. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, August 02, 2024
Here Be Sea Monsters
Today's True Weird Stuff - Here Be Sea Monsters Cultures all around the world have myths and legends about the terrifying creatures that inhabit the ocean - from massive sea serpents, to sirens and merfolk. We take a look at the history of folks who encountered or dedicated their lives to searching for monsters in the deep blue sea. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, July 26, 2024
Shock Doc
Today's True Weird Stuff - Shock Doc In the 1950's, the CIA launched a program aimed at developing methods for interrogating and controlling human behavior; part of the program involved funding tests on children. Dr. Lauretta Bender at Bellevue Hospital would conduct electroshock therapy on kids as young as three years old to treat childhood schizophrenia. The CIA called it "Project Artichoke." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, July 19, 2024
Prize Prison
Today's True Weird Stuff - Prize Prison It's the wildest reality show in TV history. Susunu! Denpa Shōnen was known for placing contestants in extreme situations for entertainment purposes. This is the story of Nasubi, a comedian who spent 15 months naked and alone in an apartment. Cut off from the world, he was forced to enter magazine sweeptakes until he won $8,000 in prizes. He did this completely unaware that his challenge was being livestreamed 24/7. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, July 12, 2024
Pay Phone Bandit
Today's True Weird Stuff - Pay Phone Bandit He didn't rob banks. He wasn't a serial killer. However, James Clark left the FBI dazed and confused for years as he stole $500,000 in quarters right under everyone's nose. He was known as the Pay Phone Bandit. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, July 05, 2024
Deadly Circus
Today's True Weird Stuff - Deadly Circus Gypsy the elephant had a temper. She was part of the W.H. Harris Nickle Plate Circus, and in 1902, Gypsy killed her trainer and went on a rampage through the streets of Valdosta, Georgia. Animals have long been used in circus performances, but no amount of training changes the fact they're still wild animals. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, June 28, 2024
The Camel Girl
Today's True Weird Stuff - The Camel Girl Ella Harper was born with a rare orthopedic condition that caused her knees to bend backward. During a time when sideshows and oddities were extremely popular, Ella joined W. H. Harris's Nickel Plate Circus, becoming a featured act in the show. Because she walked on her hands and feet, she became known as The Camel Girl. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, June 21, 2024
Footsie
Today's True Weird Stuff - Footsie Elvis Presley. Quentin Tarantino. Jack Black. They're just a few of many people who admittedly have a foot fetish. But serial killer Dayton Leroy Rogers' love of feet took a gruesome turn. He murdered at least eight women in Oregon in the 1980s; some of the bodies were found with their feet severed because Rogers had a kink for killing. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, June 14, 2024
Baby Broker
Today's True Weird Stuff - Baby Broker Georgia Tann was a social worker who ran a child kidnapping and adoption scheme starting in 1924. Georgia ran the Tennessee Children’s Home Society, and for over 20 years she would take children from poor families and sell them to wealthy families for a hefty profit. She would even steal newborns from mothers in prisons and mental wards. Georgia Tann stole over 5,000 children during the course of her black-market baby ring. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, June 07, 2024
Secret City
Today's True Weird Stuff - Secret City Sarov is a town in Russia that no longer exists...officially, that is. In the 1940s, Sarov was removed from all unclassified maps, and the entire town was transformed into a center for research and development of nuclear weapons. Dozens of cities like these popped up in the Soviet Union at the time, as Stalin led the charge to bolster their nuclear weapons program. But strict rules and harsh conditions meant...sometimes mistakes were made. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, May 31, 2024
The Mad Scientist
Today's True Weird Stuff - The Mad Scientist Jack Parsons was one of the fathers of the American space age who helped put man on the moon. He invented solid rocket fuel, co-founded the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and he was also an occultist. He was written out of a lot of NASA's history because of his antics: he was the leader of a black-magic sex mansion, ate menstrual cakes, and was frenemies with L. Ron Hubbard. Jack Parsons was the definition of a mad scientist. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, May 24, 2024
The Devil Went Down To Georgia
Today's True Weird Stuff - The Devil Went Down To Georgia The Georgia Guidestones were a monument that stood in Elbert County, Georgia for 42 years. Often called the "American Stonehenge," the creators believed society would eventually collapse, and built the monument as a guide for humanity after the apocalypse. However, conspiracy theorists believed the Georgia Guidestones were tied to Satanism, and in 2022, the monument was destroyed by an explosive device...and the person or persons involved remain a mystery. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, May 17, 2024
Teenage Nazi Hunters
Today's True Weird Stuff - Teenage Nazi Hunters Meet Freddie and Truus Oversteegen. Freddie was a wife and mother. Truus was a sculptor and painter. But long before that, these two sisters spent their teenage years as part of the anti-Nazi Dutch resistance during WWII. They used their lethal skills and innocent charm to eliminate Nazi soldiers. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, May 10, 2024
Human Product 12
Today's True Weird Stuff - Human Product 12 Society has a long history of conducting terrible experiments on humans, often without their knowledge or consent. In 1945, Ebenezer Cade was in a car accident and needed medical attention, but doctors injected an unknown substance into him just to see what would happen. It turns out he was a guinea pig for their tests on the effects of radiation; he was the first of 18 men, women, and children who were secretly injected with plutonium. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sat, May 04, 2024
Glass Closet
Today's True Weird Stuff - Glass Closet Liberace was one of the great performers of his time. His flamboyant style on and off the stage are what made fans love him, and made the gossip magazines love to hate him. Despite the tabloids relentless insults and rumors about his sexuality, Liberace found himself crying all the way to the bank. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, April 26, 2024
The Enema King
The Enema King Once upon a time in a faraway land, there lived a very powerful king. He was quite good at being a king, and ruled for longer than any other monarch in the history of the whole world. But even a king chosen by God is still just a human being. Beset by all the troubles and mischief a human body can get up to. Yet his heart was glad because his people called him The Sun King, and not the other nickname he’d so richly earned: The Enema King. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, April 05, 2024
The Baroness
Today's True Weird Stuff - The Baroness In 1929, Friedrich Ritter and his mistress took off to an uninhabited island in the Galapagos to start their new life together. But their peaceful paradise was interrupted by other inhabitants, including a woman and her two German lovers. With tensions rising and questions lingering around her sudden disappearance, this is a story about the mystery of the Baroness. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, March 29, 2024
The Ghost Of Ed Neal
Today's True Weird Stuff - The Ghost Of Ed Neal Omaha, 1890. Allen and Dorothy Jones were brutally murdered at their farm. The culprit? A man named Ed Neal...or so they say. Little is known about who he was or where he came from, but the actions of this ruthless killer sparked bloodlust in a town hellbent on revenge. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, March 22, 2024
The Devil Himself
Today's True Weird Stuff - The Devil Himself It was a beautiful, 22-bedroom mansion that was built in 1350. But the sprawling country home in County Wexford called Loftus Hall is also known as the most haunted mansion in Ireland. Stories have been passed down of a spirit that wanders the halls, but even darker than that, Loftus Hall has been haunted by the devil himself. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, March 15, 2024
Turning The Bones
Today's True Weird Stuff - Turning The Bones You know the story of President Abraham Lincoln and his assassination at the hands of John Wilkes Booth. But did you know Honest Abe's body was sent on a two-week funeral procession? 1,600 miles and over 400 stops across 7 states. Things were smooth at first, but once the decay started to set in, his corpse "was not a pleasant sight." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sat, March 09, 2024
On Her Nerves
Today's True Weird Stuff - On Her Nerves She was known as the Giggling Granny...but behind the warm smile of Nannie Doss was the heart of a cold-blooded murderer. In 1954 she confessed that over the course of nearly 30 years she'd killed 11 people: four husbands, two children, one of her sisters, her own mother, two grandsons, and a mother-in-law. The casual killing of her own family members made Nannie Doss one of history's most notorious female serial killers. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sat, March 02, 2024
Shhh, It's Mars
Today's True Weird Stuff - Shhh, It's Mars Humanity dreams of the day when we can inhabit Mars. However, it wasn't long ago that even great thinkers and inventors were convinced Martians were there first..so much so that the U.S. government instituted a "National Radio Silence Day" to listen for signs of extraterrestrial life. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sat, February 24, 2024
I Do, I Do, I Do
Today's True Weird Stuff - I Do, I Do, I Do She had it all. Money. Eight different husbands. Her name in the headlines. Was she a free spirit? An impulsive woman in love with love? The life of Monaei Lindley ended in the same way she lived it...in a blaze of glory. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sat, February 17, 2024
Unholy City
Today's True Weird Stuff - Unholy City He called himself "The Comforter" and "The Emancipator." William E. Riker was a religious cult leader who preached what he called, "The Perfect Christian Divine Way," the belief in celibacy and racial and gendered segregation. In the 1920s and 30s, he purchased 200 acres of land to establish a town built on white supremacy. He called it...the Holy City. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sat, February 10, 2024
The Boy From Mars
Today's True Weird Stuff - The Boy From Mars James Leininger said he used to be a Navy Pilot whose plane was shot down during WWII. Ryan Hammons remembered his life as former actor Marty Martyn. Boriska Kipriyanovich claimed he was a Martian who was reborn as a human. Researchers have spent decades studying the one thing they have in common: all three believe their soul was reincarnated and could describe their past lives in great detail. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sat, February 03, 2024
Charlie No Face
Today's True Weird Stuff - Charlie No Face Raymond Robinson was only 8 years old when he was severely injured in an electrical accident. The incident left him so disfigured that he spent the rest of his life avoiding being out in public during the day...choosing only to go on long walks under the cover of darkness. Stories spread of an elusive, disfigured man wandering the streets late at night...and so began the legend of Charlie No-Face. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sat, January 27, 2024
Ballsy
Today's True Weird Stuff - Ballsy Dr. Leo Stanley was the chief surgeon at San Quentin State Prison from 1913 to 1951. His horrific, pro-eugenics legacy included performing inhumane surgeries on inmates as a way to rehabilitate them...from thyroid removal to transplanting testicular glands from executed prisoners to living inmates. His belief in surgical cures for criminal minds made him a medical Frankenstein. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sat, January 20, 2024
The Hungry Puppet
Today's True Weird Stuff - Hungry Puppet Ronald William Brown was a Christian TV puppeteer; he was also a pedophile, sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for the hundreds of lewd and disturbing images of children in his possession. But his desires were much darker than wanting to abuse children. Ronald William Brown discussed in detail his desire to torture, murder, and eat them. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sat, January 13, 2024
Skinned
Today's True Weird Stuff - Skinned This is the story of a wallet made from human skin. The journey of Antoine LeBlanc to America in search of a better life. The rage of being screwed over by his bosses, the Sayres...and in return, murdering them in cold blood. And a town so outraged they executed LeBlanc, and used his remains to create keepsakes. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sat, January 06, 2024
Flat Tire, Lonely Road
Today's True Weird Stuff - Flat Tire, Lonely Road In 1973, Dionisio Yanca arrived at a hospital in Bahia Blanca in a state of total amnesia. Days later, as he regained his memory, he retold his extraordinary experience: a bright light consumed the area around him as three humanoid beings approached him on the side of the road at night and took a sample of his blood. Dionisio even recounted his story multiple times while under hypnosis. Some people would kill for the chance to encounter alien life, but Dionisio only wished to forget the events of that fateful night. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sat, December 23, 2023
The First War On Christmas
Today's True Weird Stuff - The First War On Christmas Imagine living in a world where people hated Christmas...so much so that they banned people from celebrating it. We're not talking about some grumpy, green-colored mean one, or a cold-hearted miser. These were Puritans in Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 17th Century...people like Governor William Bradford and Reverend Increase Mather. Their hatred of Christmas showed no restraint, these folks made the Grinch look like a saint. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sat, December 16, 2023
Cursed Christmas Ghost
Today's True Weird Stuff - Cursed Christmas Ghost In the late 1800s, May Yohé had it all: a successful musical theatre career. A handsome, royal husband. A lavish, extravagant lifestyle. And then...it was all gone. If you're the superstitious type, you'd believe she was yet another victim of the most famous jewel in the world. Passed down to her husband, Lord Francis, those who've inherited it have suffered great misfortune. That's the power of the curse of the Hope Diamond. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sat, December 09, 2023
Beamed Up
Today's True Weird Stuff - Beamed Up In 1943, the USS Eldridge, a U.S. Navy ship, allegedly teleported from Philadelphia to the waters of Norfolk, Virginia. Some claim that during this experiment some men on the ship disappeared permanently…while others reappeared, with their bodies fused into the metal of the ship. Was this a real government cover-up, or does teleportation only exist in the minds of those who boldly go where no man has gone before? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sat, December 02, 2023
The Red Crown
Today's True Weird Stuff - The Red Crown You’ve heard of Bonnie and Clyde. But before one of the most infamous crime sprees in American history came to a bullet-riddled end, Bonnie, Clyde, and their cohorts foundthemselves cornered by the law in a motel in Parkville, Missouri. With no other choice but toshoot their way out, this is the tale of The Barrow Gang at The Red Crown. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sat, November 18, 2023
Sweet Baba
Today's True Weird Stuff - Sweet Baba When you think of serial killers, the most notorious ones come to mind: Ted Bundy. Jack The Ripper. Jeffrey Dahmer. But an accomplished chemist, a woman known as Baba Anujka, earned her reputation by concocting a “love potion” that was used to kill as many as 150 people. In the words of Bell Biv DeVoe…”That girl is poison.” See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sat, November 11, 2023
Mother & Ghost
Today's True Weird Stuff - Mother & Ghost Decades before an old, rundown haunted house in Indiana was torn down, it was the beautiful home of Dr. and Mrs. Wilson, and their son, Aesop. In 1861, Aesop lost his life while serving in the Civil War. His grief-stricken mother had her son's casket returned home and kept it in the house for 12 years. Was the house haunted by Aesop's ghost? Or was it haunted by sorrow, because a mother's love never dies? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, November 03, 2023
Room 1046
Today's True Weird Stuff - Room 1046 A man named Roland T. Owen checked into the Hotel President in Kansas City, Missouri on January 2, 1935. Days later, he was found in his hotel room, beaten and stabbed, blood all over the walls. Hotel staff had several strange encounters with Roland during his stay, but nothing that suggested he was in danger. With no clues, besides discovering that Roland T. Owen wasn't his real name, detectives embarked on solving the mystery of the terrible events...in Room 1046. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, October 27, 2023
Swing That Axe
Today's True Weird Stuff - Swing That Axe In 1922, Andreas and Cäzilia Gruber, their daughter Viktoria Gabriel, Viktoria's children Cäzilia and Josef, and the family's maid Maria Baumgartner were all found brutally murdered at their farm known as Hinterkaifeck. There were no clues for a motive. No usable DNA evidence. Any leads investigators had over the years led only to dead ends. The killer has never been found. The Hinterkafeck murders are the definition of a cold case. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, October 20, 2023
Unmarked Graves
Today's True Weird Stuff - Unmarked Graves The Florida School for Boys, also known as the Dozier School, operated from the year 1900 until 2011. This reform school had notorious history of abuse: beatings..torture…even murder of students by staff. Many believe over 100 bodies were buried on school grounds. To this day, those who survived, and the loved ones of those lost, fight for justice for those unmarked graves. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, October 13, 2023
Farmer To Fork
Farmer To Fork Cannibalism has a deeply unsettling history across various cultures and time periods, from the desperation of the Donner party in 1846, to a man in 2018 who killed and ate parts of a farmer, and used the remains to create artwork. Yes, cannibal art is a thing…but it’s usually art about cannibalism, not art made BY cannibals. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, October 06, 2023
Don't Lose Your Head
Today's True Weird Stuff - Don't Lose Your Head How did William Guldensuppe become the most famous man in New York in 1897? It was all thanks to the fiendish antics of his lover, Augusta Nack, and her side piece, Martin Thorn. They lured Guldensuppe into a murderous trap. His body parts were scattered across the city. This love triangle was sure to make…HEADlines. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, September 29, 2023
The Swimmers
Today's True Weird Stuff - The Swimmers In 1982, Russian Navy divers were conducting a military exercise 50 metres deep in Lake Baikal when they noticed something observing them. Tall, humanoid creatures with silvery silhouettes lingered; a sight that would terrify even the toughest soldier. 7 divers entered those waters that day…only 4 survived. What lurks below in the world’s oldest lake? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, September 22, 2023
The Bishop's Dungeon
Today's True Weird Stuff - The Bishop's Dungeon Bishop Vladimir was at the center of significant rumors during his tenure in San Francisco in the late 1800s: arson...financial recklessness...death threats. But it wasn't until 1891 when his bitter rivals uncovered something truly heinous: a dungeon full of abused and tortured children. Bishop Vladimir wasn't just a religious leader...he was a wolf in sheep's clothing. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, September 15, 2023
Hammer Time
Hammer Time Love is a beautiful thing, but jealousy is an ugly monster. That's why American showgirl Clara Phillips stalked her imagined rival and beat her to death with a hammer...because she loved her man so much. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, August 25, 2023
Moon Struck
Today's True Weird Stuff - Moon Struck Ever look up at the night sky and wonder, what is the moon? Has the moon always been there? That humble, dusty little satellite that hangs in our night sky and has inspired everything from love songs to werewolves to snack cakes, but until fairly recently, we had no real idea what the moon really is, or why it’s even here. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, August 18, 2023
Wild West Pearl
Today's True Weird Stuff - Wild West Pearl Forced to work in a brothel as a young girl, Pearl Hart rebelled and ran away. She broke all the hearts and she broke all the rules, and once she even broke out of jail. And then she got an idea…let’s rob a stagecoach. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, August 11, 2023
Don’t Let Them In
Today's True Weird Stuff - Don’t Let Them In A child you’ve never met – a complete stranger – approaches you and asks for help. What would you do? In 1996, reporter Brian Bethel encountered two children whose presence consumed his soul with fear. Some believe it’s paranormal; others believe it’s a prank. But one glance is all it takes..from the black-eyed kids. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, August 04, 2023
Killer Crush and the Incel
Today's True Weird Stuff - Killer Crush and the Incel Bryan Kohberger is sitting in a jail cell awaiting trial on charges of first-degree murder in the horrific stabbing deaths of four college students at the University of Idaho. And he’s at the center of two perplexing and bizarre phenomena: one, the adoration and infatuation of female fans. As crazy as that sounds, right? And two, Kohberger is an incel – as in, involuntarily celibate. Forensic psychologist Dr. Carole Lieberman breaks it down for us. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, July 28, 2023
Ice Pick to The Brain
Today's True Weird Stuff - Ice Pick to The Brain What if there was a quick and easy outpatient procedure that promised to cure whole list of ailments? Insomnia, post-partum depression, a nervous stomach, headaches…All easily fixed with the minimally invasive tap tap tap of an icepick hammered into an eye socket. Not a Saw movie – it was medicine in America. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, July 21, 2023
Pig Lady Haunting
Today's True Weird Stuff - Pig Lady Haunting Forbidden love, deception, murder…and a mystery that has remained a mystery for more than a hundred years. The double homicide of a married preacher and his equally married mistress. From the eerie crime scene to the complete circus that was the trial, this is a story where there can be no justice. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, July 14, 2023
Talking SETI with Dr. Seth Shostak
Today's True Weird Stuff - Talking SETI with Dr. Seth Shostak When it comes to aliens, you probably either think an invasion is imminent, or that the government is running a massive disinformation campaign to conceal military technology. In this episode, we talk with Dr. Seth Shostak, the senior astronomer for the SETI Institute. SETI as in, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. No tinfoil hats, no wild theories…just the facts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, July 07, 2023
We The People
Today's True Weird Stuff - We The People If you had to shout out some of the founding fathers of the United States of America, chances are your go-to guys would be George Washington. Thomas Jefferson. Benjamin Franklin. But there was another architect of American independence...the guy who coined the phrase, “We the people”. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, June 30, 2023
The Bone Wars
Today's True Weird Stuff - The Bone Wars Once upon a time, there were two men who lied and tricked and undermined each other every chance they got. They weren’t warriors or soldiers...kings or conquerors. They were a couple of paleontologists...both hellbent on being the world’s authority on dinosaurs. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, June 23, 2023
The Fifth Commandment
Today's True Weird Stuff - The Fifth Commandment24 Have you done one of those DNA tests – like 23 & Me or AncestryDNA? It can be so much fun, learning that your ancestors come from places you’d never dreamed of. Until the moment you learn that spitting into that little vial might reveal that you aren’t exactly who you think you are. Because your mother or your father isn’t who they claim to be. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, June 16, 2023
Subproject 68
Today's True Weird Stuff Episode - Subproject 68 Imagine going into a hospital for something minor…and finding yourself restrained. Injected with paralyzing drugs, zapped with massive amounts of electro-shock treatments, and placed in a medical coma for weeks and sometimes months on end. A blacked-out helmet strapped to your head; a voice droning on and on into your ears for up to 20 hours a day. At the end of it, you may not remember your own name – and you never consented to any of it. Welcome to the CIA’s secret experiments on unsuspecting humans: Subproject 68. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, June 09, 2023
Time Travel
Today's True Weird - Time Travel Time. We always seem to be giving it, taking it, and running out of it. We always, always want more of it. And we dream of being able to control it. We dream of machines that would let us skip through time as easily as we move through space, in our cars, trains, and planes. What if time travel was possible? There are people who claim THEY are time travelers…do you believe it? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, June 02, 2023
Sea Demon
Today's True Weird Stuff - Sea Demon You’re at the beach, standing at the water’s edge. Shielding your eyes from the sun glaring off the water, you gaze out at the far horizon. Did you see it? Was it a trick of the light or was it...a fin? You’re about to hear a shark tale unlike any other. One that makes Jaws look like Finding Nemo. This is the terrifying true story of...the Sea Demon. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, May 26, 2023
Talking to Heaven
Today's True Weird Stuff - Talking to Heaven What happens when we die? Are you a person who believes that we flicker into and out of existence like earthbound fireflies, here and then gone? Or maybe you believe in an eternal soul that recycles itself lifetime after lifetime? What if you could know, what if you did know what happens when we die? In this episode, you’ll hear from internationally acclaimed spiritual medium, James Van Praagh. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, May 19, 2023
A Load of Bull
Cattle mutilation stories are all weird. And all sound kind of similar, don’t they? There’s the dead animal, missing various body parts – with no blood or tracks or footprints or evidence of any kind. Something is happening to these animals. Something we can’t explain. 50+ years, 10,000+ cattle…that’s no load of bull. So, what is it? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, May 12, 2023
Bloody Benders
Today's True Weird Stuff - Bloody Benders You’re heading west, with big dreams of staking your claim to one of those parcels of land promised in the Homestead Act. Word has it there’s a family up the road yonder that takes in travelers. Nothing fancy, just a simple cabin over in Labette County. They say the daughter talks to the dead, but you know how folks like to gossip about their neighbors. Just go on up the road a ways – and ask for the Benders’ place. And then, hope to God you make it alive. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, May 05, 2023
Weird Taxidermy
Today's True Weird Stuff - Weird Taxidermy Ever looked around your house and thought, what this place needs is a taxidermied rat wearing a Victorian frock coat? Maybe sporting a couple of human teeth? There’s a whole world of taxidermy beyond mounted deer heads and crouching bobcats. In this episode, you’ll meet a guy who turns roadkill into weird, strange, make-believe creatures…and you’ll also meet a woman who wanted to help her dad decorate his taxidermy shop. With a human foot. Check out more of Matthew Fite's taxidermy on Roguewolf Taxidermy's Facebook and Instagram: facebook.com/roguewolftaxidermy | instagram.com/roguewolf_taxidermy See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, April 28, 2023
Lady Hooch Hunter
Prohibition was such a weird and terrible idea that it’s hard to believe it really happened. But this is the story of Daisy Dell Simpson, one of only 12 female Prohibition agents hired by the IRS to help bust bootleggers, gangsters, and speakeasies. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, April 21, 2023
Corpse Medicine
Medicine has come a very long way since the early days of bloodletting and leeches. But once upon a time, human beings trusted a very different kind of cure…the kind that doesn’t come from a fancy laboratory or a big chain drugstore. Some of our ancestors opened wide and swallowed the stuff of nightmares: blood. Bone. Human flesh. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, April 14, 2023
Where Is Everybody?
Scientists are increasingly using AI and machine learning in their search for extraterrestrial life, and one man’s algorithm may be the biggest breakthrough yet…leaving us one step closer to the biggest question a human gazing at the infinity of the stars can ask: Where is everybody? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, April 07, 2023
Beware of the Bunny
Who doesn’t love a bunny rabbit? Especially the ones that tote baskets of candy. But rabbits are so much more than the cotton-tailed critters of fairy tales and cartoons. Being all cute and harmless and fluffy has helped them keep their freaky secrets…secret. Until now. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, March 31, 2023
Bloody Prankster
Today's True Weird Stuff - Bloody Prankster (Airdate 3/31/2023) Are you one of those people who cook up a successful April Fools’ prank? If you’re lucky, the worst that happens is a little embarrassment, maybe some hurt feelings. But if you’re unlucky, terribly unlucky, that prank can end in bloodshed. In murder. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, March 24, 2023
That's A Bigfoot!
Today's True Weird Stuff - That's A Bigfoot! Vast, seemingly empty landscapes…not a road, not a house, not a cell tower in sight. People have experienced things that we don’t have simple explanations for. I can’t convince you Bigfoot is real. But it’s not such an impossible idea…just a weird one. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, March 17, 2023
Take My (Fairy) Wife Please
We head to the Emerald Isle for a St. Patrick’s Day tale of marriage and murder, fairies, and folklore. It’s a story that changed Irish law and, 100 years later, still reeks of mystery, magic, and the unmistakable stench of burning flesh. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fri, March 10, 2023
Bite Me
Witches, serial killers, and Paul Revere all team up in a story of why a very standard kind of courtroom evidence that could help condemn you to prison might actually be total garbage. Oops! So much for taking a bite out of crime. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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